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The so-called deported “Maryland man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom Democrats have been demanding the Trump administration return to the U.S., was previously pulled over by a highway patrol officer while driving a car belonging to a confessed human smuggler, multiple sources in DHS confirmed to Fox News Digital.

The sources confirmed documents reported by Just the News that revealed Abrego Garcia was pulled over driving an SUV belonging to Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, another illegal alien who in 2020 confessed to human smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal alien whom the Trump administration recently deported back to El Salvador, was pulled over on Dec. 1, 2022, by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper who stopped him after he was “observed speeding” and unable to stay in his lane.

The trooper noticed eight individuals in the car with Abrego Garcia, who said he began driving three days prior from Houston, Texas, to Temple Hills, Maryland, via St. Louis, Missouri, to “perform construction work.” The report on the stop states that the trooper suspected it was a human trafficking incident, as there was no luggage in the vehicle. Additionally, the individuals in the car reportedly gave the same address as Abrego Garcia’s home address.

KILMAR ABREGO-GARCIA SUSPECTED OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN REPORT OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the so-called “Maryland man” championed by Democrats, was previously pulled over by police while driving a car belonging to a confessed human smuggler. (Alex Peña/Getty Images | Fox News)

When speaking with the trooper, Abrego Garcia allegedly “pretended to speak less English than he was capable of and attempted to put encountering officer off-track by responding to questions with questions.” After the incident, the officer decided not to give Abrego Garcia a citation for the driving infractions, but rather to give him a warning for driving with an expired license. 

New documents further reveal that Abrego Garcia was driving a black 2001 Chevrolet Suburban that he said belonged to his “boss.” The Suburban was identified by DHS as belonging to Hernandez Reyes, who pleaded guilty to human smuggling after being caught in Mississippi in a car with passengers from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.

According to another document also confirmed by DHS sources, the Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore field office further flagged the vehicle being driven by Abrego Garcia as belonging to a target they suspected of human trafficking or smuggling.

The office said that the “vehicle is used by HSI Baltimore target in human smuggling/trafficking operation. Vehicle makes trips to southern border to pick up non-citizens.”

THERE’S ‘NO QUESTION’ THAT ABREGO GARCIA ‘HAD DUE PROCESS REPEATEDLY,’ GOP LAWMAKER SAYS 

This undated photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia.  (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP)

According to police and court records shared with Fox News Digital, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Hyattsville, Maryland, in October 2019, at which point he was identified by the Prince George’s County Police Gang Unit as a member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang.

A federal immigration court in Baltimore further determined Abrego Garcia was not eligible for release because he “failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that his release from custody would not pose a danger to others, as the evidence shows that he is a verified member of MS-13.”

The court held that “the fact that a ‘past, proven, and reliable source of infonnation [sic]’ verified the Respondent’s gang membership, rank, and gang name is sufficient to support that the Respondent is a gang member” and that Abrego had “failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion.”

Court records involving Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, have further shown that he is a “violent” repeat wife-beater.

DEPORTED ILLEGAL ALIEN AND SUSPECTED MS-13 GANG MEMBER TRANSFERRED FROM NOTORIOUS EL SALVADORAN MEGA-PRISON

In this undated photo provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is led by force by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador.  (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)

Fox News obtained the written domestic violence allegations filed in court against Abrego Garcia by his wife in 2021.

In the filing, written in Vasquez’s own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: “At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.”

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Vasquez alleged that Abrego Garcia punched and scratched her on her eye, leaving her bleeding. He also allegedly threw her laptop on the floor.

She wrote that on another day, Abrego Garcia got angry again, started yelling, and ripped her shirt and shorts off before grabbing her arm and leaving marks.

LEAVITT GOES OFF ON DEMOCRAT FOR TAXPAYER-FUNDED TRIP TO SUPPORT DEPORTED SUSPECTED MS-13 GANG MEMBER

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, speaks during a news conference at CASA’s Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Maryland, on Friday, April 4, 2025.  (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

Vasquez recalled two times in 2020 that Abrego Garcia hit her.

“In November 2020, he hit me with his work boot,” she wrote. “In August 2020, he hit me in the eye leaving a purple eye.”

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Local Fox affiliate Fox45 reported that court documents further showed that a man named Edwin Ramos, who claimed to be the father of two of Vasquez’s children, filed for custody of the children because he was concerned about the children’s safety, alleging that Vasquez “is dating a gang member.”

President Donald Trump signed multiple Executive Orders relating to education Wednesday afternoon, with several tied to the theme of returning meritocracy back to the education system. 

The orders, seven in total, included actions to integrate artificial intelligence into K-12 school curricula, reforms to school discipline and accreditation guidelines, requirements related to the disclosure of foreign funding to schools and enhancements to the country’s workforce development programs. 

Trump’s slew of education-focused orders also included another directive demanding an end to DEI ideology in schools, specifically the use of “disparate impact theory,” on top of his previous executive order from January ordering an end to DEI-like programming and ideology in K-12 schools. An Executive Order setting up a White House initiative supporting the efficiency and effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities was also signed by the president on Wednesday.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO RESUME COLLECTIONS ON DEFAULTED FEDERAL STUDENT LOANS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2020

President Donald Trump holds an executive order relating to education in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Education Secretary Linda McMahon watch.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“They’re allowing people into school – they can’t do math – and yet kids who have worked really hard and are number one in their class out of high school – some place in New Jersey or Mississippi – they can’t get into the best schools,” Trump said as he signed his order implementing new school accreditation requirements. “What is that all about?”

“I think that gets to your policy, sir, of meritocracy – that we should be looking at those who have real merit to get in,” Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was standing over Trump’s shoulder as he signed, chimed in. “And we have to look harder at those universities that aren’t enforcing that.” 

The accreditation reforms, along with the president’s Executive Orders on school discipline and “disparate impact theory,” were all connected to pulling back from the Biden administration’s era of prioritizing DEI over meritocracy. Specifically, the accreditation reforms seek to prevent accreditors from imposing “discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-based standards,” while compelling them to “prioritize student outcomes.”  

‘THIS IS INDOCTRINATION, NOT EDUCATION’: PLAINTIFF IN SCOTUS CASE SLAMS SCHOOLS FOR FORCING LGBTQ+ CURRICULUM

Meanwhile, under the Biden administration, the Department of Education released student discipline guidance contending that persistent racism clouds school disciplinary systems. Trump’s Wednesday Executive Order rescinds that guidance.

President Donald Trump has been a staunch opponent to what he describes as “discriminatory” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the United States.  (Getty Images)

“Under, I believe it was the Biden administration – first Obama and then Biden – the Department of Justice issued guidance that made it almost impossible for schools to enforce adequate disciplinary policies,” Trump’s executive assistant Will Scharf said of the order as Trump was signing it. “Basically they focused on CRT and diversity ideology, instead of actually just enforcing the rules in classrooms to ensure a safe learning environment.”    

The prohibition of “disparate impact theory” builds on the president’s past orders on ridding “discriminatory” DEI programs and influences from educational settings.

“This is a theory that underlies a lot of the modern DEI and CRT-driven diversity culture,” Scharf explained. “The basic idea is instructing your department and agencies to no longer rely on disparate impact theory as they’re regulating, as they’re issuing guidance, as they’re making rules. We want to focus on results, we want to focus on actual fairness, we want to focus on merit, not things like disparate impact theory and the whole sort-of diversity, equity and inclusion cult.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ASKS SCOTUS TO APPROVE DEI-RELATED EDUCATION CUTS

President Donald Trump signs an executive order relating to education in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Besides focusing on returning meritocracy to the education system, the president’s Executive Orders also sought to modernize American education and workforce preparation through the implementation of AI education in schools and through a commitment to add 1 million new apprenticeships.  

The AI order, Trump’s latest pro-AI measure, established a White House task force for AI and education that will work with federal agencies and the private sector to help draft AI programs for schools. 

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The president previously signed an Executive Order in January, which worked to rescind Biden-era policies that critics say restricted the nation’s AI growth.

A Minnesota state employee avoided criminal charges after vandalizing at least six Tesla vehicles, the local district attorney announced this week, prompting outrage from local leaders who spoke to Fox News Digital.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) said it would seek “diversion” over charges against Minnesota Department of Human Services data analyst Dylan Bryan Adams after causing $20,000 in damages. The diversion approach “helps to ensure the individual keeps their job and can pay restitution,” according HCAO. 

When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, the Minnesota Department of Human Services did not clarify Adams’ employment status, but said: “We are reviewing the matter at this time. State employees are expected to follow our code of conduct and hold themselves to the highest ethical standards through their words and actions.”

Republicans across the North Star State have condemned County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision, as President Donald Trump’s administration has identified Tesla vandalism as “domestic terrorism” and led a nationwide effort alongside the Justice Department to hold vandals accountable. 

WALZ STAFFER ACCUSED OF VANDALIZING TESLAS MIGHT NOT FACE CHARGES: REPORT

Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., did not respond to Fox News Digital request for clarity on Dylan Bryan Adams’ employment status at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. (Getty Images | Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

“In Tim Walz’s Minnesota, there is a two-tiered justice system that does everything possible to protect Democrats. As the victim of a domestic terrorism attack in Minnesota myself, I know first-hand that Minnesota’s justice system does not work for me nor Conservatives in our state. If Dylan Adams was a police officer and not part of Walz’s Minnesota state government, Mary Moriarty would have tried to charge him with a felony,” Kendall Qualls, Founder of TakeCharge and former Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

DEMS WHO RAILED AGAINST DOMESTIC TERRORISM SILENT AS TRUMP FLOATS 20-YEAR JAIL SENTENCE FOR TESLA VANDALS

Qualls was targeted in a suspected arson case that left three conservative group offices heavily damaged in Minnesota in 2024. Qualls said on Wednesday that authorities never found the arsonist. 

“Minnesota is again bucking the national trend: While the Justice Department and FBI are investigating the nationwide vandalism and attacks against Tesla as acts of domestic terrorism, Minnesota Progressives are giving them a free pass,” Matthew RJ Brodsky, President of Red Ax Strategies and Board Chair of the American Center for Counter Extremism, told Fox News Digital. 

Adam Schwarze, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that Minnesota vandals “get a free pass if they have the approved political philosophy.”

“This would have been an obvious opportunity for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to make clear that the right to political protest doesn’t include the right to destroy personal property. We must reaffirm that our commitment to justice means ensuring all individuals, regardless of their political affiliations or employment status, are held to the same legal standards,” Adam Schwarze said. 

A Washington Tesla supercharging station was damaged earlier this month, according to authorities. The Trump administration has called Tesla vandalism “domestic terrorism.” (Lacey Police Department)

Republicans told Fox News Digital that Moriarty refusing to criminally charge a Minnesota state employee, following a string of targeted violence, could invoke domestic terrorism. 

“This is a dangerous precedent that tells every Minnesotan that political violence is acceptable here. After Gov. Tim Walz cheered on the loss of Tesla’s stock to the detriment of his own pension. Now we have one of his employees damaging a Tesla and a Democrat country attorney letting him get away with it. It’s a Democrat double-whammy: They insult the professional law enforcement officers of our state by ignoring their work, and then let their political allies and supporters off the hook for breaking the law,” Minnesota Sen. Mark Koran said. 

John Nagel, a retired police lieutenant in Minnesota and former candidate for the Minnesota state legislature, said diversion can be a “great tool for someone who is younger and dumber, but this individual had a responsible job and was old enough to know better.”

WISCONSINITES KICKED OUT AND DENIED ENTRY TO THIS DEMOCRAT’S ‘FAKE TOWN HALL’

“This sends a bad message to an already hostile group of politically charged individuals,” Nagel said. “As a police officer, I have had several people tell me that if they had spent even a few nights in jail, they wouldn’t have committed a crime the second and third time.

Brodsky added that Moriarty’s latest legal blunder is consistent with her legacy in Walz’s home state. Moriarty, who handed Adams a “pre-charge diversion” on Monday, has been backed by groups tied to money from megadonor George Soros, one of the most prominent backers of progressive issues in the United States.

“It would be an understatement to say that Progressive County Attorney Mary Moriarty has been soft on crime since she took office in 2023. She has consistently shown undue leniency for violent criminal suspects charged with sexual assault and even murder. It is one of the many reasons the Minneapolis Police Department has been at loggerheads with the county attorney’s office, to say nothing of the outrage among the victims’ families,” Brodsky said. 

Five Tesla vehicles were set on fire and shot at in what police investigated as a “targeted attack” at a local repair center in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 18, 2025. This is one of several Tesla vandalism cases across the United States.  (Hal Sparks via Storyful)

Nagel questioned how many tax dollars were invested in finding Adams “only to have their efforts wiped out by a progressive prosecutor” and leaving Minnesota dealerships on alert “knowing someone can come into their lot and damage cars.”

As Republicans ripped the state’s “soft on crime” practices, they tied Walz’s own anti-Telsa rhetoric to the string of violence against Elon Musk’s multi-billionaire electric vehicle business. Amid the string of attacks on Tesla as its stock was taking a tumble, Walz told a Wisconsin town hall that he checks Tesla’s stock when he wants to feel better. 

“Gov. Walz’s rhetoric on Tesla stock, Democrats all over the country spewing,’We need to rise up and take it to the streets’ is all fueling the fire. Angry elected Democrats are encouraging this kind of behavior. Refusing to hold adults accountable for attacks based on their political hatred is bound to end badly for regular folks,” Nagel added. 

Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist George Soros smiles after delivering a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

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Brodsky said each Tesla vandalized is a felony, adding: “These crimes didn’t take place in a vacuum either, with progressives focusing their anger at Elon Musk and DOGE’s effort to shrink the bloated federal workforce.”

“It’s likely not a coincidence that the suspect in this case is a State of Minnesota employee with the Department of Human Services. Moreover, these attacks began the same day that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made controversial remarks where he cheered the decline of Tesla stocks and disparaged Elon Musk at a Wisconsin event on March 18. The double-standards here speak for themselves. Political violence appears to be acceptable if carried out by progressives. Needless to say, this will undoubtedly embolden pProgressive activists to engage in further attacks,” Brodsky said. 

Gov. Walz, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Minneapolis Police Department and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. 

A second U.S. judge scolded the Trump administration on Tuesday night for failing to answer questions in an ongoing deportation case, raising the threat that some Trump officials could be held in contempt of court.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland upbraided Trump officials for failing to comply with the court’s requests for information in a case involving the deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia — accusing officials in a blistering eight-page order of submitting “vague, evasive and incomplete” responses that she said demonstrated “willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.”

She further described the Justice Department’s “false premise” objections as “a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.”

Xinis is not the first federal judge to raise the possibility of holding the Trump administration in contempt for failing to abide by court orders. Just 15 miles away, at a courthouse in Washington, D.C., another judge had already threatened the same.

FEDERAL JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG FINDS PROBABLE CAUSE TO HOLD TRUMP IN CONTEMPT OVER DEPORTATION FLIGHTS

Demonstrators gather in a nationwide “Hands Off!” protest against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk in Boston on Apr. 5, 2025.  (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty)

At issue in both cases is President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime immigration law the administration invoked last month to immediately deport certain individuals from the U.S. to El Salvador.

Hours after Trump’s March 14 proclamation that he would use the law to deport certain migrants — including alleged members of the gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, or TdA — the U.S. sent more than 260 migrants to El Salvador to be detained in the country’s maximum-security prison.

The weeks since have been characterized by a wave of frantic court proceedings, appeals, and emergency Supreme Court orders, as judges across the country weigh the administration’s use of the wartime law. 

WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S DEPORTATION EFFORTS?

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg  stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

But Trump’s lawyers have appeared less than willing to share certain information with the courts. Their behavior has sparked fury from federal judges, who have accused them on more than one occasion of acting in bad faith and willfully defying their orders.

Xinis took umbrage Tuesday night at the administration’s refusal to respond to at least one interrogatory, saying their refusal is “based on the false premise that the United States can or has been ordered to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody” in El Salvador.

She also rebuked officials for their failure to comply with her earlier order to return Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man and alleged MS-13 member who was wrongfully deported last month to El Salvador. “For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Court’s orders,” she said.

Her earlier ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court in an emergency order. The ruling said the government must “facilitate” his release — a definition that was subsequently clarified again by Xinis and by judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“‘Facilitate’ is an active verb,” U.S. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee, said in authoring the circuit court opinion. 

“It requires that steps be taken as the Supreme Court has made perfectly clear,” he added.

TRUMP ADMIN DEFIES COURT OVER MARYLAND DEPORTATION, IGNITES LEGAL SHOWDOWN

The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

At a hearing last week, Xinis ordered an “intense” and expedited two-week discovery period to determine whether the Trump administration has acted in good faith to comply with her order to return Abrego Garcia. Should they fail to supply the required information, or indicate they acted in bad faith, she could have sufficient information to move to consider possible contempt proceedings.

Additionally, in a related case, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said there was probable cause to find Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for defying his order to return deportation flights to El Salvador on March 15.

In a 48-page ruling, Boasberg accused the government of “willful disregard” for court directives, citing missed deadlines to submit flight details and identify officials who knew about his emergency order halting removals. Although a federal appeals court in D.C. has paused the contempt proceedings, Boasberg has requested further declarations and warned that officials may be required to testify under oath.

If they fail to comply, the judge could refer the case to the Justice Department for prosecution or appoint outside counsel if DOJ declines.

JUDGE BOASBERG POISED TO HOLD TRUMP ADMIN IN CONTEMPT, TAKES DOWN NAMES OF DHS OFFICIALS: ‘PRETTY SKETCHY’

Gang members seen in a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, in San Vicente, El Salvador. Photo via Getty Images. (Alex Pena/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The appeals court that paused Boasberg’s contempt proceedings did so temporarily, requesting additional briefing from both the Justice Department and ACLU attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

What happens next remains uncertain. Trump officials have repeatedly railed against so-called “activist judges,” accusing courts of obstructing the administration’s immigration agenda. In an earlier emergency appeal, officials claimed Boasberg’s actions amounted to a “massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens,” arguing those individuals “pose threats to the American people.”

Meanwhile, Judge Xinis’s order in Maryland comes amid a flurry of immigration-related legal battles nationwide, as Trump pushes forward with his border security priorities.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the administration can continue using the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, provided they receive due process protections, including the right to challenge removals in court.

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Separately, federal judges in New York and Texas temporarily blocked use of the Alien Enemies Act in specific cases, siding with plaintiffs who argued certain migrants could be removed without a chance to seek habeas relief.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on next steps in the Abrego Garcia case, or on the possibility that Xinis might move on possible contempt proceedings.

FIRST ON FOX: The Justice Department is charging a high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua on terrorism and international drug distribution charges—the first time the U.S. government is using terrorism charges to prosecute a member of the violent gang. 

A five-count superseding indictment was unsealed Wednesday, and first obtained by Fox News Digital, charging 24-year-old Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, also known as “Chuqui,” with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. 

VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT USES TREN DE ARAGUA AS PROXIES TO UNDERMINE US PUBLIC SAFETY, FBI ASSESSMENT FINDS

Flores is allegedly a high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua, who allegedly serves as a Plaza Boss in Bogota, Colombia. He is allegedly a part of the inner circle of senior Tren de Aragua leadership, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Flores was also charged with conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in Colombia intended for distribution in the United States. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announces the arrest of gang members involved in four homicides, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

“TdA is not a street gang—it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.” 

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital that Tren de Aragua is a “violent arm of the Maduro regime operating inside our borders.” 

“With these charges, we are using every available tool to confront them as the transnational threat they are,” Patel told Fox News Digital. “From drug trafficking and human smuggling to brutal violence, this group has inflicted chaos on American communities.” 

Patel added: “Today’s indictment is a critical step in dismantling their network and holding its members accountable.” 

Colombian authorities arrested Flores in Colombia in March 30, pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant the United States had been requesting.

The Trump administration’s State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 20. 

FBI Director Kash Patel, joined at right by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, answers questions as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing on Tuesday, March 25. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

“This is the first time the DOJ has used terrorism charges to prosecute members of TdA,” a DOJ official told Fox News Digital. “President Trump’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation means that we have a fuller suite of legal options to use against these groups.” 

The indictment comes after the Trump administration filed its first racketeering charges — also known as RICO charges, which include conspiring to commit murder, sex-trafficking, assault, dealing drugs and more — against Tren de Aragua members and its associates in New York Tuesday. 

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That case was part of “Operation Take Back America,” which it said is a “nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Justice Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.”

The charges filed against 27 alleged current and former Tren de Aragua members include human smuggling, sex trafficking and murder.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said that 21 of the 27 alleged gang members and associates are currently in federal custody. The statement said that 16 were already in federal criminal, immigration or state custody, and five were arrested in the past couple of days.

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The indictment also comes after Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the FBI assesses that Venezuelan government officials “likely facilitate” the migration of members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua from Venezuela to the United States to advance the Maduro regime’s objective of undermining public safety in the U.S. 

The state of California plans to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detainer after an illegal immigrant convicted of vehicular manslaughter was set to be released on July 19 – over six years before his full sentence is up.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office announced he would be brought into federal custody ahead of the July release date. Fox News reported earlier that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tends to follow ICE detainer orders, but there were concerns that the state’s sanctuary policies could have played a role in letting him be released back into the community. 

“After being deported in 2013, this individual unlawfully re-entered the US & committed heinous crimes. A GOP DA then gave him a plea deal instead of pursuing 2nd-degree murder. CDCR will again coordinate with ICE—as they have w/ 10,000+ inmates—to transfer him before release,” the governor’s press account tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. 

EXCLUSIVE: FOX TOURS ICE DETENTION FACILITY; MANAGER HOPES TO ‘DISPEL’ ‘FALSE NARRATIVES’

Anya Varfolomeeva and Nicholay Osokin were killed in an Orange County, Calif., car crash in 2021.  (Courtesy of the Varfolomeev and Osokin families)

Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano was driving drunk, high, and speeding at nearly 100mph on the 405 freeway in Orange County in November 2021, when he crashed into a car being driven by a young couple, 19-year-old Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin, which killed them both as they burned alive. In spring 2022, he was convicted of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Fox News reported on Wednesday morning that Ortega-Anguiano will be released by the California state government on July 19 after serving just 3.5 years, and the victim’s families were notified on Easter Sunday.

After the report came out, the Department of Justice said they would be prosecuting Ortega-Anguiano on federal charges in order to keep him behind bars longer.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONVICTED OF KILLING TEENS IN HIGH-SPEED CRASH TO BE RELEASED EARLY: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

Newsom and Trump face off (Pool)

“My office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326. If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the [DOJ] will,” Bill Essayli, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, tweeted.

Border czar Tom Homan said ICE planned on quickly arresting and deporting him if he was released by the Golden State.

“I will work with [Homeland Security] Secretary Noem on this case, and I guarantee you, if they don’t honor the detainer, we’ll have ICE agents outside that facility to take custody of this individual and deport him,” Homan said Wednesday on “America’s Newsroom.”

TOP TRUMP OFFICIALS FILE CHARGES AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AFTER FOX NEWS EXPOSES EARLY RELEASE PLANS

Mugshot of manslaughter convict Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

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ICE told Fox News that he had entered the country illegally twice before and had a prior criminal background before the two teens were killed in the fatal crash.

“His previous criminal convictions include burglary in 2005; vehicle theft in 2007; and battery on spouse with kidnapping in 2014,” ICE stated.

“An immigration judge ordered Ortega removed Nov. 3, 2014; he filed several unsuccessful appeals and was taken into ICE custody Dec. 2, 2016, and removed to Mexico the same day. Ortega attempted to reenter the United States Feb. 2, 2018, near Otay Mesa, California by presenting a counterfeit document; he was paroled into the U.S. pending criminal prosecution for illegal reentry after removal. An immigration official issued Ortega an expedited removal order and removed him June 1, 2018, to Mexico; after his latest removal, he again illegally reentered the U.S. on an unknown date and location. ICE issued a detainer with the Orange County Jail, California, Nov. 27, 2021, where he was being held on vehicular manslaughter charges at the time,” the statement continued.

Florida Rep. Byron Donalds vowed to Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by any of these protesters” after he was captured on video shutting down a woman yelling about Israel during a town hall he hosted this week. 

Footage showed the individual being escorted away by security at Estero High School in Florida on Monday night. Donalds, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, is running to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

“This is why Donald Trump supports me to be Florida’s next governor. Because I will take the message of common sense and conservatism anywhere, any place, any time, in any audience. I’m not going to be intimidated by any of these protesters,” Donalds said during an appearance on “Hannity.” 

“Members of Congress should not be intimidated by these people. They want to shout you down to try to deflect and distract from their terrible policy and how they left America really at the bottom in the pit because of the terrible presidency of Joe Biden,” he continued. “We shouldn’t put up with it. We should confront it head-on, and if they are going to be rude and disrespectful, then kick them out of the room, it’s that simple.” 

FLORIDA PROTESTER SCREAMS AT REP BYRON DONALDS DURING TENSE TOWN HALL 

Donalds also said, “Local Democrats are being organized about coming into congressional town halls” and that he has never seen so many show up at his events. 

HOW DEMOCRATS INFILTRATED ‘THUNDEROUS’ GOP TOWN HALLS   

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., held a town hall event Monday night in Estero, Fla. (WINK News)

“That’s OK. If they want to show up now, you are going to hear the truth, you are going to hear the facts. You are not going to hear Democrat talking points. You are not going to hear spin, and they want to yell and be upset because they want you, quite frankly, to reverse course, reverse your positions, stand against things that are right, stand against deporting illegal aliens, stand against Israel,” he added. “That is what they want you to do.” 

“But when you don’t bend to their will, then they yell and they get upset like they did last night,” Donalds said. 

Rep. Byron Donalds (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Donalds later shared the Fox News segment on his X account, writing that “ALL REPUBLICAN MEMBERS should hold Town Halls to confront them DIRECTLY.”

The Trump administration is filing federal charges after hearing that an illegal immigrant convicted of manslaughter is set to be released over six years early by the California state government. 

Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano was driving drunk, high, and speeding at nearly 100mph on the 405 freeway in Orange County in November 2021, when he crashed into a car being driven by a young couple, 19-year-old’s Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin, which killed them both as they burned alive. In spring 2022, he was convicted of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Fox News reported on Wednesday morning that Ortega-Anguiano will be released by California state government on July 19 after serving just 3.5 years of his 10-year sentence, and the families of the victims were informed of the early release on Easter Sunday.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONVICTED OF KILLING TEENS IN HIGH-SPEED CRASH TO BE RELEASED EARLY: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’

Mugshot of manslaughter convict Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

“My office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326. If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the [DOJ] will,” Bill Essayli, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, tweeted.

Attorney General Pam Bondi also weighed in following the exclusive Fox News report.

“This is absolutely unconscionable. What about Justice for these teens? What about the rights of their parents? [The DOJ] will work with ICE to make sure this illegal alien receives full punishment for his crimes,” Bondi tweeted.

MARYLAND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED AFTER WOMAN FOUND MURDERED IN WOODS: OFFICIALS

The federal government is filing charges in order to keep an illegal immigrant convicted of manslaughter behind bars. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon/AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has put out a detainer for his arrest following his likely release by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. However, California’s sanctuary policies led to questions about whether the state will end up complying with the detainer.

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CDCR does typically cooperate with ICE detainers, but border czar Tom Homan swiftly said federal authorities would step in after his release.

“I will work with [Homeland Security] Secretary Noem on this case, and I guarantee you, if they don’t honor the detainer, we’ll have ICE agents outside that facility to take custody of this individual and deport him,” Homan said Wednesday on “America’s Newsroom.”

ANGEL MOM OF RACHEL MORIN CONDEMNS DEMS’ TRIP TO SEE DEPORTED MIGRANT, MAINSTREAM MEDIA BIAS

Bill Essayli, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on X that his “office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant” and that he “faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326.” (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

According to a notice reviewed by Fox News, he is set to be released to Garden Grove, a suburb in Orange County just south of Los Angeles.

“For safety and security reasons, CDCR cannot provide information on an incarcerated person’s release date or location in advance of their release. Incarcerated persons may earn credits for participating in rehabilitative programming, which may move their parole dates to an earlier date,” the department stated.

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Anya Varfolomeeva and Nicholay Osokin were killed in an Orange County, Calif., car crash in 2021.  (Courtesy of the Varfolomeev and Osokin families)

The families of the teens killed said they’re writing to the state to keep him locked up.

“It’s disgusting. You have two young, unbelievable future, productive American citizens killed for nothing and that illegal immigrant who already has been deported twice is going to be released again? For what? If even he is deported, he will come back,” Anatoly Varfolomeev, the father of Anya, told Fox News in an interview. 

“I hope he’s going to stay in prison. I hope that he’s gonna get old in prison and I hope he’s getting kicked out from our country in the end,” Pavel Osokin, Nicholay’s father, said.

“Three years for killing two kids! It’s confusing to me. Why you give them 10 if they’re gonna spend five, and then three? Give them three in the beginning, at least we know what to expect. It’s sort of spitting in my face,” he said.

FIRST ON FOX: GOP Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte is launching a video campaign to remind gun manufacturers in Colorado that if they move just a few hundred miles to the north, they can be free of one of the nation’s most restrictive gun control bills signed into law earlier this month in their state.

“Do you want to move back to America?” Gianforte is asking Colorado gunmakers, after Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed S.B. 25-003 into law earlier this month. The new law, which is slated to go into effect in August 2026, effectively bans the manufacture, sale or purchase of semi-automatic firearms that accept detachable magazines, which include most AR-15s and AK-47 rifles sold in the United States. Some tactical shotguns and a few select handguns will also be impacted. 

“Our Second Amendment is very clear. It says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” Gianforte told Fox News Digital. “This bill outlaws some of the most popular firearms used for sporting and self-defense. It’s a violation of the Second Amendment.”

BLUE STATE GOP REP FORCED TO REMOVE 2A STICKER FROM LAPTOP: ‘OFFENSIVE’

Gianforte has helped spearhead greater protections for gun owners and sellers in his state, including through making Montana a constitutional carry state and through the passage of a law that prohibits law enforcement from enforcing federal firearm bans or regulations that infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights to possess, transfer or use any firearm, magazine or firearm accessory. 

The GOP Montana governor also spearheaded an effort to ban liberal environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards that served as a basis for private institutions, such as banks, to refuse to work with gun manufacturers and sellers.  

However, Gianforte pointed to not only his state’s defense of Second Amendment rights, but also to its pro-business policies and comparatively low tax burden for reasons why his state is ideal for law-abiding gun makers and sellers. 

EXCESSIVE STATE TAXES ON GUNS, AMMUNITION SALES ARE TARGET OF NEW GOP CRACKDOWN EFFORT

“We have more firearms and ammunition manufacturers today than any other state in the country per capita,” Gov. Gianforte told Fox News Digital. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)

“When this [Colorado bill] came out – this announcement – I personally cold called six Colorado firearms companies. Five of them, the five I’ve spoken to so far, are all planning visits to Montana,” Gianforte recounted to Fox News Digital. The governor said that from his conversation with the companies, he deduced they were all “throwing in the towel on Colorado.”  

“My message to them was pretty simple,” he said. “‘See what’s going on in Colorado? Do you want to move back to America? Because Montana is open for business, and we would welcome you here.'”

Gianforte also pointed out how officials from the state of Montana attend what the governor described as “the largest” firearms and gun trade show in the world, which the officials frequently return from with multiple leads on manufacturers looking to potentially move to Montana every year. 

TRUMP HAILED FOR RESTORING GUN RIGHTS AS GOP FIGHTS BIDEN-ERA POLICIES

Colorado’s new law, which is slated to go into effect next year, effectively bans the manufacture, sale or purchase of semi-automatic firearms that accept detachable magazines. This includes most AR-15s and AK-47 rifles sold in the U.S. (Getty Images/Reuters/Fox News)

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Gianforte estimated that officials walked away from the convention last year with about 10 potential new firearm businesses seriously interested in moving to Montana, while he said this year it was closer to 30.

“We have more firearms and ammunition manufacturers today than any other state in the country per capita,” touted Gianforte. “We proudly defend the Second Amendment, not just for our firearms owners, but also for firearms manufacturers and ammunition manufacturers.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Gov. Polis’ office for comment.

The White House is steadfast in its support for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth amid media reports regarding his imminent ouster. 

Hegseth has attracted scrutiny once more in recent weeks after the New York Times reported Sunday that he disclosed details about a March military airstrike in Yemen against the Houthis in a Signal messaging app group chat that included his wife, brother and lawyer – about a dozen people in total – on a personal phone before his confirmation. Hegseth maintains that no classified information was disclosed over Signal. 

The incident follows a similar episode in March, where the Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was included on a Signal group chat with other high-ranking Trump administration officials, including Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, discussing the same attack on the Houthis. National security advisor Mike Waltz later took “full responsibility” for that chat blunder. 

But the White House says it supports Hegseth, and argued he’s faced a “smear campaign” since Trump tapped him for the post in December 2024. 

DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH REBUFFS NEW GROUP CHAT ALLEGATIONS AS ATTEMPT TO ‘SABOTAGE’ TRUMP’S AGENDA 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has come under scrutiny amid a new report about his use of a Signal chat, which included his wife and brother, to discuss airstrikes. (Franco Brana/AFP via Getty Images)

“The secretary of defense is doing a tremendous job, and he is bringing monumental change to the Pentagon, and there’s a lot of people in the city who reject monumental change, and I think, frankly, that’s why we’ve seen a smear campaign against the secretary of defense since the moment that President Trump announced his nomination before the United States Senate,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. 

“Let me reiterate: the president stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth and the change that he is bringing to the Pentagon, and the results that he’s achieved thus far speak for themselves,” Leavitt said. 

Hegseth has received backlash ever since Trump announced his nomination to lead the Pentagon, especially after allegations of sexual assault and alcohol misuse surfaced. In response, Hegseth told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that he is not a “perfect person,” but asserted that he was the subject of a “coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media.” 

Ultimately, no Democrats voted to confirm Hegseth. In contrast, only one Democrat voted against Trump’s first secretary of defense in 2016, retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis. 

Hegseth has spearheaded multiple reforms, including a series of efforts to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the Pentagon that he says are in accordance with executive orders from the Trump administration. 

NPR reported Monday that the White House was eyeing a new secretary of defense, but Leavitt shut down the report immediately, labeling the report “fake news.” The NPR story was based on one anonymous U.S. official not authorized to speak to the media. 

Meanwhile, Hegseth has maintained that the second Signal chat, like his first, did not include “war plans,” and that all discussions conducted over Signal were unclassified. Included in the group chat were Hegseth’s brother, Phil, who works at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior advisor, according to the Associated Press. The defense secretary’s longtime personal attorney, Tim Parlatore, who was commissioned as a Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps commander right before the Signal chat, was also included, according to the Times report. 

“I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,” Hegseth told Fox News Tuesday. “I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning.”

Meanwhile, even some in Hegseth’s orbit predict that he will not remain in his post for much longer. 

John Ullyot, a former senior communications official for the Pentagon who resigned in April under Hegseth, wrote that the abrupt Friday firings of three of Hegseth’s “most loyal” advisors – his aide Dan Caldwell, his deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary, Colin Carroll – were alarming and “baffling.” 

“The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote in a Sunday op-ed for Politico. 

“Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account,” he wrote. “Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.”

Caldwell and Selnick were included in the second Hegseth group chat, according to the Times. 

HEGSETH SHARED DETAILS OF YEMEN STRIKES IN SECOND SIGNAL CHAT: REPORT

Sen. Jack Reed is calling for an investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal. (Reuters)

Senate Democrats are also clamoring for Hegseth to resign. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member, asked the Pentagon’s inspector general to conduct a report into Hegseth’s use of the Signal chat. 

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“Since he was nominated, I have warned that Mr. Hegseth lacks the experience, competence, and character to run the Department of Defense,” Reed said in a Sunday statement. “In light of the ongoing chaos, dysfunction, and mass firings under Mr. Hegseth’s leadership, it seems that those objections were well-founded.” 

“Accountability starts at the top, and I have grave concerns about Secretary Hegseth’s ability to maintain the trust and confidence of U.S. service members,” he stated. 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro claims President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked his travel visa to the U.S. this week.

Petro made the announcement at a cabinet meeting, responding to questions about whether he would attend meetings with international organizations in Washington, D.C. later this year.

“I can no longer go because I believe they took away my visa,” Petro told reporters.

“I didn’t need to have one, but anyway, I’ve already seen Donald Duck several times, so I’ll go see other things,” Petro added.

HIGH-RANKING TREN DE ARAGUA GANGSTER MURDERED TWO AMERICAN WOMEN, CAPTURED ACROSS COUNTRY: FEDS

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says President Donald Trump’s administration revoked his travel visa. (A Photo/Fernando Vergara)

The State Department has refused to comment on the topic due to the confidentiality of visa records, according to the New York Post.

Petro’s claim comes months after he caved to Trump after initially refusing to accept deportation flights from the U.S. military.

EXCLUSIVE: GOP MOVES TO AUTHORIZE TRUMP TO WAGE WAR ON CARTELS THROUGH MILITARY FORCE

Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem also traveled to Colombia in late March to meet with her counterpart there, Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem meets with Colombian Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia in Bogota, Colombia, on March 27, 2025.  (Alex Brandon/Pool via REUTERS)

Noem said that she had a “candid” conversation with Sarabia, and the pair later jointly announced a data-sharing agreement that would help U.S. authorities identify illegal immigrants.

“We’re going to strengthen our regional security systems and make sure that we’re disrupting the movement of threatening actors that perpetuate illegal activity and also facilitate illegal trafficking of migrants across the Western Hemisphere,” Noem said at the time.

President Donald Trump threatened massive tariffs against Colombia before the nation’s leader backed down.  (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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“Through this expansion of sharing of biometric data, it will be much more efficient, effective, accurate, and it will also build cooperation that will open doors to new ways that we can continue to work together,” she added.

Deborah Lipstadt, who served as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during much of the Biden administration, has indicated that she is “pleased” the Trump administration is seeking to tackle antisemitism.

“I’m pleased that they’re addressing it, because that’s what I did for the past three years, which was to really push the Biden Administration to seriously address it. So I am very, very pleased that it’s on their agenda,” she told the New Yorker. The outlet noted that the conversation with Lipstadt was edited for length and clarity.

Emory University announced in December that Lipstadt would return to the higher educational institution later in the academic year.

ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS BREAK RECORD FOR 4TH STRAIGHT YEAR, ADL FINDS

Former President Joe Biden and Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism (Getty Images)

Fox News Digital attempted to reach to Lipstadt on Wednesday via the email and number listed on Emory University’s website, but did not receive a response to the comment request by the time of publication.

Lipstadt told the New Yorker that the Trump administration has been “calling universities to account.” 

JEWISH HARVARD STUDENTS SPEAK OUT AFTER UNIVERSITY SUES TRUMP ADMIN OVER FUNDING FREEZE

“I also think there are many Jews, and some non-Jews, too, but many Jews who are disappointed by how universities have behaved since October 7th, and they see a strong – to use Passover terminology – a strong hand being used. Now, whether that hand is being used properly or not raises certain questions about what’s happening,” she reportedly said, noting, “a lot of people were relieved to see this forceful approach. I think, in many respects, it’s going too far.”

She indicated that many colleges have fallen short in tackling antisemitism.

“Look, the universities failed to address this seriously. And by failing to address this seriously, they failed the Jewish students on campus. They dismissed their grievances. They created an inhospitable atmosphere. We’re now seeing the fruits of that failure. What disturbs me so much is that the debate will now become over whether antisemitism is being used as a weapon to fight against people we don’t like. Antisemitism should not be a cudgel,” she noted, according to the outlet.

ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATOR CHARGED IN VIOLENT HATE CRIME ATTACK ON TWO JEWISH COLLEGE STUDENTS

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“The fight should be against antisemitism and not against the institutions. The institutions opened the door. Most universities failed miserably to address this, and we’re seeing the consequences of that now,” she told the New Yorker.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters in India that the U.S. had offered Russia and Ukraine “a very explicit proposal” to end the war that has been ongoing for over three years: make a deal or risk the U.S. walking away.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the U.S. to walk away from this process. We’ve engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy, of on-the-ground work,” Vance told reporters.

TRUMP SAYS US WILL ‘TAKE A PASS’ ON UKRAINE PEACE EFFORTS IF RUSSIA REFUSES TO PLAY BALL

The vice president also said that “the only way to really stop the killing is for the armies to both put down their weapons, to freeze this thing and to get on with the business of actually building a better Russia and a better Ukraine.”

Vice President JD Vance speaks as he departs Agra, en route to Jaipur, India, after visiting the Taj Mahal, April 23, 2025. (Kenny Holston/Pool via Reuters)

Vance’s comments come after Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he would not be attending talks in London aimed at facilitating a ceasefire. On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters that Rubio would not be attending the talks due to “logistical issues.” 

The secretary later wrote in a post on X that he was planning on “following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months.”

During Tuesday’s briefing, Bruce also said Gen. Keith Kellogg, special presidential envoy for Ukraine, would represent the U.S. at the talks in London.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the State Department on Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

TRUMP INSISTS UKRAINE-RUSSIA PEACE DEAL IS CLOSE, BUT MISTRUST IN PUTIN LEAVES EXPERTS SKEPTICAL

On Friday, Rubio suggested that the U.S. might walk away from negotiations to end the war within “a matter of days,” despite President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to secure a ceasefire deal. Trump later told the press that Rubio was “right in saying that we want to see it end.”

“Think about it, every day a lot of people are being killed as we talk about, you know, as they play games, so we’re not gonna take that,” Trump told reporters. He also said he thinks the U.S. has a “good chance” of bringing peace to Ukraine and Russia.

President Donald Trump takes a question from a member of the media during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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Security experts, however, are not as confident that peace is on the horizon, as some warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want peace.

Trump seems to be hoping to entice Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop the fighting with talk of how both countries could benefit from doing business with the U.S. after the war ends. He made the remark after Ukraine and Russia’s temporary Easter ceasefire ended. Both Ukraine and Russia accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s administration is firing or reassigning over 450 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a larger push to eliminate “environmental justice” programs.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the employee moves on Monday, saying 280 staffers were being fired, and 175 others would be reassigned. The cut roles were in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and EPA regional offices.

“EPA is taking the next step to terminate the Biden-Harris Administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Environmental Justice arms of the agency,” a spokesperson told Axios.

Zeldin explained at a Monday press conference that tax dollars put toward environmental justice issues were widely misspent.

MEXICO IS POISONING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN A BORDER CRISIS ALMOST NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been working with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut costs. (Getty Images/iStock)

“The problem is that, in the name of environmental justice, a dollar will get secured and not get spent on remediating that environmental issue,” he said.

The firings come the same week that Zeldin launched talks with Mexico about eliminating sewage contamination that flows over the border from Tijuana to pollute California’s coastlines.

MEXICAN SEWAGE GUSHING INTO NAVY SEAL TRAINING WATERS IS US’ ‘NEXT CAMP LEJEUNE,’ VETS WARN

Zeldin visited San Diego to discuss the issue on Tuesday, noting that one of the affected areas is the training grounds for Navy SEALs.

President Joe Biden’s administration was wasting money on environmental justice issues, Zeldin says. (Susan Walsh/AP)

“The Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this… for decades, are out of patience,” Zeldin said Tuesday. “There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere.”

EPA CHIEF TAKES ON MEXICAN ‘SEWAGE CRISIS’ FLOWING INTO US WATERS WHERE NAVY SEALS TRAIN

“So we are all out of patience,” he continued. “There’s a very limited opportunity. We’re in good faith, both on the American side and also on the Mexican side, what’s being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation.” 

Zeldin said that he met with Mexican officials for about 90 minutes Monday night to discuss the sewage spewing into U.S. waters — and relayed that the Mexican environmental secretary wants to have a “strong collaborative relationship” with the U.S. to end the pollution. 

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“I will be speaking with the chief of staff to the Mexican environmental secretary to ensure that over the course of the coming days, over the course of the next couple weeks, that we are able to put together a specific statement from both countries on a mutual understanding of what Mexico is going to do to help resolve this issue,” he said.

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Fewer than one in three young Americans approve of the job President Donald Trump and Congress are doing, according to a new national poll from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.

But while the approval ratings for Trump and congressional Republicans have mostly stayed consistent since the start of the president’s first administration eight years ago, the 50th Harvard Youth Poll indicates that approval ratings for Democrats in Congress among Americans aged 18-29 have nosedived.

According to Harvard’s annual spring survey, which was conducted March 14-25 and released on Wednesday, the approval rating for congressional Democrats stands at 23%, down from 42% in the spring of 2017 at the start of Trump’s first term.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, is joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for a press conference at the Capitol on Feb. 12, 2025. A new poll suggests congressional Democrats’ approval ratings have plunged. (AP/Rod Lamkey Jr.)

“In that same period, approval of Congressional Republicans has held steady, inching up slightly from 28% to 29%,” the poll’s release notes.

And the approval rating for Trump, who next week marks 100 days into his second tour of duty in the White House, stands at 31% in the new survey. 

AMERICANS WEIGH IN ON TRUMP’S TEASING OF A THIRD TERM

The release highlights that Trump’s numbers are “virtually unchanged from the 32% reported in Spring 2017 and the 29% recorded in Fall 2020.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on Air Force One on April 12, 2025. (Pool via AP)

Harvard’s survey is the latest to indicate troubling numbers for the Democrats. 

The confidence rating for Democrat leadership in Congress stood at a record-low 25% in a Gallup poll conducted April 1-14 and released last week. That’s nine points below the previous low of 34%, which was recorded in 2023.

Fueling the drop in confidence in the Democrat congressional leadership was a 41-point plunge among Democrats questioned in the Gallup survey.

DEMOCRATS FAVORABLE RATINGS DROP TO RECORD LOWS

National polls conducted in February by Quinnipiac University, and last month by CNN and by NBC News, indicated the favorable ratings for the Democratic Party sinking to all-time lows.

The Democratic Party is in the political wilderness after November’s election setbacks, when Republicans won back control of the White House and the Senate and defended their fragile House majority. And Republicans made gains among Black and Hispanic voters as well as younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base.

The Democrats held their 2024 national nominating convention at the United Center in Chicago. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Democrats have become increasingly angry and energized in response to Trump’s aggressive and controversial moves in slashing the federal government and upending long-standing national since returning to the White House three months ago.

That anger is directed not only at Trump and Republicans but also at Democrats. Many in the party’s base feel their leaders in Congress haven’t been effective or vocal enough in pushing back against the president.

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According to the Harvard poll, only 15% say the country is headed in the right direction, with just over half (51%) saying the country’s on the wrong track. 

And just one in four surveyed said the current state of the country is better now under Trump than it was during former President Joe Biden’s single four-year term in the White House.

Forty-one percent said things were better off under Biden, with 14% saying they see no difference and 17% unsure.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made California the first state to offer a generic version of the overdose-reversal drug Narcan for public purchase through a state-run storefront, while the state’s health department continues to promote a “Harm Reduction” model for the so-called “safe” use of drugs.

“Life-saving medications shouldn’t come with a life-altering price tag,” Newsom said in a statement Monday. 

“CalRx is about making essential drugs like naloxone affordable and accessible for all — not the privileged few. California is using our market power as the 5th largest economy in the world to disrupt a billion-dollar industry to save lives…and we’re just getting started.”

The program comes nearly a year after California’s CalRx brand began selling over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray to businesses and government groups.

SCOOP: NEWSOM ASKS WORLD LEADERS TO EXEMPT CALIFORNIA EXPORTS FROM RETALIATORY TARIFFS

California becomes first state to sell the drug reversal drug Narcan directly to residents for $24. (Getty Images)

But the state’s public health department sanctions the “safe” use of drugs through its promotion of the California Harm Reduction Initiative (CHRI), which works to reduce overdoses by handing out syringes and fentanyl test strips, among other initiatives. 

“The California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Office of AIDS (OA) has determined that safer injection, safer smoking and sniffing materials, provided in a harm reduction context alongside health education and other care, may reduce the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, and reduce the risk of injury and fatal drug overdose,” a state fact sheet about syringe services programs (SSPs) in 2022 reads. 

NEWSOM SIGNS $2.8B BAILOUT FOR HEALTHCARE PROGRAM OVERRUN BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Packs of Narcan sit in a cardboard box. (FOX News)

In 2017, California became the first state to pass legislation permitting supervised consumption services (SCS), allowing local jurisdictions to establish pilot programs for drug users to consume substances under supervision. By 2022, SB 57 was passed, authorizing overdose prevention programs in select cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. This legislation further integrated harm reduction into the state’s health policies. 

The progressive program has drawn criticism from conservative leaders over the last several years.

“This is a nuanced issue of public safety on which Newsom’s approach is here… so often, ironic,” Will Swaim, president of the think tank California Policy Center told Fox News Digital. “This is like Newsom suing Trump over tariffs — the guy who has done so much to destroy business wants to pretend now he’s pro-business?”

Swaim added that “like Narcan accessibility, that’s not a good fit for him.”

NEWSOM’S ‘UNFAIR’ REMARK ON GIRLS’ SPORTS BELIES RECORD AS GOVERNOR: ‘ABSOLUTE BULLS—‘

In 2017, California became the first state to pass legislation permitting supervised consumption services. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday hosted Cabinet officials from across the Trump administration for the first meeting of a new interagency task force aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” within the federal government. 

During Tuesday’s meeting, Bondi described the task force as one aimed at remedying the “abuse” under the Biden-led Justice Department and at other federal agencies prior to Trump’s second presidential term.

“As President Donald Trump has stated, the Biden administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses,” Bondi told a small group of reporters. “The president is right.” 

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS HALT TO TRUMP ADMIN’S CFPB TERMINATIONS

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi hosted Cabinet officials from across the Trump administration for the first meeting of a new interagency task force aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” within the federal government. (OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Bondi was joined Tuesday by a long list of senior Cabinet officials from across the federal government, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Other senior agency officials were also present. 

Bondi also used the meeting to highlight some of the actions the Trump administration has taken to crack down on anti-Christian biases.

To date, the Justice Department has dropped three ongoing cases against pro-lifers and “redefined the FACE Act” to help protect against what Bondi and others have described as the weaponization of pro-life groups and others.

Bondi was joined by a long list of senior Cabinet officials from across the federal government, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Ultimately, “the First Amendment isn’t just the line in the Constitution. It’s the cornerstone of our American memory,” Bondi said. “It guarantees every citizen the right to speak freely, worship freely, and live according to their conscience without government interference. Protecting Christians from bias is not favoritism. It’s upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the constitutional promise.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the group planned to use the meeting to hear from individuals who had been harmed as a result of “anti-Christian sentiment” under the Biden administration, and the various ways this bias may have shown up in their departments or agencies. 

That part of the meeting was closed to the press.

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President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 6, 2025, the creation of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” in government.  (Nathan Howard/Reuters)

Shortly before reporters were escorted from the room, Fox News asked the Department of Justice officials and other members of the task force whether they would share any examples of the anti-Christian bias within their agencies or any of the personal stories that they planned to touch on in the closed-door portion of the meeting.

The officials in attendance did not immediately answer the question, and Justice Department officials told Fox News and other reporters present that they would circulate more information after the meeting.  

Trump first created the task force via an executive order in February, with the goal of rooting out “anti-Christian targeting and discrimination” within the government.

The president also selected Bondi to head up the task force — whom he praised as someone he trusted to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society.”

The task force’s first meeting comes just days after Politico reported that the Trump administration sent an internal cable to State Department employees ordering them to report any instances of coworkers displaying “anti-Christian bias” as part of the task force initiative.

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The internal cable encouraged employees to share information via a tip form, noting that their responses could be kept anonymous, and was reportedly sent to embassies around the world, as well as the department headquarters in D.C.

“Biden’s Department of Justice abused and targeted Christians,” Trump said earlier this year. “Pro-life Christians were arrested and imprisoned for peacefully praying outside abortion clinics… NO MORE!”

Jim Clyburn is ripping the media.

The Democratic congressman, who essentially handed Joe Biden the nomination in 2020, says the party is having trouble getting its message out.

“I think the message coming from the Democratic Party is a good message,” the South Carolina lawmaker told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi. “The problem we’ve got, I’ll say, is that we have to depend upon the media to deliver it.”

Let me stop right there. The party’s approval ratings are in the toilet – that’s not the media’s fault. The party lost every swing state to Donald Trump in November – that’s not the media’s fault.

And the Democrats have no clear leader at the moment – again, not the media’s fault. 

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“If we have The Washington Post, for instance, caving to this wannabe dictator and we’ve got other media entities that seem to rather push a narrative that will bring eyes to their newspapers or to their television sets and not really give a fair hearing or reporting to what we’re doing,” said Clyburn, exempting Velshi.

“I would hope that there are people outside of the audience taking in what we’re saying because my message is gonna be very, very coherent. It’s going to be very – a little bit alarming. But it’s gonna be a message that I think everybody will understand if they were to hear it.”

Sorry to break it to the esteemed congressman, but it’s not the media’s job to carry water against the man he calls a “wannabe dictator.” You and your colleagues can only do it by getting out there and making, uh, news.

Former party whip, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., seems to be blaming the media for his party’s failure to put out a message that resonates with the public. (Brian Stukes/Getty Images)

At the same time, everyone already hates us. So it’s hardly surprising that the left, as well as the right, is bashing our business.

I mean, Joe Biden barely talked to journalists – even for a Super Bowl interview – and now we know why.

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Gavin Newsom is clearly running for president in 2028 – and he makes news by appearing on Fox and right-wing podcasts. This shows that he’s willing to engage the other side. 

“I don’t know what the party is. I’m still struggling with that,” Newsom told the Hill.

He also had California sue the White House over the tariffs.

The buzz right now is about AOC running for president. This seems far-fetched on its face – not because she was once a bartender, which gives her street cred, but because of her uber-liberal record.

Yet she and Bernie Sanders are drawing huge crowds around the country in what feels like a generational handoff – an image captured on the front page of Sunday’s Washington Post.

After making an initial splash as a rebel, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now works with the party’s leadership.

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A conservative columnist for the Hill listed her as No. 1 for the next election, calling AOC “simply the most exciting figure in Democratic politics…Yes, she has a legion of detractors. But she also has charisma, authenticity and the ability to draw huge crowds.”

But even the columnist, Niall Ferguson, asks: “Would a left-wing Latina from New York City really be the best option for a party that needs to win states like Michigan and Pennsylvania to take back the White House?”

Axios says Ocasio-Cortez, 35, “has been cheered like a political rock star over the past two weeks” and knows how to make the cash register ring: “In the first three months of 2025, she raised $9.6 million – more than double what she’d ever raised in a quarter.”

The current buzz is all about whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is running for president – and she does seem to have the momentum to back it up. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

She would undoubtedly be opposed by center-left liberals like Josh Shapiro who would stress the importance of winning swing states like, uh, Pennsylvania.

Now it’s a bit crazy to be talking about this just three months into Trump’s second term. Someone who’s “hot” now could easily cool off by then. Name recognition only takes you so far.

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In a recent Gallup poll, just 25 percent expressed confidence in Democratic congressional leadership, an all-time low.

Republicans don’t expect fair coverage from the media. But many Dems act personally offended when they draw critical coverage.

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The takeaway: Democrats have to make their own news, not just bash the media. But hey, we’re the easiest target out there.

Far-left Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., broke his silence on Tuesday after an unearthed social media post of rap lyrics set off a firestorm of controversy.

Frost, who recently made headlines for flying to El Salvador to visit deported illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was heavily criticized on social media after a seemingly cryptic tweet from 2016 resurfaced reading “f—– wit my gang gon get u spilled.”

The post was in response to tweets including one by an account named “Hits LeBlunt.” The line is from the song “Gang” by rapper “Max P.”

The post generated a spate of concern and condemnation, with many saying it was unbecoming of a member of Congress to have such a post on his official account.

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Far-left Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, (left) broke his silence on Tuesday after an unearthed social media post of rap lyrics set off a firestorm of controversy with even Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele (right) weighing in.  (Frost For Congress Alex Peña/Getty Images)

Even Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has emerged as a key ally of the Trump administration, weighed in on the controversy by posting a shoulder shrug emoji.

Rather than deleting the post, Frost simply responded to the controversy by saying, “Never thought Max P lyrics I tweeted at 19 would get so much attention from MAGA.”

Frost also tweeted out “I’ve only ever been in one gang” with an image of him in his high school band.

Frost kept going, tweeting again on Tuesday, “Keep looking through my old posts. There has to be some more funny stuff in there. Make sure you tag me.”

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Sen. Chris Van Hollen speaks to Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Reuters)

Frost’s responses, however, did not quell the controversy, with users continuing to bash him for the tweet and many even posting AI meme images showing Frost with tattoos reading “DeMS-13.”

Some seemed to find the controversy funny, such as conservative influencer Benny Johnson, who posted a screenshot of Bukele’s roast of Frost with the caption, “never deleting this app.”

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Conservative communicator Steve Guest posted a screenshot from Urban Dictionary defining “spilled” as “To be murdered. Most likely referring to blood being spilled.”

Popular conservative account “End Wokeness” replied to Frost’s 2016 tweet by saying, “DeMS-13 or Tren Dem Aragua?”

Others, like the popular account “DataRepublican,” expressed that the tweet was not fitting for a member of Congress.

“You are a Congressman. You’re not a gangster. You’re not being cool or edgy. You are held to a high standard, as a representative of the mightiest nation on the Earth. Do better,” the account commented.

HOUSE DEMS DEMAND ‘PROOF OF LIFE’ OF ABREGO GARCIA AFTER BEING DENIED MEETING IN EL SALVADOR

Five Democrats: Chris Van Hollen, Robert Garcia, Maxwell Frost, Maxine Dexter and Yassamin Ansari, have gone to El Salvador (Fox)

Frost was one of five Democratic lawmakers who visited El Salvador last week to advocate for the release and return of Abrego Garcia from the Salvadoran mega prison known as the “Terrorist Confinement Center” (CECOT).

Posting on X from El Salvador, the congressman accused President Donald Trump of “illegally arresting, jailing, & deporting people with no due process.”

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“We must hold the Administration accountable for these illegal acts and demand Kilmar’s release. Today it’s him, tomorrow it could be anyone else,” said Frost.

Besides Frost, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., and Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., also flew to El Salvador on behalf of Abrego Garcia.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton came out swinging against former Vice President Kamala Harris as she mulls a bid to become Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s successor.

“It’s never about us. It’s always about her,” Hilton said about the discussion of a potential run, citing a Politico report that she’s interested in the idea of being the country’s first Black woman governor.

“Let me tell you, leading the greatest state in the greatest nation on Earth is not some consolation prize to be handed out to a failed and rejected machine politician from Washington who can barely string a coherent sentence together and who thinks she should get this job because of her identity but not her ability,” he added.

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Steve Hilton took aim at former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may run for California governor. (Fox News/Screenshot | AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Hilton launched his campaign in Huntington Beach on Tuesday morning, touting endorsements ranging from Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Rep. Kevin Kiley and actor Jon Voight. 

He joins the race as recent polling indicated that just under half of likely voters in California would consider backing a Republican for governor, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Politico recently reported that Harris is considering the bid after losing the presidential race to now-President Donald Trump in November. If she enters, she would likely become the frontrunner in the Democrat field. Hilton compared her to the “marine layer threatening to come in and block out the sun.”

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Kamala Harris (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“So, bring it, Kamala, if you decide to run for governor, we will beat you again,” Hilton told the crowd.

The Golden State has a jungle primary system rather than a nomination system, which leads to the possibility that members of the same political party could be the finalists in a general election race.

On the Democrat side, a long list of candidates includes former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Rep. Katie Porter and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis. On the Republican side, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is in the race to take the helm in Sacramento.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File)

If a Republican were elected governor of the Golden State, they would likely continue to face a Democrat supermajority in the legislature. Newsom will be termed out of office and unable to serve a third term. Newsom won re-election by a wide margin against Republican Brian Dahle in 2022, and the Democrat fended off a recall election in 2021.

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The state continues to face internal and external pressures as it deals with Los Angeles fire recovery, affordability concerns leading people to move, and recent oil refinery closure announcements that could create major energy production issues. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Harris’ office for comment.