Stephen Dinan

Cartels stand to capitalize as Mexico eyes big tobacco tax hike

Mexico's Senate is pushing to pass a bill that would raise the country's tax on tobacco, figuring it will not only improve health by discouraging use, but also add to the government's bank account.

October 27, 2025

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow firing of register of copyrights

President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow him to move ahead with high-profile firings of the register of copyrights, saying a lower court's blockade tramples on his presidential powers.

October 27, 2025

Questions mount over war on drug boats; taking cartel battle to high seas ups legal stakes for Trump

The Trump administration, by its own account, has sunk 10 drug boats and slain 43 crew, and it has yet to offer a firm legal justification.

October 26, 2025

Abrego Garcia objects: Don’t send me to Liberia

Kilmar Abrego Garcia now says he fears persecution if he's sent to Liberia, as America's most prominent migrant tries again to derail a looming deportation.

October 25, 2025

DHS sets Oct. 31 target to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, says Liberia will take him

The Trump administration said Friday it's finally firmed up a country willing to take Kilmar Abrego Garcia off America's hands, with hopes of booting him out of the U.S. within a week.

October 24, 2025

DHS uses riot response as anti-ICE protests become more violent in Chicago

Anti-ICE protesters are escalating their confrontations with federal immigration authorities in Illinois, forcing officers to use riot responses to suppress what the Department of Homeland Security called "one of the most violent days."

October 24, 2025

DHS’ Chief Bovino accused of breaking judge’s order by using tear gas on Chicago crowd

Journalism advocates on Thursday accused a senior Homeland Security official of personally deploying tear gas into a Chicago protest "without justification" in defiance of a judge's orders.

October 23, 2025

ICE says it doesn’t need to give Congress access to its facilities during government shutdown

One of the casualties of the shutdown showdown is that Democrats have lost their access to ICE facilities.

October 23, 2025

Two federal judges admit to using AI in botched rulings after months of silence

Two federal judges have publicly admitted that they used artificial intelligence in their work, leading them to retract court orders after the AI introduced errors into their rulings.

October 23, 2025

Winsome Earle-Sears embraces Trump’s tepid Va. governor endorsement: ‘The president wants me to win’

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears welcomed President Trump's tepid endorsement of her gubernatorial campaign this week, saying he made clear he "wants me to win."

October 23, 2025

Texas scoured 18 million voter names, found 2,724 possible noncitizens

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson has just completed a review of more than 18 million names on her state's voter list, and flagged 2,724 of them -- less than 0.02% -- as possible noncitizens.

October 22, 2025

FEMA discriminated against pro-gun homes in disaster relief missions

Political targeting at the government's emergency management agency went deeper than Biden officials acknowledged, according to a new report that said FEMA employees not only skipped over pro-Trump homes but also avoided homes with pro-gun messages.

October 22, 2025

Democrats escalate anti-ICE efforts, devise strategies to ‘blow the whistle’ on officers

Democrats are ramping up their confrontation with ICE, with one member of Congress announcing plans to run a "tracker" to reveal officers' actions and New York's attorney general setting up a tip line for leads to investigate the agency's operations.

October 22, 2025

Venezuelans say ICE officers ‘beat’ them to force them off deportation plane in El Salvador

Venezuelans who were forcibly deported to a terrorist prison in El Salvador earlier this year have now formally accused ICE officers of beating them to make them get off the airplane.

October 21, 2025

House refers ex-CIA chief Brennan for criminal prosecution for lying to Congress

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to prosecute Obama-era CIA Director John O. Brennan on charges of lying to Congress, saying he misled lawmakers over his role in spreading anti-Trump lies.

October 21, 2025

Judge orders military to restore DEI books at some base schools

A federal judge ordered the military to restore DEI-related books to the shelves of five of its schools on bases across the globe, saying the government was too hasty in carrying out President Trump's anti-DEI orders.

October 20, 2025

Federal court gives Trump big win by allowing his troop deployment to Oregon

A federal appeals court on Monday allowed President Trump to federalize and deploy National Guard troops to Oregon to help immigration officers carry out their duties, ruling that the law gives a president wide deference in those sorts of decisions.

October 20, 2025

Maryland kept printing ballots for illegal immigrant Ian Roberts long after he moved to Iowa

Weeks after the country learned that he was an illegal immigrant -- and that he lived a thousand miles away in Iowa -- former Des Moines schools Superintendent Ian Roberts' name remains on Maryland's voter rolls, according to multiple sources.

October 20, 2025

Supreme Court to review federal ban on drug users owning guns

The Supreme Court said Monday it will take up a challenge the federal ban on gun possession by drug users, in a case advocates hope will bring clarity to the country's chaotic landscape of marijuana and firearms laws.

October 20, 2025

Illegal immigrant cop sparks debate about migrants’ access to guns

Congress faces new calls to change the law to bar illegal immigrants from carrying guns while serving as police officers after ICE last week announced it had arrested a migrant cop who'd been working for a department in the suburbs of Chicago.

October 19, 2025