Nicole Rodriguez

President Donald Trump has promised to eradicate terrorism and crack down on illegal immigration, but a new report says he wants to slash funding for critical border security technology requested by the Department of Homeland Security and eliminate at least one counterterrorism program altogether.

As Moner Mohammad Abusalha packed explosives into a truck last month to embark on a suicide attack, his family in Florida was apparently unaware that he had even wandered into Syria’s civil war. For months he had been sending e-mails indicating he was in Jordan, possibly caring for the wounded but far from the fight. “I’m here now, doing fine,” the e-mails would say, according to Taher Husainy, a family friend in Vero Beach. “I’m here for a good cause, doing good things.”

The Obama administration confirmed Friday that a U.S. citizen took part in a suicide bombing in Syria, the first time that an American is believed to have done so in the three-year conflict there. The American was identified as Moner Mohammad Abusalha, 22, of South Florida and of Middle Eastern descent. U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation, said that Abusalha appears to have traveled to Syria more than once.

In chilling audio recordings between the shooter at an Orlando gay nightclub and a police negotiator on the night of the Pulse nightclub massacre, Omar Mateen's demeanor fluctuated from emotionless to frenzied and indignant. In nearly 30 minutes of audio released Monday because of a court order from Judge Margaret Schreiber of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, Mateen embarks on a profanity-laced rant about U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East, evading police efforts to pry information from him.

The nation’s security has been put at risk by immigration authorities who have failed to adequately screen known or suspected terrorists or to properly exchange intelligence with other agencies, a new government report showed.

A former Fort Pierce police officer who once worked with 29-year-old Omar Mateen, the assailant in an Orlando nightclub shooting that left at least 50 dead, said he was "unhinged and unstable."

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, who was employed by G4S Security, worked as a security guard at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie at least two days before the Orlando massacre. Some residents on Tuesday questioned how the problems of the man charged with protecting them — and who was behind the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history — went undetected by G4S for so long.

After a briefing Tuesday about an extensive probe into the private security firm that employed Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen as a security guard at PGA Village, the community’s Master Board determined it will vote next month to either fire the firm or renew its contract.

Since the Pulse nightclub massacre a year ago, Treasure Coast sheriffs have terminated contracts with G4S, the private security firm gunman Omar Mateen worked for until the shooting. Sheriffs in St. Lucie and Indian River counties late last year nixed their contracts with the firm, which provided courthouse security for both counties. Both sheriffs cited security concerns after the mass shooting and an outcry from Treasure Coast judges who feared for their safety.

For residents near Omar Mateen's former home, the savage act he perpetrated at Pulse nightclub in Orlando a year ago has fostered a culture of fear of Muslims and created a heightened awareness of terrorism on the relatively sleepy Treasure Coast. People look over their shoulder more often. Some even have condemned any new mosques in the area out of a crippling fear the places of worship could spawn the next homegrown terrorist who could strike locally next time.