Migrants race against the clock to reach the US-Mexico border before Trump takes office
CNN
When Altagracia left Honduras to embark on the months-long journey to the US-Mexico border, she had two clear goals on her mind: reach the United States to claim asylum and reunite with her children living there.
When Altagracia left Honduras to embark on the monthslong journey to the US-Mexico border, she had two clear goals on her mind: reach the United States to claim asylum and reunite with her children living there. But after leaving her hometown of Siguatepeque, in Honduras’ central highlands, she learned that Donald Trump had won the US election touting a crackdown on immigration – one that she feared could shrink her chances of reaching the US after a nearly 3-month trip through central America and Mexico. Speaking from a shelter in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in December, the 39-year-old told CNN she was racing against the clock to reach the US’s southern border with Mexico before Trump’s January 20 inauguration. “We’ve been told that when Trump starts, he won’t let us in,” Altagracia, who asked CNN not to share her last name over fears it would impact her asylum claim in the US, said on a phone call. Altagracia is one of several migrants CNN spoke to who are racing to reach the US-Mexico border before Trump returns to the White House. Her concerns, she says, stem from Trump’s rhetoric around mass deportations and closing the border altogether.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.










