Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons announced that federal investigators have uncovered more than 10,000 foreign students connected to “suspect employers” as part of another potentially massive fraud scheme, this time involving the federal STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension program.

In a news conference on Tuesday, Lyons said the cases uncovered thus far are “just the tip of the iceberg.”

OPT is a U.S. immigration program that lets international students on F-1 visas work temporarily in the country in jobs related to their field of study. Lyons said that when the program was first created under the Bush administration and expanded under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security expected “only a few thousand foreign students would receive training approval before returning home.”

“Instead,” Lyons said, that OPT “ballooned into an uncontrolled guest worker pipeline with hundreds of thousands of foreign students working in the United States.”

He added that “as the program size exploded, so has the fraud.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGINS NEW WAVE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VISA REVOCATIONS: ‘NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO A VISA’

“Today, we are announcing we have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for highly suspect employers, and that’s just among the top 25 OPT employers. This is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said, adding, “We’ve dramatically expanded our oversight of OPT and can report that we found fraud nationwide.”

According to Lyons, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers have visited “problematic OPT worksite employers” in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida. He said that many of the suspicious employers include nongovernmental organizations.

According to Lyons, investigators have “discovered empty buildings and locked doors at addresses where hundreds of foreign students are allegedly employed.” Investigators have also found hundreds of foreign students listed as working out of residential addresses.

“In many places,” he continued, “multiple OPT employers claim to operate from the same address, but none actually lease the facility.”

ICE PROBES SUSPECTED MINNESOTA FRAUD SITES AS OFFICIALS FOLLOW POTENTIAL $9B MONEY TRAIL

“When someone does open the door, their statements are inconsistent, or they claim no knowledge of the business,” said Lyons.

The ICE director also said investigators uncovered what he referred to as “phantom employees,” who he said are foreign students who obtained work authorization through OPT but never actually showed up for work at the sites they claimed to work out of.

“This is not accidental,” Lyons concluded. “This is deliberate, coordinated and criminal.”

He added that “this fraud is not victimless,” calling it a “blatant attack on the goodwill of the American people.”

EX-BIDEN DHS HEAD CONCEDES ADMINISTRATION COULD HAVE ACTED SOONER ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Vice President JD Vance, who President Donald Trump appointed “fraud czar,” celebrated the discovery in an X post as “another great win for our fraud task force.”

Vance wrote that the administration “will not tolerate foreign nationals abusing our visa system at the expense of the American people.”

President Donald Trump has instructions tucked away in the Oval Office for Vice President JD Vance should he ever need to succeed him as president, deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka said in a recent podcast interview. 

“There is a letter in the drawer in the Resolute Desk that is addressed to the vice president should something happen to him,” Gorka said on the “Pod Force One” podcast on Wednesday.

Trump has faced repeated threats to his life, with an attempted assassination just weeks ago at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner drawing concerns about the president’s safety and growing political violence from left-wing actors. Gorka cast doubts that foreign countries would attempt to take out the president as Trump attends a high-stakes summit in Beijing. 

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING LATEST IN YEARS OF ATTACKS TARGETING TRUMP, CONSERVATIVES

“Everybody wants recognition from this man. This is the most powerful individual we have seen since the likes of Eisenhower. Right? This is a man everybody wants to be at the table with him, to have the state dinner, to have the recognition,” said Gorka. “The idea that you do something that undermines your recognition goes against what they wish to have.”

IF IRAN ATTEMPTS ASSASSINATION, ‘THEY GET OBLITERATED’: PRESIDENT TRUMP

“We have protocols, trust me. Not ones I can discuss, but we have protocols,” he added of the letter. 

A White House spokesperson pointed Fox News Digital to a recent Trump interview when asked for comment on Gorka’s remarks that such a letter exists. 

Trump told NewsNation in January that he has “very firm instructions” if he were to be taken out by the Iranian regime.

MELANIA TRUMP ADVISOR REVEALS WHAT FIRST LADY WAS THINKING AS SECRET SERVICE RUSHED WHCA DINNER

“Like if I were here and they were making that threat to somebody, even not even a president, but somebody like they did with me, I would absolutely hit them so hard,” said Trump. “Anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth.”

Under the Constitution, the vice president is first in line to the presidency. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 sets the order after the vice president, beginning with the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore before moving through eligible Cabinet officials.

As they push to flip the House and capture the chamber’s majority in this year’s midterm elections, Democrats are facing a steeper hill to climb, thanks to two blockbuster court rulings.

A Virginia Supreme Court decision last week that struck down the state’s voter-passed congressional redistricting ballot measure, coupled with a ruling a week earlier by the Supreme Court to slash a key protection in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, were major setbacks for Democrats.

The twin rulings gave President Donald Trump and Republicans a major boost in their high-stakes mid-decade redistricting battle with Democrats, giving the House GOP a bit of breathing room as it defends its razor-thin majority in the midterms. 

At stake is which party will control the House and the Senate during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.

SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICANS DEFY TRUMP, TANK REDISTRICTING, FOR NOW

The Virginia decision negated four more likely left-leaning congressional districts in that state. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruling, which determined that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative district maps, spurred a slew of Republican-controlled southern states to quickly redraw their maps and create more right-leaning seats ahead of the midterms.

“We have a battlefield, a map, that favors Republicans,” Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, noted Monday in a Fox News Channel interview as he pointed to the possibility of the GOP having a net gain of up to a dozen more right-tilting House districts as a result of redistricting initiated by Trump a year ago.

But some Republicans are raising concerns that the newly drawn GOP-controlled districts could put once safe red seats in play by diluting the percentage of Republican voters in those districts.

“You could, in essence, take … like here in Texas, take big cities, which are typically Democrat and split them up among several sort of suburban and rural Republicans and thereby reduce their margin and make [House Republicans] more vulnerable in an election year,” veteran GOP strategist and longtime Fox News contributor Karl Rove said Sunday in an interview on the Fox News Channel.

House Democrats vow to keep fighting in the redistricting wars.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter Monday to fellow congressional Democrats, “Our effort to forcefully push back against the Republican redistricting scheme will not slow down. We are just getting started.”

But with the clock quickly ticking toward midterm filing deadlines and the conservative majority on the nation’s highest court unlikely to cooperate, the Democrats‘ legal options seem limited at best.

Democrats, though, still enjoy campaign tailwinds due to a rough political landscape facing Republicans.

Republicans — as the party in power — were already up against traditional political headwinds that lead to a loss of congressional seats. Add to that the challenging climate fueled by persistent inflation, soaring gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran and President Trump’s increasingly negative approval ratings.

Democrats have spotlighted affordability as they’ve won and overperformed in a slew of ballot box showdowns in the more than 15 months since Trump returned to the White House, including flipping legislative seats in red-leaning districts.

That messaging campaign will only intensify going forward, especially after this week’s economic reporting indicating inflation soaring to 3.8% as gas prices top a national average of $4.50 per gallon. Prices overall are outpacing wages for the first time in three years.

ALABAMA REPUBLICANS PLOW FORWARD ON REDISTRICTING

Add to that Trump this week saying “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” while discussing what factors come into play as he tries to negotiate to end the war with Iran. The comments were an instant political gift to Democrats.

“Given the highly unfavorable political environment confronting House Republicans, the extremists will not meaningfully benefit from their scandalous gerrymandering scheme. Quite the opposite,” Jeffries argued in his letter to Democrats.

Despite the redistricting setbacks, top nonpartisan political handicappers still give the Democrats the upper hand in the midterm battle for the House majority as they point to the current political atmosphere.

The Cook Report said it still believes Democrats are “favored to win control of the House due to the poor national environment for the GOP. But they are no longer overwhelming favorites.”

And Sabato’s Crystal Ball said it “still think(s) the Democrats are favored overall in the House, particularly if the environment does not improve for Republicans.”

American women are having children later than ever with birth rates hitting record lows and the divide between red and blue states becoming even more stark.

A new analysis of birth rates highlights Washington, D.C., and Mississippi as emblematic of trends among first-time mothers. The findings highlight how education, economic opportunities, costs of living and access to reproductive healthcare are reshaping when — and if — Americans start families.

But it’s also hard to ignore the party-line divide between areas with the highest age of first-time mothers and the lowest.

ROGAN WARNS OF US ‘POPULATION COLLAPSE’ DUE TO TOXIC CHEMICALS AND DELAYED PARENTHOOD TANK BIRTH RATES

The top ten states with the highest average age of first-time moms all turned blue in the past five presidential elections; meanwhile, nine of the ten states with the lowest age have turned red in those same elections.

Data shows that Washington, D.C., where three-quarters of voters are registered Democrat, has the highest average age of women becoming moms for the first time at 30.8, while Mississippi, a deep red state often ranked poorest in the U.S., is lowest at 24.7.

In the decades since the 1960s sexual revolution, which ushered in oral contraceptives and a challenge to traditional gender roles, American women have steadily delayed motherhood. The average age of first-time mothers rose from 21 in 1972 to 27.5 in 2024, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

And the analysis breaking down the age disparities between different jurisdictions shows a significant six-year gap between the states where the youngest and oldest first-time moms are living.

In Washington, D.C., later motherhood is closely tied to higher levels of education, greater career opportunities and broader access to reproductive healthcare.

In contrast, women tend to start families at younger ages in Mississippi, where educational achievements are lower and economic opportunities are more limited compared to the nation’s capital.

The 10 states ranked highest in age for first-time moms all voted blue in the 2024 presidential election and the youngest 10 all voted red.

Institute for Family Studies senior fellow Brad Wilcox hypothesized that young people living in blue states, particularly in the Northeast, are more motivated by career, while young people in other regions are more family oriented.

“So, what we see in blue states across the country is that men and women are more likely to embrace a kind of Midas mindset where there’s a premium on work and money and education, and they’re less likely to embrace a kind of marriage mindset where there’s a premium on focusing on love, marriage and starting a family,” Wilcox told Fox News Digital.

“And, so, what we see as a consequence of that is that the age of first birth is more likely to be markedly higher in blue states, which often also have higher levels of education and income for women as well.”

Data from the CDC reflected that women with higher levels of education tend to delay having their first child. On average, women with a professional or doctorate degree have their first child at the age of 34. Meanwhile, women with a high school diploma will have their first child at the average age of 27.2.

And women continue to outpace men when it comes to earning college degrees, with 47% of American women between the ages of 25 and 34 with degrees. Meanwhile, only 37% of men in that age range have college degrees, according to Pew Research. Wilcox suggested that modern men are falling out of step in the workplace.

“Men on the employment front are sort of floundering,” Wilcox said. “And, so, these trends we’re seeing just make it harder, I think, for men to find their footing and to have a kind of constructive role to play, both in the family and society too often.”

Maggie McKneely, director of government Relations at Concerned Women for America, suggested that women are seeking men with an equal educational or economical status, and they aren’t finding it.

“Men in particular are more reticent to settle down,” McKneely told Fox News Digital. “But I think another part of it is that women are more educated than they ever have been before, and many of them do not want to choose a partner less successful than themselves.”

Raquel Debono, a single 30-year-old conservative influencer living in New York City, just passed the average age when women in her state have their first child, which is 29.1 years old. She told Fox News Digital the general sentiment among women in the post-feminism era is that delaying motherhood is “empowering.”

“In cosmopolitan cities especially, women are rewarded for becoming the main character of their own lives first,” Debono said. “The degree, the promotions, the chic apartment, the solo trip to Italy, the emotionally unavailable boyfriend who ‘isn’t ready right now.

“Motherhood becomes something you schedule in between Pilates and a board meeting.”

THE STATES REVEALED AS BEST TO START A FAMILY AMID CRATERING BELIEF IN THE AMERICAN DREAM

Debono claims that dating apps also make settling down more difficult.

“Dating apps convinced everyone there’s always someone better one swipe away: taller, richer, hotter, more emotionally intelligent, less avoidant, more spiritually evolved,” she told Fox News Digital. “So, people keep optimizing instead of choosing.

“Women have never had more freedom, yet many feel more anxious about love, commitment and timing than ever before.”

The billionaire timeshare magnate who abruptly cut ties with former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and kicked him out of his California mansion amid sexual misconduct allegations was arrested Tuesday.

Stephen Cloobeck, founder of Diamond Resorts International, turned himself in to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in West Hollywood on Tuesday following a warrant issued for his arrest. He is suspected of a felony charge of attempting to prevent or dissuade a victim or witness from testifying, the California Post reported.

The circumstances of the alleged crime remain unclear. He was released on $300,000 bail, according to jail records. Fox News Digital reached out to the sheriff’s department and to Cloobeck for comment.

BILLIONAIRE SUGAR DADDY KICKS SWALWELL OUT OF HIS MANSION, WANTS $1M BACK AFTER HEINOUS SEX ALLEGATIONS

“These charges are false, and we look forward to our day in court,” a spokesperson for Cloobeck told the newspaper.

Cloobeck, a former gubernatorial candidate, most recently supported Swalwell’s bid for California governor before cutting ties with him after sexual assault allegations and leaving the Democratic Party.

DEM SENATOR RIPPED FOR ‘SMEAR’ OF FEMALE ACTIVIST ADVOCATING FOR SWALWELL’S ACCUSERS: ‘VERY BAD LOOK’

“I am no longer supporting Eric. F—ing tell everyone I’m a libertarian. F— you, Democratic Party. I’m a libertarian now,” Cloobeck told the Post at the time.

“I am now a Republican,” he added to Fox 11 LA.

Swalwell has denied the claims against him in a video filmed inside Cloobeck’s home. At the time, Cloobeck—who briefly ran for governor before dropping out and endorsing his former friend—said he kicked Swalwell out of his Beverly Hills mansion, stating that Swalwell “busted the trust” between them.

“I am no longer associated with a man that takes advantage of women,” Cloobeck told reporters. “I support women’s rights.”

James Erdman III, a CIA whistleblower who testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday alleging a federal cover-up of COVID-19 origins, has a long history of clashing with the government on the coronavirus issue.

Erdman is a former intelligence officer and military veteran who co-founded the grassroots advocacy group Feds For Freedom, an organization that emerged during the COVID-19 vaccine mandate battles involving federal workers and members of the military.

While public information online about Erdman’s early life is sparse, according to biographical information published by Feds For Freedom, Erdman previously served as a non-commissioned officer with the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment before later serving in the National Guard. The organization says he also worked as a senior bioinformatics and biometrics consultant in the private sector, and spent time serving in the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Europe.

Erdman joined the CIA in 2013.

RAND PAUL BRINGS CIA WHISTLEBLOWER TO SENATE HEARING ALLEGING ‘DEEP STATE’ COVID-19 CONSPIRACY

“He’s a decorated officer with decades of intelligence and national security experience,” GOP committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul said during the hearing, adding that Erdman “recently completed a joint duty assignment with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG).”

Feds For Freedom became known for backing legal and public advocacy efforts involving federal employees who challenged vaccine requirements imposed during the Biden administration. Court filings and public statements show Erdman participated in some of those efforts on behalf of the group.

ANTHONY FAUCI MAY BE DEPOSED AS GOP INTENSIFIES COVID INVESTIGATIONS IN NEW CONGRESS

In interviews tied to the group’s media platforms, Erdman discussed questioning government COVID-19 policies and later helping organize opposition to federal vaccine mandates.

The group has backed or participated in multiple lawsuits involving agencies including the FBI, Department of Defense, NASA and State Department. Several cases alleged violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and discrimination against employees seeking religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

Erdman told senators on Wednesday that intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA, are failing to provide transparency and accountability, and warned Congress is being misled as a result.

“The legislative and executive branches will continue to be misinformed if this type of behavior is not addressed,” Erdman said.

On Wednesday, Erdman focused on biological research oversight and made the case that the federal government needs a sweeping review of federally funded life sciences work, including stricter definitions of “gain-of-function” research and weapons-related research, and better enforcement of existing policy.

“Public health policy would have been very different had the American public been made aware that a virus from a lab in China was going to serve as the foundation for an emergency use authorization M-RNA products,” Erdman said.

A Maine couple who described themselves as “climate refugees” after relocating from Texas discovered human feces on the front porch of their new home in Bangor, an incident that quickly drew mockery from conservative commentators.

In an article published in the Bangor Daily News, the couple, Shawn and Sara Good, sought to frame the incident of discovering feces and signs of a man sleeping on their patio furniture as a fair tradeoff to escape the “catastrophic” weather that plagued them in Texas. The article centered on the couple moving to Bangor because of their concerns about climate change. The Goods said they fled Austin after facing four catastrophic events in the past five years.

“When looking at global news, I’m so lucky that the big event I experienced recently was someone sleeping on my porch,” Sara told the Bangor Daily News.

Local and national conservative voices criticized the couple and the Bangor Daily News for its framing of the incident in a city facing a serious homelessness issue, with encampments in the downtown area. The Bangor City Council passed an ordinance on Monday banning the storage of personal belongings along sidewalks in an effort to push back against encampments.

ONCE-CHARMING MOUNTAIN ESCAPE NOW BATTLING HOMELESSNESS HOMEOWNERS SAY TURNED POSTCARD CITY INTO NO-GO ZONE

Maine Republican state Rep. Reagan Paul suggested the article by the Bangor Daily News reads more like satire from the Babylon Bee than a hard-hitting news story.

“This is actual ‘news’ from the Bangor Daily News — treating a literal crap show as heartwarming proof that Maine is paradise,” Paul wrote on X. “Most of us already know it — but for the few holdouts still treating the Bangor Daily News as serious journalism: when your paper has to spin literal human feces on a doorstep into a heartwarming relocation success story, it’s time to admit reality and maybe stop taking them seriously as journalism.”

Investigative reporter Steve Robinson weighed in, suggesting the couple faced a better fate than another Maine couple who were shot and killed in front of their two children just six months after moving from Texas in 2023.

DAVID MARCUS: WHY SOME TEXANS SAY ICE RAID ON COLONY RIDGE IS A GOOD START

“By Maine standards human s— on the door is good considering the last couple from Texas who moved here were murdered by a recidivist aspiring rap artist in front of their young children,” Robinson posted on X. “Liberals call this restorative justice.”

In recent years, Texans have faced Winter Storm Uri, which caused power outages throughout the state, deadly floods that claimed the lives of 130 people last year, Hurricane Beryl, and extreme heat.

Conservative commentator Dana Loesch, who lives in Texas, said every region of the United States can face catastrophic weather.

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS DECLARE 2025 A TIPPING POINT ON ‘CLIMATE HYSTERIA’ AS TRUMP UNLEASHES ENERGY AGENDA

“It’s Texas,” Loesch said on her show. “Texas gets some tornadoes. Texas gets some flooding.”

“They leave Texas because it’s hot here,” Loesch continued. “That’s a you issue. You should have known that.”

Climate change is increasingly shaping where Americans choose to live. A Forbes study found 30% of homeowners have moved because of it.

Columbia University professor Alexander de Sherbinin suggested the U.S. could see “significant movements” as people seek to relocate to avoid more severe weather.

“Northern states could see an influx of people, because their summers will still be fairly pleasant and their winters less severe,” de Sherbinin told Columbia Magazine.

The Senate is one step closer to adding painful consequences for lawmakers who choose to shut down the government. 

The upper chamber on Wednesday unanimously advanced a resolution from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that, if passed, would prevent lawmakers from getting paid during future shutdowns. It comes after the once-rare occurrence became a political cudgel wielded by Democrats time and again in the last year. 

Despite having spurred the two longest shutdowns in history, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats joined Republicans to move the measure along for a final vote. 

SCHUMER BACKS GOP’S PLAN TO BRING THE PAIN DURING FUTURE SHUTDOWNS: ‘I’M GOING TO VOTE FOR IT’

But its success through the first hurdle has not quite sated concerns that Democrats will again try to force another shutdown before the midterm elections in the fall.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that its success “helps” but suggested that the move from Democrats was more political than not. 

“I think it’s, they realize, I mean, that’s a really bad posture to be in if you’re opposing something like that at a time when you got a lot of government employees who aren’t getting paid, and, you know, people up here are voting against depriving themselves of pay when everybody else is not getting paid,” Thune said. 

SENATE REPUBLICANS BALK AT $1B WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM REQUEST: ‘YOU MADE THAT NUMBER UP’

“So I just think that’s a very difficult political vote for Democrats,” he continued. “I think they’ve recognized it, and I’m guessing they had a fairly robust conversation at their lunch yesterday.”

Kennedy’s resolution, which he described as a resolution of “shared sacrifice,” can’t take effect until after the upcoming election cycle, adding more concern that Democrats may be tempted to repeat the cycle.  

“If I were king for a day — I’m not, I don’t aspire to be — but if I were, I’d make this resolution effective immediately,” Kennedy said. “Because I’m … very concerned that my Senate colleagues on the Democratic side are going to try to shut down the government yet again right before the elections to try to create chaos to affect the midterm elections.”

Kennedy’s resolution would direct the secretary of the Senate to withhold lawmakers’ pay until a shutdown is resolved. A rank-and-file senator earns $174,000 per year, while a leader of either party can earn over $193,000 per year.

SENATE WEIGHS NEW, PAINFUL LEVERAGE TACTIC AS FEARS OF ANOTHER GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN GROW

And it would only pertain to the Senate — a point he made clear on the Senate floor just before the vote. 

Kennedy’s push isn’t the only one that’s brewed in the Senate following the 43-day shutdown over enhanced Obamacare premium tax credits and the latest 76-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown. 

That’s because shutdowns have become a common tool over the last year and a half that Democrats have turned to as a negotiating counterpoint. In Trump’s second term alone, Congress has been on the precipice of a closure four times.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has been pushing his Shutdown Fairness Act, which would require that working federal workers are paid during a shutdown. 

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., has the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which would automatically fund the government for two-week stretches until Congress lands on a compromise funding deal.

Outrage is snowballing after it was uncovered that a California mayor who just stepped down after admitting to acting as a Chinese agent appears to have donated to Democrats, including a sitting congresswoman.

As President Donald Trump visits China for a diplomatic mission with world leaders, Eileen Wang, mayor of Arcadia, California, agreed to plead guilty to acting as an agent for the Chinese government. The admission sparked concerns about foreign infiltration in local government. Now, allegations that Wang donated to Democrats at the federal level are raising broader national security concerns.

According to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing for Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., an Eileen Wang of Arcadia, California, donated $1,000 and $175 to her campaign in October and November 2022, according to a Fox News Digital review. Chu sits on the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Budget.

Further, FEC filings show several small $5, $10 and $25 donations earmarked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) via ActBlue in 2024.

In response, Bernadette Breslin, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), ripped into the Democrats, calling the donations evidence of “malign Chinese influence operating within their own ranks.”

ATTORNEY RAISES BROADER CONCERNS AFTER MAYOR ADMITS TO ACTING AS CHINESE AGENT IN SHOCKING CASE

Breslin told Fox News Digital that “Senate Republicans are holding Democrats accountable for the malign Chinese influence operating within their own ranks and the CCP-linked money flowing into their campaigns.”

She added that “as President Trump brings American peace through strength to China this week, Republicans are working in lockstep to root out foreign interference in our elections and protect America’s national security.”

Wang, who has since resigned as mayor of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense of acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China, the Justice Department announced this week. She now faces up to 10 years in federal prison along with a potential $250,000 fine, though any sentence would be determined by a federal judge.

Federal prosecutors say Wang admitted she acted “at the direction and control” of Chinese government officials from at least 2020 through 2022, coordinating with individuals in the U.S. to spread pro-Beijing messaging, all without notifying the U.S. Attorney General as required by law. The conduct described by prosecutors occurred before Wang took office on the Arcadia City Council in December 2022.

CHINESE SPY INFILTRATION: MAYOR’S BUST ADDS TO GROWING TIMELINE OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE CREEPING INTO US

With Wang’s foreign ties exposed, the politicians she associated with are now under scrutiny.

Beyond the $1,000 and $175 donations, a 2024 press release by Chu shows that the congresswoman honored Wang as one of the “Congressional Women of the Year.”

In the press release published by Chu’s office, Wang was praised as a “dedicated Arcadia resident, educator, and community leader,” who “brings a wealth of experience and passion to her role as City Councilmember.”

The statement said that over the course of 15 years, Wang was “actively involved in various City and service groups,” including the Arcadia High School Chinese Parents Booster Club.

Chu’s office said that Wang “gained valuable insights into the challenges faced by Arcadia residents” and “is poised to make a lasting impact on the City Council and continue her tireless efforts to improve the lives of Arcadia residents.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Chu for comment.

DEMOCRAT LAWMAKER CALLS CLARENCE THOMAS AN ‘UNCLE TOM’ AND ‘LYNCHMAN’ AFTER SUPREME COURT REDISTRICTING RULING

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who also serves as NRSC vice chair, reacted to the revelations by slamming other Democrats with Chinese government associations.

Banks wrote on X, “Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) had a Chinese spy in her office. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) dated a Chinese spy. Mayor Eileen Wang (D-CA) is a Chinese spy. How many more?”

Popular conservative account Libs of TikTok pointed to Wang’s DSCC donations, posting on X, “Democrat Senators are being funded by Chinese spies If it was the other way around, it would be front page news for weeks.”

Libs of TikTok also reacted to Wang’s donations to Chu, writing, “Judy is a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, one of the most powerful committees in Congress. She’s also a member of the Taiwan Caucus. She’s being funded by Chinese spies. What could possibly go wrong.”

Another popular conservative X personality who goes by the handle “Greg” also commented, “So this is the great ‘resistance?’ Our brave DNC, the defenders of democracy, are actually just tools for the Chinese Communist Party. A confessed CCP agent funnels money to Democratic senators and they’re all quiet. Makes you wonder what/who else they’re willing to sell out.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the DSCC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price contributed to this report.

Republicans’ support for President Donald Trump’s war on Iran fractured on Wednesday. 

Senate Democrats have tried to splinter off Republicans from their near-unified backing of Operation Epic Fury for months with a campaign of attrition, putting war powers resolution after war powers resolution on the floor ever since fighting began. 

And after two months of trying, they finally got some in the GOP to flip on Trump with Sen. Jeff Merkley’s, D-Ore., latest attempt. Still, it wasn’t enough to terminate ongoing operations in the Middle East. 

GOP HOLDS WITH TRUMP ON IRAN WAR, BUT CRACKS EMERGE AS DEADLINE NEARS 

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has consistently voted to handcuff Trump’s war powers, all joined Democrats to end Operation Epic Fury.

It comes after Congress blew past the 60-day deadline to weigh in on fighting in the region, and hours after Trump touched down in China. 

Top Trump administration officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, argued that the 60-day deadline was moot because fighting was paused under a ceasefire. 

However, Trump, after rejecting the latest proposal from Iran, said on Tuesday that the fragile truce is on “life support.”

CONGRESS IGNORES KEY DEADLINE AS REPUBLICANS READY ‘RESTRAINT’ ON TRUMP’S WAR IN IRAN

“I would call it the weakest, right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us — I didn’t even finish reading it,” Trump told reporters. 

“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living,’” he said.

Whether Trump’s trip overseas and the deadline now in the rearview mirror would have an impact on Wednesday remained an open question heading into the vote.

SENATE GOP MOVES TO BLOCK DEMS’ WAR POWERS PUSH, PRESERVE TRUMP’S AUTHORITY IN RARE MOVE

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that Trump’s trip to China would likely have national security implications, and said that it “would be best if everybody hung together and supported the president.” 

“People have their own minds about some of these issues, and this is not a new vote, it’s one we’ve had many times before, but you know, we’ll see what votes are,” Thune said. 

Congress has the option of voting on an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that would either authorize or halt any further fighting in Iran. Some Republicans argue that the move would give Trump a strong legal tool in making the case for the war.

Murkowski warned earlier this month that unless there were signs that a peace deal was nearing completion or further communication from the administration on their objectives, she would bring an AUMF to the floor. 

During a hearing with Hegseth on Tuesday to pick through the president’s staggering, $1.5 trillion budget request for the Pentagon, Murkowski asked Hegseth if he believed it would “be helpful to the president if it was made clear that, in fact, the Congress did allow, did provide an AUMF” should fighting restart. 

“I think the president — our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article II to execute,” Hegseth said.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who started the war powers effort, contended that if an AUMF were put on the floor, and it passed, it would make an “illegal and unwise war, just an unwise war, not an illegal one.”

“But I see almost no circumstance in which Republicans would want to have a vote on that in committee or on the floor,” Kaine told Fox News Digital. “They are actively trying to avoid accountability for the war.”