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Noem declares America’s border ‘most secure’ in nation’s history under Trump administration

Noem declares America’s border ‘most secure’ in nation’s history under Trump administration

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem declared Friday that America’s border is the “most secure” in history, pointing to an eighth straight month of zero parole releases. In a post on X, Noem touted newly released Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers for December 2025, praising President Trump and frontline law enforcement for delivering historic results. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the dedication of DHS law enforcement, America’s borders are safer than any time in our nation’s history,” Noem wrote. “What President Trump and our CBP agents and officers have been able to do in a single year is nothing short of extraordinary.” CBP reported zero parole releases in December, compared to 7,041 released along the southwest border in December 2024 under the Biden administration. TRUMP HAS MADE THE BORDER SECURE AGAIN — BUT NOW THE HARD PART BEGINS “Once again, we have a record low number of encounters at the border and the 8th straight month of zero releases,” Noem said. “Month after month, we are delivering results that were once thought impossible: the most secure border in history and unmatched enforcement successes.” According to CBP, total nationwide encounters from October through December fell to 91,603, the lowest ever recorded at the start of a fiscal year and 25% below the previous record low set in 2012. December alone saw just 30,698 encounters nationwide, a 92% drop from the Biden-era peak of 370,883 and the lowest December total on record, according to the federal agency. THE NEW HIGH-TECH TOOL TRUMP IS USING TO SECURE OUR BORDER Along the southwest border, Border Patrol recorded just 21,815 apprehensions in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, marking a 95% drop compared to the Biden administration’s first-quarter average, CBP noted. Border Patrol agents made 6,478 apprehensions in December along the southwest border, marking a 96% decrease from the Biden administration’s monthly average and fewer than what agents encountered in just four days in December 2024.  Border patrol agents averaged 209 apprehensions per day during the month, compared to Biden-era levels that exceeded that number every 1.5 hours, CBP wrote. “Our agents and officers have set a new standard for border security, achieving historic results that speak for themselves,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a statement. NEW DATA REVEALS BORDER CROSSINGS REACH RECORD LOWS AMID TRUMP ADMIN’S CRACKDOWN CBP also seized 39,030 pounds of illicit drugs nationwide in December.  “The men and women of CBP are demonstrating what’s possible through unwavering commitment and effective enforcement and will continue to ensure the safety and security of our nation’s borders every single day,” Scott added.

Federal prosecutors open investigation into Walz, Frey over alleged impeding of law enforcement

Federal prosecutors open investigation into Walz, Frey over alleged impeding of law enforcement

Fox News has learned federal prosecutors are investigating both Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly impeding law enforcement efforts in the blue state. Two sources familiar confirmed the probe, though no additional details about the investigation have been publicly released. Sources said the investigation is in early stages, and it is unclear if it will result in any criminal charges. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News the duo’s anti-ICE rhetoric was teetering on a federal crime. “When the governor or the mayor threaten our officers, when the mayor suggests that he’s encouraging citizens to call 911 when they see ICE officers, that is very close to a federal crime,” Blanche said. Bondi added on X, “A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law.” PROTESTERS CLASH WITH FEDERAL OFFICERS AFTER ANOTHER ICE SHOOTING IN MINNEAPOLIS Walz responded to the news by accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing the justice system.” “Two days ago, it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly,” Walz wrote in an X post. “Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.” Frey also weighed in on social media, asserting he “will not be intimidated.” “This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our city,” Frey wrote on X. “I will not be intimidated. My focus remains where it’s always been: keeping our city safe. Frey’s office told Fox News Digital they have not yet heard from the federal government. “America depends on leaders that use integrity and the rule of law as the guideposts for governance,” Frey’s office wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear. We stand rock solid.” “America depends on leaders that use integrity and the rule of law as the guideposts for governance. Neither our city nor our country will succumb to this fear. We stand rock solid.” Both Democrat leaders have encouraged anti-immigration enforcement protests following the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot Jan. 7 by a federal agent while allegedly blocking an ICE operation in Minneapolis. The White House’s Rapid Response 47 team criticized Walz following a statewide address Wednesday, where he called for ICE agents to be prosecuted. “Help us establish a record of exactly what’s happening in our communities. You have an absolute right to peacefully film ICE agents as they conduct these activities,” Walz said. “So, carry your phone with you at all times. And if you see these ICE agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. “Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity. But to bank evidence for future prosecution.” Frey called for peace on Wednesday, just days after telling ICE to “get the f— out” of the city.  OMAR, MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR ACCUSE TRUMP ADMIN OF UNLEASHING ‘POLITICAL RETRIBUTION,’ ‘INVASION’ WITH ICE ACTIVITY White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News that Walz, Frey and other Democratic leaders have “done nothing but turn up the temperature, smear heroic ICE officers, and incite violence against them—all in defense of criminal illegal aliens.” President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday warning he would invoke the Insurrection Act if Minnesotans continue aggression toward federal agents. “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote in the post. WHITE HOUSE BLAMES DEMOCRATS FOR ICE VIOLENCE AS MINNEAPOLIS ERUPTS, INSURRECTION ACT THREAT LOOMS The Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy the military to suppress rebellions and enforce federal laws, has not been invoked since the 1992 Los Angeles riots. If invoked, National Guardsmen could be deployed to carry out domestic law enforcement. Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman-Diamond contributed to this report.

Pro-Trump group unleashes blueprint for crucial housing initiative featuring top MAGA influencer

Pro-Trump group unleashes blueprint for crucial housing initiative featuring top MAGA influencer

FIRST ON FOX: A new initiative to “Make Housing Great Again” led by conservative influencer Benny Johnson and the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has a plan to make housing more affordable for Americans. In November, Johnson and AFPI announced a new ‘Make Housing Great Again’ initiative, which has also tapped former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson and developer Michael Burkentine to help advise.  Johnson brings a massive following to the initiative and also has a stake in the matter himself, considering he is a young father, AFPI noted when asked to explain the decision to select Johnson as the initiative’s co-chair and national spokesperson. This week, the initiative unveiled a list of policy goals it will pursue, which it believes will make the American dream of owning a home more attainable for all. TRUMP OPENS DOOR TO LIZ WARREN ON CREDIT CARD RATES AS GOP WEIGHS AFFORDABILITY FIGHT  “Housing affordability has reached a crisis point in America, with a 167% increase in home prices in the past half-century. The result of more expensive homes is the delay of a significant life milestone: homeownership,” the MAGA housing initiative’s policy white paper points out.  “The America First vision of housing affordability is to restore the American Dream to what it once was. By taking a pragmatic and targeted approach to the affordability crisis these proposals will increase the housing supply, provide direct relief to home buyers, bring prices down, and, ultimately, allow all Americans to obtain the cornerstone of the American Dream: a place to call their own.” Incentivizing deregulation at the local level via market-driven solutions, efforts to reduce construction costs, the implementation of tax benefits for first-time home buyers, expanding economic “opportunity zones,” and reducing foreign housing demand are among several of the policy goals the new MAGA housing initiative said it will be prioritizing. As home prices have risen, wages are not keeping pace, the blueprint pointed out, highlighting that the median household income in the United States increased 99.7% between 2000 and 2024, while the median sale price for a single-family home increased by 150.1% during the same period. Additionally, the median age of first-time home buyers today is 40, compared to just four years ago when it was 33.  The “Make Housing Great Again” policy report cited low supply due to “excessive” regulations, immigration-induced demand spikes, high mortgage rates and record debt burdens among young Americans as factors causing the American dream of owning a home to be less attainable. To combat these roadblocks, the new MAGA housing initiative says it will focus on supply-side deregulation and financial incentives aimed at the local level. The initiative points out that regulations imposed by local governments often preclude the federal government from setting national-level mandates to deregulate. But, through HUD, it can incentivize localities to expand their housing supply by tying federal housing benefits to deregulation efforts. WHITE HOUSE ‘LASER FOCUSED’ ON AFFORDABILITY AS TRUMP SOFTENS TARIFF STRATEGY To encourage localities to undertake deregulatory actions, the initiative will push the Trump administration to offer “concrete benefits” to home builders and buyers, such as a Working Families Housing Fund, which the initiative is calling the “Targeted Regional U.S. Middle-Class Prosperity Fund,” or “TRUMP Fund” for short.  The TRUMP fund would invest in professionally managed housing funds designed to help provide financial assistance for middle-income, working-class families in the 80% to 120% median income for their area. However, in order for people to be eligible, communities must show they have taken steps to reduce barriers to building, the initiative suggests.  The “Make Housing Great Again” initiative also sees boosting the number of workers in skilled trades as an avenue to reduce overall construction costs. Experts estimate that the skilled labor jobs in the construction industry have recently been shorthanded by around 350,000 workers month-over-month. The National Association of Home Builders estimates the industry will need to hire nearly 723,000 workers per year just to keep pace with demand and close a nationwide housing gap of 1.5 million homes.   “There are numerous opportunities at the state and federal levels to increase interest in and access to careers in the skilled trades,” the report argues. “By increasing interest in skilled trades and reducing barriers to entry, it is possible to increase the pipeline of workers entering skilled trades and, by extension, reduce the costs of building new homes.” A new and revamped version of Opportunity Zones, which are essentially federal tax incentives intended to spur local investment in low-income areas, is also among the policy plans AFPI and Johnson’s new MAGA housing initiative have in mind. The plan is to create Opportunity Zones Plus that would create an even higher-tier benefit for housing that is constructed in designated communities that meet certain affordability criteria.  Providing direct benefits to homebuyers, such as through tax-advantaged savings plans, a family formation mortgage credit for young couples trying to have kids and a new fixed 30-year mortgage rate for first-time home buyers supplemented by HUD, were among the policy prescriptions as well. Another plan for improving housing affordability by the initiative includes reducing the housing demand among foreign nationals. According to the “Make Housing Great Again” white paper, foreign investors bought $56 billion in homes during a 12-month period between 2024 and 2025, with 47% of those foreign buyers purchasing property for use as a vacation home or rental. Foreign buyers also reportedly pay in cash at a much higher rate than American homebuyers. In an effort to help protect young homebuyers, the initiative also plans to focus on “cracking down on predatory lending” practices and setting guardrails for the industry. Congress can effectuate this change by capping the annual percentage rate (APR) lenders are allowed to set at 36% for most consumer borrowing, payday loans and credit card interest. According to the report, similar policies have been implemented for the military community.     “The average first-time home buyer in America is now 40 years old. 40. Years. Old. That

Cancer-stricken children urge Bernie Sanders to back life-saving pediatric healthcare bill

Cancer-stricken children urge Bernie Sanders to back life-saving pediatric healthcare bill

Cancer-stricken patients are urging Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to reverse course and support a bill that could lead to life-saving treatments. Jacob Knudsen, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when he was 12 and has since endured nearly two dozen surgeries and multiple rounds of chemotherapy after tumors were discovered on his organs, is pushing for Sanders to support the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, the New York Post reported.  “There is something currently in my lung, and there’s a 50-50 chance that it’s cancer,” Knudsen, a California native and college student, told the newspaper. “I’m willing to bleed. I’m willing to lose limbs. I’m willing to lose organs. I’m willing to do anything just to survive.” SANDERS BLASTED AFTER BLOCKING BIPARTISAN KIDS’ CANCER RESEARCH BILL: ‘GRINCH,’ ‘SELFISH’ The bipartisan bill, named after Knudsen’s friend, a fellow osteosarcoma patient who died late last year at 16, would allow pediatric cancer patients to participate in clinical trials and to ensure them access to key treatments. The legislation passed unanimously in the House. However, when it reached the Senate, Sanders, who has repeatedly called for better health care, objected. He demanded other stipulations be attached, such as funding of other efforts, such as community health centers, the Post said.  His opposition has slowed the bill’s advancement. Fox News Digital has reached out to Sanders.  At the time of the bill’s failure in December, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., accused Sanders of playing politics with children’s lives before calling him a real-life Grinch. “Everything their senator from Vermont just talked about was political,” said Mullin, who brought the bill to the Senate floor. “I’m talking about giving kids a chance to live an extra day or a lifetime. This has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with kids.” SEN MURPHY WARNS ‘PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE’ AS CONGRESS PUNTS ON EXPIRING OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES “The Grinch is stealing kids’ lives,” he added. “And he’s stealing hope from the families.” Sanders explained that he had no problem with the legislation, which would have incentivized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and drug companies to encourage more relevant pediatric studies and invest in rare pediatric disease treatments. But he wanted to tack on an amendment to fund community health centers throughout the country. “This is not a radical amendment,” Sanders said at the time. “I’m not coming here saying, ‘Let’s do something we’ve not talked about.’ I’m not talking about passing Medicare for all here. I am talking about doing what the Republicans and Democrats agreed to a year ago but was torpedoed by some tweets from Elon Musk.” Nancy Goodman, executive director of Kids v Cancer, told the Post the bill’s failure to pass is an example of Washington’s crippling dysfunction.  “The bill would ensure the most innovative, promising pediatric cancer clinical studies are conducted, and it would incentivize companies to develop novel, potentially curative drugs for these kids,” she said.  “How can we say Congress is functioning if it can’t pass the easiest bill that one can ever imagine? This is a bill that has bipartisan support that saves the lives of children with cancer that costs taxpayers nothing, and yet they can’t pass it.” Goodman and her husband, former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, lost their 10-year-old son, Jacob, in 2009 to medulloblastoma. Other cancer patients feel the same as Knudsen.  “I would probably tell [politicians] to talk to someone [diagnosed with cancer] just to see what they’re going through,” Anderson Coy, 21, told the Post. “The sooner we pass acts like this, the more lives we save,” Knudsen said. “How many children have died from cancer? How many of those were the next Albert Einstein that never made it? These kids could solve the world’s problems.”

‘Inevitably difficult’: Inside a family’s fight against the US boat strikes

‘Inevitably difficult’: Inside a family’s fight against the US boat strikes

A call for justice As part of the petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Carranza family is seeking compensation and a stop to the US strikes. But the commission’s powers are limited. It can investigate alleged violations, determine state responsibility and provide recommendations, but its decisions are non-binding, meaning that the US is not obligated to comply. “It can provide a measure of justice, in that it would be a regional human rights body saying that the victims are right and deserve to be compensated,” said Pappier. “But it would not immediately deliver reparations or full-fledged accountability.” Bringing the case before a US court could ultimately be more productive, Pappier added, but it would also be significantly more challenging. Kovalik, the family’s lawyer, told Al Jazeera he is currently weighing those challenges. The fact that the alleged crime took place outside of US territory could be a barrier to litigation, he explained. So too could be the legal protections granted to the US government and top officials. The US government enjoys sovereign immunity in most cases, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the president enjoys “presumptive immunity” for any “official acts” he engages in. “We are still considering a possible court action,” Kovalik said. Another challenge is that the US has shown no willingness to investigate the strikes or release information that would help others do so. In a statement to Al Jazeera, the Colombian Attorney General’s Office confirmed that it has opened an inquiry into the US bombings, but experts warn that restricted access to information could limit its investigation. Colombia would need insight into US decisions about the strikes to determine criminal responsibility, said Schuller, the expert from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. Without US cooperation, however, “it’s impossible to get the information necessary to say who could be put on trial for such a strike”, he explained. For now, Kovalik said that the Carranza family takes some comfort in knowing that “at least something is being done”. Since Carranza’s disappearance, relatives have been unable to hold a funeral without the fisherman’s remains. His family also is struggling financially because Carranza was the household’s breadwinner, and his wife has a disability that limits her ability to work. Vega said that, if Carranza had been suspected of smuggling drugs, US authorities had a responsibility to arrest him, not kill him. The burden of proof, he added, should be on the US government, not the family. “Alejandro was one of our fishermen. He will not stop being one unless proven otherwise.” Adblock test (Why?)

Palestinian child shot dead by Israeli troops in occupied West Bank

Palestinian child shot dead by Israeli troops in occupied West Bank

Rights group says Palestinian children are ‘;increasingly targets’, as Israeli military and settler violence soars. Published On 16 Jan 202616 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Israeli troops have shot and killed a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank, as a wave of intensified Israeli military and settler violence across the territory continues. Mohammed Naasan, 14, was killed on Friday after Israeli forces stormed and opened fire in the village of al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah, assaulting residents. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Naasan was shot in the back and chest, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The Israeli military said in a statement that troops fatally shot Naasan because he was “running towards them carrying a rock”. The killing came after Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, had earlier on Friday stormed an area south of al-Mughayyir and fired live rounds, according to Wafa. Palestinians across the West Bank have faced a wave of intensified Israeli military and settler violence in the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 71,000 people since October 2023. Experts say the violence, which is taking place amid a push by far-right Israeli politicians to formally annex the West Bank, aims to force Palestinians out of their homes and communities. According to United Nations figures, at least 240 Palestinians, including 55 children, were killed by Israeli forces or settlers last year alone. The UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) said more than 1,800 settler attacks that resulted in casualties or property damage were also recorded in 2025 – an average of about five incidents per day. Advertisement That is the highest average since OCHA began tracking settler violence in 2006, it said. Israel’s army routinely fires live ammunition, tear gas, stun grenades and other weapons at Palestinians in the occupied territory, and it often justifies the assaults by claiming that stones were being thrown. Israeli human rights group BTselem has said the military employs an “open-fire policy” that allows for an “unjustified use of lethal force” and “conveys Israel’s deep disregard for the lives of Palestinians”. Rights advocates also have documented how Palestinian children in the West Bank, in particular, have been at heightened risk of Israeli violence under the shadow of the Gaza war. “Decades of systemic impunity has created a situation where Israeli forces shoot to kill without limit,” Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) said last month after a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank. “As Palestinian children are increasingly targets in the West Bank, Israeli forces’ rules of engagement seemingly allow direct targeting of Palestinian children where no threat exists to justify the use of intentional lethal force.” Adblock test (Why?)

Trump threatens tariffs over Greenland, calls it vital for security

Trump threatens tariffs over Greenland, calls it vital for security

US delegation seeks to lower US-Denmark-Greenland tensions amid Trump’s threats of tariffs and control claims. Published On 16 Jan 202616 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share US President Donald Trump says he may impose tariffs on countries that don’t back the US’s claim to control Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, he has repeatedly insisted that the US control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in US hands would be “unacceptable.” Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted on Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals. “I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” he said. Trump has said Greenland is vital to US security because of its strategic location and large supply of minerals, and has not ruled out the use of force ⁠to take it. He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue. Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. That encounter didn’t resolve the big differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views. European leaders have insisted that only Denmark and Greenland can decide matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies. A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers met the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in Copenhagen on Friday, seeking to “lower the temperature” with assurances of congressional support after President Donald Trump’s threats to seize the Arctic island. Advertisement European nations this week sent small numbers of military personnel to the island at Denmark’s request. The 11-member US delegation, led by Democratic Senator Chris Coons, met Danish Prime ​Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen, as well as Danish and Greenlandic parliamentarians. “There’s a lot of rhetoric, but there’s not a ‍lot of reality in the current discussion in Washington,” Coons told reporters following the meetings, saying the lawmakers would seek to “lower the temperature” on returning home. Looking for a deal Trump’s special envoy to Greenland also said on Friday he plans to visit the Danish territory in March and believes a deal can be made. “I do believe that there’s a deal that should ‍and ⁠will be made once this plays out,” Jeff Landry told Fox News in an interview on Friday as a bipartisan ​delegation of ‌US lawmakers was set to meet leaders of Greenland and Denmark. “The president is ‌serious. I think he’s laid ‌the markers down. He’s ⁠told Denmark what he’s looking for, and now it’s a matter ‌of having Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio and Vice President JD ‍Vance make a deal.” Adblock test (Why?)