Vice President JD Vance asserted that he and President Donald Trump will not allow the "illegal migrant invasion" that occurred during President Joe Biden's White House tenure to be ratified via "fake legal process."
He suggested that if the people crying "lack of due process" regarding the deportation of illegal aliens do not have a proposed solution that allows the nation to remove at least several million illegal aliens annually, they do not actually want to achieve border security and expel the illegal immigrants.
"When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a *third* deportation hearing, what they're really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently," Vance wrote in the lengthy Tuesday night post on X.
"Here's a useful test: ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with Biden's millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people per year?" he noted.
"If the answer is no, they've given their game away. They don't want border security. They don't want us to deport the people who've come into our country illegally. They want to accomplish through fake legal process what they failed to accomplish politically: The ratification of Biden's illegal migrant invasion. President Trump and I will not stand for [it]," Vance declared.
The vice president asserted that American voters elected the Trump administration to fix the illegal immigration issue.
"Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country. This placed extraordinary burdens on our country--our schools, hospitals, housing, and other essential services were overwhelmed. On top of that, many of these illegal aliens committed violent crimes, or facilitated fentanyl and sex trafficking. That is the situation we inherited," he wrote.
"The American people elected the Trump administration to solve this problem. The President has successfully stopped the inflow of illegal aliens, and now we must deport the people who came here illegally," he declared.
Reporters on the ground at the event in Georgia indicated there were at least six protesters escorted from the town hall within minutes of it starting. Three of the individuals were eventually charged by police for their involvement in the disruption, including one for disorderly conduct, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
"Put your hands behind your back!" a police officer can be heard in a video of the incident shared on social media by CBS News reporter Jared Eggleston. "F--- off –" the man can be heard yelling as he disappeared off-screen behind a wall, before a loud bang could be heard followed by the sound of a taser.
A second bang from another taser going off could be heard shortly thereafter.
Different videos from the event show a handful of others being escorted out, with some leaving on their own volition and others having to be literally dragged out by police.
"Free Garcia," one protester could be heard saying as they were exiting in a video posted to X, referring to Kilmar Ábrego García, who has been at the center of a deportation controversy after a federal judge said the Trump administration wrongly deported him with a group of Venezuelan gang members.
"Free Kilmar!" another could be heard screaming repeatedly on video as they were escorted out.
At moments, as police escorted the protesters out of the town hall, Green engaged with the disruptors.
"The protest is outside. Thank you very much," Greene said. "If you were to sit and listen, you're welcome to listen. Everyone across the aisle – Democrats, Independents," she added while someone was being escorted out.
"I'm glad they got thrown out," Greene said following the event. "That's exactly what I wanted to see happen … This isn't a political rally or a protest. I held a town hall tonight. You know who was out of line? The protesters."
The disruption at Greene's rally follows increased volatility at local GOP town halls. Things have gotten tense enough that the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., has told his fellow Republicans to temporarily refrain from holding in-person town hall events.
Citing the uptick in "Democrat threats of violence," GOP Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman followed Hudson's advice and moved all of her in-person town halls online. The move came after an incident in which an attendee of one of her in-person events followed Hageman as she left and initiated a physical confrontation with her staff, eventually requiring police to intervene.
Green was only one of a handful of GOP members that decided to do an in-person event amid the current ongoing legislative recess, according to NBC News.
Not since the government broke up AT&T more than four decades ago has a mega-corporation faced the prospect of being torn apart.
The suit was filed in the first Trump term (the president couldn’t stand Facebook at the time), aggressively pursued by Joe Biden, and now has finally come to trial in a Washington courtroom.
Trump once told me Facebook was such a threat to society that he used it as justification for flip-flopping on his effort to ban TikTok.
But since he won a second term, Zuck, like many tech bros, has been cozying up to the new sheriff in town, including a $1-million donation to the president’s inaugural.
There are reports that when the man who runs Facebook recently met with Trump, he asked about the possibility of dropping the lawsuit. Obviously, it didn’t work.
The focus of the trial is Zuckerberg’s decision to buy Instagram and WhatsApp when they were small start-ups.
The FTC’s lead lawyer questioned Zuckerberg about a platform meant to foster ties between family and friends to a concentration on showing users interesting third-party content through its news feed.
"It’s the case that over time, the ‘interest’ part of that has gotten built out more than the ‘friend’ part," Zuckerberg said. He added that "the ‘friend’ part has gone down quite a bit, but it’s still something we care about."
Translation: Screw the friends. Very 2010s. We’ve moved on.
Zuckerberg spoke slowly – at least according to reporters who were there – and he was back on the hot seat yesterday. FTC lawyers pressed him on a stack of emails he had sent:
"We really need to get our act together quickly on this since Instagram’s growing so fast.
"Instagram has become a large and viable competitor to us on mobile photos, which will increasingly be the future of photos."
"If Instagram continues to kick ass on photos, or if Google buys them, then over the next few years they could easily add pieces of their service that copy what we’re doing now." Which was a flop called Facebook Camera.
In yet another message, Zuck called Instagram’s growth "really scary," saying "we might want to consider paying a lot of money for this." Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and two years later spent $19 billion on WhatsApp.
In an email to Tom Alison, head of Facebook, Z offered alternatives:
"Option 1. Double down on Friending. One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again."
Alison responded: "I’m not sure Option #1 in your proposal (Double-down on Friending) would be viable given my understanding of how vital the friend use case is to IG."
Now we come to the fascinating part.
It’s not breaking news that Mark’s judgment can be flawed. Remember when he insisted that virtual reality would be the next big thing?
But he argues that Meta has all kinds of rivals in the "entertainment" area, such as X, TikTok and YouTube – and he easily could have added Snap, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO’s Max. It’s all about the battle for eyeballs now. There are only so many hours in the day. Mindshare is everything.
And with group chats all the rage, Meta doesn’t do well on that kind of interaction, with Instagram as a possible exception.
Now of course it’s in Zuckerberg’s self-interest to testify that he competes with anything that has a screen. But it’s not that far off the mark. Keep in mind that Meta has 4 billion active monthly users.
I sure wish we could see the embattled CEO making the case that he’s awash in a vast sea of rivals.
President Donald Trump’s high-tech moonshot may hit a Texas-sized speed bump — and it’s coming from his own party.
Trump’s AI initiative, dubbed "Stargate," aims to build 20 ultra-powerful data centers across the country. Backed by heavyweights like OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and the UAE-funded MGX, the project represents a $500 billion bet on the future with Texas chosen as ground zero for the first 10 centers.
But a new Texas bill, Senate Bill 6, could delay or derail that momentum.
The legislation adds a six-month regulatory review on top of an existing 6–18-month timeline, while also requiring new fees and mandatory backup generators, doubling approval time and inflating costs.
And while the legislation is pitched as a safeguard against another Winter Storm Uri-style blackout, Trump allies warn it could torpedo a generational opportunity.
"This bill would be a serious roadblock to the president’s vision," said Vance Ginn, president of Ginn Economic Consulting and former chief economist at the White House Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
"It’s a misguided effort that’s rooted in fear: fear of energy scarcity, fear of AI, fear of the future."
According to Ginn, the bill’s hefty requirements, including a $100,000 grid connection fee and a so-called "kill switch" that would let the Electric Reliability Council of Texas cut power to data centers, could end up pushing these billion-dollar projects out of Texas entirely.
"These companies aren’t just using energy," Ginn said. "Many of them actually put excess electricity back onto the grid. So instead of hurting Texas, they help stabilize it."
Stargate has already broken ground in Abilene, but the next 10 data centers are still up in the air. If Texas becomes too costly or complicated, experts warn the back half of the project might never happen — even as rival states like Wyoming and Tennessee court businesses without Texas’s infrastructure.
"The Texas legislature should be working in lockstep with President Trump to build out AI infrastructure, not throwing up barriers," Ginn added. "The AI revolution is here. If Texas fumbles this, it will fall behind."
The bill’s sponsor, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, insists the legislation won’t hurt Trump’s agenda. "Senate Bill 6 actually ensures President Trump’s Stargate Plan is a success," Patrick said in a statement. "We are in lockstep with the president on his goal to make America number one, and dominate China on AI, data centers, and cryptocurrency."
Even with a Trump endorsement for Patrick's re-election, Trump-aligned economists say the state is playing a dangerous game.
"We’re already seeing signs of this," Ginn warned. "Microsoft has pulled back on projects. Investors are nervous. And meanwhile, China’s forging ahead."
A Chinese startup called DeepSeek has made headlines for rolling out cutting-edge AI models in record time, triggering fresh anxiety about America’s standing in the global AI arms race.
"This isn’t just about innovation," Ginn said. "This is national security. If we’re six months behind China, we may never catch up."
Trump has backed up his AI push with hard policy, including a 10% blanket tariff on all imports and a steep 125% tariff on Chinese goods, announced just last week. But those tariffs could also raise the price of key data center components, from steel to electrical transformers.
Despite the tradeoffs, the Trump administration sees Stargate as a cornerstone of 21st-century American leadership in everything from education to healthcare.
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday that a $150 million federal grant had been finalized to construct a new port of entry facility and road for the San Diego-Baja California border.
As part of the agreement for the grant, Green New Deal requirements from the Biden administration, including a zero-emission vehicle charging provision, will be removed.
The DOT called the requirements a waste of taxpayer funds, taking away from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) mission toward national security.
The Otay Mesa East Port of Entry project was awarded a grant from the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program in September 2022, though the project never moved forward.
"Thanks to the prior administration’s lack of focus, this critical project sat in limbo for two years. No more. We moved to finalize this deal so we can help protect our Southern border and crack down on drug trafficking while preventing tax dollars subsidizing pointless Green New Deal priorities," Duffy said. "This department will continue to clear the previous administration’s unprecedented grants backlog and deliver results."
The $150 million investment will give the CBP new state-of-the-art inspection facilities, as well as a commercial vehicle enforcement facility.
The deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to help manage traffic demand through dynamic tolling will also be included, which the DOT said will increase inspection efficiency and bolster cross-border trade.
DOT added that the project will reduce congestion, bring economic benefits and spur job creation across Southern California.
The nearly 3,600 trucks that cross the border at Otay Mesa and Tecate Ports of Entry, which are currently operating at full capacity, will have an alternative crossing once the project is complete.
The project comes after the Trump administration inherited over 3,200 grants which were promoted by the Biden administration but never followed through on, according to the DOT.
"This unprecedented backlog of unobligated grants delayed critical investments in communities across the country," the DOT said in a news release. "Under Secretary Duffy’s leadership, the Department is working diligently to accelerate the distribution of these long-overdue funds and address core infrastructure projects."
Former President Joe Biden, while reflecting on his youth and witnessing segregation firsthand, referred to Black students as "colored kids" in his first major address since exiting the Oval Office.
"We lived in an apartment complex, and she'd [Biden's mom] drive us only about half a mile to Holy Rosary School in Claymont. But it was so dangerous, she wouldn't let us walk up," Biden said Tuesday evening while delivering a speech on the Social Security Administration before a disability advocacy conference in Chicago.
"There were hardly any Black people in Scranton at the time … and I was only going into fourth grade. And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called colored kids, on a bus going by," Biden added in his anecdote to explain the importance of civil rights laws to him and why he got involved in politics.
The 46th president was reflecting on how his family moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, when he was in fourth grade and how he witnessed segregated schools in the nation's second-smallest state.
"They never turned right to go to Claymont High School," Biden said of Black students not attending a White school. "I asked my mom why? Why? In Delaware, they're not allowed to go to school in public school with White kids.
"And it sparked my sense of outrage as a kid, just like it does [now]."
The Supreme Court effectively ended segregation in public schools across the country in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The former president joined the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago Tuesday evening, where he received the "beacon of hope award" for his accomplishments as president and addressed the gathering about the Social Security Administration, including attacking the Trump administration for its policies.
"Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?" Biden asked, referring to the Trump administration. "Well, they're following that old line from tech startups. The quote is ‘move fast, break things.’ They're certainly breaking things. They're shooting first and aiming later.
"The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights."
Biden added that the Trump administration is looking to "wreck" Social Security to "rob it."
"My friend, Gov. O'Malley, knows what they're really up to. He says, and I love his quote, ‘They want to wreck it so they could rob it.’ They want to wreck it so they could rob it. Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That's going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for (it) when they continue to run the deficit up?
"What they always do … by running up the national debt, No. 1. Then by taking the money from someplace else. What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid. …. Republicans, these guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to their already very wealthy. Who in the hell do they think they are?"
The Trump administration has cut about 7,000 Social Security Administration staffers since taking office as part of its mission to cut government fat and bureaucracy and realign agencies with "America First" policies. Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump over the cuts, claiming he will cut Social Security benefits to seniors.
The White House has repeatedly rejected claims that the Trump administration will cut such benefits, vowing to "always protect" Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
The Trump administration's official Social Security X account responded after the speech that "Biden is lying to Americans," before providing a detailed list of "facts," including that Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect benefits and that no field office has been closed since Jan. 20.
The ACRD conference was billed as the 46th president's first public speech since leaving the White House. Biden however, has delivered other public remarks since Jan. 20, Fox Digital found, such as speaking at the National High School Model United Nations in March, but those events received little media coverage.
The Defense Department's (DOD) deputy chief of staff was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, following the steps of another Pentagon official earlier in the day.
Darin Selnick, the deputy chief of staff for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been removed, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.
Selnick is under investigation for the same leak probe that saw Hegseth aide Dan Caldwell escorted out of the Pentagon by security. Both Selnick and Caldwell are on administrative leave.
According to the Pentagon's website, Selnick is a retired Air Force officer who has worked extensively in veterans' affairs organizations.
"Mr. Selnick leverages his extensive government and non-government experience advocating for veterans to position Service members for productive post-separation lives from the first day they put on a uniform," the biography states.
"The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy," DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo at the time. "This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense."
An official told Politico that the leak concerned Panama Canal plans and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon, among other matters.
More information about the leak is unknown, and there is currently no evidence to connect Caldwell or Selnick to that leak.
Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been hit with shocking allegations by the Trump administration, accusing her of mortgage fraud.
In documents obtained by Fox News Channel's "The Ingraham Angle," the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing James of mortgage fraud Tuesday.
FHFA Director William Pulte said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that James appears to have falsified records to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms.
Pulte cited a property in Virginia that James allegedly claimed as her principal residence and a property in New York she claimed as a four-unit structure instead of five, which he said could mean she was able to get a different and more favorable loan.
Fox News contributor and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News host Laura Ingraham the irony of James getting accused of falsifying records is "perfectly crushing."
"This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges that were brought in New York, in just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions," Turley said. "As for James, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there'd be little question here. This seems pretty straightforward."
He explained the Trump administration is saying this was not her principal residence because, as a New York elected official, she has to say her principal residence is in New York.
James is also accused of saying her father was her husband to file as a married couple, Turley added.
"The Supreme Court just stated earlier in March, in a case called Thompson, that they want to see knowing false statements under sections, like 10-14, not just misleading statements," Turley said. "These are misleading statements. Either it's your principal residence or it's not. Either you're married to your father or he's your father."
The DOJ and James did not respond to Fox News on the matter.
The issue has been prosecuted in the past, but as Turley said on the Ingraham Angle, the "documents themselves are quite damning."
Retired NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro told Fox News Digital he first reported the allegations against James on his Substack almost 10 weeks ago.
"The documents presented by Sam Antar, and the research he has done, appear entirely authentic," Mauro said. "In which case, AG James appears to have engaged in the very sort of fraud which she alleged in her ludicrous case against Donald Trump. Let's see now, if indeed, as AG James has stated herself, nobody is above the law."
The New York Post reported that the documents show that the property James purchased with her father had both parties listed as "husband and wife" in 1983 and 2000.
"While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James' representations on mortgage applications," Pulte reportedly wrote.
James brought forth a civil fraud suit against President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and its senior leadership in 2022, frequently sitting in the courtroom throughout the proceedings and celebrating the prosecution of Trump in the Manhattan criminal trial over the 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump was ordered to pay a $454 million civil fraud judgment in James’ lawsuit against him, which is currently on appeal.
So far in 2025, James has spearheaded at least five legal actions against the Trump administration, including leading a coalition of state attorneys general to sue the federal government to halt DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s internal systems, and another lawsuit related to the Trump administration slashing grant funding to research institutions and universities.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
White House aides are quietly floating a proposal within the House GOP that would raise the tax rate for people making more than $1 million to 40%, two sources familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital, to offset the cost of eliminating tips on overtime pay, tipped wages, and retirees' Social Security.
The sources stressed the discussions were only preliminary, and the plan is one of many being talked about as congressional Republicans work on advancing President Donald Trump's agenda via the budget reconciliation process.
Trump and his White House have not yet taken a position on the matter, but the idea is being looked at by his aides and staff on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile House GOP leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have publicly opposed the idea of any tax hikes.
"I'm not a big fan of doing that. I mean, we're the Republican Party and we're for tax reduction for everyone," Johnson said on "Sunday Morning Futures."
One GOP lawmaker asked about the proposal and granted anonymity to speak candidly said they would be open to supporting it but preferred a higher starting point than $1 million.
They said the reaction was "mixed" among other House Republicans. But not all House GOP lawmakers are privy to the discussions, and it's not immediately clear how wide the proposal has been circulated.
Nevertheless, it signals that Republicans are deeply divided on how to go about enacting Trump's tax agenda.
Extending Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and enacting his newer tax proposals is a cornerstone of Republicans' plans for the budget reconciliation process.
By lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party in power to skirt opposition to pass a sweeping piece of legislation advancing its own priorities – provided the measures deal with tax, spending, or the national debt.
Extending Trump's tax cuts is expected to cost trillions of dollars alone. But even if Republicans use a budgetary calculation to hide its cost, known as current policy baseline, they will still have to find a path forward for new policies eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and retirees' Social Security checks.
Hiking taxes on the ultra-wealthy could also serve to put Democrats in a tricky political situation in forcing them to choose between supporting Trump's policies and opposing an idea they've pushed for years.
The top income tax rate is currently about 37% on $609,351 in earnings for a single person or $731,201 for married couples.
But raising the rate for millionaires could be one way to pay for Trump's new tax policies.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., one of the deficit hawks leading the charge to ensure new spending is paired with deep cuts elsewhere, said "That's one possibility."
"What I'd like to do is I'd actually like to find spending reductions elsewhere in the budget, but if we can't get enough spending reductions, we're going to have to pay for our tax cuts," Harris told "Mornings with Maria" last week.
"Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the highest tax bracket was 39.6%, it was less than $1 million. Ideally, what we could do, again, if we can't find spending reductions, we say 'Okay, let's restore that higher bracket, let's set it at maybe $2 million income and above,' to help pay for the rest of the president's agenda."
But Johnson's No. 2, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., again poured cold water on the idea Tuesday.
"I don't support that initiative," Scalise told "Mornings with Maria," though he added, "everything's on the table."
"That's why you hear all kind of ideas being bounced around. And if we take no action, then you'd have over 90% of Americans see a tax increase," Scalise warned.
Bloomberg News was first to report House Republicans' 40% tax hike proposal.
When reached for comment, the White House pointed Fox News Digital to comments by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Tuesday when she said Trump had not made up his mind on another proposal to raise the corporate tax rate.
"I've seen this idea proposed. I've heard this idea discussed. But I don't believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not," Leavitt said.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Johnson's office for comment.
Former President Joe Biden took shots at the Trump administration's Social Security policies in his first major speech since leaving the White House on Tuesday evening.
"Seriously, people are now genuinely concerned for the first time in history, for the first and only time in history, that Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted," Biden said from the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago on Tuesday evening.
"In the 90 years, since Franklin Roosevelt created the Social Security system, people have always gotten their Social Security checks. They've gotten them during wartime, during recessions, during the pandemic. No matter what, they got them. But now, for the first time ever, that might change. It would be calamity for millions of families, millions of people," he added.
The ACRD conference was billed as the 46th president's first public speech since leaving the White House. Biden however, has delivered other public remarks since Jan. 20, Fox Digital found, including speaking before the National High School Model United Nations in March, which received little media attention, as well as joining an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers event this month.
ACRD is an advocacy organization that works to equip "disability professionals with the tools, technology, and training to lead the industry forward," according to its website.
Biden's keynote address, which ran less than an hour, overwhelmingly focused on his accomplishments with Social Security when he served as president, taking aim at how the Trump administration is allegedly keeping the elderly up at night with worry over their Social Security benefits, as well as cracking a few jokes about his decades in politics.
"Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?" Biden asked, referring to the Trump administration. "Well, they're following that old line from tech startups. The quote is ‘move fast, break things.’ They're certainly breaking things. They're shooting first, and aiming later."
"The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights," Biden said.
The Trump administration has cut about 7,000 Social Security Administration staffers since taking office as part of its mission to cut government fat and bureaucracy, and realign agencies with "America First" policies. Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump over the cuts, claiming he will cut Social Security benefits to seniors.
The White House has repeatedly rejected claims that the Trump administration will cut such benefits, vowing to "always protect" Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Biden continued that the Trump administration is allegedly looking to "wreck" Social Security to "rob it."
"My friend Gov. O'Malley knows what they're really up to. He says, and I love his quote, ‘They want to wreck it so they could rob it.’ They want to wreck it so they could rob it. Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That's going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for, when they continue to run the deficit up?"
"What they always do … by running up the national debt, number one. Then by taking the money from someplace else. What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid. …. Republicans, these guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class, in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to their already very wealthy. Who in the hell do they think they are?" he said.
Former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and former Democrat Maryland Gov. and Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley also joined the event. O'Malley presented Biden with ACRD's "beacon of hope award" for his accomplishments as president, including his leadership during the pandemic and fighting for the "dignity of every person."
Biden added during that the nation is "divided" under Trump and can't continue on the same path.
"We can't go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are. I said, I've been doing this a long time, it's never been this divided. Granted, it's roughly 30%, but it's a 30% that has no heart," he continued.
The Trump administration's official Social Security X account hit back after the speech that "Biden is lying to Americans," before providing a detailed list of "facts," including that Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect benefits and that no field office has been closed since Jan. 20.
"SSA is taking commonsense steps to transform how we serve the public - last month, we spent $16.5 million to modernize telephone services nationwide. We’re developing cutting-edge, AI-powered tools to streamline simple tasks," the thread continued. "SSA Inspector General report released while Joe Biden was President found $72 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 through 2022."
The event comes as political books investigating the 2024 campaign cycle hit the shelves, including "Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History" and "FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House."
Excerpts from Chris Whipple's "Unchartered" reported that White House staffers allegedly kept Biden from socializing with others, including close allies and friends, out of fear the 46th president "might say the wrong thing or might feed the mental acuity narrative." While he also appeared "absolutely exhausted" ahead of his ill-fated debate against Trump in June, according to the book, which opened the floodgates to public concern over Biden's mental acuity as he tripped over his words and lost his train of thought during the debate.
Biden has been spending his days in both Delaware and the nation's capital since his Oval Office exit, with the 46th president working on his own book while also meeting with various Democratic Party leaders, NBC News reported in March.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited New Mexico on Tuesday to announce the U.S. Army will take control of nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest attempt to curb illegal immigration and trafficking.
The 109,651 acres of federal land will be transferred to the Army for three years, subject to valid existing rights, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The move comes after President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum, "Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions," directing the secretaries of Defense, Interior, Agriculture and Homeland Security to take control of federal lands "reasonably necessary to enable military activities."
The switch in jurisdiction will allow the government to protect sensitive natural and cultural resources in the region, while helping the Army support U.S. Border Patrol operations in securing the border and preventing illegal immigration, according to the Department of the Interior.
"Securing our border and protecting our nation’s resources go hand in hand," Burgum said in the statement. "The American people gave President Trump a mandate to make America safe and strong again."
Burgum said the change reflects Interior’s commitment to public safety, national security and responsible stewardship of public lands.
The Army requested the transfer on "an emergency basis," so they could increase regular patrols by federal personnel.
Trump declared a national emergency earlier this year along the southern border.
The Army will also be able to build infrastructure to prevent illegal immigrants, human traffickers and narcotics from crossing the border.
The department noted the crisis along the border is not limited to national security and law enforcement concerns, but also "presents an environmental crisis."
Nearly two dozen federally endangered species live in the region, which was previously managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The region also contains cultural sites that range from small artifact scatters to large multiroom pueblos, which could be harmed by repeated foot traffic, unregulated vehicle use and the creation of informal trails or camps, according to the statement.
High-traffic illegal crossings could lead to soil erosion, damage to fragile desert vegetation and critical wildlife habitat, loss and damage to cultural resources, increased fire risk and pollution from trash and human waste.
The department acknowledged some of the land transferred to the Army is essential to the livelihoods of local communities and said the Bureau of Land Management will work with the Army to ensure "some" uses will continue to support local grazing and mining.
-Biden to address disability advocates in first major speech since leaving White House
A top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday and placed on administrative leave, according to a Defense Department official.
Reuters first reported Caldwell had been placed on leave for an "unauthorized disclosure" of information amid an investigation into Pentagon leaks. An official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Reuters' reporting is accurate but declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.
Caldwell previously worked at restraint-minded think tank Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, a group formerly led by Hegseth. A foreign policy realist, he has argued that the U.S. should dramatically reduce its footprint in Europe and pull out forces in Iraq and Syria…Read more
‘NEED TO COMPLY’: SCOTUS should hold Trump admin in contempt over deported Salvadoran migrant
A federal judge told Trump lawyers they must expeditiously comply with her requests in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident wrongfully deported to El Salvador last month, as she weighs next steps in the politically charged case.
U.S. Judge Paula Xinis told Trump administration lawyers Tuesday that they will have two weeks to comply with discovery requests in the case of Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident deported to El Salvador last month in what Trump officials have acknowledged was an "administrative error," demanding the government spend time detailing with what, if any, steps it is taking to facilitate his release and return to the U.S.
"Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments," Xinis told lawyers at the Tuesday evening hearing.
She also said she would issue an order in writing directing the government to show her how they have complied with her order to facilitate the release of Abrego-Garcia from El Salvador.
After the two-week period, she will weigh the discovery submissions and determine whether or not the government acted in good faith — or whether there is evidence that could preempt potential contempt proceedings.
Xinis stressed at the outset of the hearing that, in her view, the Supreme Court had "already spoken" in ordering the U.S. to facilitate the release of Abrego Garcia and resume his immigration proceedings as if he were never removed.
"We're going to do it in a targeted way, but we're not going to spend a lot of time doing it," Xinis said of the discovery process, which she stressed will move fast.
Lawyers for the Justice Department said in response that they objected to her view of the Supreme Court's ruling, and the expedited discovery — an objection she dryly quipped in response she would note for the record.
"Just so everyone knows what my current thinking is, Abrego Garcia already won his injunctive proceedings," Xinis told Trump lawyers at the outset of the hearing. "We’re here today to talk about scope of the remedies."
"You made your jurisdictional arguments. You made your venue arguments," Xinis told Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign. "You made your arguments on the merits. You lost."
Just minutes before the hearing, DHS acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara said in a court filing that, should he be returned to the U.S., DHS would take him into custody and remove him to another third country, citing his alleged MS-13 membership.
The hearing comes after government lawyers failed to comply with multiple directives updating the court on his location and custodial status, as well as efforts taken to facilitate his return — a lack of compliance Xinis previously described as "extremely troubling."
Xinis planned to weigh these developments as the court considers next steps in the case, including whether to pursue civil contempt proceedings against the administration.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia argued Tuesday that there is no evidence to show the Trump administration has taken any steps to date to facilitate his return to the U.S. as soon as possible, as ordered by Xinis and upheld by the Supreme Court last week.
"The Supreme Court order requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador," his lawyers wrote.
To date, they noted, the government’s updates "do not indicate that any steps have been taken to comply" with the federal and Supreme Court rulings.
The administration’s apparent refusal to act — or even to clarify Abrego Garcia’s location — has pushed the case to a boiling point, raising the prospect that Xinis could move to hold the Trump administration in civil contempt.
The hearing is the latest in a flurry of legal battles centered on Trump's ability to deport certain migrants from the U.S. to El Salvador.
Most recently, two federal judges in Texas and New York agreed to temporarily block the Trump administration's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act law to immediately remove some migrants from U.S. soil, siding with plaintiffs' contention that allowing removals under the law would likely cause immediate and irreparable harm.
In Brownsville, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. cited a "substantial likelihood" that the individuals in question "could not be returned to the United States" if deported.
In addition to filing incomplete status updates and refusing to answer questions about Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts or efforts to secure his return, Trump officials suggested at the White House on Monday that the U.S. lacks the authority to bring him back.
Asked Monday about progress in returning Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil, Trump officials said his return was "up to El Salvador" and that the U.S. would "provide a plane" — appearing to ignore a court order to facilitate his return.
"That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him," Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters. "That's not up to us."
This contention was backed by other Cabinet officials, including White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and by Salvadorian President Bukele himself.
"How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States?" Bukele told reporters Monday during a sit-down with President Donald Trump and other senior administration officials.
"Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous," he said.
As of this writing, the Trump administration has not returned any of the individuals who have been sent to El Salvador's sprawling, high-security prison, including any Venezuelan nationals who may have been mistakenly identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as well as Abrego Garcia.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced a plan to restrict the types of food that can be purchased with food stamps, becoming one of the first governors to seek federal permission to ban items like soda and candy from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
At a news conference at the Arkansas Capitol Tuesday, Sanders said her administration had submitted a waiver request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would prohibit the use of SNAP benefits for soft drinks, artificially sweetened candy and snacks made with flour, while expanding eligible items to include hot rotisserie chicken, which is currently excluded.
"Right now you can use food stamps to buy a soft drink or a candy bar from a gas station, but you can't use them to buy an Arkansas-raised hot rotisserie chicken from a grocery store," Sanders said. "That’s the definition of crazy."
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins praised Sanders' move in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"Gov. Sanders is confronting childhood disease head on, and it starts with what families consume," Rollins said. "Today’s waiver announcement is a welcome one, and I look forward to moving through the approval process swiftly. I encourage more states across the nation to follow the bold lead of states like Arkansas as we Make America Healthy Again."
The waiver request is part of the Trump administration’s "Make America Healthy Again" or MAHA agenda, which seeks to address chronic disease and healthcare costs by reforming federal nutrition programs.
"We finally have a president who, along with Secretary Rollins, has put a laser focus on solving America’s chronic disease epidemic," Sanders said. "Reforming food stamps is a great place to start."
Trump's policies on food and health are taking the spotlight in his second administration, with a shift toward state-driven solutions focused on prevention rather than treatment. The MAHA initiative is led in part by Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also appeared Tuesday at a similar SNAP reform announcement in Indiana.
Speaking in Arkansas, Rollins praised the state’s leadership.
"What we are doing here today is affirming the value of federalism in all aspects of governance," she said. "No federal bureaucrat can understand the needs of Arkansas families better than their own governor."
Rollins added that SNAP reform was a key issue for Trump.
"This is one of the things he campaigned on, and this is what the American people voted for," she said.
Sanders said the program, originally designed to fight hunger, has been twisted by outdated regulations and perverse incentives.
"One third of our state has diabetes or is prediabetic," she said. "We’re paying for it on the front end and the back end."
The waiver would affect nearly 350,000 Arkansas residents enrolled in SNAP and is scheduled to take effect in July 2026 if approved.
According to Sanders, 23% of SNAP spending, or $27 billion per year, is used on soft drinks, candy and desserts, while the state spends $300 million annually treating chronic illness through Medicaid.
"This is not about taking anything away," she said. "It’s simply saying that taxpayers are no longer going to cover the cost of junk food like candy and soft drinks."
Rollins praised Arkansas's SNAP reform plan as a bold step toward improving public health, calling Sanders "courageous" for addressing childhood disease through nutrition.
"We are working to realign USDA and every taxpayer dollar around what is the best and most effective spend," Rollins said.
Arkansas Department of Human Services Secretary Kristi Putnam noted that the same state agency running SNAP also manages Medicaid.
"In one program, we’ve subsidized foods that we know make people less healthy. In the other, we’re devoting significant resources to treating the same conditions brought on by unhealthy food," she said. "This makes no sense."
Critics, including the Food Research and Action Center, have argued the restrictions are punitive and unsupported by data. Trade groups representing beverage and candy manufacturers have also criticized the move.
As reported by The Associated Press, American Beverage accused officials of "choosing to be the food police," while the National Confectioners Association called the plan "misguided."
Sanders addressed concerns about food costs, noting her administration’s work to eliminate the state grocery tax.
"I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that you're gonna be better off having purchased a pack of Skittles and that your hunger is gonna be satisfied after that purchase," she said.
Rollins stressed that funding levels for SNAP would not change. "It just opens up the opportunity to buy better and more healthy food moving forward," she said.
The Arkansas waiver request was formally submitted Tuesday and includes a 30-day public comment period. The USDA and the governor’s office are expected to begin coordination on implementation details this week.
"We’re hopeful that this gets done very quickly," Sanders said.
President Donald Trump is seeking to combat soaring prescription drug prices in a new executive order he signed Tuesday.
The order instructs Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) to standardize Medicare payments for prescription drugs — including those used for cancer patients — no matter where a patient receives treatment. This could lower prices for patients by as much as 60%, according to a White House fact sheet.
Likewise, the order also calls to match the Medicare payment for certain prescription drugs to the price that hospitals pay for those drugs — up to 35% lower than what the government pays to acquire those medications, the White House said.
The order also takes steps to lower insulin prices. Specifically, the order calls for lowering insulin prices for low-income patients or those that are uninsured to as little as three cents, and injectable epinephrine to treat allergic reactions to as low as $15, coupled with a "small administrative fee," according to a White House fact sheet.
Additionally, the order attempts to drive down states’ drug prices by "facilitating importation programs that could save states millions in prescription drug prices," as well as bolstering programs that assist states secure deals on sickle-cell medications in Medicaid, the fact sheet said.
The order also requires DHS to seek comment on the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which the Biden administration authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act and allows Medicare to directly engage in hashing out prescription prices with drug companies.
"The guidance shall improve the transparency of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, prioritize the selection of prescription drugs with high costs to the Medicare program, and minimize any negative impacts of the maximum fair price on pharmaceutical innovation within the United States," the order said.
Drug prices have significantly ramped up in recent years. Between January 2022 and January 2023, prescription drug prices rose more than 15% and reached an average of $590 per drug product, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Of the 4,200 prescription drugs included on that list, 46% of the price increases exceeded the rate of inflation.
Previous efforts under the first Trump administration to curb prescription drug prices included installing a cap on Medicaid prescription drug plans for insulin at $35.
Meanwhile, Trump's 145% tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. could mean that healthcare costs are particularly susceptible to price increases. Market research group Black Book Research found that 84% of experts predict that prices for medical treatments and drugs will rise due to the tariffs, according to a survey released in February.
Additionally, Trump signaled Monday that tariffs on the pharmaceutical were headed down the pipeline.
"We don’t make our own drugs anymore," Trump told reporters Monday. "The drug companies are in Ireland, and they’re in lots of other places, China."
Trump signed the executive order Tuesday, along with others that seek to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing Social Security benefits, and another one calling to investigate the impact of imported processed mineral on national security.
Tuesday's executive order comes days after the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told states Thursday that the federal government would cease assistance to states to fund nonmedical services geared toward things like nutrition for those enrolled in Medicaid.
Fox News' Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
The White House blasted Ivy League institutions for "egregious illegal behavior" as the Trump administration goes head-to-head with Harvard University to install changes to the academic institution’s governance and admissions process.
After Harvard refused to comply with a series of requests from the Trump administration to reform various practices on campus, the administration revealed Monday that it would freeze more than $2 billion in federal funding for the institution.
When asked why federal funding is so available to institutions like Harvard, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it’s one President Donald Trump has often brought up himself.
"It's a question the president has obviously raised in his discussions, in negotiations with not just Harvard, but also Columbia and many other Ivy League institutions," Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
"We have the antisemitism task force, which the president promised and delivered on," Leavitt said. "The antisemitism task forces across the government, representatives from various federal agencies who meet on a weekly basis to discuss the question that you just raised. And I think a lot of Americans are wondering why their tax dollars are going to these universities when they are not only indoctrinating our nation's students, but also allowing such egregious illegal behavior to occur."
However, Harvard University President Alan M. Garber said in a Monday statement that the Trump administration tacked on additional requests that go beyond addressing antisemitism on campus, and the institution would not comply because the demands were unconstitutional.
Specifically, Garber said the new requests "direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard," including auditing viewpoints of student, faculty and staff members on campus, and eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices and initiatives at Harvard.
"It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner," Garber wrote. "We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement."
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice unveiled the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism in February, which aims to eradicate bias on campuses that have experienced incidents targeting Jewish students since October 2023.
The task force evaluates conduct on the following campuses: Columbia University; George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California.
"Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws," the task force said in a statement Monday. "The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable.
"It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support," the statement said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed "rogue" judges during a press briefing Tuesday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from revoking the legal status and work permits of more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
On Tuesday, Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt why President Joe Biden was allowed to establish the program "with the stroke of a pen" but Trump was being stopped from ending CHNV the way it started.
"I spoke to White House counsel's office about this this morning because, obviously, another rogue district court judge is trying to block the administration's mass deportation efforts with this latest injunction," Leavitt said. She also slammed the Biden administration, accusing former officials of abusing the U.S. parole system "to fast-track legal status" for illegal immigrants.
"We will continue to focus on deporting as many individuals as we can," Leavitt added.
Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote in her order blocking the Trump administration that each of the more than 530,000 migrants needed to have an individualized case-by-case review.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration said Talwani’s ruling essentially prohibits Trump from using his own executive authority to revoke parole that Biden granted when he was in office.
"It is pure lawless tyranny," a Trump administration official told Fox News.
Under a Biden-era program known as CHNV, migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela were allowed to enter the U.S. via humanitarian parole after receiving advance travel authorization. The program permitted up to 30,000 nationals per month to enter the country.
Republicans opposed the program and urged the Biden administration to shut it down. Several House lawmakers signed a letter at the time to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling for an end to CHNV as the U.S. faced "an unprecedented crisis" at its southern border.
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion and Louis Casiano and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
A top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday and placed on administrative leave, according to a Defense Department official.
Reuters first reported Caldwell had been placed on leave for an "unauthorized disclosure" of information amid an investigation into Pentagon leaks. An official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Reuters' reporting is accurate but declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.
Caldwell, who formerly worked at restraint-minded think tank Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, a group formerly led by Hegseth. A foreign policy realist, he has argued that the U.S. should dramatically reduce its footprint in Europe and pull out forces in Iraq and Syria.
Last month the Defense Department announced a probe into "recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information" and said it planned to use polygraphs to determine the source of leaks.
"The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy," DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo. "This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense."
He wrote that "information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure" would be referred for criminal prosecution."
Caldwell did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo was denied nearly $3 million in publicly matched campaign funds by New York City's campaign finance regulators on Tuesday.
The denial of $2.5 million in publicly matched campaign funds followed a frantic email the Cuomo campaign sent out Friday, calling on those who had donated to his campaign to fill out a form to ensure all requirements for the public money were necessarily met. But that effort failed.
Public confirmation of the denial was made in a Tuesday press release from the New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB), which indicated that at least 20% of Cuomo's required disclosures contained documentation errors for contributions. The press release also said that the Cuomo campaign failed to meet its required two-part threshold of total contributions, which must be at least 1,000 different individuals, and contributors, which must amount to at least $250,000, needed to obtain the publicly matched funds.
"Our campaign officially announced on March 1, and within 13 days, proudly raised an unprecedented $1.5 million, including $330,000 in matchable funds, from more than 2,800 donors. This surpassed the campaign finance board's threshold for qualifying for matching funds by the filing deadline of March 13. Since the last filing deadline on March 13, the campaign has amassed an additional $1 million, totaling over $2.5 million raised from over 4,100 individuals," Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in a statement.
"Last Friday, the campaign was informed by the campaign finance board that, due to a technical software error, contributions collected on one of our vendor platforms, NGP, were missing one of the fields required by the Campaign Finance Board, and so while we met the thresholds necessary to receive matching funds, the campaign had to remedy this technical matter."
Azzopardi noted that the "technical software error" had been remedied and the adequate documentation was provided to the city's campaign finance board. However, the campaign won't be able to receive matching funds until the next payment period beginning May 12.
Nearly every other top mayoral candidate received payouts Tuesday, according to Politico. However, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams found himself denied $4.5 million in matching funds over the same reasons Cuomo did, in addition to other bookkeeping and compliance mistakes.
Polling from Siena College found Cuomo as the front-runner among Democrats, but Adams was not included in the survey results as he will be running for reelection as an Independent.
Adams was facing a federal corruption investigation until the Trump administration stepped in and got the case dismissed. As a result of the investigation, one of the NYCCFB's members, Richard Davis, has recused himself from voting on any matters related to Adams after writing an editorial earlier this year in which he slammed President Donald Trump's Justice Department for intervening in the Adams case, referring to the move as "ludicrous."
The Democrat-controlled city council of New York City is suing Mayor Eric Adams for cooperating with the Trump administration by allowing ICE to conduct immigration investigations at Rikers Island Prison.
The city council is asking the court to declare an executive order by the mayor’s office allowing ICE into Rikers Island "illegal, null, and void."
The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of New York on Tuesday. In the suit, the city council accuses Adams of engaging in an illegal "quid pro quo" with the Trump administration by allowing ICE into the city prison in exchange for having the federal corruption charges against him dropped.
The suit claims that Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent, prioritized his own political goals over the city’s "prized sanctuary laws," calling the executive order "the poisoned fruit of Mayor Adams’s deal with the Trump Administration."
"Today, in New York City, a corrupt bargain is taking place in plain view: New York City Mayor Eric Adams … is using his official powers to pay off the Trump Administration for dropping criminal charges against him," the suit claims. "The ‘purchase price’- which was agreed to in advance and is now being proffered - is the safety and wellbeing of immigrant communities and all New Yorkers whose rights are protected by our City's prized sanctuary laws."
At issue in the suit is an executive order signed by New York City First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro last week that allows federal immigration authorities to operate an office on Rikers Island to help carry out criminal investigations into drug trafficking, organized violence and migrant gang activity plaguing the city.
The order states that the safety of New Yorkers has been jeopardized by violent transnational gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua – gangs designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration – and there is a critical need for federal law enforcement to share "real-time" intelligence with the city’s corrections department and police.
The order allows federal law enforcement agencies to share intelligence with the corrections department and NYPD about criminal gang activity among individuals both inside and outside of custody.
It does not give ICE permission to carry out civil immigration enforcement and arrest people simply for being undocumented.
The order was issued the week after federal charges against Adams were dismissed. He had been accused of using his position as mayor to receive luxury travel and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish foreign nationals. Adams insisted the case was politically motivated and was pursued in retaliation for his criticism of President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Democrat who is running to unseat Adams, claimed in a Tuesday statement that the order allowing ICE to conduct immigration investigations on criminals at Rikers Island is "a naked attempt by Eric Adams to fulfill his end of the bargain for special treatment he received from the Trump administration."
She said the city council’s lawsuit is an attempt to "protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers against attacks by the Trump administration—because the city’s mayor won’t stop placing his own personal interests ahead of the people of our city."
Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Adams, responded to the lawsuit by calling it "baseless" and "contrary to the public interest."
"The City Council appears to be spreading misinformation," Mamelak told Fox News Digital. "So let’s be clear: To maintain the trust of the nearly 8.5 million New Yorkers our administration serves and protects every day — and to ensure there was never even the appearance of any conflict — Mayor Adams delegated all powers, responsibilities, and decision-making related to any action authorizing federal officials to investigate crimes at Rikers Island to First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro."
The spokesperson said that Mastro "conducted a thorough and independent assessment — which included multiple visits to Rikers Island, conversations with federal law enforcement and our own Department of Correction officers, and more — and he independently concluded that a federal presence at Rikers to conduct federal criminal investigations is in New York City’s best interest and protects public safety, particularly in our ongoing efforts to target violent transnational gangs now present in our city, including those designated as terrorist organizations."
"Executive Order 50 is expressly authorized by New York City’s local laws — the very laws enacted by the City Council," said Mamelak. "While we will review the lawsuit, this one seems baseless and contrary to the public interest in protecting New Yorkers from violent criminals. We remain committed to our administration’s efforts to reduce crime and keep New Yorkers safe — we hope the City Council will join us in doing so."
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
