NationalWatch

A group fighting to get Virginia voters to approve an April 21 referendum to let Democrats in the state redraw its congressional maps is being pumped with liberal cash, receiving over $38 million from less than a dozen left-wing entities over the last three months, including from the George Soros-backed Fund For Policy Reform Inc.

The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) tracks state spending in Virginia and, according to its database, Virginians for Fair Elections has received $5 million from the Soros-funded and founded entity, which is within his Open Society Foundations Network of groups known for pushing liberal causes. 

Soros’ latest cause is a massive gerrymandering effort in Virginia, where the state’s congressional delegation could go from effectively 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans, to 10-Democratic-leaning districts and one Republican-leaning district, per VPAP. Virginians for Fair Elections is one of the main vehicles pushing Virginia voters to vote “yes” on April 21 to redraw the state’s maps. Virginia’s decision to redraw its maps came after mid-decade redistricting efforts by Republicans in Texas, which significantly changed the state’s electoral maps.

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Tens of millions of dollars have been pumped into the state of Virginia ahead of the April 21 referendum vote, with the vast majority going to the Democratic side of the issue.

Besides money from Soros’ network, in 2026, Virginians for Fair elections received $20 million from the nonprofit counterpart of House Democrats’ House Majority PAC, $100,000 from Sen. Tim Kaine’s, D-Va., leadership PAC, a little over $10 million from the progressive nonprofit that funds ballot initiatives nationwide, The Fairness Project, almost $500,000 from the Democratic Party of Virginia, $1 million from the Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, $1 million from a group called American Opportunity Action, and then several other smaller donations from wealthy liberal backers.

The main group opposing redistricting, Virginians For Fair Maps, has only raised a little over $3 million from just two donors in 2026. $560,000 came from the Republican Party of Virginia while the remaining $2.5 million came from a group by the same name, Virginians for Fair Maps, according to VPAP. 

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Despite the fundraising advantage, the referendum is still expected to be close. Since polls opened March 6 for early voting, turnout in Republican-heavy counties has been high compared to the state’s election turnout in November, when Democrats performed very well and Spanberger took over the Governor’s mansion, while Jones took over the attorney general’s Office.

Democrats in the state have reportedly been urging Spanberger to get more assertive in the redistricting effort.

Democrat Beth Macy, who is running for Congress in one of the five House districts currently held by Republicans, said Virginia Democrats “gotta stop bringing a spork to a knife fight,” according to Politico. She added that it would be “helpful” for Spanberger “to be the spokesperson on redistricting because she did so well and won by so much.”

Soros’ network of groups and PACs has also been a powerful force behind supporting dozens of far-left district attorneys, such as the formerly recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Chicago’s Kim Foxx, and L.A.’s George Gascon. In 2022, 1 in 5 Americans were represented by a Soros-linked prosecutor, according to data from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. 

In Virginia, Soros’ Democracy PAC donated at least $500K to help Spanberger become governor and to help Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who fantasized about killing his Republican rival and his family, get elected. His PACs have also donated millions to the campaign coffers of far-left district attorneys in Virginia.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the other top donors pumping millions into the redistricting battle, but did not receive a response from Soros’ group ahead of publication.

“No one wanted to take this action, but in a democracy, we can’t let entire states rig their congressional maps just to bend to the will of one person. We have to respond. This amendment is a temporary, one-time exception that gives Virginia voters a voice and meets the needs of the current moment, while ensuring Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting process will resume after the 2030 census,” Alexis Magnan-Callaway, a spokesperson for The Fairness Project, told Fox News digital. 

“The ballot measure allows Virginia voters, not politicians, to decide for themselves whether they want new, temporary districts,” she continued. “This isn’t about favoring one party over another. This is about restoring fairness across the board by temporarily changing Virginia’s congressional districts.”

NASA is racing to establish a permanent human presence on the moon as the U.S. looks to beat China’s ambitions on the lunar surface amid intensifying competition in space.

The Trump administration’s push for a roughly $20 billion moon base marks a major shift in NASA’s strategy, moving away from plans for a lunar-orbiting space station and toward building infrastructure directly on the moon as a long-term foothold for deep space exploration.

“This time, the goal is not flags and footprints,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said as he outlined the plan. “This time, the goal is to stay.” 

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“The reason you want to have a lunar base is that it acts as a focal point of our ongoing efforts to not just be around the Earth, but go into deep space,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society space exploration nonprofit, told Fox News Digital. “It’s like the reason that we have our base stations in Antarctica.”

Dreier said a sustained presence on the moon would allow the U.S. to store supplies, build out infrastructure and expand its capabilities over time in ways that are not possible with a station orbiting the moon.

The shift also reflects a recalibration of NASA’s earlier plans, which centered on the Gateway program — a proposed space station in orbit around the moon that had been a cornerstone of the Artemis program but faced delays, funding uncertainty and growing questions about its necessity.

Originally envisioned as a staging point for astronauts traveling to and from the lunar surface, Gateway was designed to serve as a communications hub and transfer point in orbit. NASA is now redirecting resources toward building infrastructure directly on the lunar surface instead.

While the new approach sharpens NASA’s focus, Dreier cautioned that the administration’s timeline and budget remain highly ambitious.

“Probably not,” he said when asked whether $20 billion would be enough to build and sustain a lunar base. “It’s an ambitious level.”

Dreier added that the roughly seven-year timeline is aggressive, particularly given the technical challenges of operating on the moon, suggesting the effort may begin with a limited initial presence that expands over time.

China is aiming to land astronauts on the moon by around 2030, a milestone that would mark its first crewed lunar mission and significantly expand its presence beyond Earth orbit.

The push for a lunar base comes as China also rapidly advances its own capabilities, conducting increasingly complex robotic missions and laying the groundwork for a long-term presence on the moon.

“They have gone from launching one or two satellites or space science satellites to launching dozens,” Dreier said. “They have landed huge amounts of mass now on the moon, on the far side of the moon.”

He noted that China has also successfully carried out robotic sample return missions, launching material from the lunar surface back to Earth — a technically demanding feat that underscores its growing capabilities.

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“They’re developing their capability very fast,” Dreier said. “That is more capability than the United States has at the moon right now.”

“At the Moon, China actually has the advantage right now,” he added.

China is working with international partners, including Russia, on plans for a long-term presence near the lunar south pole — a region believed to contain water ice and other key resources.

“We find ourselves with a real geopolitical rival, challenging American leadership in the high ground of space,” Isaacman said.

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Dreier said the push to build sustained operations on the moon could also strengthen broader U.S. capabilities in space, particularly as orbit becomes more contested.

“The moon is the ultimate high ground,” he said. “If we have to have space contested, let’s make it a race to the moon … rather than something far more direct and destructive in the Earth orbit.”

Fox News Digital reached out to NASA for comment. 

Neither party escaped travelers’ ire as some estimated they had to walk miles to reach the back of the security line and wait several hours to catch their flights at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

Fox News Digital asked travelers waiting in line at Bush who they believed was to blame for the massive wait times. One traveler named Tim simply responded: “The politicians.”

On Thursday, lines at Bush snaked through check-in, baggage claim, out the doors and through underground subway tunnels. One traveler, who did not share his name, estimated that he and his family had to walk two miles to reach the back of the line. While many arrived several hours ahead of their scheduled departure times, those who did not could be seen frantically searching for terminals with smaller lines.

When it comes to who bears the blame, another traveler, who did not identify herself, answered: “All congressmen.”

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“All of them, regardless of their party,” she added. “They just need to do their jobs.”

Another, named Lancet, singled out the Democrats, who have demanded reinstating funding for the Department of Homeland Security contingent on broad reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

“I mean, honestly, look, the Democrats are not voting on the DHS being reinstated. And they’re the ones who pay for TSA from what I know,” said Lancet. “So, without paying the people, they obviously can’t work.”

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been among the airports most heavily impacted by the partial government shutdown, which has led to TSA agents missing paychecks for more than 40 days. Nearly 500 TSA agents have quit, and as of Friday, the agency has missed out on $1 billion in pay.

The partial shutdown was caused by disagreements in Congress over ICE and Border Patrol’s enforcement of immigration law in cities across the U.S., with Democrats making funding contingent on major changes in tactics and policy. Late Thursday night, the Senate passed a bill to fund most of DHS, including TSA, but it is not final. The House still needs to approve the measure and send it to the president before funding resumes and workers are paid.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday directing federal officials to ensure TSA employees are paid, calling the ongoing shutdown an “emergency,” 

One traveler named Kevin, who was waiting in a security line in an underground subway corridor with hardly functioning air conditioning, did not hold back.

“Anybody who votes for a Democrat after this should be shipped out of the country,” said Kevin. “This is a Democrat mess.”

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At the front of the same line, which stretched halfway across the airport’s subway corridor, a traveler named April answered, “I have no idea to be honest with you, but also the construction doesn’t help either.”

“Having to go to Terminal A and Terminal E and going back and forth, yeah, it’s not been great,” she added.

One traveler named Maria, who despite the line bore a large smile and a chipper attitude, told Fox News Digital, “You know what? I would only blame myself for not getting to the airport sooner.”

“I’ve been flying for many, many years, so I know. Got to get to the airports soon, guys. Get your Subway, get your Starbucks, and get to airports,” she quipped, smiling.

“I don’t know, man, I don’t get political about these things,” answered a traveler named Pinal. “It is what it is, and we all are just going through the motions right now.”

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“There’s a lot of people to blame,” said a woman who did not identify herself. “But at least I think the important part is everybody’s working together to try to be as efficient as possible. I got here at 10, and my flight is at 1:30, so I got there in enough time, hopefully.”

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“It’s just the division,” remarked a young man named Nick. “Everybody should be unified, working together, instead of just picking teams, fighting against each other, you know?” 

“People rather be on a team than rather just focus on a solution,” Nick continued. “If we could just focus more on the problem and working together rather than focusing on the differences, I think that would be a major change. But it’s tough, man.”

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger flatly denied any deal was made in crafting the new boundaries of the Second Congressional District on the Eastern Shore and Virginia Beach after former Rep. Elaine Luria was followed out of an event by an individual demanding answers.

Luria, a Democrat who previously represented the Second District, is challenging Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., in a race considered “Even” under the current map but that would skew Democratic under newly drawn boundaries that pull in heavily liberal Newport News and the city of Franklin while carving out more moderate parts of Chesapeake.

An individual filmed Luria this week as she left an evening event in Hampton Roads and asked twice: “Did you make a backroom deal with your best friend Abigail Spanberger to redraw the district?”

Luria ignored the man, but the video spread on social media as observers raised questions, given the tone of the redistricting effort led by Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth.

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Luria’s campaign formally declined comment and Spanberger’s camp flatly denied the allegation.

“There was no deal,” Spanberger’s top spokeswoman Libby Wiet told Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, Kiggans campaign spokesman Joe Link said the clip of the confrontation “speaks for itself.”

“Virginians should keep this in mind when they vote on April 21,” Link told Fox News Digital, referring to the date of the special election on the Democrats’ redistricting amendment.

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Lucas did not respond to a request for comment but has been vocal online about the redistricting effort, mocking opponents like former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and swearing at Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, by telling him she is “f—ing finish[ing]” what he purportedly started.

In January, Lucas took aim at Kiggans, suggesting she is intentionally trying to push her out of office. The 82-year-old progressive posted an image of Kiggans wearing a McDonald’s uniform and asking if a customer “want[s] fries with that.”

Meanwhile, across the commonwealth, Republicans continue expressing outrage at the new map being put to voters as “restor[ing] fairness” on April 21, with the Prince William County GOP posting an image of their exurban county “sliced” into five pieces next to an image of deli salami.

Prince William, Arlington and Fairfax counties appear to be anchors for most of Virginia’s congressional districts, which critics say will suppress, if not dilute, the reported 45% of the population that votes Republican or lives in rural areas.

In Rockingham County, which surrounds Harrisonburg and sits in the Shenandoah Valley and is currently represented in whole by GOP Rep. Ben Cline of Botetourt, Fairfax-based Del. Dan Helmer was pictured campaigning for the newly drawn 7th District, according to the local GOP.

Helmer dismissed claims he also helped draw his own district, saying he is doing what Democratic leaders assigned him to do in “electing a Democratic majority” in his caucus role, according to the Virginia Mercury.

Del. Joe McNamara, R-Cave Spring, told the outlet he still believes Helmer “craft[ed] maps for his benefit, and he’s just the next one.”

“My role was electing a Democratic majority two years ago so we could fight back against what Trump is doing and reelect it this year,” Helmer told the Mercury in response. Helmer, who authored the state’s new sweeping gun ban, has two previously unsuccessful congressional bids under recent maps.

The Rockingham County GOP took issue with his previous campaign pledge to be a “voice for Fairfax,” hinting, as in Kiggans’ district, that Democrats are intentionally drawing seats for themselves.

THIS CRUCIAL STATE IS THE LATEST BATTLEGROUND IN REDISTRICTING WAR BETWEEN TRUMP AND DEMOCRATS

“They have no shame,” the party said in captioning a photo of Helmer campaigning locally.

Former first lady Dorothy McAuliffe, who also does not live in the majority-rural confines of the newly drawn “lobster-shaped” district, is also running for the seat.

JP Cooney, a prosecutor who worked under much-maligned special counsel Jack Smith, is the third Democrat to seek the newly drawn district, further increasing Republicans’ ire at the process.

Earlier this week, Rep. Donald Beyer, an Alexandria Democrat, admitted that his party’s redistricting effort is aimed squarely at rebuking President Donald Trump.

That comment led to outrage on the right, including from Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore.

Kilgore, of Gate City in Scott County along the Tennessee line, represents one of the few areas rendered safe under the new map – if not simply because the aforementioned 45% of Republicans had to be collected somewhere.

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“This is manifestly unfair for the Commonwealth of Virginia. We’re a 51-49 state, not a 90-10 state. If they’re willing to silence nearly half of the Commonwealth’s voters in the name of ‘fairness’ what else are they willing to do?” Kilgore told Fox News Digital.

His area is represented by Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican who collects a swath of mountainous communities from Galax, Martinsville and Independence in the east to Cumberland Gap, Wise and coal-filled Grundy in the west.

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday, but the 43-day shutdown could drag on for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, where any funding bill needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning buy-in from a handful of Democrats. That hurdle has not stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that their rejection of a Senate-passed deal — and pitching a subsequent rival DHS funding proposal — is the way out of the shutdown.

“We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters leaving the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. “We just couldn’t do it.”

“House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,” Johnson said earlier Friday on “The Ingraham Angle,” in a scathing takedown of the Senate-passed deal that stopped short of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

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But the full-court press launched by House Republicans aimed at persuading the Senate to return to Washington to take up their bill is likely to fall on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

Senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess after unanimously approving a DHS funding measure in the early morning hours Friday with some traveling abroad on congressional delegations.

“I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. “That is what they were elected to do. So they’re going to stay out on recess for two weeks and not come back while people don’t get paid. That’s pretty sad.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also called on the Senate to return to Washington “immediately” to take up the House-passed measure in a statement late Friday. 

House lawmakers are also scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Left holding the tab in the cross-chamber feud are the tens of thousands of DHS employees working unpaid during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to shield TSA agents from further financial distress by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds. 

The roughly 50,000 agents have missed two full paychecks during the ongoing funding lapse, leading hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial distress.

The president’s move is likely to alleviate lengthy wait times at TSA security checkpoints, though senior officials have warned of long-term impacts due to more than 500 agents quitting during the funding lapse.

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However, other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and certain support staff working for ICE and CBP will still have their paychecks withheld until the department’s funding is restored. 

“Anybody who shows up to work deserves to get a paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do their job,” McClain told Fox News on Friday. 

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next several weeks blaming Republicans for the impasse after Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal. 

“We’re here dealing with a partisan spending bill that the Senate has already indicated is dead on arrival,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. “And so Republicans have taken the decision to own this shutdown decisively. There is no doubt.”

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and has no partisan policy riders.

Trump also came out against the bill Friday afternoon in an interview with Fox News.

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The bill notably does not include any of the reforms that Democrats have demanded for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening warrant requirements and prohibiting agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who warned throughout the funding stalemate that nobody wins in a shutdown, has indicated that Democrats are less likely to get those demands met than when the funding lapse first started.

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Thune said.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz insists that President Donald Trump will be “impeached over and over and over again” if the Democrats win back control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

And the conservative firebrand and three-term senator from Texas, in a sit-down interview this week with Fox News Digital, argued that if Democrats win both the House and Senate majorities in the midterms, “they will do whatever they can to burn it down,” as he pointed to the agenda passed by Trump and Republicans in Congress.

As they fight to hold their slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterms. And they also face a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns over persistent inflation, an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

“I think these midterm elections are unbelievably consequential,” said Cruz, who won re-election in 2024 and isn’t on the ballot this year.

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And the senator pledged, “I am all in fighting for us to win in the midterms, fighting for us to hold the House, fighting for us to hold the Senate and, ideally, grow our majorities in both houses.”

“If the Democrats take the House, no meaningful legislation will pass for the next two years, and we will see the president impeached over and over and over again. And by the way, it won’t matter what for. They will impeach President Trump just because they hate him, because he is Donald Trump,” Cruz claimed.

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And he argued, “We will see investigations attacking the administration in every House committee if they take the House.”

Cruz said implications for Trump and the GOP are even worse if Democrats also win back the Senate.

“If they take the Senate, we would see an almost complete halt of Senate confirmations — Cabinet members. I think these radical Democrats would leave cabinet offices empty, leave them vacant, rather than confirm President Trump’s nominees. I think judicial nominations. If the Democrats took the Senate, they would essentially halt judicial nominations,” he claimed.

And he charged, “I think Chuck Schumer and the radicals are so extreme that if they get a majority, they will do whatever they can to burn it down.”

But Democrats argue it’s President Trump who’s lighting the match due to what Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called Trump’s “hurtful and harmful agenda.”

“President Trump is creating a toxic agenda that’s harming people, and they’re looking for Democratic leadership to take them out of this nightmare,” Gillibrand argued in an interview last month with Fox News Digital.

And Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer told Fox News Digital: “If Democrats take Congress, the Republicans won’t be able to give massive tax breaks to billionaires, shutter nursing homes and rural hospitals, bomb foreign countries instead of feeding kids, or turn a blind eye to Trump’s open and egregious corruption.”

Cruz heads back home to Texas this weekend, where he’ll address the crowd Saturday in Dallas at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, better known by its acronym CPAC.

But it’s a stop on May 1 in Iowa — the state whose caucuses for half a century have kicked off the race for the Republican presidential nomination — that’s sparking speculation that Cruz is gearing up for a second White House run.

Cruz was runner-up to Trump in the combustible 2016 GOP presidential primaries, and he took a look at making another run in the 2024 cycle before deciding to seek re-election to the Senate.

“There will be plenty of time to make those decisions. I don’t have an announcement for you today,” Cruz answered when asked by Fox News Digital if seriously considering another White House campaign.

But he appears to be laying the groundwork for a possible bid, as he positions himself as a conservative alternative to Vice President JD Vance, who is currently the odds on favorite to be Trump’s MAGA and America First heir.

Cruz has grabbed plenty of attention with his clashes with far-right figures, such as Tucker Carlson, and he’s enhanced already strong standing among conservative leaders and donors. And he’s bolstered his grassroots outreach with his popular and widely downloaded podcast, ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz.’

In his Fox Digital interview, Cruz also shared what seemed to be the beginnings of a possible 2028 stump speech.

“I look back to the last year with President Trump in the White House and with a Republican Senate in the house, we have accomplished more in the last year than I’ve seen Congress and the president accomplish in the preceding 13 years that I was here. It is an incredible record of success that we’ve been able to produce. And so my focus is, number one, keep delivering results, keep delivering big wins for the American people,” Cruz said.

Cruz spotlighted that he was “the author of no tax on tips. I wrote that law.” The cuts were one of the tax provisions in the GOP’s massive domestic policy bill that was passed nearly entirely along party lines last summer.

The senator also pointed to the so-called “school choice” provisions in the measure, as well as the Trump Accounts, tax-advantaged, IRA-style investment accounts for children under 18 that were also included in the law.

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“Both of those provisions I wrote, both of them are in the bill,” he noted.

And Cruz predicted that in “10, 20, 30 years from now, those two provisions, school choice and the Trump accounts, will be, by an order of magnitude, the most consequential provisions in the entire bill. So we’ve got a record of wins, of victories for the American people to run on.”

While Republican senators, like Texas’ Ted Cruz and Florida’s Rick Scott, were quick to condemn the policies that kept the illegal immigrant killer of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman from being deported, Democratic senators dodged questions on whether Gorman’s killer should have previously been deported prior to this month’s murder.

Gorman, who was a student at Loyola University of Chicago at the time of her death, was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Jose Medina, 25. Medina was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, but was subsequently released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. 

A short time later, Medina was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, but was again released on June 19, 2023, DHS said. A judge put a warrant out on Medina after he failed to appear in court for his shoplifting charge, which was still active at the time of Gorman’s killing, according to the Chicago Sun Times. 

“Shoplifting in and of itself is not a violent crime. It’s not an indicator of a person that’s leaning toward violent crime,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., when asked about Medina’s case and whether he should’ve been deported prior to Gorman’s murder. 

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“You’re asking me to speculate on a bunch of things and I can’t answer that,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., when asked if Gorman’s killer, and other illegal immigrant murderers who had significant criminal records at the time of their arrests, should have been deported before people got hurt. “I don’t know the cases. I trust our justice system to do the right thing and hold people accountable.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., responded that the Trump administration’s broad deportation crackdowns have prevented federal law enforcement from targeting genuinely dangerous people, an argument pushed by other top Democrats in Congress. “I think that if Trump cleared out Chicago and if ICE did their job, he wouldn’t be here, right?” Duckworth said as she got onto an elevator on Capitol Hill. “But they deported people who are not… [unintelligible].”

Meanwhile, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., offered a more judicious response, but also suggested the style by which the Trump administration is deporting people is problematic. 

“Do I think violent criminals should be deported? Yes,” Slotkin said, adding it is an “easy” call to deport someone who has been “accused and properly prosecuted.” But, Slotkin added, “Innocent civilians who are protesting their government and using their freedom of speech should not be fingered and booted out.” 

Democrats who spoke with Fox News Digital did quickly agree that violent criminals who entered and are residing in the country unlawfully should be deported.

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“Anybody who violates, or creates crime in this country – particularly kills somebody – should not only be held accountable in the United States, but, yes, there should be immigration enforcement against that individual,” Cortez-Masto said. 

“Every community deserves to feel safe, and I think people who commit violent crimes should not be allowed to either be in our country, or to be among our communities,” added Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md. 

Durbin, meanwhile, qualified his comments about Medina’s shoplifting charge by admitting “We ought to do a careful examination of people coming into this country and those who want to stay in this country,” adding that, “If they are dangerous to the community, they need to be denied entry or taken out of the country later.”

But Republican Senators Cruz and Scott were quick to bash Democrats for allegedly caring more about illegal immigrants than American citizens.

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“It’s tragic and it was avoidable,” Cruz said when approached about Gorman’s death and Medina not being deported. “The Democrats are so radical they prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.”

“It’s disgusting that these people say, ‘Oh, they act like they care about Americans.’ But then you look at their actions – they care about people who are here violently hurting Americans,” Scott complained.

Congressional Democrats consider the Senate-passed plan to end the Homeland Security shutdown a victory, but they’re walking away empty-handed with none of their sought-after reforms to immigration enforcement.

Pushing for sweeping changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in Minnesota is why Democrats blocked more than a half-dozen attempts to prevent or end the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

But the window of opportunity to secure any reforms slammed shut just after 2 a.m. Friday.

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“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

At the onset of the shutdown in early February, Schumer and Democrats presented 10 categories of reforms they wanted to be implemented for ICE and immigration enforcement in order to earn their votes to fund DHS.

The proposals were in response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good and were designed to drastically rein in the power of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

Among them were requiring judicial warrants for agents, forcing agents to unmask, requiring agents to display identification, ending roving patrols, preventing agents from operating in certain areas like schools and hospitals, requiring body-worn cameras, increasing oversight of detention centers tied to funding, and several more.

The warrant requirements and unmasking were hard red lines for Republicans and the White House, but throughout negotiations, the GOP made concessions on several others, including limiting immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, allowing congressional oversight of DHS detention facilities, and enforcing the use of visible identification for DHS agents.

Democrats walked away with none of those offers that were on the table, aside from $20 million to purchase body-worn cameras, which was already in the original Homeland Security funding bill.

SCHUMER, DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AGAIN, TRUMP INTERVENES TO PAY TSA AGENTS

“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” Thune said.

Still, Schumer and congressional Democrats scored a political victory of sorts, with the legislation carving out funding for ICE and the border protection arm of CBP.

Republicans, however, front-loaded immigration enforcement funding last year with $75 billion over the next several years and plan a similar move using the same budget reconciliation process to extend funding for up to a decade.

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And with a rebellion against the legislation fomenting among House Republicans — who are widely unhappy with immigration enforcement not being funded right away — all parties could be taken back to square one.

“This is exactly what we wanted,” Schumer said after the Senate advanced the bill. “This is what we asked for, and I’m very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order directing federal officials to ensure Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees receive pay during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

Calling the situation an “emergency,” Trump warned that mounting disruptions at airports have pushed the system to a breaking point.

“As the Democrat-caused shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security continues well into its sixth week, America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump wrote. “This is an unprecedented emergency situation.”

TRUMP DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY AT AIRPORTS, TO SIGN ORDER INSTRUCTING DHS TO “IMMEDIATELY PAY” TSA OFFICERS

More than 60,000 TSA employees have gone without pay, fueling absenteeism and forcing some officers to quit. Nearly 500 TSA workers have already left their jobs, while thousands more have called out sick, according to the order.

“As a result, security wait times at some airports have reached untenable lengths of three or more hours,” Trump said. 

He warned the combination of longer lines and declining morale is “unacceptably” heightening security risks and disrupting travel nationwide.

Trump said he is instructing DHS, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, to tap available funds connected to TSA operations to cover employee pay and benefits.

TSA OFFICERS LOSE HOMES, CAN’T PAY MEDICAL BILLS, CAN’T AFFORD EASTER BASKETS FOR THEIR CHILDREN

“Accordingly, I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown, consistent with applicable law, including 31 U.S.C. 1301(a),” Trump said.

In a post on X, DHS said TSA has begun steps to resume paying its workforce, with officers expected to see paychecks as early as Monday.

“President Trump has made the decision that echoes what TSA’s frontline employees and the millions of Americans enduring terrible wait times at our airports are saying: the Democrat DHS shutdown has become an emergency,” DHS wrote.

Trump previewed the action Thursday, vowing to address airport disruptions. 

HOUSE DEMOCRATS VOTE TO KEEP DHS SHUTTERED AS FUNDING LAPSE HITS DAY 40

A senior administration official told Fox News that funding from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will be used to ensure TSA officers are paid during the disruption.

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“Not unlike actions taken during the first Democrat-shutdown (i.e., paying the troops), President Trump has determined that congressional Democrats have created an emergency situation that cannot be allowed to continue,” White House Office of Management and Budget Communications Director Rachel Cauley said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.

Top White House aide Stephen Miller joined Vice President JD Vance to launch the White House anti-fraud task force Friday, pledging to “demolish” the kind of corruption that unfairly burdens taxpayers and gives a free ride to bad actors.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump launched the task force via executive order, saying the administration will “use all available resources and authorities to fight fraud, close loopholes, enforce eligibility rules, and protect benefits for eligible Americans, while ensuring States administering Federal benefits programs do the same.”

Vance serves as its chairman and kicked off the White House event Friday, while FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson serves as vice chair.

Miller said the panel could not come at a better time, with Medicaid and other fraud rings making national headlines in Minnesota and beyond.

MINNESOTA HUMAN SERVICES OFFICIALS SKIP FRAUD HEARING AS WALZ PROMISES REFORM

“I think what’s important for Americans to understand about how pervasive and widespread the fraud is, [and] that all of our systems were set up and established for a high-trust society. I think that most citizens probably assume that there’s some verification process that takes place for the receipt of most federal benefits. The reality is, is that there is not,” Miller said.

The outspoken aide added that the high-trust framework in place for decades is woefully inadequate for Democrat-run states, where verification processes are “willfully” lacking and often run on the honor system.

“Imagine in a community, a working-class community in the Twin Cities, say a native Minnesotan who works as a lineman or works as a construction worker; works in any job that requires hard work, dedication, focus; who’s worried about his ability to support for or provide his family,” Miller said.

“And then imagine that he has a neighbor who’s a Somali refugee who arrived two years ago and has a Mercedes, and no financial stress and no worries at all in the entire world that never seems to ever go to work at all because he just went to an office in the state, lied on a piece of paper and got unlimited free money forever for life.”

“That situation repeats itself innumerable times across the country,” he said, “and is exactly what the task force aims to take on.”

DEPUTY AG TODD BLANCHE SHEDS LIGHT ON NEW DOJ FRAUD DIVISION TO ADDRESS ‘INSANE’ PROBLEM

“That is the corruption that this task force under the leadership of the vice president is going to demolish.”

Vance agreed with Miller in earlier comments, saying that Somali-born fraudsters have operated at “an industrial scale” to steal Americans’ tax dollars.

“We think fraud has been a problem for a long time,” he said. “We’re going to do a number of things. First of all, we’re going to turn back on those anti-fraud protections so that all of these cabinet officials are looking at what’s going on and focusing on it.”

He said the key to the task force will be communications between cabinet offices, so that, in his example, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins can communicate on shared concerns with a colleague like HUD Secretary Scott Turner.

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“This is not just theft of the American people’s money. This is also theft of critical services that the American people rely on,” Vance said.

“Some of you have heard me tell the story before, but I think that the autism scam that we’ve seen in the Somalian parts of Minnesota really illustrates well what’s been going on across whole layers of our government.”

House Republicans passed a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the fierce objections of Democratic lawmakers late Friday evening.

But the 42-day shutdown that has snarled air travel and left tens of thousands of federal employees without pay is far from over.

House lawmakers voted 213-203 largely along party lines to approve a two-month funding extension for the beleaguered department, which has been operating without full-year appropriations since the funding lapse began on Feb. 14. 

Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, crossed party lines to support the measure. More than a dozen lawmakers did not vote.

DEMOCRATS RIP TRUMP’S ICE AIRPORT MOVE AS SHUTDOWN NEARS 40 DAYS: ‘NO REASON’

The House-passed DHS measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have filibustered GOP-authored legislation that includes immigration funding for the past six weeks. 

Both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for an Easter recess without ending the funding standoff, paving the way for the partial government shutdown to become the longest in history. 

“In those eight weeks, we will figure this out with Democrats and figure out a couple of reforms or whatever they need to make sure that we do this right, but we are going to protect the homeland. We have to,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on the Ingraham Angle on Friday evening. “It’s the most important and most basic function of Congress, and Democrats don’t want to do that.”

Democratic lawmakers, who have repeatedly voted against DHS spending bills funding President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown absent reforms, echoed the same position Friday. 

“House Republicans have decided that they would rather inconvenience you, create chaos for you and for your families so that they can continue to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people so they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to brutalize and kill American citizens,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a news conference Friday. 

The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Freedom Caucus unequivocally rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday. The agreement, which passed the Senate unanimously, would have funded the vast majority of DHS sub-agencies minus ICE and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The National Border Patrol Council endorsed the House bill late Friday, arguing the Senate’s failure to fund all of DHS is “completely unacceptable and should not stand.”

JAYAPAL DOUBLES DOWN ON ANTI-ICE TERROR CLAIMS AS DHS SHUTDOWN TRIGGERS HISTORIC TRAVEL CHAOS

Senate Republicans have teased a second “big, beautiful” bill to give additional funding to ICE and the Border Patrol, though that could be a difficult feat in an election year with slim majorities in both chambers.

“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” Trump told Fox News in an interview Friday, referring to the Senate agreement. “You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE.”

House GOP leadership has also voiced concern about funding ICE and the Border Patrol through a second budget reconciliation package.

“That’s a very difficult task. It is a high-risk gamble for us to assume that we could do that,” Johnson told the Ingraham Angle. “And in the meantime, people are still going unpaid in this. We’ve got to make sure that we take care of those who take care of ourselves.”

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The most pressing pain point of the shutdown — a shortage of Transportation Security Administration employees at airports nationwide — is set to be alleviated. The staffing constraints had created hours-long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, leading to travel disruptions and missed flights.

Trump, through an executive order, directed DHS to pay the more than 50,000 TSA personnel who had been reporting to work without compensation since the start of the shutdown to cover their salaries. The agents are expected to receive their first full paychecks in more than six weeks on Monday.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be abolished, blasting the federal agency as “rogue” and “reckless” as questions mount over the city’s handling of illegal immigration following the fatal subway killing of an elderly veteran.

During a news conference announcing new street safety efforts, the mayor said he has spoken to President Donald Trump about immigration enforcement operations in the city, claiming ICE a “rogue agency.”

“We’re making clear that no one is above the law in this city, that everyone has to follow the rule of law,” Mamdani said. “I have made clear to the president, both in our private conversations and our public conversations, about the fact that I believe that ICE is a rogue agency.”

Mamdani added that he believes ICE is “reckless” and “delivers nothing toward the furthering of the cause of public safety.”

SHANGHAI SABOTAGE: INSIDE SINGHAM’S SECRET STRATEGY TO DEMONIZE AMERICA

“I’ve also been public about my belief that ICE is an entity that should be abolished, and that is critically important in our city, where we’ve seen too many New Yorkers living in fear of even going to what would otherwise be routine immigration check ins,” he said. “… What we’ve had in the interim is a federal entity that has been operating with a level of impunity, and that has to come to an end.”

The mayor went on to support protests against the Trump administration, endorsing the “No Kings NYC” protest planned for Saturday in Manhattan.

“I think that rallies are an incredibly effective way for New Yorkers to both organize together and make it clear what their vision is for the city, for the state, for this country,” Mamdani said. “I think that what we’ve seen is that there’s an attempt to make many in our city feel as if they are alone, when they believe that ICE has no place in our city, when they believe that every single New Yorker who lives in this city belongs in this city, and should be made to feel as if such.

DHS EXPOSES BACKGROUND OF NYC CITY COUNCIL EMPLOYEE AFTER MAMDANI FUMED OVER ARREST

“What these rallies are — are also an opportunity to realize that you are not in the minority when you have those beliefs. You are, in fact, one of a growing coalition of people who want to see a shred of decency, dignity and humanity come back to our city and our country’s politics.”

Reporters did not question Mamdani about the recent murder of 83-year-old Air Force veteran Richard Williams, who died after he was allegedly shoved onto New York City subway tracks by an illegal immigrant from Honduras. Mamdani has yet to publicly comment on the killing.

When asked if Honduran national Bairon Posada-Hernandez, 34, would be turned over to ICE, the mayor’s office referred Fox News to the Department of Corrections (DOC).

HOMAN SAYS NYC MAYOR MAMDANI ‘MADE IT CLEAR HE’S NOT GOING TO WORK WITH ICE’ ON IMMIGRATION

A DOC spokesperson said the agency processes ICE detainers “consistent with local law,” which limits cooperation.

Under city law, ICE is only notified if there is a detainer backed by a judicial warrant (I-200 or I-205), and the person has a qualifying recent conviction for a violent or serious crime.

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It is unclear if ICE will be notified or take custody of Posada-Hernandez, who has been deported from the U.S. four times, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS officials have asked New York City to cooperate, saying, “Posada-Hernandez is a serial criminal and four-time deported illegal alien who NEVER should have been able to walk our streets and harm innocent Americans. He is now facing murder charges. We are calling on New York sanctuary politicians to not release this murderer. Please join us in praying for Mr. Williams’ family, friends, and loved ones.”

President Donald Trump turned heads again this week for a viral Cabinet meeting tangent about a favorite custom White House Sharpie. He said the marker is an example of how he can get “better” results for less cost.

The president brought up the pen while criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over a new headquarters, which he said costs the government $4 billion.

“If it was properly done and planned, you would have done that building for — I would have done it — for $25 million, and it would be better,” he said. 

He then reached for a marker on a table and said, “See this pen right here? This pen is an interesting example.”

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER ENSURING TSA WORKERS ARE PAID DURING DHS SHUTDOWN

Trump said he was having issues with the old Oval Office pens, which he said were inlaid with gold and silver, running out of ink. He said he also felt “guilty” about wasting money by handing them out to as many as 40 people every time he signed an executive action. 

So, he decided to replace the expensive pens with customized White House Sharpies.

“It’s the same thing,” he told his Cabinet and members of the press. “This pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well; I like it.

“I came here, and they have thousand-dollar pens, and you hand pens out. You’re signing, and you’re handing them out. You’re handing them out with all these people. Sometimes, you have 30, 40 people, and they were a thousand dollars apiece,” he said. 

“Beautiful pen, ballpoint, a thousand. There was gold, silver. Gorgeous. But I’m handing it out to kids that don’t even know what they are. ‘What is this, Mommy?’ It’s kids, they’re getting a pen for a thousand dollars, and they have no idea what it is.”

He said he felt “guilty” because “I want to save money.”

“So, I’m saying this is crazy,” he explained. “And it had another problem. They didn’t write well.”

However, despite his preference for Sharpies, Trump said he couldn’t “have the pen the way it was.”

TRUMP FIRES BACK AT REPORTER WHO QUESTIONED HIM ON MAIL-IN BALLOTS

The president said he considered signing documents in a separate room, or “I could do like Biden did, you know, give it to somebody else to sign or an autopen.

“This is when I called the guy. I said, ‘I’d like to use your pen, but I can’t have a grey thing with a big ‘S’ on it saying ‘Sharpie’ as I’m signing a trillion-dollar airplane contract to buy brand-new fighter jets – brand new B-2 bombers, of which we just ordered plenty. I can’t do that with the press, use your pen, but I like the pen the best.”

According to Trump, a Sharpie representative then said, “Well, I could make it nicer.”

“I said, ‘What can you do?’ He said, ‘I’ll paint it black.’ I said, ‘That’s nice,’” Trump related.

TRUMP SPEAKS OUT ON IRAN’S EXECUTION OF 19-YEAR-OLD WRESTLER SALEH MOHAMMADI

The president said the representative even offered to paint the White House and Trump’s signature on it “in gold, almost real gold, not bad.”

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After relating the story, Trump noted, “By the way, this was not staged.”

“I just saw the pen sit there; I thought that this is an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve building would be a better job than the $4 billion that they’re spending.” 

President Donald Trump on Friday signaled a shift away from the war with Iran after apparent positive negotiations this week and the administration’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, saying “Cuba is next.”

While speaking in Florida at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Summit at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach, Trump said even though he campaigned on peace through strength, sometimes force is necessary.

“And Cuba is next, by the way. But pretend I didn’t say that,” Trump said. “Please, please, please media, please disregard that statement. Thank you very much — Cuba’s next.”

TRUMP TOUTS ‘MASSIVE’ IRAN ‘PRESENT’ LINKED TO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS DEAL TALKS HEAT UP

He added that he thought NATO’s absence in negotiations with Iran was a “tremendous mistake.”

“They just weren’t there,” he said. “It’s going to make a lot of money for the United States because we spent hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO, hundreds of protecting them. And we would have always been there for them. But now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?”

TRUMP LASHES OUT AT ‘SICK’ IRANIAN LEADERS, CONFIRMS ESTIMATED TIMELINE FOR ENDING WAR

The president talked about the Strait of Hormuz, which he pressured NATO to help the U.S. reopen. 

“We’re negotiating [with Iran] now, and it would be great if we could do something, but they have to open it up,” he said. “They have to open up the Strait of Trump — I mean, Hormuz. … The fake news will say he accidentally said [that]. No, there’s no accidents with me.”

TRUMP THREATENS KEY IRANIAN GAS FIELD AFTER ISRAELI STRIKE

Previously, when asked about control of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said the U.S. will “have control of anything we want.”

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The Iranian regime has imposed multimillion-dollar charges on some tankers transiting the critical global shipping choke point, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply flows.

Mainstream media outlets reportedly used the phrase “war crime” nearly three dozen times in the first three weeks of the Iran conflict, but 88% of that usage was directed toward the U.S. or Israel, according to an analysis released by a U.S.-based, Mideast-focused media watchdog.

CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, and its research manager, David Litman, released a study Wednesday counting 32 uses of the term “war crime” from the BBC, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In his review, Litman asked readers to consider how the term “war crime” has been applied in reporting on the conflict, noting that simple internet searches return usages “almost exclusively” against the U.S. and Israel.

“CAMERA found 32 total applications of the phrase “war crime” during the first three weeks of the war (Feb. 28 – Mar. 21). Of those, 28 (88 percent) were directed solely toward the actions of the United States and/or Israel,” Litman wrote on CAMERA’s website. “Zero were directed solely toward the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Four (12 percent) were unattributed or directed at both sides.”

MEDIA UNDER FIRE: JOURNALISTS KEEP QUESTIONING IRAN WAR AS HEGSETH CALLS THEM ‘UNPATRIOTIC’ AND ‘ANTI-TRUMP’

CAMERA found nearly all references stemmed from an airstrike early in the conflict that allegedly destroyed a school in Minab, Iran. The Pentagon is continuing to investigate the incident, according to CAMERA.

“Several of the other allegations refer to the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean in what can assuredly be classified as a lawful attack,” Litman wrote.

The analysis also contrasted that usage with events that have not been labeled as “war crimes” in CAMERA’s findings.

The group cited cluster bombs fired by Iran, many of which hit populated areas in Israel and elsewhere.

“While cluster munitions are not universally banned, using them to target populated areas almost certainly constitutes a war crime,” the analysis found.

CAMERA also pointed to Iranian strikes that hit energy and other key installations in nations not officially engaged in the conflict, such as Kuwait and Bahrain.

PETE HEGSETH CRITICIZES ‘FAKE NEWS’ COVERAGE OF IRAN STRIKES, SAYS ONLY TRAGEDIES MAKE FRONT PAGE

The analysis found that among the mainstream media sources examined, the term “war crime” was not applied to these strikes, and if Iran was cited in a war crimes discussion, it was paired with equal criticism of the West.

“This journalistic malpractice inverts reality,” Litman wrote.

George Mason law professor Adam Mossoff commented on the analysis, writing on X that “data analytics confirm huge bias in favor of pro-Islamic regime of Iran by BBC, CNN, NBC and NY Times.”

“These media orgs used ‘war crime’ 32 times in news reports in the first 3 weeks of the U.S./Israel-Iran war. Zero references solely to crimes by Islamic regime, and 88% media uses referred solely to U.S. or Israel.”

“Islamic regime uses cluster bombs against Israeli civilians, shoots missiles and suicide drones at civilian targets in numerous Arab countries not involved in war, fires missiles at holy sites in Old Jerusalem, [but] zero identification of these war crimes as standalone crimes by major Western media organizations. This is shameful.”

Fox News Digital reached out to communications officials at CNN, the BBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC News for comment but did not hear back by deadline.

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CAMERA was founded in Washington in 1982 by social worker Winifred Meiselman in response to The Washington Post’s coverage of Israel’s incursion into Lebanon and allegations of anti-Israel bias.

Early advisors included Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., and former Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., according to its website.

The White House pushed back hard Friday against a news report that Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had been hospitalized at least twice for stress-related issues with the Trump administration that left him visibly upset and strained. 

The pushback came after a Politico report said Lyons was hospitalized at least twice while carrying out President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. 

The stress has left Lyons unable to carry out key decisions, the report states, citing two current and two former administration officials who were unnamed. 

ICE ASSAULTS SPIKE 1,500% AS DEMS DRAW ‘HARD RED LINE’ TO UNMASK AGENTS IN DHS BATTLE

“He would be visibly upset and struggling to make the decisions that were needed to be made by the director,” one former unnamed official told the news website. 

“Trash reporting from a trash “reporter” pushing tabloid b——- in an attempt to divide and distract. Todd Lyons is an American Patriot,” the White House Rapid Response X account said in response to the story. 

The episodes were attributed to pressure from above for Lyons to ramp up deportations and from top advisor Stephen Miller, who allegedly yelled at Lyons during morning phone calls with administration officials, Politico reported. 

“This is b——- and more of the trash that Daniel Lippman has peddled over the years in the name of clicks and clout,” Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, wrote on X in response to the Politico reporter’s story. 

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Politico was given “on record” denials prior to the story being published. 

WHITE HOUSE BLASTS TOP HOUSE DEMOCRAT AS A ‘BUFFOON’ AFTER JEFFRIES BRANDS STEPHEN MILLER A ‘HATEFUL BIGOT’

“Shame on Politico for publishing such inaccurate trash,” Jackson wrote on X. “Todd Lyons is an American patriot who has worked tirelessly to undo Biden’s disastrous immigration policies that wreaked havoc on American communities. 

“And the American people are deeply appreciative for his hard work making our country safer. Despite multiple on record denials and sources refuting their pathetic ‘reporting’ and *still* ran with this absurd article.”

The reported hospitalizations took place over several months. In one incident, Lyons was driven to a hospital by his security detail, and he was admitted overnight. 

In September, Lyons became distressed that ICE agents were unable to locate an illegal immigrant in Los Ángeles during a ride-along with top administration officials. 

One of his bodyguards took a portable defibrillator from a nearby government office to Lyons in case he needed medical intervention, the report said. 

After heated calls with Miller, Lyons expressed frustration that the White House was often mad at his agency, according to the current official and former official who heard such comments.

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“Todd, Stephen and the entire White House team have a great working relationship and coordinate closely to deliver on the president’s many promises,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. 

“Todd Lyons is an American patriot who has worked tirelessly to undo Biden’s disastrous immigration policies that wreaked havoc on American communities.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE and Politico. 

House Republicans’ gambit to end the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown survived a critical hurdle on Friday evening, teeing up a chamber-wide vote that will put the chamber on a collision course with the Senate. 

The House Rules Committee advanced a two-month DHS stopgap measure after House GOP leadership vigorously rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dubbing the funding bill a “joke.” President Donald Trump also criticized the Senate bill in an interview with Fox News.

The Senate deal provided full-year appropriations for DHS minus funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), halting roughly $5.5 billion for the agency. It also largely nixed funds for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), save for just over $11 billion for operations and support.

“The Senate’s proposal is nothing more than unconditional surrender masquerading as a solution, and the House will not bend itself into submission by acquiescing,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said Friday.

DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END

House Republicans are expected to have the votes to pass the 60-day CR in a chamber-wide vote, though Johnson will be able to spare just one GOP defection in a party-line scenario. A vote on final passage could occur as early as Friday evening.

House Democrats are expected to line up against the short-term funding patch, citing their opposition to funding Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts absent myriad reforms. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is also pinning the blame on House Republicans for prolonging the 42-day government shutdown.

“This could end and should end today,” Jeffries said Friday. “There is a bipartisan bill that has been sent over from the Senate that would reopen the non-controversial parts of the Department of Homeland Security, make sure TSA agents are paid and end the chaos at airports throughout the nation.”

Any CR from the House stands no chance of surviving in the Senate, given that Senate Democrats blocked numerous attempts by Republicans throughout the shutdown to pass short-term, two-week extensions.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber have also left Washington, D.C., with some going abroad on congressional delegations.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., immediately came out against Johnson’s plan and said that Democrats and Republicans reached unanimous agreement to advance the DHS funding bill while carving out immigration enforcement funding.

‘SHIP HAS SAILED’: THIS IS WHAT DEMS WON’T GET IN DHS DEAL AFTER SHUNNING GOP

“A 60-day CR that locks in the status-quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it,” Schumer said.

And a GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

When asked about its uncertain prospects in the Senate, House GOP leadership Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital that she hoped the upper chamber returned to Washington next week.

“I will tell you what can’t pass is what is what the Senate sent us at three in the morning,” McClain said. “We will not go back to the Biden administration, where we had wide open borders.”

Senate Republicans are already determined to front-load funding for ICE and CBP for the next several years in a new budget reconciliation bill, just as they did last year when Congress passed President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

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However, McClain insisted Friday that funding for ICE and Border Patrol must be handled through the appropriations process, rather than receiving additional money through another party-line megabill.

“Border deserves a guarantee. I’m not willing to roll the dice on ‘Oh, let’s try and do it in reconciliation.’ No. Let’s do what the American people sent us here in the ‘24 election to do, and that’s make sure our people are safe and our borders remain closed.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson chastised congressional Democrats Friday, saying Republicans will not be part of any effort to reopen America’s borders and stop the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. 

Johnson held a two-hour conference call with House Republicans Friday, saying they were all “united” in the party’s position to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end the partial government shutdown that has injected chaos into air travel. 

“They have taken hostage the funding processes of government so that they can impose their radical agenda on the American people,” Johnson told reporters of Senate Democrats.  

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: GOP EYES DHS DEAL FUNDING ICE PROBES, BUT NOT REMOVALS, AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS

“The Senate Democrats have foisted upon this appropriations process their radical, crazy agenda,” he added. “We call it crazy because that’s what it is. They want to reopen the borders, and they want to stop the deportation of dangerous criminal illegal aliens. We have to do these basic functions of government.”

On Friday, the Senate advanced a bill to fund much of DHS, except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol.

“The only thing standing between ending this chaos or not are House Republicans,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “There’s a bipartisan bill that emerged from the Senate with uniform support, and it should be brought to the floor immediately so we can pay TSA agents, so we can end the chaos at airports across the country and stop inconveniencing millions of Americans.”

Democrats have refused to fully fund DHS unless Republicans agree to new restrictions on federal immigration authorities. 

JOHNSON TURNS UP HEAT ON SCHUMER AS DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON, AIRPORT DELAYS MOUNT

“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson said of the bill. “It is unconscionable to me that the Democrats would force some sort of negotiation at three o’clock in the morning and try to hoist this upon the American people and then get on their jets and go home for their holiday and pretend and think that we’re going to go along with that.”

Lawmakers have come under increased pressure to strike a deal to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents after many have resigned and lines at airports across the country have swelled daily because of staffing issues. 

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA agents despite Congress having not appropriated the funds for it. 

Johnson said Republicans will put forward a continuing resolution for all agencies under DHS to keep operating at their current funding levels. 

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“The reason that we can’t accept this ridiculousness is because we’re not going to risk not funding the agencies that keep the American people safe,” he said. 

The shutdown began in February, weeks after federal agents shot and killed two people in separate incidents during immigration raids in Minnesota. Democrats have demanded changes to ICE and DHS and have refused to fund the agencies. 

U.S. officials and analysts are weighing whether seizing Iran’s main oil export hub could deal a crippling financial blow — but experts warn the high-risk move may not shut off Tehran’s revenue as quickly or completely as expected.

Analysts say U.S. planners face a high-stakes decision: whether seizing Kharg Island would actually disrupt Iran’s oil revenue or leave key export flows intact while exposing American forces to sustained attack. Options under discussion range from interdicting tankers at sea to striking export infrastructure from the air, approaches some argue could pressure Tehran’s finances without putting troops on the ground.

“There’s a big debate going on right now,” R.P. Newman, Marine veteran and counterterrorism analyst, told Fox News Digital. 

Kharg Island handles the vast majority of Iran’s crude oil exports, making it one of the most strategically significant energy nodes in the region and a central pressure point for any effort to economically squeeze Tehran.

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“We certainly have the ability, military wise, to take it,” said R.P. Newman, a Marine veteran and counter-terrorism analyst. 

Some analysts argue that taking Kharg could deliver an immediate economic shock, cutting off the regime’s primary source of oil revenue and potentially giving Washington leverage in broader negotiations. 

But such an operation would not be simple.

“It would take thousands to do that,” he said.

U.S. forces already have struck the island hitting more than 90 Iranian military targets, including missile and naval mine facilities, earlier in March while deliberately avoiding oil infrastructure, leaving export operations largely intact.

Retired Adm. Kevin Donegan, former commander of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, said the same objective could be achieved without putting U.S. forces on the island.

“You could achieve that desired outcome just by constraining the flow that comes out of Kharg after it gets outside the Gulf,” Donegan said.

“You could stop every ship that comes out,” he added.

Robbins said the U.S. could also disable Kharg’s export capability with air power rather than seizing it outright.

An influx of thousands of troops from Marine expeditionary units and the Army’s 82nd airborne division has raised speculation that a ground operation could be on the way. 

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday U.S. operations could wrap in “weeks, not months” and without ground troops. 

“We are ahead of schedule on most of (the objectives), and we can achieve them without any ground troops, without any,” Rubio told reporters during a trip to Paris for a meeting of G-7 foreign ministers.

Even if U.S. forces were able to seize the island, some analysts warn the economic impact would not be immediate.

“The desired full economic effect of taking Kharg Island is going to be a delayed effect if you don’t also seize underway tankers,” said Gregory Brew, analyst at the Eurasia Group, said. 

Any operation targeting Kharg would strike at one of Iran’s most critical economic assets.

“Sales of petroleum products have generally covered between 30 and 40% of the official state budget,” Brew said. “There’s no question the state budget will take a significant hit.”

But a loss of oil revenue would not necessarily cripple the regime’s core power structure.

“The IRGC has what is in effect a shadow budget,” Brew said. “If anything, its relative position may improve.”

That means that while the government’s official budget would shrink, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could retain a larger share of the country’s remaining resources through its independent revenue streams.

Even if Kharg were taken offline, Iran would retain other ways to keep exports flowing.

“Iran does have four other export facilities,” Brew said.

Its terminal at Jask, Iran, located outside the Strait of Hormuz, “can handle around one-fifth of the volume of oil that can be exported from Kharg.”

“Stopping completely would require interdicting that traffic as well,” Brew added. 

That means any effort to fully choke off Iran’s oil exports would likely extend beyond Kharg, requiring action against multiple export routes and facilities.

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Sustaining the island would prove difficult as well, putting U.S. forces on a sea-locked target within range of Iranian drones, rockets and missiles from the mainland.

“Any deployment to the island will be vulnerable to Iranian counterattack,” Brew said.

“They would be a very small force, very exposed,” said James Robbins, dean of the Institute of World Politics and a former adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Beyond the initial assault, sustaining forces on the island would present additional challenges.

“Once the guys are on the ground, then you have to support them and that would be extremely hard,” Robbins said.

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Some analysts also question what a successful seizure would ultimately achieve.

“To what end would be the question,” Robbins said. “I don’t see an endgame to that, to seizing Kharg.”

President Donald Trump has publicly announced a reprieve on strikes on energy infrastructure until April 6, citing “progress” in negotiations with Iran. 

But Iranian officials have accused the president of “psychological warfare” and expressed skepticism. 

Iran already has begun preparing for a potential Kharg invasion, moving additional forces, bolstering air defenses and laying mines and other traps around the island, including along potential landing areas, sources familiar with the intelligence told CNN.

The Pentagon and the Iranian mission to the United Nations could not immediately be reached for comment. 

President Donald Trump announced a series of actions Friday aimed at assisting farmers and food suppliers to help cut costs amid rising energy prices, promising a new “golden age” for the agricultural industry. 

Trump shared guidance on farm equipment regulations in an effort to cut costs and increase government loan guarantees for agricultural products, including tractors, among other reforms. 

He said much farm equipment has become unaffordable for many farmers.

“Every day we’re looking for new ways to support our farmers, reduce your costs, and to help lower the price of food for the American family,” Trump said on the South Lawn of the White House. “We’re going to prove that the golden age of American agriculture is right here and right now.”

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The Biden administration crippled the farming industry, Trump said, with harsh restrictions and bad trade deals. 

To help them, Trump said his administration recently used tariff money to give farmers $12 billion in relief. 

“I’m also asking Congress to quickly pass the new farm bill,” he said. “And today, I’m promising to request additional farm relief for our great patriots in the next funding bill.”

AMERICA’S QUIETEST CROP IS SET TO TAKE CENTER STAGE IN TRUMP–XI TALKS

In addition, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) will alter guidelines around a system designed to limit diesel emissions that will save farmers billions of dollars, Trump said. 

He also announced new guidelines to limit Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) rules, which mandate that modern diesel engines use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

“It was a basic disaster,” Trump said. 

Trump also highlighted the EPA’s efforts to boost renewable fuels from agricultural products, while criticizing environmental activists. 

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“What they’ve done to you, and the country – what they’ve done to the country – is just incredible,” he said. “They are terrorists.”

Trump also announced new loan guarantees from the Small Business Administration (SBA) for small business in the agricultural industry, including food suppliers, farmers – including vegetable farmers, grain farmers and seed farmers – cattle, pig and poultry producers and grocery wholesalers.