Amid mass deportations, a boat packed with migrants intercepted trying to get into the US
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(SAN DIEGO) — Even as the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented migrants was unfolding, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it had intercepted a boat packed with migrants off the California coast.
A 40-foot panga-style boat attempting to smuggle migrants into the United States was stopped by two Coast Guard cutter crews Monday night about 20 miles off the coast of San Diego, the Coast Guard said in a statement released on Tuesday.
“The boarding teams discovered 21 individuals aboard the panga. Initial interviews revealed that all individuals claimed Mexican nationality, although subsequent checks identified two passengers as Guatemalan and Salvadoran nationals,” Coast Guard officials said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents alerted the Coast Guard at about 10:45 p.m. local time on Monday that a boat was detected, prompting the Coast Guard to launch two cutters to find the vessel, authorities said.
The human smuggling boat was intercepted while it was traveling north about 40 miles south of the maritime boundary line, according to the Coast Guard.
The individuals aboard the boat were brought to shore and turned over to the custody of Border Patrol agents, according to the Coast Guard.
“These operations highlight the coordinated efforts between agencies to secure our maritime borders,” the Coast Guard said in its statement.
The Coast Guard reported a 400% increase in smuggling cases along the San Diego coast since 2018, including almost 150 cases in the last three months.
Monday’s incident came amid a massive nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants ordered by President Donald Trump.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have rounded up thousands of migrants this week in raids across the nation, including in New York City, Chicago and Miami. In one New York City raid, ICE agents arrested a 25-year-old purported Venezuelan gang member wanted in connection with a home invasion and kidnapping in Aurora, Colorado, officials said.
The White House said it is targeting migrants accused of violent crimes. But when asked by ABC News at a press briefing Tuesday to clarify how many of the migrants detained in the sweeps had criminal records as opposed to those who were only in the country illegally, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded, “All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws and therefore they are criminals.”
New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed the raids during a news conference this week, saying, “My understanding is they had specific names of people who have committed crimes, serious offenders. And those are exactly the people that we want removed from the state of New York.”
(NEW YORK) — Last July, a prosecutor in California sent a letter to Elon Musk’s SpaceX with an urgent message: The company’s internet satellite dishes are being used by criminal organizations in so-called “scam compounds” across Southeast Asia.
Starlink, which was developed by SpaceX in 2019, provides internet to remote locations, and the company’s satellite systems have been used in war-torn Ukraine, in hospitals in Gaza, and in areas affected by hurricanes.
But over the last several years, according to international officials and intergovernmental organizations, authorities have found Starlink satellite dishes being used in criminally run scam centers, where users perpetrate illegal online schemes to defraud people.
Anti-scam advocates like Erin West, the former deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, California, have been increasingly calling on companies with links to scam centers to help them locate and dismantle the criminal groups that run scam compounds.
“The thing about Starlink is, it is a satellite, it’s covering specific areas,” said West, who sent the letter to Starlink. “And when we can point out that some of those locations are known scam centers, then I want Starlink to turn off the service.”
West and the Santa Clara DA’s office told ABC News that SpaceX never responded to their letter.
ABC News has previously reported on the growing rise of scam compounds in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America, where hundreds of thousands of people are reported to be trafficked and forced to target people in the U.S. and Europe.
According to the FBI, victims of cryptocurrency scams linked to the compounds reported $3.9 billion in estimated losses in 2023.
A report published by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime in October found that Chinese organized crime groups have found ways around “existing security protocols in order to access the remote high-speed internet connectivity made possible” by Starlink’s technology.
“Several recent incidents relating to the use of false base stations and Starlink satellite dishes have been reported by law enforcement authorities in Mekong countries over past years,” the report said.
SpaceX representatives did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
According to officials and the UNODC, online vendors are selling Starlink devices to cyber-enabled fraud operations in remote areas where scam compounds are located.
“In the future, Starlink will reach a transmission capacity of 200G! Come and enjoy a set of Starlink equipment exclusive to you,” said an advertisement posted last week on a Telegram chat that ABC News reviewed.
Benedikt Hofmann, the Deputy Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific for UNODC, who reviewed the Telegram chat, said there are many vendors specifically advertising Starlink access as a “solution for online scam operators” on Telegram-based markets.
Anti-scam groups and intergovernmental organizations have been looking into the Telegram chats as part of their effort to locate and dismantle the scam compounds.
The use of Starlink satellite devices by criminal organizations was first reported by Wired.
Hofmann told ABC News that “Starlink is a growing concern.”
“We’ve seen increasing cases of devices being seized en route to Myanmar, usually coming from other parts of the region where they can be legally purchased,” Hofmann said. “There is a clear link to the scam industry.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has directed agency officials to review and remove content related to climate change from its public websites, according to internal emails obtained by ABC News.
The directive instructs web managers to identify, archive, or unpublish materials mentioning climate change by “no later than close of business this Friday,” according to the emails.
In an email sent Thursday, USDA Director of Digital Communications Peter Rhee detailed the process, requiring staff to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” and track related content in an attached Excel spreadsheet for review.
“OC will review the submitted materials and make determinations on next steps,” Rhee wrote, referring to the department’s Office of Communications.
A separate email sent to website managers at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) emphasized the urgency of the request.
“USDA and ARS OC are requesting you comply with the instructions below from USDA’s Office of Communications,” the email read, instructing ARS staff to submit their content audit by 3 p.m. ET Friday to meet the department’s deadline.
USDA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
According to the spreadsheet provided to website managers and obtained by ABC News, content is being categorized into three levels of urgency. Pages dedicated entirely to climate change are marked as “Tier 1,” while those where a significant portion of the content relates to climate change are labeled “Tier 2.”
Pages where climate change is mentioned in passing but is not the main focus should be identified under “Tier 3,” according to the spreadsheet.
“For each piece of content, include the title, link, and your recommendation on how the content should be handled,” the email reads.
The USDA has long been involved in climate research and in studying how rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns impact agriculture. The department’s website includes extensive resources on climate science, carbon sequestration, and adaptation strategies for farmers.
A USDA webpage published in 2022 provides information on “Climate Change Adaptation and USDA.”
“Producers, ranchers, forest landowners, and communities across the country are facing challenges posed by the effects of climate change,” the webpage states. “Some of these effects are familiar but occurring more frequently or intensely while others are new and unprecedented.”
The directive to remove mentions of climate change from websites follows President Donald Trump’s executive orders reversing key climate policies, which include withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, expanding fossil fuel production, weakening environmental protections, and revoking EV incentives.
Critics warn these actions will accelerate climate change and disproportionately harm vulnerable communities.
(WASHINGTON) — In classrooms across the country, children of immigrants are facing heightened fears over news that immigration enforcement officers are now allowed to enter schools, according to educators.
While it’s unclear if immigration raids have actually taken place in schools, the lifting of the prohibition itself by the Trump administration and the highly publicized enforcement activities elsewhere have triggered anxieties in the classroom, educators say.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not responded to ABC News requests for comment on whether ICE raids have taken place at schools since the implementation of the new policy. However, the end of schoolhouse restrictions on ICE activity and a false alarm incident at a Chicago elementary school has put community members on edge.
The sounds of sirens or a routine lockdown drill can set children on edge, stoking fears about what lies ahead for their families or friends, according to Denise Sheehan, a bilingual teacher in New Mexico.
Sheehan, who works in a school district about 40 minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border, said some students stop coming to school altogether; for others, it’s a challenge for teachers to keep them focused or engaged in the day’s schoolwork when worries hover heavy over the students.
She said that students hear what’s going on in the news – and are racked with questions about raids or documentation, concepts some might not fully understand: “‘Am I going home to an empty house? What’s going to happen to me? Am I going to be here tomorrow? Is my family going to be here tomorrow?’” Sheehan recalled.
The Trump administration has publicized the arrests of thousands of immigrants by federal agents since the president took office, as well as revoking long-standing restrictions that thwarted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting raids on schools and other sensitive areas, such as churches. ICE is now allowed to make arrests in these so-called sensitive areas, but many local officials have made it clear that ICE must have a warrant to enter certain spaces.
In a statement touting the move, the Department of Homeland Security said, “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
The statement continued, “The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
President Donald Trump made immigration a key focus of his campaign, promising mass deportation efforts targeting the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
However, these fears are not new. In fiscal year 2023, under President Joe Biden, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducted 170,590 administrative arrests, representing a 19.5% increase over the previous year, and more than any year of the first Trump presidency.
In the United States, more than 16.7 million people live with at least one undocumented family member – about 6 million of whom are children under the age of 18, according to past estimates from the American Immigration Council. Hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. are undocumented, according to research from Pew Research Center.
The threat of immigration enforcement has the potential to cause emotional, developmental, or economic challenges for millions of children who live day to day with the anxiety of deportation, according to many sources on the mental health of children impacted by immigration.
“Schools are not places that are open to the public. They’re limited in terms of access and that’s because we want to keep children safe so that they can focus on learning, they can focus on growing and developing and just living their lives as children,” said Nicholas Espíritu, the legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, in an interview.
In an online statement urging educators to know the rights of their students as well as their own, the National Education Association warned that mass immigration enforcement panic “will predictably harm school environments, including by causing increased absences, decreased student achievement, and parental disengagement.”
One study from Children found that there are higher rates of depression, anxiety, social isolation, stress, and aggression in children who live with an undocumented person or have a parent who has been deported.
Deportations and detention efforts send further shockwaves through immigrant communities, and “serve only to complete the trauma” facing undocumented communities, another study states.
Schools – once unauthorized targets for ICE – now play a central role in how children will face the potential threat. Some local officials have said they will “welcome” ICE agents into their schools, while others have urged the community to learn their rights ahead of any ICE encounters in school.
“Silence is not OK,” said Sheehan, a representative on the National Education Association Board of Directors, who has been collaborating with her fellow educators on how to respond ahead of any ICE activity in her schools. “During these times, we need to continue to inform our educators. We need to make sure that everybody’s aware of the resources that our district offers, and make sure that there’s a plan.”
From schools, to churches, to supermarkets, there is an absence of familiar faces, as community members say that some residents are staying out of sight for fear of law and immigration enforcement efforts.
“These are churchgoers. These are hardworking individuals. These are the parents of your children’s best friend at school, right? These are individuals that are living in fear,” immigration attorney Ana Alicia Huerta, granddaughter of famed labor rights leader Dolores Huerta, told ABC News.
For the past month, California resident Adriana, who asked to be identified by only her first name for privacy reasons, has been delivering food to families too scared to leave their homes. Walking to her car with a box of donated food, she describes meeting families with little ones who are scared of what is to come.
“Their kids – some of them, they have babies,” said Adriana. “They can’t go out and buy diapers, baby formula. They’re scared to come out.”
For Adriana, the decision to help the families is not about legal status: “It’s about humanity. It’s about our community. Sometimes you see faces, you see you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, this person is legal.’ ‘Oh, this person is not.’”
