The Wire - February 21, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z February 21, 2025// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: COUNTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OPERATIONS CONTINUE AMID PERSONNEL CHANGES. IED DETONATES NEAR POLICE HQ IN MEXICO.//  -----BEGIN TEARLINE----- -International Events- Mexico: Overnight an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated outside a convenience store in Acapulco, Guerrero. Two fatalities were reported as a result of the blast, which were two bystanders passing by the location on a moped at the time of the detonation. AC: The attack appears to have targeted the local police headquarters just south of the convenience store, across the street. Considering it's close proximity to the parking area for police vehicles, it's very likely that the IED was targeting police officers who may frequent that convenience store. United Kingdom: Apple has halted their Advanced Data Protection feature for iCloud storage services. This follows an alleged secret mandate by the British government to install backdoor access that authorities would be able to use to access user's data without a court order at any time. Apple refused to implement this requested feature, and as a result has removed the feature from being accessed by those in Britain. Germany: This evening a stabbing attack was reported in the vicinity of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin. The assailant was detained at the scene and the victim was hospitalized with non-life threatening wounds. AC: Due to long-standing German policy and culture, details regarding this incident will be hard to come by. As such, there's very little to go on for determining what happened. Some media sources claim multiple people were wounded, other sources claim only one. The location of the incident taking place in or around the Holocaust memorial is really the only detail that has been made public, though this area is a large outdoor venue near major streets, so correlating the site to the attack isn't definitive without additional details. -HomeFront- Washington D.C. - This morning various media groups announced that the Department of Justice announced an investigation into UnitedHealth Group. This investigation pertains to the Group's allegedly illegal practices pertaining to fraudulent Medicaid billing. AC: A few hours after mainstream media broke this story, UnitedHealth Group denounced the reporting, calling it "misinformation". As of right now, there has not been any statement directly from the DoJ confirming this investigation, so there's no way to independently verify a leak made directly to mainstream media. Texas: Deportation operations continue as before, while corporate efforts to dig-in begin to materialize. Recently unsealed court documents indicate that the DoJ prosecuted the owners of a bakery a few weeks ago, allegedly for harboring illegal aliens in violation of 8 USC § 1324. This indictment comes after the arrest of three restaurant chain owners in Arizona, who were charged with harboring aliens back in January. -----END TEARLINE----- Analyst Comments: While the prosecution of American citizens harboring illegal aliens is by no means a new concept, this practice has been comparatively rare over the past few decades. Most charges of harboring aliens arose from other situations (such as tax evasion or murder) with the harboring aliens charges being tacked on to supplement the prosecution of other crimes. This recent case in Texas is an oddity in that regard, as these charges seem to be independent of other crimes. ICE conducted a raid at the bakery and arrested a few staff members. Recent court docs confirm that two of those illegals turned witness against the owners by signing affidavits attesting that the owners of the bakery knew they were illegal, employed them anyway, and actively took steps to harbor them from deportation. As such, this recent case in Texas could signal a trend developing to widen the scope of illegal immigration investigations. For context, during President Trump's first term, only 11 employers were arrested for harboring aliens in 2019. An additional detail that is pertinent to the impending widening scope of investigations is that the White House fired the acting Director of ICE this afternoon, allegedly due to the numbers of daily deportations being less than expected. Analyst: S2A1 Research: