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 [5/1/2026 7:33 PM, Jake Offenhartz and Michael R. Sisak, 3760K] reports a federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from forcing about 3,000 Yemeni refugees to leave the U.S., ruling that Temporary Protected Status repeatedly granted to them and due to expire Monday should be extended again. Judge Dale E. Ho in Manhattan extended the status temporarily while a lawsuit seeking to preserve the protections plays out. In an emergency order, he wrote that people granted the status are ordinary, law-abiding people who the U.S. government had determined could face threats to their safety if they were returned to a country facing an ongoing armed conflict. Amid its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status for people from nine countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Ethiopia. Before Ho’s ruling, protections for Yemeni refugees were set to end on Monday, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. People with Temporary Protected Status are eligible to remain in the U.S., may not be removed from the country, and are able to receive work and travel authorization. In his ruling, Ho criticized former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying Congress had established a process for Temporary Protected Status to be altered or rescinded, but she had not followed it. He was particularly critical of a social media message she sent out in early December in which she said she had just met with President Donald Trump and was recommending a full travel ban “on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.” On Feb. 13, he noted, Noem announced in a news release that Temporary Protected Status would be terminated for Yemen, finding that letting them stay in the U.S. was “contrary to our national interest.” He noted that among 2,810 Yemenis who hold TPS status and another 425 who have applied were a pregnant 33-year-old Detroit woman due to give birth this month whose unborn child has a congenital heart condition that is not treatable in Yemen and a 50-year-old former human rights worker in Brooklyn who is a target of Houthi-aligned militias in Yemen. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from activist judges legislating from the bench,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. The New York Times [5/1/2026 8:34 PM, Ana Ley and Ashley Ahn, 148038K] reports that the T.P.S. holders from Yemen are not ‘killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,’” Judge Ho wrote in the decision. “They are ordinary, law-abiding people who have been granted status to be here because the government has repeatedly determined, in accordance with the T.P.S. statute, that Yemen is subject to an ongoing armed conflict, and that, due to that conflict, requiring them to return would pose a serious threat to their safety.” In March, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Center for Constitutional Rights sued the U.S. government on behalf of seven Yemeni nationals after Kristi Noem, then the homeland security secretary, announced Yemen’s removal from the T.P.S. program. The plaintiffs argued that Yemen’s removal violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires the executive branch to follow certain steps when it wants to change policies. The statute requires the homeland security secretary to consult “appropriate agencies” regarding conditions in other countries before ending T.P.S. designations. Judge Ho wrote in his decision that the review process has typically taken several months and involved recommendations by officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security defended the agency’s attempt to revoke the legal status of the Yemeni migrants. “T.P.S. was designed to be temporary, and this administration is returning T.P.S. to its original, temporary intent,” the officials said in a statement. “We are prioritizing our national security interests and putting America first.” The Supreme Court is expected to rule by late June in two cases involving similar deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians. That decision is expected to have implications for other legal challenges from people with temporary protections, including the Yemeni nationals.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [5/1/2026 6:10 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 18170K]
Reuters [5/1/2026 1:55 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K]
CBS News [5/1/2026 3:37 PM, Melissa Quinn, 51110K]

The Hill [5/1/2026 2:59 PM, Sophie Brams, 4464K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday defended the Secret Service’s response to Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, saying agents “performed their job” by preventing the gunman from breaching the second security perimeter. “The security perimeter worked exactly like it was supposed to work, but that’s why we have layers of security built in,” Mullin told Fox News host Dana Perino on “America’s Newsroom.” “The first layer was breached. The gentleman never — I say the gentleman — the perp never penetrated the second one,” he continued. “And so the Secret Service, even though they were shut down, still performed their job and did it in a remarkable and brave way.” Cole Allen, 31, is accused of opening fire at the Washington Hilton hotel, where senior Trump administration officials, including President Trump and Mullin, were gathered for the annual black-tie dinner with journalists. Authorities said Allen was targeting Trump administration officials when he rushed a security checkpoint armed with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol and several knives. Secret Service Director Sean Curran told NewsNation on Friday that an agent was shot at “point-blank range.” Trump told reporters after the incident that the agent had been “saved” by a bulletproof vest. Mullin praised Trump for being “so calm, completely composed” as they sat in the holding room. The first lady, he said, was “cool as a cucumber.” The WHCA dinner did not go on as planned after the shooting, but Trump said Saturday that the event would be rescheduled within 30 days at the same location. Mullin isn’t so sure. “Will it happen at that venue? Probably not, but the president gets to make the decision,” Mullin said Friday. The Washington Hilton hotel is where John Hinckley Jr. shot former President Reagan in March 1981. “As far as us moving forward, we will have to make some changes,” the secretary added.

New York Times [5/1/2026 3:44 PM, Nicholas Nehamas and Eileen Sullivan, 148038K] reports the head of the Secret Service has held a series of private meetings this week with members of Congress defending his agency’s handling of the thwarted attack at Saturday’s White House correspondents’ dinner, assuring lawmakers that his agency handled the incident well. So far, the Secret Service’s efforts seem to have headed off the possibility of wide-ranging hearings on Capitol Hill like those that took place after another lone gunman nearly took President Trump’s life in Butler, Pa., two years ago. But definitive answers about the most recent attack remain elusive, including how the gunman, who possessed little tactical training, managed to breach a secure checkpoint before being subdued and whether an officer was hit by friendly fire. More broadly, some members of Congress and former agency officials have questioned the wisdom of allowing Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and many other top officials to gather in one place for public events, making the line of presidential succession an easier target for a more organized attack. The episode has also resurfaced longstanding questions about whether the Secret Service, long bedeviled by staffing shortages and management problems, is equipped to protect Mr. Trump and other top officials at a time of heightened political violence. Mr. Thompson met with the Secret Service director, Sean Curran, on Wednesday to discuss the attack on the dinner, including the fact that the gunman had gained access to the hotel by booking a room in advance. Mr. Thompson said the director had told him that the agency had provided “about the best security that could have been offered” and also that vetting hotel guests could potentially violate privacy laws. But Mr. Thompson said he would ask his Republican counterpart to hold a hearing examining the incident more closely. Representative Andrew Garbarino, the New York Republican who heads the Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement that he remained in “active discussions” with the Secret Service about holding a briefing on Capitol Hill but did not say he would seek a public hearing.

FOX News [5/1/2026 10:39 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin criticizes the 80-day government shutdown’s severe repercussions on homeland security, citing significant TSA agent attrition and operational backlogs. Mullin highlights that the shutdown caused substantial disruptions across various DHS agencies, including the Coast Guard’s licensing duties, leading to economic strain. He counters Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s assertion that the shutdown was justified, emphasizing the critical need for consistent funding for national security. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [5/1/2026 8:58 AM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports the record-long shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) came to an end Thursday after President Trump signed a bill to fund most of the agencies. The bipartisan agreement comes after months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, stretching the lapse in funding to 76 days. The House approved the funding package by a voice vote earlier Thursday, a month after the Senate advanced the measure. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had pushed back against the Senate bill, which cut out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. Those agencies, however, received funding already from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Johnson and other House Republicans had vowed that they would not pass this legislation until a separate funding package for these agencies was approved. However, the GOP leader faced mounting pressure from the White House, the Senate and other lawmakers amid dwindling funding and staffing shortages at the department. “It’s about time,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement after the House vote, calling the wait time “unnecessary pain for millions of Americans.” The Daily Signal [5/1/2026 10:28 AM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 474K] reports that agencies within the department that do not deal with immigration enforcement are now funded, including the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Congress has until June 1 to meet Trump’s deadline to pass a separate bill funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol through the process of reconciliation. Reconciliation packages can pass the Senate with a simple majority vote, meaning Republicans won’t need Democrat votes to fund immigration enforcement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was already funded through 2029 due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. "DHS is back open, ICE and CBP will be funded through reconciliation (with NO Democrat votes) so liberals can’t play games with federal law enforcement funding," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote on X. To be clear, this Democrat shutdown NEVER should have happened," he continued. "To our great, patriotic employees who have continued to protect the homeland every single day without a guaranteed paycheck—thank you. President Trump and I are very grateful to be in the fight with you to Make America Safe Again."

NewsMax [5/1/2026 10:13 AM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Friday that the deal to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown left border enforcement funding effectively "zeroed out," warning that Congress must now act quickly to fix it. During an appearance on "Wake Up America," Sessions said the agreement was rushed through the House as lawmakers faced pressure to avoid leaving Washington without resolving the issue. "Well, the most important part is that we’re expected to now take a break and it is not good to go back home without these things being done," he said. Sessions explained the procedural maneuvering that allowed the bill to pass, noting leadership moved to bypass a traditional recorded vote. "The leadership decided to just make it a voice vote," he said. "In essence, they accepted what happened rather than calling members to come down and vote." Sessions indicated that difficulty in securing enough support has been a recurring problem for leadership on major funding bills. "And that has been, of course, our Achilles heel, is getting enough votes to pass it," he added. Despite supporting the need to keep the government open, Sessions said he opposed the substance of the deal because of its long-term impact on border security funding.

NewsMax [5/1/2026 11:36 AM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told Newsmax on Friday that Americans will recognize the Department of Homeland Security funding standoff as a partisan maneuver by Democrats that threatened U.S. national security since mid-February. Appearing on "Wake Up America," Cline said the months-long impasse — which ended Thursday night with President Donald Trump signing a bipartisan funding bill — revealed that Democrats were in favor of "holding spending bills hostage" while critical agencies went underfunded. "It is not my preference," he said of the final agreement. "My preference would have been to fund the entire department together under reconciliation." "That way we could bypass Democrats and not have to capitulate on any of this," Cline added. He stressed that Democrats delayed essential funding for DHS agencies, which he said put lives at risk and weakened the country’s security posture.

The Hill [5/1/2026 6:00 PM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K] reports a group of six immigrants in U.S. detention on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its policy barring detained migrants from completing biometric data processes that cause their immigration applications to be denied. The complaint argues that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a system that “requires individuals to submit biometrics as part of their applications for immigration relief, while simultaneously refusing to collect that information from people in detention centers,” the advocacy group Democracy Forward said in a statement. This has caused eligible immigrants to be denied the chance to go through the legal means to attain a lawful immigration status through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), including for victims of human trafficking and abuse along with those seeking to reunite with family members. Immigration applications are denied without completing biometric processes, including fingerprints and photos, for them.

NPR [5/1/2026 4:52 PM, Staff, 28764K] Audio: HERE reports the Trump administration has paused immigration applications for people from 39 countries, and for those already living in the U.S. the impact has been catastrophic. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in the country were thrown into limbo after the Trump administration paused their immigration applications in recent months. They were students, engineers, teachers and others living and working legally in the U.S. The pause affects those who were born in one of 39 countries the U.S. says pose a national security risk.

The Hill [5/1/2026 10:45 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18170K] reports a federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday determined that President Trump’s halt on processing immigration applications for citizens of countries listed under his travel ban was unlawful, granting an injunction on a policy she determined was unfairly leaving thousands in limbo. U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick, an appointee of former President Biden, tore into a number of Trump administration policies enacted after an Afghan man attacked two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., last year, killing one, as well as a thwarted terror attack. Trump took a number of actions in the wake of the shooting, including new limits on seeking asylum and pausing all immigration applications, including those to gain a green card or become a citizen. “These are thin reeds on which to rest an assertion of reasoned decisionmaking. With respect to the criminal acts planned or committed by Afghan nationals, the government makes no argument as to how two serious, but isolated, violent crimes planned by two people from one country is rationally connected with a policy stopping adjudication of benefit applications by people from 39 different countries, as well as applications for asylum by people from every country in the world,” Kobick wrote in the decision. “There is no indication that USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] meaningfully considered the consequences of throwing thousands of benefit applicants into indefinite limbo and perpetual uncertainty about whether they will be granted asylum, become a United States citizen, receive work authorization, or obtain a green card,” she added.

Breitbart [5/1/2026 11:30 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2238K] reports Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel announced that four noncitizens have been charged with illegally voting in the 2020, 2022, and 2024 general presidential elections, and with making false statements when applying to become U.S. citizens. "Today out of @FBINewark: Four individuals have been charged with illegally voting in federal elections and making false statements applying for U.S. citizenship," Patel said in a post on X. "The individuals – all noncitizens – voted in elections including the 2020 Presidential election, 2022 midterms and 2024 Presidential election cycles.” In a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, it was revealed that, "according to the separate criminal complaints filed," David Neewilly, 73, Jacenth Beadle Exum, 70, Idan Choresh, 43, and Abhinandan Vig, 33, had been "non-citizens when they registered to vote in New Jersey.” The four individuals allegedly "falsely certified and attested" that they were U.S. citizens when they filled out "their respective voter registration forms," according to the press release. "This administration will not tolerate aliens who attempt to vote in our elections when they know they are not eligible," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. "As alleged, these green card holders lied in order to register to vote and then lied again to immigration authorities by falsely claiming never to have voted in a federal election.” Each of the four individuals allegedly "cast ballots in at least one federal election," the criminal complaints say. Neewilly allegedly voted in the 2020 and 2024 general elections, and Beadle Exum and Vig also allegedly "voted in the 2020 general election." Choresh allegedly "voted in the 2022 general election," according to the press release. After the individuals voted in the elections, they allegedly "falsely claimed in their respective N-400" form that they "never registered, or voted, in any federal elections," according to the press release: According to the criminal complaints, each of the defendants, still without United States citizenship, cast ballots in at least one federal election. Neewilly voted in the 2020 and 2024 general elections, Beadle Exum and Vig voted in the 2020 general election, and Choresh voted in the 2022 general election. The 2020 and 2024 general elections each included the election for the office of President and Vice President of the United States, and the 2022 general election included the election for Members of the House of Representatives. The criminal complaints also allege that after illegally voting in federal elections, the defendants each applied to become United States citizens by submitting applications for naturalization (an "N-400"). An N-400 requires the applicant to swear under penalty of perjury that the information provided in the application is complete, true, and correct. Each of the defendants falsely claimed in their respective N-400 to have never registered, or voted, in any federal elections. "HSI is actively investigating and rooting out election fraud wherever it can be found," ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said in a statement. "This case shows that there is still work to do.”

FOX News [5/1/2026 9:25 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] reports four noncitizens were charged with illegally voting in multiple federal elections and making false statements while applying for U.S. citizenship, federal prosecutors announced Friday. According to criminal complaints filed in the District of New Jersey, each defendant allegedly cast ballots in at least one federal election, including the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. "Four individuals have been charged with illegally voting in federal elections and making false statements applying for U.S. citizenship," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X. "The individuals — all noncitizens — voted in elections including the 2020 Presidential election, 2022 midterms, and 2024 Presidential election cycles.” Prosecutors identified the defendants as David Neewilly, 73, of Atlantic County; Jacenth Beadle Exum, 70, of Bergen County; Idan Choresh, 43, of Monmouth County; and Abhinandan Vig, 33, of Monmouth County. They are accused of registering to vote in New Jersey while not U.S. citizens and falsely certifying their citizenship status on voter registration forms. "This administration will not tolerate aliens who attempt to vote in our elections when they know they are not eligible," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. "As alleged, these green card holders lied in order to register to vote and then lied again to immigration authorities by falsely claiming never to have voted in a federal election.” Blanche added the Justice Department "will use every authority to protect the integrity of U.S. elections.” According to prosecutors, the defendants later falsely stated on naturalization applications that they had never registered or voted in federal elections. "As alleged, the defendants broke federal law by voting in elections they were not eligible to participate in and then made false statements under oath to conceal that conduct," U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said in a statement. "Today’s charges reflect this office’s commitment to protecting the integrity of our election system and ensuring that those who attempt to circumvent both our voting laws and our naturalization process are held accountable.” Neewilly was charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and making false statements related to naturalization. He appeared April 22 before a U.S. magistrate judge in Camden. Choresh faces multiple charges, including voting by an alien in a federal election and unlawful procurement of citizenship. He appeared May 1 in Newark federal court.

AP [5/1/2026 10:08 AM, Rebecca Santana, 35287K] reports when Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was questioned by senators during his confirmation hearing about his vision for implementing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, he said his goal was to keep his department off the front pages of the news. To some degree, he has. Gone are the social media video clips of now-retired Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino clashing with protesters. Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem, made her first trip as secretary to New York City to make arrests with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In contrast, Mullin went to North Carolina to review hurricane recovery efforts. The Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach to a centerpiece policy that helped bring Trump back to the White House, moving in many ways away from aggressive, public-facing tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement. Despite that shift, the administration insists it is not backing down from its lofty deportation goals. "Clearly they’ve stepped back from the, for want of a better word, the Bovinoist tactics of before," said Mark Krikorian, the president of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for immigration restrictions. "But it’s not clear this means they’re actually stepping back from immigration.”

Washington Post [5/2/2026 6:00 AM, Tim Craig, 24826K] reports Pennsylvania’s governor is trying to figure out who will pay to improve safety at his personal residence. Baltimore’s mayor is being questioned over a $160,000 SUV with enhanced security features. And Minnesota legislators are considering a new security unit for elected officials that would cost millions each year. Even before the attempted attack at the White House correspondents’ dinner last weekend, a spate of political violence and a rising number of threats had rattled state and local officials asking what should be done to protect those in public office. Then came images from the dinner that vividly amplified those concerns: High-profile attendees with security details were ushered to safety while others were left exposed to possible danger. Now, amid the nation’s turbulent political landscape, governors, mayors, state legislators and some town council members have been seeking personal protection for themselves or their staffs, escalating the national discussion over who requires security and how to pay for it. Local officials “are at the level of government that actually gets the most threats, and they are on the front lines of the policies and actions that Americans deal most intimately with,” said James A. Piazza, a Penn State professor who studies terrorism, political violence and violent extremism. A December survey by Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative showed that local officials’ concerns about safety continue to soar. The survey found that nearly 75 percent of officeholders are rethinking whether to engage in some political or civic activities or pursue higher office. The findings track with a 2024 report by the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, which found that nearly 9 out of 10 local officials reported being a victim of insults, harassment, threats or attacks.

USA Today [5/1/2026 12:11 PM, Sarah D. Wire, 70643K] reports in more than 30 years of working fast food jobs, Terrence Wise, his fiancée and his three daughters have known homelessness and hunger. "We slept in our purple minivan in the parking lot of my job," he said. "I will never forget watching my three little girls try to fall asleep in the back in the middle of winter." He works three gig jobs, and his fiancée is a home health care worker. He said there are days his freezer is bare. They won’t go to work on May 1. Nor will they go to school. The family won’t spend any money. Instead, Wise, 46, of Kansas City, a leader with the Missouri Workers Center, and his family are among hundreds of thousands of Americans expected to walk out of work or school on May 1. They will participate in more than 3,000 events nationwide known as "May Day Strong" or "Workers Over Billionaires." May Day protests often focus on worker rights, economic justice, immigrant rights, income inequality, labor rights and government policy. Organizers and participants say turning out this year is more important than ever, as prices for everything from rent to food to gas are increasing while wages are not. "If you want to see real change, you’ve got to be a part of the solution. Because if you’re not out organizing and you’re not out in the streets and you’re not talking to your neighbors, you’re part of the problem," Wise said.

FOX News [5/1/2026 2:40 PM, Staff, 37576K] from a $671,000 nonprofit handing out signs to Marxist groups marching with drums, the May Day rally in Washington, D.C. on Friday revealed the range of players behind a $2 billion protest network staging 3,000 events nationwide. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Chicago Tribune [5/1/2026 7:26 PM, Molly Morrow, 5209K] reports more than 100 people gathered for a rally and march in Aurora on Friday in honor of May Day and to express their support of workers and immigrant communities. Late Friday morning, individuals gathered at Wilder Park in Aurora held signs with phrases like “Support workers not war” and “Immigrant workers deserve rights not raids,” as American flags held by attendees whipped in the wind. May 1 is a national day of action for workers to mobilize and gather to advocate for workers’ rights. In the past, rallies and events have been held in Chicago and beyond to commemorate the day. This year, a “no work, no school and no shopping” action was encouraged by activists as a protest to the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration while advocating for immigrant and labor rights. Friday’s event in Aurora was organized as a way to recognize the contributions of immigrant communities and “call for dignity, due process and the protection of workers’ rights,” according to a news release from the rally’s organizers. The event was hosted by a coalition of community, labor and advocacy organizations, the news release about the rally said, with participating groups including Aurora Mutual Aid, Aurora Rapid Response Team, Alliance of Latinos Motivating Action in the Suburbs, Aurora Township Democrats, Indivisible Fox Valley Rising, Illinois Workers in Action and We Can Lead Change Fox Valley. Aurora Deputy Mayor Casildo “Casey” Cuevas spoke about the tradition of May Day as one in which “ordinary people stand up and say, ‘Our labor has value, our lives have dignity and our rights are not negotiable.’”

New York Post [5/1/2026 7:33 PM, Daniel Farr, 40934K] reports there’s gridlock and tension in downtown Los Angeles as May Day demonstrators flooded streets near a federal building Friday, blocking lanes and confronting law enforcement. The Los Angeles Police Department issued an emergency alert as protesters shut down two southbound lanes on Alameda Street between Temple and Aliso streets, leaving just one lane open. An unlawful assembly was declared by authorities, bringing traffic to a crawl. Police told The California Post they were dealing with a large, "unruly" group. Agitators hurled vulgar and hostile language at officers, including the chant "F–K DHS!" as tensions escalated. Demonstrators lined sidewalks and repeatedly moved into the street with megaphones, at times stopping vehicles. Some waved Palestinian flags, while others wore hoods and masks, chanting "ICE out of LA" in opposition to federal immigration enforcement.

FOX News [5/1/2026 7:00 PM, Rachel Wolf, 37576K] reports anti-Israel protesters gathered at Columbia University for a From Harlem to Gaza march Thursday evening to voice support for the Palestinian cause and make radical demands of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The march marked the second anniversary of the dismantling of the Gaza Solidarity Encampments at Columbia University and the City College of New York (CCNY), as well as the infamous takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall. Students who took over the building unfurled a banner that said "Hind’s Hall," a reference to Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old who was killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The crowd consisted of students and supporters, many clad in keffiyehs, headscarves associated with the Palestinian movement. One protester wore a "freeze the rent" button from Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, even as the group criticized the mayor. As the group of protesters gathered outside the university gates, select members delivered speeches and messages, giving others time to join. One of the speakers said she was delivering a message from Elmina Aghayeva, a Columbia student who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Aghayeva was released from ICE detention after a meeting between Mamdani and President Donald Trump. After the speeches at the meeting point, the group marched along Amsterdam Avenue, going from 116th Street to the gates of CCNY. Along the way, New York Police Department officers escorting the march unsuccessfully attempted to move protesters from the street to the sidewalk.

Daily Caller [5/1/2026 2:11 PM, Derek VanBuskirk, 803K] reports that Pope Leo XIV announced the new heads of several dioceses across the U.S. on Friday, including a former illegal immigrant and staunch defender of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The line-up includes Father Robert Boxie III, who was selected as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Bishop Evelio Menjivar, who was named bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, which includes all of West Virginia, according to a statement from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Menjivar, a 55-year-old native of El Salvador, previously attempted to illegally cross the U.S. border three times before he was successfully smuggled into the country in the trunk of a car in 1990, according to The Washington Post. Menjivar then worked odd jobs before obtaining his citizenship, according to the U.S. Catholic. He was eventually chosen to be the first Salvadoran bishop in the U.S. in 2023 and an auxiliary bishop of Washington, The Washington Post reported. As a teenager, he made three attempts to enter the United States illegally. In an April 2025 op-ed with the Catholic Standard, Menjivar referred to the immigration policies of President Donald Trump as "disturbing actions in violation of fundamental human rights and dignity," suggesting that the staff and government officers involved are "complicit with evil" if they do not speak out. He also included a message for Catholics who support the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

FOX News [5/1/2026 7:00 AM, Kevin D. Roberts, 37576K] reports whenever Washington politicians tell you that a new, 250-page bipartisan immigration bill isn’t amnesty, it’s probably amnesty. And sure enough, the "Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream" (DIGNIDAD) Act of 2025… is amnesty. Like Hollywood executives incapable of telling original stories anymore, Washington’s corporate establishment is trying to reboot a failed franchise — Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) — that audiences never embraced in the first place. DIGNIDAD is the legislative equivalent of "Howard the Duck II.” Like all CIR proposals, DIGNIDAD ostensibly improves immigration enforcement policy in exchange for amnestying millions of illegal immigrants. It would legalize — and create a pathway to citizenship for — aliens who came here illegally as children. Second, it would create an all-new amnesty program for illegals who came here prior to Joe Biden’s open-borders fiasco in 2021. Third, it gives amnesty to a spouse or child of a U.S. citizen, even if they had a visa denied or received a deportation order. The 19 Republicans who have co-sponsored the bill insist that their new "Dignity" amnesty would be temporary — apparently unaware that this makes the legislation worse. If 10 million illegal immigrants are granted seven years of amnesty, then in seven years’ time, the American people will be emotionally blackmailed into making the amnesty permanent.

Washington Examiner [5/1/2026 10:00 AM, Vance Ginn, 1147K] reports Washington is floating a plan that would force banks to collect and verify customers’ citizenship information, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying the order is “in process.” The intention may sound good to some: Deal with illegal immigration and tighten enforcement. But good intentions don’t excuse bad policy design. This plan would make law-abiding Americans pay higher costs and surrender more sensitive data because the federal government won’t fix immigration enforcement where it belongs. Here’s the first principle: If immigration policy is failing, fix immigration policy. Don’t outsource the mess to private institutions and pretend the cost disappears because it shows up as “compliance” instead of a line item in the federal budget. Families still pay. They just pay through higher bank fees, worse service, and more red tape when they’re trying to do normal life: Deposit a paycheck, pay bills, or open an account for a kid headed to college.

New York Post [5/1/2026 9:50 PM, Richie Greenberg, 40934K] reports a manufactured crisis plays out daily in the parking lots of LA’s Home Depot stores. Day laborer centers, seven city-contracted hubs often nestled on private commercial property, have become battlegrounds. And, no surprise, the NGOs now want more of your hard-earned dollars. Nonprofit organizations like CARECEN demand millions in local taxpayer dollars not to help workers find jobs, but to shield illegal aliens from lawful federal enforcement by ICE. LA City Hall bears primary responsibility for escalating this needless conflict. Mayor Karen Bass’ administration included these day laborer centers in her preliminary budget at flat funding levels, then meekly responded to advocates’ outrage by promising to "work with the City Council on any potential solutions to support immigrant communities further.” This is classic Bass equivocation: maintaining the status quo while signaling openness to the very demands that undermine federal enforcement. She knows full well that immigration policy is the exclusive domain of the US government. Yet she continues to operate and fund these centers on a patchwork of public, state, and private land, many adjacent to Home Depots. This is not compassionate outreach; it is brazen obstructionism, subsidized by Angelenos. At a time when Bass proposes a $14.9 billion budget that already strains under homelessness, crime, and basic services, groups like CARECEN have the audacity to testify before the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, begging for a $2 million boost, from $1 million to $3 million, to install cameras, reinforce doors, and train staff on "making it harder" for US Border Patrol to enforce immigration law. This is not public service. It is a direct subsidy for evading the Supremacy Clause. Ironically, the fact that these centers exist is likely why ICE goes right to Home Depots across the Southland. CARECEN and its allies frame these centers as lifelines for "exploited day laborers." In reality, they are the exploiters, and operate their centers as de facto safe zones for individuals who have no legal right to work in the United States. Home Depot never asked for this role. Yet CARECEN’s own executive director, Maegan Ortiz, used the April 2026 Los Angeles budget hearing to call for boycotting the company while simultaneously demanding more city money to "defend" against raids. This is not advocacy; it is extortionate hypocrisy.

Breitbart [5/1/2026 3:08 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports United States District Court Judge Melissa DuBose, appointed by President Joe Biden, ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release an illegal alien who is wanted in his native Dominican Republic for murder. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials say DuBose had no knowledge that the illegal alien was wanted at the time she ordered his release. On April 4, the Worcester Police Department in Massachusetts arrested Bryan Rafael Gomez, an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic, on charges of assault and battery. ICE agents lodged a detainer against Gomez, and local police honored that detainer, ensuring Gomez went right into federal custody after his release from jail. This week, on April 28, Judge Melissa DuBose ordered Gomez’s release. Gomez, since January 2023, has been wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials are now defending DuBose’s decision, saying the judge had no knowledge that Gomez was wanted for murder in his home country when she ordered his release from ICE custody. Blaze [5/1/2026 9:15 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1556K] reports that, although the City of Worcester, like other municipalities across Massachusetts, is loath to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the detainer for Bryan Rafael Gomez was reportedly honored, enabling ICE Boston to arrest the Dominican following his release on $500 bail. ICE revealed at the time that Gomez — who stole into the United States in 2022, was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol near Lukeville, Arizona, and was ultimately released into the homeland by the Biden administration — was a fugitive from justice. The Coordination of the Courts of Instruction of the National District of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, issued an arrest warrant in Gomez’s name for murder on Jan. 24, 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. While immigration authorities planned to keep the alleged murderer in custody until his removal from the U.S. — which appeared imminent granted an immigration judge issued Gomez a deportation order on April 28 — a judge appointed by former President Joe Biden to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island in 2024 had other ideas.

Washington Times [5/1/2026 5:51 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports an illegal immigrant wanted for murder in another country was set free from immigration detention after ICE failed to tell the Justice Department that it could tell a federal judge about the arrest warrant, government lawyers said. The U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had told prosecutors there was a murder arrest warrant from the Dominican Republic for Bryan Rafael Gomez. But ICE gagged the prosecutors, saying they couldn’t reveal that information publicly. That left them to defend ICE’s detention of Mr. Gomez without being able to reveal the warrant. “I had been informed by ICE about the petitioner’s pending arrest warrant issued on January 24, 2023, from a court in the Dominican Republic and that I could not disclose that information,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan said in a filing Friday. “I relied on ICE’s representation that I was not permitted to disclose that information and understood that a legitimate law enforcement reason prevented disclosure.” U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose ordered Mr. Gomez released on April 28. Homeland Security responded to the release with a scathing statement attacking Judge DuBose as an “activist Biden judge” who had released a “violent criminal illegal alien.” “An activist judge appointed by Joe Biden released this wanted murderer back into American communities,” said acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities.” It turns out ICE had put out a press release on April 16 mentioning the arrest. That information seems not to have made it to Judge DuBose, who, after Homeland Security’s criticism, demanded the Justice Department explain what happened.

Daily Wire [5/1/2026 7:59 AM, Jennie Taer, 2314K] reports that a federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden cut an illegal immigrant murder suspect loose, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Bryan Rafael Gomez is wanted in his home country of the Dominican Republic for murder, DHS said Thursday. Despite having an active warrant, U.S. District Court Judge Melissa R. DuBose ordered Gomez’s release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention on Tuesday. "This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities," Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of criminal illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country," Bis said. Gomez crossed the border illegally near Lukeville, Arizona, in 2022, DHS said. Border Patrol agents apprehended him at the time and subsequently released him into the country. The Coordination of the Courts of Instruction of the National District of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, issued a criminal arrest warrant for Gomez for homicide on Jan. 24, 2023, according to DHS. Officers with the Worcester Police Department arrested Gomez on April 4, 2026, for assault and battery, according to DHS. Local authorities honored an ICE detainer, handing Gomez over to federal immigration agents after he was released on $500 bail.

Rhode Island Current [5/1/2026 2:42 PM, Christopher Shea, 59K] reports Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney’s Office on Friday formally apologized to a federal judge for failing to disclose the criminal history — including a murder charge — of a Dominican national released from detention earlier in the week. U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose on Tuesday granted a writ of habeas corpus to 27-year-old Bryan Rafael Gomez, allowing him to seek a bond hearing before an immigration judge in Massachusetts after being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. Court filings state Gomez entered the United States in 2022, fleeing the Dominican Republic “fearing that he would be killed” after his brother was shot. He married a U.S. citizen in May 2025 and was scheduled to have a hearing before an immigration judge on April 16 for an asylum claim. Gomez was detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officers on April 4 following his arrest in Worcester on assault and battery charges. Not noted in any of the court filings before his release was a criminal arrest warrant issued by Dominican authorities in January 2023. That instead was mentioned briefly in a press release issued April 16 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS made it more prevalent in a media release Thursday that attacked DuBose, calling her an “activist judge.” “This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. But DuBose, a Biden appointee, was never made aware of that fact known by the federal government. Dubose ordered a show-cause hearing, set for Monday at 3 p.m., for attorneys to explain why the court was not provided with this information, threatening to hold them in contempt of court. “The Government’s response failed to include any facts relative to this petitioner, including facts relevant to an assessment of dangerousness, criminal history or risk of flight,” DuBose wrote. “Failing to provide this court with relevant and material facts threatens public safety and erodes trust in the rule of law.”

CBS New York [5/1/2026 4:59 PM, Eric Henderson and Marcia Kramer, 51110K] Video: HERE reports New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has written to White House border czar Tom Homan demanding confirmation on whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge, has been reassigned to New York. Hochul wrote to White House border czar Tom Homan and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seeking confirmation on whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross is now working in New York. In the letter, Hochul said she was troubled by reports that Ross had been quietly reassigned to another state after being placed on administrative leave for just three days following the shooting. Hochul said Ross should be "immediately removed" and not redeployed unless cleared after a full, independent investigation. "I have no confidence that Ross can be trusted to safely interact with the public," she wrote. "Nor should you."

FOX News [5/1/2026 5:28 PM, Janelle Ash, 37576K] reports "Real Housewives of New Jersey" alum Joe Giudice doesn’t believe the crimes he committed warranted his 2019 deportation. During an interview with Page Six, Giudice said, "I definitely don’t think I should have been deported." The former reality TV star was born in Italy and moved to New Jersey when he was a baby. Giudice was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison in 2014 after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud, including bankruptcy and mail fraud. His case stemmed from years of submitting false financial information to obtain loans and avoid taxes. Giudice served his sentence beginning in 2016 and was later released in 2019, after which he was deported to Italy due to his non-U.S. citizenship.

Telemundo Washington DC [5/1/2026 2:18 PM, Rosbelis Quinonez, 120K] reports that a man who was shot by immigration agents during an arrest on Christmas Eve in Glen Burnie, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of destruction of government property and now faces the risk of deportation. Tiago Sousa-Martins’s encounter with immigration agents began last year, when they ran his vehicle’s license plate through their databases and discovered that he had overstayed a 2008 visa from Portugal, which he had obtained as a child. Court records show that the agents were not specifically looking for Sousa-Martins when they were patrolling near a Lowe’s home improvement store. According to an account provided by an FBI agent, the officers stated that they followed the 30-year-old man into a nearby neighborhood, where they claim he resisted arrest; they further allege that they broke his windshield while attempting to extract him from his work vehicle. The agents stated that he attempted to flee by driving away, striking vehicles belonging to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and that they fired 13 shots, striking Sousa-Martins twice—once in the leg and once in the back. The plea agreement comes just weeks after Sousa-Martins had pleaded not guilty to federal misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and destruction of government property. His federal public defenders, who represented him in the criminal case, did not respond to a request for comment from Telemundo 44 regarding the change in his plea. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced on Monday that he had pleaded guilty to destruction of government property after two official vehicles were damaged. He was sentenced to time served—a total of 103 days. He was also ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.

FOX News [5/1/2026 11:18 AM, Michael Ruiz, 37576K] reports that twenty-five years after Washington intern Chandra Levy vanished, the high-profile case remains unsolved — and still haunted by questions about whether early missteps allowed a suspected killer to slip away. The case drew national attention in 2001, fueled by intense media coverage and scrutiny of Levy’s relationship with a sitting congressman. The prime suspect, however, turned out to be an illegal immigrant twice convicted of assaults on other women around the time of Levy’s suspected murder and in the same park, according to federal prosecutors. Ted Williams, a former Washington, D.C. homicide detective and Fox News contributor who has been following the case for decades, said authorities failed to thoroughly search Rock Creek Park early on, delaying the discovery of Levy’s remains — and potentially weakening the case built largely on circumstantial evidence. "Over the years, all of this has been commented on," a city police spokesperson said Friday. "We have nothing new to comment on at this time." Levy’s skeletal remains were found in a remote area of the park in May 2002, just over a year after she vanished. "They did conduct a grid search of portions of Rock Creek Park, but they never went really down into the ravine, the area in which Chandra Levy’s remains were found," he told Fox News Digital. "And the only way that those remains were discovered was that there was a man who, walking his dog, came upon the remains. Absent that, we may very well still be looking for Chandra Levy."

CBS News [5/1/2026 12:14 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51110K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday reported the 18th death of an individual in its custody so far this year, putting the agency on track to record a new all-time high in detainee deaths if the grim trend continues. A 33-year-old man from Cuba died at an ICE detention center in Georgia on Tuesday, the agency said in a notification to Congress and a public press release. ICE said Denny Adan Gonzalez was found unresponsive in his cell at the privately operated Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, late Tuesday. The agency described the suspected cause of death as suicide and said its investigation is ongoing. The reported suicide is the 18th ICE detainee death in the first four months of 2026. Last year, ICE recorded 31 detainee deaths, a two-decade high that nearly surpassed the all-time record set in 2004, when 32 deaths were reported. ICE said Gonzalez first entered the U.S. in May 2019 at an official port of entry along the Texas border, but that he was deported the following year. The agency said he reentered the country illegally in 2022 and was subsequently released by U.S. immigration officials. Reuters [5/1/2026 10:12 AM, Ted Hesson, 38315K] reports President Donald Trump, a Republican, has pushed to detain many more immigrants as part of ⁠his mass deportation effort. The number of people detained by ICE has grown from 40,000 when Trump took office in 2025 to 60,000, with detention poised to expand further this year. Deaths of ​immigrants in ICE custody reached a two-decade high last year and are on pace to climb higher this year, with 18 deaths through the first four months of the year.

FOX News [5/1/2026 2:18 PM, Charles Creitz, 37576K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security lambasted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the state’s refusal to cooperate with ICE after an illegal immigrant convicted of child sexual abuse was released from jail despite calls for state officials to turn him over to federal authorities. Both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement posture, with the mayor comparing President Donald Trump’s America to Jefferson Davis’ Confederacy. Johnson has accused Trump of "declar[ing] war on Chicago" and using DHS as a "private, militarized, occupying force," while pledging to fight them in the streets, the legislature and the judiciary. The state operates under the Illinois TRUST Act, a law championed by Springfield Democrats and signed by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner that prohibits the use of state and local resources for most civil immigration enforcement purposes. "Governor Pritzker continues to refuse to do his job to protect his citizens from illegal alien crime and instead chooses to smear our law enforcement," Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "Where is the investigation into his own policies that allowed this pedophile to be released from jail and be loose in Illinois communities?" she added of the Hyatt Hotels heir and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. Bis called on Pritzker to "end this insanity and stop releasing pedophiles into our communities."

Chicago Tribune [5/1/2026 5:58 PM, Gloria Casas, 5209K] reports despite seeing grounds for aggravated battery charges, Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Moser says she cannot legally file criminal charges against a federal agent who used excessive force during an ICE incident late last year. Mosser reviewed hours of video from police body and squad car cameras, including footage showing one situation in which a federal agent shot a man with a pepper ball that then ricocheted and struck a woman in the face, she said. In her opinion, it showed the agent violated state law on Dec. 6 by using excessive force, she said. In any other circumstance, it would have warranted an aggravated battery charge, Mosser said. The legal constraint is the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says a state court has no criminal jurisdiction over a federal agent while they are performing their authorized duties. She hopes the video can be used by the federal government to discipline the agent involved and train him on proper police tactics.

NBC News [5/1/2026 10:21 AM, Staff, 42967K] reports NBC News has learned the violation notices against Tippy Amundson and Heather Zemien were dismissed in April, nearly three months after they were arrested by federal agents and accused of obstructing the massive ICE operation that took place across the Twin Cities. The women made national headlines when they said that, while detained, they helped a federal agent who was having a medical emergency. Amundson and Zemien, along with their attorney Ed Shaw, joined NBC News’ Joe Fryer to discuss the latest developments. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [5/1/2026 11:56 AM, Julia Ingram, 51110K] reports when Jose Yugar-Cruz arrived at the Arizona-Mexico border in the July heat nearly two years ago, he told a federal court, he immediately turned himself into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and asked for asylum. In January 2025, though he was denied asylum, he became one of about 4,000 migrants last year to be granted a court order preventing their deportation to their home country because a judge found it more likely than not that they would face torture or persecution if returned, immigration court data shows. But the supposed victory was followed by a yearlong legal battle during which he remained detained. On Monday, a federal judge cleared the way for ICE to deport Yugar-Cruz to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "I feel truly, truly devastated by what is happening to me," Yugar-Cruz, 37, told CBS News from ICE detention in Iowa, speaking in Spanish. "It is a country I don’t know, I have no family there, I don’t speak their language — as far as I understand I think it’s French. I don’t know what the process will be like there, I don’t know if I’ll continue to be detained.” "I keep thinking it’s a nightmare that I will wake up from," he added. Yugar-Cruz spoke in a joint interview with CBS News and The Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Daily Wire [5/1/2026 4:55 PM, Jennie Taer, 2314K] reports the former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district, who was in the United States illegally, published a book from jail while awaiting sentencing on federal charges. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Roberts, a Guyanese national, in September. Authorities said he had an active deportation order and was living in the United States illegally at the time of his arrest. Roberts attempted to flee from the federal agents and was found with a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash, and a fixed-blade hunting knife, the Department of Homeland Security said at the time. Roberts pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of making false statements about his immigration status and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

Los Angeles Times [5/2/2026 7:00 AM, Clara Harter and Ruben Vives, 14672K] reports there are two starkly different narratives of what took place during an April 7 immigration operation in the San Joaquin Valley, when ICE agents fired multiple shots at a Salvadoran man, sending him to a hospital. According to Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, federal agents fired defensive shots at Carlos Iván Mendoza Hernández, 36, after he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over.” According to Hernández’s attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, and at least one eyewitness, officers fired their guns first, prompting a panicked Hernández to try and drive away. Now, it will be up to a jury to sort things out. A federal grand jury indicted Hernández Thursday on two counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of destruction of government property stemming from the incident in the rural city of Patterson. Kolasinski said in a statement Friday that he will not be commenting in detail as the case is ongoing and “it’s time for the judicial process to do its thing.” “We have faith in the court system and believe that, once all the evidence is put before an impartial jury, Carlos will be exonerated,” Kolasinski said. “To that end, we look forward to having our day in court.”

Breitbart [5/1/2026 3:43 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien released into the United States by President Joe Biden’s administration is accused of murdering a San Francisco, California, social worker last December. On Dec. 4, 2025, 35-year-old illegal alien Wilfredo Jose Tortolero-Arriechi of Venezuela entered Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and asked to speak with his doctor. Officials allege Tortolero-Arriechi had become obsessed with his doctor and police believe that is who he intended to target that day. Hospital staff re-directed Tortolero-Arriechi to 51-year-old Alberto Rangel, a licensed marriage and family therapist. While Rangel was not looking, police say Tortolero-Arriechi stabbed him. Two days later, on Dec. 6, 2025, Rangel died from his injuries. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials revealed that the Biden administration, under the direction of former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, had released Tortolero-Arriechi into the United States interior from the southern border in 2023 as part of the administration’s expansive catch and release policy. Tortolero-Arriechi has been charged with homicide and use of a deadly weapon and remains held at the San Francisco County Jail. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have lodged a detainer against him.

New York Post [5/1/2026 10:29 PM, Daniel Farr, 40934K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is blasting the Biden administration and California Governor Gavin Newsom, after a Venezuelan national was charged in the brutal killing of a San Francisco hospital social worker. Wilfredo Jose Tortolero-Arriechi is accused of stabbing 51-year-old Alberto Rangel on Dec. 4 inside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Authorities say the attack happened in Ward 86 as the suspect was being escorted out, when he allegedly grabbed Rangel and stabbed him "numerous times" in front of hospital staff. Rangel died two days later on Dec. 6. On Dec. 11, ICE requested that local authorities hold the suspect in custody and not release him. According to DHS, Border Patrol first encountered Tortolero-Arriechi in 2023 and he was later released into the country under the Biden administration. In the weeks before the attack, Tortolero-Arriechi reportedly threatened his doctor and staff at the hospital. Officials say he is now in the United States illegally. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis blamed federal policy in a sharply worded statement, saying, "If it weren’t for the Biden administration’s reckless open-border policies, Alberto Rangel would still be alive.” She called for stronger cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and criticized California sanctuary policies. "We are calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to commit to not releasing this murderer from jail. California’s sanctuary policies put American lives at risk. Criminal illegal aliens should not be released from jails back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans. If we work together, we can make America safe again. 7 of the 10 safest cities in the US cooperate with ICE law enforcement.” ICE Director Todd Lyons sent a separate letter in February to California Attorney General Rob Bonta urging compliance with federal detainers involving what he said were more than 33,000 criminal illegal aliens in California custody. Tortolero-Arriechi is currently being held without bail at the San Francisco County Jail and faces charges of homicide and use of a deadly weapon. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 16. Rangel, a hospital social worker, is being remembered by loved ones as someone who "spent his life breaking down barriers and providing unwavering support to communities in need," described as a man of empathy and service. California border activity reached record highs during the Biden years with approximately 1.37 million apprehensions and over 100,000 "gotaways" between 2022 and 2024. These numbers declined sharply by over 96% after President Trump took office in January 2025, bringing daily arrests down from over 1,200 to as few as 30.

Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 6:00 AM, Suhauna Hussain, 12718K] reports the U.S. State Department has detained five L.A. area-based Iranian nationals, all of whom are green card holders, and moved to strip them of their residency. In L.A., a vocal segment has joined forces with Trump-aligned far-right conservatives, including Laura Loomer, to wage campaigns against other Iranians. The arrests have exposed a rift in the Iranian American community, which has grown increasingly polarized in recent years. Sarina Hosseiny said she had never heard of Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian general assassinated by the U.S. in 2020. That is, not until this year, when threatening comments cropped up on social media claiming that she and her mother were relatives of Soleimani and were terrorists who should be deported. The 25-year-old, who studies fashion at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, now sits in an immigration detention facility in Texas, alongside her 47-year-old mother. And other L.A. Iranian Americans helped put her there. "They were sending me death threats. Literally saying like, they were gonna find me and kill me and my mom and all this stuff," Hosseiny said in a phone interview from the facility last week. "All I’ve ever posted is that I was against war and just innocent people dying." The Department of Homeland Security declined to respond to questions about Hosseiny and her mother’s case. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson also declined to comment. The State Department and Loomer did not respond to requests for comment.

Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 6:00 AM, Meredith Kolodner, 12718K] reports thousands of California high school students have not submitted federal college financial aid this year, fearing that the application could expose their undocumented parents to deportation. Counselors can’t guarantee that personal information will remain confidential. Data outside California suggests the trend exists elsewhere, including Chicago and Minneapolis. Thousands of California students who are U.S. citizens have made an agonizing choice this spring: They did not apply for federal financial aid to attend college because their parents are undocumented and they feared submitting the application would reveal information that could lead to a loved one’s deportation. "I don’t want to sacrifice my family for my possible success," said one Los Angeles high school senior, who wrestled with the decision. "I felt like it was very selfish of me to put my entire family in jeopardy for the possibility of me getting into a good college." There was an 8% drop this year in the number of high school students from mixed-status families, about 3,000 fewer, who submitted the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, called FAFSA, a form used to determine eligibility for federal, state and institutional financial aid, according to the most recent data from the California Student Aid Commission. The commission has access to the state’s FAFSAs to identify trends and areas where applications are lagging.

Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 5:12 PM, Kevin Baxter, 12718K] report swith the World Cup kicking off at the Inglewood venue next month, Martinez says he and many of the people who work in food services and other jobs at the stadium won’t feel safe if federal immigration agents are present during the tournament. So concerned that Unite Here Local 11, the hospitality union that represents Martinez and about 2,000 others who are working at SoFi without a contract, said it may strike ahead of the World Cup if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents aren’t kept away from the stadium. It’s unclear what role federal authorities will play at the World Cup, but Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, has said his agency will have a "key part" in security at tournament venues. And that ambiguous statement raised alarms not just with workers but also with human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which issued a World Cup travel advisory for visitors planning on attending the tournament. Petersen said the union, along with more than 100 human rights groups, asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino to make a direct request to President Trump for a moratorium on ICE raids — especially at World Cup venues — during the 38-day tournament.

San Francisco Chronicle [5/1/2026 2:10 PM, Ko Lyn Cheang, 3833K] reports that U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla opened a congressional inquiry into gaps in the medical care of an Eritrean refugee held at California’s largest immigration detention center last week after learning about the situation in a Chronicle report. A congressional inquiry is a formal request for information made by a congressmember on behalf of their constituent to a federal agency. Senait Kifle, an Oakland resident, first raised the alarm to the Chronicle about her intellectually disabled 48-year-old younger brother after visiting him on April 6 at California City Detention Facility in Kern County. While in detention, Yebio Kifle, who suffers from congestive heart failure, had deteriorated to the point of needing a wheelchair and suffered jaundice, swollen legs and was unable to urinate. “They’re waiting for him to die,” she said at the time, referring to the detention facility staff. Two medical doctors who reviewed Yebio Kifle’s medical records at the Chronicle’s request and with the family’s permission said he was not receiving proper care for his chronic disease and could die if not treated soon. Kifle’s case exemplifies problems that many detainees and their attorneys have raised about both ICE detention facilities and California City Detention Facility, which opened in August and holds almost 1,800 people daily on average, according to ICE Data processed by the data platform Detention Reports. A recent Chronicle investigation found medical delays and misdiagnoses have driven record deaths in ICE detention centers across the country.

Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 9:53 PM, Samantha Lee, 12718K] reports an El Cajon man who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a 15-year-old girl in San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to prosecutors, Samuel Melvin Cooper, 21, had driven the teenage girl across state lines into Arizona for the purpose of performing sex work. Text messages obtained by San Diego law enforcement officials revealed he intended to leave the victim stranded there if she didn’t make him enough money. Cooper was arrested in September 2024 by San Diego police during a traffic stop in an area notorious for street-based prostitution, according to prosecutors. Authorities said he had been using his phone to track two teenage girls, one of whom was the 15-year-old victim and the other an 18-year-old girl — a common practice among pimps. Cooper pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion. In his plea, Cooper also admitted to sexually exploiting and prostituting another 15-year-old girl, with full knowledge of her age. Authorities recovered explicit videos and photographs of Cooper engaging in sexual conduct with the girl. According to the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, her birth year was his phone password. "We won’t allow children to be bought and sold," said Adam Gordon, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. "This sentence reflects the profound harm caused when predators exploit minors for profit.” Officials said that after Cooper’s arrest, the first victim, a runaway, was crying hysterically and denied any involvement in prostitution. Her mother, in a letter to the court, said her daughter is still lost to her family. "That letter speaks more powerfully to the lasting trauma of living on the streets and being conditioned at such a young age that your worth is tied to commercial sex than any attorney can capture in words," the government’s sentencing memo said.

New York Post [5/1/2026 8:50 PM, Staff, 40934K] reports business at a Los Angeles Home Depot came to a screeching halt when anti-ICE DSA protesters barged their way into the business and refused to leave. The scene unfolded inside a Home Depot in Westlake on Wilshire Blvd, just outside of downtown Los Angeles, on Friday. Protesters with signs that read "ICE OUT OF THE HOME DEPOT" made their way inside, pounding on drums and chanting. The protesters then sat on the ground, blocking customers from using some of the self-checkout registers. "On International Worker’s Day, we are halting for a moment a piece of profit that in the end will not effect the pockets of this billionaire’s profit that he’s making, and we are asking for them to end collaboration with ICE," Priscilla, a member of Democratic Socialists of Los Angeles told ABC7 outside the store. "This city is of migrants and we are asking for them to stop allowing ICE in here and snatching day laborers from their parking lots and inside their stores," she continued. After only a few minutes, LAPD officers showed up to the store and ordered the crowd to disperse — which did happen without much push back. Home Depot has maintained the company does not collaborate or work with federal agencies. "We aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren’t involved in the operations," a spokesperson for Home Depot told The Post. "We aren’t coordinating with ICE or Border Patrol. We cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots.” The sit-in comes only moments after The California Post published an exclusive about anti-ICE nonprofits asking the city to increase funding from $1 million to $3 million in order to fight against ICE. Day laborer hubs, first constructed in the 1990s, offer laborers — who are sometimes illegal — a place to gain legal protective services, get work advice and even use the restroom. The hubs have been supported by DSA councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. "The work centers have been a rescue due to the conditions we have been living in. That’s why I’m asking that the budget be increased to $3 million for these work centers," Hernandez asked the City’s Budget and Finance Committee in meetings this week. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Newsweek [5/1/2026 11:36 AM, Dan Gooding, 52220K] reports the Trump administration is seeking to deport a 12-year-old boy born to a Nigerian mother and a U.S. citizen in the military, because there has not been a DNA test, his attorney told Newsweek. As a case involving proof of citizenship while the U.S. Supreme Court decides on potential changes to birthright citizenship, the boy’s legal team told Newsweek that more cases like his are likely. The boy, who lives in Anchorage, has been placed in removal proceedings along with his mother, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asking for a DNA test to prove his American citizenship, which his father is refusing to take, per the legal team. “He’s not in detention yet. They haven’t come and grabbed him and put him in a detention center, but they’ve got him in deportation proceedings. So, it’s really important for him to prove his citizenship in order to stop them from deporting him.” According to local Alaskan media, the boy’s father, 46-year-old Bolanle Meshach Akinleye, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has not answered multiple requests for comment. Attempts to reach Akinleye were unsuccessful late Thursday. A message sent to the boy’s mother, who lives in Lagos, Nigeria, was not immediately returned late Thursday.

Daily Caller [5/1/2026 12:34 PM, Mark Tanos, 803K] reports that the Trump administration handed Greece 26 looted antiquities during an event at the Greek Embassy in Washington, D.C., on April 23, officials said. The haul was secured due to investigations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with support from ICE, the FBI and the State Department, according to an ICE press release. The collection features a 500-pound torso from a marble statue of Asclepius, the ancient Greek deity associated with medicine, dating to the 1st or 2nd century AD. Officials seized the torso after paperwork accompanying the piece allegedly turned out to be fraudulent. The haul also included 25 coins spanning the Greek, Roman and Byzantine/Eastern Roman eras. Among the most significant coins was a gold piece struck in Lampsakos, modern Turkey, around 370 BC, which a looter dug up and funneled through a middleman to the head of a criminal group for €7,000, according to ICE. It allegedly moved illegally from Greece to Germany and landed at a Philadelphia auction house. A bronze Macedonian coin from the same century, depicting Persephone and a hydra, allegedly traced back to the same criminal network. HSI Memphis also seized a silver didrachma minted in Rhodes, Greece, around 304 BC after the shipper could not prove the coin left Greece before import limitations took effect, officials said.

CNN [5/1/2026 12:14 PM, Arielle Zionts, 612K] reports that hundreds of foreign doctors about to complete training in the U.S. will have to leave the country if the federal government doesn’t rapidly process their visa waiver applications, which have been languishing since the fall and winter, immigration attorneys say. The waiver program, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, allows physicians who aren’t U.S. citizens to stay in the country while transitioning from the visa they used during their training to temporary worker status. In exchange, the doctors agree to work in underserved areas for at least three years. "It will be the patients that suffer the most because in about three months, there’s going to be hundreds of places that are not going to have a physician that should have," said a psychiatrist caught in the delay. The doctor — whom KFF Health News agreed not to identify because they fear government reprisal — was among hundreds who applied this year for a J-1 visa waiver through the HHS Exchange Visitor Program. If they receive one, the psychiatrist — who attended medical school in their home country in Europe before coming to the U.S. for their residency and fellowship — would work with vulnerable and disadvantaged patients in New York. In recent years, the HHS program reviewed waiver applications in one to three weeks, according to two immigration attorneys. But it currently has a backlog of hundreds of applications, which still need to be reviewed by the State Department and approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to four attorneys interviewed by KFF Health News.

AP [5/1/2026 11:56 AM, Hallie Golden, 35287K] reports every two years for more than a decade, Melani Candia has gotten approved to stay in the U.S. with her husband and two cats and — more recently — continue to work in special education in Florida. But this year, delays in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that has shielded her and hundreds of thousands of others from deportation, led to her missing her renewal deadline, losing her job and fearing detention in the country she has called home since she was 6 years old. She said that as an immigrant in the U.S., fear has become her “new baseline.” “But now, having a new level of vulnerability, it was a very quick increase in the fear,” said Candia. Renewal wait times for the Obama-era program that allows people who were brought to the U.S. as children to temporarily remain in the country and work have increased to levels not seen since 2016 when there were significant technical issues. Some of the program’s more than 500,000 beneficiaries, often referred to as “Dreamers,” have waited months for an answer only to see their deadline pass without a decision. Now they’re stuck in a type of limbo in which their work authorization disappears, oftentimes along with their driver’s license, and their ability to stay in the U.S. is at risk. “It’s not just anecdotal; it’s happening at a larger scale than we’ve ever seen before,” said Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, an immigrant youth-led network. No numbers were available on how many people have recently missed their renewal deadline despite applying 120 to 150 days before their DACA lapses, which is what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends.

Reported similarly:
Univision [5/1/2026 3:10 PM, Staff, 4937K]

Univision [5/2/2026 2:09 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports the new USCIS rules for the ‘Green Card’ that came into effect in May and the reactivation of applications for permanent resident cards are some of the stories that generated the most interest among the audience during the past seven days. These and other videos were among the most viewed on N+ Univision in the last week: 1. Immigration lawyer discusses the new USCIS rules for the ‘Green Card’ that went into effect in May USCIS has announced changes to the processing of permanent residency applications that will take effect this May . These new guidelines determine who can apply for work authorization simultaneously. Attorney Hector Benitez explains how this change impacts the future of applicants. 2. Green Card applications frozen due to immigration ban are reactivated A federal judge issued a landmark order requiring the government to reprocess applications for legal residency that had been stalled. The decision directly benefits dozens of plaintiffs who challenged the administration’s immigration ban . Experts suggest that those affected immediately follow up on their cases to ensure a fair process and prevent the immigration service’s discretionary power from halting their applications again. 3. "What did you do, you crazy woman?": Video of the crime against Carolina Flores; the mother-in-law allegedly murdered the former beauty queen in Mexico. Authorities in Mexico are searching for a woman who allegedly murdered her son’s wife in their own home. A video is believed to be key to identifying the suspect, the victim’s mother-in-law . Although Alejandro, Carolina Flores’ partner, confronted his mother, it has now been revealed that the crime was not reported immediately. 4. Video of the alleged assailant during the Correspondents’ Dinner with Donald Trump; this is how the shots were fired. Security camera footage from the hotel was released, showing a man suspected of involvement in the security incident running near the White House Correspondents’ Dinner , an event attended by US President Donald Trump . 5. Is your case on hold? These are the reasons behind new delays for visa, asylum, and citizenship applications. Uncertainty is growing for millions of immigrants . The Trump administration is imposing stricter security checks , including repeated biometric data collection and criminal background checks , leaving applicants in limbo. Learn how these changes affect you. 6. Mega-trial in El Salvador: N+ Univision presents images from the CECOT of the hearing with alleged gang members N+ Univision arrives at the CECOT maximum security prison in El Salvador. On the sixth day of a mega-trial , we witness the hearing against hundreds of alleged MS-13 members accused of thousands of crimes. Watch the footage and learn the details of the charges they face. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [5/1/2026 12:45 PM, Andrew Chapados, 1556K] reports that an American tech company is being sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly discriminating against U.S. workers. Instead of hiring Americans, the company allegedly favored hiring workers with temporary visas, going to bizarre lengths to prevent U.S. workers from being able to properly apply for its vacant jobs. Cloudera is a software company based in Santa Clara, California, that predominantly stores data and was started in 2008 by former engineers from Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the DOJ said the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by intentionally discriminating against Americans. The federal lawsuit said the company "upended its normal hiring process and did exactly what the law prohibits... Cloudera did not consider the applications some U.S. worker candidates submitted because the company earmarked certain jobs for workers on temporary employment visas." Cloudera was accused of posting openings for at least seven jobs — paying between $180,000 and $294,000 per year — that asked U.S. applicants to submit applications to a dedicated email address. However, the address did not accept messages from external email accounts, and applicants simply received an error message in response. Therefore Cloudera did not have any record of a person applying for particular roles, the DOJ stated.

Washington Examiner [5/1/2026 2:00 PM, David Harsanyi, 1147K] reports that New York magazine recently published an overwrought essay penned by pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, who contends his life has been turned into a nightmare since being "abducted by ICE" for deportation. Khalil is a forever student and former spokesman for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group that targets Jewish students and engages in rioting and other revolutionary activity. To give you a sense of the group’s oeuvre, it brags about fighting for the "total eradication of Western civilization," advocates "global intifada," and supports the "armed resistance" of Hamas, an organization designated as a terrorist group by the Justice Department. The only useful adjective to describe the act of knowingly handing citizenship to someone who foments this kind of civil unrest and holds this kind of detestation for his host country is "suicidal." Immigration law already allows for revocation of visas from anyone who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization." But whether applicable or not in this case, do we really need more people in the country who support the "total eradication of Western civilization?". The New York Times reported this week that the Trump administration has sent a directive to the Department of Homeland Security to start denying green cards to newcomers like Khalil who exhibit un-American behavior. The piece laments that, in the past, "immigrants who have followed the rules and have not broken the law" were basically assured green cards.

Blaze [5/1/2026 12:45 PM, Andrew Chapados, 1556K] reports that an American tech company is being sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly discriminating against U.S. workers. Instead of hiring Americans, the company allegedly favored hiring workers with temporary visas, going to bizarre lengths to prevent U.S. workers from being able to properly apply for its vacant jobs. Cloudera is a software company based in Santa Clara, California, that predominantly stores data and was started in 2008 by former engineers from Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the DOJ said the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by intentionally discriminating against Americans. The federal lawsuit said the company "upended its normal hiring process and did exactly what the law prohibits... Cloudera did not consider the applications some U.S. worker candidates submitted because the company earmarked certain jobs for workers on temporary employment visas." Cloudera was accused of posting openings for at least seven jobs — paying between $180,000 and $294,000 per year — that asked U.S. applicants to submit applications to a dedicated email address. However, the address did not accept messages from external email accounts, and applicants simply received an error message in response. Therefore Cloudera did not have any record of a person applying for particular roles, the DOJ stated.

Reuters [5/1/2026 8:11 PM, Andrew Hay, 38315K] reports for the first time in decades, ​a radio-collared endangered Mexican wolf crossed from the U.S. into Mexico last week in New Mexico, a federal official said on ‌Friday, but environmental groups warn the animal may never return due to U.S. border wall construction. The male wolf crossed into Chihuahua, Mexico, from a remote area of the New Mexico Bootheel, according to Aislinn Maestas, a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which tracks, members of the smallest and ​rarest subspecies of North American gray wolf, also known by its Spanish name "lobo." Once common in the Southwestern U.S. and ​Mexico, the wolf came close to extinction in the 1970s, exterminated by government agencies and ranchers who ⁠claimed targeting the species would protect livestock. The wolves have for millennia roamed the Bootheel’s grasslands, desert and wooded mountains, traversing the ​migration corridor in search of prey and mates in what is now Mexico and the U.S. The administrations of President Donald Trump and former ​President Joe Biden have built, a steel border wall westward across New Mexico to stem the trafficking of migrants and drugs. Current construction of the 18- to 30-foot-high barrier in the area means last week’s wolf border-crossing may be the last ever by the species, conservationist Michael Robinson said on Friday. That would exacerbate ​the wolf’s chronic inbreeding, which has led to lower survival rates for pups, as well as cancers and birth defects. “Sealing off the ​Bootheel would isolate wolves and other rare mammals like jaguars and ultimately make them all less likely to survive,” Robinson, a senior conservation advocate ‌at the ⁠Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview. The Department of Homeland Security and its U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which are responsible for border wall construction, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Conservation groups and some U.S. wildlife officials have said expansion of the border wall will fragment habitats and disrupt migration routes in regions such as the Big Bend area of ​Texas, the San Rafael Valley ​of Arizona and the Otay ⁠Wilderness in California. The Department of Homeland Security has used legal authority to override environmental laws, leading to lawsuits against barriers.

CBS News [5/1/2026 1:33 PM, Megan Cerullo, 51110K] reports that businesses that applied for refunds of President Trump’s "liberation day" tariffs, which the Supreme Court struck down in February, are getting some clarity on when they will receive their money. The Trump administration is expected to issue the first tariff refunds as early as May 11, according to court documents filed this week. The White House is estimated to have collected $166 billion in duties that it now owes back to importers. The federal government on April 20 launched a portal where businesses could file refund requests for Mr. Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, tariffs. Called CAPE, or the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries tool, the portal briefly crashed when a large number of businesses visited the site after its debut. The portal has since been working as intended for most businesses, with some legal experts praising how quickly the U.S. government created the refund mechanism. U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton, who oversees the tariff refund process, said in a filing Tuesday that the first tranche of refunds could land in businesses’ bank accounts around May 11. Judge Eaton said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has accepted roughly 21% of IEEPA duty refund requests. Of those, 3% are already in the "refund stage of the process," Eaton said. The first refunds, which will come from the U.S. Treasury Department, will arrive as early as May 11.

Washington Examiner [5/1/2026 8:02 PM, Brady Knox, 1147K] reports a Maryland man and woman were arrested after police found 57 pounds of marijuana worth $220,000 in two suitcases at Dulles International Airport. Baltimore residents Carl Caran Raashad Henson, 31, and Tilesha Kelly Theresa Coles, 31, were arrested on April 16, with the bust announced by Customs and Border Protection on Friday. They are being charged with possession of controlled substances, transport into the commonwealth with intent to distribute greater than 5 pounds of marijuana, and conspiracy to commit drug offenses. CBP officers discovered the 57 pounds of marijuana in 50 vacuum-sealed bags distributed across two checked suitcases, bound for a London-bound flight. The couple was met at the departure gate and taken back to the CBP’s inspection station. "Transnational criminal organizations continue to carelessly profit on the misfortune of others by paying them peanuts to smuggle marijuana to Europe for higher profits. Instead of peanuts, these mules will be earning jail time and a criminal record," Area Port Director Christine Waugh, CBP Area Port of Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "These arrests should be a wake-up call to would be smugglers that Customs and Border Protection officers will find you and we will work with our law enforcement partners to hold you accountable.” A press release from CBP noted that it has noticed a pattern of transnational criminal organizations attempting to transport large quantities of marijuana through luggage to Europe, where high-quality marijuana can garner as much as two to three times higher profits than in the United States. Despite the limited legalization of marijuana in the U.S., it remains illegal to transport the substance across state or international borders.

USA Today [5/1/2026 4:35 PM, Anthony Robledo, 70643K] reports an Oscar statuette confiscated by airport security will be returned to its owner, Russian educator Pavel Talankin, after TSA staff determined the trophy was a safety risk. The best documentary feature category winner, who took home his first Academy Award in March for his film "Mr Nobody Against Putin," tried to bring his trophy home to Europe but was stopped at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. In an April 30 Instagram post, the film’s co-director, David Borenstein, revealed Talakin’s trophy had been lost, writing that a "TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon. She wouldn’t let him carry it on board." He explained that Pavel didn’t have a checked bag where we could put the Oscar, so the TSA agent placed the trophy in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane. The airline has since confirmed that the trophy has since been located and is in its possession in Frankfurt, Germany. The airline apologized for the inconvenience.

ABC News [5/1/2026 10:43 AM, Staff, Yi-Jin Yu] Video: HERE reports staff at John Wayne Airport gathered this week to celebrate a veteran Transportation Security Administration officer as he turned 90 years old. TSA officers, family members and friends threw a surprise birthday party for Lawrence Santucci, who is now believed to be the oldest TSA officer in the country. "My heart feels so good right now," Santucci told Los Angeles ABC station KABC after the surprise. Santucci first joined the Orange County, California, airport in 2008 and said he loves his job. "I’ve met some wonderful people here that I’ll never forget," he said. As Kevin Gregory, one of his longtime coworkers, put it to KABC, "This is a man who is 90 years old and can probably outwork all of us.”

AP [5/1/2026 10:49 PM, Gabriela Aoun Angueira, 34146K] reports an attorney representing the Trump administration informed a U.S. District Court Friday evening that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun offering new appointments to disaster workers whose contracts the agency did not renew in January, reversing a controversial decision that prompted a coalition of labor unions, scientific groups and local governments to sue the administration. FEMA has "initiated contact to offer new appointments" to term-limited staff whose contracts expired the first three weeks of January, U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian wrote in a notice submitted to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco Friday. The notice comes after months of uncertainty over the future of FEMA’s term-limited disaster workers, who make up roughly half the agency’s workforce. It follows news earlier this week that FEMA had reinstated 14 employees who were put on paid administrative leave for eight months for signing a public letter of dissent critiquing policies taken by FEMA and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. The actions are the latest indications that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is moving away from his predecessor Kristi Noem’s harsher approach toward FEMA, before she was fired as DHS leader. They also raise questions about whether the measures are a response to concerns that the disaster agency might not be prepared for the Atlantic hurricane season and major events like the FIFA World Cup. FEMA did not immediately respond to questions Friday about the court notice or how many employees received offers to return. On Thursday a spokesperson told The Associated Press that while it does not comment on specific personnel actions, the agency is "addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.” FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, or CORE, work on two- to four-year assignments, though they traditionally have been routinely renewed, a system that allows the agency to build up and taper down its capacity as needed. There are about 10,000 COREs. Current and former FEMA staffers told the AP it is not uncommon for employees to work for decades or even retire in the term-limited appointments. FEMA abruptly stopped renewing some CORE employees’ contracts at the start of 2026 as they expired, and extended other appointments by only 90 days at a time. The agency paused the nonrenewals in late January, right before a severe winter storm impacted multiple states. By that time, 159 COREs had not been renewed, according to a sworn declaration by FEMA’s temporary leader, Karen S. Evans. A coalition led by the American Federation of Government Employees labor union sued the administration over the nonrenewals, alleging they were part of a wider plan to cut FEMA’s workforce by half and undermined FEMA’s congressional mandate to ensure the nation’s disaster preparedness.

New York Times [5/1/2026 2:12 PM, Scott Dance and Ashley Cai, 148038K] reports that Federal disaster declarations, which unlock millions of dollars in aid for communities hit by catastrophes, have been delayed significantly in President Trump’s second term, and money is flowing especially slowly to states that Mr. Trump lost in the 2024 election, according to a New York Times analysis. The review of Federal Emergency Management Agency data found that the Trump administration is moving more slowly than its predecessors to approve or deny requests for emergency aid after natural disasters, sometimes leaving communities stretched to pay big expenses until they hear whether the federal government will help. In past decades, more than a few weeks rarely passed before presidents approved or denied state requests for disaster declarations, designations that make communities eligible for federal aid. But that gap has been growing, a change that has accelerated under this administration. For instance, when destructive storms swept across Kansas in July, triggering widespread flash flooding that required rescues in areas still recovering from earlier storms and tornadoes, it took six months for Mr. Trump to grant the state’s request. “Any suggestion that disaster decisions are politically motivated does not reflect how this process works or how FEMA carries out its mission,” Daniel Llargués, an agency spokesman, wrote in an email. “FEMA continues to process federal declaration requests and deliver assistance promptly, supporting state and local governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes.”

New York Post [5/1/2026 11:54 AM, Josh Christenson, 40934K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has suspended former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) as well as her family, associates and businesses from receiving future federal funds after she was indicted for allegedly stealing $5.7 million in taxpayer money. DHS general counsel James Percival told The Post in a statement that Cherfilus-McCormick "abused Americans’ trust in the most egregious way" by having "manipulated the COVID-19 crisis to funnel over $5 million dollars of FEMA relief funds to her and her family members." Among those blacklisted from future monies are her brother, Edwin Cherfilus; her sister, Marjorie Cherfilus; her parents, Gabriel and Marie Smith; her former congressional chief of staff, Nadege Leblanc; and her tax preparer David Spencer. "This is outright fraud. That’s exactly what a federal grand jury and the US House of Representatives found," Percival said. "I am proud that my office is taking the first step to ensure she is held accountable and American taxpayers’ money is protected from further misuse."

HS Today [5/1/2026 6:55 AM, Staff, 38K] reports FEMA has approved more than $67 million in funding to support state-managed Crisis Counseling Programs and Disaster Case Management Programs in nine states following federally declared disasters. These funds help individuals, families and communities address urgent emotional, mental health and long-term recovery needs after a disaster. These recovery programs are designed, led and managed by the states. FEMA provides funding and technical assistance, while states work with local partners to deliver services that meet the needs of survivors in their communities. Specifically, about $46.6 million supports state-managed Disaster Case Management services. Through these programs, case managers work one-on-one with survivors to assess unmet needs, develop a personalized recovery plan and coordinate available resources so households can move toward long-term stability and independence. In addition, more than $20.8 million supports state-led Crisis Counseling Program services. These funds pay for local responders and outreach workers who help survivors manage disaster-related stress, cope with grief and loss, and connect to mental health and community resources. FEMA says they will continue to work closely with Alaska, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin to support individuals and communities throughout state-led recovery efforts.

NBC News [5/1/2026 7:01 PM, Ryan Laughlin, 42967K] Video: HERE reports that, after the biggest wildfire in New Mexico’s history, victims are demanding answers as to why the head of a FEMA funds office had his claims processed before those who had total losses.

Breitbart [5/1/2026 12:13 PM, Jeff Poor, 2238K] reports that Thursday on FNC’s "Hannity," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) addressed the reported deficiencies in the Secret Service on the heels of another assassination attempt on President Donald Trump last month at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner. According to the Missouri lawmaker, Secret Service whistleblowers had revealed numerous problems. "Well, we’ve had a lot of security failures," Hawley said. "There’s no doubt about that, Sean. I want to echo what you said that obviously, the brave men and women on the ground in the moment there reacted with incredible heroism. Nobody was hurt except for that agent who took the bullet and I’m glad that he is — he’s doing better now. But yeah, I think when you have three attempts on the life of a president in two years, they get as close as they did — I mean, my gosh, it’s a miracle of God that Trump wasn’t killed in that first attack in Butler. That was an absolute travesty." He continued, "And, Sean, I talked to numerous Secret Service whistleblowers who came forward to me after Butler, after Trump International, and they told me there are big problems of the Secret Service. They said they didn’t have the resources they needed. They weren’t getting the interagency cooperation that they needed. They didn’t have the leadership they needed. Now, I commend the president for changing out the leadership, but I think we need to know, is the Secret Service getting all the resources they need? Are they getting the cooperation that they need? Are the right protocols in place?" "We got to be able to protect the life of the president and protect the lives of people around him, including the public," Hawley added. "I think there’s some work to do here."

FOX News [5/2/2026 6:00 AM, Julia Bonavita, 37576K] reports when an armed gunman rushed past a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner last weekend, questions immediately began to swirl throughout the country regarding how yet another alleged would-be-assailant was able to get within a stone’s throw of the president of the United States. Cole Allen, 31, is facing federal charges of attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, transporting a firearm across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence after he allegedly ran through a Secret Service checkpoint and opened fire just one floor from where President Donald Trump and several high-level Cabinet officials were attending the gala. Authorities have pointed to an alleged manifesto penned by Allen indicating that he intended to target Trump and members of his administration over political grievances. As news of the alleged attempted assassination broke, questions quickly began to swirl regarding the United States Secret Service’s security measures amid a time of heightened violence against political leaders. "I think the Secret Service’s model worked," Bill Gage, a former Secret Service special agent and executive protection director for the SafeHaven Security Group, told Fox News Digital. "But there was definitely a lot of luck involved that Cole Allen wasn’t better trained, wasn’t better prepared," Gage added.

New York Times [5/1/2026 3:45 PM, Linda Qiu, 148038K] reports a gunman’s breach of a Washington hotel where President Trump had gathered with hundreds of journalists over the weekend has reignited the debate over which political faction is more violent and which faces more threats. On Saturday night, a man who officials said was carrying a shotgun, a pistol and knives raced past a security checkpoint before he was brought down and disarmed a floor above where the ballroom where the White House correspondents’ dinner was held. The suspect was charged on Monday with trying to assassinate Mr. Trump. Since then, Republican officials and commentators have argued, incorrectly, that political violence is largely a left-wing problem. Liberals have countered by citing the number of threats made against former President Barack Obama. It is difficult to quantify the threat level faced by different presidents, as the Secret Service does not publicly disclose this information.

The Hill [5/1/2026 12:13 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports that the U.S. Secret Service agent who was injured during a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner last Saturday was not hit by friendly fire, according to the federal law enforcement agency. Secret Service Director Sean Curran told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network, that the agent was shot at “point-blank range” by the suspect as he charged through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel. “Our officer heroically returned fire,” Curran said. He confirmed the same details in an interview with Fox News’s Will Cain, adding that the agent fired toward the suspect, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, at least five times. The director said Allen was not hit in the exchange and agents were able to subdue him soon after. Curran’s statement follows media reports that the agent was struck by friendly fire. A motion filed this week by federal prosecutors did not mention any instance of an officer being shot. Federal prosecutors allege that the suspect was targeting President Trump and members of his administration. This is now the third assassination attempt on the president. Trump and his Cabinet members were in attendance at the dinner and were quickly rushed by the Secret Service to a secure location. The president said in the Oval Office on Thursday that he was told “it wasn’t friendly fire” that hit the officer. He also laughed off a question about whether he would consider wearing a bulletproof vest after this incident, telling reporters he didn’t know if he “can handle looking 20 pounds heavier.” The president told reporters that the agent who was shot had a vest on.

USA Today [5/1/2026 4:20 PM, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, 70643K] reports video released on Thursday, April 30, appears to show a police dog sniffing White House Correspondents’ dinner accused shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, moments before shots were fired on Saturday, April 25. The 33-second video shared by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, captures Allen, dressed in a long coat, walking down a hallway in the Washington Hilton Hotel in D.C., where the dinner was held. As he approaches a security checkpoint with side-by-side magnetometers that look similar to walk-through metal detectors, he turns into an open doorway off the hallway. A vested and leashed K-9 unit crosses the hallway to follow Allen, its handler trailing behind. The dog follows Allen into the room. Both remain off-camera for about three seconds, at which point the K-9 officer seems to direct the dog away from Allen, pulling its leash. The K-9 officer’s role at the event is unclear. Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Secret Service, did not immediately respond to questions from USA TODAY about the footage including whether the dog handler was part of the Secret Service’s security team, whether the dog was flagging suspicious activity and whether proper protocols were followed. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was accused of attempting to assassinate the president after he was caught storming security in the Washington Hilton Hotel during the White House Correspondents Association’s annual dinner. Allen, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, two knives, four daggers "and enough ammunition to take dozens of lives, was apprehended by USSS officers mere feet away from the ballroom where his primary target was located, along with other members of the Cabinet," according to a court filing from April 29. He never made it to the stairs leading to a lower level where the dinner was held, USA TODAY reported. At least one security agent opened fire and was hit in his ballistic vest during the event. Allen appeared in federal court in Washington on April 27 on charges of attempting to assassinate Trump, transporting a firearm and ammunition across state lines with the intent to commit a felony and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [5/1/2026 11:41 AM, Susan Ferrechio, 1323K]

Daily Caller [5/1/2026 4:09 PM, Harold Hutchison, 803K] reports video taken moments before a gunman attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner showed a police canine appearing to follow the would-be assassin into a side room—something not mentioned in the criminal complaint or the affidavit from an FBI agent. United States Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the District of Columbia released nearly six minutes of new video Thursday apparently showing 31-year-old Cole Allen entering a side room near the magnetometers set up as security for the event, which President Donald Trump was attending for the first time while in office. While Pirro said in a social media post that the video also showed Allen "casing" the location the previous day, it also showed the police canine following Allen into the side room before the handler pulled on the leash; the occurrence of the incident caught on the released video was omitted from court documents. Allen appeared in court Monday to face charges of attempting to assassinate Trump, discharging a firearm during a violent crime and transporting firearms across state lines with the intent to commit a violent crime.

CNN [5/1/2026 1:51 PM, Katelyn Polantz, Michael Williams, and Thomas Bordeaux, 612K] reports that a federal judge privately admonished prosecutors for attempting to grandstand Thursday at a detention hearing for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman, according to a transcript obtained by CNN. "I don’t know what’s going on here. I know that you want to present your case, I guess, to some audience other than the Court," Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya told three prosecutors in the courtroom on Thursday out of earshot of the public and press. "I don’t want this to turn into a circus." Upadhyaya’s comments highlight a dynamic that has arisen in the six days since Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody after a federal agent shot at him — with Trump administration officials aggressively describing their theory of the alleged attempted assassination of the president in news interviews and unsolicited court filings. Several times, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others in television interviews have gone much further and given more definitive descriptions of the shooting than the detail that’s been represented in court from the FBI and Justice Department line prosecutors. Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran on Thursday said Allen shot an officer at point-blank range. Pirro said on Fox News Thursday he fired at the Secret Service officer. Court filings describing the events have been less definitive.

CBS News [5/1/2026 5:54 PM, Melissa Quinn, Ibrahim Aksoy, 51110K] reports during a hearing on whether accused White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman Cole Allen should remain detained ahead of a criminal trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya scolded federal prosecutors for pushing to move forward with the proceedings even though Allen agreed to remain in custody. The exchange between prosecutors and the judge occurred when Upadhyaya directed lawyers to approach the bench to discuss the government’s effort to push its case for Allen’s detention. Jocelyn Ballantine, one of the prosecutors working on Allen’s case, told the judge that the government is five days into its investigation and would continue turning over information to the defense. Allen, 31, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president and two gun charges. He has not yet entered a plea. Federal authorities have alleged that Allen — armed with two guns and multiple knives — sprinted through a security checkpoint for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday and shot at an officer, before being apprehended by federal law enforcement. President Trump was present one floor below, along with several top administration officials and some 2,600 guests. Prosecutors had urged the judge ahead of Thursday’s hearing to order Allen to remain in custody in the lead-up to a trial, arguing in court papers that the seriousness of the charges warranted his continued detention

FOX News [5/1/2026 8:00 AM, Stepheny Price, 37576K] reports in a matter of days, authorities have revealed a trove of information about Cole Allen after he allegedly tried to assassinate President Donald Trump, while the public has learned little about Thomas Crooks nearly two years after his assassination attempt. The contrast raises new questions about transparency and what remains unknown about Crooks’ shooting of Trump, and experts say the explanation may be simpler than it seems. In the latest case, investigators quickly developed a clearer picture of the suspect’s apparent grievances, communications and alleged planning. But in the Crooks case, key questions about motive and mindset have lingered long after the shooting, fueling speculation about what investigators know and why the public still knows so little. Experts who study assassination attempts and targeted violence say the difference often comes down to evidence. Sometimes, they say, one offender simply leaves behind far more information than another. Allen, a 31-year-old California computer scientist, is accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, April 25, after allegedly rushing a Secret Service checkpoint armed with multiple weapons. He now faces federal charges, with more expected. By contrast, Crooks, who carried out the 2024 assassination attempt against Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was shot and killed at the scene, limiting the scope of the investigation and what information became public.

FOX News [5/1/2026 10:44 AM, Peter D’Abrosca, 37576K] reports the FBI and Secret Service confirmed they are investigating after the owner of a Wisconsin brewery advertised a free beer promotion upon the death of President Donald Trump just after a man was apprehended for allegedly attempting to assassinate the 47th president. "The U.S. Secret Service follows up on perceived threats against the President of the United States or any one of our protectees," the agencies said in a joint statement to Fox News. "The FBI and Secret Service together followed up on information received and conducted further investigative steps, which included a voluntary interview with the individual. This is an ongoing matter and we do not have further comment.” Kirk Bangstad owns the progressive-themed Minocqua Brewing Company in the northern Wisconsin town of Minocqua. At 9:15 p.m. Saturday, April 25, moments after news broke that shots were fired inside the Washington Hilton Hotel where Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Cabinet members were attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, the brewery advertised on its Facebook page that it would give out free beer upon Trump’s death. "Well, we almost got #freebeerday. Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle," the post said. "We’ll never know. Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens." The post encouraged supporters to purchase T-shirts that say, "I wish it was free beer day at Minocqua Brewing Company." "Our celebration of life is going to be legendary!" the post said.

Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 5:57 PM, Libor Jany, 12718K] reports a request from Los Angeles police officials to boost staffing and purchase new vehicles in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been met with deep skepticism by City Council members who worry about committing funding amid uncertainty around the plan to secure the venues. During an hours-long budget hearing Tuesday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell repeated a warning he has issued in recent months, suggesting that public safety will suffer if the city doesn’t hire more officers to replace the hundreds expected to leave the department in the next two years. Despite recent recruitment gains, McDonnell said the council needs to fund the new hires now, so the department can staff up in time for the Olympics. Under the current security plan, the LAPD would supply about 2,400 officers, or just under a third of the total officers needed to police the Games. The LAPD is requesting 520 new police recruits for the next fiscal year, which would grow the 8,600-member department by about 10 officers, with projected attrition at 510 officers. The department is also requesting nearly $100 million from the city to purchase more than 500 new vehicles, as well as equipment such as an upgraded radio network, new computers and more than 1,600 body cameras, for the Games. The U.S. Secret Service has not yet released details on how many federal agents will flood secure zones around venues, which include Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park and Crypto Arena. The federal government has set aside $1 billion for Olympics security spending, including for local and state law enforcement, but has given few details about when and how it will distribute those funds, amid concerns that President Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress might not follow through with its funding pledge. The exact costs to L.A. and other local governments remain unknown, as officials wait to hear from federal security agencies about what services will be needed.

NewsNation [5/1/2026 1:12 PM, Markeshia Jackson, 4464K] reports that President Trump has signed legislation funding much of the Department of Homeland Security, thus ending the longest agency shutdown in history. The effects of which were felt here at home, one Coast Guard family says, “while they are relieved, they still can’t quite rest just yet.” Jessica Manfre is the wife of a Master Chief in the United States Coast Guard, they’ve went through shutdowns before, but never anything like this. “I’ve just been really sad, just really sad, because I also know how long it’s going to take them to recover from this, it’s not just okay you’re funded, it’s very clear that for every day they were shut down it will take them two days to recover,” Manfre said. Heavy emotions from Jessica Manfre, even after the House approved the bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end the 10-week shutdown. Her husband has served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 25 years. She says this has been the most severe shutdown they’ve experienced. “When you’re getting phone calls that a station’s water has been shut off, and they can’t use the bathroom and their officer in charge is having to call the city and beg to turn the water back on and to keep the lights on,” Manfre said. It’s critical situations like that that made her tearful when she learned that the president officially signed the bill. But it does not include funding for ICE, as lawmakers remain divided over the issue. Manfre says the shutdown should never have gone this far.

HS Today [5/1/2026 7:25 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba’s crew offloaded approximately 7,050 pounds of cocaine worth more than $53 million earlier this week at Port Everglades. The seized contraband was the result of one interdiction in the Caribbean Sea and one interdiction in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. “The crew’s achievements on this patrol reflect the very best of our service—courage, vigilance, and an unshakeable commitment to protecting the American people,” said Cmdr. Nicholas Seniuk, Escanaba’s commanding officer. “Every pound of narcotics kept off our streets represents lives changed, violence prevented, and communities made safer. We couldn’t be prouder of their extraordinary work.”

The Hill [5/1/2026 6:54 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18170K] reports Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, is pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for information on whether its former secretary, Kristi Noem, is still living in government housing. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Garcia cited the Wall Street Journal’s reporting last week that indicated Noem has continued using the waterfront house on a military base in Washington, D.C., nearly two months after she was removed from her post. Garcia demanded DHS provide materials related to her housing arrangement, including “any lease agreement, contractual arrangement, or special dispensation permitting former Secretary Noem to continue to reside in Coast Guard housing on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling or any other DHS property.” “The ongoing use of Coast Guard housing by a former DHS official raises concerns of waste, fraud, and abuse of government resources under your supervision,” Garcia wrote in his letter. Garcia also pressed Mullin on whether his predecessor was paying rent for the housing accommodations, requesting that he provide “all evidence of rental payments or reimbursements paid to the federal government by Kristi Noem” to live at the waterfront property. The ranking member also asked for all memos or policy that DHS “relied upon to justify the use” of the residence both during Noem’s time as secretary and after she was terminated on March 5. She was subsequently tapped as special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas.” Garcia requested the material be provided by May 15. “Kristi Noem got fired in March and she is still living rent-free in a government home that belongs to the Coast Guard. The Trump Administration can’t explain why, nor do they seem to care,” Garcia said in a statement. “Secretary Mullin owes us answers and Noem must pack her bags and go,” he added.

New York Times [5/2/2026 5:01 AM, Christine Hauser, 148038K] reports the sea was stormy on Sept. 26, 1918, as a convoy of merchant ships navigated the Bristol Channel in southern England. Escorting them was the Tampa, a 190-foot U.S. Coast Guard cutter with the mission of protecting the boats from German submarines. The cutter separated from the convoy in the misty night to take on supplies and coal at a port. And then it disappeared. For more than a century, its fate has been an enduring naval mystery of World War I. This week, British divers announced that the wreck of the Tampa had at last been found, nestled 320 feet deep in murky waters about 50 miles off the Cornish coast. A torpedo from a German submarine killed all those aboard the cutter: 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy personnel and 15 British Navy personnel and civilians. Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, said that the Tampa was the largest single American naval combat loss of life in World War I and that it had left “an enduring grief in our service.” The discovery was the culmination of a three-year effort by the Gasperados Dive Team, a group of British explorers and researchers. They combed shipping logs and wartime messages, and collaborated with the Coast Guard to pinpoint the path and resting place of the vanished vessel. Barbara Mortimer, a Gasperados researcher, collated scraps of information, sometimes single lines of text that by themselves offered little to go on. But once all the information was meticulously pieced together, she and her teammates narrowed the search to an area clustered with thousands of wrecks from warships, commercial ships and fishing vessels lost over centuries. The timeline of the Tampa’s final moments slowly emerged.

Yahoo! News [5/1/2026 10:39 AM, Drew Taylor, 46783K] reports that the United States Coast Guard has purchased the former Birmingham-Southern College campus for $126.5 million. The 192-acre campus, which was closed back in May 2024, will be refitted to become the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Birmingham-Southern, covering 1.3 million square feet of buildings, athletic fields and green spaces. The Coast Guard first made the announcement of purchasing the property back in March. The new facility will be used to train thousands of enlisted personnel throughout the year, taking part in courses on both technical skills and development. According to a statement from BSC, approximately 300 Coast Guard staff and another 100 civilian contractors will operate Training Center Birmingham-Southern, either on or off campus. "The Coast Guard has committed to honoring the college’s 168-year legacy of education and service by calling the new facility Coast Guard Training Center Birmingham-Southern," a statement from BSC read. "BSC’s legacy of developing young men and women will continue in the Coast Guard’s development of a new generation of young men and women dedicated to serving our nation.” According to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, the new base would bring an estimated 1,000 jobs to the city.

Bloomberg [5/1/2026 2:19 PM, Staff, 763K] reports that companies and governments using AI agents need to anticipate and assess how their use can open them up to risks and affect operations, cybersecurity agencies in the USA, U.K. and Australia warned. Agents that work autonomously can easily be misused and breached by hackers, leading to productivity losses and compromised private information, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and organizations from other countries warned in a report released Friday. "Every individual component in an agentic AI system widens the attack surface, exposing the system to additional avenues of exploitation," the report said. The agencies suggested a layered defense for AI.

Reuters [5/1/2026 1:08 PM, Raphael Satter, 38315K] reports that U.S. cybersecurity officials are considering sharply shorter deadlines for fixing critical flaws in government IT systems, ‌amid concerns hackers could exploit them using artificial‑intelligence tools such as Anthropic’s Mythos, people familiar with the matter said. The move, which has not been previously reported, would slash the deadline for responding to actively exploited vulnerabilities from an average of two or three weeks to three days, the people said. Anxiety over the power and proliferation of AI models like Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT‑5.4‑Cyber has been building for weeks. Although hackers have been deploying AI since at least 2023, these newer models are said to be able to easily identify previously unknown vulnerabilities or seize on freshly disclosed ones to enable complex hacking operations. So while it previously might have taken hackers ⁠several months, weeks, or days to take advantage of software flaws, that timeframe has been compressed, in at least some cases, to a matter of hours. That in turn is putting pressure on defenders to kick into high gear, said Stephen Boyer, the founder of cybersecurity company Bitsight, which has previously helped CISA catalogue vulnerabilities. "If you’re going to protect civil agencies, you’re going to have to move faster," Boyer said. "We don’t have as much of a window as we used to have." The two sources familiar with the matter said the deadline proposals were being discussed by Nick Andersen, the acting chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Sean Cairncross, the U.S. national cyber director. Reuters could not establish whether a final decision on the matter has been made or when one could be expected. CISA and the Office of the National Cyber Director did not immediately offer comment.

AP [5/1/2026 6:07 PM, Ben Finley and Matt O’Brien, 2238K] reports that the Pentagon said Friday that it has partnered with seven tech companies to tap into their artificial intelligence in classified systems, allowing the military to boost its use of AI to help it fight wars. Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, OpenAI, Reflection and SpaceX will provide resources to help "augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments," the Defense Department said. The Defense Department has been rapidly accelerating its use of AI in recent years. The technology can help the U.S. military reduce the time it takes to identify and strike targets on the battlefield, while aiding in the organization of weapons maintenance and supply lines, according to a report in March from the Brennan Center for Justice. Friday’s announcement comes after concerns raised by a company not on the list, Anthropic, whose battle with the Pentagon to put up AI guardrails has spilled into court. The tech company said it wanted assurances in its contract that the military would not use its technology in fully autonomous weapons and the surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the company must allow for any uses the Pentagon deemed lawful. OpenAI had announced a deal with the Pentagon in March to effectively replace Anthropic with ChatGPT in classified environments. The Pentagon said Friday that military personnel are already using its AI capabilities through its official platform, GenAI.mil.

New York Times [5/1/2026 11:59 AM, Julian E. Barnes and Sheera Frenkel, 148038K] reports that the Pentagon announced on Friday that it had reached deals with some of the technology industry’s biggest companies in an effort to expand the military’s artificial intelligence capabilities and increase the number of firms authorized to be on classified networks. The companies, according to the Defense Department, agreed to allow the Pentagon to employ their technology for “any lawful use,” a standard resisted by Anthropic, which was initially the only artificial intelligence model available on classified markets. The Pentagon had previously confirmed deals with Elon Musk’s xAI, OpenAI and Google. In addition, the Pentagon said it had reached deals with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Nvidia and Reflection AI, a start-up. “These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an A.I.-first fighting force,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Still, the announcement with the cloud computing companies is not as significant as the earlier agreements with OpenAI that allow ChatGPT and Google to use Gemini on the classified networks. The cloud companies host the models, but the agreements with the companies that create the models will determine precisely how the Pentagon uses artificial intelligence to fight wars. In its announcement, the Pentagon did not specify how it would use the new A.I. tools but said the agreement would help service members make faster and better decisions.

Federal News Network [5/1/2026 12:16 PM, Anastasia Obis, 1297K] reports that the Defense Department has struck agreements with some of the nation’s largest technology companies to deploy their advanced artificial intelligence capabilities on its classified networks, part of a broader push to accelerate the military’s adoption of AI. SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Reflection will integrate their AI capabilities into the department’s Impact Level 6 and Impact Level 7 network environments. IL6 is used for the storage and processing of information classified up to the secret level, while IL7 supports highly restricted data. Following the initial announcement Friday morning, DoD said that Oracle has also "agreed to join the list of AI companies," bringing the total number of participating companies to eight. "These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare," the department said in a statement. These AI capabilities will "streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments," according to the Defense Department.

Federal News Network [5/1/2026 11:57 AM, Jason Miller, 1297K] reports that the Department of the Navy is one the biggest users of the Defense Department’s GenAI.mil platform. The Navy designated the generative artificial intelligence tool as an enterprise service in just five days after evaluating it. It also told all employees to use it for controlled unclassified information and Impact Level 5 (IL5) data by April 30. But just giving sailors, marines and civilians access to the large language models and saying "use it" without any training is not a recipe for success. The DoN is ensuring its employees are gaining real benefits of the AI tools by mandating training and then measuring how that training is turning into mission outcomes. The Navy, to that end, detailed in a March memo all the free AI training resources available across DoD, including everything from GenAI.mil training to Naval based LinkedIn learning to Google skills training. Justin Fanelli, the Navy’s chief technology officer, said users must understand how to use AI from different perspectives. "The way that I think about AI is there’s individualized AI and there’s institutionalized AI in terms of the functions, in terms of how you use it, in terms of use cases," Fanelli said during the recent Sea, Air, Space Conference sponsored by the Navy League. "Institutionalized [use] is better bang for the buck, but with individualized [use], you need people using it to get to level two and level three [of AI utilization]."

USA Today [5/1/2026 4:42 PM, Brian Day, 70643K] reports a San Bernardino County Children and Family Services office in Victorville was evacuated and authorities summoned a bomb squad after a "suspicious device" was discovered on the property on Friday, law enforcement officials said. The incident began about 10:30 a.m. May 1 at the Victorville CFS facility at 15020 Palmdale Road, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Gloria Orejel said. "Dispatch received a call from the location after someone found a suspicious device in some bushes nearby," she said.

New York Times [5/1/2026 2:44 PM, Ana Swanson, 148038K] reports that the Trump administration has taken a novel approach as it looks for ways to issue new tariffs to replace the levies invalidated by the Supreme Court. It began a new trade investigation in March that targets 59 countries and the European Union with potential tariffs unless they pass laws that ban imports of goods made with forced labor. In two days of hearings about the investigation in Washington this week, human rights officials and company executives generally praised the move, saying it was likely to bring about a major expansion of global legislation to combat forced labor. But they also expressed a variety of cautionary messages, saying the administration must ensure that other countries actually enforce any new laws and that the efforts don’t backfire. Some who testified argued that the additional tariffs the Trump administration has proposed could tax the resources that foreign governments need to police labor violations, or hurt vulnerable foreign workers rather than help them by cutting off trade with the United States. Others argued that forced labor occurs in fields, factories and fishing vessels, and that import bans could risk missing where labor violations were actually occurring. Trade experts have applauded the administration’s focus on forced labor, but also questioned its motivation.

New York Times [5/1/2026 3:33 PM, Ana Swanson and Jeanna Smialek, 330K] reports President Trump said Friday that he planned to increase tariffs on European cars and trucks because the European Union was not complying with a trade deal agreed to with the United States. Mr. Trump said the tariff would increase to 25 percent beginning next week. The United States had lowered auto tariffs for the European Union to 15 percent as part of a trade deal between the governments, but U.S. officials have complained that the European Union isn’t moving fast enough to put it in place. In February, the Supreme Court curtailed the president’s use of tariffs, saying that he had exceeded his authority in using an emergency law to impose tariffs. But the tariffs on European cars were issued under a separate, national security-related law, Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1964, and are not affected by the Supreme Court ruling. “The European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal,” the president said a post on Truth Social. A higher tariff on cars could be devastating to European automakers, which would face more barriers selling in the United States than car manufacturers in Japan, South Korea and Mexico. “The E.U. is implementing its joint statement commitments in line with standard legislative practice,” said Olof Gill, a spokesman for the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. He added that if the United States were to violate the agreement, “we will keep our options open to protect E.U. interests.” The European Union has moved toward completing its trade deal with the United States in recent weeks, pushing it through a key stage in the European Parliament. But it still needs to pass through final negotiations before taking effect. Mr. Trump’s planned tariffs could blow up that fragile process. “If Trump’s Truth Social is taken at face value, that will mean that the agreement is not going to hold,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group. “This would be a clear violation of the understanding that the two sides had come to. It would suggest we’re at the risk of a very serious trade war starting next week.” Mr. Rahman noted that the European Union already had retaliatory tariff options drawn up, and that it could enact those in response. This is not the only trade change Mr. Trump has unveiled in recent days. On Thursday, after meeting with King Charles III of England, Mr. Trump said he would also lift U.S. tariffs on Scotch whisky. The president appeared to be referring to a 10 percent tariff he imposed in February, after the Supreme Court struck down other global tariffs he issued last year. That 10 percent tariff was issued using a legal provision, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to issue tariffs to address balance of payments issues. But Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown, said that Section 122 allowed the president to make exemptions “because of the needs of the United States economy.” “I did not have ‘tariff reductions as a gift to the king’ on my bingo card,” he said. “I think the whiskey exemption is probably lawful, assuming the entire 122 regime is lawful.” But for the 27-nation European Union, to which the United Kingdom no longer belongs, the direction of travel is less positive.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [5/1/2026 12:25 PM, Bart Jansen, 70643K]

CNN [5/2/2026 4:13 AM, Mauricio Torres, 19874K] reports the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa said on Friday he will temporarily step down from his post, days after he was indicted in the US on drug trafficking charges,. Ruben Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa since 2021, and nine current or former high-ranking Mexican officials were charged in a five-count indictment unsealed Wednesday with allegedly helping a faction of the cartel led by the Chapitos, the sons of Joaquin Guzman Loera — also known as El Chapo. Prosecutors in New York allege Rocha Moya met with the Chapitos prior to his election and assured them that if elected, he would put officials friendly to their drug trafficking operations into power. Cartel members stole ballot boxes and kidnapped or intimidated opponents to drop out of the race to ensure his victory, according to the indictment. In a video message released Friday evening, Rocha reiterated his rejection of the charges said that his request to step aside aims to "facilitate the actions of Mexican authorities" in the investigation. Rocha’s announcement came hours after Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office reported it had found there was not enough evidence to provisionally detain him for extradition to the US. The Office added that it will request evidence from the United States and review the case. Rocha’s request for leave must still be approved by the state Congress. "My conscience is clear, a lifetime of work backs my words," he said in his message. Rocha took office as governor of Sinaloa in 2021 after winning that year’s election as a candidate for Morena, the same party as Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. On Thursday, during her daily press conference, the president read a statement in which she said her government will not protect anyone who has committed a crime, but that it will be up to the Attorney General’s Office to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed against Rocha or not. Sheinbaum also rejected possible interventionist actions by the United States, which, since Donald Trump began his second presidential term, has insisted that Mexico is not acting firmly enough against organized crime. In the indictment, US prosecutors allege the current and former Mexican officials aided the cartel in importing fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs from Mexico into the US; shielded the cartel leaders from investigation and prosecution; and allowed drug-related violence. In exchange, the indictment alleges, the defendants in total received millions of dollars.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [5/2/2026 2:13 AM, Jack Nicas, 330K]

Reuters [5/1/2026 7:15 PM, Jim Thomas, 3760K] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive order broadening U.S. sanctions on the Cuban government, authorizing the Treasury to block the assets of Cuban officials and their adult family members, bar them from entering the United States, and penalize foreign banks that handle their transactions. The order extends a national emergency that Trump declared in January and is designed to cut Havana’s access to the global financial system as the administration intensifies pressure on the island during a deepening economic crisis. The order, issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, allows asset blocks on individuals and entities involved in Cuba’s key economic sectors, government leaders, security affiliates, and those responsible for serious human rights abuses or corruption connected to the regime. It extends to adult family members of designees and suspends their entry into the United States. The order also authorizes the Treasury to block U.S. correspondent or payable-through accounts of foreign banks that conduct or facilitate significant transactions for any sanctioned person, a measure intended to deter overseas financial institutions from clearing dollar transactions tied to designated Cuban entities, including the Central Bank of Cuba. The action builds on Executive Order 14380, signed Jan. 29, which declared a national emergency over what the White House called an "unusual and extraordinary threat" from the Cuban government and established a separate tariff mechanism targeting countries supplying oil to the island. The earlier order took effect Jan. 30. A White House fact sheet said Friday’s order would hold the Cuban regime "accountable for its support of hostile actors, terrorism, and regional instability.”

CBS News [5/1/2026 11:35 PM, Abby Dodge, 51110K] reports President Trump signed an executive order Friday tightening U.S. sanctions on Cuba, expanding penalties on the island’s government and foreign companies that do business with it. The order builds on sanctions introduced earlier this year and signals that Cuba remains a priority for the administration, even as the United States navigates other international conflicts in Iran and elsewhere, experts say. The executive order is aimed at Cuban government officials, people accused of corruption and people who operate in the country’s energy, defense or financial services sectors. It does not name any specific sanctioned individuals. The new measures also increase pressure on foreign financial institutions by threatening their access to U.S. markets if they continue to work with Cuban government entities. The administration says the sanctions are also intended to discourage deeper involvement from foreign adversaries. Andy Gómez, a professor of Cuban studies at the University of Miami, said the executive order carries broader geopolitical implications. He said it can be seen as a warning to countries like Russia and China to keep their distance. "This is the hidden message behind what has been written, and that’s how I read it," he said. The moves follow months of intense pressure on Cuba by the Trump administration, which has used the threat of hefty tariffs to largely block foreign countries from shipping oil to Cuba, causing severe energy shortages. Mr. Trump has not ruled out some kind of military action in Cuba, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the country needs to enact significant economic and political reforms. Mr. Trump has floated "taking" Cuba on a few occasions, most recently on Friday, when he said in a speech he plans to address Cuba after dealing with the Iran war. "On the way back from Iran," he said, to laughs, "maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, the biggest in the world, we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘thank you very much, we give up.’". Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the tighter sanctions Friday in a post on X, calling them "coercive measures" designed to intimidate Cuba. The tightening of sanctions comes as Raúl Castro, the former president, made a rare public appearance Friday during Cuba’s May Day parade. The move could be seen as a calculated effort to project strength, according to Gómez. "You’re talking about a man who is turning 95 years old," Gómez said. "It sends the message that he’s still the one calling the shots.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 11:33 PM, Carlos De Loera, 12718K] reports a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that U.S. sanctions imposed on Cuba at the start of the first Trump administration were "likely the primary cause" for the increase in the infant mortality rate on the island. From 2018 to 2025, the infant mortality rate — which measures the number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1,000 live births — in Cuba surged by 148%, the report found. The timeline for that increase has coincided with harsher economic sanctions implemented by Presidents Trump and Biden. "US sanctions have targeted Cuba’s key sources of export earnings, such as tourism, remittances from Cuban Americans to their family members, and even by putting pressure on other countries to end primary care programs staffed by Cuban doctors," CEPR International Research fellow Joe Sammut said in a press release. "These measures sharply reduced Cuba’s capacity to pay for needed food and medicines.” Despite decades of economic instability and having the title of "developing" country, Cuba has historically had a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S. From 2014 to 2016, Cuba had an infant mortality rate that hovered around 5 per 1,000 live births, lower than the U.S. rate of closer to 6 per 1,000 live births, World Bank and United Nations data showed. The gap in the rates likely stemmed from the fact that the island country has free, universal healthcare, New York Times reported in 2019. By the end of 2025, the infant mortality rate in Cuba was 9.9 per 1,000 live births. The report estimated that if the rate had remained at its 2018 level, 1,800 infant deaths would have been avoided. The U.S. sanctions have largely led to a ravaging of the Cuban economy, which has had a negative trickle-down effect on the health of the people. From 2018 to 2024, tourism to Cuba decreased by more than 50% and income from tourism fell by over 60%, according to the Cuban National Office of Statistics and Information. In 2017 and 2019, the Trump administration severely restricted the flow of tourism to the island with the Cuba Restricted List, an ever-expanding register of Cuban businesses — largely tourism-based institutions such as hotels — that Americans were prohibited from doing business with. That list was further expanded in 2025 at the advent of the second Trump administration. The U.S. also banned all cruise ships from going to Cuba beginning in 2019. The U.S. further disincentivized businesses and financial institutions from operating in Cuba when it deemed the Caribbean country a state sponsor of terrorism in 2021, a distinction Cuba shares with North Korea, Iran and Syria. Changes in import legislation imposed by the U.S. have led to a lack of access to medical tools and medications in Cuba. Because of this, over 50% of medications on the island are in short supply. Restrictions on remittances have also limited the amount of aid that Cubans can receive from family members and charitable organizations from abroad. This lack of funds, in turn, leaves families without the ability to purchase necessities.

Breitbart [5/1/2026 1:19 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2238K] reports that the United States on Thursday conducted its first direct commercial flight with Caracas, Venezuela, ending a seven-year interruption and restoring the direct flight route between both countries. The American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air flight marked a new chapter in the restored diplomatic ties between the two historically friendly nations following the arrest of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in January and the ongoing collaboration of the Venezuelan socialist regime under "acting President" Delcy Rodríguez. It also marked a new milestone in President Trump’s three-phase plan towards restoring democracy in the South American nation following Maduro’s downfall. Both U.S. and Venezuelan outlets reported that balloons bearing the Venezuelan flag colors — yellow, blue, and red — adorned festivities at the Miami International Airport celebrating the reopening of the flight route, while red, white, and blue balloons did the same at the Simón Bolívar airport in Maiquetía. Direct commercial flights to and from Venezuela had been suspended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in May 2019 in response to a crisis that erupted in Venezuela after Maduro illegitimately clung to power by means of a sham election in 2018. The now-deposed socialist dictator had cut all diplomatic ties with the United States earlier that year after President Donald Trump no longer acknowledged him as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela.

AP [5/1/2026 7:59 PM, Ben Finley and Aamer Madhani, 35287K] reports the United States will withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months, the Pentagon said Friday, fulfilling President Donald Trump’s threat as he clashes with the German leader over the U.S. war with Iran. Trump had threatened to withdraw some troops from the NATO ally earlier this week after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.” Germany hosts several U.S. military facilities, including the headquarters of its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base and a medical center in Landstuhl, where casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were treated. U.S. nuclear missiles are also stationed in the country. The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there. News of the troop withdrawal drew swift pushback from Democrats in Congress as well as a hawkish Washington think tank. They said the move will benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin and weaken U.S. security interests. The withdrawal “suggests American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The president should immediately cease this reckless action before he causes irreversible consequences for our alliances and long-term national security,” Reed said. Bradley Bowman, a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the U.S. military’s presence in Germany and elsewhere in Europe “not only strengthens deterrence against additional Kremlin aggression but also facilitates the projection of American military power into the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa.” Trump ignored questions from reporters about the withdrawal on Friday as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Florida, following a rally to tout his economic agenda. Trump made a similar threat in his first term, saying he would pull about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops who were then stationed in Germany, but he didn’t start the process and Democratic President Joe Biden formally stopped the planned withdrawal soon after taking office in 2021. The mercurial U.S. leader has mused for years about reducing the American military presence in Germany, and has railed against NATO for its refusal to assist Washington in the war, which began on Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Trump wrote Wednesday on social media that the U.S. was reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a “determination” to be made soon. On Thursday, he was still thinking about Merz, posting that the German leader should “spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country” than concerning himself with Iran.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [5/1/2026 10:05 PM, Ben Finley and Aamer Madhani, 12718K]
NBC News [5/1/2026 6:20 PM, Gordon Lubold and Courtney Kube, 42967K]

Daily Wire [5/1/2026 2:42 PM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 2314K] reports that President Donald Trump alerted Congress to changes in the United States approach to Operation Epic Fury in a war powers letter sent Friday afternoon, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Daily Wire. The letter informs Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Chuck Grassley, President pro tempore of the United States Senate, of "changes in the posture of the United States Forces" in the Central Command Area of Responsibility, as part of the president’s efforts to "keep Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution." Trump reminded Congress that he reported to them on March 2 that the U.S. had begun Operation Epic Fury by conducting precision strikes against Iran on February 28. "I ordered that operation consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests," the letter states. "On April 7, 2026, I ordered a 2-week ceasefire," Trump notes. "The ceasefire has since been extended. There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated." Though the United States has been successful in its operations against Iran, the letter notes, "the threat posed by Iran to the United States and our Armed Forces remains significant."

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