Three Cuban nationals, including a man the Trump administration says spent more than a decade working for a Cuban government influence organization in the United States, were apprehended by federal agents this week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated their legal status.

The State Department announced Wednesday that Carlos Antonio Lloga Dominguez, along with his wife and son, are in federal custody pending removal from the U.S.

Lloga Dominguez spent more than a decade as a “foreign subversive” employed by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP), the communist Cuban regime’s “premier influence and intelligence front group in the United States,” according to the State Department. He is accused of continuing to maintain ties to the transnational communist subversion network throughout his time residing in the U.S.

“This is America First leadership in our region,” a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital of the apprehensions.

FEDS INVESTIGATE NONPROFITS AND LEADERS ALLEGEDLY COORDINATING WITH CUBA IN INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN

ICAP was sanctioned earlier this month. The group has denied any wrongdoing and says it’s a civil society organization.

The State Department maintains that ICAP “maintains an outsized footprint across the United States, trafficking in vile anti-American propaganda, cultivating pro-Havana regime activists and politicians, and lobbying federal, state and local politicians on behalf of the Cuban dictatorship.”

FIRST ON FOX: POWERFUL HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS CHAIR THROWS HAMMER DOWN ON ‘FOREIGN-ALIGNED INFLUENCE NETWORK’

ICAP, which was founded in Fidel Castro in 1960 to spread Marxism all over the world, was accused of working with far-left groups in America to “export Cuba’s Communist revolution to the United States.”

The State Department describes ICAP as the “the central node in a sprawling Cuban intelligence and influence operation, claiming to span more than 2,000 organizations across more than 150 countries.”

The sanctions against ICAP, enacted by Rubio, froze all its U.S.-based assets and generally banned Americans from doing business with the organization.

“America will never become home for foreign communists who peddle propaganda, run subversive influence operations, or support radical anti-American movements within the United States,” Rubio said in a statement on social media. “Transact with ICAP and you will be sanctioned, prosecuted or deported from our country.”

A Fox News Digital investigation found that over the last decade, ICAP officials have closely coordinated with American nonprofits to support the Communist Party of Cuba.

PROBE INTO ‘SUBVERSIVE’ ANTI-AI SINGHAM NETWORK IS ‘ENORMOUS,’ FORMER TREASURY ADVISOR SAYS

These nonprofits — many of them funded by businessman and far-left activist Neville Roy Singham — include the People’s Forum, Breakthrough News, Tricontinental, CodePink, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Altogether, there are 145 nonprofits, labor groups, advocacy organizations and activist collectives across the U.S. that are mobilizing in support of the Cuban government, Fox News Digital reported. The organizations report about $1 billion in combined revenue.

The DOJ and the Treasury Department is investigating this alleged influence campaign.

CodePink, founded by Jodie Evans, Singham’s wife, led a convoy to Cuba earlier this year to deliver aid to the country. The trip came after President Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade on Cuba earlier this year.

The convoy has since attracted federal scrutiny, with CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin confirming she received questions from federal officials who were investigating whether she violated American sanctions on Cuba.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Asra Nomani contributed to this report.

A top government watchdog group released a multipoint plan to protect the homeland and the integrity of U.S. citizenship after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling affirming birthright citizenship as enshrined in federal law.

Conservatives across the country criticized Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, along with the court’s three liberal justices, arguing that the ruling opens the door to citizenship for children born to foreign nationals illegally present in the U.S. and dilutes American citizenship.

The Oversight Project shared its “Keeping Families Together Plan” with Fox News Digital, arguing the ruling did not grant legal status to the parents of so-called anchor babies, a premise central to its proposal.

“Now that the illegal alien community has achieved weapons of mass reproduction… you need to turn off that multiplying effect. And if the goal of mass deportation is quantitative, which of course it is, you need go [to] places where legal immigration spreads the most or is concentrated the most,” said Mike Howell, an attorney and president of the Oversight Project.

SUPREME COURT’S LATEST IMMIGRATION RULING WILL CAU.S.E AMERICANS TO ‘DIE AND SUFFER’ ATTORNEY WARNS

“That’s why I’ve advocated so long for worksite enforcement,” he said, noting farms and factories need enforcement rather than “playing onesies and twosies” in sanctuary cities.

An increase in deportations, particularly of the parents of potential anchor babies, is key now that unfettered naturalization is a real possibility, he added.

BIDEN JUDGE OVERRULED ON KEY TRUMP IMMIGRATION POLICY

“Go to ‘red’ places and deport.”

By deporting parents of so-called “anchor babies,” in most cases the child would be deported with the parent — and if not, that parent would have the “moral onus” of abandoning the child, Howell said.

“If you are truly committed to the idea that birthright citizenship is absurd in its application, then it should be preventative,” he added, saying part of the plan to keep foreign families together would entail throwing roadblocks up to pregnant foreigners having children in the U.S.

Positioning ICE at certain hospitals would help prevent that, he said.

Turning to combating “birth tourism” — in which organizations help foreign nationals travel to the U.S. for the purpose of giving birth to U.S.-citizen children — Howell said China is the biggest source of the practice and other economic threats.

Asked how to thread the needle with the U.S.’ economic reliance on Beijing, Howell said Tuesday’s ruling shows it is time to play “hardball.”

He criticized President Donald Trump’s blessing of thousands of Chinese students continuing to study in America, which, in Howell’s words, would “prop up our failing university system.”

“The elite regions of [China’s] upper class love access to the U.S. financial system and coming here and taking advantage of it. And so if you’re negotiating and it’s the art of the deal… take away the thing they want.”

Howell claimed one Chinese billionaire has been “shipping his sperm” to California to inseminate women, resulting in children being born with U.S. citizenship.

“What kind of serious country allows [that]?” he said. Reports from outlets, including Fortune, have described wealthy Chinese businessmen engaging in repeated surrogacy arrangements involving American women.

Howell said that despite talk of Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda, the numbers don’t match the boasts so far.

“The fact remains there isn’t a mass deportation campaign underway. And that’s why we’ve been pushing this Mass Deportation Coalition, which has so many members across the country and a policy framework for them to do it,” he said, acknowledging that Trump has had “special interests” buffeting his attempts because they don’t want their workforces deported, and setbacks like the public outcry over agent-involved shootings in Minneapolis that led to “cold feet.”

Asked about the Oversight Project’s plan and Howell’s comments, the White House said Trump remains “totally committed” to protecting the “value of natural-born citizenship.”

“[That] is why, following yesterday’s ruling, he directed Congress to take immediate action to address this. Simultaneously, the administration will double down on our efforts to keep the border secure and deport illegal aliens.”

Spokesperson Abigail Jackson added that the DOJ will prioritize birth-tourism schemes, some of which Howell laid out.

Howell’s plan also includes a veiled shot at Roberts — who, despite being a Republican’s appointee, is often the swing vote in favor of the court’s liberal minority as he was Tuesday.

The George W. Bush appointee famously roiled Republicans after deeming Obamacare constitutional by defining its no-insurance penalty as a “tax,” while writing in the same 2012 ruling that Congress could not force Americans to buy insurance.

“The question is not whether that is the most natural interpretation of the mandate, but only whether it is a ‘fairly possible’ one,” Roberts wrote in NFIB v. Sebelius.

Howell said lawmakers could therefore create a mechanism through congressional reconciliation to punish birth-tourists — but define the penalty as a “tax.”

“Much like the Obamacare plan being upheld as a tax by the Supreme Court, this would survive constitutional scrutiny,” the Oversight Project’s plan read.

The plan also goes further, calling on DHS to suspend all visas for countries like China that engage in birth tourism.

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The key, Howell said, is to start ignoring the noise from the left and from critics and power through the end of the congressional term with attainable goals in mind no matter how controversial critics say they are.

“We took a hit today, a big hit, but the damage can be mitigated and the overall problem can be solved with a lot of political backbone and using the money from the Big, Beautiful Bill quickly and without fear of what the left-wing media might say about it,” he said.

“Reconciliation is a beautiful vehicle to achieve those kind of cost-cutting measures. Obamacare was a tax. The rule is a tax, so why can’t we use a tax here? I’m sure the legal pundits will have much to say about that one,” Howell remarked.

“But by any hook, nook, or cranny, we need to fight this policy,” he went on, adding the mainstream media and some moderates will be lambasting the social repercussions of the plan.

“If the administration’s going to take to the airwaves and say this is like a disgraceful ruling that undermines our sovereignty, then they need to act.”

“The suburban moms will be angry. They will say all that kind of stuff. But I want them to follow through because there’s 77 million Americans who sent Trump back to the White House after everything we went through.”

In the interim, Rep. Andy Ogles IV, R-Tenn., and Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have unveiled constitutional amendment proposals to overturn the court’s ruling, though observers say the efforts appear politically untenable at present.

When asked about characterizations of DHS’ efforts, an agency spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We disagree with the ruling. Congress must get to work to end birthright citizenship immediately.”

“In President Trump’s first year back in office, more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations. As of June 24, we have now deported over 948,000 illegal aliens and arrested over 981,000 illegal aliens,” the spokesperson said, adding that since the first day of Trump’s administration, DHS has been delivering on the promise to “Make America Safe Again” and more than 3 million have been deported.

“Our message is clear: if you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

Alaska’s highest court ruled that a same-name Republican challenger to Sen. Dan Sullivan can remain on the ballot, a decision an election expert says exposes glaring flaws in Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system and top-four primary.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Monday that Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, is eligible to appear on the Republican primary ballot alongside incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, affirming a lower court’s decision keeping him on the ballot despite Republicans and the Division of Elections arguing that Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy is a “sham” attempt orchestrated by Democratic operatives to potentially trip up voters and siphon off votes from the incumbent.

“It very clearly is an attempt to mislead voters,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital. “When you look at the facts, they’ve been pretty clearly established.”

Snead pointed to Alaska’s ranked choice voting (RCV) and jungle primary as especially vulnerable to any nefarious tactics with same-name candidates because, unlike a traditional partisan primary, Alaska advances the top four finishers from a single primary election to the general election, regardless of party.

DAN SULLIVAN ACCUSES SAME-NAME CHALLENGER OF TRYING TO ‘RIG’ ALASKA SENATE RACE

Snead argued that under a conventional Republican primary, a candidate he described as a “decoy” would be unlikely to eliminate a legitimate contender before the general election.

Instead, he said, voters face a crowded top-four primary ballot in this year’s Alaska Senate race, roughly 16 candidates are running, and confusion over nearly identical names could have significant consequences.

GOP FIGHTS TO STOP MULTIPLE DAN SULLIVANS FROM APPEARING ON ALASKA BALLOT, CALLS CANDIDACY A ‘SHAM’

“You’ve really got two problems in one,” Snead said. “You don’t have any party primary. There’s no Republican nominee or Democratic nominee. You have this jungle primary where everybody runs together, and the top four candidates advance to the general election.”

Snead argued that under a traditional partisan primary, a candidate he described as a decoy would have little chance of preventing a legitimate Republican nominee from advancing to the general election. Instead, he said, Alaska’s crowded all-party primary creates more opportunities for voter confusion.

“If enough of them pick the wrong Dan Sullivan, then he makes it into the general,” Snead said. “Now you’ve got two people named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.”

Snead said the ranked-choice system can compound the problem because ballots are redistributed as candidates are eliminated.

“If you only rank one person, then your ballot is eliminated if that person is eliminated,” he said.

ALASKA’S BLOCKBUSTER SENATE RACE THROWN INTO CHAOS AS SAME-NAME CHALLENGER FIGHTS DISQUALIFICATION IN COURT

He said another possibility is that voters could mistakenly rank the wrong Dan Sullivan first and Democrat Mary Peltola second, causing those votes to transfer to Peltola if the decoy candidate is eliminated during tabulation.

“There are lots of different traps here,” Snead said. “At a minimum, I think this speaks to the fact that ranked-choice voting plus jungle primaries is especially vulnerable to these sorts of games.”

“It is definitely not an idea that is ready for prime time, no matter what the people that push ranked choice are trying to sell us on.”

The Alaska Supreme Court did stipulate that election officials could add additional identifying information to the ballot to distinguish between the two candidates, leaving those design decisions to the Division of Elections.

Dan J. Sullivan, known to his critics as “Decoy Dan,” has come under scrutiny over ties to Democratic consultant Amber Lee, who was revealed as the author of his campaign launch announcement in metadata reviewed by Fox News Digital. Lee has notably supported Peltola’s prior runs for office and expressed optimism to The Hill in January that the Alaska Democrat would unseat the incumbent Sullivan.

According to Alaska Director of Elections Carol Beecher, Dan J. Sullivan requested to appear on the primary ballot under the name “Dan Sullivan” despite previously registering as “Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.” Beecher also noted that his campaign materials are visually similar to the incumbent Republican’s campaign and that he had no affiliation with the GOP prior to jumping into the race shortly before the filing deadline.

The fate of his candidacy could prove decisive in the state’s hotly contested Senate race in which Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is seeking a third term in the Republican-leaning state. Democrats are hoping that former Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, whom Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped recruit into the race, will unseat Sullivan in November.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign said, “Mr. Sullivan has been buoyed by yesterday’s decisive victory at the Alaska Supreme Court.  To the extent that the Division of Elections is still grappling with how it will properly effectuate ballot design in a manner consistent with Alaska law and past practice, he has no comment, and looks forward to running his campaign.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Pack contributed to this report.

Former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan is suing the Trump administration and demanding a court order to require officials to preserve records of the criminal investigations against, which he alleges amount to “phantom criminal conduct.”

According to the lawsuit reviewed by Fox News Digital, Brennan, who served as CIA director from 2013 to 2017, is seeking preliminary injunctive relief to “protect his constitutional rights as the current target of two federal investigations that the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Brennan asserts that the DOJ has launched its investigations “at the direct urging of President Trump.”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BLUE STATE’S LAW PROHIBITING ICE AGENTS FROM WEARING MASKS ON THE JOB

The suit says that, “Regrettably, some in the current DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation leadership have acceded to that direction, and are converting the Justice Department into a tool of retribution against Director Brennan and the President’s other perceived adversaries.”

Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., accused the U.S. Supreme Court of betraying the nation on Tuesday and introduced a proposal to crack down on birthright citizenship.

The nation’s high court on Tuesday ruled against an executive order President Donald Trump issued last year that took aim at the notion that infants born on U.S. soil are entitled to American citizenship.

The 14th Amendment states, in part, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

VANCE CALLS SCOTUS BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP RULING A ‘MAJOR MISTAKE,’ WARNS OF MORE BIRTH TOURISM

Trump’s order declared it to be U.S. policy “that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons:  (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”

Ogles slammed the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, asserting in part of a post on X that the Supreme Court had “betrayed America.”

In a statement that his office provided to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, Ogles asserted, “Yesterday, the Supreme Court cheapened the most valuable thing on planet Earth: U.S. citizenship. Not only is birthright citizenship clearly not in the U.S. Constitution, but this broken system has allowed foreign nationals to take advantage of our country, our benefits, and our generosity. These foreigners have embedded themselves into our society and are being trained by foreign governments to corrupt our culture.”

SUPREME COURT LAMBASTED OVER ‘DESTRUCTIVE’ AND ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP DECISION

He added, “I refuse to let these anchor babies colonize our country. Save our sovereignty. Anchors away!”

The congressman’s “Anchors Away Act” aims to crack down on the issue.

The proposal would amend U.S. law — which states that those born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens at birth — to stipulate that for a child to be considered under U.S. jurisdiction one of the parents must be “a citizen or national of the United States,” ” an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States whose residence is in the United States” or “an alien with lawful status under the immigration laws performing active service in the armed forces (as defined in section 101 of title 10, United States Code).”

TRUMP SUFFERS MAJOR SUPREME COURT DEFEAT AS JUSTICES UPHOLD BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

The measure would also amend U.S. law to stipulate, “Any alien seeking admission to the United States as a nonimmigrant who is pregnant and is not married to a citizen of the United States is inadmissible.” Though it also notes, “Nothing in this subparagraph may be construed to render inadmissible an alien seeking legitimate medical treatment relating to childbirth.”

The Department of Justice announced murder and kidnapping charges on Wednesday against eight illegal migrants who are allegedly members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.

The charges were filed for two separate crimes. In one case, four men allegedly murdered a father in front of his teenage daughter outside Dallas, Texas, said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

In the other case, three men were accused of kidnapping a man in Chicago before beating and shooting him to death.

All eight defendants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border between December 2021 and April 2024, according to Blanche.

TRUMP SAYS US MILITARY ELIMINATED ‘INFAMOUS’ TREN DE ARAGUA LEADER IN LETHAL STRIKE

“None of these men should have been in this country. The father in Texas should be alive today. His daughter and nephew should have never been kidnapped. The young victim in Chicago should be alive,” Blanche said, before placing blame at the feet of the Biden administration for its “open border” policies.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould, who leads Texas’ Northern District, said the victims outside Dallas were a man, his 13-year-old daughter and his 12-year-old nephew.

On August 24, 2024, the four alleged TdA members kidnapped them all in the middle of the night and demanded money from the father, Raybould said.

“Once the TDA members realized the man could not pay them any money, they pulled over by a bridge in Dallas and told the man to jump off. When he refused to do so and attempted to flee, a TDA member gunned him down execution style in front of the two children,” Raybould said.

VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS WHO ENTERED US ILLEGALLY PLEAD GUILTY TO GUNNING DOWN TWO UNARMED AMERICANS

Local police found the man on the side of the road, bleeding through a single gunshot wound in the head, Raybould said.

A Texas grand jury indicted the four men involved — as well as a fifth man involved in other related crimes — for murder, kidnapping and ATM jackpotting.

One of the men indicted was a high-ranking TdA official, Raybould said.

Separately, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago filed charges against three alleged TdA members who are accused of murdering a man in May.

Andrew Boutros, the top prosecutor in the Northern District of Illinois, said at the Wednesday news conference that the three defendants forced the victim into their car while he was walking in a park.

ICE ARRESTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ILLINOIS TEACHER LINKED TO TREN DE ARAGUA MASS SHOOTING

They drove him to a Chicago apartment, Boutros said, where they tied his wrists and left him for hours. After that, the men transported him to an abandoned building, where they shot him in the head and body, Boutros said.

“I want you to think about those facts for a moment. A man kidnapped from a park in Chicago in broad daylight, beaten, held against his will, taken to an abandoned building and shot multiple times and left in a bathtub. All in the name of Tren de Aragua,” Boutros said.

Boutros added: “And to show just how brutal and merciless this gang is — someone then went and called the victim’s mother and told her where she could find her lifeless son’s body.”

FBI Director Kash Patel, also present at the news conference, praised federal law enforcement in his remarks for increasing arrests of violent gang members under President Donald Trump’s second administration.

“We’ve arrested 29,000 violent gang members since President Trump was sworn in,” Patel said. “We have seen, specifically as it relates to Tren de Aragua, a 519% increase in arrests.”

According to the federal government, Tren de Aragua was formed around 2014 inside the Tocorón Prison in Aragua, a state in Venezuela. It has since grown into a transnational criminal organization.

U.S. authorities have tied the gang to sex trafficking, drug trafficking, kidnappings, murders and other crimes. TdA has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department since February 2025.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned that the Court’s ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which upheld birthright citizenship for most people born in the United States, threatens America’s national security by extending citizenship to children born to illegal aliens and temporary visitors, including “birth tourists.”

“This is one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court, and in my judgment, the Court has made a serious mistake,” Alito wrote in his dissent.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down President Donald Trump’s executive order, issued on his second day in office, restricting automatic United States citizenship for people born in the United States whose parents did not have permanent legal status in the country.

Alito railed against the majority’s ruling in a forceful dissent, arguing the justices misinterpreted the 14th Amendment. He wrote that only people who owe their full allegiance to the United States, and not another country, should automatically receive citizenship at birth.

THESE 11 UPCOMING SUPREME COURT DECISIONS COULD MAKE OR BREAK TRUMP’S SECOND TERM AGENDA

But beyond his constitutional objections, Alito warned the ruling could be exploited by foreign nationals from enemy nations seeking U.S. citizenship for their children.

“The Court’s interpretation is not only contrary to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, it produces grotesque results,” Alito wrote. “While foreigners who wish to immigrate lawfully must sometimes wait for many years, a child born here to a birth tourist is automatically a citizen.”

SUPREME COURT’S LATEST IMMIGRATION RULING WILL CAUSE AMERICANS TO ‘DIE AND SUFFER’ ATTORNEY WARNS

Alito described a hypothetical scenario in which a foreign national gives birth in the United States before promptly returning to her home country as part of a larger plot to eventually harm the United States.

“Suppose the child never visited the United States while growing up and was inculcated with hatred of this country,” Alito wrote. “According to the Court, that person is a citizen of the United States. He can enter and leave the country as he pleases. He can travel the world on a United States passport. Even if he plots to harm this country, he cannot be deprived of his status as a citizen, at least under current precedent.”

Michael Hough, co-president of NumbersUSA, sided with Alito, arguing that expanding birthright citizenship risks diluting the value of U.S. citizenship and exposing the United States to foreign adversaries.

He pointed Fox News Digital to a Wall Street Journal investigation reporting that a Chinese tech billionaire fathered roughly 100 children born in the United States through surrogacy, despite never having entered the country.

“Look at what’s happening with Chinese birth tourism and IVF. The people who drafted the 14th Amendment in the 1860s obviously weren’t contemplating wealthy foreign nationals creating children in the United States through modern reproductive technology,” Hough said. “Those kinds of questions should be left to Congress, not decided by judges stretching constitutional language.”

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Border czar Tom Homan echoed Alito’s concerns over national security to Fox News, calling for greater investigations into birth tourism.

“I agree with Judge Alito,” Homan told Fox News. “Birthright citizenship has always been a major driver for illegal immigration.”

“But more importantly its a national security concern,” Homan said. “We have nationals from China and Russia coming in the thousands, having a baby and leaving. Now we have citizens in the thousands, and if this continued, in the millions in countries that I think are adversaries to us. That could come here and have an impact on how this country is run.”

The city of Columbus, Ohio, home to one of the largest Somali populations in the United States, is facing backlash on social media over a now-deleted post celebrating the raising of the Somali flag.

“Happy Somali Independence Day!” The Columbus Recreation and Parks Department posted on X on Wednesday. “As we celebrate the unification of the Trust Territory of Somaliland and the State of Somaliland into the Somali Republic in 1960, City Hall will be raising the flag of Somalia. “

The post was quickly picked up by conservatives on social media, with many wondering why the city of Columbus would celebrate Somali independence so strongly, particularly given the proximity to the 250th anniversary of American independence.

“Columbus, Ohio raising the flag of Somalia for America 250,” White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller posted on X.

BILL MAHER TELLS LIBERALS TO STOP ‘PARTISAN SULKING’ AND JOIN AMERICA 250 PARTY

“No American government building should ever be raising another country’s flag,” journalist Mark Hemingway posted on X. “Ugh.”

“City Hall is not a foreign embassy,” attorney and political commentator Mehek Cooke posted on X. “As an Ohioan, I am repulsed by the anti-Americanism here. Our leaders treat foreign nationalism as sacred while treating American patriotism as controversial. America’s public buildings should honor America.”

JACOB FREY PRAISES SOMALI COMMUNITY AS MINNESOTA FACES RENEWED SCRUTINY OVER FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS

“This is AMERICA, not Little Somalia,” ACT for America founder Brigitte Gabriel posted on X. “Flying the Somali flag at City Hall isn’t ‘celebration.’ It’s cultural surrender. Other nations aren’t parallel cultures here to dominate ours. Remove that flag. Remove the officials who demand it.”

“Excuse me?” Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, who has reported extensively on emerging fraud concerns within the Somali community in Columbus, posted on X.

“Why the f— is Columbus, Ohio celebrating ‘the unification of the Trust Territory of Somaliland…’ when America turns 250 this week?” Federalist reporter Brianna Lyman posted on X. “They all need to go back. They love their third world country so much, send them back. Denaturalize and deport.”

“If Somalia is such a failed state that we need to take in tens of thousands of its citizens as ‘refugees,’ then we really don’t need to be celebrating its supposed ‘independence’ with patronizing posts on social media,” Ohio Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart posted on X. “One more way in which we encourage the refusal to assimilate.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to the city of Columbus for comment.

The post from the Recreation and Parks Department was deleted shortly after Fox News Digital reached out. 

FIRST ON FOX: A pair of former top executives at the Southern Poverty Law Center used a network of checking accounts to secretly funnel $4.1 million to extremists, including one nicknamed “The Aryan Barbarian,” in a long-running pay-to-hate scheme, federal officials told Fox News Digital.

The SPLC’s former chief financial officer Teenie Hutchison and ex-Intelligence Project chief Heidi Beirich allegedly created the accounts at Synovus Bank in 2008, making the beleaguered nonprofit’s trusted bank a hub for diverting supporters’ donations to sketchy groups, sources said. The network ultimately supported secret payments to as many as 50 confidential “field sources,” called “Fs,” embedded within extremist organizations around the country. Some 13 field sources have so far been identified in court filings.

“The SPLC found its niche, and its leaders built a fiefdom with donations they got like crazy,” former NYPD intelligence official, attorney and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro said.

Former SPLC Chief Executive Officer Margaret Huang allegedly signed a letter acknowledging the operation to Synovus bank officials in September 2021 before ending her tenure at the SPLC in July 2025.

SPLC supporters have characterized the payment recipients as “informants,” and they included a right-wing extremist behind the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” protests in Charlottesville, Va.

“The government can run informants,” said Mauro. “Private industry cannot.”

The new revelations show the federal investigation of the SPLC is significantly larger than initially reported and was orchestrated at the organization’s highest level. Beirich was previously believed to be involved in the alleged payments, but this is the first time federal officials have confirmed her involvement.

The new details about the SPLC case emerge as the Trump administration’s Justice Department intensifies scrutiny of influential nonprofit organizations. Earlier this week, Fox News Digital reported exclusively that federal prosecutors launched a grand jury investigation into Shanghai-based Marxist tech mogul Neville Roy Singham over possible illegality in his funding of left-wing activist groups. Together, the two federal investigations signal an aggressive effort by the administration to examine whether certain organizations are using their nonprofit status to conceal financial operations.

A spokesperson for Synovus Bank told Fox News Digital that the lender, based in Columbus, Ga., is working with federal investigators in the “ongoing investigation.” 

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on specific client relationships,” the spokesperson said. “We have cooperated fully with the ongoing investigation and will continue to do so.”

Hutchison, Beirich and Huang didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. In late May, the SPLC filed a motion to dismiss the case. On June 9, days after the U.S. government filed a superseding indictment against the SPLC, the nonprofit’s interim president and chief executive officer, Bryan Fair, denied any wrongdoing by the SPLC during a fiery hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

The allegations sit at the center of a federal case accusing the SPLC of bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Sources familiar with the investigation say additional charges will likely be filed against individual executives and former executives of the nonprofit.

Fox News Digital’s investigation unpacks the government’s theory of the alleged operation through the traditional three stages of money laundering: placement, layering and integration. In the first stage of placement, U.S. officials say Hutchison and Beirich created and controlled a hidden financial infrastructure at SPLC that became the entry point for $4.1 million in allegedly illicit payments made to so-called field sources.

In the second stage, layering involves moving money through multiple accounts, transactions and entities, like a series of bank accounts Hutchison and Beirich allegedly set up for fake companies, designed to obscure the money’s origin. Finally, in the third stage, integration occurs when the proceeds or products of an operation become absorbed into legitimate activities, like the organization’s “Extremist Files,” and become difficult to distinguish from ordinary business operations.

According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC’s alleged operation involved all three stages.

DOJ LAUNCHES GRAND JURY PROBE INTO MARXIST MOGUL NEVILLE ROY SINGHAM’S FUNDING OF LEFTIST GROUPS

Without naming the finance and intelligence chiefs, a grand jury indictment made public in April revealed that “Employee-1” and “Employee-2” in 2008 created a secret network of nine bank accounts at “Bank-1” and “Bank-2” that funneled millions of dollars to far-right extremists from 2014 through 2023. The initial indictment put the amount at $3 million, but it was increased to $4.1 million in a superseding indictment.

The indictment notes that “individuals at the SPLC” were the ones who “secretly funneled donated money to the Fs,” including “Employee-1,” a “person who would become the Chief Financial Officer, and “Employee-2,” a “person who would become the Director of the Intelligence Project.”

Federal officials told Fox News Digital that Hutchison, who moved from the position of treasurer and corporate secretary to chief financial officer, is “Employee-1.” They said “Employee-” 2 is Beirich, who started in 1999 as a newly-minted Ph.D. student, and was named deputy director of the Intelligence Project in 2004 and later director of the Intelligence Report.

The duo allegedly created a banking account structure under names that didn’t identify the SPLC. The nine shell entities were dubbed “Center Investigative Agency,” “Fox Photography,” “Imagery Ink,” “J&J Electronics,” “Kelly’s Marine,” “North West Technologies,” “Tech Writers Group” and “Turner Personnel” and “Rare Books Warehouse.”

Federal prosecutors allege the accounts were used to pay informants while concealing the source of the money. The government’s theory is that the accounts became the financial infrastructure supporting a sprawling money laundering operation.

Federal prosecutors allege the accounts remained active for years, surviving leadership transitions and internal turmoil at one of the nation’s most influential civil-rights organizations.

TOP SPLC OFFICIAL ALLEGEDLY FUNNELED $1.2M TO NEO-NAZI INFORMANT WHO WAS SECRET ROMANTIC PARTNER

Over two decades, Beirich became one of the nonprofit’s most influential figures, shaping how “far-right extremism,” “White supremacy” and “neo-Nazi hate” were documented, defined and communicated.

She testified before Congress, and appeared regularly on television and radio. Journalists, academics and policymakers frequently turned to her for analysis of White-nationalist groups, anti-government movements and domestic extremism. By 2017, ABC News described her as “the woman tracking hate in America.”

In contrast, Hutchison maintained a low profile and was rarely photographed, working quietly behind the scenes. In 2017, she was on the renewal document for the nonprofit’s “Mississippi Charitable Registration” as the SPLC’s treasurer and secretary, the custodian of financial records and one of the nonprofit’s two “check signers.”

The SPLC listed its official bank as Sterling Bank, a Synovus Bank subsidiary based in Montgomery.

In October 2019, Beirich co-founded a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit, “Global Project Against Hate and Extremism,” with a mailing address just three miles away from SPLC headquarters in Alabama’s capital.

Two months later, Beirich left SPLC after 20 years, according to her LinkedIn profile, just as the dragnet was closing in on the alleged pay-to-hate operation she’d been running for years. According to the SPLC’s tax filing that year, she last earned a salary of $173,090 and a bonus of $25,721.

The alleged violations continued after Beirich’s and Hutchison’s tenures at SPLC.

FIRST ON FOX: SPLC’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS UNDER THREAT AFTER FIERY CAPITOL HILL HEARING

One of the alleged recipients of secret SPLC payments was Erich Gliebe, the former chairman of a neo-Nazi organization, National Alliance. Known as “The Aryan Barbarian” during his time as a boxer, Gliebe allegedly received more than $140,000 from the SPLC between 2016 and 2023.

At the same time he was allegedly collecting payments, Gliebe was featured in SPLC materials describing extremist figures and organizations. An SPLC “Extremist Files” profile dedicated to Gliebe contained a link through which visitors could donate to the organization.

Gliebe didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Daniel Harvill, a Virginia attorney who represented National Alliance members in litigation involving Gliebe, described Gliebe as an ineffective leader.

“Gliebe was a joke,” Harvill told Fox News Digital. “He didn’t know how to run a business or political organization. There was a large pile of stupid among them.”

Harvill said bitterness from that litigation may have contributed to Gliebe becoming an SPLC informant.

Court filings indicate that larger accounts associated with the alleged operation remained active until August 2020, when the hidden account structure finally drew scrutiny from bank officials. Synovus Bank did an internal investigation, according to court filings. That review became a pivotal moment in the government’s case.

According to the indictment, around Sept. 9, 2021, the SPLC “President and Chief Executive Officer” and the SPLC “Board Chair” admitted in writing to Bank-1 – Synovus Bank – that the fictitious accounts were “opened for the benefit of the Southern Poverty Law Center operations and operated under the Center’s authority.”

They signed a document also stating that “pursuant to the discussion we had earlier this week…the accounts had been opened and operated for the benefit of the organization.” The CEO was Huang, federal sources told Fox News Digital.

Huang’s acknowledgment now sits near the center of the government’s legal theory that the account structure wasn’t the work of rogue employees but operated under organizational authority.

The nonprofit and its sister organization, the SPLC Action Fund, had hired Huang the year earlier, describing her as an “internationally renowned human and civil rights leader,” previously serving as executive director of Amnesty International USA.

It isn’t clear who the board chair was at the time of the signing, but former Goldman Sachs executive Bennett Grau was a board member at the time. Grau didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Huang’s role in signing the admission hasn’t been publicly disclosed before.

SPLC INDICTMENT BUILDS MOMENTUM FOR BESSENT’S TREASURY TO PROBE PARTISAN NONPROFITS

SPLC last listed Hutchison on its IRS 990 filing for the period ending on Oct. 31, 2022. According to that IRS filing, she last earned $237,749 and a bonus of $32,697.

In early July 2025, Huang announced her resignation as president, stepping down “to prioritize family life.” The board of directors named constitutional scholar and former SPLC Board Chair Bryan Fair as interim president and CEO.

The role of senior SPLC officials in this alleged operation raises significant red flags for law enforcement, federal officials told Fox News Digital, saying the alleged activity reflects a structured ecosystem directed from the top. Investigators describe an operation in which financial flows, informants, public content and political work by the SPLC and its sister organizations were closely linked, with senior officials like Hutchison and Beirich positioned to control the money, narrative and influence of the SPLC.

INDICTED SPLC CHIEF FACES HOUSE GRILLING OVER ALLEGED SECRET PAYMENTS TO KKK MEMBERS

The court proceedings represent a form of vindication for some targets of the SPLC. 

Back in October 2017, the SPLC and three other groups – Media Matters, ReThink Media and the Center for New Community – released a publication titled “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” In interviews at the time, Beirich confirmed that Democratic billionaire George Soros’s Open Society philanthropy had provided funding for the production of the report.

The report included Maajid Nawaz, a British Muslim reformer who founded the Quilliam Foundation to combat Islamist extremism. The next year, in 2018, he sued the SPLC for defamation, winning a $3.375 million settlement and a public apology.

Nawaz recently told Fox News Digital that the SPLC’s alleged system of paying extremists is corrupt, and he feels vindicated by the federal prosecution against the nonprofit.

“They were funding both sides,” Nawaz said. “If you control the rules of the game… you’re able to control where the hate comes from… and then control the reaction.”

“They were taking money to fight hate,” he said, “and then funding the very hate they took money to fight.”

As the SPLC mounts its defense, Nawaz said, “This indictment demonstrates clearly that the SPLC should now cease to exist. It should come to an end.”

Fox News Digital’s Bonnie Chu and Adriana James-Rodil contributed to this report.

Micah Jones, a former self-described JFK Democrat-turned-Republican, hopes to capitalize on a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity as he looks to flip Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District.

“The last time this seat was open was 47 years ago,” Jones said.

“I think that Massachusetts suffers when we have a one-party congressional delegation that, in my opinion, is less inclined to work across the aisle than representatives of other states.”

Jones’s campaign is a bet that the district’s independent voters — and maybe some Democrats — will see the benefit Massachusetts could reap from having even just one Republican representative. Coupled with the precedent of the occasional Republican success is the Bay State, Jones believes his race can beat past odds and help decide the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

LONE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FINDS HIS EDGE AS A DOZEN DEMOCRATS CLASH IN RACE TO REPLACE MIKIE SHERRILL

Before running for Congress, Jones served in the military in the 82nd Airborne Division, deploying on a tour in Afghanistan from 2014 to 2015. Later, after going to law school, he became an attorney.

It was in law school that I began to have doubts about the Democratic Party’s direction, describing a “shock” at its trajectory.

“This was back in 2016. That was kind of the incubator before everything that we’ve now dealt with the last few years in regards to more progressive ideologies,” Jones recalled.

“In particular, when it came to support for law enforcement — this was during the defund the police movement. When it came to a worldview that tried to classify people between oppressors and oppressed, I felt that was fundamentally different than President Kennedy’s vision. And at that point, I left the Democratic Party, became an independent.”

Although Jones believes a portion of the state’s 63% registered independents may share that view, his pitch to them is more pragmatic.

He believes Massachusetts is missing out on Republican representation that can coordinate with the GOP administration and Congress.

NEW YORK REPUBLICAN IN TOSS-UP DISTRICT GAINS MOMENTUM IN KEY RACE TO DETERMINE HOUSE CONTROL

“Our two senators, our nine congressional members — none of them are Republicans. And I think that they have taken a resistance-only mindset,” Jones said, referring to their posture towards the Trump administration.

“And so, I think that we lose out on significant federal funding, billions of dollars in federal funding. I could be the sole Republican on that delegation, to work with the administration when it makes sense, push back when it doesn’t, call balls and strikes, really focus on what’s best for not only my district, [and] advocate for Massachusetts as a whole.”

When asked about the Republican label and why not just run as an independent, Jones said he believes he needs the party’s campaign infrastructure to meaningfully wage a campaign to flip the district.

“You do need a party apparatus. And I am a Republican. I would say I’m center-right, especially on fiscal issues,” Jones said.

“The ‘R’ next to my name is going to be challenging. I fully acknowledge that. I do, however, think there is another 15% to 20% [of voters] that really are independents and really do care about candidate quality.”

As evidence, Jones pointed to other Republicans who have run successfully in Massachusetts.

“People forget, Gov. Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts. You have Gov. Bill Weld; you have Gov. Charlie Baker. And so, I think that the Massachusetts Republican model is one to emulate and one that works very well here,” Jones said.

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE APOLOGIZES FOR PAST PRO-POLICE, PRO-GUN POSTS IN KEY BATTLEGROUND RACE

The district’s current occupant, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., announced he would pursue a Senate seat rather than reelection. He last won reelection in a 62.9% to 35.2% victory over Republican challenger Robert May Jr., a mechanical engineer.

Jones, who is running unopposed in the state’s Sept. 1 primaries, will likely advance to the general election on Nov. 3.