President Biden’s nominees to fill key roles within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are advancing in the Senate. The Senate confirmed Ur Jaddou as the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on July 30 on a 47-34 party-line vote.

According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release dated August 3, 2021, a member of the U.S. foreign service, Dean Cheves, 61, was indicted for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and possession of child pornography.

Listen to former Secret Service Agent Jonathan Wackrow, who served in the U.S. Secret Service for 14 years, talk about the skills required for the job and the strategy used. He served on the security details of a number of U.S. leaders, including former President Barack Obama.

On Thursday afternoon, the Biden administration announced a requirement that all federal employees and contractors show proof of vaccination or submit to regular COVID-19 tests, wear masks, and physically distance from others while at work.

According to a Department of Justice press release dated July 22, 2021, the DOJ has launched five cross-jurisdictional firearms trafficking strike forces to address violent crime and crack down on sources of crime guns.

Whether law enforcement officers are entitled to qualified immunity when they knowingly violated their training by retaliating against a person for filming an arrest the officers made in public, was submitted this month for the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration.

In a July 13, 2021 press release, President Biden announced his intent to nominate Dr. Rahul Gupta to be Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a position also known as drug czar.

According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release dated July 27, 2021, Luz Irene Fajardo Campos, aka “La Comadre,” “La Madrina,” and “La Doña,” 57, of Culiacan, Mexico, was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison following a 2019 trial for her role in in an international drug trafficking conspiracy that included Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, and the United States.

National Whistleblower Day is celebrated each year on July 30. America’s first whistleblower law was approved during the height of the American Revolution on July 30, 1778 when Congress acted on whistleblower disclosures made about wrongdoing and abuses by a senior officer of the Continental Navy.

Our day starts around 8:00 a.m. when I hear my three kids moving around. Some days I have the energy to go downstairs and make them a nice breakfast but other days I have a harder time getting out of bed so they grab something easy.

ICYMI: Attorney General Merrick Garland addresses the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law 31 years ago this month. This law passed with bipartisan support and has been life-changing for people with disabilities.

Harris County, TX Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, President Biden’s pick to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in a July 15, 2021 hearing to field questions about his suitability for the role.

The Judicial Conference of the United States is requesting $1.54 billion from Congress to be put towards information technology and cybersecurity updates, stronger security measures, and courthouse construction. This funding could be part of either an infrastructure package to be released by lawmakers or a budget plan that is still being negotiated.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report entitled Sex Trafficking: Online Platforms and Federal Prosecutions. The report examines Department of Justice (DOJ) enforcement actions against online platforms that promote sex trafficking from 2014 to 2020. Two events in 2018 shifted the landscape of the online sex market and therefore the landscape of online sex trafficking.

In 2018, Alexander Bebris sent messages to a woman via Facebook Messenger, a private messaging system on Facebook. Facebook Messenger utilizes PhotoDNA, a Microsoft image-recognition program that provides the capability to scan images uploaded onto the company’s platform and compares the “hash,” or essence of a photo, with a database of known images of child pornography. After a “hit,” Facebook reviews the flagged images and sends them to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) through the CyberTipline.

According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release dated July 21, 2021, Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio was charged with attempting to conduct a mass shooting of women and with illegally possessing a machine gun.

Watch this #FedLifeHacks video from FEEA with tips on how to keep kids of all ages safe online.

In this round of the FEDForum, Concerns of Police Survivors would like to share the Survivor Story of Garrett Garton, Surviving Child of Hawthorne Police Officer Andrew Garton, EOW 5/26/2011. Garrett was just 12 years old at the time of his father’s death. Here is his story in his own words.

Using three pole cameras mounted on public property to continuously monitor the exterior of a defendant’s home for 18 months without a warrant is not an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment, according to the Seventh Circuit.

Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) Deb Haaland signed a memo last week creating a task force to review law enforcement policies and procedures across the department. The memo cites the June 2021 Office of Inspector General (OIG) report “Review of U.S. Park Police Actions at Lafayette Park" as an impetus for the task force creation.