John Bolton leaves his home on October 17, 2025 in Bethesda, Maryland. Former national security adviser Bolton was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday. (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)
(GREENBELT, Md.) — Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton is in a Maryland courthouse this morning where’s he’s scheduled to make his first court appearance at 11 a.m. ET after being indicted by a grand jury Thursday on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.
Bolton arrived at the federal courthouse before 9 a.m. ET Friday.
The indictment charges Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Seven of the transmissions allegedly occurred during the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019, while another document was allegedly sent by Bolton just days after President Donald Trump removed him from the administration in September of 2019.
The indictment accuses Bolton of abusing his position as national security adviser by sharing “more than a thousand pages” of information in “diary-like entries” about his day-to-day activities with two recipients identified only as “Individual 1” and “Individual 2,” who prosecutors say are Bolton’s relatives.
Sources told ABC News that the relatives referred to in the indictment as ‘Individual 1’ and ‘Individual 2’ are Bolton’s wife and daughter.
The indictment comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as Trump continues what critics call a campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office, related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
Luigi Mangione appears in court for a hearing on his state murder charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Supreme Court on September 16, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means/Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration is making Luigi Mangione “a pawn to further its political agenda” and uttering or posting statements about him that are prejudicing the accused killer’s prospects at a fair trial, his attorneys argued Friday in a new court filing that asked a federal judge to either dismiss the indictment or take the death penalty off the table.
Federal prosecutors said President Donald Trump’s social media posts calling Mangione “a pure assassin,” and subsequent reposts by Justice Department officials, did not prejudice Mangione “because the statements were made by persons not associated with this matter.” The defense said the government can’t make that claim because of Trump’s unprecedented intervention in Justice Department matters.
“Unlike any of its predecessors since the Watergate era, the Department of Justice has not acted independently of the White House in this case — or in several others,” the new defense filing said. “This departure from the longstanding principle of prosecutorial independence has created a blurred and constitutionally troubling line between the Department of Justice and the Executive Office of the President.”
Mangione is accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December 2024. He pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including one death-eligible count of using a firearm to commit murder, and pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York and Pennsylvania. Defense attorneys have argued in a separate filing the death-eligible charge should not apply.
In its new filing, Mangione’s defense team expressed concern about tainting the pool of prospective jurors.
“The Department of Justice and the White House have coordinated to cultivate and disseminate negative public rhetoric deliberately designed to taint the prospective jury pool,” defense attorneys Karen Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz wrote. “The significance of these prejudicial statements is that they have life or death consequences for Mr. Mangione.”
Prosecutors have argued that since no trial date has been set there will be ample time for the public to forget about anything Trump or others have said about Mangione, whose alleged attack was captured on video and who, police said, was arrested with the murder weapon in his backpack.
The defense said the statements still violate the rules.
“The government has engaged in purposeful, repeated, unlawful actions specifically designed to hurt Mr. Mangione’s chances at fair legal proceedings and a fair trial and as part of a wider government effort to further a political agenda,” the defense said. “These same officials — whether acting directly or through their subordinates — have continued on this course even after this Court has explicitly directed them not to has caused this case to be unlike any prior death penalty case.”
Meanwhile, Mangione’s Pennsylvania case is effectively on hold as he sits in jail in Brooklyn, New York, according to court documents.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was captured after a manhunt, he faces charges including carrying a firearm without a license.
Federal officials previously denied a request by Blair County, Pennsylvania, prosecutors to allow Mangione to be taken to Pennsylvania to make in-person court appearances, and Mangione has thus far refused to appear remotely.
A Pennsylvania judge ruled earlier this week that the case ultimately can’t move forward until Mangione can appear in person, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. The judge gave Mangione’s defense team 14 days to file a formal request for an in-person hearing or reconsider appearing remotely.
ABC News’ Jon Haworth and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump, arrives home as the FBI searches his house August 22, 2025 in Bethesda, Maryland. The FBI conducted a court-authorized search of Bolton’s home. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on charges that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained classified documents.
The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, charges Bolton with eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information as well as 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Prosecutors accuse Bolton of using a non-government personal email account and messaging application to transmit at least eight documents to unauthorized individuals that contained information classified at levels ranging from Secret to Top Secret.
Seven of the transmissions allegedly occurred during the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019, while another document was allegedly sent by Bolton just days after President Donald Trump removed him from the administration in September of 2019.
“For four decades, I have devoted my life to America’s foreign policy and national security. I would never compromise those goals,” Bolton said in a lengthy statement, saying the indictment is part of a pattern of “Donald Trump’s retribution” against him since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all book.
“I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power,” Bolton said in the statement.
The move to indict Bolton comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as President Donald Trump continues what critics call a campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office, related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
Prosecutors say one document listed in the indictment “reveals intelligence about future attack by adversarial group in another country.” Others allegedly contain information about foreign partners sharing sensitive information with the U.S. intelligence community; intelligence related to a foreign adversary’s missile launch plans; intelligence on leaders of a U.S. adversary; and one that detailed plans of covert action by the U.S. government.
The indictment accuses Bolton of abusing his position as national security adviser by sharing “more than a thousand pages” of information in “diary-like entries” about his day-to-day activities with two recipients identified only as “Individual 1” and “Individual 2,” who prosecutors say are Bolton’s relatives.
Sources told ABC News that the relatives referred to in the indictment as ‘Individual 1’ and ‘Individual 2’ are Bolton’s wife and daughter.
Bolton’s wife was present at their home the day the search was executed nearly two months ago.
It was not immediately clear which is believed to be Individual 1 or 2.
Prosecutors further allege that Bolton unlawfully retained documents, writing and notes containing national defense information ranging to levels of Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information at his home in Maryland, stored both as paper files and on a number of personal devices.
The indictment says that at some point after Bolton left office as national security adviser, a cyber actor believed to be associated with Iran hacked his personal email account and gained access to the classified information he had previously emailed to his relatives.
What Bolton and his attorneys say
Bolton has denied ever unlawfully removing classified materials from his time in government and has said no such information was published in his 2020 memoir “The Room Where It Happened.”
In his statement on Thursday, Bolton said his book was “reviewed and approved by the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials.”
Regarding the 2021 email hack, Bolton said the FBI “was made fully aware.”
“These charges are not just about his focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct,” Bolton said in the statement, referring to Trump. “Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom.”
Bolton’s attorneys have denied he ever mishandled classified information and said documents investigators found in their search of his home and residence were no longer considered classified.
“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago,” Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021. We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a DOJ statement announcing the indictment. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
The 10 documents the indictment says were unlawfully retained by Bolton were allegedly seized during the searches of his home and office in August, and contained similar information to the documents Bolton is alleged to have unlawfully transmitted during his time as national security adviser.
The investigation is being run out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, unlike the Comey and James probes which are being conducted by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, who sources say brought the Comey and James charges against the advice of career prosecutors.
Comey, who was indicted on charges of lying to Congress, and James, who is charged with mortgage fraud, have both denied wrongdoing.
Last month, a federal judge unsealed a redacted version of the affidavit that had been assembled by prosecutors in order to execute their court-authorized search of Bolton’s home. Most of the document concerned allegations surrounding the publication of Bolton’s book, which the first Trump administration unsuccessfully sued to block.
The federal judge overseeing that lawsuit expressed grave concerns over whether Bolton had included highly classified information in his book that could potentially compromise national security.
On the day that Bolton’s home and office were searched, Trump said that he was “unaware” of the searches but went on to call Bolton a “sleazebag.” Referencing the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago home in his own classified documents case, Trump told reporters that having your home searched is “not a good feeling.”
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back.
After Trump was reelected president last November, the case was dropped due to a long-standing Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump, asked about Bolton in a June 2022 Oval Office interview with Fox News, said, “He took classified information and he published it, during a presidency. It’s one thing to write a book after. During. And I believe that he’s a criminal, and I believe, frankly, he should go to jail for that, and that probably, possibly will happen. That’s what should happen.”
A group ambushed corrections and police officers outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025, creating a distraction with fireworks and graffiti before firing upon officers with semiautomatic rifles. Mark David Smith/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via TNS via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors have secured a grand jury indictment of two alleged followers of the antifa movement on terrorism-related charges stemming from their involvement in a July 4 attack on an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, according to newly unsealed court records.
The indictment appears to be the first time a charge of material support to terrorism has been applied to alleged followers of the anti-fascist movement, following President Donald Trump’s declaration officially designating the movement as a domestic terrorist organization.
Experts have repeatedly questioned the legality of that proclamation — as did senior officials in law enforcement during Trump’s first term in office — given that the movement has no publicly known leadership structure and there are significant statutory limitations on law enforcement being able to designate domestic groups as terrorists.
The two men who were indicted, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, were previously charged in connection with the alleged ambush of federal agents at the ICE facility and attempting to kill two correctional officers and an Alvarado police officer, but the grand jury indictment charges both with an additional count of providing material support to terrorists.
In the indictment, filed in the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors describe antifa as a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.”
They allege that Arnold and Evetts operated as part of an “Antifa cell” that planned and coordinated the July 4 attack on the ICE facility using firearms and fireworks to target correctional officers.
“Some Antifa Cell members discussed logistics, previous site reconnaissance, and locations of security cameras at the facility. They exchanged a map of Prarieland and the surrounding area that showed the locations of nearby police stations,” the indictment says. “One Antifa Cell member, for example, said in one group chat that they would be “bringing a wagon to hold armor and rifles.”
Jake Haro, 32, and Rebecca Haro, 41, were arrested on Aug. 22 for the murder of their 7-month-old child, Emmanuel Haro, who has been missing since Aug. 14, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office. Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office
(LOS ANGELES) — The father of Emmanuel Haro, the 7-month-old in California who has been missing since August, has pleaded guilty to the baby’s murder.
Jake Haro, 32, pleaded guilty in court on Thursday to all charges, including assault causing bodily harm to a child “resulting in the death of said child” and filing a false police report, according to court records.
The father, who previously pleaded not guilty with his wife Rebecca Haro in September, cried in court on Thursday while he was giving his plea.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel’s mother, 41-year-old Rebecca Haro, pleaded not guilty to an amended complaint on Thursday, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Nov 3. It remains unclear what is in the complaint, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
Jake Haro’s sentencing is also scheduled for Nov. 3.
Officials have not announced whether they have located the baby’s remains.
The 7-month-old was reported missing on Aug. 14 at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time after his mother “reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Aug. 15.
When he was reported missing, Emmanuel’s mother told officials that “while she stood outside her vehicle, changing the child’s diaper, she was physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” authorities said.
Authorities later said the mother was “confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement,” leading officials to say they were “unable to rule out foul play in the disappearance of Emmanuel,” officials said.
Jake and Rebecca Haro were arrested and charged for the child’s murder on Aug. 22, officials said.
In August, officials announced they had a “pretty strong indication” on the location of the child’s remains and they believed Emmanuel was “severely abused over a period of time.”
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said during a press conference in August.
Hestrin said Jake Haro, who he described as an “experienced child abuser,” “should have gone to prison” due to previously abusing another child he had with his ex-wife back in 2018, but a judge at the time granted him probation — a ruling Hestrin called an “outrageous error in judgment.” Authorities said the child in that case has been left bedridden.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said.
Officials in Philadelphia are searching for Kada Scott, a 23 year old woman who has been missing for nearly a week. Philadelphia Police Department
(PHILADELPHIA) — A suspect has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a 23-year-old nursing assistant in Philadelphia who was allegedly harassed by an unknown individual before she went missing. However, the search continues for the missing woman, Philadelphia police said.
Kada Scott was last seen by her mother on Oct. 4 when she was leaving for work at a nearby nursing home, police said last week. On Wednesday, police said Keon King, 21, has been charged with kidnapping “for his involvement” in the disappearance of Scott.
While King is in custody in connection with Scott’s disappearance, officials said “a lot of work” is still to be done in the investigation, and they are “still treating this as if Ms. Scott is still alive.”
“The No. 1 priority is locating Ms. Scott,” John M. Stanford, the first deputy commissioner for field operations at the Philadelphia Police Department, said on Wednesday.
Scott arrived at work on Oct. 4, but left prior to her shift’s completion, and has not been seen since, Philadelphia police Capt. John Craig said during a press conference last week. It was not clear what time Scott left work, but officials said her shift typically was from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Scott was reported missing to police on Oct. 5, with law enforcement saying they had “some concern, more so than usual” regarding her disappearance due to worrying phone calls she was receiving.
“In the days leading up to her disappearance, Ms. Scott related to her family and friends that an unknown individual or person had been harassing her via phone,” Craig said last week.
Officials were able to recover Scott’s vehicle, which was located in the parking lot of the nursing home where she worked, Craig said.
On Wednesday, officials said evidence shows Scott was “in communication with an individual” — identified as King — and that she appeared to meet with him “very shortly after” she left work on Oct. 4.
“Mr. King is the last person we believe to be in contact with her when she went offline,” Ashley Kozlowski, the Philadelphia assistant district attorney, said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Police were previously asking the public’s help in locating the suspect’s vehicle, a 1999 metallic-gold Toyota Camry with a Pennsylvania license plate of MSX-0797, which they believe Scott may have been in. Later on Wednesday, police confirmed to ABC News that King’s vehicle was found in an apartment lot.
Officials said they received two tips, the first led them to an elementary school where they recovered evidence “of value,” and the second that led them to the vehicle connected to Scott’s disappearance.
Officials on Wednesday said the car has “front-end damage on the left front bumper” and that it “could be anywhere.”
King has a “little bit of a pattern of this type of history,” as he was involved in a case earlier this year where he was accused of kidnapping and strangling a “female acquaintance,” officials said. The case was dismissed after a witness failed to appear in court, but Kozlowski said on Wednesday they “made the decision to refile those charges.”
On Tuesday, police told ABC News the investigation was being led by the Homicide Unit, but said they were not characterizing it as a homicide investigation.
The 23-year-old’s father, Kevin Scott, told ABC News the family remains confident “she’s gonna be with us as soon as possible.”
“It’s been difficult, extremely difficult. We keep faith that she’s OK and she’s going to be with us as soon as possible, she’s going to be found and hopefully no harm is done to her. I’m going to keep that positive vibe going,” Kevin Scott told ABC News.
King was arraigned on Thursday and is being held on $2.5 million bail, the Philadelphia district attorney told ABC News.
ABC News’ Tommy Foster, Sabina Ghebremedhin, Deena Zaru and Tesfaye Negussie contributed to this report.
(KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis.) — A Wisconsin man pleaded not guilty on Thursday after he was arrested for allegedly threatening federal agents in a series of TikTok videos, according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News.
Andrew Stanton, 38, was arrested earlier this month and charged with threats to assault, kidnap or murder a United States official after authorities linked him to several TikTok videos threatening agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, prosecutors said.
“When there are mass shootings, they are successful. People die and people are terrorized. You can apply that to other people: federal agents,” Stanton allegedly shared in a video on Sept. 10, prosecutors said.
On Aug. 26, the Southwest Wisconsin Threat Analysis Center received a tip from the Wisconsin Statewide Intelligence Center that an “individual appearing to be” Stanton was making threatening statements on TikTok specifically aimed at “soliciting Israeli personal information,” prosecutors said.
“Do you have the known whereabouts of [Israel flag] IDF members in the IL/WI area? Feel free to dm me. We need verification that they are IN or served,” the text in the video said, according to the criminal complaint.
The account where these statements were posted was removed, but prosecutors said additional accounts that were believed to be Stanton’s — after obtaining the email address associated with the accounts and comparing the suspect’s driver’s license photo with the man in the videos — contained similar rhetoric, prosecutors said.
On Aug. 29, one of those accounts posted a video that stated, “We’re not getting through to them [politicians] with using our words. That’s never gonna happen. You have to use bullets,” according to prosecutors.
Another video featured text on the screen that read, “I imply the very TRUE statement that a violent state can only be stopped with violence in return” and “I think we should be OFFING federal agents,” prosecutors said.
On Sept. 5, authorities made multiple attempts to interview Stanton, but were “unable to reach him,” prosecutors said.
Then, on Sept. 11, a federal law enforcement officer texted Stanton saying he was a supervisor with CBP, assigned to the FBI, indicating “he wished to speak to Stanton about posts he had been making,” the criminal complaint said.
Stanton then proceeded to send a series of threatening messages to the officer, prosecutors said.
“Please die. It will help future generations,” Stanton allegedly wrote.
Then, on Oct. 4, the suspect posted a video threatening the officer he had been messaging, prosecutors said.
“If they show up to your neighborhood, and I’m talking to you, Border Patrol Officer Joe, it’s time we start shooting you,” Stanton allegedly said in the video, according to the criminal complaint.
In the same video, Stanton also allegedly said, “If ICE shows up to your neighborhood — I’m sorry, I’m just gonna say it. It’s time to start [expletive] shooting at them,” according to the complaint.
Stanton’s final pretrial conference is scheduled for Dec. 1, with his trial being set for Dec. 15, according to court records. He is currently being held in the Kenosha County Detention Center, according to jail records.
An attorney representing Stanton did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Former U.S. security advisor John Bolton speaks at the inauguration of the ‘FAES Campus 2024’, at the Hotel Petit Palace Savoy Alfonso XII, on 23 September, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. Jesus Hellin/Europa Press via Getty Images
(WASHNGTON) — Federal prosecutors in Maryland are expected to ask a grand jury Thursday to indict former Trump national security adviser John Bolton for his alleged mishandling of classified documents, sources tell ABC News.
The move comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James as President Donald Trump continues what critics call a campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.
Bolton has been a target of Trump’s ire since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all book. Federal agents in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office, related to allegations that Bolton possessed classified information.
Bolton has denied ever unlawfully removing classified materials from his time in government and has said no such information was published in his 2019 memoir “The Room Where It Happened.”
The investigation is being run out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, unlike the Comey and James probes which are being conducted by the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, who sources say brought the Comey and James charges against the advice of career prosecutors.
Comey, who was indicted on charges of lying to Congress, and James, who is charged with mortgage fraud, have both denied wrongdoing.
Last month, a federal judge unsealed a redacted version of the affidavit that had been assembled by prosecutors in order to execute their court-authorized search of Bolton’s home. Most of the document concerned allegations surrounding the publication of Bolton’s book, which the first Trump administration unsuccessfully sued to block.
The federal judge overseeing that lawsuit expressed grave concerns over whether Bolton had included highly classified information in his book that could potentially compromise national security.
On the day that Bolton’s home and office were searched, Trump said that he was “unaware” of the searches but went on to call Bolton a “sleazebag.” Referencing the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago home in his own classified documents case, Trump told reporters that having your home searched is “not a good feeling.”
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back.
After Trump was reelected president last November, the case was dropped due to a long-standing Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump, asked about Bolton in a June 2022 Oval Office interview with Fox News, said, “He took classified information and he published it, during a presidency. It’s one thing to write a book after. During. And I believe that he’s a criminal, and I believe, frankly, he should go to jail for that, and that probably, possibly will happen. That’s what should happen.”
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office is searching for Melodee Buzzard. This is the most recent photograph available, which was taken two years ago. Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — California authorities are trying to track down a 9-year-old girl who they say hasn’t been seen in at least one year.
The search for 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard was sparked on Tuesday when a school official reported her “prolonged absence,” the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said. Melodee is homeschooled and has not checked in since October 2024, according to the sheriff’s office.
When deputies responded to her home, Melodee and her mom, Ashlee Buzzard, weren’t there, and “no clear explanation was provided” for where Melodee was, the sheriff’s office said. Then, on Wednesday night, deputies returned to the home and Ashlee Buzzard was there, but Melodee was not, authorities said. No one else lives at the house, authorities said.
The last confirmed sighting of Melodee was about one year ago, according to the sheriff’s office. The department has released a photo of Melodee, taken about two years ago.
“We really want folks to keep an eye out … and send in any information they might have about her,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Raquel Zick told ABC News.
Anyone with information can call the sheriff’s department at 805-681-4150 or can submit a tip anonymously at 805-681-4171 or SBSheriff.org.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Labor Department is warning of a potential food crisis linked to President Trump’s immigration raids – and one family-owned farm is caught in the middle.
“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,” according to a Department of Labor report submitted earlier in October.
Owyhee Produce, a third-generation agricultural business in Idaho, is now facing worker shortages in the wake of the Trump administration’s increasing deportation raids.
Shay Myers, Owyhee Produce’s general manager, said the farm typically has 300 workers at peak harvesting times, with roughly 82 H-2A visa employees, who are temporary, seasonal agricultural workers from abroad.
According to Myers, these seasonal workers – some from Mexico, some from South Africa and other countries – are granted a visa for up to nine months after being interviewed to determine whether they qualify. Owyhee then provides their travel to the farm, and their housing – “everything, really, when they’re here except for food and clothing. That’s part of the requirements,” said Myers.
Given the cost and requirements, it may seem easier to hire local workers instead. Not so, according to Myers.
“We would love to hire people from here. The reality is that we can’t find the numbers of people here,” Myers told ABC News. “We’re in a rural area, number one. Number two: This is hard work. It is difficult work, and there are lots of people that are not willing to do it.”
Mauricio Sol, a seasonal worker at Owyhee, said 90% of the workforce at the farm is from Mexico, but it is becoming more difficult to find seasonal agricultural workers due to increased concerns about possible ICE raids.
“We all come on the H-2A visa program, so we come all here legally by the season, just for the season, and then we go back to Mexico,” Sol told ABC News. “We usually get a lot of applications. We’re not getting that many now because people is afraid of that even when they are legally here, they’re getting arrested for no reason.”
James O’Neill, the director of Legislative Affairs for the American Business Immigration Coalition, which describes itself as “a bipartisan coalition of over 1,700 employers and CEOs from across the country to provide a strong and unified voice seeking lasting immigration solutions,” says that President Trump’s immigration raids are hurting agricultural labor forces and could lead to higher food prices.
“It’s absolutely impacting the labor force,” O’Neill told ABC News. “Nationwide, the USDA’s ag labor survey suggests that somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of our farm labor workforce is undocumented immigrants.”
“And if that’s the case, if we were to deport them all overnight, then that’s 60% of the workforce, meaning that’s 60% of the supply that’s not being met without a shift in demand. And I think anyone that understands economics knows that means higher prices for them at the grocery store,” O’Neill said.
A September report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service estimated that “about 40 percent” of “hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status.”
Myers said he wants to share Owyhee’s story in hopes of bringing attention to the plight faced by seasonal agricultural workers across the country, “because it’s wrong not to.”
“I have a voice, I have reach. I have people that will listen,” Myers told ABC News. “And because I am a conservative and a Republican, people assume that I would have a different perspective here, and this is my reality.”
“I love these people. I love the culture, and I love the effort that they make. And ethically, to continue to not fix this problem is absolutely completely wrong.” Myers said. “We as Americans try to do the right thing. Let’s do the right thing.”
ABC News reached out to the U.S. Department of Labor for comment but was told that their press team was unavailable due to the ongoing government shutdown.
