BREAKING: Acting DNI Pulte Fires More Deep State Intel Officials

by Cristina Laila Jul. 26, 2026 8:20

Acting DNI Bill Pulte on Sunday evening announced that he fired more Deep State intel officials.

This is Pulte’s fourth round of firings.

“Since becoming Acting Director of National Intelligence, our team has been smartly, and carefully, reducing the size of ODNI, re-focusing ODNI on national security, the law, and the statute,” Pulte said.

“As of this evening, we just finished a 4th round of thoughtful, measured layoffs. Thank you!” Pulte said on X.

Last month Bill Pulte fired over 50 career Deep State intel officials so far.

“The Deep State firings have begun,” a source told CNN last month.

CBS News previously reported that Pulte fired six political intelligence staffers and sent 45 others to their home agencies.

CNN reported that Pulte fired six political appointees chosen by Tulsi Gabbard.

“Today, I spent time with the National Counterterrorism Center team, who is doing an incredible job protecting our Country under President Trump’s leadership. The room was filled with true professionals and American patriots. It is a privilege to work beside them,” Pulte said last month.

MS NOW reported that Pulte fired more Deep State Intel officials earlier this month.

President Trump previously announced his nomination of US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

However, Trump postponed Clayton’s confirmation until the Senators confirm his replacement for US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The delay in Clayton’s confirmation has allowed Pulte to carry out the mass firings.

The Senate is set to confirm Clayton early this week.

(https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/breaking-pulte-fires-more-people-odni/

Citizenship revoked? Trump administration ramps up controversial plan.

July 27, 2026.1/4

The Trump administration says it is targeting criminals and fraudsters who should not have become citizens in the first place. What to know about a costly, historic plan.

Revoking an immigrant's citizenship has proven to be a costly and controversial practice over the years, but theTrump administration says hundreds of people deserve to have their citizenship stripped anyway.

The plan calls for ramping up the previously rare denaturalization process as a part of a broader immigration enforcement agenda,expanding a practice President Donald Trump started in his first term.

So far, the Justice Department has moved to revoke the citizenship of nearly 90 people since the start of 2025.By October, the government is aiming to file at least 250 denaturalization cases in federal court.

Under federal law, the government can ask a judge to revoke the citizenship of someone who obtained it through fraud or misrepresentation– such as using a false identity or concealing a disqualifying criminal record during the naturalization process.

At its current rate, the administration is on pace to pursue more denaturalization cases than any other in recent modern American history.By comparison, the Biden administration brought 24 cases over four years, while the government filed 102 denaturalization cases during Trump's first term, according to the DOJ.

“This is a major increase that we haven’t seen in decades,” said Cassandra Robertson, a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University and an expert on denaturalization.

The Trump administration says it is targeting criminals and fraudsters who should not have become citizens in the first place, and framed the campaign as an effort to preserve the integrity of the naturalization process.

"When you commit fraud during the naturalization process, you forfeit the right to keep your U.S. citizenship," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a recent statement. “DHS is committed to ensuring we denaturalize and remove these fraudsters with every tool at our disposal.”

For decades, the government only pursued a handful of denaturalization cases each year, in part because they require significant resources, are expensive and can take years to resolve.The cases prosecutors did pursue largely targeted national security threats, affiliates of terror groups and suspected war criminals.

But since Trump returned to office, his administration has moved to expand the use of denaturalization.. The DOJ's civil division has been ordered to prioritize denaturalization, and agency leaders have enlisted the help of U.S. attorney’s offices nationwide to boost case numbers. In a post on X on July 20, the White House described the campaign as the "Largest Denaturalization Effort Ever."

Former DOJ attorneys and immigration law experts said the casesbeing pursued under Trump largely don't appear out of step with previous administrations. But they expressed concerns that the effort could divert resources from other priorities like prosecuting fraud or corruption cases.Some blasted the effort as a tactic meant to intimidate the country's more than 26 million naturalized citizens.

"I don't think this will make any dent in the administration's deportation goals," said Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer, describing the denaturalization process as slow-moving and, to a certain degree, unscalable."I think it does send a message that naturalized citizenship is impermanent and precarious."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/07/26/denaturalization-citizenship-trump-administration-effort/90785981007/

>>24874084

2/4

New administration, new denaturalization push

Within a week of taking office in 2025, Trump ordered "adequate resources" be dedicated to denaturalizing some U.S. citizens as part of his broader immigration strategy.

Months later, the DOJ issued a memo directing the agency's civil division, which primarily handles denaturalization cases, to "prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings.”

As of July 22, the Justice Department has filed at least 89 denaturalization cases in federal court, according to a DOJ official – nearly four times as many as were pursued during former President Joe Biden's term in office.

Of the cases filed under Trump, the government has won at least 19, the DOJ official said. And while most cases were handled by the DOJ's civil division, a significant portion have been taken up by U.S. attorney's offices across the country – a shift in procedure that experts say highlights how the government is diverting resources to try to strip more people of their U.S. citizenship than ever before.

"Occasionally the civil division would partner with U.S. attorneys' offices, but that was rare," said Young, who worked in the DOJ's civil division from 2006 to 2019 under the Bush, Obama and first Trump administrations. "I don't remember any cases being handled exclusively by U.S. attorneys' offices."

Many of the pending cases involve allegations that the defendant lied or omitted details about their previous conduct that would have made them ineligible for U.S. citizenship.

In most cases, the Justice Department cited criminal convictions on serious charges such as sexual abuse, wire fraud and drug distribution. Others involve allegations that the defendant used a fake name during the naturalization process. In multiple cases, the government accused defendants of participating in war crimes or supporting foreign terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab.

Immigration experts and former DOJ lawyers said the government’s allegations so far don’t appear out of the ordinary but noted the surge in cases overall – the result of more resources being dedicated to pursuing denaturalization.

“On first blush, these cases don’t look all that different from cases that have been brought by previous administrations,” said Daniel Kanstroom, a law professor at Boston College who specializes in immigration.

He added that the DOJ appears to be targeting people who pleaded guilty to crimes committed before or during the naturalization process. This group, according to the government, should have been denied citizenship in the first place as they did not meet the "good moral character" requirement.

A big shift

Between 1990 and 2017, an average of 11 denaturalization cases were filed per year, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The low number can largely be traced back to a 1967 ruling by the Supreme Court that says the government can only revoke citizenship in the case of fraud or “willful misrepresentation.”

That decision followed a Cold War effort to denaturalize those who the government perceived as political enemies, including labor leaders, journalists or critics of the government accused of being communists, said Amanda Frost, a University of Virginia law professor and immigration attorney. Through the two world wars and into the 1950s, some 22,000 immigrants saw their U.S. citizenship revoked, Frost said.

In the decades that followed, the government limited its prosecutions, focusing mainly on national security threats or people with ties to foreign terrorist groups.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/07/26/denaturalization-citizenship-trump-administration-effort/90785981007/

>>24874086

3/4

When Trump took office in 2016, his administration widened the program and broadened the scope of cases to include non-terror crimes such as fraud and violent offenses. The administration also set quotas. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the investigation of 700,000 naturalized citizens, with a goal of bringing some 1,600 cases to court.

While those goals weren’t ultimately met, the number of denaturalization cases brought by the DOJ jumped to an estimated 168 over four years, far outpacing the Obama and Bush administrations.

Denaturalization cases are long, costly and difficult to win

Among the reasons only a handful of denaturalization cases were pursued in previous decades is that they can take years to resolve and demand significant resources.

“It’s a cumbersome process,” said Young, the former litigator and founder of Justice Connection. “There’s tons of evidence, intensive discovery and cases often go to trial or go up on appeal.”

The Trump administration’s denaturalization push comes as the Justice Department grapples with an exodus of government lawyers and a historic caseload stemming from legal challenges to the White House’s deportation campaign.

“They’re overwhelmed,” Young said of federal attorneys nationwide, adding that the denaturalization push could pull prosecutors away from critical work, such as litigating cases involving health care fraud, environmental crimes, corruption or national security violations.

And even when a judge sides with the government, that doesn’t always lead to deportation. Instead, defendants revert to their previous status, which is often a lawful permanent resident with the right to due process and a hearing before an immigration judge.

“To remove them you have to go through a whole separate process,” Young said.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration is set on pursuing as many cases as possible. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said on July 20 that the federal government has “only scratched the surface” and promised “many more complaints are coming.”

“We refuse to give a free pass to criminals who cheated their way into American citizenship,” Shumate said. “Under this administration, if you defrauded the naturalization process, you will face the full force of the Justice Department.”

Trump, GOP allies seek to expand denaturalization

A DOJ memo published in 2025 expands what denaturalization cases should be prioritized.

Some of the new language called for focus on individuals tied to “drug cartels,” and suspects of “fraud against private individuals, funds, or corporations.” One section of the memo directs staff to prioritize cases the civil division “determines to be sufficiently important to pursue.”

Critics fear that could open the door to prosecutions targeting the administration's perceived political enemies or specific minority groups, especially given Trump's threats to remove some of his adversaries from the country.

Young, who worked in the DOJ for nearly 20 years, said the memo’s language suggests the divisionwill “target anyone for denaturalization it wants, whenever it chooses – regardless of whether a person poses a threat to the public, or engaged in egregious past conduct.”

(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/07/26/denaturalization-citizenship-trump-administration-effort/90785981007/

>>24874090

4/4

“Republican and Democratic administrations postthe Supreme Court decision understood the message of that case and understood that denaturalization was to be used sparingly and was not supposed to be a bread-and-butter tool of immigration enforcement,” Frost said.

Denaturalization cases did tick up under former President Barack Obama. At the time, new digital fingerprinting technology revealed that hundreds of people who had previously been ordered deported successfully naturalized using different identities. The Obama administration began a review aiming to denaturalize any citizen with ties to foreign terrorist organizations.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on the memo.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, should be removed from the country. In an interview with the New York Times in January, he said his administration was examining criteriafor taking away U.S. citizenships with a particular eye for those of Somali descent.

The president also floated the false claim that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “here illegally” and vowed to “look at everything.” Two Republican congressmen,Andy Ogles and Randy Fine, have called on the Justice Department to investigate Mamdani’s naturalization documents.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, severalRepublicans introduced bills this year intended to expand denaturalization.

A bill from Texas Rep. Chip Roy seeksto denaturalize “advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.” A bill from Sen. EricSchmitt, R-Missouri, would create a path to denaturalize anyone convicted of an aggravated felony, fraud or espionage as long as 10 years after naturalization.Currently, the government cannot denaturalize someone for their actions after becoming a citizen except in a few rare circumstances.

While neither bill is expected to become law, experts said itdemonstrates a growing desire among Republicans to widen the government’s ability to denaturalize some U.S. citizens.

Still, any large-scale denaturalization effort faces a significant obstacle: federal judges. Immigration attorneys and former Justice Department officials said they expect the courts to carefully review each case on its merits, as required by law.

“I would expect federal judges to be extremely careful with these cases,” said Kanstroom, of Boston College. “The case law is very clear that citizenship is a precious thing, and it should not be taken away lightly.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/07/26/denaturalization-citizenship-trump-administration-effort/90785981007/

California family reportedly attacked at luxury Hawaii resort

Olivia Harden

Several members of a California family were reportedly assaulted while on vacation in Lahaina on Maui.

On July 17, around 10 p.m., the Maui Police Department responded to a call regarding a “disorderly incident involving approximately 30 individuals” at the Kaanapali Alii resort, Maui Police Department spokesperson Alana Pico told SFGATE in an email Friday.When officers arrived, 10 to 15 people were still on the scene, some with “visible injuries.”

Seven people, ranging from 17 years old to 62 years old, told police that a group of young people had assaulted them before leaving. Witnesses told police that the youths threw chairs and physically assaulted members of their party, including those who were elderly, near the pool and barbecue areas.

“There were three females, one of which was the ringleader,” family member Joseph Headfield told Hawaii News Now. “She got up in people’s faces, said, ‘We’re going to beat up your boys tonight. We’re going to beat up the haole boys.’”

Several victims needed medical attention. One member of the family required 13 staples in their head at the hospital, according to Hawaii News Now.

Pico said police arrested a 20-year-old Makawao man on suspicion of assault. He was later released as police continued their investigation.

“We recognize the significant impact this incident has had on those involved and remain committed to conducting a thorough, fair, and impartial investigation,” Pico said. “Detectives have contacted and interviewed the involved parties, and the investigation continues as additional information is gathered and reviewed.”

The oceanfront Kaanapali Alii resort offers luxury condominium rentals for visitors. Steven Rose, a managing director for the CoralTree Residence Collection, which owns the resort, told SFGATE that the resort is cooperating with law enforcement.

“The safety and well-being of our guests, residents, and team members remains our highest priority,” Rose said. “We take incidents of this nature very seriously and are focused on supporting those impacted.”

The Maui Police Department asks anyone who may have information about the encounter to contact the Maui Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division at 808-244-6425.

https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/family-attacked-hawaii-resort-22359667.php

Closure of San Francisco immigration court puts additional strain on Northern California immigration court system

By Updated on: July 24, 2026 / 2:28 PM PDT

The recent closure of an immigration court in San Francisco is adding to the strain on the Northern California immigration court system and on immigrants trying to navigate it.

Most of the cases that were being handled at the 100 Montgomery Street building in the city's Financial District are being moved about 30 miles east to the Concord Immigration Court.

Jeremiah Johnson used to be a federal immigration judge until he was among among a group ofSan Francisco immigration judges fired as part of a nationwide purge by the Trump administration. Since 2025, theTrump administration has fired, retired, or forced out more than 200 immigration judgesamid a backlog of 3.3 million cases.

"I had served for eight years in San Francisco and learned that this past November I was fired with no cause given and it was through an email," Johnson said.

Johnson still hasn't found a new job, but more than that, he says he's worried about the reasons behind the court's closure.

"I think by firing judges, you reduce the number of people that can hear these cases. You're sending a chilling effect to others," Johnson said. "And in essence, you are basically saying, 'No more hearings, we're not going to have a full and fair hearing.'"

"Now we're getting cases set for 2029, even 2030," immigration attorneyGhassan Shamieh said. He's representing clients whose cases are working their way through the system - cases that have all now been transferred to Concord.

Shamieh said the message from the Trump administration was very clear.

"If you don't acquiesce to what we want, if you don't bend the knee, this will be your fate," Shameih said. "We will not only fire you, but we will close the courts down and prevent cases from being heard and move them so that they are delayed."

In a statement in May, the U.S Department of Justice said closing the San Francisco courthouse was a cost-savings move. With the closure of the San Francisco courthouse in May,there are now only two federal immigration courts to serve the approximately 12 million residents of Northern California- Concord and Sacramento.

When asked about the impact of the closure on cases in Concord,a DOJ spokesperson blamed the backlog of cases on the Biden Administration for "… allowing millions of unvetted migrants into our communities. Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for this administration.The Justice Department is restoring integrity to our immigration system by hearing cases fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly, in accordance with the law."

In May, theTrump administration onboarded more than 80 new federal immigration judges, who the administration has publicly referred to in ads and job listings as "deportation judges," including in one ad calling for applicants to "deliver justice to criminal illegal aliens."

At the time, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said theTrump administration was "committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation's immigration system."

Immigration courts are not part of the judiciary, and are instead overseen by the executive branch and the Department of Justice.

"The administration of these courts is deplorable," said Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, whose district covers the majority of Contra Costa County including Concord. "And that goes right to the top to the president of the United States. So I'm very concerned because it's a mess and it affects not just the people directly involved, but it directs the community as well."

Johnson says the other issue is Concord's courthouse is smaller, originally designed to take pressure off the San Francisco courts, never to replace it.

"Out of the 21 judges that were my colleagues in San Francisco, there's only two left that are still on the bench," Johnson said. "The other judges in Concord is nowhere near the amount of judges that they have capacity for."

The nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center that gathers federal government data on enforcement, staffing and spending,reported that over 100,000 immigration court cases were closed last month, the most for a single month in court history. The surge was driven by a 30% jump in deportation orders between March and June.Meanwhile, the percentage of people granted asylum in the country dropped from 31% in February 2025 to an all-time low of 5% this past February, TRAC showed.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/immigration-court-northern-california-judges-fired-concord-san-francisco-sacramento/

ICE detentions at airports spark backlash against Southwest Airlines

By Erin Jones. KEK

Updated on: July 27, 2026 / 8:52 AM C

A viral video showing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining a woman as she attempted to board a Southwest Airlines flight in Colorado has sparked backlash against the Dallas-based carrier.

The moment ICE agents detained Chantal Rojas at the gate has been viewed more than 1 million times online.

"I couldn't possibly keep up with the comments … and I think it has gotten Chantal the attention that she really should get for being unlawfully detained," Alicia Dantzker said.

The video, recorded by Dantzker, has prompted some travelers to say they plan to cancel future flights and boycott the airline.

In response to questions about the arrest,Southwest said the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security have access to passenger information through the federal screening process. In a statement, the airline saidSouthwest "complies with applicable state and federal law."

DHS said Rojas is from Ecuador and overstayed a visa that expired in January 2025.

Her attorney, however, said she filed the appropriate paperwork before her visa expired and has remained in the country with authorization while her immigration case is pending.

"She came here in 2023 on a J-1 visato be a nanny for a dear friend, who said she has taught them so much about babies," Dantzker said. "She is being really strong, and she has told us that she is safe. I'm just so grateful that the world, the country, and people outside of it, that they're paying attention and that they're horrified."

Fundraising efforts have grown for both Rojas and Southwest flight attendant Lorenzo Thompson, who ICE arrested at Nashville International Airport on July 14.

The agency said Thompson, a Jamaican national, legally entered the United Statesin 2021 with authorization to stay for six months but remained after that authorization expired.

"I think anytime you see anybody being terrified and essentially abducted from something in their everyday life, that gets attention," Dantzker said.

She hopes the attention surrounding her video continues to generate support for Rojas as her immigration case moves forward.

In a statement following the ICE arrest of both Rojas and Thompson, the airline said, "Southwest complies with applicable state and federal law."

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/southwest-airlines-ice-detention-viral-video-colorado-chantal-rojas-july-2026/

WATCH: ICE Agent Dances and Trolls Anti-ICE Agitators Outside Newark Detention Center — Protester Melts Down and Screams, “You’re Literally Trafficking Human Beings!”

by Jim Hᴏft Jul. 27, 2026 7:45 am108

An immigration enforcement officer appearedcompletely unfazed as a group of anti-ICE agitators harassed her outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.

Video circulating on social media shows the female officer dancing to music from inside a transport vehicle while a protester films her through the windowand attempts to provoke a confrontation.

The officer simply keeps dancing.

“You think dancing offends us?” the activist shouts.

“What offends us is that you’re literally trafficking human beings right now!”

Yes, enforcing federal immigration law is now “human trafficking” according to the radical Left.

According to @christina.summers2, the social media account that circulated the footage claimed seven detainees were inside the vehicle and were being transported to Delaney Hall.However, the brief video does not show the passengers or independently confirm that number.

@christina.summers2 07/14/2026 ice van driver dances with 7 detainees in the back on the way into delaney hall. makes me sickkkk #ice #newark#newjersey #fifa #Protest ♬ original sound – christina :)

Delaney Hall has been under near-constant siege since it reopened as a key Northeast detention hub.

Delaney Hall is a privately owned, 1,000-bed detention facility operated by GEO Group under a 15-year contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.The company announced the agreement in February 2025, saying the facility would support ICE’s Newark enforcement operations. GEO Group said the contract was expected to generate more than $60 million in annualized revenue.

The Newark facility has become a magnet for far-left activists who routinely gather outside its gates, obstruct vehicles, antagonize law enforcement officers, and demand that ICE release detainees.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, anti-ICE agitators attacked and damaged vehicles attempting to leave Delaney Hall in June. One vehicle reportedly had its windshield shattered as protesters swarmed the facility.

In another ridiculous episode, two anti-ICE protesters attempted to stop a Jeep with their bodies and were thrown to the pavement when the driver continued moving.

The Gateway Pundit also reported Sunday that a tear-jerking narrative promoted by the wife of a Delaney Hall detainee unraveled after recordsrevealed that her husband had been taken into custody following an alleged domestic assault, not while innocently purchasing diapers, as activists had claimed.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/watch-ice-agent-dances-trolls-anti-ice-agitators/

IRAN ALERT: Ukraine clash sparks fears of rapidly widening war

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy prepares to meet President Trump as Iran warns that a reported Ukrainian strike on an Iranian vessel cannot go unanswered. Brian Kennedy discusses Russia-Iran cooperation, the risk of a wider conflict and the dangers of sending U.S. troops to recover enriched uranium.

(WTF is Trump meeting with him?)

4:45

https://youtu.be/AwGXXoKpCnk

Everybody should be ANGRY over this case: Jarrett

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett discusses the expected court appearance of Sheridan Gorman’s accused killer and analyzes the ramifications of open borders on U.S. crime

4:33

https://youtu.be/UUWbdVFf4bo

MANHUNT: Police search for second suspect after Seattle bloodshed

Three people were killed and multiple others were injured after gunfire erupted during a Seattle Center food festival as police launched a manhunt for a second alleged suspect. Retired FBI agent Jason Pack discusses the investigation, police response and public event security

5:21

https://youtu.be/1JNQqSd2-r8

This is typical 'street theater': Jim Trusty

Former federal prosecutor Jim Trusty discusses Democratic efforts to reject Todd Blanche's Attorney General nomination on 'Sunday Night in America.

6:54

https://youtu.be/FsPK-OWzcvI

Far-left nonprofits SUBPOENAED in Neville Roy Singham investigation

Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang exposes far-left dark money and China's biological weapon threats

7:01

https://youtu.be/LOV8GX-VHoY

Pentagon invests MILLIONS to close skilled trades gap

Mike Rowe discusses the Pentagon's $10 million investment into his foundation to train skilled trades workers. He also addresses the shocking 105 million Americans not in the labor force, including 7 million able-bodied men.

6:05

https://youtu.be/SV4B_RaaL8U