Latest news with #CustomsandBorderProtection
Metro
a day ago
- Metro
Tourist who kicked airport dog into the air receives satisfying punishment
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video An Egyptian tourist was deported moments after he kicked an airport security dog into the air. Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie, 70, attacked beagle Freddie on Tuesday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. He kicked the dog as he waited for his baggage to arrive after landing in from Cairo. Freddie had alerted to one of his bags, and detected more than 100 pounds worth of prohibited food inside Marie's luggage. Inside was 55 pounds of beef meat, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of eggplant, cucumbers and bell peppers, two pounds of corn seeds, and a pound of herbs. As he was being questioned by Freddie's handler, Marie suddenly kicked the dog so hard he flew into the air. Footage shows Freddie on his hind legs and another shot showing his mid-air. After being taken to the vet, he was was found to have suffered contusions on his right forward rib area. He pleaded guilty to harming the dog and was ordered to pay the vet fees, before being swiftly removed from the US. Christine Waugh, CBP's Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C, said: 'Being caught deliberately smuggling well over one hundred pounds of undeclared and prohibited agriculture products does not give one permission to violently assault a defenseless Customs and Border Protection beagle. 'We rely heavily on our K9 partners and Freddie was just doing his job. Any malicious attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) will continue to work with our investigating and prosecuting partners to deal swift and severe justice to perpetrators.' The CBP said: 'CBP's Beagles Brigade plays a vital role in screening passengers and cargo to prevent the introduction of harmful plant pests and foreign animal disease from entering the U.S. 'Animal and plant diseases and invasive pests and weeds have cost nations millions to billions of dollars in eradication measures and lost revenues.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Missing TikTok star's body found dismembered in bags at water treatment plant MORE: Boy, 2, fighting for his life after being stung by wasps 150 times while riding toy car MORE: Over 80 sickly dogs rescued after woman found dead in her home
The Hill
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Deportation nation: Trump 2.0 is gunning for new records in immigration prosecutions
By March 2025 — in just the second full month of President Trump's second term — the number of criminal immigration prosecutions jumped by 36 percent over the month prior, reaching 4,550 charges per month. According to TRAC, this marks the sharpest monthly increase in recent years. The first shot has been fired. After years of 'catch and release,' the deportation machine is running again at full steam, and Southern states have become the main battleground. From Texas to Florida, sheriffs are bracing for full jails, and everyone knows this is just the beginning. Unlike Biden's slow-moving policy, Trump's forces are moving fast — 70 percent of all cases are now initiated by Customs and Border Protection. Back in 2019, the number peaked at 10,000 per month. He was already halfway back to that level in just his second full month in office. What happens by fall? Republicans have tasted blood. Governors are already demanding more funding. The return of priority enforcement and pressure on ICE to deliver faster results with less bureaucracy has pushed the system into high gear — 36 percent growth in just one month. The Trump administration is building up a new pressure system. Beyond simply reviving its old rhetoric on illegal immigration enforcement, it is building a more aggressive structure, handing real power to field-level actors. The fact that 70 percent of cases are being opened by CBP, not ICE, shows how federal power is being pushed down to those counties with the most hardline politics. The new rule is already clear: less paper, please, and pass the handcuffs. At the same time, border crossings fell to just 7,181 in March — a 95 percent drop compared to the same month last year. While some say it's seasonal, the sharp rise in prosecutions seems to be acting as a strong warning. Meanwhile, ICE is quietly speeding up deportations, processing hundreds of thousands of migrants through faster removals in recent months, showing how the system is working behind the scenes to reduce border crossings. In practice, this means that counties are once again becoming testing grounds, where new rules come as a blank check. Governors in Texas, Florida, and Louisiana are pushing to expand jurisdiction. Sheriffs are rebuilding the jail-to-deportation pipeline. Even minor charges are turning into ICE cases. This mechanism is familiar to those who remember 2018 and 2019, but this time it started from day one and has been moving even faster. As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) put it: 'Our National Guard is helping ICE with arrests and deportations.' That's the level of coordination now at play. This is less a return to immigration policy and more a rush into pre-conflict mode. If this pace continues, we could hit 10,000 prosecutions per month by fall. For now, they are testing the limits. The real goal is not law enforcement, but a broad demonstration of strength. America has restarted a machine that works not just for justice but also for power. First blood is a test — a signal of how ready the system is to obey. And if the course stays unchanged, a full-scale wave of deportations is coming. Artem Kolisnichenko writes on crime, immigration, and border policy across the American South and Southwest.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children
Federal agents blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California, on Friday. Security-camera video obtained by the local NBC station showed border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the door of the house and then detonating it – causing a window to be shattered. Around a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear then charged toward the home. Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her boyfriend and one-year-old and six-year-old children, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life. 'I told them, 'You guys didn't have to do this, you scared by son, my baby,'' Ramirez said. Ramirez said she was not given any warning from the authorities that they wanted to enter her home and that everyone who lives there is a US citizen. The raid comes as federal agents have ramped up immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and across southern California over the last few weeks. Huntington Park is in Los Angeles county. Immigrants have been swept up in raids at court houses, restaurants and straight off the street. Some of the people targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) have been US citizens. In one incident, Ice agents detained a Honduran woman seeking asylum and her children, one of which was a six-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with leukemia. The agents who raided Ramirez's home in Huntington Park on Friday also reportedly sent a drone into the house after setting off the explosive device. The agents told Ramirez that they were searching for her boyfriend, but did not tell her why, according to NBC. Ramirez told the news station that he was involved in a vehicle collision with a truck carrying federal agents last week. She said it was an accident and unintentional. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told NBC: 'Jorge Sierra-Hernandez was arrested because he rammed his car into a CBP vehicle, causing significant damage and obstructed the work of our agents and officers during course of a law enforcement operation.' The spokesperson said agents were 'assaulted' during this incident and 'additional rioters threw rocks and other objects at our personnel'. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately return the Guardian's request for comment. In a separate incident in Huntington Park on Friday, a man was arrested for apparently impersonating an Ice agent, according to another report by the local NBC station. Police said they arrested the man after he parked in a disabled zone. In his vehicle, they allegedly found a firearm and documents that appeared to be from Homeland Security Investigations and CBP. The man was arrested over possession of an allegedly unregistered firearm and later released on bail.
Hans India
a day ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Mexican govt reiterates protection for nationals amid US immigration raids
Mexico City: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that her government will protect the country's migrants in the United States, where a series of immigration raids have resulted in the arrest of 252 Mexican nationals. "Our solidarity, our support, and everything within our reach -- we will do everything to protect our migrant brothers and sisters," said the president during her daily press conference on Friday (local time). Sheinbaum also noted that Mexican consulates in the United States have been instructed to visit, at least once a day, the detention centres of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, as part of a strategy to strengthen the protection of Mexican migrants, reports Xinhua news agency. She added that the consuls are required to hold a public hearing once a week "to listen and understand what is happening so they can take action." The president emphasised that her government will spare no effort or resources to protect migrants from threats or rights violations, and pledged that complaints and concerns raised by Mexicans abroad will be addressed without exception. Sheinbaum also condemned Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' proposal to build a new detention facility dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" in the wetlands in the south of the state. "Immigrants are not criminals," she said. Sheinbaum has been opposing the immigration raids in the United States, saying the measures were counterproductive to the US economy. Speaking about her meeting with visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, the president, earlier in June, said the two spoke about several issues, including crime, immigration, trade, and "the defence of our migrant brothers and sisters." "We oppose the use of raids to detain people working honestly in the United States," she added, noting the raids "would harm not only the people but the economy of the US." It was "a good meeting" that highlighted the importance of strengthening the relationship between the two countries and peoples, said Sheinbaum.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
US signs agreements with Guatemala and Honduras to take asylum-seekers, Noem says
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala and Honduras have signed agreements with the United States to potentially offer refuge to people from other countries who otherwise would seek asylum in the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday at the conclusion of her Central America trip. The agreements expand the Trump administration's efforts to provide the U.S. government flexibility in returning migrants not only to their own countries, but also to third countries as it attempts to ramp up deportations. Noem described it as a way to offer asylum-seekers options other than coming to the United States. She said the agreements had been in the works for months. with the U.S. government applying pressure on Honduras and Guatemala to get them done. 'Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refugee status as well,' Noem said. 'We've never believed that the United States should be the only option, that the guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe and to be protected from whatever threat they face in their country. It doesn't necessarily have to be the United States.' Both governments denied having signed safe third-country agreements when asked following Noem's comments. Guatemala's presidential communications office said the government did not sign a safe third-country agreement nor any immigration related agreement during Noem's visit. They reaffirmed that Guatemala would receive Central Americans sent by the United States as a temporary stop on the return to their countries. Noem had said Thursday that 'politically, this is a difficult agreement for their governments to do.' Both countries have limited resources and many needs making support for asylum-seekers from other countries a tougher sell domestically. There are also the optics of two left-of-center governments appearing to help the Trump administration limit access to U.S. asylum. Noem said that during her Guatemala meeting, she was given the already signed agreement. While later there was a public signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding that establishes a Joint Security Program that will put U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the Guatemalan capital's international airport to help train local agents to screen for terrorist suspects. Honduras' immigration director Wilson Paz denied such an agreement was signed and its Foreign Affairs Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During U.S. President Donald Trump's first term, the U.S. signed such accords called safe third-country agreements with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They effectively allowed the U.S. to declare some asylum seekers ineligible to apply for U.S. protection and permitted the U.S. government to send them to those countries deemed 'safe.' The U.S. has had such an agreement with Canada since 2002. The practical challenge was that all three Central American countries at the time were seeing large numbers of their own citizens head to the U.S. to escape violence and a lack of economic opportunity. They also had extremely under-resourced asylum systems. In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed deals with El Salvador and Guatemala that allowed the U.S. to send migrants from other nations there. But in Guatemala's case it was to only be a point of transit for migrants who would then return to their homelands, not to apply for asylum there. And in El Salvador, it was broader, allowing the U.S. to send migrants to be imprisoned there. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that Mexico would not sign a safe third-country agreement, but at the same time Mexico has accepted more than 5,000 migrants from other countries deported from the U.S. since Trump took office. She said Mexico accepted them for humanitarian reasons and helped them return to their home countries. The U.S. also has agreements with Panama and Costa Rica to take migrants from other countries though so far the numbers sent have been relatively small. The Trump administration sent 299 to Panama in February and fewer than 200 to Costa Rica. The agreements give U.S. authorities options, especially for migrants from countries where it is not easy for the U.S. to return them directly. ___ Sherman reported from Mexico City.
