The D Brief: DHS shutdown likely; US troops leave al-Tanf; CNO’s plea to industry; Crowded robot-boat market; And a bit more.

The Division of Homeland Safety is on observe for a shutdown this weekend after Senate Democrats rejected a GOP-crafted funding invoice that they stated offered insufficient guardrails on federal immigration brokers. Senators have already left city for the week, although some may return “on quick discover if negotiators attain a deal,” The Hill reported Friday morning. 

A doable deal fell aside Thursday after a four-hour listening to on Capitol Hill with the White Home’s prime immigration officers, together with appearing ICE Director Todd Lyons. Contradicting a number of prime administration officers’ accounts—together with Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump’s deputy chief of workers Stephen Miller—Lyons testified that the 2 People killed by brokers final month in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, weren’t “to his information” home terrorists. After his testimony, a deal to maintain DHS open failed, 52-47, in a Senate vote that wanted 60 votes to advance. 

Lyons additionally misled lawmakers throughout the listening to, Kyle Clark of 9News Denver reported Thursday night. Lyons informed the Senate Homeland Safety Committee that native legislation enforcement “made notifications” and tipped off the supposed targets forward of an immigration raid at an house complicated in Aurora, Colorado. “So when tactical groups arrived, protesters had been already there and the house complicated was empty,” Lyons stated. 

Nevertheless, “These flats had been being cleared out weeks earlier” in January and properly earlier than ICE brokers confirmed up in Aurora on Feb. 5, Clark experiences. Simply hours after Lyons testimony on Thursday, ICE deleted social media posts with the declare.

Legal professionals for a U.S. citizen shot by a Border Patrol agent additionally accused administration officers of mendacity, within the case of Chicago-based faculty trainer Marimar Martinez. The Hill has extra. 

Further studying: “A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Lacking Blanket and the Fixed Chaos Inside DHS,” the Wall Road Journal reported in a prolonged characteristic on Noem and her shut adviser Corey Lewandowski.

The U.S. spent greater than $1 million per particular person to deport 300 individuals to international locations that they had no connection to, earlier than later flying them once more to their house nations at extra taxpayer expense. That’s in keeping with a report Thursday advocating nearer bipartisan oversight of DHS operations, by way of Senate International Relations Committee Democrats. 

These operations alone ran up a invoice of greater than $32 million to 5 completely different international locations: Equatorial Guinea ($7.5 million), Rwanda ($7.5 million), El Salvador ($4.76 million), Eswatini ($5.1 million) and Palau ($7.5 million). “A lot of the funds had been offered as lump sum funds, usually earlier than any third nation nationals arrived,” though “precise prices [are] probably far larger,” in keeping with the report. Particulars (PDF) right here. 

There’s nonetheless extra native resistance affecting DHS plans to purchase warehouses to pay attention migrants. The most recent growth reported Thursday occurred south of Kansas Metropolis after port authority “commissioners stated the thought of the positioning getting used for one thing aside from industrial jobs, together with doable federal detention, conflicted with long-term plans for the commercial district,” Fox4 experiences. 

In case you missed it: GSA’s procurement chief is attending negotiations for Ukraine and Gaza, Natalie Alms of our sister website Nextgov reported final month. His title is Josh Gruenbaum, 40, and he’s the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service. He has a background in non-public fairness and funding banking, however he’s been noticed in conferences alongside Israeli and Ukrainian officers over the previous few months, Alms reported 5 weeks in the past. 

Learn extra: Three Wall Road Journal reporters teamed up Thursday to fill in additional of Gruenbaum’s story as an under-the-radar negotiator within the second Trump administration—together with his function in rejected missile-acquisition talks, his work with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the way he was photographed shaking fingers with Russian President Vladimir Putin simply final month. 

Talking of Kushner, “The extremely categorized whistleblower criticism towards Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is said to a dialog intercepted final spring through which two international nationals mentioned Jared Kushner,” the Journal reported Thursday updating an uncommon case that has involved lawmakers charged with oversight of the U.S. intelligence group. U.S. officers informed the Journal “there was no corroborating proof to assist the allegations,” nevertheless, “they stated that didn’t show they lacked any benefit.”

Notable: Kushner “is now operating an funding fund, Affinity Companions, which has drawn billion-dollar investments from the Arab monarchies, and has pursued potential tasks around the globe,” the Journal experiences. (It has additionally been beneath conflict-of-interest investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.) In the meantime, “U.S. intelligence officers are treating the fabric within the criticism with the utmost secrecy, contending that disclosure of the underlying intelligence report at concern may severely harm nationwide safety.”

By the way in which: The U.S. simply dropped to its lowest-ever rank in a world corruption index, CNN reported Tuesday. 

There’s a brand new ballot out reflecting voters’ views of prime White Home officers, revealed Thursday by the Pew Analysis Middle. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is on it, and 31% of People stated they’ve by no means heard of him. Of those that are conversant in him, 41% view him unfavorably versus 26% with a good view. Learn extra, right here. 

Further studying: 

“White Home makes use of USAID funds for finances director Vought’s safety, paperwork present”—particularly, $15 million, Reuters experiences;
“ICE performed 37 investigations into officer misconduct in final yr,” NPR reported from the appearing ICE director’s congressional testimony Thursday; 
“Trump is within the unredacted Epstein information ‘greater than one million instances,’ [Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin] alleges,” Axios reported Tuesday; 
“Conservatives unload on GOP’s failures to hold out DOGE cost-cutting,” CNN reported Thursday; 
“US enterprise, customers bore 90 p.c of Trump tariff prices,” The Hill reported Friday citing a examine revealed this week by the Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York; 
“Alberta separatists step up efforts to depart Canada after assembly with Trump officers,” Reuters reported Thursday from Calgary; 
“Many Republicans disapprove of Trump on Greenland,” the Related Press reported Friday; 
And “A yr into Trump’s time period, voters say Biden was higher,” Axios reported Thursday. 

Welcome to this Friday version of The D Transient, a publication centered on developments affecting the way forward for U.S. nationwide safety, delivered to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. It’s extra essential than ever to remain knowledgeable, so we’d prefer to take a second to thanks for studying. Share your suggestions and suggestions right here. And in case you’re not already subscribed, you are able to do that right here. On today in 2013, the cruiser Lake Erie intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile within the first reside check of missile-tracking satellites.

Across the Protection Division

President Trump is visiting Fort Bragg, N.C., right this moment to talk with troops who reportedly helped within the operation to abduct Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro final month. Afterward, he’s headed to his Florida resort for the weekend, The Hill experiences. 

U.S. troops have formally departed their distant outpost at al-Tanf, Syria, near the border with Jordan, officers at Central Command stated in an announcement Thursday. Elsewhere within the nation, U.S. forces are withdrawing as a part of “a conditions-based drawdown from northeast,” Charles Lister of the Center East Institute stated Thursday. And Syria’s navy chief spoke by cellphone with the highest U.S. commander within the area, Maj. Gen. Kevin Lambert this week as properly.

The U.S. drawdowns are the results of a brand new method from Syria’s new management since former dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the nation in December 2024. The important thing U.S. companions within the area, Syrian Democratic Forces, are being more and more integrated into the brand new Syrian state, which is taking up a rising function in combating ISIS militants, Lister defined. Since final spring, 13 ISIS plots have allegedly failed and 4 ISIS leaders have been killed amid 11 joint raids and “dozens of U.S. intel-directed Syrian op[eration]s,” he added. 

“The ISIS menace in Syria has turned more and more city over the previous yr,” stated Lister, “and if the SDF integration is achieved, it’s going to probably develop into much more so.” 

U.S. forces within the area additionally simply completed transferring “greater than 5,700 grownup male ISIS fighters from detention amenities in Syria to Iraqi custody” in an operation that took greater than three weeks to finish, CENTCOM stated in an announcement Friday. 

Ceaselessly wars, continued? America could also be finishing up a covert air marketing campaign towards al-Qaeda in Yemen, argued David Sterman, deputy director of the Future Safety program at New America, writing Thursday in Simply Safety. 

The latest suspected strike seems to have occurred on Jan. 29, close to the border with Oman. “And if this clandestine marketing campaign is ongoing, then the dearth of transparency significantly complicates efforts to make sure accountability for errors and civilian casualties. It additionally exacerbates the chance of additional embroiling america in an countless battle with no clear technique,” Sterman warns. 

Additionally from the area: The Indian Navy simply took command of a maritime coaching job power primarily based in Bahrain. It’s often known as Mixed Activity Pressure 154, and it modified fingers this week from the Italians to the Indians, officers stated in an announcement Wednesday. Twenty-two completely different nations are represented within the job power, which was established nearly three years in the past. Learn extra from the Indian Protection Ministry, right here. 

Again within the states, one other Osprey was compelled to make an emergency touchdown, this time in Hawaii, because the navy rushes to repair enduring mechanical issues with the troubled plane, Protection One’s Thomas Novelly reported Thursday. 

The most recent incident occurred on Feb. 3, when an MV-22B with the first Marine Plane Wing landed within the Tactical Flight Coaching Space on Oahu “after experiencing an in-flight malfunction” with a gearbox failure. Not one of the crew was injured however the plane will “require upkeep actions and repairs” earlier than returning to its house station, in keeping with an emailed assertion from the aviation wing.

Since 2022, 4 V-22 crashes have killed a complete of 20 service members. Investigations blamed failures throughout the Osprey’s proprotor gearbox and sudden surges in energy after a clutch slip, often known as a tough clutch engagement. After the crashes, the Pentagon imposed vary and different limits on V-22 flights. In December, the Authorities Accountability Workplace and NAVAIR individually issued experiences that stated the V-22 Joint Program Workplace did not adequately assess and tackle mounting security dangers, whilst service members died.

Just one different plane sort, the F-35, had greater than the V-22’s 28, Novelly experiences. Proceed studying, right here.

Ship what we ask for on time—that’s the terse message two maritime service chiefs are sending to trade, Protection One’s Lauren C. Williams reported Thursday from the WEST 2026 convention in San Diego. 

CNO: “Ship it on time. That is actually what I would like. I do not know learn how to sugarcoat that. It is unimaginable to sugarcoat that. I would like my stuff on time,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, informed attendees Wednesday. 

Commandant: “If it may be delayed, properly, that is a you downside. That is not a me downside, as a result of I paid for one thing and I count on to get it,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith stated. Holding prices down with out sacrificing high quality or on-time supply is a longstanding conundrum for navy procurement, Williams experiences. However whereas there’s normal reticence in direction of larger prices, particularly for big platforms like ships, it’s a actuality the Navy should settle for, Smith stated. Learn on, right here. 

US, NATO are training to take out 1,500 floor targets a day, plus 600 to 1,200 ballistic missiles, the commander of the Military’s Germany-based 56th Multi-Area Command informed reporters. Protection One’s Meghann Myers experiences, right here.

Further studying: