US paid El Salvador to take Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members: ‘pennies on the dollar,’ White House says
The United States paid El Salvador $6 million to take in Venezuelan illegal immigrants slated to be deported to their home countries, the White House said Monday. The Trump administration sent at least 238 members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang living illegally in the U.S. to El Salvador around the same time a federal judge moved to block deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime law involved by President Donald Trump. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt detailed the cost to U.S. taxpayers. EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT RIPS FBI TRUMP RAID, QUESTIONS WHAT US GOV’T WOULD SAY IF HIS POLICE TARGETED CANDIDATES “It was approximately $6 million, to El Salvador, for the detention of these foreign terrorists,” she told reporters. “And I would point out that is pennies on the dollar in comparison to the cost of life, and the cost it would impose on the American taxpayer to house these terrorists in maximum security prisons here in the United States of America.” In a social media post over the weekend, El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele said the U.S. “will pay a very low fee” for his country to house the migrants, “but a high one for us.” RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AGENDA “Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year,” Bukele wrote on X. Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the Salvadoran president as “the strongest security leader in our region” and “a great friend of the U.S.” for accepting criminal illegal aliens. The deportations of the gang members came as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt its deportations of illegal immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that Trump invoked on Friday to target Tren de Aragua members in the U.S. Boasberg ordered flights that were “actively departing” to return. The wartime powers act allows the deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing. It has been invoked three times before, including, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
White House press secretary says Statue of Liberty going nowhere, replies to French politician
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt chastised a low-ranking French politician who made headlines for demanding that the United States return the Statue of Liberty. During a Monday press briefing, Leavitt reminded Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament and co-president of a small left-wing party in France, that he would be speaking German if it weren’t for American troops. Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt on Monday if President Donald Trump would give the Statue of Liberty, which has graced New York City’s harbor since the 1800s, back to France. FRENCH PARLIAMENT MEMBER WANTS US TO RETURN STATUE OF LIBERTY: ‘APPARENTLY YOU DESPISE IT’ “Absolutely not,” Leavitt said with a smile. “And, my advice to that unnamed, low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now.” “So they should be very grateful to our great country,” she added, nodding to how American troops liberated France from Nazi Germany’s occupation in World War II. In an address to supporters of his Public Place party on Sunday, Glucksmann told the United States, “Give us back the Statue of Liberty.” “It was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her. So she will be happy here with us,” Glucksmann said, garnering applause and whistles from his audience. Glucksmann’s party has posted accusations on its website that Trump is wielding power in an “authoritarian” manner and is “preparing to deliver Ukraine on a silver platter” to Russia. In his speech, Glucksmann referenced New York poet Emma Lazarus’ words about the statue, the “mighty woman with a torch” who promised a home for the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” “Today, this land is ceasing to be what it was,” Glucksmann said. RUSSIA WANTS ‘IRONCLAD’ GUARANTEE THAT UKRAINE WILL BE BARRED FROM NATO: OFFICIAL French President Emmanuel Macron has let his prime minister, François Bayrou, play the role of being a more critical voice of the Trump administration. Bayrou condemned what he called the “brutality” that was shown to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his White House visit, and suggested that Trump’s administration risked handing victory to Russia when it paused military aid to Ukraine. UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural arm that has the Statue of Liberty on its list of World Heritage treasures, notes that the iconic monument is U.S. government property. It was initially envisaged as a monumental gesture of French-American friendship to mark the 100th anniversary of the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. A war that erupted in 1870 between France and German states led by Prussia diverted the energies of the monument’s designer, French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi. The gift also took time to be funded, with a decision taken that the French would pay for the statue and Americans would cover the costs of its pedestal. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Transported in 350 pieces from France, the statue was officially unveiled Oct. 28, 1886. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Who is James Boasberg, the US judge at the center of Trump’s deportation efforts?
The federal judge who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s use of a wartime law to deport Venezuelan nationals could be at the center of a larger battle after Trump’s border czar vowed Monday to continue sending migrants back to Latin America. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg made headlines Saturday for granting an emergency restraining order blocking the Trump administration from invoking a 1798 law to immediately deport Venezuelan nationals, including alleged members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua, for 14 days. Boasberg sided with the plaintiffs, Democracy Forward and the ACLU, in ruling that the deportations would likely pose imminent and “irreparable” harm. “Given the exigent circumstances that [the court] has been made aware of this morning, it has determined that an immediate Order is warranted to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set,” Boasberg said in his order, which blocked Trump from invoking any deportations under the Alien Enemies Act for two weeks. His decision drew immediate criticism from Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who declared in an interview on “Fox & Friends” that, “We are not stopping.” TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW BAN ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming,” Homan, said, adding, “Another fight. Another fight every day.” This was not the first time Boasberg found himself in the crosshairs of Trump’s supporters – he previously oversaw the FISA court that authorized surveillance of certain members of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was appointed to the bench nearly 15 years ago by President Barack Obama. In 2014, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to serve a seven-year term on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA Court – a court comprised of 11 federal judges hand-selected by the chief justice. The judges undergo extensive background checks prior to their confirmation, and are tasked with approving surveillance requests and wiretap warrants sought by federal prosecutors, law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Most of their work remains classified. Boasberg served as the presiding judge of the FISA Court from 2020 to 2021. RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AGENDA A graduate of Yale, Oxford University and Yale Law, Boasberg clerked for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before later joining the Justice Department as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. After returning full-time to the federal bench, Boasberg oversaw the sentencing of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to doctoring a 2017 email asking to extend surveillance permissions for its wiretap of former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Boasberg declined to sentence Clinesmith to prison time and instead ordered him to just 12 months of probation and 400 hours of community service – a notable decision, given his own background on the FISA court. He said in his sentencing decision that he believed Clinesmith’s role at the center of a years-long media “hurricane” had provided sufficient punishment. “Anybody who has watched what Mr. Clinesmith has suffered is not someone who will readily act in that fashion,” Boasberg said. HERE’S WHY DOZENS OF LAWSUITS SEEKING TO QUASH TRUMP’S EARLY ACTIONS AS PRESIDENT ARE FAILING “Weighing all of these factors together – both in terms of the damages he caused and what he has suffered and the positives in his own life – I believe a probationary sentence is appropriate here and will therefore impose it,” he continued. Until recently, Boasberg has largely avoided making headlines, including any public broadsides that may have put him at odds with the Trump administration. That changed quickly when he granted the restraining order this weekend. The decision was immediately appealed by lawyers for the Trump administration. Although Boasberg’s order said any plane carrying migrants removed by the law in question be “immediately” returned to the U.S., the decision apparently came too late to stop an early wave of migrants being deported to El Salvador. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that a plane carrying hundreds of individuals – including more than 130 persons removed under the Alien Enemies Act – had already “left U.S. airspace” by the time the order was handed down. “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory,” Leavitt said. It is unclear what, if any, steps the judge could take to reverse that action. The standoff is the latest in a wave of legal challenges seeking to block or slow the wave of sweeping executive actions or orders Trump has issued in his second White House term, a fight that has come to define Trump’s first few months back in office. Courts have struggled to slow the dizzying pace of executive orders, which have called for the gutting of government personnel from federal agencies, halted billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, and attempted to ban birthright citizenship, among other things. As of this writing, Trump has signed at least 200 executive orders and actions – most of which have been met with multiple court challenges and lawsuits. Most are in the earliest stages of legal limbo, as courts seek to clarify the intent of the ruling, the alleged harm caused to plaintiffs, and later, to discern whether it is necessary or appropriate for the courts to intervene. The White House asserts that lower court judges like Boasberg should not have the power to prevent the president from executing what it argues is a lawful agenda – though the judges in question have disagreed that the president’s actions all follow the law. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” Leavitt told Fox News. At issue is Trump’s use of the 228-year-old Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport Venezuelan nationals presumed to be members of
Judge who ordered deportation flights of Venezuelan gang members be returned faces calls for impeachment
After Obama-appointed Judge James Boasberg issued an order Saturday halting President Donald Trump’s rapid deportation of Venezuelan gang members, Texas GOP Rep. Brandon Gill swiftly announced plans to file articles of impeachment in an effort to remove him. Gill made the announcement on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, noting he would be filing the motion this week. In a subsequent tweet from Elon Musk, the entrepreneur turned Trump advisor responded simply, “Necessary.” “The very worst judges – those who repeatedly flout the law – should at least be put to an impeachment vote, whether that vote succeeds or not,” Musk followed up in a separate post on X Monday. TOM HOMAN CALLS OUT ‘RADICAL’ JUDGE FOR ‘DEFYING LOGIC’ WITH RULING TO STALL TRUMP DEPORTATIONS Republicans have been piling on Boasberg after he issued a 14-day restraining order halting the Trump administration from deporting violent Venezuelan gang members who entered the U.S. illegally, via powers laid out in the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act. Last used during World War II, the Alien Enemies Act was implemented in advance of a potential war with the French at the time, due to fears that immigrants would sympathize with France. The law provides the president broad powers to imprison or deport noncitizens during a time of war. “Another day, another judge unilaterally deciding policy for the whole country. This time to benefit foreign gang members,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on X. “If the Supreme Court or Congress doesn’t fix, we’re headed towards a constitutional crisis. Senate Judiciary Cmte taking action.” TRUMP THANKS EL SALVADOR FOR TAKING IN ALLEGED GANG MEMBERS DEPORTED FROM US: ‘WE WILL NOT FORGET’ Boasberg’s ruling came in response to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and left-wing legal advocacy group Democracy Forward. The lawsuit alleged that Trump’s intent to use his “wartime authority” to deport dangerous illegal immigrants was unlawful, since the U.S. is not in the midst of a “declared war.” The lawsuit followed a proclamation signed by Trump on Saturday, which alleged that violent gang members belonging to the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang were “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” Last month, Trump moved to designate a slew of Mexican drug cartels, including TdA, as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).” Fox News Digital reached out to Gill to glean more exact details about when he plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Boasberg, but did not hear back in time for publication of this story.
Schumer book events called off over ‘security concerns’ week of release
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” is slated for release on Tuesday, but promotional events for the long-serving lawmaker’s book that were scheduled for this week are being called off. “Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled,” a statement to Fox from a book tour spokesperson noted. The senator had been scheduled for multiple events this week. DEMS CRY FOUL AFTER SCHUMER’S ANNOUNCEMENT ON IMPENDING VOTE TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN Schumer irked some Democrats last week by voting to overcome a procedural hurdle and advance a Trump-backed government funding measure to a vote as the nation faced the prospect of a partial government shutdown. He and a number of other Senate Democratic caucus members voted to invoke cloture, but then voted against passing the measure. Two members of the Senate Democratic caucus – Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. – voted to both invoke cloture and to pass the measure. SPENDING BILL TO AVERT SHUTDOWN SUCCESSFULLY BEATS FILIBUSTER WITH HOURS UNTIL DEADLINE Shaheen announced last week that she will not seek re-election in 2026. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Senate Republican who voted against passing the funding measure last week. PRESIDENT TRUMP SIGNS CONTINUING RESOLUTION, OFFICIALLY AVERTING A SHUTDOWN CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Ahead of the vote, Schumer said that while the “bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.” Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report
DHS: Deported Brown University doctor attended Hezbollah chief’s funeral, supported terror leader
Federal authorities said the Brown University assistant professor and doctor deported to Lebanon despite having an H-1B visa expressed support and attended the funeral of a slain Hezbollah leader responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. “Last month, Rasha Alawieh traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah – a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Alawieh openly admitted to this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah.” “A visa is a privilege, not a right – glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security,” McLaughlin said. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old physician specializing in kidney transplants who was most recently living in Rhode Island, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday while coming back from a trip to Lebanon. EL SALVADOR TAKES IN HUNDREDS OF VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS FROM US, EVEN AS JUDGE MOVES TO BLOCK DEPORTATIONS Alawieh was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and allegedly told federal agents she had attended the funeral of Nasrallah, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady reportedly wrote in a new filing Monday. The filing has since been placed under seal, but Politico and The Providence Journal were able to report its contents beforehand. Alawieh allegedly stated she supported Nasrallah “from a religious perspective,” but not politically, according to Politico. Federal authorities said they also conducted a search of Alawieh’s phone and found “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders, as well as materials showing “various other Hezbollah militants” in a deleted folder. “With the discovery of these photographs and videos, CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” DOJ lawyers wrote, according to the Journal. “As such, CBP canceled her visa and deemed Dr. Alawieh inadmissible to the United States.” U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, on Friday ordered an in-person hearing regarding Alawieh’s case to take place on Monday. Sorokin ordered that Alawieh not be deported for at least 48 hours without giving the court 48 hours notice. Alawieh was reportedly placed on a flight to Paris anyway and then arrived back in Lebanon over the weekend. FEDERAL JUDGE HALTS DEPORTATIONS AFTER TRUMP INVOKES ALIEN ENEMIES ACT Sorokin reportedly postponed Monday’s hearing just before it was scheduled to start and rescheduled it for March 25 to give the DOJ more time to respond to allegations federal agents ignored a court order in sending Alawieh out of the U.S. CBP official John Wallace said in an affidavit that federal agents were not notified of the court order through the proper channels before Alawieh was placed on an Air France flight Friday, Politico reported. Alawieh first came to the United States in 2018 to pursue a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University. She went on to complete a fellowship at the University of Washington and an internal medicine program at Yale. Her cousin, Yara Chehab, attempted to intervene in court last week while Alawieh had been detained at the airport for over 36 hours. Her federal lawsuit says Brown Medicine sponsored Alawieh for an H-1B visa to do the work of an assistant professor. Alawieh was issued an H-1B visa on March 11 to pursue an assistant professor of medicine and clinician educator role at Brown University. The lawsuit says she worked for Brown prior to the issuance of her current H-1B visa. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to Brown University, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the Justice Department and Chehab’s attorney but did not immediately hear back.
VA rescinds 2018 directive on transgender treatments, aligning with Trump ‘two sexes’ EO
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) quietly rescinded a 2018 policy providing transgender-related medical services to transgender and intersex veterans on Friday, aligning the VA with the Trump administration’s orders to part ways with “radical gender ideology” within the U.S. military. The memo states the VA “will conduct a comprehensive review of care with respect to trans-identifying Veterans and will undergo the rulemaking process to revise the medical benefits package as deemed necessary; however, this rescission does not affect existing clinical guidance.” The VA maintains that it will not provide “gender-affirming” surgeries in its facilities or through non-VA care, as these procedures are excluded from the medical benefits package already. Additionally, the VA will not cover plastic reconstructive surgery for cosmetic or gender alteration purposes. The department also requires medical necessity for any surgical care provided, and gender alteration surgery remains unauthorized as a medical treatment. TRANSGENDER SAILORS, MARINES OFFERED BENEFITS TO VOLUNTARILY LEAVE SERVICE OR FACE BEING KICKED OUT The memo says the directive providing transgender treatments – such as hormone therapy, prosthetic devices, and other tools to aid in their presentation of the desired gender – was rescinded because “it is not compliant with the definitions and terms described” in Trump’s executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” Transgender and intersex veterans will still receive healthcare from the VA “that is compatible with generally accepted standards of medical practice as determined by appropriate health care professionals to promote, preserve, or restore the health of the individual,” according to the new guidance. Regarding VA facilities, the memo states the department has “already addressed that all intimate spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms are designated by Sex (M, F) or unisex for single person spaces (e.g., one door, one stall bathroom),” adding that all “signage related to gender identity has been changed.” LGBT ACTIVISTS MOBILIZE TO CHALLENGE TRUMP’S ‘EXTREME GENDER IDEOLOGY’ EXECUTIVE ORDERS Also in line with Trump’s order, the VA will maintain sex-segregated spaces based on biological sex. Under this directive, decisions regarding inpatient and residential room assignments will be made according to clinical guidance. If necessary, veterans may be assigned to private rooms or bathrooms. Trump’s executive order, signed in January, mandates that federal agencies adopt the definition of sex as recognizing only male and female. It requires replacing the term “gender” with “sex” in official federal materials, prohibiting funding for sex-change treatments and programs promoting “gender ideology,” and prohibiting transgender individuals from using facilities or participating in programs that align with their gender identity. TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDERS BANNING ‘RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY,’ DEI INITIATIVES IN THE MILITARY Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Trump’s executive orders on gender identity, as the administration challenges district court rulings through appeals. The Pentagon has also set deadlines for the end of the month to voluntarily part ways with transgender Marines, sailors, airmen and Guardians as part of Trump’s order to discharge all transgender service members. The VA typically provides healthcare, benefits and support to veterans, including medical care, disability benefits and financial assistance. It also helps veterans transition from military to civilian life. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press last week says the department will be another target of Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce, with an expected 80,000 job cuts. Fox News Digital has reached out to the VA for comment.
VA Sec claps back at ‘fake news’ critics, defends DOGE: Unveils 4th new healthcare facility
Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins clapped back at critics he accused of circulating “fake news” about the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts inordinately affecting veterans’ care. Collins, who remains an active colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, announced his agency is opening what will be a fourth new VA clinic in the few months he has been in office. “As government union bosses, the legacy media and some in Congress have been spreading false rumors of health care and benefits cuts at VA, we’ve opened multiple brand-new clinics that will serve tens of thousands of veterans,” Collins said in a statement. “Don’t believe the fake news.” VA SEC ACCUSES REPORTER OF SPREADING RUMORS ABOUT DOGE HURTING VETERANS On Friday, the VA opened a new clinic in Hamilton, Montana, marking the fourth such ribbon-cutting since President Donald Trump took office just under two months ago. Previously, Collins oversaw the establishment of a new clinic in fast-growing Spotsylvania, Virginia, – between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, – as well as in Aurora, Colorado, and Ridgewood, Queens, in New York City. A Montana VA official told Montana Public Radio last week that Collins had been clear that there would be “no cuts” to services despite DOGE attempting to take an ax to the bureaucracy – and with it many VA employees. The 8,000-square-foot facility is 600% larger than a prior, now-defunct clinic in the area. Meanwhile, the new Spotsylvania facility is primed to be the largest of its kind in the country, according to Fredericksburg-area media. FORT BRAGG IS BACK An estimated 35,000 patients can be seen each year at the new site, located where Interstate 95 and US-1 diverge just south of the city. While the VA is primed to cut 15% of its workforce via DOGE’s efforts – from 471,000 to 398,000 – Collins reiterated to Fox News that there will be no interruption or decline in services or care quality. Collins responded to a warning from Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who said that such cuts would hurt service to veterans and that the thought it is a “bad idea” should be a “bipartisan” admonition. Citing the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the secretary said all parties should at least agree that the VA has seen its services at “high risk” for waste, fraud, abuse and insufficient care. “I’ve been here four weeks, but it’s interesting that there’s no solutions being proposed,” Collins told “Fox & Friends” last week. “President Trump brought generational change to DC. And he’s saying let’s look at everything. So what we’re looking at is, if our system is on a high risk list, if we’ve had issues and all that the government has decided to do lately has put money or people at something, then maybe we need to ask the better question — are we using our resources wisely and making sure that our department is taking care of the veteran, which is our only responsibility?” Other liberals have lambasted the administration over proposed cuts to VA staff, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ranking member of the Senate Health Committee. “They’re going to gut the Department of Veterans Affairs, jeopardizing the health and well-being of millions of veterans,” Sanders recently claimed. One Democratic veteran in Congress, Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, said he regularly visits the VA on a personal level and sees waiting lists and knows how troublesome the process can be. “All of that is going to get worse,” Moulton told MSNBC. Collins said Trump set a goal for reduction-in-force, and that Democrats do not understand that the projected staff figures are part of a “deliberative process that’s going to take some time.” “That’s going to include career VA employees. It’s going to include senior executives,” he said. Collins said the GAO has had the VA on its high-risk list for a decade, but only now are Democrats in Congress “yelling ‘don’t do anything.’” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Of the layoffs thus far, Collins said the proportion has been less than 1% of the agency’s workforce and has not really affected front-facing personnel. He also said that $980 million in contract-related spending is being scrutinized in an attempt to instead reinvest it in patient care, as part of DOGE’s work. Additionally, on Monday, the VA announced it is phasing-out treatment for “gender dysphoria” – which had been supported by the Biden administration. “Effective immediately, VA will not offer cross-sex hormone therapy to veterans who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria, unless” they are in the midst of receiving such care, the agency said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
Trump policy on border jumpers empowers use of ‘maximum consequences,’ border agent tells Fox
SAN DIEGO — The change in administration from President Joe Biden to President Donald Trump has opened up stronger enforcement possibilities for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, the agent in charge of a key sector along the southern border tells Fox News Digital. “We have changed from a posture of catch-and-release to providing maximum consequences to the greatest extent possible for anyone and everyone who crosses,” San Diego Sector acting Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Stalnaker told Fox News Digital. The comments come as there has been a seemingly overnight change in the situation at the U.S. southern border, with CBP data showing that order apprehensions in February hit a nearly 25-year low, while encounters with illegal migrants dipped to just 30,000 in February, a number that was over 130,000 during the same time period in 2023 and 2024. That reality has been in the typically busy San Diego border sector, Stalnaker said, a shift he credited to the new administration in the White House. TRUMP PUTTING TROOPS ON BORDER WAS GAME CHANGER, SAN DIEGO SECTOR CHIEF SAYS: ‘FORCE MULTIPLIER’ “Once the new administration came in, we are able to exercise and provide consequences to the greatest extent, which then gets [illegal migrants] either jail time and/or provide them a repatriation to the country where they began their journey to the United States,” Stalnaker said. “We were in a posture of catch and release… we would apprehend [illegal immigrants], take them to our soft site facility, we would run checks on them, and then try to get them out of our facility as quickly as possible… release them with the notice to appear to go see an immigration judge,” he added. “The change now is we catch them, still take them to our soft side facility, however they are not being released, we are trying to find every consequence possible and deliver that consequence to them.” The shift to a quieter border can also be credited to the deployment of U.S. military forces to the border, Stalnaker noted, pointing to the hundreds of members of the Marines, Army and Navy who have been assigned to the San Diego sector alone shortly after Trump took office. “We also have our DOD partners with us here,” Stalnaker said. “They’re a great partner, we enjoy having them out here, and the help they’re providing to us assists us with our mission.” Nearly 500 Marines have been deployed to the San Diego sector as part of Task Force Sapper, helping reinforce existing order barriers with the added protection of razor wire. The Marines will continue to help improve the border area east of San Diego, most notably where a gap in this existing structure exists. BORDER AREA BUSTLING UNDER BIDEN NOW QUIET UNDER TRUMP, SAYS VETERANS GROUP: ‘AMAZING DIFFERENCE’ “We are the engineers that are conducting the construction down on the southern border in order to reinforce the existing primary and secondary barrier that exists in the San Diego sector,” Lt. Col. Tyrone Barrion, the commanding officer of Task Force Sapper, told Fox News Digital, noting that the Marines’ efforts have created an “obstacle that disrupts any type of activity that tries to cross over the top or through the barrier.” “That allows more reaction time for border patrol,” he added. Meanwhile, multiple companies of Army engineers and military police officers based out of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, have been deployed to the San Diego sector to assist with surveillance and detection operations, giving CBP agents more eyes on the border and allowing them to move more quickly to apprehend illegal border crossers. The all-hands-on-deck approach since the start of the Trump administration has contributed to the successful missions, Stalnaker said. “It’s a force multiplier, it assists us to accomplish our mission,” Stalnaker said. “And it’s not just DOD, there are additional federal partners, state and local partners, we have extremely good partnerships here in the San Diego sector that act as force multipliers. And it’s that whole og government approach that it takes for us to accomplish our mission.”
Ukraine unveils 600-mile cruise missile that can reach Moscow amid peace talks
Ukraine now has a cruise missile that can travel over 600 miles, far enough to reach Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy boasted over the weekend. “We have significant results,” Zelenskyy said Saturday. “Long Neptune has been tested and successfully used in combat. A new Ukrainian missile, an accurate strike. The range is a thousand kilometers,” or 620 miles. That puts Moscow within striking range. The missile has been in development for years. Battle watchers believe the combat success Zelenskyy referred to was a Friday strike on an oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, some 300 miles from the front line. RUSSIA WANTS ‘IRONCLAD’ GUARANTEE THAT UKRAINE WILL BE BARRED FROM NATO: OFFICIAL The refinery is under 60 miles from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sprawling cliffside palace on the Black Sea in Gelendzhik. The Neptune cruise missile was used in April 2022 to take out a flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Zelenskyy recently pledged that Ukraine would produce 100,000 long-range munitions in 2025. TRUMP, PUTIN CALL EXPECTED THIS WEEK, AS ADMIN EDGES CLOSER TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE CEASEFIRE DEAL: WITKOFF Russia intercepted and destroyed several Ukrainian drones flying over Moscow on Friday, with some coming as close as just two miles away from the Kremlin, according to Russian officials. White House envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow last week. The fresh attacks and new offensive weapons contradict the delicate ceasefire negotiations that will culminate in a phone call between President Donald Trump and Putin on Tuesday. Zelenskyy has already agreed to the terms of a 30-day ceasefire after meetings with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants, that’s a big question. But I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much, by both sides, Ukraine and Russia,” Trump said of his call. Russia has not accepted the terms of the ceasefire and accelerated attacks on Ukraine after Zelenskyy said he would agree to it.