DHS shutdown explained: Who works without pay, what happens to airports and disaster response
A partial government shutdown is all but certain after Senate Democrats rejected attempts to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offered by Republicans on Thursday afternoon. But it will not look like the record-long 43-day full shutdown that paralyzed Congress last year, nor will it look like the shorter four-day partial shutdown that hit Capitol Hill earlier this month. That’s because Congress has already funded roughly 97% of the government through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2026 on Sept. 30. When the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14, just DHS will be affected by a lapse in its federal funding. While it’s a vastly smaller scale than other recent fiscal fights, it will still have an impact on a broad range of issues given DHS’s wide jurisdiction. SCHUMER, DEMS CHOOSE PARTIAL SHUTDOWN AS NEGOTIATIONS HIT IMPASSE Disruptions to the TSA, whose agents are responsible for security checks at nearly 440 airports across the country, could perhaps be the most impactful part of the partial shutdown to Americans’ everyday lives. Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that around 95% of TSA employees — roughly 61,000 people — are deemed essential and will be forced to work without pay in the event of a shutdown. McNeill said many TSA agents were still recovering from the effects of the recent 43-day shutdown. “We heard reports of officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” she said. TSA paychecks due to be issued on March 3 could see agents getting reduced pay depending on the length of the shutdown. Agents would not be at risk of missing a full paycheck until March 17. If that happens, however, Americans could see delays or even cancellations at the country’s busiest airports as TSA agents are forced to call out of work and get second jobs to make ends meet. SHUTDOWN CLOCK TICKS AS SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS DIG IN ON DHS FUNDING DEMANDS The U.S. Coast Guard is the only branch of the armed forces under DHS rather than the Department of War, and as such would likely see reduced operations during a shutdown. That includes a pause in training for pilots, air crews and boat crews until funding is restarted. Admiral Thomas Allan, Coast Guard Vice Commandant, warned lawmakers that it would have to “suspend all missions, except those for national security or the protection of life and property.” A lapse in its funding would also result in suspended pay for 56,000 active duty, reserve, and civilian personnel, which Allan warned would negatively affect morale and recruitment efforts. The U.S. Secret Service (USSS), which is critical to protecting the president and key members of the administration, is also under DHS’s purview. While its core functions would be largely unaffected by a shutdown, some 94% of the roughly 8,000 people the service employs would be forced to work without pay until the standoff is resolved. Deputy USSS Director Matthew Quinn also warned that a shutdown could also hurt the progress being made to improve the service in the wake of the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. “The assassination attempt on President Trump’s life brought forward hard truths for our agency and critical areas for improvement — air, space, security, communications and IT infrastructure, hiring and retention training, overarching technological improvements,” Quinn said. “We are today on the cusp of implementing generational change for our organization. A shutdown halts our reforms and undermines the momentum that we, including all of you, have worked so hard to build together.” ICE operations would largely go on unimpeded during a shutdown, despite Democrats’ outrage at the agency being the main driver of the current standoff. Nearly 20,000 of ICE’s roughly 21,000 employees are deemed “essential” and therefore must work without pay, according to DHS shutdown guidance issued in September 2025. But even though it’s the center of Democrats’ funding protest, ICE has already received an injection of some $75 billion over the course of four years from Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). It means many of its core functions retain some level of funding even during a shutdown. CISA is responsible for defending critical U.S. sectors like transportation, healthcare, and energy from foreign and domestic threats. The agency would be forced to reduce operations to an active threat mitigation status and activities “essential to protecting and protecting life and property,” according to Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala. That means a shutdown would significantly reduce CISA’s capacity to proactively monitor for potential threats from foreign adversaries. “We will be on the defensive, reactive as opposed to being proactive, and strategic in terms of how we will be able to combat those adversaries,” Gottumukkala said. Operations like “cyber response, security assessments, stakeholder engagements, training, exercises, and special event planning” would all be impacted, he said. FEMA, one of the largest recipients of congressional funding under DHS, would also likely see reduced operations if a shutdown went on for long enough. The bright spot for the agency is that past congressional appropriations have left its Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), the main coffer used to respond to natural disasters throughout the U.S., with roughly $7 billion. The DRF could become a serious problem if the DHS shutdown goes on for more than a month, however, or in the event of an unforeseen “catastrophic disaster,” an official warned. FEMA is also currently working through a backlog of responses to past natural disasters, progress that Associate Administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery Gregg Phillips said could be interrupted during a shutdown. “In the 45 days I’ve been here…we have spent $3 billion in 45 days on 5,000 projects,” Phillips said. “We’re going as fast as we can. We’re committed to reducing the backlog. I can’t go any faster than we actually are. And if this lapses, that’s going to stop.”
Trump’s $12B rare earth plan targets China as experts warn US is ‘one crisis away’
EXCLUSIVE: Industry experts warn the United States is “one crisis away” from losing access to the rare earth elements that power everything from fighter jets to electric vehicles — a vulnerability President Donald Trump’s new $12 billion “Project Vault” aims to address. The initiative, backed by $1.67 billion in private seed money and a $10 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank, would create a federally supported stockpile of rare earth elements and other critical minerals. The U.S. currently imports much of those materials from China. Executives from Graphite One, one of the country’s largest critical mineral developers, told Fox News Digital the effort could mark a turning point in the battle over China’s dominance of global supply chains. “The Chinese are willing to weaponize access to … semiconductor materials like gallium and uranium,” Graphite One advisor Dan McGroarty said. “Then they turn off the tap and sort things out, give us a one-year reprieve, you know, it’s a leash, and they can yank that leash anytime they want.” TRUMP SAYS ‘YOU’LL SEE’ WHEN ASKED HOW FAR HE’LL GO ON GREENLAND TAKEOVER CEO Anthony Huston compared the concept to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established after the 1970s oil crisis to safeguard U.S. energy security, arguing that critical minerals now play a similarly vital role in powering modern defense systems, advanced electronics and electric vehicles. “For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions… Project Vault [will] ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said in his announcement last month. Graphite One recently made news with its “truly generational” Graphite Creek site in Alaska, which is the U.S.’ largest asset of that particular critical mineral, in Huston’s words. As of 2024, the U.S. was at least 93% import-dependent on rare earth elements and graphite, according to the International Energy Agency, and remains heavily reliant on foreign suppliers for dozens of other critical minerals. TRUMP KNOWS GOOD REAL ESTATE — AND HE KNOWS GREENLAND’S VALUE TO NATIONAL SECURITY “The United States really relies on China and Africa for graphite. China, as we understand, is our adversary,” Huston said. A buried lede in the Project Vault news, he added, is a little-reported counter-terror aspect. Huston said some African mineral deposits, including in parts of Mozambique, are located in areas where ISIS-linked groups have operated. By onshoring development of critical minerals, the U.S. will not only work to unseat Chinese dominance but also deal a blow to operations in areas run by people who want to kill us, he argued. McGroarty added that Project Vault reminds him of the idea of “dual-use technologies” during the Cold War, where computers of the time had technology that could not be exported – but could be used for both manufacturing and nuclear weapons design, for instance. “On another level, we’re going to have to balance it across 20, 30, 40 different metals, minerals, compounds, and composites, not just oil,” he said. TRUMP CHALLENGES CARNEY AT DAVOS, ASSERTS CANADA SHOULD BE ‘GRATEFUL’ FOR GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE McGroarty said the U.S. is “one crisis away” from having REEs “cut-off” by adversaries like China. Huston also spoke of why Project Vault fits the 2020s more than any other time. In the prior century, there were no cell phones, no EVs and graphite and the like were being used in analog tools like pencils and primitive computers. The Graphite Creek site supplied materials for World War II-era steel production, a far cry from its potential role in today’s high-tech economy. Huston reiterated that the U.S. needs its own “strategic petroleum reserve” of critical minerals rather than relying on adversarial nations. “As they say when you’re flying, put the oxygen mask on yourself first before turning to help those around,” he said. TRUMP SAYS GREENLAND’S DEFENSE IS ‘TWO DOG SLEDS’ AS HE PUSHES FOR US ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY Asked about any nexus between Project Vault, the Senate’s renewed focus on Arctic national security amid foreign incursions and Trump’s overtures toward Greenland, McGroarty suggested there may be one — but it’s not yet clear. He quipped that sometimes it’s better to look at the globe from the top rather than the side, which places North America in the center of everything. “See what nations have a presence in the Arctic, you’ll see the importance of Greenland; you’ll also see that the U.S. is an Arctic nation only because of Alaska,” he said. Of the 60 critical minerals on the U.S. government’s official list, Alaska has known resources of at least 58, he added. “It’s the same sort of thing with Greenland. In the case of Greenland, I think there’s a phrase that I use from time to time: resource denial — That is to say, you might try not to be interested in Greenland’s resource potential in critical minerals. If you wake up one day, and the Chinese and the Russians are engaging in economic relationships in Greenland and directing those metals and minerals into their supply chains, you will have to be concerned about what goes on.” China-based experts, on the other hand, were dismissive of Project Vault, with rare-earths analyst Wu Chenhui telling the state-owned Global Times that while Trump’s move is novel, it “functions more as a short-term buffer than a fundamental solution,” and other officials in the Communist nation were similarly bearish on the news.
ICE arrests ‘worst of the worst’ criminal illegal immigrants including murderers and pedophiles
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Thursday the latest “worst of the worst” criminal illegal immigrants convicted of crimes nationwide, including murderers, pedophiles and drug traffickers. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) highlighted the convictions of five illegal immigrants from Vietnam, Honduras, Cuba and Mexico. “While sanctuary politicians release criminal illegal aliens from their jails to victimize more American families and children, our officers continue to arrest criminals,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal aliens convicted for murder, sexual assault of a CHILD, and drug trafficking.” AFGHAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WHO STABBED SISTER FOR BEING ‘BAD MUSLIM GIRL’ ARRESTED BY ICE AGENTS IN NEW YORK McLaughlin added that nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal immigrants charged or convicted of a crime. “This statistic does not even include foreign fugitives, gang members and terrorists who lack a rap sheet in the U.S.,” she said. Muoi Van Duong, an undocumented immigrant from Vietnam, was convicted of murder with a firearm in San Diego, California, according to DHS. SANCTUARY POLICIES LET ALLEGED CHILD PREDATOR ROAM FREE UNTIL DHS MADE PORTLAND, OREGON, AIRPORT ARREST DHS said that Roberto Xochimitl-Flores, a criminal illegal immigrant from Mexico, was found guilty of second-degree sexual abuse: sexual contact with a person less than 14 years old in New York City. Lisandro Omar Borjas-Aguirano, an illegal resident from Honduras, was convicted of sexual assault of a child in Collin County, Texas, according to DHS. DHS announced that Rigoberto Salvia-Ricardo, a Cuban national, was convicted of sexual battery of a juvenile in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Ricardo Rosas-Tapia, a criminal illegal immigrant from Mexico, was convicted of possession with intent to sell or distribute cocaine in Wake County, North Carolina.
Texas governor exposes ‘hypocrisy’ of Dem push for states’ rights in Minnesota after Biden years
EXCLUSIVE: Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called out the “hypocrisy” of the Democratic Party advocating for states’ rights in Minnesota after he was widely lambasted, and even sued, for his efforts to enforce the border during the Biden administration. Abbott remarked that “hypocrisy is the word choice that really applies to them, because, suddenly, these Minnesota states, they want to insist on states’ rights,” during an interview with Fox News Digital. In 2021, Abbott launched “Operation Lone Star,” which deployed state troopers and the Texas National Guard to the border and funded barrier construction to deter illegal crossings. He was sued by the administration that same year. Abbott said that Texas’ struggle with the Biden administration is fundamentally different from the controversy in Minnesota and other sanctuary states. “Texas insisted on states’ rights, but actually, what we were doing in Texas during the Biden administration, we were very simply trying to enforce the federal immigration laws that Joe Biden was refusing to enforce,” he explained. “What we see in Minnesota, however, is total chaos, total anarchy, because what they are doing is not trying to enforce the law; they’re trying to interfere with the enforcement of the law.” TEXAS BORDER OFFICERS ARREST 3 FUGITIVES WANTED FOR ALLEGED CHILD SEX CRIMES “My job as governor was to make sure we used every tool to secure the border, and it worked,” he explained. “Joe Biden required Texas to take matters into our own hands because of the lack of safety that he instilled in the country. Look at the millions of people who’ve crossed the border illegally. Look at the criminals, the rapists and murderers who came into Houston, Texas, that Joe Biden allowed in.” “We are a nation that was built upon the rule of law, and the rule of law has to be enforced. When it is enforced, it leads to safer communities,” he added. The result, according to Abbott, was an over 85% decrease in illegal immigration in the state and a simultaneous over 40 percent decrease in fentanyl deaths. Now, Abbott is running for re-election on a platform that he says will double down on making Texas a top destination for people seeking not only economic opportunity, but also “the opportunity of freedom to live their own life.” One of the core issues Abbott is running on is a plan to slash property taxes in Texas during the next legislative session. Abbott has proposed a five-step overhaul of the Texas property tax system that includes limiting local government spending growth to population growth or inflation, requiring two-thirds voter approval for local property tax increases, allowing voters to trigger rollback elections with a 15% petition threshold, capping homestead appraisal growth at 3% and expanding that cap to all properties, requiring appraisals only once every five years, and pursuing a constitutional amendment to let voters eliminate school district property taxes for homeowners. While many Democrats, such as U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, have predicted the Lone Star State is on the edge of turning blue, Abbott believes the GOP is well-positioned to win come November. JASMINE CROCKETT REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR WILD RHETORIC ‘IN THIS ENVIRONMENT’ “As long as Republicans remain engaged, as long as we’re able to get out our vote, we’re going to win these elections and win them with ease, but also, very importantly, when we show the contrast between Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “We just had a forum here talking about cutting property taxes. Democrats are against cutting property taxes in Texas, Democrats are in favor of defunding the police, whereas Republicans believe in law and order and law enforcement. Democrats stood for these crazy open border policies, where Republicans fight to close the border, enforce immigration laws, and don’t let people in illegally.” Abbott shared that he intends to go on the offensive this election, even challenging Democrats in areas that have long been written off as blue strongholds, such as Harris County, in which the city of Houston sits. “I take every election seriously. I take nothing for granted,” he said. “We constantly battle against the Democrats in this state that believe in defunding the police. We fought a battle and won one here in Houston, Texas, where we had socialist judges letting murderers out of jail on low bond, only to go back out and murder somebody else. We passed laws cracking down on that here in Texas.” GREG ABBOTT THREATENS ARRESTS FOR VIOLENT STUDENT PROTESTERS, FUNDING CUTS FOR SCHOOLS ALLOWING WALKOUTS “Texas is the state that’s most on fire in the entire United States of America,” Abbott went on. “I [have] met people who moved from New York and other states because they wanted to get out of the chaos and communism in those states and come to a state that truly believes in capitalism, but also opportunity of all sorts.” “So, what our goal is to make sure we continue to pass policies that keep Texas attractive,” he concluded. “It’s a constant battle against the socialists, whether they’re in Minneapolis or Houston, Texas, or Austin, Texas, but righteousness and the rule of law will always prevail.”
This crucial state is the latest battleground in redistricting war between Trump and Democrats
Democratic state lawmakers in control of the Virginia legislature are fast-tracking a proposed new congressional map that would give the competitive state up to four more left-leaning U.S. House districts in time for this year’s midterm elections. The map, which Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is expected to sign early next week, comes as Virginia voters are getting ready to vote this spring on a ballot measure which would give the legislature, rather than the current non-partisan commission, redistricting power through the 2030 election. Republicans are calling the Democrats’ redistricting effort an “unconstitutional power grab.” Democrats are countering that it’s a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented in other states by the GOP. Virginia is the latest battleground, with Florida on deck, in the ongoing high-stakes battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to alter congressional maps ahead of November’s elections. VIRGINIA JUDGE STRIKES BLOW TO DEMOCRATS REDISTRICTING PUSH Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber. That means the redistricting efforts in Virginia and other states may very well decide which party controls the House next year. “It’s happening all over the country,” the narrator in a new ad by Virginians for Fair Elections says. “Politicians redrawing maps to rig the midterm elections. And Virginia can’t sit back and do nothing.” The Democrat-aligned public advocacy group tells Fox News Digital it’s spending an initial seven figures to run the ad statewide in the commonwealth. The new map, if implemented before the midterms, could give the Democrats a shot at flipping four GOP-held congressional seats, turning a 6-5 edge in the state’s U.S. House delegation into a 10-1 advantage. STUNNING SETBACK FOR TRUMP IN REDISTRICTING WARS But the rival Virginians for Fair Maps, a Republican-aligned group that opposes the redistricting push, highlights that “Virginians came together to pass bipartisan redistricting reform — a process that took the power to draw maps out of politicians’ hands. Now, politicians in Richmond want to undo that progress.” And the Republican National Committee has called the Democrats’ push in Virginia a “power grab.” Democrats were dealt a big blow after a local court blocked their efforts to amend the state Constitution in order to redraw the lines, with a circuit court judge in conservative Tazewell County saying Democrats didn’t follow proper procedures. The ruling was appealed, and both sides are waiting to see if the Virginia Supreme Court weighs in. The clock is ticking, with early voting for the April 21 referendum scheduled to start on March 6. Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting. The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats. Trump’s first target was Texas. BIG WIN FOR TRUMP AS SUPREME COURT GREENLIGHTS TEXAS’ NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map. But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country. Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature. That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps. The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California. Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push. In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms. But Utah Republicans have appealed to the state Supreme Court to block a new court-ordered map for this year’s elections. Meanwhile, Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention. Florida’s next up. Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session in April. But the bid by DeSantis and Republicans in Tallahassee last week drew its first lawsuit, from a group aligned with Florida Democrats. The lawsuit contends that the governor and Secretary of State Cordy Byrd don’t have the legal authority to reshape election laws, after Byrd pushed back congressional qualifying dates from April to June. Democrats in solidly blue Maryland are also pushing redistricting, which could result in one extra left-leaning congressional seat. But the effort, pushed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and green-lighted by state House Democrats, is facing opposition from Senate President Bill Ferguson, a fellow Democrat. Lastly, Republicans in South Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas and New Hampshire, and Democrats in Illinois and Washington State are also exploring possible bids to redraw the maps. Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision
Walz proposes $10M business relief package as Republicans cry ‘new avenue for fraud’ in Minnesota
Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz was slammed online by Republicans after proposing a $10 million emergency relief package for small businesses across the state impacted by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Walz unveiled the proposal Thursday after border czar Tom Homan announced that Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota would be ending. The proposal calls for forgivable loans ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 to be distributed to eligible businesses that are able to demonstrate “substantial revenue loss” during “specified dates” tied to the operation. “The campaign of retribution by the federal administration has been more than a short-term disruption; it has inflicted long-term damage on Minnesota communities,” Walz said in a statement. “Recovery will not happen overnight. Families, workers, and business owners are feeling the effects, and our responsibility is clear: we will help rebuild, stabilize these businesses, protect jobs, and ensure Minnesota’s economy can recover and thrive.” Republicans quickly criticized the proposal as Minnesota continues to face extensive fraud allegations. CONVICTED MINNESOTA FRAUDSTER ALLEGES WALZ, ELLISON WERE AWARE OF WIDESPREAD FRAUD President Donald Trump previously claimed that fraud in Minnesota exceeded $19 billion. Dozens of people have been prosecuted in Minnesota in recent years for alleged large-scale welfare fraud schemes involving food assistance and autism services. Federal prosecutors have alleged the schemes stole hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded programs, with separate investigations also examining alleged fraud in the state’s daycare system. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. reacted to the governor’s proposal on X, saying, “BREAKING: Tim Walz opens up a new avenue for fraud in Minnesota.” NOEM HAMMERS WALZ, FREY FOR IGNORING 1,360 ICE DETAINERS FOR CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS Minnesota Republican state Sen. Michael Holmstrom said on X that the proposal would be an “immediate NO from me,” adding that Minnesota taxpayers “do not deserve to have more money stolen from them.” Others referenced fraud related to Minnesota’s daycare system, including Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., who responded to the proposal on X, “Does that include learing centers?” His post referenced a typo that read “Quality Learing Center,” which was eventually corrected. The Quality Learning Center was infamously featured in a video by YouTuber Nick Shirley, who visited multiple daycare centers across Minnesota that allegedly received public funds but were not providing any services. SCOOP: THOUSANDS OF VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED IN MINNESOTA AS ADMIN VOWS ‘WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN’ The governor’s office included a statement from Henry Garnica, the owner of CentroMex in East St. Paul, who said the past few months during the immigration operation have been “some of the hardest I’ve experienced as a business owner.” “Sales are down, we have limited hours, and we have had to change how we operate,” he stated. “That’s not who we are as a neighborhood store. This proposed forgivable loan package would give businesses like mine breathing room — to keep employees on payroll and keep our doors open. For some of us, it could mean the difference between surviving and closing for good.” On Thursday, Walz demanded that the federal government “pay for what they broke” after the Trump administration said it would draw down its presence in the Twin Cities. Walz said during a news conference that federal law enforcement’s presence in the state was leaving “deep damage” and “generational trauma.” Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
Puerto Rico governor signs law recognizing unborn babies as human beings
Puerto Rico’s Republican governor on Thursday signed a bill that amends a law to recognize an unborn baby as a human being, which opponents argued could eventually lead to outlawing abortion in the U.S. territory. Gov. Jenniffer González said in a statement that the measure “aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.” The amendment, in Senate Bill 923, altered an article within Puerto Rico’s Penal Code that defines murder. The government said that the amendment complements a law affirming that it would be first-degree murder if a suspect intentionally and knowingly kills a pregnant woman, resulting in the death of the conceived child at any stage of gestation. SOUTH CAROLINA GOP LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE BILL TO CRIMINALIZE ABORTION AS MURDER The legislation was named after Keishla Rodríguez, a pregnant woman who was killed in April 2021. Her partner, former Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo, was convicted in the killing and received two life sentences. Supporters of the law said it was designed to provide consistency between civil and criminal codes and focus on harsher punishments for the murder of pregnant women and that it was unrelated to abortion, but critics argued that it opens the door to eventually criminalizing the procedure in Puerto Rico, which remains legal. “A zygote was given legal personality,” Rosa Seguí Cordero, an attorney and spokesperson for the National Campaign for Free, Safe and Accessible Abortion in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press. “We women were stripped of our rights.” WYOMING SUPREME COURT RULES LAWS RESTRICTING ABORTION VIOLATE STATE CONSTITUTION Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of Puerto Rico’s College of Medical Surgeons, contends that the new law would lead to “defensive health care,” in which doctors may refuse to treat complicated pregnancies for fear of criminal prosecution on murder charges. “This will bring complex clinical decisions into the realm of criminal law,” he told The Associated Press, adding that it would bring “disastrous consequences.” Díaz said the amended law also allows a third person to intervene between a doctor and a pregnant woman, which violates privacy laws. He also said new protocols and regulations would need to be implemented. “The system is not prepared for this,” he said. Opponents of the law also said the amendment was approved without public hearings. “There is no doubt that the measure did not undergo adequate analysis before its approval and leaves an unacceptable space for ambiguity regarding civil rights,” Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press. “The legislative leadership failed to fulfill its responsibility to the people, and so did the governor.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sanctuary policies let alleged child predator roam free until DHS made Portland, Oregon, airport arrest
FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested an illegal migrant who was charged with rape, purchasing sex with a minor, and sexual abuse in Oregon, after the migrant was released on bail by sanctuary policies. Manuel Cruz-Ramirez, who still faces the slew of charges, was not referred to immigration officers upon his arrest and release due to Marion County’s sanctuary status. The illegal immigrant from Mexico was apprehended only because he was using a fraudulent Mexican passport at the Portland International Airport. TSA and CBP agents were flagged when his falsified name did not return full data, according to DHS. “Manuel Cruz-Ramirez was arrested for rape, purchasing sex with a minor, and sexual abuse in Oregon,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. “The state’s sanctuary politicians allowed this pedophile to be released from jail back into American communities.” TRUMP URGES DHS, ICE TO PUBLICIZE ARRESTS, SAYS CRACKDOWN IS ‘SAVING MANY INNOCENT LIVES’ In non-sanctuary cities, Cruz-Ramirez would have referred to immigration officers, who would have apprehended him before he was released from detention. “Americans can be proud of the swift actions of TSA and CBP for protecting them and our judicial system by preventing this monster from fleeing the country,” McLaughlin explained. “Criminal illegal aliens should not be released from jails back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans. “Oregon’s sanctuary politicians must stop this reckless insanity of releasing child predators from jail back into our neighborhoods to prey on more innocent children,” she added. DHS DEMANDS MN LEADERS HONOR ICE DETAINERS, ALLEGES HUNDREDS OF CRIMINAL ALIENS HAVE BEEN RELEASED UNDER WALZ DHS also told Fox News Digital that Cruz-Ramirez had been deported from the U.S. in 2018, though he re-entered the country at an unknown location and time. He is now in ICE custody and his removal order has been re-instated. Portland has been one of several cities where agitators have mobilized to confront and protest federal law enforcement. On Thursday, Fox News Digital reported that DHS launched an investigation into an Oregon resident who was arrested during a traffic stop with knives and materials to make Molotov cocktails. DHS URGES NEWSOM TO HONOR ICE DETAINERS AFTER FEDERAL AGENT ASSAULTED WHILE ARRESTING ILLEGAL ALIEN AT JAIL The 18-year-old Oregon resident allegedly authored a manifesto with the intention of killing ICE at a Portland ICE office. The individual reportedly told authorities that he was planning on picking up an AR-15 rifle to carry out the attack. Democrats, including those in Congress, have referred to ICE agents as Nazis and gestapo, and the Trump administration has said that such rhetoric is endangering the lives of law enforcement officers across the country. During an interview with Fox News Digital earlier this month, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem noted the difference between some cities and those which are controlled by far-left leaders, saying that in cities where authorities cooperate with federal law enforcement there is far less conflict. “Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin Cities, have an opportunity to do the same thing that Memphis did. There we had a Democrat mayor who worked with us,” Noem told Fox News Digital. “It was about the same size as a city, about the same amount of federal law enforcement officers were there, and we dramatically cut crime and murder rates and partnered well together.”
Over 1.5 million illegal aliens with deportation orders in US, ICE director reveals
Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons revealed that there are about 1.6 million illegal aliens with final deportation orders in the U.S., half of whom have criminal convictions. During testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, Lyons said, “What we’re tracking right now is about 1.6 million final [deportation] orders in the United States, with approximately 800,000 of those having criminal convictions.” Lyons clarified that these deportation orders have not been issued by ICE or the Department of Homeland Security. Rather, Lyons said the orders have come “through an immigration judge with the Department of Justice separate from Immigration Customs Enforcement.” The director added that “there’s 16,840 final orders at large in the state of Minnesota.” ACTING ICE DIRECTOR DEFENDS AGENCY’S FOCUS ON TARGETING CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS, DETAILS THREAT TO AGENTS Lyons revealed this during questioning by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. Lankford asked Lyons to communicate his gratitude to the men and women in immigration enforcement, commenting, “Two years ago, we had 10,000 people a day illegally crossing into the country, two years ago, 10,000 people a day not vetted, had no idea who they were.” Lankford also pointed out that “70,000 people were estimated by the Biden administration to come in in 2024 that were special interest aliens that had a locational connection to terrorism.” “But we had no idea who they were. They were allowed to be able to come into the country two years ago,” he lamented. SCOOP: THOUSANDS OF VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED IN MINNESOTA AS ADMIN VOWS ‘WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN’ This comes as ICE faces intense criticism from Democrats over their operations, especially in Minnesota, where two activists, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed in altercations with federal officers. Democrats have threatened defund DHS unless the agency changes its approach to enforcement. Lankford remarked, “We’re losing perspective of what’s really happened.” “The work that the men and women that work around you have done have stopped that chaos,” Lankford said to Lyons. TRUMP DHS HAMMERS DEM GOVERNOR’S PORTAL TO TRACK ICE AGENTS: ‘ENCOURAGES VIOLENCE’ “There are thousands of arrests that are happening in a day that are happening by the book,” he continued. “And what’s happening is a group of protesters that are protesting and agitating, and some of them running into churches and disturbing church services and saying, ‘It’s my First Amendment right to shut down your church during a service.’ And saying they’re a peaceful protester while they throw rocks at agents, it just gets old.”
Newsom stop in key presidential primary state sparks more 2028 speculation
California Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s book tour will take him early next month to New Hampshire, the state that’s traditionally held the nation’s first presidential primary for a century. The Portsmouth Music Hall announced on Thursday that California’s two-term Democratic governor will present his new book, “Young Man in a Hurry,” on Thursday, at their theater on March 5. It’s a sure bet that the stop along New Hampshire’s Seacoast will generate more buzz about Newsom’s national ambitions and the likelihood that he’ll launch a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, in the race to succeed term-limited President Donald Trump. Newsom’s stature in his own party has soared over the past year, thanks to his very vocal and visual pushback against the president, including his viral social media trolling of Trump and his successful California push to counter the Republican congressional redistricting effort. THE 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE IS ALREADY UNDERWAY “Newsom has shown an ability to stand up to Trump in a bold and highly effective manner without shying away from core democratic values,” veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital. Newsom was treated like a VIP as he held meetings and mingled with party delegates during the opening day of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) winter meeting, which was held in Los Angeles in December. And Newsom held meetings with the Democratic Party chairs from New Hampshire and Nevada, another crucial early voting state. “We had a great discussion on a wide range of issues,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital. DEMOCRATIC HEAVYWEIGHTS TURN HEADS, SPARK 2028 SPECULATION Newsom has acknowledged that he’s mulling a presidential bid, telling CBS News last year he would “seriously consider” following the 2026 midterms and that he’d be “lying” if he said otherwise. Newsom is one of more than a dozen Democrats viewed as potential 2028 White House contenders. And many of them have been paying visits to New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, which held the first sanctioned Democratic presidential primary in the 2024 election cycle. Newsom stopped in South Carolina last summer. A New Hampshire-based Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely shared that he and other activists in the state for months have been receiving fundraising emails on a regular basis from some of the White House hopefuls. “Every week I receive a dozen,” the strategist said. VANCE AMPLIFIES HIS 2026 MESSAGE WHILE LANDING KEY 2028 BACKING Kathy Sullivan, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair and former DNC committee member, told Fox News Digital that “successful candidates in New Hampshire start early here and get to know the activists. They find out what issues are important to people in New Hampshire.” Sullivan said the early trips to New Hampshire by the potential contenders “show that they’re putting the work in to take the whole process seriously and know they need to do the hard work to win the primary.” The California governor was last in New Hampshire in July 2024, to support then-President Joe Biden in the days after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Newsom was a top surrogate for Biden, and later for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the party’s standard-bearer after Biden dropped his re-election run amid questions about his physical and mental durability. Harris, a fellow Californian who is also currently on a book tour, is also mulling a potential 2028 presidential run. Among the other Democrats seen as possible presidential candidates are Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Wes Moore of Maryland and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut; progressive superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another leading progressive; and two moderate Democrats, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former White House chief of staff and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.