Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a bill into law on Wednesday that gives his immigration and deportation agenda a nearly $70 billion boost for the rest of his time in the White House. The bill provides $38 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $26 billion for the Border Patrol. An additional $5 billion would cover unforeseen costs, according to the White House. Trump signed the legislation in the Oval Office a day after House Republicans pushed the measure through by a 214-212 vote over the objections of Democrats. His signature ended a nearly six-month fight over...

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a major surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into New York City, escalating a growing confrontation with Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Trump border czar Tom Homan revealed Monday that the administration has already drawn up an operational plan and warned Hochul before she signed legislation late last month restricting ICE activities and banning masked immigration agents in New York. "You're going to see more ICE than you've ever seen in New York City, and it's coming," Homan said, according to Bloomberg. "I just reviewed an operational plan....

This week, the House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing detailing how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) helped facilitate and benefited from the historic Biden-Harris border crisis, as well as how far-left NGOs are still working to help inadmissible aliens undermine federal immigration law under the Trump administration. In the hearing, witnesses laid out in detail how NGOs received more than $6 billion from the Biden-Harris administration, including through grants from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and others. They also testified about how the Biden-Harris administration handed over unaccompanied alien children (UACs)...

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrests of 114 illegal migrants over a three-day operation on South Carolina’s highways I-26 and I-85 last month. The arrests were made during “Operation Safe Drive,” which was conducted in the Palmetto State on May 12, 13, and 14, in cooperation with state and local law enforcement agencies, according to the Columbia Post and Courier. ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams rated the arrests as both “criminal” and “administrative” but the exact charges and names of the suspects have not yet been released. The department also said that the operation...

In the latest air travel news, the Trump administration’s new Department of Homeland Security chief says his department is working on plans to halt processing of inbound international travelers at major airports in sanctuary cities run by “radical-left Democrats”; SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network wins another major U.S. carrier as a customer for its in-flight Wi-Fi; United Airlines’ CEO says his company won’t be pursuing any mergers in the foreseeable future; another major carrier plans to start flying out of Sonoma County; Southwest Airlines plans to boost its California operations next week; low-cost Breeze Airways starts three transcontinental routes from Los...

‘It is standard practice for immigration attorneys representing illegal aliens to assert that virtually every illegal alien is going to be persecuted or tortured in his or her home country.’The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is starting to dismantle the legal industrial complex pushing for mass migration by cracking down on immigration lawyers who file fraudulent asylum claims.DHS directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday to develop policies to go after the attorneys who aid and abet illegals obtaining legal entry and status in the United States fraudulently, under a law already establishing penalties for document fraud. DHS said...

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that the Biden administration released nearly 90 percent of migrants encountered at the southern border through parole authority at the height of its catch-and-release policies.The report details how the Department of Homeland Security under former President Joe Biden and then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas dramatically expanded the use of “humanitarian parole” between early 2021 and Jan. 20, 2025.According to the GAO, parole authority had previously been used sparingly by presidential administrations before Biden took office.“Specifically, our analysis showed that OFO and Border Patrol granted relatively few paroles during fiscal years 2019 and...

Department of Homeland Security leader Markwayne Mullin is desperately trying to get his wife, Christie Mullin, hired onto DHS's payroll, four insiders have told the Daily Mail. Mullin, 48, is accused of trying to obtain government employee status for his wife, 47, so that he does not have to pay for her airline ticket when she flies, according to sources familiar with DHS and ICE. The secretary frequently travels on his $70 million government jet to fly home to his family in Oklahoma, often leaving on Thursday mornings and not returning until the following Monday afternoon, multiple DHS insiders said....

In a bombshell revelation, whistleblowers within Homeland Security have accused the agency of actively retaliating against them for exposing a systemic failure to comply with a federal DNA collection law. The whistleblowers have risked their careers to reveal that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a division of DHS, has systematically failed to collect the DNA of illegal immigrants as mandated by the DNA Fingerprint Act. This law, passed in 2005 with bipartisan support, mandates the collection of DNA samples from non-U.S. persons detained for immigration violations. This failure has allowed violent criminals to evade detection and commit further crimes...

The Senate is heading home until June without finishing a reconciliation bill, after Republican tensions over the package coincided with President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman posted on X: “BREAKING NEWS: THE SENATE will go home until June, leaving the reconciliation bill unfinished. THUNE just told senators in the room. All because of the DOJ weaponization fund. House is expected to follow suit soon.” Brendan Pedersen, a senior reporter with Punchbowl News, posted on X: “Thune asked if Senate Rs are responding to politics...

The Senate GOP on Thursday delayed the reconciliation vote to fund ICE and Border Patrol – and Senate Majority Leader John Thune admitted it is a political hit against President Trump. The Senators will be on recess until June. Last week, the Senate Parliamentarian struck down three key provisions of the Senate’s reconciliation bill The House of Representatives previously passed the Senate-approved package to fund the Department of Homeland Security by voice vote, ending the 75-day shutdown. ICE and Border Patrol were to be funded separately through a reconciliation package. Senate Republicans put together a $72 billion reconciliation package to...

Virginia's new Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger has just announced that she is signing an executive order to keep ICE agents away from polling places. Why do you suppose such a thing would be necessary? Democrats assure us that illegal aliens are not voting because they are forbidden from doing so by law. So why would they be worried about ICE showing up at polling places? It just doesn't make any sense. NBC News reported: Virginia Gov. Spanberger to sign order on dealing with federal agents at polling places Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Tuesday that she plans to issue an...

The Biden administration caught him at the border, released him into the country, and walked away. Now two people are dead on a California highway, and the man behind the wheel of that semi-truck is an illegal immigrant from India who never should have been there. Authorities arrested 24-year-old Manvir Singh following a deadly multi-vehicle crash on Tuesday on northbound Highway 99 near Lodi, California. The California Highway Patrol responded around 12:20 p.m. after Singh's big rig jackknifed, skidded off the road, and slammed into a guardrail, triggering a collision involving three other vehicles. Two people were killed. Singh allegedly...

The Trump administration is considering tripling the amount some immigrants are fined if they miss court hearings and are later deported. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the amount immigrants currently pay is not enough to cover the cost of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents locating, detaining and deporting them. The proposed change comes amid a sharp rise in people failing to appear for immigration court hearings, which experts say is a result of multiple factors, including fear of detention. "The move to 18K for in absentia orders, where it is not clear if the recipient...

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens introduced the Hold ICE Accountable Act, legislation to establish an independent Special Prosecutor to investigate unlawful conduct by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This bill is her latest in a series of efforts to stand up to ICE, demand transparency, and fight for accountability after a pattern of violence, misconduct, and lack of oversight. Here’s what Michiganders are seeing and reading about Rep. Haley Stevens fighting to ensure accountability at every level of ICE, from the bottom to the top, so...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving forward with plans to convert warehouses into large-scale immigration detention centers. The decision comes despite legal challenges from activist groups and opposition from left-wing local officials seeking to slow the Trump administration’s deportation agenda. According to The Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to award contracts for major detention facilities in San Antonio and near El Paso. The two sites are expected to be operational by early 2027. Breaking news: The DHS is moving forward with its plan to convert warehouses around the country into immigration detention centers, despite...

In late October 2024, a Chinese student at the University of Michigan returned to the early voting location in Ann Arbor, MI, where he had just illegally voted, to retrieve his ballot after his roommate informed him he had committed a crime by voting in the election because he was not a US citizen. The Chinese citizen, 19-year-old Haoxiang Gao, who was on a student visa, was told by the clerk it was too late: his ballot had already been tabulated and could not be returned to him. Because he self-reported his crime, the student was caught and charged with...

WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lamented the delay in immigration enforcement actions until the final year of President Biden’s term — despite having testified to Congress several times while in office that the US border was “secure.” In an appearance Tuesday at Politico’s Security Summit, Mayorkas discussed aspects of the “broken” immigration system in America, acknowledging that a “low bar” for those expressing “credible fear of persecution” allowed too many migrants into the country during the Biden administration. More than 8 million entered by the start of the 46th president’s final year in office — before Biden...

Longtime ICE official David Venturella has been chosen to lead the immigration agency after its former acting director’s departure was announced last month, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Tuesday evening. Venturella was executive director of ICE’s Secure Communities program, which deals with people in the country illegally who are in the custody of other law enforcement agencies. He also served at the private prison company GEO Group as a senior vice president of client relations until 2023. GEO Group has over $1 billion worth of contracts with ICE, according to public records. After he retired from GEO, Venturella...

On the 76th day since Department of Homeland Security funding lapsed, Congress passed a bill Thursday restoring the flow of federal dollars to most of its agencies — without solving any of the policy disagreements that led to the record-breaking shutdown. The House approved by voice vote the partial DHS funding measure the Senate passed more than a month ago. President Donald Trump is expected to swiftly sign the bipartisan legislation, fully funding the Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service, FEMA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with other offices within DHS that don’t deal with immigration enforcement. Now...