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ICE director blames left-wing ‘rhetoric’ for rise in attacks on immigration officers

ICE director blames left-wing ‘rhetoric’ for rise in attacks on immigration officers

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons blamed rhetoric from “elected officials” for the rise in attacks against immigration officers on Sunday. Lyons made the comments during an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday, tying the increased violence to President Donald Trump’s political opponents. “I think the sharp increase in the rhetoric, especially from a lot of elected officials, that are shaming, if you will, or speaking out against ICE law enforcement mission is what’s really increasing these attacks on officers,” he said. Lyons noted that there has been an 830% increase in assaults on officers compared to 2024. ICE AGENT SHARES FEARS ABOUT FAMILY SAFETY AS ASSAULTS ON OFFICIALS SURGE He added that the spike in violence is also due to ICE officers being more “visible” in communities across the country as Trump’s deportation campaign expands. “The immigration mission is one of the forefront of this administration, so there is a lot of scrutiny and publicity to it,” Lyons said. NO CAGES, DUE PROCESS RIGHTS INTACT: ICE AGENTS SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT The official also confirmed that ICE is not limiting its arrests to illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a separate crime. He said many illegal immigrants without criminal records have been taken in as “collateral arrests” during operations targeting violent migrants. Nevertheless, he added that ICE “targets the worst of the worst.” ICE officers themselves have spoken out about the increased violence and criticism they have faced under the new administration. “It has been very sad to see how we’re villainized, the names used towards us,” officer Kristian Moreno told “My View” host Lara Trump on Fox News this weekend. “Just doing this [interview] right now, I had to talk to my family about it and say, ‘Hey, this is something that I believe in, something I think is important for us to get our stories out there and let the American public know we’re humans.’ We got a job to do. We’re just enforcing the law. We’re not making up the law, and it’s sad, but we just keep pushing through it,” he added. He and officers Edgardo Centeno and Chris Sandoval shared their perspectives on the violence ICE officers risk daily. “We have to do our job. We raised our hands to defend the Constitution, and we’re enforcing the law, so we’re adjusting as we see what’s going on in our country, but it’s saddening my heart, especially when you serve in combat and come back and see your country so divided,” Centeno said.

Biden admin spent hefty sum of US tax dollars to upgrade embassy swimming pools in Iraq, Russia

Biden admin spent hefty sum of US tax dollars to upgrade embassy swimming pools in Iraq, Russia

The Biden administration’s State Department authorized more than $1 million in taxpayer funds for renovating swimming pools at U.S. embassies and mission residences in war-torn countries such as Haiti, Sudan and Iraq, a report from Sen. Joni Ernst’s office found.  “The Biden State Department threw a blowout summer pool party on your dime,” Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “Bureaucrats might think wasting millions is a drop in the bucket, but I am sick and tired of taxpayers getting tossed in the deep end by Washington,” Ernst added. “I will continue working with the Trump administration to put a stop to the splashy spending of the Biden years.”   Ernst’s office found that the State Department under the Biden administration authorized that two pools in Haiti, five in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Russia, one in Zimbabwe and one in Ghana be renovated, totaling more than $1.2 million, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the pool renovations on Thursday.  RUBIO OFFICIALLY KILLS USAID, REVEALS FUTURE HOME FOR FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS Taxpayers spent $41,259 to rehabilitate the pool at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in a contract inked three months after Russia invaded Ukraine in a war that has continued raging. The purchase order was dated June 3, 2022, through Aug. 15, 2022, after the war began in February that same year.  RUBIO SPEARHEADS MASSIVE STATE DEPT REORGANIZATION SET TO ELIMINATE, MERGE MORE THAN 300 OFFICES The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was awarded a whopping $444,000 to replace its indoor dehumidification system for its pool in a contract that began on Sept. 27, 2024. While the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq received over $10,000 to conduct mechanical repairs to its pool, according to the Ernst report reviewed by Fox News Digital.  DOGE’S GREATEST HITS: LOOK BACK AT THE DEPARTMENT’S MOST HIGH-PROFILE CUTS DURING TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS In Sudan, taxpayers spent $24,000 in 2021 for the installation of a pool deck. Sudan has notably been under a State Department do not travel advisory “due to armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping,” with the embassy in Khartoum suspending operations in 2023 over the ongoing violent conflicts in the nation.  Some of the contracts detailed in the report have not been fully paid out, such as a $173,000 award to conduct work on a swimming pool in Indonesia at the embassy in Jakarta.  The federal government has previously been criticized for the amount of taxpayer funds spent on U.S. embassies overseas, including spending hefty sums on artwork under the Obama administration, Fox Digital reported at the time.  U.S. embassies are primarily funded through congressional appropriations to the U.S. Department of State.  Ernst’s report follows months of the Department of Government Efficiency reporting it has saved the federal government billions of dollars amid its ongoing investigations into various federal agencies in search of corruption, overspending and mismanagement.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been at the forefront of gutting departments and programs under State’s purview, including shuttering USAID earlier in July for failing to ensure its programs actually supported America’s interests.  RUBIO OVERHAULING ‘BLOATED’ STATE DEPARTMENT IN SWEEPING REFORM “This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies – and which advance American interests – will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency,” Rubio said in comment regarding shuttering USAID. 

Immigration expert sounds alarm on how Biden’s border crisis paved way for Los Angeles riots

Immigration expert sounds alarm on how Biden’s border crisis paved way for Los Angeles riots

California has become the epicenter of the immigration debate under the Trump administration, which is leading to questions about what cultivated the protests and riots that happened in the area in June and continue to pop up around the country. Heather Mac Donald, a Manhattan Institute fellow and author of “When Race Trumps Merit,” said she believes that the border crisis under the Biden administration paved the way for civil unrest. “It shows that lawlessness in one area breeds lawlessness in another. We’ve had an absolutely lawless situation going on with regards to the border. We’ve had California and Los Angeles tolerate criminal lawlessness, and so it’s not surprising that activists and protesters and immigrant rights activists felt that they were entitled to wreak absolute chaos and havoc in the streets,” Mac Donald said in the wake of riots in Los Angeles last month. ANTI-ICE RIOTS REVEAL THE LEFT HAS LEARNED NOTHING. IT’S JUST HANDED TRUMP A GIFT Mac Donald added that the large amount of immigration could lead to cultural assimilation woes. “This is nothing new, but Americans have turned their eyes away and have bought into the narrative that the more diversity, the better, the more demographic change, the better,” she said.  Mac Donald added that a cap on the number of people allowed to come into the United States could be beneficial in the long term. “Well, for assimilation, a cap would definitely be necessary. We saw that with the long decades after maximal immigration at the turn of the century, when we did halt immigration. And that allowed the assimilation to go on, that it did. With nonstop immigration coming in, you’re running a losing race to assimilate. So that would absolutely be ideal.” “We should reform the agriculture sector. You know, we have temporary worker programs for that, and whether we want to carve out any exceptions to a moratorium for very, very high-skilled workers, that is definitely worth considering. But certainly for chain migration, the bringing in of remote family members, that should be ended now until we are confident that we are creating Americans and not people who will get out in riots and wave flags of non-American countries,” Mac Donald continued. TRUMP SAYS NATIONWIDE IMMIGRATION RAIDS ON THE WAY, RIOTERS TO FACE ‘GREATER FORCE’ THAN LA When it comes to the overall stance of the American population on immigration, she explained that mass deportations, which the Trump administration has said they are working toward while highlighting those with criminal convictions and charges, could be the best path forward in the short-term aftermath of the border crisis. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE “We should not make the distinction between criminal illegal aliens, who are legitimately deported and those who have committed lawbreaking on entry and by staying here but have not got a criminal record. The received wisdom is it’s OK to deport the first, but the second, we shouldn’t even make them fearful of deportation, that that’s cruel,” she said. “I think they’re all legitimately eligible for deportation. Nevertheless, I’m not sure that the American people have a stomach for that degree of immigration enforcement.“ In addition to ICE and Border Patrol arrests and busts, the Department of Homeland Security has encouraged self-deportation through the CBP Home app, which was swapped from the CBP One app people used to request asylum under President Joe Biden. DHS is offering $1,000, travel out of the U.S., as well as scrapping fees and a chance to return to the country legally as part of the deal. MAYOR BASS BLAMES TRUMP’S ICE RAIDS FOR STARTING RIOTS WHILE CLAIMING ‘THINGS IN LA ARE CALM’ In Los Angeles, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass has been a significant voice of opposition to federal immigration sweeps, at one point saying ICE should “go home.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We are a proud city of immigrants, and with the Trump Administration signaling that they will ratchet up their chaotic approach, I’m making sure we deploy every resource and tool available within the City to ensure that we are supporting immigrant communities,” Bass said recently, according to a news release.  When it comes to potential civil unrest in other cities, Mac Donald says it could happen. “I think there will be civil unrest in other cities, because it was justified, it was trivialized by our elected leaders as, ‘Oh, we’ve got the situation under control,’” she said.