• Reporter’s Notebook: GOP eyes DHS deal funding ICE probes, but not removals, as shutdown drags

    This is cobbled together talking to senior Senate Republican sources.

    Senate Republicans are developing a plan to fund most aspects of DHS — leaving out controversial programs like certain ICE operations — to end the five-and-a-half week partial government shutdown. This emerged after a meeting at the White House last night. There is a lot to sort out at the GOP Conference luncheon at the Capitol today.

    However, Fox is told that the Senate could start to move forward on a plan to end the DHS shutdown “as early as tonight.”

    SCHIFF, BOOKER DEFLECT ON SHUTDOWN BLAME AMID TERROR CONCERNS, THOUSANDS OF DHS WORKERS WITHOUT PAY

    The new plan would fund ICE investigations — like cartels, traffickers and child predators. But they will leave unfunded programs for “enforcement and removal.”

    Ironically, this idea would mirror what Democrats have tried to do on multiple occasions. Democrats have asked unanimous consent on the floor to pass bills to fund DHS — sans ICE.

    So, Republicans have come around to the position that this is the only way out of this cul-de-sac — even if it reflects the Democratic position.

    Still, Republicans contend they are “calling the Democrats bluff.”

    “We’re going to have to move forward and give them what they want,” said one Senate Republican source, referring to the Democrats.

    THUNE REVEALS REASON DEMOCRATS ARE ‘SCARED’ TO REOPEN DHS

    But the question is whether Democrats will balk — especially since this was their idea. Regardless, this approach would still need Democratic buy-in and need 60 votes to clear a filibuster.

    Fox is told that this is NOT pre-baked with House Republicans. The House and Senate would have to sync up to end the shutdown. Lawmakers on both sides are increasingly freaked out about the possibility of a terrorist attack — to say nothing of watching lengthy lines at airports.

    Now the question is what Republicans can do with the SAVE America Act.

    SEN KENNEDY SAYS HE WOULD ACCEPT DEMOCRATS’ OFFER TO ‘OPEN UP EVERYTHING’ BUT ICE

    Fox is told that Republicans hope to extract a promise from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to come off the SAVE America Act — and resume that debate after the Easter/Passover recess.

    But that bill lacks the votes to pass.

    In addition, Republicans are looking at stuffing some provisions from the SAVE America Act into a budget reconciliation package. By nature, a reconciliation package is NOT subject to a filibuster and only needs a simple majority to pass. However, reconciliation requires bills be fiscal in nature and deal with numbers, not policy.

    It is possible Republicans could fund the enforcement and removal programs at ICE under budget reconciliation. But portions of the SAVE America Act are dicey. Fox is told that Republicans could try to focus on the “money” aspects of the SAVE America Act — such as withholding dollars from states which don’t require photo ID, et al. But getting those provisions past the Senate umpire, Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, is challenging. MacDonough could rule out of order policy provisions pertaining to the SAVE America Act in a reconciliation measure.

  • Minnesota millionaire who qualified for food stamps warns of ‘fraud by design’ loophole ahead of hearing

    Ahead of a Tuesday hearing where Minnesota lawmakers will discuss food stamp fraud, Fox News Digital spoke to a millionaire who says he was able to qualify for food stamps through a loophole — one that he hopes will soon be closed as the state grapples with a massive fraud scandal.

    Rob Undersander, a retired engineer who volunteers to help seniors navigate the government benefits system, said he learned during training that eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Minnesota was based on income only, not assets. Because his retirement income was low, he realized he could qualify even though he had significant savings and property.

    To test the system, Undersander applied for benefits in Stearns County in 2016 and was approved within weeks. He later said he collected thousands of dollars in SNAP benefits over more than a year, which he donated to charity, in an effort to draw attention to the issue.

    “I strongly support SNAP benefits for truly needy individuals, but when we have nearly one in seven Americans receiving food support in the wealthiest nation on earth, with historically low unemployment rate, something is wrong,” Undersander told Fox News Digital. “One might call the current eligibility rules fraud by design. And given the current climate of fraud and abuse of taxpayer-funded benefits in Minnesota, I’m hoping that there will be a new bipartisan effort to reduce and eliminate both.”

    BROOKE ROLLINS, ROBERT KENNEDY JR: WE’RE BRINGING FAMILIES MORE HEALTHY FOODS IN A SNAP

    As Minnesota continues to deal with an exploding fraud scandal that could reach into the tens of billions of dollars, Undersander will testify in front of the Minnesota House Public Safety Committee on Thursday in a hearing on a SNAP reform bill introduced by GOP state Rep. Pam Altendorf.

    The bill would tighten eligibility rules for food stamp benefits by requiring stricter income and asset verification before recipients can enroll in SNAP.

    Over the 10 years since he first exposed the flaw in the SNAP system, Undersander has become a vocal advocate of making changes, even testifying before Congress, but says nothing has been done by the elected officials. 

    “I have purchased lobster and filet mignon on my EBT card,” Undersander said. “Isn’t that crazy?”

    “During former President Joe Biden’s administration, federal spending on SNAP climbed to record highs at $128 billion in 2021 and $127 billion in 2022, largely driven by COVID-19 relief measures that expanded access to food assistance,” FOX Business reported in November.

    WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT NEW STATE LAWS IN 2026 ON WAGES, SNAP BENEFITS AND CLIMATE TAX

    Last year, SNAP cost $99.8 billion, with participants receiving an average of $187 in monthly benefits, federal data show.

    In a November press release, Altendorf’s office reported that Minnesota distributed nearly $725 million in benefits in 2020, but that total jumped to nearly $2 billion in 2021, marking a 174% increase in just one year.

    “SNAP is meant to help needy Minnesotans put food on the table, not to subsidize people who already have significant financial resources,” America First Policy Institute Health & Harvest Campaign Director Matt Schmid, who is also testifying on Thursday, told Fox News Digital.

    “It’s unacceptable that under Minnesota’s current system, even millionaires and lottery winners can qualify for taxpayer-funded benefits. That is a fundamentally broken system.”

    AFPI experts argue that states can reform the SNAP program and limit budget impacts by improving oversight and closing key loopholes. They note that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act requires states to manage the program more effectively or take on more of the cost burden, putting states like Minnesota at risk due to high error rates. 

    They also emphasize that certain loopholes make SNAP harder to administer and contribute to payment errors, and that eliminating broad-based categorical eligibility would strengthen income and asset verification.

    “Reintroducing basic guardrails like an asset test is a common-sense step to restore integrity, ensure benefits go to those who truly need them, and protect the long-term viability of the program,” Schmid said. “This isn’t about taking help away. It’s about making sure SNAP works the way it was intended to.”

    The push for tighter SNAP rules comes as Gov. Tim Walz faces ongoing criticism over major fraud scandals in Minnesota’s welfare system, including hundreds of millions in fraudulent food aid payments uncovered in recent years.

    Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that a Minnesota woman was sentenced to about one year in federal prison for running a $325,000 SNAP fraud scheme with family members. 

    Prosecutors said they used fake identities and fraudulent documents to obtain EBT cards and maximize benefits, then withdrew and sold the funds for profit. She was also ordered to repay the stolen money.

    Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for comment on the legislation and efforts he has taken to combat SNAP fraud.

  • Biden-appointed judge rejects Trump HHS declaration on transgender treatments for kids

    A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2023 has ruled that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overreached in his December declaration that “sex-rejecting procedures” for children were “neither safe nor effective.”

    U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai in Oregon ruled that RFK Jr. exceeded his authority and failed to follow required administrative procedures when HHS issued the declaration.

    The ruling grants preliminary relief to health professionals who provide the treatments. The judge also denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case, which was brought by 20 blue states and Washington, D.C., that had legalized controversial “sex-rejecting” health services, including “puberty-suppressing hormones, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures.”

    RFK Jr. used “comprehensive evidence review of “documented risks of significant harm, markedly weak evidence of benefit, unfavorable risk-benefit profiles, inadequate existing clinical guidelines, growing international consensus among countries conducting rigorous evidence reviews, and applicable medical ethics principles” to issue the declaration rejected by Kasubhai as an overreach.

    HOUSE APPROVES MTG-SPONSORED BILL TO CRIMINALIZE GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT FOR MINORS

    “Sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care,” the declaration read. “For the purposes of this declaration, ‘sex-rejecting procedures’ means pharmaceutical or surgical interventions, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as mastectomies, vaginoplasties, and other procedures, that attempt to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity that differs from the individual’s sex.”

    The ruling prevents the federal government from immediately enforcing the declaration against hospitals and health professionals.

    CALIFORNIA AG SUES HOSPITAL THAT ENDED GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT FOR MINORS TO COMPLY WITH TRUMP POLICIES

    The lawsuit argued the declaration was unlawful and an attempt to override established medical standards without public notice or comment. The federal government said the general statement of policy was exempt from legal rule-making requirements.

    The declaration was “the Secretary’s non-binding policy position on the safety and efficacy of certain pediatric and adolescent treatment modalities for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related conditions,” the government argued Feb. 10.

    “Secretary Kennedy, just like anyone else, is entitled to articulate his opinion on the safety and efficacy of emerging and controversial medical practices. The Declaration summarizes Secretary Kennedy’s independent evaluation of the cited medical literature and expresses his opinion that certain treatment modalities are not safe and effective and fail to meet professionally recognized standards of health care.”

    NEW YORK AG ORDERS MANHATTAN HOSPITAL TO RESUME GENDER-TRANSITION TREATMENT FOR TRANSGENDER YOUTH

    Kasubhai’s ruling was at the end of a roughly six-hour hearing and will be followed by a written decision.

    “There’s a theme of ‘Break it and see what others will do,’ and that’s not a system or method committed to the rule of law,” Kasubhai said. “That notion that ‘I will go forward, issue a declaration and see if we can get away with it,’ that is not a principle of governance that adheres to the overarching commitment to the democratic public that requires the rule of law to be regarded and respected and honored as sacred.”

    New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the case, said the ruling protects patients, families and providers from federal intimidation.

    TRUMP-SIGNED SHUTDOWN BILL SENDS $4M TO CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS UNDER FEDERAL PROBE FOR TRANSGENDER CARE

    “So much of the conversation around transgender health care has lost sight of the real people harmed by the federal government’s attacks,” James wrote in a statement last week, praising the opinion. “Young people are losing access to life-saving treatment, families are being left in the dark, and medical providers are being threatened just for doing their jobs and following standards of care.

    “Today’s win breaks through the noise and gives some needed clarity to patients, families, and providers. Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them.

    “It is my duty and my privilege to stand with trans New Yorkers and their families. I will always fight for the LGBTQ+ community.”

    CHLOE COLE ACT AIMED AT BLOCKING MINORS FROM UNDERGOING LIFE-ALTERING TRANSGENDER SURGERIES, GOP LAWMAKER SAYS

    The case was brought by Oregon, New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington and Pennsylvania.

    The ruling comes as President Donald Trump has sought to tag a 2024 presidential campaign vow to “protect children from transgender mutilation surgeries” to the 2026 SAVE America Act currently being debated in the Senate.

    Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., formally introduced an amendment to attach the added Trump priorities to the election-integrity bill.

    “I’ve worked closely with President Trump and the White House to introduce a substitute amendment that will save our elections, save women’s sports, and save our children from gender mutilation surgeries,” Schmitt wrote in a statement last week. “It’s time to get this done.”

  • DOJ accuses courts of undercutting executive power in high-stakes Supreme Court border case

    The Department of Justice will argue Tuesday that lower courts are undermining the federal government’s ability to manage the southern border in a closely watched Supreme Court case about how migrants make asylum claims.

    DOJ lawyers wrote in court papers ahead of the arguments that an appeals court was wrong to restrict the government’s ability to limit how it processes migrants into the country. The lawyers said the ruling stripped the executive branch of a necessary tool, first used during the Obama administration, to respond to surges of illegal migration, which the Trump administration has sought to curb after officials encountered more than 10 million migrants at the border during the Biden administration.

    “Administrations of both major parties have opposed the decision, which deprives the Executive Branch of a critical tool for addressing border surges and preventing overcrowding at ports of entry,” the DOJ lawyers wrote. “This Court should reverse.”

    The case, Noem v. Al Otro Lado, centers on whether migrants who are stopped on the Mexican side of the U.S.–Mexico border can be treated as having “arrived in the United States” under the Immigration and Nationality Act. If they can be designated as having arrived in the country, they would be entitled to apply for asylum, which would require border officials to process their asylum claims.

    USCIS HALTS ‘ALL ASYLUM DECISIONS’ AFTER DC SHOOTING OF NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS

    The DOJ lawyers, led by Solicitor General John Sauer, argued that the immigration law’s language was clear.

    “In ordinary English, a person ‘arrives in’ a country only when he comes within its borders,” they wrote. “A person does not ‘arrive in the United States’ if he is stopped in Mexico.”

    BORDER CROSSINGS PLUMMET TO HISTORIC LOWS; TRUMP’S ENFORCEMENT POLICIES YIELD BIG RESULTS

    The case stems from a lawsuit brought in 2017 by the immigrant rights group Al Otro Lado and more than a dozen unnamed asylum seekers.

    The plaintiffs challenged the practice of “metering,” which was first used during the Obama administration and allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to turn migrants away, saying border facilities were over capacity and that they should come back later.

    ‘TRUMP EFFECT’ TOUTED AS SOUTHERN BORDER NUMBERS STAY LOW, INCLUDING NEW RECORD

    Immigration law requires the United States to allow migrants arriving at the border to claim asylum by saying they fear persecution in their home country. Once they make the claim, a legal process begins, and, if the claim is granted, the migrant is given a pathway to live and work legally in the United States. Border hawks have argued the asylum system is rife with abuse as migrants make meritless asylum claims at the border and then never show up for their hearings.

    The plaintiffs’ lawyers said in court papers that metering was an unlawful “turnback policy.”

    “Petitioners zero in on a single preposition—the word ‘in’— to urge an interpretation that renders the rest of the statutory text non-sensical,” they wrote.

    Unlike prior administrations, when the United States saw influxes of illegal migration, President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has drastically curbed arrivals at the southern border. But the DOJ lawyers argued that the executive branch should have the option to practice metering if needed without judicial interference.

    A ruling in the case is expected by the summer.

  • Cornyn targets lawmakers’ airport fast pass as TSA lines grow during DHS shutdown

    The Senate quietly passed legislation that would require lawmakers to join the general public in airport security lines, ending a long-held privilege, as the Homeland Security shutdown continues.

    Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, pushed the End Special Treatment for Congress at Airports Act, which unanimously passed the upper chamber. The bill comes the DHS shutdown snarls air travel. 

    Chaotic scenes are unfolding at airports across the country, particularly in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans and New York, with security lines stretching for blocks. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are going without pay, and many are not reporting to work.

    SCHUMER GAMBIT FAILS AS DHS SHUTDOWN HITS 36 DAYS AND AIRPORT LINES GROW

    Despite increasing delays and hardships for both federal workers and travelers, Senate Democrats have so far not backed down from their shutdown position as they pursue stricter reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

    Cornyn said on the Senate floor that the “only reason I can fathom, other than being completely out of touch, that our Democratic colleagues would do this is because not all members of Congress are being forced to experience the same mess of their own making right now.”

    “As many Americans probably don’t know — but most of us in Washington do — airports around the country allow members of Congress to bypass the usual TSA security screening process,” Cornyn said.

    DHS SHUTDOWN TIED FOR SECOND-LONGEST EVER AS DEMS AGAIN BLOCK FUNDING AMID AIRPORT CHAOS, TERRORISM CONCERNS

    “In other words, they get to skip the line,” he continued. “This should end today. Instead of enduring the same travel tribulations and security requirements that everyone else has to meet, members of Congress are getting an unfair perk while TSA officers have to work without pay.”

    Cornyn’s bill would do just that, requiring lawmakers to undergo the same TSA screening as the general public and halt federal funds used to provide expedited or preferential access at security checkpoints.

    THUNE, GOP BLAST DEMS IN DHS STANDOFF; LANKFORD SAYS THEY FEAR ICE OVER IRAN

    It would also prevent lawmakers from skipping standard screening or receiving priority treatment based on their official status, but would allow them to continue participating in TSA PreCheck or similar programs.

    While the bill passed the Senate, it must still be considered in the House before it can become law.

    The legislation comes as both sides of the aisle acknowledge the situation at the nation’s airports. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats have tried and failed to pass a standalone funding bill for TSA as the shutdown continues — in part to ease airport disruptions and shift blame to Republicans.

    Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have been blocked five times in their attempts to reopen the entire agency, along with several other efforts to pass temporary funding.

  • Lawmakers’ airport perks in crosshairs as DHS shutdown snarls travelers, TSA

    A new House bill would ensure members of Congress feel the pain of the ongoing partial government shutdown the same way as many Americans across the country.

    Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, is introducing the End Special Treatment for Congress at Airports Act, which is a House counterpart to legislation that sailed through the Senate last week.

    Hinson argued that members of Congress should be held to the same standards as their constituents at airports during the funding stalemate, despite lawmakers generally being eligible for expedited screening and security escorts to bypass lines.

    “Thanks to Democrats’ political games, TSA agents are working without pay, and many American families are facing 4-plus-hour wait times at airports during spring break,” Hinson told Fox News Digital.

    HOUSE GOP TARGETING VULNERABLE DEMS OVER DHS SHUTDOWN, TSA CHAOS

    “Some Members of Congress are avoiding the chaos they’ve created by getting preferential treatment and skipping the lines at airports,” she added. “My bill with Senator John Cornyn will eliminate these perks and ensure they face the consequences of inaction.”

    The Iowa Republican’s bill would ban the use of taxpayer dollars to give lawmakers special treatment and require them to go through the same security screenings as everyday Americans. The measure would keep restrictions for lawmakers in place even after DHS funding is restored.

    SCHUMER KNOCKS TRUMP ON IRAN, PLAN TO SEND ICE TO AIRPORTS: ‘ASKING FOR TROUBLE’

    The bill’s introduction comes as the 38-day shutdown — the second-largest in U.S. history — continues to wreak havoc on U.S. travelers across the country due to staffing shortages at airports.

    This Friday will mark the second full pay period in which Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents will miss their paychecks, leading thousands to call off work to make ends meet.

    More than 400 TSA agents have quit their jobs since the shutdown began on Feb. 14, the department said last week.

    Major airport systems across the country from Houston to New York reported hourslong wait times in security lines on Monday. The spring break travel season has appeared to worsen airports’ staffing constraints.

    TRUMP SAYS ICE WILL DEPLOY TO AIRPORTS MONDAY TO ASSIST TSA AMID FUNDING STANDOFF

    Hinson’s legislation is likely to get widespread support in the House, though it is unclear when it would receive a floor vote.

    “I’m grateful to Congresswoman Hinson for joining my effort to restore fair practices for all airport travelers by introducing companion legislation in the House, and I urge other Members to support our mission to stop this unfair perk,” Cornyn said in a statement.

    The Senate approved the Texas Republican’s bill by unanimous consent last Thursday. 

    TSA has paused lawmaker escorts since the beginning of the funding lapse. However, members of Congress could still be receiving special assistance at airports from other entities.

    Though DHS talks have picked up in recent days, the funding standoff could still fail to reach a resolution this week.

    Democrats have largely refused to support a full-year DHS spending bill as the party demands reforms to immigration enforcement. Republicans, by contrast, have opposed Democrat-led efforts to fund specific DHS subagencies while leaving the department’s immigration and border security functions unfunded.

    Hinson is running for an open Senate seat vacated by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is retiring. She is backed by President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.

  • Afghanistan frees US citizen Dennis Coyle over a year after Taliban arrest

    An American man held by the Taliban for more than a year without charges has been released and is on his way home, Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler told Fox News.

    Dennis Coyle, 64, an academic who spent nearly two decades working in Afghanistan, was taken from his home in Kabul in January 2025 by Taliban intelligence and held in near-solitary confinement, Boehler said, adding that Coyle committed no crime and was used as leverage.

    Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” accusing the Taliban of unjustly detaining Americans and other foreign nationals like Coyle and calling for his release.

    This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

  • Democrats hammer ICE for arresting 2 at San Francisco airport

    California Democrats blasted federal immigration authorities after a viral video showed officers arresting two people, including a crying woman, at San Francisco International Airport.

    The video shows the woman — who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said is an illegal alien — wailing and dropping to the ground as she is being arrested by two plainclothes agents on Sunday while her daughter cries in the background.

    California Democrats argued the video showed excessive force and would instill fear in immigrant communities, while calling for answers from federal authorities.

    Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said the woman seen in the video was a “Sacramento mother” and said she was demanding answers.

    LA PROTESTERS SWARM RESTAURANT AFTER TSA OFFICERS REPORTEDLY MISIDENTIFIED AS ICE AGENTS

    “I am deeply angered by the video released of a Sacramento mother being forcibly detained by ICE in front of her young daughter at San Francisco International Airport this weekend,” she wrote.

    “This is our neighbor and a member of our community. This video showcases the cruelty we have come to expect from Trump’s ICE agents, but also the lasting trauma that will be inflicted on those who are forced to witness their disproportionate and deadly recklessness. I am demanding answers as to why ICE treated this Sacramentan so violently in front of her daughter.”

    DHS said two people from a family unit were arrested, saying the family had outstanding removal orders and was in the U.S. illegally.

    TRUMP ADMIN URGES NEWSOM TO HONOR ICE DETAINERS FOR MORE THAN 33K CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

    Federal officials said the arrest followed a lawful final removal order issued by an immigration judge in 2019 and that one of the individuals attempted to flee and resisted officers.

    “ICE officers arrested Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Jimenez at the San Francisco International Airport. These illegal aliens had a final removal order from an immigration judge since 2019,” DHS said on X.

    “While being escorted to the international terminal for processing, Lopez-Jimenez attempted to flee and resisted law enforcement officers. ICE is working as quickly as possible to repatriate the family unit to their home country of Guatemala.”

    The arrest was not connected to the Trump administration’s plan to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to assist Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operations during the ongoing partial government shutdown, DHS said.

    San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said the incident was “upsetting” and that the city’s sanctuary policies would not change.

    “I have spoken to leaders at SFO and SFPD, and we believe this is an isolated incident,” Lurie said in a post on X.

    “We have no reason to believe there is broader federal immigration enforcement at SFO. SFPD officers remained at the scene to maintain public safety and were not involved in the incident,” the mayor continued. “Under our city’s long-standing policies, local law enforcement does not participate in federal civil immigration enforcement. Those policies keep us safe and will not change as long as I’m mayor.”

    Meanwhile, state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco and candidate for U.S. Congress, held a news conference Monday outside the airport to denounce the actions of federal authorities. Several Democratic candidates for California governor also sharply criticized ICE in response to the video.

    “We don’t want ICE here and when ICE descends on our communities, it only creates fear,” Wiener said, according to The Associated Press.

    In the video, one female onlooker can be heard repeatedly demanding the officers show their badges.

    “This is an illegal arrest, show us your badge number,” the woman can be heard saying.

    The San Francisco Police Department said its officers did not take part in the arrest, noting the incident involved federal immigration authorities and that local police remained on scene only to maintain public safety.

    “SFPD officers were not involved in the incident but remained at the scene to maintain public safety,” the department said in a statement, adding that city policy prohibits officers from assisting in the enforcement of federal civil immigration laws.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Red wealth, dark money: How an American tycoon deploys Mao’s playbook against the West

    Part 2 of a five-part Fox News Digital series investigating the House of Singham examines the “United Front,” a key element of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s “People’s War” strategy.

    As CodePink co-founders Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin ended their activist group’s pilgrimage to communist Cuba yesterday, their sojourn reflected a strategy years in the making: a “united front” aligning far-left, socialist and communist revolutionaries across borders.

    In late October 1944, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong delivered a speech, outlining a strategy to unite disparate groups under a shared ideological framework, telling followers: “For this struggle a broad united front is indispensable.”

    More than two decades later, in 1966, Cuban leader Fidel Castro convened revolutionaries in Havana for the Tricontinental Conference, where he pledged “support to any revolutionary movement in any corner of the earth,”

    And more recently, an American-born Marxist businessman named Neville Roy Singham sold his technology company, Thoughtworks, for an estimated $785 million in 2017, and a Fox News Digital investigation reveals that he set about building his own version of Mao’s united front.

    The investigation, using large language models to analyze hundreds of pages of tax records, organizational messaging, online content and historical records, found Singham pumped at least $278 million into a layered network of 2,000 nonprofits, think tanks, activist groups and media organizations with shared messaging and ideology matching the communist ideals of Mao and Castro, operating across borders while appearing independent. What emerges isn’t a loose coalition but a tightly-knit system.

    At the time of the sale, Thoughtwork’s chief scientist, Martin Fowler, acknowledged the proceeds would fund Singham’s “activist work.” The sale created a war chest that would flow into the constellation of nonprofits that now comprise the “House of Singham.”

    Policymakers and law enforcement officials have gotten a glimpse into pieces of Singham’s influence, from anti-Israel protests in the U.S. to a propaganda machine in India and the hijacking of a labor union in South Africa. But the broader picture is more expansive: a transnational network buried in layer upon layer of companies entangled with shared leaders, shared addresses and a shared mission to spread Marxism and promote China as a global counterweight to the U.S. in a new Cold War.

    IRS records show that three entities transferred $278 million from 2017 through 2023 into six core U.S. nonprofits in Singham’s network, but those six nonprofits haven’t operated in isolation. They have functioned as hubs in a broader system, receiving and redistributing funding, and coordinating activity across a widening network of affiliated groups.

    POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

    In 2017, when Singham married Evans, he relied on many of their wedding guests as lieutenants, consiglieres, strategists, propagandists and field marshals to mobilize thousands of foot soldiers to promote China’s interests. One recurring theme is promotion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure and trade effort designed to expand China’s economic and geopolitical influence.

    Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, he wasn’t familiar with “the specifics of this particular case.”

    Pengyu added that China “welcomes and hopes that more people in the United States will view China in an objective and fair light, and lend their voices to the sound and stable development of China–U.S. relations.”

    Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has described Singham as “an individual who lives in Shanghai, maintains business ties with companies and individuals linked to the CCP, works with and physically alongside a foreign propaganda company, and attends CCP forums on how to promote the party abroad.”

    According to people familiar with the transactions, Singham used GS Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund For Wealth Management Inc., affiliated with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to anonymously direct tax-deductible donations to a new tranche of nonprofits established after his marriage to Evans. Goldman Sachs spokesman Tony Fratto said that the company’s philanthropy arm “terminated” Singham’s donor-advised fund in February 2024.

    FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST GROUP FACES BACKLASH OVER ‘TONE-DEAF’ PROTESTS AT CUBA LUXURY HOTEL

    Fox News Digital also identified two fly-by-night companies – Likewise Conceptions LLC and Mutod LLC – that appear in the network’s financial architecture. 

    Likewise, Conceptions listed an address outside Chicago, while Mutod used the address of a hotel in downtown Chicago. Two other organizations linked to Singham used a hotel and a cocktail lounge as addresses. Fox News Digital reviewed incorporation papers, state registrations, property records and other open-source materials but couldn’t identify meaningful public footprints for either entity. Singham and Evans didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Those entities functioned as conduits, moving large sums into nonprofits that would then redistribute funds across additional layers of the network.

    Over months of reporting, Fox News Digital built organizational charts tracing the network’s structure. At least 18 guests from the “Jodie and Roy” wedding of “One Love” in Jamaica appear within a wider network of about 80 people serving in core leadership across about 15 central organizations. 

    The network includes members of Singham’s family, including his son Nathan Singham, his niece Alicia Singham Goodwin and his sister, Shanti Singham, who has academic ties to East China Normal University in Shanghai. The university, which is administered by the Chinese Community Party (CCP), co-sponsored the Global South Academic Conference where Singham appeared last fall, lambasting the U.S. as a “fascist” nation. East China Normal University didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

    The wider circle of wedding guests included actor Danny Glover, playwright Eve Ensler, now known as V, and “Democracy Now” TV host Amy Goodman.

    Another guest, Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has more recently appeared, getting arrested with CodePink activists as he interrupted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. during a congressional hearing over Gaza and then called for the defunding of ICE earlier this year. 

    FBI agents arrested another wedding guest, Ibrahim AlHusseni, last year for alleged securities fraud and he later entered a guilty plea. Late last year, Evans allegedly helped pay his $3 million bail, according to court-related reporting. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

    Within this period, the People’s Forum’s organizing work and BreakThrough News coverage became central to nationwide demonstrations, coordinated through the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition. 

    FOX NEWS DIGITAL ANALYSIS: HOW MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR NETWORKS USE INSURGENCY TACTICS TO HINDER ICE

    One of the nonprofits Singham funded immediately in 2017 with his newfound wealth was Tricontinental Ltd., based in Massachusetts, led by his friend and wedding guest, Vijay Prashad. It was named for the 1966 Tricontinental Conference.

    In a letter to one of the Singham organizations, Tricontinental, Smith warned that “interlocking ownership and management roles” across the entities suggest a strategy to embed CCP propaganda “under the guise of independent scholarship and commerce.” Tricontinental hasn’t made any public responses to the letter, but it posted a video from Brazil last month on Instagram, inviting followers to read the “Communist Manifesto” for “Red Book Day.”

    Fox News Digital found that one nonprofit that Singham funded, the People’s Support Foundation, reported investments for years in the China-U.S. Industrial Cooperation Partnership Parallel LP, an investment vehicle tied to a partnership between Goldman Sachs and the China Investment Corporation, the state-sanctioned investment arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

    In its 2019 tax filing, the People’s Support Foundation disclosed a $75,165 holding. By 2024, the holding had grown to $410,484, according to tax records.

    The amounts were modest. But they placed a Singham-linked nonprofit inside a financial structure designed to blend U.S. private-equity management with Chinese state capital during a time of heightened national security scrutiny. While the records do not prove coordination or intent, they reveal overlapping interests at a sensitive geopolitical intersection.

    In 2019, that partnership purchased Boyd Corporation, a California-based manufacturer.

    Fratto said those investments were legal and “intended to increase foreign direct investment in the United States.” He added the investments “don’t confer any control over the companies by an individual investor.”

    Less than three weeks after the Singham-Evans wedding, on Feb. 27, 2017, the People’s Forum was registered in New York state, according to state records.

    Singham initially funneled $2.5 million into the People’s Forum. It had some familiar names on the board: Evans and Claudia De la Cruz, a wedding guest and a leader in two organizations that would become critical in sowing mayhem on the streets of the U.S., the People’s Forum and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

    Another key board member was Manolo De Los Santos, a self-avowed Marxist born in the Dominican Republic. Outside the People’s Forum headquarters in New York City recently, he refused to answer questions from a Fox News Digital investigative team.

    De Los Santos has publicly posted photos of himself with Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Fernando Gonzalez, one of the “Cuban 5,” Cuban intelligence officers arrested in 1998 in the U.S. for spying and later convicted. 

    Brian Becker, a longtime Marxist organizer, also became a key figure around the People’s Forum, turning it into a base for expanding protest infrastructure he’d already cultivated with the ANSWER Coalition and Party for Socialism and Liberation, organizing anti-American demonstrations as the son of an American Marxist leader from the 1960s. He also refused to answer questions from Fox News Digital, calling a journalist a “terrorist.”

    Ismail Royer, a former extremist imprisoned for supporting the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group in Pakistan, remembers Becker and his socialist crew taking over protests and telling Muslim groups to step aside. 

    “They told us, ‘Just show up. We’ll take care of everything,’” Royer told Fox News Digital.

    Over the following years, Singham doled out a total of $22.4 million to the People’s Forum, according to Fox News Digital’s analysis.

    The organization operated not just as a physical space, but as a coordination hub in the emerging Mao-style united front, linking funding, messaging and protest activity. It was also moving money into protest infrastructure, including funding tied to large demonstrations.

    In its first year, the People’s Forum said it spent $428,470 developing a space to “foster collaboration and exchange between diverse social movements,” to “build unity across historic lines of division at home and abroad” and “nurture the next generation of visionaries and organizers who believe that through collective action, a new world is possible.”

    In late 2021, the People’s Forum hosted a day-long conference on “China and the Left,” featuring Singham’s friend, Prashad, the Qiao Collective and Tings Chak, Prashad’s colleague at Tricontinental with close ties to academic institutions in China. 

    Sessions included “Poverty Alleviation in China,” China “as a Model for Third World Development” and “China as a Challenge to Capitalism.” 

    The day’s speakers blasted “The U.S. Hybrid War on China,” “Anti-Asian Violence” in the U.S. and an American bias they dubbed “yellow peril.”   

    In 2023, the People’s Forum gave the ANSWER Coalition’s fiscal sponsor, Progress Unity Fund, $26,400 it raised at the anti-Israel “National March on Washington” on Nov. 4, 2023, less than a month after the Oct. 7 attack. It wasn’t a lot of money, but the payment reveals the way these organizations work in lock-step with each other.

    The next year, Progress Unity Fund reported a $267,756 payment to the ANSWER Coalition for “mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people in a [sic] mass actions in Washington, D.C. and around the country,” according to its tax filing. 

    It gave $35,000 to BreakThrough BT Media Inc., which broadcast the anti-U.S. protests to the world.

    Not long ago, according to property records, the People’s Forum purchased a multi-million dollar building on 14th Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

    Fox News Digital found that Singham allegedly used two mystery companies to pour money into another new nonprofit, the People’s Support Foundation Ltd., again with Evans on the board, along with former Thoughtworks executives. 

    IRS filings show that in 2017, Mutod LLC, just established on Sept. 11, 2017, in Delaware, transferred $160.2 million into the People’s Support Foundation. In IRS filings, Mutod used the address of a hotel on E. Wacker Drive, suite no. 256.

    Meanwhile, Likewise Conceptions LLC, which shared an address with a FedEx store on Liberty Road in Crystal Lake, Il., north of Chicago, poured $3.5 million into the People’s Support Foundation. And Mutod LLC put another $3.8 million into the organization in 2018.

    The People’s Support Foundation then became a funding source for another tier of entities with generic names, including the People’s Welfare Association and the United Community Fund.

    Both were registered as 501(c)(4) political nonprofits. Both used UPS Stores as mailing addresses. Both included familiar names from the House of Singham on their boards.

    They repeated a recurring pattern in the network: new nonprofit layers appear with generic names, limited public footprints and overlapping leadership, as money continues to move outward.

    The United Community Fund listed its tax code as “Q01: International, Foreign Affairs, and National Security Alliances and Advocacy.”

    The United Community Fund had some strong anti-American voices on its board: Layan Fuleihan, a fiery Palestinian American leader at the People’s Forum who has led virulent anti-Israel protests; and Chak, a trusted figure in the Singham inner circle and Tricontinental official with ties to Chinese universities.

    The money flowing from the People’s Support Foundation into the United Community Fund followed a familiar pattern: one layer funding another, with overlapping personnel and funding.

    A question hangs over the structure Fox News Digital traced: why does the House of Singham rely on multiple nonprofit layers, recurring addresses and recycled leadership to move money and organize activity?

    As the network expanded across nonprofits, media platforms and activist groups, it promoted the old ideas of Mao and the “United Front.” In February, at the launch of a new book, “Tricontinental, Havana 1966,” filled with speeches and documents from the conference, Prashad and De Los Santos regaled an audience at the People’s Forum with stories of the global communist “revolutionaries” at the conference led by “our commander Fidel,” as Prashad described Castro. De Los Santos noted the participants “weren’t armchair leftists,” who were “shifting from one hotel to the other doing international left tourism.”

    “We believe strongly that communism is the actual movement of history,” Prashad said.

    Earlier this month, the State Department identified the People’s Forum and CodePink as vectors of threat because of their alignment with the People’s Republic of China. The State Department said the groups “denigrate the United States, whitewash the violence of Marxist regimes, and run cover for narco-terrorists like {former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas] Maduro while enjoying an influx of cash from a donor network with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”

    Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee and House Oversight Committee are investigating the Singham network for potential violations of nonprofit law. Justice, State and Treasury Department officials are also investigating Singham and the organizations he has funded, according to people familiar with the investigations. 

    Last September, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.), and the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets Chairwoman Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to conduct a “comprehensive evaluation to determine whether federal sanctions, civil remedies or criminal penalties—including asset freezes or seizures—should be applied to far-left entities organized and funded by Mr. Singham.”

    The Trump administration has precedent to act. The Justice Department prosecuted a nonprofit in USA v. Babakov, ECF for serving “as a front for a global foreign influence campaign to advance Russia’s foreign policy objectives.” That case didn’t have any connection to Singham or his network.

    Smith said at a recent hearing, “This is something every American should care about.” The investigations are ongoing, and no one in the Singham network has been charged with any crimes nor has any action been taken against any organizations or individuals in the Singham network. No one from the Singham network has been found liable for any legal violations.

    The White House recently created a new National Security Council position, called the “Director of Cognitive Advantage,” held by Shawn Chenoweth, to address what officials describe as information warfare, a critical element of a nation’s “soft power.”

    In public remarks, Chenoweth has described the job as putting the “I,” for “information,” back into a national power framework known as DIME: diplomatic, information, military and economic power.

    The Singham network sits at that intersection, and as Evans’ and Benjamin’s CodePink delegation departed Cuba, the convoy reflected the outward expression of a structure built over years, following Mao’s strategy of connecting international travel, coordinated messaging and on-the-ground activism in a “United Front.”

    “Viva Cuba!” Benjamin shouted from the airport, as her fellow radicals flashed “V” for victory signs.

    Nikolas Lanum, Brooke Curto and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

    Up next in Part 3: How the House of Singham funds and distributes pro-China, anti-America “Propaganda Work” through media ventures, content networks and transnational messaging platforms.

  • Ignored ICE detainers ‘put lives at risk,’ DHS says, targeting Newsom, Pritzker, Healey

    As congressional Democrats continue to vote to defund the Department of Homeland Security, the agency is calling out the “dangerous derangement” of sanctuary state leaders who it says are “putting American lives at risk” by releasing illegal immigrant pedophiles, murderers and gang members.

    A spokesperson for DHS slammed Democratic governors Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois, both rumored 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, and also Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.

    “Governor Newsom and his fellow sanctuary politicians—including Pritzker and Healey—are releasing murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers back into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

    The spokesperson cited statistics showing that seven out of 10 of the safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They issued a personal appeal to the Democratic governors, saying, “If we work together, we can make America safe again.”

    MASK-FREE ICE AGENTS BEGIN PATROLLING US AIRPORTS; TRUMP FLOATS NATIONAL GUARD

    “Criminal illegal aliens should not be released from jails back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans,” the spokesperson continued, adding that the agency is “calling on sanctuary politicians to stop this dangerous derangement and commit to honoring ICE arrest detainers.”

    Most of the 10 safest cities on U.S. News & World Report’s list are located either in states or counties that have laws directing municipal authorities to cooperate or coordinate directly with federal immigration enforcement. That cooperation often occurs through 287(g) agreements, which allow local law enforcement agencies to work directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The cities also share other traits, such as high median incomes and a lack of mixed-use zoning or transient rental housing, underscoring the ongoing debate over whether immigration enforcement cooperation plays a meaningful role in public safety.

    According to the DHS, there are over 33,000 criminal illegal aliens in California’s custody.

    The spokesperson cited several illegal immigrants with criminal records arrested by ICE in the last year who were released in California despite ICE detainers, including child predators and gang members.

    One of these individuals, Hector Grijalba-Sernas, from Mexico, was previously arrested for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old. DHS said that despite ICE lodging a detainer against Grijalba-Sernas, he was released last year. He is currently in federal custody.

    Another, Xujin An, from China, who was arrested for sexual penetration with force and sexual battery in Westminster, California, was arrested by ICE after its detainer was not honored, according to DHS. An is currently in ICE custody pending judicial proceedings.

    CRITIC SLAMS CHICAGO’S ‘REVOLVING DOOR’ AS LOYOLA STUDENT KILLING SPARKS OUTRAGE

    A third, Angel Navarro Camarillo, who DHS said is a member of the La Familia street gang, was arrested by ICE following an arrest by local authorities for a sex offender violation. Likewise, the detainer against Navarro Camarillo was not honored, according to DHS. He has since been removed from the United States.

    Carmelo Corado Hurtado, from Guatemala, was arrested by ICE following an unheeded detainer request and his conviction of first-degree murder, driving under the influence and second-degree robbery. ICE removed Corado Hurtado from the U.S. last year.

    In Illinois, DHS said that ICE arrested illegal immigrant Jose Manuel Fuentes-Vargas, from Mexico, after its detainer against him was not honored and following his conviction of sexual assault of a victim less than 13 years of age. Fuentes-Vargas is currently in ICE custody.

    Another, Leonardo Ignot-Osto, a Mexican national who illegally entered the U.S. at least four times and was convicted of child abduction of a victim less than 17 years old, was arrested by ICE last year after its detainer was not honored. He was removed from the U.S.

    A third, Jaime Mandujano-Nunez, from Mexico, was arrested by ICE late last year after he was released by authorities on an unknown date following his conviction of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. He has also since been removed from the U.S.

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    This comes amid mass outrage over the killing of Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, allegedly by an illegal immigrant, Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina.

    According to DHS, Medina-Medina, 25, entered the U.S. during the Biden administration and had been previously arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, marking a prior criminal incident before the alleged murder.

    On Sunday, the Chicago Police Department formally charged Medina-Medina with murder in the shooting of Gorman. In a statement, the department said Medina-Medina was currently facing six felony charges, including a count of first-degree murder.

    A spokesperson for Pritzker’s office told Fox News Digital, “Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and Loyola University community grieving the senseless murder of Sheridan Gorman.”

    Pritzker’s spokesperson said that “violent crime has no place in our streets, and we expect the alleged perpetrator to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

    They added that the Trump administration “needs to stop politicizing heinous tragedies and instead focus on real solutions, like reinstating federal funds to prevent violence that support our public safety efforts.”

    Fox News Digital also reached out to the offices of Newsom and Healey.