Tag: dhs

Obama Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Ending Temporary Protected Status for Somalis – DHS Responds

A federal judge on Friday once again blocked the Trump Administration from terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis.

The termination was supposed to take effect on March 17, however, a federal judge previously halted the termination.

On Friday, US District Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, issued a new administrative stay after the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint and an emergency motion.

There are more than 100,000 Somalis living in the US. An estimated 5,000 Somalis are eligible for Temporary Protected Status.

The Justice Department responded to the judge’s order.

“Judge Allison Burroughs just entered yet another order preventing the termination of Somalia TPS. There is no serious debate about what is going on in these cases—defiance, obstruction, and delay,” Homeland Security general counsel James Percival said.

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DHS: Govt. has issued $84B in civil fines to illegal aliens who remain in U.S. after receiving final orders of removal

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it has already issued more than $84 billion in civil fines to illegal aliens who remain in the United States after receiving final orders of removal.

According to the agency, federal authorities have levied over 103,000 total fine notices against non-citizens and illegal aliens since the start of the Trump administration’s crackdown. The dynamic relies on “revived statutory penalty authorizing fines of up to $998 per day” for individuals who refuse to voluntarily depart the country after a deportation order becomes final.

The statutory framework permitting civil monetary penalties for failure to depart was originally established under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

However, according to analysts, the provision was rarely utilized by prior administrations due to the reality that most of these individuals subject to removal lacked the assets to pay. To overcome these challenges, the DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have reportedly “overhauled the enforcement framework.”

Under rules enacted in mid-2025, federal authorities eliminated a mandatory 30-day notice of intent, authorized immigration officers to mail direct fine notices via standard mail and shortened the window for individuals to contest or appeal penalties to just 15 business days.

Individual penalties issued under the policy are now much more steep, accumulating daily up to the five-year statutory limit, which can yield total personal fines exceeding $1.8 million per individual. To collect on these debts, the federal government has employed an approach involving civil lawsuits filed by the DOJ in federal district courts, wage garnishment, seizure of tax refunds and partnerships with private debt collection agencies.

Officials emphasize that these measures are intended to incentivize compliance with federal court orders, describing the financial penalties as an alternative to voluntary departure.

Alongside the financial measures, the Trump administration has structured an exit mechanism tied to its “CBP Home” app. Under current regulations, undocumented individuals who agree to self-deport using the app are granted complete forgiveness of all accrued civil fines, provided with a free return flight to their country of origin and issued a $2,600 exit bonus.

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DHS used anti-China funds on World Cup security

Congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act included $170 million for efforts to counter the national security threats posed by China’s illegal fishing operations worldwide.

But the Trump administration didn’t spend the money on that.

Instead, the Department of Homeland Security diverted the vast majority of that funding to security measures for FIFA World Cup matches, America250 celebrations and other major sporting events, according to a senior congressional official and an administration official who were briefed on how the money was allocated.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) secured the $170 million as part of the OBBB for “maritime domain awareness” technology that helps track the Chinese vessels.

Cruz told us he has “sought to provide resources for those programs, but unfortunately the bulk of the funding has not gone where it needed to go.” But Cruz didn’t say where the money went.

The funding diversion occurred under then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The department, now led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Approximately $155 million of the $170 million funding pot was spent on counter-drone technology for events like World Cup matches and America250 tributes, including sensors that monitor and track drones in their vicinity, the officials said. The rest was used for Coast Guard communications technology and a Merchant Marine credentialing system.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators led by Cruz called on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on 29 supply vessels that facilitate Beijing’s illicit fishing activities.

The letter reads in part:

“Anyone linked to the vessels, including through beneficial ownership, will be exposed to reputational and financial crime risks. The vessels would switch from being assets to liabilities, greatly complicating the ability of the CCP to continue their IUU fishing activities.”

Cruz’s committee handles the annual Coast Guard authorization bill. Cruz said he intends to continue pushing the issue so that the Coast Guard has enough resources to counter China’s illegal fishing.

The nine senators who signed the letter to Bessent said China is carrying out these activities “at a scale that constitutes ecocide conducted via gross human rights abuses.”

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“Mutiny Against the Supreme Court” – DHS Blasts Biden Judge for Indefinitely Extending Block on Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians

US District Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee on Friday indefinitely extended a block on the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

In 2022, the Biden Regime allowed more than 5,000 Ethiopians to enter the US and live here with special protections.

Their TPS status was extended again in April 2024 and expired on February 13, 2026.

Upon taking office again in January 2025, President Trump immediately revoked the Biden-era ‘Temporary Protected Status’ and ordered the DHS to ensure that the TPS designations were limited.

Judge Murphy previously said President Trump violated the process by revoking the protections.

Earlier this year, Judge Murphy issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and blocked the Trump Administration from ending the protection for the Ethiopians.

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DHS allows officers to review visa applicants’ use of welfare programs while considering permanent status qualification

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a final rule overturning a 2022 regulation from former President Joe Biden’s administration to allow immigration officers to consider an applicant’s use of welfare programs to determine if they qualify for permanent legal citizenship.

In a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) news release on Thursday, the DHS held that the decision will better align immigration law with “Congressional intent that aliens in the United States be self-reliant and not dependent on taxpayer-funded government benefits.”

Furthermore, under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a person applying for a visa, admission, or adjustment of status is ineligible “because of the likelihood of becoming a public charge.”

“With this final rule, USCIS officers are empowered to assess all pertinent facts on a case-by-case basis for each applicant,” the DHS stated.

“The Trump administration is upholding the rule of law and protecting American taxpayers from subsidizing aliens who may become dependent on public benefits. USCIS is committed to safeguarding the safety, security, and financial well-being of Americans,” said USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler. 

The rule will be effective on September 18th. A revised version of Form I-485, used to apply for permanent residence or adjust one’s status, will be released. The new version of the form will be required after the effective date.

The new policy could impact hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking green cards every year from inside the U.S., as well as deter migrant households from applying for taxpayer-funded social programs, such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

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DHS Issues Funding Warning To States That Don’t Purge Voter Rolls

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday said that states that do not purge their voter rolls of potentially ineligible voters and noncitizens could lose funding.

It came as he said the DHS has identified more than 250,000 noncitizens who were illegally on voter registration rolls in four states: California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

“We know Iran hacked state voter files and attempted to compromise our systems where military members used to vote,” he said, adding that DHS “security enhancements” will be mandatory.

“If these states want a grant, and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they’re going to have to implement security measures.”

Voting systems have to be secured, and voter registration lists need to be “scrubbed,” Mullin said.

“We need to make sure that individuals that are legally able to vote are voting,” he said.

When a staff member discovered the relationship with the prospective defendant, Johnston fired the employee, according to Hanaway.

“President Trump is correct when he said that election security is national security … this is just exposing what took place and to make sure it never happens again.

“And there’s some really easy steps that can be taken to secure our elections, and it shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

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Fake Records May Have Put Untrained Drivers On America’s Roads

Fake training records can move an unprepared driver one step closer to a commercial license.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are now investigating about 75 entry-level driver training schools suspected of doing exactly that.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has identified approximately 75 entry-level driving training schools suspected of fraudulent activities, including using improper driver certifications, falsifying training records, and failing to properly train drivers applying for CDLs, among other violations. USDOT will engage DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in its investigations of these schools.

“USDOT has spent the last year rooting out bad actors from our trucking industry,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “We’ve knocked over 24,000 drivers off our roads for failing to speak English, forced states to cancel over 28,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers, and purged over 9,500 unqualified training schools from our FMCSA registry. DHS will be a force multiplier of our efforts to clean up America’s roads. President Trump is using every lever at his disposal to ensure the safety of American families.”

“Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “DHS law enforcement is partnering with the Department of Transportation to eliminate CDL fraud, strengthen the integrity of the CDL system, and investigate commercial driver’s license schools throughout the country. This is a whole of government approach, to keep America’s roads safe.”

This is part of the administration’s ongoing efforts to root out fraud from American trucking and restore integrity to the industry.

Federal officials say the schools may have used improper certifications, falsified training records, or failed to train CDL applicants properly. Homeland Security Investigations will work with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to determine whether poor instruction crossed into criminal fraud.

The licensing system gives training schools enormous power. Federal rules require many first-time applicants to complete approved instruction before taking a CDL skills test.

Registered schools then submit completion records electronically, and state licensing agencies use those records to decide whether an applicant may test.

Providers also self-certify that they meet federal standards when joining the registry. A dishonest school damages the first major checkpoint before an applicant ever sits for the road test. Fraud at that stage reaches far beyond paperwork.

Duffy’s department had already found deep problems. In February, more than 300 investigators conducted 1,426 on-site inspections across all 50 states. They issued 448 proposed removal notices, while 109 providers removed themselves after learning investigators were coming. Another 97 remained under investigation.

The violations were not harmless technical errors. Investigators found instructors without the proper licenses, schools using the wrong vehicles, incomplete student assessments, and providers that failed to meet their state requirements. One school had even trained bus drivers.

Nearly 10,000 training locations have now been removed from the federal registry. The department also says more than 24,000 drivers were taken out of service for failing English proficiency requirements, while states canceled more than 28,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers.

Those numbers expose a system that went too long without firm inspection. The new joint probe adds criminal investigators who can follow records, payments, identities, and possible coordination between schools and applicants.

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Trump Says U.S. Election System Is ‘Broken’ and ‘Vulnerable’ After DHS Review Found Noncitizens on Voter Rolls

President Donald Trump said Thursday that a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) review found roughly 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections, arguing the findings expose major weaknesses in the U.S. election system.

Speaking during a primetime speech to address foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections, Trump said the DHS compared state voter registration lists with public records and identified about 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls. He claimed the figure is incomplete because several Democrat-led states did not provide their voter registration data.

“Since Democrat states refused to share their voter files, the real number is actually much higher than that. Yet, even this limited analysis found more than a quarter of a million foreigners illegally registered to vote,” Trump said.

Trump also claimed foreign governments have access to large amounts of U.S. voter data, warned that voting machines and ballot tabulation systems remain vulnerable to hacking and manipulation, and accused countries such as China of attempting to influence American elections.

“Put together, these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it. It is not defensible. Hundreds of millions of U.S. voter files are in the hands of foreign governments,” Trump added. “Our machines and ballot counting systems are exposed to hacking, manipulation and corruption. China and other countries have been trying to meddle in our elections.”

Trump said that voter rolls still contain hundreds of thousands of noncitizens and deceased individuals.

“Evidence of fraud has been buried. Hundreds of thousands of noncitizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls,” Trump continued. “And yet, we still have elections with no voter ID, no proof of citizenship, and tens of millions of ballots floating aimlessly through the mail.”

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How a Member of a Powerful Utah Family Escaped a Federal Trafficking Investigation and Reinvented Himself as an Instagram Influencer

Former Utah County Attorney David Leavitt has outrun accusations of an illegal adoption and ritualistic child abuse after attorneys within US Homeland Security Investigations shuttered an investigation into his actions.

In an exclusive interview with The Last American Vagabond, a former Homeland Security Investigations analyst reveals how he was targeted by the US government for pursuing an investigation into a powerful Utah politician following a controversial adoption of a Native American baby.

The analyst said that he and his colleague were sidelined after attempting to subpoena the Mormon Church’s internal hotline for reporting sexual abuse as part of their investigation. The federal government would eventually turn its focus to him after he questioned why charges had not been filed, despite an admission of guilt by the suspect.

“They spent $2 million investigating, and they couldn’t even arrest me. They got into my phone, my iCloud, and still couldn’t find anything to arrest me on,” the analyst told The Last American Vagabond (TLAV) over the phone. “This was under Biden… signed off on by Secretary Mayorkas.”

Alejandro Mayorkas served as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under former US President Joe Biden.

The analyst requested anonymity to speak freely on his role in the investigation. TLAV has independently verified the claims made by him.

Ritualistic Child Sexual Abuse

This saga begins with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office (UCSO) May 31, 2022, announcement that an investigation into “ritualistic child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking” in Utah County had begun in April 2021.

The UCSO statement noted that “multiple county and federal agencies are investigating reports of ritualistic child sexual abuse from as far back as 1990.” The investigation subsequently discovered previous reports alleging “similar forms of ritualistic sexual abuse and trafficking” that occurred in Utah County, Juab County, and Sanpete County during the time between 1990 and 2010.

In September 2022, former therapist David Hamblin was the first suspect to be arrested and charged by the UCSO for multiple first-degree felony sexual offenses against a child. He was booked for three counts of sodomy of a child, one count of rape of a child, two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, and one misdemeanor count of lewdness involving a child. His ex-wife, Roselle Stevenson, was later arrested on similar charges.

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Federal Judge Orders DHS Not To Obey Order From Another Judge

A federal judge on July 8 said the Trump administration must not comply with an order from another federal judge and must continue to have key functions of an immigration database disabled.

Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies shall keep disabled the ability to look up Social Security numbers and carry out mass uploads in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.

Sooknanan ordered the Trump administration in June to disable the features, finding that recent updates to the database violated privacy laws by disclosing Americans’ Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

Sooknanan said on July 8 that arguments from the government in favor of pausing her previous order were unpersuasive, including the argument that highlighted a July 7 ruling from Judge T. Kent Wetherell II of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida that ordered DHS to enable the functions for four states under a 2025 settlement that he had approved.

Wetherell had noted that he could have waited until the case in Washington proceeded, but that the four states had presented “unrebutted evidence showing that they are suffering real and concrete harm every day that passes without the disabled features of the SAVE system.”

He said that Sooknanan could have deferred to his previous determination that the functions were lawful, which was reached, he said, in part because the Social Security Act does not preclude disclosing Social Security numbers for immigration enforcement.

Sooknanan disagreed, describing Wetherell as having “erred in significant ways,” including by reaching a decision on the merits in the case without opinions from parties outside the federal and state governments that oppose the governments’ position.

Sooknanan said that settlements may warrant reexamination and that she acted properly by enjoining DHS from allowing officials to use the new features introduced in 2025 despite the existence of the settlement.

Even if Wetherell’s ruling ends up holding, the settlement is only with DHS, not the Social Security Administration (SSA), and only with four states, the judge wrote, so it would not prompt a stay of her earlier order with respect to the other 46 states.

DHS, which had declined to comment on Wetherell’s decision, did not return a request for comment on Sooknanan’s ruling by the time of publication.

The four states have not reacted to the competing rulings.

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