Authorities were looking for the animals responsible after a Florida man and his dog were found dead from a suspected bear attack Monday, wildlife officials said.
Robert Markel, 89, was discovered dead along with his dog at his home near the community of Jerome in Collier County after authorities were called shortly after 7 a.m., Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesperson George Reynaud said.
He and his dog were found in different areas, within a couple hundred yards of each other, Reynaud told reporters.
“We do know it was a bear attack. We don’t know if it was the same bear or multiple bears,” he said.
The attack on Markel and his dog, which occurred just south of the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area, may have happened at different times, Reynaud said.
Officers set up a perimeter and were using drones to search for the bear or bears, officials said. Bear traps have been put out in the vicinity of where the attack occurred.
DNA was gathered from the scene that should help investigators learn more about what occurred, the wildlife commission said.
The bear involved is likely to be a Florida black bear because of the environment, the agency said.
The only type of bear that naturally lives in Florida is the Florida black bear. There are around 4,050 such bears on the state, the FWC says on its website.
The family of a 25-year-old man is calling for the staff members involved in an incident that led to his death while in custody at an Ohio jail in March to be charged with murder.
Ten Montgomery County Jail employees have been put on paid administrative leave after the Montgomery County coroner ruled the manner of Christian Black’s death as homicide, Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said in a statement.
Black was arrested and booked into the Montgomery County Jail on March 23, according to Ryan Julison, a spokesperson for the law firm representing his family.
The next day, jail employees intervened after Black began “forcefully and repeatedly striking his head against the door of his cell,” Streck said.
Montgomery County Jail employees overpower Ohio inmate Christian Black.WDTN
Security camera video the family’s lawyers presented at a news conference Monday shows officers standing outside a cell as Black repeatedly punches the door. He seems to forcefully bang his head against the door at least four times.
“We’ll acknowledge at this point you can see in the video Christian’s having a crisis and we’ll recognize that law enforcement does have to go in there and find a way to keep him from harming himself,” attorney Robert Gresham said. “But our issue begins when they go into that particular cell, and they ultimately make a number of errors and decisions that amount to what we believe to be deliberate indifference and unlawful use of force.”
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond Monday night to a request for comment on the accusation of deliberate indifference and unlawful use of force.
The video shows fiveofficers entering the cell and struggling with Black. In the cell, Gresham said, officers pepper-sprayed him and shocked him with a stun gun. The video played at the news conference, however, does not clearly show that.
The video shows officers take Black out of the cell, pin him to the ground and eventually handcuff him with his hands behind his back before they put him on a safety restraint chair.
On the chair, the struggle continues, with officers placing an anti-spit mask on Black and pushing his torso forward in an apparent effort to be able to remove the handcuffs and restrain his arms on the chair, the video shows.
“You can see by the pressure officers are putting on him, my understanding is that’s going to make it almost impossible for him to breathe,” Gresham said.
The video shows Black’s body apparently going limp as officers raise his torso back up and strap his arms to the chair.
Attorney Michael Wright said, “He’s dead at this point.”
Christian Black’s parents, Misti Black, left, and Kenya Black, right, listen to their attorney Michael Wright in Dayton, Ohio, on Monday.WDTN
Streck, the sheriff, said Black lost consciousness on the chair. Medical staff members performed CPR before he was taken to a hospital, Streck said.
Two days later, on March 26, Black was pronounced dead.
In all, 10 officers were involved at different points between the time they entered the cell and the time they eventually restrained Black to the chair, according to the videos of the interaction played by his family’s attorneys.
In a report from the coroner’s office, Chief Deputy Coroner Sean Swiatkowski said the cause of death was most likely “mechanical and positional asphyxia” and ruled the manner of death as homicide, Streck said.
Gresham said Black was in the mental health area of the facility. Wright added that staff members did not attempt lifesaving aid until 13 minutes after they entered the cell.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond Monday night to a request for comment about the claim.
“These officers didn’t do anything that they were supposed to do here. They know better. They should do better,” Gresham said. “We don’t think any further than George Floyd to know how positional asphyxiation works.”
Misti Black, Christian’s mother, said the incident never should have happened.
“Now, every time I see the video, it’s knowing that I’m going to see him take his last breath,” she said.
After he was informed of the likely cause of death, Streck said he placed all 10 employees involved in the incident on paid administrative leave.
“Because Mr. Black was in critical condition and physical force was used to restrain him, I requested that the Dayton Police Department respond to investigate the incident and submit their findings to prosecutors for review,” Streck said. “This leave is a procedural step and does not imply guilt, misconduct, or policy violations.”
Dayton police confirmed that detectives are investigating the “use of force incident.”
“Detectives assigned to the Homicide Unit are actively investigating this incident involving the death of Christian Black and at the conclusion of the investigation will present the case to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office,” police spokesperson James Rider said in a statement.
The Black family’s attorneys are conducting an independent investigation, as well, and Wright said they are asking for the 10 staff members to be arrested, indicted and convicted for “the murder of Christian Black.”
Streck said that the sheriff’s office will “fully cooperate with all independent investigations” and that “once the criminal investigations are complete, there will be a thorough internal review and investigation to ensure accountability and transparency.”
WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Monday night that she won’t seek the top Democratic post on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the panel that would be in the strongest position to investigate the Trump administration if Democrats were to win back the chamber next year.
Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, ran for the coveted position in December but was defeated by a more senior member of the committee, Gerry Connolly, of Virginia. Last week, though, Connolly said that because his esophageal cancer had returned, he wouldn’t seek re-election to Congress and would step back from his day-to-day responsibilities on the Oversight panel.
After having spoken to colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that she believed another bid for the post would be an uphill climb against another more senior member.
“It’s actually clear to me that the underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary, and so I believe I’ll be staying put at Energy and Commerce,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, referring to a separate committee.
She had no comment on whom she might support in the Oversight race.
“There’s no vacancy. There’s no official race yet, so I won’t comment on that, and I want to be respectful of ranking member Connolly,” she said.
It’s a surprising turn given that Ocasio-Cortez, who has been attracting thousands of supporters at speeches around the country and has been floated as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, said just days ago that she was weighing a bid to secure the post.
If Democrats retake the House in 2026, the Oversight chair’s gavel could have provided her with an enormous platform and authority to investigate the Trump administration.
Because she left the Oversight panel to take a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ocasio-Cortez would have needed a waiver from the Democratic Caucus to return to Oversight. But several colleagues said they believed she would have been the prohibitive favorite for the job had she decided to run.
In December, Connolly beat back a challenge from Ocasio-Cortez in a 131-84 vote by House Democrats. She said Monday that she doesn’t believe the result would be much different if she squared off against a different member with more seniority.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., is the third most senior member on the panel and is filling in for Connolly on an interim basis. Lynch announced last week that he will run for the Oversight job and that Connolly has endorsed him.
In addition to Lynch, other Democrats have been reaching out to colleagues about possibly running for the position, including Kweisi Mfume, of Maryland; Maxwell Frost, of Florida; and Jasmine Crockett, of Texas.
WASHINGTON — Harvard University will receive no new federal grants until it meets a series of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration, the Education Department announced Monday.
The action was laid out in a letter to Harvard’s president and amounts to a major escalation of Trump’s battle with the Ivy League school. The administration previously froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, and Trump is pushing to strip the school of its tax-exempt status.
Harvard has pushed back on the administration’s demands, setting up a closely watched clash in Trump’s attempt to force change at universities that he says have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.
In a press call, an Education Department official said Harvard will receive no new federal grants until it “demonstrates responsible management of the university” and satisfies federal demands on a range of subjects. It applies to federal research grants and not federal financial aid students receive to help cover tuition and fees.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the decision on a call with reporters.
The official accused Harvard of “serious failures” in four areas: antisemitism, racial discrimination, abandonment of rigor and viewpoint diversity. To become eligible for new grants, Harvard would need to enter negotiations with the federal government and prove it has satisfied the administration’s demands.
The administration has demanded a series of changes to campus policy, including reforms to crack down on protesters and pursue more viewpoint diversity among faculty.
In a letter Monday to Harvard’s president, Education Secretary Linda McMahon accused the school of enrolling foreign students who showed contempt for the U.S.
“Harvard University has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system,” McMahon wrote.
Harvard’s president has previously said he will not bend to government’s demands. The university sued to halt its funding freeze last month.
Harvard’s suit called the funding freeze “arbitrary and capricious,” saying it violated its First Amendment rights and the statutory provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The Trump administration said previously that Harvard would need to meet a series of conditions to keep almost $9 billion in grants and contracts.
The school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has an endowment of $53 billion, the largest in the country. Across the university, federal money accounted for 10.5% of revenue in 2023, not counting financial aid such as grants and student loans.
This is a free newsletter for Diddy on Trial newsletter subscribers. Sign up to get exclusive reporting and analysis throughout Sean Combs’ federal trial.
This morning, dozens of everyday New Yorkers filed into a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan for the start of Diddy’s criminal trial. They were ushered into a courtroom one by one and then questioned by the judge and lawyers on both sides. Ultimately, 12 of them — plus six alternates — will be tasked with an immense responsibility: deciding the fate of the fallen hip-hop giant.
At one point, after the defense team requested a bathroom break, Diddy directly addressed Judge Arun Subramanian: “I’m sorry, your honor,” he said. “I’m a little nervous today.”
Jury selection is expected to take around three days. Then, early next week, the prosecutors and defense attorneys will make opening statements — and you’ll start getting daily editions of this newsletter in your inbox.
Here’s what you need to know about today:
Diddy, 55, showed up for the first day of jury selection wearing a white collared shirt with a black crewneck sweater and gray slacks, per NBC News’ Adam Reiss, who was in the courthouse. Diddy, clean-shaven and gray-haired, hugged and shook hands with his attorneys.
The prospective jurors who entered the courtroom today were asked questions meant to draw out potential biases or conflicts, including queries about their experiences with sexual harassment and domestic violence; their opinions on illegal drugs and sex workers; and their views on law enforcement and hip-hop artists.
Prospective jurors were also shown a list of more than 100 places and people whose names may come up at trial. The list featured Michael B. Jordan, Mike Myers and Kanye West, none of whom have been implicated in the case. The attorneys didn’t provide an explanation for the list, and representatives for Jordan, Myers and West didn’t immediately return requests for comment. NBC News’ Janelle Griffithhas the details.
We’ve told you about one of Diddy’s lawyers, Teny Geragos. She’s the daughter of famed celebrity defense attorney Mark Geragos. He isn’t a formal member of the Diddy defense, but a source familiar with the case told NBC News’ Chloe Melas that he’ll be “unofficially helping throughout the course of the trial,” and this week he’ll be “helping advise the legal team on which jurors to choose.”
Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, we break down a key development in the 2026 battle for the Senate majority. Plus, campaign season may still be a ways away but, as Ben Kamisar notes, the Trump administration is spending massive sums of money on the airwaves touting its immigration crackdown efforts.
Republicans were dealt a major blow in their bid to expand their Senate majority on Monday, with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp passing a run against the party’s top target for defeat, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
As Bridget Bowman and Sahil Kapur report, Kemp was viewed as the GOP’s leading recruit in Georgia, one of two states President Donald Trump carried in 2024 with a Democratic-held Senate seat that’s up in 2026. The other is Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring.
The background: Kemp has shown a rare ability to appeal to both conservative and middle-of-the-road voters.
After Kemp opposed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, Trump backed former Sen. David Perdue in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary. But Kemp easily defeated Perdue before going on to win re-election by nearly 8 points over Stacey Abrams, just two years after Joe Biden became the first Democrat to carry Georgia in a presidential election since 1992.
Plan B: It’s unclear what Kemp’s next steps will be, as he’s unable to seek re-election next year due to term limits. But his decision to forgo a Senate run will likely spark a crowded and competitive GOP primary to take on Ossoff.
Multiple members of Georgia’s congressional delegation — including Reps. Buddy Carter, Rich McCormick, Mike Collins and Marjorie Taylor Greene — have suggested they would consider a bid if Kemp did not run.
Greene indicated to NBC News last week that she’s weighing a Senate run. “I have just a lot of options open to me,” she said.
Among other statewide elected Republicans, Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and Insurance Commissioner John King are also seen as potential candidates.
The map: Ultimately, the Georgia seat will likely be more important to Democrats as they try to eat into the GOP’s 53-47 majority. In addition to Michigan, Democrats also have open seats to defend in Minnesota and New Hampshire. And the party’s offensive opportunities are relatively limited, with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina seen as the most vulnerable Republicans.
Over in the House: Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., announced she will not seek re-election next year after serving 14 terms in the House. Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old internet personality, had already entered the race for Schakowsky’s safe Democratic seat.
Kristi Noem is the face of the Trump administration’s massive deportation ad campaign
By Ben Kamisar
The Department of Homeland Security is spending big bucks — almost $21 million so far, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact — on an ad campaign featuring Secretary Kristi Noem heaping praise on President Donald Trump and calling on immigrants in America illegally to “leave now.”
It’s an amount of money that’s in line with what a prominent statewide campaign might spend, according to AdImpact. By comparison, liberal candidate Susan Crawford spent $28 million on ads while conservative candidate Brad Schimel spent $15 million during last month’s closely watched Wisconsin Supreme Court election. In last year’s election, Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick spent $21 million on ads in one of the most competitive Senate races on the battleground map.
The vast majority of the DHS spots feature Noem speaking directly to the camera, touting Trump and warning, “If you are here illegally, we will find you and we will deport you. You will never return. But if you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return.”
Other variations include Noem blasting “weak politicians” for leaving “our borders wide open,” while others feature her speaking in English with Spanish subtitles.
Other more targeted ads show Noem detailing a list of “illegal aliens caught because of President Trump’s leadership.” Some spots also feature footage of arrests and from her visit to the El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are being held.
The ads are broadly targeted to newscasts like morning and nightly news shows on major broadcast networks, and Spanish-language channels.
The federal government has spent billions in taxpayer funds over the years on advertising campaigns, including on those to highlight government programs or encourage recruitment.
Healthcare.gov, the federal health care exchange, has benefitted from tens of millions of dollars in advertising over the years, with the Obama administration running ads to encourage sign-ups (including in red states). The Biden administration also spent $50 million to note how the 2021 Covid relief law created new subsidies for health insurance.
But what’s particularly notable about the new DHS ad campaign is how heavily Noem, a former South Dakota governor who, at 53, could have a long political career ahead of her, is featured.
And soon, Noem won’t be the only Trump administration official whose agency spends tens of millions of dollars to broadcast its message on the airwaves. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to launch his own public relations effort, according to a document obtained by NBC News that says the campaign would include up to three ads a day across major TV networks.
📺 ICYMI: Trump rejects concerns about prices and economic uncertainty during ‘Meet the Press’ interview
President Donald Trump sat down for a wide-ranging interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, where he downplayed the fears of his critics — from the potential harms of a recession to worries about rising prices due to his tariffs policy to the possibility that he would seek a constitutionally forbidden third term.
Get caught up with all our coverage of the hour-plus back-and-forth that aired Sunday:
Today’s other top stories
🌎 Israel-Hamas war: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a “powerful” new operation as the country’s security Cabinet approved a plan to seize the Gaza Strip in its entirety. Read more →
👀 Alcatraz revival: Trump said he will direct several federal agencies to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz,” a facility that for decades was a federal prison and is now a national park. Read more →
🏈 Spiking the football: Trump announced that the 2027 NFL draft will take place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Read more →
🎥 Lights, camera, tariffs?: Trump’s Sunday night proposal to impose tariffs on movies made outside the U.S. has been met with a mix of confusion and fear by the entertainment industry. Read more →
▶️ Hitting restart: The federal government resumed collecting defaulted student loan payments from millions of people for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Read more →
🤫 Mum’s the word: Trump hasn’t released any information about who funded his presidential transition effort despite pledging last year to disclose the names of the donors. Read more →
🗳️ Will he or won’t he?: A potential endorsement from Trump has been looming over the fast-approaching GOP primary for governor in New Jersey, with the top candidates battling over who is most loyal to the president. Read more →
🎤 New media age: A review of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s “influencer briefings” finds that the attendees have included former Trump officials, vocal allies and some conspiracy theorists. Read more →
With its closing in 1963 after it fell into disrepair, the federal prison off San Francisco found a new life as a popular tourist destination — one that continues to draw more than a million visitors a year as a national historic landmark.
That could all change again if President Donald Trump gets his way. Trump wrote Sunday on social media that he is directing the federal Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department and other agencies to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz” to the most “ruthless and violent offenders.”
But federal corrections experts and historians caution that while such a project may be especially “symbolic” to Trump, any plan would be incredibly expensive and inefficient, particularly when the federal government’s mission is to slash spending and prisons remain strained by staffing shortages.
“You’d be going in and basically removing a national landmark just to set up a prison that literally would be for the optics mostly, because it doesn’t make the most sense financially to establish something like that there,” said Michael Esslinger, who has written five books about Alcatraz’s history and estimates he has visited the island at least 500 times.
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay in September. Carlos Avila Gonzalez / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images file
The National Park Service manages Alcatraz.
J. Elizabeth Peace, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Interior, said in an email that “the President’s statement speaks for itself,” and declined to comment further.
Before Alcatraz was closed, it was determined that it would take at least $4 million to renovate it and that the physical isolation of the island was a major reason it cost so much to maintain. For example, fresh water had to be barged to the island every week.
In a news release issued in 1962, BOP Director James Bennett said it was not an “economically sound policy” to invest millions of dollars to rehab Alcatraz. Housing an inmate in Alcatraz cost more than three times what it cost in Atlanta, the BOP said.
It’s unclear how much it would cost to build a new prison on Alcatraz from scratch. The BOP’s newly installed director, William Marshall III, said in a statement Monday that he has ordered an assessment on “next steps” for a reopened U.S. penitentiary.
“USP Alcatraz has a rich history,” Marshall said. “We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice. We will be actively working with our law enforcement and other federal partners to reinstate this very important mission.”
For comparison, a new federal prison that would hold 1,400 inmates in Letcher County, Kentucky, near the Virginia border, is estimated to cost more than $500 million.
Walter Pavlo, president of the consulting firm Prisonology LLC, whose experts include former BOP case managers and wardens, said he could easily see the price of rebuilding a prison on Alcatraz surpassing that of the Kentucky facility. In addition, there are other costs associated with operating a maximum-security facility that requires state-of-the art technology and infrastructure, particularly for a property that has had a long and colorful history of escape attempts.
Federal prisons are typically built in isolated and rural communities. Having one in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most expensive places to live in the country, would require competitive salaries, as well, Pavlo said. He said those corrections officers and staff members would need to be experienced in dealing with dangerous offenders.
Trump “wants a showplace for high-profile criminals that people can see,” Pavlo said. “And there’s no higher-profile place than Alcatraz.”
Some elected officials in California are downplaying Trump’s plan to revert Alcatraz into a working prison.
“It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, whose district includes the island, said on X. “The President’s proposal is not a serious one.”
The idea began taking shape after Trump took office for his second term. His son Donald Trump Jr. posted on X that “maybe we should also reopen Alcatraz?!?!” in response to his father’s announcing preparations for a facility at the U.S. military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to house thousands of migrants.
In 1981, the Reagan administration also examined Alcatraz as a place to hold detainees fleeing Cuba via the Mariel boatlift, but the idea was rejected because the island did not have the proper resources and, by then, it was a magnet for tourists.
Alcatraz’s operations began in the mid-19th century, first as a military fort to house prisoners, until the federal government transferred it to the Justice Department. The federal prison opened in 1934. Over the years, Alcatraz — nicknamed The Rock — was the scene of dramatic escapes and a deadly siege by inmates.
Its purpose was “really a way to isolate inmates from the news and from society,” Esslinger said. “It was kind of like this iron curtain where no information was going in or out.”
But Alcatraz was ultimately not worth maintaining. In 1962, ahead of the prison’s closing, the BOP determined the salt air was severely corroding the building. Meanwhile, the lack of a sewage system meant wastewater was being dumped directly into the bay.
David Widner, whose uncles, convicted bank robbers John and Clarence Anglin, escaped from Alcatraz in 1962, said that given the island’s lore and public fascination, “it would make sense for it to remain the way it is.”
“But do I think Trump’s capable of turning it around? Sure,” Widner said. “With the right kind of money, it could be redone.”
TeleMessage, the app that President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, appeared to use to archive his group chats, has suspended all services after hackers claimed to have stolen files from it.
A spokesperson for Smarsh, the company that owns TeleMessage, said Monday that the company “is investigating a potential security incident. Upon detection, we acted quickly to contain it and engaged an external cybersecurity firm to support our investigation.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended,” the spokesperson said.
The app, which uses encryption technology similar to that of the popular messaging service Signal but also offers government agencies and companies a way to back up copies of chats for compliance purposes, first came under public scrutiny after Waltz appeared to be using it during a Cabinet meeting last week.
His use of the app reignited concerns about the security of his communication methods that were sparked by the “Signalgate” controversy, in which he accidentally invited a journalist into a Signal chat of top administration officials as it planned military strikes on Houthis in Yemen.
Signal automatically encrypts messages as they travel between users. But the details around TeleMessage’s encryption and security protocols aren’t fully clear.
Even though Signal is highly regarded by cybersecurity experts, the federal government has specific systems and protocols for the transmission of sensitive information and messages. Officials are expected to use intranet systems that are almost entirely closed off from the rest of the digital world, to prevent the potential breach of information via physical theft of a compromised mobile device.
Several government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Treasury and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, appear to have active contracts with TeleMessage or other companies to use TeleMessage’s services, according to government records reviewed by NBC News.
On Sunday evening, a hacker credibly claimed to NBC News to have broken into a centralized TeleMessage server and downloaded a large cache of files. As evidence, the hacker provided a screenshot of TeleMessage’s contact list of employees at the cryptocurrency broker Coinbase, which uses TeleMessage.
A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that the screengrab was authentic, but stressed that Coinbase had not been hacked and that none of its customers’ data had been affected.
“At this time, there is no evidence any sensitive Coinbase customer information was accessed or that any customer accounts are at risk, since Coinbase does not use this tool to share passwords, seed phrases, or other data needed to access accounts,” the Coinbase spokesperson said.
The hacker told NBC News they have not fully sifted through the hacked files yet, and it is unclear if they include sensitive conversations from the U.S. government.
Separately, a different hacker told the tech news publication 404 Media that they had also hacked TeleMessage and provided significant evidence. NBC News has not interacted with that hacker.
It was not immediately clear if additional hackers have accessed TeleMessage files.
The Department of Homeland Security is intensifying its efforts to persuade unauthorized immigrants to self-deport by offering a $1,000 stipend and travel assistance.
The federal agency announced Monday that those who use the CBP Home app to voluntarily leave the United States will receive assistance “to facilitate travel back to their home country” and $1,000 “paid after their return to their home country has been confirmed through the app.”
DHS did not immediately respond to questions about how the funds would be provided or what proof would be required to show the person had returned to their home country.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in late March that those who are self-deporting can use biographical data, documents, facial images and geo location in the app to prove that they have left the country. “The alien must be at least three miles outside of the United States to successfully utilize this feature,” she said. “While the use of the verify departure functionality is optional, if the alien chooses to use it, they must submit a facial image. It’s required.”
In a press release, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said self-deportations are “the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest.”
A single deportation costs U.S. taxpayers $17,121, according to DHS. The federal agency expects self-deportations to decrease that cost by 70%, even after factoring in the stipend.
So far this year, at least 5,000 immigrants have reportedly used CBP Home to say that they were voluntarily leaving the country, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
DHS has declined to say how many unauthorized immigrants have used the app so far to self-deport.
According to Appfigures, a company that tracks app downloads, CBP Home app has recently been downloaded about 1,500 times per day. Since the start of 2025, the app was downloaded about 300,000 times, according to the company’s CEO, Ariel Michaeli.
The Trump administration has spent $200 million in revamping the app and creating an accompanying advertising campaign featuring Noem to promote the app’s use.
As part of their announcement Monday, DHS said that undocumented immigrants who “submit their intent to voluntarily self-deport in CBP Home will also be deprioritized for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure.”
The agency also said that self-deportation through the app “may help preserve the option for an illegal alien to re-enter the United States legally in the future,” echoing key points Noem touts in her ads.
“The operative word in that quote from the secretary is ‘may,’” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told NBC News in March.
“For many people who leave the United States, there may never be a lawful option for return to the United States, or reentry may be barred for many years,” Heidi Altman, the vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy organization, told NBC News in a statement in March. “Forcing or coercing people into leaving their homes and their loved ones carries political, moral, and economic costs.”
