By Steve Neavling

The Bahamas has formally complained to the Trump administration that some DEA agents have been operating in the country without permission, raising new tensions over American law enforcement activity on the islands, Reuters reports.

Bahamian officials brought the allegation to the Justice Department during a meeting in Washington last week, said Wendall Jones, the Bahamas’ ambassador to the United States.

“We made a general complaint of the behavior of rogue DEA agents in the Bahamas who operate without the consent of the government or the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and that is a matter of law, matter of treaty,” Jones said.

The complaint comes as U.S. prosecutors pursue a major drug-trafficking case involving more than half a dozen Bahamians, including senior members of the country’s police and defense forces. They are accused of helping move drugs from South America through the Bahamas and into the U.S., though Jones said those indictments were unrelated to the government’s complaint about DEA activity.

The Bahamas, a close U.S. ally about 50 miles from Florida, currently authorizes seven DEA agents to operate in the country, Jones said. He didn’t say how many additional agents may have worked there without authorization, but said the problem has occurred “over the many years.”

According to Jones, the Trump administration told Bahamian officials it would investigate the allegations.

The DEA disputed the suggestion that its personnel were operating outside proper oversight.

“DEA personnel operate under the authority and oversight of the US Chief of Mission, which governs US law enforcement investigations in the Bahamas,” an agency spokesperson said.

The U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, Herschel Walker, separately dismissed the allegations as “fake news,” according to the Bahamian newspaper The Tribune.

By Steve Neavling

ICE burned through tens of millions of dollars on detention projects that were abandoned, scaled back, or cost far more than its traditional facilities as the agency rushed to expand capacity under President Trump, according to a new federal watchdog report.

The Government Accountability Office found that ICE poured billions of dollars into six detention initiatives since January 2025 without conducting adequate analysis or developing a comprehensive strategy, the Guardian reports. Among the costs were nearly $3 million for tents at Guantánamo Bay that were never used and more than $20 million in unrecoverable expenses tied to seven warehouses the agency now plans to sell. ICE bought 11 warehouses for about $1.07 billion but has not housed detainees in any of them.

The spending comes as ICE has received unprecedented funding to expand detention. Congress provided the agency $45 billion for detention capacity through fiscal year 2029 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Meanwhile, the number of people in ICE detention climbed from 39,314 in January 2025 to 67,180 by July 30, 2026, a 71% increase.

GAO also identified costly arrangements elsewhere in the detention system. The Department of Homeland Security agreed to reimburse Florida at a rate of $249 per detainee per day for the facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” compared with ICE’s typical rate of $92. ICE is also paying the Bureau of Prisons $182 per detainee per day to house people at eight federal facilities, with additional costs driven by overtime and staffing.

“Without taking action to manage detention investments in accordance with program and project management practices, ICE will likely continue to make uninformed decisions and risk further inefficiency and wasted resources,” the GAO warned.

DHS agreed with the watchdog’s recommendation that ICE develop a comprehensive detention strategy, but the agency doesn’t expect to complete it until Aug. 31, 2027. GAO said completing the plan sooner may be warranted given the amount of money involved and the risk of further waste.

By Steve Neavling

Two Democratic senators are pressing Attorney General Todd Blanche for answers about the Justice Department’s decision to abandon a fraud case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, including whether people close to President Trump played a role in the decision, the Guardian reports.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut raised the questions in a new letter after receiving no response to a similar inquiry they sent in June.

Adani was indicted in 2024 over allegations that he participated in a scheme involving roughly $265 million in bribes to Indian officials and misled U.S. investors about the conduct. Adani has denied wrongdoing. Prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges against him in May after his legal team, led by Trump personal attorney Robert Giuffra Jr., proposed that Adani Group’s previously announced $10 billion U.S. investment could be part of a resolution of the case. Court records show prosecutors said the investment would not be considered in deciding whether to dismiss the charges.

A federal judge approved the dismissal in August but sharply questioned how the decision was reached. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote that “the irregularities in the decision to dismiss the Indictment are concerning” and said the process “appears to be highly unusual.” The judge nevertheless found that the $10 billion investment promise played no role in the Justice Department’s decision.

“These fresh details continue to raise concerns about the judgment of the DoJ, and the extent to which the DoJ is willing and able to prosecute white-collar criminals under President Trump,” Warren and Blumenthal wrote in the new letter, according to the Guardian.

The senators are seeking information about who participated in discussions over the investment proposal and whether Boris Epshteyn, a Trump lawyer and former informal adviser, communicated with Justice Department officials about Adani.

The senators are also asking whether Donald Trump Jr. or anyone acting on his behalf contacted the Justice Department about the case. Trump Jr. met with Adani in November 2025, according to Bloomberg, but a spokesperson has said their conversation “had zero to do with DoJ’s actions in this case.”

Warren and Blumenthal gave the department until Oct. 5 to respond.

By Steve Neavling

A former U.S. Postal Service carrier in Utah is facing a federal charge after prosecutors say he discarded about 300 mail-in ballots and other mail in a church parking lot dumpster weeks before the state’s June primary, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Damon Matai Seei, 34, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of destruction or delay of mail.

Federal court records say Seei was covering a mail route in Eagle Mountain on June 3 when he was assigned to deliver ballots and advertisements to at least 300 residents. About 90 minutes after starting the route, prosecutors say, he drove his postal truck to a church parking lot and discarded mail in a dumpster.

Seei told investigators the workload was heavier than usual and that he wanted to get rid of advertising mail to “lighten his workload.” He said he did not intend to throw away the ballots, described himself as not a “very political person,” and denied having a “political agenda.” Prosecutors wrote that he characterized what happened as a “poor decision” driven by “frustration” and “laziness.”

Prosecutors, however, said Seei had set the ballots aside at the beginning of his shift and there was no record that he delivered any of them. After residents complained that their ballots never arrived, the Utah County clerk determined that about 304 registered voters in the affected area had not received them. The court filing says some of those voters were unable to cast ballots.

Seei no longer works for the Postal Service. The case is being investigated by the Postal Service Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations, and his next federal court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 30.

By Steve Neavling

The FBI is investigating a possible cyberattack after a hacking group claimed it obtained sensitive personal information on thousands of bureau employees, potentially including agents’ home addresses, phone numbers, and details about their spouses, Politico reports.

The cybercrime group ShinyHunters said it breached FBI systems connected to the bureau’s jobs website and obtained data on agents and job applicants. The group provided 404 Media with what it said was a sample containing records for about 5,000 FBI personnel. The FBI has not confirmed the scope of the alleged theft, saying only that it is investigating “claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov.”

People familiar with the investigation told Politico that authorities consider the hackers’ claims credible and are trying to determine how the intrusion occurred. One possibility under examination is a vulnerability involving Oracle PeopleSoft, software commonly used for human resources systems. ShinyHunters has claimed it exploited a previously unknown software flaw, but investigators had not determined whether that account was accurate.

The potential exposure carries risks beyond ordinary identity theft. Personal information about FBI employees could be used to harass or threaten agents and their families and could also be valuable to foreign intelligence agencies or criminal organizations. One person familiar with the investigation described the situation bluntly: “It’s really bad.”

ShinyHunters has been linked to a series of data theft and extortion campaigns and has drawn increasing attention from federal authorities. The FBI issued a public warning about the group and its tactics in May. The hackers said their latest action was retaliation for that alert and demanded that the bureau change or remove it.

By Steve Neavling

The FBI closed an investigation last year into allegations that a political adviser to Republican Sen. Susan Collins was involved in a scheme to steer illegal campaign contributions from a defense contractor seeking federal business, The New York Times reports, citing current and former officials.

The investigation grew out of claims by Martin Kao, the former head of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, who told federal investigators that he discussed circumventing campaign finance laws with people connected to Collins. Kao alleged that Navatek sought additional federal contracts while making political contributions, including a $150,000 donation that was routed through a shell company to a super PAC supporting Collins. ProPublica first reported details of the investigation this week.

Officials told The New York Times that agents found little evidence corroborating Kao’s allegations against Collins or her advisers before the FBI closed the inquiry in 2025, although some acknowledged additional evidence could have emerged had the investigation continued. The FBI said investigators “found nothing” showing that Collins or her campaign broke the law.

Collins sharply denied wrongdoing, calling the allegations “truly outrageous” and saying her campaign and office were investigated under the Biden administration.

“These are seven-year-old allegations that were thoroughly investigated by the Biden Justice Department and F.B.I.,” Collins said. “And in 2021, the Biden Justice Department found there was no wrongdoing by any one on my campaign staff, my office or me.” Her deputy chief of staff, Annie Clark, also said the campaign cooperated fully with investigators.

Kao is serving an 87-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in an unrelated case involving COVID-relief fraud, money laundering and bank fraud. Federal prosecutors said Kao fraudulently obtained more than $12.8 million in pandemic assistance and used false information to obtain a $3 million mortgage.

By Steve Neavling

ICE has quietly stopped listing thousands of detainees with final deportation orders in its online locator system, making it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to determine where they are being held, the Associated Press reports.

The change took effect Sept. 15 and wasn’t publicly announced, according to three current and former ICE officials who spoke to the AP. Immigration attorneys told the AP that clients with final removal orders suddenly disappeared from the database, which ICE created to allow the public to locate people in its custody.

The change could complicate efforts to stop deportations because people with final removal orders may still have legal options, including asking courts to reopen their cases or filing habeas petitions challenging their detention. Nearly 16,000 people booked into ICE detention in July had final removal orders, accounting for more than a third of bookings that month, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.

Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said families have been left uncertain whether their relatives remain in custody or have already been deported.

“Families are freaking out because they think the person has been deported and they don’t know where the person might be,” Chen said.

He said the change also has “serious implications” for attorneys trying to communicate with their clients.

ICE didn’t confirm or deny the change in a statement to the AP but said people with final removal orders are being prioritized for deportation while the agency faces what it called a “historic number of injunctions” blocking individual removals. The new practice doesn’t apply at several facilities where federal judges have ordered ICE to promptly list detainees in the online system.

By Steve Neavling

A Venezuelan man shot by an ICE officer in Austin, Texas, said Monday that he remained in severe pain after federal authorities moved him from a hospital to an immigration detention center with a bullet still lodged near his spine, the Guardian reports.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, called his attorney during a news conference and said he had repeatedly complained about his condition.

“I haven’t received any medical attention. I’m in a lot of pain,” Garcés Pérez said. “I have expressed my pain [to the guards].”

His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said doctors had not removed the bullet because it was too close to his spine.

Garcés Pérez was shot Sunday afternoon while making a DoorDash delivery in north Austin. He said an unmarked vehicle struck his car before he realized federal immigration agents were trying to stop him. Garcés Pérez said he asked to move his vehicle out of traffic before an ICE vehicle struck his car again and an officer shot him in the back. Video posted online shows an officer firing at his vehicle, but the precise circumstances leading to the shooting remain under investigation.

After treatment at an Austin hospital, Garcés Pérez was transferred to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 140 miles away. Lincoln-Goldfinch said Monday morning that the “bullet [was] still lodged in his back” and that he had received no pain medication at that point. Garcés Pérez said he later spent part of the night sleeping on the floor of a cold holding cell.

By Steve Neavling

An ICE officer shot and seriously wounded a Venezuelan asylum seeker Sunday in Austin, Texas, while the man was making a DoorDash delivery, NBC News reports, citing his attorney.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, 28, was shot in the torso during an encounter in North Austin and was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, officials said. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said Garcés Perez called his wife shortly after the shooting.

“Today at 12:30, Wilber called his wife to tell her that he had been shot,” she said. “And he was yelling in agony, and the call cut off. That was all she knew.”

The Department of Homeland Security said Garcés Perez was later released from the hospital into federal custody and is facing removal from the U.S. DHS said he entered the country illegally during the Biden administration and had a final order of removal. Lincoln-Goldfinch said he entered through a parole program, was seeking asylum, and had no criminal history beyond his immigration case.

Texas officials said ICE had requested assistance during a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla, but state troopers arrived after the shooting. Video verified by NBC News shows a person approaching the sedan before at least three gunshots are heard.

DHS hasn’t publicly said whether the ICE officer was wearing a body camera, whether Garcés Perez was the target of an enforcement operation, or what prompted the officer to fire.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said city police were not involved in the shooting.

“A person being shot on the streets of Austin by someone purporting to be law enforcement, particularly when it’s ICE, is something that causes me to be unhappy and angry,” Watson said. “While I’m unhappy and I’m angry about it, I’m not surprised at all.”