Free Republic

Authorities cracking down on national organized-crime rings swiping $18 billion a year through ATM card-skimming have now turned their sights on aiding Big Apple victims. The US Secret Service, which investigates financial crimes along with protecting the president, started the crackdown in California last year because of the staggering problem and has now expanded to team up with a new NYPD task force to try to thwart the criminals better here. “It’s billions of dollars [stolen] annually across the nation, so that jumps off the page by any metric,” Secret Service spokesman James Byrne told The Post on Wednesday, as...

A fireball from a parked RV sparked a fire that tore through an iconic Queens diner from the movie “Goodfellas” – and now one mayoral candidate is calling for a camper crackdown. The fire erupted at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at GoodFellas Diner in Maspeth with 60 firefighters eventually arriving to put out the flames, according to the FDNY. The blaze came seven years after the same diner caught fire. Two civilians were evaluated on the scene and refused medical attention, the department said.

San Diego County’s system of migrant shelters is shutting down, thanks to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration at the border, which has halted the flow of migrants from around the world via Central America. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sunday: [T]he county’s two major migrant sheltering agencies gave notice that they will be laying off employees by the end of next month. Catholic Charities in San Diego will let go of 73 employees at its two shelters, one in San Diego County and the other in Imperial County. Jewish Family Service will do the same with about 115...

An estimated 1 million people who are in the country without legal status work in the restaurant industry. Some food-service workers are no longer driving and instead are taking Uber to their restaurant jobs. Restaurants, cafes and bars are “super easy targets” for immigration raids, said immigration attorney Kim Luu-Ng. The chilly first two months of the year are usually a peak business period for Teddy’s Red Tacos, where diners indulge in the restaurant’s specialty, birria — spicy, warm and deeply tender meat slowly braised in its own fat and served with a pool of flavorful broth. But this...

Federal immigration officials have arrested more than 7,200 illegal migrants since President Trump green-lighted deportation raids nearly two weeks ago. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as of Friday had rounded up 7,260 illegal migrants, according to a compilation of daily totals of arrests since Jan. 23 posted on X by ICE. The agency also reports lodging 5,763 “detainer” requests with local authorities, asking them to turn over migrants targeted for deportation. The raids are centered on sanctuary cities like New York City, Chicago and Boston and those arrested include illegals accused of rape, sex crimes against minors, and guns...

EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. southern border has seen a sharp drop in illegal immigrant encounters in the first days of the Trump administration, compared to the final few days of the Biden administration, multiple Department of Homeland Security sources tell Fox News Digital. The number of Border Patrol encounters at the southern border in the first three days of the Trump administration is 35% lower than the final three days of the Biden administration, the sources said. The numbers do not include encounters at the northern border, or encounters at ports of entry by Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Office of...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a large-scale raid in Boston, targeting criminal aliens, including MS-13 gang members, murder suspects, and a Haitian gang member with 18 prior convictions. The operation led to the arrest of over 300 individuals. In an exclusive report from Fox News National Correspondent Bill Melugin, ICE Boston executed a targeted operation against egregious criminal aliens, resulting in eight high-profile arrests. The operation resulted in eight arrests, including multiple members of the notorious MS-13 gang, suspects wanted on Interpol Red Notices for murder and rape, and a volatile Haitian gang member with an alarming record...

New York City officials are reacting to a bombshell new report by The Post that shows an alarming 58,626 migrants with felony records or facing criminal charges are freely roaming the Big Apple, with some 670,000 in total across the country. Out of the 759,218 illegal border-crossers who now call the five boroughs home, 7.7% were either previously convicted of crimes or had criminal charges pending, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data. But instead of rounding up and deporting tens of thousands of known criminals, critics say the city has rolled out the red carpet with its...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is calling on Big Tech to censor alleged election misinformation, conveniently ignoring his own history of propagating the debunked Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is now demanding that major tech companies take aggressive action to combat the spread of so-called “misinformation” and “disinformation” ahead of the 2024 election. However, Schiff’s sudden concern about election integrity rings hollow given his prominent role in spreading one of the most damaging political conspiracy theories in recent memory — the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. In a letter sent this week to the CEOs of Meta, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok,...

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said that if elected, his government would take a hardline approach in policing “Islamophobia” as he looks to sure up Muslim support before the July 4th general election in Britain. The government needs to take a “zero tolerance” approach to supposed anti-Islam statements not only made in real life but online as well, Sir Keir Starmer said in a video with London Mayor Sadiq Khan marking the of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. The Labour leader said that Islamophobia in Britain has been “far too high for far too long,” adding: “We need to...

The Biden administration is expected this week to finalize highly anticipated regulations targeting gas-powered vehicle tailpipe emissions, considered the tip of the spear in its efforts to electrify the transportation sector. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is slated to issue the final rulemaking — which officials have boasted will incentivize greater adoption of electric vehicles (EV), but which opponents have criticized as a de facto mandate — as soon as Wednesday, industry sources told Fox News Digital. The regulations, a key part of President Biden's climate agenda, would ultimately force automakers to more rapidly expand electric options in their fleets...

The Biden administration is poised to soon finalize gas-powered car tailpipe emissions standards that consumer advocates and energy industry groups have dubbed a "de facto electric vehicle mandate." The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed tailpipe emissions – which were in recent weeks submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review – are designed to ensure a staggering 67% of new car sales are electric by 2032. Over the weekend, the New York Times and Washington Post reported the White House is set to double down on that lofty goal while loosening earlier targets. "The President...

Hong Kong leaders backed by Red China’s communist party (CCP) are planning to accelerate their crackdown on basic freedoms throughout the city, government officials announced on Tuesday. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee revealed that the city would be expanding upon a national security law passed by Beijing in 2020 that effectively stripped Hong Kong of its status as a semi-autonomous region. The law criminalized many basic protest activities, such as classifying “groups speaking of potential independence” as guilty of “subversion.” Activities deemed to involve “secession,” “terrorism,” and “collusion with foreign forces” were also outlawed, all of which “carry a...

Gov. Kathy Hochul will pledge to crack down on retail theft as part of her 2024 policy agenda, The Post has learned — as fed-up New York business owners continue to plead for help with the shoplifting scourge. Merchants are turning up the heat on Hochul and the Democratic-led state Legislature, calling for stiffer penalties against serial offenders wreaking havoc in their stores. “We’re going to continue living this nightmare if legislators don’t fix this mess,” said Nelson Eusabio of the National Supermarket Association and part of the coalition Collective Action to Protect Our Stores (CAP). Lawmakers representing 213 districts...

Mayor Eric Adams wants to add trains and planes to his executive order limiting migrant buses arriving in the Big Apple — as City Hall attempts to stem the flood of asylum seekers now flocking in on New Jersey transit trains. The call comes as Adams was scheduled to huddle with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy over the new wrinkle in the crisis, which saw busloads of migrants thwarting the crackdown by heading to the Garden State, where asylum seekers would then hop trains into Manhattan. “We’re dealing with a person who just wants to disrupt,” Adams said Tuesday, referring...

President Biden is expected to announce a controversial deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at slowing the deadly flood of fentanyl across the United States. The two leaders are tipped to announce a deal as they meet Wednesday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, one of the cities most blighted by what has become the deadliest drug in the US. “We’re hoping to see some progress on that issue this coming week,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday, ahead of the meeting. “That could then open the door to further cooperation on other issues where...

Ceiling fans are now the latest target in the Biden administration’s green agenda, sparking pushback from Republicans and manufacturers. The Department of Energy is proposing a rule that would require ceiling fans to be more energy efficient, arguing the move would save U.S. households on energy costs. According to the Energy Department’s analysis, the new rules would save households about $39 over the lifespan of the new energy-efficient fan. However, the cost to manufacturers associated with the increased equipment will total $86.6 million per year, the department said. Republicans on the House Committee on Small Business say if the rule...

More than 50 Christian converts have been arrested in a rash of new incidents across five Iranian cities over the past seven days, with fears the number could rise much higher as fresh reports keep coming in. At least 51 of those arrested at their homes or house-churches – in the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Orumiyeh and Aligoudarz – remain in detention on unknown charges, while others have been released on bail. Article18 cannot at this time share any more details about the incidents, but after very few publicly reported arrests of Christians so far this year, the news...

US regulators on Tuesday announced a nationwide crackdown to stop companies from inundating people with billions of unwanted and illegal robocalls and telemarketing calls. The crackdown, known as Operation Stop Scam Calls, involves the Federal Trade Commission and 101 other federal and state law enforcement authorities, including the attorneys general of all 50 states and Washington, DC. More than 180 enforcement actions and initiatives are part of the initiative, including five that the FTC formally announced on Tuesday. “We don’t know too many people out there who enjoy getting scam calls,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC consumer protection bureau,...

The son of a senior Home Depot worker, who died after a serial shoplifter shoved him to the concrete floor, said his elderly dad was simply “going to ask for a receipt” when he was savagely attacked — as he calls for an urgent crackdown on rampant theft. In the disturbing caught-on-camera assault, Gary Rasor, 83, was forcefully shoved to the ground after he approached a man wheeling out three pressure washers worth over $800 from the Hillsborough, North Carolina store on Oct. 18. He died due to complications from his injuries on Dec. 1. Rasor’s eldest child, Jeff Rasor,...