Homan steps in as state plans to release illegal immigrant who killed Americans
Outrage is growing after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced it will release an undocumented immigrant convicted of killing two American teenagers, more than six years before his original sentence was set to end.
Trump border czar Tom Homan says he’s stepping in.
“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.”
Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano was driving drunk at high speed in 2021 when he crashed into a car carrying 19-year-olds Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin. Both teens were killed in the fiery wreck. Ortega-Anguiano was later convicted of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2022.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONVICTED OF KILLING TEENS IN HIGH-SPEED CRASH TO BE RELEASED EARLY: ‘IT’S DISGUSTING’
Now, California officials say he will be released early, sparking outrage from the victims’ families and immigration officials.
“He’s been deported several times, which means he’s a felon,” Homan said. “Re-entry to the country, deported. Deportation is a felony. We will prosecute him, and we will deport him.”
According to ICE, Ortega-Anguiano has a long criminal history, including prior convictions for burglary in 2005, vehicle theft in 2007, and battery with kidnapping in 2014. Homan says those prior offenses, and his repeated illegal re-entry into the country, make the case especially egregious.
ICE has issued a detainer requesting custody of Ortega-Anguiano upon his release. However, California’s sanctuary state policies raise questions about whether local officials will comply.
HOMAN SAYS ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ MUST BE SENT TO EL SALVADOR PRISON: ‘WE GOT TO PROTECT AMERICAN CITIZENS’
The families of Varfolomeev and Osokin have pushed back on the release and have written letters to the state demanding that Ortega-Anguiano remain behind bars. They also fear that if he is deported, he could find a way to re-enter the country illegally again.
Homan, a longtime enforcer of immigration law, says these types of cases are what drive his passion.
“Everybody asks why I get so emotional on network TV, why I get emotional when I testify,” Homan said. “I’ve met hundreds of angel moms and dads and hear every story. I’ll never forget any of those stories. It’s just a tragedy.”
ICE ALLOWED BACK ONTO NYC’S RIKERS ISLAND PRISON, WITH RESTRICTIONS
The border czar remains at the center of ongoing legal battles tied to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Since the president’s return to office, his administration has faced mounting legal challenges, including over plans to end birthright citizenship and expand deportations of undocumented immigrants.
In May, the Supreme Court is set to hear a case involving three federal judges who issued nationwide injunctions against Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants.
Homan also criticized recent rulings, including one by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who temporarily blocked the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to El Salvador.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
But Homan says these legal obstacles won’t derail their efforts.
“There’s a reason they’re district court judges. They’re not national judges,” he said.
“District court judges can’t overrule the president’s executive orders. This is what we got to fix right away in the Supreme Court so we can actually keep the president’s promise to the American people that we’re going to remove national security threats.”
Town backs away from dissolving police department after local uproar
Amid backlash from residents, leaders in a Virginia town voted Tuesday to keep Purcellville’s police force a week after they tried to eliminate it to save more than $3 million, according to reports.
The town of Purcellville, located in Loudoun County, Virginia, has found itself around $50 million in the red following the construction of a major wastewater treatment facility, and the council sought to tighten the town’s budget by disbanding the local police department and relying on the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement.
The initial decision to dismantle the police department led to recall petitions to remove several council members and Vice Mayor Ben Nett from office. Council members who proposed eradicating the force said they wanted to do so to reduce water bills for the town’s 9,000 residents.
But the council reversed course and voted to fund the police force at $3.2 million for 2026 at a jam-packed town council meeting Tuesday where outraged residents and other officials voiced their concerns about the proposal.
TRUMP LIFTS POLICE ‘BURDEN’ WITH EXECUTIVE ORDERS IN FIRST 100 DAYS: VETERAN OFFICER
The result of the vote was met with cheers by residents in attendance.
Residents who spoke during public comments said they didn’t want to get rid of the police department to save on water bills and criticized the council’s vote two weeks ago without having public comment on that particular motion, according to Fox 5 DC.
DEM ELITES ACCUSED OF SLAPPING SMALL-TOWN COPS WITH ‘WITCH HUNT’ FINES TWICE THEIR PAY
“The four of you snuck agenda items in at the end of the meeting and took away my lawful right to comment on them,” one resident said, ABC7 reports.
Sheriff Mike Chapman, of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, released a statement before the meeting saying the town council and manager had not discussed plans and said a transition could not happen in two months.
The vote came amid a criminal investigation into Vice Mayor Ben Nett for potential violations of Virginia conflict of interest laws, according to Fox 5 DC. Nett was absent from Tuesday night’s meeting.
Nett was fired from the Purcellville Police Department on April 8 and within a week he voted to disband it with no effort to recuse himself, a letter from the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s attorney states, per Fox 5 DC.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The council, meanwhile, has come under fire for other issues too, including appointing former Mayor Kwasi Fraser as town manager without the council interviewing the 82 candidates that applied.
Purcellville council member Erin Rayner said there’s been a lot of behavior that she found questionable since the new council took office earlier this year.
“I am happy that it’s not just me and my fellow colleagues that are seeing this behavior and are seeing what’s going on and looking into it,” Rayner said.
There’s an old saying when a bar is about to close for the night that goes something like, “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” It pretty much sums up how Americans feel about people in our country illegally, even if our courts won’t let President Trump deport them.
It’s truly incredible. President Biden allowed millions of illegals to pour across the southern border en masse and the courts did nothing. Now, in order to kick them out, the same judicial system wants each and every one to get a hearing, a process that would likely require not decades, but centuries.
PRESIDENT TRUMP BLASTS COURTS FOR GETTING IN WAY OF DEPORTATION AGENDA
To get a notion of the scale here, some estimates say Biden let 10 million people enter the county illegally. Were they to stand in a single file line, it would stretch from New York to Los Angeles.
Of course, what this really means is that if the courts get their way, and every person must have a scheduled hearing, then almost everyone gets to stay indefinitely.
This didn’t happen when Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or even Open Borders Biden himself deported illegals. Yet somehow, now that it’s Trump, the rules are entirely different. Never mind that polling now consistently shows growing majorities of Americans want all undocumented aliens booted, and not just those with criminal records.
Fine, there are other ways to handle this influx of illegals, but not everyone is going to like them very much.
Here’s an idea: Any person or company who hires an illegal, knowingly or unknowingly, pays a $25,000 fine, per person. This would apply not only to faceless corporations, but to any rich couple from the Hamptons to Beverly Hills who hires an illegal immigrant nanny or landscaper.
Feel free to put the “Refugees Welcome” sign in your window, but be prepared to pay up.
There must also be a complete and total shutdown of any and all federal benefits going to those in the country illegally. The judiciary may be able to stop us from kicking illegals out of the country, but they can’t force us to buy their food and pay their rent.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
The pro-open borders side loves to talk about the golden age of Ellis Island, when half of Europe seemed to pass by the Statue of Liberty in search of a new life. But guess what? None of those 12 million souls got a dime of federal benefits.
The message to those in our country illegally is clear, “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
No, a century ago, it was family, local communities and churches that helped the newest immigrants get on their feet, and if they couldn’t get on their feet, they went home. They couldn’t just live indefinitely as a ward of the state.
The message should be clear that if you are here illegally and you choose to stay, it will be in a tent on Skid Row.
You see how this works? When the courts, sanctuary cities, and the media all work to ensure illegals get to stay, the country must find other ways to fix this problem.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
By hook or by crook, the American people are going to take their country back. This is the greatest nation on earth, not a pay-what-you-wish youth hostel open to the world.
It’s time to start flashing the lights on and off. The party is over, the bar is dry, and it is time to clean up. The message to those in our country illegally is clear, “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS
University pays big price for firing doctor who criticized trans treatment for kids
The University of Louisville has reportedly agreed to pay nearly $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a former professor who was fired for criticizing transgender treatments for children experiencing gender dysphoria.
Dr. Allan Josephson worked for nearly 15 years as chief of the University of Louisville’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology. According to his legal complaint, Josephson was able to turn around the struggling division during his tenure and received perfect scores in his 2014-2016 annual reviews.
Despite his professional accomplishments, the complaint alleges that Josephson was demoted in 2017 and eventually fired after making comments in his own capacity challenging the push to use hormone therapy and surgery for children with gender dysphoria, according to legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
ADF, which represented Josephson in court, announced the settlement agreement Monday and hailed the case as a “major victory” for free speech.
CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT FIRED FOR OPPOSITION TO TRANS POLICY HAS DAY IN COURT
“I’m glad to finally receive vindication for voicing what I know is true,” Josephson also said in a statement. “Children deserve better than life-altering procedures that mutilate their bodies and destroy their ability to lead fulfilling lives. In spite of the circumstances I suffered through with my university, I’m overwhelmed to see that my case helped lead the way for other medical practitioners to see the universal truth that altering biological sex is impossibly dangerous while acceptance of one’s sex leads to flourishing.”
According to the complaint, the saga began in October 2017 when Josephson participated in a panel discussion on transgender ideology hosted by the conservative organization, The Heritage Foundation, in which he spoke out against gender ideology activism influencing the medical treatment of children experiencing gender dysphoria.
Upon learning of Josephson’s remarks, officials at the university’s LGBT center reportedly pressured his division to take disciplinary action against him.
Scrutiny of his views intensified after he appeared as an expert witness in a legal case involving a school district’s bathroom policy around gender identity.
NORTH CAROLINA PROFESSOR WHO WAGED ‘WAR ON DEI’ AT UNIVERSITY TOUTS WIN
A few of Josephson’s colleagues who objected to his remarks pushed for the administration to take disciplinary action against him, the complaint says. The next month, Josephson was informed by the university that he was being demoted from chief of the division to a junior faculty member.
According to the complaint, university officials continued to “belittle and berate him,” inflicting “irreparable damage to his professional career and reputation,” and reduced his salary and benefits, before he was told in February 2019 that his contract would not be renewed, effectively firing him.
Josephson challenged his firing in a lawsuit against the university filed the following month. He alleged the school “retaliated” against him for expressing his views, in violation of his First Amendment rights and right to due process and equal protection under the law.
With the six-year legal battle resulting in a favorable settlement, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a stipulated dismissal of the case Monday, court records show.
“Hopefully, other public universities will learn from this that if they violate the First Amendment, they can be held accountable, and it can be very expensive,” ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The University of Louisville declined to provide comment to Fox News Digital.
Illegal immigrants charged after mother of two young kids found murdered in woods
An illegal immigrant in Maryland was charged with murdering his girlfriend after her body was found in a forest outside of Washington, D.C.
The Charles County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland announced Monday that 24-year-old Keycy Robinson Alexi Barrera-Rosa was charged with murder in the killing of his girlfriend, Lesbia Mileth Ramirez Guerra, 23, who was reported missing on March 31. Rosa’s uncle, Rolvin Eduardo Barrera-Barrera, 37, was charged as an accessory.
Deputies said Guerra’s body was found on April 17 in a “heavily wooded area” of the forest just outside of Cedarville State Forest in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Her body was found buried, the officials added.
Guerra was the mother to two young children, officials said.
BOYFRIEND OF MISSING WOMAN DETAINED BY ICE AMID INVESTIGATION INTO HER DISAPPEARANCE: POLICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said its agents arrested Barrera-Rosa on April 5 in La Plata, Maryland, saying he entered the country illegally and is originally from Guatemala.
According to immigration officials, Barrera-Rosa and Barrera-Barrera were apprehended on April 10, 2019, near El Paso, Texas. They were served notices to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge at the time.
ICE placed an immigration detainer on Barrera-Barrera with the Charles County Detention Center after he was arrested.
DISTURBING CONTENT WARNING: ILLEGAL ACCUSED OF KILLING GEORGIA GRANDMOTHER FACES NEW DISTURBING CHARGES
ICE said Barrera-Rosa is being held by the agency at its Farmville Detention Center in Farmville, Virginia, while he awaits extradition to the Charles County Detention Center for the murder charge.
According to FOX 5, the sheriff’s office found suspicious and unusual activity at Guerra’s home just one day after she was last seen. During their investigation, authorities found fake federal documents belonging to Barrera-Rosa.
Vernon Liggins, ICE Baltimore acting field office director, said this “marks a significant step toward justice.”
“This heinous crime not only devastated a community but also reinforced the urgent need to prioritize public safety by identifying, arresting, and removing egregious illegal aliens who threaten our neighborhoods. ICE will continue to work tirelessly, side by side with our law enforcement partners, to safeguard our communities and uphold the rule of law,” Liggins said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Charles County Sheriff Troy D. Berry said in a statement, “While this was not the ending that we all hoped for, I am grateful to all those who worked so hard to find Ms. Guerra. On behalf of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, I offer our most sincere condolences to all of her family and friends.”
The illegal immigration issue has been a flash point in Maryland recently.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., drew criticism for flying to El Salvador last week to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia – an alleged illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member who was deported. Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon then flew to El Salvador on Monday to support Garcia.
Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel Morin was killed in Maryland by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador in 2023, called the visits “despicable.”
“They would rather champion his cause, a criminal, than the victim,” she told Fox News Digital. “Americans, and especially Marylanders, are outraged.”
Dems handed more bad news as approval plunges among coveted voting bloc in new poll
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.
HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING
“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.”
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.
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.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
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.
‘Home Improvement’ star warns of diet dangers after weight loss
“Home Improvement” star Richard Karn is happy with his weight loss but doesn’t want it to become the whole focus of his life.
Karn, who has partnered with the DIY lawn care company, DoMyOwn, lost 30 pounds last year with his wife, and the couple are still following their diet “as much as we can.”
“When something’s that strict, it can’t, for me, become a whole lifestyle,” he told Fox News Digital. “I mean, you have to go, ‘Well, you know what? I really would enjoy this piece of cake, or I would like a slice of pizza.’”
He continued, “So it’s like everything within moderation, obviously. I mean Oscar Wilde said anything worth doing is worth doing to excess. But I think that can get a lot of people in trouble. It becomes manic in a sense, but you do feel better. Your doctor is happier, and your clothes fit better when you do pay attention to certain things.”
‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR SHED 30 POUNDS AFTER STRICT DIET ‘REALIGNED’ BODY
The 69-year-old’s diet focused on “staying to smaller amounts of food that you realize you don’t really need more than four or five ounces of meat, and then vegetables, and drinking water.”
But he warned, “You can get in trouble with drinking too much water.”
“That flushes out some of the salts and things in your system, so when you take things too far, you just have to pay attention, kind of like with your yard.”
The former “Family Feud” host has also been incorporating Pilates into his fitness routine.
‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR RICHARD KARN SHOWS OFF SLIMMED-DOWN PHYSIQUE SINCE ‘90S HEYDAY
“Pilates helps me a lot with golf, because you need to turn,” he said. “You need to be able to have your hip flexors and your knees and everything working, and that helps me with golf. And that’s one of the things that keeps me going as far as keeping in a routine. Routines are important, but you have to find the nucleus of why you’re creating and keeping that routine.”
Karn is maintaining his health but also shifting his focus to his new partnership with DoMyOwn, the DIY lawn care company that gives homeowners access to professional-grade products as well as advice and guidance with videos, step-by-step instructions, and seasonal advice.
The actor is the company’s new spokesperson and, for a limited time, will be on hand as a resource for lawn care advice.
“I’ve always appreciated beautiful, beautiful landscaping, gardens, things like that. I grew up in Seattle. Seattle is a big town for that, taking care of your lawn, taking care of the flowers and around your house. I think that’s important because it shows that you care, that you’re making an effort keeping that routine,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
As a landscape fan, Karn said the biggest thing people can do to keep their yard in good shape is to understand what they’re actually growing.
“Probably more than three-quarters of the people that have lawns don’t really know what kind of grass they have,” he explained. “They don’t know if they have Kentucky bluegrass or tall fescue or Zoysia or St. Augustine. I mean, these all different types for different types of places you are around the United States.”
He continued, “What’s really cool about DoMyOwn.com is that these guys, it’s a store, obviously, to buy product to help you around your yard, different pesticides, different lawn-growing things like that. But they’re also a free service for information, so you can use them without having to pay for it to say, ‘Listen, I have this problem with my lawn. I’ve got shade tree here and the lawn isn’t growing well’ or this and that. So it’s like you know what you want to do with your own yard.”
Karn’s onscreen persona of Al Borland, the reliable handyman sidekick to Tim Allen’s enthusiastic but haphazard “Tool Time” host on “Home Improvement,” led to his new role with the company.
‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR JONATHAN TAYLOR THOMAS SEEN PUBLICLY FOR FIRST TIME IN YEARS: WHERE THE CAST IS TODAY
“That kind of highlighted my skills as far as that’s concerned,” he said. “I mean, my dad was a builder. My grandfather was a builder. I became an actor, but I grew up around builders and knew how to do stuff. And, you know, I’m mowing my own lawn. Growing up, that was one of my chores. And now that ‘Home Improvement’ has afforded me to buy a home, I now have a yard to keep up also. So that’s kind of why I’m excited to be their spokesperson.”
“Home Improvement” remains one of the most popular and beloved sitcoms of the ’90s, and Karn looks back on it just as fondly as fans do.
“I remember laughing a lot,” he said of his co-star Allen. “It was just a joy to go to work.”
Landing the role on the sitcom was a major career shift in more ways than one.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
“Before ‘Home Improvement,’ all of my work had been in theater. I was in New York. I was in Manhattan for like 11 years, and I would do theater Broadway, off Broadway, off Broadway regional theater. And you go into these little, kind of, companies or groups of people for a few months, and then you move on. And with ‘Home Improvement,’ we had eight years. I’m 25 weeks out of the year of being together and having fun. That was really a joy.”
Karn also got to impress his builder dad with his character’s onscreen know-how.
“That was a learning experience,” he said of the different “Tool Time” set pieces. “My dad, being a builder, he just looked at me one day, and he goes, ‘My gosh, you really look like you know what you’re doing.’ And I do. I do know what I’m doing. But dads think of us as [being] 12 [years old] and we can’t pound a nail in straight. But I learned that because I now have a 33-year-old son. So, we learn and hopefully we learn from those experiences.”
His son, Cooper, wants to be an actor, and Karn is happy to guide him as much as he can, but the acting world has changed since he began his own career.
‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STARS TIM ALLEN, RICHARD KARN ON REUNITING FOR NEW SERIES: A ‘LIVE VERSION’ OF ‘TOOL TIME’
“The whole world of how that is processed or how you go about doing that has changed because you now can just make your own little movie. You can make your little ideas. You can have your own website or whatever, which was not something that was available to me to do when I was growing [up], unless I had my own, you know, camera, but I wasn’t that industrious,” he said.
Karn continued, “I liked having a script, working on the script, and doing it on stage. That was my routine. That’s what I like to do. But, you know, actors today now have to navigate a lot of things. And, you put something out there, and it’s out there. Whether it’s good or bad.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“So you just have to be careful,” he added. “And that’s what I keep telling him. I mean, it’s fine that you have a lot of likes, but you also have to know what to do when you get that opportunity. When I got the opportunity for ‘Home Improvement,’ I was 35. So I had a lot of things under my belt that I could pull from that I didn’t have at 25.”
Trump notches win in lawsuit trying to stop his sweeping tariffs from taking force
In a win for the Trump administration, the U.S. Court of International Trade rejected a request from a group of small businesses to immediately halt President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariffs from taking force.
Judges on the three-member panel for the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show a likelihood that they would suffer “immediate and irreparable harm” as a result of the tariffs – the standard courts require to grant a temporary restraining order.
The decision from the U.S. trade court leaves in place Trump’s sweeping tariff plan while plaintiffs’ broader request for injunctive relief continues to play out in court.
SUPREME COURT RULES ON STATUS OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FIRED PROBATIONARY EMPLOYEES
Judges on Tuesday also ordered both plaintiffs and government lawyers to submit to the court new filings by early May, and set a planned hearing date to consider the merits of the case.
The lawsuit was brought earlier this month by the Texas-based Liberty Justice Center, on behalf of four small businesses in New York, Pennsylvania, Utah and Vermont.
Each of the businesses relies heavily on imported goods for their day-to-day operations, plaintiffs argued, adding that the tariff uncertainty created by Trump in his “Liberation Day” tax on imported goods – and in the days and weeks since – would be “devastating” to the operations and suppliers of the small businesses.
Plaintiffs asked the federal trade court to grant a temporary restraining order that would block the tariffs from taking force, arguing that Trump inappropriately used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as the basis for implementing the sweeping new taxes on imported goods.
FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING
“The power claimed by the President here is extreme: he claims the power to unilaterally impose infinite tariffs of his choosing on any country he chooses – even countries with which we run a trade surplus,” they argued in their court filing.
“Any grant of such authority by Congress to the President should qualify as a major question subject to the strictest judicial scrutiny – which this claim of authority under IEEPA cannot survive,” they added.
The brief decision from the federal trade court noted only that plaintiffs failed to prove that they had suffered immediate and irreparable harm needed to grant a request for the temporary restraining order.
The CIT ruling is a near-term victory for Trump, whose administration has sought to impose harsh tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada and others.
The ruling comes amid a flurry of lawsuits that have sought to block or pause Trump’s near-term actions, including lawsuits aimed at limiting DOGE, or the Elon Musk-led government “efficiency” agency, blocking Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship, and challenging the actions taken to deport certain migrants from the U.S. to El Salvador.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
White House officials have denounced lower court rulings and the so-called “activist” judges who have ruled in ways unfavorable to the administration– which press secretary Karoline Leavitt last month called an “unauthorized infringement” on the president’s authority.
The court ordered both parties to appear in court on May 13, when judges will hear arguments from the government and from plaintiffs as they make their case for a preliminary injunction.