Latest news with #massdeportation
Fox News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Democrat accuses Trump administration of diverting 'critical resources' from fighting organized retail theft
A top Senate Democrat is accusing the Trump administration of diverting "critical resources" away from fighting crimes such as organized retail theft so the president can carry out a "mass deportation agenda." Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the remark during a hearing on Tuesday in which he warned lawmakers about the "large scale theft of retail products that are then sold to unsuspecting consumers, often on online marketplaces." "Federal law enforcement also has an important role to play, but we must acknowledge this administration has announced different priorities. Instead of combating crimes like I described, the Trump administration has diverted critical resources toward the president's mass deportation agenda," Durbin said. "Homeland Security Investigations, better known as HSI, plays a leading role in combating criminal networks and organized crime, including organized retail theft. But under this administration, HSI has been diverted toward rounding up immigrants, many of whom pose no threat whatsoever to this country," Durbin added. Durbin cited a recent report saying "HSI supervisors have waived agents off new cases so they have more time to make immigration enforcement arrests." "One veteran agent said 'no drug cases, no human trafficking, no child exploitation.' It's infuriating. Instead, he said, HSI is 'arresting gardeners.' These are not the actions of an administration serious about combating crime," Durbin concluded. "Diverting federal resources endangers Americans and leaves us less equipped to target and disrupt criminals like those in organized retail theft." The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. During the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, titled "Beyond the Smash and Grab: Criminal Networks and Organized Theft," chairman and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he has seen a "continued rise in organized retail and supply chain crime and the criminal networks that are involved in that criminal activity. "We've all seen videos of mobs ransacking stores of thousands of dollars of goods and doing it in a very short period of time," Grassley said. "The reality is, some of the worst criminal organizations -- including cartels, terrorists and human traffickers -- use this type of crime, funding their misdeeds or launder[ing] ill-gotten proceeds," Grassley added, noting that "Homeland Security investigators estimate that the average American family will pay more than $500 annually in additional costs, due to the impact of organized retail crime." Donna Lemm, the chief strategy officer at IMC Logistics, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday that "Cargo theft is robbing our supply chain to the tune of $35 billion per year." "A few years ago, cargo theft was barely on my company's radar. In 2021, we had five cargo thefts reported. In 2024, we had 876 cargo thefts reported. That's a 17,520% increase," Lemm said. "Our partner railroads share with us drone footage of thieves cutting air brakes, containers strewn across the desert, and criminals emptying these containers in minutes," she added.
The Verge
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Verge
Democrats want ICE agents to unmask.
Democrats want ICE agents to unmask. President Trump's mass deportation efforts have seen people across the country snatched by masked men in civilian clothing, some of whom don't initially identify themselves as law enforcement. A new bill seeks to ban immigration officers from wearing non-medical face coverings during arrests and require them to clearly display their agency's name or acronym, and their own names or badge numbers.
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Joe Rogan is SLAMMED by Hollywood actor for calling out Donald Trump's 'insane' ICE raids
Joe Rogan was slammed by actor, Mark Ruffalo, for expressing disbelief that Donald Trump actually carried out his campaign promise of mass deportations. Over the weekend, the actor, who hit the campaign trail for Kamala Harris last year, condemned the podcaster for playing dumb about the president's immigration crackdown. 'Dear Joe Rogan, it's a little late now to pretend like Project 2025 didn't exist and wasn't the playbook all along,' the Marvel star, 57, wrote on Threads. 'You are either not that smart or not that dumb. It's hard to tell at this point.' Ruffalo was responding to a post from The Tennessee Holler, which denounced Rogan for helping Trump get elected, despite warnings of how his time in office would threaten the rights of women, the LGBTQIA+ community and immigrants. 'You were warned repeatedly, yet you helped get him elected and helped let this happen. It's good that you're speaking up, but please be honest with yourself about the role you played here,' the progressive news site wrote. On Wednesday's episode of his podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, the host called Trump's ICE raids 'insane' and 'horrific.' 'The targeting of migrant workers—not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up at construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners,' Rogan said. 'Like, really?' He went on to say: 'I don't think anybody would have signed up for that.' Trump came into the office pledging to enforce the largest mass deportation in U.S history. According to NBC News, he promised to target 'more than 10 million unauthorized migrants living in the United States.' Since beginning his presidency, the outlet reported that 'border crossings have plummeted, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have doubled, and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high.' As of June 20, 2025, 55,764 migrants are being held in detention facility locations. In February 11,000 migrants were deported, then another 12,300 the following month and approximately 17,200 in April. Rogan's criticisms of Trump come after he had the president on his show in the run-up to the election. 'Dear Joe Rogan, it's a little late now to pretend like Project 2025 didn't exist and wasn't the playbook all along,' the Marvel star, 57, wrote on Threads He later endorsed the president, and political pundits widely credited his show for the surge in young male voters that supported Trump in his re-election race. The Joe Rogan Experience has consistently taken the top spot on the podcast charts and has a strong influence over young men, with a recent survey by Media Monitors estimating his viewership is 71 percent male. Young men swung to the right in 2024, and many political pundits and strategists looked to figures like Rogan as an explanation for the shift. Even though Rogan endorsed the president, he's strayed from unwavering support in recent months and has consistently criticized Trump's immigration policies. Meanwhile, Ruffalo, who is known for his political activism, plead with voters to cast their ballots for Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The Hulk actor previously endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Throughout Harris' campaign, she received an outpour of support from Oscar winners, Grammys superstars and musical icons, including from Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin, Charli XCX, Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney and Eminem. Meanwhile, public figures, like Kanye West, Dennis Quaid, Elon Musk, Kansas City Chief kicker, Harrison Butker, Russell Brand, Savannah Chrisley, Kelsey Grammar, Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock, said they were voting for Trump.
Fox News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Swamp games: Inside Noem's controversial 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention strategy
In the middle of directing the most underwhelming deportation effort in modern American history, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has now decided to play swamp games. Literally. Rather than investing in a durable, institutional enforcement backbone capable of sustaining President Donald Trump's mass deportation mandate, Noem is shoveling detention funds into a pop-up project in a Florida swamp – proudly dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." It's not a joke. It's an insult. Let's be clear: the heart of the Trump immigration agenda is mass deportation. That requires infrastructure like beds, buses and planes. And when it comes to beds, we're talking real detention facilities and actual jails, not circus tents surrounded by reptiles. So why is Noem building a "soft-sided" facility in an ecologically fragile mosquito pit, 45 miles from downtown Miami? Why is she seeking to sideline ICE's institutional partners with decades of experience and instead cutting side deals with states desperate for political brownie points? To be clear, this isn't a critique of Florida's historic leadership on immigration enforcement at the state-level. The concern is what could happen next. Noem has publicly said she bypassed traditional vendors because she felt they were "too expensive" and not offering "fair prices." So, she turned to Republican governors to see if they could do it cheaper. In her words: "I went directly to states and asked them if they could do a better job providing this service." She's now courting states and companies with zero ICE experience, hoping for a discount detention revolution. It's a fantasy. Department of Homeland Security appropriations require that a typical ICE bed costs no more than $165/day. The 5,000-bed "Alligator Alcatraz," with its rushed timeline, chain-link zip-tie setup, and alligator-adjacent location is estimated at $450 million for a year. Do the math, and with a bed costing $250/day you'll see a costly press hit in the Everglades. This isn't cost-cutting. It's theater. Worse, it's dangerous. By spending limited detention funds on temporary, politicized state projects, Noem is wasting the best opportunity in decades to entrench custodial detention as a permanent part of our immigration system. We need the opposite of soft enforcement: purpose-built facilities that can't be dismantled by the next Democrat with a pen and a press conference. If temporary staging space is truly needed, there are already tools available: state and local jails, which had an estimated 247,000 open beds nationwide as of mid-2023, can be contracted at scale to bridge the gap – without wasting permanent money on corruptible, short-lived camps built for headlines. Instead, Noem is laying out the red carpet for future abuse. These hastily assembled facilities, staffed by non-traditional vendors and unvetted state contractors, are ripe for failure, mismanagement and corruption. And if the White House ever flips blue again? Good luck explaining why a Republican administration used its deportation mandate to build shiny new processing centers tailor-made for an invasion sequel. Don't believe us? Look how they're funding it. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program (SSP) has set aside $625 million to fund the state effort initially, a senior official said. This is the same program President Joe Biden used to support local governments and left-wing NGOs to house, feed, and transport illegal aliens released and processed by her predecessor and "criminals only" compadre, Alejandro Mayorkas. Let's say it plainly: the obsession with "criminal optics" is blinding this department. Noem wants splashy headlines and snake pit visuals to suggest something bold is happening. But bold isn't tents in the Everglades. Bold is building and activating over 100,000 permanent detention beds. Bold is viewing every illegal alien as a priority. Bold is preparing for permanence, not pretending that mass deportation can be done in a couple years. The backdrop for all this? Noem has been gallivanting through Central America bragging about "safe third country agreements" that, according to the countries themselves, don't exist. Meanwhile, she's promising to "solve" illegal immigration in one administration while undermining the very infrastructure that would make that possible. If she really believes the problem ends in four years, she's already failed her boss and the American people. What we need isn't a secretary obsessed with optics. We need a builder. A planner. Someone who sees detention infrastructure not as a backdrop for press tours, but as the steel spine of a long-overdue mass deportation effort. This isn't South Dakota. It's the Department of Homeland Security. And the job isn't to look tough. It's to be tough – quietly, permanently and at scale.
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Outcry after ICE arrests migrants at LA car wash on independence day
Liberal Los Angeles residents were outraged as ICE agents with bulletproof vests spent the Fourth of July holiday continuing to carry out Donald Trump 's mass deportation promise. One video showed a raid at a West Hollywood car wash, showing a man who alleged to have been in the country for 30 years. His son, who had been alerted to the raid, was left asking: 'Why? My dad is not a criminal. He was working at a car wash on 4th of July. My dad came to work today on the Fourth of July. He loves his country. We've been here as long as I've been around,' the son, who wouldn't identify himself, added. The owner of the Santa Palm Car Wash was reportedly in the bathroom when the raid happened and enraged that he had not been informed. They told NBC Los Angeles that they arrested several people who have worked at the car wash for decades in the span of ten minutes at around 11am. Another employee was seen being tackled in a nearby alley. The city of West Hollywood issued a statement criticizing federal officials for the holiday raid. 'On a day meant to honor the ideals of liberty, democracy, and freedom from oppression, we instead confront a deeply troubling reminder of federal overreach. Independence Day should be a time for reflection and reverence, not fear and persecution,' they said. Federal agents arrested around 1,600 people for deportation in Southern California over the holiday, The LA Times said. The mayhem Friday broke out just hours before the President signed his so-called 'big, beautiful bill' into law - a sweeping $150 billion package that boosts funding for the border wall, ICE enforcement and deportations, while slashing Medicaid. The massive tax and spending bill passed by the House on Thursday includes huge infusion of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tripling its annual budget for an agency that is under fire by Democrats. 'ICE gets $45 billion more to supercharge their kidnapping and disappearing of people of all legal statuses,' progressive Rep. Pramilla Jayapal, D-Wash., warned on Thursday after the bill passed. The additional ICE funding represents a nearly threefold increase in the agency's 2024 budget of around $10 billion, though additional funds were also provided to other border security efforts, like completing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries noted on Thursday that 'a deportation machine will be unleashed on steroids' under the new legislation. The extra funding for ICE will help grow its migrant detention centers, boost its deportation efforts, and hire an estimated 10,000 additional agents. 'With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined,' Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the left-leaning American Immigration Council posted on X. Republicans, however, were jubilant about the increased border security funding. 'I speak on behalf of the entire agency when I say that ICE is grateful to President Trump for putting in the hard work necessary to get the Big Beautiful Bill across the finish line — but the real win is for the American people,' acting ICE Director Todd Lyons wrote in response to the bill's passage. 'The unprecedented funding for ICE will enable my hard-working officers and agents to continue making America safe again by identifying, arresting, and removing criminal aliens from our communities.' Though not all of the funds are going directly to ICE, a significant portion will support ICE-related projects, particularly migrant detention and removal operations. Under the new legislation, $45 billion is earmarked to expand migrant detention capacity to more than 100,000 beds. Approximately $52 billion is allocated for the construction and maintenance of the border wall and related Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities. The bill also authorizes $10 billion in grant funding to reimburse states for border security expenses incurred during the Biden administration. Up to $6.2 billion is approved for enhanced border surveillance technology and vetting systems. Additionally, the bill includes $4.1 billion to hire more Border Patrol agents and $2 billion for retention and signing bonuses. The increased funding will help authorities process and deport the estimated 10 million migrants who entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. 'The Big Beautiful Bill has officially passed! Here's what it means for CBP and the American people: 701 miles of new, modern border wall, 3,000 new Border Patrol agents to defend our borders, 5,000 new Customs officers to secure our ports of entry,' CBP posted on X. 'Massive upgrades to technology, infrastructure, and enforcement power. This is historic. Border security is national security—and under President Trump, we're getting the job done.'
