Monthly Archives: August 2025

Washington Post: Top Hegseth aide tried to oust senior White House liaison from Pentagon

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The unusual dispute received White House intervention and appears rooted in deeper frustrations over failed attempts to fill jobs on the defense secretary’s staff.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s acting chief of staff tried and failed to oust a senior White House liaison assigned to the Pentagon, people familiar with the matter said Monday, detailing an unusual dispute that marks the latest instance of infighting among a staff plagued by disagreement and distrust.

The clash last week between Ricky Buria, Hegseth’s acting chief of staff, and Matthew A. McNitt, who coordinates personnel policy as White House liaison at the Pentagon, appears rooted in Buria’s frustration with pushback from the White House as he has attempted to fill positions in the defense secretary’s office. It coincides, too, with the White House’s refusal to let Buria take over the powerful chief of staff job on a permanent basis.

Those familiar with the situation, which has not been previously reported, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal by the Trump administration.

The dispute between Buria and McNitt appears to have shaken a fragile agreement between Hegseth and the White House, which allowed Buria to serve as chief of staff only unofficially after several other people were considered for the position but declined to take it, the people familiar with the matter said. Officials at the White House, they said, intervened when Buria tried to get rid of McNitt, effectively blocking the move.

Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that Trump is “fully supportive of Secretary Hegseth and his efforts to restore a focus on warfighters at the Pentagon,” rather than diversity efforts and “woke initiatives.”

Ninety percent of political appointments in the Defense Department have been filled, Kelly said, “and all personnel, including Matt McNitt, reflect the administration’s shared mission to ensure our military is the most lethal fighting force in the world.”

The statement did not reference Buria.

It is not clear whether Hegseth supported or approved Buria’s attempt to remove McNitt from the Pentagon, or whether the secretary was even made aware of the power play in advance.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman and senior adviser to Hegseth, declined to address questions about the situation, issuing a brief statement instead downplaying the intra-staff upheaval.

“When the Fake News Media has nothing to report to the American people, they resort [to] blog posting about water cooler gossip to meet their quota for clicks,” the statement said. “This kind of nonsense won’t distract our team from our mission.”

McNitt, who served in a handful of roles during the first Trump administration, could not be reached for comment. Buria did not respond to a request for comment.

Their dispute is the latest in a series of fights that has consumed the Pentagon over the first six months of President Donald Trump’s return to office. Hegseth’s tenure has been marked by abrupt firings, personality clashes, threats and other forms of dysfunction that have drawn scrutiny from Capitol Hill and continue to be closely monitored by the White House.

Buria has been at the center of much of the turmoil, seeking to isolate Hegseth from other senior advisers on his staff and assert control over the Pentagon’s inner workings, people familiar with the issues have said. A recently retired Marine Corps colonel, he has served as the de facto chief of staff since April, after Hegseth’s initial choice for the job, Joe Kasper, voluntarily departed to return to the corporate world.

Buria’s rapid transition from nonpartisan military officer to political warrior has stunned people who know him and raised questions among some Trump administration officials who remain skeptical of his warm relations with Biden administration appointees in the Pentagon while he served as a junior military aide for then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Hegseth and Buria have clashed repeatedly with top generals and admirals serving in some of the Pentagon’s senior-most positions.

Most recently, the secretary rescinded the planned promotion of Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, whose last day as director of the Joint Staff was last week. The decision, first reported last month by the New York Times, was made despite a direct appeal to Hegseth from Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The director’s job, widely considered one of the military’s most important, is being filled on a temporary basis by Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Stephen Liszewski, people familiar with the matter said. Trump in June nominated Navy Vice Adm. Fred Kacher to replace Sims, and he awaits Senate confirmation.

Hegseth, fixated on trying to stop a succession of embarrassing leaks to the news media, earlier this year threatened to have a polygraph test conducted on Sims, a detail reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. The secretary’s team did briefly conduct polygraph tests against some Pentagon officials in April and early May, but the effort was stopped at the direction of the White House after Patrick Weaver, a political appointee on Hegseth’s team, complained that Buria wanted him to submit to testing despite Weaver’s history of supporting Trump’s agenda.

Buria also has faced scrutiny alongside Hegseth over the secretary’s use of the unclassified chat app Signal. The Defense Department’s independent inspector general has received evidence that Hegseth’s Signal account in March shared operational details about a forthcoming bombing campaign in Yemen, information taken from a classified email labeled “SECRET/NOFORN.”

That designation means defense officials believed disclosure of the information to the wrong parties could damage national security. Among those who received the information were other top Trump administration officials, but also Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, and personal attorney, Tim Parlatore.

The inspector general’s review is, in part, attempting to establish who posted in those group chats the highly sensitive information shared under Hegseth’s name, people familiar with the matter said. In addition to the defense secretary, Buria had access to Hegseth’s personal phone and sometimes posted information on his behalf, officials have said.

Last week, Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon lashed out at the inspector general’s office in what appeared to be an attempt to undermine the inquiry’s legitimacy even before its findings are made public.

Top Hegseth aide tried to oust senior White House liaison from Pentagon
The unusual dispute received White House intervention and appears rooted in deeper frustrations over failed attempts to fill jobs on Hegseth’s staff.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/04/hegseth-buria-white-house-liaison-mcnitt

Newsweek: Woman With Green Card Detained by ICE After 14 Years in US, Boyfriend Says

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A Colombian immigrant and green-card holder who has lived in Oklahoma for more than a decade and has American children has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to her boyfriend.

Newsweek reached out to ICE via email for comment.

A GoFundMe was recently created to help raise funds for legal fees pertaining to the detainment of Daniela Villada Restrepo, who lives in Oklahoma City and works in health care. She has three children, all born in the U.S. She is a lawful permanent resident, meaning she has a green card.

Why It Matters

Restrepo’s case underscores more widespread concerns by immigrants and attorneys warning caution about potential arrest and detainment, even to those without criminal records. Newsweek could not verify whether Restrepo has any type of criminal background.

President Donald Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, and immigrants residing in the country illegally and legally, with valid documentation such as green cards and visas, have been detained. Newsweek has reported dozens of cases involving green-card holders and applicants who were swept up in raids and various arrests.

What To Know

According to her boyfriend, Scott Sperber, ICE agents detained Restrepo on April 12 when she missed a mandatory mental health court appointment, incurring a warrant. ICE records show that she is being held at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, which Sperber claims is unable to provide her mental health therapy.

Her Facebook page says she is originally from Medellín, Antioquia, in Colombia.

“Daniela has since been held in an ICE detention center located in Alvarado, Texas, unable to complete her mental health therapy,” Sperber wrote on the GoFundMe page he started on July 23. “Prior to this detainment, Daniela has legally lived in America for almost 14 years. She was married to an American citizen for almost 10 years, and she has three children living in the United States that are American citizens.”

Newsweek reached out to Sperber via the GoFundMe page for comment.

As of the afternoon of August 4, the page had received just two donations totaling $80.

Sperber described his girlfriend as a “wonderful mother and wonderful companion who has had some trials in her life with abusive relationships. She has been fighting to heal and progress.”

She has worked for the Oklahoma State Health Department for nearly five years and as director of patient care services at The Bilingual Clinic PLLC, a business started by her ex-husband and father of her children.

“She is bilingual and has always strived to help provide the best care for those here in America with language barriers,” Sperber said. “She has a character that is caring and loving. Daniela wants, above all, to continue living here legally in the United States so she may care for her children and experience the joy of watching them grow up as any parent would.”

Daniela’s Facebook and Instagram accounts use the name “Daniela Deweber,” writing in a March post on Facebook: “Daniela Villada Restrepo is the name my parents gave me, Daniela Deweber is my married name.”

The GoFundMe was started by Sperber because of legal fees associated with Restrepo’s hopeful release, as well as limited funds due to multiple health situations.

What People Are Saying

ICE, on X on August 4: “ICE is targeting illegal aliens, not law-abiding citizens.”

What Happens Next

A lawyer has been hired in Restrepo’s case.

Sperber, who said he is just starting to recover financially following an automobile accident, is also his grandfather’s sole caregiver. The grandfather receives medical treatment for skin cancer.

“With all of these overbearing aspects of financial life at play, I do not have the adequate funds to pay for her legal fees, her awarded bond, nor to pay her attorney to continue the fight,” Sperber said. “Also, I don’t have adequate financial means to pay for all my grandfather’s health-related financial obligations.

“I am living day by day, one step at a time, and it has become so overwhelming I am finally choosing to ask for help.”

Woman with green card detained by ICE after 14 years in US, boyfriend says
The Oklahoma resident originally from Colombia was married to an American citizen and has three children living in the U.S.

https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-ice-immigration-detention-citizen-2108666

Newsweek: Nurse in US for 40 Years Self-Deports—’It’s Really Gotten Insane’

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Matthew Morrison, a 69-year-old Irish immigrant and nurse in Missouri who became an immigration example in the late 1990s, left for Ireland on July 21 after living in the United States for 40 years due to fears of removal by the Trump administration.

Why It Matters

Morrison’s self-deportation has brought further attention to the complicated realities faced by long-term undocumented immigrants in the U.S., especially those with historic convictions or high-profile political backgrounds. His case, uniquely tied to historic U.S.–Ireland relations, was previously referenced during the Clinton administration as part of U.S.’s efforts to support the Northern Ireland peace process.

Morrison’s departure also underscores the anxiety and uncertainty experienced by noncitizens who fear changes in immigration enforcement policies, particularly those perceived to be at higher risk during political shifts.

What To Know

Morrison worked for roughly 20 years as a psychiatric nurse supervisor in Missouri, including stints at a children’s hospital and several state mental health facilities. He also presented at the St. Louis County Police Academy on topics including mental health and de-escalation tactics.

He told The Marshall Project that he voluntarily left the U.S. due to fear of detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Donald Trump‘s administration.

“I would bite the dust in an ICE holding cell,” Morrison said prior to going home to Ireland. “There is nothing to stop them from deporting me to Ecuador, South Sudan or whatever. It’s really gotten insane here. It’s crazy what they are doing now, the Trump administration. You know what I mean?”

Morrison told The Marshall Project that although his work authorization expires in October, he didn’t want to spend the next few months in anxiety worrying about being deported.

On July 21, he and his wife reportedly boarded a one-way flight from Cleveland to Dublin and left behind a life in the St. Louis area that includes grown children, grandchildren and friends.

“I’ve come full circle,” Morrison said. “I came here as an immigrant and I am leaving as an immigrant, despite everything in between. The whole thing is a crazy, stressful situation.”

Morrison first arrived in the U.S. in the mid-1980s after serving time in prison in Northern Ireland due to his involvement with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during “The Troubles.”

In 1985, he married his American pen pal, Francie Broderick, and had two children, Matt and Katie. Morrison later remarried to his current wife, Sandra Riley Swift.

He once served as a symbolic figure in American–Irish diplomacy. The former member of IRA previously spent 10 years in prison, convicted of attempted murder in a 1976 raid on a British barracks. Other ex-IRA men, all in the New York area, faced deportation for similar reasons.

In 1995, Morrison’s wife flew to Belfast while President Bill Clinton was in the region, attempting to garner his attention and protect him from deportation, according to the Associated Press. By 1997, the family received more than $70,000 in donations to help with legal fees.

The case for Morrison and others like him drew support from local and international lawmakers, notably due to IRA members being characterized by the U.S. government as terrorists.

The Missouri Legislature passed a resolution in 1996 urging the Immigration and Naturalization Service to drop deportation proceedings against him. Members of the Derry City Council in Northern Ireland followed suit across party lines, approving a resolution urging Clinton to suspend his deportation.

Morrison’s struggle won support from countless Americans, including neighbors in this suburban St. Louis community to state legislators to members of Congress.

The Irish Northern Aid, a nonprofit organization that helps families of Irish political prisoners, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians also have come to his defense.

In 2000, the Clinton administration ultimately terminated the deportation process against Morrison and five others. Then-Attorney General Janet Reno said in a statement that she had been advised by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to drop deportation proceedings to “support and promote the process of reconciliation that has begun in Northern Ireland.”

Clinton at the time said the termination was “in no way approving or condoning their past criminal acts.” However, the ex-president echoed the sentiment of contributing to peace in Europe.

What People Are Saying

Matthew Morrison’s son, Matt, 37, to The Marshall Project about his father’s scheduled check-in with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in June in St. Louis: “We were terrified that they were just going to take him right there…He has to live under that fear of somebody knocking on the door and dragging him out of the house, just like they did in Derry when he was young. I hate it. I am just worried about him. Until recently, I hadn’t heard him cry about it.”

Morrison’s daughter, Katie, to The Marshall Project: “Even though he’s still alive, I feel like I am grieving. It’s a huge loss for me and my children.”

What Happens Next?

Swift has a house in St. Charles, Missouri, as well as family in the U.S., The Marshall Project reported. After helping Morrison transition into an apartment in the town where he grew up, she wrote in a social media post that she’s going to travel between both countries for a while.

Nurse in US for 40 years self-deports—“It’s really gotten insane”
“I’ve come full circle,” Matthew Morrison said. “I came here as an immigrant and I am leaving as an immigrant, despite everything in between.”

https://www.newsweek.com/immigration-deportation-ice-nurse-irish-army-2108527

Newsweek: Trump administration announces major tourist visa change

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The State Department is proposing a rule requiring some business and tourist visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a step critics say could put the process out of reach for many.

According to a notice set for publication on Tuesday in the Federal Register, the department plans a 12‑month pilot program targeting applicants from countries with high visa overstay rates and weak internal document security.

Under the plan, applicants could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when applying for a visa.

Why It Matters

This move marks a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and revisits a controversial measure briefly introduced during Trump’s first term.

A previous version of the policy was issued in November 2020, but was never fully enacted due to the collapse in global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. That version targeted about two dozen countries, most of them in Africa, with overstay rates exceeding 10 percent.

What To Know

The new visa bond program will take effect on August 20, according to documents reviewed by Newsweek and a notice previewed Monday on the Federal Register website. The Department of Homeland Security says the goal is to ensure the U.S. government doesn’t incur costs when a visitor violates visa terms.

“Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program,” it said.

Under the plan, U.S. consular officers can require a bond from visa applicants who meet certain criteria. This includes nationals of countries with high visa overstay rates, countries with deficient screening and vetting, and those that offer citizenship-by-investment programs, particularly where citizenship is granted without a residency requirement.

Visitors subject to the bond will receive it back upon leaving the U.S., naturalizing as a citizen, or in the event of death. If a traveler overstays, however, the bond may be forfeited and used to help cover the costs associated with their removal.

Citizens of countries in the Visa Waiver Program are exempt, and consular officers will retain the discretion to waive the bond on a case-by-case basis.

What Countries Could End Up Being Affected

The U.S. government has not provided an estimate of how many applicants may be affected. However, 2023 data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that countries with particularly high visa overstay rates include Angola, Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, and Afghanistan.

The list of affected countries will be published at least 15 days before the program begins and may be updated with similar notice. In the 2020 version of the pilot, countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Liberia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen were included.

What People Are Saying

The public notice stated: “The Pilot Program will help the Department assess the continued reliance on the untested historical assumption that imposing visa bonds to achieve the foreign policy and national security goals of the United States remains too cumbersome to be practical.”

Andrew Kreighbaum, a journalist covering immigration, posted on X: “It’s getting more expensive for many business and tourist travelers to enter the U.S. On top of new visa integrity fees, the State Department is imposing visa bonds as high as $15,000.”

What Happens Next

Visa bonds have been proposed in the past but have not been implemented. The State Department has traditionally discouraged the requirement because of the cumbersome process of posting and discharging a bond and because of possible misperceptions by the public.

There’s always a country that wants your money — go where you’re wanted and the heck with Amerika!

Trump administration announces major tourist visa change
The State Department says the measure is intended to ensure the government does not incur costs if a visitor violates visa terms.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-visas-tourist-business-major-change-2108642

SFGATE: Calif. cannabis farm breaks silence weeks after deadly ICE raid

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Glass House Brands released its first public comment Monday since the California company faced a violent raid from federal authorities last month that left one man dead and hundreds arrested. 

On July 10, federal agents searched two of the company’s Southern California cultivation facilities — one in Ventura County and one in Santa Barbara County — in an operation that quickly descended into chaos. Officers fired tear gas inside the facilities and searched for immigrants as hundreds of protesters gathered outside to protest the Donald Trump administration’s action. One worker fell from a green house and later died, marking the first known death in Trump’s immigration crackdown. 

Following the raid, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had arrested at least 361 people suspected of being in the country illegally, as well as 14 “migrant children,” although the agency hasn’t shared any court documentation behind those figures. 

Glass House, one of California’s largest legal cannabis companies, had not issued any public comment in the weeks following the raid other than a post to X on July 11 confirming it was being raided. 

On Monday, the company broke its silence with a news release that outlined details of the operation, including that nine company employees were detained or arrested. The company said any other people arrested would have been employed by farm labor companies that provide employees for the farm, which is a common practice at agricultural facilities.

Glass House said that it has not been able to determine the identities of the alleged minors but said that if minors were at the facility “none of them were Glass House employees.”

There has been widespread fear in the cannabis industry that federal agents could have been conducting a much broader operation investigating the cultivation of marijuana itself, which is still federally illegal and could lead to federal criminal charges against the company and its staff. Video apparently taken during the raid and posted to social media showed a federal agent saying, “This is not an immigration raid.”

Monday’s news release countered that narrative, saying the raid was led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that the search warrant was authorized specifically for “evidence of possible immigration violations.” Glass House said that “very few documents were seized pursuant to the search warrant.”

The company did not say if its farming operations have been delayed or stalled, which could strike an economic blow to the public company during the summer harvest season, but did say it has since improved its labor practices to comply with federal immigration law, increased age controls for anyone entering its farms, and signed a labor peace agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The company had previously been accused of working with a “fake union” that never attempted to unionize or represent any employees at the company.

Calif. cannabis farm breaks silence weeks after deadly ICE raid
The raid marked the first death in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/calif-cannabis-farm-breaks-silence-ice-raid-20800994.php

Some Ojibwe signs, books could be removed as feds evaluate national parks

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National Park Service employees had to report any signs or books that could be interpreted as anti-American.

Federal officials are reviewing whether to remove books and signs with historic references to the harsh treatment of Native Americans from Minnesota’s national park sites.

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump in March required employees at all national park sites to audit and report to the Department of the Interior any material that negatively portrayed Americans, past or present, by July 18.

In Minnesota, staff reported informational signs and books that referenced forced relocations, starvation and treaty violations of Native American tribes living in Minnesota and Wisconsin, including Ojibwe, Yankton Sioux and Dakota, according to groups that work with the parks and staffers who did not want to talk for attribution for fear of losing their jobs.

“That’s very worrisome,” said Chris Goepfert, the associate director of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Goepfert was shocked last month when she stumbled across a sign at the visitors center at Voyageurs National Park in International Falls asking the public’s help in identifying anti-American material.

Similar signs were posted at other national park sites, including the Mississippi River and Recreation Area and Pipestone National Monument.

They asked visitors to alert the government “of any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans” in support of Trump’s executive order called Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.

Interior officials recently told park superintendents in a meeting that any reported materials deemed to be “inappropriate” must be covered up or removed by Sept. 18.

“Our national parks are about our history, and so for them to specifically target [and consider] removing some of our American stories, is[troubling]‚” Goepfert said.

The reported material is now under review, according to a statement on Monday from the National Park Service.

“As we carry out this directive, we are also manually reviewing and evaluating public feedback we’ve received,” the statement said. “This effort reinforces our commitment to telling the full and accurate story of our nation’s past and is not about rewriting our past.”

Tony Drews fears the possible removal of Ojibwe material.

“It’s horrible. … I don’t have enough vocabulary to properly express how this makes me feel. These are just huge steps backwards,” said the Ojibwe language teacher and founder of Nashke Native Games, a company that makes board games to teach children, plus park and museum staff the Ojibwe language.

The games are used at Voyageurs National Park and discussions are underway for their adoption at the Grand Portage National Monument.

Drews said he was inspired to teach children about their Ojibwe culture and language because of what happened to his grandmother.

“As a child, she was sent to [an Indian boarding school] and forced not to learn her language” and to give up her culture, he said.

“It feels like the momentum had been going well for our people, but this? It’s tragic,” he said, adding that he plans to reach out to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar for help.

Librarians, historians and University of Minnesota data experts started a “Save our signs” campaign to document monuments, signs, books and websites to preserve any historic information that is removed. To date, the public has submitted to the campaign more than 3,000 photos nationwide, including 92 from Minnesota.

Nationwide, the lists submitted from parks to the Department of Interior for possible removal included scores of plaques and books referencing George Washington owning slaves and Franklin Roosevelt’s polio, according to the Washington Post. One book reported was “Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: Advertisements for Female Runaways in American Newspapers 1770-1783.”

Park employees in Minnesota and Wisconsin said they did not know what the Interior Department intended to do with the submitted lists or who would be evaluating their appropriateness.

At Voyageurs National Park in International Falls, employees who submitted three signs and 11 books to top officials only know that eventually “there’s going to be some sort of critique,” said Park Ranger Kate Severson.

“It’s bizarre, because all of our history books talk about people, and people are a mixed bag,“ she said. ”Most of our history is centered around the voyagers and the Ojibwe. And the Ojibwe have not been treated extremely well by American politicians.”

Because of this past treatment, several of the Voyageurs’ books include critiques of Minnesota politicians, which meant the staff had to report them, Severson said. They are now waiting to hear back whether they must remove them from shelves.

Ted Gostomski — a biologist at the research center in Ashland, Wis., who performs fish and wildlife studies for all of the national parks and Mississippi River and Recreation areas in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan — said top park officials not only asked for employees’ and visitors’ reporting help, but were also scanning websites to look for potentially offensive language.

Gostomski, who had nothing to report at his research lab, said the exercise is confusing.

“You can’t rewrite history that way and you can’t be afraid to acknowledge and work to change things that happened in the past to make sure they don’t happen again,” he said.

Yet the Park Service said in its statement any material that disproportionately emphasizes negative aspects of U.S. history “without acknowledging broader context or national progress” can also misrepresent history.

The administration’s goal, the statement said, is to “foster honest, respectful storytelling that educates visitors while honoring the complexity of our nation’s shared journey.”

Some Ojibwe signs, books could be removed as feds evaluate national parks
National Park Service employees had to report any signs or books that could be interpreted as anti-American.

https://www.startribune.com/ojibwe-national-parks-voyageur-mississippi-pipestone-executive-order-evaluating-signs-books/601448172

Associated Press: Some Florida officers are continuing to charge people under halted immigration law

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Some law enforcement officers are continuing to charge people under a Florida law that bans people living in the U.S. illegally from entering the state, even though a federal judge has halted enforcement of the law while it’s challenged in court.

Two more people were arrested and charged under the law in July, according to a report Florida’s attorney general is required to file as punishment for defying the judge’s ruling.

Both men were arrested by a sheriff’s officer in Sarasota County, located on the state’s southwest coast. The charges came months after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami first halted enforcement of the state statute, which makes it a misdemeanor for people who are in the U.S. without legal permission to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials.

As punishment for flouting her order and being found in civil contempt, the judge required Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to file bimonthly reports about whether any arrests, detentions or law enforcement actions have been made under the law.

In separate incidents on July 3 and July 28, the men were each charged with driving without a valid license and offenses related to driving under the influence of alcohol. The State Attorney’s Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit dismissed the illegal entry charges against them, and requested that the sheriff’s office advice the arresting officer of the court’s order halting enforcement of the law, according to the status report.

A spokesperson for Uthmeier did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a separate court filing, immigrants’ rights advocates who filed the lawsuit questioned whether state officials are using the blocked law to justify holding detainees at an isolated immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Attorneys for the advocates provided the court an email apparently sent by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee to the offices of members of Congress, stating that Florida officials are relying on legal authority granted by the blocked law.

In a separate court filing, immigrants’ rights advocates who filed the lawsuit questioned whether state officials are using the blocked law to justify holding detainees at an isolated immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Attorneys for the advocates provided the court an email apparently sent by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee to the offices of members of Congress, stating that Florida officials are relying on legal authority granted by the blocked law.

Some Florida officers are continuing to charge people under halted immigration law
Some law enforcement officers are continuing to charge people under a Florida law that bans people living in the U.S. illegally from entering the state, even though a federal judge has halted enforcement of the law while it’s challenged in court.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-immigration-law-enforcement-lawsuit-uthmeier-59c5d6a4e5de52272a90273e11681386

Latin Times: DHS Reopens Long-Closed Immigration Cases In Efforts To Meet Deportation Quotas: ‘It’s Been 10 Years’

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In efforts to reach ambitious deportation goals, the Department of Homeland Security is giving new life to long-time administratively closed immigration cases.

In efforts to continue stepping up immigration enforcement and reach ambitious deportation goals, the Department of Homeland Security is giving new life to long-time administratively closed immigration cases, even ones involving people who are dead.

Some lawyers have received dozens of motions to re-calendar— the first step to reopen old cases. If lawyers don’t succeed in opposing those motions, immigrants could wind up back in courthouses that in recent months have become a hub for arrests, a new report from Los Angeles Times details.

“It has been 10 years,” Adan Rico, a 29-year-old DACA recipient who has renewed his status at least four times, told the LA Times. “And all of a sudden our lives are on hold again, at the mercy of these people that think I have no right to be here.”

Attorneys handling these proceedings say the government is overwhelming the courts and immigration lawyers by dredging up cases, many of which are a decade old or more. In several of them, clients or their original lawyers have died. In other cases, immigrants have received legal status and were surprised to learn the government was attempting to revive deportation proceedings against them.

That was the case of Rico, a father who is studying to be an HVAC technician in the Inland Empire. The attorney who originally helped him with his immigration cases has since died, making the revival of his case even more confusing and surprising.

“If it wasn’t for his daughter calling, I would have never found out my case was reopened,” he said. “The Department of Homeland Security never sent me anything.”

A similar case occurred with construction worker Helario Romero Arciniega. Seven years ago, a judge administratively closed his deportation proceedings after he was severely beaten with a metal sprinkler head and had qualified for a visa for crime victims. This year, government officials filed a motion to bring back the deportation case even though he had died six months ago.

“They don’t do their homework,” Patricia Corrales, an attorney representing Romero Arciniega and Rico, said of the government lawyers. “They’re very negligent in the manner in which they’re handling these motions to re-calendar.”

Likewise, Mariela Caravetta, an immigration attorney in Van Nuys, said that since early June about 30 of her clients have been targeted with government motions to reopen their cases. By law, she has to reply in 10 days. That means she has to track down the client, who may have moved out of state.

“It’s bad faith doing it like that,” said Caravetta, who accused the federal government of flooding the immigration courts in an effort to meet its deportation quotas.

“People aren’t getting due process,” she said. “It’s very unfair to the client because these cases have been sleeping for 10 years.”

When asked about the government’s push to restart old proceedings, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin declined to address questions about the administration’s change in policy or respond to attorneys’ complaints about the process. She released a statement similar to others she has offered to the media on immigration inquiries.

“Biden chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including criminals, into the country and used prosecutorial discretion to indefinitely delay their cases and allow them to illegally remain in the United States,” she said. “Now, President Trump and Secretary Noem are following the law and resuming these illegal aliens’ removal proceedings and ensuring their cases are heard by a judge.”

DHS Reopens Long-Closed Immigration Cases In Efforts To Meet Deportation Quotas: ‘It’s Been 10 Years’
In efforts to reach ambitious deportation goals, the Department of Homeland Security is giving new life to long-time administratively closed immigration cases.

https://www.latintimes.com/dhs-reopens-long-closed-immigration-cases-efforts-meet-deportation-quotas-its-been-10-years-588230

Idaho Statesman: Smashed windows. Missing court dates. How ICE is changing its tactics

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Charles Hicks was at the gym when his husband called from the car to say he was being followed, Hicks recalled. His husband pulled over by their home, and Hicks watched on FaceTime as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent smashed his husband’s window.

He rushed to his Meridian apartment, but by then his husband was gone. Hicks, a U.S. citizen, already had started the process to get his husband legal status, he said. He and his husband had talked about the possibility of immigration enforcement, but Hicks said it still didn’t make him ready.

The Statesman is not naming the husband because Hicks said his husband fears repercussions for his case.

“I was not really prepared to watch that or to hear that,” Hicks said by phone. ICE agents screamed and yelled at his husband in the car, he said. “The No. 1 feeling that I had was just a pit in my stomach.”

Being in the United States without authorization is enough grounds to start the deportation process, and some immigrants who are here legally can also be removed. But under President Donald Trump, ICE agents in Idaho have been changing their tactics and using some strategies more often, according to local immigration lawyers. That includes smashing car windows, like with Hicks’ husband.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment sent via its official media email.

ICE agents also have conducted more arrests at ICE check-ins, which are routine meetings for agents to keep tabs on people going through the immigration process. Agents have also focused more on workplace enforcement, lawyers said. ICE isn’t necessarily going out to farms, but agents have been going to businesses to look for people employing undocumented immigrants, according to Neal Dougherty, a Nampa lawyer and partner at Ramirez-Smith Law.

The Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office and the Idaho State Police also have signed cooperation agreements with ICE, known as 287(g) agreements.

Overall, immigration arrests have increased over 900% in Idaho since Trump took office, according to The New York Times.

There aren’t increases in ICE’s resources or agents, said J.J. Despain, managing attorney for Wilner & O’Reilly’s Boise office, but ICE has lowered the bar on who it wants to deport and changed their strategies.

“Some of those are happening by surprise,” Despain told the Statesman.

The criminal justice system

In early April, a man failed to show up for his pretrial conference in Canyon County, perplexing his lawyer.

The lawyer, with the Idaho Public Defender’s Office, had been working with his client, who was charged in December 2024 with driving with a suspended or revoked driver’s license.

“I don’t know why he isn’t here today,” the lawyer told the judge in court audio obtained via a records request.

The next day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted a picture of the man being detained in Nampa by federal officers.

When ICE picks up people mid-case, they can face default judgments and parole or probation violations for failing to appear in court. When or if individuals ever return to the United States, there can already be a warrant out for an immigrant’s arrest, said Dougherty.

ICE picked up people while their Idaho criminal cases were ongoing before the new administration took office. But it’s happening more often now, Dougherty and Despain said, with potential consequences for the immigrants and any victims.

These aren’t all minor cases like driving with a suspended license. In one instance, a 27-year-old man from Mexico was arrested in Pocatello for child sexual abuse, child enticement and kidnapping. ICE posted a picture of him the day before his preliminary hearing, at which he failed to appear. He has since been deported, ICE spokesperson Alethea Smock said in an email. The case is listed as inactive and pending after the state asked to keep the case open.

Wood River Valley lawyer Justin McCarthy said immigrants in Idaho’s criminal justice system should finish their sentences in the Gem State.

“They should be held accountable here. … You don’t get to skate on the sentence,” McCarthy said. “What about victims? What about the victims’ families? … That person could come back, and they often do.”

An immigrant from El Salvador

Hicks had been with his husband for about five years by the time he was detained by ICE in late June. The couple married in 2023, according to a petition filed by his husband’s lawyers.

Hicks’s husband is originally from San Salvador, the capital of the Central American country of El Salvador. He came to the United States in 2018 to support his family and has worked in construction, Hicks said. His husband sends money to his mother, sisters and nephews back home, Hicks said. He hasn’t been able to see his family in years.

In 2021, his husband pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and received a withheld judgment. He was required to undergo alcohol education and was placed on unsupervised probation, according to court records. On June 5 of this year, he was found guilty of driving while using a cellphone, according to online court records.

After his arrest, the husband was sent to Elmore County first. Now he is detained in the Nevada Southern Detention Center west of Las Vegas, according to an online ICE detainee locator tool.

Hicks can’t go visit his husband in detention. The couple can conduct phone and video calls through the jail, Hicks said.

Lawyers for Hicks’ husband filed a petition in federal court to get him out of detention, arguing among other things that ICE agents didn’t show a warrant when they broke into his car and that an immigration judge was unfairly keeping him detained.

Hicks filed a petition earlier in 2025 for his husband to get residency, he said. But it will take four to six years, Hicks said.

“You should enter (the U.S.) with permission,” Hicks said. “But also, the whole process is just broken. It shouldn’t take someone five or six years to possibly get residency when they’re married to a U.S. citizen.”

Smashed windows. Missing court dates. How ICE is changing its tactics
“I was not really prepared to watch that or to hear that,” the husband of a local immigrant said.

https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article311591857.html

Kansas City Star: Court Upholds Restraining Order in Blow to ICE

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has criticized President Trump’s aggressive ICE raids, arguing they harm the city’s economy by spreading fear among immigrants. She notes significant business losses in Latino neighborhoods like Boyle Heights. Bass condemned the use of National Guard and Marines to quell protests, calling it excessive.

Earlier this month, a federal court upheld a restraining order against indiscriminate ICE arrests in Southern California. Bass joined a lawsuit to stop the raids, highlighting their impact on families, while adopting a bolder leadership approach amid recovery from January 2025 wildfires and her 2026 reelection campaign.

…

Bass said, “Let me just say that, because we are a city of immigrants, we have entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have to get the fire areas rebuilt. We’re not going to get our city rebuilt without immigrant labor.”

Bass added, “And it’s not just the deportations, it’s the fear that sets in when raids occur, when people are snatched off the street. And I know you are aware that even people who are here legally, even people who are U.S. citizens, have been detained.”

Bass stated that “what I think we need is comprehensive immigration reform. I served in Congress for 12 years.” She stressed the importance of immigrant labor in post-crisis recovery and noted that ICE raid fears impact both undocumented residents and U.S. citizens.

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Court Upholds Restraining Order in Blow to ICE

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/court-upholds-restraining-order-in-blow-to-ice/ss-AA1Khr9r