Mizzou defensive end Daeden Hopkins (10) goes up against a Mississippi State’s Jakheem Shumpert-Perkins (55) (copy)

(The Center Square) – From Baltimore to Boston to Chicago, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are arresting violent fugitives, including those wanted for war crimes.

In Boston, ICE officers arrested a twice-deported fugitive from El Salvador, Leonel Santos-Diaz, during targeted immigration enforcement operations in Chelsea.

He is wanted in El Salvador after being arrested for aggravated homicide, human trafficking, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and is a suspect in an aggravated robbery investigation. He illegally entered the U.S. to evade prosecution, authorities said.

“Sadly, this is yet another example of what the dishonest media will portray as a non-criminal arrest, despite Leonel Santos-Diaz being charged with aggravated homicide and human trafficking in his home country,” Acting ICE Boston Field Office Director David Wesling said. “The ironically named ‘Protect Act’ in Massachusetts is designed to shield individuals like Santos-Diaz from arrest and deportation. Do any Massachusetts residents really feel protected by his presence in their community?”

Extraditions are a large part of Trump administration border security operations. In addition to extraditing illegal foreign nationals wanted by their governments, the U.S. is also extraditing dozens at a time from other countries to prosecute them in the U.S.  

In Chicago, ICE officers arrested and deported Liberian national Amos Sheik Massaquoi, who is accused of having “ordered and participated in extrajudicial killings, acts of torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers” during Liberia’s two civil wars. The wars, stretching from 1989 to 2003, led to the murder of more than 250,000 and extensive human rights violations and war crimes. 

In December 1989, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia overthrew the government and Massaquoi reportedly served as a chief bodyguard to NPFL leader Maj. Gen. Daniel Chea. He also received specialized military training at a Chinese military academy in 2004, ICE said. 

 He illegally entered the U.S. in 2006 under the Bush administration, ICE said. It wasn’t until the first Trump administration that ICE Homeland Security Investigations-Maryland arrested him in 2019. A federal immigration judge then released him back into the country. 

ICE-Baltimore officers again arrested him last April. ICE HSI-Maryland working with the Washington, D.C., based HSI Human Rights Violators and War Crimes (HRVW) Center maintains he is connected to alleged war crimes. 

The HSI HRVWC center is dedicated to identifying, locating and prosecuting human rights abusers illegally in the U.S. They include those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation, or used or recruited child soldiers.  

A federal judge ordered his removal last May. He was deported in August.

“If you are a confirmed human rights violator and you believe you can hide in the United States, you are mistaken,” ICE Chicago Field Office Director Frank Padula said. “ICE will pursue, arrest and remove any individuals who committed atrocities abroad and ensure our communities are not used as a sanctuary from accountability.”  

“Amos Sheik Massaquoi’s is believed to have engaged in cruelty and terror, marked by killings, torture, forced labor, unlawful imprisonment and the recruitment of children into armed conflict,” ICE HSI-Maryland Special Agent in Charge Akil Baldwin said in a statement. “We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure this country never becomes a refuge for those who brutalize innocent people.”  

In another case earlier this year, the HRVWC center discovered that a Bosnian war criminal illegally entered the U.S. and falsified paperwork to illegally obtain U.S. citizenship. 

Last November, Nada Radovan Tomanic, 53, pleaded guilty to one count of procuring citizenship contrary to law and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The fraud charge stems from Tomanic “concealing her involvement in torture and inhuman treatment amounting to a war crime while serving with the Zulfikar Special Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s,” ICE said.

Despite participating “in severe physical and psychological abuse of Bosnian Serb prisoners,” she twice denied serving in the unit or committing war crimes when applying for naturalization, ICE said.

Under the Trump administration, visas, citizenship and other immigration status are being revoked and foreign nationals are being deported, The Center Square reported. 

Since 2003, ICE has obtained deportation orders against and physically removed 1,178 known or suspected human rights violators and facilitated the departure of another 208.  

Currently, ICE HSI has more than 1,903 active investigations and is pursuing more than 1,985 leads and removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 95 countries, it says. 

Since 2003, the HRVWC center has issued more than 80,000 individual lookouts and stopped over 415 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S. 

Those with information about potential former human rights violators spotted in the U.S. are encouraged to contact the ICE Tip Line at 866-DHS-2-ICE or email HRV.ICE@ice.dhs.gov.

(The Center Square) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Dallas arrested 121 people during a summer enforcement initiative at Lake Lewis in Texas, including two confirmed members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua terrorist organization. 

A three-year ICE Homeland Security Investigations-Dallas investigation led to indictments against multiple defendants accused of running a sex trafficking and money laundering conspiracy out of the Paris Adult Bookstore in Dallas.

Conducted from June 27 through Labor Day weekend, the operation involved multiple law enforcement agencies with a goal of identifying illegal foreign nationals and assisting with lake-related investigations.

Those arrested had criminal histories of assault, family violence, assault causing bodily injury, theft, burglary, sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child by sexual contact, evading arrest or detention with a vehicle, driving while intoxicated, boating while intoxicated, criminal mischief, criminal negligence, and multiple and varied traffic-related offenses, ICE said.

Two men who were arrested, citizens of Venezuelan and Honduras, were confirmed TdA members already under investigation by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, authorities said. They were allegedly operating an illegal livery (taxi) operation on Lake Lewisville. 

“Illegal livery operations can create significant public safety risks because they may bypass safety, inspection, and insurance and operator requirements,” ICE said. “A similar illegal livery operation was connected to the death of an Air Force cadet over the 2025 Memorial Day weekend on Grapevine Lake.” 

In that case, a Venezuelan national in the country illegally fled the scene after striking an 18-year-old cadet kayaker with a jet ski, The Center Square reported. The Venezuelan was apprehended and charged and prosecuted for felony manslaughter. It was later learned that the Venezuelan illegally entered the country in 2023 as a gotaway, authorities said and The Center Square reported. Gotaways is the official federal term for foreign nationals who purposefully illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture. More than two million gotaways were reported during the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported. 

Among them have been thousands of TdA members. TdA, which means, “Train from Aragua,” referring to the Venezuelan state of Aragua, initially operated out of Tocorón Prison in Aragua. The Trump administration designated TdA as a FTO after more than one million Venezuelans illegally entered the country and TdA crime expanded in at least 22 states under the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported. Last year alone, hundreds of TdA members were indicted on terrorism charges in 10 months, The Center Square reported.

In the ICE HSI-Dallas north Texas sex trafficking investigation, a multi-year and multi-agency investigation led to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas securing indictments against multiple defendants on sex trafficking charges. Some faced additional charges of sex trafficking through force, fraud and coercion; sex trafficking of a minor; money laundering and weapons charges. If convicted, several face up to life in prison. 

HSI Dallas Assistant Special Agent in Charge Judy Pardo said that HSI and the North Texas Trafficking Task Force were “focused on identifying traffickers, disrupting the businesses and financial systems that enable them, and ensuring victims are connected with critical support services. This case sends a clear message: Those who profit from exploitation will be investigated, arrested and brought before the courts.”

The yearslong sex trafficking and money laundering conspiracy at the bookstore involved two sex trafficker “pimps” forcing women and minors to engage in commercial sex in the store’s arcade rooms, authorities allege. Adults and minors were asex trafficked there and bookstore employees and associates profited from charging cash fees for access to the arcade rooms for commercial sex, ICE said. “Employees were allegedly permitted to keep leftover cash paid by commercial sex workers as ‘tips,’” ICE HSI-Dallas said.

Some victims “displayed visible injuries, including bruising, black eyes, road rash, stab wounds;” some said they were assaulted, ICE HSI-Dallas said.

“Security” bookstore staff were paid with illicit proceeds in exchange for “controlling customers and commercial sex workers; ensuring solicitation occurred only in certain areas of the property; preventing traffickers from lingering in the parking lot; escorting customers and commercial sex workers to arcade rooms; and reporting disturbances involving law enforcement or altercations,” according to the indictment.

HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard said the investigation “reflects the core mission of HSI identifying criminal networks, following the money, rescuing victims and working with prosecutors to hold offenders accountable.” 

(The Center Square) – A new report exposed the “massive hidden price tag” that what it calls "climate lawfare" presents to American consumers, the report concluding that if each climate case and proposed law succeeded, energy prices would rise including gas prices increasing by about 41 cents a gallon.

Co-author of the report as well as founder and executive director of Power the Future Daniel Turner said in a statement obtained by The Center Square: "While the eco-left has suddenly pretended to discover affordability, they want to hide this massive tax hike no one voted for.”

"No politician would survive telling voters, 'I'm raising your gas tax 41 cents a gallon,' so the radical left found a workaround: sue and stick you with the bill,” Turner said.

“It's really that simple,” Turner said. “They sue, you pay."

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in Suncor vs. Boulder County Commissioners. The Colorado case has nationwide implications and could determine whether states and local governments across the country can use state and local laws to seek billions of dollars in damages against energy companies for alleged contributions to climate change. 

So-called climate lawfare is when activists attempt to enact climate-related policies through the court room instead of via the traditional legislative process.

According to energy worker advocacy group Power the Future, climate lawfare comes with a “massive hidden price tag” Americans could eventually have to pay: “If every pending lawsuit and proposed law succeeded, the burden on the American energy system could reach $280 billion a year, adding roughly 41 cents to the price of every gallon of gasoline.”

This $280 billion a year – which the report explains is on the high end of estimates – would pan out to up to $2,111 per household annually, the report Who Really Pays? The Consumer Cost of Climate Litigation and "Climate Superfund" Legislation in the United States showed.

Besides more expensive gasoline, electricity rates could also increase by up to 8.6%, the report said.

These numbers are based on an assessment of “more than 300 pending legal actions, three enacted state statutes, twelve state legislative proposals, and one federal bill,” the report said.

The report noted that 9.1% of the income of low-income households is already spent on energy, meaning poorer families would be most negatively impacted by a hike in energy prices.

The report could find virtually no scenario where the cost to consumers was zero dollars after climate lawfare cases potentially succeeded. 

The report was authored by Turner as well as economist E.J. Antoni.

Power the Future called on Congress to pass the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act, which would “reassert federal primacy over greenhouse gas regulation and bar retroactive climate liability suits,” according to the report.

(The Center Square) – More prominent Jewish political leaders are joining a growing Michigan coalition calling on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to sign on to five commitments addressing concerns over Jewish safety and political participation.

Spearheaded by the recently-launched group Nonnegotiable Michigan, the five commitments address what the statewide campaign calls “baseline commitments” for Jewish “communal needs.”

Announced this morning, the coalition informed The Center Square ahead of its announcement that 17 Michigan Democratic leaders would be joining the effort. The leaders include:

• Mark Bernstein - Regent at University of Michigan

• David Kramer - Vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus

• Rep. Noah Arbit - State representative from West Bloomfield and the founder of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus

In a statement making the announcement, the coalition said it wants to distinguish its demands from debates over Israel and foreign policy

“This campaign is not about Israel policy, weapons, wars, or foreign aid,” Nonnegotiable Michigan said. “Nonnegotiable is about the safety and belonging of American Jews – including Zionist Jews— – n Michigan, across America and in the Democratic Party.”

The commitments address Jewish safety, identity, statehood and political participation. Nonnegotiable Michigan, which is led by a coalition of Michigan clergy and synagogue lay leaders whose congregations represent about 40,000 Jewish Michiganders, describes them as “not an ultimatum, but an invitation.”

The group is calling on Jewish voters and allies to sign the petition, which was launched amid bipartisan scrutiny of El-Sayed’s past statements. The controversy has become part of a broader debate over antisemitism and the state of the Democratic Party in Michigan, which some are describing as a “crisis.”

In an exclusive interview, Rabbi Josh Whinston, a leading progressive Reform rabbi at Temple Beth Emeth who helped write the commitments, Whinston said he felt compelled to speak out after recent comments from the Democrat.

“I heard Dr. El-Sayed use anti-Semitic language and dog whistles more than I could tolerate,” Whinston told The Center Square. “For the sake of the safety of my own community, I needed to step up and say something.”

Whinston said the coalition is made up of progressives who are not looking to switch parties, but instead want to remain politically at home in the Democratic Party.

“We are not interested in electing Mike Rogers,” Whinston said of El-Sayed’s Republican opponent. “I got into this because the Democratic Party is my political home. It is the political home for the vast majority, upwards of 70% of American Jews, and increasingly American Jews are feeling displaced and politically homeless.”

The coalition, which first launched early this month, said that the five commitments are intended to ensure Jewish Michiganders can participate in political life, particularly within the Democratic Party, without having to renounce beliefs central to their Jewish identity.

Nonnegotiable Michigan is urging El-Sayed and Democratic Party leaders to affirm:

1. Jewish safety, including the safety of Zionist Jews, is nonnegotiable.

2. The right of Jews to define their own identities is nonnegotiable.

3. Jewish sovereignty in Israel is nonnegotiable.

4. The full participation of Jews, including Zionist Jews, in American political life is nonnegotiable.

5. An affirmative vision for a better future for the Middle East is nonnegotiable.

Since the Sept. 8 request, Nonnegotiable Michigan said El-Sayed and his campaign have made “no public comment . . . affirming these urgent, objectively reasonable requests from Jewish Democratic voters.”

The campaign also has not responded to multiple requests for comment from The Center Square.

In 35 days, El-Sayed will face off against the Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, though Michigan voters have already begun receiving absentee ballots.

The race is considered one of the most-important U.S. Senate races in the nation and millions of dollars are pouring into it from both sides of the aisle.

Democrats were divided during the primary between El-Sayed and establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. El-Sayed, who is seeking to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, narrowly won that race. Since then, the Democratic Party establishment has rallied around the 41-year-old.

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(The Center Square) – While many members of Congress are home campaigning for the midterms, Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson held a roundtable Monday featuring doctors, patients and family members who recounted illness, loss and other harms they attributed to hospitals’ “rigid adherence” to COVID-19 treatment protocols.

Johnson has held multiple such events since the pandemic to amplify these stories and ensure that Americans have a voice in their medical care going forward.

“To date, we [have] received 583 testimonies from 46 states. The fact that these attitudes were widespread is indisputable,” Johnson said. “In selecting the small subset of witnesses who are testifying today, we attempted to find a cross section that accurately reflects what so many others experienced.”

Multiple former patients or family members of patients told stories of being treated harshly for not having gotten the COVID vaccine — or not being treated at all.

“We had gone to three different ERs. Because I had refused the COVID vaccine, they wouldn’t treat me,” said one woman in a video testimony compiled by the Children’s Health Defense.

Another woman said medical staff treated her loved one like she was “dead on arrival” because she was unvaccinated against the disease, a story echoed in an in-person testimony given Monday.

Many who shared their stories also said hospital staff overrode or ignored their requests to avoid remdesivir, an antiviral widely used to treat COVID-19 that the Food and Drug Administration investigated in 2020 over concerns about potential kidney toxicity. The agency was not able to establish a clear causal link. The FDA later reviewed kidney-specific clinical data in 2023 and determined remdesivir could be used even in patients with severe renal impairment without dosage adjustment.

“We said no remdesivir, none, none,” another woman said, recalling the treatment of a loved one. “And I found a progress note that they had given her remdesivir.”

That loved one died in the hospital’s care.

Another woman demanded that her son be taken off of remdesivir, and said that the doctor promised her that he had done so — only to receive a worrying call later.

“He said that his kidneys were closing down. And I said, ‘I thought you took him off,’ and he said he was on the full dose,” she said.

Another woman recalled being told that hospital staff had told her husband they would be placing him on a ventilator, “with or without his consent.”

Gail Seiler of Plano, Texas, told her story in person Monday, describing what she characterized as an abusive hospital stay after coming down with COVID-19 in December 2021.

“What I experienced there changed my life forever and exposed me to a system that abandoned individual patient care in favor of rigid protocols, coercion, isolation and fear,” Seiler said.

“When the hospitalist in the ICU learned that I was unvaccinated, he looked directly at me and said, ‘I’m so sorry, Mrs. Seiler, but you’re going to die.’ From that moment forward, I was treated as if my death was expected and inevitable,” she said.

In addition to being pressured to take remdesivir and accept a ventilator as part of her treatment, the hospital also denied Seiler medicines she requested, like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, budesonide, Vitamin C and Zinc, as were many others who spoke.

A Catholic, Seiler was also denied access to her priest on the condition that she receive remdesivir. She consented to one round so that she could receive extreme unction. Seiler said she was also denied water for seven days and food for 12 days, amidst other traumatic experiences.

Her husband’s attempt to discharge her after growing uncomfortable with her care resulted in a six-hour standoff with police at the hospital. After they let them leave, her husband and daughter worked with another physician and administered some alternative treatments like Seiler had requested at the hospital, and she fully recovered.

“Doctors insisted that my lungs were permanently damaged and I would not survive outside their care. They were wrong,” Seiler said.

Former trauma surgeon and intensive care unit provider James Miller and registered nurse Donna Lowery spoke of how they were both terminated from their respective hospitals for advocating for or using alternative treatments like ivermectin.

“When I advocated for patient care rather than harmful protocols and spoke against the fraud, I was targeted for removal through baseless disciplinary actions with the stated goal of taking away my medical license and ability to ever practice medicine again,” Miller recounted.

“I endured countless unfounded disciplinary hearings, show trials and sham review procedures, which included the threat of me being arrested, and this was all in retaliation for me speaking out,” he added.

Lowery recommended ivermectin for the treatment of a patient at her hospital and was fired shortly thereafter.

Buffalo attorney Ralph Lorigo represented several local families who sued hospitals for refusing to administer ivermectin to their loved ones, winning court orders requiring the drug in several cases. His name spread after he agreed to discuss the cases on a podcast.

Lorigo ultimately represented 212 families across 40 states. Lorigo won 72 of those cases, forcing hospitals to administer ivermectin. Three of those patients died and the rest lived.

Of the 140 cases where Lorigo “couldn’t get to court quick enough” or lost, every patient died.

“I believe that our healthcare system needs great modification. We need a national right to try act that includes off-purpose drugs,” Lorigo said. “This is no longer about COVID or ivermectin. This is about medical freedom and the right to try. This is about governmental suppression and how big giants like Big Pharma control our destiny.”

Mizzou tennis released its schedule for the 2027 spring season Monday. 

Its campaign begins Jan. 17, as the Tigers travel to University Park, Texas. They will face UT-Arlington and SMU on consecutive days.

Millie Skelton, a standout from Mizzou's fall opener, transferred in from SMU this offseason. 

The Tigers' first home match of the spring season will be Jan. 25 as they host South Dakota.

MU opens Southeastern Conference play Feb. 28 at home against Vanderbilt. Other than a March 19 home match versus Illinois State, the remainder of Mizzou's games will be against SEC foes.

All eyes are on March 21, when Tennessee comes to Columbia. Newly hired MU coach Robin Goodman left the Volunteers in May to join the Tigers.

"I think any time you transition to a new situation, it always comes with a new set of challenges," Goodman said. "The excitement about what we can do in this program was something that kept me going throughout the whole process." 

The spring season wraps up with a home match against LSU on April 28. 

Still in the fall portion of competition, Mizzou most recently wrapped up an individual tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska. It competed against multiple teams in a round-robin format from Friday to Sunday and came back to Columbia having won 10 of 18 matches.

Skelton and Evelyn Whiteside won every singles match they played. As a doubles team, the two were a perfect 3-0.

Next up for the Tigers in the fall is the Charlotte Invite, which starts Friday and ends Sunday.

(The Center Square) – Another Muslim man in the U.S. has been sentenced on terrorism charges, including providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.  

Ahmad Khalil Elshazly, 29, a U.S. citizen living in West Haven, Connecticut, was sentenced on Monday by U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden in the District of Connecticut. Elshazly, who was 4 on 9/11, attempted to travel overseas to join ISIS to fight against U.S. troops. Instead, he was caught, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 92 months in prison and lifetime supervised release. 

According to court documents and statements made in court, in September 2018, around the 17-year-anniversaary of 9/11 when Elshazly was 21, he expressed a desire to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of ISIS. In numerous in-person and online conversations, he swore “bay’at” allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to court documents. During the U.S. military’s Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS, al-Baghdadi reportedly committed suicide as U.S. forces moved in on his location in Syria. 

In October 2019, after al-Baghdadi’s death was reported, Elshazly sent a message to the new leader of ISIS, pledging his allegiance “to the Khilafah,” al-Baghdadi’s successor, Abu Ibrahim Al Husseini Al Hashami Al Qurashi. He also created and administered a pro-ISIS Discord server, which he used to post hundreds of pro-ISIS and other propaganda memes and videos, court documents state. 

In December 2019, he paid $500 to an individual he believed would help smuggle him out of the U.S. to Turkey. Once in Turkey, he believed he would connect with an ISIS member who would help him cross into Syria to join ISIS. The individual was an undercover agent. Elshazly made it as far as Stonington, Connecticut, where he thought he was going to board a boat to be smuggled out of the country. Instead, he was arrested and detained.

In November 2022, he pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. While detained, he also had numerous disciplinary infractions, the DOJ said. In August 2025, officers searched his cell and “found a handwritten plan for a coordinated uprising at the detention facility, complete with diagrams of the housing unit, instructions for breaching secured areas, and tactics for confronting the Correctional Emergency Response Team,” the DOJ said. 

His arrest, prosecution and sentencing were an outworking of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force operation involving the Stonington Police Department, New Haven Police Department, and Connecticut State Police. 

The FBI’s JTTF is national and regional, including Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigations, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the State Department, U.S.Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, among other federal agencies. 

Twenty-five years after 9/11, nearly every week, a U.S. Attorney’s Office is announcing a new terrorism-related prosecution or sentencing. Five days ago, the Eastern District of New York announced an ISIS-related prosecution of Georgian national extradited to the U.S. who was wanted on multiple terrorism charges, The Center Square reported. Before that, it was the Western District of Pennsylvania, charging a 21-year-old with planning to commit a major terrorist act on behalf of ISIS. Similar cases are being announced nationwide.

The charges are similar: a Muslim man who was either not alive on Sept. 11 or was born shortly after the Islamic terrorist attacks is arrested, charged and prosecuted for supporting an FTO or attempting to carry out a terrorist attack. In each case, attempts to commit terrorism are thwarted by federal agents operating in a joint task force.

(The Center Square) – Organizers of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles aren’t getting enough money from the state or federal government, which could mean traffic congestion and snarls disrupting the city's life and commerce, according to economists who study the Games.

Andrew Zimbalist, a professor emeritus of economics at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., told The Center Square on Sunday that the LA28 Olympic Organizing Committee needs at least $2 billion for transportation costs alone.

“If they don’t get the money from the federal government, and they’re not going to get money from the city of Los Angeles, and it doesn’t seem that money from the state is going to be forthcoming in an appreciable amount, then they’re going to be in big trouble,” said Zimbalist, who has written extensively about the economics of sports and the Olympics. “It’s going to be a mess. So this is a crucial crossroads that they have to pass through, and I think it’s going to have a large bearing on the outcome.”

In the event of a budget shortfall, Zimbalist added, the cost could potentially be borne by Los Angelenos.

The International Olympic Committee would require $275 million to be covered by the city of Los Angeles and another $275 million would have to be covered by the state, he said.

“If there’s still a deficit after those two contributions, then it all falls on the city of Los Angeles,” Zimbalist said. “So yes, it’s certainly a risk.”

The Los Angeles Times previously reported that the city requested $379 million just for transportation projects alone to handle the influx of tourists and traffic the city expects for the Olympics in 2028. The Legislature only allocated roughly $20 million for the transit costs, according to the Times.

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, commonly known as L.A. Metro, also asked the federal government for $2 billion to pay for needed transportation projects in preparation for the Olympics, according to news reports.

The Center Square reached out to the White House for comment for this story and did not hear back before publication time on Monday.

Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., told The Center Square on Monday that the Legislature might not have funneled as much money to Los Angeles as officials requested because the city already had substantially built-out infrastructure to accommodate the Olympics.

“They may be saying, ‘Look, there’s obviously short-run increases in bus and subway schedules and things like that that may be necessary, but certainly in the way of construction, the whole point of choosing L.A. is you don’t need a bunch of construction to happen to make the Olympics go,' ” Matheson, who studies the economics of the Olympics, told The Center Square on Monday. “The whole reason L.A. is chosen is because of its existing transportation and sports infrastructure.”

Matheson also said that California legislators might not see that much of a payout for the state as a whole.

“This may result in an inflow of additional tourists to L.A. or the L.A. metro area, but it’s not clear why the state benefits from that in any appreciable way,” Matheson said.

The state budget, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law after the Legislature passed it, included $96.5 million of state funds to pay for maintenance projects necessary to accommodate the increased patronage for the Olympics. Of that money, $76 million will come from the state’s general fund, and $20.5 million will come from the Exposition Park Improvement Fund. The park is the location of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will be used for track and field events during the Olympics. The same venue was used for the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.

According to an August 2025 report prepared by city officials, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games budget went up from $6.884 billion to $7.149 billion, a reflection of market conditions, a larger sports program, inclusion of a preferred venue master plan and a change in contract negotiations. The International Olympic Committee foots part of the bill to carry out the Olympics and allocated roughly $1.8 billion to Los Angeles. The Committee gave Paris the equivalent of $1.7 billion for the 2024 Olympics, according to numbers from the International Olympic Committee website.

That report also shows that organizers expect the cost of the 2028 Olympics to be fully paid for after counting receipts from the International Olympic Committee, ticket sales, domestic sponsorships and licensing.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has said she planned for the 2028 Olympics to be “car-free” games, according to news reports, and that transportation was a key issue in the city’s preparations.

“Mayor Bass will continue to advocate for the critical funding that Los Angeles needs to deliver a successful Games and the infrastructure that will benefit Angelenos for decades,” Bass’s office wrote to The Center Square via email.

Bass’s office did not make Bass or other city officials available to answer questions for this story. The president of the Los Angeles City Council, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, as well as officials from Los Angeles County, did not respond to The Center Square.

“The promise of a ‘car-free’ Olympics was never realistic for Southern California,” Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, told The Center Square on Monday. “The focus now should be on making lasting improvements to ensure Californians can actually get to and from work and pick up their kids. Los Angeles developed its computerized traffic-control system for the 1984 Games, and more than 40 years later it is still helping move people across the city. We should use 2028 the same way: Solve real transportation problems and leave Southern California with something useful when the Games are over.”

While the Legislature only allocated $20 million for transportation projects in Los Angeles, far short of the $379 million city officials asked for, Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks and vice chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, said he wouldn’t necessarily call the $359 million difference a cost-savings.

“A savings is money that was not spent that otherwise would be committed,” Niello told The Center Square on Monday.. “This is very much discretionary money. So I don’t know that I’d call it savings, but I’m not sure we’re at the end of whatever state and federal assistance might be provided to L.A., so we’ll see what happens as time goes on.”

The Center Square reached out to multiple Democratic state lawmakers for this story, who either did not respond before publication time on Monday or declined interviews. The International Olympic Committee also did not respond to The Center Square.