Trump ramps up immigration raids; Arrest over ‘violent’ threats
Donald Trump’s mass-deportation offensive has expanded into a major US city, as a man is detained over alleged assassination threats. Follow updates.
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US President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation offensive has expanded into Los Angeles, with pre-dawn roundups in a massive operation expected to run daily.
Immigration agents avoided the parts of the city devastated by the wildfires, sources told The New York Post.
The effort was part of the major crackdown in large cities across the US after Mr Trump vowed to focus on the deportation of criminal migrants.
At the US-Mexico border, dramatic footage showed US Marine Corps arriving after the US Defence Department said it would send 1500 troops.
“Just as he promised, President Trump is sending a strong message to the world: those who enter the United States illegally will face serious consequences,” one White House official told ABC News.
As the raids were under way, Mr Trump spoke at a rally at Las Vegas’ Circa Resort & Casino, where he spoke of the possibility of the US rejoining the World Health Organisation, just days after signing an executive order withdrawing from the international group.
“Maybe we would consider doing it again, I don’t know, they have to clean it up a bit,” he said.
The US President has long criticised the WHO for what he calls a “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms”.
MAN HELD OVER ‘VIOLENT’ TRUMP THREATS
It came after a man was arrested for making “violent” threats against US President Trump, police said.
Florida man Shannon Depararro Atkins allegedly made posts on social media targeting Mr Trump.
“America needs one good bullet to be saved,” Atkins allegedly wrote on Facebook, a day before Mr Trump’s inauguration.
In another post, the 46-year-old also allegedly called the inauguration day a “day of mourning”.
He allegedly wrote on Facebook: “Bullets please. Please Jesus! Save America”.
The man also reposted a meme showing the US President with his late first wife Ivana Trump, who died in 2022, that included the phrase, “I hope they get back together soon.”
Atkins was arrested during a traffic stop in West Palm Beach, where he was allegedly found with cocaine, police said.
He was being held at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Main Detention Centre and faces a drug possession charge as well as one count of written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, a second-degree felony.
The arrest comes months after Mr Trump survived two assassination attempts, including the shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
DEPORTATION FLIGHTS BEGIN
Some of the targets of US President Donald Trump have been revealed as raids and deportations are underway.
ICE authorities arrested 445 illegal migrants with criminal records, with a further 148 migrants also taken into custody ready for deportation, Daily Mail reports.
A further 449 detainers lodged requests to local police forces to hold arrested individuals until ICE can pick them up.
These included 468 removals or repatriations, and 15 gang-related arrests across the United States.
Around 5,000 Homeland Security and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers have been deployed by the Trump administration especially in sanctuary cities where criminals were protected from ICE.
Among those rounded up by ICE are Cesar Augusto Polanco, 59, a Dominican Republican national convicted of second degree murder but living free in Boston.
In Buffalo, New York, sex trafficker Julio Cesar Diaz Martinez was arrested by ICE, while he was in the middle of victimising a female Dominican national.
Venezuelan Nestor Jose Mendoza-Garcia, an active member of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, was picked up in San Antonio, Texas with a handgun related to an unsolved murder from November 2024.
Also picked up were Jose Tito Reyes, 54, from El Salvador, convicted for forcible touching; and Juan Miseal Canales-Garcia, another El Salvador citizen, with robbery and kidnapping charges.
A Haitian gang leader with 17 past convictions was seen exploding in a rant as he was picked up by police.
Mexican Edgar Rivas-Rodriguez was nabbed while walking the streets of Chicago despite convictions for methamphetamine and leaving the scene of an accident.
A number of members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang were also arrested last week including two in Nashville who had felonies including evading arrest, prostitution, and drug possession. The gang has infiltrated the US and was seen commandeering an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado last year.
President Trump’s ‘border tsar’ Tom Homan said that out of the 1,300 migrants that had been arrested so far, “over 1,000 of them were criminals.”
TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF PUTS ELON MUSK IN HIS PLACE
Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles has not welcomed Elon Musk to the West Wing.
Musk serves as chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has been seen sitting in the Oval Office as Mr Trump signs bills.
Wiles, a 67-year-old veteran of politics, has seen to it that Musk will not have a permanent place in the White House.
The Daily Mail reports that Musk was angling for his own room in the West Wing but his DOGE team will instead be based in the Eisenhower building, which is across the road from the White House.
The chief administrator of DOGE must also report to Ms Wiles.
Experts believe Wiles, who ran Mr Trump’s 2016 and 2020 Florida knows what she’s doing and has the right skills and temperament for the job.
Weeks before Mr Trump took office, Ms Wiles said “I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star.”
“My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”
SENATE VOTES TO CONFIRM TRUMP’S HOMELAND SECURITY PICK
The Senate has voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary.
The vote was 59-34.
Ms Noem has served as governor of South Dakota since 2019 and is a Trump ally.
She will now oversee everything from US Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the US Secret Service.
“We must secure our borders against illegal trafficking and immigration. We must safeguard our critical infrastructure to make sure that we’re protected against cyberattacks, respond to natural disasters, and also terrorism,” she told senators during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.
MEXICO BLOCKS DEPORTATION PLANE
Meanwhile, Mexican authorities blocked a US military plane from deporting illegal migrants.
US officials said that a jet carrying illegal immigrants bound for Mexico never took off after Mexican authorities blocked the move.
The flight was one of three that were set to take off alongside two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s carrying over 150 immigrants.
CONTROVERSIAL PENTAGON PICK CONFIRMED
The US Senate has voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s top Pentagon pick, Pete Hegseth, as Defense Secretary after a final vote came down to the wire with a 50 to 50 vote.
Vice President JD Vance broke the tie.
“Congratulations to Pete Hegseth. He will make a great Secretary of Defense!” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The former Fox News personality has faced criticism over the last few months for his views on women not serving in combat roles, and his recommendation the military purge generals.
He also faced allegations of sexual assault and workplace misconduct.
Hegseth thanked Mr Trump for his “confidence,” Vance for casting the tie-breaking vote and the 50 senators who approved his confirmation in a statement posted to X.
“This is for the troops. For the warriors. For our country,” he wrote. “America First. Every day. We will never back down.”
TRUMP FIRES WATCHDOGS IN INTERNAL PURGE
President Donald Trump’s administration fired 12 independent inspectors general of more than a dozen major government agencies late on Friday, according to reports.
The agencies include the departments of defence, state, transportation, veterans affairs, housing and urban development, interior, and energy, The Washington Post said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
The New York Times said the purge affected 17 agencies but spared the Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz.
“It’s a widespread massacre,” said one of the fired inspectors general, according to the Post. “Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system.” Most of those fired were appointed by Trump during his first term, the newspaper added.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports.
DEPORTATIONS BEGIN FROM US
It comes after immigrants who entered the US illegally were being flown out of the country using military aircraft, launching the US President’s promised operation to expel “millions” of undocumented migrants, the White House confirmed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that “deportation flights have begun,” releasing photos of people boarding military aircraft via her X account.
“President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences,” she wrote on X.
Agents arrested nationals from a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.
On Thursday, ICE agents also detained several workers at a fish market in Newark, New Jersey, US media reported.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka slammed the operation as an “egregious act” and a violation of the Fourth Amendment after agents reportedly swooped in “without producing a warrant”.
While on a tour to disaster impacted states on Friday (local time), Mr Trump mused over a controversial overhaul of America’s federal disaster relief agency.
TRUMP SEES WILDFIRE, HURRICANE DEVASTATION
Mr Trump made the comments as he surveyed the devastation left behind by the deadly Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the Los Angeles wildfires.
Mr Trump also threatened to withhold aid from California unless the state changed its water policies and implemented voter ID laws for elections, a call that infuriated local leaders.
Amid the firestorm that destroyed thousands of properties in Los Angeles, the Republican had blamed California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom because he restricted water flows to protect a species of fish, leaving fire hydrants dry during the disaster.
US FREEZES ALL FOREIGN AID
Meanwhile, as the President visited disaster ravaged states, the government announced it had frozen virtually all foreign aid with the exception of emergency food and military funding for Israel and Egypt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo days after President Donald Trump took office vowing an “America First” policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.
“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo to staff seen by AFP.
The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid - including potentially to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Mr Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.
But the memo explicitly made exceptions for military assistance to Israel - whose longstanding major arms packages from the United States have expanded further since the Gaza war - and Egypt, which has received generous US defence funding since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Mr Rubio - who earlier in his career supported humanitarian aid - also made an exception for US contributions to emergency food assistance.
The memo called for an internal review of all foreign assistance within 85 days.
The memo, justifying the freeze, said it was impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments “are not duplicated, are effective and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.”
TRUMP CUTS FAUCI’S SECURITY
Mr Trump also revealed that he had cut off the security detail for Dr Anthony Fauci.
“I think when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off, and you know, you can’t have them forever,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump and Dr Fauci, who was the public face of America’s Covid response, had a fraught relationship.
Given he continues to face ongoing threats due to his role during the pandemic, Dr Fauci has now hired his own private security that he’ll pay for himself, a source told CNN.
This comes as Mr Trump continues his retribution tour against the officials who previously served under him. He has also cut security details from former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Dr Fauci served in the US government for decades and was the nation’s top infectious diseases expert for 38 years.
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