Tag Archives: Homeland Security

Homeland Security Issues Alert To Law Enforcement: “Illicit Actors” Could Commit Anti-Lockdown Violence

ABC News reports: Stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements have sparked some violence in the United States, and it could continue under further restrictions, according to a new federal report obtained by ABC News from analysts at the Department of Homeland Security Counterterrorism Mission Center. “A variety of illicit actors are responding violently to stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures …

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DHS Docs Reveal COVID Spread Among Secret Service

ABC News reports: Multiple members of the U.S. Secret Service have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Homeland Security documents. In March, the Secret Service, which is responsible for the protection of President Trump and other leaders, acknowledged that a single employee tested positive in March. However the problem is currently far more widespread, …

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Homeland Security Quietly Orders 100,000 Body Bags

NBC News reports: The federal government placed orders for well over 100,000 new body bags to hold victims of COVID-19 in April, according to internal administration documents obtained by NBC News, as well as public records. The biggest set was earmarked for purchase the day after President Donald Trump projected that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus might not …

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DHS Relaxes Rules On Hiring Foreign Farm Workers

Roll Call reports: The Homeland Security Department, reacting to what it called an “unprecedented crisis,” will allow farmers facing delays in getting approval for petitions for foreign agricultural labor to hire farmworkers holding H-2A visas and already in the United States. How many farmers this will help is unknown. The temporary final rule announced Wednesday comes after mounting pressure from …

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Reuters: New Orleans Set To Become New Epicenter

Reuters reports: New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States, dashing hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would not be hit as hard by the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane. The plight of New Orleans – with the world’s highest growth rate in coronavirus cases and where …

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DHS Warns That NYC’s Morgues Are Near Capacity

Politico reports: The Department of Homeland Security has been briefed that New York City’s morgues are nearing capacity, according to a department official and a second person familiar with the situation. Officials were told that morgues in the city are expected to reach capacity next week, per the briefing. A third person familiar with the situation in New York said …

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DHS Waives Contracting Laws To Speed Border Wall

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include …

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DHS To Share Citizenship Data With US Census Bureau

The Associated Press reports: The Department of Homeland Security is agreeing to share citizenship information with the U.S. Census Bureau as part of President Donald Trump’s order to collect data on who is a citizen following the Supreme Court’s rejection of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census form. Trump’s order is being challenged in federal court, but meanwhile, the …

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Major US Cities Step Up Anti-Terror Efforts After Strike

The Guardian reports: Law enforcement agencies in several major US cities have issued alerts advising residents to be vigilant in the wake of the US strike against Iran’s top general as officials said they were stepping up security efforts at sensitive locations. Chad Wolf [photo], acting secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said his agency was working with …

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Trump’s Fifth Homeland Security Chief Gets Sworn In

The Washington Post reports: Chad Wolf was sworn in Wednesday as the new acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, becoming the fifth person to hold the top job under President Trump, a period of unusually high leadership turnover at the nation’s largest domestic security agency. Wolf replaces Kevin McAleenan, who assumed the acting DHS chief role when Trump …

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Right Wingers Push Cuccinelli For Homeland Security

From the Conservative Partnership Institute: Conservatives unequivocally support Ken Cuccinelli for the position of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As acting head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Cuccinelli has proven himself exceptionally capable of executing the president’s agenda on complex and sensitive issues. Rather than backing away from a media that is at times overtly …

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Yet Another Homeland Security Chief Hits The Exit

From a story published earlier this week: Nearly six months after taking over the Department of Homeland Security as acting secretary, Kevin McAleenan has guided the United States out of a crisis at the southern border, but he also says he has lost command of the public messaging from his department and lacks some of the authority he was promised …

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Homeland Security To Collect DNA From Migrants

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is moving to begin collecting DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people booked into federal immigration custody each year for entry into a national criminal database, an immense expansion of the use of technology to enforce the nation’s immigration laws. Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that …

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House Panel Subpoenas Homeland Security For Docs Related To Promised Trump Pardons For Breaking Law

Axios reports: The House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to the Department of Homeland Security for documents related to President Trump’s alleged attempts to pardon officials charged with crimes while carrying out his immigration policies. In a statement, the committee said it is seeking information on meetings between Trump and DHS officials where pardons were reportedly discussed. The subpoena …

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Trump Yanks $155M From FEMA For Detention Camps

NBC News reports: The Trump administration is pulling $271 million in funding from the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum-seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico, according to department officials and a letter sent to the agency by a …

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Migrant Families Face Indefinite Detention In New Rule

The Guardian reports: The Trump administration unveiled a regulation on Wednesday that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that imposed a limit on how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and specified the level of care they must receive. The White House has for more …

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REPORT: White House Rejected Homeland Security Attempts To Prioritize White Supremacist Terror Threats

CNN reports: White House officials rebuffed efforts by their colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security for more than a year to make combating domestic terror threats, such as those from white supremacists, a greater priority as specifically spelled out in the National Counterterrorism Strategy, current and former senior administration officials as well as other sources close to the Trump …

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DHS Preps To Siphon $232M From TSA For Border Ops

NBC News reports: The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $232 million from the Transportation Security Administration to fund border operations in the event that Congress does not agree to fund $1.1 billion of its funding request, according to documents of a contingency plan obtained by NBC News. Other components of DHS, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Administration, have …

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Acting ICE Director Resigns After Yanked Nomination

Stephen Miller’s reign of terror marches on: The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ron Vitiello, has resigned amid an agency-wide restructuring of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Vitiello had originally been nominated to take over the post permanently, but his nomination was abruptly pulled last week by President Trump, who said he wanted to go …

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GOP Sen. Pat Roberts On Kris Kobach As Trump’s DHS Secretary: “Don’t Go There, We Can’t Confirm Him”

The Kansas City Star reports: One of the GOP senators from Kris Kobach’s home state said Tuesday that the Senate would not be able to confirm the Kansas Republican if President Donald Trump tapped him for a cabinet post. Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for an array of immigration-related positions after …

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