By Steve Neavling

An ICE officer accused of lying about a nonfatal shooting during the Trump administration’s Minneapolis immigration crackdown turned himself in to federal authorities Thursday, just days after he was released from a Texas jail, the Associated Press reports.

Christian Castro faces federal charges of making false statements to investigators about the January shooting of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Federal authorities initially claimed Sosa-Celis and another man attacked an officer with a broom handle and snow shovel, but prosecutors dropped charges against the men after video evidence cast doubt on the officers’ account.

Minnesota authorities have separately charged Castro with assault and falsely reporting a crime. He was arrested in May and jailed in Brownsville, Texas, while Minnesota sought his extradition, but Gov. Greg Abbott declined to immediately approve the request. Castro was released last week after a federal judge refused to force Texas to extradite him.

Castro is the first federal immigration officer prosecuted by the Trump administration for conduct during Operation Metro Surge, which sent thousands of officers into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area beginning in January. The operation came under mounting criticism after federal officers fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

ProPublica reported Wednesday that Justice Department officials blocked a prosecutor’s effort to pursue a more serious civil rights charge against Castro. A person familiar with the investigation disputed that account, telling The AP that the civil rights probe remains open and no final charging decision has been made.

Robin Wolpert, an attorney for Sosa-Celis, said the Justice Department had “grossly undercharged this case.”

By Steve Neavling

Dozens of secret national security documents followed former FBI agent Yen Cham Yung into retirement and remained in his Colorado Springs home, he admitted in federal court Wednesday, The Chicago Tribune reports.

Yung, 62, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of unlawfully possessing government property more than six years after his arrest. The charges covered FBI-owned electronics, including camera equipment and two early-model BlackBerry phones, but Yung also acknowledged taking at least 69 documents containing “secret information,” some involving terrorism and national defense.

Agents searching the home found another 7,000 unclassified documents, along with 141 floppy disks, 66 CDs and DVDs, 16 thumb drives, seven videocassettes, and two credit cards issued under Yung’s undercover alias. Some of the drives were marked “SECRET U.S. Government Property.”

Yung joined the FBI in 1996 and served in Chicago, Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Indonesia, and Colorado Springs before retiring in 2016. The records were discovered after his wife obtained a protective order and searched their home for documents related to their separation. Prosecutors didn’t accuse Yung of selling or sharing the information.

Asked by U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin to explain his conduct, Yung said he took the materials home and kept them “knowing I should not have.”

He faces between six months and three years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 7.

By Steve Neavling

Nicolás Maduro is invoking head-of-state immunity in an effort to derail the federal narco-terrorism case against him, arguing that the Trump administration had no legal authority to seize Venezuela’s deposed leader and prosecute him in the U.S., The Washington Post reports.

In a motion filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Maduro’s attorneys said the January U.S. military operation that captured him in Caracas violated international law protecting foreign leaders from prosecution. They also argued that the charges improperly target actions Maduro allegedly took in his official capacity as president.

“No American court has ever presided over the criminal trial of a foreign leader who was recognized by their own country as the sitting head of state at the time the charges were brought,” his attorneys wrote. “That is not an accident of history. It reflects a rule older than the common law: heads of state are exempt from the criminal process of any national court but their own.”

Maduro’s defense team separately asked U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the lead narco-terrorism charge, contending that prosecutors failed to allege he acted in Venezuela with the intent to harm the United States, its citizens, or its interests.

Federal prosecutors accuse Maduro and members of his inner circle of helping international traffickers turn Venezuela into a hub for shipping cocaine to the U.S. Maduro and his wife, co-defendant Cilia Flores, have pleaded not guilty and remain jailed in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors are expected to respond to the motions by Oct. 2, with arguments scheduled for Nov. 17 ahead of a June 2027 trial.

By Steve Neavling

A Coast Guard jet carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was forced to make an emergency landing Wednesday afternoon after losing an engine over the Washington, D.C., area, The New York Times reports.

The pilot declared an emergency around 1:35 p.m. and requested permission to land immediately at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Gulfstream C-37A was carrying 14 people and had about two and a half hours of fuel remaining.

Air traffic controllers guided the jet to Reagan National, where it landed safely without disrupting other flights, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

“The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single engine landing feel routine. No panic, just straight professionalism,” Mullin wrote on social media. “After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands.”

The engine failure was the latest aviation scare around Reagan National, where an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet in January 2025, killing 67 people. Marine One also experienced two communication failures with the airport’s control tower last month, including one episode in which the presidential helicopter and a commercial jet came within less than a mile of each other.

By Steve Neavling

The Northern District of Texas has emerged as a preferred destination for President Trump’s Justice Department as it pursues rulings with nationwide consequences from a court dominated by conservative judges, The New York Times reports.

The strategy was apparent after federal judges in five cities rejected or sharply limited demands for records involving transgender care provided to minors. The Justice Department then filed in Fort Worth, arguing that its nationwide investigation was being conducted in Northern Texas, even though the state had banned the treatments at issue. Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor approved a subpoena seeking records from Rhode Island Hospital, including patients’ names and Social Security numbers.

Unlike most federal courts, Northern Texas assigns cases according to the courthouse where they are filed. In Fort Worth, 90 percent of cases are divided between O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, and Trump-appointed Judge Mark Pittman. That allows litigants to seek not simply a favorable court, but a largely “predictable” judge, Florida Atlantic University professor Kevin Wagner told The New York Times.

O’Connor has also struck down Biden-era rules involving ghost guns and immigration courts and approved sweeping settlements sought by the Trump administration. Critics say routing major policy disputes through a court with predictable assignments “undermines the appearance of impartiality.”

The Justice Department declined to comment on the practice.

Steve Neavling

The FBI warned Caleb Vazquez’s mother about her son’s discussions of school shootings and suicide on the dark web four days before he helped carry out a deadly attack on a San Diego mosque, according to a new lawsuit, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

The FBI contacted Lilliana Vazquez on May 14 about the 18-year-old’s online activity, the lawsuit says. She relayed the warning to her son’s therapist at Park Mental Health, and the facility’s director spoke with her about the concerns the following evening. The family alleges the center failed to respond with sufficient urgency or transfer Vazquez to a locked facility.

Vazquez left the treatment center at 8:24 p.m. on May 17, surveillance footage showed. His parents learned he was missing the next morning, just hours before Vazquez and 17-year-old Cain Clark attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing Nadir Awad, Mansour Kaziha, and Amin Abdullah.

The lawsuit accuses Park Mental Health of negligence, wrongful death, medical malpractice, and abuse or neglect. An attorney for the facility said “many of the allegations of the complaint are incorrect or counterfactual” and argued that its employees could not have prevented the attack.

The FBI didn’t respond to questions about whether it had been investigating Vazquez before the shooting

By Steve Neavling

Gregory Bovino was facing a federal misconduct investigation when the former Border Patrol commander informed officials that he planned to retire, newly released government records show, The Chicago Tribune reports.

A federal watchdog notified Bovino on March 2 of an inquiry into allegations involving his conduct during immigration operations in Chicago and Minneapolis, according to emails released by CBP. On March 18, Bovino told an official that he intended to retire and move. He left the agency later that month.

The inquiry examined a federal judge’s finding that Bovino wasn’t credible when he testified in a lawsuit over agents’ treatment of protesters and journalists during Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis wrote that Bovino was evasive during his deposition, sometimes offering “‘cute’ responses” and at other times “outright lying.” Investigators asked whether that finding had compromised his credibility to the point that prosecutors would be required to disclose it in future cases.

Officials also questioned Bovino about allegations that he made disparaging remarks about Jewish people during a January meeting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis. The inquiry asked whether Bovino questioned if “orthodox criminals” also took Saturdays off after learning that an Orthodox Jewish prosecutor would not participate in a meeting on the Sabbath. Bovino denied wrongdoing and said the investigations were politically motivated.

Bovino said the inquiry was launched “to CAUSE me to retire.” The Department of Homeland Security declined to discuss the allegations, saying it doesn’t comment on former employees’ personnel matters, but maintained that Bovino retired voluntarily.

By Steve Neavling

House Republicans are demanding answers from the Justice Department over a DEA strategy that allowed agents to track major fentanyl shipments without immediately confiscating them, the Associated Press reports.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., asked Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday to turn over records concerning the practice, which investigators used while attempting to build larger criminal cases.

“While DEA agents may not have the resources to intercept every single known shipment, a policy directing them not to intercept significant shipments is unconscionable and undoubtedly resulted in considerable harm and lives lost,” Comer wrote.

An Associated Press investigation found that DEA agents monitored large quantities of fentanyl in New Mexico from 2023 through 2025 without seizing them. Whistleblowers said agents were instructed to stand down as hundreds of thousands of pills moved through criminal networks, despite earlier Justice Department rules calling for fentanyl to be confiscated or kept from distribution as soon as possible.

The practice, commonly known as allowing drugs to “walk,” continued after President Trump returned to office. Although a 2025 operation ultimately resulted in the seizure of about 3 million fentanyl pills, agents previously watched suspected couriers carry backpacks believed to contain as many as 100,000 pills into hotels without intervening, according to the AP.

The Justice Department’s inspector general has launched a nationwide review to determine how widely the tactic was used. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez also sued the department last week seeking related records.

The DEA didn’t respond to the AP’s request for comment.

By Steve Neavling

The Trump administration is rapidly expanding its use of third-country deportations, sending immigrants to nations where they have never lived and may have no personal connections, including some people whom courts have protected from returning to their home countries, The New York Times reports.

The U.S. has reached deportation agreements with at least 35 countries, many of them in Africa. One of the largest calls for Liberia to accept as many as 1,200 deportees over the next year. The first group arrived this month after ICE arrests climbed to nearly 50,000 in July.

The New York Times interviewed 10 people aboard the first flight to Liberia, all of whom said they experienced or witnessed abusive or violent treatment during their detention or deportation. Several said ICE agents beat, restrained, or forcibly removed frightened detainees who resisted boarding or leaving the aircraft.

“They didn’t treat us like people, like human beings,” said Carlos Téllez-Sanchez, a Venezuelan deportee. “They can say or do anything to you and there’s nothing you can do.”

Among those deported was Leonardo Sánchez, a 49-year-old Cuban with severe abdominal injuries who said agents kept him shackled despite hours of pain and refused to let him use the bathroom. Sánchez and other detainees said agents later forced several people from the plane in Liberia by twisting their handcuffs, pinning them down, and pressing knees against their necks.

The Department of Homeland Security denied that Sánchez was refused access to a bathroom or that agents pressed on his abdomen, saying medical staff had cleared him to fly and addressed his needs during the trip. The White House, DHS, and State Department said third-country deportations are reserved for people who can’t be returned to their home nations or refuse to go back. The agencies didn’t address many of the other allegations made by the deportees.