DHS Intelligence Overhaul Aims to Enhance Accountability
The Department of Homeland Security's intelligence operations are getting a major overhaul, with a proposed change that would keep its Office of Intelligence and Analysis under the direct supervision of the nation's top spy, the Director of National Intelligence. This move aims to boost…
#NationalSecurity #HomelandSecurity #IntelligenceReform #OfficeOfDirectorOfNationalIntelligence #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity
The FBI Didn't Answer Texts From Minnesota Investigators for Days After Renee Good’s Killing
undefined | Mullin visits town devastated by Hurricane Helene, promises reforms to FEMA
Markwayne Mullin, the new Department of Homeland Security secretary, made his first official trip to Chimney Rock, North Carolina – a small mountain town still reeling from Hurricane Helene’s September 2024 deluge that dumped 22.5 inches of rain, buried half the homes along the Rocky Broad River in a 15‑foot‑deep debris field, and closed Chimney Rock State Park for nine months. Inside the town’s fire department, Mullin told local leaders he intends to shift FEMA’s role from being the primary on‑scene responder to a funding conduit that empowers state and local governments to lead the initial “heavy lift” of disaster recovery.
During a round‑table with GOP Sen. Ted Budd, emergency responders, and FEMA officials, Mullin pledged to speed up approvals for the 22 open major disasters as hurricane season approaches on June 1. He highlighted recent FEMA actions – a $26 million buy‑out of 75 homes in high‑risk flood zones and a promise to pay FEMA workers for the first six weeks of a shutdown – while acknowledging a massive backlog of housing assistance and project approvals. Mullin also signaled a rollback of a controversial DHS memo that had required senior‑level clearance on contracts over $100,000, emphasizing that the administration wants “the dollar closer to the state” and is working to name a permanent FEMA administrator.
The visit underscored how the storm’s “thousand‑year” rainfall continues to haunt residents: broken roads, torn‑up flags recovered from the river, and trailers still lining the riverbank. Fire Chief Chris Melton, whose hometown was devastated, received a framed flag as a symbolic gesture from Mullin, while locals gathered at the River Watch Bar to watch the federal team assess the damage. Mullin left with a cautious promise – the federal government will help ease the pain, but it will not “take care of everybody’s problems” – and a commitment to streamline FEMA processes so that aid arrives before the next hurricane season.
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#markwaynemullin #departmentofhomelandsecurity #fema #hurricanehelene
bing news | Protestors arrested for sit-in at Palantir after anti-ICE Passover rally with Mayor Mamdani
Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed a crowd of anti‑ICE demonstrators at Union Square on the sixth night of Passover during “Seder in the Streets,” a rally organized by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. After the public gathering, dozens of activists marched to Palantir’s Chelsea office and staged a sit‑in inside the lobby. Police eventually arrested fifteen participants who refused to leave, issuing them court summonses and indicating they would be released pending further proceedings.
Palantir Technologies, a high‑profile AI‑software firm, has drawn criticism for providing data‑analytics tools that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses to identify, track, and deport immigrants. New York City Comptroller Mark Levine has asked Palantir for an independent third‑party human‑rights risk assessment of its work with the Department of Homeland Security. Protesters held banners equating ICE’s actions with “kidnapping” and referencing the Exodus story, declaring “ICE kidnaps, Palantir profits. Let our people go,” while chanting that the crimes of ICE stem from its collaborations with corporate partners.
The rally also featured rabbis leading songs, activists reading testimonies from people detained by ICE, and a banner proclaiming “Jews against deportation.” Mayor Mamdani linked the Passover narrative to the current immigration crackdown, saying, “The lessons of hope, solidarity and freedom can help us resist oppression, even when freedom feels out of reach for many New Yorkers.” The event highlighted both the symbolic power of the Passover story and the growing activist pressure on the city and private companies to halt their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
#palantirtechnologies #ice #zohranmamdani #jewsforracial&economicjustice #departmentofhomelandsecurity
The Atlantic | The $97 Million Utah Warehouse ICE Bought for $145 Million by Nick Miroff
The empty warehouse on the outskirts of Salt Lake City had a lot of potential but no buyers. Built in 2022, it was one of the largest warehouses in the area, with 833,000 square feet of space—14 football fields under one roof. The surrounding industrial zone had been promoted by the state as “Utah’s Inland Port,” a logistics hub smack-dab in the middle of a desert but only a few minutes to the freeway and the international airport.
Demand for big warehouses had softened, however, and the property remained vacant, a white elephant by the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Then, suddenly, on March 11, the Department of Homeland Security snapped it up for $145.4 million—paying nearly 50 percent more than the property’s 2025 assessed value to a private investment fund controlled by a subsidiary of Germany’s Deutsche Bank.
The deal went through six days after President Trump announced his decision to remove Kristi Noem as DHS secretary. Noem and her team had been racing to buy up industrial properties as part of a $38 billion overhaul of the ICE detention system in an effort to supercharge Trump’s mass-deportation campaign. DHS officials described the acquisitions as a crucial step to meeting the White House’s goal of 1 million deportations a year, after ICE carried out fewer than half that many during Trump’s first year back in office. The warehouses would be reconfigured and remodeled into megajails, with capacity for up to 10,000 detainees each.
Spenser Heaps
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/04/utah-ice-dhs-warehouse/686706/?utm_source=feed
#utah #saltlakecity #ice #departmentofhomelandsecurity #presidenttrump
The Strange (Partial) End to the (Partial) Government Shutdown
Unmasking the Paramilitary Agents Behind Trump’s Violent Immigration Crackdown
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