Daily Caller
Mexico Developing ‘Alert Button’ App For Migrants Getting Arrested By ICE
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Hopkins
The Mexican government is developing a cellphone app for its citizens to use if they are in the United States and believe they are about to be detained by federal immigration authorities.
The app will allow Mexican nationals to press a tab that sends an alert notification to previously chosen relatives and the nearest consulate when they suspect they are about to be apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente said at a news conference Friday alongside President Claudia Sheinbaum. The announcement is the latest by the Mexican government as it braces for President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of a wide-scale deportation operation come January.
“In case you find yourself in a situation where detention is imminent, you push the alert button, and that sends a signal to the nearest consulate,” de la Fuente said of the project, according to the Associated Press.
He added that the app has already been tested on a small-scale and “appears to be working very well.” Government officials anticipate a full release by January, just in time for Trump’s return to the White House.
Along with plans to resume construction of the U.S-Mexico border wall, a relaunch of the Remain in Mexico program, and slapping Mexican imports with sweeping tariffs unless their government does more to stop the flow of illegal immigration, the incoming Trump administration has also vowed to launch the largest deportation program ever conducted in U.S. history. The ambitious agenda has sparked tension with Sheinbaum, an ideological leftist who is viewed as more sympathetic to the plight of illegal migrants.
As the number one source of illegal immigration into the U.S. and as the only country to share its southern border, Mexico naturally plays an outsized role in American immigration policy.
Mexicans nationals make up the largest portion of all immigrants living in the U.S. by far, according to the Migration Policy Institute. As of 2023, they accounted for roughly 23% of the 47.8 million foreign-born individuals living in the country. They also make up nearly half of the roughly 11 million illegal migrants currently residing in the U.S.
In response to Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican imports unless the country did more to stop illegal immigration and the flow of drugs into the U.S., Sheinbaum penned a public letter that warned the president-elect of a “response in kind” if he were to move forward with the threat. It appears that talks of a tariff war have already created headaches for the Mexican market, with a number of manufacturers declaring that they are reconsidering investments into the country until they get more clarification on the situation.
However, Sheinbaum has also signaled she is willing to play ball, with the Mexican president declaring in November that her country is prepared to accept what is expected to be a massive number of Mexican nationals once Trump executes his deportation agenda.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to block a law requiring that the social media platform TikTok either be sold or shut down by Jan. 19.
In April, President Joe Biden signed legislation allowing the ban of the Chinese-owned social media platform unless it is sold to a non-Chinese company within the year. Despite the company’s attempts to challenge the legislation as the shutdown date approaches, a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously on Dec. 6 that the ban would be upheld, citing TikTok as a potential national security risk due to the Chinese government’s involvement with the app.
In his new filing, Trump argued against the ban, seeking to resolve the issue “through political means once he takes office.”
“President Trump alone possesses the consummate deal-making expertise, the electoral mandate and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government — concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged,” the brief said.
The Supreme Court on Dec. 18 agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge against the ban, with oral arguments set to begin Jan. 10. In its emergency application to the high court, the social media platform argued that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which is the basis for the ban, will not only “shutter” the U.S.’s “most popular speech platform the day before a presidential inauguration,” but will also “silence the speech of Applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern.”
Despite attempts to ban the app through executive orders, Trump publicly opposed legislation targeting TikTok, stating that the move to ban the social media platform could potentially benefit Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Trump posted to Truth Social in March.
In addition to his request to handle the issue once in office on Jan. 20, the brief noted Trump’s large following on TikTok, arguing that it allows him to “actively” communicate with supporters.
“President Trump is one of the most powerful, prolific and influential users of social media in history,” the brief said. “Consistent with his commanding presence in this area, President Trump currently has 14.7 million followers on TikTok with whom he actively communicates, allowing him to evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech.”
TikTok additionally filed a brief Friday to the Supreme Court claiming the law being used to aid the ban was a violation of the First Amendment.
“The government has banned an extraordinary amount of speech; demands deference to unsubstantiated predictions a future risk will materialize; and gets facts wrong when it bothers to provide them,” the brief said.
“Congress’s unprecedented attempt to single out petitioners and bar them from operating one of the nation’s most significant speech venues is profoundly unconstitutional,” the brief continued.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Hopkins
New York City prosecutors have indicted a man living illegally in the country for the death of a woman who was burned alive while riding on the subway.
Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, a 33-year old Guatemalan national who was previously deported from the United States before unlawfully returning, has been indicted on first and second degree murder charges, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Friday. The gruesome details of the murder mark the latest high-profile alleged killing of a woman at the hands of an illegal migrant.
“These are significant counts,” Gonzalez said Friday, according to CNN. “Murder in the first degree carries the possibility of life without parole.”
“It’s the most serious statute in New York state law and my office is very confident about the evidence in the case and to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds,” the district attorney continued.
The NYC Office of the Medical Examiner determined the female victim — who has so far not been identified by authorities — died as a result of a homicide, attributing her death to thermal injuries and smoke inhalation.
Investigators believe the woman was sleeping on the F train in Brooklyn early Sunday when Zapeta walked up to her and used a match to light her clothes on fire, which quickly became fully engulfed in flames. He then allegedly remained on scene, sitting on a bench platform, to watch her die from her injuries.
“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim who was in a seated position at the end of the subway car,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference on the day of the incident. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”
Police officers who were on patrol at an upper level of that train station went to investigate after they smelled and saw smoke, according to Tisch, who called the attack “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit” against another human being. Upon their arrival to the scene, police found the victim standing in the train car fully engulfed in fire, and made attempts to put the fire out as quickly as possible.
Zapeta was apprehended by the New York Police Department later that day after witnesses had spotted him, and he was caught with a lighter in his pocket. It was later revealed that, while the woman was on fire, Zapeta allegedly intentionally fanned the flames by waving a shirt over her.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that he is an illegal migrant who had already been deported from the country years prior.
“U.S. Border Patrol in Sonoita, Arizona, encountered Zapeta June 1, 2018, and served him with an order of expedited removal and Enforcement and Removal Operations removed Zapeta from the U.S. to Guatemala June 7, 2018,” ICE spokesperson Jeff Carter said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “Zapeta unlawfully reentered the United States on an unknown date and location.”
The attack appears to be a random act of violence. While identifying himself in photos related to the killing, the Guatemalan national said he drinks a lot of liquor and has no recollection of the incident.
Zapeta is due to be arraigned on January 7, according to CNN. He has also been charged with arson.
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