Members of notoriously violent migrant gang busted in drug raid then cut loose in blue city
Two suspected members of the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang who live at New York City migrant shelters were busted in a gun and drug raid earlier this month – and have since been cut loose on lesser charges that may end without prosecution, according to police, court documents and the New York Post.
Police tell Fox News Digital that Jose Tamaronis-Caldera, 27, and Richard Garcia, 33, were arrested in the Feb. 5 raid on a Big Apple auto repair shop where a Glock handgun, two imitation pistols, and a large quantity of drugs were found.
Both are reputed members of the Venezuelan migrant TdA gang, which has been terrorizing cities across the nation, the New York Post reports, citing sources. The NYPD was unable to confirm their purported gang membership to Fox News Digital.
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Rafael Nieves, 54, who prosecutors said is the auto shop’s owner, was also arrested. Police said the raid took place at V&R Auto and Collision in Woodside, Queens.
All three were hit with felony drug and gun charges, but documents reveal that Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia faced lesser charges when the case went to court.
Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia are currently each charged with two misdemeanors; possession of an air pistol or air rifle and possession of an imitation firearm which let them walk without bail, prosecutors said.
Furthermore, the charges against Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia will be dismissed after Aug. 5 if they do not commit further crimes as part of an adjournment in contemplation of compliance (ACD) issued by the judge, prosecutors said.
Nieves, who faced the most serious charges, had his drug and gun possession charges knocked down as well, with the new counts not eligible for bail. His new charges included criminal possession of a firearm and imitation handgun as well as criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree.
The Queens DA’s office said the charges are not bail-eligible because the gun was unloaded and there was no ammo nearby. The DA’s office added that the drugs found on the premises were in an office area and consisted of cocaine and oxycodone pills.
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“The DA’s office reviews all evidence and charges as warranted,” the Queens DA’s Office said in a statement. “In this case, the weapon charge against defendant Nieves is for an unloaded firearm and is not bail-eligible. Our office asked for supervised release and the judge granted supervised release.”
“The charges against the other two defendants, Garcia and Tamaronis-Caldera, are for possession of an air pistol and are not bail eligible.”
Police said that Tamaronis-Caldera and Nieves live at the Crowne Plaza JFK Airport hotel-turned-migrant shelter, while Garcia’s address was given as the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, which also operates as a migrant shelter.
Tamaronis-Caldera and Garcia crossed the U.S. border illegally in 2023, but were then released, federal immigration sources told the Post. Fox News has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more information.
A law enforcement official was roiled that the trio are facing lesser charges.
“These are not misguided individuals,” the official told the Post. “They’re documented members of a known violent criminal enterprise, a gang who has planted their flag here by entrenching themselves in narcotics, gun and human trafficking — and the best we can do is let them out?”
“If we did our jobs with criminals, we wouldn’t have ICE scouring our streets for detainees.”
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Migrant-related crime spiked under the Biden administration amid unprecedented levels of border-crossers streaming into the country, mostly via Mexico.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News late last month that a TdA ringleader was busted in an immigration raid in the Bronx and was trying to buy grenades.
“He had just been a part of a gun weapons exchange and was trying to buy grenades,” Noem said. “Why would anybody in this country need to buy a grenade and go out and perpetuate violence?”
New poll shows Trump approval rating as Americans name most significant move so far
President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains higher than at any point during his first term in office, according to a new poll from CNN.
The Thursday poll shows Trump at 47% approval rating with 52% disapproval. The poll found that a plurality of Americans, 28%, say Trump’s “single most significant” action has been securing the border, followed by his slashing of government with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency at 12%.
Meanwhile, many Americans say they want Trump to do more to address everyday prices. According to the poll, 62% of Americans say he hasn’t gone far enough on the issue, including 47% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 73% of Democrats.
CNN conducted its poll from Feb. 13-17, surveying 1,206 U.S. adults in both English and Spanish. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.1%.
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CNN’s poll comes on the heels of three other polls that were released Wednesday.
Forty-five percent of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey said they approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, with 49% disapproving.
That’s down from a 46%-43% approval/disapproval in a Quinnipiac poll conducted in late January, during the president’s first week back in office following his inauguration.
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Another national poll from Gallup indicated the president at 45% approval and 51% disapproval, down from 47%-48% approval/disapproval late last month.
And according to a Reuters/Ipsos national survey also released on Wednesday, the president stood at 44% approval and 51% disapproval. Trump registered at 45%-46% approval/disapproval in the previous poll by Reuters/Ipsos, which was conducted late last month during the first week of the president’s second administration.
The latest Quinnipiac poll was conducted Feb. 13-17, with Gallup in the field Feb. 3-16, and Reuters/Ipsos conducting their survey Feb. 13-18.
New surveys this week from other polling organizations indicate Trump’s approval ratings remain above water.
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Trump has kept up a frenetic pace during his opening weeks back in the White House, with an avalanche of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly put his stamp on the federal government, make major cuts to the federal workforce, and also settle some longstanding grievances.
Former NFL punter calls for violence after arrest for rushing council over MAGA plaque
Chris Kluwe, a former NFL punter who was arrested during a Huntington Beach, California, City Council meeting, said Wednesday he wants other officials to “start engaging in civil disobedience.”
The NFL veteran spoke against a plaque with a “MAGA” acronym being placed outside the city’s library for its 50th anniversary. The plaque will have the words “Magical,” “Alluring,” “Galvanizing” and “Adventurous” next to each other. It will also read, “Through hope and change our nation has built back better to the golden era of Making America Great Again!”
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The ex-NFL player then performed his “peaceful civil disobedience” as he rushed toward the councilmembers before he was arrested and carried out by police officers. He was later charged with disrupting an assembly.
Kluwe has been a longstanding critic of President Donald Trump and compared the “Make America Great Again” campaign to a “Nazi movement.” He told the Daily Pilot on Wednesday he wanted other “democratic elected officials” to follow him.
“I want our elected democratic officials to start engaging in civil disobedience,” he told the outlet. “People need to be aware that what’s going on with this administration is leading us down a really dark path. Right now, no one is willing to step up and do that. So, if I want to ask them to do it, then I have to be willing to do it too.”
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Kluwe added criticism toward council members.
“People are speaking out because that’s the American thing to do,” he said. “You’re a public citizen, your voice should be heard. But it’s very disheartening when your elected officials are not listening to your voice …
“It is profoundly un-American to do what this council is doing, and I think there are a lot of people in this community that get that. At a very visceral level, what we are seeing is not how America is supposed to work.”
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Gracey Van Der Mark, a city council member and former Huntington Beach mayor, defended the “beautiful conservative city” and said Kluwe got his “five minutes of fame.”
Judge grills DOJ over Trump’s executive order on trans policy in dizzying line of questioning
A federal judge in D.C. peppered Justice Department lawyers with hypothetical questions and video game references as she presided over the second day of oral arguments about the Trump administration’s attempt to restrict or ban transgender U.S. service members in the military.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes searched in vain for answers to key questions about the nature of a Jan. 27 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that requires the Defense Department to update its guidance regarding “trans-identifying medical standards for military service” and to “rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.”
Though Trump has instructed that “radical gender ideology” be banned from all military branches, the executive order did not explain how the Pentagon should do this – a lack of clarity that Judge Reyes, a Biden appointee, zeroed in on Wednesday.
For a second day, Judge Reyes led the court through a dizzying-fast line of questions that whipsawed between real and hypothetical, fact and fiction, and was flecked with her own sarcastic quips and observations.
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At one point, Judge Reyes ticked through a list of actions the Trump administration has taken in the past three weeks against transgender persons, including moving to revoke a regulation that ensured trans-identifying individuals have equal access to homeless shelters.
Judge Reyes then asked the Justice Department lawyers to tell her whether, in their view, such actions are discriminatory.
“What do you think Jesus would say,” Reyes proceeded to ask, about an action that revokes a transgender person’s access to homeless shelters?
“Do you think he’d say ‘sounds right to me’ or ‘WTF, let them in?'”
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Jason Lynch, the Justice Department lawyer, told the court that the government did not have an answer as to what Jesus would think.
The pace of the back-and-forth kept both plaintiffs for the transgender service members and the Trump administration’s lawyers on their toes, even if it did little, in the near-term, to effectuate an actual court ruling or answer any outstanding questions about the executive order, which is extremely scant on details.
The Trump administration and DOJ lawyers have declined to answer Reyes’s questions over whether they can ensure plaintiffs in the case will not be removed from their roles in the military or face discrimination as a direct result of the executive order. The Justice Department, for its part, has described the order as not a ban but a pause, which Lynch said will allow the Defense Department time to align its policy with Trump’s order.
During the second day of oral arguments, Reyes appeared exasperated and did little to disguise her displeasure with the order itself, which she described as expressing “unadulterated animus” towards transgender service members.
Reyes did concede that there is an obvious national interest in ensuring the U.S. military is prepared.
“It is the greatest fighting force this world has ever seen, and we want to keep it that way – I’ve got that part,” the judge said. “So how does this executive order effectuate that policy?”
“By telling the Department of Defense to issue a policy within 30 days,” Lynch responded.
“Oh, okay, any policy?” Judge Reyes quipped.
She then outlined a hypothetical situation in which she, as head of the Pentagon, issued a policy that all DOD units be equipped with Miss Pac-Man machines – a game she noted she has in her own chambers, and plays from time to time to let off steam.
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“So I’m now Secretary of Defense, I’m thinking about how to make my military best prepared,” Reyes said. “And I think people need to let off steam every once in a while. So I’m going to issue a policy that Miss Pac-Man machines should be in every unit.”
“Would that be consistent,” she challenged Lynch, with the 30-day policy?
Lynch said that would be for the president to decide.
Putting aside whether the order discriminates on the basis of sex, Reyes asked the DOJ attorneys, “you agree the order penalizes on basis of sex, right? How is that not a sex-based classification?”
The judge has made clear she will not rule on the executive action until the Trump administration outlines its policy – including how, or to what extent, transgender service members might be impacted.
But she continued to probe Lynch, whom she reminded Tuesday is technically acting as the legal representative for the Trump administration.
“I mean, I have no one else to ask, right?” Judge Reyes asked Lynch, before amending the question mark in her voice.
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“You are the person I have to ask,” she told him.
The transgender military policy is slated to take effect Feb. 28, and the court has set a March 3 hearing date to consider the executive order.
Wrestling mogul and Trump education pick clears first Senate hurdle
The consideration of Linda McMahon to run the Department of Education (DOED) will head to a full Senate vote after the Trump nominee advanced in a heavyweight decision on Thursday.
McMahon testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee during her confirmation hearing last week, when she was grilled on recent spending cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), potentially dismantling the DOED and Title IX.
“We need a strong leader at the department who will get our education system back on track,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said ahead of the committee vote. “Mrs. McMahon is the partner this committee needs.”
On Thursday, the committee voted to advance the nomination of McMahon for Education secretary to a full Senate vote.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., spoke in opposition to her nomination during the vote on Thursday.
“I like her personally. I respect the work she has done in building a large and successful business. But I think the main point that has to be made at this particular point in history is that it really doesn’t matter who the secretary of education or the secretary of labor is, because those people will not be calling the shots,” Sanders said, taking aim at President Donald Trump during his remarks.
McMahon’s nomination now heads to the Senate floor, where the entire chamber will vote on her nomination. At this time, the floor vote has not been scheduled.
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Before entering the political scene, McMahon worked as the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince McMahon.
During Trump’s first term, McMahon also served as administrator of the Small Business Administration before stepping down in 2019 to “return to the private sector.”
McMahon is now being considered to head the Education Department, which Trump has said he wants to close “immediately.”
“It’s a big con job,” Trump said the day before McMahon’s confirmation hearing. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.”
The president said that if confirmed, he wants McMahon to “put herself out of a job.”
The Education Department has been under the national spotlight in recent weeks, as DOGE, the department led by Elon Musk to slash federal costs, has cut hundreds of millions of spending on DEI programs being funded by DOED.
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On Friday, DOGE announced that in just 48 hours, the department terminated 70 DEI training grants within the department, which totaled over $370 million.
Trump decides whether he will attend high-stakes face-off between USA and Canada
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday he would call the U.S. men’s hockey team ahead of their 4 Nations Face-Off final against Canada in a rematch of their heated game over the weekend.
Bill Guerin, the general manager for the U.S. 4 Nations team, invited Trump to come to Boston for the final against Canada in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom.”
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On Truth Social, the busy president wrote he would give the team a ring and teased Canada again.
“I’ll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State,” he wrote.
Trump added he would not be able to attend the game.
“I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting!”
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Saturday’s game started with Canadian fans in Montreal booing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Then, three American and three Canadian players threw down their gloves and began to fight. There were three fights in the first nine seconds. The U.S. got the last laugh as they topped Canada, 3-1.
It is unclear if more fighting will occur when the puck drops at 8 p.m. ET.
Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel, who have had an intense rivalry in NHL games, threw subtle jabs at each other since then as they spoke to reporters. Tkachuk had previously said that he, his brother and their teammate J.T. Miller talked about sparking the fight in group chat.
Hagel poked texters, saying he fought “for the flag” and “not the cameras.” added as a subtle shot that his Canadian teammates “don’t have any group chats.”
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“Maybe their team doesn’t like each other, then, if they don’t have group chats,” Tkachuk said, via Sportsnet.
Hamas releases bodies of slain Israeli hostages, including mother and two toddlers
Hamas has turned over the bodies of four slain Israeli hostages more than 500 days after the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.
Hamas said the bodies would include Shiri Bibas and her two toddlers, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, a retired journalist and activist. Their identities will be confirmed in Israel, which could take up to 48 hours.
At the time of their kidnapping, Shiri was 32 years old, Ariel was 4 years old and Kfir was 9 months old. Their father, Yarden, was also kidnapped by Hamas, but survived and was released on Feb. 1.
Lifshitz, a retired journalist and activist, was 83 years old when he and his then 85-year-old wife, Yocheved, were kidnapped from their home. She was released on Oct. 23, 2023.
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The transfer took place in front of a large crowd near Khan Younis at around 9 a.m. local time on Thursday. The crowd was reportedly cheering when Hamas arrived carrying four black coffins in four separate cars.
“As the bodies of four Israeli hostages are transferred by Hamas to the Red Cross, hundreds of ‘innocent Gazans’ dance to music, and happily film this tragic event,” Israel’s Government Press Office wrote on X. “Speechless doesn’t begin to describe how this makes us feel.”
The coffins were later transferred to a Red Cross car, which took them to Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip. Once the hostages were back in Israeli hands, the Israel Defense Forces made sure their coffins did not contain explosives or other dangerous substances before conducting a short ceremony honoring their lives.
The Israel Security Agency and the IDF released the following joint statement shortly after the ceremony was over:
“A short while ago, IDF and ISA forces brought the coffins of the four deceased hostages over the border into Israel, and they are being taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine to undergo an identification procedure. IDF representatives are accompanying their families at this difficult time.”
After the ceremony, a convoy taking the bodies to the forensic institute in Tel Aviv was met with thousands of Israelis standing silently along the road in the rain, many of whom holding Israel’s flag.
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Israeli President Issac Herzog said in a statement “there are no words” to describe the transfer that took place.
“Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — lie in tatters,” he wrote on X. “On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely. May their memory be a blessing.”
This release is the first one involving the transfer of slain hostages since the ceasefire deal went into effect last month.
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The next transfer is scheduled to take place on Saturday where Hamas will release six living hostages.
About 70 hostages remain in Hamas custody. Nearly all the remaining hostages, including Israeli soldiers, are men and about half are believed to be dead.
Trump’s energy department cancels massive amount in wasteful spending
America’s refreshed Department of Energy under President Donald Trump has allegedly found more wasteful spending, as other budget-cutting actions have taken place in various federal agencies.
Department of Energy press secretary and chief spokesperson Ben Dietderich exclusively told Fox News Digital that they have identified and canceled more than $124 million, “from millions of dollars of DEI contracts to ridiculously expensive multi-million-dollar Politico news subscriptions” and other nonessential line items.
“And we are just getting started,” Dietderich said in a statement. “While some of the funds have already been obligated, we expect immediate savings of at least $65 million and more to come in the coming months and years. President Trump and Secretary Wright are fully committed to making government more accountable, efficient, and restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s dollars.”
“This [is] simply adding nothing of value to the American people,” Secretary Chris Wright said in a Wednesday interview on “Varney & Co.”
“So we’ve cut out some needless expenditures, and we’re doing everything we can to become better stewards of American taxpayer moneys without sacrificing the DOE mission,” he continued. “In fact, we want to expand the DOE mission, but do it all at [a] lower cost and more efficiently. That’s how businesses run.”
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The update from the Energy Department comes in the same week they announced it dismissed nearly 50 nuclear security office employees as the Trump administration pushes to cut wasteful spending across agencies.
“The previous administration was not a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars: In just four years, the Biden administration expanded the Department of Energy’s federal workforce by more than 20% – adding more than 3,000 federal employee positions,” Dietderich expanded via email.
“In the last year alone, the Biden administration increased the size of the Energy Department federal workforce with 1,000 new employees,” he added. “Delivering on President Trump’s mandate supported by more than 77 million Americans, the Energy Department began last week dismissing a portion of recently hired federal employees classified in the federal government as ‘probationary employees.’”
Also in Wednesday’s interview with Stuart Varney, the energy secretary added that the Biden administration’s Green New Deal is in the process of being “killed off,” and there is an increasing focus on lowering energy and oil costs under President Trump.
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“President Trump was elected to bring common sense back to Washington. And boy, he’s doing that in grand style. Think of the American dream,” Wright said. “The American dream is [that] your children are going to have better lives than you. We’ve had four years of making energy more expensive and getting in the way of this next generation from realizing the American dream.”
“Absolutely, we want all energy sources that can lower the cost of energy, expand job opportunities and have more stuff made in America. That requires more energy and lower-cost energy.”
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