U.S. government

Special Agent Wesley Petonak, 34, was sitting at his desk in November 2018 when he came across a PowerPoint presentation file that alarmed him. A nine-year veteran at San Diego’s Homeland Security Investigations office, Petonak knew firsthand the importance of intelligence gathering for successful immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.  But the PowerPoint was different.  Nine of the slides...

The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates.

A U.S. judge on Friday set an April 2018 trial date for Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on charges he oversaw a multibillion-dollar international drug trafficking operation responsible for murders and kidnappings. Guzman answered the judge’s questions through an interpreter. He spent half the hearing looking across the courtroom at his wife, who smiled and waved to him...

Five American journalists subject to controversial surveillance tactics at the border are now suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating their constitutionally-protected rights.

A whistleblower has lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. Government over the safety of the bunk beds at San Diego State University (SDSU) following the death of a 19-year-old freshman on November 7.

NBC 7 Investigates spoke with the whistleblower who leaked the U.S. government’s secret database on those connected to the migrant caravan. NBC 7’s Marianne Kushi has what’s up.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a partial ban on asylum does not apply to anyone who appeared at an official U.S. border crossing before the policy was announced in July, a decision that may affect thousands of people.

The Trump administration is preparing court filings to begin taking over private land to build its long-promised border wall as early as this week — without confirming how much it will pay landowners first, according to two officials familiar with the process. Jared Kushner is hosting a meeting with military and administration officials at the White House this Friday, NBC...

The Trump administration has proposed making it tougher for asylum-seekers to obtain permission to work in the United States while their cases are pending, a move that immigrant advocates say would unfairly punish those who need humanitarian protection the most. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday a proposed rule would double the time asylum-seekers must wait for a work...

A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. Tuesday’s ruling in U.S. District Court came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 11...

Multiple published reports say that the U.S. government has launched a national-security review of the China-owned video app TikTok, popular with millions of U.S. teens and young adults. The reports Friday from Reuters,The New York Times and others said that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions by foreign firms, has opened an inquiry...

Multiple published reports say that the U.S. government has launched a national-security review of the China-owned video app TikTok, popular with millions of U.S. teens and young adults. The reports Friday from Reuters,The New York Times and others said that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions by foreign firms, has opened an inquiry...

The Trump Administration is blocking shipments from a Chinese company making baby pajamas sold at Costco warehouses, after the foreign manufacturer was accused of forcing ethnic minorities locked in an internment camp to sew clothes against their will. The government is also blocking rubber gloves sold by industry leader Ansell whose customers include surgeons, mechanics and scientists around the U.S.,...

On a recent day in a remodeled brick church in the Rio Grande Valley, a caregiver tried to soothe a toddler, offering him a sippy cup. The adult knew next to nothing about the little 3-year-old whose few baby words appeared to be Portuguese. Shelter staff had tried desperately to find his family, calling the Brazilian consulate and searching Facebook....

A Bay Area man who operates tours for Chinese students and visitors was charged with being an illegal foreign agent and delivering classified U.S. national security information to officials in China, U.S. government officials announced Monday.

Thousands of Verizon Wireless customers along the southern border from San Diego to El Paso, Texas, have found themselves in the middle of a war between two international wireless companies. In one corner stands Verizon Wireless, and in the other is Altán Redes, the newly arrived wholesale wireless network in Mexico.

A U.S. judge on Friday blocked new Trump administration rules that would enable the government to keep immigrant children in detention facilities with their parents indefinitely. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the rules conflict with a 1997 settlement agreement that requires the government to release immigrant children caught on the border as quickly as possible...

Even as they publicly insist President Donald Trump did nothing wrong in his call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his allies are privately acknowledging more serious concerns about the ethical questions raised and potential political fallout from it — especially over the involvement of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. Two Trump allies, one of whom is a former senior White...

In 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden was at the forefront of American diplomatic efforts to support Ukraine’s fragile democratic government as it sought to fend off Russian aggression and root out corruption. So it raised eyebrows when Biden’s son Hunter was hired by a Ukrainian gas company. The Obama White House said at the time that there was no conflict...

A former senior Russian official is living in the Washington area under U.S. government protection, current and former government officials tell NBC News. NBC News is withholding the man’s name and other key details at the request of U.S. officials, who say reporting the information could endanger his life. An NBC News correspondent went to the man’s house in the...