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.

ABC News [3/7/2026 5:04 AM, Isabella Murray, 34146K] reports President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at a ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit on Saturday in Doral, Florida, an event that is billed by the White House as a ‘historic’ grouping of over 17 Latin American countries that are committed to cooperating with the U.S. in taking on the cartels and securing the American border following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump will host heads of state from 12 nations across the Western Hemisphere, according to a White House official. "On Saturday, the point of this newfound Latin America Summit is to promote freedom, security and prosperity in our region," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing this week. "The President will be speaking with the leaders of this country who have really formed a historic coalition to work together to address criminal, narcoterrorist gangs and cartels encounter illegal and mass migration into not only the United States but the western hemisphere, which remains a key and top priority of this President," she added. Trump’s relationships with some Latin American leaders have turned tense at times and his policies have drawn criticism. Some leaders criticized the U.S. raid that captured Maduro as an attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty. Trump has also been critical of Mexico’s efforts to fight drug cartels and traded barbs with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. However, following the Jan. 3 Venezuela raid, the two leaders appeared to have patched up their differences. Trump invited Petro to the White House and the two issued complimentary statements. The summit has shifted in prominence after Trump announced he was removing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from her post and shifting her to a new role as a special envoy for "The Shield of the Americas." Noem emailed DHS staff overnight on Thursday, informing them that her official final day at the department will be March 31 and writing, "In my new role, I will be able to build on the new partnerships and national security expertise I forged over my time as Secretary of Homeland Security." The summit also comes amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has resulted in major movements in the U.S. energy markets. To combat the spikes in crude oil prices, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday on Fox that the U.S. was "drilling expeditiously here at home" and tapping into the new markets in Venezuela. Reuters [3/7/2026 6:09 AM, Nandita Bose, Sarah Morland, and David Brunnstrom, 38315K] reports that the summit comes as Trump prepares for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of March. The Trump administration hopes to pull Latin America closer to Washington after years of growing Chinese trade, lending and infrastructure investment in the region. Saturday’s gathering, dubbed the "Shield of the Americas," also gives Trump a chance to project strength closer to home even ​as the conflict in the Middle East leads to consequences he may not fully control, such as rising prices for oil and gas. Kristi Noem ​will be special envoy for the "Shield of the Americas", Trump posted Thursday. The summit brings together conservative leaders aligned with Trump on security, migration and economics, reflecting a ​broader rightward shift in parts of Latin America. Among those expected to attend are Argentine President Javier Milei, Chile’s president-elect Jose Antonio Kast and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, ​whose gang crackdown, criticized by human rights groups, has become a model for parts of Latin America’s right. Politicians from across the region have toured Bukele’s sprawling "mega-prison," where the United States last year deported more than 200 Venezuelans without trial. Also expected are Honduran President Nasry Asfura, who narrowly won a disputed election with Trump’s backing, and Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, who has ​echoed parts of Trump’s economic agenda and recently announced joint operations with the U.S. in a military crackdown on drug trafficking. Many of the leaders share Trump’s ​hardline view of crime and migration, favoring crackdowns over deeper social fixes and private business over the state. Their rise reflects a broader rightward turn in parts of Latin America ‌at a ⁠time when the region is being pulled between Washington and Beijing. The AP [3/7/2026 12:06 AM, Aamer Madhani and Joshua Goodman, 34146K] reports that the gathering, dubbed the "Shield of the Americas" summit, comes just two months after Trump ordered an audacious U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and whisk him and his wife to the U.S. to face drug conspiracy charges. Looming even larger is Trump’s decision to join with Israel to launch a war on Iran one week ago, a conflict that’s already left hundreds dead, convulsed global markets and unsettled the broader Middle East. Trump’s time with the Latin American leaders will be limited: He is also set to fly to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to be on hand for the dignified transfer of the six U.S. troops killed in a drone strike on a command center in Kuwait, one day after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran. But with the summit, Trump will look to turn attention to the Western Hemisphere, at least for a moment. He’s vowed to reassert U.S. dominance in the region and push back on what he sees as years of Chinese economic encroachment in America’s backyard. "Under previous leaders, we grew obsessed with every other theater and every other border in the world except our own," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told regional leaders and defense ministers who gathered in Florida this week for talks on countering drug cartels. "These elites reduced our power and presence in this hemisphere, opting for a benign neglect that was anything but benign.”

FOX News [3/7/2026 6:00 AM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K] reports Kristi Noem will reportedly join President Donald Trump and 12 Latin American leaders at his resort in Florida for a "Shield of the Americas" summit Saturday after her ouster as the Secretary of Homeland Security and appointment by President Donald Trump to be special envoy for the new coalition of nations. On Thursday, Trump announced Noem would be exiting her role as Homeland Security secretary and would be appointed a Special Envoy for the "Shield of the Americas," a summit for which will be held at the president’s resort in Doral, Florida, on Saturday. The new coalition of 13 countries has been formed to advance strategies that will tackle mass illegal immigration, narco-terrorist gangs and cartels. "After years of neglect, President Trump established the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. His efforts have been a tremendous success – our southern border is secure, Latin American countries are working with us to defeat the cartels, and illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro is facing justice for his crimes in the Southern District of New York – ushering in historic economic cooperation with Venezuela," said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly ahead of the summit. "The President has successfully strengthened our relationships in our own backyard to make the entire region safer and more stable, and this weekend’s ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit will encapsulate all of his work to Make America, and our partners, Strong Again," she continued. Members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will also be at the Saturday summit. The leaders from other nations who will be present are Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Ortez, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chile’s Jose Antonio Kast, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuador’s Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Guyana’s Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduras’ Nasry "Tito" Asfura, and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 2:21 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2238K] reports that twelve U.S.-allied Latin American heads of state will join President Donald Trump in Miami on Saturday at the upcoming "Shield of the Americas" Summit, a security initiative focused on stopping regional threats and foreign malign influence as part of President Trump’s "Donroe Doctrine." President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead Saturday’s upcoming summit, which will be hosted by Trump National Doral Miami in Florida. In a brief Friday morning statement, the U.S. State Department detailed that Shield of the Americas will see Latin America’s strongest U.S.-aligned nations in the Western Hemisphere join Trump and Rubio to promote freedom, security, and prosperity. "This historic coalition of nations will work together to advance strategies that stop foreign interference in our hemisphere, criminal and narco-terrorist gangs and cartels, and illegal and mass immigration," the State Department said, and noted that select Summit events will be streamed online live at the White House’s digital platforms and the State Department’s website and official YouTube channel. Trump revealed in a Truth Social post on Thursday that outgoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kristi Noem will serve as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas. Trump announced in the same post that he will nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to replace Noem as head of the DHS. "I look forward to working with Kristi Noem as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas — our new security initiative comprised of 13 countries," Sec. Rubio said on a Thursday social media post. "Kristi has achieved incredible results as Secretary of Homeland Security and will be a tremendous asset in our effort to promote security and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere," he continued.

AP [3/7/2026 1:04 AM, Michael Biesecker, Rebecca Boone and Jack Brook, 34146K] reports newly released videos showing the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent in Texas last year call into question assertions by the Department of Homeland Security that a driver intentionally rammed an agent with his car immediately before he was killed. The videos, including from officer body cameras, offer the first visual account of the shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, during a beach trip last year. Hours of footage and other law enforcement records were released Friday following a public records request from The Associated Press and other news outlets. Martinez’s death was the earliest of at least six fatal shootings by federal agents since President Donald Trump launched a nationwide immigration crackdown in his second term, and is among several cases in which video has called into question the administration’s initial narratives. The Texas Rangers closed their investigation into the March 15, 2025, shooting after a grand jury declined last week to file any criminal charges against Homeland Security Investigations Supervisory Special Agent Jack Stevens, who fired the fatal shots, according to records released by the Texas Department of Public Safety. In a written statement included in the files, Stevens said he fired to protect his fellow agents, police officers and the public from what he feared was a potential terrorist attack intended to cause mass casualties. A DHS spokesperson said last month the HSI agent fired defensive shots after the driver "intentionally ran over" his fellow agent, "resulting in him being on the hood of the vehicle.” The newly released body camera videos, taken from behind Martinez’s car, do not clearly show the vehicle striking an agent. Another video shows Joshua Orta, who was riding in the car with Martinez, telling investigators that his friend had not intended to harm federal officers but had "panicked" because he feared getting arrested for driving while intoxicated. "He didn’t know what to do. Like he definitely didn’t want to go to jail," Orta said. "But as far as like running over an officer ... he wouldn’t do that.” Spokespersons for DHS did not respond to requests for comment about the videos. While local media reported at the time the shooting involved a police officer, DHS did not publicly disclose its agents were involved until after the AP and other media outlets reported it last month.

Washington Post [3/7/2026 5:00 AM, Marianne LeVine, Brianna Sacks, Theodoric Meyer and Natalie Allison, 24826K] reports President Donald Trump’s installation of a close Capitol Hill ally atop the Department of Homeland Security is his most dramatic step yet to remake the troubled agency as public support for his deportation campaign has fallen after federal immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. GOP lawmakers said they hope Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) will bring a steadier hand to the job and help restore public confidence in the president’s immigration agenda if he is confirmed by the Senate in coming weeks to replace Kristi L. Noem, who will depart March 31. Mullin, 48, enjoys a close relationship with Trump and is viewed as less eager for the spotlight than Noem, though he built an aggressive reputation in the Senate that Trump is said to admire. Senate Republicans are expected to rally around his nomination, and at least one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has signaled he intends to support Mullin. But, once confirmed, his challenges would be numerous: Mullin would be taking over the agency at a time when recent polls show that a majority of Americans think the administration’s campaign to deport immigrants has gone too far. Democrats have refused to support a bill to fund DHS, which has been forced to shut down some services, unless the administration adopts accountability measures to rein in the aggressive tactics of immigration officers. Some Republicans have also been angered by Noem’s attempts to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has slowed disaster aid, amid major flooding in Texas last summer and widespread ice storms this winter. “The Department of Homeland Security has a very broad jurisdiction, and I think there’s a lot of work that we need to do, and I’m excited about it,” Mullin told reporters this week. Noem’s departure after a rocky 13-month tenure comes days after her top spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, stepped down. Another senior official, Madison Sheahan, the deputy director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, left in January, and Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee who served as Noem’s top adviser, is expected to depart along with her at the end of the month, an administration official said. Mullin is not, at least initially, expected to do a major housecleaning, according to a DHS official familiar with the coming transition. This person, who like other administration officials in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, said the senator is expected to bring fewer than 10 aides with him and to keep most DHS officials in place. Senior Trump administration officials have announced no changes to DHS policy, and the White House has instructed those overseeing the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts to proceed with their work. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump’s immigration agenda would “continue without interruption.” A different DHS official said many inside the agency are happy to see Noem leave. But this person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was likely that the White House would continue to drive immigration policy — a view shared by many Republicans. In particular, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller will play the same role and continue to coordinate across the administration on the development and implementation of higher-level immigration policy, while remaining less involved in daily operational decisions at DHS, according to the administration official.

FOX News [3/6/2026 12:35 PM, Alex Miller and Elizabeth Elkind, 37576K] reports President Donald Trump’s move to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and tap Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as her replacement triggered a domino effect in Congress. Before Mullin can take the helm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he has to be confirmed. And once confirmed, someone will have to take his seat. Both caveats come with their own hurdles. Senate Democrats may try to toss a wrench into the confirmation process and extract promises for reforms to the agency, particularly Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). DHS has been closed for three weeks, and the shutdown will likely continue for at least a month. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has vowed to oppose Mullin and argued that changes need to be made regardless of who runs the agency. "It’s a question of policy, not personnel," Schumer said. "The Senate should not consider any DHS secretary nominee until DHS and ICE are reined in.” Mullin has staunchly opposed Democrats’ demands to reopen the agency and whether he’ll budge to get their votes remains to be seen. But he’s open to speaking with Schumer and his caucus and wants to earn their votes. Whether he can do that before Trump’s March 31 deadline is up in the air. "The Department of Homeland Security is to keep everybody — regardless of whether you support me, if you don’t support me, regardless of what your thoughts are — I’m here to enforce the policies that Congress passed," Mullin said.

Roll Call [3/6/2026 5:50 AM, Aidan Quigley, 673K] reports Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s appointment to lead the Department of Homeland Security would shake up the Appropriations Committee and create a vacancy atop the Legislative Branch Subcommittee. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was nominating Mullin, R-Okla., to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. A White House spokesman said the administration would "work to confirm" Mullin "as quickly as possible.” Mullin’s departure from the Senate would open a seat on the coveted spending panel, as well as the chair of the smallest of its dozen subcommittees. The Legislative Branch perch often falls to one of the most junior members of the panel, and it wasn’t immediately clear who would step into that role. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., is next in line of the current members of the committee. She served as the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member from 2023 to the start of the current Congress in January 2025. Mullin won the gavel last year thanks to Republican rules that say members may not be the chair of more than two subcommittees. His two potential competitors at the time, Fischer and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., already held two subcommittee gavels. That restriction moved Mullin into the Legislative Branch role.

The Hill [3/6/2026 4:02 PM, Al Weaver, 18170K] reports Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is set to step into the spotlight as he readies to take on the unexpected challenge of replacing Kristi Noem atop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), culminating a swift rise from the House to one of the key posts in the Trump administration. Mullin is poised to take over a department that is at the center of a storm of controversy over how the administration is carrying out its immigration agenda and has been shut down for weeks as Democrats and Republicans battle over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). His confirmation hearing will take place before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). He is also tasked with convincing members of a Democratic caucus who are locked in an ongoing battle with the administration over ICE tactics. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters that the issue at DHS “transcends any one individual.” The Daily Caller [3/6/2026 5:28 PM, Jason Hopkins, 803K] reports that while never a central figure on major immigration legislation, the Oklahoma Republican has amassed a hawkish record on border security during his time on Capitol Hill. Administration insiders aren’t complaining about Noem’s exit, either. The president’s decision to nominate Mullin follows an incredibly turbulent two months for Noem.

FOX News [3/6/2026 12:58 PM, Elizabeth Heckman, 37576K] reports Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., took direct aim at Senate Democrats Thursday evening on "Hannity." saying they were putting illegal immigrants ahead of American national security with their vote to keep the Department of Homeland Security closed. Johnson told Sean Hannity, "They’re (Senate Democrats) playing games with the American people, their safety and security.” "They care more about criminal illegal aliens than they do American citizens," Johnson added. This comes as Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ attempt to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after background negotiations appear to have fizzled out. It came shortly after Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota governor who led President Donald Trump’s DHS in his second term, was ousted from her position Thursday. Johnson said that this means that men and women working to protect borders, shores, communities, and airports are working without pay or remain on furlough. House Democrats largely voted to allow the DHS shutdown to keep going on Thursday, shrugging off Republicans’ concerns about the increased domestic terror threat amid the U.S.-Israeli operation in Iran. The bill passed the House by a 221 to 209 vote, with all but four House Democrats voting against it. It’s the Senate, however, where passing that DHS funding bill is actually key to ending the shutdown. The upper chamber voted again Thursday on the original legislation that passed the House in January, but it failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. According to Johnson, DHS has sent out warnings that there are sleeper cells of terrorists "probably" throughout the country, as well as lone wolves seeking to harm Americans. "This is not a game," Johnson said. "And we’re calling on the Democrats to stop playing these foolish political stunts. And to get to the job of getting Homeland Security funded, we have to get it done.” With Noem out as the DHS Secretary in favor of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Johnson said she should be applauded for her time in the role. "Secretary Noem should be congratulated for carrying out the president’s agenda and helping to make the country safer," he said.

FOX News [3/6/2026 1:00 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 37576K] reports a group of Democrats is demanding that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., keep the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., next week in light of the "rapidly evolving" situation in Iran. "The attacks have resulted in heightened threat assessments around the globe as well as multiple deaths, including the tragic loss of six U.S. service members. At this sensitive time, we believe it is in the best interest of our constituents if we remain in session as events continue to develop," they wrote to the chamber’s leader on Friday. The letter is being led by Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and nine other members of the House Democratic Caucus, and comes nearly a week after the U.S. and Israel first launched strikes targeting Iran’s senior leadership and military assets. They’re calling on Johnson to not only keep the House in session but encourage meetings of the committees relevant to U.S. national security in light of the heightened threat environment. "By the President’s own admission, current military operations against Iran could be sustained for weeks. The rapid developments of such an operation, and its potential impact here at home, require a firm commitment to legislative engagement," the Democrats wrote. "If the House of Representatives is absent during such a pivotal moment in our foreign policy, we will be failing our constituents. We urge you to cancel next week’s recess so that we may fulfill our oversight duty.” House GOP leaders held a vote on funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) using a bipartisan bill that Democrats had already walked away from weeks ago, arguing it did not do enough to rein in Trump’s immigration crackdown. Republicans argued that the ongoing situation with Iran is worsening the effects of the ongoing DHS shutdown, which began after Democrats shunned the initial bipartisan deal. All but four House Democrats voted against the bill on Thursday. "They do not want to fund the agencies whose job it is to keep Americans safe at this time of this heightened threat environment that we’re all living in," Johnson said after the vote. "We’re concerned about sleeper cells in the country. We’re concerned about the safety of every American. And the Democrats are playing politics here.”

FOX News [3/6/2026 3:00 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, Alex Miller, 37576K] reports Democrats may be celebrating Kristi Noem’s ouster from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but they are still digging their heels in against ending the agency’s weekslong shutdown. "It’s not like Kristi Noem was the one who was involved in negotiating anything. She was a corrupt lackey. So, we were dealing with the White House before, and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters during a news conference Thursday. That point has since been echoed by several other Democratic lawmakers despite Noem’s firing apparently being one of their key demands in exchange for allowing DHS to be fully funded through the remainder of this fiscal year. Congressional Democrats have maintained a unified blockade of funding for the agency in pursuit of stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrats and the White House have been negotiating, but neither side has agreed to compromise terms. And the shutdown is now guaranteed to drag on for another month, given that the House will be out for a week and the Senate is unable to advance any DHS funding legislation. Many Democrats aren’t sure that Noem’s chosen replacement, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., would be the answer to the changes they want. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to block Mullin’s confirmation in a bid to extract Democrats’ long-sought reforms to ICE.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 11:54 AM, Jeff Poor, 2238K] reports Thursday on FNC’s "Hannity," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took aim at Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown due to funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Johnson said Democrats appeared to "care more about criminal illegal aliens" than Americans. "At a time where we know we have known terrorists in this country because of you know, wide open borders and, you know, unvetted immigrants coming into this country from over 200 countries, including those with terror ties, that seems like reckless and irresponsible," host Sean Hannity said. "But over in the Senate, they voted 51-45 to move forward, failing again a third time now to reach the 60-vote threshold. How do you get that over the finish line? How do you get the SAVE Act, which would bring voter integrity? You need proof of citizenship. You need voter ID, you know, to vote, which in many states you do not need." Johnson said, "We passed all this out of the House. To your point, we passed the SAVE Act twice, the Save America Act, most recently. We’ve sent the DHS funding, the Homeland Security funding to the Senate, and it’s getting stacked over there because the Senate Democrats are playing games, Sean. They’re playing games with the American people, their safety and security. And why is that? Because they care more about criminal illegal aliens than they do American citizens." "Remember at the State of the Union, the president gave them an opportunity to stand and applaud," he continued. "He said, ‘What is the most important job of the federal government to protect American citizens or illegal aliens?’ We all stood and clapped, of course, and they sat on their hands. They’re showing you with their words and their deeds what they stand for." "It is not just foolish," Johnson added. "It is dangerous. We know DHS has sent out warnings that there are sleeper cells of terrorists, probably throughout the country. There are dangerous lone wolf terrorists who may be out there seeking to do Americans harm, and this is not a game. And we’re calling on the Democrats to stop playing these foolish political stunts and get to the job of getting the Homeland Security funded. We have to get it done.”

NewsMax [3/6/2026 7:29 PM, Jim Thomas, 3760K] reports former Trump administration official Marc Short told Newsmax Friday that Republicans should press Democrats harder over their refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security. He called the standoff a national security risk and political liability. Short said on "Ed Henry: The Big Take" that Democrats were refusing to fund DHS even as security concerns were rising, and he argued Republicans should make that case more aggressively. He said a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy shift had already taken place under President Donald Trump, pointing to border czar Tom Homan’s role in Minnesota and changes affecting immigration enforcement, including the use of body cameras. "What is also missing in this conversation is that we’re in a military conflict with the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism, who has called for, ‘Death to America,’ has murdered thousands of American soldiers on the battlefield, has on numerous terrorist attacks, has funded Hamas and Hezbollah," Short said. "The fact that Democrats are not funding the Department of Homeland Security in the midst of this conflict is really outrageous.” Short, who was former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, framed the dispute as larger than a partisan spending fight. "Candidly, it should be a bigger. I mean, not only could it be a traditional national security crisis, but it should be a political liability for Democrats," he said. "And I think Republicans should be more central in their focus here and attacking Democrats for refusing to fund Homeland Security in the midst of this crisis.” His comments came after Senate Democrats again blocked a Republican-backed DHS funding measure. Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked the bill in a 51-45 procedural vote, with Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., the lone Democrat to vote to advance it. Democrats have argued they want policy changes tied to immigration enforcement before backing long-term DHS funding. Reuters reported in January that Senate Democrats demanded new restrictions on immigration agents, including heightened accountability measures, as part of the DHS funding fight. "The reality was that there was a change in policy. And I think that the president, when installing Tom Homan, having Homan report directly to him was that shift. And you’ve seen, obviously, 3,000 ICE agents leave" Minnesota, he said.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 1:09 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2238K] reports President Donald Trump wants to see the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, on his desk before he makes an endorsement in the Texas Senate race. Trump delivered his message to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Friday in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. In a post on X, Bash reported: And on Texas GOP Senate race, President Trump said he will make a "decision fairly shortly" but that he wants "to have the full and complete Save America Act (which Includes trans issues now)"We have to have voter ID. We have to have proof of citizenship We have to have no mail in ballots except the military, illness, disability and travel. We have to have no men in women’s sports — I added two things, and we have to have no transgender operations for youth." Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) were neck and neck in support in Tuesday’s primary, at 42 percent and 41 percent, respectively, advancing to a runoff as neither eclipsed the 50 percent threshold. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) earned 14 percent of support. Trump announced Wednesday he would soon make an endorsement in the runoff and called for whoever does not get his nod to drop out immediately. But Paxton said he would not drop out even if Cornyn gets the president’s coveted endorsement, to which Trump responded, "Well, that’s bad for him to say," in a Thursday interview with Politico.

Washington Examiner [3/6/2026 11:57 AM, Sydney Topf, 1147K] reports that Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said the partial government shutdown over the Department of Homeland Security funding is “absolutely crazy.” York questioned how long the partial government shutdown can continue when the country’s transportation system is not funded. “We’ve talked about government shutdowns in the past, and this is not that. It’s essentially a shutdown of parts of one department,” York said on Fox Business’s Kudlow Thursday. “But important parts like the TSA and the workers at TSA are not being paid.” Democrats refused to pass legislation that would fund DHS in protest after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis by federal immigration law enforcement. Agencies within the DHS include Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Emergency Management Agency, TSA, U.S.

CBS San Francisco [3/6/2026 1:48 AM, Ashley Sharp, 51110K] reports nearly 20,000 non-domiciled commercial truck drivers in the state of California could see their licenses revoked as a Department of Motor Vehicles deadline looms. CBS News Sacramento first reported the news in November of last year, which the state said came following the discovery that the expiration dates on the licenses passed the immigrant drivers’ legally allotted time to stay in the U.S. Thursday, civil rights groups and the legal representatives for a class of commercial drivers have filed for an emergency order, asking the California DMV to pause its cancellations of commercial driver’s licenses set to occur Friday, March 6. "These workers did everything the law required of them, yet they’re the ones being punished for a bureaucratic failure they didn’t create. The state cannot rip away people’s licenses first and figure out a fix later. These cancellations must be stopped now," said senior attorney Katherine Zhao of the Asian Law Caucus. The caucus and the Sikh Coalition had originally filed a lawsuit in December 2025, alleging California did not follow the proper process and broke state law by revoking the licenses. A California judge ruled that the drivers be allowed to keep their CDLs temporarily.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 5:39 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Thursday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) discussed the prospects of reopening DHS in the wake of Kristi Noem’s removal as secretary by saying that reopening the agency was going “nowhere so long as she was there. You’re not going to vote for policy and then think that she’s going to implement it.” But the agency won’t automatically result in a reopening and Democrats “should not abandon our principles or our policies. We should go and we should negotiate and we should argue for them.” Moskowitz said, “I don’t think it’s a 1-to-1 where, now that she’s gone, it reopens. But I think it’s an opening to allow the dialogue to start up again. I think we were nowhere so long as she was there. You’re not going to vote for policy and then think that she’s going to implement it. So, I think now that she’s gone, I think this provides an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to get to the table to figure out if there are policies we can agree on and get the department reopened.” He added that while it’s up to Senate Democrats, “what I would say is, we should not abandon our principles or our policies. We should go and we should negotiate and we should argue for them. But I think this provides a fresh opening now to get to the table and reopen this for all the employees at DHS that [are] now not getting a paycheck because of Kristi Noem, they’re suffering because of her, and they’re out there doing their jobs. So, let’s take this opportunity, let’s try to get a deal, try to reopen DHS, but also try to protect Americans from the stuff that Kristi Noem was doing in Minnesota.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [3/6/2026 3:28 PM, Ted Hesson, Richard Cowan, Nolan D. McCaskill and Kristina Cooke, 38315K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to forge ahead with his aggressive immigration crackdown driven by top aide Stephen Miller and a new homeland secretary nominee who shares Trump’s ​hardline view, current and former U.S. officials and lawmakers said. The Republican president fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday after months of controversy over heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics ‌and lawmaker questions about government contracts and turmoil within her department. But Miller - the White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda - retains control of the issue, three U.S. officials said. And Trump’s pick to become homeland secretary, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, is viewed as closely aligned with Trump’s approach. The official said Noem’s firing was not a referendum on Trump’s restrictive ​agenda, but rather on the execution of it. In response to a request for comment, a White House official said Miller helps coordinate a wide range of issues - from immigration to counter-cartel ​operations - and is "working to ensure the President’s policy agenda is implemented." NewsNation [3/6/2026 4:47 PM, Ali Bradley, Jeff Arnold, 4464K] reports as the Department of Homeland Security shifts its leadership after Secretary Kristi Noem was removed from her role on Thursday, some question whether the Trump administration’s mass deportation mission will change under the president’s choice to replace Noem, Markwayne Mullin. Mullin, the Republican U.S. senator from Oklahoma, was tapped by President Donald Trump to replace Noem but will need to be confirmed by the Senate. The leadership change is scheduled for March 31. Known as a staunch conservative who some say will take a more “common sense” approach to immigration enforcement, Mullin is expected to employ a less aggressive and controversial approach to the job than Noem. If confirmed by the Senate, Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, will inherit a department facing political pressure over immigration policy and a weeks-long funding gap. Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat, has indicated that the Senate will confirm Mullin, whom he referred to on Thursday as “competent and honest.” Despite Noem’s ouster on Thursday, some Democrats are still calling for accountability from Noem. The soon-to-be former DHS Secretary could face a possible perjury investigation after a series of Congressional hearings that sources say led to her reassignment within the administration.

Bloomberg [3/6/2026 8:10 PM, David Fox and Sarah Holder, 18082K] reports President Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem from her role as head of the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday. One of the reasons for Noem’s removal involved her oversight of a $240 million DHS ad campaign, starring herself. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg investigative reporters Eric Fan and Irene Casado Sanchez join host Sarah Holder to reveal the inside story of that ad blitz — and the ties between people in Trump’s orbit and the companies that were given millions to spend on it. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link] The AP [3/6/2026 5:51 PM, Rebecca Santana] reports in a one-minute video, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, decked out in Western riding gear and a cowboy hat, rides a horse through a pine forest near Mount Rushmore. She trumpets her department’s hard-line message: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you.” The ad was one of the many times the outgoing secretary made herself the public face of her department. In the end, that approach led to her undoing. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he was firing Noem, a decision that came on the heels of back-to-back hearings in Congress this week where she faced rare but blistering criticism from Republican lawmakers, especially over the $220 million ad campaign that featured the secretary on horseback. An administration official said the ad campaign, along with other “many unfortunate leadership failures” such as fallout from the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota and mismanagement of her staff, led to her firing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the private considerations for the firing.

Washington Examiner [3/6/2026 10:19 AM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump questioned former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s approval of a costly ad campaign prominently featuring herself. Noem has repeatedly claimed, including during congressional testimony on Tuesday, that Trump personally asked her to craft the DHS ad campaign, which cost over $220 million. But the president publicly disputed the secretary’s story on Thursday, saying, "I didn’t know about it." The same day, Trump fired Noem and replaced her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). "I wasn’t thrilled with it. I spent less money than that to become president," Trump said of the campaign during an NBC News interview. The roughly 60-second spot followed Noem riding around on a horse and rounding up buffalo, along with montages of Trump and law enforcement officials. "Anyone who searches for freedom can always find a home here, but that freedom’s a precious thing, and we defend it vigorously," Noem says in the ad. "From President Trump and me, welcome home.” At the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, Noem told attendees that Trump had asked her to craft the ad to thank him for his work at the border. "He said, ‘I want the first ad, I want you to thank me,’" Noem said. "I said, ‘Yes, sir. I will.’". Noem repeated a version of that story during a Senate Judiciary hearing on Tuesday, when she faced bipartisan criticism over the ad. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) suggested it was inappropriate that Noem was so prominently featured in the spot, and that she had authorized it to build out her national profile. The senator said he found it "hard to believe" that Trump had signed off on the ad, telling Noem, "it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”

New York Times [3/6/2026 8:11 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz, 148038K] reports Kristi Noem was not fired after federal agents in Minneapolis shot and killed two American citizens. She was not ousted when a chief judge in Minnesota said her immigration agency had violated more court orders than some federal agencies do in their entire existence. Nor did it happen when she described a Veterans Affairs nurse shot by her agents as a domestic terrorist, or when she falsely claimed he had brandished a weapon before he was pinned down and killed. Rather, Ms. Noem was ousted shortly after she appeared to cross one of the few red lines of the Trump White House: She appeared to shift responsibility for her own political problems back to President Trump. During a congressional hearing this week, Ms. Noem was asked if Mr. Trump had approved a $200 million-plus government ad campaign in which she was prominently featured. Ms. Noem said Mr. Trump had tasked her with “getting the message out to the country.” Asked if Mr. Trump had signed off on the campaign before the ads aired, Ms. Noem responded, “We had that conversation, yes, before I was put in this position and sworn in and confirmed. And since then as well.” Ms. Noem’s comments suggested Mr. Trump had signed off on a massively expensive ad campaign that even some in her department found cringe worthy — with Ms. Noem on a horse at Mount Rushmore. And by indicating Mr. Trump had ownership of the messaging campaign, Ms. Noem rattled Mr. Trump out of one of his comfort zones, which is as a spectator to his own policies. Shortly after her statement, Mr. Trump told Reuters he did not know about the contract. The decision to remove Ms. Noem was another reminder that Mr. Trump’s barometer for his cabinet is not just measuring policy actions on the ground as much as an appearance of disloyalty and political optics. In making her the first cabinet official to be pushed out of a job in his second term, Mr. Trump did not condemn the mass deportations and aggressive tactics Ms. Noem enthusiastically embraced under the watchful eye of Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda. He did not signal a shift for the department, which administration officials have said will continue to advance the same goals under Senator Markwayne Mullin, the Republican of Oklahoma tapped to replace Ms. Noem. The decision instead appeared driven by an eagerness to distance Mr. Trump from the person who had become politically untenable. “The loyalty is absolutely the key,” said Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, which is under the umbrella of the Homeland Security Department. “It’s a good rule of thumb to never throw your boss under the bus and with him in particular I think it’s the cardinal sin and she certainly violated that.” D.H.S. declined to comment Friday on the ouster of Ms. Noem, who will lead the department through the end of the month. Asked about Mr. Trump’s reasoning for pushing out Ms. Noem, the White House referred to a statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Mr. Trump was “grateful” to Ms. Noem for her work to reduce illegal crossings at the border to record lows and that Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda “will continue without interruption.”

CNN [3/6/2026 9:48 AM, Ainsley Ehlers, 19874K] reports CNN News Central’s John Berman and chief data analyst Harry Enten dig through the numbers about the first Trump cabinet secretary to be ousted in his second term. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Daily Caller [3/6/2026 10:10 AM, Nicole Silverio, 803K] reports CNN senior data analyst Harry Enten stated on Friday that the majority of Americans support President Donald Trump removing Kristi Noem from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
the majority of Americans, 58%, and 62% of independents, wanted Noem removed from office in February, Enten said citing a Quinnipiac University poll. Trump announced on Thursday that Noem would conclude her role as DHS secretary on March 31 and be replaced by Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin. "She was a political nightmare for the president of the United States. I mean, just take a look at this. Wanted Noem removed as DHS secretary. Overall, last month, Quinnipiac University found the majority of Americans, 58%, wanted her to be adios amigos, goodbye, see you later," Enten said. "Among independents, you can see right here, 62% of independents, we’re talking more than three in five independents, wanted her kicked to the curb. So Donald Trump because Americans were simply put sick of Kristi Noem." Noem had a net negative approval rating in every single poll conducted during Trump’s second term, Enten added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Daily Wire [3/6/2026 6:12 AM, Jennie Taer, 2314K] reports Homeland Security agents are largely ready for new leadership after President Donald Trump ousted Kristi Noem as their boss on Thursday. One Border Patrol official said Noem’s ousting "was bound to happen," citing her handling of immigration raids in Minneapolis. Noem received backlash for labeling Alex Pretti, the anti-ICE activist who was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, as a domestic terrorist before a federal investigation concluded. The agent also cited scrutiny Noem received for a reported delay in border wall construction and an internal campaign the secretary reportedly spearheaded to oust Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. Scott is highly respected among federal law enforcement officials and previously served as the national chief of Border Patrol. "It was a questionable pick to begin with, no experience in the space," the agent said. "What a train wreck.” ABC News [3/6/2026 5:26 PM, Luke Barr, Michelle Stoddart, Allison Pecorin, and Nicholas Kerr, 34146K] reports after word came that President Donald Trump fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday, the mood at the department suddenly shifted, a source inside the agency told ABC News. Noem is slated to leave her position on March 31, according to Trump, and will take a newly created position, Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas. The president said more details of that position would be revealed on Saturday. Trump named Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin as her replacement. Noem’s departure marked months of controversy and internal struggles inside the department, according to sources, with the secretary coming under scrutiny for her multimillion dollar advertising campaigns, photo ops during Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and her statements following of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis. Noem and her chief adviser Corey Lewandowski -- who is reportedly also departing DHS -- both had a knack for lashing out, yelling and berating staff that crossed them, according to sources. It followed a pattern that was consistent through her time at DHS: She never took accountability for the department’s missteps, according to former and current officials within DHS, and instead pointed the finger at others. It is unclear what Noem’s duties will be during her lame-duck period or when Mullin will be confirmed by the Senate to take over. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post that the White House would move quickly to get Mullin confirmed, but did not offer an exact timeframe. Mullin will ultimately only need a simple majority of votes in the Senate to be confirmed, which means he can be confirmed by the body without any Democratic support. Though he’s expected to easily be confirmed, the process can still take some time. If Mullin is not confirmed by the Senate before Noem’s departure date on March 31 it is likely they would have to tap someone else as acting, or go without.

CNN [3/7/2026 5:00 AM, John Miller, 19874K] reports Kristi Noem’s government jet touched down Wednesday in Nashville, where a motorcade awaited. Fifteen minutes later, the fleet of SUVs pulled into the loading dock of the Grand Hyatt Nashville, but the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security remained inside, behind the tinted glass. Big city police union leaders who waited to greet her were told she was on an important call. Around 10 minutes later, Noem emerged and walked down the maze of hallways that lead to a room where those leaders and law enforcement officials had gathered. "She was taking pictures with us. She was personable and smiling," said Kenneth Corey, former NYPD chief of department. "You’d have no idea she had just been fired by the president while she was in the car.” As the police leaders took their seats in the ballroom of the Major Cities Conference, there was a surprise performance by Lee Greenwood, the country singer and Trump favorite for his "God Bless the USA," the unofficial anthem of MAGA and Trump rallies. The music blared from the speakers and Greenwood raised his mic. "If tomorrow all the things were gone that I’d worked for all my life…". As Noem waited in the wings, hearing Greenwood sing these words, the bulletins began to flash across the phones in the room that a frustrated Trump had fired her. The Major Cities Conference is an annual event, sponsored this year by the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association and the Seattle Police Officers Guild. The meeting brings police union heads from across the country into dialogue with law enforcement executives and federal officials like Noem. This year, sanctuary cities, and the role of police in immigration enforcement was a main topic. These accounts of Noem’s movements were told to CNN by multiple local law enforcement officials who attended the conference. As Noem took the stage, likely realizing everyone in the room knew she had been fired, she began her speech by referring to Trump’s State of the Union address and she describing the mission of DHS. "It’s to fulfill our duty to protect American citizens, that they should come first under our Constitution and our laws and they should be prioritized, and especially over other people who are from other countries," she said. Noem never showed a sign there was anything amiss, said Vincent Vallelong, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association. "She stayed focused during the speech, took a number of questions and gave thoughtful answers on how we can all work together," Vallelong said. "Say what you want about politics, but she kept it together and kept the room together."

New York Post [3/6/2026 12:37 PM, Natalie O’Neill, 40934K] reports ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced a slew of scandals, media snafus and ridiculous moments before President Trump finally fired her Thursday. The 54-year-old former governor of South Dakota — nicknamed "ICE Barbie" for her perfectly coiffed tresses and TV-ready makeup — has caught heat for everything from killing her dog to running a $220 million ad campaign of herself dressed as a cowgirl. Noem was slammed as wildly out of touch in March 2025, when she wore a $60,000 Rolex watch to tour a run-down El Salvadoran prison. She wore the glittering gold "Cosmograph Daytona" timepiece — dubbed the "exotic sports car" of watches — as she shot footage next to overcrowded prisoner bunks, where hundreds of Venezuelan migrants had been deported and incarcerated. Noem sparked criticism for using border funds to buy a fleet of private luxury aircraft— including a $70-million jet that may have been used by Noem herself. The department spent more than $300 million on three private jets, including two Gulfstream G700s purchased and a Boeing 737, nicknamed the "Big Beautiful Jet," according to reports. One jet features a queen-size bed, showers, a kitchen, four large flat-screen televisions — drawing accusations that she wasted agency funds. An expensive ad campaign featuring Noem wearing a cowboy hat on a horse has irked Trump — who said he hadn’t signed off $220 million advertisement. When Republican Sen. John Kennedy pressed Noem at a congressional hearing this week about whether Trump had approved the self-promoting ad, she implied that he had. Trump, however, said he "never knew anything about it.”

New York Post [3/7/2026 1:01 AM, Victor Nava, 40934K] reports Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) revealed Friday that it didn’t take him long to realize Kristi Noem was "dead as fried chicken" after he grilled her on Capitol Hill. Just hours after a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, where Kennedy pressed Noem over a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign she approved as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the senator received a call from a furious President Trump, he told Fox News host Will Cain. "He was mad as a mamma wasp," the folksy Louisiana Republican said of Trump’s demeanor. Noem claimed during the hearing that the president "tasked" her with "getting the message out to the country and to other countries" through pricey commercials that illegal immigrants "needed to leave.” Kennedy said he was "stunned" that the since-fired DHS secretary testified that the president "approved every single bit" of the ad campaign. But Trump, after apparently watching the hearing, informed Kennedy that it wasn’t the case. "He said, ‘Kennedy, I hope you understand that I had nothing to do with this.’ I said, ‘I do believe you, Mr. President,’" the senator recalled during his appearance on "The Will Cain Show.” "He was not happy," Kennedy continued. "It was clear to me after that conversation that the secretary’s time at the department was limited. Trump announced via Truth Social post Thursday that Noem was out at DHS and would be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). Noem will be shifted to a special envoy role, for "The Shield of the Americas" coalition, the president said. In an interview hours before firing Noem, Trump told Reuters that he "never knew anything about" the ad campaign.

FOX News [3/6/2026 8:57 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., explains his concerns about former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s advertising expenses during her tenure on ‘The Will Cain Show.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/6/2026 6:00 AM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports the father of a California girl who sustained a traumatic brain injury when an illegal immigrant commercial truck driver slammed into a vehicle she was riding in urged congressional lawmakers to prioritize the safety of American citizens amid the back-and-forth rhetoric over the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Marcus Coleman was in attendance during this week’s House Judiciary Committee hearing in which then-Homeland Security Kristi Noem answered questions about the agency’s immigration enforcement actions. "At this point right now, what they’re doing is extremely disrespectful. It’s insensitive," Coleman told Fox News Digital, referring to elected officials who oppose illegal immigrant enforcement. "Until it happens to them, that’s the point of view they’re going to have." On Wednesday, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a vocal critic of the Trump administration, apologized to the families in attendance who have lost loved ones to the actions of illegal immigrants, before remarking on migrant crime statistics during his interaction with Noem. "For the folks that are here and your families, I’m sorry," Cohen said, holding his hand over his heart. "It’s terrible what happened to you, to your children or your family members, but they are more likely… citizens are more likely to be attacked by United States citizens who are not undocumented." Noem, who has since been reassigned as the Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, shot back, calling Cohen’s remark offensive to the Angel Families, which refers to relatives of Americans killed by individuals in the United States unlawfully. "The vast majority of the people sitting behind me have lost their children due to drugs, overdoses from drugs that came over the southern border," she said. "They died from their kids being hit in accidents on the roads where illegal drivers were driving a truck. Marcus Coleman, Delilah’s father, has told the story over and over again."

FOX News [3/6/2026 9:30 AM, Leo Briceno, 37576K] reports Capitol Hill exploded with reactions on Thursday as news spread that President Donald Trump had ousted Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem. "That she’s gone, you know — hallelujah," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital on Thursday. "That he’s the replacement, oh my God. I don’t know what else to say," McGovern said, referring to Trump’s next pick for the role, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. Trump’s decision, which drew cautious praise from Republicans and widespread jubilation from Democrats, came on the heels of news that Noem had spent over $220 million developing an ad campaign — news that broke during a bruising Senate committee hearing. More broadly, Noem’s removal comes as DHS has captured national focus as a key tool in Trump’s immigration crackdown. In particular, criticism of the agency burst into view after immigration enforcement shot and killed two civilians in January, after Minnesota agitators got into confrontations with federal agents. In response to the shootings, Noem said her agents had acted in self-defense and protected themselves from credible threats. Noem won’t be leaving the administration entirely. Instead of heading up DHS, she will now become Trump’s special envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a new coalition of countries in Latin America.

FOX News [3/6/2026 8:35 AM, Adam Pack, 37576K] reports President Donald Trump took Washington by surprise Thursday with his decision to remove Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, but few lawmakers on Capitol Hill questioned his decision. Though Republicans rarely criticized Noem during her tenure, many GOP lawmakers argued Thursday that the secretary’s ouster was the right move. Trump quickly nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., a close ally, to head the sprawling agency Thursday afternoon. "I think the president is doing what’s necessary to make sure the department is going to be operating effectively," Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who welcomed the news of Mullin’s appointment, said Thursday. "It was time." Mullin, a 48-year-old lawmaker, is a member of Senate Republicans’ leadership team and previously served several terms in the House of Representatives. Noem’s time helming DHS was rocked by a series of controversies involving an expensive ad campaign she claimed had Trump’s approval and her widely-panned response to the fatal shootings of two Americans in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers earlier this year. "Obviously, it did not go well," Donalds added when asked about Noem’s appearance during two hearings on Capitol Hill this week. Several GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Kennedy, R-La., tore into Noem during her appearance before the Senate’s judiciary panel on Tuesday.

FOX News [3/6/2026 12:55 PM, Paul Steinhauser Fox, 37576K] reports Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California argues that President Donald Trump’s ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is the latest sign of decline for the Republican president. "Donald Trump is in retreat," Newsom said Thursday evening in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the latest stop on his national book tour. "Today is a perfect example — the first firing of a high-profile cabinet member.” The firing of Noem, a one-time MAGA rock star and close ally of the president who was steering Trump’s centerpiece policy of mass deportations as part of the White House crackdown on illegal immigration, rocked the nation’s capital and the political world. Trump’s move to remove Noem from the top spot at the Department of Homeland Security came amid mounting criticism of her performance not only from Democrats but also among some Republicans and members of Trump’s political circle. Newsom, a vocal Trump critic who is likely to seek the presidency in 2028, hours earlier took to social media after the news about Noem broke to write "BYE GIRL!". At his New Hampshire stop, Newsom claimed that "the dark heart of the administration is not Kristi Noem, it’s Stephen Miller," who is White House deputy chief of staff and a longtime top Trump advisor dating back to president’s first White House run in 2016. "It had Noem’s fingerprints all over it, but it was Stephen Miller’s handbook, and he needs to be next," Newsom said, as he referred to the 2025 move by Trump to send National Guard troops to California in a response to immigration protests.

The Hill [3/6/2026 11:06 AM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) vowed further consequences against outgoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, after President Trump announced her exit from the agency on Thursday. The governor has rebuked Noem and the Trump administration over the DHS’s immigration enforcement operations in the state earlier this year. Federal agents shot and killed two Americans during January operations in Minneapolis. Walz told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki on Thursday, “We’re not looking for retribution; we’re looking for justice and we’re looking to make sure that no one’s above the law.” “I would just say at this time that former Secretary Noem should probably get used to spending more time in Minnesota because I have a pretty good feeling in the future she may be doing that because we have got to get accountability,” Walz said. Trump announced Thursday that he was nominating Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to replace Noem. Walz vowed to try to stall Mullin’s nomination until the administration allows state agencies to join a federal investigation into the deaths of the two Minnesotans killed during the DHS’s operation, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

NBC News [3/6/2026 5:31 PM, Julia Ainsley, 42967K] reports Democratic senators are probing the three businesses that received a $220 million ad contract featuring outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, asking whether Noem, her senior adviser Corey Lewandowski, or any other DHS employee financially benefited from the agreements, according to letters obtained by NBC News. Sens. Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal, who is the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters on Friday to Safe America Media, People Who Think, and the Strategy Group, a subcontractor associated with the agreement. The Strategy Group is run by Ben Yoho, the husband of former DHS press secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Questions about the rush of contracts to vendors outside of the traditional competitive bidding process began to circulate in 2025 and came to a head during Noem’s hearings this week before House and Senate committees. Shortly after her ouster, an administration official told NBC News that the ad campaign was one of the reasons Trump decided to remove her from her position. The administration official said the move was "a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign," as well as "mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ICE." Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he was not pleased with the price tag on the ad campaign, which Noem said at the hearing the president knew about. The letters from Welch and Blumenthal attributed their concerns about possible financial ties between Lewandowski and Noem to public reporting, including a November article from Pro Publica about the connections between the ad contracts and a firm with ties to Noem. The lawmakers have asked the companies for copies of their agreements, lists of subcontractors, and whether they had contractual, lobbying or other agreements with Lewandowski. They also inquired whether the companies "directly or indirectly compensate — financially or otherwise — any DHS personnel, including but not limited to Special Government Employees, in connection with the DHS ad campaign." Lewandowski has served as Noem’s adviser in a "special government employee" role.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 1:14 PM, Pam Key, 2238K] reports Friday on Newsmax TV’s "National Report," Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said there should be an investigation into Kristi Noem over how she spent taxpayer funds in her position with Homeland Security. Mace said, "I trust President Trump and his judgment here. One of my questions is Corey Lewandowski. Is he going with her? Where is he going in all of this? The second thing is, I want to thank, and I’m very grateful, to Republican Senator Kennedy. I had no idea how much money — hundreds of millions of dollars — that Kristi Noem had wasted on her personal PR for all those TV ads that are running across the country that have nothing to do with deporting illegal aliens. And so, I’m looking forward to the new leadership. I’m looking forward to President Trump being even more effective with better leaders within DHS. I think this was the right call." Co-host Emma Rechenberg asked, "Will you investigate her? Do you plan on investigating? We’re talking about over $200 million, the whole blanket thing. Do you think there should be an investigation launched into Kristi Noem? Mace said, "I do, and now that I have more of this information, you know, I think that we need to go back to a potential subpoena for her through the Oversight Committee." She added, "I don’t think she walks away from this, and she shouldn’t, because as Republicans, we need to hold our own accountable because President Trump is trying to reinstill trust in our institutions, in Congress, in the White House. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [3/6/2026 12:28 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports late-night host Stephen Colbert mocked Kristi Noem’s ouster as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday, throwing back at her the highly criticized language she used to describe the U.S. citizens killed by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis. “It’s too soon to know exactly why Kristi Noem is gone, but before we find out any more information about what happened, I just want to say with absolute certainty: She is a domestic terrorist who deserves to go to Gitmo,” Colbert said to applause, using the nickname for Guantánamo Bay. After glancing off screen, he added, “I’m being told that’s not true, but you know what? I acted on the information we had at the time.” During hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary committees this week, Noem refused to retract similar statements she had made about Renee Good and Alex Pretti after they were shot and killed in Minnesota. Colbert, who is in his final season on “The Late Show” after it was canceled by CBS, lampooned President Trump’s announcement that Noem will now serve as special envoy to a newly created security initiative in the Western Hemisphere, named “The Shield of the Americas.” “Sounds like someone is about to become the FIFA secretary of Homeland Security,” the comedian said, in reference to Trump receiving the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize last year after publicly coveting the Nobel Peace Prize. Colbert also addressed Trump’s nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to replace Noem, saying, “But why Markwayne and why Mark-now?”

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [3/6/2026 1:02 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K]

Daily Caller [3/6/2026 10:14 PM, Mariane Angela, 803K] reports Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy explained Friday why he publicly raised concerns about internal distractions at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Kennedy said on "The Will Cain Show" that he often takes a different approach from his colleagues and speaks plainly about issues he believes deserve public attention. He added that others share his concerns and noted the White House has been aware of them for some time. "You had concerns about managerial issues at DHS, and there were concerns you said were shared by several other senators who did not choose to speak out, and you did. Why didn’t we hear from other senators?" Will Cain asked. "Well, I can’t speak for them. I play outside the pocket. I will never completely fit in, which I consider to be one of my best qualities. I’m very frank. Sometimes, some people might think, to a fault. I have the right to remain silent, not the ability," Kennedy told Cain. "That’s my job as a senator. And I’m not the only one that has these concerns. And the White House has had some concerns for a while.” Kennedy warned that ongoing issues inside the DHS are pulling attention away from the administration’s priorities and weakening Republicans’ position on immigration. "It’s not personal. I’m very fond of Kristi [Noem]. But the problems and many more are going to be discussed. At the department, we’re distracting from our agenda and the president’s agenda. Immigration used to be our strongest issue. It’s clearly not right now," Kennedy said. Kennedy confronted departing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over the price tag tied to a nationwide television promotion effort. Lawmakers raised questions after reports that roughly $220 million in advertising deals went to firms linked to Noem and members of her inner circle without competitive bidding. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace Noem as secretary of DHS on March 31. Later that day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Noem will join him as a special envoy for the "Shield of the Americas," a security initiative involving 13 countries.

ABC News [3/6/2026 6:27 PM, Laura Romero, 34146K] reports a federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday dismissed a habeas petition from a 19-year-old college student who was deported over Thanksgiving despite a court order blocking her removal. U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns on Friday granted the government’s motion to dismiss, ruling that Any Lucia Lopez Belloza’s legal team missed their window to file for habeas in Massachusetts before she was moved to a Texas detention facility. "Counsel was hired the same day she was detained and had ample opportunity to file a petition in Massachusetts," the judge wrote. Lopez Belloza, who entered the United States from Honduras with her family when she was 8 years old, was about to board her flight from Massachusetts to Texas to surprise her parents for the holiday when immigration authorities detained her, she previously told ABC News. The college freshman has been in Honduras since November. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously said Lopez Bellazo "entered the country in 2014 and an immigration judge ordered her removed from the country in 2015, over 10 years ago. She has illegally stayed in the country since.” The federal judge also said Lopez Belloza missed an opportunity to file for habeas in Texas when she turned down a government flight that was offered to her last week. "The sad truth is that when Any declined the flight she also waived this court’s only remaining basis for jurisdiction," Stearns said, adding that any previous grounds for civil contempt against the government dissolved once they complied with orders to facilitate her return. Lopez Belloza’s attorney filed a notice to appeal the judge’s ruling. A DHS spokesperson said last week in a statement , "Complying with a court order, ICE attempted to facilitate Any Lopez-Belloza’s return back to the United States -- but she failed to appear for her pre-arranged flight. ICE made multiple attempts to reach out to her with no response. For operational security purposes, ICE does not disclose future law enforcement operations.”

Reuters [3/7/2026 6:03 PM, Andrew Chung, 38315K] reports since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office last year, he and his allies have derided federal judges who ruled against his policies as "rogue," "crooked," "lunatic" and more, casting their actions not only as incorrect but illegitimate as well. Beyond the Republican president’s vitriol in speeches and social media posts, his administration has launched a more systematic effort at the U.S. Supreme Court to diminish the power of the federal judiciary, a Reuters analysis shows. The administration in the past year has raced to the Supreme Court with dozens of emergency requests to green-light policies impeded by ​lower-court judges who questioned their legality. The administration includes in its written filings multiple legal arguments, but to a remarkable degree it has used these requests to question the very authority of the judges whose decisions are being challenged. Of the 31 emergency requests Trump’s Justice Department has filed at the Supreme Court since ‌February 2025, nearly all - 97% - claim the judge is improperly interfering with the president’s power under the U.S. Constitution and various laws, according to the analysis. By contrast, in the 19 emergency requests filed by Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden’s administration over four years, just 26% suggested judicial interference with presidential authority.

AP [3/6/2026 7:12 AM, Luis Andres Henao and Mariam Fam, 35287K] reports midway through Ramadan, Muslims across the United States are striving to maintain the holy month’s traditional mix of prayers and festive spirit under a cloud of worrisome events. The federal government’s immigration crackdown has affected many of their communities. Virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric is surging. And now the Middle East — where many have loved ones — is buffeted by the Iran war. In Paterson, New Jersey — home to one of the country’s highest per capita Muslim populations — 18-year-old Haneen Alatiyat regrets that fear and uncertainty are keeping many community members from gathering to embrace Ramadan’s communal traditions. "The meaning of the holiday is to be together with the people you love," said Alatiyat, who is half Palestinian, half Jordanian. "Unfortunately, because of the ICE raids that are happening, people don’t want to do that," she added, speaking outside the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson about Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions happening under President Donald Trump. It’s the mosque where she worships every year with family during Ramadan. Paterson’s Palestinian community — one of the largest outside the Middle East — had been grieving loved ones and trying to help the survivors of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza even before the latest anxiety-fueling developments. "This Ramadan has already been heavy for many families in our community with the immigration crackdowns," said Rania Mustafa, executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, New Jersey. "Now, as the war on Iran started, many people here are experiencing another layer of fear and grief," she added.

FOX News [3/6/2026 8:43 AM, Lindsay Kornick, 37576K] reports Vice President JD Vance admitted that he should have worded his criticism of U.S. Catholic bishops "more carefully" after claiming they may have been worried about their "bottom line" from helping illegal immigrants last year. Last year, Vance, who is Catholic, responded to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) after the organization condemned the Trump administration’s policies regarding immigration raids. In his comments, he suggested the USCCB was more concerned over its "bottom line" from losing funding rather than helping refugees. "I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns?" Vance asked on CBS News’ "Face the Nation" in a January 2025 interview. "Or are they actually worried about their bottom line? We’re going to enforce immigration law. We’re going to protect the American people.” Last month, more than a year after Vance’s comments, retired Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop emeritus of New York, said in an interview with EWTN News that Vance has since "apologized" for his comments, saying they were "out of line.” Though Vance did not clarify whether he apologized to Dolan, he acknowledged that he likely spoke "too harshly" on the subject of immigration when asked on Wednesday.

Bloomberg [3/6/2026 10:30 AM, Erika D. Smith, 18082K] reports as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem had a thing for the camera. On any given day, she could be seen sitting on a horse, donning a cowboy hat at the border, or wielding a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest (incorrectly) in some city. More often than not, Noem, with her MAGA makeover, looked straight out of President Donald Trump’s idea of “central casting.” But even in an administration led by a man who prizes image, looking the part isn’t nearly as important as knowing one’s role. Noem offers a cautionary tale. On Thursday, Trump announced that Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma would replace Noem as DHS secretary and that Noem would become “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas” — whatever that is. Noem, Trump wrote on Truth Social, has “served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results.” But that’s hardly the whole story and hardly a widely shared opinion.

Houston Chronicle [3/6/2026 11:26 AM, Joe Holley, 2493K] reports on a Sunday afternoon in March 2018, I stood with a gaggle of people outside the Gage Hotel’s White Buffalo Bar in this far West Texas town and tried not to stare. As the slender, gray-haired man in jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt waited for his ride, we were requested not to engage him in conversation, take photos or ask for an autograph. We were told he was very tired after a weeklong tour of the Big Bend region. He looked it. Ten weeks after his visit, Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in a Strasbourg, France, hotel room. The Big Bend episode of “Parts Unknown,” his award-winning culinary/cultural TV series, aired that October. To this day, when I’m on the Rio Grande, I’m haunted by the final scenes of that show. Sitting cross-legged in green grass on the Texas bank of the river, Bourdain stares up at the 1,500-foot-high limestone walls of Santa Elena Canyon. Beside the narrow river dividing the U.S. and Mexico, he muses about manmade walls. “I’ve been to a few places where they do have a wall,” he says. “Few things are uglier or are more of an indication of an utter failure of otherwise smart people to figure (expletive) out.” What Bourdain warned about — what Big Bend-area residents found “unimaginable,” to quote an Alpine bookstore owner — seemed to be happening. Starting in fall, with blitzkrieg speed and almost no public comment, the Trump administration began pushing forward to gouge an invasive border wall along the Rio Grande through Big Bend National Park and the adjacent Big Bend Ranch State Park. I suspect that Donald Trump and the high-level aides who serve him on this issue had no idea that their wall would cause irrevocable harm along the 118-mile border through some of the most magnificent terrain in North America. And it seems likely that they don’t care, either.

Bloomberg Industry Group Bloomberg Tax [3/6/2026 5:33 PM, Maia Spoto, 50K] reports the Ninth Circuit on Friday paused a federal judge’s order that voided a Board of Immigration Appeals decision used by the Trump administration’s immigration judges to deny bond hearings to detained noncitizens and uphold its policy of mandatory detention. The panel also blocked the December declaratory judgment of US District Judge Sunshine Sykes that found mandatory detention is unsupported by the Immigration Nationality Act from applying in jurisdictions beyond the Los Angeles-based Central District of California. However, that order, which said a nationwide class of detained noncitizens is entitled to bond hearings, still applies in the Central District. To further its push for mass deportations, the Trump administration has used a novel interpretation of detention statutes to require the mandatory detention of nearly all arrested noncitizens by characterizing them as "seeking admission" to the country. Many detainees have lived in the United States for decades. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its administrative stay pausing both orders in response to the government’s emergency motion for stay pending appeal. The issue is pending before federal appellate courts nationwide.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 4:11 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested a convicted killer, child rapist, and several child sexual predators, Breitbart News has learned. "Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal aliens who committed murder, sex crimes against children, and other heinous crimes," the Department of Homeland Security’s Lauren Bis said in a statement. "With every arrest, we are making America safe again," Bis said. "Nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. Thanks to our law enforcement, the murder rate is at a 125-year low."

USA Today [3/6/2026 1:31 PM, Christopher Cann, 70643K] reports the rapid effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to convert commercial warehouses into detention centers has hit another controversy: big price tags. The initiative has involved a parade of warehouse purchases in which the government has repeatedly paid tens of millions above documented appraisal values or recent sale prices. In a competitive real estate market, the Department of Homeland Security says the prices represent "fair market value." On March 3, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a hearing on Capitol Hill, accusing DHS of supporting an "incredible empire of for-profit companies that are profiting at rates we’ve never seen." "You paid $129.3 million for a facility in my state that was assessed at less than half of that, at $62 million," Booker said to Noem, who has since been ousted by President Donald Trump. "To work for a president who says he’s a great dealmaker ... I can’t believe he thinks that you’re a great dealmaker." Meanwhile, in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, DHS paid $87.4 million for a warehouse that sold in 2024 for $57.5 million, public records show. "Those prices are pretty eye-popping," said Troy Schaum, a professor at Rice University with expertise in commercial and institutional real estate development, adding that there could be a number of explanations for the price jumps. Schaum said that appraised values, which are used for tax purposes, almost always lag behind true market values. And even in states like Georgia that require assessments to keep up with the market, doing so can be challenging as high demand for data centers and other emerging technologies inflates prices for commercial space. In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Republican lawmakers have criticized the administration’s handling of a proposed ICE facility in the state, accusing the agency of rushing the process and providing inaccurate information. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons testified to Congress that he had shared an economic impact report with Ayotte’s office. But the governor said "this is simply not true" and wrote in a statement that she did not receive the report until after Lyons’ appearance on Capitol Hill.

Washington Post [3/7/2026 6:00 AM, Jonathan O’Connell and Douglas MacMillan, 24826K] reports when protests erupted over a Trump administration plan to turn a warehouse in southern New Hampshire into a detention center for up to 1,500 migrants, one state lawmaker responded by forcefully backing the idea. “Merrimack residents should be celebrating, not protesting,” state Rep. Jeanine Notter (R) wrote in a Jan. 18 op-ed for a local news website. Notter cited crime statistics about arrested migrants that are inaccurate according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s figures, and she claimed that protesters who gathered in front of town hall earlier that month had been brought in by bus. The claims closely tracked talking points drafted by a Department of Homeland Security staffer and forwarded to local officials in New Hampshire two days earlier, according to a copy of the emails obtained by The Washington Post. “If there’s a new facility going in here, Merrimack residents should be celebrating, not protesting,” said the talking points sent by Patrick Farrell, a deputy assistant secretary in DHS’s congressional outreach office. The episode highlights how DHS has tried to quietly enlist local Republican leaders to promote the administration’s $38 billion plan to transform industrial warehouses in towns and cities across the country into migrant detention centers. Faced with swelling opposition, the agency is backchanneling to political allies, in at least one case with a misleading message, while staying largely silent in public. The department sent talking points to a Republican state lawmaker in Maryland. It supplied an Arizona congressman with economic projections touting the benefits to the local community. And it held closed-door discussions with members of Congress from Pennsylvania and Mississippi. Before President Donald Trump announced Kristi L. Noem’s removal as DHS secretary, a department spokesperson said in a statement that Noem “aims to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history.” Farrell did not respond to a request for comment.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 5:12 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2238K] reports Massachusetts Democrat Governor Maura Healey proudly posed for photos with an illegal alien named as a person of interest in a sex crime investigation. The migrant, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, was invited to last month’s State of the Union Address (SOTU) by Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton, who hosted da Silva in Washington. The migrant has been found in the records of several investigations in Milford, Massachusetts. While the Milford Police Department (MPD) refused to disclose the full reports and what part da Silva may have played in the crimes being investigated, MPD Deputy Chief John Sanchioni did confirm that one of the incidents in which da Silva was mentioned as a person of interest concerned a sexual assault and juveniles and the other also "involves juveniles." According to Fox News, da Silva was named a "person of interest" in these investigations. The illegal migrant has denied any wrongdoing, and claims he has no knowledge of being mentioned in police reports in connection with the two criminal investigations. The migrant reportedly had a temporary student visa, but it expired and he has since stayed in the U.S. illegally. The Department of Homeland Security added that da Silva is an illegal alien and "subject to removal proceedings."

NewsMax [3/6/2026 7:59 PM, Sam Barron, 3760K] reports New York Gov. Kathy Hochul met with border czar Tom Homan on Friday, as Homan sought to assure the governor there were no plans for a surge of immigration agents into her state, Politico reported. "It was an important conversation to be had, for him to hear directly from me the current concerns I have on behalf of New Yorkers," Hochul said after the meeting. At the meeting Hochul gave Homan a list of college students who were detained that she is hoping to see released. The governor also expressed concern about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to open mass detention facilities in New York and criticized the death of a 56-year-old man, who was dropped off at a closed coffee shop by Border Patrol officers. Hochul gave Homan a list of the man’s family members in Myanmar who are seeking visas into the United States. "The governor and Tom Homan agree that what they’re both interested in is public safety, and what we saw in Buffalo was not public safety," said State Operations Director Jackie Bray, who attended the meeting. Homan did not take questions after the meeting. "As the Trump Administration has repeatedly stressed, we want to work with local leaders to keep their communities safe from dangerous, criminal illegal aliens," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. "The Administration, including Tom Homan, remains committed to having these conversations with anyone willing to have them. And we will continue acting on our mandate to enforce federal immigration law.” Hochul had previously met with President Donald Trump during the annual National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., to express her concern over a possible ICE surge. "The president said, ‘We’ll only go where we’re wanted.’ And said, for example, ‘I won’t go to New York unless Kathy calls and says she wants me to come to New York,’" Hochul said after meeting Trump. The governor has expressed support for legislation that would restrict cooperation agreements between federal immigration officers and police departments and has supported making it easier for people to sue the federal government if they believe their constitutional rights have been violated.

Washington Examiner [3/6/2026 4:44 PM, David Zimmermann, 1147K] reports the meeting followed Hochul’s recent visit to the White House, where President Donald Trump said he would only push for a major immigration operation in states that want one. The assurance came after the Trump administration began pulling immigration officers from Minnesota after two U.S. citizens were killed by such officers in shootings. That decision resulted from Homan’s diplomatic meetings with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Mayor Jacob Frey (D-MN). Hochul doesn’t want to see a similar operation in her state, and it appears her demand will be met. During the meeting, she raised concerns about an incident in Buffalo involving a nearly blind, non-English-speaking refugee from Myanmar who was left alone at a coffee shop by Border Patrol agents. He was found dead five days later during a cold winter snap in New York. At a press conference, Hochul said she gave Homan a list of names of the refugee’s family members in Myanmar so that they can be provided visas to mourn their loss together. Hochul said that was the widow’s request. A list of detained foreign students was also provided to Homan for their eventual release. Meanwhile, Hochul says New York will cooperate with federal immigration enforcement to target "dangerous criminals." However, she argues it needs to be done in line with the Constitution.

CBS Baltimore [3/6/2026 1:31 PM, J.T. Moodee Lockman, 51110K] reports an alleged outbreak of Legionella bacteria at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Baltimore is prompting concerns from Maryland lawmakers. According to a letter sent to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the outbreak was reported at the George H. Fallon Federal Building in downtown Baltimore. The letter was written by Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, along with Reps. Kweisi Mfume, Steny Hoyer, Jamie Raskin, Glenn Ivey, Sarah Elfreth, April McLain Delaney and Johnny Olszewski. The facility, which houses an ICE regional office and holding rooms, has faced several criticisms from state leaders about overcrowding and "inhumane" conditions. "This facility has repeatedly held people in unsafe, overcrowded conditions and for detention periods that far exceed those that temporary holding rooms are equipped to accommodate," the lawmakers said in the letter. The letter urges the GSA to take immediate action to address the alleged outbreak and questions what actions have been taken to mitigate exposure to occupants in the building.

NBC News [3/6/2026 11:13 AM, Albinson Linares, 42967K] reports René López says he still has nightmares about the three years he spent detained in ICE custody. "It’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone," López said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo from his home in Alexandria, Virginia. About a decade ago, immigration officials argued that the citizenship López obtained as a minor through his naturalized mother was not valid. This put him on a path to deportation because of a previous drug conviction when he was younger. During those years, López always insisted that he was a U.S. citizen when he was questioned by ICE officers, his lawyers, judges and journalists. "I came from El Salvador with permanent residency when I was 11 years old, and when my mother became a citizen, I was 16 years old, so I automatically obtained citizenship derived from my mother. That’s how it was," he said. According to the website of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, derivative citizenship refers to the automatic acquisition of U.S. citizenship by children under 18 years of age through the citizenship status of their parents and, under certain circumstances, by adopted children of U.S. citizens born abroad. López was detained by ICE officials in January 2023 and was held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. He was not released until Feb. 13 of this year after the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a ruling that not only stopped his deportation, but also reaffirmed that he’s a U.S. citizen. "The court says in its decision that he has been an American citizen since 1998. That’s why they are releasing him," said Benjamin Osorio, López’s lawyer.

FOX News [3/6/2026 4:35 PM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K] reports Democrats in the Virginia state legislature took steps to advance laws aimed at restricting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts and cooperation with local police just days after Democrat Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said a warrantless ICE detainer would not be sufficient to hand a criminal illegal alien suspected murderer with over 30 criminal charges to his name over to federal officials. Several of the Senate and House Democrats who took procedural steps and voted in favor of the anti-ICE bills this week include Democrats whose districts are either inside or partially inside Fairfax County, where Stephanie Minter was allegedly murdered by Abdul Jalloh, an illegal alien from Sierre Leone. Police had warned Democrat Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County, Steve Descano, Jalloh needed to remain behind bars due to his violent record. However, Jalloh was allowed back onto the streets, and he allegedly murdered Minter. Now, Spanberger is forcing ICE to get a warrant to take Jalloh into custody. A slate of bills advanced this week via a litany of procedural votes, which would restrict ICE enforcement operations, include HB 1441. HB 1441, introduced shortly after Gov. Spanberger took office, would require certain conditions that make it more difficult for ICE to file adequate detainer requests to hold criminal illegal aliens. Other bills advanced this week include proposals banning ICE from making arrests in courthouses or within 40 feet of a place that serves as a voting location. Another bill would ban ICE officials from wearing face coverings.

FOX News [3/6/2026 6:00 AM, Ashley Oliver, 37576K] reports Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is taking heat for telling the Department of Homeland Security that if it wants to take custody of an illegal immigrant facing state murder charges, the department should obtain a judicial warrant, a document that critics and legal experts say is irrelevant in this particular case. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said judicial warrants were not applicable for Abdul Jalloh, a Sierra Leone national who allegedly stabbed 41-year-old Fredericksburg mother Stephanie Minter to death at a bus stop in February. Miller was among several Republicans to criticize Spanberger in a clash that underscored a broader battle between DHS and so-called sanctuary states and cities. The administration has argued that Democratic leaders of those jurisdictions are resisting cooperating with DHS, leading to violent criminals being released onto the streets, while Democrats say their policies are in place to enhance public safety. Judicial warrants "have nothing to do with deportation," Miller wrote on X Monday. "Zero. Nothing." "The system for deporting criminal aliens from state custody is, and always has been, ICE requesting a custody transfer prior to release," Miller said. "Thousands of criminals are removed every week through this system. In Sanctuary cities/states, criminal aliens are simply set free to maim and murder." Federal government authorities can obtain judicial warrants from a court when there is probable cause that a federal crime was committed and are not used in civil immigration proceedings.

FOX News [3/7/2026 6:00 AM, Adam Sabes, 37576K] reports a prosecutor in Virginia is facing criticism after a Fairfax County Police Department officer warned the county’s commonwealth attorney about a criminal illegal immigrant who has racked up over 30 arrests before allegedly killing a mother. Abdul Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia on Feb. 23. Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office, however, was warned several times about how dangerous Jalloh is, and dismissed many of his previous criminal charges. Jalloh’s case is far from the only controversial actions by Descano’s office, which even includes a plea deal with a murder suspect that allows him the chance at freedom. Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia on Feb. 23. The victim, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to the upper body, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Jalloh has a violent rapsheet dating back to 2014 and includes over 30 arrests with several charges dismissed by Descano’s office. Jalloh was arrested the next day while he was allegedly trying to steal from a liquor store when an employee called 911. Officials said Jalloh came to the U.S. illegally in 2012 from Sierra Leone under the Obama administration. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Jalloh in 2020, and he was later issued a final order of removal allowing him to be deported to any country other than Sierra Leone. Despite that order, he was not deported.

USA Today [3/6/2026 9:22 AM, Evan Mealins, 70643K] reports Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents arrested a journalist working for local news outlet Nashville Noticias without an arrest warrant during a March 4 traffic stop in South Nashville, according to an emergency petition filed by her attorneys in federal court. The journalist, Estefany Maria Rodriguez Flores, was taken to an ICE detention center and remains in custody as of 3 p.m. March 5, according to a statement from Nashville Noticias posted to social media. Rodriguez had a meeting scheduled for March 17 with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. She frequently reported on stories critical of ICE for Nashville Noticias, the Spanish-language outlet. Nashville Noticias said in its statement on social media that it "hopes that this situation will be resolved favorably for our colleague so that she can be released soon, as she needs to reunite with her young daughter and husband to continue her legal process with the framework permitted by law.” "We trust in the justice system of the United States of America," Nashville Noticias said in the statement. Rodriguez’s attorneys are asking a judge to order immigration authorities to release her and declare her detention unlawful. Rodriguez entered the country legally in March 2021 under a tourist visa. She has a valid work permit, is married to a U.S. citizen, and has green card and asylum applications pending, according to the petition filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. She "has followed ICE’s express directions at all times," the petition states. It adds that Rodriguez received a letter in January asking her to come to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation’s field office in Nashville on Jan. 26. The office closed that day because of Winter Storm Fern, which covered Nashville in ice. A second letter, dated Feb. 10, asked Rodriguez to appear at the office Feb. 25. Rodriguez’s husband and attorney appeared at the office Feb. 23 to ask if it would rather send a notice to appear than hold a meeting, the petition says. A notice to appear is a formal document that indicates the government is beginning removal proceedings against someone. An ICE agent at the office told Rodriguez’s attorney and husband he could not find her in the agency’s computer system for appointments. An agent then said Rodriguez should appear on a different date. This agent handed her attorney a piece of paper saying Rodriguez should appear March 17, the petition says. Rodriguez was detained the morning of March 4 outside a gym on Murfreesboro Pike. She was with her husband traveling in a car with the Nashville Noticias logo on its outside. According to the petition, Rodriguez said she was shown a notice to appear charging paper but was not shown an arrest warrant. Her attorney, Joel Coxander of Mira Legal, spoke to an ICE agent who indicated there was no active arrest warrant for her at the time of her arrest, the petition states. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson gave ICE ERO, the Department of Homeland Security and the named officials in the lawsuit until noon March 6 to respond. Richardson wrote he "understands the desire to expedite briefing on this particular matter.”

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [3/6/2026 10:55 PM, Carlos De Loera, 12718K]
AP [3/6/2026 5:44 PM, Staff, 10094K]
Telemundo [3/6/2026 3:57 PM, Staff, 2524K]

CNN [3/7/2026 4:00 AM, Elise Hammond, Caroll Alvarado, 612K] reports Nashville journalist Estefany Rodriguez frequently reports on Immigration and Customs Enforcement action, becoming familiar with the sudden arrests that have become hallmarks of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. But when trucks surrounded her and her husband’s car Wednesday and agents approached the windows, she was confused, her husband Alejandro Medina said. Medina realized it was ICE before his wife did, he said. "We really couldn’t understand why we’re being surrounded.” "We’re definitely shocked," he told CNN. Rodriguez, who was born in Colombia, entered the United States legally, one of her lawyers said. She is a journalist for Spanish-language news outlet Nashville Noticias and has reported stories "critical of the practices" by ICE and was covering immigration arrests the day before her detainment Wednesday, a petition filed by her lawyers for her release stated. It’s the latest instance of journalists being caught up in the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown on immigration. Mario Guevara, a Salvadoran journalist, was deported in October after being arrested while covering a "No Kings" protest in Atlanta. The agents swarming the car to detain Rodriguez knew a lot about her and her husband, Medina said. They knew he was born in the US, and they knew they had applied for a green card, he said. Rodriguez also has a pending political asylum claim and a valid work permit, according to court documents. A spokesperson for ICE told CNN in a statement Rodriguez "currently has no lawful immigration status.” "A pending green card application and work authorization does NOT give someone legal status to be in our country," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN. Rodriguez was at a detention center in Alabama as of Friday before she was set to be sent to Louisiana, according to her lawyer, Joel Coxander. When she worked for a large broadcaster in her home country of Colombia, she reported on government agencies and instances of corruption, her dad Juan Rodriguez and Coxander said. But then she started receiving threats, Juan Rodriguez said. She reported them to the police and the country’s prosecutor’s office, and a security detail was assigned to her for a while, but that later changed to routine check-ins, her father said. "There are a lot of problems, including armed groups, guerrillas, corrupt politicians. When you report, you’ll find that some of these people don’t like what you’re reporting on, and they’ll get bothered and think they have to get rid of the reporter because the reporter is making too much noise and informing the public," Juan Rodriguez said.

Reuters [3/6/2026 11:41 PM, Kanishka Singh, 38315K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration said on Friday a Colombian reporter for a Spanish-language news outlet in Tennessee, arrested by federal immigration agents, will get due process. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Estefany Maria Rodriguez Florez, a journalist for Nashville Noticias, in the state capital on Thursday. She was taken to an ICE detention center and remains in custody. ICE accuses her of violating her visa conditions. A lawyer for her was cited by local media as saying that "up until now, she hasn’t had a case with ICE charging her with anything.” Rodriguez Florez has lived in the U.S. for five years and "frequently reports ⁠on stories critical of ICE," her lawyers said in an emergency petition filed in ​federal court, saying she was arrested without a warrant. ICE officers had an "administrative warrant" at the time of the arrest on Wednesday, an ICE spokesperson and a spokesperson of the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, said on Friday. "She will receive full due process and remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of her immigration proceedings," the DHS spokesperson said. ICE has been at the heart of Trump’s immigration crackdown, which rights advocates say violates free speech and due process, and has created an ⁠unsafe environment. Trump says his policies aim to curb illegal immigration and improve domestic security. Rodriguez Florez had a meeting scheduled for March 17 with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, her lawyers said. ICE previously twice rescheduled a meeting with her on her case, once due to a winter storm and again when an ⁠agent could not find her appointment in the system. Nashville Noticias said the reporter was with her husband outside a gym on Wednesday when the vehicle they were in, which was marked with the media outlet’s logo, ⁠was surrounded and she was detained. Rodriguez Florez arrived in the U.S. on a tourist visa, filed for political asylum, later married a U.S. citizen and has a valid work permit, her lawyers ⁠say, adding that she and her husband have filed for permission to adjust her status to lawful permanent resident. The Trump administration alleges she was not authorized to stay in the U.S. beyond 2021 on her tourist visa.

USA Today [3/6/2026 3:05 PM, Irene Wright, 70643K] reports Kristi Noem is out as Secretary of Homeland Security after congressional hearings ranged from confrontational to heated as funding for the department remains in gridlock. Noem was questioned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and the death of U.S. citizens, Stephen Miller’s influence on the department and more as tempers flared in the congressional chambers. The former secretary was fired on March 5, and quickly replaced by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin. But during Noem’s last days in power, she was questioned by Georgia representative Lucy McBath about 47-year-old Rodney Taylor, a man McBath said is disabled and being neglected in an ICE detention center in the state. Taylor was convicted of a crime at the age of 17, though McBath does not disclose his record. He was later pardoned by former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and has not had any further run-ins with law enforcement. Taylor has applied for a green card, and the process is pending, McBath said. Taylor was taken into ICE custody in January 2025, McBath said, and his health has deteriorated in the year since. Noem began her response by saying she was "unfamiliar" with the case and would look into it further, before saying she would ensure the Stewart Detention Center was held to the same standard as other facilities. McBath asked Noem if she had read a letter about the case sent by McBath and her colleagues more than two weeks ago, and Noem answered "no," but that she would get lawmakers a response in the next couple of weeks. Noem was fired from her position the next day.

Blaze [3/6/2026 5:00 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1556K] reports President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security scored a significant legal win on Thursday regarding its immigration enforcement surge. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched Operation Midway Blitz in September, intending to target criminal illegal aliens hiding behind sanctuary policies in Chicago, Illinois. The following month, organizations representing journalists and residents filed a complaint against the Trump administration, accusing federal agents of responding to the protesters "with a pattern of extreme brutality in a concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians." The plaintiffs claimed that federal agents had "injured and sickened" civilians and the press through the use of force and tear gas. The lawsuit requested that the court prevent federal agents from continuing to use alleged "unconstitutional tactics." In November, a federal judge in Chicago issued a broad injunction in response to the complaint, placing restrictions on the use of force. The Department of Homeland Security appealed the federal judge’s ruling, calling the injunction "an extreme act by an activist judge that risks the lives and livelihoods of law enforcement officers." On Thursday, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to lift the injunction, claiming that the lower court had "granted an overbroad, constitutionally suspect injunction."

CBS News [3/6/2026 11:02 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Jared Eggleston, Brad Hodges, Joe Walsh, 51110K] reports video of the March 2025 fatal shooting of American citizen Ruben Ray Martinez obtained by CBS News appears to contradict claims by federal officials that Martinez was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent because he "accelerated" and "intentionally ran over" another agent with his car. The killing of Martinez, who was 23 at the time, in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025, was reported by local news outlets at the time. But it was not until February of this year, nearly 11 months later, that ICE confirmed one of its agents had fatally shot Martinez. In an internal report released by a nonprofit watchdog group last month, ICE said Martinez "accelerated forward" and struck an agent during the March 2025 incident. The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement that an ICE agent had fired "defensive shots" into Martinez’s vehicle after Martinez "intentionally ran over" another agent. But body camera video, which has not been previously reported, shows that Martinez’s vehicle, a blue Ford Fusion, was stationary or going at a very low rate of speed when he was fatally shot. When gunshots are heard in the video, the brake lights of Martinez’ vehicle appear to be on. After he’s shot three times, Martinez is seen being pulled from his vehicle, thrown to the ground by an ICE agent, face down, and then handcuffed. Personnel on the scene are not seen in the video providing medical care until after he is handcuffed. CBS News reached out to representatives for DHS seeking comment on the footage. The Texas Department of Public Safety investigated Martinez’s fatal shooting, though a grand jury last month declined to return criminal indictments in the case. DHS’ official version of events had already been previously called into question by somebody at the scene. Joshua Orta, Martinez’s best friend and a passenger in the vehicle during the shooting, said in a draft declaration that his friend "did not hit anyone" and that he was trying to comply with commands from officers. Orta died in a separate car crash last month, before he could sign that declaration. Texas DPS released dozens of records related to the investigation late Friday, including a video of an interview that members of the Texas Rangers conducted with Orta. During the police interview, Orta said he and Martinez had a few drinks earlier in the evening, and were driving from Whataburger to a friend’s condo when they encountered an area with heavy police presence. At one point, a police officer told Martinez to stop the car, and he seemed to get "jittery" and "panicked," according to Orta. He said that "out of reaction" Martinez "kind of pushed the gas," but "he didn’t floor it, it was barely moving." Orta said Martinez turned the wheel left and the car moved slightly. An officer "got on the hood a little bit" after his feet may have gotten caught, though he said he didn’t think Martinez hit the officer. After that, Orta heard an officer yell "stop" and then heard gunshots. Asked why Martinez didn’t stop the car, Orta said he thought Martinez was "panicky" and "didn’t know what to do." He suggested at one point that Martinez may have been nervous about an open container in the car. Orta also said at another point during the interview he was concerned that Martinez would get cited for driving while intoxicated. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [3/6/2026 6:49 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51110K] reports Rachel Reyes’ son, 23-year-old American citizen Ruben Ray Martinez, was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent nearly one year ago. But she said she’s still trying to understand why. While Martinez’ death was reported when it occurred in March 2025, ICE’s involvement in the fatal shooting was not publicly disclosed until last month, nearly 11 months later. "I just want to know what happened, why they feel it was justified, and I honestly don’t believe that. I’m not a mother in denial. I’m just a mother in doubt, because I know my son and I know he’s not a threat," Reyes told CBS News during her first TV interview since her son’s death. "I think just knowing the truth will give me closure," she added. "I don’t blame President Trump for the death of my son, ‘cause he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger," Reyes said. "But I do think that something needs to be changed in that department as far as the pattern of violence or abuse and impunity." She took issue with the Department of Homeland Security’s statement saying an ICE agent fired "defensive shots" into Martinez’s vehicle during the March 15, 2025 incident on South Padre Island, Texas. DHS accused Martinez of ignoring directions and "intentionally" running over an ICE agent with his vehicle. She said DHS’ statement "adds insult to injury, because there was no officer run over and there was no officer injured, and there’s contradicting statements, and that makes me distrustful." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [3/6/2026 6:12 PM, Matt deGrood, 2493K] reports a day after a Chronicle report found Houston police officers in at least two instances arrested drivers and personally transported them to immigration agents, Mayor John Whitmire told Univision Houston the arrests violated department policies. Whitmire, who hasn’t responded to requests from the Chronicle since Aug. 17, told Univision: “I’m disappointed. It was a violation of Houston Police Department policy, and it will be corrected.” Representatives for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Chronicle as of Friday afternoon. Officials with the Houston Police Department referred questions to the mayor’s office. The mayor’s statement comes after legal experts said the two arrests, in July and August of last year, could risk violating the U.S. Constitution and internal department policies. Details from police reports obtained by the Chronicle show a new level of cooperation with federal officials. Houston officers called federal authorities in more than 154 cases in 2025, an increase of more than 1,000% from prior years.

Houston Chronicle [3/6/2026 7:00 AM, Lisa Falkenberg, 2493K] reports his mom was supposed to bring a few photos and maybe a couple of trophies. Instead, she wheeled in a fat suitcase. One afternoon last week, she covered an office meeting table with the team soccer jerseys of her eldest son, his spaghetti of clanging medals, his miniature mountain range of golden cups and his tiered trophies. And, yes, she also brought his photos — of the whole family in reindeer pajamas, of him and his dad in matching mechanic’s short-sleeves and of him growing up on a patchwork of soccer fields. As a Chronicle photographer snapped pictures, I studied the images of a boy going from spindly legs in over-the-knee socks to a handsome high school soccer captain in a formidable pose — clean stripes, arms crossed and drive in his eyes. They weren’t the eyes I’d seen a week earlier at a Livingston immigration detention center. On the other side of the sealed glass on Feb. 18, the high school senior had appeared overcast, his skin a shade paler, the dimple on his left cheek — inherited from his mother — elusive in his wan smile. The plight of Mauro Yosueth Henriquez, the 18-year-old soccer captain at Houston ISD’s Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center, has drawn headlines ever since he and his father were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a routine check-in just before Christmas. Mauro is just one of the thousands of students in the country illegally who have disappeared from American classrooms under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Sold to voters as a purge of violent criminals from our streets, ICE and Customs and Border Protection raids are ensnaring young people, old people, babies, families, asylum seekers and even vetted, legally admitted refugees.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 3:55 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested an illegal alien accused of luring Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) to Idaho, only to then allegedly labor traffic them once in the United States. Late last month, ICE agents arrested illegal alien Brayan Adiel Gramajo Reyes of Guatemala after he was charged with operating a labor trafficking scheme out of his native Guatemala to Boise, Idaho. Gramajo Reyes is charged with two counts of encouraging illegal entry of aliens to enter the U.S., eight counts of using false statements for employment verification, and one count of unlawful employment of aliens. According to a federal indictment, Gramajo Reyes lured two UACs to travel from Guatemala to Idaho under the guise of helping them prosper and seek opportunities in the U.S. Once the two UACs arrived, though, prosecutors claim that Gramajo Reyes forced them into grueling physical labor and made them work long hours without breaks. Gramajo Reyes allegedly secured Social Security Numbers for each UAC and claimed that they were genuine.

CBS News [3/6/2026 6:44 PM, Mike Toole, Penny Kmitt, 51110K] reports lawmakers are demanding an investigation after a man from Haiti who was seeking asylum in Massachusetts died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Emmanuel Damas, 56, of Dorchester, died March 2 at a hospital in Arizona. He was taken into ICE custody in Boston in September 2025, following an arrest for assault and battery by Boston Police, according to ICE. "He’s not a criminal. He didn’t do anything," said Damas’ brother Presner Nelson. He said that Damas was in the country legally. Last month, Damas told staff there he had a bad toothache; it got worse, and he was taken to the hospital on Feb. 19, according to his brother, Presly Nelson. ICE said that Damas reported shortness of breath and the agency’s statement did not mention a toothache. The next day, Nelson said Damas was on life support in intensive care with pneumonia. On Feb. 23, Nelson said ICE told him Damas was back at the detention center in Florence, but there was no update on his condition. Several days later, Nelson learned that his brother was at a different hospital and was scheduled to have surgery on Feb. 26. Presner Nelson said that the family arrived to find that their brother was in a coma with no chance of recovery. Damas died on Monday, March 2. It’s still not clear what caused his death. "This is the United States of America, the biggest country on Earth, where we do big things. To let someone pass because of a tooth infection, toothache? It’s sad," said Presner. A statement released by ICE on Friday included a detailed timeline of nearly two weeks of Damas’ medical care. It also contradicts the family’s claim that he was returned to a detention center while he was sick. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [3/6/2026 8:30 PM, Claire Rush, 34146K] reports a federal judge in Oregon on Friday limited federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at a Portland federal immigration building, as part of a lawsuit filed by an adjacent affordable housing complex following months of repeated exposure. U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio issued the preliminary injunction after a hearing last month in which the complex’s residents described physical and psychological symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing, coughing, burning eyes and hives to anxiety and panic attacks. Some also testified about wearing gas masks in their own homes. The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration. In her opinion, Baggio said the case was not about the rights of protesters, but rather about allegations from the residents of the Gray’s Landing apartment building that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions during protests "has been so excessive — so enveloping — that it violates Plaintiffs’ rights.” "The Court recognizes a preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy, but this is an extraordinary case," she wrote. Her order restricts agents from using chemical munitions in quantities likely to reach Gray’s Landing, which is catty-corner from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, unless needed to respond to an imminent threat to life. A federal judge in a separate Oregon lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, previously issued a temporary restraining order limiting agents’ use of tear gas during protests at the building and is also considering whether to grant a preliminary injunction in that case. The property manager of the apartment building and several tenants filed the suit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions has violated residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and confining them inside. "This decision protects basic health and safety and the right to live in one’s home without fear of chemical weapons being used by the government," Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement Friday. "Residents should not be harmed simply because they live next to a site of public protest.” The defendants, which include ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and their respective heads, say officers have deployed crowd-control devices in response to violent protests at Portland’s ICE facility, which has been the site of demonstrations for months. ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.

Los Angeles Times [3/6/2026 1:17 PM, Ruben Vives, 12718K] reports that SB 995, dubbed the Masuma Khan Justice Act, would penalize immigration detention centers that fail to meet health and safety standards. The proposed law is named after a woman in California who was detained in October 2025 and held at the California City Detention Facility, which was the subject of a federal class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions. At least 33 people have died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, some of those died at detention centers in California. California state Sen. Sasha Renee Perez (D-Pasadena) announced Friday new legislation that will institute fines and suspend or revoke licenses to immigration detention facilities when they fail to meet minimum health and safety standards. The proposed law — SB 995 — aims to help state authorities ensure that private detention centers comply with state health and safety standards through inspections. The detention center operators would be required to correct any deficiencies identified by inspectors or face a civil penalty up to $25,000 a day for each violation. Operators could also risk having their state-issued licenses suspended or revoked. "Private detention centers have earned millions in profits and continued to secure contracts with government agencies, despite well documented cases of health and safety violations," Perez said in a written statement. "It is time for the State of California to use its legal and moral authority to inspect private detention facilities, hold bad actors accountable and close facilities with consistent, documented cases of human rights abuses."

San Francisco Chronicle [3/6/2026 6:32 PM, Jessica Flores, 3833K] reports State officials and immigration advocates on Friday called on the federal government to return a Bay Area mother and her two young children back to the United States after they were detained in San Francisco on Tuesday. Immigration attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker confirmed Friday that Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and her children, ages 4 and 6, were deported to Colombia. Attorneys previously said the children were 5 and 7 years old. A 28-year-old Colombian asylum seeker, Gutierrez immigrated to the U.S. four years ago with her two children. She did not have a criminal record, De Bremaeker said. “This is a sudden change in ICE’s policy … pulling the rug from under immigrants who have been complying, doing everything possible to comply with orders,” De Bremaeker told reporters during a news conference about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement action. “It’s inhumane, it’s illegal, and it’s unconstitutional,” he added. Federal agents have arrested many undocumented immigrants who have reported for check-ins at the San Francisco and Stockton ICE offices since President Donald Trump took office. Gutierrez and her children were detained Tuesday while reporting to a routine check-in at the ICE office in the South of Market neighborhood, her attorney said. Her 6-year-old son is deaf and did not have his assistive equipment when they were detained, the attorney said.

Blaze [3/6/2026 7:10 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1556K] reports a 55-year-old woman who pleaded guilty to a charge related to her slapping the mask off a federal officer during a protest in San Diego, California, has been sentenced. Jeane "Bleu" Wong was facing a year in prison for the misdemeanor charge of assault on a federal officer over an incident that unfolded on July 2, 2025, in Linda Vista. ‘Today, not only did I get justice, but all the puppies of the world also got justice.’. Wong was among the protesters who showed up to oppose a targeted enforcement operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Mesa Vista Apartments. The woman was grabbed by the forearms by an agent after she refused to step out of a police perimeter, and she responded by slapping the agent on the left side of his face. The officer’s mask slipped down his face as a result. Wong pleaded guilty to the charge in February. "I chose to plead guilty because I did unmask an agent, no matter what the circumstances before that," she admitted. "But I will never normalize giving unchecked power over myself, over my family, over you, my neighbors, my kids, to any agency that does not follow basic standards.” On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Allison H. Goddard sentenced Wong to 45 days of house arrest, allowing her to avoid any time in prison. The preschool owner said she would continue her advocacy and even fired off a jab at Kristi Noem after she was removed as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. "Today, not only did I get justice, but all the puppies of the world also got justice," she said, referencing Noem’s puppy-killing controversy. However, Wong faces another charge from Jan. 2026 related to her allegedly joining an anti-ICE protest to barricade the San Diego mayor’s office. That charge violated her bail conditions, which led to her being ordered to wear an ankle monitor. Wong was held for 31 hours after her assault arrest, and she claims that her detention conditions were inhumane because they included solitary confinement and lack of bathroom access. Those allegations have not been confirmed. Her wife said she was relieved over the relatively lenient sentence. "I’m always by her side and very proud of her, but it’s always scary to know that you can be criminalized for something that is good," Tin-Lok Wong said.

CBS Los Angeles [3/6/2026 6:25 PM, Julie Sharp, 51110K] reports a Guatemalan national pleaded guilty on Friday to leading one of the largest human smuggling organizations in the nation and admitted to holding certain immigrants hostage for lack of payment at his residence in the Westlake neighborhood, near downtown Los Angeles, according to federal prosecutors. Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, 52, who went by the aliases of "Turko," "El Jefe," "Patrón," and "El Gallo," pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring undocumented immigrants to the United States, transport, and harbor undocumented immigrants in the United States for private financial gain and one count of hostage taking. According to his plea agreement, his smuggling organization moved roughly 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala to the United States between 2019 and 2024. Each immigrant was smuggled into the United States for a fee ranging between $15,000 to $18,000. Prosecutors said Mexican smuggling organizations were also involved, receiving payment to move the immigrants through Mexico and across the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. operation involved smuggling cells, teams of drivers and operators of stash houses where immigrants were held. Renoj-Matul and other co-conspirators would hold immigrants in one of the stash houses on James M. Wood Boulevard in the Westlake district until their fee was paid. If payment was not made, they would be held against their will. He admitted to holding two different people hostage at the Los Angeles home for lack of payment in 2024. One Guatemalan immigrant was held for two months. Renoj-Matul called the victim’s mother and threatened to harm the victim, including by warning the victim "would come home in a box" if her smuggling fees were not paid, according to prosecutors. Another undocumented immigrant was held hostage for four months in the house. "Renoj-Matul knowingly and intentionally seized and detained, and threatened to kill, injure, and continue to detain the victim to compel third persons to pay smuggling fees to the hostage takers as an explicit condition for the victim’s release," the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a news release.

Los Angeles Times [3/6/2026 6:00 AM, James Queally, 12718K] reports the masked protesters screaming at a federal agent outside his home was the type of scene Trump administration officials had long feared. Cynthia Raygoza, Ashleigh Brown and Sandra Samane followed a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer from the downtown L.A. Metropolitan Detention Center to his Baldwin Park residence last August. The off-duty ICE agent’s unmasked face and the name of the street he lived on were broadcast to more than 50,000 followers on a livestream from the popular "ice_out_ofla" Instagram account. With the agent’s wife and two of his children nearby, Raygoza cursed at the agent and threatened to hit him while screaming to onlookers that "your neighbor is an ICE agent," according to video of the incident. Minutes later, another woman shouted out an address near the agent’s home. The agent, Rogelio Reyes Huitzilin, said the incident forever changed his family. Testifying in court last month, Huitzilin said they moved away out of fear the protesters would be back. His son withdrew from high school. His wife told jurors she was convinced protesters would return because of the "climate" of anger toward immigration agents. But Baldwin Park police said there were no repeat incidents at the agent’s home. No one was injured and no weapons were found. In court, Huitzilin said several of his relatives still live at the same Chesfield Street property, despite his claims it was "compromised." The most severe consequences were faced by Raygoza and Brown, who said they simply were trying to follow Huitzilin to an immigration raid, not his home. They didn’t even know his name on the day of the incident and got into a dispute only after he approached them. The pair were indicted on charges of "doxxing" Huitzilin and convicted of stalking him at trial last week. They face up to five years in federal prison. Department of Homeland Security officials repeatedly have expressed alarm about the potential for agents to be "doxxed," a slang term for revealing a person’s private information online. Fears that identifying officers could lead to violence has, in part, motivated the practice of keeping agents’ faces hidden behind masks. Federal officials provided little evidence to support claims that agents whose names are made public face danger. Asked to provide examples of doxxing incidents, Homeland Security spokeswoman Lauren Bis pointed to cases in which ICE agents received threatening phone calls or online messages. "I hope your kids get deported by accident. How do you sleep? F— you. Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II?" a Homeland Security transcript of one voicemail read. "Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family." "The disgusting doxxing of our officers put their lives and their families in serious danger," Bis said, adding that ICE agents face "a coordinated campaign of violence.”

Reuters [3/6/2026 5:44 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports a U.S. judge who had ordered President Donald Trump’s administration ​to facilitate the return of a college student it deported to Honduras said on Friday the "sad truth" is ‌that her decision not to board a plane it arranged back to the United States meant her case must be dismissed. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 20-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts, declined on February 27 to board a flight arranged by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to bring her back ​to the United States after the administration said it would try to deport her again if she returned. Lopez Belloza, ​who came to the United States from Honduras when she was 8, has said she was unaware ⁠she was subject to a final order of removal that was entered when she was 11. Stearns on February 13 ordered the administration to rectify the error by facilitating her return to the United States. The administration last week said it would do so ​by having Lopez Belloza board the ​ICE flight from Honduras to ⁠Texas. But the administration also said ICE planned to move to deport her again upon arrival and had the authority to detain her. Lopez Belloza said the "nightmare" situation caused her to decline to board ​the flight and remain in Honduras. Stearns said had she boarded the plane, the judicial order barring her swift deportation would have remained in effect, giving her "ample opportunity" to file a new case in Texas to challenge her detention. Todd Pomerleau, Lopez Belloza’s lawyer, said ⁠he will ​appeal.

New York Times [3/6/2026 11:36 PM, Miriam Jordan, 148038K] reports a federal appeals court late on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Trump administration had unlawfully terminated Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, giving a reprieve to the hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the United States. The 2-to-1 ruling allows the over 350,000 Haitians in the United States covered by T.P.S. to remain shielded from deportation, continue to work legally and maintain their protected status while a lawsuit challenging the termination proceeds in federal court. The latest ruling came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The long-term fate of Haitians with the status is still unclear because the Trump administration is likely to file an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court seeking to rescind the protection while the case is being litigated. Under the Trump administration, the Homeland Security Department has sought to widen the scope of its deportation campaign by announcing terminations of T.P.S. for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti, Venezuela and several other nations. In the ongoing lawsuit over the protection for Haitians, the government asked an appellate court to stay a Feb. 2 ruling by District Judge Ana C. Reyes that had blocked the program’s termination. Judge Reyes determined that the Trump administration had violated statutory requirements for revoking the status, notably by failing to review on-the-ground conditions in Haiti. In a brief order denying the government’s emergency request for a stay, the court found that the government had failed to demonstrate that it would suffer “irreparable harm” if Haitians were allowed to remain in the United States while the case proceeds. It also said that the plaintiffs in the case were likely to succeed on the merits. “In its stay motion, the government takes a minimalist approach to addressing the injuries it faces, arguing only that the district court’s order imposes irreparable harm because it is an ‘improper intrusion into the workings’ of the executive,” the order said, adding that the government did not give sufficient justification as to how or why that would be the case. “On the other side of the ledger, the plaintiffs face substantial and well-documented harms,” the court wrote. The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Geoff Pipoly, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, welcomed the appellate decision. “The ruling ensures that Haitian T.P.S. holders, who make America greater and stronger both economically and culturally, will get to stay here in safety at least a while longer,” said Mr. Pipoly, who is a partner at the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. Congress created T.P.S. in 1990 to allow citizens of countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary crises to remain in the United States if returning to their homelands would imperil them. The Homeland Security Department periodically reviews conditions to determine whether to extend or terminate a country’s designation, and Haiti has received multiple extensions over the years amid a protracted humanitarian crisis and deepening security risks. The legal battle stems from a directive issued by the Department of Homeland Security in late November to end Haiti’s T.P.S. effective Feb. 3. The agency’s secretary at the time, Kristi Noem, said that Haiti no longer faced “extraordinary” conditions and that keeping the designation in place was “contrary to National Interest.”

Telemundo [3/6/2026 3:44 PM, Marina E. Franco, 2524K] reports Democratic Senators Richard Durbin (Illinois) and Alex Padilla (California) raised doubts at a public event this Thursday about the legality of the arrests of Dreamers carried out by the Republican administration of Donald Trump in recent months, and demanded the return of one woman already deported to Mexico. A lawyer also alleged that the Department of Homeland Security fabricated charges against another young man to justify his arrest, and other reported cases also raise serious questions. Padilla accused the government of “indiscriminately and illegally arresting” 261 beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Durbin, for his part, denounced the Department of Homeland Security for failing to clarify the “criminal history” it attributes to 241 of those 261 Dreamers it acknowledges arresting between January and November 2025, adding: “The Trump Administration has not hesitated to detain immigrants without serious criminal convictions and falsely label them as the worst of the worst.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated that most of the Dreamers detained in recent months had criminal records, but has not provided further details.

AP [3/6/2026 10:02 AM, Staff, 35287K] reports when submitting documents to USCIS for immigration purposes, such as applying for a visa, naturalization, or green card petitions, USCIS requires that they be in English. If a document is not in English, it must be accompanied by a certified English translation. The translation should include a signed certification from the translator confirming that it is accurate and that they (the translator) are competent to translate documents.

Los Angeles Times [3/6/2026 2:09 PM, Andrea Castillo, 12718K] reports Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called for the Department of Homeland Security to return a California woman with DACA who was recently deported a day after her green card interview. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is the Obama-era program that since 2012 has shielded certain immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allowed them to work legally. Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez lived in California for 27 years before being detained at her green card interview last month and deported within 24 hours, despite having active DACA protection and no criminal history. Her story was first reported by the Sacramento Bee. On a call from Mexico on Thursday with reporters, Estrada Juarez, 42, said DACA was supposed to protect people like her who work hard and follow the rules. “I did everything I could to build a stable life and give my daughter the opportunities that I never had,” she said. “But about two weeks ago, everything changed. I was wrongfully deported. In a single moment, nearly 30 years of my life were taken away from me — my home, my work, my community.” Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about Estrada’s case.

San Francisco Chronicle [3/6/2026 3:43 PM, Sara DiNatale, 3833K] reports California is set to cancel about 20,000 immigrants’ commercial trucking licenses at 7 p.m. — and will also strip them of their regular driver’s licenses in the process. The cancellations will likely deepen a crisis spurred by an ongoing Trump administration audit of the state’s processes for doling out licenses. Drivers report chaos, confusion and inconsistent advice from the California Department of Motor Vehicles as they prepare to be stripped of their livelihoods. The Trump administration has decried “dangerous foreign drivers” and paused the state’s ability to issue or reissue commercial licenses to immigrants without a Green Card or citizenship. In a press release defending pending restrictions of immigrant drivers in trucking, the U.S. Department of Transportation has pointed to 17 crashes and 30 deaths by non-domicile drivers in 2025. Non-domicile drivers include those with work permits, often refugees, asylum-seekers or DACA recipients. That figure accounts for less than 0.5% of the total fatal bus and truck crashes in the United States, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data.

Reuters [3/6/2026 10:01 AM, Katharine Jackson and ⁠Bhargav ​Acharya, 38315K] reports the U.S. State Department is imposing visa restrictions on several senior Rwandan ⁠officials for fueling instability in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Secretary ⁠of State Marco Rubio said in ⁠a statement on Friday.

Roll Call [3/6/2026 3:15 PM, Michael Macagnone, 673K] reports a federal court in New York took the first official steps this week to start the refund process for the worldwide tariff regime that the Supreme Court said violated the law. Judge Richard K. Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade said in an order Wednesday that importers were due refunds for tariffs paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, or IEEPA. Eaton wrote that a Supreme Court decision last month that invalidated those tariffs, Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, meant that Customs and Border Protection should stop charging tariffs and initiate refunds. That may not happen immediately, though. The Trump administration said in a filing Friday that it is not equipped to immediately refund the more than $166 billion importers have paid or even stop charging the tariffs this week. The filing, including a declaration from a CBP official, said it would require time and resources to stop payments, process refunds and calculate the interest importers are owed. The government said it may be able to spin up a refund process by sometime in April. Eaton has called for a private conference Friday between the importer who brought the case and the government.

AP [3/6/2026 12:36 PM, Mae Anderson, 1257K] reports Government officials are getting closer to ironing out a refund process for the hundreds of thousands of companies that paid tariffs now deemed illegal. In a filing with the Court of International Trade on Friday, Brandon Lord, executive director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s trade policy and programs directorate, said the CBP is working on a new system that will simplify the process. He said it should be ready in 45 days and require “minimal submission from importers.” The filing comes after a judge on Wednesday ordered the government to start paying back all importers the illegal tariffs they paid — with interest. Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade wrote that “all importers of record’’ were “entitled to benefit’’ from the Supreme Court ruling that struck down sweeping double-digit import taxes President Donald Trump imposed last year under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Eaton would have to approve the process before it proceeds. In the filing, Lord said as of March 4, over 330,000 importers have made a total of over 53 million entries with CBP and paid about $166 billion in tariffs that now have to be refunded. Lord estimated that under the current system, refunds would take more than 4.4 million man hours to complete, and it isn’t feasible to divert all employees to the refund process full time, because “CBP’s other functions and responsibilities would be severely disrupted and the agency would not be able to continue to adequately perform its mission, including its revenue protection mandate and its vital national security functions.” But he said the agency is confident they can develop and implement a new process that will streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments. The system should be ready in 45 days, he said. Breitbart [3/6/2026 2:56 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports that on Friday, Customs and Border Protection’s Brandon Lord, executive director of Trade Programs at the agency, told the court in a filing that it’s now facing "an unprecedented volume of refunds." The filing said that as of March 4, more than 330,000 importers have made more than "53 million entries in which they have deposited or paid duties imposed pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act." The total adds up to $166 billion. The agency cited its technology, processes and manpower requirements as reasons it could not immediately comply with the order issued by CIT Judge Richard Eaton. Lord wrote: "existing administrative procedures and technology are not well suited to a task of this scale and will require manual work that will prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s trade enforcement mission. Personnel would be redirected from responsibilities that serve to mitigate imminent threats to national security and economic security."

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Bloomberg Industry Group Bloomberg Law [3/6/2026 12:14 PM, Erik Larson, 763K]
Reuters [3/6/2026 4:00 PM, Staff, 38315K]
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ABC News [3/6/2026 4:22 PM, Peter Charalambous, 34146K]
NewsMax [3/6/2026 5:04 PM, Jim Thomas, 3760K]
Washington Times [3/6/2026 11:53 AM, Tom Howell Jr, 1323K]

CNN [3/6/2026 3:46 PM, Elisabeth Buchwald, 19874K] reports a system to process at least $166 billion in tariff refunds could be up and running in 45 days. That’s the alternative to a manual process that could take 4 million hours, according to a senior US Customs and Border Protection executive. However, it’s still anyone’s guess as to when the more than 330,000 US importers who paid the levies as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade agenda will see those funds. Last month the Supreme Court struck down the bulk of the sweeping global tariffs Trump enacted. In a court filing on Friday, Brandon Lord, executive director of Trade Policy and Programs at CBP, said the agency is "making all possible efforts" to have a new automated process requiring "minimal submission from importers" ready in 45 days. The updates are necessary to manage the "unprecedented volume of refunds" CBP was ordered to process by a Court of International Trade judge this week. Prior to Friday’s filing, the Trump administration had not detailed how it would process these refunds. It often said it would defer to the lower courts since the Supreme Court verdict did not offer any guidance on the issue.

DailySignal [3/6/2026 1:19 PM, Fred Lucas, 474K] reports that two dozen states are suing to stop President Donald Trump’s new legal justification for tariffs, two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could not use an emergency law to impose the tariffs. The mostly Democrat-led states are suing in the U.S. Court of International Trade, and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is the lead plaintiff. Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are named as defendants in the lawsuit. "The focus right now should be on paying people back, not doubling down on illegal tariffs," Rayfield said in a public statement. "People are already making hard choices about what to put in their shopping cart. Prices on basics like groceries, clothing and other essentials have all been skyrocketing. At some point, the bills become unmanageable." Trump initially imposed the tariffs, which he said were reciprocal, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The high court, in a 6-3 ruling, determined he couldn’t use the 1977 law to impose tariffs without congressional authorization. The Trump administration on Friday responded to a court order to refund tariffs that it had illegally imposed under the emergency act. While saying it could not issue immediate refunds, CBP said it was preparing a system within 45 days by which to process refunds, Reuters reported. The states’ lawsuit, however, focuses on the administration’s new legal method of imposing tariffs.

Washington Times [3/6/2026 3:22 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports New York Attorney General Letitia James questioned the Border Patrol’s version of events that led up to the death of a migrant in the state late last month, calling it “unreliable” and saying there are too many unanswered questions. Nurul Amin Shah Alam was found dead on a Buffalo street in sub-freezing temperatures, five days after the Border Patrol dropped him off at a coffee shop at night. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it had picked him up from a local jail but determined he wasn’t deportable. Agents then gave Shah Alam a “courtesy ride” to the coffee shop based on the migrant’s request. But Ms. James said that didn’t jibe with what she knew of Shah Alam, who didn’t speak English but rather a rare Rohingya dialect that would have made communication with agents difficult. Shah Alam had been in jail on local charges. The district attorney cut him a deal, allowing him to plead to two misdemeanors instead of a felony, which likely would have triggered deportation proceedings. His sentencing was still pending, but he was released from jail on Feb. 19.

He was charged with female assault, burglary and criminal mischief. Under the deal, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanors of criminal trespass and criminal possession of a weapon. The Department of Homeland Security had previously placed a deportation “detainer” request, asking to be alerted when Shah Alam was to be released so agents could be on hand to collect him. That detainer was still active on Feb. 19. She said the incident should force the state to review “transfer protocols” for local authorities that turn over deportation targets to the Department of Homeland Security.

Houston Chronicle [3/6/2026 1:17 PM, James Osborne, 2493K] reports the Trump administration is signaling it may be reversing course on a plan to build a border wall in and around Big Bend National Park, following pushback from locals and some prominent Texas Republicans. U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated a border wall map on its website this week to show that a more than 200-mile section of the U.S.-Mexico border between Amistad Dam and Big Bend Ranch State Park is slated for a "detection technology" project — not the physical walls slated for construction or already built to the east and west, which the administration seemed set on building through the park. A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but the agency describes using technology including "radar, infrared sensors, and video surveillance to detect and track suspicious activities along U.S. borders." James King, a realtor and conservationist in West Texas, who has opposed the construction of a border wall in Big Bend, said he was cautiously optimistic the new map indicated the administration had turned away from building a physical wall through Big Bend. "I think it’s a great sign, but I’m very dubious," he said. "Is it real? Does it mean anything? Or is this just a way to get us to quiet down?" In his first term, President Donald Trump set the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico as among his biggest priorities, and that effort has continued into his second administration. Last month a Customer and Border Protection official sent a letter to landowners around Big Bend informing them they were considering acquiring their land for "project construction or maintenance." That set off a firestorm of opposition in the communities surround Big Bend, with sheriffs, land owners and conservation groups banding together to try and stop what they see as a threat to the region’s natural beauty, wildlife and history.

New York Post [3/7/2026 2:34 AM, Nina Joudeh, 40934K] reports a high-ranking California Catholic bishop who allegedly took more than a dozen trips to a Mexican brothel known for human trafficking and misused parish funds was arrested at San Diego International Airport while trying to flee the country. Bishop Emanuel Shaleta, 60, a senior figure in the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle, was arrested Thursday by San Diego Sheriff’s deputies following a months-long investigation. "On Thursday, March 5, 2026, Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta was contacted and detained at the San Diego International Airport attempting to leave the country," the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Shaleta faces eight counts of embezzlement, eight counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated white-collar crime, officials said. The arrest comes after Catholic news outlet The Pillar reported last month that the bishop allegedly diverted rental payments from church property for personal use and later covered his tracks with charity funds. Over $427,000 is unaccounted for — but the true number could be as high as $1 million, the outlet reported. The Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it was contacted by someone from St. Peter Chaldean Church in August 2025. "The church representative provided a statement and documents showing potential embezzlement from the church," it said, without elaborating. The Pillar also obtained documents from a Vatican-ordered investigation into Shaleta that alleged the bishop regularly crossed the border from San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico, to visit a strip club. A private investigator documented Shaleta using a shuttle "exclusive to the club’s patrons" to visit the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club in Tijuana, the outlet reported. The Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club operates in Tijuana’s Zona Norte red-light district, an area that has long been scrutinized by law enforcement and anti-trafficking organizations. Prior reporting has identified the club by name in broader examinations of sex-industry operations in Tijuana. There is no allegation that Shaleta was involved in trafficking activity.

New York Post [3/6/2026 5:43 PM, Josh Christenson, 40934K] reports the Transportation Security Administration has seized guns, drugs and even a taser disguised as a smartphone to keep air travelers safe — all while dealing with a prolonged government shutdown. The political crisis in Congress has meant that TSA is operating with nearly half of its workforce furloughed due to Democrats’ opposition to funding the Department of Homeland Security. Upwards of 95% of TSA employees are still clocking in because they are deemed essential workers amid the funding freeze — and their role is vital given the thousands of threatening items flagged in the previous calendar year. TSA detected nearly 11,500 dangerous or prohibited items through all screenings in 2025. At least 6,669 firearms were also confiscated and another 2,190 drugs or other contraband items were also seized. The agency also took 577 concealed knives, razor blades or other concealed weapons — and fielded 313 bomb threats. "During this shutdown, TSA frontline workers are valiantly reporting to work and keeping our operations running smoothly, ensuring millions of passengers arrive at their destinations safely and securely," said TSA’s Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill. "At the same time, they are feeling the financial strain and stress of not knowing when paychecks were coming," McNeill added. "Many in our workforce will be subject to late fees and penalties for missed bill payments, eviction notices, loss of long-term childcare arrangements, and more." TSA officers screening travelers at airport security checkpoints have so far had to work 42.8% of the 2026 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, on furlough after Democrats in Congress twice-voted by large majorities to block funding for DHS.

CBS News [3/6/2026 2:57 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51110K] reports that weeks before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was fired by President Trump, a dispute between her department and its internal watchdog over access to records and communications with Congress had been escalating. The conflict burst into public view when senior Republican senators eviscerated Noem at a hearing earlier this week. The feud has raised concerns over the Department of Homeland Security’s apparent move to restrict oversight of a classified report examining airport security screening. During a Senate hearing Tuesday, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, confronted Noem over allegations that her department issued a memo to prohibit DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari from discussing a classified report about covert testing of Transportation Security Administration checkpoints with certain congressional committees. Grassley said the report concerns undercover testing of TSA screening procedures, adding that the Government Accountability Office has been unable to obtain the report or access TSA personnel as part of its own review into the classified findings. The Iowa senator also said the Government Accountability Office has been unable to obtain the report or contact TSA personnel as part of its own review. "If what my office has been told is accurate," Grassley said, addressing Noem from the dais, "these matters should have been ironed out a long time ago."

New York Post [3/7/2026 4:51 AM, Kieran Sullivan, Julian Atienza, 40934K] reports a severe weather outbreak is devastating parts of the Plains and Midwest, where at least 6 were killed on Friday evening amid damaging tornadoes and "monster" hail. The massive severe weather threat is targeting more than 63 million people, spanning more than 1,500 miles from Texas to Michigan. Four of those fatalities were reported in two counties in southwestern Michigan, where powerful tornadoes tore through Union City. In Oklahoma, the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed two deaths after severe storms moved through central parts of the state. In Southwestern Michigan, the Branch County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday evening that at least three deaths have been reported after a strong, dangerous tornado ripped through the Union Lake area. Sheriff Frederick A. Blankenship is urging residents to avoid the affected areas to allow emergency personnel to safely conduct response and recovery operations from the area that was battered by severe weather today. This comes on the heels of deadly severe storms that rumbled through the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma Thursday. One additional death has been reported in Cass County after a tornado ripped through the southwestern Michigan county, officials announced in a press release. Cass County Emergency Management reports that multiple large structures — including homes and pole barns — have sustained significant damage, with some suffering major structural impacts and others completely destroyed. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said Friday that a mother and daughter were killed in Major County during Thursday night’s storms. The emergency management department in Fairview, Oklahoma, shared video on social media of a large possible tornado just west of the city late Thursday. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Norman confirmed at least three tornadoes by midday Friday, with surveys still ongoing. FOX Weather Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari tracked a spotter-confirmed tornado Thursday night outside of Quail, Texas. On Friday, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center issued a Level 3 out of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms across parts of Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. According to the FOX Forecast Center, the first round of storms is expected to develop during the mid-to-late afternoon as an area of low pressure close to the surface moves across Kansas and the Missouri Valley. The atmosphere will be able to support supercell thunderstorms capable of generating hail larger than 3 inches in diameter, and tornadoes. Strong tornadoes are possible from Kansas City to Wichita to Oklahoma City during the early evening hours Friday. Overnight, as a cold front pushes farther east-southeast, damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes will be possible from Illinois southward through Oklahoma and northeastern Texas.

The Hill [3/7/2026 6:00 AM, Rachel Frazin, 18170K] reports questions about the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are reemerging because of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s impending departure. Both Noem and President Trump have sought to dramatically reshape the nation’s disaster response agency. Among the most contentious changes so far are Noem’s policy of personally reviewing expenditures of over $100,000, with Democrats and Republicans alike decrying what they’ve described as holdups in getting important funds out the door. A recent lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration is taking steps to cut FEMA staff, including by not renewing employment for its Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees — though The Associated Press reported that cuts were halted during February’s winter storm. It’s unclear whether such policies will continue post-Noem. Meanwhile, prior to her exit at the end of the month, Trump’s FEMA Review Council, made up of various federal, state and local officials and co-chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, may release its recommendations for how to reform the agency. The panel had been slated to release its recommendations in December, but that meeting was abruptly canceled and Trump later signed an executive order extending the council’s work until March 25. And while Noem could still be around to set the recommendations, it may be up to Trump’s pick to replace her, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to oversee their implementation. All-in-all, the shakeup means further uncertainty for an agency that helps Americans before, during and after disasters and has been in the administration’s crosshairs.

Bloomberg [3/6/2026 5:30 AM, Zahra Hirji and Lauren Rosenthal, 18082K] reports President Donald Trump ousted Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security, a move announced Thursday that will also have major implications for the nation’s top disaster agency. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which falls under DHS, has been at the center of numerous controversies under Noem’s leadership. They include delays in disaster response and recovery efforts nationwide, the cutting of popular preparedness programs, and putting whistleblowers on administrative leave. At times, Noem has advocated for abolishing or eliminating the agency in its current form — a position Trump once promoted. What happens to Trump’s push to reform FEMA? Trump has been an outspoken critic of FEMA, even calling to abolish the agency at times. Instead of acting unilaterally, he established the FEMA Review Council last year to come up with recommended reforms. The council — made up of emergency managers and political leaders from disaster-prone states — was co-led by Noem. It was supposed to deliver a final report last year, but Trump extended the deadline to March 25. Who will lead FEMA? Trump has installed three different political acting leaders since the start of his second term. Many of the interim chiefs have lacked hands-on emergency management experience, a statutory requirement for anyone who leads the agency permanently. Cybersecurity expert Karen Evans, the current stand-in FEMA administrator who took over the role in December, did not respond to questions about whether she plans to stay at the agency. FEMA also did not immediately respond. Will Noem’s replacement keep such a tight grip on FEMA’s finances? Since June, FEMA hasn’t been allowed to approve expenses exceeding $100,000 without getting Noem’s office to sign off. After devastating floods swept through Texas last July, Congress pressed FEMA on whether it failed to keep up with emergency calls because of a lapsed call-center contract.

CBS Baltimore [3/6/2026 12:55 PM, J.T. Moodee Lockman, 51110K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has released $35 million in funds for the City Dock flood mitigation and revitalization project in Annapolis, Maryland leaders announced Friday. The funding includes $33 million, which was part of a grant for Annapolis, and an additional $2.5 million for upgrades to stormwater management infrastructure, Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced during a news conference. The City Dock project aims to combat rising sea levels and transform the area into a pedestrian-friendly, green space. City and state leaders have been waiting for the grants for years, as they are critical to the project. "With these significant federal investments in hand, Annapolis is equipped with the resources it needs to move forward in earnest with its plans for protecting this iconic fixture against frequent flooding - while preserving the unique character and accessibility of this historic waterfront," Van Hollen said.

The Hill [3/6/2026 11:32 AM, Sophie Brams, 18170K] reports two North Carolina Republicans signaled support Thursday for a change in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if it meant disaster aid would start flowing more quickly to areas in their state hit hard by recent storms. President Trump announced Thursday that he was replacing Kristi Noem as DHS secretary with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) amid criticism against Noem for her handling of immigration enforcement and oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The agency has also been affected by the DHS shutdown after funding lapsed nearly three weeks ago. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R), who represents a district in western North Carolina that was devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024, wrote in a post on social platform X that it was “clear the current structure of FEMA” was not working as intended under Noem. “My priority has been and always will be ensuring our district has the support we need to rebuild, and I look forward to a strong working relationship with @SenMullin as he assumes his new role at the helm of @DHSgov,” Edwards wrote. “I’m confident we can deliver real results for Western North Carolina together,” he added.

CBS News [3/6/2026 11:58 PM, Dejanay Booth-Singleton, 51110K] reports at least four people have died, and several others were injured after multiple tornadoes ripped through Southwest Michigan on Friday, authorities say. The Branch County Sheriff’s Office says that three people were killed and 12 others were injured in Union City, CBS-affiliate WWMT in Kalamazoo reports. The sheriff’s office says three of the injured people were taken to a hospital for treatment. In Cass County, Sheriff Clint Roach confirmed at least one fatality, and several others were injured. In response to the storm, County Board Chair Jeremiah Jones issued a local state of emergency. "Emergency Management personnel will be conducting damage assessments in the affected area as required by the State of Michigan. Residents should expect these personnel to wear yellow vests and identify themselves as Cass County Emergency Management staff," Cass County officials said. At least two tornadoes were reported in Southwest Michigan amid severe weather earlier on Friday, according to CBS Detroit’s Chief Meteorologist Ahmad Bajjey. The tornadoes were reported in Union City (Branch County) and Three Rivers (St. Joseph County), while a possible third tornado may have also been in St. Joseph County. Cass County officials later confirmed that a tornado touched down near Edwardsburg. The tornadoes caused significant damage, including destroying a roof on a Menards store in Three Rivers, as well as trees, homes and pole barns in Cass County. According to Consumers Energy, more than 3,000 customers are without power as of 9 p.m. on Friday. Consumers Energy says crews are on site in Union City and are "setting up a mobile command center in Union City to help coordinate our response." The utility company says it hopes to restore power overnight. "Our hearts are with our friends and neighbors who are affected by today’s tornado, and we will help the community any way we can. We are in touch with the American Red Cross and have offered to assist them as they set up a community shelter," the company said in a statement. "We continue to follow these ongoing severe weather conditions, with the prospect more storms could strike Michigan tomorrow." The Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division says Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the State Emergency Operations Center in response to the storms in Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties. The department says the center will be supporting local requests for assistance. "Tonight, I am activating our State Emergency Operations Center to coordinate an all-hands-on-deck response to severe weather in southwestern Michigan," Whitmer said in a statement. "By taking this action, we can ensure the state can monitor and respond to local requests. I want to thank all the first responders on the ground who reacted quickly to keep Michiganders safe." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [3/6/2026 9:59 AM, Kerry Breen, 51110K] reports a mother and her daughter were killed amid severe storms and a reported tornado in Oklahoma on Thursday night, officials told CBS News, and the state is bracing for more severe weather on Friday. The pair were found in a vehicle on Highway 60 in Major County, and their deaths appear to be "tornado related," the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety said. They had been on the phone with another family member before losing the connection, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was able to use that signal to find the vehicle, CBS affiliate KWTV reported. The department did not identify the pair except to say the mother was 47 years old and the daughter was 13. They were from Fairview, Oklahoma, the department said. Governor Kevin Stitt said on social media that he was "praying for the family as they grieve this tragic loss, as well as those impacted by the storms."

CNN [3/6/2026 5:50 PM, Chris Dolce and Mary Gilbert, 19874K] reports a damaging tornado roared through parts of southwestern Michigan Friday afternoon as severe thunderstorm activity ramps up across a broad section of the United States. The tornado was fueled by a lone supercell thunderstorm and was tagged with a rare “particularly dangerous situation” designation by the National Weather Service as it tracked near Three Rivers, Michigan. Video from the Three Rivers area showed the tornado tearing buildings to shreds and peeling the roof off of a storage facility. It’s unclear if anyone was injured. CNN has reached out for more information. The tornado comes after a deadly tornado struck Oklahoma overnight Thursday, with more dangerous storms expected in the coming hours Friday. The most significant threat for dangerous storms will peak late Friday afternoon into the evening in parts of the Plains and Mississippi Valley, but the day has already proven that destructive storms aren’t confined to the greatest risk areas. Elsewhere, multiple tornado watches were in effect for millions of people in the Central US by late Friday afternoon. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [3/6/2026 11:40 AM, Steven Rosenbaum, 51110K] reports that the Dallas Police Department responded to a suspicious package near the Earle Cabell Federal Building on Friday morning and determined there was no threat. The building house the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and offices for other federal agencies including the IRS. DPD received the call just after 8:30 a.m. Video from the CBS News Texas Chopper shows bomb squad officers examining a trash can in a parking lot across the street from the federal building as all roads in the area were blocked off. DPD said in a statement sent just before 10:30 a.m. that the Explosives Ordinance Squad cleared the package and no threat was found.

The New York Times [3/6/2026 5:13 PM, Santul Nerkar, 148038K] reports a Pakistani man accused of plotting with the Iranian government to murder American politicians, including President Trump, was convicted on Friday of orchestrating a scheme that involved hiring hit men, stealing documents and assassinating high-ranking public officials. The plan devised by Asif Merchant, according to evidence and testimony presented at a trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, came at the direction of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The trial lasted just over a week, and jurors deliberated for less than two hours on Friday. Mr. Merchant, 47, faces life in prison when he is sentenced. The AP [3/6/2026 6:56 PM, Jennifer Peltz, 1257K] reports a Pakistani business owner who tried to hire hit men to kill a U.S. politician was convicted Friday in a trial that showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil. As the Iran war unfolded in the Mideast, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a U.S. court that he sought to put an assassination in motion during the 2024 presidential campaign — a plot that was quickly disrupted by American investigators before it had a chance to proceed. A jury in Brooklyn convicted Merchant on terrorism and murder for hire charges. He faces up to life in prison. The verdict after only a couple hours of deliberations followed a weeklong trial that included remarkable testimony from Merchant himself. Merchant told the jury he was carrying out instructions from a contact in the Islamic Republic’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to Merchant, the handler never specified a target but broached names including then-candidate Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who was also in the race for a time. The nascent plot fell apart after Merchant showed an acquaintance what he had in mind by using objects on a napkin to depict a shooting at a rally. He asked the man to help him hire assassins. Instead, he was introduced to undercover FBI agents who were secretly recording him, as had the acquaintance. Merchant told the supposed hit men he needed services that could include killing “some political person” and paid them $5,000 in cash in a parked car in Manhattan. “This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement released after the conviction. Reuters [3/6/2026 9:52 PM, Kanishka Singh, 38315K] reports Merchant admitted to joining the plot with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps but testified he did so unwillingly, to protect his family in Tehran. Merchant said he was never ordered to kill a specific person ⁠but that his Iranian handler named three people in the course of conversations in the Iranian capital. Law enforcement thwarted the plan before any attack occurred. A person Merchant contacted in April 2024 to help with the plot reported his activities and became a ​confidential informant, the DOJ said. Merchant was arrested ⁠and pleaded not guilty that year. The Revolutionary Guards have a central role in Iran, with a combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. Tehran has denied accusations that it targeted Trump or other ⁠U.S. officials. U.S. and Israeli attacks since Saturday have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s U.N. ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali ⁠Khamenei, ​have been killed. The U.S. military has said six of its service members were killed in a strike on a facility in Kuwait, while Israeli tallies show at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel.

New York Post [3/6/2026 6:37 PM, Ben Kochman and Kyle Schnitzer, 40934K] reports a Pakistani man recruited by Iranian spies was convicted Friday of cooking up a half-baked plot to kill US politicians, including President Trump, and bizarrely paying two men just $5,000 upfront to carry out the hit. Asif Merchant, 47, was found guilty of murder-for-hire and terrorism charges after a Brooklyn jury — who deliberated for less than two hours — rejected his claim that he was forced into the bungling murder scheme because Iran had "threatened" his family. The convicted plotter testified that his Iranian handler sent him to the US in April 2024 with a series of tasks, including "maybe to have somebody murdered" — and named the top three candidates at the time for the US presidency as possible targets. The former banker, who had failed banana and clothing export businesses, testified that he expected to receive up to $1 million depending on the outcome of his mission. But his harebrained assassination plan went nowhere. Merchant faces up to life in prison at his sentencing.

FOX News [3/6/2026 6:39 PM, Ashley Oliver, 37576K] reports a Pakistani man convicted on Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other politicians told an FBI agent he thought Iran "was responsible" for the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Asif Merchant, 47, told the FBI agent, Jacqueline Smith, that the incident "was the same thing he was sent here to do," Smith testified during Merchant’s trial. Merchant told jurors the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him on a "mission" to kill U.S. politicians, including by telling him to attend a Republican rally. Merchant was arrested July 12, 2024, one day prior to the shooting in Butler, where Thomas Crooks fired several shots into a rally crowd, killing one and grazing Trump’s ear. The FBI has said repeatedly that it found no evidence that Crooks had co-conspirators or that any foreign actors were involved in the incident. Merchant, who was convicted by a jury of murder-for-hire and attempt to commit terrorism, testified that Trump was not his only target, telling jurors then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley were also on his list. He claimed that he only took part in the plot because Iran’s IRGC warned it would target his family. "I had no other options," Merchant said. "My family was threatened.” Merchant now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence will be determined at a later hearing. Merchant was arrested after he was recorded on camera outlining a plot on a napkin to kill a politician with a person who turned out to be an FBI informant. Federal prosecutors showed video during the trial of Merchant speaking to the informant. The prosecutors said Merchant also tried to hire two hit men and pay them $5,000, but the men turned out to be federal agents posing as assassins.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 12:05 AM, John Nolte, 2238K] reports Republican lawmakers have finally referred Cassidy Hutchinson to the Department of Justice to see if criminal charges can be brought against her. And I say "finally," because Hutchinson is the lunatic who testified under oath that she’d been told that President Donald Trump was so upset the Secret Service would not allow him to attend the rally at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he literally got into a physical altercation in the presidential limo known as "The Beast." The Secret Service immediately contradicted Hutchinson’s obvious nonsense. Later, in a sworn statement, Ornatos said he did not tell Hutchinson Trump got physical. But immediately after Hutchinson testified, what we all knew would happen … happened: The former Trump aide became a media darling, a darling of the left, wrote a book, and enjoyed a media tour for that book where she was gushed over for being brave — even though by that time her testimony had been debunked. Cassidy Hutchinson remains the ultimate proof that if you say what Democrats and their media allies want you to say, you are immune from any kind of accountability. Well, hopefully there will be some accountability now.

CBS News [3/6/2026 3:30 PM, Jennifer McRae, 51110K] reports police in Erie, Colorado, said they captured two burglary suspects who were allegedly "jack-potting" an ATM. Investigators said officers responded to a report of a burglary in progress near 350 Ambrose Street about 3 a.m. on Thursday. When officers arrived, investigators said that two males had decided to try their luck at "jack-potting" an ATM, which is a method criminals use in an attempt to force the machine to spit out cash. The suspects were actively forcing entry into the ATM, according to officers. Both were taken into custody. Investigators issued a warning to those who may try their luck at breaking into an ATM- "don’t bet on it." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [3/6/2026 7:52 PM, Claire Rush and Gene Johnson, 35287K] reports a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer has died after being injured while on a medical evacuation mission off the Washington coast. But before he passed away Thursday evening, two poignant ceremonies were held on his behalf: His partner posted on social media that she had accepted a hospital-room wedding proposal carried out by his family. And the Coast Guard awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the highest military awards for heroism during flight, as his family and crewmates watched. The rescue swimmer, Tyler Jaggers, was also promoted to petty officer 2nd class. "He demonstrated extraordinary heroism in the face of danger, upholding the highest standards of courage and excellence for Coast Guard operations," Admiral Kevin Lunday, Commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a statement Friday. "We honor his selfless actions and unwavering devotion to our highest calling: to save others.” Jaggers was part of an Astoria, Oregon-based crew that responded Feb. 27 to transport a stroke victim from a commercial vessel 120 nautical miles (222 nautical km) off the Washington coast, the Coast Guard said. The agency did not specify what happened, citing an ongoing investigation. But according to Rick McElrath, board president and founder of the Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue Swimmer Association, Jaggers fell as he was being lowered to the deck from a helicopter. The association is a nonprofit dedicated to helping Coast Guard aviation veterans. Jaggers had been on life support, the association said. He was treated at hospitals in Victoria, British Columbia, and at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle. He died Thursday evening, the Coast Guard reported. Jaggers joined the Coast Guard in January 2022 and had served in Astoria since 2024. The Department of Homeland Security had previously recognized him for superior performance as a crew member aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutter Legare during operations in the Caribbean, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard said it is conducting an investigation into the cause of his injuries.

AP [3/6/2026 4:40 PM, Michael Casey] reports the search has been called off for any survivors after a commercial fishing vessel with two people aboard sank off Cape Cod, the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday. Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England received a notification just before noon Thursday that the vessel Yankee Rose was overturned about three nautical miles (3.5 miles) northeast of Race Point in Provincetown. Coast Guard crews arrived on the scene along with local agencies minutes later. One person was recovered from the boat but on Friday, the town manager of Provincetown, Alex Morse, said that person had died. He did not provide any further information about the person. The search for the second person was suspended Friday afternoon after 21 hours.

New York Post [3/7/2026 12:22 AM, Alexandra Koch, 40934K] reports the US Coast Guard on Friday confirmed Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Jaggers, an aviation survival technician stationed at USCG Air Station Astoria, Oregon, died Thursday following a medical evacuation mission off the coast of Cape Flattery, Washington. During the Feb. 27 mission, Jaggers was critically injured and put on life support, according to statements from the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue Swimmer Association (GCHRSA). He later died at Madigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis, Washington, surrounded by his parents, sister, fiancé, friends, and Coast Guard teammates, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem. "We are grateful for his faithful service," Noem wrote in a social media post. Prior to his death, Jaggers was meritoriously advanced to AST2 for his "relentless drive in qualifications, the mentorship he consistently provided to swimmer candidates, and his exceptional performance across operational missions," according to officials. He was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross — one of the nation’s highest awards for heroism in aerial flight — by the Commandant of the Coast Guard. "Through his selfless service and sacrifice, AST2 Jaggers exemplified the finest legacies of Coast Guard service, and the sacred oath of the Aviation Rescue Swimmer community: So Others May Live,’" officials wrote in the statement. The GCHRSA said it is actively coordinating support for Jaggers’ family and the aircrew at Air Station Astoria. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., said Coast Guard crews "never waver in rushing to the water to save lives and that’s what Tyler Jaggers was doing when he was injured.” "My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family, along with the entire United States Coast Guard and the team based in Astoria," Gluesenkamp Perez wrote in a statement on X. Additional details about the mission have not yet been released.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [3/6/2026 5:05 PM, Alexandra Koch, 37576K]

Oregonian [3/6/2026 5:23 PM, Isabel Funk, 4305K] reports that the U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer from Astoria who was injured in a "tragic" incident during a rescue last month has died, according to the Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue Swimmer Association. The incident took place Feb. 27 during a medical evacuation for a stroke victim about 140 miles off Cape Flattery on the coast of northern Washington near the Canadian border, The Astorian newspaper reported. Tyler Jaggers, the injured swimmer, was taken to Victoria General Hospital in British Columbia for medical care and was on life support. The rescue swimmer association said early Friday morning that Jaggers had died. Jaggers’ parents were by his side and the Coast Guard was working to transport them back to the U.S. when he died, according to Oregon Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook. Weber shared her support for his family during Friday’s Senate session. "To Tyler’s family, please know that Oregon stands behind you," she said. "You are not alone." And she honored other rescue swimmers and the risks they take on behalf of Oregon coast residents and visitors. "Rescue swimmers train relentlessly and deploy into the most demanding environments with a single purpose: to save others," Weber said. "Colleagues, this is personal for many in my district and for my office. Along Oregon’s coast we know firsthand that if not for U.S. Coast Guard and the bravery of swimmers like Tyler, many more lives would have been lost at sea. Our thoughts are with his family, his air crew at station Astoria and the entire United States rescue swimmers’ brotherhood during this incredibly difficult time."

NewsMax [3/6/2026 3:29 PM, Michael Katz, 3760K] reports President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that seeks to crack down on cybercrime, fraud, and online schemes that federal officials say are costing Americans billions of dollars each year. The order, according to a White House fact sheet, directs federal agencies to intensify efforts against transnational criminal organizations that run scam operations targeting U.S. citizens, including phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks, financial fraud, and online extortion schemes. It reflects a push to treat cyber-enabled fraud and online exploitation as major criminal enterprises rather than isolated scams and to use federal law enforcement, diplomatic pressure, and sanctions to disrupt the networks behind them. Under the directive, the administration will develop a plan to identify the criminal networks responsible for large-scale cyber scams and determine new ways to disrupt and dismantle their operations. The plan will examine operational, technical, diplomatic, and regulatory tools the federal government can use to combat cyber-enabled crime. The order also calls for creating a dedicated operational cell within the National Coordination Center to coordinate federal responses and intelligence on cybercrime networks. The Department of Homeland Security will work with state and local partners to strengthen defenses against cyber threats. In addition, the Justice Department will study whether to establish a program that would return seized or forfeited funds from cybercriminals directly to victims.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [3/6/2026 5:16 PM, Catherine Lucey, 18082K]

Axios [3/6/2026 6:19 PM, Sam Sabin, 17364K] reports President Trump on Friday unveiled a cybersecurity strategy calling for modernizing federal systems, expanding offensive and defensive cyber operations and streamlining regulations. The seven-page plan is designed to set the administration’s cyber policy for the next three years. Trump also signed an executive order directing agencies to prioritize combating cyber-enabled fraud and transnational criminal groups, including through sanctions and diplomatic pressure on nations that harbor them. The approach differs by agency. The EO directs the Justice Department to focus on prosecutions of cyber-enabled fraud and the secretary of state to impose sanctions and other diplomatic consequences on "nations that tolerate" cybercrime and scams. The strategy calls for a six-pillar approach to both cyber defense and offensive cyber strikes — including promoting "common sense regulation" and sustaining "superiority in critical and emerging technologies." The administration says it will "deploy the full suite of U.S. government defensive and offensive cyber operations" to shape adversary behavior, while creating incentives for the private sector to help identify and disrupt malicious networks.

CyberScoop [3/6/2026 5:40 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports resident Donald Trump released his administration’s cyber strategy Friday, promoting offense operations in cyberspace, securing federal networks and critical infrastructure, streamlining regulations, leveraging emerging technologies and strengthening the cybersecurity workforce. Trump also signed an executive order Friday directing agencies to take action to combat cybercrime and fraud. A little more than half of the five pages of strategy text of the long-anticipated document is preamble, and two of its seven pages are title and ending pages. Administration officials have said the strategy is deliberately high-level, and the White House promised more detailed guidance in the future. The strategy “calls for unprecedented coordination across government and the private sector to invest in the best technologies and continue world-class innovation, and to make the most of America’s cyber capabilities for both offensive and defensive missions,” the White House said in a statement accompanying its release. Each of the six “pillars” of the strategy offer some prescriptions.

FedScoop [3/6/2026 12:40 PM, Derek B. Johnson and Lindsey Wilkinson, 56K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is undergoing an overhaul of its IT and information security leadership, with multiple sources telling FedScoop there is a broad realignment underway at the department to replace key technology leaders. FedScoop has learned that at least two DHS officials are being replaced: Chief Information Security Officer Hemant Baidwan and Deputy CISO Amanda Day. The reorg among IT officials comes as other leadership is changing at the department. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will be leaving the position at the end of March. Trump has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla, as her replacement. The announcement of Noem’s departure came a week after other personnel upheavals at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala was reassigned to a DHS headquarters role and CIO Bob Costello resigned. Baidwan will depart the organization later this month, following Day’s exit at the end of February, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Day has since taken a job as vice president of cybersecurity and trust at Workday, FedScoop has independently confirmed. She has updated her LinkedIn profile to reflect her new job. Both tech leaders have spent decades working for DHS.

CyberScoop [3/6/2026 9:40 AM, Derek B. Johnson, 122K] reports the House Energy and Commerce committee unanimously passed a package of bipartisan cybersecurity bills Thursday targeting the energy sector, including legislation that would reauthorize and fund a critical federal cybersecurity assistance program for rural electric utilities across the country. The Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Act, introduced by Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., reauthorizes the Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity program at the Department of Energy, which funnels hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and technical assistance every year to help rural utilities and cooperatives defend against cyberattacks and other threats. The program was created through the 2022 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and is widely viewed in the energy sector as a cybersecurity lifeline for badly underfunded electric utilities that would otherwise be a weak link in the nation’s energy cybersecurity or reliability. Smaller utilities play a crucial role supporting the nation’s energy grids, but many lack sophisticated IT or cybersecurity operations. Industry officials say it’s not uncommon for some entities to have one or two IT or cybersecurity officials, if that. The bill approves $250 million in additional grant funding for the program over the next five years, part of which would go to implementing more modern cybersecurity technologies and enhancing information sharing. Speaking ahead of the vote, Miller-Meeks said her Iowa district’s electric cooperative must serve rate payers across 20 different counties and faces “the same threats as metropolitan systems but with fewer resources.” “At a time when cybersecurity attacks on our critical infrastructure are escalating and we have not yet authorized an appropriations bill for DHS, small and rural utilities need resources to defend against nation state actors and sophisticated threats,” she said.

New York Times [3/6/2026 11:36 PM, Adam Sella, 148038K] reports President Trump on Friday called on private companies to take a more active role in U.S. cybersecurity, a major shift that raises legal and practical questions about how companies would get involved in the nation’s closely guarded cyberoperations. The directive was part of the Trump administration’s new National Cybersecurity Strategy, which lays out the federal government’s cyber priorities and policy prescriptions. Currently, the government can contract with private companies to develop elements of its cyberoperations. But the new strategy, which includes a signed introduction by the president, would dramatically expand the role of companies in cyberwarfare. It says that the United States will “unleash” companies to “disrupt adversary networks.” The strategy differs from those of past administrations in other key ways, including its lack of attention to China and Russia, which in the past have targeted key U.S. infrastructure. It is also only seven pages long — 32 pages shorter than the cyber strategy the Biden administration published in 2023. The document contains more conventional goals, such as streamlined regulations, modern government networks, more secure infrastructure and a skilled cyber work force. And it calls for using artificial intelligence to “detect, divert, and deceive threat actors.” Every administration since President George W. Bush’s, which published a Strategy to Secure Cyberspace in 2003, has issued some kind of cyber strategy. The Trump administration is expected to release a series of executive orders to accompany its strategy. The first such order, signed by the president on Friday, addressed online scams and other cybercrime. Because Mr. Trump has yet to sign an order on private companies and cyber, it is unclear what role companies would take in the country’s efforts. Among the ways that companies could be deployed would be in so-called offensive attacks, when the entity conducting a cyber operation breaches and disrupts an adversary’s infrastructure. The strategy “doesn’t rule out the possibility of industry hacking back or engaging in offensive operations,” said Lauryn Williams, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who held senior roles overseeing cybersecurity policy in the Biden administration. Hacking back refers to an approach that would allow companies to conduct retaliatory cyberattacks after coming under attack by foreign adversaries. It is illegal for companies to conduct offensive campaigns online, and lawmakers have discussed changing the law to allow companies to engage in offensive cyberattacks, even as experts caution against such moves. It is also unclear if the Trump administration has made overtures to Congress to address these legal barriers, said Ms. Williams. The more worrisome question for private companies, she said, was how the administration would ensure that companies that engage in offensive cyberattacks in response to being hacked are not then subject to retaliatory attacks by foreign adversaries. Mark Montgomery, a retired rear admiral and the senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he was waiting for the administration to clarify how it planned for private companies to be involved in cyberwarfare. “We just need to be careful,” he said. “It doesn’t mean the private sector can’t be involved in responding.” But if it does take on a role in the United States’ cyberwarfare, he added, it would need direct military oversight.

HS Today [3/6/2026 9:50 PM, Staff, 38K] reports Sean Plankey, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), exited his post as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security for the U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday, March 4. First nominated by Trump to lead CISA in 2025 and renominated in January 2026, Plankey posted on LinkedIn that he was stepping away from his role to focus on his pending confirmation. “Now as the President’s Nominee for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency I must pivot and prepare for the task ahead,” he wrote. He also told associates privately that his departure was intended to resolve a Republican senator’s concerns about his involvement in Coast Guard contracting matters. However, separate reports state that Plankey was escorted out of Coast Guard headquarters and had his access badge removed. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not provide a public explanation, saying it had no personnel matters to announce. The White House affirmed that Plankey remains its nominee to lead CISA.

StateScoop [3/6/2026 10:45 AM, Colin Wood, 37K] reports Print out critical documents. Sanitize social media accounts. Prepare for attacks, both on- and offline. And if you’re planning a big upgrade, think about how potential rate hikes, cloud service outages or global supply-chain disruptions might complicate it. This was some of the advice aimed at state and local government officials during an online briefing held Tuesday by an information-sharing group operated by the Center for Internet Security, an Upstate New York nonprofit that’s striving to keep its members informed on the physical and cybersecurity threats they face after the United States and Israel last weekend began their deadly strikes on Iran. President Donald Trump’s decision to carry out a war of “overwhelming strength and devastating force,” was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for months has solicited aid for such a conflict. Conflict having commenced, the United States military appears prepared to sustain a campaign that will last for at least several weeks; for state and local officials, this will likely mean a growing volume of “low-level cyber activity,” like distributed denial-of-service attacks and website defacements, organizers of the center’s Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center said during Tuesday’s briefing. Though military strikes have left internet service highly unstable across much of Iran, TJ Sayers, MS-ISAC’s senior director of threat intelligence, said there are at least a couple reasons for government agencies to anticipate a wave of cyber activity, one being that hacktivist and proxy groups are beginning to form a “collective,” “which would give them a little bit more robust targeting capabilities.” Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 this week reported seeing a “surge” in activity that includes as many as 60 politically motivated cyber groups that are aligned with Iran or Russia. Another reason to prepare for cyberattacks, Sayers said, is that Iran has allies: It’s allowing Chinese and Russian vessels through its shipping corridors, and Russia has begun information campaigns that amplify reports, “confirmed or not,” of Iranian casualties.

Wall Street Journal [3/6/2026 5:33 PM, Dustin Volz, 646K] reports U.S. investigators believe hackers affiliated with the Chinese government are responsible for a cyber intrusion on an internal Federal Bureau of Investigation computer network that holds information related to some domestic surveillance orders, according to people familiar with the matter. The scope and severity of the intrusion aren’t known, and the investigation is in its early stages, the people said. Any preliminary conclusions could change as investigators gather more information. If China is confirmed to be responsible for the breach, it would signal the latest intrusion by Beijing’s hackers of computer systems related to law-enforcement surveillance orders, which contain highly sensitive material. A notification sent in recent days to some lawmakers in Congress said the FBI began investigating the matter last month, the people said. The intrusion involved hackers accessing an unclassified system that contains information about the calls and internet activity of criminal suspects and others under government surveillance. Information in the system includes incoming and outgoing calls, IP and website addresses and some routing information, but doesn’t include the contents of calls or digital communication. “The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond,” the bureau said in a statement. “We have nothing additional to provide.” The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. China has historically denied Western accusations of hacks on government and business networks and accused the U.S. of being an aggressor in cyberspace. CNN earlier reported Thursday that the FBI was investigating an intrusion into its internal systems.

FOX News [3/6/2026 6:02 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 37576K] reports four illegal migrants, who are members of the notorious MS-13 gang, have been indicted after they allegedly brutally murdered a 14-year-old boy in a Maryland park. Jose Merlos-Majano, 18, Alan Josai Garcia-Padilla, 21, William Cuellar Gutierrez, 19, and a 17-year-old were indicted on charges, including first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and participation in a criminal organization, according to Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Tara Jackson. All four indicted are MS-13 gang members and illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed. Jefferson Amaya-Ayala, 14, of Washington, D.C., was reported missing on Aug. 2, 2025. Nearly three months later, on Nov. 3, Prince George’s County police announced that officers had recovered "what appeared to be possible human remains" in a park in Prince George’s County. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) later identified the remains as Amaya-Ayala and determined he died from "multiple injuries," ruling the death a homicide. Authorities said that their preliminary investigation found that Amaya-Ayala "was lured" to the park and murdered on Aug. 2. Police said that the teen "knew at least one of the four suspects," adding that the murder appears gang-related. However, the motive remains under investigation.

USA Today [3/6/2026 11:02 AM, Christopher Cann, 70643K] reports Police in Austin, Texas, released new videos related to the deadly shooting outside a bar that killed three people and is being investigating as a "potential act of terrorism.” Videos show the chaotic scene that broke out when gunfire erupted outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in the city’s busy entertainment district around 2 a.m. on March 1. Bystanders can be seen running away from gunshots and hiding behind cars as officers yell "everybody down!" and ask, "Where is he?". Three police officers can be seen in videos opening on the suspect, later identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, fatally striking him. Another video shows the shooter in a parking lot as he takes aim at a bystander from close range. Along with the videos, police released audio recordings of 911 calls from bystanders. "There are people dead over here – multiple people shot," one caller said to a dispatcher. "We need help right now.” Police identified three people killed in the attack as Savitha Shan, 24, Ryder Harrington, 22, and Jorge Pederson, 20. According to a news release, 15 people were injured in the attack. As of March 5, two people remain in the hospital, including one in critical condition. The shooting occurred a day after the United States, together with Israel, launched strikes on Iran, raising fears of domestics attacks related to the war. Police have not commented on the gunman’s motive, but videos show him wearing a "Property of Allah" sweatshirt, and reports indicate he was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Iranian flag.

CBS News [3/6/2026 2:18 PM, Jason Allen and Mark Hooper, 51110K] reports that the gunman who carried out the mass shooting last weekend in Austin, Texas, assaulted a woman three months earlier at a Tesla facility, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Texas. The suit claims Ndiaga Diagne, who shot and killed three people and wounded more than a dozen others while wearing a shirt with Iranian regime insignia on it, "violently and without provocation" attacked a 65-year-old Tesla employee in December, the lawsuit said. The woman, Lilian Brady, never knew the identity of the man who attacked her until she recognized his face when she saw news of the shooting this week, her lawyer, Robert Hilliard, told CBS News. FBI investigators interviewed Brady this week, the lawyer, Robert Hilliard said. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Diagne was shot and killed by police after he fired into a crowd on an Austin bar patio at around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, March 1. He used a handgun and had a AR-style rifle with him, and there was a Quran in the SUV he used during the attack, law enforcement sources told CBS News. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said Thursday that her department had never had any contact with Diagne before the shooting.

Los Angeles Times [3/6/2026 6:00 AM, Keegan Hamilton, 12718K] reports there are two sides to the town on Jalisco’s tequila trail. One is the charming pueblo in foothills lined with neat rows of agave cactus. In the central plaza you’ll see swaths of handwoven fabric draped like canopies over the cobbled streets — splashes of pink, blue, yellow and green offering welcome shade from the afternoon heat. Locals boast that their cielo tejido is world famous, and once even went on display in Dubai. The other version of Eztatlán is one most people are scared to talk about. It’s the place where cartel foot soldiers torched the gas station last week, along with the bus depot, a state-run bank and dozens of vehicles, leaving residents hiding in their homes during a 24-hour reign of terror. Many remain fearful in the aftermath, left wondering whether a sense of normalcy ever will return and venting frustration with local authorities, who seemingly did nothing to intervene amid the chaos. This area was once the domain of Mexico’s original cartel godfathers, among them Rafael Caro Quintro — "El Numero Uno" — who was rumored to have kept a residence nearby. Today, it belongs to the Jalisco New Generation cartel. The recent mayhem followed a Mexican military operation on Feb. 22 that killed the group’s leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho." Reprisal attacks were widespread, hitting at least 20 states, and days after the chaos, the charred husks of vehicles and Oxxo convenience stores still were visible heading west out of Guadalajara, the state capital, toward the Pacific.

Reuters [3/6/2026 6:12 PM, Jasper Ward and Alexandra Valencia, 2314K] reports the U.S. and Ecuador carried out a joint operation targeting drug trafficking operations in the South American country, authorities in both countries said on Friday, with the U.S. calling the move "lethal kinetic operations.” Neither the U.S. Southern Command, a branch of its military that oversees forces in Latin America, nor Ecuador’s defense ministry, said if anyone was killed or captured in the strike, which Ecuador dubbed operation "Total Extermination.” The operations used helicopters, aircraft, river boats and drones to locate and bomb a drug traffickers’ training camp in north-east Ecuador near the Colombian border, Ecuador’s defense ministry said in a statement. The camp belonged to the Comandos de la Frontera (CDF), a Colombian crime group made up of FARC dissidents, and had a capacity for 50 people, it added. Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has made a military crackdown on organised crime a cornerstone of his administration, and his government imposed tariffs on its larger neighbor Colombia, accusing it of not doing enough to fight drug trafficking. He is set to travel to Miami this weekend to take part in the Trump administration’s "Shield of the Americas" summit, which brings together many right-wing leaders across the region with a focus on regional security and organized crime. "The United States is a key ally in this fight," the defense ministry said. "At the request of Ecuador, the Department of War executed targeted action to advance our shared objective of dismantling narco-terrorist networks," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on X. The operation followed a similar U.S-Ecuadorean operation announced by the U.S. Southern Command earlier this week.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [3/6/2026 6:50 PM, Staff, 78K]

Washington Post [3/6/2026 10:00 AM, Perry Stein, 24826K] reports last week, FBI Director Kash Patel fired roughly a dozen agents and staff members who once had ties to an investigation of Donald Trump. Among them were agents who specialized in addressing threats from Iran and its proxies. Three days after the firings began, the United States was bombarding Iran. The fighting abroad poses a major test for a Justice Department and FBI reeling from mass firings, reassignments and departures during Trump’s 14 months in office for his second term, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity either out of concern about retaliation or to discuss continuing investigations. The FBI and Justice Department still have skilled leaders in many key national security positions, the people said, but they warned that the bench of expertise has significantly thinned over the past year, and the number of leaders with deep expertise in handling domestic threats has diminished. Thinner ranks, especially of experienced staff members, can matter in multiple ways, the current and former officials said. When the U.S. is engaged in conflict abroad, domestic law enforcement goes into high alert. FBI agents with national security experience sift through scores of possible threats, determining which are worth investigating further, which may be tied to terrorist groups — and which do not need to be followed up on. For serious threats, FBI agents often coordinate with Justice Department prosecutors to determine whether and how to execute warrants to surveil and arrest people before any possible violence occurs. Today, experienced agents and prosecutors are more scarce. At the FBI, the recent terminations came on top of scores of firings of agents and field-office leaders that Patel has ordered during his tenure, often without explanation.

Univision [3/6/2026 7:00 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the Trump administration is working on the filing of federal criminal charges against Cuban regime officials, which could include dictator Raul Castro. The investigation would be led by the Southern District of Florida, a Department of Homeland Security source confirmed. The announcement comes days after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier reactivated a state investigation into the murder of the four "Brothers to the Rescue" pilots. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [3/6/2026 8:01 PM, Patrick Oppmann, 612K] reports the Cuban man sidled up next to me on the street whispering as if he were sharing a long-held secret. "Let the Americans come, let Trump come, it’s time to get this over with," he said in a barely audible voice. This is dangerous talk in Cuba — and especially at a time when a US president is threatening Cuba in a way we have not seen since the Cold War. I looked around to see if anyone else was listening to these incendiary comments and if my cameraman, who was shooting a story with me on the ongoing transportation crisis, was nearby to record what the man – a bicycle-taxi driver – was telling me. "We can’t take it anymore," he continued. "People can’t feed their families.” In the more than six decades since Fidel Castro led a column of bearded revolutionaries into Havana and history books, the island has been in a state of perpetual crisis: failed CIA invasions, nuclear missile standoffs, mass exoduses. And now Donald Trump. "Cuba is going to fall soon," Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash on Friday, a statement that would seem like the rehashed bluster of many US presidents before him, except for how quickly and surgically the oil embargo implemented by Trump has broken Cuba’s beleaguered economy. Already in his second term, Trump has ordered unprecedented attacks to remove the leaders of Venezuela and Iran from power. By his own admission, Cuba, a country that withstood decades of US economic sanctions and its own government’s failed policies, is next. Unlike the 1962 missile crisis, there is no US naval blockade preventing ships from coming to the communist-run island, but the practical impact is the same. After the US attack on Venezuela and a pressure campaign on Mexico’s government, the flow of oil from Havana’s remaining stalwart allies has been cut off. Many of the string of brand-new hotels built by the Cuban government at public expense sit empty or are closed. Employees have been sent home. Tourists have mostly vanished; there is no more jet fuel for the planes to take them home. "Cuba is not alone," is the Cuban government’s slogan. But the island seems as forlorn and abandoned as any time since the fall of the Soviet Union. Blackouts that once lasted hours now can go on for days. If the power comes flickering on for a few precious hours in the middle of the night, that’s when Cubans now rise to wearily cook and iron clothes.

New York Times [3/7/2026 3:46 AM, Glenn Thrush, Alan Feuer, Luke Broadwater and Michael Crowley, 330K] reports the U.S. attorney in South Florida has ordered a broad-ranging inquiry into Cuba’s leaders and Communist Party officials for drug, immigration, economic and violent crimes with a goal of bringing fast indictments, according to three people with knowledge of his actions. The move comes as President Trump is ratcheting up his rhetorical assault on Cuba’s leadership, and he has gone so far as to recently suggest that he might attack the island nation 90 miles off the Florida coast after he is finished with the Iran war. Mr. Trump has brought Cuba’s already-frail economy to the brink of total collapse in recent weeks, with the apparent goal of forcing major concessions from Havana. He has cut off Cuba’s oil imports, first by forcing Venezuela to stop shipping oil to its longtime Caribbean ally after the United States captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro, in early January. Later that month, Mr. Trump issued an executive order threatening tariffs on any other nation that supplied oil to Cuba, leading Mexico, Cuba’s last significant oil supplier, to halt shipments. He has also spoken openly about his desire for the United States to have a “friendly takeover” of Cuba. Bringing criminal cases against Cuban leaders could provide a legal and political rationale for such action, just as the Justice Department’s indictment against Mr. Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, was used to justify his capture and extradition. Leading the new effort in Florida is Jason A. Reding Quiñones, a relatively inexperienced federal prosecutor and Trump loyalist who is also overseeing an investigation into the fantastical “grand conspiracy” by Democrats that Mr. Trump has claimed, without evidence, was waged to destroy him. Mr. Quiñones has convened a new working group, which includes prosecutors in his office, F.B.I. agents and officials with the Treasury Department, the State Department, the Health and Human Services Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Mr. Quiñones and his top deputy have visited headquarters in recent weeks to discuss their various investigations with top department brass, according to a senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If the administration does in fact seek charges against Cuba’s leaders to facilitate a snatch-and-grab operation like that against Mr. Maduro, it would be an extraordinary use of the criminal justice system to advance the White House’s geopolitical agenda. Federal indictments are not typically meant to be a pretext to remove foreign leaders from office, but rather to bring them to justice inside American courts.

Daily Wire [3/6/2026 7:20 AM, Zach Jewell, 2314K] reports that President Donald Trump told CNN host Dana Bash on Friday that Cuba’s communist government is on the brink of collapse, adding that he would soon send Secretary of State Marco Rubio to handle the situation in the Caribbean island nation. Bash reported that she spoke with Trump on multiple issues across the globe, including the war with Iran and the situation bubbling over in Cuba. Trump told Bash, "Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon," adding that the United States has "plenty of time, but Cuba is ready." Bash also said that Trump told her he would soon "put Marco over there." Rubio, whom Trump has called the "greatest secretary of State in U.S. history," is the son of Cuban parents who immigrated to the United States just before Fidel Castro seized power. Throughout his political career, Rubio has hoped for the Cuban people to free themselves from communist rule. Now, Rubio has a chance to help turn that hope into reality as he will likely play the most important role in U.S. efforts to stabilize Cuba. The communist Cuban regime is in the middle of a major economic collapse, with inflation rising out of control and the country’s infrastructure continuing to fall apart. The economic situation in Cuba deteriorated further after the United States successfully captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and took control of Venezuela’s oil exports. After Trump’s action, the Venezuelan government stopped shipping oil to Cuba, and the U.S. military has been intercepting ships from other nations attempting to offload fuel in Cuba, The New York Times reported.

Breitbart [3/6/2026 6:46 PM, Paul Bois, 2238K] reports a significant number of House Democrats voted "no" on declaring the Islamic Republic of Iran a "state sponsor of terrorism.” Sponsored by Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the resolution passed the U.S. House on Thursday by a 372-53 vote. Two Democrats voted present. While squad members like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) were expected to vote "no," a full 53 proved somewhat surprising. The resolution said nothing about President Trump’s strikes on Iran, while saying the regime "remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and provides substantial financial and military support to groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis," adding that it "poses a direct and persistent threat to the United States and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American citizens,". It also cited the Pentagon as saying that "Iranian-backed proxy militias are responsible for the deaths of at least 603 U.S. service members in Iraq — roughly one in every six American combat fatalities.” "According to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafeal Grossi, Iran has amassed a large stockpile of enriched uranium and continues to block access to undeclared sites in Iran affiliated with their ‘big, ambitious nuclear weapons program,’" it continued. "…that the House of Representatives declares it is the policy of the United States… that Iran continues to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism," it concluded.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [3/6/2026 9:56 AM, Greg Norman-Diamond, 37576K]

CNN [3/7/2026 3:00 AM, Kevin Liptak, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Kylie Atwood, 612K] reports that, inside the Oval Office this week, after a crowd of jostling reporters departed into the Rose Garden, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tried to get an answer from President Donald Trump: how, exactly, did he envision the war with Iran ending? Despite some pressing by the chancellor, the answer from the president — as it has been since the conflict began a week ago — wasn’t quite clear, according to a person familiar. As the US military operation against Iran shifts into a new phase following last Saturday’s opening salvo, how the war ends remains the top question for many officials, lawmakers and US allies. In briefings with lawmakers and congressional staff in recent days, Pentagon officials have leaned into the US military mission being narrowly focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, people who attended the briefings said, rather than on targeting Iranian nuclear facilities or taking out regime figures or military personnel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has spoken dismissively of repeating the "nation building" exercises of past administrations. At the same time, Trump has offered far more expansive goals that appear to extend beyond the military’s stated remit. On Friday, he lumped in the "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER" of Iran’s current regime as an additional requirement for the war to conclude. The apparent disconnect has only fueled questions about where the conflict, which is already broadly unpopular among Americans, is headed. In conversations with their US counterparts, Arab and European officials say they haven’t detected what exactly Trump’s endgame looks like, or if it exists at all. Emerging from briefings with senior administration officials this week, lawmakers similarly professed little understanding of how Trump will know he has achieved all his goals in Iran, or whether he has a plan for what comes afterward. Some lawmakers also appeared unnerved by the fact that Hegseth would not rule out putting US troops on the ground in Iran. The US has so far rejected Iranian overtures to begin talks that could suss out ways to end the conflict. Iranian intelligence sent word this week to the US it could be prepared to open talks on how to end the war, according to people familiar with the indirect messages, but US officials say there were no negotiations underway and that potential "off-ramps" are unlikely to materialize in the near term. "Since this thing went kinetic, we’ve had a number of reach-outs," a senior Trump administration official said this week, putting the number of nations at nearly a dozen. "It’s not dissimilar to what we had before, people wanting to see if they can help solve it, and we’ve talked to them.”

Wall Street Journal [3/6/2026 7:11 PM, Stephen Kalin and Vera Bergengruen, 646K] reports the war in Iran has stranded tens of thousands of Americans in the Middle East who weren’t told by the U.S. government to leave until many countries in the region had closed their airspace to commercial travel amid Tehran’s retaliatory barrage of missiles and drones. The State Department says 24,000 Americans have returned from the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel began launching strikes on Iran on Saturday—and that 13,000 of them received direct assistance, including on evacuation flights that began Wednesday. “We won’t rest until every American who wants to leave the region is home,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. “We’re working around the clock to make it happen.” But many Americans have been unable to leave or have had to find a way home without help from their government. “The British, French, Germans, and even Czech Republic were coordinating charter aircraft to get their citizens out,” said Randy Manner, a retired two-star Army major general, who said it took him days to be able to leave the United Arab Emirates. “Where is the American State Department? Absolutely pathetic.” The Trump administration is now faced with organizing an operation to bring Americans home in a region where missiles and drones have already been flying for days. Iranian strikes have targeted some U.S. diplomatic missions. Some missions have closed, and others are operating with reduced staffing. State Department officials say the administration’s cuts to the civil service haven’t affected their ability to respond. But the government’s handling of the situation has sparked an intense backlash.

AP [3/7/2026 12:05 AM, Philip Marcelo and Eric Tucker, 34146K] reports families and supporters of Americans detained in Iran say their loved ones face new dangers during the intensifying war, including the risk of becoming unintended casualties of Israeli and American bombardment or victims of retaliation from Iran’s repressive regime. “For Americans imprisoned in Iran, this is about as terrifying a moment as it gets,” said Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American who was detained for nearly eight years before being released as part of a deal with the U.S. in 2023. “What these families are facing now is days of war with no clear end in sight.” The U.S. government would not confirm how many Americans are being held in Iran, but the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, a hostage advocacy organization, said there are six and that they face “unprecedented danger” because of the military conflict. The known cases include a reporter formerly based in Washington and a Jewish Iranian American from New York who traveled to Iran last year for family reasons and hasn’t been permitted to return to the U.S. At least two of the known detainees are housed in Evin Prison, the notorious Tehran penitentiary where Namazi was held, according to representatives for the individuals. The high-security facility holds many of the Islamic Republic’s political prisoners and has been the target of past Israeli bombardment. Kamran Hekmati, a 61-year-old from Long Island detained at Evin, spoke with his wife on Monday, a few days into the war, to assure her that he was safe for now, according to Shohreh Nowfar, his cousin. But the family worries his condition could quickly deteriorate because he hasn’t been receiving regular treatments for his bladder cancer in the months since he was detained, she said. “It’s an uncertain time in an uncertain country,” said Nowfar, a Los Angeles resident. Ryan Fayhee, a lawyer for Reza Valizadeh, an Iranian American reporter also detained at Evin, said he’s stressed the urgency of the moment in his regular talks with White House and State Department officials. Israel’s military has taken to social media in recent days to warn residents living near the prison that they should evacuate amid the continuing airstrikes. The families of other foreign nationals imprisoned at Evin have told European news outlets that bombs have been hitting close enough to the detention center to blow out windows. “It’s my job to let the administration and the Israeli government know that there are innocent American citizens within that prison,” Fayhee said. “They should take great care with this military action to avoid any unfortunate collateral damage.” White House and State Department officials declined to respond to specific questions about the status of the detainees out of concern for their safety and security, but called on Iran to immediately release them. “President Trump has been clear that he wants every American wrongfully detained to be returned home safe and sound, and that there will be dire consequences for regimes who treat Americans as political pawns,” said Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson.

NBC News [3/6/2026 6:35 PM, Courtney Kube, et al., 2524K] reports President Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying U.S. troops on the ground inside of Iran, according to two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the conversations. Trump has discussed the idea of deploying ground troops with aides and Republican officials outside the White House while outlining his vision for a post-war Iran in which Iran’s uranium is secure and the U.S. and a new Iranian regime cooperate on oil production similar to how the U.S. and Venezuela are, the sources said. The president’s comments expressing serious interest in deploying ground troops have not focused on a large-scale ground invasion of Iran, but rather on the idea of a small contingent of U.S. troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes, the U.S. officials, the former U.S. official and the person with knowledge of the discussions said. They said Trump has not made any decisions or given any orders related to ground troops. “This story is based on assumptions from anonymous sources who are not part of the President’s national security team and are clearly not read into these discussions,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump always, wisely keeps all options open, but anyone trying to insinuate he is in favor of one option or another proves they have no real seat at the table.” Publicly, Trump has not ruled out putting U.S. “boots on the ground” in Iran, though the war has so far consisted only of an air campaign. His private discussions about the idea show a president perhaps more willing to consider taking such a step than his public comments on the issue so far have suggested. Any deployment of American troops inside of Iran could increase the scale and scope of the war — and escalate the risks to American forces. Since the war began on Saturday, six U.S. service members have been killed and 18 wounded in counterattacks from Iran, according to the Pentagon.

New York Times [3/6/2026 6:35 PM, Alan Feuer and Glenn Thrush, 148038K] reports President Trump was asked on Thursday if Americans needed to worry about the possibility of terrorist reprisals by Iran inside the United States. He responded, not quite reassuringly, “I guess.” His follow-up response was even colder comfort. “Some people will die,” he said. His remarks did not go unnoticed inside the Justice Department and the F.B.I. — especially among agents and prosecutors who handle national security and terrorism cases. After a year of constant firings, resignations and other disruptive distractions, elite counterterrorism and counterintelligence units have been stretched thin and left short-handed, current and former officials say. There is widespread concern about the capacity of these units to deal with threats unleashed by Iran in particular, an adversary known for its willingness to combine espionage, cyberwarfare and attacks in the real world in bringing the fight overseas. A succession of hardball personnel and policy directives, often at the command of the Trump White House, has led to an exodus of experienced investigators and prosecutors, according to current and former officials. The priority placed on Mr. Trump’s directives has also diverted agents from national security matters to immigration enforcement or other ancillary tasks, including scouring the investigative files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “The more D.O.J. and F.B.I. leaders fire public servants and force principled resignations by doing the president’s bidding, the more they remove institutional muscle memory and relationships from the national security apparatus,” said Troy Edwards, the former deputy chief of the national security section of the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia. “The loss matters when seconds can make all the difference in countering terrorism threats.” The most vivid illustration of this remarkable brain drain came days before bombs from the United States and Israel began raining down on Tehran. Last week, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, fired about a dozen members of an elite counterintelligence unit based in Washington whose agents and analysts specialized in stemming threats of terrorism in the Middle East. The reason for their termination: They had also been involved in the investigation into Mr. Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, after he left office in 2021. Some of those let go included agents who worked on efforts to stem Iran’s ability to operate stealthily in the United States, according to officials familiar with the situation. At least one was part of an interagency task force based in McLean, Va., known as the Iran Threat Mission Center. Some of the agents were thrown out so quickly, according to one person familiar with their work, that they were unable to hand off their most sensitive and knowledgeable sources to their successors.

New York Times [3/6/2026 6:02 PM, Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt, 148038K] reports Russia has provided intelligence to Iran during the U.S.-Israeli war, including satellite imagery showing the locations of warships and military personnel, according to U.S. officials. The information sharing could complicate relations between the United States and Russia, given that President Trump has often taken a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow than his predecessors. But some of the officials played down the partnership, saying Russia has long provided similar intelligence to Iran. And it is not clear how much Tehran has been able to use the new intelligence, if at all. Iran has advanced missiles, but they lag far behind Russia’s and it is not clear Iran could use the intelligence to target a ship. Furthermore, given the immense pressure of the combined U.S.-Israeli assault, which began last Saturday, Iran’s ability to launch missiles has been degraded, officials said. But officials confirmed that Russia has provided updated intelligence on the position of U.S. assets since the beginning of the war, information meant to help Iran target the assets. So far Iranian forces have not hit any U.S. warships, but they have struck at U.S. military bases, killing six service members in Kuwait and damaging facilities in Bahrain. Iranian drones have also struck a building housing the C.I.A. station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, though no one was injured in that attack, officials said. The Russian intelligence sharing was reported earlier by The Washington Post. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran on Friday to discuss the U.S.-Israeli campaign. In a statement, the Kremlin said that the two leaders agreed to continue contacts and that Mr. Putin expressed condolences for the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. Mr. Putin also called for hostilities to stop and urged “a swift return to the path” of a diplomatic resolution. The statement made no direct mention of the intelligence sharing, but said that communication through “various channels” would continue.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [3/6/2026 3:27 PM, Noah Robertson, Ellen Nakashima, and Warren P. Strobel, 24826K]
CBS San Francisco [3/6/2026 5:47 PM, Olivia Gazis, Eleanor Watson, and James LaPorta, 51110K]
FOX News [3/6/2026 9:07 PM, Staff, 37576K]

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