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Tag: immigration operation

  • Homeland Security suspends TSA PreCheck and Global Entry

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    Homeland Security suspends TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs

    MARSHALL AIRPORT, WHERE OUR KATE AMARA IS REPORTING THE LATEST DETAILS. ACCORDING TO FEDERAL OFFICIALS, 61,000 TSA OFFICERS, 56,000 COAST GUARD EMPLOYEES, AND THOUSANDS MORE FEMA, SECRET SERVICE AND CSO WORKERS ARE CURRENTLY ON THE JOB AND ON THE CLOCK WITHOUT GETTING PAID FOR IT. THERE’S NO ONE HERE, AND IT LOOKS LIKE PRECHECK IS 1 TO 3 MINUTES, SO I THINK IT’S OKAY. AT BWI MONDAY AFTERNOON, ALL THREE SECURITY CHECKPOINTS WERE OPEN AND LINE FREE. BUSINESS AS USUAL. ACCORDING TO TICKETED PASSENGERS WE TALKED TO. LET’S SEE WHAT HAPPENED. WE’RE HOPING FOR THE BEST. MANY AWARE THAT THEY WERE FLYING DURING A PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AND THAT TSA OFFICERS AT U.S. AIRPORTS WERE WORKING WITHOUT GETTING PAID. I HAVE A FAMILY MEMBER THAT WORKED WORKED FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. HE KEPT COMPLAINING LIKE, WHAT? THESE DAYS? WHY ARE WE GOING THROUGH THIS? WE WORK SO HARD. WE’VE BEEN IN THIS SYSTEM FOR SO LONG, SO WHY DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS? BALTIMORE’S TSA OFFICERS AMONG 61,000 NATIONWIDE REQUIRED TO WORK WITHOUT PAY DURING THE SHUTDOWN. THE ACTING ADMINISTRATOR TOLD MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AT A HEARING LAST WEEK. AND SHE SAID MANY ARE STILL PLAYING CATCH UP FINANCIALLY FROM THE LAST SHUTDOWN LAST FALL. THAT LASTED 43 DAYS. WE HEARD REPORTS OF OFFICERS SLEEPING IN THEIR CARS AT AIRPORTS TO SAVE MONEY ON GAS, SELLING THEIR BLOOD AND PLASMA, AND TAKING ON SECOND JOBS TO MAKE ENDS MEET. LAWMAKERS ALSO HEARD FROM THE HEADS OF FEMA, CISA, THE SECRET SERVICE AND THE COAST GUARD. THE UNCERTAINTY OF MISSING PAYCHECKS NEGATIVELY IMPACTS READINESS AND CREATES A SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL HARDSHIP FOR SERVICE MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES. LABOR LEADERS ALSO WORRIED ABOUT THE STEEP PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CONSEQUENCES FOR MEMBERS DURING THE SECOND SHUTDOWN. IN THE SPAN OF FIVE MONTHS. FOR ME, EVENTUALLY IT’S GOING TO COME DOWN TO DO. I PUT GAS IN THE CAR TO GO TO WORK FOR FREE, OR DO I PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE WITH THAT MONEY FOR MY KIDS? LAWMAKERS LEFT WASHINGTON LAST WEEK FOR A PLANNED RECESS THIS WEEK, WITH NO PLANS TO RETURN. COMPOUNDING CONCERNS FOR MANY ON THE GROUND HERE AND ELSEWHERE ABOUT JUST HOW LONG THIS PARTIAL

    Homeland Security suspends TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs

    Updated: 11:59 PM EST Feb 21, 2026

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    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for fliers.Video above: TSA officers working without pay amid partial government shutdownHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences.” She also said that “TSA and CBP are prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry and suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts.”The partial government shutdown began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.

    WASHINGTON —

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.

    The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for fliers.

    Video above: TSA officers working without pay amid partial government shutdown

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences.” She also said that “TSA and CBP are prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry and suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts.”

    The partial government shutdown began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to immigration operations that are core to President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.

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  • Judge dismisses felony against man who said agents attacked him in Charlotte

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    Before prosecutors could present any evidence to support claims that Cristobal Maltos hit an immigration officer with his car in Charlotte last month, a judge dismissed his case. It was unclear if that was because the evidence was weak; officials did not say.

    Maltos’ charge is at least the third charge dismissed in relation to federal immigration officers’ five-day operation in Charlotte in mid-November. Another man accused of hitting agents with his car saw one of his charges dismissed, and prosecutors dismissed a felony charge against a woman accused of assaulting an officer before refiling misdemeanor charges.

    The Department of Homeland Security provided conflicting numbers for how many were arrested in the operation dubbed “Charlotte’s Web,” and the government has not released the names of most of the detained. Maltos’ non-immigration case is one of few that give insight to Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers’ time in Charlotte.

    Maltos was charged with felony assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer when he hit an officer with the side mirror of his car. Maltos denies that. A federal judge dismissed his case before any further evidence could be revealed.

    Man stopped by Border Patrol in Charlotte tells his story

    In a short interview with The Charlotte Observer, Maltos previously said:

    On Nov. 17, the second day of the federal operation, Maltos was driving down South Tryon Street to get groceries when a car sideswiped him. (Border Patrol agents especially targeted areas in east Charlotte and along South Tryon Street, which is dotted by Hispanic and Latin businesses.)

    He followed the car and called 911. Then, three cars and 10 federal agents with guns surrounded him. He was “terrified and in shock.” He accidentally released the clutch on his manual drive car, and the car stalled.

    “Before I could process anything, the agents rushed me,” he said.

    They broke his window, pried open the driver’s door and slammed him onto the asphalt and broken glass below.

    He told them he was a U.S. citizen and that he had just undergone surgery. They said they didn’t care, dragged him into one of their unmarked SUVs and told him they were “two seconds from shooting me,” he said.

    He spent the night in the Gaston County Jail. The next day, an FBI agent filed charges against him.

    FBI said man assaulted immigration agents. Evidence unknown.

    In a Nov. 18 affidavit, a federal official told a federal judge that immigration agents noticed Maltos following them along South Tryon Street. They said he reversed his car the first time they tried to stop him. The next time, three cars and five federal agents surrounded him.

    One agent leaned over the hood of Maltos’ car, court documents say, and the car moved forward about 30 feet. Officials charged him with the felony assault charge.

    Maltos was set to have a preliminary hearing, where a federal magistrate judge would determine probable cause to charge him and move the case forward, this week. But federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina last week asked a judge to dismiss Maltos’ felony charge.

    On Monday, a signed order from U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler did just that.

    Keesler last month also dismissed a key charge in Miguel Angel Garcia Martinez’s case. Prosecutors charged him with the same count Maltos faced, but they added on that he used a deadly weapon — his car — to assault officers.

    Video played in court showed that officers chased Martinez and planned to “smash” into him after he fled from officers trying to initiate a voluntary stop. Martinez’s lawyer argued that he did not have to stop for them and that he was within his rights to follow and document agents in public.

    Martinez still faces one charge, but Keesler released him on an unsecured bond and dropped the charge accusing him of using his car to assault officers.

    Heather Morrow, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bus driver, was arrested and charged with felony assaulting an officer during a protest outside a DHS office in Charlotte. Video does not show her assaulting an officer but does show an officer tackling her. Her felony charge was dismissed, and she now faces four misdemeanors.

    Related Stories from Charlotte Observer

    Julia Coin

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    Julia Coin covers courts, legal issues, police and public safety around Charlotte and is part of the Pulitzer-finalist team that covered Tropical Storm Helene in North Carolina. As the Observer’s breaking news reporter, she unveiled how fentanyl infiltrated local schools. Michigan-born and Florida-raised, she studied journalism at the University of Florida, where she covered statewide legislation, sexual assault on campus and Hurricane Ian in her hometown of Sanibel Island.
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  • Top Border Patrol official due in court to answer questions about Chicago immigration crackdown

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    A senior Border Patrol official who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago is due in court Tuesday to take questions about the enforcement operation in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.The hearing comes after a judge earlier this month ordered uniformed immigration agents to wear body cameras, the latest step in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say federal agents used excessive force, including using tear gas, during protests against immigration operations.Greg Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, one of nine sectors on the Mexican border, is himself accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters.U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis initially said agents must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She later said she was concerned agents were not following her order after seeing footage of street confrontations involving tear gas during the administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, and she modified the order to also require body cameras.Ellis last week extended questioning of Bovino from two hours to five because she wants to hear about agents’ recent use of force in the city’s Mexican enclave of Little Village. During an enforcement operation last week in Little Village and the adjacent suburb of Cicero, at least eight people, including four U.S. citizens, were detained before protesters gathered at the scene, local officials said.The attorneys representing a coalition of news outlets and protesters claim Bovino himself violated the order in Little Village and filed a still image of video footage where he was allegedly “throwing tear gas into a crowd without justification.”Over the weekend, masked federal agents and unmarked SUVs were spotted on the city’s wealthier, predominantly white North side neighborhoods of Lakeview and Lincoln Park, where footage showed chemical agents deployed on a residential street. Federal agents have been seen and videotaped deploying tear gas in residential streets a number of times over the past few weeks.Bovino also led the immigration operation in Los Angeles in recent months, leading to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback. In Chicago, similar Border Patrol operations have led to viral footage of tense confrontations with protesters.At a previous hearing, Ellis questioned Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, about their agencies’ use of force policies and the distribution of body cameras. Harvick said there are about 200 Border Patrol employees in the Chicago area, and those who are part of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras. But Byers said more money from Congress would be needed to expand camera use beyond two of that agency’s field offices.

    CHICAGO —

    A senior Border Patrol official who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago is due in court Tuesday to take questions about the enforcement operation in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

    The hearing comes after a judge earlier this month ordered uniformed immigration agents to wear body cameras, the latest step in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say federal agents used excessive force, including using tear gas, during protests against immigration operations.

    Greg Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, one of nine sectors on the Mexican border, is himself accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters.

    U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis initially said agents must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She later said she was concerned agents were not following her order after seeing footage of street confrontations involving tear gas during the administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, and she modified the order to also require body cameras.

    Ellis last week extended questioning of Bovino from two hours to five because she wants to hear about agents’ recent use of force in the city’s Mexican enclave of Little Village. During an enforcement operation last week in Little Village and the adjacent suburb of Cicero, at least eight people, including four U.S. citizens, were detained before protesters gathered at the scene, local officials said.

    The attorneys representing a coalition of news outlets and protesters claim Bovino himself violated the order in Little Village and filed a still image of video footage where he was allegedly “throwing tear gas into a crowd without justification.”

    Over the weekend, masked federal agents and unmarked SUVs were spotted on the city’s wealthier, predominantly white North side neighborhoods of Lakeview and Lincoln Park, where footage showed chemical agents deployed on a residential street. Federal agents have been seen and videotaped deploying tear gas in residential streets a number of times over the past few weeks.

    Bovino also led the immigration operation in Los Angeles in recent months, leading to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback. In Chicago, similar Border Patrol operations have led to viral footage of tense confrontations with protesters.

    At a previous hearing, Ellis questioned Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, about their agencies’ use of force policies and the distribution of body cameras. Harvick said there are about 200 Border Patrol employees in the Chicago area, and those who are part of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras. But Byers said more money from Congress would be needed to expand camera use beyond two of that agency’s field offices.

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  • Padilla, Schiff request detailed breakdown of National Guard, Marine deployments in L.A.

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    U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting a detailed breakdown of military deployments to Los Angeles amid recent immigration enforcement protests in the city.

    The two California Democrats wrote Monday that they wanted to know how thousands of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines were specifically used, whether and how they engaged in any law enforcement activity and how much the deployments have cost taxpayers to date.

    The deployments were made over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials, and sparked a lawsuit by the state alleging they were illegal. The letter came just hours before a federal judge agreed with the state in a ruling Tuesday that Padilla and Schiff both cheered.

    Padilla and Schiff wrote that the deployments were unnecessary and that greater detail was needed in light of similar operations now being launched or threatened in other American cities.

    “The use of the U.S. military to assist in or otherwise support immigration operations remains inappropriate, potentially a violation of the law, and harmful to the relationship between the U.S. public and the U.S. military,” they wrote.

    The Department of Defense declined to comment on the letter to The Times, saying it would “respond directly” to Padilla and Schiff.

    President Trump ordered the federalization of some 4,100 National Guard troops in California in June, as L.A. protests erupted over his administration’s immigration policies. Some 700 Marines were also deployed to the city. Most of those forces have since departed, but Padilla and Schiff said 300 Guard troops remain activated.

    Trump, Hegseth and other administration leaders have previously defended the deployments as necessary to restore law and order in L.A., defend federal buildings and protect federal immigration agents as they conduct immigration raids in local communities opposed to such enforcement efforts.

    Under questioning from members of Congress at the start of the deployments in June, Hegseth and other Defense officials estimated that the mission would last 60 days and that basic necessities such as travel, housing and food for the troops would cost about $134 million. However, the administration has not provided updated details as the operation has continued.

    Padilla and Schiff asked for specific totals on the number of California Guard troops and Marines deployed to L.A., and details as to which units they were drawn from and whether any out-of-state Guard personnel were brought in. They also asked whether any other military personnel were deployed to L.A., and how many civilian employees from the Department of Defense were assigned to the L.A. operation.

    The senators asked for a description of the “specific missions” carried out by the different units deployed to the city, and for a breakdown of military personnel who directly supported Department of Homeland Security teams, which would include Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They also asked which units were assigned to provide security at federal sites or were “placed on stand-by status outside of the immediate protest or immigration enforcement areas.”

    They asked for “the number of times and relevant detail for any cases in which [Defense] personnel made arrests, detained any individuals, otherwise exercised law enforcement authorities, or exercised use of lethal force during the operation.”

    They also asked for the total cost of all of the work to the Department of Defense and for a breakdown of costs by operation, maintenance, personnel or other accounts, and asked whether any funding used in the operation was diverted from other programs.

    Padilla and Schiff requested that the Department of Defense provide the information by Sept. 12.

    Unless it is “expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress,” the use of military personnel for civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil is barred by law under the Posse Comitatus Act. The 1878 law applies to U.S. Marines and to Guard troops who, like those in L.A., have been federalized.

    In its lawsuit, California argued the deployments were a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. In response, the Trump administration argued that the president has the legal authority to deploy federal troops to protect federal property and personnel, such as ICE agents.

    On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled for the state, finding that the deployments did violate the Posse Comitatus Act. The judge placed his injunction on hold for 10 days, and the Trump administration is expected to appeal.

    Schiff said Trump’s “goal was not to ensure safety, but to create a spectacle,” and that the ruling affirmed those actions were “unlawful and unjustified.”

    Padilla said the ruling “confirmed what we knew all along: Trump broke the law in his effort to turn service members into his own national police force.”

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    Kevin Rector

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