El Salvador takes in hundreds of Venezuelan gang members from US, even as judge moves to block deportations
The president of El Salvador announced his country has accepted hundreds of Venezuelan gang members who were illegally living in the United States, as a U.S. judge moved to block deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime law invoked by President Donald Trump. “Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable),” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted to X on Sunday morning, accompanied by video footage of planes on a tarmac. “On this occasion, the U.S. has also sent us 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, including two ringleaders. One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure,” he added. Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan-connected gang that has infiltrated communities in states such as Colorado and Texas, while MS-13 is a Los Angeles-founded gang with ties to El Salvador that has deep roots in California and other states such as Maryland. The State Department designated both gangs as foreign terrorist organizations last month. EL SALVADOR AGREES TO ACCEPT US DEPORTEES OF ANY NATIONALITY FOLLOWING MEETING WITH RUBIO Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the Salvadoran president as “the strongest security leader in our region” and “a great friend of the U.S.” for accepting the criminal illegal aliens. “We have sent 2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador. Also, as promised by @POTUS, we sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars. President @nayibbukele is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the U.S. Thank you!” Rubio posted to X. RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AGENDA The deportations of the gang members come as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt its deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime powers act that President Donald Trump invoked on Friday to target Tren de Aragua members in the U.S. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing, and has been invoked three times before, including, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. Boasberg ordered on Saturday that the Trump administration is barred from using the wartime powers act to deport the illegal aliens. He added that he heard “flights are actively departing” and ordered them to return. The planes of the violent gang members, however, arrived in El Salvador this weekend, with Bukele responding to news of Boasberg’s order, “Oopsie… too late,” accompanied by a laughing emoji. Bukele offered to take illegal immigrants of any nationality facing deportation in the U.S. back in February, offering to book the illegal aliens in his country’s notorious prison system. “We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio told reporters back in February of Bukele’s offer “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.” TRUMP CONGRATULATES BITCOINERS — EL SALVADOR’S NAYIB BUKELE TAKES VICTORY LAP WITH BITCOIN OVER 100K El Salavador’s CECOT prison is known as the nation’s most notorious prison. The prison, which can hold 40,000 inmates, was built to house gang members in a country that held one of the highest murder rates in the world before the violence dropped in recent history. Prisoners at CECOT are blocked from receiving visitors, can only attend hearings virtually, while the prison itself blocks any cell signal to ensure gang members cannot contact criminals still on the street, various media reports have detailed. EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT RIPS FBI TRUMP RAID, QUESTIONS WHAT US GOV’T WOULD SAY IF HIS POLICE TARGETED CANDIDATES “The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us. Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year,” Bukele added on X on Sunday. “As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action. May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States.” Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
Democrats’ favorable ratings drop to record low in new national poll
The Democratic Party’s favorable ratings are falling to new lows, according to a new national poll. Just 29% of those questioned in a CNN poll released on Sunday say they have a favorable view of the party, with 54% holding an unfavorable view. That’s a record low in CNN polling dating back more than three decades. The Democrats’ favorability has dropped four points since early January, ahead of the start of President Donald Trump’s second tour of duty in the White House, and it’s a plunge of 20 points from January 2021, just ahead of the start of former President Joe Biden’s term in office. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING Just 63% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents questioned in the survey said they hold a favorable view of the party, down from 72% in January and down from 81% four years ago, at the start of the Biden administration. The Democratic Party is in the political wilderness, following last November’s election setbacks, when Republicans won back control of the White House and the Senate, and defended their fragile House majority. According to the CNN poll, the favorable rating for the GOP stands at 36%, with 48% holding an unfavorable view of the Republican Party. The GOP’s favorable rating is unchanged from January, with the unfavorable rating up four points. The new survey by CNN, conducted March 6-9 by SSRS, follows a Quinnipiac University national poll last month that made headlines by indicating the Democrats’ favorability had also hit an all-time low in their surveys dating back to 2009. The new CNN survey also indicates that by a 57%-42% margin, Democrats say their leaders should mostly work to stop the GOP agenda rather than to try and find common ground with Republicans. That’s a shift from polling at the start of Trump’s first term in office, when nearly three-quarters of Democrats said their party should work with Republicans. The poll was conducted before the move last week by 10 Democrats in the Senate, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to vote in favor of a GOP-crafted federal government spending bill that averted a government shutdown. The move infuriated many on the left, who want their party to take a tougher stand in resisting Trump’s agenda. The poll also asked respondents to name the political leader who they feel “best reflects the core values” of the party. Ten percent of Democratic-aligned adults name Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, with 9% saying former Vice President Kamala Harris, 8% offering progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and 6% naming Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House. More than three in 10 did not offer a response.
Heating up: Newsom, Pritzker, Buttigieg make early moves in 2028 presidential race
The early moves in the next White House race, at least among the Democrats, have begun. Pete Buttigieg on Thursday ruled out a run for an open Democrat-held Senate seat in his adopted home state of Michigan. And the announcement by the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, who served four years as transportation secretary in former President Biden’s administration, appears to clear the path for a potential 2028 White House bid by Buttigieg. “While my own plans don’t include running for office in 2026, I remain intensely focused on consolidating, communicating and supporting a vision” that is an alternative to the “cruel chaos” of President Donald Trump’s administration, Buttigieg said. THESE ARE THE DEMOCRATS WHO MAY RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2028 A source familiar with Buttigieg’s thinking told Fox News the former transportation secretary is in a strong possible position to run for president in 2028 and that running for either senator or Michigan governor “in 2026 would have taken that off the table.” NEWSOM MAKES MAJOR HEADLINES IN INAUGURAL EDITION OF HIS NEW PODCAST Across the country, term-limited California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has long been suspected of harboring national ambitions, is grabbing lots of attention and millions of YouTube hits, thanks to a new and high-profile podcast series. The first two guests of the podcast were MAGA world superstars Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. But that didn’t sit well with two-term Gov. Andy Beshear, the Democrat in red state Kentucky who is also seen as a potential 2028 contender. “I think that Gov. Newsom bringing on different voices is great,” Beshear told reporters this past week. “We shouldn’t be afraid to talk and to debate just about anyone. But Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger, and, even at some points, violence. And I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform — ever, anywhere.” Meanwhile, Democrat JB Pritzker, the billionaire two-term governor of blue state Illinois and one of his party’s leaders in opposing President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda, will head to New Hampshire next month to headline the state party’s annual fundraising gala, sparking plenty of 2028 speculation. DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR’S TRIP TO THIS KEY STATE SPARKING 2028 SPECULATION Trips to New Hampshire, which, for over a century, has held the first primary in the race for the White House, are seen as an early indicator of a politician’s interest in running for the presidency in the next election. But there’s more. There is plenty of focus on former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee last summer after he dropped out of the race amid mounting questions over his physical and mental stamina. KAMALA HARRIS REVEALS TIMETABLE FOR MAJOR POLITICAL DECISION Harris, who lost November’s White House race to Trump, is considering a 2026 bid to succeed Newsom in her home state of California. But a run for governor in 2026 would likely derail a 2028 White House bid. A source in the former vice president’s political orbit recently confirmed to Fox News Digital that Harris has told allies she will decide by the end of the summer whether to launch a gubernatorial campaign. And Harris earlier this month made a stop in Nevada, an early voting state on the Democrats’ primary calendar. Harris’ 2024 running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is not ruling out a White House run of his own in 2028. Walz on Friday kicked off a high-profile town hall tour of red congressional districts. His first stop was in Iowa, the state that, through the 2020 cycle, kicked off the Democrats’ presidential nominating calendar. Three other prominent Democrats considered potential 2028 contenders — governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Beshear — addressed the House Democrats’ annual policy retreat Thursday. VANCE IN ‘CATBIRD SEAT,’ BUT HERE ARE THE OTHER REPUBLICANS WHO MAY ALSO RUN IN 2028 Even Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman from Illinois, White House chief of staff in President Obama’s administration and Chicago mayor who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to Japan, is potentially mulling a 2028 run. Emanuel this week was the topic of a feature report by Politico. While 2028 seems like a very long way away, the early moves in the next White House race begin early for the party out of power. That was the case for the Republicans in the 2024 cycle. Iowa continues to kick off the GOP’s presidential nominating schedule, and the first stop there during the 2024 cycle by a potential White House contender was in March 2021, just weeks after Biden assumed the presidency. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who eventually decided not to run for president, grabbed plenty of attention as he spoke to the Westside Conservative Club in suburban Des Moines that year. “There’s no sense in waiting,” New Hampshire-based political strategist Lucas Meyer told Fox News. “If anyone is serious about running for president, they would probably be well served in getting after it now.” Meyer, a former president of the New Hampshire Young Democrats who chairs the advocacy group 603 Forward, called it a “wide-open field” for Democrats. “The crowd of leadership at the top of the Democratic Party isn’t very deep at the moment,” he observed. “There’s oxygen there for someone.”
Karoline Leavitt says she won’t attend White House Correspondents’ Association dinner
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she is skipping the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner slated for April 26. Leavitt made the announcement during a podcast appearance with Sean Spicer, who served as President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary for the first six months of 2017. “I will not be in attendance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and that’s breaking news for ‘The Sean Spicer Show,’” Leavitt said. Leavitt said the WHCA “has truly become a monetized monopoly over the White House and the coverage of the president of the United States in America.” TRUMP WATCHES STRIKE ON IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN IN NEW WHITE HOUSE PICS AS LARGE-SCALE OP CONTINUES “This is a group of journalists who’ve been covering the White House for decades,” she said on the podcast published Friday. “They started this organization because the presidents at the time were not doing enough press conferences. I don’t think we have that problem anymore under this president, so the priorities of the media have shifted, especially with this new digital age.” Leavitt said the WHCA has been an “exclusive group of journalists who cover this White House, they have not really welcomed other people, new media, independent journalists, with open arms, and so we thought it was time to expand the coverage and determine who gets to be part of that 13-person press pool, who gets to ask the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One.” “Since we have started this new process of determining the daily rotation, so many new voices and outlets who have never been part of this small and privileged group of journalists have been able to access those very unique and privileged spaces and cover this presidency and that’s very important,” Leavitt added, revealing that the White House has received more than 15,000 applications for the new media seat in the press briefing room. KAROLINE LEAVITT SHUTS DOWN AP REPORTER AFTER ‘INSULTING’ QUESTION ON TARIFFS In late February, the White House said it would decide which journalists would be a part of the 13-member pool covering Trump in limited spaces, such as the Oval Office or Air Force One, breaking from the century-old tradition of the WHCA independently selecting which news outlets go where the president does when the full press corp cannot be accommodated. Eugene Daniels, the president of WHCA’s board and a Politico correspondent, said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States,” but the White House championed the move as modernizing the press pool to expand past solely legacy media. The Trump administration said the three traditional wire services – the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters – would no longer have a permanent spot in the pool and would instead rotate a single spot in the 13-member group. The White House later barred the AP from the press pool for ignoring Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The ban was temporarily upheld in federal court, though U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden warned that case law did not favor the White House and scheduled another hearing for March 20. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump did not attend the WHCA annual dinner during his first term. Last month, the association tapped comedian Amber Ruffin, a writer for the “Late Show with Seth Meyers,” to headline this year’s dinner. Ruffin told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “no one wants” Trump to show up, though the president “should” go to the event traditionally attended by the president and the first lady.
DOGE’s plans to offload government buildings supported by former GSA official
EXCLUSIVE: Former General Services Administration (GSA) head Emily Murphy, who served all of President Donald Trump’s first term, told Fox News Digital that the GSA will “rightsize its portfolio” by selling or leasing unused government buildings – saving money to help the government run more efficiently. “I think that there’s an incredible opportunity right now for GSA to save the government substantial amounts of money by rightsizing its portfolio,” Murphy told Fox News Digital about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) working with GSA to identify “vacant or underutilized federal spaces” as part of the Trump administration’s plan to cut wasteful spending. “Right now, GSA is losing money,” Murphy said. “The federal buildings that they own have over $370 billion in deferred maintenance. That’s a liability that is just growing and growing and growing because the buildings haven’t been maintained. So getting rid of owned space that hasn’t been maintained and that isn’t occupied, first of all, takes that off the government’s books, gets rid of that liability. But it also creates opportunities in communities. Having a building that’s unoccupied isn’t good for a city. It isn’t good for the state. It isn’t good for anyone.” Murphy said those empty buildings are often in ideal downtown, “heavy utilization areas” that can be a real asset to building up the community and returning funds to the Treasury Department. TOP FEDERAL AGENCY TAKES DOGE’S MISSION TO HEART WITH ALL-HANDS MEMO TO EVERY EMPLOYEE: ‘REDUCTION IN FORCE’ “GSA has to rightsize its lease portfolio. Otherwise, it’s going to be paying rent on buildings it’s not occupying, and it doesn’t have the funding necessary to do that,” Murphy said. The GSA’s cost-cutting efforts have already resulted in 794 lease terminations with a total of over $500 million of lease obligations being canceled, a source familiar with the GSA’s actions told Fox News Digital. DOGE AND AGENCIES CANCEL 200,000 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CREDIT CARDS Murphy said terminating leases and selling unused office space will benefit the government twofold. First, it can shore up money to fund government agencies in the short term. Second, it will reduce long-term financial obligations. “No taxpayer should want the government to be paying for space it doesn’t use,” Murphy said. “It’s billions of dollars a year [that] go out in rent and real estate payments from the federal government. This is a substantial amount of money, and it’s a real chance for GSA to do a great job for the American people and reduce the long-term financial obligations of the government and, frankly, free up money for agencies in the short term as well.” Murphy told Fox that GSA exists to “cut down on waste” and during her tenure, they managed to return about $21.6 billion in savings. She embraced DOGE’s efforts to cut wasteful spending and increase government efficiency, telling Fox News Digital those issues should have bipartisan support. “Prioritizing efficiency and minimizing waste in our government really should be a bipartisan issue. Government contracting, government real estate doesn’t have a Republican side or a Democratic side of the coin,” Murphy said. “What DOGE is doing right now is just pushing forward and trying to make sure that taxpayers can have confidence that every dollar being spent is really in their best interest. Murphy explained that GSA was created to manage the federal government’s portfolio of properties and procurement and welcomed the renewed focus on efficiency. “GSA is essentially the government’s management arm. It handles the real property, the procurement, many of the shared services the government has, the vehicles in the government’s fleet. It runs a lot of the back office functions of the government. It was created about 75 years ago to specifically take on that challenge, so that agencies didn’t have to all be doing the same repetitive tasks again and again,” Murphy said. Stephen Ehikian was sworn in as acting administrator and deputy administrator of the GSA on Inauguration Day. “Under the Trump-Vance administration, I will return the GSA to its core purpose of making government work smarter and faster,” said Ehikian. “Moving forward, GSA will be laser-focused on driving an efficient government and enabling our sister agencies to provide better service to taxpayers at lower costs.” GSA has produced the most savings across federal agencies, according to the official DOGE website. A webpage titled “Non-core property list (Coming Soon)” on the GSA’s website outlines the agency’s ongoing effort to save on government buildings. “We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal. Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions,” it says on GSA’s website. The Associated Press reported that dozens of federal office and building leases will be terminated by June 20, with hundreds more expected in the coming months. AP also reported last week that GSA published a list of more than 440 federal properties the government was planning to offload. The list was then revised to include only 320 buildings before the webpage was ultimately updated to its current “coming soon” language. Musk has lamented about unused office buildings on his personal X account and DOGE’s official account. “Still *way* too many leases on unused buildings,” Musk posted on Feb. 25. “Agreed! Today, lease cancellations on vacant/underutilized buildings are up from ~257 to ~440, with annual rent savings increasing from ~$100M to ~$171M. Still plenty of available office space for the current workforce,” DOGE replied to Musk the following day. “Today, the Federal Government exceeded $100M in annual rent savings through cancellations of 250+ vacant/underutilized leases totaling 3M+ square feet. With ~7,250 current leases, there is plenty of available office space for the current workforce,” DOGE announced in a post on Feb. 25. “Crazy that the government was just renting and paying for upkeep services of hundreds of empty buildings!” Musk replied.
Trump watches strike on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in new White House pics as large-scale op continues
The White House released photos of President Donald Trump watching strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on Saturday, as the large-scale U.S. operation against the terrorist group continues. “President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats,” the White House wrote on X, sharing photos of Trump, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. “For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency.” Trump appeared to be dressed in golf attire and was wearing his signature red baseball cap with his name emblazoned on the back while watching video of the strikes on a television screen. Another photo showed the president from the front with a black headset on. US NAVY SHIPS REPEL ATTACK FROM HOUTHIS IN GULF OF ADEN Trump wrote in a Saturday TRUTHSocial post that he had “ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.” “Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,” Trump said. “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.” U.S. Central Command said Saturday it “initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets across Yemen to defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation.” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement that Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday. “The Secretary informed Russia of U.S. military deterrence operations against the Iran-backed Houthis and emphasized that continued Houthi attacks on U.S. military and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated,” Bruce wrote. “Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Lavrov also discussed next steps to follow up on recent meetings in Saudi Arabia and agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia.” The Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen said the strikes killed at least 31 people, according to the Associated Press. The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones at Israel in what the terrorist group said were acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally. The attacks stopped when a fragile Israel-Hamas cease-fire took hold in Gaza in January. The Houthis then threatened to renew them after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month following the Hamas rejection of a U.S. framework for continuing the cease-fire and hostage releases. The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the Houthis, and the U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said were bound for the terrorist group, which controls Yemen’s capital of Sanaa and the country’s north. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, denied his country was involved in the Houthis’ attacks. TRUMP ANNOUNCES ‘DECISIVE AND POWERFUL’ AIRSTRIKES AGAINST HOUTHI TERRORISTS IN YEMEN Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X, urged the U.S. to halt the strikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran’s foreign policy. Trump said, “The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt, and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which International Trade and Commerce depends.” Trump charged that the Houthis “have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.” “Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going,” he wrote on TRUTHSocial. Trump said it has been more than a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden. “The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times. Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk,” Trump wrote. “To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” Trump said. The president added, “To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!” The Houthis have targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors, during their campaign targeting military and civilian ships between the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and January of this year, when the ceasefire in Gaza took effect, according to the AP. The U.S., Israel and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but Saturday’s operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration. It comes two weeks after Trump sent a letter to Iranian leaders offering a path to restarting bilateral talks between the countries on Iran’s advancing nuclear program. Trump has said he will not allow it to become operational. The Trump administration re-designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this month, after the Biden administration had lifted the group’s designation in 2021. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump visa policy ‘far more restrained’ than Biden policy targeting Israelis that flew under the radar: expert
Long before Democrats and liberal activists accused Trump of trampling on the rights of pro-Hamas visa holders in the U.S., the Biden administration rolled out a visa-restriction policy targeting Israelis that was riddled with political bias and vague language, but received little resistance or protest, a legal expert told Fox News Digital. “One is a valid judgment,” legal expert and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, Eugene Kontorovich, explained of President Donald Trump’s restrictions and revocations of visas belonging to pro-Hamas students in the U.S. “The other was just using the visa system to punish one’s political enemies,” he continued of a 2023 Biden visa policy. The Trump administration is in the midst of working to revoke visas and green cards belonging to pro-Hamas students in the U.S. who participated in the widespread anti-Israel protests and riots that rocked college campuses during the last school year. The effort has been met with backlash from Democrats who say Trump is attacking the First Amendment rights of individuals who protested Israel. PRO-HAMAS ACTIVIST’S DEPORTATION NOT A ‘FREE SPEECH’ MATTER AND LAW IS ON TRUMP’S SIDE: EXPERTS Kontorovich spoke to Fox News Digital Wednesday in a phone interview where he explained that Trump’s actions are not only within his legal bounds but also “far more restrained” than previous administrations’ “politicized visa” policies, including a Biden policy that restricted Israelis. The Biden administration announced in December 2023, just months after war broke out in Israel on October 7, 2023, that it would restrict visas to those believed to have undermined peace and stability in the West Bank. The restriction was a part of the Biden administration’s efforts to achieve a two-state solution for peace in Israel and Palestine, the New York Times reported at the time. COLUMBIA ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL TO REMAIN DETAINED IN LOUISIANA “Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities,” the State Department said in a press release in December 2023. “Immediate family members of such persons also may be subject to these restrictions.” In February 2024, Biden signed an executive order imposing sanctions on “persons undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank” as he decried “extremist settler violence” in the West Bank. Under the order, sanctioned individuals had their bank accounts frozen and their credit cards canceled and were restricted from conducting basic life activities. TRUMP VOWS ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST MAHMOUD KHALIL WAS ‘FIRST ARREST OF MANY TO COME’ Kontorovich explained that the language of the announcement was vague and allowed for the Biden administration to punish individuals who disagreed with the administration’s policies on a two-state solution. “The executive order of Biden says, we can ban people who disagree with our notion, even if they don’t encourage or participate in violent activities. Whereas there is nothing in U.S. law that says the two-state solution is the be-all and end-all.” JUDGE BLOCKS ANTI-ISRAEL COLUMBIA AGITATOR MAHMOUD KHALIL FROM DEPORTATION AS POLITICIANS COME TO HIS DEFENSE “Half the congressmen in Congress probably don’t support the two-state solution, whereas Hamas is a designated foreign terror,” he continued. “Opposing the two-state solution, not a designated terror organization. Hamas kidnaps and rapes people, murders people. Opponents of the two-state solution don’t do that.” Despite the alleged political motivation behind the policy, it was within Biden’s legal bounds, as presidents have broad power to deny entry to foreign nationals. Kontorovich called the Biden-era visa policy a “Jew ban” — which plays off of the “Muslim ban” title for the travel ban policies under the first Trump administration — as it targeted “Israeli Jews based on political viewpoints that are extremely common amongst Israeli Jews.” ICE AGENTS ARREST ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST WHO LED PROTESTS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS FOR MONTHS The international law expert and George Mason Antonin Scalia Law School professor continued that Democrats and activist groups did not sound the alarm or speak out against the Biden visa policy at the time, noting that the “Biden administration was doing so many bad things to Israel, this was kind of not at the top of the list” for rebuke. He added that despite the silence in 2023, Democrats this year are “going to bat for a guy who was working with a group that openly and actively supported murderous foreign terrorist organizations,” referring to Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was a top pro-Hamas protest organizer on campus in 2024. “It just shows you how much this outrage is manufactured,” he said. “Also, how what Trump is doing is not some kind of new wild, crazy Trumpian thing. It’s actually far more restrained than politicized visa policies of prior administrations. Those just didn’t get the manufactured outrage.” Democrats and activists have slammed the Trump administration over the ICE detention of Khalil at his Columbia University-owned apartment in Manhattan March 8. The Department of Homeland Security said he was a former Columbia graduate student who “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Khalil helped lead the anti-Israel protest that plagued the campus in April 2024, including as a negotiator for radical agitators students on campus as they set up a tent encampment and took over an academic building, Hamilton Hall. He served as a leader of a group called Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which demanded that Columbia completely divest from Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas that began on Oct. 7, 2023. The group said its main goal was to “challenge the settler-colonial violence that Israel perpetrates with the support of the United States and its allies,” according to an op-ed published in the Columbia Spectator in November 2023. DHS additionally reported that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” The 47th president signed an executive order in January, putting pro-Hamas protesters in the U.S. on student visas on notice that
Tennessee bill allows schools to deny enrollment for illegal migrants, proposal panned as unconstitutional
Tennessee state lawmakers introduced a bill to allow school districts and law enforcement agencies to deny enrollment to illegal migrant students. S.B. 836 states that a law enforcement agency or public charter school “may enroll, or refuse to enroll, a student who is unlawfully present in the United States.” Republican Sen. Bo Watson, who sponsored the bill, said the proposal aims to save the state money. The bill was amended to give school districts the option to charge tuition for a student’s enrollment rather than making it a requirement, according to Fox Chattanooga. THREE MORE STATES JOIN TREND OF PASSING UNIVERSAL SCHOOL CHOICE “This legislation says, if you are not able to prove your lawful residence here, a local LEA may charge you tuition for attendance, which addresses the physical nature of this legislation. This is not about denying education to those students,” Watson said, according to the outlet. But the bill contradicts the current law affirmed by the 1981 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe, which ruled that states provide funding for any student seeking a public education, regardless of their immigration status. Immigration attorney Brittany Faith criticized the bill as unconstitutional and said it was proposed to challenge the Plyler v. Doe ruling. “It’s blatantly unconstitutional. They’ve been pretty honest that that’s their goal, is to set this up as a challenge to Plyler v. Doe,” Faith told Fox Chattanooga. TN LAWMAKER PROPOSES SENDING ILLEGAL MIGRANTS ACCUSED OF MINOR CRIMES TO SANCTUARY CITIES INSTEAD OF DEPORTING Faith also took issue with the option for schools to charge tuition, citing that Tennessee’s tax structure is sales-tax-based. “Because of that, they’re paying the same amount of taxes that go towards the public education system that somebody who is in legal status does,” she said.
Trump invokes wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target violent illegal immigrant street gangs
President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 Saturday to target the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) just hours after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled the law could not be used to deport five Venezuelans. The wartime law, which allows deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing, has been invoked three times, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. All Venezuelan citizens 14 years or older who are members of TdA, are within the U.S. and are not naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the U.S. may be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as “alien enemies,” according to a proclamation. ‘WEAPONIZED MIGRATION’: US FACES DEADLY CONSEQUENCES WITH MADURO IN POWER, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION WARNS Hours before the act was signed, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward and the ACLU of the District of Columbia, claiming the proclamation could be used to deport any Venezuelan in the country, regardless of whether they are a member of TdA. Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the D.C. Circuit granted a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation of five Venezuelans already in immigration custody for two weeks. The Trump administration appealed the restraining order, alleging it is improper to delay a presidential act before it is announced, affiliate FOX 32 Chicago reported. A second hearing is scheduled for Saturday afternoon to establish if the order should be broadened to everyone in danger of removal under the act. “The United States is not at war, nor has it been invaded. The president’s anticipated invocation of wartime authority — which is not needed to conduct lawful immigration enforcement operations — is the latest step in an accelerating authoritarian playbook,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, wrote in a statement. “From improperly apprehending American citizens to violating the ability of communities to peacefully worship to now improperly trying to invoke a law that is responsible for some of our nation’s most shameful actions, this administration’s immigration agenda is as lawless as it is harmful.” An in-person hearing on the lawsuit’s merits is scheduled for D.C. Monday. The move fulfills a campaign promise made during an October rally, when Trump announced he would use the law to combat Tren de Aragua (TdA) members in the U.S. Tren de Aragua (TdA), designated a foreign terrorist organization Feb. 20 by the Department of State, has thousands of members, many of whom the White House says have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” Colorado officials confirmed TdA occupied entire apartment complexes in Aurora, noting a special task force had to be established to combat its activity. TRUMP TO INVOKE WARTIME ALIEN ENEMIES ACT OF 1798 TO FAST-TRACK DEPORTATIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS As of Sept. 11, 2024, the Aurora Police Department linked the gang to nearly a dozen people, resulting in eight arrests. “Two of the eight individuals who were taken into custody were involved in a July shooting at one of the specific properties in the city that have experienced issues with TdA activity,” according to a statement. “In line with these arrests, we can also now confirm that criminal activity, including TdA issues, had significantly affected those properties.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE The White House said the gang has continued to engage in mass illegal migration to the U.S. to “further its objectives of harming United States citizens,” undermining public safety. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolás Maduro regime-sponsored narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortion and human, drug, and weapons trafficking, according to the White House. It grew significantly while Tareck El Aissami served as governor of Aragua between 2012 and 2017. In 2017, El Aissami was appointed vice president of Venezuela. Soon after, the Treasury Department designated El Aissami a specially designated narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and he remains a U.S. fugitive. In 2020, Maduro and other regime members were charged with narcoterrorism and other crimes in an alleged plot against America. Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
President Trump signs continuing resolution, officially averting a shutdown
President Donald Trump signed H.R. 1968, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, into law after it passed both the House and the Senate. The passage of the continuing resolution (CR), which was backed by Trump, officially stopped a potential government shutdown. The CR extends the government’s budget through the end of September and was approved by a majority of Senate Republicans. Only Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., voted against the bill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., faced backlash on Friday from fellow Democrats after announcing his intention to vote for the bill. SHUTDOWN AVERTED AFTER SCHUMER CAVES AND BACKS TRUMP SPENDING BILL In total, 10 Democrats voted with Republicans to pass the CR and avert a government shutdown, including Schumer, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durban, D-Ill., and Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., John Fetterman, D-Pa., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. TRUMP-BACKED BILL TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN PASSES HOUSE DESPITE MUTINY THREATS Before the bill passed the senate, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement urging Democrat senators to “listen to women.” The California congresswoman referenced Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Ct., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa., both of whom opposed the bill. “Appropriations leaders Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray have eloquently presented the case that we must have a better choice: a four-week funding extension to keep government open and negotiate a bipartisan agreement,” Pelosi’s statement read. “America has experienced a Trump shutdown before – but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse.” Trump appeared to hear about the Senate vote while answering reporters’ questions at Joint Base Andrews. He told the media that he was “very impressed” by the Senate passing the CR. Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report.