308: On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s first full day in office, US agents arrested at least 308 foreigners who were living illegally in the country, according to Border Czar Tom Homan. Those arrested were all “criminals,” Homan said, without providing more details.
18,000: India has agreed to take back an estimated 18,000 Indian citizens currently living illegally in the United States. The move is a goodwill gesture as Delhi looks to negotiate exceptions from the global import tariffs that Trump has pledged. If countries don’t agree to take back their nationals like this, the US must explore sending them to third countries. This issue will arise in US policy towards Venezuela, the home country of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants currently in the US. Venezuela so far refuses to accept deportation flights.
5: Israel this week criminalized the denial, minimization, or celebration of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel. Anyone convicted of “defending the terrorist organization Hamas, expressing sympathy for them or identifying with them” will now face five years in prison under the measure, which is modeled on a 1986 law outlawing Holocaust denial.
5,000: A new Los Angeles wildfire broke out just north of the city on Wednesday afternoon. The so-called Hughes blaze is already spreading like, well, wildfire: In just two hours, it scorched more than 5,000 acres, forcing mass evacuations. LA is still reeling from the human, economic, and political fallout of the worst wildfires in its modern history, which destroyed more than 10,000 homes earlier this month. The two largest of those fires continue to burn.
