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.

Washington Times [5/3/2026 1:14 PM, Lindsey McPherson, 1323K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his department’s workforce is diminished and key projects are behind schedule after a record 76-day shutdown that ended Thursday. “It’s going to take some time to recover,” Mr. Mullin said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Were we able to still be mission capable? Yes,” he said. “Were we able to pick up everything that was being brought to us? No.” Mr. Mullin said the department is still suffering from “a tremendous amount of morale issues.” Some of the low morale stems from employees being furloughed or working without pay during the first half of the shutdown before President Trump signed an executive order tasking Mr. Mullin with finding emergency funds for payroll. That emergency funding was set to run out at the beginning of this month, and the prospect of employees losing paychecks again helped resolve the funding impasse in Congress. However, the damage from the shutdown still lingers. Mr. Mullin cited “large turnover” among DHS employees, including 1,100 who left the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Mr. Mullin cited as an example the Coast Guard agency that issues licenses for barges and boats operating in U.S. waters. “They’re 18,000 vessels behind,” he said. “And even if we did nothing but just work on the vessels behind, it would take us till the end of July to get them licensed and back on the water. That’s going to have a huge impact on what happens throughout transportation.” Without funding from Congress, DHS was not authorized to pay most of its bills so had hundreds of electric and gas bills in default, Mr. Mullin said, noting in some cases other executive branch departments would pay those bills for DHS.

FOX News [5/3/2026 10:17 AM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warns that the ‘historic’ 76-day government shutdown has left the nation’s security agencies struggling to recover while accusing Democrats of holding border funding hostage to satisfy the far-left base.

The Hill [5/3/2026 10:10 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Sunday said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) lost about 1,100 employees over the course of the partial government shutdown this year. DHS was closed for 76 days over a Democratic-led push for federal immigration reform after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal immigration officers. The record-breaking shuttering began Feb. 14 and ended Thursday. “We are also having a tremendous amount of morale issue. So we had a large turnover — just in CISA we’re down 1,100 people,” the DHS secretary said Sunday on “Fox News Sunday,” noting that DHS is facing overdue bills, backlogs and additional disruptions due to the shutdown. Last month, President Trump’s pick to lead CISA, the leading agency for cyber defense, withdrew his nomination after waiting more than a year for Senate confirmation. Mullin noted other DHS agencies are facing similar staffing agencies to CISA, particularly the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). “TSA was down 8 percent, which typically we have about a 4.6 percent turnover there,” he added. “We have agencies that were almost completely furloughed, and so now we’re getting back up to speed.” Ultimately, lawmakers passed a bill that funds DHS, excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Despite debates in Congress, Mullin said he is focused on keeping DHS staff motivated. “We’re still going to do our mission. And thank goodness we have people that believe in our mission,” Mullin said on Sunday. “They’re willing and wanting to come to work because protecting the homeland, that’s the greatest — that is literally the greatest mission inside this nation we get to do, is protect,” he added.

FOX News [5/3/2026 2:30 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, discusses the potential for another DHS shutdown and the importance of National Small Business Week on ‘Fox News Live.’

NewsMax [5/3/2026 10:36 AM, Staff, 3760K] reports Republicans should have forced a standoff with Senate Democrats over border security funding during the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security shutdown, as the final deal was "very disappointing," Rep. Warren Davidson said Sunday on Newsmax. "The funding bill that the House passed funded all of the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and Border Patrol," but the Senate approved a baseline plan that "includes $0 for ICE and Border Patrol," forcing Republicans to turn to reconciliation to pass funding with a simple majority, the Ohio Republican said on Newsmax’s "Wake Up America Weekend.". This forced the House to pass a "skinny budget" to set up that process, which he said would fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years and avoid further negotiations with Democrats. Still, he warned that the outcome sets a bad precedent. "You’ve set a precedent that you can have a baseline that if one party holds out in the Senate, they can extract massive demands," Davidson said. He said Republicans should have forced Democrats into a prolonged floor fight to center national attention on border security. "I think we should have made a bigger price for Democrats. I wish Sen. [John] Thune would have held the floor," Davidson said, adding the debate could have focused the country on border enforcement. Turning to the SAVE America Act, Davidson said House Republicans have repeatedly passed legislation only to see it stall in the Senate. "We only send it to the Senate to be ignored," he said.

New York Post [5/3/2026 4:47 PM, Ben Chapman, 40934K] reports a federal judge who threw out a case against an illegal Mexican immigrant arrested for striking ICE agents with his car chose to let the accused criminal off "well before the parties ever stepped foot in his courtroom," a bombshell appeal claims. In a blistering 79-page legal brief filed on Wednesday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli challenged federal Judge Fernando M. Olguin’s dismissal of the case against Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who was charged in October with assaulting a federal officer after allegedly ramming law enforcement vehicles while attempting to flee an immigration arrest. The appeal also cites two other cases tossed by Olguin — including one against a pair of alleged anti-cop agitators accused of torching a police car, and another against an alleged illegal immigrant accused of handling stolen guns. The Harvard-educated judge, appointed to California’s sprawling Central District by President Obama in 2012, held in dismissing Parias’ charges that the alleged attacker was denied access to a lawyer while in immigration detention. But Olguin had already "made up his mind" to throw out the case, Essayli wrote, describing the court’s handling of it as "premeditated performance.". "None of this was the fair, impartial assessment of legal and factual questions that judicial review requires," the brief added.

Daily Signal [5/3/2026 1:00 PM, Fred Lucas, 474K] reports that, as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration, the Justice Department this week advanced cases against illegal aliens running criminal enterprises—including a gun trafficking scheme orchestrated from behind bars. In Georgia, the Justice Department announced the 25-year sentence of a Mexican illegal immigrant who used a contraband cell phone from inside a Georgia state prison to manage a massive drug and gun trafficking conspiracy. Servando Corona Penaloza, a Georgia state prison inmate, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for orchestrating the sale of more than 1,000 kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl and the purchase of more than 200 military-style firearms transported to Mexico for use by Mexican cartels, according to the Justice Department. He was in prison serving a sentence for a Gwinnett County drug trafficking offense. Fourteen other members of Corona Penaloza’s organization were convicted and sentenced, with two defendants awaiting sentencing in the coming months, according to the Justice Department. “These defendants flooded our community with deadly drugs and used the proceeds of their drug deals to arm narco-terrorist Mexican cartels with high-powered weapons of war,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg in a public statementopens in a new tab. The Georgia case was part of a larger Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, signed on the first day of his second term. The task force is a whole-of-government partnership charged with eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. “As a result of the exceptional and dedicated work by our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners under the auspices of Atlanta’s Homeland Security Task Force, there are no more drugs coming in—or firearms going out—at Corona Penaloza’s direction,” Hertzberg said. U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen sentenced Penaloza, 38, to 25 years in prison—at least 15 years of which will be served consecutively to his 30-year state prison sentence. This will be followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to the Justice Department. In March 2024, federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives identified numerous cash purchases of M249S firearms in the Atlanta area. These are military-style weapons with a retail cost of $10,000 to $12,000 per unit, according to the Justice Department. Concurrently, the Drug Enforcement Administration learned that Penaloza brokered large-scale cocaine and methamphetamine transactions and coordinated the importation and distribution of hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl and thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine on behalf of a large Mexican drug cartel. The DEA probe found that Penaloza coordinated the drug and firearm sales by using a contraband cell phone while serving a 30-year state prison sentence. During the investigation, the ATF determined Penaloza and his conspirators organized the purchase and trafficking of at least 223 guns to Mexico valued at more than $700,000. Most of these guns were purchased with cash obtained through the drug sales.

New York Post [5/3/2026 9:52 PM, Andrew Arthur, 40934K] reports why would the New York City Department of Correction refuse to honor a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer for an illegal Mexican national facing murder and arson charges in Queens? The same perverted sense of "equity" that drove the Biden administration to open the border to millions of illegal migrants. On April 9, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Roman Amatitla would be charged with arson and eight counts of second-degree murder for allegedly setting a fire that killed four in a Flushing apartment building, including a 3-year-old girl. Katz called it as "an act of mass murder," and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subsequently revealed Amatitla had entered the US illegally "at an unknown date and unknown time.". Despite the heinous nature of the crime, the threat posed to the community and Amatitla’s unlawful status, NYDOC still vowed not to cooperate with ICE’s efforts to keep him off the streets. Amatitla is being held without bail while he awaits trial. But paperwork released by DHS shows the NYDOC refusing to provide status updates to ICE if he is ever released. And this hostility to the nation’s immigration laws will only get worse if, as expected, Albany passes an even more aggressive sanctuary bill that makes it illegal for local authorities to cooperate with ICE in many circumstances. All of which should come as no surprise to those who delved into the Biden administration’s justifications for its feckless immigration policies — which continue to be tacitly embraced by the former president’s fellow Democrats. In September 2021, Biden’s impeached DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, imposed strict restrictions on ICE’s ability to arrest and deport criminal aliens, premised on his "prosecutorial discretion" authority. As of December 1, New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers has resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens since January 20. The crimes of these aliens include: Those restrictions required officers to consider irrelevant "mitigating" factors — including any "mental condition that may have contributed to the criminal conduct" — before even launching an investigation. Why did Mayorkas hamstring immigration officers who were trying to take dangerous aliens off the street? "In the immigration enforcement context," an accompanying memo explained, "scholars" had concluded such "prosecutorial discretion guidelines" were "essential to advancing" Biden’s "stated commitment to ‘advancing equity for all including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.’ ". In other words, ivory tower grandees believe our immigration laws are "Jim Crow," and complying with Congress’ demands that ICE remove all dangerous criminals from the community is the moral equivalent of aiming Bull Connor’s fire hoses at civil rights marchers in Montgomery, Ala., circa 1963. Congress, on a bipartisan basis, rejected that argument in January 2025 when it passed the "Laken Riley Act," a bill honoring a young woman who was herself the victim of such sanctimonious nonsense, but "equity" remains at the heart of all sanctuary laws — including the one protecting aliens like Amatitla. Their argument goes as follows: if a citizen and an alien commit the same offense, the punishment — arrest, conviction and imprisonment — should be the same. But because only the alien faces the additional punishment of deportation, "equity" requires the sanctuary to shelter the alien from immigration enforcement to prevent an "inequitable" outcome. As a Baltimorean, I can assure you the US has enough homegrown criminals and doesn’t need to import more. Consequently, the argument quickly breaks down under any scrutiny, which is why sanctuary politicos rarely say the quiet part out loud. One exception is Steve Descano, chief prosecutor in Fairfax County, Va., who argued on his campaign website, "If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of" his county’s "values.". Do America’s "values" now include coddling criminals? Andrew Arthur is the fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [5/3/2026 12:43 PM, Staff, 709K] reports on CNN’s State of the Union, Jake sits down with US Attorney Jeanine Pirro to discuss the investigation into the alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [5/3/2026 12:43 PM, Staff, 709K] reports Pirro calls the WHCD shooter a Trump hater. She says the shooter hates Trump so much that he wants to kill him.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [5/3/2026 12:58 PM, Staff, 2723K] reports after a week of U.S. gas prices surging again, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy struck an optimistic tone Sunday about how quickly prices could fall once the war ends, arguing that there will be "immediate relief once the Strait [of Hormuz] opens." Again, we’re now navigating the safety through the Strait of Hormuz and also trying to navigate the -- the nuclear material that Iran has and that’s taking a little bit longer and that’s going to play out over the next several weeks," Duffy told ABC News’ "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz. "You’re going to start to see immediate relief once the strait opens and supply flows again."

NBC’s Meet the Press [5/3/2026 11:53 AM, Staff, 2572K] reports the War Powers Act requires Congress to authorize military action beyond 60 days, which the U.S. passed on Friday. The President did send a letter to Congress, saying that hostilities have been terminated, given the ceasefire that was put in place on April 7th. And yet, the U.S. is actively engaged in a naval blockade of Iranian ports as part of this conflict. Is the United States at war with Iran? "No. I mean, what President Trump said this weekend is absolutely true. My job as the acting attorney general is to make sure that the president, that we all are doing the right thing legally. And we absolutely are. As we said to Congress last week, there has been nothing going on, no hostilities, no exchange of fire since – in almost a month, in almost a month. And how do you end a conflict? How do you end this? You have a ceasefire. And that’s exactly what we have, and Congress knows that and the leadership knows that. And there’s a lot of drama. I’m sure that Senator Schiff will come on here and say something different. This has been done repeatedly for many, many years, with many, many presidents. And there’s nothing inconsistent about what we’re doing and what’s been done in the past." Blanche states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [5/3/2026 11:53 AM, Staff, 2572K] reports on September 20th, President Trump publicly posted a private message to then Attorney General Pam Bondi pressuring her to prosecute Senator Adam Schiff, James Comey and Letitia James, writing, "They’re all guilty as hell. But nothing is going to be done. They impeached me twice, they indicted me five times over nothing. Justice must be served now." Why should the public believe that any case brought against the individuals listed there is an independent law enforcement decision and not retribution? "Well, because you have investigations and you have indictments and you have the result. I mean, listen, if years later you’re judged by a simple note from President Trump. By the way, that wasn’t a private message. That was a message delivered to the entire world. " Blanche states.

Washington Post [5/4/2026 5:02 AM, Douglas MacMillan, Andrew Ba Tran, Drea Cornejo, and Luis Melgar, 24826K] reports Pedro Cantú Ríos was eating lunch when he felt the chemicals rush into his lungs. Like many of the immigrant men held in a cramped Alaska jail last summer, Cantú Ríos, then 68, had grown frustrated and restless, locked in a small cell with no windows and no access to his personal belongings, he recalled in an interview conducted in Spanish. As he ate in the communal room, he overheard some detainees complaining to a guard about needing their things. Minutes later, according to documents and interviews, a throng of guards arrived wielding gun-like weapons. They fired plastic spheres the size of gumballs into the room, which burst into orange clouds of chemical dust. Cantú Ríos, who suffers from a lung condition, said he was left gasping for air. He stumbled to his cell and put a towel over his face. “I thought I was going to die,” he said. The incident was one of at least 780 in which staff members at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities used physical force or chemical agents to control immigrant detainees during the first year of the Trump administration, a Washington Post investigation has found, based on a trove of ICE records obtained from a government employee. They shared the records on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the disclosures. The Post reviewed hundreds of internal ICE emails, called the “Daily Detainee Assault Report,” which summarize every incident in which staff members reported using physical force against detainees at 98 ICE detention facilities. The reports reviewed by The Post, dating from January 2024 to February 2026, covered the last year of the Biden administration and the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Taken together, the reports offer an unprecedented look at the treatment of ICE detainees as the Trump administration has carried out the biggest expansion of immigration detention in decades. As ICE’s crackdown on illegal immigration has flooded detention centers with record numbers of detainees, guards inside those facilities have increasingly resorted to acts of physical force, The Post’s analysis of the reports found. Detention guards have used punches, kicks, takedown maneuvers, restraint holds and restraint chairs, as well as less-lethal weapons such as Tasers and pepper spray, according to the reports.

New York Times [5/3/2026 6:28 PM, Chelsia Rose Marcius and Dana Rubinstein, 148038K] reports a man was dragged out of a Brooklyn hospital by federal immigration agents early Sunday morning as a crowd of people protesting his arrest clashed with police officers on the street outside, cellphone footage of the incident shows. The chaos erupted just before 10:30 p.m., when agents brought the man to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in the Bushwick neighborhood. The Department of Homeland Security identified him as Chidozie Wilson Okeke, an immigrant from Nigeria who had overstayed a visa. Agents had used force during his arrest and he had requested medical attention, the department said in a statement. A local group that tracks Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ vehicles had apparently followed them to the hospital, said Sandy Nurse, the local city councilwoman, who was present during the demonstration. As many as 200 protesters gathered outside the hospital while the detainee was inside, and some began throwing garbage cans into the street, the police said. Officers received numerous 911 calls and took several people into custody, the police said. Hours later, agents brought the man out of the hospital. Around 2:15 a.m., officers responded to new reports of protesters blocking the ambulance bay, the police said. Videos show two federal agents dragging the detained man, who is handcuffed, out of a hospital exit, down a short staircase and into the ambulance bay, where he appears to fall to the ground. The two agents then stand over him while police officers hold back protesters who are shouting at the agents. Moments later, the agents pull the man up by the arms and drag him into a waiting car. Eight people were arrested during the protests, the police said. They were charged with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and criminal mischief. Another person was issued a summons and released, the police said. In New York, sanctuary laws bar the police from helping immigration authorities in civil deportation cases. In a statement, the Police Department said it does not conduct or participate in civil immigration enforcement and had “no prior awareness or coordination regarding the ICE operation that took place last night.” Mr. Okeke’s arrest was the latest to draw outrage from residents as loose networks of activists in New York and around the country have mobilized to raise alarms about the presence of ICE agents in their neighborhoods. In October, more than 50 federal agents descended on Canal Street in Manhattan, where vendors sell bootleg designer sunglasses and handbags. Protesters tried to interrupt the raid as agents arrested nine men, who were mostly from West Africa and accused of living in the United States illegally.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [5/3/2026 11:08 PM, Staff, 2238K]
ABC News [5/3/2026 5:24 PM, Armando Garcia, Victoria Arancio, and Christopher Watson, 34146K]
CBS New York [5/3/2026 8:08 PM, Alexa Herrera and Kristie Keleshian, 51110K] Video: HERE
NewsMax [5/3/2026 6:43 PM, Staff, 3760K]
Univision [5/3/2026 12:39 PM, Staff, 4937K]
Univision [5/3/2026 4:50 PM, Staff, 4937K] r

FOX News [5/4/2026 1:59 AM, Landon Mion, 37576K] reports nearly 10 people were detained in New York over the weekend as anti-ICE demonstrators were protesting against the arrest of an illegal immigrant accused of assault and drug possession, according to officials. The protests erupted in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood after ICE arrested Chidozie Wilson Okeke, an illegal immigrant from Nigeria with previous arrests for assault and drug possession, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Okeke entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2023 and overstayed his visa that required him to leave the country by Feb. 26, 2024, DHS said. During an immigration enforcement operation on Saturday, Okeke refused to comply with ICE agents’ commands to exit his car and attempted to hit them with the vehicle, according to the agency. He is then accused of being "physically combative" and attempting to punch and elbow ICE agents. "Our officers followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to make the arrest," DHS said in a statement. After his arrest, Okeke was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center for a medical evaluation. Okeke "remained non-compliant during the medical evaluation, throwing himself to the floor and screaming," DHS said, adding that he was eventually cleared by medical staff. Video shows ICE agents dragging Okeke out of the hospital following his medical evaluation. During the medical evaluation, a crowd of anti-ICE protesters gathered outside the hospital. DHS says the group damaged several ICE vehicles and assaulted agents, causing minor injuries. The NYPD said officers responded to reports of disorderly protesters outside the hospital between Stanhope and Stockholm streets on Saturday at around 10:25 p.m. Officers reported observing several people acting disorderly, obstructing vehicle traffic and blocking emergency entrances and exits to the hospital. Officers issued repeated verbal warnings for the protesters to disperse and return to the sidewalks, according to the department. Nine people were then taken into custody, including eight who were arrested and charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, the NYPD said. One person was issued a summons and released. The NYPD said it does not participate in civil immigration enforcement and had no prior awareness of the ICE operation. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told a Gothamist reporter after the incident on Saturday that ICE raids are "cruel and inhumane" and "they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety, and I’ve said that even directly to the president.".

New York Post [5/3/2026 6:48 PM, Joe Marino and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 40934K] reports the anti-ICE mob violently protesting outside a Brooklyn hospital Saturday was rallying in defense of an illegal migrant previously arrested for assault and drug possession, officials told The Post on Sunday. Chidozie Wilson Okeke of Nigeria entered the US on a tourist visa Aug. 27, 2023, and was supposed to pack up and go back home Feb. 26, 2024 — but instead illegally stayed, a rep for the US Department of Homeland Security told The Post. Okeke, who was arrested at some point for assault and criminal drug possession, landed on the radar of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who tracked him down Saturday. "During his arrest, Okeke refused to comply with officers’ lawful commands to exit the vehicle and weaponized his vehicle to attempt to hit ICE officers," the DHS representative said. "Okeke became physically combative, attempting to punch and elbow ICE officers. "Our officers followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to make the arrest.". Okeke claimed he needed medical attention, so the agents brought him to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick to be checked out, DHS said. There, the illegal migrant refused to comply with staff, "throwing himself to the floor and screaming," the agency said. He was eventually medically cleared to leave the hospital. Anti-ICE protesters meanwhile somehow got wind that Okeke was in ICE custody at the hospital, with a mob of about 200 showing up there to try to stop the agents from leaving with Okeke. The NYPD was called to the scene shortly before 10:30 p.m. to restore order and found the rowdy crowd blocking hospital exits and wreaking havoc in the neighborhood — prompting caught-on-video clashes between the cops and the crowd. Police arrested nine demonstrators as ICE struggled to get Okeke into an SUV and whisk him off. "The protesters damaged several ICE vehicles and assaulted ICE officers, resulting in minor injuries to the officers," the DHS representative said. "Assaulting law enforcement is a felony and crime.". The protesters arrested included out-of-state agitators from as far off as Wisconsin and New Hampshire. The mob finally dispersed around 2:45 a.m. Sunday after Okeke was taken away. "If the NYPD wasn’t there to keep the peace, God knows what these ICE agents would have done," a law-enforcement source said Sunday.

Bloomberg [5/3/2026 5:55 PM, Myles Miller, 763K] reports federal immigration agents arrested a Nigerian national in Brooklyn late Saturday, setting off a confrontation with protesters outside a local hospital and sparking criticism from some New York City officials. Eight people were taken into police custody during the incident, which added to the growing tension between federal law enforcement and residents in New York City. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took Chidozie Wilson Okeke into custody in the Bushwick neighborhood after determining he had overstayed a tourist visa and had prior arrests for assault and drug possession, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. When Okeke requested medical attention following a struggle with agents, they transported him to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where a crowd of demonstrators had gathered and grew increasingly confrontational through the night. “ICE’s presence in Bushwick is deeply alarming,” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said in a post on X. “To our neighbors who quickly mobilized last night, thank you for making it loud and clear that ICE is not welcome in Brooklyn.” By 2 a.m. Sunday, the scene outside the hospital had become more unsettled. Protesters blocked the emergency bay entrance, impeding ambulance access. As agents moved to leave with their detainee, one demonstrator smashed the rear window of an ICE vehicle. Officers sustained minor injuries, DHS said. New York City police, who said they had no prior knowledge of the federal operation, made eight arrests on charges including reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration. The episode is one of dozens of street-level confrontations that have erupted across the country since the Trump administration launched what it has described as the largest deportation campaign in American history. ICE arrests during the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term more than doubled compared with the final six months of the Biden administration. The NYPD said it does not conduct or participate in civil immigration enforcement and had no advance coordination with ICE — a posture city officials have maintained even as the administration has pressed local law enforcement nationwide for greater cooperation with federal agents.

FOX News [5/3/2026 11:46 AM, Bradford Betz, 37576K] reports a migrant man was arrested and charged in the stabbing deaths of two women hours apart in Nassau County, New York, in a case that local officials say underscores broader concerns about federal immigration policy. Authorities said the suspect, identified as Rony Yahir Alvarenga Rivera, 22, faces one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. Police said he was taken into custody after approaching officers and indicating he had killed someone earlier that night. The violence unfolded across two locations in Nassau County within a matter of hours. Police said the first victim, a 42-year-old woman, was found around 12:30 a.m. Friday outside a Wendy’s restaurant on Austin Boulevard in North Long Beach. Officers responding to a call for a person with a knife discovered the woman suffering from multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. While investigators were working that case, police said they were alerted to a man seeking assistance at a location on Atlantic Avenue in Lynbrook. When officers arrived, the man allegedly told them he had killed someone, prompting homicide detectives to respond. During the investigation, authorities said they learned the suspect may have been involved in a second killing. Officers conducting a welfare check at a residence on Mineola Ave in Valley Stream discovered a second victim, a 32-year-old woman, dead inside the home. Police said both victims suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso. Breitbart [5/3/2026 2:11 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 2238K] reports Nassau County Police Chief Patrick Ryder told reporters, "Both females were killed by multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso.". Rivera, who has been charged with first and second-degree murder, acted in "anger" George Darienzo, commanding officer of the Nassau police homicide unit, told NBC4 without elaborating any further. Rivera is a native of El Salvador and has no known gang connection, Darienzo said. At the news conference, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is a Republican running against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), slammed what he called "open borders" immigration policies under prior presidential administrations that allowed most anyone to stay in the U.S. "This didn’t have to happen," he said. "This is a policy that has resulted today in two women being killed. They could’ve gone on to have very productive and happy lives. But they’re no longer with us because of failed policies in the past.". Blakeman said a federal partnership program called 287(g) that allows local police to perform limited immigration enforcement functions under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervision has allowed Nassau County to remove "over 2000 illegal migrants with criminal records.".

Univision [5/3/2026 4:04 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports a Honduran family living in Manassas, Virginia, is experiencing days of uncertainty in the face of the possible deportation of one of its members to Costa Rica, a country with which, they say, has no link. The case involves Óscar Giovanni Hernández, 28, who was arrested a year ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to his family, the young man arrived in the United States in 2014, worked in construction and applied for asylum, a process that was still pending at the time of his arrest. “We live with the uncertainty that at any moment they will deport it,” said his mother, Julia Aguilar. Aguilar says he has lost count of the time he has cried over the situation of his son, who has three children and wife in northern Virginia. The family said he was recently notified that Hernandez could be deported to Costa Rica. “We don’t know anyone in Costa Rica. We have no family, we don’t know anything about that country,” Aguilar added. The notification, according to the family, came unexpectedly despite the fact that the migrant process of the young man was still ongoing. An immigration lawyer consulted explained that this type of deportations to third countries are legal under certain international agreements. “The federal courts have allowed these processes, where people are removed from a third country based on legal agreements between the U.S. government and those countries,” said Attorney Haim Vásquez. Vásquez added that deportation to a third country may involve the termination of the asylum process if the authorities consider that the person does not face a significant risk at that destination. “Removal of a third country allows the government not to assess the asylum case if it is determined that there is no credible fear of persecution or death,” he said. According to data from The Associated Press, since the signing of a bilateral agreement between the United States and Costa Rica in March 2026, that country has agreed to receive up to 25 deportees per week from third countries.

Univision [5/3/2026 7:06 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports the detention of a Venezuelan mother and her two young children in the northeast of the city has sparked protests and questions about immigration operations when children are involved. Dozens of activists gathered to demand the release of Betania Uzcategui, 26 , and her children, ages 9 and 11 , who were arrested on April 27 , the same day she celebrated her birthday. The protesters carried signs with the slogan "kidnapped by ICE" and photos of the family. The demonstration took place this Sunday, May 3, at 1:00 p.m. at the intersection of Broadway and 410th Street . According to testimonies gathered at the scene, the arrest occurred when the woman was accompanying her children to the school bus stop at an apartment complex, and not during an operation or a raid. Witnesses reported that several ICE agents arrived suddenly and surrounded the family , claiming they were looking for someone else. "They just took easy prey because she was in her pajamas, without shoes, she couldn’t run, she couldn’t do anything ," said a witness who asked to remain anonymous. Meanwhile, Betania’s husband, identified as Andrés, said that agents also came to his home and allegedly tried to use his children as pressure or "bait" to get him to surrender . According to her testimony, she received calls warning her that if she did not appear, her son could be separated from his mother and placed in state custody. The man also stated that the officers later admitted they were looking for another woman , but proceeded with the arrest due to the family’s open immigration process. The family, of Venezuelan origin, surrendered at the border in 2021 to request asylum and, according to the husband, has no criminal record. Currently, Betania and the minors remain detained at the immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, while their case proceeds through the immigration system. The first hearing before an immigration judge is scheduled for this Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. , where the defense will seek to allow Betania to continue her process while free, even under electronic supervision. Family members have launched an online fundraising campaign to cover legal expenses, hoping to secure his release. The case continues to generate attention as organizations and activists protest it. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [5/3/2026 1:10 PM, Chris Boyette, 19874K] reports a man who was shot by ICE agents during a traffic stop, then arrested by the FBI after his release from the hospital, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in California, according to court documents. Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez faces two counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of destruction of government property, following a traffic stop last month in which federal agents fired at him as he allegedly tried to flee. An arraignment and status hearing is scheduled for Monday at 9:30 a.m. before US District Judge Dale A. Drozd, according to court records. ICE identified Mendoza Hernandez as an undocumented immigrant whom the department described as an "18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.". But "from everything we can find, he was not" a gang member, his attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, said in a news conference the day after the shooting. "Specifically, Mendoza Hernandez refused to comply with lawful orders from federal officers, operated his vehicle in a manner that damaged a federal vehicle, and drove his vehicle toward officers in a manner that would have caused serious bodily injury or death had the officers not taken evasive action," the criminal complaint said. Kolasinski said his client attempted to flee the traffic stop only after he’d been shot at and "was just scared that he was going to die.". The case has been marked by uncertainty and conflicting narratives.

Just the News [5/3/2026 10:07 PM, Amanda Head, 736K] reports U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has created a special team of criminal investigators to root out immigration fraud, equipping newly designated special agents with expanded law enforcement powers to investigate, arrest and prosecute violators and even denaturalize cheaters. "We’re going to get to a place where people are going to know that if they file, and they’re going to file something fraudulently, or they’re not giving us their full story, we’re going to find that," United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow told Just The News. "What we are doing, what we saw a need for, was a very specialized group of criminal investigators. Many are in training right now, and we are bringing more on all the time who are going to be going out to various field offices across the county and investigating actual immigration fraud." Edlow announced the initiative in September under a final rule that allows the agency to hire and train 1811-classified officers who can carry firearms, execute warrants and handle cases from start to finish without always referring them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “USCIS has always been an enforcement agency,” Edlow said in the agency’s news release. “This historic moment will better address immigration crimes, hold those that perpetrate immigration fraud accountable, and act as a force multiplier for DHS and our federal law enforcement partners, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force.” The move fulfills a delegation of authority from former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and aims to strengthen fraud detection and national security vetting in the legal immigration system.

Univision [5/3/2026 1:47 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports immigration policy in the United States is going through a relevant adjustment since May 2026, with changes that impact both those who already have procedures in process and those who are looking for a visa. The Citizenship and Immigration Services (FUSC) triggered a temporary pause in the final resolution of benefits such as the Permanent Residence (Green Card), work permits and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewals; the measure is part of a more rigorous verification process that directly affects thousands of ongoing records. In parallel, a new requirement was also established for applicants for nonimmigrant visas, who must now formally declare that they fear no persecution in their home country. The administrative suspension will mainly affect those who have already initiated immigration proceedings and awaited a definitive response. Now, their cases remain in detention while authorities review backgrounds in federal systems, which could result in additional delays and greater uncertainty for applicants. This pause implies that the processes that were in final stages return to a verification phase, prolonging the resolution times without a clear date of conclusion; this type of revisions can result in requests for additional information or in the repetition of procedures already carried out, which increases the administrative burden for applicants and further delays the obtaining of migratory benefits. In parallel, the U.S. government introduced a new requirement for those applying for nonimmigrant visas — including tourism, study or temporary work categories. Applicants must expressly state that they are not afraid of persecution in their home country, a measure that seeks to prevent asylum claims once inside the country.

Daily Caller [5/3/2026 12:46 PM, John Oyewale, 803K] reports four green card holders living in New Jersey were separately charged with illegally voting in federal elections and falsely asserting never to have done so while applying for U.S. citizenship, federal authorities said Friday. David Neewilly, 73; Jacenth Beadle Exum, 70; Idan Choresh, 43; and Abhinandan Vig, 33, separately registered to vote in New Jersey under the allegedly false pretext of being U.S. citizens, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said. Neewilly was accused of voting in the 2020 and 2024 general elections, each of which included the presidential election. Beadle Exum and Vig allegedly voted in the 2020 general election, while Choresh was accused of voting in the 2022 general election, which included the House of Representatives’ election. Each of the accused individually went on to swear under penalty of perjury, as part of their applications for naturalization, that they neither registered nor voted in any federal elections, the U.S. Attorney’s office alleged.

Univision [5/3/2026 3:47 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports hidden under the floor of a vehicle heading toward Mexico, a shipment of more than $272,000 in undeclared cash was discovered by federal agents at a Laredo border crossing. The finding resulted in the arrest of a 46-year-old Mexican woman and opened an investigation into the possible origin of the money. The assurance occurred on April 21 at the Colombia-Solidarity bridge, when agents selected for review of a 2017 Dodge Journey vehicle heading towards Mexico. During a secondary inspection, and supported by non-intrusive technology, officers discovered $272,940 hidden inside the vehicle floor, money that had not been declared to authorities. Both the money and the vehicle were seized on the spot. Subsequently, officers of the Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested the driver and initiated a criminal investigation related to the case. Authorities recalled that while it is not illegal to transport more than $10,000, it does constitute a federal crime not to declare amounts equal to or greater than that figure when entering or leaving the United States, or trying to hide them to evade reporting requirements. According to CBP, such seizures are often linked to profits from illicit activities, which directly impacts the finances of criminal organizations. The agency also indicated that affected people can request the refund of the money, but must demonstrate that the origin and intended use of the funds are legitimate.

NPR [5/4/2026 4:41 AM, Lauren Sommer, 34837K] reports with wildfires already burning, experts warn this could be a severe fire season. A new analysis shows that preparing for wildfires has fallen off under the Trump administration. In 2025, the Forest Service did far less to reduce the flammable vegetation that can fuel extreme wildfires. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Examiner [5/3/2026 11:37 AM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said there was more to the investigation that led to former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment than just his "86 47" seashell social media post. "Rest assured that the career assistant United States attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case didn’t just look at the Instagram post and walk away," Blanche said. The second indictment of Comey concerned a since-deleted post he made of a seashell arrangement on a beach that read "86 47" with the caption "Cool shell formation on my beach walk." Critics of Comey have seen it as a threatening message toward President Donald Trump, as "86" can be used as a term to nix something, and Trump is the 47th president. In his comments on NBC’s Meet the Press, Blanche said the investigators looked at much more than the seashell photo to craft the indictment, noting that Comey posted the photo in May 2025 and the indictment was returned in late April 2026. "I am not permitted to get into the details of what the grand jury heard or found, as you know, but rest assured that it’s not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted," Blanche said. The term "86 47" has been used more widely on the Left and, as NBC’s Kristen Welker pointed out, online stores such as Amazon have sold merchandise including T-shirts, stickers, and hats with the term written on them. Blanche said that individuals should not be indicted just for purchasing or wearing merchandise like that. "This isn’t about a single incident," Blanche said. "Of course not. That’s posted constantly. That phrase is used constantly. There are constantly men and women who choose to make threatening statements against President Trump. Every one of those statements do not result in indictments, of course.". "There are facts, there are circumstances, there are investigations that have to take place," Blanche continued. "We have charged dozens and dozens of men and women this year with threatening President Trump and others. So this isn’t a new charge we’re bringing."

Reported similarly:
NBC News [5/3/2026 11:18 AM, Alexandra Marquez, 42967K]

New York Times [5/3/2026 5:06 PM, Kate Zernike, 148038K] reports Helen Comperatore has heard the conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pa., that killed her husband. She has watched them migrate from the political left to the political right, elements in both holding that her husband, Corey Comperatore, was a human sacrifice to lend credibility to a plot to help elect Mr. Trump. Over the last week she watched as those conspiracies surged again following the assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner. And she wants the world to know that they are painful. “Especially when they say it was staged,” she said in a telephone interview. “Like any of that’s staged. I mean, how? Why would you think that the president would stage taking a bullet? I mean, that’s insane.” But as her grief mixes into the larger swirl of social media, hardened partisanship and distrust in government institutions, Mrs. Comperatore, a devoted supporter of President Trump, still harbors a baseless conspiracy theory of her own: she believes, even though no evidence has shown it, that President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. was somehow behind the 20-year-old gunman in Butler. “I do not believe that this kid just got out of bed that day and decided to come over there and kill the president,” she said. “I believe that he was involved with someone greater than him, that worked with him and probably offered him money to do this, and I would like to know what that entailed.” Multiple reports, done by Republican allies of the president and by an independent review commission, have found no evidence to support that or any of the hothouse conspiracy theories that flourished on social media immediately after the shootings in Butler and at the dinner in Washington. Indeed, investigators said the shooter, Thomas Crooks, had researched how to kill both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. (A spokesman for Mr. Biden declined to comment on her allegations.) The reports on Butler all concluded that the shooting was the result of what Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who led one of the investigations, called “a complete breakdown of security.” It found that the Secret Service failed to coordinate with local law enforcement officials to secure the site of the rally, or to communicate warnings from agents who raised concerns about the shooter to Mr. Trump’s security detail, which could have prevented him from taking the stage.

CNN [5/3/2026 10:59 AM, Betsy Klein, 19874K] Video: HERE reports US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Sunday that the Secret Service agent who was shot at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last weekend was hit by a shotgun blast from the suspect charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. "We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot, from the defendant’s Mossberg pump action shotgun, was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer," Pirro told CNN’s Jake Tapper on "State of the Union.". Pirro’s DC US attorney’s office filed several charges against Cole Tomas Allen following the attack. "It is definitively his bullet," she added. A CNN analysis of hotel surveillance video released by Pirro’s office last week, coupled with audio taken from inside the ballroom during the shooting, does not definitively conclude when or whether Allen fired a shot. But the audio analysis does indicate that six shots total were fired during the incident, which aligns with initial statements by law enforcement that Allen fired one shot, while a responding officer fired five more. Pirro said that additional surveillance video of the incident "will be released." She also offered new details on where Allen went in the moments before he charged past law enforcement officers at the security checkpoint.

The Washington Post [5/3/2026 2:41 PM, Mariana Alfaro and Salvador Rizzo, 24826K]
Pirro said the alleged shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, "had every intention" to kill the officer. She described the April 25 shooting as a "premeditated, violent act calculated to take down the president and anyone who was in the line of fire.". Pirro’s comments represented the most detailed description yet of evidence supporting Justice Department officials’ public statements alleging Allen fired his weapon at an officer. The comments also went further than what prosecutors have said in court filings. Allen, a 31-year-old tutor from Torrance, California, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president, transporting firearms across state lines and discharging one of them during a violent crime. Pirro told reporters the night of the incident that the suspect also would be charged with assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, but that count did not appear in the criminal complaint filed in court. On Thursday, Pirro posted video to social media that she said showed Allen shooting the Secret Service officer moments before Allen’s arrest. She shared the footage following questions from Allen’s defense attorneys and independent experts about the details of the incident. The Secret Service officer, who is not identified by name in court records, was shot once in the chest while wearing a bulletproof vest and was not seriously injured, officials have said. The court set a hearing for Allen on Monday at noon before Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui. Allen’s defense team had filed a motion asking that he be removed from suicide watch and suicide-prevention measures, which included a 24-hour lockdown and other restrictions. On Sunday, Allen’s lawyers canceled their request for the hearing, saying they had learned that he was no longer on suicide watch. Allen is being held at a jail in the District, and the restrictions on him were placed by the D.C. Department of Corrections. An assistant U.S. attorney, Jocelyn Ballantine, wrote in a court filing Wednesday that "the government’s investigation is ongoing and its analysis of the crime scene evidence and recovered ballistics evidence is not yet complete." That filing said that the officer saw Allen fire a shotgun, which had a spent cartridge in the chamber, and that investigators had found what appeared to be a buckshot pellet at the scene. Several officers heard the shotgun being fired, Ballantine wrote. The Washington Examiner [5/3/2026 10:45 AM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports Secret Service Director Sean Curran said on Thursday that the agent who was hit fired five rounds from his gun and that each missed Allen while he was falling to the ground. Pirro also told CNN that "there’s video of the defendant shooting at the Secret Service agent" and that the Secret Service agent "will tell you himself that he was shot at and then he returned the fire.". President Donald Trump also told reporters on Thursday that "it wasn’t us" who shot the agent, and the president has repeatedly thanked law enforcement at the event for their response to the attack. "He hit at that Secret Service agent," Pirro said of Allen. "He had every intention to kill him, and anyone who got in his way, on his way to killing the president of the United States. This was a premeditated violent act calculated to take down the president and anyone who was in the line of fire.".

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [5/3/2026 1:34 PM, Staff, 1323K]
The Hill [5/3/2026 10:13 AM, Max Rego, 18170K]
NPR [5/3/2026 5:09 PM, Rob Stein, 28764K]
AP [5/3/2026 3:29 PM, Staff, 5209K]
Reuters [5/3/2026 9:25 AM, Staff, 38315K]
USA Today [5/3/2026 3:18 PM, James Powel, 70643K]

FOX News [5/3/2026 4:28 PM, Stephen Sorace and Greg Wehner, 37576K] reports the defense team for Cole Allen, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting suspect, withdrew a motion to remove him from suicide watch after learning the restriction had already been lifted, calling the request moot and asking the court to cancel Monday’s hearing. In a filing, Allen’s attorneys said they had recently learned he is no longer on suicide status at the D.C. Jail, rendering their earlier motion unnecessary and prompting a request to vacate the May 4 hearing. Allen’s attorneys have asked the court to cancel Monday’s hearing, though it remains scheduled pending the judge’s decision. Suicide watch involves 24-hour lockdown in a "safe cell.". Prior to Sunday afternoon’s developments, Allen’s attorneys had argued that the restriction violated his rights. "Such restrictions deprive Mr. Allen from accessing resources like a jail tablet, which would permit him to communicate with loved ones outside of the jail," the defense motion states. "Similarly, because Mr. Allen is not permitted to retain personal items while in the cell, it is counsel’s understanding that he cannot review documents that counsel leave with him, thus hindering his ability to assist in his own defense.". The defense argued in the motion that being kept on the suicide precaution "is unnecessary" and violates Allen’s due process rights "by depriving him of dignity" by forcing him to be escorted to the shower, strip searched when leaving or entering his cell, and required to wear a padded vest while in the cell. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told CNN on Sunday that prosecutors would bring the case before a grand jury this week and suggested they’re working toward securing an indictment with additional charges.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [5/3/2026 4:39 PM, Staff, 3760K]

Daily Wire [5/3/2026 1:29 PM, Virginia Kruta, 2314K] reports U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro gave an update on the investigation into Cole Tomas Allen — who opened fire one week earlier at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — and said that it was clear the would-be assassin had an inflated sense of his own capabilities. Pirro, the U.S. Attorney assigned to Washington, D.C., spoke with CNN’s Jake Tapper about the ongoing investigation in Allen’s actions and motives — and she described the shooter’s actions leading up to the moment he charged a security checkpoint manned by the United States Secret Service. Tapper began by asking Pirro — who was in attendance at the dinner herself — whether the fact that she could have been a potential target meant that she should recuse herself from the case entirely. Pirro was adamant that the two things were unconnected. “Absolutely not. I mean, there is no way … my ability to prosecute this case has nothing to do with my being there,” she said. Pirro went on to address Allen’s behavior and actions leading up to the assassination attempt, much of which was either recovered from his personal effects or captured by security cameras at the Washington Hilton. “Clearly, the president is a target. And make no mistake, it is not just the manifesto. It is his actions,” Pirro said of the suspect, who referred to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin” throughout the manifesto he sent to family. “I mean, this guy thought he was Rambo.” “And he takes a picture of himself. He is smug, he is proud, and he is focused on what he’s doing,” Pirro added.

FOX News [5/3/2026 11:39 AM, Stephen Sorace, 37576K] reports a man was arrested at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida on Tuesday after allegedly confronting Secret Service personnel, becoming disruptive and making physical contact with an agent, authorities said. The incident happened around 4:15 p.m., when the individual approached a security screening area staffed by Secret Service personnel and local police, according to a statement from the Secret Service’s Miami field office. Officials said the man became disruptive and refused to follow orders. "During the encounter, the individual became disruptive and failed to comply with lawful orders," Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Townsend said. "He then made physical contact with a member of the Secret Service and was taken into custody without further incident.". Video from the scene shows a man being taken into custody. A bystander shooting the video can be heard saying the man being arrested was "getting the business now.". Authorities did not immediately release the man’s identity. Authorities said the situation was quickly contained and did not affect security operations at the property. "The president was not on site at the time of the incident," Townsend said. "At no point did this situation impact the established security posture for any upcoming visits to Trump Doral National Golf Club by Secret Service protectees.".

Reported similarly:
CBS News [5/3/2026 7:31 PM, Caroline Linton, Jordan Freiman, 51110K]
NewsNation [5/3/2026 11:15 AM, Michael Ramsey, 18170K] Video: HERE
Daily Caller [5/3/2026 4:50 PM, Mark Tanos, 803K]

Nextgov [5/3/2026 7:31 PM, David DiMolfetta,, 120K] reports Tom Parker, a security services lead at IBM with some two decades of experience in the cybersecurity industry, has emerged as a potential contender to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after the most recent nominee withdrew himself from consideration for the role, according to five people familiar with the matter. Parker does not have prior government experience. As of now, he is the preferred choice for the Trump administration, one of the people said. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has been favoring a CISA director with only private sector experience, another one of the people said. All sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly communicate details concerning the administration’s thinking. Some of the people cautioned that the process is fluid and that the White House may go in a different direction. Parker did not respond to a request for comment. Nextgov/FCW has also asked the White House and DHS for comment. CISA has been without a permanent director since President Donald Trump retook office last year. For the last year, Sean Plankey had been nominated to lead the cyberdefense agency, but withdrew late last month after being caught up in issues concerning Coast Guard cutter contracts with a GOP senator. Nick Andersen has been leading the agency in an acting capacity since its previous acting leader, Madhu Gottumukkala, left in February following a series of leadership incidents during his tenure.

HS Today [5/3/2026 6:00 AM, Matt Seldon, 38K] reports he Food and Agriculture Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Food and Ag-ISAC) has released its 2026 Food and Agriculture Sector Cybersecurity Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, aimed at helping smaller operators defend against a growing wave of cyber threats. The guide is built on recent threat analysis tracking more than 300 threat groups, including 72 identified as most active against the sector. It translates that intelligence into ten practical and cost-conscious security measures designed specifically for organizations that may not have dedicated cybersecurity teams or enterprise-level budgets. Small and medium-sized businesses play a central role in the food and agriculture supply chain, but they are also increasingly targeted. According to the guide, attacks are often opportunistic, with adversaries using automated tools to scan for vulnerabilities regardless of company size. For these operators, the consequences of a cyber incident can extend beyond IT disruption. Downtime can halt harvests, delay shipments, or lead to spoiled products, creating ripple effects across the broader supply chain. The guide focuses on threats that smaller businesses are most likely to encounter, including phishing, malware, and supply chain compromises. It emphasizes that many attackers rely on a limited set of techniques, such as spearphishing and the use of readily available tools, rather than highly complex methods.

AP [5/3/2026 4:12 PM, Susan Montoya Bryan, 16072K] reports hoax calls involving alleged bomb threats and even claims of active shooters have prompted evacuations and closures at several zoos around the U.S. in recent days, disrupting family plans and taxing public safety resources in some cities. No explosives or real dangers have been found in the latest string of what authorities are describing as swatting incidents. The FBI considers swatting an increasing national problem. Aside from diverting resources, such calls can cost thousands of dollars per incident, endanger first responders and the public and can lead to federal charges. In the latest case, police on Sunday swept the Akron Zoo in northeast Ohio after a threat led to the evacuation of visitors. Authorities gave the all-clear, but zoo managers opted to close for the rest of the day. Just hours later, police were seen stationed outside the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo as visitors were evacuated due to a threat there. Some visitors took to social media, expressing anger that they had to leave. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in central Ohio was evacuated on Saturday. Zoo president and CEO Tom Schmid told television station WCMH that due to similar threats at other zoos, employees had a safety drill last week and an exercise Saturday morning that helped prepare them for the emergency evacuation. “This is part of life now around the country, around the world,” Schmid said, noting the uptick in such threats. “And so we have to make sure we’re vigilant.” Threats also have been called in to zoos in Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Arizona. The FBI has logged thousands of swatting incidents since creating a national database in 2023. Targets have included schools, public institutions and celebrities. “Swatting is sometimes conducted as an act of revenge or a prank. It is a serious crime that has potentially dangerous consequences,” the agency said in a statement Sunday. “Law enforcement personnel have been wounded responding to swatting incidents, and victims have been treated for injuries such as heart attacks as a result of such events.”

NBC News [5/3/2026 11:08 AM, Doha Madani, 42967K] reports a man is dead after he drove a car full of explosives and propane into a popular Portland, Oregon, athletic club on Saturday in what police described as an “isolated” incident. Investigators found multiple incendiary devices, improvised explosive devices and propane tanks, according to police. Some had partially detonated; others were in “varying states of activation,” police said. Authorities responded to the Multnomah Athletic Club just before 3 a.m. after employees reported a vehicle had crashed into the building and caught fire. The driver was found dead inside, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Portland Fire and Rescue arrived to control the blaze. The Portland Police Bureau’s explosive disposal unit was called in after evidence of explosives was discovered on scene. Officer Jim DeFrain, who leads the explosive disposal unit, said his team was still processing the scene more than 14 hours after being called in. Robots were deployed as a remote precaution given the risk that remaining devices could still be triggered — though DeFrain said the technology has its limits. “I’ve been a bomb technician here in the city for over 13 years,” DeFrain said. “This is by far the most complex scene that I’ve ever dealt with.” FBI agents and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives personnel are assisting local police. Portland Police Chief Bob Day described the incident as “isolated” and said he does not believe it constitutes an act of domestic terrorism. He deferred questions about the driver’s identity to the medical examiner’s office, which is still working to make a determination.

FOX News [5/3/2026 3:59 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports Fox News chief international correspondent Steve Harrigan joins ‘Fox News Live’ to report on Venezuela restoring commercial ties with the U.S., including resumed flights and growing economic cooperation following the capture of Nicolás Maduro. Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan reports live from Caracas, discussing Venezuela’s economic reopening and renewed commercial ties with the U.S. This includes a surge in oil exports, reaching a seven-year high of 1.23 million barrels per day. The move follows the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro, with American Airlines resuming direct flights to Miami. Experts weigh in on the political and economic implications for both countries. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [5/3/2026 2:00 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Pope Leo on a trip to Rome this week, in the wake of the pontiff’s clash with President Donald Trump, a Vatican source said Sunday. The source confirmed Italian media reports about the meeting, which newspapers said would take place on Thursday in an attempt to "thaw" relations. It comes just weeks after Trump’s extraordinary criticism of Pope Leo XIV over the Catholic leader’s anti-war rhetoric. An Italian government source earlier told AFP that Rubio would also meet Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Rubio had asked for a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of Trump’s closest European allies, whom he turned on after she defended the pope, the source added. Media reports said he was also due to meet Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, amid a deepening rift in transatlantic ties over the Middle East war. Leo, 70, will on Friday mark one year as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, after being elected by cardinals on May 8, 2025, following the death of Pope Francis. As the first ever pope from the United States, his words have arguably carried more weight in Washington than previous pontiffs — and he has used them, criticising notably the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. But it was the pontiff’s increasing anti-war rhetoric, particularly following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, that triggered Trump’s ire. Leo declared Trump’s threat to destroy Iran "unacceptable" and urged Americans to demand that US lawmakers "work for peace". The US president slammed the pontiff in a social media post as "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy". Trump also said he was "not a big fan of Pope Leo" and that he does not "want a pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.". The pontiff responded by saying he had a "moral duty to speak out" against war — and then sparked more headlines with a speech in Cameroon lambasting "tyrants" ransacking the world. However, he insisted afterwards that the remarks were written long before the row, and said he had not intended to start a new debate with the US president. Christians across the world expressed their solidarity with the pope, and Meloni condemned Trump’s remarks as "unacceptable" — prompting the president to turn his fire on her. "I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong," the US president said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera. He accused Meloni — a far-right leader who has sought to act as a bridge between diverging US and European views — of failing to help the United States with NATO. Trump has threatened to pull US troops from Italy, saying Rome "has not been of any help to us" in the Iran war. He has made a similar threat towards Spain, while the Pentagon has announced it will withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany. As of December 31, 2025, there were 12,662 active-duty US troops in Italy and 3,814 in Spain. In Germany, there were 36,436. In Sunday’s address in St Peter’s Square, the pope marked World Press Freedom Day. "Unfortunately, this right is often violated — sometimes blatantly, sometimes in more subtle ways," he said. "Let us remember the many journalists and reporters who have fallen victim to wars and violence.".

AP [5/3/2026 11:47 PM, Adam Schreck, Melanie Lidman and Cara Anna, 28764K] reports the United States will launch an effort on Monday to “guide” stranded ships from the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said, as two ships around the strait reported attacks. Trump gave few details about what could be a sweeping attempt to help hundreds of vessels and some 20,000 seafarers. Iran quickly denounced the move as a ceasefire violation. Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that “neutral and innocent” countries have been affected by the Iran war, and “we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.” “Project Freedom” would begin on Monday morning in the Middle East, Trump said, adding that his representatives are having discussions with Iran that could lead to something “very positive for all.” U.S. Central Command said the initiative would involve guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 aircraft and 15,000 service members. The Pentagon did not immediately answer questions about how they would be deployed. Iran’s effective closure of the strait, imposed after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, has shaken global markets. Ships and seafarers, many on oil and gas tankers and cargo ships, have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the war began. Crew members have described to The Associated Press seeing intercepted drones and missiles explode over the waters as their vessels run low on drinking water, food and other supplies. Many sailors come from India and other countries in South and Southeast Asia. “They are victims of circumstance,” Trump wrote, and described the effort as a humanitarian gesture “on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran.” But he sounded a warning: “If, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency called Trump’s announcement part of his “delirium,” and Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission of Iran’s parliament, said on X that any interference in the strait would be seen as a ceasefire violation. Trump spoke hours after Iran said it was reviewing the U.S. response to its latest proposal to end the war and made clear these are not nuclear negotiations. The fragile three-week ceasefire appears to be holding. Earlier Sunday, a cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz said it was attacked by multiple small craft, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported, while another ship was hit by “unknown projectiles.” They were the latest in at least two dozen attacks in and around the strait since the Iran war began, and a reminder of the risks if the new U.S. effort goes forward. No injuries were reported. They were the first reported attacks in the area since April 22. Tehran has effectively closed the strait by attacking and threatening ships, and the threat level in the area remains critical.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [5/3/2026 8:12 PM, Lara Seligman, Robbie Gramer, and Alexander Ward, 646K]

Reuters [5/3/2026 9:08 PM, Tala Ramadan and Jacob Bogage, 38315K] reports Iran’s military warned U.S. forces on Monday not to enter the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump said the United States would start helping to free ships stranded in the Gulf by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Trump gave few details of the plan to aid ships and their crews that have been "locked up" in the vital waterway ‌and are running low on food and other supplies more than two months since the conflict began. "We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday. The unified command of Iran’s armed forces responded by warning U.S. forces to stay out of the strait. Its forces would "respond harshly" to any threat, it added, telling commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any movement in ​the absence of coordination with Iran’s military. "We have repeatedly said the security of the Strait of Hormuz is in our hands and that the safe passage of vessels needs to be coordinated with the armed forces," Ali Abdollahi, the head of the forces’ unified command said in the statement. "We warn that any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive U.S. army, will be attacked if they ⁠intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz." U.S. Central Command said it would support the effort with 15,000 military personnel, more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, along with warships and drones. "Our support for this defensive mission is essential ​to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade," Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said in a statement. Hundreds of ships and as many as 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the strait during the conflict, the International Maritime Organization says. Soon after Trump’s comments, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker had reported being hit by unknown projectiles in the strait. The agency said all crew were reported safe in the incident, which occurred 78 nautical miles north of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, but few details were immediately available. Iran has been blocking nearly all shipping from the Gulf apart from its own for more than two months, sending energy prices soaring. Some vessels attempting to transit the strait have reported being fired on, and Iran seized several other ships. Last month, the U.S. imposed its own blockade of ships from Iranian ports. The Trump administration has been seeking help from other countries to form an international coalition to secure shipping in the strait. CENTCOM said the latest effort would combine "diplomatic action with military coordination." It was not immediately clear which countries the U.S. operation would aid or how the operation would work. It will not necessarily include U.S. Navy ships escorting commercial ships, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in a post on X. The ‌White House ⁠did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN [5/4/2026 2:44 AM, Brad Lendon, 612K] reports the US plan to "guide" ships through the Strait of Hormuz, announced by President Donald Trump just hours before it went into effect, leaves a lot of unanswered questions. US Central Command said in a statement on X that its support for the operation, dubbed Project Freedom, "will include guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms.". But how those military assets figure into getting merchant ships moving through the strait again is not defined. Jennifer Parker, a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute and a former Royal Australian Navy officer, told CNN Monday that she expects the US military to increase its presence in and over the strait to provide reassurance to commercial vessels attempting to transit it. "This appears to be an operation … which is less about providing direct protection to a vessel or a couple of vessels and more about trying to change the situation in the strait" so ships "feel safe," Parker said. That mission could include a few US Navy ships in the strait and a range of aircraft flying over it that could spot and take out any small boats or ships trying to attack commercial vessels, she said. While a convoy escort operation, with US destroyers steaming alongside merchant ships, is unlikely, according to Parker, she said an increase of US warships going through the strait would be a positive move. That’s because to stop the operation, Iran would have to directly confront the US Navy, something it has not done to date. "In some ways (Trump) is forcing Iran’s hand," she said. "They would need to escalate and fire at US warships, which is a different level of escalation," Parker said. Trump’s announcement of the plan drew a quick rebuke from Iran, with Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, warning that that any US interference in the Strait of Hormuz would be considered a violation of the ceasefire that has been in effect since April 8. "The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf would not be managed by Trump’s delusional posts!" he said in a post on X. "Any foreign military force, especially the invading American army" will be attacked if they try to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of the Iranian armed forces’ Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said, according to Iran’s Fars news agency reported. Trump earlier said any "interference" from Iran would be met with "force.". Shipping executives are not convinced the new US plan lessens the risk. "It takes both sides to unblock — not just one," Bjørn Højgaard, CEO of ship manager Anglo-Eastern told CNN. So far in the war, Washington has been reluctant to put US Navy warships within range of Iranian shore-based anti-ship missiles or small attack craft that Tehran can field in numbers in and around the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM has only acknowledged US destroyers going through the strait on one occasion, on April 11 when two US destroyers transited the waterway "as part of a broader mission to ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines.".

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