Two South Texas gang members have been sentenced for human smuggling, following a series of high-speed chases at the border that involved one of the gang members crashing his car into the Rio Grande and swimming to Mexico to escape.A Monday statement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the two human smugglers, Juan Miguel Regalado, 28, and Samuel Grajeda Jr., 21, are members of “Puro Tango Blast,” a local Texas gang.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted its first self-deport operation, dubbed “Project Homecoming,” with a charter flight on Monday from Texas, and made stops in Honduras and Columbia, taking 64 illegal immigrants who chose to self-deport back to their home countries.DHS said in a post on X that all participants who chose to leave the U.S. were offered the same benefits as any illegal alien who self-deports using the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is launching an investigation into the City of Chicago for allegedly engaging in a pattern of discrimination based on race, which is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday to notify him that an investigation into civil rights violations was being opened.

Following news that the House Rules Committee will convene at 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning to take the next steps in advancing President Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill, Democrats are accusing Republicans of cowardice for advancing the monumental bill “in the dead of night.”The House Budget Committee reached an initial consensus to pass the bill to the Rules Committee late Sunday evening, after gaveling in at approximately 10:00 p.m.

President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” survived a key hurdle in the House of Representatives on Sunday night, putting it one step closer to a chamber-wide vote later this week.It comes after a rebellion by four House conservatives upended plans to advance the bill on Friday morning.Lawmakers on the House Budget Committee were summoned back to Washington for a 10 p.m. meeting to vote again on the bill.

As the Trump administration has moved to end protections for thousands of Afghan nationals, faith leaders and advocates are sounding the alarm over the potential deportation of Christian converts, who, they say, face severe persecution under Taliban rule.Pastor Behnam Rasooli, known as Pastor Ben, leads the Oklahoma Khorasan Church in Oklahoma City, a congregation primarily composed of Afghan Christian refugees.