Tag: dhs

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.

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

Homeland Security Arrests Australian Permanent Resident For Illegally Voting In 2022 And 2024 Federal Elections After Falsely Claiming U.S. Citizenship

An Australian lawful permanent resident living in Louisiana has been busted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for ILLEGALLY VOTING in two federal elections after she falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen.

Denise Nataly Migliore, 51, of Franklinton, Louisiana, originally from Sydney, Australia, was arrested by HSI New Orleans on July 1, 2026, right at the federal courthouse in New Orleans.

She was indicted on June 11, 2026, in the Eastern District of Louisiana on a four-count indictment: two counts of illegal voting in an election and two counts of making false statements to register to vote.

According to the DOJ:

According to the indictment, on or about October 6, 2022, and on or about October 22, 2024, MIGLIORE,at the time a legal permanent resident, knowingly made false claims to U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote in in a Federal election. On or about November 8, 2022, and November 5, 2024, MIGLIORE cast a ballot, which was obtained by falsely certifying that she was a U.S. citizen and eligible to vote, when, in fact, she was not eligible to vote because she was not a citizen of the United States.

If convicted, MIGLIORE faces a maximum penalty of five (5) years in prison, followed by three (3) years of supervised release. MIGLIORE also faces a fine of up to $250,000, and a $100.00 mandatory special assessment fee.

“This alien from Australia now faces federal charges for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and illegally casting ballots in two elections,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.

“Her arrest and charges are the result of the hard work of the men and women of ICE law enforcement and our federal partners. Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences, including criminal charges and deportation. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.”

Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry credited the state’s proactive use of the federal SAVE database and her Election Integrity Division for helping flag this case in partnership with federal authorities.

Keep reading

Strange Findings – DHS Investigators Release Report on Secret Service Failures at Butler Assassination Attempt

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General released its final report on Secret Service failures that preceded the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt against then-former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The report featured five key findings, the fifth of which included some strange details.

In short, the Secret Service site agent counterpart — usually a member of state or local law enforcement who coordinates event protection with the lead Secret Service agent, per NBC News — showed inappropriate deference to Trump’s staff on a question of major security-related significance.

Specifically, the report’s fifth key finding blamed the Secret Service for failing to block line of sight to President Trump.

Shortly after 6:00 p.m. on July 13, would-be assassin Thomas Crooks climbed the roof of an American Glass Research International building 155 yards away from Trump and fired eight shots, wounding Trump and killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore.

Prior to the event, the counterpart had identified that building as a threat.

“In Butler, the Secret Service site agent counterpart proposed blocking line of sight from the AGR complex to the stage where President Trump would be speaking,” the report read.

Keep reading

DHS Lawyers Praise SCOTUS Rulings as ‘Victories for the Rule of Law, Common Sense’

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are praising decisions issued by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Thursday, all of which make it easier to enforce federal immigration law.

As Breitbart News reported, SCOTUS ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, clarifying that a migrant who has not physically set foot into the U.S. is not entitled to apply for asylum and does not have to be inspected by an immigration officer.

Similarly, SCOTUS ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Doe that President Donald Trump’s administration can end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the U.S. — making them deportable.

And, in a third case, SCOTUS ruled 6-3 in Blanche v. Muk Choi Lau, which will make it easier for DHS officials to deport green card-holders who have been convicted of crimes in the U.S.

DHS General Counsel James Percival said the rulings reinforce that the nation’s borders are critical to its sovereignty.

“These three rulings are all victories for the rule of law and common sense,” Percival said:

This includes barring aliens from applying for asylum if they haven’t set foot in the United States, making it easier to remove lawful permanent residents who commit a crime, and reaffirming that TPS was always supposed to be temporary and can be cancelled at the appropriate time. Thanks to these decisions, we now have several more important tools to continue securing our borders. [Emphasis added]

Meanwhile, Democrats have panicked over the rulings. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, for instance, claimed SCOTUS is “enabling the Trump administration’s worst anti-immigrant policies, and in the process dealing our communities and our economy an undue blow.”

Keep reading

REPORT: Trump Admin Threatens to Withhold DHS Grant Funding to States Opposing Election Integrity Measures

The White House is reportedly threatening to withhold federal funding from states that do not comply with proposed election and vote-counting rules.

The new rules that the Trump Administration seeks to implement nationwide include manual audits of election systems, requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voters, and phasing out voting systems that don’t use hand-marked paper ballots, CNN reports, citing unnamed sources and internal documents.

Per CNN:

Under new rules governing several homeland security grant programs, states must take a number of steps, including phasing out certain electronic voting systems and moving to hand-marked paper ballots. They must also run their voter rolls through a controversial Department of Homeland Security citizenship verification database.

If not, states would lose out on some funding from DHS. These grants, expected to total more than $1 billion in the current fiscal year, are one of Washington’s main vehicles for helping state and local governments prevent terrorism, protect infrastructure and prepare for major disasters.

For years, the DHS grants, which states apply for, have required that at least 3% of the funds be spent broadly on election security. But the new guidelines, which CNN obtained and are expected to go out to states later this month, impose a set of mandatory reforms and steep penalties for noncompliance. States that refuse would lose 20% of the grant money — potentially millions of dollars in security funds.

“No changes to grant requirements or funding distributions are official until they are formally announced and published through proper, authorized agency channels,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the administration considers election security to be a core national security priority.

“Any recipient of federal funding should expect accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent,” the spokesperson said.

In March 2025, Trump signed the “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” executive order, which directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to require proof of citizenship and voter ID on its national mail voter registration form.

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities.”

Further, DHS and the EAC were directed to “review and report on the security of all electronic systems used in the voter registration and voting process,” and “assess the security of all such systems to the extent they are connected to, or integrated into, the Internet and report on the risk of such systems being compromised through malicious software and unauthorized intrusions into the system.”

Keep reading

US Govt Plans to Crush Anti-AI ‘Extremism’

New documents from U.S. government agencies such as the F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security show that Washington is preparing for widespread anti-A.I. riots, as the technology destroys communities and industries across the country.

Ironically, the Trump administration is already using invasive A.I. technology to identify and suppress what it calls anti-A.I. “extremists,” and in the process, sweeping the entire nation into its massive surveillance dragnet. 

More than 1,000 pages of leaked documents reviewed by WIRED Magazine show that government agencies are anticipating a huge wave of domestic unrest in the coming years, as artificial intelligence upends American society. Automation-related job losses could shatter entire industries, while the building of gigantic data centers will remove water and electricity from public use, ramping up the price of what little remains. 

As one report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, [a division of the New York City Police Department], notes: 

“The chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent A.I. technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City.”

An Environmental & Health Catastrophe 

Last year, the tech industry collectively spent around half a trillion dollars on the construction of new data centers. These buildings consume near insatiable amounts of energy and water. By 2030, they are expected to represent around 12 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption. One large data center consumes up to 5 million gallons of water per day — as much as a small city. It has been calculated that a single 100-word A.I. prompt to a chatbot like Claude or ChatGPT uses over half a liter of water, equivalent to one bottle.  

When a data center moves into town, utility prices skyrocket. In this situation, wholesale electricity, for example, jumps by up to 267 percent. Ordinary Americans cannot compete with the likes of Amazon or Microsoft, and can be priced out of even the most basic necessities of life, causing widespread resentment. 

Living near a data center can also be hazardous to human health. Thanks to the low-frequency noises they produce, residents often report chronic symptoms such as insomnia, vertigo and nausea. Worse still, to meet their enormous energy demands, data centers often rely on gas or diesel generators, which emit high levels of nitrogen oxides, fine particular matter and so-called “forever chemicals” into the air, further complicating the situation.

A.I. will also have a profound effect on employment. Goldman Sachs predicts that, over the next decade, 300 million jobs could be lost to A.I.-based automation. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, has suggested that whole industries may be replaced by his product. “Entire classes of jobs will go away and not come back,” he confidently stated in 2019. Facing growing public anger, last month, he walked those statements back, assuring the public that there would be no “jobs apocalypse.”

But if these predictions are anything close to correct, it will cause massive economic disruption across America, and send towns and entire cities dependent on certain types of work into potentially permanent depressions. The latest news that Washington is preparing to treat this unrest as akin to terrorism should be of great concern to all Americans. 

Keep reading

A Nation of Suspects

Some of the recent legal challenges to the use of surveillance by the Department of Homeland Security upon Americans have resulted in the revelation of truly terrifying behavior by the government, in direct defiance of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. We now know that the federal government spies on innocent Americans without suspicion and without warrants.

The spying seems to fall into several categories. The National Security Agency, which is in the Department of Defense, employs about 60,000 domestic spies. These are the folks who want us to believe that they go through the trouble of making applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for warrants to spy on foreigners.

Actually, from time to time they do go to this court, but their travels there — where judges are frisked upon entering and leaving the courthouse by the NSA agents who appear before them — serve as fig leaves for their massive warrantless spying on Americans. The FISA Court is unconstitutional because it issues warrants based on probable cause of communicating with a foreign person, rather than on probable cause of crime as the Fourth Amendment requires.

The courts have ruled consistently since the 1960s that spying — surveillance, as the feds call it — is a search, and the capture of data from a surveillance is a seizure.

The Fourth Amendment protects all persons in America — not just Americans — from warrantless searches and seizures of their “persons, houses, papers, and effects.” There are some well-recognized exceptions to this constitutional baseline, such as evidence that will quickly vanish or be seriously degraded, but those exceptions do not apply here as the NSA captures in real time all keystrokes on all digital devices and all fiber optic data transmitted into, out of and within the United States.

The judges of the FISA Court surely know that the Department of Justice lawyers and NSA agents who appear before them are going through a charade, and the court has been made a part of it. The charade is the pretense that all spying is done pursuant to the warrants that FISA Court judges issue. Former NSA agents have revealed publicly that this is hardly the case.

Nevertheless, the lowered standard from probable cause of crime to probable cause of communicating to a foreign person was crafted by Congress — in another of its many moments heedless of the Constitution. After a few years of this, the FISA Court began to issue warrants for spying on the Americans who communicate with foreigners, out to the sixth degree. A sixth grader can do the math, as this leads to hundreds of millions of Americans whose communications are captured.

A second category of spying is employed by the DHS. The DHS — now a 250,000-person strong federal police department nowhere countenanced by the Constitution — has sophisticated software that can read fingerprints at 15 feet and irises at 15 inches. So, if you wave goodbye or good riddance to an ICE agent, and he holds up his mobile phone, and you are in the federal system for any benign reason, he has captured your bank, health, legal and commercial records on the spot. If he talks to you in your car and is within 15 inches of your face, he can capture the same data.

Keep reading

DHS Directs ICE To Deport Illegal Aliens Who Vote In American Elections

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) General Counsel James Percival has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to impose strict penalties, including deportation, on illegal aliens who vote in American elections.

According to a DHS press release, the Immigration and Nationality Act directs the removal of aliens who illegally vote or make a false claim to US citizenship.

DHS states that these provisions allow for the removal of illegal aliens if they illegally participate in our elections. No criminal conviction is required for their removal.

Percival said, “The importance of free, fair, and honest elections is without question. Echoing the words of President Trump, ‘the right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election.”

Percival added, “Illegal voting by aliens dilutes the votes of American citizens and undermines our democracy. It must have consequences.”

DHS says the directive will help further implement policies similar to those from President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.”

Trump’s order directs actions across the federal government, including the verification of voter eligibility, grant administration, information-sharing, enforcement of federal integrity laws, improving voting systems, and criminal prosecution of unlawful voting by aliens.

Keep reading

DHS Says It Has ‘Zero Tolerance’ for Protesters’ ‘Verbal Assaults.’ Here’s What the Law Says.

Protests over poor living conditions for detainees at Delaney Hall immigration detention center erupted over the weekend, leading to the arrest of over 80 people, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. Some of the protesters arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are accused of assaulting law enforcement officers, obstruction, and threats. But questions remain about whether the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) enforcement policies violate the First Amendment and chill speech on the ongoing public debate over immigration policies.

The crackdown on protesters is not surprising given Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s statements during congressional hearings last week, in which he took a hard line against violent protesters. During a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on June 3, Mullin testified that he is “OK with protest,” so long as it is done “in a peaceful way, in a legal area.” However, Mullin asserted, he has “zero tolerance” for individuals who “verbally assault our officers,” “go after our vehicles,” or “assault our property.” “You assault one of our officers, we will find you. We will arrest you,” he continued. 

While Mullin is right that the destruction of government property and assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers are both federal crimes, there is no such thing as “verbally assaulting” an officer under the law, Aaron Terr, the director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), tells Reason.

Under the First Amendment, individuals are free “to criticize, mock, or disparage law enforcement officers” who “have no greater right than anyone else to be shielded from offense or criticism,” Terr explains. “In fact, the Supreme Court has recognized that properly trained officers are expected to show even more restraint than the average citizen when confronted with provocative or challenging speech.” 

“The First Amendment’s broad protections are essential to preserving the public’s ability to criticize and hold accountable those entrusted with enforcing the law,” Terr says, which is why speech is generally protected “unless the speech falls into one of the narrow categories of unprotected expression.” 

One such category includes true threats, defined by the Supreme Court in Virginia v. Black (2003) as “statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.”

Keep reading