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National Security

Colonial Pipeline back online, but gas might not be back until the weekend

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After almost a week since Colonial Pipeline shut down for the very first time in its history, President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the pipeline was back to full capacity. But, that doesn’t mean gas stations that were emptied over the last six days will be immediately replenished.

“But I want to be clear, we will not feel the effects at the pump immediately,” Biden said during a press conference. “This is not like flicking on a light switch.”

The pipeline is over 5,500 miles long. So Biden adjusted everyone’s expectations during the presser. “We expect to see a region by region return to normalcy beginning this weekend,” he said.

Yet Colonial Pipeline’s own statement was even more vague about the timeline. “Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” their statement read.

However, when asked if Colonial Pipeline paid Ransomware, the group of hackers who initially attacked the pipeline’s cybersecurity apparatus, Biden refused to answer. From the beginning, the Biden administration has been clear that it is not the government’s decision to make. On Monday, Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology said it would be a “private sector decision” whether the ransom would be paid or not.

Sources involved in the transaction reportedly confirmed to Bloomberg News that a $5 million ransom was paid.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism

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Immigration

Ex-ICE Director Says Trump Deportation Policies Could End Migrant Gang ‘Lawlessness as Quickly as it Began’

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Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Ronald Vitiello has said president-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy plans could successfully bring down the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua (TdA).

Vitiello served as acting director of ICE from June 2018 to April 2019, and told Newsweek that under Trump’s proposed plans the gang could be “dismantled quickly.”

“In the case of Tren de Aragua, they can be dismantled quickly and definitively because their presence in the United States, although dangerous, has just begun,” he continued.

Newsweek reports that TdA is a transnational criminal organization formed in a Venezuelan prison, focuses on human trafficking and other abuses targeting vulnerable migrants.

“They are particularly vulnerable to removal and deportation, and so the United States could end their lawlessness as quickly as it began” said Vitiello who also previously served as the acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

TdA has been linked to a string of high-profile crimes, including the murders of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, and Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, as well as taking over a hotel in El Paso.

“We’ve seen deadly examples where illegals who have committed crimes and then went on to do terrible things, as in the case of Laken Reilly near Atlanta, who was killed by an individual from Venezuela who was here illegally and was arrested,” Vitiello said.

TdA is also known as the syndicate of which footage emerged of its armed gang members storming an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. The gang has been linked to a series of high-profile crimes, including murder, sexual assault, and sex trafficking in the U.S.

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