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LOS ANGELES — Kayla Elliott thought she was helping a family who couldn’t conceive by birthing a surrogate child for a couple in Southern California.

Instead, she said, she was caught in a web of deceit that led police to uncover 21 children, who were born to different surrogate mothers, living in the home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan in Arcadia, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles.

Zhang and Xuan were arrested in May on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect after a local hospital called police to report that a 2-month-old baby had arrived with head injuries, Arcadia police said in a statement.

A nanny who worked with the couple is suspected of violently shaking the child, causing the baby to lose consciousness. According to police, the parents were aware of the abuse but failed to seek timely medical help.

A warrant has been issued for the nanny, whom police haven’t been able to locate, police said.

Elliott said Wednesday that she was dumbstruck when she learned the child she bore was among them.

“I was a bit hysterical,” she said. “You just don’t expect that you’re going to go through a pregnancy and a delivery and then hand the baby over to their parents and then all of a sudden find out that there was abuse and neglect going on.”

The surrogacy agency, Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC, told her that the couple had one teenage child and that they had given up on trying to have a second after 10 rounds of failed fertility treatments, Elliott said.

She later learned that Mark Surrogacy was registered at the couple’s Arcadia address.

During their child endangerment investigation, police discovered 15 children at the couple’s house. Six more children belonging to the couple were found in the care of family members and friends. The youngest was the 2-month-old, and the eldest was 13, police said.

“We believe one or two were born biologically to the mother,” Police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said. “There are some surrogates who have come forward and said they were surrogates for the children.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Zhang and Xuan had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf.

While public records show the business license for Mark Surrogacy was recently terminated, a pregnant surrogate told NBC News the agency continues to contact her.

On Wednesday, KTLA-TV of Los Angeles reported that it received a text message from a phone associated with Zhang that read: “Any accusations of wrongdoing are misguided and wrong. We look forward to vindicating any such claims at the appropriate time when and if any actions are brought.”

After the baby Elliott carried for Zhang and Xuan was born, she learned it was living not in Cuba with the couple but with a nanny and another child of similar age, she said.

Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Bioethics & Culture Network, said Elliott’s experience isn’t entirely uncommon. She said she has spoken with hundreds of surrogates worldwide who shared nightmare scenarios, including a woman whose surrogate family refused to provide healthy living conditions while she was pregnant.

“There’s so many ways these kinds of things can go sideways, and no amount of law will protect a woman or child, because surrogate pregnancies are high-risk by nature,” she said.

In Elliott’s case, something seemed off as soon as the baby was born, she said. Zhang was hours late for the birth and barely looked at the baby in the hospital room, Elliott said. Before she left, Zhang handed Elliot $2,000 in cash.

“I don’t know what the motive was now, but it was just very, very not what you would expect out of somebody who really wanted a child,” Elliott said. “It was very transactional.”

The child Kayla birthed is now in foster care, and she said she is working on gaining custody of the baby.

The 20 other children are in the custody of a California child-welfare agency while Arcadia police and the FBI investigate the couple and determine whether they misled surrogate mothers around the country, officials said.

Bail for Zhang and Xuan was set at $500,000 each. They were released, Cieadlo said.

Emilie Ikeda and Alicia Victoria Lozano reported from Los Angeles and Minyvonne Burke from Pittsburgh.

A 61-year-old man is dead after a group of people was struck by lightning at a New Jersey archery range Wednesday night, police said.

Thirteen others, including a 7-year-old, were injured in the lightning strike at the Black Knight Bowbenders archery range in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Injuries ranged from “burns to non-specific complaints of not feeling well,” Jackson Township police chief Matthew D. Kunz said.

At least four of of the victims are children and were taken to the hospital with burns, said Jerry Mindurski, president of the archery club.

Three adult instructors were also taken to the hospital, he said, noting that the person who died was a member at the club.

Mindurski said he did not know the conditions of the other victims or what hospitals they were taken to.

First responders performed CPR on one man after police were called around 7:13 p.m., and another person was unconscious but regained consciousness, Kunz said in a news release. It was not immediately clear if the person given CPR was the man who died or someone else.

Mindurski said he was “praying for family members of the man that was killed and those that got hurt.”

“It’s all so sudden,” he said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has been briefed on the situation, he said on X.

“Please pray for everyone involved in this tragic incident,” Murphy added.

Thunderstorms were expected across much of the eastern and central U.S. Wednesday, including New Jersey. Jackson Township is about 30 miles east of Trenton, the state capital.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Coca-Cola in the United States will begin to be made with cane sugar, but the company did not explicitly say that was the case when it was asked later about Trump’s claim.

Trump said Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social that he had been speaking to Coca-Cola about using cane sugar in the sodas sold in the United States and that the company agreed to his idea.

“This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” Trump wrote in the post.

But Coca-Cola did not commit to the change when NBC News asked it later about Trump’s post.

“We appreciate President Trump’s enthusiasm for our iconic Coca-Cola brand,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon.”

It remains unclear whether Coca-Cola agreed to Trump’s proposal or whether the beloved soda will still be made with corn syrup.

The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again initiative, named for the social movement aligned with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has pushed food companies to alter their formulations to remove ingredients like artificial dyes.

Coca-Cola produced for the U.S. market is typically sweetened with corn syrup, while the company uses cane sugar in some other countries, including Mexico and various European countries.

Coca-Cola announced in 1984 it was going to “significantly increase” the amount of corn syrup it was using in its U.S. products, The New York Times reported at the time.

Coca-Cola said it would use corn syrup to sweeten bottled and canned Coke, as well as caffeine-free Coke, but left itself “flexibility” to use other sweeteners, like sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, the Times reported.

Kennedy has criticized how much sugar is consumed in the American diet and has said updated dietary guidelines released this summer will advise people to “eat whole food.”

Trump has been known to enjoy Coca-Cola products. The Wall Street Journal reported that a Diet Coke button, which allows him to order the soda on demand, has joined him in the Oval Office for both of his terms.

Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was terminated by the Justice Department on Wednesday, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

It was not clear why Comey was fired. One of the sources said that Article II of the Constitution, which establishes the executive power of the president, was cited in Comey’s firing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Nick Biase, a spokesperson for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment.

Follow live politics coverage here

Politico first reported on the termination.

Comey prosecuted Sean “Diddy” Combs during his sex trafficking trial this year. She also played a role in the investigation of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, and the prosecution and conviction of his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maurene Comey’s father, James Comey, has been a frequent target for Trump, who fired the FBI director during his first term. James Comey played a central role in a probe of Russia’s election interference efforts in the 2016 presidential election.

Shooting guard Bradley Beal has agreed to a buyout with the Phoenix Suns and will sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, his agent told ESPN on Wednesday.

Beal, 32, will sign a two-year, $11 million deal with the Clippers, with a player option for next season.

Beal had two years remaining on the five-year, $251 million contract he originally signed with the Washington Wizards in in 2022. He will reportedly forfeit $13.9 million of the roughly $110 million left on the contract, and the Suns will stretch the salary-cap hit of the remaining money over the next five years.

Phoenix traded for Beal in 2023, but his two seasons with the team were disappointing.

After acquiring Beal to form a star trio with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the Suns lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2024 before missing the postseason entirely this year. Failing to meet their own championship expectations, the Suns traded Durant to the Houston Rockets earlier this month. Phoenix also fired head coach Mike Budenholzer in April, the third straight year the team has let go of its head coach.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, has not made it out of the first round of the playoffs since 2021. After signing two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard in 2019, the Clippers have won only three playoff series in the subsequent six years.

After losing to the Denver Nuggets in seven games in May, Los Angeles has had an active offseason.

The Clippers traded guard Normal Powell in a three-team deal in exchange for forward John Collins. They also signed center Brook Lopez, who won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021.

Despite the Suns’ struggles last season, Beal was an efficient player offensively. He averaged 17.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game for Phoenix, shooting 49.7% from the field and 38.6% from 3-point range.

In his career, Beal 37.6% 3-point shooter on 4.3 attempts a game.

Injuries have been an issue for Beal, however. He has not appeared in more than 53 games in each of the last four seasons.

WEST PITTSTON, Pa. — Vice President JD Vance gave an early glimpse Wednesday of the argument Republicans will make ahead of the 2026 midterm elections while touting the megabill the White House pushed through Congress.

In a 20-minute speech in northeast Pennsylvania, Vance urged the audience to become fellow evangelists for what he called the “big, beautiful bill” in conversations with family and friends.

Vance supplied the talking points he wants them to use, describing how workers at the machine shop that hosted his appearance will no longer pay taxes on overtime pay.

Vance was silent about less popular facets of what had been a nearly 900-page bill. He did not mention, for example, steep cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income people. A report published Wednesday in JAMA Health Forum found that the cuts could lead to 1,000 more deaths a year.

And while Vance said President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are getting “Washington spending under control,” the nation’s debt will increase by $3.3 trillion over the next decade under the legislation, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Vance invited the audience to do its own research but asked it to “take what I said and … go talk to your neighbors, go and talk to your friends about what this bill does for American citizens.”

Without explicitly mentioning the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, Vance said, “We don’t want to wake up in a year and a half and give the Democrats power back.”

Both parties are in the opening phase of a battle to shape voter impressions of the new law ahead of the midterms.

Trump’s Cabinet members are expected to travel the country in the coming months to help sell the bill to voters. Introducing Vance was Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration. She used her speech to promote the law, calling it “rocket fuel for small business.”

Republicans face some headwinds in selling the legislation. A recent Economist/YouGov survey taken after Trump signed the bill on July 4 found that 35% of adults supported it, compared with 53% who were opposed.

The White House needs GOP voters to be enthusiastic about the law and motivated to vote next year if the party hopes to hang on to its majorities in the House and the Senate.

“The Trump voters are happy and complacent right now,” said John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster. “And we have to get them fired up for next year. We have a lot of work to do. If President Trump is not on the ballot, it’s harder to get them out.”

Vance’s appearance was also an investment of sorts in his own political future. Pennsylvania is a perennial battleground state. Trump lost it in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden but won it back last year when he was elected to a new term. Vance is a likely GOP candidate in the next presidential race — a prospect that voters interviewed before his speech said they welcome.

Dwayne McDavitt, 63, of the group Bikers for Trump, said: “I love JD Vance. I hope he runs in 2028. He’s a very intelligent man.”

Vance said nothing about the ongoing furor that threatens to divide Trump voters: The Justice Department’s finding that the Jeffrey Epstein files include no “incriminating ‘client list’” or evidence that would implicate third parties.

Many hard-core Trump have balked at the claim, while Trump has called upon them to drop the subject and stop talking about Epstein.

Before Vance’s appearance, supporters waiting in line offered mixed views of whether they believe the Trump administration is suppressing damning information involving Epstein.

Steven Taylor, a truck driver living across the street from the machine shop, said he was “angered” when Trump said people should move on from the Epstein controversy.

“I think we’re being lied to,” said Taylor, 52. “And I don’t appreciate it. This is supposed to be the era of transparency.”

“We put our trust in him [Trump],” he continued. “I’m still going to support him, but with a slanted eye. We’re the ones who put him where he is. It’s totally disrespectful.”

But Richard Geiersbach, 66, a contractor wearing a MAGA hat, echoed a point that Trump has been making in recent days: Epstein isn’t worth discussing anymore.

“It’s a waste of time, a waste of money,” he said. “Let it go.”

Rodrigo Sandoval, 17, just graduated from high school in South Carolina. He gets excited when he talks about what he’d like to do — he’s interested in business administration, graphic design or joining the Navy — but his face becomes solemn when he talks about the future.

“I’ve noticed a lot of changes, especially in the Hispanic community. We live in constant fear of being deported, arrested and all that,” said Sandoval, who came to the U.S. at age 12, fleeing El Salvador due to gang violence that threatened his and his family’s life.

One of his earliest memories is when he was 5.

“It’s one of my traumas because they put a gun to my head. All I remember is crying out of fear,” said Sandoval, who is a beneficiary of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status classification.

The SIJS classification, created by Congress in 1990 as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, protects immigrant minors who have been victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect in their countries and gives them a path to permanent residency in the U.S. They must be under 21 or under 18 in some states, including South Carolina, where Sandoval lives.

Last month, the Trump administration ended a measure in place since 2022 that automatically issued the young immigrants work permits and protection from deportation as they waited for their green card applications, which can take years.

“Once they’re approved for special immigrant juvenile status, they’re put on a waiting list, which is currently very, very long. We typically tell clients it’ll probably take more than four or five years,” Jennifer Bade, an immigration attorney based in Boston said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.

Now after changes under the Trump administration, work permit and Social Security applications must be processed separately, complicating the process for many young people because, in many cases, granting the applications depends on visa availability.

“It’s very strange that they’re in that category because SIJS is about humanitarian protection for young immigrants. There shouldn’t be visa limits for these young people,” said Rachel Davidson, director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advises SIJS recipients and proposes solutions to tackle the backlog in their green card applications.

Verónica Tobar Thronson, a professor at Michigan State University’s School of Law, said many of these young immigrants may not be able to get work permits or renew current ones. “If they don’t have a work permit or an ID, they can’t travel, they can’t enter a federal building, they can’t apply for a Social Security number — they also don’t qualify for student loans if they enroll in college, and in some states, they can’t apply for assistance with medical or social services because they don’t qualify for anything at all.”

In information sent to Noticias Telemundo, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that foreign nationals from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras currently make up the majority of SIJS applicants, “and collectively represent more than 70% of all SIJS applications,” although they did not specify the total number.

USCIS stated to Noticias Telemundo that while it’s not rescinding protection from deportation from those who already have it, it has the “right to rescind the grant of deferred action and revoke the related employment authorization at any time, at its discretion.”

A long wait for green card status

More than 107,000 young SIJS beneficiaries from 151 countries were on the waiting list to apply for a green card as of March 2023, according to data collected by groups such as the End SIJS Backlog Coalition and Tulane Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Of the approximately 280,000 SIJS applications approved in the last 12 fiscal years, “more than 139,000 have been filed or approved for adjustment of status,” according to USCIS.

The current processing time for applications for the program (the SIJ I-360 form) is less than five months, according to USCIS. However, the annual visa cap creates a bottleneck because, regardless of the speed of SIJS processing, the number of visas issued remains the same.

Both Rodrigo Sandoval and his 20-year-old sister, Alexandra, have already been approved for SIJS but are on the waiting list to apply for permanent residency. Both Alexandra’s and her brother Rodrigo’s work permits expire in 2026, and according to their lawyer, they still have three to five years to wait before adjusting their status.

Though they currently have protections under SIJS, Alexandra is still worried about what could happen. “If the police stop us and ask for our documents, it’s all over because we risk being deported.”

Hiromi Gómez, a 17-year-old student with SIJS, said it took her nine years to get to apply for a green card, “and I still haven’t received it.” She worries about more recent young immigrants who will have a harder time securing protections due to recent changes.

Exploring options

Khristina Siletskaya is a South Carolina-based immigration attorney who, among other things, handles cases involving SIJS beneficiaries, including the Sandoval siblings. The Ukrainian-born attorney said that despite changes in U.S. immigration policies, “all hope is not lost.”

“This new change that everyone is talking about eliminated the automatic granting of deferred action (from deportation). However, the United States continues to approve cases of special immigrant juvenile status; that continues to operate normally,” the lawyer explained.

Siletskaya and other experts emphasize that the recent changes are a return to the past, because the automatic granting of deferred action and work permits was implemented in May 2022 but did not exist before. Attorneys for young people with SIJS are exploring other legal avenues to assist them in their search for protection.

“Does this mean young people can’t get Social Security? First, you can try the Department of Social Services. Often, you may be able to get Social Security, but it will indicate that you’re not eligible for work purposes,” Siletskaya said. “So young people could at least get emergency Medicaid, but that will depend on each state.”

Regarding work permits, the attorney said there are ways to try to obtain one. The first is to apply for one separately and ask USCIS to grant it. Siletskaya said she has several cases where they’ve initiated this process, but warns that she has not yet received a response in those cases.

Another option explored by attorneys is to obtain a work permit based on parole, since a young person with SIJS is often granted parole as they work to adjust their status and obtain a green card.

Following the recent changes to SIJS, a group of 19 lawmakers led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressing concern about the changes. The letter said it “leaves abused and abandoned youth in legal limbo while heightening their vulnerability to exploitation.”

In the letter, the members of Congress said they had received reports “of an increase in the number of detentions and deportations of SIJS beneficiaries.”

Cortez Masto and other Democrats introduced the Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Protection Act in Congress, seeking to change visa categories for SIJS beneficiaries and prevent delays in adjusting their status, among other things. But the lack of Republican lawmakers supporting it could hamper its passage.

The bill is still in its early stages of discussion in the Senate, according to Cortez Masto’s office, and members of Congress have not yet received an official response to the letter sent to Noem.

‘Not give up’

Both Siletskaya and other attorneys consulted by Noticias Telemundo recommend that young people with SIJS avoid taking risks and remain cautious.

“Don’t get into trouble. If you don’t have a driver’s license, let your friends drive. Stay discreet, respect the law, stay out of situations where you might be exposed, and wait until you receive your green card,” she said.

Despite immigration changes and other challenges, Rodrigo Sandoval said he wanted to make the most of every minute of his work permit, which expires next year. That’s why he has two jobs: He’s a barber and also works on construction sites to help his family.

“My message to people is to keep fighting and keep dreaming big. I don’t think there are limits because we as Hispanics are fighters. And this comes from other generations,” he said, getting emotional. “The truth is, what we have to do is not give up.”

An earlier version of the article was published in Noticias Telemundo.

Three current and former Louisiana police chiefs, a U.S. marshal and a businessman have been federally charged with participating in an immigrant visa fraud scheme, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

A federal grand jury in Shreveport returned a 62-count indictment against the five people on July 2, Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook for the Western District of Louisiana said in a news conference Wednesday.

The police chiefs took bribes in exchange for filing false police reports that would allow noncitizens to seek a visa that lets certain crime victims stay in the U.S., Van Hook said.

The five defendants are: Chad Doyle, the chief of police in Oakdale; Michael Slaney, a marshal from the Ward 5 Marshal’s office in Oakdale; Glynn Dixon, the chief of police in Forest Hill; Tebo Onishea, the former chief of police in Glenmora; and Chandrakant Patel, a businessman from Oakdale. They were each charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and other charges, prosecutors said in a news release.

Patel was further charged with one count of bribery, 24 counts of mail fraud and eight counts of money laundering.

Doyle and Dixon were further charged with six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering. Slaney was also charged with six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud, and two counts of money laundering. Onishea was additionally charged with six counts of visa fraud and six counts of mail fraud.

For a decade, from December 2015 to at least this month, prosecutors alleged Patel was a fixer who unlawfully procured nonimmigrant U-visas with the help of law enforcement officials.

The U nonimmigrant status visa is for victims of certain crimes who help law enforcement or government officials investigate those crimes. Part of the application process includes a signature of an authorized official or law enforcement agency confirming the individual was the victim of a qualifying crime, prosecutors said.

Individuals seeking U-visas would contact Patel to be named as “victims” in police reports of an armed robbery, so they could submit applications for U-visas, the indictment alleged.

Those individuals allegedly paid Patel thousands of dollars to participate in the scheme, and Patel would ask alleged co-conspirators Doyle, Slaney, Dixon and Onishea to write false police reports naming the individuals as victims of armed robberies, and provide certification and supporting documents, prosecutors said.

Together they “authored, facilitated, produced and authenticated false police reports” in several central Louisiana parishes, the news release said.

“There was an unusual concentration of armed robberies, a large number of armed robberies of people that were not from Louisiana,” Van Hook said. “Well, in fact, the armed robberies never took place, and those listed in the applications were never victims.”

Patel allegedly offered to pay an agent of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office $5,000 on Feb. 18, “intending to influence and reward said agent in exchange for a fraudulent police report,” prosecutors said.

Van Hook said Patel allegedly paid the law enforcement officers $5,000 for each foreign national placed on police reports, and that were hundreds of such reports.

From Sept. 27, 2023 to Dec. 26, 2024, Doyle Slaney, Dixon and Onishea allegedly submitted false statements in immigration applications by signing I-918B forms despite knowing the individuals were never victims of crimes.

The investigation opened following a tip last July from Citizenship and Immigration Services, and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and IRS, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Van Hook said the men were arrested Tuesday by federal law enforcement agents and search warrants were executed at multiple locations including the Oakdale and Forest Hill police departments and a Subway sandwich shop in Oakdale operated by Patel. Officials said Wednesday all were released except Patel.

No attorneys were listed for the defendants in the online court docket. NBC News has reached out to the five men for comment.

The mail fraud charge stems from the five men sending out documents by the U.S. Postal Service.

If convicted the defendants each face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, up to 10 years on the visa fraud charge, up to 20 years on the mail fraud charge, and Patel up to 10 years the bribery charge. They also could be ordered to pay a fine of $250,000 on each count.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.