Trump admin arrests hundreds in illegal immigration crackdown
FIRST ON FOX: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the first days of the Trump administration, has made for than 460 arrests of illegal immigrants, including those with criminal histories that include sexual assault, domestic violence and drugs and weapons crimes.
Information obtained by Fox News Digital, shows that between midnight Jan. 21 and 9am Jan 22, a 33-hour period, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrests over 460 aliens that include criminal histories of sexual assault, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, drugs and weapons offenses, resisting arrest and domestic violence.
Agents arrested nationals from a slew of countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.
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Arrests took place across the U.S. including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland.
Meanwhile, ICE issued more than 420 detainers – requests ICE be notified when a national is released from custody. The nationals were arrested for crimes including homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, battery and robbery.
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Arrests include:
– A Mexican national, Jesus Perez, arrested in Salt Lake City, charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
– A Honduran national, Franklin Osorto-Cruz, convicted of driving while intoxicated. He was arrested in New York.
– A Jamaican national, Kamaro Denver Haye, arrested for “promote a sexual performance by a child less than 17 years of age and possessing sexual performance by child less than 16 years of age: possess/access to view.”
– A Mexican national, Jesus Baltazar Mendoza, convicted of 2nd degree assault of a child. He was arrested in St. Paul.
– Colombian national Andres Orjuela Parra, who was arrested in San Francisco. He has a conviction of sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unaware victim.
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– Six illegal immigrants in Miami from Guatemala, with criminal histories including battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing and vandalism.
Meanwhile, Fox News’ Bill Melugin was on the ground in Boston, where agents arrested multiple MS-13 gang members, Interpol Red Notices, and murder & rape suspects.
The arrests come as the Trump administration is moving rapidly to fulfill its promise to launch a historic mass deportation operation, which it has said will focus primarily – but not exclusively – on public safety threats.
This week the administration has made a slew of moves to make it happen, including a barrage of executive orders by President Trump and subsequent moves by his cabinet agencies.
Fox News reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security has removed limits from powers of expedited removal, a day after it rescinded a Biden-era memo restricting where ICE can conduct enforcement operations.
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“Teams are out there as of today,” Homan said on “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday. “We gave them direction to prioritize public safety threats that we’re looking for. We’ve been working up the target list.”
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“Right out of the gate it’s public safety threats, those who are in the country illegally that have been convicted, arrested for serious crime,” he said. “But let me be clear. There’s not only public safety threats that will be arrested, because in sanctuary cities, we’re not allowed to get that public safety threat in the jail, which means we got to go to the neighborhood and find him.”
Trump picks agent who protected him from would-be assassin to lead Secret Service
President Donald Trump formally nominated Sean Curran, the head of his personal Secret Service security detail, to serve as director of the U.S. Secret Service Wednesday.
Curran, one of several quick-thinking agents who rushed on stage to protect Trump during a July 13 assassination attempt, was already expected to be named to the position. In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump wrote that it was an “honor” to appoint Curran.
“Sean is a Great Patriot, who has protected my family over the past few years, and that is why I trust him to lead the Brave Men and Women of the United States Secret Service,” the president wrote.
Trump called Curran a “brilliant leader, who is capable of directing and leading operational security plans for some of the most complex Special Security Events in the History of our Country, and the World.
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“He proved his fearless courage when he risked his own life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania,” Trump said. “I have complete and total confidence in Sean to make the United States Secret Service stronger than ever before.”
Trump announced other nominees on Wednesday, including Andrew F. Puzder, the president’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Puzder is the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. In a post, Trump called the nominee “a successful attorney, businessman, economic commentator, and author.”
“During his 17-year tenure as CEO, Andy led the company out of serious financial difficulty, allowing it to survive, become financially secure, and grow,” Trump said. “Andy will do an excellent job representing our Nation’s interests in this important region.”
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In a separate statement Wednesday, Trump announced that conservative writer L. Brent Bozell III has been named to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Trump said that “few understand the Global Media landscape in print, television, and online” better than Bozell.
“He and his family have fought for the American principles of Liberty, Freedom, Equality, and Justice for generations, and he will ensure that message is heard by Freedom-loving people around the World,” Trump wrote. “Brent will bring some much needed change to the U.S. Agency for Global Media.”
Bozell has worked in conservative media for decades. The nephew of National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr., Bozell founded the Media Research Center in 1987. In the fall, Bozell penned a supportive Fox News Digital op-ed about Trump’s chances against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Trump has something Harris doesn’t: a winning record, a winning agenda and a winning vision,” Bozell wrote. “She avoids her record because it’s not only radioactive politically, but socialism has a rich history of utter failure everywhere.
“All Donald Trump needs to do is tell his story, remind people what was accomplished during his presidency. State simply he will do it again, both at home where so many are suffering, but also abroad where the world nears a boiling point. Lay out his vision of his city on the hill. “
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The USAGM, previously known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors until 2018, controls Voice of America as well as other state-funded media outlets. According to the agency’s website, USAGM’s purpose is to “to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”
Dem who called Trump ‘existential threat to democracy’ now blocking his nominees
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., disrupted Senate Republicans’ plans to quickly confirm President Donald Trump’s national security nominees on Tuesday night when he objected to bypassing lengthy procedural votes that are routinely skipped.
“Unfortunately, we were at the point of almost having a consent agreement to have a vote on the confirmation of John Ratcliffe to be the CIA director tomorrow. Not today, not yesterday, when it should have happened, but tomorrow,” Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on the chamber floor. “But the senator from Connecticut has decided to object at the last minute.”
“I don’t really understand the objection to Mr. Ratcliffe. He was confirmed by the Senate to be the director of National intelligence. He was fully vetted through the bipartisan process in the Senate Intelligence Committee. We voted him out yesterday on a 14 to 3 vote,” Cotton, also the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, continued.
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During his objection, Murphy said there were “serious concerns” from some Democrats about Trump’s CIA pick John Ratcliffe. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask to make sure that we have a full, real debate that lasts two days on the Senate floor,” he said.
The Connecticut Democrat notably previewed Trump’s eventual second presidency over the summer. “There’s a lot of anxiety in the country and in the party today, and that’s because the stakes are so high,” he said.
“That’s because Donald Trump presents an existential threat to democracy. He has advertised he is going to transition this country from a democracy to a dictatorship,” Murphy claimed in a July appearance on CNN.
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Murphy’s Tuesday night objection to speeding through the routine procedural votes is the first case of Democrats using the strategy Republicans employed while in the Senate minority to gain leverage to negotiate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., expressed his frustration with the objection on the floor, saying, “OK, so 14 to 3 coming out of the committee. And we’ve now wasted a whole day where we could have been acting on that nomination.”
“And so really, I think the question before the House is, do we want a vote on these folks on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that’s what we’re going to do,” he said, threatening weekend votes in the upper chamber.
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“This can be easy or this can be hard.”
Murphy foreshadowed this type of defiance while speaking to reporters last week.
“I think Republicans changed the rules here over the last two years,” he said. “They used extraordinary powers to block nominees and to lengthen every process.”
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“The rules are different now, they changed the way the Senate works,” he reiterated.
Thune took the necessary actions to tee up eventual votes on Ratcliffe; Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth; and Trump’s pick for Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem. Since there is no agreement with Democrats to limit debate and bypass certain procedural votes, the nominations will not ripen for confirmation votes for more than a day.
Conservatives sound off after ACLU lawyer comes up with new term for biological women
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Chase Strangio appeared to employ a new term for an adult human female Tuesday.
The trans rights activist – who is also a transgender man – appeared on the left-wing digital news show “Democracy Now!” to slam President Donald Trump’s executive order on sex and gender.
Strangio complained to show host Amy Goodman that Trump “is targeting trans people by focusing on retrenching this notion of a fixed gender binary at the time of conception.”
While making the case, Strangio referred to biological women as “non-transgender women.”
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Trump’s executive order, titled “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” clarifies that it is the U.S. policy to recognize two sexes, male and female, and that men and women are biologically distinct, along with addressing how agencies should handle these directives.
One part of the EO directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to produce a policy that protects women “seeking single-sex rape shelters” and other intimate spaces, which Strangio objected to.
Strangio claimed this would, “in essence, exclude trans people from various forms of shelter system, under the auspices that a trans person is an inherent threat to non-transgender women.”
After refusing to call biological women “women,” Strangio added that this part of the order “just enhances the risk that transgender people face in society, if we are deemed as a threat to others simply by existing.”
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A clip of Strangio calling women “non-transgender women” caught the attention of some on X.
Prominent conservative account “End Wokeness” shared the clip with the caption, “ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio is panicking that Trump banned men from ‘non-trans women’ (women) locker rooms.”
Conservative commentator Paul Szypula blasted Strangio in a lengthy post, stating, “ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, a woman pretending to be a man, is mad that he’s going to be arrested if he uses a men’s bathroom in a federal building. She vents her anger by calling biological women ‘non-transgender women.’”
He continued, “Chase can whine all she wants. That doesn’t change the fact that she has XX chromosomes and is a woman. So either she stays out of men’s bathrooms, or she goes to a women’s jail.”
Co-owner of Trending Politics Collin Rugg wrote, “NEW: Transgender ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio refers to biological women as ‘non-transgender women’ while losing it over Trump’s new executive orders. This voice catches me off guard every time.”
“Life hack: You can save some time by simply referring to them as ‘women.’” Rugg added.
“No, we’re women. Just women, there is no and/or situation here,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who has championed having single-sex facilities in the Capitol, added.
Former NCAA swimmer and women’s rights activist Riley Gaines commented on Rugg’s post, stating, “’Nontransgender women’ is crazy work lol.”
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Olympic gold medalist stunned after being pardoned by President Trump
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Klete Keller was among the 1,500 defendants charged in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capital pardoned by President Donald Trump on Monday.
“It didn’t feel real,” Keller told The Washington Post in his first interview since being arrested.
“And waking up this morning, I was like, ‘My gosh. Wow, this is over. I don’t have to check in with my probation officer anymore.”
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Keller was one of approximately 1,500 defendants pardoned after Trump signed an executive order granting clemency to those who stormed the Capitol. He pleaded guilty in September 2021 to a felony charge and was sentenced to six months house arrest and three years of probation.
“I really regret the actions I took that day. I love this country,” Keller said in the interview published Tuesday. “I’m just so grateful that I have the opportunity now to move forward.”
Keller acknowledged in court records that he tried to obstruct Congress’ certification of former President Biden’s Electoral College victory and that he brushed away officers who tried to remove him from the Capitol Rotunda. He also admitted to yelling profane comments about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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Keller, a three-time Olympic swimmer, also admitted to tossing his U.S. Olympic team jacket that he wore that day and destroying his phone.
He told The Washington Post that he struggled under “the weight of the justice system,” but he accepted the consequences of his decisions. While never expecting a pardon, Keller expressed his appreciation for Trump’s intervention.
“I’m still trying to comprehend it. I feel like something has been restored to me,” he told the outlet. “You know, I’m not angry. I’m not a victim. I feel blessed to have this opportunity of life again. I’ve learned a lot of lessons. And I’m going to take these lessons forward.”
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Keller, 42, competed in three Games, winning five medals. He won his second gold in the men’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay alongside Michael Phelps in the 2008 Beijing Games.
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California beach town votes to become ‘non-sanctuary’ city, vows to work with Trump
Leaders in one Southern California city fed up with the state’s immigration policies have voted to become a “non-sanctuary” city and ignore the state’s sanctuary laws.
The resolution was approved by the Huntington Beach City Council on Tuesday night by a unanimous 7-0 vote. Mayor Pat Burns, who introduced the legislation, “Non-Sanctuary City for Illegal Immigration for the Prevention of Crime,” said the move was a matter of public safety.
“This is in the best interest of our community, Huntington Beach, to make sure that we utilize every facet of law enforcement we can to make it the best place to live,” Burns, a former law enforcement officer, said during Tuesday’s meeting alongside a small bust sculpture of President Donald Trump.
The move directs the city’s police officers to work with federal immigration authorities and notify immigration officials when they are about to release an illegal immigrant from jail.
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The resolution “deliberately sidestep[s] the Governor’s efforts to subvert the good work of federal immigration authorities and to announce the city’s cooperation with the federal government, the Trump Administration and Border Czar Tom Homan’s work,” the city said in a news release.
Sanctuary cities prohibit their law enforcement personnel from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The practice has come under scrutiny for shielding criminal illegal immigrants from being deported.
In addition to the resolution, Huntington Beach is suing the state over its sanctuary state laws, which it claims are unconstitutional.
Before the vote, Councilman Chad Williams chided state lawmakers for enacting policies to protect illegal immigrants, including those convicted of violent crimes.
“If we want to voluntarily cooperate with federal authorities to protect our community, that is absolutely our prerogative,” he said. “It’s just basic common sense. Why wouldn’t you want to use every tool available to keep your community safe?”
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The resolution text mentions crimes committed by illegal immigrants on behalf of criminal gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, which gained widespread attention after its members allegedly terrorized residents at a Colorado apartment complex.
Tuesday’s vote came weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a “Trump-proof” legal defense fund of up to $25 million for California’s justice department. Trump has promised to target criminal illegal immigrants for deportation.
“In California in particular, fighting crime is difficult enough with the relaxed criminal laws and lack of enforcement. The State should get out of the way of local law enforcement, stop handcuffing our police officers and California’s cities, and get back to the business of protecting innocent citizens,” Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said in a press release.
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“Emphatically, the State should not take a position of violating federal immigration laws or encouraging cities to violate federal immigration laws.”
Kai Trump gives insider’s look at grandfather’s historic inauguration
Kai Madison Trump, daughter of Donald Trump Jr., garnered nearly 27 million combined views on TikTok and YouTube after posting a vlog of her grandfather’s historic Inauguration Day.
In the 14-minute YouTube video, the 17-year-old is seen getting ready for the day with a hair and makeup team, before heading to a church service.
The family then traveled by car to the U.S. Capitol, where President Donald Trump was inaugurated.
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Kai snacked on Red Bull and cookies that she picked up inside the Capitol building, while joking with her father ahead of the ceremony.
Although she was not allowed to film the event, she included a number of clips.
The family got ready for the Liberty Inauguration Ball, where Kai stunned in a silver sequined Sherri Hill gown.
“My favorite part of this dress is the corset part because it just makes it look really flattering,” she said while spinning for the camera. “I also love all the diamonds and silver stuff. I think it looks really nice on my skin tone.”
The dress designer is linked in the teen’s video description, but it is unclear if they have a business relationship. Fox News Digital requested comment.
Kai and her family then dropped by the White House to see President Trump, entering through a side door.
Framed photos in White House hallways featured art of the newly-sworn in president.
The family took pictures in front of the fireplace in the iconic Diplomatic Reception Room.
She then showed her 806,000 subscribers the Green, Blue and Red rooms – a set of three parlors named for their color schemes.
“By the way, welcome to the White House,” she told viewers.
They arrived at the ball where she expressed anxiety about dancing with her father in front of a crowd. Nerves seemed to wear off as the family made a number of other appearances.
She arrived at her hotel around 1 a.m., ready to get some rest before heading out of the nation’s capital the next morning.
In less than a day, the video amassed nearly 1.5 million views and 83,000 likes on YouTube.
Kai made national headlines when she spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July.
During her speech, she explained how the commander in chief was “just a normal grandpa.”
She captured America’s hearts, describing Trump sneaking her candy and soda when her parents weren’t looking, or playing a competitive round of golf.
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“When we play golf together, if I’m not on his team, he’ll try to get inside of my head,” she said. “He is always surprised that I don’t let him get to me, but I have to remind him I’m a Trump too.”
Kai committed in August to play collegiate golf at the University of Miami.
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Kai’s production/representation, AKA Collective, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
AKA Collective lists one of its clients as pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who posted a viral YouTube video in July playing a round with Trump.
CNN reportedly set to lay off hundreds of employees in first days of Trump presidency
CNN is reportedly set to lay off “hundreds” of employees in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Puck reported CNN CEO Mark Thompson will announce to his staff about the network cuts on Thursday morning, while CNBC reported that the layoffs “won’t affect CNN’s most recognizable names, who are under contract,” according to sources.
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News Digital previously reported in November that CNN would face major layoffs by March and that its impact on the network would be “very meaningful.”
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“I am overall very sad and deeply frustrated,” a longtime CNN staffer told Fox News Digital. “Feelings which are pervasive throughout the organization among those who have been here a long time and feel a deep personal connection to having helped build the organization.”
“It’s a time of a complete and utter business model overhaul and chaos. Extremely difficult even under the best circumstances,” the CNN staffer added.
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Another CNN employee cited Thompson, who has been on the job for just over a year and has been outspoken about how the company will have to undergo big changes to survive.
“I am worried because the industry is obviously in trouble… I’m sure there will be cuts,” the second CNN staffer told Fox News Digital.
The employee suspected “more shows will be streamlined and produced out of Atlanta” and that those impacted the most are the “expensive” shows being produced in New York City.
CNN’s financial struggles were put under the spotlight last week after a jury found the network had defamed a Navy veteran and approved that he could seek punitive damages. The legal battle resulted in a settlement.
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Forensic economist Robert W. Johnson, who was hired by the plaintiff’s legal time to assess CNN’s finances, testified CNN was worth $4.4 billion in 2021 but dropped to $2.3 billion in 2023, according to provided tax documents from the network.
Johnson’s data also showed that CNN’s revenue dropped from $2.2 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion in 2023. CNN’s net income over the same period dropped from $0.6 billion in 2021 to $0.4 billion in 2023.
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