NationalWatch

A fraud expert who testified before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday warned the federal government lacks the tools and policies needed to prevent criminals from using artificial intelligence against taxpayers.

“What’s happening right now is the fact that we simply don’t have the right tools to deal with fraud,” David Maimon, head of fraud insights at SentiLink, told Fox News Digital.

“We don’t have the right policies to deal with fraud. We don’t have enough deterrence. We have no close collaboration between the government and the [private] sector to try and find the right solution to this issue.”

The hearing, “Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape,” was held by the Government Operations Subcommittee as the Trump administration wages a nationwide “War on Fraud,” led by Vice President JD Vance and focused on how the federal government can better detect and prevent emerging fraud threats through stronger digital identity verification.

ALLEGED FEEDING OUR FUTURE FRAUD RINGLEADER TRANSFERRED FROM SOMALIA TO FACE US CHARGES

“Fraud against government programs is no longer a series of isolated schemes,” Maimon told lawmakers during the hearing. “It is a durable, specialized criminal infrastructure.”

He also told lawmakers that “criminals exploit the seams between agencies precisely because our defenses are built program by program, while their infrastructure is built to move across all of them.”

Maimon highlighted how his company has collected intelligence to “understand how the criminals work, what they do and how they do what they do” while uncovering networks where fraudsters share stolen information and tactics.

“We were able to infiltrate thousands of markets where fraudsters are operating. Where you can find identities and stolen checks, you can find tutorials of how to engage in fraud against the government or target financial institutions across the country,” he said.

One of the biggest challenges, he said, is keeping pace with rapidly evolving fraud tactics.

“The most important thing is to make sure that the government is aware of some of the fraud trends we’re seeing out there that fraudsters are engaging in, essentially stealing taxpayers’ money,” Maimon said.

Maimon said the government’s slow deployment of fraud-fighting tools allows criminals to “take advantage of these opportunities” and “continue to exploit” resources.

“The bad guys are moving faster than the government,” he said. “While the government is still trying to catch up and roll out better tools, criminals keep finding new ways to steal money.”

Criminals are now using AI to create fake documents, videos and phishing emails that steal passwords and personal information or bypass identity verification, according to Maimon.

“It’s difficult to prove that you’re not essentially using AI while verifying your identity with documents and liveness tests and selfie images,” he said.

TRUMP ADMIN INVESTIGATING 75 TRUCK DRIVER SCHOOLS FOR FRAUD, HELPING NON-CITIZENS GET LICENSES

During the hearing, Maimon said fraudsters are already using “AI-generated faces and deepfake video to defeat liveness checks at digital banks and tax preparers.”

Pointing to his earlier investigation of Medicaid fraud, Maimon said his team discovered providers that had billed the government about $2 million and claimed to have staff and caregivers, but when investigators visited the addresses in person, many of the employees and operations didn’t exist.

“Sometimes you need to take a look at signals that appear in the database but also at the physical location,” he said.

Instead of relying on a picture or video, Maimon said the government should verify identities using trusted historical data that is harder for AI to fake.

I’M OHIO’S STATE AUDITOR — MEDICAID FRAUD IS NOT JUST A WASHINGTON PROBLEM

“In order to make sure that we address this issue — and it really depends on the type of fraud that you’re dealing with — but to address this issue in a more effective way, maybe we need to have some historical signals around identities we’re trying to verify, rather than just looking at images that could be created easily by AI tools,” he said.

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Maimon told lawmakers the fraud affects more than the government’s finances, ultimately hurting the people these programs are designed to serve. 

“Every dollar we protect from organized fraud is a dollar that stays available for the people Congress intended to help,” he said. 

But after years of studying the dark web and Telegram marketplaces, Maimon said law enforcement has uncovered only a fraction of organized fraud.

“I think they’re just scratching the surface.”

Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., is campaigning to return to Congress alongside a self-described Maoist activist and political organizer whose online videos and social media rhetoric has included urging leftists not to disavow Hamas or Hezbollah, has included calls to “unmake” America, applauded burning the American flag and endorsed political violence.

The activist, Christopher Winston, has built an online presence across numerous platforms under the pseudonym “BlackRedGuard,” posting and appearing in videos about “Maoist organizing in DSA,” attacking leftists who say they do not support “Hezbollah/Hamas” and using rhetoric that appeared to condone political violence. In one video reviewed by Fox News Digital, Winston asked, “What’s wrong with throwing molotovs at a police station?” 

Bush, an ousted Squad Democrat mounting a comeback bid in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, appeared in a recent social media post standing right beside Winston as he participated in supporting her campaign. 

SOCIALISTS LAUNCH RADICAL PLATFORM TO ABOLISH THE US SENATE IN BID TO FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM AMERICA

Fox News Digital asked Bush’s campaign whether Winston has any formal or informal role with the campaign, whether Bush knows him personally and whether he was invited to the event, but the campaign did not answer those questions, instead sending a link to a Fox News article about Joy Behar, co-host of “The View,” defending democratic socialism, noting it “should clear up any questions you have about DSA.”

“If you say sh– like ‘I don’t support Hezbollah/Hamas’ and call yourself a leftist you lame. All power to all the resistance. Peace through the sword,” Winston, a St. Louis-area activist working with the DSA said in his social media post shaming those on the left who condemn Hamas and Hezbollah.

Other posts from Winston called to “unmake” America and said the American flag “should always be desecrated.” 

“Do not fix America. Unmake it,” a June 2025 post from Winston’s X account said. 

“I applaud the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of the slavery and genocide which built America. It should always be desecrated in that way,” a separate 2024 post from Winston said. 

Meanwhile, during a 2024 video posted on YouTube titled “Debating Commie Gobbledegook (Ft. Black Red Guard),” Winston is asked why, as a Maoist, he chooses to be a part of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). 

 “Well, it’s obvious why I’m a Maoist in the DSA. There’s a lot of naive young white people to brainwash,” he said.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Winston and the DSA for comment on Winston’s remarks and affiliation with the group, but did not hear back.

At another point during the same video, Winston questions “what’s wrong with throwing Molotov cocktails at a police station?” 

When his co-host tried to check him, replying that doing such would be “an easy way to get your whole organization, like, kind of destroyed,” Winston shot back: “That’s why we want the masses to do it.”

He later argued that if the goal is a “socialist” or “communist” revolution, “people are not going to pick up a gun and fight” for something they do not understand, adding that activists must “teach people what communism is.”

A Fox News Digital review of Winston’s X account found several social media posts praising Bush, including a 2023 post where he said, “Yeah, I’m a Maoist ultra with dreams of riding into power on a tank like Fidel and Che but in the meantime Cori Bush is the best congressperson right now and we need to back her.”

“Cori Bush is the best of STL, and DSA,” Winston said in May at a Bush campaign event.

“Cori Bush is running for Congress again. STL-DSA voted to endorse her overwhelmingly. Help beat the AIPAC money that stole her seat here,” Winston said last year.

Winston’s appearance alongside Bush is not the first time her political orbit has drawn scrutiny over hard-left activists and anti-Israel figures. Her comeback bid has already faced questions over campaign spending and alliances that critics say show the same activist network is helping power her effort to return to Washington.

CORI BUSH RIPPED FOR ‘JAW-DROPPING’ HYPOCRISY ON KEY ISSUE AMID COMEBACK HOUSE BID

Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that Bush’s comeback campaign paid more than $20,000 to “Unbought Power,” a consulting firm publicly linked to far-left activist Rasha Mubarak, whose ties to Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s political operation had already drawn scrutiny. 

Mubarak has close ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), “which was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2009 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial,” according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, and has publicly called to “abolish the police,” backed defund-the-police efforts and repeatedly accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.”

“Mubarak has also been a speaker at events held by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), an organization that promoted the BDS movement,” the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy noted in a report.  “Previously, in September 2023, she served as the press contact for the Arizona-based non-profit Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), which was investigated for ties to Samidoun, an anti-Israel advocacy group banned in Germany, Canada, and Israel and classified as a terrorist entity in the United States for financing the PFLP.”

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In her prior campaigns for Congress, Bush also received help from radical anti-Israel activists. During her 2024 re-election bid, Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill headlined a virtual “Jews for Cori” fundraiser, according to Jewish Insider, which described Sarsour and Hill as “controversial far-left activists with histories of antisemitism.” 

Sarsour has been accused of praising a convicted terrorist and has compared Zionism to white supremacy, while likening Zionists to neo-Nazis. She had to walk back remarks after stating Israel “is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else,” and lost her seat on the board of the Women’s March amid allegations of antisemitism that she subsequently denied.

Hill, meanwhile, was fired from his job at CNN after making anti-Israel comments that his former employer, Temple University, called “virulent anti-Semitism and hate speech.”

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Bush’s alignment with the anti-Israel left has also repeatedly put her alongside fellow “Squad” Reps. Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Bush, Tlaib and Omar held a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 7, 2023, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza two months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Bush and Tlaib later became the only two House members to vote against the No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act, a bill aimed at barring Hamas members and non-U.S. nationals involved in the Oct. 7 attack from immigration benefits. 

Tlaib was eventually censured by the House over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric, including her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea.” 

Meanwhile, Bush’s rhetoric after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack also drew condemnation from the Biden White House. Fox News Digital reported that Bush called for ending U.S. support for what she described as Israeli “military occupation and apartheid” in the wake of the attack, prompting then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to blast Squad members’ comments as “wrong,” “repugnant” and “disgraceful.”

A Hawaii Supreme Court justice used a ruling overturning a decades-old criminal conviction to deliver a blistering rebuke of Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court, accusing the nation’s highest court of weakening constitutional rights, damaging democracy and advancing a political agenda.

Justice Todd Eddins authored the 91-page majority opinion Wednesday in State v. Granillo , a case involving a man convicted in 1990 of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman on Maui. The court ordered a new trial after concluding that hair and fiber evidence presented by an FBI expert relied on forensic science that has since been discredited.

But in roughly eight pages of the opinion, Eddins argued Hawaii’s courts should not look to the Roberts Court when interpreting the state constitution, using the case to deliver an unusually sharp critique of the nation’s highest court.

LAWYER WHO BEAT HAWAII GUN LAW CALLS STATE’S RELIANCE ON BLACK CODE ‘DISGRACEFUL’

“When six justices walk away from those they are supposed to protect, state constitutions hold the line,” Eddins wrote, referring to the court’s six conservative justices. “That is not defiance. That is the design.”

Eddins argued that Hawaii’s Constitution provides stronger protections than the federal Constitution as currently interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, and said the Court has abandoned landmark civil rights principles.

“The Court that now defines federal due process does not honor the work of 1954,” Eddins wrote. “It revives the work of 1857. The work of 1896.”

Eddins was referring to Brown v. Board of Education, ruled in 1954, which ended racial segregation in public schools, as well as Dred Scott v. Sandford, the infamous 1857 decision denying citizenship to Black Americans and Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 ruling that upheld racial segregation.

Eddins argued that the Roberts Court no longer reflects the constitutional principles established in Brown v. Board of Education, but instead, he argued the Court’s originalist approach relies on the same type of constitutional interpretation in the discredited Dred Scott and Plessy decisions.

“Today’s hubristic originalists use the same method to control modern life,” Eddins wrote.

SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN LIMIT ON PARTY CAMPAIGN SPENDING IN COORDINATION WITH CANDIDATES

“The Court overrides what Congress passed,” Eddins continued. “It overrides what the people chose. All to serve its own ends. What this Court has done to constitutional rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law explains why Hawaiʻi’s Constitution takes no instruction from it.”

Throughout the opinion, Eddins pointed to many of the Roberts Court’s most consequential decisions as evidence that constitutional protections have been weakened, including Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion; Citizens United v. FEC on campaign finance; Rucho v. Common Cause on partisan gerrymandering; Trump v. United States on presidential immunity; and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which expanded Second Amendment protections.

Eddins accused the Roberts Court of adopting a “colorblind” approach to the Equal Protection Clause that, in his view, ignores the amendment’s original purpose of protecting formerly enslaved Black Americans.

“The Roberts Court sees only white,” he wrote. “It refuses to acknowledge who the Equal Protection Clause was written to protect.”

He also suggested that recent Supreme Court decisions have repeatedly expanded the power of government officials and wealthy interests while reducing protections for individual rights.

“A court that systematically dismantles democratic safeguards, steamrolls constitutional liberties, and tramples human dignity does not chart the course for the Hawaiʻi Constitution,” he wrote.

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The opinion quickly drew criticism from legal observers, who said it was highly unusual for a state supreme court opinion to devote so much space to criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Court issues an unhinged attack on the legitimacy of the Supreme Court,” Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan wrote on X. “I haven’t ever seen something like this. And it’s not good.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley similarly described the opinion as “devoid of judicial restraint and decorum.”

“The Hawaii Supreme Court just issued a truly shocking opinion that unleashed a torrent of rage and recrimination against the majority of the United States Supreme Court, including suggesting that they are de facto racists,” Turley wrote on X.

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The opinion comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court handed Hawaii a major loss in Wolford v. Lopez, striking down the state’s so-called “vampire rule.” In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled Hawaii could not require gun owners to get a property owner’s permission before carrying a firearm into businesses and other private property open to the public.

Eddins has served on the Hawaii Supreme Court since 2020 after being appointed by then-Democratic Gov. David Ige.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Friday that the Trump administration is seeking to debank illegal immigrants as an incentive for them to self-deport from the United States.

Miller gave an update on the White House’s latest tactic to deter illegal immigration during an interview Friday on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show.

“President Trump signed an executive order a few weeks ago saying that we are not going to allow illegal aliens to use banking services in this country,” Miller said.

“Illegal aliens have credit cards, they have bank accounts, and they’re paid with direct deposit. So, illegal aliens fully participate in the commercial systems, the financial systems of America. Shutting that down is a massive engine for deportation,” he added.

OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE TORPEDOES TRUMP‘S BID TO PROTECT US JOBS BY REFORMING CONTROVERSIAL IMMIGRATION POLICY

Miller was likely referring to an executive order Trump signed on May 19 that directed banks and federal regulators to increase scrutiny of accounts and credit applications involving immigrants without legal status or work authorization.

The order did not explicitly instruct banks to deny credit cards or bank accounts to illegal immigrants, but compliance with it could make it more difficult for them to participate in the financial system.

Federal agencies have already begun acting on Trump’s executive order.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ORDERS GREEN CARD APPLICANTS TO LEAVE THE US, APPLY FROM THEIR HOME COUNTRIES

In early June, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, led by Russell Vought, issued guidance stating that lenders may — and in some cases must — consider applicants’ immigration status and work authorization when assessing their ability to repay loans.

Miller also referenced guidance from three federal agencies issued on July 13 “reminding supervised financial institutions to apply existing safe-and-sound credit risk management practices when lending to borrowers who are not legally authorized to work in the United States.”

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Both advisories serve to tell banks that illegal immigrants could be higher-risk customers for loans.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said this week that he received two calls from agencies suggesting Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., died while he was in the hospital.

In an interview with Katie Couric uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, Beshear, a Democrat, did not specify which agencies allegedly called him with the news or when the calls were made.

“In fact, I’d gotten two calls from different agencies, not state agencies, suggesting he’d passed,” said Beshear, who has served as governor since December 2019.

Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear and McConnell’s offices for comment.

GOP SENATORS SPLIT AS TUBERVILLE DEMANDS MCCONNELL ANSWERS

After nearly a month of being hospitalized, McConnell’s office released a lengthy statement on July 12 saying he was being treated for a fall he suffered in June. A picture of him in a hospital bed alongside his wife was also released.

Prior to the announcement, there was speculation about what had happened to McConnell, given that his office did not reveal why he was in the hospital for weeks.

Emergency dispatch audio from June 14, the day McConnell was hospitalized, revealed he was “unconscious” and may have suffered a heart attack.

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“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion,” McConnell said in the statement last weekend. “I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages.”

Two days before the longtime GOP leader shared more about his condition, Beshear posted on social media demanding that McConnell be more transparent.

“I publicly and privately urged the last administration to address the public’s concerns with the former president’s health,” Beshear wrote, seemingly a reference to former President Joe Biden. “I’m calling on Sen. McConnell to do the same and provide voters an update on his own health.”

Beshear ended the post by urging McConnell to “end the crazy speculation” and “just tell us what’s going on.”

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On July 8, Beshear also wrote a letter to the 84-year-old lawmaker requesting that he “fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health.”

McConnell’s doctor said he “developed pneumonia” early in his hospitalization but “responded rapidly to antibiotic treatment.”

McConnell said he intends to return to the Senate, but his office has given no timeline on when he’ll be able to do so.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., will run for Senate in South Carolina following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, he revealed Saturday.

“I’m here to announce that I will be a candidate for the Senate, I’ll be throwing my hat into the ring, and day one, Kayleigh, I will be laser-focused on passing President Trump’s America First” Norman said during an appearance on “Saturday In America with Kayleigh McEnany.”

Norman then championed Trump’s SAVE America Act and said he would focus on eliminating the filibuster, saying Republicans need to “nuke” the procedure.

Norman made the announcement just days after President Donald Trump publicly endorsed Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister who was appointed to finish the remainder of his term, to run for the seat fully when her term is up in January.

CONSERVATIVES UNITE AROUND SAVE AMERICA ACT AFTER TRUMP DECLASSIFIES ‘SHOCKING’ ELECTION INTEL

DARLINE GRAHAM IS CONSIDERING RUNNING FOR A FULL SENATE TERM, A REPORT SAID, AS MEMORIAL SERVICES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR HER LATE BROTHER LINDSEY GRAHAM.

“I hope Darline does this, in ⁠that there would be nobody better to honor ​the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey,” Trump ​said in a Truth Social post, also writing “Run Darline Run.”

Norman acknowledged Trump’s endorsement Saturday, telling McEnany he asked for Trump’s blessing.

“He decided to go with Darline, who’s a nice person, and he decided to go with her and I respect that, but that doesn’t deter my plans. I’m in this to win,” he said.

Norman will be running in the Aug. 11 special GOP primary election, revealing that he is in the process of filing the paperwork.

Though not backed by Trump, Norman has received support from GOP Senators Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., both of whom endorsed him. The pair, like Norman, are both vocal opponents of the filibuster.

Norman will be entering a competitive primary, as at least two other candidates have declared their intentions to run with further challengers expected to enter the race.

Businessman Mark Lynch, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the recent June primary, has announced his candidacy, as did attorney Duke Buckner.

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And though Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., hasn’t publicly announced an intention to run, state lawmakers are already eyeing his seat in the House should he decide to enter the fray, according to reporting from News From The States.

Fox News Digital contacted Reps. Norman, Mace and Fry, along with Sen. Darline Graham for further comment.

Legal minds across the political spectrum are admonishing an Obama-appointed federal judge for suggesting that bar associations should look into sanctioning lawyers working for the president or the Justice Department, with one liberal constitutional law professor refusing to teach his students that such a move is acceptable.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams formally referred Trump attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar in an opinion released Monday and ordered the ruling sent to authorities considering existing disciplinary complaints involving Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. The disciplinary actions stem from Williams’s ruling in a case involving a settlement that shielded Trump, members of his family and affiliated businesses from certain federal tax audits and claims.

Bar associations have the ability to suspend the law licenses of individuals practicing law in their jurisdictions, giving them significant power over the ability of lawyers — including powerful DOJ officials — to do their work.

“The court would also have litigants believe that, in such a circumstance, it is not only appropriate to dismiss the case but also to sanction and deprive litigants and their counsel of their reputation, license, or money,” constitutional law professor Christian Lee Gonzalez-Rivera, who identifies as a liberal, told Fox News Digital. “As a law professor, attorney and former judicial law clerk, I refuse to teach the former or accept the latter.”

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The existing complaint against Blanche alleges that he mishandled evidence linked to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, used the DOJ to attack Trump’s personal enemies and failed to properly represent the interests of the United States during the negotiations that led to the creation of the now-defunct $1.8 billion weaponization compensation fund. 

Woodward, meanwhile, faces a bar complaint alleging that his approval of the creation of the weaponization fund constituted a conflict of interest as he had previously represented Jan. 6 defendants and Trump associates who could potentially benefit from it. 

Gonzalez-Rivera, who teaches law at a Catholic university in Florida, said that the judge’s order “effectively sanctions the bringing of debatable, if losing, arguments in high-stakes first impression cases,” arguing that it would have been ridiculous if judges recommended professional punishments for lawyers who were on the losing sides of other high-profile, historical court cases.

LEGAL WAR ON TRUMP’S AGENDA GAINS FIREPOWER AS FEDERAL LAWYERS DEFECT TO DEMOCRATS

Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official now serving as the vice president of litigation at a right-wing watchdog group, cautioned that Williams’s order — if allowed to become the norm — could seriously damage the legal profession by empowering a small number of bar association insiders.

“This nonsense has to end. The State and local bars are not the superior officers of or the equivalent of a school-marmish national Principal’s Office that sits in supervision of two highest-ranking leaders of the Justice Department,” he wrote on Monday. 

“If this trend continues, no future Republican lawyer is going to agree to enter the U.S. Justice Department to carry out the President’s law enforcement orders as the Constitution intended,” Clark continued. “Power will instead be monopolized and moved only to the Left … The Framers would be shocked to learn that the real boss of Executive Branch legal power is not the singular President of the United States, but instead committees of insular coastal elite lawyers purporting to wield the meta-power of legal ethics.”

MIKE DAVIS: WHY SENATE MUST IGNORE OBAMA JUDGE’S ATTACK ON AG NOMINEE TODD BLANCHE

Clark has also faced disciplinary proceedings in Washington, D.C., where a disciplinary board recommended he be disbarred over his role in a proposed DOJ letter to Georgia officials after the 2020 election — allegations he has denied and cast as politically motivated.

“DOJ has the power to put an end to this nonsense by issuing regulations preempting state/local bar weaponization,” he added.

While Williams ordered the clerk to forward her opinion to disciplinary authorities reviewing existing complaints involving Blanche and Woodward, she formally referred Brito to the Florida Bar after finding that he advanced the case in “bad faith.”

Williams said Trump’s lawsuit surrounding his tax immunity settlement was used to give judicial legitimacy to a legally baseless settlement; she flagged conflict concerns involving Blanche and Woodward’s prior clients and ordered the opinion sent to their bars, while formally referring Brito to the Florida Bar because he signed the complaint that launched the case.

“I find it absurd that federal judges continue to attack DOJ lawyers, to include and especially Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, with roots in nothing more than the political viewpoints of those supposed unbiased judges,” Jay Town, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, told Fox News Digital.

Williams was appointed to the bench in 2011 by President Barack Obama. She previously issued a ruling against “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention center operated by the state of Florida to house illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, but was overruled by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“On the bright side, this and the likely more orders like this one we may see out of other district courts nationwide … may nevertheless present higher courts — perhaps our highest one, too — with a chance to revisit judge-made doctrines like justiciability, which increasingly show their ability to be weaponized not only from outside but also from within the judiciary itself,” Gonzalez-Rivera told Fox News Digital.

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Conservative lawyer Mike Davis has called on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Williams’s ruling in this case. 

“The federal Judge in Florida clearly strategically timed her referral of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the New York Bar to come just before his confirmation hearing to be elevated to the Attorney General’s Office,” Clark told Fox News Digital. “This is flatly unconscionable non-judicial conduct.”

Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate and reality TV star Spencer Pratt took aim at Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in a post that was widely praised by conservatives on social media.

“If you find yourself defending a child molester, saying: ‘WE can’t be judged by OUR worst day’, you probably need to have your hard drives checked,” Pratt posted on X on Friday.

Pratt was responding to a clip of Walz defending the pardon of a convicted child rapist, contending that his deportation by the State Department did not make the U.S. safer.

“Did that make us any safer?” Walz questioned. “Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable? Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?”

TIM WALZ OFFERS STRANGE DEFENSE FOR PARDONING CONVICTED CHILD RAPIST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEPORTED

Pratt’s post quickly spread on social media from other conservatives bashing Walz.

“I couldn’t agree more, @spencerpratt,” Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, posted on X. “Tim Walz has ZERO morals. He is disgrace to Minnesota!”

EXPOSED DOCS REVEAL WHY TIM WALZ BOARD AWARDED REPEAT CHILD RAPIST PARDON: ‘NO FUTURE’

“To think… he was almost the Vice President,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted on X.

“I didn’t used to understand the phrase, ‘bring common sense to DC,’ but it becomes more apparent every day that it’s missing at every level of government,” Florida Republican congressional candidate Tim Wilkins posted on X. “This is insanity.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for comment.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons, composed of Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, granted clemency to Laotian national Tou Lue Vang, 42, on June 10. Vang was scheduled to be deported from the United States before the pardon.

Vang was convicted for repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl between 2002 and 2004, and told authorities after he was arrested that “it is a cultural thing… to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in to terminate Tou Lue Vang’s legal status in the U.S. and ensure that Walz’s actions would not create roadblocks for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removing him from the country before Vang was ultimately deported.

Pratt has been increasingly active in politics on social media since finishing third in the Los Angeles mayoral primary and recently met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office which increased speculation that another political run could be in his future.

“I will never stop fighting for my community,” Pratt captioned the photo of the meeting on X.

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.

A House task force chairman says companies helping foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth so their children obtain U.S. citizenship could be engaging in a criminal conspiracy.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, told Fox News Digital that his panel has subpoenaed several so-called “birth tourism companies” as it investigates firms advertising services to help foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth.

“Right now, under current law, birth tourism is illegal. You cannot come into the United States for the purpose of giving birth,” Gill said.

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“And I believe that there’s a compelling legal case to be made that these businesses that are facilitating this process — facilitating somebody coming into the United States to give birth — lying on their immigration forms or on their visa forms — are engaging in a form of criminal conspiracy, and that’s what we’re going to get to the bottom of,” Gill said.

State Department regulations prohibit foreign nationals from obtaining visitor visas when consular officers determine that their primary purpose is traveling to the United States to give birth so their child obtains U.S. citizenship.

While Gill’s task force has been quietly looking into several companies since at least 2025, the national scrutiny intensified after photographs circulated in July of a billboard advertising for the Women’s Center at Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission, Texas – a stone’s throw from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The Spanish-language billboard advertised a now-defunct “Have My Baby In Texas” website, and quoted Mission Regional providing births for $3,950 and Caesarean Sections for $5,525. It also displayed a phone number that included “001” – the country code required for international calls to the U.S.

MAINE GOP HOPEFUL VYING FOR TRUMP ENDORSEMENT PREVIOUSLY RAN BIRTHING CLINICS CATERING TO MIGRANT WOMEN

Gill and others have since issued responses to the controversy, with the State of Texas also launching its own investigation of the hospital.

“I think it’s astounding,” Gill said. His task force is investigating several similar operations, including one in Miami, and has requested records from that business and three others nationwide.

Gill said birth tourism is an “obvious and clear abuse” of the U.S. immigration system and of the benevolence of the American people and the nation’s institutions.

TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT COMES ROARING BACK WITH ‘INVADERS’ PLAY AFTER KAVANAUGH ROADMAP

“We are the ones who often end up picking up the tab for a lot of these services,” he said, arguing that birthright citizenship was intended for former slaves and their children when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868.

“It had nothing to do with hordes of illegal aliens crossing our southern border and giving birth in America and using those babies to anchor illegal aliens into our country. And for all of America’s history, we’ve always had a very clear understanding that there are certain people who are born within America’s boundaries, within America borders, who are not American citizens, the children of an invading army.”

The latter point was captured by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and put into legislation Fox News Digital exclusively broke earlier in the week.

That proposal would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order deeming the illegal immigration crisis an “invasion” and cite the 1898 Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court case’s exemption of citizenship for people not “bound to render obedience to the sovereign (U.S. government) whose domains are being invaded.”

Gill said he had heard about but not fully read Banks’ bill – but underlined he believes it to be a “phenomenal” plan of action.

“I think that that is the type of legal clarification that could help us out quite a bit in the long run,” he said.

“Remember that the goal is to make sure that our children’s birthright isn’t being taken away from us because foreigners are coming in and having babies in our country and then buying up our homes and taking American jobs and using welfare that the American people are paying for.”

Gill said the crisis touches on the biggest issue from the 2024 election cycle, which he considered to be the illegal immigration crisis writ-large.

“In this case; seeing people cross the border so that their children can be anchored into the United States. That is such an obvious abuse of the American People economically, socially, culturally. It’s a huge risk to America’s national defense.”

A Mission Regional spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday the hospital remains an “award-winning, nonprofit” infirmary that has been operating as such since 1954.

“We recognize that a very limited marketing campaign may have caused unintended misunderstanding and was immediately discontinued. The campaign was meant to highlight services available to the communities we serve and was never intended to encourage any unlawful activity and Mission Regional Medical Center remains committed to serving the Rio Grande Valley with integrity, compassion, transparency, and full compliance with all applicable laws,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the billboard campaign returned very little patient volume and no financial benefit to a community they said has a high uninsured-patient rate and limited maternity care.

“The hospital does not support or facilitate unlawful activity and has never operated its obstetric program with the intent of attracting individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States, promoting birth tourism, or encouraging travel to the United States for the purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child,” the spokesperson added.

Citing a separate order from Austin, the spokesperson said 99% of all emergency and inpatient patients who responded to a state-required survey were legal U.S. residents or citizens.

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“Birth tourism should never be big business in the United States. This tactic exploits U.S. immigration law, and those who willfully mispresent their intentions to temporarily come to the U.S. are breaking the law,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the greater Oversight Committee said in May.

In a concurrence to the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling striking down Trump’s birthright citizenship order, Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated that Congress could still act through legislation. Gill, Banks and other lawmakers have said they plan to pursue that route as they seek to restrict birthright citizenship.

Trump’s housing chief is taking aim at New York City’s housing agenda, arguing the policies championed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani would worsen affordability rather than solve it by discouraging private investment.

“Socialist progressive policies never work,” Turner told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “To try to implement those policies in one of our greatest cities in the world — you will see people leaving New York in droves. Businesses and families can’t afford it.”

Turner’s comments come as Mamdani has made housing affordability a centerpiece of his administration, backing policies like rent freezes for stabilized apartments and higher taxes on corporations and wealthy residents to fund affordable housing. He also wants local government to play a larger role in addressing New York City’s housing shortage.

NEW YORK CITY IS ABOUT TO TEST MAMDANI’S PROGRESSIVE ECONOMIC VISION, HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW

As America’s largest city and one of its most expensive housing markets, New York has become a focal point in the national debate over how to address affordability.

Turner’s criticism reflects the Trump administration’s broader affordability strategy, which, in contrast to Mamdani, emphasizes reducing regulations, expanding the nation’s housing supply and encouraging private-sector investment rather than increasing government’s role in the market.

The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary told Fox News Digital that states such as Florida and Texas are “ahead of the game” on addressing the affordability crisis because they have prioritized homebuilding and reducing regulatory barriers that drive up costs.

He argued New York should follow a similar approach, saying affordability improves when governments make it easier for builders to construct new homes rather than expand their role in the housing market.

“That’s what we’re doing now is easing the regulatory environment, bringing the cost down, raising the supply so builders can build and homeowners can buy,” Turner said.

‘AMERICAN HOUSES ARE FOR AMERICAN PEOPLE’: TRUMP HOUSING CHIEF INSISTS IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN WILL LOWER COSTS

Turner contrasted that approach with the policies championed by Mamdani in the nation’s largest city, arguing his approach discourages the investment needed to increase housing supply.

“The policies that he’s putting forth are not encouraging, they’re discouraging,” Turner said. “People want to go a place where they can get the government out of the way. The government is not the answer. The private sector is the answer. Family is the answer. Church and faith is the answer.”

Turner predicted that Mamdani’s governing philosophy would ultimately fail.

“Mamdani and his policies are the complete opposite of that,” Turner said. “So no, they’re not gonna work, period.”

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Mamdani has argued his proposals are necessary to address New York City’s housing affordability crisis, contending that stronger tenant protections and expanded public investment would help ease rising costs for working families.

Mamdani’s office did not respond to Fox New Digital’s request for comment.

NEW CITY, N.Y. – The battle for the House majority will be won or lost in congressional districts like New York-17, NY-3, and NY-4, three crucial swing seats in suburban New York City.

And as Republicans work to hold onto their razor-thin House majority in this autumn’s midterm elections, they view the ongoing battle between the left-wing and the center-left establishment for the future of the Democratic Party as political ammunition as they portray Democrats as radicals.

“Democrats have gone further and further and further to the left with no end in sight,” Republican Rep. Mike Lawler argued in a Fox News Digital interview.

Lawler, a two-term lawmaker who represents NY-17, which covers much of New York City’s northern suburbs, spoke soon after three far-left Democrats backed by socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defeated more moderate, establishment-backed rivals in showdowns that drew outsized national attention.

MEET THE FAR-LEFT INSURGENTS WAGING WAR ON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Two of primary winners were aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and two of the defeated candidates were congressional incumbents.

“My district is impacted significantly by what happens in New York City. Many of my constituents work in the city, they’re cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers,” Lawler said.

He charged that “these radical socialists are taking over the Democratic Party, not just for Congress, but the state legislature. And as I said last year, Zohran Mamdani would become the face of the Democratic Party and its leader, and that is precisely what he is doing.”

Lawler’s Democratic challenger in the midterms is not backed by either the DSA or two other far-left groups, the Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY CIVIL WAR HITS DEBATE STAGE IN CRUCIAL PRIMARY SHOWDOWN

But Lawler, pointing to Democratic nominee Cait Conley’s stance on key issues, argued, “The fact is that she agrees with them from a policy standpoint, even if she doesn’t couch herself in the same title of socialist.”

“My opponent would be a rubber stamp for the radical socialists who are coming, and she wouldn’t have the ability to stand up to these people and push back, and the fact is the Democrats have gone further and further and further to the left with no end in sight,” he charged.

But Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that any GOP push to paint Democrats as far left radicals are “desperate attacks.”

“The midterms will ultimately be a referendum on who is going to lower costs and help improve the lives of everyday Americans – which House Republicans have failed spectacularly to do. In the purple, majority making districts, ” DelBene argued in a statement to Fox News Digital.

She charged that “Republicans already know they’ve lost the American people, and that’s why they are resorting to desperate attacks that aren’t actually about the pocketbook issues, but just baseless spin that falls flat with voters who are eager to reject Republicans.”

Conley, a West Point graduate and military combat veteran who was awarded three Bronze Stars during six deployments to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, pushed back on Lawler’s criticism.

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“Voters are sick of political insiders, politicians, political operatives who care more about their next reelection than they do solving the actual problems with the time they are given to represent their people,” Conley told Fox News Digital, indicating Lawler, a political strategist before serving as a state lawmaker and then winning election to Congress.

Conley emphasized that “we need new leaders, not people who are part of the political insider network.”

The race in NY-17 is among two to three dozen across the country that will determine if the GOP holds its razor-thin House majority.

So are the showdowns in NY-3 and NY-4, which are located in New York City‘s eastern suburbs on Long Island.

“I think it will definitely affect us in Nassau County since we’re a border county,” Jeanine Driscoll, the GOP nominee in NY-4 told Fox News Digital, as she referred to the far-left Democratic victories in neighboring New York City. “Bringing in three ultra left wing people who are proclaiming themselves to be socialists, really communists, is going to wake people up.”

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Driscoll, the receiver of taxes in the town of Hempstead, America’s largest township by population, is challenging Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen, who flipped the district two years ago.

Just to the north, in NY-3, Republican nominee Mike LePetri is facing off against veteran Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who narrowly topped LePetri in 2024.

“Frankly, the people of Long Island and northeast Queens are scared. They’re concerned about the future of America if you have the Democrat Party take over the House of Representatives,” LePetri told Fox News Digital.

Gillen and Suozzi are among a group of moderate House Democrats who earlier this year launched the “Promise to America,” a centrist political pledge that rejects socialism, supports secure borders, and promotes fiscal responsibility and economic growth.

“I call myself a new kind of old-fashioned Democrat. Someone who believes in the traditional values,” Suozzi said in a recent “Fox and Friends” interview.

Suozzi emphasized, “We’re for capitalism, not socialism. We’re for safety, not lawlessness. We’re proud of America. Not ashamed of America. And we need to be promoting those things.”

“There are people in the Democratic Party that are left of center that don’t agree with the far left. And we just need to do a better job organizing because you’ll see big rallies for people who are extremists, far right, far left, but if I show up and say ‘hey lets work together to solve the problems that we face in our country,’ you’re not going to get a big rally for that,” Suozzi said.

But LePetri charged that Suozzi “is two faced. He says one thing, but votes exactly with his conference.”

And Driscoll, speaking of Gillam, argued, “they claim they’re moderate. If you look at her voting record, her voting record is not moderate.”

Top Republicans are using the recent victories by the far-left as a cudgel to bash Democrats in competitive races.

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President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned of a “communist” threat.

Vice President JD Vance argued recently on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that Democrats have “a view that the United States is an evil country that must be dismantled from the ground and then built back up. That’s communism at its core, and you see more and more momentum in that direction from the Democrat Party.”

But CJ Warnke, communications director at the Democrat-aligned House Majority PAC, told of Fox News Digital that “Republicans are grasping for straws because they have no record of success to run on. They’ve spent the last year supporting tariffs, health care cuts, and the Iran War — all of which have caused prices to skyrocket. Their poll numbers are sinking and this is a desperate ploy to save their campaigns — and it will fail.”

Far-left podcaster Emma Vigeland raised eyebrows this month with her reaction to Maine oysterman Graham Platner’s political collapse.

Vigeland, a former Young Turks correspondent who now co-hosts The Majority Report With Sam Seder podcast, said on a separate Vox podcast that she doesn’t care if a progressive or socialist candidate has “Nazi” skeletons in their closet.

“I am wary of over-focusing on an individual’s personal character over their platform. You know, I’ve said this before. I don’t really care if say like Bernie Sanders or AOC go home and they’re a secret Nazi, but they go out and they vote for the right things. Like we’re talking about politicians…” the Democratic Socialists of America member said during the podcast, which published earlier in July. 

“You don’t care?” Vox host Astead Herndon cut in as Vigeland trailed off.

PLATNER’S THREE-DAY VETTING JOB COMES BACK TO HAUNT DEMS AS RAPE ALLEGATION ROCKS SENATE BID

Vigeland added that that was an “extreme example” but that candidates and politicians are a representation of a party’s platform such as “taxing billionaires [and] bringing material differences to people’s lives.”

“And that’s what I value more than anybody’s individual conduct because … how many horrible people are in Washington right now who are centrist or center-right.”

DEMOCRATS WANT US TO FOCUS ON GRAHAM PLATNER’S POLICIES. HE FAILS MAINE THERE, TOO

Herndon later said some voters do view moral character of a candidate as a qualification for office, while Vigeland replied that people taking a “victory lap” over Platner’s fall also supported former President Bill Clinton and ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo – both of whom were previously accused of sexual misconduct, which they denied.

Reaction on X was fierce, as one user posted an image of Vigeland in a Schutzstaffel uniform, writing “In the 1940s, Emma Vigeland would have volunteered to the SS.”

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Another critic called socialism and communism a “dark road these people are going down,” noting the party platform includes extremist proposals like abolishing the U.S. Senate and branches of federal law enforcement.

SOCIALISM’S RISE INSIDE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOW THREATENS THE AMERICAN DREAM

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“It is sold to the people with false claims and utilizing those base instincts that are powerful but difficult to manage in a civil society.”

Vigeland’s comments come after years of socialist and far-left groups and individuals repeatedly derogatorily branding conservatives and Trump supporters “fascists” – a political movement invented by then-Italian “Duce” Benito Mussolini; a close ally of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Fox News Digital reached out to Vigeland via her Majority Report program and to Platner’s campaign for comment.

Prominent House Democrats appeared caught off guard when asked about the newly announced plan by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) that calls to destroy the current America’s political system — eliminating the Senate, president and Supreme Court.

“I don’t support that,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said when asked about the new agenda. “I haven’t read the proposal.”

The revision to the DSA platform, “Workers Deserve More” plans to abolish the Senate entirely and replace the president and Supreme Court with an executive branch and judiciary elected by and subordinate to Congress.

BERNIE SANDERS, DSA REVEAL DEMANDS FOR DEM PARTY AFTER SOCIALISTS SWEEP NEW YORK ELECTIONS

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of the most progressive Democrats in Congress, dodged answering questions on the new socialist agenda from Fox News Digital.

“I’m not a member of the DSA, so I can’t comment on any documents that they put out,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said.

The political commitments of the program are split into three sections, with the last section calling “for a unicameral, proportional legislature (abolishing the Senate) and a parliamentary system (abolishing the presidency), among other goals.”

The platform additionally calls for the complete abolishment of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pardoning all immigrants, including those who have committed crimes, and defunding the Department of War.

DSA CO-CHAIR PUSHES BACK ON SOVIET UNION COMPARISONS, WANTS PRISONS TO BE ‘LESS NECESSARY’

The organization has publicly advocated for ICE to be abolished since 2018 and its current platform calls for a slew of other extreme immigration reforms, including an “immediate end to all deportations,” “extending full voting rights to people with criminal convictions and noncitizens” and easing restrictions on immigration control for migration between countries.

The far-left plan comes as the socialist agenda is proving to be making its way into the mainstream Democratic party as several DSA members and self-proclaimed socialists have been beating out more moderate Democrats in many of this year’s primary elections.

Aguilar told Fox News Digital that he was “not at all” worried about the wave of far-left, socialist candidates complicating the Democratic party’s agenda.

“I look forward to working with all our colleagues who run as Democrats,” Aguilar said.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS ERUPT OVER 2028 ENDORSEMENT AS AOC SPECULATION GROWS: ‘DANGEROUS PATH’

In a statement published Friday in Democratic Left, the DSA’s official magazine, the organization laid out the formal requirements for these socialist candidates to receive an endorsement from DSA.

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” Workers Deserve More will have a formal role in DSA’s national candidate endorsement process. Candidates will “be expected to accept and promote DSA’s program, and align their own campaign platforms with its contents to the best of their ability,” according to the resolution calling for a new Workers Deserve More .”

The endorsement requirement means the platform is more than a policy wish list as candidates seeking a DSA endorsement are expected to campaign in line with its agenda, even as House Democrats like Omar, Khanna and Aguilar tell Fox News Digital they had either not read the proposal or declined to comment on it.

A vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election in a battleground district repeatedly complained that outdoor recreation has long been dominated by White males and called for “equitable access” to those spaces, according to unearthed podcast appearances reviewed by Fox News Digital.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., who previously referred to New Mexico as “stolen land,” praised national conservation organizations during a June 2020 appearance on the “Mountain & Prairie” podcast for adopting what he described as more “equitable” policies aimed at expanding access to the outdoors for people of color.

“People of color are getting outdoors,” Vasquez said in remarks first reported by The Daily Wire. “There’s amazing organizations out there that are just promoting diversity amongst the outdoors and big national organizations that are slowly and finally starting to get it and actually promote policies that create more equitable access and opportunities.”

“Spaces that have been traditionally White will no longer be White,” Vasquez continued. “Secret spots will no longer be secret. And hunters and anglers and hikers and everybody in between will look different. And so, not only should you be OK with that, not only should you tolerate that, but you should embrace that.”

IOWA DEM ADMITS BEING ‘UNCOMFORTABLE’ WITH WHITENESS AS SHE SEEKS TO FLIP COMPETITIVE HOUSE SEAT

“It’s up to us to be the change that we want to see,” he said.

Later in the interview, the New Mexico Democrat criticized conservation groups that he said lacked diversity.

“Today, I think every single executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation up until today has been a White male,” he said. “There’s no cultural connection, there’s no authentic desire to communicate or connect with Hispanic communities.”

Vasquez in 2017 co-founded Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, a left-leaning organization devoted to making the outdoors more “equitable” and advancing environmental justice. He first won election to the House in 2022.

The remarks come as Republicans have pointed to Vasquez’s comments on race and previous criticism of law enforcement to cast him as out of step with his majority-Hispanic district, which President Donald Trump carried by two points in 2024.

Earlier this year, Vasquez voted against a GOP-authored resolution honoring law enforcement during National Police Week. The measure notably contained language criticizing the Defund the Police movement and sanctuary city policies.

“This DEI-fueled racism is the exact woke nonsense New Mexico’s Second District rejected in 2024 when it elected President Donald Trump, and it will cost Vasquez at the ballot box in November as voters choose common sense over crazy,” Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Vasquez campaign for comment.

In a 2020 interview, Vasquez argued that racism was ingrained into “just about every part of life,” Fox News Digital previously reported. In the same interview, Vasquez, who was then serving as a Las Cruces city councilmember, voiced openness to licensed psychologists taking over some of the police’s responsibilities.

He also sharply criticized “White rich men” in a June 2020 tweet shortly after the death of George Floyd.

“Black lives matter. Until we deconstruct and rebuild the systems of oppression that keep Black people in perpetual harm, justice will not be served,” he wrote. 

“That includes law enforcement, the economy, and the disgusting wealth inequality that keeps white rich men in power.”

Vasquez also appeared to back rioting during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 in a since-deleted tweet, CNN’s KFile first reported.

UNEARTHED CLIP EXPOSES MORE ANTI-POLICE RHETORIC AS EL-SAYED GETS GRILLED FOR DELETING SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

His focus on race also extended into conversations about outdoor recreation.

In a June 2022 interview with “The Trail Ahead” podcast, Vasquez described Nuestra Tierra as “being led by people of color with an all-people-of-color board.”

He told an anecdote where he claimed to have experienced racism and claimed White people received special treatment in conservation on the podcast.

“I have missed out on a whole lot of opportunities just because I’ve asked for compensation, and it shouldn’t have to be that way,” he said. “Because if I was a White consultant working with a major brand or a major nonprofit, and they were seeking a solution they would pay me for my services. They would pay me for my advice.”

“But it’s not the same the other way around,” he added. “People just expect people of color … what you have to say and what your thoughts are not of monetary value.”

Vasquez will face Republican Greg Cunningham, a Marine veteran and retired police officer, in November’s general election. Cunningham is part of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s flagship MAGA Majority program, which backs top recruits seeking to flip Democratic-held seats.

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The nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race in Vasquez’s favor from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democrat” in January, citing Trump’s declining poll numbers and Democrats’ election wins in 2025.

Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Pass sparked an unlikely political firestorm after conservatives applauded the restaurant’s photo ID requirement, arguing the policy is stricter than voting laws in some Democrat-led states.

“Olive Garden requires ID to use their never ending pasta pass but most Democrat run states don’t require your ID to vote. So in America, our pasta deals are literally more secure than our elections. Maddening and hilarious at the same time,” one conservative commentator, Robby Starbuck, wrote on X.

Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Pass gives customers unlimited meals, but the restaurant requires passholders to present a valid photo ID matching the name printed on the pass when ordering. Conservatives swiftly shared the restaurant’s X post announcing the policy, praising it and drawing comparisons to the broader debate over voter ID requirements.

“The Never-Ending Pasta Pass is only for use by the Passholder whose name is printed on the Pass. Passes are personalized and non-transferable. Passholders must present a valid photo I.D. along with the Pass at the time of ordering,” the restaurant posted to X on Thursday.

GOP CIVIL WAR ERUPTS OVER TRUMP’S LATEST AGENDA PUSH AS KEY REPUBLICANS THREATEN TO SINK MEGABILL

“Olive Garden takes their Pasta Pass security more seriously than Democrats take election security,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “It’s sad but true.”

“The SAVE America Act is a commonsense police, supported by the vast majority of Americans, that will secure our elections for generations to come. The only people opposed seem to be Democrats in Congress… I wonder why?” she added.

Fourteen states and Washington, D.C., do not require most voters to present identification when voting in person.

The SAVE Act includes President Donald Trump’s long-sought voter ID and citizenship verification guardrails — which Republicans say is key to ensuring elections are safe and secure.

“We really live in a nation where Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Pass is more secure than our elections! Make it make sense. Pass the SAVE America Act,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita wrote on X.

“American elections should not be less secure than Olive Garden’s endless pasta. Pass the SAVE America Act,” wrote Utah Sen. Mike Lee on X.

WATCH: HAWLEY FUMES AFTER 4 GOP SENATORS HELP SINK TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID LAW

“Only in America do you need a photo ID for bottomless pasta at Olive Garden, but not to vote,” said conservative influencer Isabel Brown.

“If you have to show ID to eat pasta at Olive Garden, you should have to show ID to vote,” posted the official RNC Election Integrity account.

“Olive Garden’s never-ending pasta pass is more secure than our federal elections. Make sense to anyone? Pass the SAVE America Act,” wrote Arizona Rep. Eli Crane.

REPUBLICAN SAYS TRUMP’S TOP ELECTION PRIORITY ‘DEAD’ IN SENATE AS GOP FRACTURES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

President Donald Trump addressed the nation Thursday evening on “free and fair” elections urging Congress to pass the SAVE Act.

“I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your representatives and the House and Senate, and demand that they pass the Save America Act without delay. Together, we will restore faith and confidence in our country, and we will be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” said Trump.

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Trump has tried to attach the stalled election legislation to defense spending, holding housing legislation hostage and playing Senate primary politics.

Republicans are running against the clock to pass the stalled elections bill before the party’s midterm window narrows.

EXCLUSIVE: Navy veteran and GOP Senate candidate Adam Schwarze is blowing the whistle on new voter fraud evidence uncovered in the state of Minnesota. 

What tipped him off? The state says that he voted in person at the polls in the 2012 presidential election. The only problem is that Schwarze says that “it was physically impossible for that to occur.”

Schwarze said that at the time he was nearly 2,000 miles away in the California mountains attending BUD/S, the Navy’s elite training course for SEALs. In fact, Schwarze recalled “I got my a– beat” specifically for not voting.

“All the instructors, the morning after the election, we woke up, Obama won the election, and they said, ‘Who didn’t do their absentee voting?’ And of course it was like a gotcha, none of the SEAL candidates had gone to do their absentee voting. We were all in SEAL training, right? So, they beat the snot out of us for three hours.”

TRUMP ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH EXPOSES MASSIVE AMOUNT OF DEAD PEOPLE ON NORTH CAROLINA VOTER ROLLS

Despite this, Minnesota state records reviewed by Fox News Digital indicate Schwarze voted in 2012. The records, however, do not say who he supposedly cast a ballot for. This has led Schwarze to raise serious voter fraud questions in the already-scandal-ridden state and ask if it happened to him, how many others have “voted” without knowing it.

Minnesota does not require ID to vote, something that Schwarze believes would have made it easy to vote under his name in 2012. He was completely oblivious to this fraud against him until he launched his Senate campaign.

After a reporter fact-checked him for saying he had only ever voted for President Donald Trump, he was shocked to find that records on the Minnesota Department of State’s website indeed indicate he voted in person in 2012. Further, records indicate an unknown person registered him to vote the day of the 2009 Minneapolis mayoral election, which was the city’s first election using ranked choice voting. His voter registration became active the day after the 2009 Minneapolis mayoral election.

In response to Fox News Digital’s request for clarification on Schwarze’s voting record, a spokesperson for the office of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon simply said that “Minnesota’s election system is governed by extensive state and federal laws to ensure it is honest, secure, and accurate.”

“Minnesotans fundamentally trust our election system, which is why we are consistently number one in voter turnout,” the spokesperson said, adding that “In 2026, Minnesota ranked #1 by Election Data and Science Lab at the MIT on the Election Performance Index is a non-partisan, biennial survey and analysis comparing election administration policy and performance across the country.”

The spokesperson encouraged “anyone who wants to learn more about the election security measures in Minnesota” to visit the state’s election security webpage. 

The website also asserts that “Minnesota elections are the envy of the nation,” and states, “We are proud of our strong voter turnout, laws that ensure access to the ballot, robust security measures, and the transparency that’s an essential part of maintaining trust in the system.”

Meanwhile, Schwarze believes that this shows that “just like the fraud goes back decades, so does the voter integrity issues.”

Schwarze commissioned as a Navy officer in May 2012. He was sent to Naval Amphibious Base Coronado for training the next month. Fox News Digital reviewed a copy of Schwarze’s BUD/S orders, which show his report date for the roughly six-month course as June 12, putting his graduation from the course in December.

VANCE REFERS TIM WALZ, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL TO DOJ FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OVER STATE’S ALLEGED FRAUD

Come November, when the presidential election took place, Schwarze said: “I was on a mountain in Mount Laguna, California.”

“It was physically impossible for that [vote] to occur,” he said.

This comes after Minnesota has been rocked by a widespread Medicaid fraud scandal that was uncovered earlier this year and potentially amounted to billions of stolen tax dollars. Minnesota’s top leaders, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is also running for the U.S. Senate, have been criticized nationwide for having allowed the fraud to spiral out of control during their watch.

To Schwarze, the tax and election fraud go hand in hand.

“The fraud of your tax dollars is not happening in a vacuum. It’s connected to other forms of fraud, like election integrity,” he said. “Just like the fraud is an iceberg, the tax fraud, once we start rolling that iceberg over, we don’t know how big it gets until we fully investigate it.”

“We just don’t know how deep this goes,” he continued.

EXPOSED DOCS REVEAL WHY TIM WALZ BOARD AWARDED REPEAT CHILD RAPIST PARDON: ‘NO FUTURE’

Since he discovered his mysterious vote, Schwarze said that his requests to state officials for more information have yet to be fulfilled. He said he does not even know who he is marked as having voted for.

“This clearly shows that we have an election integrity issue in our state,” he said. “So, let’s solve the problem. Let’s open up the voting log: [Minnesota Secretary of State] Steve Simon, Tim Walz, Peggy Flanagan, Keith Ellison. Let’s have same-day voting in person with paper … with an ID; the American citizens want that as well. That’s my plea.”

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“I’ve fought my entire life for the United States of America. I fought for democracy all over the world,” he continued. “And one of the pillars and foundational principles of democracy is free, fair and transparent elections, and we don’t have any of those things right now in the United States of America.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz, Flanagan, Simon and Ellison for comment.

After a popular Italian restaurant chain dished out an online response to a curious diner about its new unlimited pasta pass, politically-minded social media users, including those at the top of the food chain, are taking a stand.

Olive Garden took to X on Wednesday to promote its new deal, which offers customers the chance purchase a “Never Ending Pasta Pass” for $100 plus tax, giving the first 10,000 people to purchase their pass 13 weeks of unlimited pasta.

A user posed a question to the iconic American restaurant chain, asking whether they could purchase the unlimited pasta pass and share it with their family.

WATCH: ELISSA SLOTKIN SAYS SAVE AMERICA ACT WOULD MAKE IT ‘HARD FOR ANY DEMOCRAT’ TO WIN AN ELECTION

“No. The Never-Ending Pasta Pass is only for use by the Passholder whose name is printed on the Pass,” Olive Garden replied. “Passes are personalized and non-transferable.”

“Passholders must present a valid photo I.D. along with the Pass at the time of ordering,” the chain instructed from its X account.

Immediately, the political right seized the opportunity to prove a point — that Olive Garden appears more strict about its unlimited pasta promotion than Democrat-run states are about voting. The timely post comes as Trump continues to push for what would be a signature legislative victory — the SAVE Act — which, if passed, would require photo identification to vote. It has faced fierce pushback from the left-wing, who have argued against requiring proof of identity to cast a ballot in elections.

“Olive Garden takes their Pasta Pass security more seriously than Democrats take election security,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “It’s sad but true.”

“The SAVE America Act is a commonsense police, supported by the vast majority of Americans, that will secure our elections for generations to come. The only people opposed seem to be Democrats in Congress… I wonder why?” she added.

WATCH: MCCARTHY SAYS TRUMP WILL USE ‘EVERYTHING HE CAN’ TO FORCE SENATE ACTION ON SAVE AMERICA ACT

The social media post quickly caused an online feeding frenzy.

“PUT OLIVE GARDEN IN CHARGE OF OUR ELECTIONS!!!” one popular X account quipped.

“I hope you understand that this is extremely discriminatory towards minorities and married women,” one user said, parroting talking points that the political left has used in opposition of the SAVE Act.

MEMPHIS PIZZA JOINT SPARKS BACKLASH AFTER OWNER REFUSES TO SERVE NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS

Another user also mockingly used the common parlance of the political left in response to Olive Garden’s strict policy.

“I’m sorry, but this sounds incredibly racist to me, a requirement ID and some sort of proof of being a passholder will negatively affect marginalized communities ability to access Olive Garden,” wrote the sarcastic user. “Do better Olive Garden.”

“Are you saying that if photo ID is not presented, it could lead to cheating the system?” another social media user asked.

“Good grief, Olive Garden is more secure than our elections,” said yet another.

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Since Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act in February, the bill has faced major obstruction by Democrats in the Senate, as the conservative lawmakers don’t have the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.

Earlier this week, SAVE Act language was attached to a State Department appropriations bill in a creative attempt to pass the law.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom ignited an online firestorm on Thursday evening when, in response to President Donald Trump’s election integrity speech, he suggested that it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president for displaying what he described as cognitive impairment.

“The only thing missing in Donald Trump’s speech was tin foil. This was a legitimate 25th Amendment moment — the rambling of a mad king,” Newsom said.

Newsom’s call to use the 25th Amendment plays into preexisting calls from Democrats to examine Trump’s cognitive performance, but also sparked controversy online about how Democrats could seriously question Trump’s mental state when they dismissed similar concerns about now-former President Joe Biden.

HOUSE DEMS UNVEIL BILL TO EXAMINE REMOVING TRUMP USING 25TH AMENDMENT

The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, allows the Cabinet to deem the president unfit for duty or allows Congress to establish an independent body to make that call.

To some critics, that case was much stronger under the last administration.

“You literally propped up a vegetable and lied to the American people about his cognitive decline for four years and never mentioned the 25th amendment once,” the official Republican National Committee X account wrote in response, referring to Republican doubts that Biden had the mental acuity to run the country at age 82.

“Given Newsom’s defense to this day of President Biden, calling him one of the greatest presidents ever, there’s a saying around sitting this one out that applies here…” Fox News contributor Joe Concha wrote on X.

“Gavin Newsome wants to remove [Trump] from office for disclosing California could have tens of thousands of aliens illegally registered to vote and that China attacked 220 million voters,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

Trump addressed the country on Thursday evening, informing the public that his administration had discovered a series of weaknesses in election integrity.

In particular, Trump said newly declassified documents would reveal foreign data theft carried out by China, that members of the U.S. government had known about election vulnerabilities for years, that Americans had been misled about those weaknesses and new evidence of “election fraud.”

Fox News Digital could not independently verify the content of the documents that were released by the White House.

Like many Democrats, Newsom cast doubt on the motives behind Trump’s speech, which came just four months ahead of the November midterms.

‘SHADOW GOVERNMENT’: TRUMP CLAIMS INTEL COMMUNITY BRAGGED ABOUT HIDING CHINESE MEDDLING

“He wants to rig the election in 2026. He knows he is going to lose. That’s what that whole thing was about,” Newsom said.

Other Democrats on Thursday rushed to Newsom’s support.

“Boom. Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked after Trump’s unhinged speech tonight. He’s right! Trump is mentally deranged and unfit to be president,” Harry Sisson, a Democratic influencer, wrote in a post to X.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., also echoed those calls.

“He lies with every breath he takes. How can anyone deny the urgency of the 25th Amendment at this point?”

This isn’t the first time Ansari has called to implement the 25th Amendment. Earlier this year, she joined other Democrats like Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to call for Congress to remove Trump and establish an independent group to review the cognitive state of any president. The group would have included past presidents, physicians and other experts.

“Trump is clearly experiencing severe cognitive decline and leaders from every political affiliation have recognized this. He’s become a national security threat to the United States,” Ansari said in April.

Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on if he would support the bill supported by Ansari.

Other conservatives raised concerns about how invoking the 25th Amendment might upend the country, taking it into uncharted territory.

DONALD TRUMP’S AGE IS NOT RECEIVING THE SAME ‘SCRUTINY’ AS BIDEN’S DID, ATLANTIC WRITER COMPLAINS

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“Does anyone else think it’s weird that as he talks about Trump rigging an election, he simultaneously asks for the president’s cabinet to remove a duly elected president?” Joe Patterson, a California assemblyman, said in a post on social media.

“Yeah, Gavin … that would pose no risk to our democracy at all. Get real!”

A federal appeals court on Friday struck down New Jersey‘s ban on semiautomatic rifles and magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, prompting the National Rifle Association (NRA) to call the decision a “historic victory” in a case the gun-rights organization has litigated since 2018.

In a sweeping en banc ruling, the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that New Jersey’s assault-firearm and large-capacity magazine restrictions violate the Second Amendment.

The court expanded a lower court’s ruling by declaring the state’s so-called “assault-firearm” ban unconstitutional as it applied to the full class of semiautomatic rifles, not just the AR-15, and also struck down New Jersey’s ban on semiautomatic rifles and its restrictions on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

DOJ SUES DENVER OVER BAN ON ‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ AS CITY’S DEM MAYOR SAYS IT ‘WILL NOT BE BULLIED’

“This is an NRA case that we’ve been litigating since 2018, so it’s a monumental win,” Justin Davis, managing director of public affairs for the National Rifle Association, told Fox News Digital.

The NRA celebrated the decision in a statement, calling it a major victory for gun owners nationwide.

“Today marks a historic victory for the NRA, the Second Amendment, and law-abiding Americans,” the organization said.

INSIDE TRUMP’S UNPRECEDENTED BATTLE PLAN TO EXPAND SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS THROUGH JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

“The Third Circuit has struck down these unconstitutional so-called assault weapons bans and magazine bans in New Jersey, affirming what we’ve always known: the right to keep and bear arms, including commonly-owned rifles and standard-capacity magazines, is fundamental and cannot be infringed by politicians who prioritize control over constitutional freedoms.”

“This ruling protects the rights of millions of responsible gun owners in the Garden State and serves as another benchmark in our efforts to dismantle gun control across the country.”

Writing for the majority, U.S. Circuit Judge Arianna Freeman, a Biden appointee, said the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen and subsequent cases require governments to show modern firearm restrictions are consistent with America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

Applying that framework, the court concluded New Jersey failed to meet that burden.

LAWYER WHO BEAT HAWAII GUN LAW CALLS STATE’S RELIANCE ON BLACK CODE ‘DISGRACEFUL’

The majority held that New Jersey’s ban on semiautomatic rifles violates the Second Amendment and reversed the district court’s decision upholding the state’s ban on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

The opinion said New Jersey enacted its “assault-firearms law” in 1990, following a California elementary school shooting.

According to the court, the governor at the time described the banned firearms as “guns capable of wholesale destruction” that were “designed to wipe out the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time.”

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The majority concluded that semiautomatic rifles and magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds are protected by the Second Amendment and that New Jersey failed to demonstrate the restrictions are consistent with America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

Several judges dissented, arguing the banned firearms are unusually dangerous military-style weapons that states have long had authority to regulate and that the decision conflicts with every other federal appeals court to uphold similar state restrictions.

Despite President Donald Trump’s tight clamp on the border, cartels are continuing to attempt to smuggle humans and narcotics by going underground using a vast network of storm drain tunnels in El Paso.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) elite Confined Space Entry Team gave Fox News an exclusive look inside the narrow tunnels, which stretch for miles across the region.

There are 32 entry points into the tunnels from the Rio Grande and hundreds of exit points throughout the city. The team said this makes patrolling the tunnels a game of “whack-a-mole” because smugglers can pop out of storm drains at any point. According to CBP, it is much more difficult for Border Patrol agents to detect and intercept smugglers using these secret routes. Nevertheless, they use technology to detect movement underground, monitor entry points and strategically position teams to intercept groups.

The greatest challenge, a team member told Fox News, is the heat and the time spent in the tunnels’ thick, low-oxygen air. He said that often by the time they encounter a cartel smuggler, “you’re already exhausted, and now, you have to potentially fight with someone underground.”

EXCLUSIVE: GUATEMALAN NATIONALS PLEAD GUILTY TO HORRIFIC HUMAN SMUGGLING CRASH THAT KILLED 56, INJURED 100+

“You can’t call for backup; you can’t call for help. It’s just you and your team versus everybody else,” he said.

Team members said that the number of migrants being smuggled through the tunnels has dropped dramatically under Trump. Whereas there would regularly be groups of 40 to 60 people moving through the tunnels, agents now typically encounter two or three at a time.

Still, the smugglers have not stopped entirely. Reports indicate that cartels have significantly increased their fees for would-be illegal immigrants to take the tunnel routes, with migrants paying $20,000 to $30,000 per person to be guided through the underground routes.

MEXICAN NATIONAL SENTENCED IN BORDER CHILD SMUGGLING CASE INVOLVING THC-LACED CANDY

CBP also said that smugglers are increasingly using social media to recruit and train guides to navigate the hazardous passageways. The conditions underground are perilous, with poor air quality and intense heat, and El Paso daytime summer temperatures often exceed 100 degrees.

To prepare for this mission, the elite CBP team undergoes specialized training to operate underground, monitor oxygen levels and navigate the tunnels.

Fox News got this exclusive look as the Department of Homeland Security announced this week that June marked 14 consecutive months of zero releases at the border, continuing what it touted as an “unprecedented trend of historically low border crossings.”

TRUMP REVERSES DHS POLICY, ORDERS ICE TO RESUME VEHICLE STOPS AFTER ONE-DAY PAUSE

Daily apprehensions at the border are down 94 percent from what they were during the Biden administration, according to DHS.

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Meanwhile, CBP has broken staffing records this spring, the agency announced, reaching 21,471 agents — the most in the agency’s 102-year history.

Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.