Category: USA Politics

Senate Republicans are gearing up for a floor fight this week over doomed Trump-backed voter ID legislation.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to launch the GOP’s floor strategy for the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act on Tuesday afternoon.

It won’t be done through the talking filibuster, despite pressure from President Donald Trump and a fervent ecosystem of conservative influencers to do so. That’s because there is not enough support among Republicans to follow through with the move.

SENATE GOP EYES BLAME GAME AS TRUMP-BACKED SAVE ACT HEADS FOR DEFEAT

“It’s about the math,” Thune said. “And I’m, for better or worse, the one who has to be a clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve here. And so we’ll continue to convey that. And I think that we’re going to have the fight on the floor. We’re going to vote on this.”

Republicans’ plan is to put Senate Democrats on record for voting down the bill. And Senate Democrats are primed to oblige. 

“Democrats will not let Donald Trump ram this bill through the Senate. Not this week, not ever,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on a call with reporters over the weekend. “And Democrats are going to make sure the American people have their chance to deliver their verdict at the elections this fall.”

Part of the issue among Republicans, outside the staggering amount of floor time it would take up, is that the GOP isn’t unified to block Democratic amendments that could drastically alter the bill if they went the route of the talking filibuster.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is one of the key voices pushing for the SAVE America Act in the Senate, acknowledged that Republicans “don’t have the votes for the talking filibuster right now.”

“We just got to, you know, we got to look at every way we can try to pass it,” Scott said.

GOP REACHES KEY 50-VOTE THRESHOLD FOR TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL AS SENATE FIGHT LOOMS

Still, the first procedural step on Tuesday will take a simple majority but may still need an assist from Vice President JD Vance to break a tie.

And throughout the process, which could stretch over several days, there will be a handful of key lawmakers to watch in both chambers.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., declared last week that he wouldn’t support the SAVE America Act and that he planned to “do everything I can to prevent it from even moving forward.” 

How that could play out during the lengthy floor battle remains to be seen.

Still, Tillis’ objection to the bill is notable, given Republicans’ thin margin for error in the upper chamber.

He would rather vote on legislation that incentivized states to adopt voter ID and warned that the additional changes to the bill Trump wanted, like barring men in women’s sports or halting mail-in ballots with limited exceptions, “doesn’t sound like we’re letting the people at the tip of the spear — that’s these people running for re-election — define what we should be voting on next week.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, came out early against the SAVE America Act and contended that “one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska.”

TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL FACES GOP RESISTANCE AS TILLIS VOWS TO STOP IT

“Election Day is fast approaching,” Murkowski said in February. “Imposing new federal requirements now, when states are deep into their preparations, would negatively impact election integrity by forcing election officials to scramble to adhere to new policies, likely without the necessary resources.”

Whether she’ll vote to allow Republicans to open debate on the bill and march forward with their slew of amendments is still an open question. Fox News Digital did not immediately hear back from her office for comment.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who often bucks his party on key votes in the Senate, likes the idea of voter ID but isn’t on board with some of the changes demanded by Trump.

Fetterman said on “Mornings with Maria” that the SAVE America Act was “needlessly complicated,” particularly Trump’s request to include a sweeping ban on mail-in ballots with limited exceptions.

“I have said it’s not Jim Crow, and it’s not extreme things, but mail-in voting is absolutely secure,” Fetterman said. “Some of the best examples in the country are red states like Florida and Ohio.”

Meanwhile, in the House, a rebellion is brewing among Thune’s fellow Republicans.

Several GOP lawmakers there are threatening to vote against any legislation that comes out of the Senate until the SAVE America Act is passed, which, given the circumstances, could lead to a lengthy standoff.

Many of those threats first bubbled up earlier this month on a House GOP lawmaker-only call, following the U.S. and Israel’s joint strikes on Iran.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., was among those pushing the House to reject any bills from the Senate until the measure was taken up, telling Speaker Mike Johnson, according to multiple sources on the call, “If we don’t get this done, or at least show that we’ve got some backbone, we’re done. The midterms are over.”

The Trump Department of Homeland Security has requested that Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger and officials in immigrant-friendly Fairfax County not release an adult illegal alien charged with groping several high school girls on school grounds.

Illegal alien Israel Flores Ortiz, 19, is facing nine counts of assault and battery for groping girls at a Fairfax County high school he was attending. Victims and parents have alleged that Ortiz approached about 12 girls from behind in crowded hallways, grabbed them between the legs and groped their private areas, according to 7News.

The outlet reported that parents said the incidents have occurred throughout the school year. Ortiz attends the school and is in the eleventh grade, per 7News.

According to DHS, Ortiz illegally entered the U.S. in 2024 and was released into the country by the Biden administration.

ANGEL MOM WHOSE 13-YEAR-OLD SON WAS EXECUTED BY ILLEGAL GANG MEMBER URGES INCOMING DHS CHIEF TO ACT

He is currently being held without bond in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, which is operated by the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, led by Sheriff Stacey Kincaid. 

According to the sheriff’s office website, the office does not honor ICE administrative detainers — requests to hold inmates — unless the detainer is accompanied by a criminal judicial order.

Further, as governor, Spanberger has rolled back state policies mandating cooperation with ICE. Spanberger has said that “when state and local law enforcement are pulled away from upholding our Virginia laws to do the job of federal agents, it weakens their ability to deepen trust — contributing to a culture of fear and distrust that makes it harder for officers to do their jobs.” 

In a later executive order, Spanberger added that Virginia law enforcement efforts “focus on upholding the rule of law, investigating and stopping criminal conduct, and protecting public safety, not the administrative enforcement of civil status.”

DHS NABS AFGHAN MAN ADMITTED UNDER BIDEN AFTER CONVICTION FOR EXPOSING HIMSELF TO MINOR

In a Monday statement, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said that the agency is “calling on Fairfax County sanctuary politicians to NOT release this predator from jail back into our communities to assault more teenage women.”

Bis slammed Spanberger for ending former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policy of cooperation with ICE, saying it is “siding with criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.”

“This 19-year-old criminal illegal alien should NOT have been attending a Virginia high school and allowed to prey on innocent teenage girls,” Bis said, adding, “This is yet another example of the Biden Administration’s failed open border policies.”

In response, Allyson Conroy, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Digital that Ortiz currently “remains in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.” 

Conroy said that “while it is still too early in the process to know the outcome of his case, ICE has been notified of Ortiz’s location at the ADC” and “they are able to execute their detainer by responding to the ADC and taking Ortiz into custody if and when he is ordered released.”

Conroy emphasized that the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office “does not obstruct or prevent ICE from acting on their civil detainers.”

Meanwhile, Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a mother of three students in the Fairfax County School System, told Fox News that “this entire horrifying situation is the direct consequence of policy with really dysfunctional priorities,” which she said are attempting to “shield adult illegal immigrants at the expense of children’s safety, even in their public schools.”

ICE BUSTS HUMAN SMUGGLING RING THAT KIDNAPPED FAMILY, SEXUALLY ASSAULTED PREGNANT WOMAN

Lundquist-Arora claimed officials at the high school waited two weeks to inform parents and that the move only came after parental pressure.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

In an emailed statement, Fairfax County Public Schools said that while it is “unable to comment on specifics due to federal and state privacy laws, we prioritize student and staff safety and we fully investigate any time someone shares that an incident has occurred at school, or that they do not feel safe at school.”

The public school system added that it is “grateful to our law enforcement partners who continue to work swiftly and thoroughly when there are safety concerns in our schools” and that the “safety of all FCPS students and staff remains a top priority.”

Spanberger’s office and the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers has proposed a bill seeking to ban warrants allowing law enforcement to gather data revealing which cellphones and other devices that were near a crime scene at a specific time.

Democrat state Sen. Erin Maye Quade introduced a Senate bill to ban those warrants in most cases, with Sens. Omar Fateh, also a Democrat, and Eric Lucero, a Republican, joining as original sponsors.

The bill would also allow anyone whose information was obtained during the search to sue law enforcement.

Lawmakers argue the warrants should be prohibited except in emergency situations. They said reverse location warrants, sometimes called “geofence” or “dragnet” warrants, are too broad and violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

YOUR PHONE IS NOW A CRIME SCENE IN YOUR POCKET

Critics of the warrants say authorities can gather data on thousands of people near a particular area, including those who attended an event that could be of interest to law enforcement, such as a protest.

“We do believe that we have to balance our constitutional rights and public safety so that we’re not essentially sending law enforcement in to search for a needle in a haystack by exponentially increasing the size of the haystack,” Maye Quade said during a hearing on March 9.

Law enforcement groups, including the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, contend that the bill is too broad, although both have suggested a willingness to negotiate with lawmakers about data privacy concerns.

“We recognize and share the Legislature’s commitment to protecting individual privacy and civil liberties. However, as drafted, this bill would impose an outright prohibition on investigative tools that are lawful, court-supervised, and, in many cases, critical to solving serious crimes and protecting public safety,” the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association said in a letter to lawmakers.

Senate lawmakers first discussed the bill in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on March 9. House lawmakers discussed a companion bill, originally proposed by Rep. Sandra Feist, a Democrat, in the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee on Feb. 24.

This comes amid an ongoing case at the national level, in which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in April on the constitutionality of reverse location warrants.

Between 2018 and 2020, the number of reverse location warrants in Minnesota jumped from 22 to 173.

In 2023, Google said it would stop storing location data in a way that would make it susceptible to reverse location warrant requests. By July of last year, the company said all location history data previously stored on its servers had been wiped or moved to on-device storage.

But groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have raised concerns about whether that change is enough.

The warrants appear to still be used in Minnesota, as law enforcement groups argue they play a key role in solving investigations.

Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said a ban on those warrants “would have a major detrimental effect on public safety in Minnesota.”

“There are numerous examples of case investigations where reverse location data has saved lives, even just recently,” Evans said in a letter to lawmakers, although he added that he supports “reasonable safeguards for data privacy protections” and would be “more than willing to collaborate on possible solutions to implement more safeguards while still preserving such an important technological tool.”

As written, the Senate bill would prohibit warrants to collect information on devices that searched for a specific keyword, phrase or website. It would also ban similar collection of GPS coordinates, cell tower and Wi-Fi connectivity data.

GRASSLEY: BIDEN DOJ BYPASSED CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS BY SUBPOENAING SENATOR PHONE RECORDS

Lucero said during the March 9 hearing that the bill should not be viewed as anti-law enforcement, arguing it promotes pro-constitutional principles.

“We simply want to make sure that those time-tested principles are protected in the new digital realm,” Lucero said.

Lucero referenced the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures unless a warrant specifies a particular place and the person or thing to be seized.

“Reverse search warrants are the antithesis of that,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The man who worked security for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, but was killed in a standoff with SWAT last week was accused of impersonating a police officer and other offenses, although the congresswoman is defending him, saying his criminal history does not include any violent offenses.

The suspect, who was identified as Diamon-Mazairre Robinson, 39, was shot and killed by Dallas Police SWAT officers on Wednesday. He had barricaded himself inside a vehicle in the garage of a children’s hospital after Dallas Police officers tracked him while investigating an active warrant.

Police deployed tear gas to force him out before the suspect exited the vehicle and pointed a gun at officers, leading officers to shoot him. The suspect did not fire his gun, and no officers were injured.

Dash camera footage of the incident at Children’s Medical Center Dallas was released on Monday.

JASMINE CROCKETT’S ALLEGED SECURITY GUARD KILLED IN STANDOFF WITH DALLAS SWAT TEAM: REPORTS

He was wanted for impersonating a law enforcement officer and had claimed to be one while recruiting for his business that placed off-duty officers in security jobs.

Robinson was driving a replica undercover car with stolen U.S. government plates, often wore fake police uniforms pretending he was a federal agent and created a fraudulent business where he used fake identifying information to hire legitimate police officers for off-duty jobs. Dallas Police also said 11 firearms were recovered during their investigation, including the handgun he was holding during the shooting, which was reported stolen. 

He was also not using his real name, going by the alias “Mike King.”

“The agencies that he reported to work for do not exist. So dignitaries, basically special dignitary police, that agency does not exist within the federal government. So that’s who he portrayed to be. There was no actual federal agency that he worked for that existed. He was very good at hiding his true identity … He had been living like this for many years,” Dallas Deputy Police Chief William Griffith said on Monday.

Robinson has a lengthy criminal history, with arrests going back as far as 2010. He has been charged with offenses such as theft and violating probation.

Crockett came to the defense of her former security guard, releasing a statement on Monday saying her office was unable to find any violent offenses in his “limited criminal history.”

“We are saddened and shocked by some of the concerning revelations. Our team followed all protocols outlined by the House to contract additional security. We were approved to use this vendor who also provided security services for additional entities in the local community and worked closely with law enforcement agencies including Capitol Police,” she said in the statement.

The congresswoman said, “the fact that an individual was able to somehow circumvent the vetting processes for something as sensitive as security for members of Congress highlights the loopholes and shortcomings in many of our systems.”

JASMINE CROCKETT CAMPAIGN REPORTEDLY KICKED ATLANTIC WRITER OUT OF RALLY FOR BEING A ‘TOP-NOTCH HATER’

“This is incredibly alarming, especially for those members who receive high volumes of credible and sophisticated death threats,” she said. “This situation reiterates the need for Capitol Police to provide security for members of Congress, especially under this administration’s new normal of inciting attacks on those who dare to speak out. We are fortunate that this is someone who used those loopholes without malice. Furthermore, after an initial review of the limited criminal history of Diamon Mazairre Robinson in Dallas County, we’ve been unable to locate any violent offenses.”

The progressive lawmaker added that “there was never any reason to suspect that he wasn’t who he held himself out to be,” saying he never endangered her team, worked diligently, coordinated with local law enforcement and maintained positive relationships throughout the community.”

“What we’re now learning about his past doesn’t fit the person we came to know as Mike King,” she wrote. “His death evokes a range of emotions. Our hearts grieve the loss of someone we knew and the lost good that could have come from his redemption.”

President Donald Trump’s former defense lawyer received swift backing from conservative legal figures online after facing pushback at a recent American Bar Association (ABA) conference for praising the Trump Department of Justice.

Attorney John Lauro, who defended Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election case, said the DOJ was “in a better place” under Trump, causing fellow panelists and audience members to shudder, according to a Bloomberg Law report of the event. 

Lauro told Fox News Digital in a brief phone call on Monday that the event “was a highly triggered environment.”

“I called out the ABA and other elite legal organizations for not condemning the prior administration in holding political sham trials and show trials, particularly the one directed at President Trump, where the Biden administration wanted to put him on trial in 90 days, which is shorter than it takes for a traffic ticket to get worked through in D.C.,” Lauro said.

LABOR DEPARTMENT ORDERS LAWYERS TO CUT TIES WITH ABA, SLAMS GROUP AS ‘RADICAL’ ACTIVIST FORCE

The tense panel put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s ongoing fight with the ABA as it spurred DOJ officials and lawyers to voice their disdain for the organization.

“The ABA is trash and I’m proud to never have been a member,” Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon said. “Its stunt trashing Judge [Robert] Bork did it for me.”

“As if we needed anymore proof of the absolute disgrace that is the ABA,” wrote Associate Deputy Attorney General Diego Pestana. “John Lauro, one of the best trial attorneys in the country and patriot, treated terribly for simply daring to voice a view contrary to the liberal white collar bar.”

Lauro said during the panel, held at a conference in San Diego, that he had “the unique experience of representing a political figure who was probably more abused by the criminal justice system in America than any other political figure ever.”

“Everything that has gone on in the current administration must be looked at from the eyes of a man who was victimized by the criminal justice system,” Lauro said.

Among those rallying behind Lauro was also Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan, who said the ABA “represents a hyperpartisan faction.”

“That’s fine! But they should play no role in law school accreditation (or judicial selection),” Wessan said.

Former DOJ official Jeff Clark, an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 2020 election case, called Lauro “a bold man of principle.”

WHO ARE THE 6 CO-CONSPIRATORS NAMED IN TRUMP’S JAN. 6 INDICTMENT? HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW

Another social media user, an anonymous Georgia-based legal commentator, said that while he disagreed with Lauro’s comments, he was “jealous” that Lauro “had the opportunity to tell a room of the type of haughty, effete defense lawyers who hang around at ABA conferences to go f— themselves. He should have taken it.”

Lauro’s remarks had elicited pushback from participants. Nancy Gertner, a Harvard University law professor and retired federal judge, responded that any issues surrounding Trump’s prosecutions did not “justify the fracture of American democracy.”

Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner said: “I wanted to thank Mr. Lauro for admitting the emperor has no clothes. The rule of law is dead because the people in this room and the Department of Justice pissed off President Trump.”

“I can’t believe that you think that that’s normal or good that one person can dictate who the Department of Justice investigates and indicts,” lawyer and panel moderator Sandy Weinberg said.

Republicans have long argued the ABA promotes Democrat-aligned viewpoints and that its institutional presence in the legal world is a disadvantage to conservatives. The ABA’s website showcases work that includes support for “LGBTQ+” initiatives, abortion access, stricter gun control measures, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

The ABA has also taken a stance against Trump, condemning what its president described as the administration’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law.”

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TELLS AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION IT WILL NO LONGER COMPLY WITH RATINGS FOR JUDICIAL NOMINEES

The ABA has for decades wielded enormous power, weighing in on nominations of federal judges, engaging in litigation and helping firms across the legal industry with recruitment. One arm of the ABA also handles law school accreditation.

Under Trump, several departments and agencies, including the DOJ and Department of Labor, have told political appointees they cannot affiliate with the ABA in their official capacity.

The DOJ, meanwhile, moved to terminate more than $3 million in federal grants to ABA programs, though a judge ruled the move was unconstitutional. Attorney General Pam Bondi told the ABA last year that the DOJ would not give advanced notice to the organization about judicial nominees, a reversal of a decades-long practice of allowing the organization to rate the nominees before they advance in the Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to the ABA for comment.

President Donald Trump on Monday questioned California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fitness for higher office, citing his learning disability. 

Trump was speaking with reporters in the Oval Office when he talked about requiring identification to vote in elections and the resistance from Newsom and other Democratic elected officials. 

“That’s how crazy it’s gotten with a low IQ person, you know, because Gavin Newsom has admitted…that he has learning disabilities,” Trump said. “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities. But not for my president…I think a president should not have learning disabilities.”

GAVIN NEWSOM SPOX TELLS REPORTER ‘F— OFF’ WHEN ASKED FOR RECORDS OF HIS DYSLEXIA DIAGNOSIS

“I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing,” he added. “Gavin Newsom admitted that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia. Everything about him is dumb.”

Newsom, who is widely believed to have White House ambitions, has spoken about his dyslexia, a neurologically-based learning disability that makes it difficult to read, according to the International Dyslexia Association. 

“You’ve never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech,” Newsom said in Atlanta last month while promoting his memoir: “Young Man in a Hurry.” “I haven’t overcome dyslexia. I’m living with it.”

Trump also criticized Newsom for his remarks at that same Atlanta event.

“I’m not, you know, I’m not trying to impress you, I’m just trying to impress upon you, I’m like you. I’m no better than you,” Newsom told Mayor Andre Dickens at a book tour event.

NEWSOM RIPPED FOR ‘RACIST’ VIRAL CLIP TELLING BLACK MAYOR ‘I’M LIKE YOU’ BEFORE TOUTING POOR SAT SCORE

“You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy. And, you know, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, you know, ‘trying to act all there if you got 940,’” he continued. “Literally a 960 SAT guy, you’ve never seen me read a speech. Because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be in.”

Republicans criticized the governor for allegedly talking down to a mostly Black audience. 

“So now, on top of everything else, I call him a racist because it happened to be a black audience,” Trump said Monday. “I will tell you this, I think it was the worst interview I’ve ever seen of any human being in my life.”

At the time, Newsom’s office defended his comments in a previous statement to Fox News Digital.

“First MAGA mocked his dyslexia and now they’re calling him racist for talking about his low SAT scores. This is MAGA-manufactured outrage,” Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said. 

“The Governor has said this publicly for years — including with Charlie Kirk and dozens of other audiences. The same people who excused or ignored Trump’s racist ape video can go f— themselves.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office. 

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will review the Trump administration’s effort to revoke temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants living in the U.S. — a significant update that comes as the president looks to deliver on his hardline immigration enforcement promises in his second White House term. 

Justices on the high court let stand, for now, a pair of lower court orders that blocked the Trump administration from immediately halting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for the Syrian and Haitian migrants. 

The Supreme Court did agree to review the consolidated cases on an expedited basis, and said Monday that it will hear oral arguments in both cases next month.

A ruling is expected by late June.

SCOTUS TO REVIEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

The news comes as the Trump administration has moved to end the TPS designation for migrants from roughly half a dozen countries, including some 6,000 Syrians and 350,000 Haitians living in the U.S. under the program.

The TPS program allows individuals from certain countries to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” 

Last week, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to intervene and stay a lower court order from U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes that blocked the administration’s effort to immediately revoke temporary protected status designations for Haitian migrants.

BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP’S ‘THIRD COUNTRY’ DEPORTATION POLICY IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Sauer urged the high court to take up the broader issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S. — citing the Justice Department’s appeal of a similar case centered on TPS protections for Syrian migrants that was kicked to the high court earlier this year.

“Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,” Sauer said last week. “This court should break that cycle.”

Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left some 1.5 million in the country homeless. 

The protections were extended several times, including under the Biden administration in 2021 after the July assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s last democratically elected president.

The appeal comes as the Trump administration has sought to wind down most TPS designations, arguing the programs have been extended for too long under Democratic presidents.

Trump officials have also taken aim at lower courts that have sought to block or pause their efforts to wind down TPS protections, accusing the lower court judges of exceeding their authority and unlawfully intruding on the executive branch’s authority on immigration policy.

You’ll hear volumes from congressional Republicans about the importance of passing the SAVE America Act in the coming days. The bill requires proof of citizenship to vote.

“We need to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in America,” said Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.

“The SAVE America Act is an important bill,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., on Fox News. “So we’ve got to figure out how to get it passed.”

TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL FACES GOP RESISTANCE AS TILLIS VOWS TO STOP IT

And that is the conundrum facing Senate Republicans — figuring out how to get it passed.

The SAVE America Act is the touchstone of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. In fact, the president warned he wouldn’t sign any other bill into law — except perhaps a DHS funding measure — until Congress aligns with his demands.

Republicans agree on the importance of the SAVE America Act, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. is promising everything but passage.

“I will be bringing the SAVE America Act to the floor, and we will be having a full and robust debate,” said Thune.

That’s because Republicans can’t break a Democratic filibuster.

“This is one of the worst things we’ve seen in America in a very long time,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

SCHUMER SWINGS AT HEGSETH OVER KING CRAB MEALS FOR THE TROOPS, BUT BIDEN-ERA RECEIPTS SHOW SIMILAR TAB

“The real reason this president wants this bill to pass is to reduce the number of people voting in the November election,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. 

It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. Republicans only have 53 votes in the Senate. So some Republicans advocate parliamentary ballistics to obliterate the filibuster.

“I would nuke the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. 

Cold War rhetoric permeates this entire debate. In fact, conservatives implored Thune to launch a pre-emptive first strike to terminate the filibuster before Democrats again win control of the Senate — be it this fall or a decade from now.

“It’s really about the only way I can see preventing them from nuking the filibuster once they gain the majority in the Senate,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Other Republicans want to force Democrats to filibuster the old-fashioned way — until they’re exhausted. 

“They should have to go hold the floor like it used to be in the old days. They can go and talk as much as they want. But sooner or later they’re going to run out of time,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

If everyone finally fades after days or weeks of debate, then the Senate doesn’t need a test vote to break a filibuster — needing 60 yeas. That means they can pass the bill with a simple majority: 51.

Lots of Republican senators are now invoking the 1930s Frank Capra classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” That’s where Jimmy Stewart plays an idealistic senator who filibusters until he collapses in the Senate chamber.

“They should have to go out there, hours on end, like a Jimmy Stewart moment,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

But most Republicans reject the Jimmy Stewart approach. They’re not so much worried about unlimited debate during a talking filibuster, but the unlimited amendment process.

“The talking filibuster, I think will be a goat rodeo. I mean, it could take two or three weeks. The Democrats will tee up all kinds of problematic votes,” predicted a skeptical Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. “I haven’t had anybody describe to me the project plan. Here are the number of days. This is how we counter people. We’ve got all of our political flanks covered. And this is how we succeed at the end.”

But there won’t be an unlimited amendment process. While Thune will allow the debate to go on for a while (Fox is told perhaps a week or more, perhaps around the clock), he will maintain “ball control.” Thune won’t immediately tee up a test vote to end debate, needing 60 yeas. But Thune will immediately block all amendments from both sides.

Like everything on Capitol Hill, it’s about the math. And while there will be a lot of talking about the SAVE Act and the talking filibuster, there’s not enough support on the GOP side of the aisle to unspool the Senate’s filibuster rules and precedents. 

“Many of us don’t believe that we should undo the filibuster because it holds the rights of the majority. And one day we’ll be back in the minority,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “It’s a real splitter here.”

Capito added that there was a “will” to deal with the SAVE America Act. But the parliamentary machinations it would take to blow up the filibuster to pass the bill do not exist.

“There’s not enough numbers to get it done,” observed Capito.

Trump and other conservatives are starting to dial up pressure on Thune.

THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’

“I think he’s a wonderful person. I do,” the president said of the South Dakota Republican on Fox News Radio. “But it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t think he can do it. And that’s bad.”

Despite criticism directed at Thune, some Republicans are defending him.

“It’s not John Thune that’s killing it. It’s members of the Republican Party that are not convinced that a talking filibuster can be used to pass this,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. “It will be an infliction of tremendous delays on other matters before the U.S. Senate without the positive results of passage of the SAVE Act.”

It’s significant that the president has not called out Thune over his reluctance to end the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act. However, Trump routinely demanded that former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., do just that during his first term. The president often lambasted McConnell’s stewardship of the Senate, despite the Kentucky Republican establishing a new precedent to inhibit filibusters of Supreme Court nominees. McConnell’s maneuver on the filibuster assured the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

But so far, no sharp criticism of Thune.

Still, some Republicans believe Senate magic could salvage the SAVE America Act.

“I’ve seen John Thune pull rabbits out of his hat before,” said Lummis. “And I’m hoping there’s a rabbit in his hat on this one.” 

The Senate takes a test vote just to start debate on the bill Tuesday afternoon. That needs a simple majority. It’s possible that Vice President JD Vance may need to break a tie to launch debate on the bill.

But the Senate doesn’t have the votes to blow up the precedents like McConnell did with the Supreme Court in order to pass the SAVE America Act, nor are there the votes to execute a full-blown “talking filibuster,” bypassing the need for 60 yeas. 

Consider the firestorm that could rain down on Senate Republicans from their base if the GOP fails to pass the SAVE America Act. Trump has held his tongue so far, but it’s possible there could be recriminations from him, too.

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an arrest detainer request for a Mexican illegal migrant who was charged with soliciting sexual content from children under 10 years old. 

Angel David Rubio Marin allegedly used “Robux,” the currency used in the Roblox video game platform, to entice children to send him sexually explicit videos and images of at least three young children under 10 years old. He was arrested in Prince William County, VA.

Rubio Marin was previously charged with two counts of public masturbation, but was released in Virginia prior to the current charges, according to DHS.

“This sicko preyed on innocent children by offering to pay them in a video game currency in exchange for child pornography,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital in a statement. ”This illegal alien was RELEASED from jail after an arrest for public masturbation. This case is a perfect example of why we need state and local cooperation with ICE.”

SANCTUARY POLICIES LET ALLEGED CHILD PREDATOR ROAM FREE UNTIL DHS MADE PORTLAND, OREGON, AIRPORT ARREST

“We are calling on Virginia sanctuary politicians and Governor Spanberger to commit to not releasing this child predator back into Virginia neighborhoods,” Bis added. “No one wants this pedophile loose on American streets.”

Roblox is an online video game where users interact via chat. Robux is an in-game currency where players can purchase accessories and items for their character. The game is popular among young children.

Roblox made clear that the platform’s filters make it impossible for users to share images or videos through in-game chat.

ICE NABS IRANIAN NATIONAL WITH RAPE, SODOMY CONVICTIONS AFTER VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS MOVE TO CURB COOPERATION

Rubio Martin entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown place and time, according to DHS. 

The department was quick to bash Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who ended cooperation with state agencies and federal immigration authorities through an executive directive in February shortly after her inauguration.

In a statement issued after signing the directive, she argued that requiring state and local officers to take on federal immigration duties diverts them from their primary responsibilities of enforcing Virginia law and investigating crimes.

According to Spanberger, shifting those duties can damage relationships between police and residents and create an atmosphere of fear and mistrust that ultimately makes it more difficult for officers to effectively do their jobs.

The directive also reverses the 287(g) program adopted under former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. That policy allowed certain local law enforcement officers to carry out limited immigration enforcement responsibilities under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including helping ensure criminal illegal migrants were not released back into communities and identifying illegal migrants already being held in local jails.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger’s office but has not yet heard back.

Plans to shutter the Trump Kennedy Center were made official through a board of trustees vote on Monday afternoon, setting up a two-year renovation process that some Democratic lawmakers believe should have required more congressional input.

The board unanimously approved the changes, according to a source familiar with the vote.

The source also said the board had set July 6 as the official closure date, installed Matt Floca, the center’s vice president of facilities operations, as the new president of the Trump Kennedy Center and ended its exclusive affiliation with the Washington Opera.

The overhaul will include fixes to the building’s heating, ventilating, air-conditioning systems and elevators, among other structural renovations, according to plans for the project submitted to Congress.

BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,’ LEAVITT SAYS

Allocations for the project, set aside in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, are set to cost $257 million.

Last year, Trump installed a hand-picked set of board members, leading Democratic critics to condemn the center’s management and its renovation as direct control from the White House.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., an ex officio member of the board, blasted Monday’s vote, arguing the renovations were made unilaterally.

“Unfortunately, recent actions by the president and certain board members have treated the center like a personal vanity project, including firing career management staff, removing trustees and sidelining ex officio members who are meant to provide congressional oversight,” Warner said on Monday.

GRAMMY WINNER ACCUSED OF CAVING TO ‘WOKE MOB’ AFTER KENNEDY CENTER CANCELLATION

Ex officio members provide lawmakers input on the management of the Kennedy Center.

Ric Grenell, the now-former Kennedy Center president, pushed back on characterizations from Democrats, stating that lawmakers have had multiple opportunities to speak into the process.

EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP-LED KENNEDY CENTER NEARLY DOUBLES FUNDRAISING FROM BIDEN ERA, SMASHING RECORD WITH $23M HAUL

“We gave all that information to Congress. It was in the Big Beautiful Bill. We didn’t just come up with the $257 million number. We actually gave them specifics as to what needed to be fixed,” Grenell said.

“My reaction is — last summer we gave you this information, you could have joined any number of the tours we were giving to members of Congress.”

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump framed the renovations as key restorations.

“Subject to board approval, I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of success, beauty, and grandeur, is to cease entertainment operations for an approximately two-year period of time,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in February.

Trump promised the center would return with a “grand reopening” after the renovations are complete.