Free Republic

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant whose deportation to El Salvador has garnered nationwide controversy, was once pulled over in a vehicle owned by a convicted human smuggler, federal authorities have confirmed. Abrego Garcia was pulled over on a Tennessee highway in 2022 and suspected of human smuggling after local authorities discovered he was transporting eight passengers with no apparent luggage. The vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving belonged to Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, an illegal migrant who was sentenced to prison for human smuggling in 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Wednesday ... When a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer...

In an unprecedented move, the Justice Department has announced the indictment of a leader of the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, who will face terrorism and international drug distribution charges. This is the first time the DOJ has brought terrorism charges against a member of the newly designated foreign terrorist organization. FBI Director Kash Patel called the first-of-its-kind terrorism indictment ‘a critical step in dismantling their network and holding its members accountable.’ Enrique Martinez Flores, 24, a reportedly high-ranking member of TdA who goes by the name ‘Chiqui.’ He is charged with conspiring to provide, and providing, material support...

Democrats are trying to prevent immigration enforcement via “an extraordinary amount of individualized adjudication” at a level that “no American citizen” receives, President Donald Trump’s top aide Stephen Miller said.“This isn’t due process — this is called ‘infinity process’ to keep you here forever!” Miller told Newsmax on April 21.Miller’s “Infinity Process” comments echoed President Trump’s message:How can Biden let Millions of Criminals into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted, with no Legal authority to do so, yet I, in order to make up for this assault to our Nation, am expected to go through a lengthy Legal process, separately,...

Congresswoman Harriet Hageman discusses the significance of Elon Musk’s DOGE and the secrets of USAID, including its sponsorship of BLM and Antifa. In this broad scope interview she explains to Winston how she thinks Mark Zuckerberg rigged the 2020 election. She tells of her introducing the Censorship Accountability Act, her political journey, including her defeat of Liz Cheney in Wyoming and the border security situation between the US and Mexico. Is Harriet Hageman even more MAGA than President Donald Trump? All this and much more, recorded at the second Alliance For Responsible Citizenship conference in London. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:52...

The feds suspected alleged MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador in an error, was engaged in human and labor trafficking in 2022, according to an internal memo obtained by The Post. The DHS intelligence report noted that Abrego Garcia was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Dec. 1, 2022, after he was caught speeding. Officers found eight other individuals in the car with Abrego Garcia, who said he was driving “three days ago” from Houston, Texas, to Temple Hills, Maryland, “to bring in people to perform construction work,” according to the memo. The...

Trump’s Blackrock deal is far from over. Generations of sending American jobs, tech, and manufacturing to China was equivalent to feeding wild tigers near the local kindergarten. And now jungles are full of tigers used to getting their way. I made the tiger photograph in the wilds of India. I made the video below in the wilds of Darien Gap. At an Embera village called Bajo Chiquito. Notice the Georgia Bulldogs tattoo. Maybe this guy is going to Georgia. And the man to his right. Wearing the cross. As many do. And the nice watch. After crossing through Darien Gap....

Smugglers living along key migration routes thrived off the U.S. border crisis, but are now left with next to no income after illegal migrants have largely given up trying to reach the southern border under the Trump administration’s watch. Residents living in the Darien Gap — a vast jungle region between Colombia and Panama that serves as a pivotal way station for northbound migrants — took advantage of the endless number of illegal immigrants who trekked across their lands during the Biden-era, according to locals who spoke with the Associated Press. Noticing an opportunity from those that needed to be...

The Tennessee Star learned on Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) who was deported to El Salvador under President Donald Trump amid legal action claiming the removal was by mistake, was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officer who detained him in December 2022, leading to the discovery of his name on a terrorist watch list. The Star learned from sources familiar with the incident that Abrego Garcia was stopped for an unknown reason on December 6, 2022, and that the THP officer...

A notorious Venezuelan gang is extending its tentacles into the U.S. on the back of the Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis, and experts say that immigration authorities have no way of identifying the criminal group’s members before they hit American soil. The gang, known as Tren de Aragua, has made headlines in recent weeks with its criminal activities in multiple states, according to multiple reports. Yet, border authorities have virtually zero tools to detect Venezuelan migrants’ affiliations with the gang, as the U.S.’ diplomatic relationship with the beleaguered country is effectively on ice, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We...

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, declared a state of emergency in the capital city, Lima, on March 18. The decree, which came amid a wave of violence, gives the police and military full control of the security situation there for a period of 30 days. Peru is no stranger to emergencies of this kind. Only last year, in September 2024, Boluarte’s government declared a 60-day state of emergency in 12 districts of the capital. The rationale for declaring the emergency now, as in the past, remains the same: to address the threat posed by criminal gangs. The latest emergency...

EXCLUSIVE: I've obtained the leaked security briefing that's been provided to Trump national security officials in recent months regarding the criminal group Tren de Aragua and the Venezuela government. President Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on January 20th by Executive order because it's “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions” inside the United States. According to the order: “TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking.” It's not a street...

U.S. Catholic leaders are ending their church’s 50-year partnership with the federal government and seeking new ways to help refugees. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announced the change in a press release and Washington Post column on Monday, arguing that the Trump administration forced his denomination’s hand. “The bishops’ decision came after the federal government suspended our cooperative agreements to resettle refugees. The drastic reduction of these programs forced us to reconsider the best way to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters seeking safe harbor from violence and persecution,” he wrote...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Monday that it is ending a half-century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and migrant children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision follows the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding. The break will inevitably result in fewer services than what Catholic agencies were able to offer in the past to people in need, the bishops said. “As a national effort, we simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the conference, said in a statement.

Three Key Takeaways: Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered a disturbing 800% increase in Social Security numbers issued to noncitizens under the Biden administration, raising concerns about voter fraud and government benefits being accessed by illegal aliens. The investigation revealed a system where illegal aliens could easily receive work authorization and Social Security numbers without interviews or identification, allowing them to access taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid and potentially vote in U.S. elections. Musk emphasized that the Biden administration’s border policies have fueled human trafficking networks, with cartels profiting from transporting migrants into the U.S. under dangerous...

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating funding for legal counsel for unaccompanied migrant minors. Appointed by former President Joe Biden, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday that will stop the Trump administration from ending the funding while the merits of the underlying case play out. In her Tuesday order, Martínez-Olguín said that advocates had raised legitimate questions about whether the administration violated the 2008 law, warranting a return to the status quo while the case continues. The Trump administration on March 21 terminated a contract...

A United Nations judge and former fellow at Columbia University, Lydia Mugambe, was recently convicted for the human trafficking of a young woman. According to a report from the Thames Valley Police, Mugambe was 'convicted of immigration and modern slavery offences in Oxfordshire' on March 13.

While speaking to far-left political commentator David Packman, New York Governor Kathy Hochul committed to obstructing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda by promising to prevent New York State police from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When a clip of her freak-out was posted to X, conservative commentators reacted by calling for the Democrat’s arrest, citing laws which ban state officials from disobeying federal mandates. For context, her remarks align with New York’s longstanding sanctuary policies, which include a 2017 executive order limiting state cooperation with ICE and a 2020 law banning ICE arrests in courthouses. This radical...

Billionaire entrepreneur and Trump advisor Elon Musk dropped a bombshell this weekend during a fiery 100-minute town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he campaigned for conservative judge Brad Schimel in the state’s upcoming Supreme Court election on Tuesday.Joined by Antonio Gracias, a private equity titan and a key member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team tasked with rooting out waste in the federal government, Musk unveiled a shocking chart: a dramatic spike in Social Security Numbers issued to non-citizens, soaring from 270,000 in 2021 to a mind-blowing 2.1 million in 2024.That’s almost 5 million non-citizens now embedded...

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...

In a ritzy enclave of South Florida, Chinese migrants are coming ashore via boat, leading to an investigation into human smuggling networks. Coral Gables is a picturesque city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, known for its Mediterranean Revival architecture, tree-lined streets and lush landscapes. One Coral Gables neighborhood, Gables Estates, is ranked as the most expensive housing market in the country, according to data by Zillow. But in recent months, the dazzling city has seen an uptick of Chinese migrant interceptions. The city's uptick is representative of the Sunshine State's influx of Chinese nationals since 2020, according to U.S. Customs...