Trump nominates Florida sheriff Chad Chronister to lead the DEA
President-elect Trump on Saturday nominated Florida sheriff Chad Chronister as administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). “For over 32 years, Sheriff Chad Chronister has served the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and received countless commendations and awards for keeping his community SAFE,” Trump wrote in his announcement moments before he nominated Kash Patel to replace Christopher Wray as FBI director. “A proud graduate of the FBI National Academy’s 260th Session, Chad is Co-Chairman of the Regional Domestic Security Task Force for Region IV Tampa Bay, Council Member of the Florida Attorney General’s Statewide Council on Human Trafficking, Chairman of the Criminal Justice Sub-Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Hillsborough County Public Safety Coordinating Council, and Vice-Chairman of the Hillsborough County Public Schools Citizen Oversight Committee,” he continued. TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR: ‘ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH’ Trump said Chronister would work with Pam Bondi, his nominee for attorney general after Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew as nominee, to “secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES.” Congratulations to Chad, his wife Nikki, and two wonderful sons!” he added. Chronister called his nomination the “honor of a lifetime” in a statement posted to social media. “I am deeply humbled by this opportunity to serve our nation,” he added. TRUMP NOMINATES CHARLES KUSHNER TO SERVE AS US AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE: ‘STRONG ADVOCATE’ CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Chronister was appointed by then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott to head the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in 2017, and has been re-elected twice.
Trump nominates Kash Patel to serve as FBI director: ‘Advocate for truth’
President-elect Donald Trump has named longtime ally Kashyap “Kash” Patel to serve as the next director of the FBI in the new administration. Patel, 44, is an attorney with experience in national security, intelligence and counterterrorism. He has been a member of Trump’s transition team, advising the administration on other appointments. Trump announced Patel’s appointment in a Truth Social post on Saturday. NEW YORK JUDGE GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES, CANCELS SENTENCING INDEFINITELY “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump’s statement read. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.” This story is developing. Check back with us for more updates.
Sanctuary city Denver spending a whopping $356 million on migrants: study
As Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says he would be willing to go to jail over his opposition to the Trump mass-deportation plan, a new study claims the mayor’s Blue city has spent a whopping $356 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money on migrants. The eye-popping sum, which amounts to $7,900 per foreign national in the city, was revealed by an updated analysis last week by the Common Sense Institut (CSI), a non-partisan research organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the U.S. economy. The group says it used city data to land on the stunning sum, which equates to 8% of the city’s 2025 budget of $4.4 billion. The figures combine the city’s budget as well as regional education and healthcare organizations. DENVER MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON SAYS TRUMP’S MASS MIGRANT DEPORTATIONS WILL CREATE ‘TIANANMEN SQUARE MOMENT’ Denver has seen an unprecedented influx of migrants arrive in the city under the Biden-Harris administration and Johnston has already slashed city services to house and feed those migrants. Cuts included reducing services at recreation centers and stopping the planting of spring flower beds, while the city tapped into a contingency fund to pay for the spiraling costs. The CSI claims that the bulk of the $356 million spent on migrants was through education, with the city also splashing out on healthcare, hotels, transportation and childcare. Denver is a sanctuary city, meaning it does not enforce immigration law, nor does the city cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The group says that about 45,000 migrants have arrived in the Denver metro area since December 2022, with 16,197 migrant students enrolling in Denver metro schools. DENVER MIGRANT ADVOCATES SAY SIX MONTHS OF FREE RENT, FOOD NOT ENOUGH: ‘A SLAP IN THE FACE’ AND ‘OFFENSIVE’ “The total cost to Denver metro schools related to new migrant students is $228 million annually, which would equate to 1-2% of the total state K-12 education budget for the 2024-25 academic year,” the group writes. “Previous CSI reporting estimated the per-student cost of instruction and support in the Denver metro to be $14,100 per year. Assuming this cost across all recent migrant students totals $228 million. Meanwhile, Denver doctors earlier this year said that the migrant crisis had pushed the state’s hospital system to its breaking point and was causing a humanitarian crisis. The CSI study estimates that emergency departments in the Denver metro area have delivered an estimated $49 million in uncompensated care to migrants. “With 16,760 [migrant] visits to Denver metro emergency departments from December 2022 to the present, providers would have delivered $49,124,029 of uncompensated care to migrants. The study reports that at the height of the migrant influx in January 2024, officials estimated Denver was going to spend $180 million through 2024. Actual expenditures tracked by the city now show it will spend about $79 million. “Of the total, 34.5% has been spent on facilities including hotels, 29.4% on personnel, 14% on services, and 11% on food,” the report finds. Johnston said during a recent interview that he was prepared to protest against anything he believes is “illegal or immoral or un-American” in the city – including the use of military force – and was then asked if he was prepared to go to jail for standing in the way of policies enacted by the administration. “Yeah, I’m not afraid of that, and I’m also not seeking that,” Johnston said. “I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people [on] how to solve hard problems.” Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” designate, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week that he would jail Johnston if he broke the law in shielding illegal migrants. “All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S., and he would see he’s breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail.” Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
Trump boasts of ‘very productive meeting’ with Canadian PM Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago
President-elect Trump says he had a “very productive meeting” with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday. Trudeau jetted into Mar-a-Lago unannounced on Friday just days after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products. Trump is threatening to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over failures by both nations to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs from those countries into the U.S. “We discussed many important topics that will require both countries to work together to address, like the fentanyl and drug crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of illegal immigration, fair trade deals that do not jeopardize American workers and the massive trade deficit the U.S. has with Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday. MUSK, STALLONE AMONG STAR-STUDDED NAMES PARTYING AT TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO CLUB FOR THANKSGIVING “I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our citizens become victims to the scourge of this drug epidemic, caused mainly by the drug cartels, and fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship!” Trump wrote that Trudeau, who has been serving as prime minister of Canada since 2015, made a commitment to work with the U.S. to “end this terrible devastation of U.S. families.” U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Canadian officials say they are ready to make new investments in border security. MEXICAN PRESIDENT MIGHT BE CHANGING VIEW ON US AS TRUMP WIN SENDS WARNING TO RULING SOCIALISTS Trump said the pair also spoke about many other important topics, including energy, trade and the Arctic, although he did not go into further detail. “All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in office, and before,” Trump concluded, without saying whether tariffs were still on or off the table. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, after speaking with Trump on the telephone, said Thursday she was confident a tariff war with Washington would be averted. Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, R-Pa., posted a picture to X late Friday showing him at a Mar-a-Lago dinner table along with President-elect Trump, Trudeau, and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, among others. The ritzy club has been a hive of activity since President-elect Trump’s historic election win over Vice President Harris earlier this month as the 45th president co-ordinates his transition back to the Oval Office. Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have also met Trump at the famous location, along with many of those nominated for top roles in the incoming administration. Trump selected Musk to lead an outside advisory panel known as the “Department of Government Efficiency” to slash waste in the federal government. As he was leaving his West Palm Beach hotel, Trudeau stopped briefly to answer a reporter’s question about the dinner meeting, saying it had been “an excellent conversation.” An official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said it had been a “positive, wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.” The official said other topics included defense, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Middle East and pipelines, as well as the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year. Fox News’ Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump nominates Charles Kushner to serve as US ambassador to France: ‘Strong advocate’
President-elect Trump has nominated Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, to serve in his new administration as the U.S. ambassador to France. “I am pleased to nominate Charles Kushner, of New Jersey, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday. “He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.” In 2020, Kushner was pardoned by Trump 15 years after being found guilty of falsifying tax returns, witness tampering and illegal campaign contributions. Kushner, the founder of Kushner Companies, served a two-year sentence for his conviction. The witness tampering charge stemmed from an incident where he paid a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law into an encounter that was recorded on video. Kushner then sent the footage to the man’s wife, Kushner’s sister, in order to prevent her from testifying before a grand jury. NEW YORK JUDGE GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES, CANCELS SENTENCING INDEFINITELY Kushner was prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney General Chris Christie in 2005. Christie later called the case “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney,” during a 2019 PBS interview. Trump touted Kushner’s accomplishments in his statement on Saturday, calling Kushner Companies “one of the largest & most successful privately held Real Estate firms in the Nation.” “He was recognized as New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, & served as a Commissioner, & Chairman, of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, as well as on the Boards of our top institutions, including NYU,” Trump said. TRUMP APPOINTS TULSI GABBARD AS DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: ‘FEARLESS SPIRIT’ “His son, Jared, worked closely with me in the White House, in particular on Operation Warp Speed, Criminal Justice Reform, & the Abraham Accords,” his statement concluded. “Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!” In 2018, Jared Kushner worked to get the First Step Act passed by Congress, which focused on reforming federal prisons. Kushner became passionate about the issue after witnessing how his father had been treated in prison. “President Trump promised to fight for the forgotten men and women of this country — and that includes those in prison,” Jared Kushner wrote in the Wall Street Journal at the time. Fox News Digital’s Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
Fauci ripped over new paper criticizing Trump on coronavirus, promoting natural origin theory: ‘Embarrassment’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal government’s coronavirus pandemic response, is facing criticism on social media over a manuscript published in a top journal where he maintains his position that the virus originated in nature and cites a debunked claim that President-elect Trump told Americans to inject themselves with bleach to stop the virus. Fauci, along with researcher Gregory Folkers, published a paper in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal this week with the title, “HIV/AIDS and COVID-19: Shared Lessons from Two Pandemics.” Fauci, who faced intense criticism for his handling of the pandemic, was critical of Trump’s handling of the pandemic in the paper. “With COVID-19, the role of political leadership at the highest level — or the lack thereof — was again shown to be critical,” the authors wrote. “As COVID-19 exploded globally and in the United States, President Donald Trump frequently minimized the seriousness of the pandemic, repeatedly claiming that COVID-19 would just ‘go away’ In the first full year of the pandemic (2020, the last year of his presidency) he failed to use his bully pulpit to encourage people to use available ‘low-tech’ tools such as masks/respirators, better ventilation, and physical distancing to reduce the risk of infection.” FAUCI SAYS WEST NILE VIRUS WAS A ‘HARROWING’ EXPERIENCE: ‘AFRAID I WOULD NEVER RECOVER’ “Trump also gave credence to unproven and potentially dangerous substances for COVID-19 prevention and treatment such as bleach injections, the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin. Many of his hundreds of communications during the COVID-19 pandemic were missed opportunities for political leadership in promoting policies and practices to mitigate the impact of a raging pandemic.” The paper also says that “abundant evidence from top evolutionary virologists and leading scientists in other fields strongly suggests that the virus jumped species from an animal reservoir to humans in the Huanan market in Wuhan, China, and then spread throughout China and the rest of the world.” LAURA INGRAHAM: WE CAN NEVER LET A FAUCI HAPPEN TO THE US AGAIN Several media outlets have fact-checked and debunked the claim that Trump instructed people to inject themselves with bleach including Politifact who called President Biden’s accusation “mostly false.” “Fauci is an embarrassment,” conservative communicator Steve Guest posted on X. “Oy vey,” National Review contributor Pradeep Shanker posted on X. “Fauci is out with a new scientific paper on HIV/AIDS & COVID-19 where he falsely claims Trump told people to inject bleach & where he argues COVID-19 has a natural origin (Wuhan lab leak not even mentioned) by citing the same authors who wrote the infamous Proximal Origins paper,” author and journalist Jerry Dunleavy posted on X. Fox News Digital reached out to the NIH for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Abortions slightly declined the year Roe v. Wade was overturned, CDC says
The number of abortions in the U.S. only slightly dropped in 2022, the year the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade, returning the power to make laws on abortion access back to the states. Abortions declined by just 2% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to new surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The abortion rate also dipped by 3% and the abortion ratio decreased by 2%. The total dropped from about 622,000 abortions in 2021 to 609,000 in 2022, the data revealed. PRO-LIFE GROUPS CAUTIOUS ON RFK JR. NOMINATION AFTER EVOLVING ABORTION VIEWS This, as Republican-led states have enacted abortion bans with some exceptions such as medical emergencies after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling. Most of the abortions were reported before nine weeks of pregnancy and more than 70% were early medication abortions, which was similar to the numbers from before Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to the data. More than 6% of abortions happened between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy while about 1% were done either at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, the CDC said in its report. Women in their 20s made up more than half of abortions, the CDC said. WYOMING JUDGE STRIKES DOWN STATE ABORTION LAWS, RULING THEM UNCONSTITUTIONAL CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The report also said that nearly 60% of the women who had abortions had also given birth before, the data revealed. The CDC data includes numbers from 47 areas of the U.S. that have published data from 2013 until 2022.
Who is Karoline Leavitt?: A look at the youngest woman ever named to serve as White House press secretary
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – President-elect Donald Trump announced Karoline Leavitt will return to the White House next year as his press secretary, making the 27-year-old the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history and notching another massive career benchmark. Leavitt has been a fierce defender of Trump throughout his hard-fought campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, which included Democrats and the Harris campaign lobbing attacks at Trump that he is a “fascist” and on par with Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler, two assassination attempts and crisscrossing the nation to rally support for the former president. “Karoline Leavitt did a phenomenal job as the National Press Secretary on my Historic Campaign, and I am pleased to announce she will serve as White House Press Secretary,” Trump said in a statement announcing Leavitt as his press secretary this month. “Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator. I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.” TRUMP PICKS KAROLINE LEAVITT TO SERVE AS WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY Ahead of her appointment as the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history – unseating President Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969 – Leavitt had long been in Trump’s orbit and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022. TRUMP’S SPEEDY CABINET PICKS SHOW HIS ‘PRIORITY TO PUT AMERICA FIRST,’ TRANSITION TEAM SAYS Leavitt served in Trump’s first administration as assistant press secretary before working as New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director following the 2020 election. Leavitt launched a congressional campaign in her home state of New Hampshire during the 2022 cycle, winning her primary, but losing the election to a Democrat. During her time on the campaign trail for Trump this cycle, Leavitt sparred with liberal media outlets about Trump’s candidacy, fielded media inquiries about the 45th president’s policies and vision for the U.S., served as one of Trump’s top defenders amid legal battles and political landmines lobbed by both the Biden and Harris campaign, and maneuvered an unprecedented campaign cycle that saw President Biden drop out of the running in July amid heightened concerns over his mental acuity and age. She was among the dozens of Republican elected officials and Trump supporters who joined Trump in Manhattan court over the spring as he faced trial over 34 counts of falsifying business records, which Trump repeatedly slammed as a “sham” case. She also reported that with the job as the campaign’s national press secretary, she became accustomed to Trump’s “sleep schedule” – which has famously only consisted of roughly four or five hours of rest before getting to work – and joined him at rallies across the nation and at the campaign’s headquarters in Florida. Leavitt currently serves as the Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman ahead of Jan. 20, when Trump will be sworn in as president. Leavitt made national headlines in June, before Biden dropped out of the race, when CNN’s Kasie Hunt cut her microphone off as she argued on air that CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would be politically biased against Trump while moderating a debate between Biden and the now president-elect. Biden ultimately performed terribly during the debate, which opened the floodgates to traditional Democrat allies calling on him to drop out of the presidential race and pass the torch to a younger generation. KAROLINE LEAVITT WANTS DEMS TO ‘LOOK IN THE MIRROR’ AFTER ‘DISGUSTING’ COMMENTS AGAINST TRUMP “That’s why President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years. And their biased coverage of him,” Leavitt said to Hunt during the interview previewing the debate. “So I‘ll just say my colleagues, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, have acquitted themselves as professionals as they have covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all sides of the aisle. I‘ll also say that if you talk to analysts of previous debates, that if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing,” Hunt responded. As Hunt tried to redirect the interview back to previewing the debate, Leavitt said it would take just a few minutes to pull up examples of Tapper’s anti-Trump rhetoric across the years. KAROLINE LEAVITT ON SWING STATE DEMOCRATS TOUTING TIES TO TRUMP: THIS IS THE ‘WRITING ON THE WALL’ “Ma’am, I’m going to stop this interview if you’re going to continue to attack my colleagues,” Hunt said, before Leavitt continued that she was “stating facts” about what CNN hosts had previously said about Trump. “I’m sorry, guys, we’re going to come back out to the panel,” Hunt said. “Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You are welcome to come back at any point. She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump, and Donald Trump will have equal time to Joe Biden when they both join us later this week in Atlanta for this debate.” Following the mic getting cut, Leavitt told Fox News Digital at the time that, “CNN cutting off my microphone for bringing up a debate moderator’s history of anti-Trump lies just proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday’s debate. Yet President Trump is still willing to go into this 3-1 fight to bring his winning message to the American people, and he will win.” As Leavitt juggled the media, she also spent the first six months in her role as Trump campaign national press secretary while pregnant with her first child. Ahead of Mother’s Day this year, Leavitt touted the importance women and mothers have within the Trump orbit and celebrating that in July, she would welcome her own baby. DEMOCRATS ARE THE TRUE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY: KAROLINE LEAVITT “Joe Biden can’t even define what a ‘woman’ is, and his Administration disrespectfully refers to mothers as
Texas has spent millions placing razor wire along the border: Is it working?
In the past couple of years the Texas National Guard and state authorities have placed over 100 miles of razor wire at some of the most critical migrant crossing points along the southern border. The state, which makes up over 60 percent of the U.S. border with Mexico, has spent well over $10 million erecting and maintaining these border barriers as part of its larger multi-billion-dollar border enforcement campaign “Operation Lonestar.” This week, a federal appeals court ruled against the Biden administration’s attempt to block Texas from continuing to place walls of razor wire – also called concertina or “c-wire” – along the border. This comes after U.S. Border Patrol agents under the Biden administration cut down Texas’ wire on a 26-mile stretch of the border in September 2023. Earlier this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that “Biden should be thanking Texas, not obstructing our efforts to secure the border.” “Joe Biden completely abandoned his constitutional duty to secure the border. Texas stepped up in his absence to build the wall, repel illegal crossings, and protect our country,” said Abbott. HEARTBREAKING VIDEO SHOWS 10-YEAR-OLD MIGRANT LEFT ALONE AT BORDER But does razor wire really keep migrants from entering the country illegally, and is it worth the cost? Andrew Arthur, a law and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, says the answer is an emphatic “Yes.” He pointed to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that shows illegal migrant encounters in Texas’ five border sectors dropped by nearly two-thirds in January after the state finished placing wire. Arthur told Fox News Digital that Texas began placing wire fortifications in May 2023 after the COVID-era measure Title 42 expired. Then, after the migrant surge in December, Texas deployed additional guard personnel, state troopers and resources to the border. “Based on the numbers that we’re looking at here, it is most definitely effective,” he said. INCOMING BORDER CZAR HOMAN ISSUES WARNING IN TEXAS TO DEMS OPPOSING TRUMP DEPORTATIONS: ‘DON’T TEST US’ “What the wire did from my reading of this is it shifted that flow west,” he explained. “And that’s important, because that’s a much longer route. You’re adding hundreds of miles to that smuggling journey.” While effective, razor wire is not without drawbacks. More than a traditional border wall, wire needs to be constantly monitored. It also requires regular upkeep and additional wire being laid down after old wire is damaged or destroyed. “It’s a temporary solution, because you’re going to have to replace the concertina wire that they have and, at some point, they’re not going to be able to keep sending wave after wave of troopers, because a lot of those guys are hundreds of miles from their homes, because Texas is a big state,” he explained. “When I was embedded with a trooper down there, he was from Abilene, which is nowhere near the border, and he had been there for six weeks.” There are also humanitarian considerations. Arthur said that by being an effective deterrent, razor wire protects migrants from attempting the dangerous crossing over the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, Dylan Corbett, who runs an El Paso-based migrant aid and advocacy group called the Hope Border Institute, said that the presence of c-wire along the border has increased migrant injuries and deaths. Corbett told Fox News Digital that doctors working with the Hope Border Institute have had to treat the wounds of families injured by the wire, as well as “wounds caused by projectiles fired by the National Guard.” “In El Paso, nearly our entire border has been fortified by layers of concertina wire, including part of our border with New Mexico,” he explained. “While the numbers of border deaths along the whole border appear to have gone down over the past year, in El Paso they have increased. That increase has been sharp over the past couple years and coincides with the presence of the Guard and the concertina wire, because it is forcing border crossers just to the west of the city, where they die in the desert or crossing the river.” He called for the federal government to finally step in and “assert its supremacy over managing migration at the border and fix our overall system.” “More people are dying here than ever before,” he said. “The longer we wait, states will continue to engage in uncoordinated and irresponsible enforcement actions on their own, unnecessarily putting lives at risk and needlessly diverting millions of dollars in taxpayer resources.”
Five things to watch for on immigration and border security in 2025
Immigration and border security were hot topics in 2024 as the Biden administration continued to tackle the historic migrant crisis at the southern border, migrant crime made headlines across the country, and both topics were top priorities for voters ahead of the November election. In 2025, those topics are likely to remain key issues. Here are five things to watch in 2025: BORDER STATE OFFERS TRUMP MASSIVE PLOT OF LAND TO AID MASS DEPORTATION OPERATION President-elect Trump has promised to launch a historic mass deportation program next year. He has expressed openness to declaring a national emergency and using military assets in order to get it done. His team have already started looking at how to expand detention near major metropolitan areas. His border czar, Thomas Homan, has promised that national security and public security threats will be the priority, but no illegal immigrant is off the table. The Trump administration increased deportations significantly up until 2019 before COVID-19 hit the U.S., so it is expected to move in that direction again. Trump may need to rally Congress for additional resources, a task made easier by Republican control of the House and Senate, and will need to overcome potential lawsuits filed against any policies he introduces. At the congressional level, expect a push for a sweeping bill like H.R.2 — the Republican border bill passed in 2023 that would limit asylum significantly while providing additional resources at the border. Officials in multiple Democratic states have already previewed their resistance to the deportation push by the Trump administration. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said recently he was prepared to go to jail over his opposition to Trump’s deportation plan. Meanwhile, governors in Massachusetts, Illinois and Arizona have all said that they won’t co-operate with deportations. Trump officials say they don’t need their assistance, only for them to step aside as federal authorities do their job. But it will be something to watch to see if Democratic officials merely do not assist the administration, or if that turns to active resistance. Mexico plays a crucial role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, with lower levels of encounters at the U.S. border often coinciding with crackdowns at Mexico’s southern border. That was on display in 2024, as numbers lowered at the border after Biden administration officials met with Mexican officials in December 2023. The two countries had previously come to an agreement by which the U.S. would allow in migrants via parole programs, while Mexico would consequently accept a certain number of non-Mexican returns back from the U.S. But with President-elect Trump having promised to end those programs, it is unclear to what extent Mexico will continue to co-operate. Trump has promised to impose a significant 25% tariff on goods from Mexico if it does not halt the flow of illegal immigrants across the border. It’s a similar tactic by which Trump got Mexico to agree to the 2019 expansion of the remain-in-Mexico policy. But will it work? Will Mexico keep the traffic heading north low, or will it reduce its enforcement? That will be a question answered in 2025. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS Congress has struggled to find consensus on border security and immigration, something that has frustrated multiple administrations. President Biden and former President Barack Obama were thwarted in their efforts to get Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, while President-elect Trump struggled to get lawmakers to provide funding for the wall at the southern border. Now, Republicans hold the House and Senate, but by thin margins. So it is unclear if Trump will ever see a sweeping bill similar to the House Republicans’ border bill that passed the chamber in 2023 come to his desk. Trump can do a great deal by executive action, but his mass deportation plan will require additional funding from Congress. To what extent Congress acts on those requests could determine how successful that effort, along with additional security at the southern border to stop migrants from entering the U.S. in the first place, will be. While illegal immigration is in the spotlight after the historic crisis at the southern border, it will likely be a key issue in the next administration, with some keen for additional restrictions on not only the use of humanitarian parole but also visas like the H-1B visa tech worker program and the H-2A agricultural worker program. Additionally, whether the administration will have another go at trying to re-implement its public charge rule, which limited legal immigrants from receiving green cards if they had been reliant on some forms of welfare and are deemed to be likely to be reliant on welfare if they receive permanent residency. The administration is expected to reduce the numbers coming in via parole, which was expanded significantly under the Biden administration, and is also expected to reduce the annual refugee cap. President-elect Trump and others in his future administration — including billionaire Elon Musk — have said at times they want more immigration, but only legal immigration. “I want a lot of people to come into our country, but I want them to come in legally,” Trump said in October. But some in Trump’s base want lower levels of immigration overall, including legal immigration. Which side of the argument wins will become clearer as 2025 rolls on.