Author: NOVA Corp

Billionaire investor Tom Steyer is positioning himself as a critic of elites and immigration enforcement in California’s governor’s race — even as his own record, including investments in private prisons tied to ICE detention, draws scrutiny.

That tension is surfacing on the campaign trail, with Democratic rival Rep. Katie Porter highlighting Steyer’s past $90 million investment in a private prison firm tied to ICE facilities, while Republican candidates cast his immigration platform as extreme.

Steyer made his fortune overseeing Farallon Capital, a $20 billion hedge fund that invested in coal companies and private prisons, and is now running for governor on a platform targeting corporate tax loopholes, immigration enforcement and climate policy.

The California billionaire has outlined that approach most clearly on immigration, laying out a five-point plan to abolish ICE, including allowing state prosecutors to bring cases against agents and expanding legal protections for detained immigrants. Steyer calls it a plan to “put ICE in jail.”

DAVID MARCUS: HOW MANY SWALWELL-STYLE CREEPS ARE DEMOCRATS PROTECTING?

“The true test of a leader is not who they disparage and attack, but who they defend and uplift. Donald Trump attacks and robs the most vulnerable in our society, while protecting and enriching the most powerful,” the billionaire Steyer wrote in his plan on X.

Under Steyer’s leadership, Farallon Capital invested $90 million in CoreCivic, which runs private prisons, including two ICE detention facilities. California gubernatorial candidate Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., brought attention to Steyer’s past business dealings on X, where she responded to a post by Steyer vowing to prosecute ICE.

“If they’re criminals, does that make the guy who invested $90M in their facilities an accessory?” Porter said, quoting Steyer.

Steyer called the investment a “mistake” after pushback from progressives.

“It was also a big wake-up call that I was in the wrong place, that I was in a business that was taking me to places I absolutely didn’t want to go,” Steyer said at a March town hall. “And there’s a reason I walked away from that business and walked away from a ton of money.”

That anti-ICE plan drew fire from Republican candidate Steve Hilton, who called it “insanity” and accused Steyer of “trying to buy this election because he has no real support.”

“This is far-left extremism beyond anything we saw during the Biden years. It’s an extension of the Biden open-borders agenda on the home front,” Hilton said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “He is calling for federal agents to be targeted on the streets and thrown in jail for enforcing the law. That is incitement. It puts a target on the backs of the men and women in uniform and empowers the most radical anti-government extremists.”

WHY ERIC SWALWELL WAS FORCED TO QUIT CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S RACE AFTER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS

This isn’t Steyer’s first attempt at winning elected office. He dropped out of the 2020 presidential race after losing three Democratic primary contests. He spent nearly $250 million of his personal funds in that campaign.

Steyer has since donated $112 million to his 2026 gubernatorial campaign, dwarfing the hauls of his opponents. Forbes has estimated Steyer’s net worth at $2 billion.

Running on a platform that includes universal healthcare and free college, Steyer has aligned himself with progressive figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has called him a “friend,” though Sanders has also said he is not a “fan of billionaires getting involved” in politics.

Steyer left the hedge fund he founded in 2012 to pursue his climate and clean energy advocacy work, which included creating his climate advocacy group NextGen America.

His money and campaigning have been behind three successful ballot measures and helped prevent another, including donating $12 million to California Proposition 50, the “Election Rigging Response Act” in 2025. The measure was passed, allowing for California to redraw its congressional districts to incorporate larger shares of urban and suburban voters, which Republicans unsuccessfully challenged in court.

BIANCO SAYS ‘DEMOCRAT POLICY IS INDEFENSIBLE’ AS GOP CANDIDATES TOP CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR POLLING

In 2010, he joined a campaign and donated $5 million to defeat Proposition 23, backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. The measure sought to overturn California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. He also led measures that closed tax loopholes allowing corporations to avoid paying taxes in California and raised taxes on tobacco to supplement healthcare programs.

Steyer has received the endorsement of Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., citing his support for taxing billionaires and his push for single-payer healthcare, among other issues.

“Tom has also been a bold leader on climate,” Khanna said. “We need a bold progressive agenda in California. That’s why I’m supporting Tom Steyer for governor.” 

Steyer faces competition from Democratic candidates Rep. Katie Porter D-Calif., former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Biden era Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, among others. Rep. Eric Swalwell D-Calif., deemed the frontrunner, dropped out of the race amid sexual assault allegations.

Fox News Digital reached out to Steyer for comment.

Mounting sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell led him to resign from Congress and drop out of the California gubernatorial race, but legal experts say the fallout could extend beyond politics, including potential disbarment.

Swalwell is facing a string of accusations, including that he drugged and raped one woman and sexually assaulted one of his staffers, which have spurred at least two local criminal investigations. The accusations, which he has largely denied, have driven not just his exile from the political world but could now expose him to possible broader career repercussions.

Hans von Spakovsky, legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital that Swalwell is bound by the State Bar of California’s rules of professional conduct. Swalwell has had an active license to practice law in the state since 2006.

‘SMART DECISION’: SWALWELL’S RESIGNATION SPURS PRAISE FROM BOTH PARTIES AFTER BOMBSHELL ALLEGATIONS EMERGE

The state lists what would constitute professional misconduct, which the bar could investigate and then decide to suspend or revoke Swalwell’s license. Von Spakovsky noted that “dishonesty, fraud, [and] deceit” are included, as well as “moral turpitude.”

“It would be up to the State Bar to investigate and see if his behavior falls within any of these or other prohibitions,” Von Spakovsky said.

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor, said Democratic allies and left-leaning media previously “shielded” Swalwell but that the congressman was now “persona non grata without a friend in the world.” Turley raised the prospect of disbarment.

“If these rape and sexual harassment claims are established, he is likely to face disbarment demands,” Turley said on Monday just before Swalwell resigned. “Even his prior boosters at MS NOW and CNN are unlikely to offer him a media deal.”

SWALWELL ACCUSERS DETAIL EXPERIENCES WITH LAWMAKER AFTER HE ANNOUNCES HIS RESIGNATION FROM CONGRESS

Several women have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct or assault, including a former staff member who alleged, according to CNN, that he had nonconsensual sexual relations with her twice, including one time that left her “bruised and bleeding,” while she was intoxicated. In the latest and most serious development, a Beverly Hills woman named Lonna Drewes accused Swalwell during a press conference of drugging, raping and choking her in a hotel room in 2018.

The latter accusation prompted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to open a criminal investigation, which follows the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also announcing a criminal investigation into the claims. FBI Director Kash Patel also signaled Swalwell could have federal exposure, asking the public to provide tips and for the former congressman to meet for an interview.

Sara Azari, a NewsNation analyst who is now representing Swalwell, told the outlet “regret is not rape.”

“The fact that you know a day later or years later or what not, you maybe had shame around what you did, or maybe you were in a relationship and shouldn’t have done what you did, doesn’t make it rape,” Azari said, emphasizing that Swalwell currently only faced allegations and no civil complaints or criminal charges.

If charged and convicted, misdemeanors or felonies involving sexual offenses could lead to disbarment, even if the lawyer is not actively practicing law, according to the professional conduct rules.

Before joining Congress, Swalwell was a law clerk and practiced law as a hate crimes prosecutor for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Fox News Digital reached out to Azari for comment.

A Department of Homeland Security official was killed in Georgia by a naturalized U.S. citizen with a prior criminal record, a case that is raising new questions about the federal government’s vetting process after the agency recently acknowledged significant screening gaps.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed Wednesday that Lauren Bullis, 40, was “brutally shot and stabbed to death,” identifying the suspect as 26-year-old Olaolukitan Adon Abel, who was naturalized in 2022 and has a record that includes convictions for sexual battery, assault and battery against a police officer.

The killing comes shortly after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services disclosed “significant national security and public safety risks” in U.S. vetting processes, describing past screening processes as “wholly inadequate” under former President Joe Biden.

Mullin said DHS is “devastated” by Bullis’ killing. The agency also said she “was a bright spot for so many of the DHS community.”

DHS SLAMS CALIFORNIA ‘SANCTUARY’ COUNTY AFTER MOM ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BY 2 HONDURAN NATIONALS

Bullis was walking her dog when she was attacked, according to DHS. She served in multiple roles at DHS’ Office of the Inspector General, including as an auditor and a team leader in the Office of Innovation.

The agency said Abel was also arrested in connection with the murder of an unidentified woman he reportedly shot outside a Checkers, as well as a homeless man he shot multiple times outside a Kroger in Brookhaven, Georgia.

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “This is just the latest impact of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Arthur, who served under the Bush and Obama administrations, said the case raises concerns about whether existing safeguards were properly applied during the naturalization process.

“There were plainly steps that were missed when this person was naturalized,” he said, adding that recent agency findings suggest broader vulnerabilities in the system.

IGNORED ICE DETAINERS ‘PUT LIVES AT RISK,’ DHS SAYS, TARGETING NEWSOM, PRITZKER, HEALEY

It is not yet clear from publicly available information how Abel’s prior convictions factored into his naturalization review or whether they should have disqualified him under existing standards.

USCIS announced the creation of a new vetting center in December that DHS said would “enhance screening and vetting of immigration applications, with a focus on identifying terrorists, criminal aliens, and other threats to public safety.” The agency said the center would leverage advanced technologies and work closely with law enforcement and intelligence partners to uphold the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.

MAJOR NATIONAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY EXPOSED AS DHS REVEALS HOW RELATIVES OF TERROR ARCHITECT ALLOWED INTO US

The month before, USCIS also restored the practice of conducting neighborhood investigations of potential new citizens to verify aliens’ eligibility for naturalization by reviewing their residency, moral character, loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, and commitment to the nation’s well-being.

Arthur lauded this decision, saying, “That’s never been a priority, because of the numbers that we talk about, about 800,000 people naturalize every year.”

“This is a huge number of people, and we have assumed in the past that a simple fingerprint check and NCIC run will identify individuals who pose a danger to the community before they can be naturalized. We now know that that’s not true.”

He cautioned that though “the numbers are big, and we want to encourage people who are green card holders to become citizens,” the U.S. must continue to “invest resources in order to ensure that we don’t confer citizenship on anybody who poses a danger to the United States going forward.”

Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Biden for comment.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is blaming President Donald Trump as Americans feel pain at the pump amid high fuel prices.

“Here in North Carolina and around the country, gas prices are too high,” Harris wrote in a post on X. “This is a direct result of Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran, and the American people are paying the price.”

The post features a video of Harris delivering remarks while standing outside in front of a sign displaying fuel prices.

DEMOCRATS POUNCE ON $4 A GALLON GAS, BLAME TRUMP’S IRAN WAR FOR ‘BROKEN PROMISE’

“We’ve got a president who is paying more attention to what he thinks is in his best political interests and personal interests, as opposed to what is in the best interest of working people in America,” Harris declares at the end of the brief video.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.

BESSENT WARNS GAS STATIONS THAT TREASURY DEPT WILL KEEP THEM ‘HONEST’ AFTER SPIKE IN PRICES

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah shared Harris’ post on Wednesday and wrote, “The Biden-Harris administration did everything it could to chill the production and use of gasoline and diesel Don’t tell us you’re on the side of the consumer here.”

The AAA national average for regular gas is $4.093 as of April 16, 2026.

The highest recorded average price for regular was $5.016 back on June 14, 2022 during President Joe Biden‘s White House tenure, when Harris was still serving as vice president.

KAMALA HARRIS DROPS BIGGEST HINT YET ON 2028 WHITE HOUSE RUN

Trump defeated Harris in the 2024 presidential election. When asked last week by Al Sharpton if she will run again in 2028, Harris said, “I might,” noting, “I am thinkin’ about it.”

Weeks after now-former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., invited an Epstein survivor to attend the State of the Union earlier this year in an attempt to highlight victims of sexual abuse, his political career collapsed after multiple women accused him of sexual assault.

“Like every American, I want the President to do his job. I have always attended the State of the Union, and I will again tonight. I invited Teresa Helm as my guest because she has been waiting for justice for more than two decades,” Swalwell said in a press release, referring to Teresa Helm, his guest.

“Teresa’s bravery exposed the Epstein cover-up. The President owes her — and all survivors — answers,” Swalwell added.

Weeks later, Swalwell would ultimately suspend his gubernatorial campaign and resign his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives over women who exposed his own improprieties.

SWALWELL ACCUSERS DETAIL EXPERIENCES WITH LAWMAKER AFTER HE ANNOUNCES HIS RESIGNATION FROM CONGRESS

Bombshell reporting from CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle last Friday recounted allegations from several women, providing detailed accounts of how Swalwell had pursued intoxicated women, pressured employees into intimate situations and asked for explicit images from female contacts.

Swalwell’s office did not respond to requests for inquiries from Fox News Digital.

Helm serves as Survivor Services Coordinator at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) where she partners with survivors of abuse to hold corporations and individuals who profited from and facilitated their exploitation accountable.

KASH PATEL TAUNTS SWALWELL WITH FBI SIT-DOWN AS RESIGNATION FALLOUT GROWS

Helm, a survivor of Epstein’s sex trafficking, had urged lawmakers to release the Epstein files in the lead up to the 2026 State of the Union Address.

“At the heart of this matter is HUMAN DIGNITY and JUSTICE FOR ALL,” Helm said in a press release ahead of the State of the Union.

Epstein, a financier with a prolific social circle, rubbed shoulders with the rich and powerful, including figures like Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, Billionaire Les Wexner and the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew.

Epstein died while incarcerated in 2019 on charges of sex-trafficking minors, leaving behind questions of whether he used his wide-ranging contacts to facilitate illegal sexual encounters.

Swalwell, like a wide range of lawmakers from both parties, had urged the DOJ to publicly release documentation on its investigation of Epstein, arguing for public accountability on the matter.

Helm echoed those calls.

SWALWELL’S ‘BEST FRIEND’ IN CONGRESS TURNS ON HIM AFTER BOMBSHELL ALLEGATIONS TORPEDO HIS POLITICAL CAREER

“It is crucial to join forces, lead by example and continue lighting the way for generations to come. To me, it is both an assignment and an honor to be a guest here today at the 2026 State of the Union Address,” Helm said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Helm for comment.

RANDOLPH, N.J. — Republican Joe Hathaway aims to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey.

“I think we have the right math, the right bipartisan coalition to come together to win this thing,” an optimistic Hathaway said this week in a Fox News Digital interview.

Hathaway is facing off against Democrat Analilia Mejia, who is backed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of neighboring New York, in Thursday’s special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. The winner will fill out the final eight months of the term of Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic representative who stepped down from Congress in November after winning New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.

FIRST ON FOX: HOUSE REPUBLICANS TARGET DOZENS OF ‘VULNERABLE’ DEMOCRATS ON EVE OF TAX DAY

The special election comes as the GOP clings to a fragile House majority and would relish the opportunity to flip a suburban district Sherrill won by 15 points in her 2024 re-election and carried by roughly the same margin in last year’s gubernatorial election. But given a rough political climate and traditional headwinds for the party in power, it’s a tough task for a candidate with an R next to their name on the ballot.

To have any chance of winning, Hathaway will need the support of independents and crossover Democrats.

He said his message to those voters is “even if you’ve never voted for a Republican before, you got the chance to test drive one for the next six months, send me to Washington. Let me prove to you I’m going to do what I say.”

Pointing to Mejia, Hathaway argued that voters in the district will “choose common sense over socialism in this race.”

Mejia, a progressive organizer who served as national political director on the 2020 Sanders presidential campaign, pulled off an upset in the February Democratic primary, narrowly edging out more moderate rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candidates. While Mejia was the clear choice of the party’s left flank, the rest of the field appeared to divide the moderate and center-left vote.

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHNSON GETS REINFORCEMENT AS GOP CLINGS TO RAZOR-THIN MAJORITY

Her victory was another boost for the left against the establishment after democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent shock waves across the nation with his Democratic primary victory in June 2025.

Hathaway, a former Randolph Township mayor and current council member who was uncontested for the GOP congressional nomination, emphasized that the choice for voters is “between a common sense, practical independent leader who’s gotten things done at the local level in New Jersey and knows the issues, contrasted with someone who’s running on pure ideology, far left-wing ideology, Squad-backed ideology.”

Mejia recently appeared at a town hall with Malinowski and on Sunday teamed up with Sherrill on the campaign trail as she aimed to unite Democrats, who enjoy a sizable registration advantage in the district.

Hathaway claimed that Mejia is now trying “to hide from that a little bit in some of her rhetoric, because she knows that those policies are completely out of touch, but it’s not fooling voters. It’s certainly not fooling us.”

Jewish voters make up a key part of the district’s electorate, and Hathaway, in the only debate in the special election, claimed Mejia was antisemitic, noting that she has said Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“She blamed Israel for the attacks by Hamas on October 7,” Hathaway said. “I think Jewish individuals across this district, Republican or Democrat, are very afraid of this kind of rhetoric.”

PROGRESSIVES NOTCH ANOTHER WIN OVER DEMOCRATIC MODERATES AS SANDERS-AOC ALLY NEARS CONGRESS

Hathaway said, “I’ve spoken to more members of the Jewish community who have told me they’ve never voted for a Republican in their life, who are going to vote for me in this race. I mean, that shows you where the Jewish community is on the importance of this race and how they are not aligned with Mejia… and her platform.”

Mejia has pledged to “protect the rights of Jewish constituents,” and has said her criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza should not be conflated with antisemitism.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Mejia said that “Joe Hathaway’s inability to distinguish between criticism of a government or government official and bigotry is troubling and disgusting in equal measure.”

Mejia last week wrote that she was “honored” after being endorsed by the liberal pro-Israel political group J Street PAC. But her acceptance of the endorsement triggered pushback on the left, with the North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America calling her move a “heel turn.”

Hathaway, as he aims to win over independents and Democrats, is pointing out where he agrees and disagrees with President Donald Trump, who lost the district by eight points in the 2024 presidential election.

REPUBLICANS WIN BUT DEMOCRATS ALSO CLAIM VICTORY WITH BALLOT BOX SURGE IN TRUMP TERRITORY

“I’m always going to do what’s right for this district first. And I’ve been clear: If the president’s going to do things that are good for the district, increasing the SALT cap deduction, putting money back in people’s pockets, especially New Jersey, affordability is so tough here. If we’re doing things like border security, reducing fentanyl deaths like we’ve seen in our community. Those are good things. I support those policies,” Hathaway said.

“But on the other hand, if the president’s going to do things that aren’t in the best interest of our district, it’s my job to push back, and that’s exactly what I’ve done,” he spotlighted.

Hathaway pointed to Trump’s move last year to terminate billions of federal dollars for the Gateway Project, which is funding a new train tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York, and the president’s plans to cut roughly 1,000 jobs and nearly $1 billion in funding for an Army base located in New Jersey.

“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” Hathaway said.

He touted, “I think we have the right math, the right bipartisan coalition to come together to win this thing on April 16.”

But Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson University political science professor and pollster, calls Hathaway’s hopes of capturing crossover Democrats “a pipe dream.”

“Democrats as a whole do not seem interested in finding common ground with Trump,” he said as he predicted that most voters in the special election will be strong partisans. “Democratic turnout is through the roof and Republican turnout is depressed at this point.”

Cassino noted that “right now national politics drives everything. We say all politics is local. Today, unfortunately, all politics is national.”

Mejia, meanwhile, has tied Hathaway to Trump and Republicans in Congress.

“MAGA Republicans are driving up everyday costs with extreme policies my opponent supports. Healthcare and critical programs are being gutted just to fund tax breaks for the ultra-rich. We can’t afford another vote for Trump in Congress,” she wrote in a social media post.

President Donald Trump is heading this week to two crucial swing states in this year’s midterm elections to highlight the tax cuts that Republicans in Congress passed, and which he signed into law, last year.

He will visit Nevada on Thursday and Arizona on Friday. The stops follow Wednesday’s deadline for Americans to file their taxes with the IRS.

Trump’s western swing comes as the GOP works to protect its razor-thin House and slim Senate majorities in the midterms, when the party in power typically faces political headwinds and loses congressional seats. The GOP also faces a challenging political climate fueled by persistent inflation, rising gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran, and the president’s low approval ratings.

But Republicans have for weeks spotlighted the tax cuts, which they insist will give them a political boost with voters in the midterms.

TRUMP HITS THE ROAD TO SELL ECONOMIC WINS, AS REPUBLICANS BRACE FOR HIGH-STAKES MIDTERM SHOWDOWN

In an interview Wednesday on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria,” Trump touted the tax cuts, telling host Maria Bartiromo that “the refunds are really significant, and it makes it less complicated to do your tax return. Much less complicated.”

“People are getting refunds of $5,000, $8,000, $11,000 that they had no idea they were getting. It’s turned out to be better, as good or better than I said it would,” the president emphasized.

The tax cuts were a key component of Republicans’ massive domestic policy measure, which passed almost entirely along party lines in the GOP-controlled House and Senate.

FIRST ON FOX: GOP TAKES AIM AT DEMOCRATS FOR OPPOSING TRUMP TAX CUTS

The law, originally titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act but rebranded as the Working Families Tax Cuts, is stuffed full of Trump’s 2024 campaign trail promises and second-term priorities, including extending the president’s signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. 

Trump will spotlight the tax cuts on Thursday at a roundtable discussion at the AC Hotel in Las Vegas. The city, a popular entertainment and gaming mecca, has an outsized population of service industry workers who rely on tips and overtime pay.

EXCLUSIVE: HOUSE REPUBLICANS TARGET ‘VULNERABLE’ DEMOCRATS FOR VOTING AGAINST TAX CUTS

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president on Friday will deliver remarks at a Turning Point USA event at Dream City Church in Phoenix.

“You’ll hear a lot from the president about how his policies have benefited the American people,” Leavitt said.

Democrats have criticized the tax cuts, arguing they disproportionately benefit the wealthy and corporations.

“Donald Trump promised Americans lower prices, lower taxes, and bigger refunds, and what have they gotten instead? Massive tax breaks for Trump and his wealthy friends, a reckless trade war that has hiked prices, and a deadly and costly taxpayer-funded war with Iran,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin argued in a statement.

Martin charged that “Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ stole from nursing homes, rural hospitals, and hungry families to give a windfall to the ultra-rich.” And he claimed “Americans are seeing lower-than-promised refunds hit their bank accounts that won’t even cover the higher costs Trump has forced them to shoulder.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Wednesday she regretted “hurtful” remarks about a colleague, apologizing in a court-issued statement after seemingly taking aim at Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s perspective on immigration enforcement.

During a prior appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law, Sotomayor, without mentioning him by name, criticized Kavanaugh “for failing to grasp the real-world effects of an unsigned order last year that allowed immigration enforcement sweeps in Los Angeles to resume.”

“I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops,” Sotomayor said during the appearance, noting a Kavanaugh concurrence in an emergency appeal filed by the Trump administration, Noem v. Perdomo. It was a case SCOTUS stayed 6-3 in September, allowing ICE to use “apparent race or ethnicity” language and work location to justify immigration stops in California. 

“This is from a man whose parents were professionals and probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.”

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS WARNS AGAINST PERSONAL ATTACKS ON JUDGES AS ‘DANGEROUS’ AFTER TRUMP COURT TIRADE

In his concurring opinion on the Sept. 8, 2025 stay, Kavanaugh wrote that legal residents’ encounters with immigration agents are “typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.”

Sotomayor, who filed the dissenting opinion, alleged in her remarks at KU that Kavanaugh failed to grasp that even short detentions can have major “financial consequences” for hourly workers despite him citing the legal reasoning of immigration stops being longstanding and based on reasonable suspicion.

JONATHAN TURLEY: LIBERAL JUSTICE’S SWIPE AT KAVANAUGH LATEST SIGN OF SCOTUS’ SLIPPING STANDARDS

She added her “life experiences” taught her how to “think more broadly and to see things others may not,” seemingly in reference to racial profiling as the first Hispanic justice.

TRUMP REVEALS HE HAS MULTI-PICK SCOTUS PLAN READY AS RETIREMENT SPECULATION HEATS UP

In a statement released by the Supreme Court Wednesday, Sotomayor said she “referred to a disagreement with one of my colleagues in a prior case” but “made remarks that were inappropriate.”

“I regret my hurtful comments,” she wrote in the statement. “I have apologized to my colleague.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated a proposal to tax luxury second homes owned by the ultra-wealthy, a plan expected to generate at least $500 million annually.

Earlier in the day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes in New York City valued at $5 million or more, allowing the city to impose an annual surcharge on ultra-wealthy nonresidents.

The proposal is projected to generate at least $500 million annually, according to Hochul.

Mamdani praised the plan, noting he campaigned on taxing the wealthy.

FROM ‘JUMP ON A BUS’ TO TAX CRACKDOWNS: BLUE STATES CHASE WEALTHY RESIDENTS FLEEING TO RED HAVENS

“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we’re taxing the rich,” he said in a video posted on X.

He said the tax is designed for the “richest of the rich” — people who “store their wealth in New York City real estate but who don’t actually live here.”

“This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. “Now, it’s coming to an end.”

STEVE FORBES: DON’T CRUSH HOMEOWNERS TO PAY FOR NYC’S OUT-OF-CONTROL BUDGET

He added that revenue from the tax would go toward initiatives such as free childcare, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods.

“As mayor, I believe everyone has a role to play in contributing to our city, and some a little bit more than others,” he said.

“Happy tax day, New York,” Mamdani added.

MAMDANI’S ESTATE TAX PLAN COULD DRIVE WEALTH OUT OF STATE, CRITICS WARN

According to the governor’s office, the pied-à-terre tax would apply to residential properties in New York City that are not used as a primary residence.

Hochul said the tax would “ensure that those that own luxury homes, but do not live in the City or pay City income tax are still fairly contributing towards the funding of the essential services like policing and parks that make New York City a global destination.”

“It is not a tax on residents. That is so important. We’re talking about people who are ultrawealthy,” she said during a news conference Wednesday.

Hochul added that the proposal would help generate revenue as the city faces budget constraints, without impacting most residents.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could be restored as early as July, signaling a rapid pivot by the Trump administration after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s IEEPA-based tariffs earlier this year, forcing the administration to turn to other trade authorities.

“We had a setback at the Supreme Court in terms of the tariff policy,” Bessent said Tuesday at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal. “But we will be implementing or conducting Section 301 studies — so the tariffs could be back in place at the previous level by [the] beginning of July.”

His remarks come after the Supreme Court ruled in February that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not authorize tariffs.

Trump has billed tariffs as “life or death” for the U.S. economy — underscoring the outsize importance the administration has placed on the issue. 

TRUMP TARIFF PLAN FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE AS COURT BATTLES INTENSIFY

Bessent’s comments also come as the U.S. collected more than $133 billion in IEEPA tariff duties as of mid-December, according to data published by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, a figure that later grew to roughly $166 billion by early March 2026.

The administration moved to preserve tariffs in the weeks since the Supreme Court’s ruling to find new ways to implement the import fees, invoking several provisions of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 in order to do so. 

Bessent’s remarks, first reported by Bloomberg, are a sign that the Trump administration plans to enact a combination of statutes under the trade law as it looks to move past the high court’s ruling and find new ways to sustain U.S. tariff pressure. 

The strategy, long-term, appears to focus largely on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office (USTR) to implement “retaliatory import restrictions” against a country that is found to have engaged in unfair or “discriminatory” trade policies or practices towards U.S. businesses. 

Section 301 allows the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate and respond to “unfair” foreign trade practices flagged by the president, though they require a formal period of notice and public comment, delaying enforcement. 

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Trump administration has initiated a flurry of more than 75 investigations under Section 301, according to a report from Alan Wm. Wolff, a senior fellow for the Peterson Institute for International Economics — far outpacing the average annual number of Section 301 investigations initiated during the past five decades.

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That’s not the only lever administration officials have pulled in an effort to keep Trump’s tariffs in place, however.

Trump last month announced new 10% global tariffs — an emergency provision under the trade law that allows a president to unilaterally impose import fees of up to 15% on U.S. trading partners for a period of 150 days, to respond to large and serious “balance of payments deficits,” or instances that risk immediately depreciating the power of the dollar.  

The Section 122 announcement prompted a lawsuit from 24 attorneys general, who argued the move was an illegal attempt to “sidestep” the Supreme Court’s ruling. It also prompted another lengthy hearing before the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan Friday, as judges on the three-member panel weighed the legality of Trump’s effort.

Lawyers for the challenges told the court Friday that upholding the administration’s broader view of the law would effectively turn Section 122 into an all-purpose trade weapon. 

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But Justice Department lawyer Brett Shumate argued that Congress had provided presidents with broad discretion to assess economic conditions.

“A trade deficit was a large driver of a balance of payments deficit in 1974 as it is today,” Shumate said. 

“We’re not on the gold standard anymore,” he said. “We don’t have a fixed currency, but we can still have balance-of-payment problems.”