Free Republic

The United States is in the middle of a constitutional stress test. Donald Trump won a second term on a promise to restore borders, disentangle the federal government from progressive social engineering, and return power to voters rather than bureaucrats. That agenda cannot be implemented if a single federal district judge in Washington can repeatedly entangle it in litigation while sitting on cases that overlap with his own family’s income streams and ideological projects. At some point, the problem is not Trump’s policies. The problem is the judge. That point has been reached with Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg of...

VENEZUELAN tyrant Nicolas Maduro is not merely complicit in organised crime — he leads it. From generals to judges, the very top of Venezuela’s political and military elite are deeply embedded in a powerful, sprawling cocaine trafficking network, experts say. Cartel de los Soles, translated as Cartel of The Suns, isn’t a cartel in the traditional sense. It’s a web of Venezuelan military, intelligence and political elites accused of taxing, protecting and moving cocaine with state resources. With parts of Maduro’s government deeply enmeshed in the drug trade, the lines between state power and organised crime have been blurred. Dr...

CHICAGO (AP) — The music begins low and ominous, with the video showing searchlights skimming along a Chicago apartment building and heavily armed immigration agents storming inside. Guns are drawn. Unmarked cars fill the streets. Agents rappel from a Black Hawk helicopter.But quickly the soundtrack grows more stirring and the video — edited into a series of dramatic shots and released by the Department of Homeland Security days after the Sept. 30 raid — shows agents leading away shirtless men, their hands zip-tied behind their backs.Authorities said they were targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but only two of...

When federal agents led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided a South Shore residential building early yesterday, it understandably raised eyebrows. So what was that all about? And why was that particular building targeted? On Tuesday night, Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) claimed on Twitter that the Venezuela-based street gang Tren de Aragua was behind it. “TdA’s took over the building,” Lopez wrote, adding, “they will not be missed — except by @ChicagosMayor & the Leftinos!” In fact, CWBChicago has learned the building raided by the feds was the site of a murder where a migrant was shot dead while...

President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. military carried out another strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug vessel, following his recent announcement that we would wage war against narco-terrorists "poisoning" our citizens.In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said that, "On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.""Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans," he added. READ MORE:Trump Administration Just Put a Massive...

Venezuela on Friday accused the United States of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean and called for a UN investigation of American strikes that killed over a dozen alleged drug traffickers on boats in recent weeks. Washington has deployed warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighters sent to Puerto Rico in what it calls an anti-drug operation. “It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea. Executed without the right to a defence,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez...

The FBI has determined that in the next six to 18 months, the Venezuelan government will try to use the members of TdA in the US to threaten, kidnap, and kill US-based Venezuelans critical of the Maduro regime. The FBI has said that Venezuelan officials are "likely using" members of the Tren de Aragua gang in order to destabilize the United States as well as other countries, according to a new report from Fox News. This comes after President Donald Trump has said that the government of Venezuela has purposefully been sending the terrorist gang members into the US. According...

A strike carried out by US forces on a boat in the Caribbean Sea - which the White House says killed 11 drug traffickers - may have violated international human rights and maritime law, legal experts have told BBC Verify.President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that US forces destroyed a vessel which he said had departed from Venezuela. He said the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua cartel and was carrying drugs bound for the US.US defence officials have so far declined to offer details on the strike, footage of which Trump shared on Truth Social, including what...

President Donald Trump released a video Tuesday that showed the U.S.'s lethal strike on a vessel involved in the drug trade that was coming out of Venezuela. In the same Truth Social post, the president revealed that 11 Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists were killed in the attack. He initially announced the strike from the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon. 'You'll see that we just, over the last few minutes literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat,' Trump told reporters. The president said he had just been briefed on the matter by the chairman...

Drone footage of US forces conducting a lethal strike on a reported smuggling vessel in the Southern Caribbean earlier today The U.S. military, ordered by Trump, carried out a strike in international waters destroying a Venezuela drug boat with 11 Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists aboard

Civil servants, housewives and retirees alike lined up in Venezuela's capital Caracas over the weekend as thousands volunteered to join the country's militia in case there is a U.S. invasion. President Nicolas Maduro called on citizens to respond to "outlandish threats" by the U.S. and sign up over the weekend to the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian corps linked to the South American country's armed forces. The show of force is also intended to send a message to Washington, which has issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro -- who is accused by the Trump administration of leading a drug cartel...

BREAKING: President Trump and SecDef Pete Hegseth just sent out 3 United States Navy destroyers, joined by an attack submarine, near Venezuela to crack down on the cartels. The gloves are finally coming off.

State prosecutors have charged two more migrants as part of an investigation into the trafficking of narcotics and firearms into Chicago by suspected members of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua street gang. The men are the fourth and fifth individuals known to be charged in the case. Judge Luciano Panici Jr. ordered Yefferson Camacho Cedeno, 27, and Jose Vasquez Hernandez, 30, detained, calling them “member[s] of a transnational criminal organization.” Camacho Cedeno is a Venezuelan citizen who is “not a legal resident of the United States.” He is charged with two counts of gunrunning and six additional charges tied to...

The filing marks the second time the DOJ has made a complaint against a federal judge this year. The department also filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in February. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday announced that the Justice Department (DOJ) has filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg over comments he's made about the Trump administration. The judge has overseen multiple Trump administration cases, including the high-profile deportation flights case, where the Trump administration deported suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador. He also oversaw...

A recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) report highlighted critical national security failures in its Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) program that allowed approximately 800 known or suspected gang members to enter the United States.The report, titled “Criminality, Gangs, and Program Integrity Issues in Special Immigrant Juvenile Petitions,” examined more than 300,000 SIJ petitions submitted from fiscal year 2013 through February 2025, according to a USCIS press release on Thursday.The report found that 198,414 SIJ petitions were approved between fiscal year 2020 and 2024, and that half of SIJ petitioners in 2024 were over the age of 18 when they...

Like his sugardaddy, Vladimir Putin, Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, likes to take American hostages for use as bargaining chips. He's got a lot of them in his many dungeons. So surprise, surprise, he's traded a lot of them: According to ABC News:The more than 200 Venezuelan migrants who were deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador's mega-prison in March have left El Salvador to be sent to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap that included Americans being held in Venezuela, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced on X. The deal included the release of 10 Americans held in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to strip temporary legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to being deported.The Justice Department asked the high court to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month.The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.A federal appeals court had earlier rejected the administration’s request.President...

WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court heard oral arguments on Monday in what is likely to be a decisive lawsuit over whether President Donald Trump's administration can use an 18th-century law to speed up deportations.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing whether Venezuelan migrants being held at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, can be deported under the Alien Enemies Act.American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt, arguing for the detainees, said the 1798 law was meant to be used during wartime, and "the government itself is saying we aren't in a military conflict"...

From Tuesday.............. 441,137 views Jun 18, 2025 #foxnews #immigration #us The ‘Fox & Friends’ co-hosts discuss the return of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to Aurora, Colorado, and growing fears among residents. #foxnews #news #us #immigration #crime

A gun-toting crew of nine suspected Tren de Aragua gangbangers unleashed chaos at a Colorado apartment complex — just one year after the notorious Venezuelan gang seized properties across the state and sparked a wave of violent crime. Chilling doorbell footage captured the disturbing moment the violent thugs brandished firearms and repeatedly knocked on the door of a Potomac Street apartment in Aurora on June 9, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain shared during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. The heavily armed group pestered the complex for about a minute before they left, the footage showed. “There is, without question, gang...