Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Year: 2023

Ex-ICE chief Thomas Homan eyes ‘historic’ deportation if Trump’s re-elected: ‘No one’s off the table’

Ex-ICE chief Thomas Homan eyes ‘historic’ deportation if Trump’s re-elected: ‘No one’s off the table’

Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan wants to unfreeze the agency and help launch a massive and “historic” deportation program if former President Trump returns to the White House in 2025 Homan promised no illegal immigrant would be “off the table” for enforcement. Homan was honored during the Obama administration for his role leading ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which arrests and removes illegal immigrants. A Washington Post article at the time said Homan “deports people. And he’s really good at it.”  Homan, a former New York police officer and Border Patrol agent, calls that article a “badge of honor” and has it framed in his office. ICE DEPORTATIONS REMAINED WELL BELOW TRUMP-ERA LEVELS IN FY2022 AMID HISTORIC BORDER CRISIS Homan went on to lead ICE during the Trump administration between 2017 and 2018 as it was given the green light and arrests skyrocketed. Since the Biden administration took over, deportations have plummeted from a high of 267,258 in fiscal year 2019 to 72,177 in fiscal 2022. Homan has fiercely defended the agency’s conduct under his watch against left-wing attacks, getting into viral spats with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, during congressional hearings. He is also president and CEO of Border911, a nonprofit that aims to educate Americans on “the facts of a non-secure border.” But Homan, also a Fox News contributor, could soon be back in government. Trump is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, is leading several polls in a head-to-head with Biden and is promising to launch a full-throated effort to secure the border, end the Biden-era border crisis and deport millions of illegal immigrants if re-elected. Trump in September promised the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he’s back in the White House, and The New York Times recently reported that Trump met with Homan after announcing his campaign. Homan has repeatedly said he’d take the chance to be part of the administration. And he says removing those with a final order of removal from a federal immigration judge would be a priority. “People say, ‘How are you going to remove millions?’ The answer is: One at a time,” he told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “No one’s off the table. If you’re in the country illegally in violation of immigration law, you are a target. “It’s going to have to result in a historic — the biggest ever — deportation operation in the history of this country. That’s what happens. When you’ve got historic illegal immigration, well, that means you’ve got a historic removal program. It’s just that’s just the way it is. If we’re going to enforce our laws, that’s the way it is.” DEMOCRATS FUME OVER REPORTED BIDEN OFFER TO REINSTATE TITLE 42-TYPE MIGRANT EXPULSIONS Homan stressed that ICE would continue to prioritize the most serious offenders as it has done during the Trump and Biden administrations and that operations wouldn’t involve indiscriminate “sweeps,” but targeted enforcement operations planned in advance, targeting specific criminal illegal immigrants. But those operations can also result in collateral arrests of other illegal immigrants. “We’re not going to turn a blind eye to them if they’re in the country illegally. We take them into custody. That’s our job. So, it isn’t like we walk through a neighborhood looking for people who look different from us. These are targeted enforcement operations.” In terms of logistics, he said the agency would need a lot more detention beds to detain people, more ICE agents to make the arrests, more technical support for those creating the targeted operations and more contractors to search databases. He also said there needs to be legislation that would make someone ineligible for future immigration benefits if someone ignored a judge’s removal order. “That way, they’re not hiding out waiting for the next amnesty. They’re not hiding out waiting for someone to sponsor them for a visa,” he said.  He also said sanctuary cities — jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE detainers — need to be “held accountable.” Any such enforcement moves will likely produce massive opposition from left-wing activist groups and Democratic lawmakers who opposed similar moves in the Trump administration. But Homan argues that if people believe in due process of the asylum system then that includes the carrying out of deportations when they are found not to have valid asylum claims. “Part of due process is executing the final decision of the court,” he said.  “No one’s going to argue if they say, ‘OK, you’re awarded asylum, now you can come in.’ But they have a fit when they’re ordered removed,” he said. “So, all of a sudden, we’re supposed to forget about the due process? Look, if the court orders aren’t going to mean anything, what the hell are we doing? We might as well take the Border Patrol off the border and shut down the immigration courts because, obviously, there’s no enforcement of our immigration law.” As for the scope of the task ahead, Homan is realistic about the likelihood of deportation of the millions of illegal immigrants who have entered the U.S. during the Biden era on top of the already existing illegal immigrant population. “I’m not fooling myself into thinking we can remove 20 million people. But, you know, we’re going to give it one hell of a shot and remove as many as we can,” he said. Homan argued the enforcement of immigration law was not only just but the key to ending the border crisis by ending the primary pull factor drawing people to the border. “The numbers are not going to stop until these countries start seeing plane loads of people coming home because they were ordered removed, and we removed them.”

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway leads charge to overhaul GOP abortion strategy, end Dems’ 2024 advantage

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway leads charge to overhaul GOP abortion strategy, end Dems’ 2024 advantage

EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway is leading the charge to overhaul her party’s abortion strategy heading into the 2024 elections. The top Republican strategist spoke with Fox News Digital after meeting with a number of GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to discuss what she argues is the need to promote contraception and reach a consensus on the abortion issue lest Democrats continue to use it as a “turnout intensifier” in November. “I think pro-lifers have to be very mindful to speak about two people being involved in an abortion — the baby and the mother. So, I’m urging opinion leaders and office holders and all their decision makers, as well as candidates, to speak with conviction and compassion. That’s the piece that’s missing,” Conway said when asked about the meetings. BIDEN SCRAMBLES TO WIN OVER SWING STATE BLACK VOTERS AS SUPPORT FROM THE TRADITIONALLY BLUE BLOC FALTERS “The overwhelming data in contraception polling is meant to work in tandem with, not in lieu of, the pro-life abortion messaging,” she said, referring to polling showing widespread support for contraceptives across the country. Conway’s effort to move Republicans toward a “winning” strategy comes as more states have held abortion-related ballot initiatives after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and as Democrats continue to claim GOP lawmakers and candidates want to ban abortion.  Strategists and operatives from both parties argue the issue has driven more voter turnout for Democrats in state and local elections across the country, evidenced by better margins for the Democratic position in those initiatives and other coinciding races. SUPREME COURT AGREES TO DECIDE ON ABORTION PILL ACCESS, APPROVAL PROCESS Conway says such ballot initiatives haven’t gone in Republicans’ favor because the left has pushed such measures under the guise of “reproductive freedom for all,” combined with the lack of exceptions for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother in efforts to limit, or ban, abortion. “To speak with conviction and compassion, to reflect consensus, to move hearts and minds, means that if you want to discuss a 15-week national minimum standard, then you are reflecting consensus,” she said, citing statistics that show a strong majority of Americans fall within the range that there should be no abortion at all and no abortions past 15 weeks. “When you do that, you get up to 71% of America, and that reflects consensus. But it also shows conviction and compassion, because in 15 weeks, a woman knows she’s pregnant and the baby can feel pain,” she added. TOP TAKEAWAYS FROM ELECTION DAY 2023 AND WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE 2024 SHOWDOWNS Conway argued that if Republicans could reach such a consensus, they would be “smoking out” Democrats who have “radical, extreme, out-of-step, out-of-sync positions on abortion, anyone, anytime, anywhere, anyhow.”  She added, however, that it was a “mistake” to say all Democrats support abortion until the moment of birth, citing focus groups and polling that show the consensus across the country is against partial birth abortion and late-term abortion, especially after looking at the science showing babies can feel pain at “roughly 15 weeks.” “They’re against taxpayer-funded abortion. They’re against sex selection abortion when a woman can learn she’s pregnant in the morning, learn the sex of the baby by noon and schedule an abortion for that afternoon. Now, people will say that’s not true because they don’t want it to be true. That is true. What I just said to you is a fact,” Conway said. Conway also suggested a consensus, along with scientific understanding, could “move the hearts and minds” of Democrats supporting late-term abortion and shift their view. BIDEN FACES GRIM RE-ELECTION ODDS AS HE TRAILS LEADING GOP CANDIDATES IN TWO KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES: POLL “When you give these shock-the-conscious anecdotes, and you couple that with warm-the-heart information, then you have a more winning message,” she said. “Pro-lifers should not be ostriches, they should be peacocks. They should not bury their head in the sand. They should be very proud that they’re on the right side of science and medicine and morality and common sense and consensus opinion.” Despite that, Conway said she fully expects Democrats to continue claiming Republicans support banning abortion and contraception throughout the 2024 election cycle, but that, with her strategy, the GOP could get ahead of that messaging. “We’re getting ahead of that by showing that this is a winning issue to say that you believe that women, and yes, men, but women, who can legally access contraceptive measures are able to do that now,” she said. “It is a losing formula to cede to the Democrats the women’s vote, women’s health, choice, women’s health care. And so we’re expanding what that means, and we are smoking out the Democrats. “When they say, ‘We’re for women, and we’re for women’s health,’ what they really mean is abortion. It’s all a euphemism for abortion. And if you don’t believe me, believe them. They cannot even condemn Hamas’ rape of women, beheading and baking babies and raping women. And the reason they’re not interested in that is because they’re interested in one thing — abortion.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former Florida state rep who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill breaks silence after prison sentence: ‘Dark days’

Former Florida state rep who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill breaks silence after prison sentence: ‘Dark days’

FIRST ON FOX: A former Florida Republican state representative who shot to national prominence after sponsoring a parental rights bill Democrats referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill spoke to Fox News Digital in his first major interview since being sentenced to prison for wire fraud. Joe Harding, who served as a Florida state representative until stepping down last December, was sentenced to four months in prison earlier this year after the government alleged he “betrayed the public trust” by fraudulently obtaining COVID relief funds in the form of a business loan.  Harding told Fox News Digital he takes full responsibility for his actions and that the story has been misrepresented by many media outlets, making the situation even more difficult.  “It’s been pretty brutal to watch,” Harding said. “Something that I’ve done from the beginning is take responsibility. I’ve tried to do that even with all of the political arrows and pretty brutal coverage that I have had on this. At the end of the day, I blame myself for the mistakes I made that just put me in a position to be criticized.” DEMOCRATS CLAIM FLORIDA IS PUSHING ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL. HERE’S WHAT THE LEGISLATION ACTUALLY SAYS Harding explained that his legal problems arose when his brother-in-law, whom he says “committed pretty massive fraud totaling over $8 million,” approached him during a vulnerable time of his life in 2020 and misled him into getting involved in a scheme where false information was included on a COVID loan form.  “I was not aware what he was doing, but I listened. I listened to him and, you know, allowed myself to get influenced and really, in many ways, get conned and manipulated by him,” Harding said. “That would be the right way to put it, and he actually applied for the loans with my permission to apply for a loan. But he knew how to do the work, knew how to manipulate it. DESANTIS CALLS OUT MEDIA’S ‘MISCHARACTERIZATION’ OF ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ LEGISLATION: ‘NOT A GOOD HILL TO DIE ON “Unfortunately, you know, I allowed him, but he walked me into this issue. And I think that’s probably the hardest thing, you know, through this process, is that you don’t shed blame, I’m not shedding blame, but I think the judge said it pretty clearly in the sentencing hearing that, you know, he doesn’t believe that I’d be in this position if it wasn’t for my brother-in-law.” Harding’s brother-in-law, Patrick Parker Walsh, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering in February.  Harding told Fox News Digital he did not personally benefit financially from the $150,000 loan, and it was fully paid back more than two years before he was prosecuted.  Harding shot to national prominence last year when he sponsored a parental rights bill in Florida that supporters say gave parents more of a say in what their young children are being told about sexuality in school by prohibiting classroom instruction on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” with children in third grade or younger, “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” The bill sparked a national firestorm as Democrats and media outlets quickly dubbed the bill “Don’t Say Gay” legislation despite the word gay not appearing anywhere in the bill’s text. While Harding made it clear he takes responsibility for his actions, he acknowledged there was a “desire” for the media to “beat me up” over his legal issues. “It almost made it in a way much more significant than probably a regular state legislator would have something like this reported,” Harding said.  Harding said one of the more “brutal” parts that affected his family the most was the media’s inaccurate reporting on the severity of his legal problems.  “When the media reports that you’re facing 20 years or 25 years, you know, basic legal things that any reporter could have spent just a little bit of time understanding how the guidelines work, how something works. And I understand it’s clickbait, but family and friends are reading from mainstream reports that you would typically hope to trust. Probably the worst is that I’ve had reporters write articles with dramatic exaggerations of charges, of amounts,” Harding said.  WHITE HOUSE SLAMS FLORIDA’S PARENTAL RIGHTS BILL AS IT TAKES EFFECT: ‘THIS IS DISCRIMINATION’ Harding said he hopes his situation will serve as a warning to others in elected office about “taking responsibility.” He said he will “use this as an opportunity to remind and encourage folks that are in public office or are interested in public office to really understand the magnitude of the position you’re putting yourself in … and making sure that you are incredibly careful about who you surround yourself with.” Ultimately, Harding said, he is “proud” of the work he did in office. “When I ran, I could have never imagined that I would be sponsoring a bill that would change the national attention and, you know, have the president’s press secretary talking about it and have the White House’s Twitter account saying that they were going to do whatever they could to overturn it. What I did is pretty surreal,” Harding said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  Harding didn’t rule out a role as a public servant in some capacity after he reports to prison early next year and serves his sentence, telling Fox News Digital he will take the “catastrophic weakness” that allowed him to be negatively influenced as a learning experience to help others. “This is obviously something that really makes you look in the mirror and really question yourself in every way,” Harding explained. “I think to go through something like this makes you question everything you know about yourself, and why are you here? What are you doing with the voices in your head that, you know, just there in darkness are so powerful? “I will take the experience that I went

Jewish Americans of all ages forced to ‘make a choice’ on embracing heritage amid rising antisemitism

Jewish Americans of all ages forced to ‘make a choice’ on embracing heritage amid rising antisemitism

There is a rise in antisemitism in America and worldwide after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack on innocent Israeli civilians and the Jewish nation’s retaliation. Now, young American Jews have to choose whether to identify their heritage in public. While many Jewish Americans have been galvanized by public antisemitism, it’s a different decision when it comes to young children. A young Jewish woman from Seattle, who asked to remain anonymous, told Fox News Digital she wears a Star of David “every single day.” But since the attack, she and her husband have trepidation about allowing their daughters to identify as Jewish at school. ‘SNL’ MOCKING STEFANIK INSTEAD OF COLLEGE PRESIDENTS WAS ‘A COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF COMEDY’ “My husband and I have chosen to keep an ‘I stand with Israel’ sign in our window, even though his parents, who are Israeli, have begged us to take it down because they’re terrified,” the woman said. “But we’ve chosen to do that. But the one caveat to that is our daughters — one of them is in a public school kindergarten, the other is in a private preschool — they have Star of David necklaces,” the woman continued. “And they asked to wear them. And my husband and I are just terrified because it’s one thing to have to show our Jewish identity,” she said. “But to send your kid off to school wearing that, you kind of have to question, ‘Do I protect their safety or do I protect their Jewish pride?’” THREE HOSTAGES HELD BY HAMAS KILLED BY IDF, ISRAEL SAYS The woman said she has had people come to talk to her about her Jewish identity since she’s been wearing her Star of David, but she hasn’t experienced “any direct antisemitism.” “But we’ve seen a lot of community-wide issues. Jewish businesses having their windows smashed in, the [Jewish Community Center] having their flag torn down,” “One of the synagogues had horrendous graffiti, just destruction of their synagogue.” The woman said there is “so much going on that it’s hard as a parent to make the choice between protecting your children’s safety or identity. “And, all of the sudden, you’re a hell of a lot more paranoid then you ever were.” Rabbi Micah Greenland, the international director of NCSY and the Jewish Student Union (JSU), told Fox News Digital the surge in antisemitism is making many young Jews feel unsafe to identify as Jewish.  Simultaneously, many young Jews are embracing their heritage and religion amid the increase in attacks on Jewish businesses and reports of harassment of Jews on campuses. “We are simultaneously seeing two opposite trends regarding teens’ Jewish identities during this period of rising visible antisemitism,” Greenland said. “On one hand, there are some teens who are terrified to identify publicly as Jewish. They are doing all that they can to disassociate with their Judaism right now, which is tragic. “But those are the minority. Far more common are the thousands who are intentionally associating even more proudly as Jews, wearing a kippah (head covering) or a Star of David necklace specifically now, or taking on an aspect of Jewish observance that they hadn’t previously embraced. “There is a strong feeling that showing one’s Jewish pride is more important now than ever — and that’s the far more prevalent attitude we are seeing amongst Jewish teens.” Greenland and Natan Cohen, the director of marketing for NCSY, an organization dedicated to inspiring Jewish teens, said the surge in antisemitism infecting America is appearing in ways that they have not experienced in their lifetimes. The pair said that the rise in antisemitism is making public schools unsafe for many Jewish adolescents and is causing “significant loneliness” and “isolation” for Jewish teens in public schools “who are also experiencing incidents that target them, their Jewish identity and the state of Israel.” Greenland and Cohen said that, even amid the rise in Jewish hate, there has been a surge in people asking for JSU clubs on campus. Thirty clubs have launched since Oct. 8, and there have been 60 requests for JSU clubs at schools without them, the pair said. They also said that JSU is now providing support to communities in several forms, including staff training for mental health, a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Israel education and other initiatives. Danielle Ben Salamon, a public high school senior from Los Angeles, told Fox News Digital she is proud to identify as Jewish and that allowing people to make her feel like she can’t “let the people who hate you win.” “At first, when it started happening, I had my IDF hoodie and my Star of David, and I was debating, ‘Do I keep this on?’” Salamon said. “Because I did get weird looks sometimes, and if I was walking around, I would probably scootch a little closer to whoever I was walking with. “But eventually I realized that, if I hide it, it’s worse for me than if I show it because I like to be proud of who I am, and I think that hiding it lets the people who hate you win. “And I kind of ignore if I get dirty looks or anything like that. But I do get them.” Salamon said the Jewish community in her school is “really supporting each other” and that “one of the good things that could have happened out of this did happen, which is that a lot of us are standing as one.” Mikayla Rosenwasser, a Jewish high school senior from Orlando, Florida, told Fox News Digital she is not afraid to express her Jewish heritage. Rosenwasser also said she feels “openly proud” of her Judaism and that her Jewish peers have not expressed to her a fear of identifying as Jewish. “Yes, we’re always a little worried about what people could possibly say,” Rosenwasser said. “But, for the most part, nobody has expressed anything that they’re concerned about that or anything like that.” One troubling

UK teen Alex Batty arrives home after going missing on holiday in 2017

UK teen Alex Batty arrives home after going missing on holiday in 2017

Teen told investigators he spent six years living a nomadic lifestyle in Spain, Morocco and France. A British teenager who went missing for six years before turning up in France has arrived back in the United Kingdom, police have said. Alex Batty never returned home after travelling to Spain in 2017 with his mother and grandfather for what was supposed to be a two-week family holiday. The then 11-year-old boy’s disappearance sparked unsuccessful appeals for information about his whereabouts – until he turned up last week walking along a road late at night in southern France. “It gives me great pleasure to say Alex has now made his safe return back to the UK after six years,” Matt Boyle of Greater Manchester Police told reporters on Saturday. Boyle said police are yet to fully establish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and whether a criminal investigation is warranted. Boyle said that officers, who are seeking to locate his mother Melanie Batty, would speak to the teen “at a pace that feels comfortable to him”. Batty, now 17, will return to his maternal grandmother, Susan Caruana, whom a British court entrusted with his custody before he vanished. Caruana requested that the family be granted space to process the news. “I cannot begin to express my relief and happiness that Alex has been found safe and well,” she said in a statement issued through British police. “The main thing is that he’s safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child.” Batty told French officials he spent the past six years living a nomadic lifestyle with his mother and grandfather in Spain, Morocco and France as part of a “spiritual community”. He said the family grew their own food, meditated and contemplated esoteric subjects such as reincarnation. A doctor who examined Batty said the teen was healthy and did not appear to have suffered any abuse. French prosecutor Antoine Leroy told reporters on Friday that Batty had decided to leave his family after his mother said she wished to move to Finland, where she is “likely” to be now. Adblock test (Why?)