border

President Clinton’s Mexican financial rescue package, which once looked so solid that it even had the support of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and other leading Republicans, is in trouble. It’s stalled in a House committee, and Gingrich is warning that it could be defeated if it is brought to a vote too quickly.

Everyone is blaming somebody else for this impasse. Gingrich faults Clinton for poor leadership of balky Democrats. White House spokesmen ask why Dole and Gingrich can’t keep the Republicans in line.

In fact, both sides share the blame. They clearly underestimated the ability of demagogues like Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan to turn the Mexican loan guarantees into a symbolic issue. By railing against the proposal as a “bailout” of Wall Street and corrupt Mexican officials, these demagogues play to popular prejudices against both Mexico and big business.

So saving the Mexican loan guarantees won’t be easy, but it’s important that it be done. If you think that problems like illegal immigration are bad now, wait and see how tough things will get along our southern border if the Mexican economy goes into the tank for a decade rather than the couple of years most experts estimate it will take Mexico to recover if the loan guarantees are approved.

What could the White House offer skeptics in Congress to sell the loan guarantees? How about a plan to end illegal immigration on the Mexican border?

It wouldn’t be easy, of course, but control of our southern border can be achieved over time, and with the cooperation of the Mexican government. But it would not be done in the way envisioned by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and other members of Congress who are demanding that Mexico send more police to the border to stop emigration in exchange for the loan guarantees. That would be politically unpalatable in Mexico.

But controlling illegal immigration could be done if we negotiated an agreement with the Mexican government that would open U.S. borders to a flow of Mexican workers, as long as they register with the appropriate authorities and agree to leave once they are done working here. Their return could be guaranteed by withholding part of their pay, say 25%, until they are back home.

This idea will sound familiar to anyone who has studied the history of the Mexican border. It’s an updated version of the bracero program, which brought Mexicans into this country to meet the farm labor shortage during World War II; more than 4 1/2 million had been admitted legally by the time the program ended in 1964.

There were, unfortunately, many abuses in the bracero program. Corrupt officials on the Mexican side gave preference to workers who paid them bribes. And some U.S. farmers treated Mexican workers little better than slaves, paying low wages and forcing them to live and work under miserable conditions. Such abuses would have to be avoided this time around, but that could be more easily done than in the past. For one thing, even the poorest Mexican peasant is much more sophisticated about his labor rights nowadays. The Mexican government is also more sophisticated, and has experts in think tanks like Tijuana’s Colegio de la Frontera Norte who have been researching the flow of Mexican migrants for years and could advise both Washington and Mexico City on how to set up a viable guest-worker program. And, with all the focus on immigration issues in the United States these days, the news media and Latino activists would surely raise a hue and cry over any abuses that did creep in.

In fact, the only real roadblock one can imagine to such a reasonable proposal might come from some of the more ardent immigration restrictionists in this country. But, if arrest statistics are any indication, 50% to 60% of the illegal immigrants they keep screaming about are Mexican. So if they are legalized, we eliminate half of the “illegal alien problem” in one fell swoop.

Such a program might even find such unlikely champions as Harold Ezell, a former immigration official and co-author of Proposition 187, and Gov. Pete Wilson, its biggest champion. Both have suggested a guest-worker program as a means of meeting any labor shortages that can’t be filled by U.S. workers.

Let’s face it, Mexican workers are going to keep coming here despite Proposition 187 and other anti-immigrant measures, because jobs are waiting for them in certain sectors of the U.S. economy, like agriculture and light manufacturing. So why not put aside any pretense that we don’t want them and cut a deal with Mexico that will benefit both countries?

Tensions over border disputes had sharply escalated in July during a five-day conflict between the neighbouring countries.

Thailand’s new prime minister has said his government will propose a referendum to address an ongoing dispute with its neighbour, Cambodia, over a demarcation agreement.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters on Monday that “in order to avoid further conflict”, the government will push for a vote on whether Thailand should revoke the existing memorandum of understanding on border issues with Cambodia.

Thailand and Cambodia have long argued over undemarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border, but tensions sharply escalated in July during a five-day conflict. The fighting ended after a ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia on July 28.

In the worst fighting between the two countries in a decade, at least 48 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were temporarily displaced.

But for years, the two countries have relied on an agreement, signed in 2000, which sets out the framework for joint survey and demarcation of the land boundary.

In another agreement in 2001, it provided a framework for cooperation and potential resource sharing in maritime areas claimed by both countries.

However, in Thailand, the agreements have come under public scrutiny over the past decade, especially following the latest clashes.

According to Charnvirakul, the new referendum would provide a clear mandate on the matter of the agreements.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, cautioned against the revocation of the agreements as solving the issue.

“Their revocation may not be a direct solution to the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, because it could create a vacuum,” he told the Reuters news agency.

“The government must make clear what will replace them, and this has to be agreed by Cambodia as well,” he said.

At the same time, Charnvirakul also pledged in his inaugural speech in Parliament to address the country’s economy and push for a new and more democratic constitution as he faces a self-imposed deadline to call for elections in four months.

The acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento has said she was fired after telling the Border Patrol chief in charge of immigration raids in California that his agents were not allowed to arrest people without probable cause in the Central Valley.

Michele Beckwith, a career prosecutor who was made the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of California earlier this year, told the New York Times that she was let go after she warned Gregory Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, that a court injunction blocked him from carrying out indiscriminate immigration raids in Sacramento.

Beckwith did not respond to a request for comment from the L.A. Times, but told the New York Times that “we have to stand up and insist the laws be followed.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento declined to comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

Bovino presided over a series of raids in Los Angeles starting in June in which agents spent weeks pursuing Latino-looking workers outside of Home Depots, car washes, bus stops and other areas. The agents often wore masks and used unmarked vehicles.

But such indiscriminate tactics were not allowed in California’s Eastern District after the American Civil Liberties Union and United Farm Workers filed suit against the Border Patrol earlier in the year and won an injunction.

The suit followed a January operation in Kern County called “Operation Return to Sender,” in which agents swarmed a Home Depot and Latino market, among other areas frequented by laborers. In April, a federal district court judge ruled that the Border Patrol likely violated the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

As Beckwith described it to New York Times reporters, she received a phone call from Bovino on July 14 in which he said he was bringing agents to Sacramento.

She said she told him that the injunction filed after the Kern County raid meant he could not stop people indiscriminately in the Eastern District. The next day, she wrote him an email in which, as quoted in the New York Times, she stressed the need for “compliance with court orders and the Constitution.”

Shortly thereafter her work cell phone and her work computer stopped working. A bit before 5 p.m. she received an email informing her that her employment was being terminated effective immediately.

It was the end of a 15-year career in in the Department of Justice in which she had served as the office’s Criminal Division Chief and First Assistant and prosecuted members of the Aryan Brotherhood, suspected terrorists, and fentanyl traffickers.

Two days later on July 17, Bovino and his agents moved into Sacramento, conducting a raid at a Home Depot south of downtown.

In an interview with Fox News that day, Bovino said the raids were targeted and based on intelligence. “Everything we do is targeted,” he said. “We did have prior intelligence that there were targets that we were interested in and around that Home Depot, as well as other targeted enforcement packages in and around the Sacramento area.”

He also said that his operations would not slow down. “There is no sanctuary anywhere,” he said. “We’re here to stay. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to affect this mission and secure the homeland.”

Beckwith is one of a number of top prosecutors who have quit or been fired as the Trump administration pushes the Department of Justice to aggressively carry out his policies, including investigating people who have been the president’s political targets.

In March, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles was fired after lawyers for a fast-food executive he was prosecuting pushed officials in Washington to drop all charges against him, according to multiple sources.

In July, Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was fired by the Trump administration, according to the New York Times.

And just last week, a U. S. attorney in Virginia was pushed out after he had determined there was insufficient evidence to prosecute James B. Comey. A new prosecutor this week won a grand jury indictment against Comey on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

The budget airline has issued a warning to all passengers travelling to the EU from October 12, as the new Entry/Exit System will replace manual passport stamping with an automated process

EasyJet has sounded the alarm over a series of “important changes” to border controls for Brits heading to the EU from next month.

The budget airline is warning passengers that from October 12 the fresh Entry/Exit System (EES) will swap manual passport stamping for an automated system that gathers biometric information.

This means your face will be photographed and fingerprints taken to help handle travellers “more efficiently,” the low-cost carrier explained, no matter which airline you’re flying with. It continued by making clear that youngsters under 12 won’t need to undergo the fingerprinting process.

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EasyJet’s announcement stated: “From October 12, 2025, the Entry/Exit System (EES) will replace manual passport stamping with an automated process that collects biometric data (facial photo and fingerprints) to help process travellers more efficiently. Children under 12 are exempt from fingerprinting.”

It explained: “Non-EU nationals visiting one of the 25 EU Member States or 4 Schengen Associated Countries for short stays may be affected – read the full list of participating countries. You may experience longer wait times at passport control while the system is being rolled out.”

The Foreign Office had previously issued fresh guidance for all affected Schengen nations: “New Schengen entry requirements.”

From October 12 2025, the European Union’s (EU) new Entry/Exit System (EES) will commence. When journeying into and out of the Schengen zone, for brief visits, you may be required to: “If you enter the Schengen area through the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel at Folkestone or St Pancras International, this information will be taken at the border, before you leave the UK.”

“You may also need to provide either your fingerprint or photo when you leave the Schengen area. EES may take each passenger a few extra minutes to complete so be prepared to wait longer than usual at the border once the system starts.”

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The European Commission has also previously outlined the reasoning behind the scheme, with a spokesperson explaining: “The EES is an advanced technological system that will digitally record the entries and exits of non-EU nationals travelling to 29 European countries, including Schengen Associated ones, for short stays.”

“It will capture biometric data, such as fingerprints, facial image, and other travel information, gradually replacing the current system of passport stamping. The EES will modernise and improve the management of EU external borders. It will provide reliable data on border crossings, systematically detect overstayers as well as cases of document and identity fraud.”

It continued: “The EES will thus contribute to preventing irregular migration and protecting the security of European citizens. Additionally, with the increased use of automated border checks, travelling will become smoother and safer for all. The new system meets the highest standards of data and privacy protection, ensuring that travellers’ personal data remain protected and secure.”

By the end of the six-month process for the EES scheme, it is anticipated that the rollout will be complete., reports Birmingham Live. This gradual approach is deemed crucial to allow border authorities, the transport industry, and travellers to adapt to the new procedure step by step.

The population of Am Dafock, situated on the border between  Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR), have been forced to abandon their homes and take refuge in the camp of the United Nations Multidimensional Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) following an attack early this morning of Monday, Sept. 22, by unidentified assailants from Sudan.

This attack is suspected to be a reprisal, happening three days after the killing of four Sudanese Arabs by Russian mercenaries on Sept. 16, in Am Dafock, and marks an escalation of violence on the border between Sudan and CAR. The attack happened in a village seven kilometres from Am Dafock on the  CAR side of the border. The Sudanese conflict has been spilling into the country for some time now. 

“Today’s attack was concentrated in the Bilibili zone, where clashes took place between youths and yet to be identified assailants. Several victims were recorded, but the casualty figure remains unknown due to the confusion that currently reigns in the area,” an anonymous military source told HumAngle. 

Zachir Eric Takiya, former president of the youth prefectural council in Vakaga, has confirmed the ‘attack by Sudanese aggressors’, adding that it resulted in deaths and injuries within the local population, but no exact numbers of casualties were confirmed.

“Faced with this new wave of violence, the population of Am Dafock have massively fled from their homes in search of places of refuge, with most of them going to the MINUSCA base in the town. This collective escape is proof of the terror that has seized the inhabitants who are now convinced that their security can no longer be ensured by their national army,” opined an anonymous civil society activist. 

“The behaviour of the national army, popularly known by the acronym FACA, deployed in the zone has been contributing to the confusion, visiting the local population. The behaviour of the FACA forces is proof of the fact that they are incapable of facing the attackers,” the activist added. 

Am Dafock is currently in a state of total paralysis. This situation is proof of the collapse of state authority in this strategic border region.

This new escalation in violence confirms the analysis by Zachir Eric Takiya, who had alerted the authorities to the porous situation of the CAR border with Sudan during the national dialogue in 2022. According to him, the border resembles “two passageways which enable Sudanese and Chadians to enter and go as they like in the Central African Republic territory. These foreign populations, most times, know the terrain more than the Central African Republic natives themselves.” 

“The contrast between the reality lived by the populations and the official version of events is becoming more and more difficult to decipher,” declared another anonymous civil society activist.

The Am Dafock crisis demonstrates the total failure of the security strategy based on the use of Russian mercenaries. Their initial attack against innocent herders has sparked off a cycle of reprisals which have spiralled out of control. 

The much-delayed Entry/Exit System (EES) will be gradually rolled out across 29 European countries in the Schengen area across the next six months

UK holidaymakers are bracing for extended queues at European borders as fresh regulations kick in on October 12.

The long-awaited Entry/Exit System (EES) will be phased in across 29 European nations within the Schengen zone over the coming six months. The new system means British tourists must provide fingerprints and photographs when first entering or exiting the Schengen area. This creates a digital profile lasting three years.

Alongside the fresh EES procedures, Brits will still get their passports stamped, though this will eventually be phased out once EES becomes fully established.

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The European Union expects the EES to be “fully operational” by April 10 2026. Yet British travellers should prepare for lengthier border delays starting October 12, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Travel expert Simon Calder recently outlined the new regulations in The Independent, cautioning Brits about an ‘additional obstacle’ at EU frontiers. Though he pointed out that certain UK passengers hold a ‘superpower’ document that allows them to bypass border queues.

He noted that Britons holding an Irish passport should present this when journeying to Europe. In response to a query about which passports dual British-EU citizens should utilise, he advised: “If you have the wisdom and fortune to have an Irish passport, use that at all times.”

“It has a superpower no other document has: unfettered access to both the UK and the European Union, with no need to get an online permit in advance,” Simon continued.

READ MORE: Brits face travel changes from October which may ’cause delays’ to journeys

The Irish government’s website states that if you or one of your parents were born on the island of Ireland before 2005, you can apply for an Irish passport without needing to apply for citizenship.

If you, or your parents, were born on the island of Ireland on or after 1 January 2005, your right to Irish citizenship depends on:

• the parents’ citizenship at the time of the birth
• the residency history of one of the parents before the birth

You can also apply for Irish citizenship by descent if your grandparent was born on the island of Ireland. Citizenship can also be acquired through naturalisation, which requires you to meet certain criteria such as legally living in Ireland for five years or being married or in a civil partnership with an Irish citizen.

According to the Irish government, a record-breaking 1,080,000 Irish passports were issued in 2022. The number of first-time passport applications from Northern Ireland and Great Britain was 100,000 out of over 1.15 million total applications received that year.

Calder, speaking about passport holders from other EU countries, advised: “For all other EU passports, register with the European document outbound (and show it when you arrive). Coming back, register the British document (and show it when you arrive).”

The lights never dimmed and Angel Minguela Palacios couldn’t sleep. He pulled what felt like a large sheet of aluminum foil over his head, but couldn’t adjust to lying on a concrete floor and using his tennis shoes as a pillow.

He could smell unwashed bodies in the cramped room he shared with 40 detainees. He listened as men, many of them arrested at car washes or outside Home Depots, cried in the night for their loved ones.

Minguela, 48, lay in the chilly downtown Los Angeles ICE facility known as B 18 and thought about his partner of eight years and their three children. In his 10 years in the United States, he had built a secure life he had only dreamed of in Mexico, ensconced in their humble one-bedroom rented home, framed photos of the family at Christmas, his “#1 Dad” figurine. Now it was all falling apart.

The morning of Aug. 14, Minguela had been on his last delivery of the day, dropping off strawberries to a tearoom in Little Tokyo. He didn’t know that Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a news conference there to inveigh against President Trump’s efforts to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives through redistricting in Texas. U.S. Border Patrol agents were massing nearby, creating a show of force outside the event.

As they moved in, one agent narrowed in on Minguela’s delivery van. Soon, he was in handcuffs, arrested for overstaying a tourist visa. As his lawyer put it, Minguela became “political, collateral damage.”

Over the six days he spent in B 18, a temporary immigration processing center, Minguela watched as several detainees chose to self-deport rather than remain in detention.

A building marking is painted on a wall at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility known as “B 18.”

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

”No aguanto aqui,” the men would say. “I can’t take it here.”

The harsh conditions, Minguela said, felt intentional. He knew he needed to stay for his family. But he wondered if he’d make it.

::

Minguela fled Mexico in 2015, driven in part by violence he faced there.

In his time servicing ATMs in Ciudad Juárez, he said he was kidnapped twice and at one point stabbed by people intent on stealing the cash. After his employers cut staff, he lost his job, helping drive his decision to leave.

Minguela came to Texas on a tourist visa and left the same day to L.A. drawn by the job opportunities and its many Spanish speakers. He had little money, rented a room as he searched for employment and soon found a job at the downtown produce market.

He met the woman he calls his esposa, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, at the second job he worked in the Piñata District. They are not married but Minguela helped raise her two children and later their son, who is autistic. The children — 15, 12 and 6 — all call him Dad.

With Minguela there, his esposa said she never felt alone. He helped with the laundry and cleaning. He played Roblox with his middle son and helped his 15-year-old daughter with her homework, especially math.

“He would always make sure that we would stay on track,” his daughter said. “He would always want the best for us.”

Photos captured the life they had built in L.A. The family in San Pedro for a boat ride. Celebrating Father’s Day and birthdays with cake and balloons. At a Day of the Dead celebration on Olvera Street downtown.

Angel Minguela Palacios with his partner of eight years and their 6-year-old son.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

When immigration raids began in June, their lives suddenly narrowed. Minguela rarely went out, leaving the house only for work and errands. His daughter would warn him if she heard rumors of immigration officers near her high school, so he wouldn’t risk picking her up.

Minguela planned ahead, made copies of his keys and left money for his family in case he was grabbed by immigration agents. But he never expected it would happen to him.

On Aug. 14, his alarm went off at 1:15 a.m., as it did almost every day. He drank the coffee his wife had brought him as he headed to the produce market, where he’d worked for the same company for eight years.

Minguela helped take orders of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, before heading out to make deliveries around 8 a.m. He had around half a dozen places to hit before he would call it a day.

His partner called to warn him that she’d seen on social media that ICE officers were near one of his delivery spots. He had just been there and luckily missed them, he said.

He was relieved that the Little Tokyo tearoom was his last stop. It didn’t open until 11 a.m. He arrived 10 minutes after. He found a parking spot out front and began unloading the boxes of strawberries and one box of apples.

Minguela was adjusting wooden pallets in the van when he heard a knock. He turned to see a Border Patrol agent, who began asking him about his legal status. Rather than answer, Minguela said he pulled a red “know your rights” card out of his wallet and handed it to the agent.

Angel Minguela Palacios took this image of a federal agent looking at his identification outside of the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14.

(Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios)

The agent told him it was “of no use” and handed it back. As he held his wallet, Minguela said the agent demanded his license. After running his information, Minguela said, the agent placed him in handcuffs.

::

Inside B 18, the lights never turned off. No matter the hour, officers would call detainees out of the room for interviews, making it difficult to get uninterrupted sleep, Minguela recounted. The temperature was so cold, family members dropped off sweaters and jackets for loved ones.

The detainees were given thin, shiny emergency blankets to sleep with. He described them as “aluminum sheets.” As the days passed, he said, even those ran out for new detainees. The bathrooms were open-air, providing no privacy. Detainees went days without showering.

The conditions, he said, felt intentional. A form of “pressure to get people to sign to leave.”

Department of Homeland Security officials have previously told The Times that “any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false.”

When Minguela closed his eyes, he saw the faces of his family. He wondered how his esposa would keep them afloat all alone. He wanted to believe this was just a nightmare from which he would soon awaken.

He replayed the morning events over and over in his head. What if he had gotten to Little Tokyo five minutes earlier? Five minutes later?

“Those days were the hardest,” Minguela said. “My first day there on the floor, I cried. It doesn’t matter that you’re men, it doesn’t matter your age. There, men cried.”

The men talked among themselves, most worrying about their wives and children. They shared where they’d been taken from. Minguela estimated that around 80% of people he was held with had been detained at car washes and Home Depot. Others had been arrested while leaving court hearings.

Minguela said he’d only been asked once, on his second day, if he wanted to self-deport. He said no. But he watched as several others gave up and signed to leave. Minguela hoped he’d be sent to Adelanto, a nearby detention center. He’d heard it might be harder to get bond in Texas or Arizona.

On the sixth day, around 4 a.m., Minguela and more than 20 others had been pulled out of the room and shackled. He only learned he was going to Arizona after overhearing a conversation between two guards.

It felt, Minguela said, “like the world came crashing down on me.”

The 25 detainees were loaded onto a white bus and spent around 10 hours on the road, before arriving at a detention center near Casa Grande. When Minguela saw it for the first time, in the desert where the temperature was hitting 110 degrees, he felt afraid. It looked like a prison.

“Ay caray, adonde nos trajeron,” he thought. Wow, where did they bring us?

::

There were around 50 people in Minguela’s wing. His cell mate, an African immigrant, had been fighting his asylum case for five months, hoping to get to his family in Seattle.

For the first time since his youth, Minguela had time to read books, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “No One Writes to the Colonel.” He read the Bible, taking comfort in Psalm 91, a prayer of trust and protection. He took online courses on CPR, computer skills and how to process his emotions.

But all the distractions, he said, didn’t change the fact that detainees were imprisoned.

“Lo que mata es el encierro,” Minguela said. “What kills you is the confinement.”

Angel Minguela Palacios spent more than a month in immigration detention.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Almost everyone there, Minguela said, had arrived with the intention of fighting their case. There were detainees who had been there for a year fighting to get asylum, others for eight months. Some had been arrested despite having work permits. Others had been scammed out of thousands of dollars by immigration lawyers who never showed up for their court hearings. Many decided to self-deport.

If he wasn’t granted bond, Minguela told his partner he feared he might do that in a moment of desperation.

Minguela lay in his darkened cell, reflecting on moments when he had arrived home, tired from work and traffic, and scolded his children about minor messes. About times he’d argued with his wife and given her the silent treatment. He made promises to God to be an even better husband and father. He asked that God help his lawyer on his case and to give him a fair judge.

Minguela had his bond hearing Sept 9. He was aided by the fact that he had entered the country lawfully, providing the judge the ability to either grant or deny him bond.

Alex Galvez, Minguela’s lawyer, told the judge about his client’s children. He pointed out that Minguela didn’t have a criminal record and was gainfully employed, the primary breadwinner for his family. Galvez submitted 16 letters of recommendation for his client.

Angel Minguela Palacios beams at his 6-year-old son.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

When the government lawyer referred to Minguela as a flight risk, Galvez said, the judge appeared skeptical, pointing out that he’d been paying tens of thousands of dollars in taxes for the last 10 years.

The judge granted a $1,500 bond. Minguela’s employers at the produce company paid it. When Minguela was pulled out of his cell on the night of Sept. 17, the other detainees applauded.

“Bravo,” they shouted. “Echale ganas.” Give it your all.

::

A crowd of people waited to greet Minguela as soon as he stepped off a Greyhound bus at Union Station in downtown L.A. on Thursday night. His partner and their three children all wore black shirts that read “Welcome Home.”

Minguela’s employer, Martha Franco, her son, Carlos Franco, and her nephew held “Welcome Back” balloons and flowers.

“He’s coming,” the children cried, when the bus groaned to a halt at 9:35 p.m. When Minguela spotted the waiting crowd, he beamed. His youngest son jumped up and down with anticipation as he stepped off the bus.

“Estas contento,” Minguela asked the boy. “Are you happy?”

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He held his esposa tight, kissing her on the cheeks, the forehead and the lips.

Minguela knows his release is just a step in the journey. His lawyer plans to file for cancellation of his removal and hopes to secure him a work permit. Minguela said he wants other immigrants to know that “there’s hope and not to despair.”

“Have faith,” Minguela said.

When Minguela arrived home after 10 p.m., he clasped his face in surprise as he was greeted by more than a hundred red, gold and black balloons. Signs strung up around the living room read “God loves you” and “Welcome home we missed you so much.”

His partner had decorated and bought everything to make ceviche and albondigas to celebrate his return. But she hadn’t had time that day to cook. Instead, she bought him one of his favorites in his adopted home.

An In-N-Out Double-Double burger and fries.

U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino — the brash agent who led a phalanx of military personnel into MacArthur Park this summer — was called as a witness Wednesday in a misdemeanor assault case against a protester, who allegedly struck a federal agent.

Bovino, one of the faces of President Trump’s immigration crackdown that began in Los Angeles and is now underway in Chicago, took the stand to testify that he witnessed an assault committed by Brayan Ramos-Brito in Paramount on June 7.

Outfitted in his green Border Patrol uniform, Bovino testified that he witnessed Ramos-Brito drag his arm back and strike an agent with an open palm in the chest.

The incident occurred during a skirmish outside a federal building between federal law enforcement agents and locals frustrated by Trump’s immigration policies.

On a cross-examination, federal public defender Cuauhtemoc Ortega questioned Bovino about being the subject of a misconduct investigation a few years ago and receiving a reprimand for referring to undocumented immigrants as “scum, filth and trash.”

Bovino denied referring to undocumented immigrants that way and said he was referring to “a specific criminal illegal alien” — a Honduran national who he said had raped a child and reentered the United States and had been caught at or near the Baton Rouge Border Patrol station.

“I said that about a specific individual, not about undocumented peoples, that’s not correct,” he said.

Ortega pushed back, reading from the reprimand, which Bovino signed, stating that he was describing “illegal aliens.”

“They did not say one illegal alien,” Ortega said. “They said you describing illegal aliens, and or criminals, as scum, trash and filth is misconduct. Isn’t that correct?”

“The report states that,” Bovino said.

Ortega said that Bovino was warned if he committed any instance of misconduct again, “you could be fired.”

More than 40 people have been charged with a range of federal offenses, including assaulting officers and interfering with immigration enforcement, at either downtown protests or the scene of immigration raids throughout the region this summer, the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. said this week.

Ramos-Brito’s case is the first to go to trial.

The case centers around a protest outside the Paramount Business Center, across the street from Home Depot.

Already tensions were high, with federal officials raiding a retail and distribution warehouse in downtown L.A. in early June, arresting dozens of workers and a top union official.

At the Paramount complex, which houses Homeland Security Investigation offices, protesters began arriving around 10 a.m on June 7. Among them was Ramos-Brito.

Several videos played in court Tuesday showed Ramos-Brito and another man cursing at Border Patrol agents and stepping inches from their faces with balled fists. At one point, Ramos-Brito approached multiple Border Patrol agents who appeared to be Latino and said “you’re a f—ing disgrace if you’re Mexican.”

Asst. U.S. Atty. Patrick Kibbe said that while many protesters were “passionately” demonstrating, Ramos-Brito crossed a line by striking U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jonathan Morales.

“There’s a constitutional right to protest peacefully. It is a crime to hit a federal officer,” Kibbe said.

Federal public defender M. Bo Griffith, however, said Ramos-Brito was the victim of an assault, not the other way around.

Both social media and body-worn camera footage played in court clearly show Morales shove Ramos-Brito first, sending him flying backward into the busy intersection of Alondra Blvd. While footage shows Morales marching back toward the agent with his fists balled, no angle clearly captures the alleged assault.

Aside from Morales, three other agents took the stand Tuesday, but none said they saw Ramos-Brito hit Morales. None of the agents who testified were outfitted with body-worn cameras that day, according to Border Patrol Asst. Chief Jorge Rivera-Navarro, who serves as chief of staff for “Operation At Large” in Los Angeles.

Some of the Border Patrol agents swarming L.A. in recent months come from stations that don’t normally wear body-worn cameras, according to Navarro. He testified that he has since issued an order that led to cameras being distributed to agents working in L.A.

The clash that led to the assault charge started when Ramos-Brito stepped to U.S. Border Patrol Agent Eduardo Mejorado, who said he repeatedly asked Ramos-Brito to move to the sidewalk as the protest was blocking traffic. Video shows Mejorado place his hand on Ramos-Brito’s shoulder twice, and the defendant swatting it away.

At that point, Morales, a 24-year veteran of the Border Patrol, said he thought he needed to step in and de-escalate the situation between his fellow agent and Ramos-Brito. He did so by shoving Ramos-Brito backward into the intersection, according to video played in court. Morales said Ramos-Brito then charged at him while cursing and threw a punch at the upper part of his chest and throat.

On cross-examination, Griffith confronted Morales and Mejorado with inconsistencies between descriptions of the event they previously gave to a Homeland Security Investigations officer and their testimony in court. It was not the first time such a discrepancy affected the case.

Federal prosecutors previously dropped charges against Jose Mojica, another protester who was arrested alongside Ramos-Brito, after video footage called into question the testimony of an immigration enforcement agent.

According to an investigation summary of Mojica’s arrest previously reviewed by The Times, Mejorado claimed a man was screaming in his face that he was going to “shoot him,” then punched him at the Paramount protest. The officer said he and other agents started chasing the man, but were “stopped by two other males,” later identified as Mojica and Ramos-Brito.

Video played in court Tuesday and previously reported by The Times shows that sequence of events did not happen. Ramos-Brito and Mojica were arrested in a dogpile of agents after Ramos-Brito allegedly struck Mojica. There was no chase.

Questioned about Mojica’s case in July, a Homeland Security spokesperson said they were unable to comment on cases “under active litigation.”

Defense attorneys said Ramos-Brito sustained multiple contusions on his face, neck and back and had cuts and scrapes on his body from being dragged across the pavement later.

According to his attorneys, Ramos-Brito’s only prior interaction with law enforcement was for driving without a license.

The case could prove to be a bellwether for other immigration protest charges filed by Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli in a region where many potential jurors have negative views of immigration enforcement, or may be immigrants themselves.

On Tuesday morning, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson had to remove 21 potential jurors from the pool, several of whom said they could not be impartial due to their views on immigration policy.

Many of the potential jurors said they were first or second generation immigrants from the Philippines, Colombia, Bulgaria, Jamaica and Canada.

“I believe that immigrants are part of this country and I’m kind of partial with the defendant,” said one man, a landscaper from Lancaster.

A U.K. Royal Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft was noted today flying in Polish airspace along the border with Russia and Belarus, apparently highlighting a significant, if overlooked, overland surveillance mission for the type. The unusual flight comes amid rising tensions between NATO and Russia in the region, following the Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace last week. Since then, more Russian drones have entered Romanian airspace, while NATO has begun deploying additional fighter jets to bolster Poland’s air defenses.

Evidence of today’s Royal Air Force P-8 mission appeared on publicly available flight-tracking websites, which showed the Poseidon, serial number ZP809, flying up and down the Polish side of the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in the north and with Belarus in the south. The P-8 was operating from its home base of RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

The P-8 may be generally described as a maritime patrol platform, but is more accurately a multi-mission type with extensive intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. These are equally relevant for missions over land or over water. Even without any specific modifications, the P-8’s standard electronic support measures (ESM) suite allows it to act in an electronic intelligence (ELINT) collection role, specifically on enemy air defenses and electronic order of battles. This is something we will come back to later in this story.

As its main operator, the U.S. Navy has further adapted a handful of P-8s for specialized ISR, with modifications such as a secretive radar system, the AN/APS-154 Advanced Airborne Sensor, or AAS. Even without AAS, the U.S. Navy regularly uses P-8s to execute intelligence-gathering duties, specifically ELINT, outside of its sea control/anti-submarine warfare/anti-surface warfare tasks.

This is just part of the U.S. Navy’s extensive investments in further expanding the capabilities of its P-8s with new munitions, podded self-protection systems, and other improvements.

As for the Royal Air Force, however, the small fleet of just nine aircraft at Lossiemouth means that these have been primarily tasked with patrolling the North Atlantic, including the strategically vital Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom Gap, better known as the GIUK Gap. This includes defending against potential Russian aggression and tracking Russian submarine activity, which has been a growing area of concern for some time now, as well as protecting the U.K. Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) when they go out on deterrence patrol.

Indeed, the small size of the Royal Air Force P-8 fleet saw the United Kingdom discuss plans to team up with Norway to cooperate on Poseidon operations, and, in the future, Germany will be added to this group. This will provide a further boost to NATO’s ability to effectively patrol the North Atlantic.

As regards using its P-8s for overland ISR, the Royal Air Force has previously been lukewarm on this.

According to Gareth Jennings, the aviation desk editor at Janes, the Royal Air Force once planned to use the P-8 for overland surveillance, but shelved the idea due to the small number of aircraft being purchased

Was told not all that long ago that, although the RAF originally intended the P-8 to have an overland surveillance capability, this would not now be the case owing to the relatively few aircraft being procured and commitment to its core-carrier protection/MPA and ASW tasks. Seems… https://t.co/8iCZ3RshAP

— Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) September 15, 2025

Whether the mission over Poland today signals some kind of change is unclear, but we have reached out to the U.K. Ministry of Defense and NATO to try and find out more about this flight.

Suffice it to say, activities in Kaliningrad and Belarus right now mean there are plenty of points of considerable interest to NATO.

Currently, the armed forces of Russia and Belarus are conducting the first iteration of their joint Zapad maneuvers since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Zapad drills — meaning ‘West’ — are widely seen as intimidation exercises directed against NATO’s eastern flank. Ahead of the exercise, Poland said it was deploying 40,000 troops along its borders with Belarus and Russia. Poland had previously closed most border crossings with Belarus, leaving only two in operation.

It’s also worth recalling that the Zapad-2021 exercise was used, in part, as cover for the westward movement of troops and equipment months before Moscow launched its all-out assault on Ukraine.

The scenario for Zapad-2025 involves an imagined Western invasion of Belarus. Although much smaller than in pre-2022 editions, the close coordination of Russian and Belarusian forces, including armor, crewed and uncrewed aircraft, air defense systems, and naval assets, provides an ideal opportunity for intelligence gathering.

🇷🇺⚡🇵🇱 Russia deployed nuclear capable SRBM “Iskander” on a highway in the Kaliningrad region near the Polish border, as part of #Zapad 2025 exercises with Belarus. pic.twitter.com/QOdODGfTaE

— Geo News (@GeoTienou) September 13, 2025

While we cannot know for sure at this point, today’s P-8 flight would appear to be entirely in line with that kind of intelligence-gathering mission.

Elsewhere in Poland, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski reiterated that, while the drones that entered Poland last week were capable of carrying warheads, they were not loaded with explosives.

Increasingly, NATO leaders in Europe are seeing the Russian drone incursions as a deliberate, incremental escalation directed against NATO. This kind of approach is very much in line with an escalating campaign of hostile activities short of all-out war across Europe, of which Russia has been accused. The tempo of the operations has stepped up since Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine. Even before then, Russia had a long history of so-called hybrid or gray-zone warfare operations that fit this same description.

The weekend saw another Russian drone incursion, this time in Romania and much smaller in scale than last week’s in Poland.

At least one Russian drone entered Romanian airspace at 6.05 p.m. local time on Saturday during a strike on neighboring Ukraine.

According to the Romanian Ministry of Defense, the drone was intercepted by two Romanian F-16s, which were carrying out an air patrol mission in northern Dobruja and which came close to downing it, after gaining both radar and visual contact.

Forțele Aeriene au interceptat o dronă în spațiul aerian 🇷🇴
2 aeronave F-16🇷🇴din Baza 86 Aeriană au decolat azi la ora 18:05, pentru monitorizarea situației aeriene la granița cu 🇺🇦, ca urmare a unor atacuri aeriene 🇷🇺asupra infrastructurii 🇺🇦 de la Dunărehttps://t.co/uGPjZVDt07 pic.twitter.com/95XooGzfX5

— MApN (@MApNRomania) September 13, 2025

The drone orbited for about 50 minutes, according to the defense ministry, before leaving Romanian airspace near the town of Pardina in northern Dobruja, heading toward Ukraine.

The Romanian foreign minister summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the incident, which also drew further condemnation from European Union leaders.

In a statement, the Romanian Ministry of Defense said that the various drone incursions in recent days “represent a new challenge to regional security and stability in the Black Sea area.”

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Russia’s incursion into Romanian airspace is once again a blatant violation of EU sovereignty and a serious threat to regional security.”

This morning, Russia attempted to deflect the blame, describing the drone incursion as “a provocation” by Kyiv, but providing no evidence to back this up.

The first additional NATO fighters have now arrived in Poland to help bolster air defenses on the alliance’s eastern flank. These are French Air and Space Force Rafales from Escadron de Chasse 2/4 “La Fayette,” which are now at Mińsk Mazowiecki Air Base in eastern Poland. While there has been some surprise in certain quarters that this is a unit with a nuclear tasking, it’s one of two units that have a nuclear mission alongside other roles, including air defense.

French Dassault Rafale fighter jet armed with MICA air-to-air missiles taking off from the Minsk Mazowiecki Air Base in eastern Poland.

Three French Rafales have been deployed to Poland as a part of the ongoing Operation “Eastern Sentry” – NATO’s response to recent Russian drone… https://t.co/wo8BApj6FR pic.twitter.com/i2WdnoeSJP

— Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (@Archer83Able) September 14, 2025

Last Friday, NATO leaders announced details of a new mission, Eastern Sentry, which includes the deployment of two F-16s and an anti-air warfare frigate by Denmark, the three Rafales from France, and four Eurofighters from Germany. Already forward-deployed to help defend NATO’s eastern flank are F-35As from Italy and the Netherlands, based in Estonia and Poland, respectively.

A NATO spokesperson told TWZ today that the first activation of Eastern Sentry saw the alliance scramble fighters in both Poland and Romania over the weekend, including the newly arrived French Rafales, and also placed ground-based air defenses on alert. In related news, German Eurofighters are now under NATO control too, but they have, so far, not scrambled as part of this operation.

Today, the United Kingdom confirmed its plans to add Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters to Eastern Sentry, with the U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey writing on X that “Russia crossed a line with the reckless drone incursions into NATO airspace.” The deployment of Typhoons to help defend Polish airspace “is a message to Moscow: you tested NATO, we responded with strength and unity, Healey added.”

Russia crossed a line with the reckless drone incursions into @NATO airspace.

The UK will fly @RoyalAirForce Typhoons on NATO air defence missions over Poland, deterring Russian aggression.

This is a message to Moscow: you tested NATO, we responded with strength and unity.

— John Healey (@JohnHealey_MP) September 15, 2025

Also now in Poland are the three Mi-17 Hip helicopters that the Czech Republic also pledged to help defend NATO’s eastern flank. The rotorcraft are assigned to the Special Operations Air Task Unit (SOATU).

“We are fulfilling the promise we made to our close ally. Our soldiers are already in Poland and are ready to participate in strengthening the protection of airspace on Poland’s eastern border,” said Czech Minister of Defense Jana Černochová.

As to what happens next in NATO’s response to the drone incursions, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has suggested that NATO should consider imposing a ‘no-fly’ zone over Ukraine to protect the alliance from Russian drones. As we have explored in the past, establishing something like this over Ukraine would be no easy task, and the alliance previously rejected such a proposal amid fears that it could lead to direct confrontation with Russian combat aircraft.

Speaking about extending such missions into Ukrainian airspace, Sikorski told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine: “We as NATO and the EU could be capable of doing this, but it is not a decision that Poland can make alone; it can only be made with its allies.” He continued: “Protection for our population — for example, from falling debris — would naturally be greater if we could combat drones and other flying objects beyond our national territory. If Ukraine were to ask us to shoot them down over its territory, that would be advantageous for us. If you ask me personally, we should consider it,” Sikorski added.

The potential risks involved in such an initiative were reinforced today by a statement from top Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev, who warned that the establishment of a ‘no-fly’ zone in Ukraine and allowing NATO allies to shoot down Russian drones would amount to a “NATO war with Russia.”

It appears that the kind of ‘no-fly’ zone that Sikorski is proposing would only shoot down Russian drones that were understood to be heading toward NATO airspace, although determining this would also not always be straightforward, with plenty of potential for misunderstanding between the alliance, Russia, and Ukraine.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Sept. 15 (UPI) — U.S. border agents in Texas said they uncovered $16 million worth of methamphetamine hidden in a load of mangoes.

The drug delivery was uncovered weeks after $50 million of the illegal drug was discovered in another bust at America’s southern border.

Officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Laredo said Monday that a tractor trailer shipment of frozen mangos allegedly carried hundreds of packages of what authorities believe to be illicit methamphetamine weighing nearly 2,000 pounds.

“It is not unusual to encounter hard narcotics comingled with fresh produce,” according to Alberto Flores, director of the Laredo Port of Entry.

Flores said border officers made the discovery last Tuesday in what he described as an “effective combination of targeting and high-tech tools to take down this significant methamphetamine load” of about 733 packages that weighed nearly 1,791 pounds during a traffic stop at World Trade Bridge.

According to U.S. officials, the payload had a value of more than $16 million.

CBP agents seized the narcotics hidden within the shipment after the mango-carrying truck was referred for a secondary inspection and underwent a “nonintrusive inspection” by a canine unit.

The most recent drug bust comes a few weeks after the U.S. border agency revealed it uncovered nearly $50 million of the illegal drug during two separate stops in the same area.

On Monday, Flores added that seizures of hard narcotics “on this scale underscore not only the pervasive nature of the drug threat but our steadfast commitment to keeping our border secure,” he said in a statement.

A criminal investigation is ongoing by agents of Homeland Security Investigations.

US military action against a Venezuelan boat sparks condemnation and troop deployments.

Venezuela has accused the United States of illegally boarding and occupying one of its fishing vessels in the country’s special economic zone, further escalating tensions between Caracas and Washington.

In a statement on Saturday, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the vessel, carrying nine “humble” and “harmless” fishermen, was intercepted by the US destroyer USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109) on Friday.

“The warship deployed 18 armed agents who boarded and occupied the small, harmless boat for eight hours,” the statement said, calling the incident a “direct provocation through the illegal use of excessive military means”.

The move follows a US military strike last week in the Caribbean that killed 11 Venezuelans and sank a boat that the administration of US President Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, had been transporting narcotics.

Venezuela has rejected these claims, with Minister of the Popular Power for Interior Diosdado Cabello insisting none of those killed was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, as alleged by Washington.

“They openly confessed to killing 11 people,” Cabello said on state television. “Our investigations show the victims were not drug traffickers. A murder has been committed against a group of citizens using lethal force.”

The White House defended the strike, with spokeswoman Anna Kelly calling the victims “evil Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists” and saying that Nicolas Maduro is “not the legitimate president of Venezuela” and is a “fugitive.”

Several countries deny Maduro’s legitimacy as a democratically elected leader due to what some have viewed as unfair elections, but the Trump administration has not provided evidence linking the Venezuelan president to Tren de Aragua. US intelligence agencies have said there is no sign of coordination between the government and traffickers.

Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Venezuelan President Maduro announced the deployment of troops, police and civilian militias across 284 “battlefront” locations, reinforcing previous troop increases along the Colombian border.

Speaking from Ciudad Caribia, Maduro signalled Venezuela’s readiness to defend its water, saying: “We’re ready for an armed fight, if it’s necessary.”

The US has also expanded its military presence in the southern Caribbean, sending warships and deploying 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.

Last month, Washington doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50m, citing alleged drug trafficking and criminal ties, a claim Venezuela denies, asserting it is not a drug-producing country.

Military confirms deadly operations in Bajaur and South Waziristan amid rising attacks by the Pakistan Taliban.

Pakistani security forces have raided two hideouts of the Pakistan Taliban armed group near the Afghan border this week, triggering fierce clashes that killed 12 soldiers and 35 fighters, says the military.

The military on Saturday said 22 fighters were killed in the first raid in Bajaur, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Thirteen more were killed in a separate operation in South Waziristan district, it added.

The statement said the 12 soldiers, “having fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced martyrdom” in South Waziristan, their deaths underscoring the struggles Pakistan faces as it tries to rein in resurging armed groups.

The Pakistan Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message on social media. The group, which Islamabad says is based in Afghanistan, is separate to but closely linked with the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan Taliban uses Afghan soil to stage attacks in Pakistan, the military said, urging the Taliban government in Kabul “to uphold its responsibilities and deny use of its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan”.

The military described the killed fighters as “Khwarij”, a term the government uses for the Pakistan Taliban, and alleged they were backed by India, though it offered no evidence for the allegation.

Pakistan has long accused India of supporting the Pakistan Taliban and separatists in Balochistan, charges that New Delhi denies. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban in Kabul or from New Delhi.

From 10-13 September, thirty five Khwarij belonging to Indian Proxy, Fitna al Khwarij were sent to hell in two separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

On reported presence of Khwarij, an intelligence based operation was conducted by the Security Forces in Bajaur…

— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) September 13, 2025

Pakistan has faced a surge in armed attacks in recent years, most claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, which has become emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, with many Pakistan Taliban leaders and fighters finding sanctuary across the border.

Saturday’s attack was one of the deadliest in months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the Pakistan Taliban once controlled swaths of territory until they were pushed back by a military operation that began in 2014.

For several weeks, residents of various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have reported that graffiti bearing the Pakistan Taliban’s name has appeared on buildings. They say they fear a return to the group’s reign over the region during the peak of the so-called war on terror, led by the United States, which spilled across from Afghanistan.

A local government official recently told the AFP news agency that the number of Pakistan Taliban fighters and attacks had increased.

Nearly 460 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed since January 1 in attacks carried out by armed groups fighting the state, both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southern province of Balochistan, according to an AFP tally.

Last year was Pakistan’s deadliest in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 deaths, nearly half of them soldiers and police officers, according to the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies.

The Hollywood sign has been blown up in movies, altered by pranksters to read “Hollyweed,” “Jollygood” and “Hollyboob” and saw Tom Cruise staple some Olympic rings on it to promote the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Politicians have used it as a prop for commercials and mailers the way they do kissing a baby or eating a taco. Out-of-town goobers and locals alike hike up to various vantage points around it for a selfie or group shot.

But the crown for the worst stunt involving the monument to everything dreamy and wonderful about L.A. now lies with the Border Patrol.

Earlier this week, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief in charge of Trump’s long, hot deportation summer in L.A., posted on social media a photo of him and dozens of his officers posing on a patch of dirt in what looks like Lake Hollywood Park. Behind them is the Hollywood sign.

Arms are crossed. Hands are on belts. A few National Guard troops, one with a K9 unit, join in. None of the faces are masked for once. That’s because they didn’t have to be: Almost every one of them is blurred out.

“This is the team. They’re the ones on the ground, making it happen,” wrote Bovino, one of only two in the photo without a blurry face. “The mean green team is not going anywhere. We are here to stay.” And just in case readers didn’t get that la migra is hard, Bovino concluded his post with a fire emoji.

The faces of these supposedly brave men are more fuzzed out than Bigfoot in that famous footage from 1967.

Jeff Zarrinnam, chairman of the nonprofit in charge of maintaining the Hollywood sign, said “we have to stay neutral on these types of things,” so he didn’t offer his opinion on why a man who spent his summer terrorizing large swaths of the Southland would want to pose there. He did say the Border Patrol didn’t request special access to get closer to it as other politicians have in the past.

“It was probably a team-building effort for them, or a lot of them probably hadn’t seen it before,” he said. “It’s a symbol of America. Maybe that’s why they were standing up there. Who knows?”

L.A. Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose district is where the Hollywood sign stands, was not as charitable.

“To see an icon of this city used for an image designed to instill fear in Angelenos is chilling — particularly on the heels of Monday’s Supreme Court ruling which dealt a devastating blow to a city that has already faced so much hardship this year,” she said in a statement.

Bovino is expected to show up soon in Chicago to oversee the Border Patrol’s invasion of the Windy Cindy. His press team didn’t return my request for an interview or my questions about whether the photo was digitally altered — other than the face blurring and the ultra-sharp focusing on Bovino — and what he hoped to accomplish with it. The sign itself looks shrouded in fog, but who knows? The whole photo has a weirdness about it.

Nevertheless, Bovino’s smirk in the group portrait says it all.

This is a guy who came into town like so many newcomers before him wanting to make it big and willing to do whatever it took. Short, with a high fade haircut and nasal drawl, Bovino quickly became a constant on local news, selling himself as a mix of Andy Griffith (a fellow North Carolina native) and Lt. Col. Kilgore in “Apocalypse Now.”

He starred in slickly produced government-created videos portraying the Border Patrol as warriors on a divine mission to make the City of Angeles safe from immigrant infidels. He claimed local politicians were endangering residents with their sanctuary policies and gleefully thumbed his nose at a temporary restraining order barring indiscriminate raids like those, which the Supreme Court just ruled can start happening again. He was there, a cameraman filming his every strut, when National Guard troops in armed Humvees parked along Whittier Boulevard in July all so Border Patrol agents on horseback could trot through an empty MacArthur Park.

Bovino cheered on via social media when his “mean green team” rented a Penske truck to lure in day laborers at a Westlake Home Depot in August only to detain them. Even worse was Bovino showing up in front of the Japanese American National Museum with a phalanx of migra while California’s political class was inside decrying the gerrymandering push by President Trump. He pleaded ignorance on that last action when Gov. Gavin Newsom and others accused the sector chief of trying to intimidate them even as friendly media just happened to be there, just like they so happened to be embedded with immigration agents all summer as they chased after tamale ladies and day laborers.

Supporters played up his moves as if they were a master class in psyops, with grandiose codenames such as Operation Trojan Horse for the Penske truck raid and Operation Excalibur for the invasion of MacArthur Park. So Bovino and his janissaries posing in front of the Hollywood sign comes off like a hunter posing in front of his killed prey or a taunting postcard to L.A.: Thinking about you. See you soon.

But all of Bovino’s actions grabbed far more non-criminals than actual bad hombres and did nothing to make Southern California safer. Locals have countered his attempt at a shock-and-awe campaign with lawsuits, protests, mutual aid and neighborhood watches that won’t end. That resistance forced la migra to cry to their daddy Trump for National Guard and Marine backup, with an occasional call to the LAPD and L.A. Sheriff’s Department to keep away the boo birds who now track their every move.

Greg: hope you enjoyed your stay in L.A. Congrats — you made it! You’re the star of your own D-level Tinseltown production that no one except pendejos wants to see. You left L.A. as one of the most loathed outsiders since former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Stay gone. Wish you weren’t here.

Sept. 11 (UPI) — The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the “Stop Illegal Entry Act,” which increases potential prison sentences for those who are convicted of repeatedly illegally entering the United States.

The proposed Stop Illegal Entry Act of 2025 is part of the Trump administration’s and the GOP’s efforts to discourage illegal immigration and related crimes.

Eleven Democrats joined with Republicans to approve House Resolution 3486, 226-197, and sent the measure to the Senate, where a similar measure has been introduced, Roll Call reported.

“The Biden Administration let over 10 million illegal immigrants into the country and failed to prosecute those who defied U.S.immigration law,” said sponsor Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla.

“These individuals included people from countries designated as state sponsors of terror, with 400 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watch List being encountered at the border,” Bice continued.

“We must deter future illegal immigration and give our law enforcement and border patrol officers the tools they need to hold dangerous criminals accountable.”

The measure would set a mandatory prison sentence of at least five years and up to life for those who are convicted of a felony after illegally entering the nation.

The resolution also increases to five years the prior maximum sentence of two years for those convicted of repeated illegal entry.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the measure includes “common-sense provisions” that deter illegal entry into the United States.

“Deterrence is an effective method of prevention, and the Stop Illegal Entry Act delivers the enforcement measures necessary to help strengthen law and order at our border,” Johnson said.

American Civil Liberties Union officials oppose the measure’s passage and in a press release said H.R. 3486 “would impose extreme prison sentences” on asylum seekers, teenagers and people trying to reunite with their families.

“H.R. 3486 would supercharge President Trump’s reckless deportation drive, which is already damaging our economy and destabilizing communities,” said Mike Zamore, ACLU national director of policy and government affairs.

“This legislation would hand the Trump administration more tools to criminalize immigrants and terrorize communities at the same time they are deploying federal agents and the military to our streets,” he continued.

“It would also undermine public safety by diverting more resources away from youth services and prevention programs that actually improve community safety.”

Sept. 4 (UPI) — A pair of drug seizures by Customs and Border Protection agents along the Texas-Mexico border has netted methamphetamine shipments with an estimated street value of $50 million, the agency announced on Thursday.

In the first and larger of the two, agents stopped a truck hauling aluminum burrs that was concealing $37 million worth of the drug through the Colombia-Solidarity cargo facility in Laredo.

“Physical inspection led to the discovery of four sacks of alleged methamphetamine with a combined weight of 4,241 pounds concealed within the shipment,” a release from CBP said.

In the other seizure, agents seized 488 packages of what they believed was methamphetamine with a street value of $13.2 million in a commercial truck hauling a load of broccoli at the Pharr international cargo facility in Pharr, Texas.

Nearly 1,500 pounds of the drug was concealed in the roof of the truck, CBP said.

The seizures are the latest in a series of drug stops along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

In June, agents seized a load of amphetamines valued at $6.7 billion being smuggled across the border at the Pharr crossing by someone in a stolen sports sedan.

“The cargo environment continues to be a top choice for trafficking organizations but our CBP officers, along with our tools and technology, are a force to be reckoned with,” Carlos Rodriguez, port director of the Pharr port said at the time.