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

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

The AP [5/13/2026 3:24 PM, Seung Min Kim and Mattew Lee, 16072K] reports that the Trump administration is suspending a requirement that foreign visitors from countries that have qualified for the World Cup and have bought tickets for the soccer tournament pay as much as $15,000 in bonds to enter the United States, the State Department said Wednesday. The department imposed the bond requirement last year for countries that it said had high rates of people overstaying their visas and other security issues as part of the Republican administration’s broader crackdown on immigration. Travelers to the United States from 50 countries are required to pay the new bond, and five of those countries have qualified for the World Cup — Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia. Citizens from those five countries who have purchased tickets from FIFA are now exempt from the visa bond requirement. World Cup team players, coaches and some staff already had been exempt from the bond requirement as part of the administration’s orders to prioritize the processing of visas for the tournament. "The United States is excited to organize the biggest and best FIFA World Cup in history," Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar said. "We are waiving visa bonds for qualified fans who bought World Cup tickets" and opted in to the FIFA Pass system that allows expedited visa appointments as of April 15. Foreign travelers also are facing new requirements to submit their social media histories, while the administration had deployed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at airports recently when Transportation Security Administration personnel were not being paid. FIFA had requested the waiver, which had to be approved by the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, and was the topic of discussion at multiple meetings at the White House and elsewhere in Washington for several months, the officials said. USA Today [5/13/2026 2:29 PM, Seth Vertelney, 70643K] reports that starting this year, the U.S. State Department requires visitors from 50 countries to pay a bond to enter the United States. Travelers must pay $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 to enter the country, with the fee returned upon their timely departure. The State Department said the initiative was due to high visa overstay rates from the countries involved. Of the 50 countries involved in the program, five have qualified for the 2026 World Cup: Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia.

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Bloomberg [5/13/2026 4:22 PM, Hadriana Lowenkron, 18082K]

The Hill [5/13/2026 1:37 PM, Dominick Mastrangelo, 18170K] reports that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could target World Cup matches being held in the country this summer as part of President Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday that ICE officers will be on hand at some matches to “work with our local and federal partners to secure” the events. “International visitors who legally come to the United States for the World Cup have nothing to worry about,” a spokesperson for the department said. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is whether or not they are illegally in the U.S. — full stop.” “At the same time, foreign visitors MUST be proactive and should start working on their travel plans and documents well ahead of time to ensure a smooth travel experience,” DHS said. NBC News first reported potential ICE operations at World Cup matches, citing DHS sources. Millions of people from around the world are expected to travel to North America for World Cup matches this summer. Many of them will not attend games but visit host cities for pre- and post-match celebrations and gatherings. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Saturday that his department has not been “as proactive” as it would like to be ahead of the opening World Cup matches due to a federal funding lapse. “We haven’t been able to be as proactive on putting those positions –– those safety measures in place, and the first match is June 11,” Mullin said at a press conference. “The first one in the U.S. is in L.A., June 12. That is around the corner. We have so much work to do.”

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NBC News [5/13/2026 6:00 AM, Julia Ainsley, 42967K]

CBS News [5/13/2026 6:48 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51110K] Video: HERE reports Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told CBS News that arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at this summer’s FIFA World Cup in the U.S. are not off the table, but said the agency will not be at the global sporting event to "round up" non-citizens. Mullin spoke to CBS News exclusively on Tuesday, almost two months into his time at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security. The agency has dealt with months of upheaval, including its longest shutdown in history, the departure of former Secretary Kristi Noem and controversy over the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement following the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Now the department is entering into a busy period marked by the World Cup, hurricane season and an outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship. DHS and its components, including ICE, are expected to play a major role in security at the World Cup, which will host dozens of international soccer teams and upward of a million foreign tourists across 11 American cities. Asked whether he could assure Americans that ICE’s purpose at the World Cup will be security rather than arresting undocumented migrants, Mullin emphasized the agency’s broader mission of enforcing the U.S.’ customs laws. "It’s Immigration and Custom[s] Enforcement," he said. "So what do you find at a tremendous amount of sporting events? Counterfeit products, counterfeit tickets. You have counterfeit clothing being sold on the streets.” The secretary noted that ICE has long been present at major sporting events, including the Super Bowl, and argued the agency is newly controversial because "media and the public" — then clarifying "the Democrats" — have "made them some type of villain.” Mullin said that in some cases, law enforcement agents will encounter criminal targets at major sporting events, including people wanted for murder, drug trafficking or other serious crimes, as well as individuals flagged internationally through Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization. ICE is expected to get a new leader at the end of this month, as acting ICE Director Todd Lyons leaves the federal government and David Venturella takes over as interim head. Mullin said Venturella, a longtime immigration official who previously worked at for-profit prison company GEO Group, will run ICE while DHS searches for a permanent director. The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director in years. "We want to put somebody there that’s permanent," Mullin said. "David is going to be a good placeholder, but he’ll be our deputy once we find someone to take the director’s position.”

(B) NBC News Daily [5/13/2026 3:09 PM, Staff] reports that the World Cup kicks off next month with 48 teams slated to play in 16 cities across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. 11 cities are hosting 78 matches here in the US and NBC News has learned that the Department of Homeland Security is offering to send ICE officers and agents in to help local police departments with extra security. ICE is offering their services to use them to go around perimeters of matches and do security checks that will not include immigration status checks.

Politico [5/13/2026 2:50 PM, Meredith Lee Hill, 21784K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Republican lawmakers Wednesday that Congress needs to fund security aspects of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project because the Secret Service is prohibited from using private funds for that purpose, according to four people who heard the remarks. Mullin’s comments to a meeting of the Republican Governance Group came as the Trump administration is pressing GOP lawmakers to approve $1 billion in new Secret Service funding, as much as $220 million of which could fund parts of the controversial ballroom project. His claim of a legal prohibition on private funding for security upgrades represents a new argument put forth by the administration. Trump has repeatedly insisted that the $400 million ballroom project will be financed by private donors. Asked about the argument as he left the meeting Wednesday, Mullin declined to answer and replied, “I gotta go.” A DHS spokesperson declined to comment on the legal foundations for the claim. Mullin’s visit to the group of centrist Republicans was aimed to quell GOP concerns about the $1 billion security request, which has threatened to derail a larger package of funding for immigration enforcement agencies. White House legislative affairs director James Braid also attended the meeting. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) and other Republicans holding at-risk seats pressed Mullin for a breakdown of the $220 million that will be focused on White House security, including for the new ballroom, according to the four people in the room who were granted anonymity to describe the private meeting. Mullin said he did not have a more finely grained breakdown but that lawmakers would get one soon, the people present said.

The Hill [5/13/2026 6:00 AM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K] reports a proposal to provide $1 billion in federal funds to provide security for a new White House ballroom is in danger of being stripped from a budget reconciliation package after Republicans responded skeptically to the idea. “I don’t have the details I need to support it. It was one thing when private dollars were building it. If you’re asking me for a billion dollars, I have some really hard questions,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said before a Tuesday meeting with Secret Service Director Sean Curran. GOP senators had lunch with Curran in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room on Tuesday as he pitched them on the need to spend $1 billion — substantially more than the ballroom was initially projected to cost — on security enhancements to the ballroom and the White House grounds more generally. GOP senators said they wanted more details to justify the project, which is now estimated to cost several times more than the $200 million renovation President Trump announced in July. “If I were a businessman and an employee came and said, ‘I have a project, and it’s a billion dollars,’ I’d say, ‘You made that number up.’ Like, where did the number come from? I want to see data,” Curtis said. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday said she expects Trump to “keep” his “commitment” to fund the ballroom with private donations but acknowledged there “may need to be some additional security provided” by Congress for the project.

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FOX News [5/13/2026 9:07 AM, Alex Miller, 37576K] r

Washington Post [5/14/2026 5:01 AM, Jonathan Edwards and Dan Diamond, 24826K] reports historic preservationists sued to stop the project, and a federal judge ordered a halt to it. But construction on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom is pressing forward, with the first portions of the structure now rising aboveground amid a continuing legal battle and a congressional fight about how to pay for it. For the first time, workers have built part of the structure that will be visible once the project is finished, according to two people familiar with the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The recent work includes the start of the first floor, where planners intend to place a commercial-grade kitchen and a suite of offices for first ladies and their staffs, one of the people said. Photos taken in recent days show crews have erected a concrete structure topped with columns of exposed rebar, used to reinforce the pillars that will support additional floors. A federal judge’s order in March halted aboveground construction, but the order was stayed while an appeals court panel considers the case. The aboveground work marks a new phase for a project that began eight months ago with tree-clearing and excavation. Until recently, construction had been largely invisible to the public, focused on the underground infrastructure needed to support the 90,000-square-foot structure and what Trump has described as a “massive” military complex. That underground work continues to be the main focus of the project, one of the people said. In his order halting construction, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the project requires congressional authorization, finding that work related to national security could continue but that the ballroom itself could not. Oral arguments for the appeal are scheduled for June 5. With Leon’s order on hold, White House officials said last month that they would continue construction on the ballroom, including its aboveground components. Historic preservationists and outside architects have said that as more of the project is constructed, it will be increasingly hard to alter or undo it — barring a complete teardown.

Breitbart [5/13/2026 7:20 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that American adversaries like China, Russia, and North Korea “feel like there is an open door invitation in these sanctuary cities.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [5/13/2026 2:02 PM, Mitch Smith, 148038K] reports that Joe Ceballos, the small-town mayor who held office and voted without being a U.S. citizen, hoped that pleading guilty to misdemeanors would allow him to move forward with the life he built for decades in Coldwater, Kan. After he was sentenced to probation last month, Mr. Ceballos expressed optimism that “this is all behind us now.” Perhaps, he said, he might even become a citizen someday. But Mr. Ceballos, a green card holder whose case drew the attention of the Trump administration, was detained on Wednesday at a federal office building in Wichita, according to his lawyer, Sarah L. Balderas. She said he handed over his phone to an officer and was led to a detention area. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately answer questions about the case. But as of Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Ceballos was listed online as being in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Kansas jail that contracts with the agency. The federal government can seek to deport green card holders who are convicted of certain crimes. Ms. Balderas said she believed the government wants to have Mr. Ceballos deported, and that she expected him to soon receive a notice to appear in immigration court. She said her client intended to fight deportation and would seek to be released on bond while his case played out. Mr. Ceballos’s character, his ties to his community and the decades he has spent in the United States could all weigh in his favor, she said. Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in the release that “this alien has now been convicted” and that “our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens.”

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AP [5/13/2026 6:18 PM, Ed White, 1323K]

FOX News [5/13/2026 4:26 PM, Louis Casiano, 37576K] reports two women allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant in Texas six years apart should still be alive, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. Luis Fernando Benítez-González, 26, a Mexican citizen, is linked to the murders of 34-year-old Alyssa Ann Rivera in Austin and 28-year-old Alba Jenisse Aviles in Bastrop County, authorities said. He was arrested in Dallas on April 27 by U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement agencies. Benítez-González is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to jail records in Travis County, where he is currently being held. He also has a previous drug possession charge, according to DHS. He was connected to the killings through DNA evidence, authorities said.

The Hill [5/13/2026 1:10 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] reports that the Justice Department on Wednesday said it was “unconstitutional” for states to refuse to provide undercover license plates to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers. “Some states are refusing to issue license plates to federal law enforcement. It’s dangerous, shameful, and unconstitutional,” DOJ Civil Division Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in a post on the social platform X. “It needs to stop now. Under @DAGToddBlanche, this @TheJusticeDept stands with our brave law enforcement officers,” he added. Accompanying the post was a letter sent to Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, alleging the state had unlawfully refused to provide undercover license plates to DHS officials, citing the Supremacy Clause, which says the Constitution and federal laws pursuant to it supersede state municipalities. “This discriminatory policy is not only deeply dangerous as a matter of public safety but also blatantly unlawful as a matter of constitutional law. It should be immediately withdrawn; otherwise, the United States intends to seek judicial relief,” Shumate wrote in the letter. “Washington State Department of Licensing’s policies undermine ongoing investigations and put federal law enforcement officers at risk of harm,” he added. The letter urged the state to rescind the policy blocking DHS officers from obtaining undercover license plates in the state by no later than May 22 and provide written confirmation to the DOJ. The Washington Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

CBS News [5/14/2026 5:00 AM, Andrew Jones, 51110K] reports several states have joined President Trump’s deportation efforts and are taking federal reporting requirements to immigration authorities a step further — by using their public health agencies as arms of enforcement. North Carolina, in late April, became the latest member of a growing group of Republican-led states to require their public health agencies to flag recipients of Medicaid to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security if their legal status is in question. It’s a trend health policy researchers expect to spread among GOP-controlled states eager to join Mr. Trump in the federal crackdown on Medicaid fraud and illegal immigration. Already, at least four states — Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, and Wyoming — have passed similar laws, and lawmakers in others, such as Oklahoma and Tennessee, are weighing measures. In those six states, Republicans hold a power trifecta — both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office. "This is an issue that is very much on the political radar right now," said Carmel Shachar, a health policy researcher at Harvard Law School. More than 75 million people are enrolled in Medicaid, the federal and state-run public health program for people with disabilities and low incomes, and its related Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides low-cost coverage for people under 19. Immigrants without legal status are ineligible for Medicaid benefits, but a swath of noncitizens qualify, such as green-card holders, asylees, and refugees. A quarter of children in the U.S., most of them citizens, live with an immigrant. Yet the new reporting laws add a layer of risk for immigrants seeking healthcare in the U.S., where mandates from the White House have used Medicaid data to help identify and deport people. Some of the state laws apply only to health agencies, such as in North Carolina. But the bill headed to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s desk would be comprehensive, requiring all state agencies to report people suspected of being in the U.S. without legal status. All seven state measures go beyond what’s federally required, which is to cooperate with enforcement officers by providing personal information of recipients when asked.

Bloomberg Law [5/13/2026 11:13 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 763K] reports a federal appellate court temporarily halted an order requiring the Delaware Department of Labor to provide the Trump administration with wage records from businesses in the state. In an order Tuesday, US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Judges Arianna Freeman and Jane Roth administratively stayed the state’s obligation to comply with a Department of Homeland Security subpoena until the appellate court considers a motion to block the order pending an appeal. Last month the US District Court for the District of Delaware issued an order enforcing the subpoena to release records for criminal and civil investigations. The judge found a state law preventing release of the records was preempted by the Immigration and Nationality Act. DHS is seeking wage data for 15 Delaware businesses as part of worksite enforcement investigations. The Delaware DOL appealed the case to the Third Circuit, seeking review of the preemption question and an emergency stay of the subpoena. The Delaware Department of Labor is represented by the Delaware Department of Justice. The Trump administration is represented by the US Attorneys’ Office.

Axios [5/13/2026 8:20 AM, Glenn Wallace, 17364K] reports a group of Jewish residents in Colorado Springs rallied Tuesday in support of Hayman El Gamal and her five children, relatives of the man convicted in last year’s Boulder firebombing attack. The rally highlights a tense question in the aftermath of the attack: whether relatives who deny involvement should face deportation before their asylum claims are heard. El Gamal and her children — ages 5 to 18, per their attorney — were taken into immigration custody shortly after the June 2025 attack in downtown Boulder. The family members, Egyptian nationals who overstayed their visas and applied for asylum while in custody, were held at an ICE facility in Dilley, Texas, and released April 23. Neither El Gamal nor the children have been charged in connection with the attack. Tuesday’s rally was organized by the newly formed group Jews for Due Process, which Rabbi Iah Pillsbury of Temple Beit Torah described as representing "a wide array of the city’s Jewish community."

Daily Wire [5/13/2026 10:58 AM, Hank Berrien, 2314K] reports that a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran entered a guilty plea in federal court earlier today, admitting to running a sophisticated human smuggling operation that compromised national security and possessing graphic child sexual abuse material (CSAM). As the Department of Justice reported, Sharon Gohari, who split his time between Roslyn, New York, and Iran, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly to charges of unlawfully smuggling aliens into the United States and the intentional receipt of CSAM. Federal prosecutors revealed that between December 2020 and May 2025, Gohari operated a lucrative criminal enterprise. Charging thousands of dollars per client, he facilitated the illegal entry of Iranian nationals and others into the U.S., primarily through a pipeline spanning Central and South America and Mexico. The investigation took a more urgent turn when it was discovered that at least one of Gohari’s clients had direct ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. According to court documents, Gohari orchestrated this individual’s travel from Iran through Turkey and Mexico in early 2021. The individual was eventually detained by Border Patrol and admitted to performing tasks for the IRGC. “Gohari made a business of smuggling aliens… at least one of whom had ties to the [IRGC],” said Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg. “We cannot protect our national security without a secure border.”

ABC News [5/13/2026 7:40 PM, Luke Barr, Armando Garcia, Jack Date, and Laura Romero, 34146K] reports the Florida immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" is expected to close soon, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. Sources caution the plan could change, as the final details are still being worked out. In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not deny that the facility was closing. "Any reports that DHS is pressuring the state to cease operations at Alligator Alcatraz are false," the spokesperson said. "Florida continues to be a valuable partner in advancing President Trump’s immigration agenda, and DHS appreciates their support. DHS continuously evaluates detention needs and requirements to ensure they meet the latest operational requirements." The facility, located at a training airport in Florida, first received detainees last July as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown, but the detention center has been plagued by lawsuits and concerns from lawmakers and immigrant advocates regarding conditions at the facility. Just earlier this week, a federal judge denied the administration’s request to pause an order that requires the government to provide detainees access to counsel, among other resources. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, asked at a press availability Wednesday to address reports about the closure of the facility, said he has "not gotten any official word that they’re not going to be sending illegal aliens there," and reiterated that the facility was always meant to be temporary. "It was always intended to be temporary, because we were only doing it because the federal government didn’t have the resources to hold these people themselves," DeSantis said. "Now [the federal government has] gotten a lot of money, over the last nine months, they’ve been able to work and adjust their operations accordingly, and ideally, I wouldn’t want to be involved in this business at all." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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USA Today [5/13/2026 5:46 PM, Jennifer Borresen, Janet Loehrke, Stephen J. Beard, Shawn J. Sullivan, George Petras, 70643K]

CBS News [5/13/2026 7:31 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51110K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said the department has no near-term plan to shut down Alligator Alcatraz, even as he acknowledged the soft-sided Florida immigration detention facility is vulnerable to natural disasters. "I don’t think we’ve said we’re shutting it down," Mullin said. "That’s not been an announcement we’ve made." The secretary told CBS News in an exclusive interview that DHS understands "there’s vulnerabilities" around the soft-sided facility in the middle of the Everglades, adding that "we have fires that are within 20 miles of it" and "Florida is pretty susceptible to hurricanes.” Mullin’s comments follow reports that companies hired by the state of Florida to operate Alligator Alcatraz were notified Tuesday that the facility is being shut down, with roughly 1,400 remaining detainees expected to be removed in the coming weeks. One source told CBS News Miami that "the last detainee will leave in June," amid escalating operating costs that are now estimated to total nearly $1 billion. Pressed on whether there are any near-term plans to close the site, Mullin said DHS has contingency plans in the event of a natural disaster, but no plans to close the facility permanently. "We have plans in case of a natural emergency such as a wildfire or hurricane, to have to be able to bring it down and pull the individuals out," he said. But he added that DHS still needs the ability "to flex when we have a big influx" of migrants, calling the facility part of the department’s needed "surge capacity.” On Wednesday, Gov. Ron Desantis said Florida has not received definitive notice from the federal government about whether the facility will close — or the road ahead. Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told reporters Wednesday, "We have received zero communication formally saying, ‘Hey, this is the path going forward. Here’s how we’re going to try to get there.’ That has not happened.” The facility opened on a largely abandoned Florida airstrip last year. The Trump administration cast it as a cost-effective way of holding immigration detainees as it sought to ramp up arrests and deportations, but activist groups have criticized conditions at the facility, and it has drawn legal challenges from environmental groups and a Native American tribe. At the same time, Mullin said DHS is looking to reshape its strategy of expanding detention capacity, amid scrutiny of warehouse-style detention centers. Asked about the DHS inspector general’s probe of $38 billion in warehouse detention space within ICE, Mullin noted that some states are blocking DHS from using existing detention facilities, forcing the department to find its own space.

Los Angeles Times [5/13/2026 5:24 PM, Mike Schneider, 12718K] reports environmental groups say that the timing of the expected closure of an immigration detention center in the middle of the Florida Everglades, likely in the next month or two, is no accident because it will come as their lawsuit challenging its existence returns to a federal judge who had previously ordered it shut down. A federal appellate court decided last month to keep open the detention center nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," for the time being, blocking a lower court decision ordering it to wind down operations. But the case was sent back to the lower court judge who now gets jurisdiction over the lawsuit as the litigation over the facility’s fate continues. When asked about the future of the state-run facility and its costs on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that he hadn’t gotten any "official word" that federal authorities are going to stop sending detainees to the center. But vendors who supply and help run the facility have been told that the closure could be as soon as next month, according to reports Tuesday by the New York Times and CBS News Miami. DeSantis said Tuesday that the state expected to be reimbursed by the federal government for $608 million, which has already been approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Telemundo [5/13/2026 9:11 PM, Ana Cuervo and Hatzel Vela, 162K] reports families with loved ones still being held at Florida’s controversial immigrant detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" are expressing concern after it was confirmed that the facility is slated to close in June. Among them is the family of Justo Betancourt, a 54-year-old Cuban who has spent the last four months inside the detention center in the Everglades, after federal immigration authorities tried to deport him. According to his daughter, Arianne Betancourt, her father was first detained during a routine immigration check-in. "I panicked," she said. "I think I was in a state of panic for maybe the first two weeks." He noted that his father was initially held at the Krome Detention Center before being transferred to Texas and then to Mexico, where, it is claimed, Mexican authorities denied him entry. And "they sent him back to Alligator Alcatraz," said Betancourt’s daughter, who are among several families who have denounced the conditions inside the center since it opened last year. Now, his daughter is calling for an independent investigation. "We must demand accountability, and that investigation must be thorough and as impeccable as possible," he said. According to ICE records reviewed by Telemundo 51, the center held an average daily population of around 1,400 detainees in April. We also found that nearly 60% of those detained were classified by ICE as "no threat to ICE," meaning they have no criminal convictions. Eve Samples, executive director of the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Everglades, said those figures contradict the original justification for building the detention center. "When it was built without public participation, in the heart of the Everglades last summer, officials said they needed to locate it there because it was going to house the worst of the worst," Samples said. "And it’s clear that’s not the case." The organization filed a lawsuit alleging that the state failed to conduct an environmental impact assessment required by federal regulations before opening the facility. Samples stated that public records obtained through the litigation show the state has spent approximately $1.2 million per day operating the detention center. Florida authorities expect to receive more than $600 million in federal reimbursements, while reports estimate the total cost of the detention camp could exceed $1.1 billion by June. On Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis defended the high cost. "What is the cost of allowing illegal immigration to continue overwhelming our society?" DeSantis said. "I think those costs are enormous. And therefore, we have saved taxpayer money." Even though the center is expected to close, environmental advocates warn that the damage to the Everglades may not be over. "This will not be a victory for the Everglades unless all the damage done at this site is fully repaired," Samples said. "We know that at least 20 acres of new asphalt were laid at the site without any public environmental assessment." He added that advocates remain concerned about the impacts on nearby wetlands and the habitat of the Florida panther. "We need to study those impacts, and the conclusion is that this project was planned in secret, built in secret, operated in secret, and even this apparent reduction in operations is being carried out without transparency," Samples said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [5/13/2026 7:17 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51110K] reports just eight days after returning to the White House last year, President Trump announced plans to turn the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a massive detention center to hold 30,000 detainees facing deportation as part of his aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration. But a CBS News review of internal government documents and information provided to Congress shows the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay are sitting mostly empty over a year later, even though the highly publicized operation is projected to cost the American military over $70 million. On May 11, the U.S. government was holding just six immigration detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, all of them nationals of Haiti, according to federal documents obtained by CBS News. Over the past year, the documents show, 832 immigration detainees have been transferred to the base on more than 100 flights. In fact, there are significantly more government employees assigned to the immigration detention operation at Guantanamo than detainees, according to the documents. This week, government employees outnumbered detainees roughly 100 to 1. CBS News has reached out to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security for comment, including on whether the Trump administration plans to continue the operation to hold immigrant detainees at the naval base. In a statement Wednesday, DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said, "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in Guantanamo Bay, CECOT, or a third country. Our message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S."

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NewsMax [5/13/2026 11:39 AM, Theodore Bunker, 3760K]

AP [5/13/2026 4:26 PM, Marcos Alemán and Megan Janetsky, 35287K] reports the number of people deported to El Salvador from the U.S. nearly doubled in the first months of 2026, according to official figures, coming as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has positioned himself as an ally willing to help the Trump administration accelerate deportations, a central priority. The U.S. deported 5,033 Salvadorans back to their country in the first three months of 2026 compared with 2,547 deportees in the same period in 2025, according to El Salvador migration authority figures obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. That marks nearly a 98% increase as the same time that the Trump administration has boosted deportation flights across the world. Globally, deportation flights from the U.S. jumped around 61% between 2024 and 2025, according to data compiled by the Asociación Agenda Migrante El Salvador, or AAMES, and other organizations. The U.S. has stopped regularly releasing deportation data, so experts instead are relying on other information from countries like El Salvador, deportation flights and other numbers. The jump comes as Bukele, a tough-on-crime politician, has sought to align himself with U.S. President Donald Trump, and the U.S. government has lined up allies across Latin America to help him carry out his agenda. While Mexico and other Central American nations have quietly accepted deportees from third countries, Bukele has boldly embraced Trump’s efforts in Latin America.

AP [5/13/2026 6:37 PM, Martín Adames, 35287K] reports opposition figures in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday criticized an agreement signed with the United States to have the Caribbean nation receive third-country deportees, saying it lacks transparency and violates national sovereignty. The non-binding memorandum of understanding, which was announced on Tuesday by the Dominican Foreign Ministry, said the country will accept the temporary entry of a limited number of third-country nationals without criminal records before they return to their home countries. The deal is the latest such agreement between the Trump administration and some countries in Latin America and Africa that has come under fire. The third-country deportations, costing millions of dollars, are part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown that includes deporting migrants to countries other than their own. “This agreement represents a surrender of our national sovereignty,” Manolo Pichardo, from the opposition Fuerza del Pueblo party, told The Associated Press. “It subordinates Dominican interests to the geopolitical priorities of major Western powers and their strategic allies,” Pichardo added. Former Dominican Foreign Minister Andrés Navarro questioned the apparent lack of transparency surrounding the agreement and called on the government to publish the memorandum in its entirety so that the public can understand its full scope. “What has been published says practically nothing,” Navarro said Tuesday. Navarro said that while he supports maintaining and strengthening relations with the U.S., he wants to ensure the agreement does not violate Dominican sovereignty. The Dominican Foreign Ministry insisted the agreement “will be carried out in accordance with national law and the country’s international obligations, without altering Dominican immigration policy or current border control and management procedures.”

Politico [5/13/2026 6:42 PM, Phelim Kine and Ben Lefebvre, 21784K] reports a Trump administration push to convince Japan to invest in U.S. shipyards is running into an unexpected hurdle — its own immigration policy. The Commerce Department has been leaning on Japanese diplomats and business executives to commit a slice of the $550 billion Tokyo has promised to invest in the U.S. to modernize America’s moribund shipbuilding industry, according to four people familiar with the discussions, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. In response to U.S. encouragement, Japanese business executives came to the U.S. last month to visit several port sites on the East Coast to assess their investment potential, according to two people familiar with their itinerary. Both were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss a sensitive diplomatic issue. “It was an exploratory trip to demonstrate that Japanese companies have an appetite to invest in the sector,” one of the people briefed on the trip said. Despite the U.S. pressure, Japanese funding for shipbuilding is likely “years away” due to a shortage of domestic workers with the skills necessary for shipbuilding, said that person said. Specifically, Japanese officials are concerned about the administration’s hostility to foreign labor — evident by its slashing of work permits and visas for foreign laborers. The Trump administration’s “stance toward immigration is at odds with the needs of a skilled labor force,” the person added. Japan’s wariness underscores how the administration’s aggressive anti-immigration policy, punctuated with violent enforcement actions in cities including Minnesota and Chicago and rollbacks in visas for skilled workers, is running head-on into his push for foreign investment, a major component of Trump’s tariff-lowering trade agreements with Japan as well as South Korea and the European Union. And it could undermine Trump’s vow to rejuvenate ailing domestic industrial sectors, including U.S. shipbuilding. In particular, an Immigration and Customs’ Enforcement raid on a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia in September — resulting in the detention and deportation of some 300 South Korean workers employed at the site — has unsettled Japanese companies considering possible U.S. investments that require imported skilled labor, the person said. “Japanese companies are paying very close attention and there is real concern,” said Joshua Walker, president of the New York-based nonprofit Japan Society who has close contacts with Japanese private sector representatives. “The broader ICE enforcement climate has definitely spooked firms that rely on sending highly skilled workers for major investments under the new U.S.–Japan trade framework and to the Japanese embassy and consulates, as well.”

NewsMax [5/13/2026 9:03 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports the U.S. Army reportedly is facing a $4 billion to $6 billion budget shortfall due largely to the Iran war and to securing the southern border. According to internal documents reviewed by ABC News, Army leaders are scrambling to slash training costs and reduce operational spending as the service struggles to absorb mounting expenses tied to President Donald Trump’s expanded national security missions at home and abroad. The cuts reportedly have triggered abrupt cancellations of elite military schools, reduced pilot flight hours, and heightened scrutiny of spending across multiple Army commands months before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. A major factor behind the budget crunch is the Army’s expanded operational footprint, including deployments connected to the Iran conflict and ongoing border security operations. The Army also has been forced to absorb costs tied to Department of Homeland Security funding lapses during the recent 76-day DHS shutdown. Despite the shortfall, the Trump administration has proposed a historic $1.5 trillion fiscal year 2027 defense budget designed to rebuild American military dominance after years of what War Secretary Pete Hegseth described as underinvestment by previous administrations.

Washington Examiner [5/13/2026 6:31 PM, Sarah Bedford, 1147K] reports the White House is optimistic that Republicans can pass a third party-line bill through the reconciliation process this year to secure funding for national security and parts of a GOP election integrity bill that has stalled, according to White House legislative director James Braid. Although Republicans have not yet passed their second reconciliation bill, which will include funding for immigration enforcement and the Secret Service, GOP leaders are already looking ahead to the prospect of another piece of legislation that can bypass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate using reconciliation. "Any reconciliation bill is going to have to deal with the incredibly important needs of our national defense, as we face new threats from China, from Iran, from various corners of the globe, and ensuring that the American defense industrial base is at its strongest, is able to meet the needs of the force structure and the force posture of the president’s national security strategy and the groundbreaking work they’re doing over there at DOW," Braid told the Washington Examiner in an interview this week, referring to the Pentagon. "So I do think the fundamental piece of that is going to be that defense piece.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has signaled interest in advancing a third reconciliation bill through the lower chamber, although Senate Republicans appear less certain that one will come together. Republicans passed tax cuts through reconciliation, alongside funding for border security and defense in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, and are still working on a second reconciliation bill through the Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) acknowledged on Wednesday that the upper chamber is now eyeing a third reconciliation bill that some conservatives at one point worried would not materialize. Some conservatives had initially wanted the second reconciliation bill to include elements of the SAVE America Act that could potentially survive the complex procedural rules in the Senate that dictate what can pass via the filibuster-skipping process, but the White House ultimately backed Senate leadership in keeping the second reconciliation bill focused more narrowly on funding for the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service. The $1 billion in proposed Secret Service spending has drawn criticism from some Republicans, including Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), because a portion of it would go toward building security features for the White House ballroom.

Washington Examiner [5/13/2026 4:15 PM, Kaelan Deese, 1147K] reports a top Department of Homeland Security lawyer in the Trump administration is renewing criticism of a Rhode Island federal judge after a courtroom clash spiraled into allegations of government misconduct and judicial overreach last week. In a sharply worded op-ed published Tuesday in the Federalist, DHS General Counsel James Percival accused U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose of "judicial misconduct" and argued that the fallout surrounding the temporary release of Dominican national Bryan Rafael Gomez was "entirely of Judge DuBose’s own making." The dispute stems from an April 28 decision by Dubose, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ordering Gomez released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody before the court had been informed he was the subject of an international arrest warrant tied to a homicide investigation in the Dominican Republic. Gomez, who illegally entered the United States in 2022 under the Biden administration, was arrested on assault and battery charges in Massachusetts earlier this year before being transferred into ICE custody after local authorities honored an immigration detainer. Despite sharply criticizing the government’s conduct and later referring a DOJ lawyer for possible discipline, DuBose ultimately reversed course last week and ordered Gomez detained again pending a new immigration bond hearing after becoming aware of his international arrest warrant. Percival is now speaking out on what he describes as the original sin in the case.

New York Times [5/13/2026 9:32 PM, Pranav Baskar, 148038K] reports a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration had most likely violated the law by deporting a Colombian woman to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April despite that country’s refusal to take her. The judge ordered the administration to return the woman, Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata, 55, to the United States, a rare instance of a judge doing so amid the administration’s deportation campaign. The ruling was not yet listed in a public docket on Wednesday night, but it was shared with New York Times by Ms. Zapata’s lawyer. Both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the State Department are under pressure from the White House to find places to deport migrants whom the government cannot send to their home countries, usually because a judge has ruled that they will most likely face persecution and torture there. As a workaround, the administration has been cutting deals with countries that are willing to accept these migrants. Congo had agreed to accept some deportees, but refused on medical grounds to accept Ms. Zapata, court records show. Ms. Zapata has diabetes, hyperlipidemia and hypothyroidism, according to her lawyer, Lauren O’Neal. Because of those conditions, the Congolese Interior Ministry told I.C.E. in a letter that it could not accept her because it could not provide adequate medical care, according to the letter, which was obtained by The Times. “The government sent her to the D.R.C., anyway,” the judge, Richard J. Leon, wrote, adding, “Sending plaintiff to the D.R.C., therefore, was likely illegal.” Federal law allows the government to deport people to countries other than their own. But that law requires that the new country agree to accept them. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A message seeking comment with the Congolese Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.

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CNN [5/14/2026 4:33 AM, Karina Tsui, 19874K]

New York Times [5/13/2026 5:21 PM, Mattathias Schwartz and Hamed Aleaziz, 148038K] reports the top lawyer at the Homeland Security Department has doubled down on the department’s dispute with a federal judge, labeling her an “activist” and claiming that the Trump administration was justified when it withheld information from her in an immigration case. Melissa R. DuBose, a federal judge in Rhode Island, referred an administration lawyer for possible discipline last week after he acknowledged that he had failed to inform her that Bryan Rafael Gomez, a migrant she was preparing to release from detention, was facing homicide charges in the Dominican Republic. But according to James Percival, the general counsel at the Homeland Security Department, it was Judge DuBose who engaged in misconduct. In a defiant column published on Tuesday night by The Federalist, a conservative website, Mr. Percival leveled a raft of charges against her, including that she lacked “any plausible basis to review Mr. Gomez’s custody status,” something that judges have done in hundreds of similar cases across the country. The back-and-forth was the latest front in a continuing skirmish between the administration and the federal judiciary.

Reuters [5/13/2026 4:41 PM, Daniel Wiessner, 38315K] reports a third former U.S. immigration judge has filed a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of unlawfully purging what it saw as "DEI hires" by targeting women and non-white judges to ​be fired. The Trump administration has terminated more than 110 immigration judges, including Florence Chamberlin, who said in a complaint filed in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday that the campaign is an extension of the administration’s efforts to eradicate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Justice Department memos that preceded the mass firings said that people of "certain ​backgrounds" had been given preferential treatment and promised to “penalize illegal DEI preferences," according ⁠to the lawsuit. Chamberlin, who is of Cuban descent and about 60 years old, is accusing the Department of Justice and its Executive Office for Immigration Review of discriminating based on her sex, national origin and age. The Trump administration ⁠has fired at least 113 immigration judges and a similar number have taken buyouts, resigned or retired out of a total of approximately 700 judges, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges. At the same time, the Justice Department has hired more than 140 new judges, some on a temporary basis and most ​with military or enforcement backgrounds. The ​agency now refers to ⁠the officials as "deportation judges."

New York Times [5/13/2026 2:05 PM, Andrew Duehren and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 148038K] reports the Trump administration is leaning on the Internal Revenue Service to upend how undocumented immigrants can file their taxes, as officials discuss changes that could force people to tell the agency about their immigration status or disengage from the tax system entirely. At the center of the deliberations between Trump administration officials and the I.R.S., described by three people familiar with them, are potential changes to a nine-digit code, called an individual taxpayer identification number or ITIN, that people without a Social Security number can use to file their taxes. The change under discussion would differentiate codes for undocumented immigrants from those of other people with ITINs, the people said. Such a shift could require people applying for the codes to explicitly reveal their immigration status to the I.R.S., potentially discouraging them from getting a code or filing their taxes at all. The precise goal of the Trump administration push is unclear. Tax information on file at the I.R.S. is closely controlled, and an administration effort last year to share the agency’s data about undocumented immigrants with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been blocked in court. But the deliberations are a sign that the Trump administration may once again try to harness the power of the I.R.S. to advance its immigration agenda.

FOX News [5/13/2026 9:00 AM, Jason Chaffetz, 37576K] reports in the USA there are roughly 220,000 commercial aircraft. By 2027, the FAA estimates there will be more than 2.7 million drones. As firefighting aircraft raced to drop retardant on a raging wildfire in Utah’s Provo Canyon last summer, some flights were grounded by a new threat. Private drones, presumably trying to capture dramatic footage of the fire, forced critical support to stand down while flames advanced. This incident was no anomaly. There were hundreds of drone sightings over wildfires in 2025. Such civilian disruptions are only the beginning. Drone warfare and prevalence has come to American soil. Cheap, loosely regulated drones have the capability to disrupt military bases, surveil the homes of Cabinet secretaries and your backyard, threaten aircraft, and even attack the president of the United States. These threats are not hypothetical. It is real, it is now, and it urgently must be addressed. As recently as March 2026, multiple waves of drones were detected over Barksdale Air Force Base – home of the B-52 bomber and other nuclear assets. These drones had jamming resistance technology and long-range control links. Similar probes have hit other sensitive sites. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the FAA deserve credit for taking a critical step forward this past week. They introduced a proposed new rule to protect critical infrastructure sites, including energy facilities, water treatment plants, and more. Despite this promising development, Congress seems to demonstrate little urgency to address the problem. Democrats have kept the Department of Homeland Security defunded for months at a time – a strategy they seem committed to repeat. We need a unified national response that includes clearer rules, stronger funding and civil-military integration. We don’t have the luxury of moving at the speed of government where drones are concerned.

Daily Caller [5/13/2026 1:23 PM, Rep. Lance Gooden, 803K] reports that America has come too close, too many times, to losing President Trump. In Butler, Pennsylvania, a bullet came within inches of changing the course of American history on live television. In Florida, Secret Service agents stopped an armed suspect near President Trump’s golf course before another attack could unfold. And last month, a man tried to breach security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner allegedly with plans to attack President Trump and members of his Cabinet. In each case, disaster was avoided not because the attacker showed restraint, but because of law enforcement, the Secret Service, or sheer luck. These were not reckless outbursts. They were deliberate attempts to murder a president of the United States. A failed assassin is still an assassin, and it’s time our laws punish them that way. Under current federal law, someone who successfully assassinates the President of the United States can receive the death penalty, but someone who attempts the same crime and fails cannot. That gap matters. It means federal law gives failed assassins a legal discount. History shows this inconsistency clearly. That raises a simple question: Why should the law reward a would-be assassin because their gun jammed, their aim failed, or the Secret Service moved faster than they did?

FOX News [5/13/2026 5:00 AM, Rep. Jodey Arrington, 37576K] reports under President Trump’s leadership, illegal border crossings have plummeted to historic lows and the rule of law has been restored to communities across the country. This is much-needed relief from the open-border chaos and lawlessness we endured under the Biden administration, but Congress would be foolish to think this problem is solved for good. We’ve seen the consequences of a federal government that abdicates its first and most important responsibility – providing for the common defense – and, if the past is prologue, we know exactly what we can expect from future Democrat administrations that want to take us back. For four years under Biden, millions of illegal aliens flooded our borders, drug and human trafficking surged, and our communities were overwhelmed. And when Texas stepped up to protect its citizens, the federal government didn’t just fail to help – it actively obstructed. When Texas deployed buoy barriers, the administration sued. When the state installed razor wire, federal agents cut it. When Texas passed laws to enforce immigration policy and restore order, the Department of Justice challenged those efforts in court. The Biden White House used every tool at its disposal to keep the border open and leave states defenseless. That raised a fundamental question – one that, despite the current successes of President Trump, promises to return under future administrations: Can a state defend its border, protect its citizens, and enforce the law when the federal government fails to do so? Fortunately, the Constitution answers that question.

AP [5/13/2026 2:41 PM, Heather Hollingsworth and Mike Catalini, 35287K] reports David Venturella, a former executive at a private prison operator, will serve as the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Trump administration says, after the agency’s current leader steps down at the end of the month. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said late Tuesday that Venturella would succeed Todd Lyons, who led the agency through much of the administration’s tumultuous crackdown on immigration. ICE did not immediately respond to an email seeking additional information Wednesday. Venturella left the Geo Group in early 2023 and has been working at ICE leading the division that oversees detention contracts, members of Congress wrote in a public letter earlier this year. At the Geo Group, which houses around one-third of ICE detainees, Venturella served in a number of posts, including executive vice president overseeing corporate development, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. He also oversaw removal operations for ICE in 2011 and 2012 after working for federal contractors, including one that specializes in security clearances and background checks.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [5/13/2026 2:07 PM, Josh Christenson, 40934K]
(B) Wisconsin News Now at 11 AM [5/13/2026 12:16 PM, Staff]

Chicago Tribune [5/13/2026 5:03 PM, Carole Carlson, 5209K] reports the man who headed the 2016 ill-fated effort to bring an $80 million, 800-bed immigration detention center to Gary is the new acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Trump administration announced the appointment of David Venturella on Tuesday. He replaces Todd Lyons who is stepping down at the end of the month. Venturella worked as executive vice president of the Geo Group Inc. until 2023. Since then, he’s been working at ICE, heading the division that oversees detention contracts. He also oversaw removal operations for ICE in 2011 and 2012 after working for federal contractors, including one that specializes in security clearances and background checks, according to the Associated Press.

FOX News [5/13/2026 2:47 PM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports that Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons announced that federal investigators have uncovered more than 10,000 foreign students connected to "suspect employers" as part of another potentially massive fraud scheme, this time involving the federal STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension program. In a news conference on Tuesday, Lyons said the cases uncovered thus far are "just the tip of the iceberg." OPT is a U.S. immigration program that lets international students on F-1 visas work temporarily in the country in jobs related to their field of study. Lyons said that when the program was first created under the Bush administration and expanded under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security expected "only a few thousand foreign students would receive training approval before returning home." "Instead," Lyons said, that OPT "ballooned into an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States." He added that "as the program size exploded, so has the fraud." "Today, we are announcing we have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for highly suspect employers, and that’s just among the top 25 OPT employers. This is only the tip of the iceberg," he said, adding, "We’ve dramatically expanded our oversight of OPT and can report that we found fraud nationwide." According to Lyons, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers have visited "problematic OPT worksite employers" in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida. He said that many of the suspicious employers include nongovernmental organizations.

Wall Street Journal [5/13/2026 7:57 PM, Tarini Parti, Michelle Hackman, and Shane Shifflett, 646K] reports the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has launched a probe into the $38 billion warehouse-to-detention program championed by former Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a person familiar with the matter. The department’s inspector general is expected to announce on Wednesday an “audit of ICE’s acquisition of detention space,” which will review all of the department’s warehouse purchases, a signature policy of Noem and her top adviser, Corey Lewandowski. The inspector general is already investigating the handling of contracts at DHS last year and political appointees involved in awarding them, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Noem and Lewandowski had argued that the government needed to buy its own detention centers rather than leasing them from private prison companies or local governments. Several of the warehouses—empty spaces more commonly purchased by Amazon or other large retailers—were intended to detain as many as 8,000 people at a time. The government dedicated roughly $38 billion to the plan with money allotted by Congress through the One Big Beautiful Bill, a law passed by Republicans last summer that funded President Trump’s mass-deportation effort. So far, DHS has paid at least $1 billion for nine facilities, according to a Wall Street Journal review of property records, real-estate listings and statements from elected officials. At Noem’s direction, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bought 11 vacant warehouses in the span of a couple of months this past winter. Noem and Lewandowski had been pressuring immigration officials to try to open the new detention centers by the end of the year, a tall order given that the properties weren’t zoned for detention and didn’t have working plumbing to support large detainee populations. According to a report by CoStar, a real-estate analytics company, ICE paid between 11% and 13%, on average, above the price for comparable properties. The purchases raised eyebrows among officials across the administration and in both parties on Capitol Hill, according to people familiar with the matter.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [5/13/2026 10:27 AM, Josh Christenson, 40934K]
News Max [5/13/2026 12:58 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K]

FOX News [5/13/2026 6:08 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Acting I.C.E. Director Todd Lyons addresses a crackdown on student visa employment program fraud and more on ‘The Will Cain Show.’

Federalist [5/13/2026 2:35 PM, Eddie Scarry, 540K] reports that the Washington Post this week is drawing attention to women whose illegal alien husbands have been detained, thus leaving them to care for their children alone. Leave it to the Post to squeeze out another immigration narrative that completely skips over the reason Americans voted for mass deportations in favor of some sob story about the plight of illegals. "With the large number of men being removed, in many cases, women have been left to provide for their families on their own," said the article that was bylined by a grand total of four content creators at the paper. "In interviews with The Post, three women and one man described how an ICE arrest has transformed their families. All spoke of disastrous emotional and financial repercussions." The article also observed that detention of suspected illegal aliens "imposes financial burdens on families, from lost income and attorney fees." Having your husband or baby daddy deported is no doubt highly inconvenient. It’s inconvenient the same way it sucks to knowingly violate the speed limit in a rush and end up getting pulled over. And yet for some reason I’ve never gotten out of a ticket by telling a cop that it’s gonna hurt my wallet. Furthermore, it’s my right to retain a lawyer who might be able to get the fine dropped or reduced, but that would be a personal choice of mine to spend that money, just as it’s the choice of any given illegal alien to seek counsel in hopes of continuing to stay in the U.S. On the other hand, if I don’t fight the charge, I don’t have to pay any legal fees, and neither do illegal aliens resisting deportation. Tah-dah!

Reuters [5/13/2026 4:39 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports a federal judge appeared likely on Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit President Donald Trump’s administration filed challenging a Boston ordinance that restricts police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge ​Leo Sorokin during a hearing in Boston sharply questioned a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice about what legal grounds it had to pursue the lawsuit, one of more than a dozen it has filed challenging laws adopted by so-called "sanctuary jurisdictions" run by Democrats. The lawsuit was filed in September against the city and Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu ​and challenges the Boston Trust Act, a law first adopted in 2014. The city council ​reaffirmed its support for the measure in December 2024 as Trump prepared to return ⁠to office. The law bars the Boston Police Department and other city officials from collaborating with federal authorities ​including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct civil immigration enforcement, including by keeping migrants for potential deportation. But Sorokin, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, appeared skeptical of Skedzielewski’s reading of immigration ​law and whether the federal government could show it was harmed by the law, providing it legal standing to sue.

ABC News [5/13/2026 5:22 AM, Laura Romero, 34146K] reports a pregnant mother from Ecuador is fighting to remain in the United States with her two daughters after being slated for removal despite a pending visa application for victims of trafficking, according to court documents. Maria Isabel Loja-Loja was scheduled to be deported on May 2 along with her two daughters as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, but a federal judge in Boston issued an eleventh-hour emergency order temporarily blocking their removal. "Ecuador is really dangerous right now, I’m scared for my daughters if I have to go back," Loja-Loja, who is four months pregnant, told ABC News in Spanish. "There’s a lot of crime, trafficking, robberies, murders.” The Ecuadorian mother and her lawyer told ABC News that she was trafficked in the U.S. in 2024 and has been receiving threats from alleged human smugglers since then. "They took photos of her children," said her attorney, Todd Pomerleau. "They started sending her text messages when she was in the United States, saying, ‘We’re going to find you.’" Pomerleau, who filed an emergency habeas to block Loja-Loja’s removal on May 2, argues that federal authorities are violating her due process rights by moving to deport her before her "T visa" application can be adjudicated. According to Loja-Loja’s habeas petition, the Department of Homeland Security in 2025 reversed a policy that allowed ICE officials to exercise discretion in deferring decisions on civil immigration enforcement against "T visa" and "U visa" applicants. "What we’re seeing here is that the victims of these crimes are now being victimized by the government," Pomerleau told ABC News. "They’re seeking refuge from [traffickers], and ICE is trying to prevent them from even utilizing the process Congress has created."

USA Today [5/13/2026 10:44 AM, Finch Walker, 70643K] reports under new legislation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers won’t be allowed to conduct operations on certain Pittsburgh city property. They’ll still be allowed in the city, but following a May 12 vote by Pittsburgh’s city council, there are limits to where they can operate. Pittsburgh’s city council voted on May 12 to bar ICE agents from using city-owned property as a staging area. The new measure also stops agents from storing equipment or using city property as meeting points, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. ICE agents will also be required to show a judicial warrant in order to access Pittsburgh’s non-public areas of a city-owned property. The May 12 measure also applies to "Safe Community Places" like homeless shelters or rape crisis centers, according to the Post-Gazette. The legislation stopping ICE from accessing some city property doesn’t have clear enforcement guidelines in regards to how the city will react if federal agents violate the new laws, according to Post-Gazette. It’s up to the mayor to determine what happens if the law is violated, according to language in the legislation.

CBS News [5/13/2026 11:25 PM, Zachary Bynum, 51110K] reports the small Georgia town of Social Circle is suing federal immigration authorities in an effort to stop plans for a proposed 10,000-bed immigration detention facility that city leaders say could overwhelm local infrastructure and harm the surrounding environment. According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, the city alleges that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to complete legally required environmental reviews before moving forward with plans to convert a warehouse into what officials describe as an immigration detention "mega center." The case, City of Social Circle v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., seeks to halt the project while the courts review whether federal officials violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Georgia public nuisance law. Attorneys representing the city said the project would effectively triple Social Circle’s population and place "unsustainable strain" on critical infrastructure in the town of roughly 5,000 residents located about 50 miles east of Atlanta. The lawsuit centers on a commercial warehouse located at 1365 East Hightower Trail, which federal officials allegedly purchased in February with plans to convert the site into a detention facility capable of housing 10,000 detainees and employing an additional 2,500 staff members. City leaders argue the project would place severe pressure on local water and wastewater systems that are already operating near capacity. According to the complaint, the proposed facility would require more than one million additional gallons of water per day and generate similar levels of wastewater — demands the city says its current infrastructure cannot safely support. The lawsuit also argues federal agencies failed to adequately coordinate with the community or evaluate the broader environmental and public health consequences of the proposal before advancing the project. Social Circle, incorporated in 1869, spans roughly 11 square miles across Walton County and neighboring areas east of metro Atlanta. As of Wednesday evening, neither ICE nor DHS had publicly responded to the lawsuit.

Washington Post [5/13/2026 6:58 AM, Staff, 24826K] reports an 85-year-old French widow spent 16 days in federal immigration custody after the death of her husband, an American military veteran. Her stepson, a U.S. federal employee, allegedly intervened to have her taken custody, a judge found. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Chicago [5/13/2026 5:28 PM, Sara Tenenbaum, 51110K] reports eighteen residents of the South Shore apartment building infamously raided in a military-style operation last fall have filed a tort claim against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for actions by federal agents in that raid. In the overnight hours of Sept. 30, 2025, federal agents in full tactical gear, armored trucks and a Blackhawk helicopter converged on an apartment building near 75th Street and South Shore Drive. More than three dozen residents were zip tied and taken into custody, including women and children. The raid happened in the early weeks of Operation Midway Blitz, the federal immigration crackdown targeting the Chicago area ordered by the Trump administration. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed at the time it was carrying out "targeted" immigration enforcement against members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang but it’s not clear if any deportations or charges ever came out of the arrests. Now eighteen of those 37 residents are filing complaints under the Federal Tort Claims Act, saying they were unlawfully arrested and brutalized by federal agents during the military-style raid. The complaints are being filed by a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the University of Chicago Immigrants’ Rights Clinic (IRC), the MacArthur Justice center and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC). The complaints describe people being held at gunpoint, being kicked or physically struck by rifles, and taken outside in little or no clothing or pajamas. The complaints allege the residents were targeted based on race and ethnicity, not told why they were being held, were never shown warrants and were prohibited from contacting attorneys or legal help. The complaints also allege the 37 people detained were taken to the Broadview ICE detention center where they were treated inhumanely.

Reported similarly:
Chicago Tribune [5/13/2026 6:16 PM, Madeline Buckley, Jason Meisner, Laura Rodríguez Presa and Gregory Royal Pratt, 5209K]

NPR [5/13/2026 1:16 PM, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, 28764K] reports on a recent Thursday evening in late April, dozens of people hang out at a local brewery in south Minneapolis. The Cha Cha Slide blasts through the speakers. In between sips of craft beer, patrons walk around a silent auction put on by Juntos Podemos, a volunteer mutual aid group that helps immigrants with groceries and rent. Anaí Tepozteco, a co-founder of the group, mingles and every now and then looks at the handmade donation tracker. "Our goal is $20,000 — right now we are halfway there," she says. It’s an important night. Her group has seen a sharp drop in donations since Operation Metro Surge ended in February and thousands of masked federal immigration agents left Minneapolis after arresting more than 3,000 immigrants and turning parts of the city upside down. Over and over, agents and protesters and agents. Two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal agents there. Masked ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents are no longer dragging immigrants out of their cars and homes. Community members are no longer waiting on street corners, ready to blow their whistles to alert neighbors of ICE’s presence. But the immigrants here still need support. "We want to keep assisting families with groceries but also families who are behind with rent," Tepozteco says.

FOX News [5/13/2026 4:20 PM, Peter D’Abrosca, 37576K] reports two illegal aliens in Dallas are facing capital murder charges after allegedly shooting a pregnant 17-year-old girl whose unborn child died as a result, according to authorities. Yeremy Alexander Zapata Aleman, 17, of Honduras, and Keyner Ariel Calero Jiron, 20, of Nicaragua, who both crossed the border illegally according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), are accused of the murder after a verbal altercation in a 7-Eleven parking lot led to a drive-by shooting and later a police chase, KDFW reported. The incident occurred on May 3, around 12:40 a.m. If convicted on the capital murder charges, both Zapata Aleman and Calero Jiron could face the death penalty. Along with the murder charge, Calero Jiron faces five counts of felony aggravated assault, one count of possession of cocaine, one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon. Zapata Aleman faces five counts of felony aggravated assault and one count of possession of cocaine along with his murder charges.

New York Times [5/13/2026 7:39 PM, Miriam Jordan, 148038K] reports a Venezuelan emergency room doctor arrested by immigration agents at a South Texas airport last month was released on Wednesday after more than four weeks in custody. The doctor, Rubeliz Bolivar, 33, a resident at a hospital in the Rio Grande Valley, a federally designated underserved medical area, was detained after checking in for a flight to California on April 11. She was traveling with her 5-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, to join her husband for the couple’s asylum interview, which was scheduled for the following week in the Los Angeles area. “My wife is an incredible mother and the heart of our family,” her husband, Milenko Faria, said on the eve of her release, which required a $7,000 bond. “These past weeks have been the hardest of our lives, watching our daughter miss her mother and feeling so powerless.” “For the first time in weeks, we can breathe again,” he said, adding that he was grateful for advocacy that had brought attention to his wife’s situation. Dr. Bolivar’s detention drew strong condemnation from national and regional medical associations. Her supervisors at the South Texas Health System in McAllen warned that losing foreign-born physicians like her compromised patient care in an impoverished region struggling with a doctor shortage. A video shared with New York Times by Dr. Bolivar’s husband on Wednesday afternoon shows her leaving the detention center in Texas and wiping away tears as Dr. Michael Menowsky, her program’s director, wearing scrubs, escorts her to a car. She was released with an ankle monitor, which tracks her movement. Corey Martin, Dr. Bolivar’s lawyer, said the doctor, who has valid employment authorization, is expected to return to her residency program. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that is the case,” Ms. Martin said. Dr. Bolivar was the second Venezuelan doctor within one week in April to be swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The other, Ezequiel Veliz, was arrested by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in South Texas on April 6. Dr. Veliz, 32, spent 10 days in detention before his release. All told, at least five foreign-born physicians have been detained in recent months, according to Project IMG, an organization that represents thousands of international medical graduates in the United States. Four of the physicians were detained in Texas, while the other was detained in Florida.

Reported similarly:
Univision [5/13/2026 6:39 PM, Staff, 4937K]

FOX News [5/13/2026 8:27 PM, Greg Wehner, 37576K] reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday demanded Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown comply with a new state law requiring cooperation with federal immigration authorities, warning he could take legal action if she fails to act. Paxton announced he is investigating Brown over what he described as "sanctuary policies" and sent a formal letter ordering her to pursue a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which would allow local deputies to carry out certain federal immigration enforcement duties. The demand stems from Senate Bill 8, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026, and requires sheriffs in counties that operate jails to seek agreements with ICE to increase cooperation on immigration enforcement. Known as 287(g) agreements, the partnerships allow federal authorities to delegate certain immigration enforcement powers to local officers, including questioning inmates about their immigration status and serving administrative warrants. "I will not allow the people of Dallas County to suffer because the Sheriff refuses to work with ICE to keep violent illegals off our streets," Paxton said, adding that his office "will ensure" compliance with state law. In the letter, Paxton accused Brown of publicly rejecting the requirement after the law passed, citing her October 2025 statement that "no additional efforts" would be made to secure such an agreement. He said her office has not reported any attempt to comply, despite a state requirement that sheriffs show proof they have tried to enter into an agreement. Paxton warned that failure to act could expose Brown to legal consequences and said his office has authority to bring action against sheriffs who do not comply with the statute. He has demanded that Brown report efforts to secure an agreement before June 1.

Houston Chronicle [5/13/2026 3:59 PM, Benjamin Wermund, 2493K] reports an unprecedented Texas law empowering state officials to arrest and deport immigrants will likely take effect Friday — though it is unclear the extent to which the state plans to enforce it, or how long it will be in place before a federal judge blocks it. U.S. Judge David A. Ezra said Wednesday that his views on the law, which he previously deemed "patently unconstitutional," are well known. But he said he was unlikely to issue a ruling on a new challenge to the law before Friday, saying he was working under a “very short timeline” and the ruling would likely take several days to complete. The controversial law has been on ice for years under court orders, including one from Ezra. But an appeals court last month ruled plaintiffs in the case did not have standing and set a timeline for the law to take effect on Friday. The Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the ACLU filed a new suit earlier this month to put it on hold. Ezra is now weighing their request on behalf of two immigrants living in Texas who they say face arrest and deportation if the law, known as SB4, takes effect. On Wednesday, Ezra repeatedly referred to SB4 as “unconstitutional” because it gives the state immigration enforcement powers long left solely to the federal government. It is unclear how quickly state officers will begin making arrests under the law, however. SB4 makes it a crime to enter the state from Mexico without permission. It would allow police to arrest migrants they suspect of entering illegally and empower judges to order their removal.

Telemundo [5/13/2026 7:16 PM, Staff, 2524K] reports a mother and her two children who were detained by federal agents at a bus stop in San Antonio Texas and transferred to an immigrant detention center will be released. Maria Betania Uzcátegui Castillo and her sons, Victoria Monserrat, 9, and Victor Alexander Labrador Rojas, 11, were arrested during the day and before several of their neighbors and then transferred to the ICE Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, on April 28. The announcement of his release was made by Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat representing the San Antonio area, who posted a message on the social network X. “The Uzcategui-Labrador family returns home to San Antonio! Victor, who is in fifth grade, Monserrat, who is in second, and his stepmother Maria will leave the ‘caravan prison’ of Dilley, where they remained in detention after having been victims of an operation at a school bus stop in San Antonio. Thank you to everyone who raised their voices: your voice has made a difference!” he said. On the day of the arrest, Maria Betania was 26 years old. Her husband, Victor Labrador, who was at his home at the time of the arrest, was not arrested by the officers when they knocked on the door and asked him to turn himself in. Victor Labrador said he did not do so after following the advice of a lawyer who told him not to do so if the officers did not have a court order. The family, which comes from Venezuela, arrived at the southern border of the United States in 2021 in search of asylum and appeared before the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office.

CBS Colorado [5/13/2026 2:56 PM, Chista Swanson, 51110K] reports that on Tuesday, a Colorado district court judge ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has continued to make unlawful warrantless arrests in the state despite an injunction and has ordered them to take additional training. The 60-page decision requires ICE to develop and conduct training on making arrests in compliance with federal law. The training must be completed within 45 days and forbids ICE agents from conducting warrantless arrests unless they complete it within that time. It also dictates that agents hired after May 12 cannot make warrantless arrests until they complete the training. A preliminary injunction was granted in Nov. 2025 requiring ICE to provide documents to the ACLU of Colorado to ensure it does not conduct warrantless arrests without first determining the person’s flight risk. The court determined that agents have continued to make unlawful warrantless arrests after that injunction was granted. "This is a profoundly important decision for the rule of law and the people of Colorado," said Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado. "The court made clear that ICE is not above the law and cannot continue to violate the law. The decision ensures that we can monitor ICE’s behavior going forward and continue to work to prevent unlawful warrantless arrests across the state.” CBS Colorado reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and received this response: "ICE has authority for lawful arrests under 8 USC 1357. Law enforcement officers use ‘reasonable suspicion’ to investigate immigration status and probable cause to make arrests consistent with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court has already vindicated us on these practices."

Daily Caller [5/13/2026 11:08 AM, Christine Sellers, 803K] Video: HER reports an illegal alien who was deported from the U.S. four times pleaded guilty May 8 to the 2025 hit-and-run death of an 11-year-old California boy. Hector Amador Balderas pleaded guilty to hitting Aiden Antonio Torres De Paz with his vehicle on Nov. 26, 2025, and then fleeing the scene, according to NBC San Diego. The child was hit around 5 p.m. when he tried to retrieve a soccer ball near East Washington Avenue and Hickory Street in Escondido, witnesses alleged. Police said he was transported to Rady Children’s Hospital, where he died early the next morning on Thanksgiving, the outlet reported. Balderas surrendered to police a few days later. Balderas, 44, is scheduled to be sentenced in June and faces two to three years in a state prison, NBC San Diego reported. In the meantime, he remains in jail without bail. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer for Balderas with the San Diego Sheriff’s Office after he was arrested, according to a December 2025 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press release. ICE also issued an arrest detainer when police apprehended Balderas. Balderas is an illegal alien who was previously deported four times, according to the press release. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [5/13/2026 7:12 PM, Staff, 40934K] reports attacks on ICE agents are outrageous and unwarranted — which is why it’s good to see federal agents going after the anti-ICE ringleaders. On Wednesday morning, as The California Post reported, federal agents swooped in on Leo Martinez, who allegedly tried last year to stop ICE from arresting an illegal immigrant (and registered sex offender) from Mexico. Martinez denied starting an altercation with ICE agents, complaining that they had rammed his car. But he admitted to following them around, trying to track their activities, with the overall goal of making it harder for them to do their jobs. The men and women of ICE — and Border Patrol, and other immigration law enforcement agencies — are just trying to do their job, which is to enforce laws passed by both parties in Congress. ICE agents are part of the reason crime is going down in California and across the nation. They are members of our community — neighbors, parents at school, fellow churchgoers. They are among the best Americans, standing up to protect our country, often at great risk to themselves. The work they do is urgent, legal, and necessary. No country can exist for long if it has an open border. And border enforcement doesn’t just happen at an imaginary line on the map. Some migrants manage to sneak across, with the help of smuggling cartels. And some who arrive on tourist or work permits stay after their visas expire. That’s why we have interior enforcement, like every other country. If ICE didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it — which is why calls to "abolish" the agency are so absurd. Democrats and the media have whipped up fears of ICE to the point of blinding hatred. That is why ICE agents often have to wear masks. Politicians pretend nothing would happen to ICE agents if they would just remove their masks.

USA Today [5/13/2026 10:11 PM, Jennifer Cortez, 70643K] reports the calls reporting immigration enforcement began in the early morning: first at 5:30 a.m. and 6:40 in Indio, then 6:51 a.m. in Coachella and later across the Coachella Valley, from Cathedral City to Palm Springs. That was on Tuesday, May 12. And by Wednesday, May 13, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice advocacy group said it had independently confirmed 19 operations by federal immigration agents this week across the Coachella Valley, including at least 10 that day, according to Tamara Marquez, the coalition’s communications director. That figure, however, is likely an undercount because not every arrest is reported through its hotline, but photos and videos from community members help the organization identify whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol or the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department were involved in the arrests. One incident that drew the coalition’s attention was captured in a video circulating online, which showed several agents stopping a man in a white van in the Coachella Valley and attempting to remove him from his vehicle as he asked in Spanish if he could show his driver’s license, Marquez said. The agents left after he showed proof of his identification, she said. The man’s wife later posted a photo showing his hand bruised and bleeding from the exchange. "And so this and other incidents that we’ve heard of show that this is racial profiling because of who they’re going after, right? Gardeners, people with a pickup truck, with a van," Marquez said. "They don’t care if they have papers, and they don’t care to know or don’t know if they have papers.” The increase in reports within the span of two days prompted the coalition to publicly address the surge Wednesday alongside Palm Springs Mayor Naomi Soto, Palm Springs City Councilmember Grace Garner and Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Pérez. When someone contacts the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice’s hotline, dispatchers collect the location, time, whether anyone was taken, as well as how many agents and vehicles were present. They then alert trained volunteers and staff who can respond to the area, check whether agents are still there and speak with nearby businesses or community members. The coalition also has an organizer in the Coachella Valley working directly with residents and local businesses to explain what to do if immigration agents approach them, offer trainings and provide businesses with posters stating that private property is off-limits to ICE. "We’re not trying to create panic," Marquez said. "We’re trying to keep people educated and informed on how to identify an agent.”

Breitbart [5/13/2026 1:45 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested an illegal alien convicted decades ago of attempting to murder a police officer. "As we observe Police Week, the men and women of ICE law enforcement are removing this illegal alien convicted of attempted murder of a police officer from our communities, so he cannot victimize anymore Americans," the Department of Homeland Security’s Lauren Bis said. According to ICE officials, Dinh Quy Nguyen first entered the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii, in December 1977. By June 1989, Nguyen was convicted of attempted capital murder of a police officer and burglary. A federal immigration judge ordered Nguyen deported from the United States in December 1997. That order was reaffirmed in May 1998 by the Board of Immigration Appeals. In March 2011, Nguyen was transferred into ICE custody, but by June 2011, federal agents were forced to release Nguyen back into the community because Vietnam refused to take him back. ICE agents arrested Nguyen this month after President Donald Trump removed prior limitations on deportations to Vietnam. Nguyen remains at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, pending his deportation. "This criminal illegal alien from Vietnam was also previously convicted for burglary," Bis said. "Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, we will always stand by our brave ICE law enforcement who put their lives on the line to arrest heinous criminals from American neighborhoods."

Reuters [5/13/2026 12:33 PM, Staff, 38315K] reports that the White House refuted reports that the United States denied visas for five members of Iraq’s national team ahead of next month’s World ‌Cup. The State Department sent a statement Wednesday to Front Office Sports in response to online reports involving five players, including Luton Town forward Ali Al-Hamadi. "Currently, there are no known issues affecting the Iraq ⁠National Team players, and they remain on track to compete in the World Cup," the statement reads. "We maintain daily communication with FIFA and will continue to prioritize these players in accordance with the President’s Executive Order, ensuring an incredible and safe tournament." The Iraq Football Association also quashed the rumors that had circulated ‌on ⁠social media on Tuesday. "The news is false, and the truth is that all the national team players have obtained entry visas to America," it said, per the Iraqi news ⁠site The New Region, adding that the players are also in the process of getting Canadian visas. Iraq is in a ⁠tough Group I for this summer’s FIFA World Cup in North America, along with France, Senegal and ⁠Norway. ​Iraq is scheduled to play games in Foxborough, Mass. (June 16 vs. Norway), Philadelphia (June 22 vs. France) and in Toronto (June 26 vs. Senegal).

Breitbart [5/13/2026 6:34 AM, Staff, 2238K] reports the United States announced visa restrictions on 13 people linked to a U.S.-sanctioned, India-based online pharmacy that the Trump administration accuses of selling Americans hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl. The people targeted by the State Department on Tuesday were identified as being "close business associates of KS International Traders and its owner." The U.S. Treasury sanctioned KS International and Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, 34, in September. Shaikh was also among 19 people indicted in New York in the fall of 2024 on charges of selling counterfeit, fentanyl-laced pills to Americans over the Internet and via encrypted messaging platforms. The targeting of KS International comes amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on drug smuggling. Among tactics employed was President Donald Trump’s December 2025designation of illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction.

Telemundo [5/14/2026 12:19 AM, Shelby Bremer, 56K] reports some DACA recipients say their renewals are taking much longer than in previous years, jeopardizing their immigration status and livelihood while they wait. “I don’t feel safe anymore,” said Em, a mental health therapist who lives in San Diego and has had DACA for nine years. “I’m in a kind of constant limbo, wondering, ‘What’s going to happen now?’” DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is the policy enacted under President Barack Obama to provide work authorization and protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency under the Department of Homeland Security that processes these renewals, there are more than 500,000 DACA beneficiaries across the United States, of which about 7,850 are in the San Diego area alone, according to data from last fall. Beneficiaries must renew their permits every two years and maintain a clean work history, with no criminal record. Previously, this renewal process typically took a few weeks, but recently it has extended to several months, and some permits remain pending after the expiration date, causing beneficiaries to lose their jobs due to the lack of proper work authorization. Em submitted her renewal application in February, four months before it expired in June. She’s still waiting and is now talking to managers at both of her jobs about the uncertainty. “I’ve already been talking to my bosses and I’ve said, ‘Will you wait for me?’” Em said. “And I tell them I don’t know how long it’s going to be.” “Under President Trump’s leadership, USCIS is protecting the American people through more thorough vetting and screening of all foreign nationals,” USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler said in a statement when asked about the delays. “DACA does not confer any legal status in this country,” the statement continued. “Undocumented immigrants who claim to be DACA recipients are not automatically protected from deportation. Any undocumented immigrant who is a DACA recipient can be arrested and deported for a variety of reasons, including if they have committed a crime.” Civil rights groups and members of Congress say they have seen a significant increase in requests for assistance related to all types of immigration procedures, including the DACA case. “What we’re seeing is that people are going through a very difficult time,” said Alondra Álvarez, a community educator with the nonprofit organization Universidad Popular, who helps residents of northern county understand the immigration system. “Slowing down this application review process is creating direct economic instability for people, which guarantees they live in fear. And I think that’s the goal.” “We’re also talking about the loss of their health insurance and dental plans,” Álvarez continued. “We’re talking about families who now don’t have enough to pay rent, families who now can’t buy food because those who support their families… aren’t allowed to work, because they no longer have DACA.”

CBS Chicago [5/13/2026 2:35 PM, Adam Harrington, 51110K] reports that a Chicago-area man who ran a business helping people apply for asylum and immigrant visas was recently sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud and child pornography. The U.S. Attorney’s office said Jose Gregorio Sosa Cardona operated Delta Global Solutions Inc., which helped people apply for asylum, visas, and other immigration benefits. Prosecutors said between 2020 and 2024, Sosa Cardona conspired with others to provide false information to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of his clients. Specifically, Sosa Cardona fabricated foreign law enforcement reports and other documents as false backup for his clients’ asylum claims, prosecutors said. He also represented himself as an attorney to his clients when he was not really an attorney, and had no authority to represent anyone in immigration proceedings, prosecutors said. In addition to the allegations surrounding his immigration assistance business, Sosa Cardona was also charged with possessing thousands of child pornography files, A court-authorized search of his electronic devices in 2024 found that he had 2,877 photos and videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit activity, prosecutors said. Sosa Cardona also filed fraudulent tax returns for himself, and didn’t pay the taxes withheld from his employees’ pay between 2020 and 2023 — causing the IRS to lose about $316,000, prosecutors said.

San Francisco Chronicle [5/13/2026 6:34 PM, Noah Furtado and Sara DiNatale, 3833K] reports the Jordan men’s national team will make its World Cup debut at Levi’s Stadium next month, but you may notice a few empty seats where their fans should be. Jordanians can’t easily travel to the United States, as the U.S. war with Iran has made their ability to get tourism visas extremely difficult. A similar situation is playing out for Turkish fans, whose football team is also set to play in Santa Clara. The U.S. embassies in Amman, Jordan, and Adana, Turkey, shuttered to non-Americans in March, shortly after the Trump administration and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. The visa dilemma from the war is just the latest on the list of political and policy reasons hoteliers say international travel isn’t living up to expectations ahead of the games. In a recent survey commissioned by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, many respondents described the tournament as a “non-event,” citing weak travel from overseas. Nearly 75% of the respondents in San Francisco told the association they were booking rooms below what they anticipated. “The reality is, that they had to cancel,” Joe Ayyoub, Jordan’s honorary consul in San Francisco said of Jordanian fans unable to get visa appointments in Amman. “There’s deadlines on certain hotel and airline reservations, and to avoid losing more money, or any money … they had to cancel.” World Cup tourism from overseas was already complicated by long wait times for visas because of new social media vetting and expanded travel bans under President Donald Trump. The federal government created a “fast pass” program so World Cup ticket holders could skip ahead in the crowded interview queue, and also added 650 new consulate workers worldwide to speed up processing times, according to the State Department. But the war has added a new challenge. With the games just under a month away, even if the embassies were to reopen it’s unclear whether U.S. consulates would be able to process applications from nations near conflict zones quickly enough to get the travelers to the games in time. Under the best circumstances, the State Department’s goal was that 80% of global ticket holders would be able to secure appointments in under 60 days. It’s unclear whether that goal has been met, but a State Department spokesperson said wait times have been less than two months in 80% of countries worldwide. “These events will attract millions of passionate fans around the world,” Trump said from the White House on May 6. “I’ve directed my entire team to do everything within our power to make the World Cup an unprecedented success, and that’s what it’s going to be. We’re going to make sure of it.” But the tourism industry is already bracing for disappointment. About 70% of hoteliers surveyed by the hotel association about the World Cup said visa barriers and “broader geopolitical concerns” were “significantly suppressing international demand” ahead of the games, which begin June 11.

New York Times [5/13/2026 10:20 AM, Tony Romm, 148038K] reports the U.S. government has started to refund some of the roughly $160 billion collected from tariffs that the Supreme Court deemed illegal, plus interest, turning what was once a prized windfall for President Trump into a liability on the federal balance sheet. At least two businesses confirmed this week that they had received a partial refund, almost three months after the nation’s highest court determined that Mr. Trump did not have the power to enact his original, country-by-country duties without Congress. The refund process is expected to be extensive, expensive and lengthy. The government must return money to about 330,000 importers, federal officials previously estimated, sending back what they paid in taxes. That money must be paid with interest, which is accruing at an estimated rate of about $650 million per month. The money is reserved largely for businesses that imported goods, not for American families, though both have faced rising costs as a result of Mr. Trump’s trade war. Many large companies, including Costco, have separately sued the government to recoup their tariff payments, while they simultaneously stare down class-action cases brought by angry customers seeking financial relief. The refund process comes at a difficult political moment for Mr. Trump, who arrived in China on Wednesday for high-stakes trade talks. Just last week, a panel of federal judges found that the president broke the law when he replaced his illegal duties with a 10 percent tax on nearly all imports.

USA Today [5/13/2026 2:56 PM, Timothy Aeppel, 70643K] reports that heavy-truck maker Oshkosh Corp and toy maker Basic Fun on Tuesday both said they had received partial payments of the refunds they had sought of the import tariffs they had paid under the Trump administration that were invalidated earlier this year by the U.S. Supreme Court. The payments mark a milestone in a fraught battle over the taxes. The U.S. government has been ordered to refund up to $166 billion to importers after the tariffs were deemed illegal, and doubts have lingered about whether a last-minute move by the Trump administration could still stall or slow the process. "The issue is will the funds flow like a river or fire hose or like a stream or garden hose," Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, which sells Tonka trucks, Care Bears and K’Nex construction toys, said in an email. "So far, the funds are trickling out but they have started." Foreman said he received $400,000 out of his $7.4 million in claims. Oshkosh hasn’t disclosed the amount it is seeking, but the company acknowledges it started receiving a portion. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a Tuesday court filing that it anticipates paying refunds of $35.46 billion on 8.3 million shipments that have been processed as of 7 a.m. Eastern time on May 11. That is just a small slice of the money expected to be returned. As of early April, the CBP said importers had completed the necessary steps to get refunds totaling $127 billion, or more than three-quarters of the total eligible to be refunded. More than 330,000 importers paid the tariffs on 53 million shipments.

FOX News [5/13/2026 6:00 AM, Lindsay Kornick, 37576K] reports former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared to admit that the Biden administration could have and should have enacted more border security measures sooner. In an interview at the Politico Security Summit on Tuesday, Mayorkas was asked about border policies under former President Joe Biden, which became a significant issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Mayorkas remarked that, despite some "areas of disagreement," he was largely satisfied with his work under Biden. "I was very pleased that in June of 2024, we took executive action that, I thought, made reforms that were sensible and that proved successful," Mayorkas said. When asked whether he believed Biden acting sooner on border reform could have prevented President Donald Trump from being elected, Mayorkas was less direct but acknowledged that he would be "better rested" if Biden did. "I am not in a position to speculate, but I will tell you that I would be far more better rested and less punched," Mayorkas remarked.

CBS News [5/13/2026 10:44 AM, Dan Raby, 51110K] reports officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they seized tens of thousands of potentially dangerous pills that were all on their way to Georgia. Officials say the two seizures were discovered in parcels originating from Europe via Philadelphia. According to CBP, officers seized 7,500 lorazepam, 2,600 zolpidem, 2,500 diazepam, and 2,500 alprazolam tablets shipped in a parcel from London on April 29. A day later, officers found 17,000 tramadol tablets that were shipped in an air parcel from the Netherlands. Both parcels were heading to an address in Spalding County, Georgia, and were marked as T-shirts and "XOMETRY" to conceal what they really were, the agency said. "Our primary concerns, especially with illegally imported bulk orders of prescription medicines, are the efficacy and safety of an unapproved medicine, and the serious danger that unapproved medicine pose to the importer’s unwitting victims," said Elliott N. Ortiz, the Port of Philadelphia’s acting director. Authorities say consumers can not be sure that medicines ordered overseas may not have toxic fillers, such as fentanyl.

Breitbart [5/13/2026 8:04 AM, Bob Price and Randy Clark, 2238K] reports a body found near a railroad crossing in San Antonio on Monday is believed to be part of an illegal alien smuggling incident that resulted in the deaths of six others over the weekend. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar announced the discovery and provided details on the possible connection in a Monday press conference. As reported by Breitbart Texas, the remains of six suspected illegal aliens were found on Sunday in a Union Pacific railway car at a railyard in Laredo, Texas, less than a mile from the Mexican border. Due to the state of decomposition present at the time of the discovery, authorities believe the bodies had been inside the railway car for some time. According to a source familiar with the investigation, authorities believe the illegal aliens boarded the train near Spofford, Texas, mistakenly believing the train to be headed north, into the U.S. interior. Instead, the sealed train car made its way from Spofford to Laredo, a distance of more than 100 miles, as temperatures exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit over the weekend. The train originated in California with a destination of Laredo. Family members of the suspected illegal aliens notified U.S. authorities that their relatives were missing, according to the source.

FOX News [5/13/2026 3:58 PM, Alexandra Koch, Brooke Taylor, 37576K] reports Texas officials announced six illegal immigrants were found dead Monday inside a shipping container along the southern border, and officials pointed to extreme heat as the likely cause. The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed three men, one woman and a 14-year-old boy were found dead at the Union Pacific Railyard in North Laredo. The sixth person has not yet been positively identified. Investigators said the deceased originated from Mexico and Honduras. After initial examinations, authorities determined the 29-year-old woman died of hyperthermia. While formal medical exams for the remaining five people are pending, officials said it is "highly probable" hyperthermia was the cause of death for the entire group. The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office is working in close coordination with the Mexican Consulate to contact the migrants’ families, confirm the final identity and assist with the repatriation process.

Telemundo Amarillo [5/13/2026 5:35 PM, Staff, 2K] reports Border Patrol agents found 15 people locked inside a shelter near Laredo, according to authorities. The investigation began after agents stopped a human smuggling attempt and arrested three undocumented migrants inside a vehicle, the Border Patrol said. That investigation led agents and other law enforcement agencies to a clandestine house, where 15 more people were arrested. According to the Border Patrol, these people were locked inside the house and being held against their will. The Border Patrol released images of the house where, according to agents, several undocumented migrants were being held.

Univision [5/13/2026 3:15 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports families have identified three more migrants who were traveling in a train car and died from a suspected heat stroke in Laredo, Texas. The new identifications are those of Nelson Davian Portillo Martínez, 14 years old, Honduran; and Nereo Aguilar García and Carlos Álvarez, both Mexicans. There are still 3 more victims to be identified. The Department of Homeland Security announced that it is investigating the tragedy as a possible case of human smuggling. Six migrants died from a suspected heat stroke while being transported in a train car on May 10 in Laredo, Texas. Another immigrant who was traveling on the same train was found dead in San Antonio, Texas, where the train originated, after having left Del Rio.

Univision [5/13/2026 2:42 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports "I just got on the train to San Antonio." Those words, sent by text message shortly before contact was lost forever, now mark the beginning of mourning for a family in Boerne, a town in Texas that today is trying to process a deeply painful tragedy that occurred on a train heading south. Reyes Ramirez has been formally identified as one of the seven people who died last week from extreme heatstroke while traveling hidden in a freight car of a train that covers the San Antonio route; the discovery was in the vicinity of Laredo. Carlos Reyes died alongside five other people who have been identified as Mexicans and Hondurans, who were between 14 and 56 years old; the youngest, Nelson Davian Portillo, was originally from the department of Atlántida in Honduras and was traveling alone looking to return to Atlanta. Alongside these events, an investigation has been opened into the human trafficking network that may be responsible for this incident.

Telemundo [5/13/2026 5:25 PM, Staff, 2524K] reports Venezuelan doctor Rubeliz Bolívar was released Wednesday from an immigration detention center in Texas, as confirmed by Noticias Telemundo. A judge had ruled that the doctor should be released on bail. Bolívar had been detained for a month at the center after being arrested while trying to board a plane with her 5-year-old daughter at McAllen Airport. He added that now, according to Bolívar’s lawyers, the only option left is to appeal to the authorities and dispute his assertion that he had violated the terms of his visa. On April 16, Venezuelan doctor Ezequiel Véliz was also released after being arrested by Border Patrol agents on April 6 while traveling with his husband, his family confirmed to Noticias Telemundo. Véliz, 32, had been detained at a checkpoint in Texas for allegedly violating the terms of his visa, his family reported, who did not even know where he was being held. The doctor had entered the United States legally, but lost his work permit when his immigration status expired while he was trying to renew his visa. He was detained despite explaining that he was in the process of regularizing his status and that he was married to a U.S. citizen, his family said.

New York Times [5/13/2026 7:10 PM, Max Bearak, 148038K] reports a feud between the federal government and a Catholic diocese in New Mexico escalated over the past week when the Department of Homeland Security moved to seize church land along the U.S.-Mexico border to build a little over a mile of “border barrier.” The land is on the lower slopes of Mount Cristo Rey, a rugged mountain on the border just west of El Paso, Texas. It has a 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ at its summit, some 720 feet up. Each fall, the site attracts thousands of pilgrims who celebrate the feast day of Christ the King. The dispute is the latest episode in which environmental groups, private landowners, immigrant advocacy organizations and local governments, among others, have tried to block the federal government from using eminent domain to build border fencing. The public opponents to building more barriers along the border, particularly in areas with natural or religious significance, have claimed a small number of successes in recent months, including the removal of plans for a physical barrier in Big Bend National Park. In a court filing last Friday, the diocese said the Justice Department’s seizure of its land, though taken with compensation to the church, would impinge on the constitutionally protected right to religious freedom of members of the diocese and religious pilgrims. In the late 1930s, the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, acting on the wishes of a local parish priest, commissioned a Spanish-born sculptor, Urbici Soler, to design the statue of Jesus atop the mountain, which is in Sunland Park, N.M., just a few miles from El Paso. The 14-acre strip of land along the border on the mountain’s southern slope is the only stretch in the El Paso area without a barrier. Border Patrol officials have said the gap provides human smugglers a corridor to bring undocumented migrants into the United States. The region around El Paso and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico has long been a major hub for smugglers and undocumented immigrants trying to cross the border, though the number of migrants encountered by Border Patrol has fallen dramatically under the Trump administration.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [5/13/2026 5:20 PM, Trevor Hughes, Lauren Villagran, 70643K]

Breitbart [5/13/2026 9:10 AM, Randy Clark, 2238K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has confirmed to Breitbart Texas that two fugitives from Mexico have been arrested recently as a result of intense international collaboration with authorities in Mexico. In two separate sting operations, Border Patrol agents from the San Diego Sector nabbed the pair of fugitives who were wanted in Mexico for serious criminal offenses, including kidnapping, extortion, and homicide. According to CBP, the arrests are a testament to robust international collaboration between law enforcement agencies in Mexico and the U.S. Border Patrol agents operating in the San Diego area. The pair of arrests of foreign fugitives occurred in late April and early May. Both individuals, who remain unnamed by CBP, were residing illegally in the United States at the time of their arrests. The San Diego Union Tribune [5/13/2026 5:42 PM, Staff, 1257K] reports The first arrest occurred April 29 in El Cajon. Agents from the Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector arrested a man who was in the country illegally and was wanted in Mexico for kidnapping and extortion, according to the agency. The suspect, a former Mexican law enforcement officer, was processed for a pending immigration hearing and a transfer to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. On May 5, agents in San Diego arrested a non-U.S. citizen with a revoked visa, who was wanted in Mexico on suspicion of homicide and was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, the agency stated. Agents arrested him at his residence without incident and turned him over to Mexican federal officials at a port of entry.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [5/13/2026 6:33 PM, Staff, 56K]

FOX News [5/13/2026 5:04 PM, Leo Briceno, 37576K] reports Customs and Border Protection (CBP) worked with local authorities to foil California’s sanctuary city policies and took into custody a gang member from Mexico who concluded a 12-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. Local law enforcement in southern California handed over Valentin Galvez-Quintero, a member of the Sureños-13 gang, over to federal agents outside the John J. Benoit Detention Center immediately after concluding his sentence last week, according to CBP. The apprehension contrasts sharply with sanctuary city policies that have thrown up roadblocks for federal-state coordination. It also highlights the payoff that could happen with the types of partnerships the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hoped to build with local authorities during President Donald Trump’s administration. Galvez-Quintero was first deported in 2014 by an immigration judge but was apprehended in the U.S. twice in 2015 under the Obama Administration. In addition to the second-degree murder conviction, Galvez-Quintero’s criminal history includes felony possession of a firearm, taking a vehicle without consent, battery and providing false identification to an officer. Galvez-Quintero won’t be deported immediately as he faces federal prosecution for reentry after deportation, according to CBP. If he is sentenced, he will serve a sentence in federal prison.

NewsMax [5/13/2026 12:00 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports White House counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka accused China of intentionally fueling America’s fentanyl epidemic as part of what he called a modern-day "Opium War" against the United States. In an interview Monday with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine ahead of President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing, Gorka said China is using fentanyl to weaken America from within. "They see our city on a hill as the newest version of the British Empire, and it is now payback time for the Opium Wars," Gorka said. "Many have said that, and I think there is something to that. "This is about how do you take down a Goliath? What is the slingshot?" he added. "Some people say fentanyl is the slingshot." Gorka pointed to China as the primary source of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, which has ravaged communities across the United States and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. "We have one nation, China, that is providing the precursors to those weapons of mass destruction, which the president has designated as such," he said. "This isn’t recreational drugs causing accidental deaths; this isn’t something to do with the empty souls in America. This is a targeted killing of Americans," Gorka continued. "When you are flooding millions of pills into America disguised as recreational drugs like ecstasy, but in fact each one is a lethal dose of fentanyl, that’s not the regular drug problem," he added. "That’s war by other means."

Reported similarly:
New York Post [5/13/2026 6:00 AM, Steven Nelson and Miranda Devine, 40934K]

Washington Examiner [5/13/2026 11:48 AM, Rena Rowe, 1147K] reports President Donald Trump is facing pressure to confront Chinese President Xi Jinping over illegal Chinese-made vaping products being sold in the United States, as the two world leaders hold diplomatic talks this week. Moms for America Action, a conservative parental advocacy group, said Chinese-made disposable e-cigarettes have fueled youth nicotine addiction in the United States and accused Beijing of allowing illegal products to flow into the country. The organization pointed to the growing popularity of disposable vaping brands such as Geek Bar, Elf Bar, and Lost Mary, which have faced scrutiny from federal regulators over marketing authorization concerns. "It’s a multibillion-dollar industry, and China specifically is profiting off of it, so it’s not just a health concern," said Emily Stack, executive director of Moms for America Action, in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "It becomes a national security concern as well." Stack said the group wants Trump to directly confront Beijing over what it describes as the role of Chinese manufacturing and exports in fueling the U.S. illicit vape market. "We are aware that you are profiting off and doing harm to children, and if you want to have a good working relationship with America going forward, this is something we are very concerned about and will be cracking down on in our country," she said, describing the message she believes should be delivered to Chinese leadership. The group argues that stronger coordination between federal agencies, Customs and Border Protection, and local authorities is necessary to address what it describes as a fast-moving illicit trade network. "The federal and local levels are going to need to work together," she said.

News Max [5/13/2026 1:24 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports that Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that the Secret Service needs to be "cleaned up" after what she described as repeated security failures involving President Donald Trump and other protectees. Blackburn, appearing on Newsmax’s "National Report," questioned the agency’s security protocols and training standards after what she called a third assassination attempt tied to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. "I think what we have learned is that they have been incomplete in some of their assessments for how they protect not only President Trump and his family, but the other protectees," Blackburn said. Blackburn pointed to security concerns surrounding the annual Washington event and raised questions about how an unauthorized individual allegedly gained access to a restricted area. "If you take the situation, the third assassination attempt there at the White House Correspondents Dinner, you have to ask the questions," she said. "Why was the stairwell not locked off? How was anybody who was not a guest at that dinner able to get into that area of the hotel?". Blackburn also questioned if Secret Service agents properly monitored surveillance footage before establishing security checkpoints at the venue. Blackburn said the incidents reflect broader problems n the agency, including concerns about political bias and inadequate training among personnel tasked with protecting high-profile officials.

New York Post [5/13/2026 6:00 AM, Josh Christenson, 40934K] reports White House official Sebastian Gorka revealed in an interview on "Pod Force One" that President Trump has left Vice President JD Vance precise instructions should he ever have to succeed him during the second term. Gorka, who has led the Trump administration’s counterterrorism strategy, told The Post’s Miranda Devine in a new episode, out Wednesday, that he has no concerns about the 47th president being targeted in an assassination attempt by a foreign adversary. But the counterterrorism czar noted that there are rules for the succession that would be followed if China — or another malign actor — were able to "take him out." "There is a letter in the drawer in the Resolute Desk that is addressed to the vice president should something happen to him," Gorka said. "We have protocols, trust me. Not ones I can discuss, but we have protocols." Trump in January said he’s left "very firm instructions" for Iran to be "blown up" if the US adversary makes good on threats to assassinate him — but didn’t mention any note to Vance located in the Oval Office. "I’ve left notification," the president told NewsNation’s "Katie Pavlich Tonight" in response to death threats from Iran, "[if] anything ever happens, we’re going to blow the – the whole country is going to get blown up."

Federalist [5/13/2026 7:15 AM, Brianna Lyman, 540K] reports three weeks ago a gunman armed with multiple firearms burst through security lines at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to try and assassinate President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet. But according to 34 percent of Democrats, that assassination attempt was staged. In fact, that assassination attempt was only the latest staged attempt — if you ask some Democrats. A NewsGuard/YouGov poll found 30 percent of Americans "believe that at least one of the three attempts on President Donald Trump’s life over the last two years was staged." When broken down by party affiliation, 34 percent of Democrats said the WHCA dinner was staged. Forty-two percent of Democrats say the Butler assassination attempt — in which Trump was visibly hit and bleeding and in which Corey Comperatore was murdered — was staged. Twenty-six percent of Democrats say the attempted assassination that took place just weeks after Butler, in which Ryan Routh tried to assassinate the president on his golf course, was also staged. Thirteen percent of Republicans said the White House Correspondents’ Dinner assassination attempt was staged, while 7 percent said both the Butler and Routh attempts were staged.

Washington Post [5/13/2026 6:39 PM, Joe Heim and Emily Davies, 24826K] reports the July 4 celebration on the National Mall has been given the highest-level security designation, an unusual step for Independence Day that will unlock the full weight of local and federal law enforcement resources. The move, disclosed at a news briefing Wednesday by D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah, will flood Washington with law enforcement personnel and equipment around the series of events planned by the Trump administration and affiliated groups to mark America’s 250th birthday. The National Special Security Event (NSSE) designation, made by the Department of Homeland Security, is typically given to events deemed potential targets for terrorism or other criminal activity, such as the State of the Union address, presidential inaugurations or visits by world leaders. The NSSE designation typically puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating all security. “The decision is based, in part, on the event’s significance, size and attendees,” a Secret Service spokesperson said in an email. “Designating an event an NSSE allows for considerable resources from the federal government, as well as vital assistance from state and local partners, to be used to force multiply all available security resources.” The spokesperson said increased security measures will be in place in the days leading up to, during and immediately following the event. The planning process is ongoing and specific steps will be released closer to the event.

Reuters [5/13/2026 3:04 PM, Staff, 38315K] reports that the U.S. Coast ‌Guard has finalized a $3.5 billion contract ⁠with Davie Defense for the construction and delivery of ‌five ⁠Arctic security cutters, the Department of ⁠Homeland Security said ⁠in a ⁠statement on Wednesday. The Washington Examiner [5/13/2026 3:25 PM, Mike Brest, 1147K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard announced on Wednesday that it doled out a $3.5 billion contract to Davie Defense to build and deliver a new class of five Arctic Security Cutters over roughly the next decade. Two of the five new cutters will be built at the Helsinki Shipyard in Finland, while the other three will be built at Gulf Copper facilities in Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas. The first of the five cutters is scheduled for delivery in 2028, while all five are expected to be completed by February 2035. The contracts had been initially awarded back in February, though that was essentially a preliminary agreement while all final details were negotiated, which have now been finalized. The service has agreed to two other Arctic Security Cutters agreements — one with Rauma Marine Constructions of Rauma, Finland, for two cutters and another with Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana, for four additional cutters — though those have yet to be finalized.

Reported similarly:
DefenseNews [5/13/2026 4:23 PM, Claire Barrett]

Defense Post [5/13/2026 8:12 AM, Giulia Bernacchi, 202K] reports that Saildrone is deploying 16 Voyager uncrewed surface vessels to support US Coast Guard operations in the Great Lakes and along the Northeast coast under a $15.5-million contract. Designed to strengthen maritime surveillance, the deployment expands coverage across the US northern maritime approaches. The area includes long coastlines, busy waterways with Canada, and remote North Atlantic waters that are difficult to monitor continuously with crewed patrol vessels alone. According to the company, the deployment builds on earlier operations involving Saildrone systems since 2023. Those missions included counter-narcotics operations, migrant interdiction, search-and-rescue support, and monitoring illegal and unregulated fishing activity. In the Great Lakes, the systems are expected to support monitoring of vessel movement across the US-Canada maritime border, where the geography, traffic density, and seasonal operating conditions complicate persistent surveillance. Along the Northeast coast, the focus includes fisheries monitoring in North Atlantic waters, where enforcement coverage can be limited by distance and operating costs. The Saildrone Voyager is a 33-foot (10-meter) platform designed for long-endurance maritime surveillance missions. It carries maritime domain awareness payloads, including radar, electro-optical imaging systems, and automatic identification system receivers used to detect and track vessel traffic.

Reuters [5/13/2026 7:58 PM, Steve Gorman, 38315K] reports all 11 people aboard a private airplane that crashed at sea off central Florida survived the wreck and were rescued from their ‌lifeboat hours later by a U.S. Air Force Reserve team, U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force officials said on Wednesday. "For all those people to survive is pretty miraculous," Air Force Major Elizabeth Piowaty, commander of one of the aircraft involved in the rescue, told reporters at a news briefing a day after Tuesday’s crash. The ill-fated plane, a twin-engine turboprop flying from the Bahamas with 11 adults on board, ⁠went down in the Atlantic about 80 miles (129 km) off Melbourne, Florida, activating an emergency locator signal that was picked up by the Coast Guard. Piowaty’s HC-130J Combat King II, a plane designed for combat search and rescue, was already airborne on a training mission when the search was initiated, and her crew immediately joined the operation, according to the Coast Guard. The major said her team spotted the life raft as a thunderstorm was approaching and dropped a package of food, water and additional flotation to sustain the survivors until rescuers could reach them in the water. By then the survivors "had already been in the raft for about five hours, and we ‌could tell ⁠just by looking at them they were in distress, physically, mentally, emotionally," Air Force Captain Rory Whipple, one of the pararescuers, recalled at the briefing. The survivors ultimately were hoisted to safety by the crew of a hovering rescue helicopter, dispatched from the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing from a base near Melbourne, and were flown to Melbourne Orlando International ⁠Airport for medical attention, officials said. Whipple said the crew managed to get all 11 survivors into the helicopter with nine hoists, completing the rescue with just five minutes of fuel left before they would have reached the point of needing to ⁠refuel mid-air or land immediately. Air Force and Coast Guard officials said they had no immediate information about the extent of injuries and medical conditions of the survivors. Bahamian authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, but ⁠the aircraft was reported to have experienced engine failure, according to the Coast Guard. The agency said the plane reportedly left Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas and was headed for Freeport on Grand Bahama Island, a distance of about 100 miles.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [5/13/2026 9:01 PM, Hannah Ziegler, 148038K]
NBC News [5/13/2026 12:05 PM, David K. Li, 42967K]
USA Today [5/13/2026 3:12 PM, Natalie Neysa Alund and J.D. Gallop, 70643K]

CBS News [5/13/2026 10:21 PM, Steven Yablonski, 51110K] reports members of the U.S. military who helped to rescue 11 people who were on board a plane that crashed about 80 miles off the east coast of Florida on Tuesday spoke about the dramatic incident and said it was "miraculous" that no major injuries were reported. The nail-biting incident took place about 80 miles off the coast of Melbourne, Florida, which is about 175 miles north of Miami. Military officials said an emergency locator transmitter signal from a twin-engine turboprop airplane had alerted the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast District watchstanders to a potential distress situation around 11 a.m. Tuesday, and a rescue operation was soon launched. At the time the alert was received, a 920th Rescue Wing HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter crew had already been airborne conducting a training mission at the time and was redirected to assist in the search and rescue effort. A Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater C-27 Spartan aircrew and an HC-130J Combat King II aircrew from Patrick Space Force Base also assisted with the rescue. "We got notification from their (Emergency Locator Transmitter) beacon, and that was all the information that was relayed to us at the time," Maj. Elizabeth Piowaty, aircraft commander on the HC-130J Combat King II, said during a news conference Wednesday. She said the ELT sends a signal when there’s a potential issue. "It’s a certain amount of impact when it hits land or water," Piowaty said. "It can trigger that sensor, which will go off and give notifications." The 11 Bahamian adults were eventually spotted on a life raft floating in the ocean, and the military said their survival was "miraculous." "They had already been in the raft for about five hours," Capt. Rory Whipple said. "You could tell just by looking at them that they were in distress. Physically, mentally and emotionally." He said they train for situations like that all the time, so for them it was "just another day at work." But for those who survived the crash, it wasn’t. "Dehydration is probably, like, the biggest threat to them," Whipple said of their possible injuries. "Also, it was a plane crash. So, possibly any kind of injuries." It was likely an emotional time for the survivors. "They didn’t have communication," he said. "They didn’t even know we were coming (to rescue them) until we were directly overhead." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
AP [5/13/2026 7:12 PM, Gene Johnson, 35287K]

CyberScoop [5/13/2026 11:59 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports the House Homeland Security Committee is digging into Anthropic’s AI model Mythos in a series of briefings and hearings, as questions proliferate on whether and how the federal government will make use of the technology touted for its ability to autonomously uncover cyber vulnerabilities. Wednesday brought a closed-door briefing for the House Homeland Security Committee from Anthropic. The chairman of the panel’s cybersecurity subcommittee said he is planning to hold a hearing on the topic. And committee Democrats are requesting a classified briefing with Anthropic. A committee aide who attended the briefing said it included a live demonstration of Mythos, “allowing members to see firsthand how advanced AI can identify and reason through software vulnerabilities. What we saw reinforced the urgency of ensuring that federal agencies, including our civilian cyber defenders, can responsibly access and deploy the most advanced U.S. models to find and patch vulnerabilities before foreign adversaries or criminal actors exploit them.” A number of key lawmakers, including top committee Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and GOP cyber subcommittee chair Andy Ogles of Tennessee, told CyberScoop they weren’t able to attend Wednesday’s briefing. A second source who attended said it was a “productive” meeting. “Members on both sides were focused on preserving U.S. advantage in AI, which basically came down to preserving our edge on compute power,” the source said. “They were also asking questions about whether the federal government was using Mythos, including about where CISA is and the impact of the supply chain risk designation.”

Bloomberg [5/13/2026 3:22 PM, Jordan Robertson, 18082K] reports Alphabet Inc.’s Google said this week that hackers used artificial intelligence to help build a cybercrime tool, marking an unusually authoritative look at the abuse of AI models. The company’s disclosure was remarkable because it revealed that an unnamed cybercrime group had used an AI model to construct a so-called zero-day exploit. That’s a particularly dangerous hacking weapon only known to the attackers — thus giving cyber personnel zero days to fix it. But Google’s threat intelligence team also described other examples that prove how AI is already helping attackers up their game. The trend is manifesting outside Google’s investigations, too.

Bloomberg [5/13/2026 1:24 PM, Shweta Watwe, 763K] reports that victims of real-world violence inflicted at the hands of heavy ChatGPT users are forcing courts to evaluate whether developers can be held responsible when chatbot use leads to tragedy. OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman were hit with multiple lawsuits last month from the families of victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting in Canada, alleging that chief suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar used ChatGPT to plan the attack. The complaints turn on the product liability theory that ChatGPT was defectively designed, OpenAI was negligent, and that OpenAI should have notified authorities about the alleged shooter’s plans. The new suits are emblematic of the growing tension between rapidly developing technology and a public cry for accountability as unforeseen harms manifest. AI isn’t "going away and it’s kind of an arms race as all these company are trying to get market share," said Lee Paris, a partner at Davis Goldman PLLC. "Are they cutting safety corners to get to the top?". The questions are when the does the company cross the line from hosting content to encouraging a person to take the next step or suggesting an action, and when does it have an obligation to review and possibly report the activity, he said. "We’re not going to send a computer to jail, but the bots are manufactured and owned by companies with human beings who are making a lot of money and creating the product," said Carrie Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg PLLC. "If humans are creating technology without the safeguards for the content that the bots are producing, then the manufacturer has to be responsible for that content," she said.

NewsMax [5/13/2026 10:21 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] reports Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is running for governor, received a "manifesto" deemed to be a "credible threat on his life," according to his campaign. The threat emerged just as Raffensperger’s campaign event Tuesday at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon was disrupted by a suspicious object discovered inside a vending machine, prompting a bomb squad response and temporary evacuation. Authorities later determined no hazardous devices were present, but law enforcement officials continue investigating whether the incidents are connected, The New York Times reported. Campaign spokesman Ryan Mahoney said the threat came in the form of a handwritten, multipage manifesto mailed to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [5/13/2026 10:50 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] r

San Francisco Chronicle [5/13/2026 7:43 PM, Aldo Toledo, 3833K] reports a Texas man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been indicted on federal charges by a grand jury, court records show. Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, was charged by the grand jury on Tuesday for possessing an unregistered destructive device and attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives, according to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The indictment doesn’t identify the victim or company targeted, instead referring to Altman and OpenAI as “Victim-1” and “Company-1.” Prosecutors allege that Moreno-Gama, who lives near Houston, targeted Altman’s Russian Hill home and later OpenAI’s headquarters in Mission Bay on April 10. The alleged attacks drew national attention and underscored growing security concerns for AI executives, amid fears of the technology’s rapid expansion. Moreno-Gama allegedly threw the Molotov cocktail at one of Altman’s residences at about 3:37 a.m., igniting a fire on the driveway gate, according to the indictment. About an hour and a half later, prosecutors say Moreno-Gama showed up at OpenAI’s headquarters in Mission Bay carrying a bottle of kerosene and a lighter. Moreno-Gama then smashed the building’s glass entrance with a chair and told an employee he intended to burn the place down, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors allege Moreno-Gama possessed an unregistered destructive device and he is accused of maliciously attempting to destroy a building used in interstate and foreign commerce through fire and explosives, according to the indictment. Moreno-Gama was described by investigators and prosecutors as a motivated anti-AI activist who frequently wrote about his fears about AI and his hostility toward executives who run AI companies, like Altman. Last week, Moreno-Gama pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and attempted arson in state court, and could face penalties ranging from 19 years to life in state prison. If convicted, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 10 to 20 years for his federal charges. Moreno-Gama’s defense attorney, Diamond Ward, has argued the incident stemmed from a mental health crisis rather than a genuine intent to kill. He remains in custody.

Daily Wire [5/13/2026 1:29 PM, Drew Berkemeyer, 2314K] reports that a report alleging that the Central Intelligence Agency may have played a role in the killing of a Mexican cartel operative has raised new questions about the scope of the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive campaign against transnational drug cartels. On Tuesday, CNN reported — citing multiple anonymous sources — that CIA officers may have helped facilitate the March 28 killing of Francisco Beltran, an alleged mid-level operative linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. Beltran, known by the alias “El Payin,” was killed when an explosive device detonated inside his vehicle while he was traveling on a major highway outside Mexico City. The blast also killed his driver. According to the report, the strike was allegedly part of a previously unreported expansion of covert U.S. operations inside Mexico, with the CIA’s elite Ground Branch taking part in efforts to dismantle cartel infrastructure. The report claimed that in recent months, agency personnel have participated in several operations targeting cartel figures, sometimes providing intelligence support and, in some cases, allegedly playing a more direct role in lethal actions. Those claims, however, remain based entirely on anonymous sourcing and have been disputed by officials on both sides of the border. The CIA issued a rare public denial after publication, with spokeswoman Liz Lyons calling the story “false and salacious reporting.” The Mexican government also moved quickly to reject the allegations. Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said in a public statement on X that Mexico “categorically rejects any version that seeks to normalize, justify, or suggest the existence of lethal, covert, or unilateral operations by foreign agencies on national territory.”

Washington Examiner [5/13/2026 1:06 PM, Gabrielle M. Etzel, 1147K] reports a two-decade veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency told the Senate on Wednesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former White House COVID-19 adviser, was involved in pushing the national security community into publicly saying the COVID-19 pandemic had a natural origin instead of coming from a lab leak. James Erdman, a career CIA operations officer, told the Senate homeland security committee that Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was involved in shaping the intelligence community report on the virus’s origin to fit the narrative that it had a natural origin. More than 1 million Americans died during the pandemic following the emergence of the novel coronavirus from Wuhan, China, in late 2019. Republicans in Congress, particularly Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY), have investigated whether the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China as a result of a lab leak, as opposed to China’s official narrative of an animal-to-human spillover event. No Democrats participated in the hearing, which was called by Paul and the Republican majority.

Wall Street Journal [5/13/2026 6:53 PM, James T. Areddy, 646K] reports a federal jury convicted a U.S. citizen on Wednesday of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for his part in establishing a police station in New York on behalf of Chinese authorities, the government’s second win this week alleging Americans secretly worked for Beijing. The Brooklyn jury found Lu Jianwang guilty on one of two federal counts related to acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China and one count of obstructing justice by destroying evidence. Prosecutors said Lu conspired with officials in China’s Ministry of Public Security to open a police station in a Manhattan Chinatown community center where he held a leadership role. The outpost allowed people to interface with police officers in the eastern Chinese city of Fuzhou to handle bureaucratic tasks like renewing driver’s licenses, though the jury also heard allegations from prosecutors that Chinese authorities piggybacked on it to achieve their political goals on American soil. In denying the charges, Lu’s lawyers emphasized that the outpost he established almost exclusively helped Chinese citizens renew their driver’s licenses when travel to China was made difficult by the Covid pandemic. The defense compared the setup to an American department of vehicles. The Justice Department argued that to satisfy the foreign-agent charges, it didn’t matter what services Lu might have provided.

FOX News [5/13/2026 12:47 PM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports that outrage is snowballing after it was uncovered that a California mayor who just stepped down after admitting to acting as a Chinese agent appears to have donated to Democrats, including a sitting congresswoman. As President Donald Trump visits China for a diplomatic mission with world leaders, Eileen Wang, mayor of Arcadia, California, agreed to plead guilty to acting as an agent for the Chinese government. The admission sparked concerns about foreign infiltration in local government. Now, allegations that Wang donated to Democrats at the federal level are raising broader national security concerns. According to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing for Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., an Eileen Wang of Arcadia, California, donated $1,000 and $175 to her campaign in October and November 2022, according to a Fox News Digital review. Chu sits on the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Budget. Further, FEC filings show several small $5, $10 and $25 donations earmarked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) via ActBlue in 2024. In response, Bernadette Breslin, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), ripped into the Democrats, calling the donations evidence of "malign Chinese influence operating within their own ranks." Breslin told Fox News Digital that "Senate Republicans are holding Democrats accountable for the malign Chinese influence operating within their own ranks and the CCP-linked money flowing into their campaigns." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [5/13/2026 9:31 AM, Rick Jervis, Kim Hjelmgaard, Francesca Chambers, and Ramon Padilla, 70643K] reports the voice in the recording is tense, fuzzy and hard to make out amid a riot of background chatter. Inmates yell to one another in Spanish. Someone slams a door. Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, 42, hunched over the phone in a hallway inside Kilo 8, a maximum-security prison in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, recounting the past few weeks. On April 15, five days after U.S. and Cuban officials held secret talks and delivered an ultimatum in Havana, two Cuban state security agents visited Castillo in his jail cell, according to audio recordings of phone calls with inmates obtained by USA TODAY. The agents made him an offer: Leave Cuba or stay in prison. The next day, they made the same offer to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, at his maximum-security prison in Guanajay, southwest of Havana. The Cubans were on notice. US officials told them on April 10 they had two weeks to free political prisoners as a measure of goodwill, USA TODAY previously reported. Both agreed to be exiled. The deadline came and went. Both remain behind bars. Now, Castillo and Otero – and at least a dozen other political prisoners languishing in Cuban prisons – are at the center of high-stakes negotiations between U.S. and Cuban officials that could reshape future relations between the Cold War foes.

Washington Post [5/13/2026 1:57 PM, Noah Robertson, 24826K] reports that the Senate on Wednesday rejected a Democratic-led measure to halt the war in Iran, in a sign of durable Republican support for the military campaign even after the lapsing of the legal deadline for the Trump administration to receive lawmakers’ approval to continue it. The resolution, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), failed by a vote of 50 to 49, with three Republicans joining nearly all Democrats in supporting the measure. The vote marked the latest setback for congressional Democrats, who have pledged to continue bringing the war powers measures to the floor even though each of them has failed. “We’re going to force this vote every week until the Senate says we shouldn’t be at war. And I do believe that day is coming,” Sen. Tim Kaine (Virginia), one of the Democrats leading the effort, told reporters Wednesday. The War Powers Resolution — a Vietnam-era law that mandates congressional authorization for any declaration of armed conflict — requires the administration to end hostilities after 60 days of fighting unless Congress gives its explicit approval. Wednesday’s vote is the first time lawmakers have considered a bill to end the Iran war since that deadline passed earlier this month. Kaine said Wednesday that some of his Republican colleagues who initially supported the war have said that they would reconsider their position after two months elapsed.

Reuters [5/14/2026 4:47 AM, Staff, 38315K] reports Russia is establishing a "full-fledged partnership" with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and is encouraging other countries in the region to expand cooperation with ‌Kabul, a senior Russian security official was quoted on Thursday as saying. Russia last year became the first country to formally recognise the Islamist Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a ⁠chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. Interfax news agency quoted Russian official Sergei Shoigu as saying cooperation with Kabul was important for the security and development of the region. Shoigu, who is secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Moscow was building a "pragmatic dialogue" with the Taliban that included security, trade, culture and humanitarian support. He ‌was ⁠speaking at a meeting with his counterparts from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a 10-member grouping that includes China, India, Iran, Pakistan and a number of ex-Soviet states. The SCO should revive its ⁠contact group with Afghanistan, Shoigu added.

New York Times [5/13/2026 11:12 AM, Anton Troianovski, 148038K] reports that President Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday for two days of meetings with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in the first trip to China by a U.S. president since Mr. Trump visited in 2017 during his first term. The balance of power between the United States and China has shifted in the years since then. Last year China forced the United States to back down from steep tariffs by limiting Chinese exports of minerals that U.S. industry needs. Trump’s global ambitions also have been somewhat hobbled by his struggle to secure a peace deal with Iran. Mr. Trump descended the stairs from Air Force One at Beijing’s Capital International Airport just after 8 p.m. and was greeted by China’s vice president, Han Zheng, and other officials, as well as a military honor guard. Men and women dressed in blue and white waved Chinese and American flags. The meetings were expected to begin on Thursday morning in Beijing, which will be late Wednesday night in Washington. Mr. Trump was joined on the trip by his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, along with a delegation of business leaders that includes Elon Musk of Tesla, Jensen Huang of the chip giant Nvidia and Tim Cook, the soon-to-retire chief of Apple. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also part of the U.S. delegation, was the chief negotiator with China during the preparations for the talks, an indication of how central trade and economic issues are expected to be in the coming days.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [5/13/2026 8:45 AM, Julia Manchester, 18170K]
AP [5/13/2026 9:30 AM, Aamer Madhani, Will Weissert, and Josh Boak, 34146K]
CBS News [5/13/2026 10:37 AM, Kathryn Watson, 51110K]

AP [5/13/2026 10:25 AM, Michelle Chapman, 12718K] reports that Prominent U.S. executives from Big Tech and Wall Street to agriculture and aerospace are joining President Donald Trump on his trip to China this week. Trumparrived in Beijing Wednesday to meet with President Xi Jinping. Aside from discussions about Iran, the two leaders are expected to discuss trade and artificial intelligence. Here’s a look at some of the executives, according to the White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Elon Musk: Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, led Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency until leaving in the spring of 2025 before the controversial pop-up agency was shuttered in November. Musk traveled to China on Air Force One with Trump. Tim Cook: Cook remains busy as his tenure at Apple winds down. The CEO announced last month that his 15-year reign as the head of the technology company will come to an end on Sept. 1, when he turns the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang heads to Beijing just months after the company received approval to sell one of its powerful AI chips to China, with conditions. Huang also traveled aboard Air Force One with Trump to China. Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, a former CEO at aerospace manufacturer Rockwell Collins, became CEO of Boeing in 2024. Blackrock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink. Blackstone Chairman, CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman. Cargill Chairman and CEO Brian Sikes. Citi Chairman and CEO Jane Fraser. Coherent CEO Jim Anderson. GE Aerospace Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp. Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon. Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen. Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach. Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick. Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney.

Washington Examiner [5/13/2026 11:28 AM, Brady Knox, 1147K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is sanctioned by Beijing and officially unable to enter China but is allowed under a linguistic quirk of Mandarin. Rubio was sanctioned during his time in the Senate over his hawkish stance on China and work addressing human rights in China. Shortly after he was named secretary of state, however, analysts noted that the Chinese government and official media began spelling his name differently. The first character of his transcribed surname was changed, going from ‘卢比奥’ (Lǔ Bǐ’ào) to ‘鲁比奥’ (Lǔ Bǐ’ào), according to the Chosun Daily. Two diplomats told the AFP that the change was to take advantage of a legal loophole because Rubio was only banned under the previous name. Beijing didn’t address the change when asked. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told Chinese media last year that she "had not noticed it but would look into it.” In more recent comments, Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said Rubio wouldn’t be blocked from entering China, as the sanctions were over his actions toward China while he was a senator. Rubio further drew attention on the flight to China over his choice of outfit — a grey Nike tracksuit resembling the same one former Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro was wearing when he was captured from Caracas by U.S. Delta Force commandos.

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