Media personality Steve Hilton enters California gubernatorial race
EXCLUSIVE: The California 2026 gubernatorial race just got a major shakeup with Republican Steve Hilton entering the race to be Gov. Gavin Newsom’s successor. The former Fox News contributor and author of “Califailure” said he’s hoping to “Make California Golden Again,” especially for the “working people” of the state. “A big decision that I’ve made, which I can now share with you, that I am, in fact, going to be running for governor of California for 2026. I love this state. It’s the best place in the world as far as I’m concerned,” Hilton told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. THIS IS HOW WE’LL KNOW IF CALIFORNIA GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM’S EPIPHANY ON ‘LIBERAL GOVERNANCE’ IS REAL “But after 15 years of one-party rule, this state is barely recognizable. And I honestly think that the 2026 election in California is a life-or-death moment because if we continue with this one-party rule by the Democrats, things are just gonna really start to deteriorate very rapidly,” he added. Hilton was born in the U.K. and graduated from New College at Oxford. He served as a senior advisor to former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was the leader of the Conservative Party. “[California] really reminds me of Britain in the 1970s. The UK was called the ‘sick man of Europe’, Hilton explained in a campaign announcement video obtained by Fox News Digital. “There’s no other way of looking at California today than the ‘sick man of America’.” After moving to California in 2012, Hilton embraced the American entrepreneurial spirit and co-founded Crowdpac.com, a Silicon Valley tech start-up company. Hilton’s contribution to the conservative media across various outlets throughout his time in the U.S. landed him his own show, ‘The Next Revolution’, on Fox News Channel. The Sunday night program aired weekly from 2017 to 2023. Newsom is termed out, and candidates are lining up for a shot for his spot in Sacramento. On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Health and Human Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Rep. Katie Porter are among the long list of names seeking the job. On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has been on the campaign trail for the job. Although Democrats have a supermajority in the legislature, a recent poll of likely California voters indicated that 48% would consider backing a Republican for governor, according to the Sacramento Bee. “We have a combination of idiots and ideologues who’ve been running this state into the ground, ruining what I consider to be the greatest state and the greatest nation on earth, and it’s time for change,” Hilton said. FOR KAMALA HARRIS, CHANCES OF A POLITICAL COMEBACK MAY BE BLEAK Most notably, former Vice President Kamala Harris is weighing a run following her 2024 presidential loss. Harris would quickly be considered the Democratic front-runner if she were to decide to join in. The Golden State is facing serious questions about its future in the wake of not only the fires that ripped through Los Angeles County, but as it navigates issues such as crime, homelessness, and fiscal management for programs like Medi-Cal. Hundreds of thousands of Californians have moved out of the state each year at an accelerated rate after the pandemic, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The cost of living for many Californians is higher than in the rest of the nation, including when it comes to taxation and gas prices. LOS ANGELES ISSUES ONLY 4 PERMITS TO REBUILD HOMES AFTER DEVASTATING PALISADES FIRE: REPORT “We have the highest taxes in the country, but also the highest rate of poverty. You have one-third of Californians who can’t meet their basic needs. We have the highest housing costs. It’s the number one reason people are leaving the state,” Hilton said. The Republican said that the Golden State was once known for “upward mobility” and being the land of opportunity, but it’s become much more difficult to survive. “California represented the best of America. I think for many people, when they thought of the American dream, they thought of California and the California Dream,” he added.
State Dept defends human rights abuse report changes, says streamlined process eliminates ‘political bias’
The State Department is pushing back against criticism of its changes to the process of reporting human rights abuses. NPR reported last week that the Trump administration was scaling back annual reports meant to inform congressional decisions on allocating foreign aid to countries, claiming the State Department was “changing its mind on what it calls human rights.” Fox News Digital is told the 2024 Human Rights Report has been restructured to remove redundancy, increase readability, and return the focus to human rights abuses – instead of a “laundry list of politically biased demands and assertions.” RUBIO ANNOUNCES CLOSURE OF STATE DEPARTMENT EFFORT THAT ‘WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD ALREADY’ “NPR’s report that the State Department is scaling back the Human Rights Report is misleading and misguided,” a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital. “This year’s modifications are critical for removing report redundancy, increasing readability, maintaining consistency to U.S. statutes, and returning focus to human rights issues rather than political bias.” Fox News Digital is told the restructuring of the reports “will be more responsive to legislative mandates that underpin the report” and “does not reflect a change in U.S. policy on promoting respect for human rights around the globe or in any particular country.” The State Department notably has attempted to streamline the reports to better align with statutory requirements under both Republican and Democratic administrations. NPR and Politico reported on an internal memo that purportedly showed the 2024 Human Rights Report, which was finished in January but has been adjusted under the new administration, will no longer include references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or sections on discrimination or abuse against the LGBTQ+ community. STATE DEPARTMENT’S ‘GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT CENTER’ ACCUSED OF CENSORING AMERICANS SHUTS ITS DOORS The annual reports – known as “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” – normally come out in March or April. NPR said sections that called out countries for “forcibly returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to a home country” or the “serious harassment of human rights organizations” would be absent this year. NPR also stressed that prior reports had sections detailing countries’ “involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices,” “arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy,” “serious restrictions to internet freedom,” “extensive gender-based violence,” and “violence or threats of violence targeting people with disabilities,” but the new report would not. Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International, USA, criticized the changes under the Trump administration. He told NPR: “What this is, is a signal that the United States is no longer going to [pressure] other countries to uphold those rights that guarantee civic and political freedoms – the ability to speak, to express yourself, to gather, to protest, to organize.” During President Donald Trump’s first term, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited what he categorized as a “proliferation of human rights” on the global stage. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We wanted to go back to first principles, back to our founding documents, our Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights to focus on those things that are central to the understanding of rights here in America,” he said in July 2020. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is overseeing changes at the department during Trump’s second term. Last week, he announced the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which he accused of costing taxpayers more than $50 million per year and spending “millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.”
What American Catholics thought about Pope Francis
Pope Francis, who changed the face of the papacy, was broadly popular with the more than 60 million U.S. Catholics, according to recent public opinion polling. Seventy-eight percent of American Catholics expressed a favorable opinion of the pope in a Pew Poll conducted in early February, shortly before Francis’ lengthy hospitalization for a case of double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope died on Monday Francis’ popularity among American Catholics was constant throughout his dozen-year tenure as pope, with his favorability peaking at 90% in a February 2015 poll by Pew. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE PASSING OF POPE FRANCIS “Pope Francis enjoyed broad support among American Catholics – certainly exceeding the popularity of any elected officials in the U.S.,” veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, the president of New England College, told Fox News. U.S. Catholics also generally viewed Francis more positively than his immediate predecessor in the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI. FIVE WAYS POPE FRANCIS IMPACTED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH Benedict’s favorability ratings ranged between 67% and 83% in Pew polling during his eight years as pope. While popular with many Catholics, Francis’ attempts to make the church more inclusive made him an enemy to some in the conservative wing of the church. And there was plenty of pushback against the pope’s moves to overhaul a very divided church. Those divisions may have contributed to a partisan divide when it comes to U.S. Catholics’ views of Francis. According to the February Pew Poll, 88% of U.S. Catholics who identified as Democrats or leaned toward the Democratic Party had a positive view of the pope. But favorable opinions of Francis dropped to 69% among U.S. Catholics who said they were Republicans or leaned toward the GOP. “His reform agenda, emphasizing values that sought to lift up the poorest, most marginalized individuals in the world, played better with Catholic Democrats than Republicans,” Lesperance noted. “And despite being critical of the current administration’s position on building the wall, mass deportations, and migrants, the late pope enjoyed the support of nearly two-thirds of Catholic Republicans. His legacy will be one of reform and social justice for Catholics across the globe.”
DHS chief Kristi Noem’s purse stolen with thousands of dollars in DC restaurant: sources
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse was stolen with thousands in cash on Sunday night at a restaurant in Washington D.C., multiple sources from the agency confirmed to Fox News Digital. The purse was taken by a White man wearing a mask, and the bag contained $3,000 in cash as well as personal documents including her passport, keys, driver’s license and a DHS badge, an agency spokesperson confirmed. “Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren – she was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts,” the spokesperson said. Crime in the capital city continues to be a major issue, including theft. When it comes to violent crime, it hit a 30-year low last year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office at the time. TOP DEM ASKS NOEM HOW TSA WILL PREVENT ‘MAJOR DISRUPTIONS’ AS MANY TRAVELERS STILL LACK REAL ID President Donald Trump has put the pressure on Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser to not only increase law enforcement presence but to clean up homeless encampments in the city itself. The president created a task force will the goal of improving public safety and making it “the pride of every American to whom it belongs.” “Washington, D.C., must become CLEAN and SAFE again! We need our Great Police back on the street, with no excuses from the Mayor, or anyone else. The House should take up the D.C. funding “fix” that the Senate has passed, and get it done IMMEDIATELY,” Trump posted to Truth Social last month. DC TO BEGIN RECONSTRUCTING BLACK LIVES MATTER PLAZA “We need to clean up our once beautiful Capital City, and make it beautiful again. We will be TOUGH ON CRIME, like never before. I will work with the Mayor on this and, if it does not happen, will have no choice but to do it myself. Washington, D.C., will be better, safer, and more beautiful than ever before!” he added. The task force includes various law enforcement goals, including aiming to “keep dangerous criminals off the streets by strengthening pre-trial detention policies.” DRUGGED SUSPECT IN ‘ALTERED MENTAL STATE’ STABS SIX, ALONG WITH HIMSELF, DURING DC RAMPAGE: POLICE As for Noem and DHS, they continue to make waves for the major crackdown on illegal immigration, including sending suspected gang members to a prison in El Salvador. Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Ex-Pentagon aide urges Trump to fire Hegseth, citing ‘full-blown meltdown’ and ‘total chaos’
A recently departed top Pentagon aide goaded President Donald Trump to remove Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from his Cabinet, describing “total chaos” and “dysfunction” within the top brass of the military. “The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership,” John Ullyot, a former senior communications official for the Pentagon, wrote in an op-ed for Politico published on Sunday. “Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.” Ullyot departed the Pentagon’s public affairs office last week because he did not want to be second-in-command to chief spokesperson Sean Parnell. AXED PENTAGON AIDES CLAIM THEIR CHARACTER WAS ‘SLANDERED,’ LITTLE DETAILS WERE SHARED ABOUT LEAK INVESTIGATION On Friday, the Pentagon fired three Hegseth aides – Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick – three of the secretary’s “most loyal” advisers, according to Ullyot. He called the purge “strange” and “baffling.” Following them out the door is chief of staff Joe Kasper, who the three men frequently found themselves at odds with, three defense officials confirmed to Fox News Digital. “In short, the building is in disarray under Hegseth’s leadership.” He called himself a “strong backer” of Hegseth, but admitted: “The last month has been a full-blown meltdown at the Pentagon – and it’s becoming a real problem for the administration.” The shake-ups came just as reports broke about a second Signal chat where Hegseth discussed plans to strike Houthis in Yemen, this one allegedly including his wife, brother and personal lawyer. That chat reportedly discussed flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen – similar information to that shared in the chat of Trump Cabinet members where national security advisor Mike Waltz unintentionally added The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. “Another day, another old story,” Parnell said in a statement after the latest Signal chat reporting. “There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story.” PENTAGON’S WEEK OF POWER STRUGGLES: LEAK FALLOUT AND SHOUTING MATCHES HIT HEGSETH’S INNER CIRCLE “Unfortunately, after a terrible month, the Pentagon focus is no longer on warfighting, but on endless drama,” Ullyot wrote. “The president deserves better than the current mishegoss at the Pentagon. Given his record of holding prior Cabinet leaders accountable, many in the secretary’s own inner circle will applaud quietly if Trump chooses to do the same in short order at the top of the Defense Department.” Trump allies eviscerated Ullyot on social media after the op-ed was published. “This guy is not America First,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X. “I’ve been hearing for years that he works his ass off to subvert my father’s agenda. That ends today. He’s officially exiled from our movement.” “If you’re echoing Democrat talking points, you no longer support President Trump or his administration. There’s no gray area here,” added Trump advisor Jason Miller. The White House, meanwhile, “stands strongly” behind Hegseth, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday. “The President stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth, who is doing a phenomenal job leading the Pentagon,” she said. This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement.” Hegseth also brushed off the reporting on the Signal chat Monday, blaming it on “disgruntled employees” and “anonymous smears.” “This is why we’re fighting the fake news media,” he said when pressed on the chat by reporters at the White House Easter Egg roll. “This group right here is full of hoaxsters.”
Religious liberty or government overreach? Oklahoma AG fights own party in SCOTUS battle over Catholic school
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this month over what would be the first religious public charter school in the United States, in a case that finds Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond at odds with his own party. While Drummond argues a “state-sponsored and taxpayer-funded religious public charter school” is unconstitutional, conservatives have rallied in support of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. “It’s no secret that parents want to educate their children in line with their values. And a public good shouldn’t be denied to anyone based on their religion. The outcome of this case will be revolutionary for religious liberty and education freedom, and Oklahoma is at the forefront,” a spokesperson for Gov. Kevin Stitt, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital in a statement. As Stitt champions Oklahoma’s leadership in creating the first religious public charter school, Drummond has been steadfast in rejecting taxpayer funding for St. Isidore, arguing for the separation of church and state as outlined in the First Amendment. LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CRUSADE AGAINST TRUMP’S RELIGIOUSLY ‘HOSTILE’ POLICIES DURING HOLY WEEK Last month, Stitt joined over 50 elected officials in affirming his support for the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board and St. Isidore, two cases that have been consolidated by the U.S. Supreme Court for review. SUPREME COURT POISED TO MAKE MAJOR DECISION THAT COULD SET LIMITS ON THE POWER OF DISTRICT JUDGES Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the brief, the Republican senators flipped Drummond’s First Amendment argument on the attorney general, arguing Oklahoma violated the First Amendment by denying St. Isidore a charter because it’s a religious school. “Upholding the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act with the included exclusion of religious organizations would set a dangerous precedent, signaling that religious organizations are not welcome in public projects. This would not only violate the First Amendment, but it would also deprive society of the valuable contributions that these organizations make,” the Republican senators wrote. When asked by Fox News Digital why Drummond, who is campaigning to be the next governor of deep-red Oklahoma, is at odds with conservatives on the issue, Drummond’s communications director, Phil Bacharach, told Fox News Digital, in part: “AG Drummond doesn’t make decisions based on what other politicians think.” “Attorney General Drummond isn’t guided by political pressure – he’s guided by the law,” Drummond’s gubernatorial campaign manager, Stephanie Alexander, added in a statement to Fox News Digital. “His constitutional duty is to defend Oklahoma statutes, and state law is clear: public funds cannot be used for religious indoctrination. As the state’s top legal officer, he’s fulfilling his obligation, and will ultimately abide by whatever decision the U.S. Supreme Court makes.” The debate began in June 2023, when the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved St. Isidore’s contract request, which would have allowed public funding for the religious charter school for the first time. Drummond filed a lawsuit against the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board that October, and his position was later affirmed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Stitt and Drummond have once again found themselves feuding over this landmark case, as the two continue a long-standing clash over policy and politics in Oklahoma, including debates over constitutional authority and local policy initiatives. Stitt, who serves as vice chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), is term-limited as Oklahoma governor in 2026. Earlier this year, Drummond announced his campaign for governor, running a conservative platform touting his leadership as attorney general against the “Biden Administration’s radical overreach” and promising to stand “strong with President Trump.”
More than 500k immigrants missed their court hearings on Biden’s watch: analysis
More than half a million immigrants failed to show up for their immigration court hearings under former President Joe Biden. Between Fiscal Year 2022, the first full year of the Biden administration, and the end of December 2024, immigration judges issued more than 507,000 in absentia removal orders, or removal orders for those who failed to show up for their immigration hearings, according to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). The number represented a 45% increase in such cases compared to the previous seven years under former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump’s first term, the analysis found, despite that period being more than double the timeframe. ALITO BLASTS ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ SCOTUS MOVE TO HALT TRUMP’S VENEZUELAN DEPORTATIONS: ‘LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE’ “Those 500,000-plus no-shows are a symptom of the Biden administration’s effort to deliberately break our immigration system, and it will now take years to get that system back on track,” said CIS’s Andrew R. Arthur in the report. At issue, according to Arthur, was the Biden administration’s “refusal” to detain illegal immigrants when they were initially encountered at the border by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), releasing the “vast majority” of them with a Notice To Appear in immigration court. But such migrants are the most likely to skip out on court proceedings, Arthur argued. “It is axiomatic under immigration law that aliens who aren’t likely to merit relief are less likely to appear in court if they are released — which is why Congress required DHS to detain the ones encountered by CBP at the border and the ports,” Arthur said. ACLU APPEALS TO SUPREME COURT TO STOP VENEZUELAN DEPORTATIONS; BOASBERG HOLDS EMERGENCY HEARING FRIDAY NIGHT Under current immigration law, immigrants encountered by CBP officers and Border Patrol agents that do not have proper admission documents are subject to expedited removal, which does entitle those immigrants to a hearing in front of an immigration judge, unless they show a credible fear of harm if they were to be returned to their country of origin, the CIS report notes. Those subject to expedited removal are required to be detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the report adds, something that was not happening under the Biden administration. Such disregard for that rule led to “inevitable” results, Arthur argued, including the massive number of missed immigration court hearings. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The half-million-plus aliens who failed to appear in immigration court over the past four years are just one more inevitable result of the Biden administration’s refusal to comply with our immigration laws,” Arthur said. “They are a symptom of a deliberately broken system, one that will linger on the courts’ dockets for years to come.”
Trump wants to revive the lagging US shipbuilding industry. Here are the hurdles he faces
President Donald Trump is turning his attention to the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which is leagues behind its near-peer competitor China, and recently signed an executive order designed to reinvigorate it. Trump’s April 10 order instructs agencies to develop a Maritime Action Plan and orders the U.S. trade representative to compile a list of recommendations to address China’s “anticompetitive actions within the shipbuilding industry,” among other things. Additionally, the executive order instructs a series of assessments regarding how the government could bolster financial support through the Defense Production Act, the Department of Defense Office of Strategic Capital, a new Maritime Security Trust Fund, investment from shipbuilders from allied countries and other grant programs. But simply throwing money at the shipbuilding industry won’t solve the problem, according to Bryan Clark, director of the Hudson Institute think tank’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology. “It is unlikely that just putting more money into U.S. shipbuilding – even with foreign technical assistance – will make U.S. commercial shipbuilders competitive with experienced and highly-subsidized shipyards in China, Korea, or Japan,” Clark said in a Monday email to Fox News Digital. “In the near to mid-term, the government will need to also drive higher demand for U.S.-built ships.” US RISKS PUSHING EUROPEAN ALLIES INTO CHINA’S ARMS WITH NEW TARIFFS, EXPERTS WARN Clark also said the executive orders appear to complement the SHIPS for America Act, a series of legislative measures introduced in December 2024 in both the House and Senate aimed at fostering growth within the U.S. shipbuilding industry and strengthening the U.S. Merchant Marine fleet that is capable of transporting military materials during times of conflict. Specifically, the SHIPS Act includes provisions establishing a Strategic Commercial Fleet Program, which would seek to develop merchant vessels that could operate internationally, but are American-built, owned and operated. The legislation would also seek to beef up the U.S.-flag international fleet by roughly 250 ships in 10 years. “If we implement the EO and the SHIPS Act together, the government would create incentives to flag and build ships in the U.S. and provide capital to the shipbuilding industry so it could meet the increased demand with greater efficiency and lower costs,” Clark said. “This will not result in the U.S. surpassing China, Korea or Japan as shipbuilders, but it would provide the U.S. more resilience.” The U.S. is drastically behind near-peer competitors like China in shipbuilding. China is responsible for more than 50% of global shipbuilding, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, compared to just 0.1% from the U.S. However, Trump has indicated interest in working with other nations on shipbuilding, and suggested working with Congress to pass legislation authorizing the purchase of ships from foreign countries when signing the orders. Specifics were not provided. US RISKS PUSHING EUROPEAN ALLIES INTO CHINA’S ARMS WITH NEW TARIFFS, EXPERTS WARN But doing so could upend a century-old law known as the Jones Act – a controversial law fundamental to the current U.S. shipbuilding environment that requires that only U.S. ships carry cargo between U.S. ports and stipulates that at least 75% of the crew members are American citizens. It also requires that these ships are built in the U.S. and that U.S. citizens own them. Proponents of the Jones Act assert it is key to national security and prevents foreigners from gaining entry to the U.S. But experts claim the law has significantly hampered U.S. shipbuilding, and is undercutting competition while keeping shipbuilding costs high. Efforts to repeal the legislation have failed amid bipartisan support in Congress. But some experts claim eradicating the law is a first step in changing the shipbuilding industry in the U.S. “Anyone who is serious about reviving the shipping industry should basically start by getting rid of the Jones Act,” Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, told Fox News Digital Thursday. “It’s not everything, but it’s a start.” Colin Grabow, an associate director at the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, said shipbuilding issues in the U.S. are multifaceted, but the Jones Act is a major part of the problem. Still, he doubts efforts to repeal it will prove successful. “I think the bar has been set so low, it is hard not to think that, absent the Jones Act, that we’d be doing any worse,” Grabow said. “And in fact, I think we’d do better. And why do I think we’d do better? It’s because… fundamentally, I think an industry that doesn’t have to compete will become uncompetitive. I think it’s just kind of axiomatic.”
4 more Dems travel to El Salvador to push for Abrego Garcia’s return to US
Four more Democratic lawmakers traveled to El Salvador to visit an illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member deported by President Donald Trump’s administration. Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, and Maxine Dexter of Oregon announced in a press release Monday that they had arrived in El Salvador “to pressure the Trump Administration to abide by a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.” The four Democrats described Garcia as “a Maryland man with protected legal status who was unlawfully deported by the Trump Administration.” Their visit comes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., flew to El Salvador last week to visit Abrego Garcia, who had been transferred from the country’s notorious mega prison, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), in Tecoluca to the detention facility “Centro Industrial” in Santa Ana days earlier. DEPORTED ILLEGAL ALIEN AND SUSPECTED MS-13 GANG MEMBER TRANSFERRED FROM NOTORIOUS EL SALVADORAN MEGA-PRISON In their press release, the four Democrats said their trip was not being financed by taxpayer dollars after House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., denied Garcia and Frost’s request for an official congressional member delegation (CODEL). They argued the Trump administration’s removal of Garcia constituted “kidnapping” or him being “disappeared” – a term used to describe abducted and murdered prisoners and dissidents during Argentina’s “Dirty War.” Meanwhile, Trump weighed in on Abrego Garcia’s case in another TRUTH Social post on Sunday. “Radical Lunatic Democrats and their Comrades in the Fake News Media are falsely making Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia out to be a very sweet and innocent person, which is a total, blatant, and dangerous LIE,” Trump wrote. “Garcia has been found by two separate Courts to be a member of the violent, killer gang MS-13, was in our Country illegally, and is under a Deportation Order.” “It is despicable and unAmerican for Liberals and the Mainstream Media to hate our Country so much, and be obsessed with protecting criminals, instead of working to keep our Border, streets, and families safe,” he added. “Those lying to the American People on behalf of violent criminals have to be held responsible by the Agencies and the Courts. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” The four Democrats demanded the Trump administration bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States, arguing his deportation constituted a “constitutional crisis.” SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, DEMOCRAT AT CENTER OF KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA SAGA, RESPONDS TO GRIEVING ANGEL MOM’S CRITICISM “While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,” Garcia said. “That is why we’re here – to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America. We are demanding the Trump Administration abide by the Supreme Court decision and give Kilmar and the other migrants mistakenly sent to El Salvador due process in the United States.” “Donald Trump and his Administration are running a government-funded kidnapping program – illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting innocent people with zero due process. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is Trump’s latest victim,” Frost said in a statement. “As Members of Congress it is our responsibility to hold the President and Administration accountable for defying the constitution of the United States. Donald Trump and ICE are not above the law. Today it’s Kilmar, but tomorrow it could be anyone else. We cannot and will not let Donald Trump get away with this.” “My parents fled an authoritarian regime in Iran where people were ‘disappeared’ – I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here, too. Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s illegal abduction and President Trump’s complete disregard of due process and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling are deeply disturbing. We should all be appalled by this treatment by the United States government,” Ansari said. “What happened to Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not just one family’s nightmare – it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us,” Dexter said. “We will not rest while due process is discarded, and our constitutional rights are ignored.” The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, 29, to El Salvador in what it described in court filings as an “administrative error,” and has since said that it is up to El Salvador whether Abrego Garcia returns to the U.S. Meanwhile, a federal court and the Supreme Court have instructed the Trump administration to coordinate Abrego Garcia’s return so that proper deportation hearings can occur. The Justice Department unveiled documents on Wednesday detailing domestic violence allegations that Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, included in a court filing in 2021. Vasquez alleged in the filing that Abrego Garcia beat her and that she had documentation of the bruises he left on her. Additionally, a 2022 Homeland Security Investigations report obtained by Fox News claims that Abrego Garcia was suspected of partaking in labor and human trafficking. The report said a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled Abrego Garcia over in 2022 after swerving. The patrol officer found eight other individuals in the car with Abrego Garcia, who had just begun driving three days prior. The officer originally believed the incident qualified as a human trafficking case because no luggage was found in the car, but the officer ultimately only wrote up Abrego Garcia for driving with an expired license. Fox News’ Diana Stancy, David Spunt, Rachel Wolf and Greg Norman contributed to this report.
Scoop: Anti-Chinese government group launches plan to track CCP-backed legislation in statehouses
EXCLUSIVE: State Armor Action is releasing a new tool that will allow people to track anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) legislation across the country. “China’s communist government targets American state governments in order to undermine our homeland security. Protecting the United States from the Chinese Communist Party requires working on the front lines in statehouses across the country to combat CCP aggression and oppression,” Michael Lucci, the founder and CEO of State Armor Action, told Fox News Digital. The comment comes as Lucci’s organization, which aims to help U.S. states confront emerging global security threats, releases a new tracker that allows users to see all the legislation regarding China currently making its way through state legislatures. TRUMP: CHINA CALLING ‘A LOT’ SINCE LAST WEEK’S TARIFF INCREASE, DEAL COULD HAPPEN AS SOON AS 3 WEEKS According to the tracker, their organization is currently keeping tabs on 461 bills across the country aimed at addressing the threat posed by the CCP. The tracker also keeps tabs on where those bills stand, with a graphic showing that 11 of the bills have been killed, 43 have been adopted, 25 have passed both chambers, 43 have crossed over from one chamber to another, and 339 have been introduced. “State Armor Action’s legislation tracker will serve as a crucial tool in the fight against Communist China and its nefarious partners,” Lucci said. “The tracker will help educate policy leaders and inform the American public about the legislation that will stop the CCP across the country, and it will help spread legislative concepts between states.” GORDON CHANG: TRUMP TARIFFING CHINA AT THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME FOR XI JINPING The tracker contains graphics that track the party in control of each state government where bills have been introduced or enacted, while also displaying a U.S. map showing which states have the highest concentration of anti-CCP bills. While the threat posed by China may traditionally be seen as in the sphere of the federal government’s control, Alex Gray, deputy assistant to the president and chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, told Fox News Digital that it is critical that states also set themselves up to combat China. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The Chinese Communist Party has its sights set on the states,” Gray said. “Now more than ever, we need state leaders to step up and harden themselves against Communist China. State Armor Action’s new China legislation tracker will help inform and educate leaders on legislation across the country, allow them to monitor progress, and make it easier to join the fight against the CCP’s encroachment in our homeland. State and local leaders can use the tracker to model their legislation based on other successful counter-CCP bills around the country. I urge all leaders to use this tool and help counter China’s malign influence.”