Law enforcement organizations and unions nationwide are throwing their support behind Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security chief, citing her as the "best leader to restore justice" and tackle immigration woes left over from the Biden administration. 

"We respectfully urge you and your colleagues in the Senate to confirm Governor Noem without delay. The border security crisis demands immediate attention, and the confirmation of Governor Noem is a critical step in addressing this urgent issue," International Union of Police Associations Local 6020, Broward Deputy Sheriffs Association, President Donald Prichard wrote in one of the endorsement letters to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., earlier this month. 

At least eight police groups or unions have issued letters to Paul, calling on the upcoming chairman of the committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to swiftly confirm Noem to combat the immigration crisis along the southern border, as well as stem the flow of deadly narcotics coming across the border and crack down on crime. Trump announced Noem as his pick for DHS chief shortly after his decisive win over Vice President Kamala Harris in November. 

The DHS oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

'KNOWS HOW TO GET THINGS DONE': BORDER PATROL UNION RALLIES AROUND NOEM AS DHS CHIEF

Law enforcement groups that have endorsed Noem include: the National Fraternal Order of Police, the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers in the U.S.; the National Association of Police Organizations; the International Union of Police Associations; the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association; International Union of Police Associations Local 6020; the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association; the Police Officers Association of Michigan; and the National Border Patrol Council. 

'SECURE OUR BORDER': MASSIVE POLICE ORG CALLS FOR SWIFT CONFIRMATION OF NOEM TO DHS

The Police Officers Association of Michigan – the Great Lakes State’s largest law enforcement group – endorsed Noem in a letter to Paul this month, lamenting that, under the Biden administration, police have faced a more difficult job as illegal immigration moved north and rocked the state. 

"We represented our members as they reported for work every day while others remained home during COVID and as groups of rioters attacked our members with a variety of weapons," James Tignanelli, the president of the Michigan police group, wrote in a letter to Paul on Dec. 5. 

"The job has grown even more difficult because the Biden Administration has intentionally failed to enforce our immigration laws. Criminal aliens and deadly fentanyl have crossed our open borders and have increased crime in both rural and urban communities across Michigan. We always had the northern border to patrol. Now, the open border across the south has consumed Michigan as well. The current leadership of the Department of Homeland Security has betrayed us. Claims of ‘the border is secure’ were and are absurd," he continued. 

The National Border Patrol Council, a union representing about 18,000 Border Patrol agents, called on Paul and his Senate colleagues to "quickly" consider Noem’s confirmation. 

TRUMP SELECTS SOUTH DAKOTA GOV KRISTI NOEM TO RUN DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

"On behalf of the men and women of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) who protect our nation's borders, we are excited to provide our support for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee, Governor Kristi Noem, to be the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security," National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez wrote in a letter this month. 

The union said Noem has already established her ability to "get things done" both at home in South Dakota, and on the national stage when she aided Texas’ "Operation Lone Star" to battle the immigration crisis. 

​​"Governor Noem was the first governor to deploy National Guard personnel to the border in Texas to support Operation Lone Star. This deployment bolstered our resources at a critical time along the border and helped to protect Texans and Americans alike."

GOV KRISTI NOEM REFLECTS ON TRUMP WIN, SAYS DEMOCRATS 'TRY TO PUT WOMEN IN A BOX'

Noem has repeatedly deployed South Dakota National Guard troops to the southern border in Texas to help stem illegal border crossings as part of Operation Lone Star. 

"The border is a war zone, so we’re sending soldiers," Noem said in a press release in February, which marked the fifth deployment of National Guard troops to the border under the Biden administration. "These soldiers’ primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America."

Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes wrote in his letter to Paul that his organization also looks "forward to working with [Noem] to secure our border." 

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employs more law enforcement than any other Federal department, and as such we ask the Committee to expeditiously review and confirm nominees as soon as possible to ensure a seamless transition. We especially encourage the committee to hold the earliest possible hearing on Governor Kristi L. Noem to be the next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The FOP supports her nomination, and we look forward to working with her to secure our border," Yoes wrote. 

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT KRISTI NOEM, THE 'BORDER HAWK' NOMINATED BY TRUMP TO LEAD DHS

Trump, who ran on a pledge to end the immigration crisis at the southern border and crack down on the deadly drug epidemic ravaging communities across the nation, announced his nomination of Noem just days after winning the election. 

"Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times. She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries. I have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects – She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again," he wrote last month in his announcement. 

EX-TRUMP OFFICIAL PREDICTS ‘ENTIRE MINDSET CHANGE’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER, HAILS ‘FANTASTIC’ PICK TO LEAD DHS 

Noem has served as governor of the Mount Rushmore State since 2019, and notably gained national attention and praise from conservatives during the pandemic when she bucked lockdown orders and mask mandates common in liberal states such as California and New York. Ahead of her tenure as governor, Noem served in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2019. 

Noem was on Capitol Hill this month meeting with senators to rally support for her confirmation, including meeting with Paul. 

"My first order of business will be getting her confirmed, and I plan on trying to do that either the day of the inauguration or that week," Paul said on The Cats Roundtable with John Catsimatidis earlier this week.  

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in New York arrested a Mexican-born illegal immigrant who sexually abused a child after being removed from the country five times.

According to ICE, the criminal immigrant, 36-year-old Raymond Rojas Basilio, sexually abused an 11-year-old child in the U.S.

Rojas committed this crime after being removed from the country five times and then re-entering once again on an unknown date and at an unknown location, without admission by an immigration official.

The New York Police Department arrested Rojas on Aug. 28, 2023. He was then convicted of forcible touching of the intimate parts of an 11-year-old victim by the Kings County Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Sept. 20, 2024. The court sentenced him to 60 days of incarceration and six years’ probation and required him to register as a sex offender.

DRUNK IMMIGRANT KILLED 7 YEAR OLD MONTHS AFTER HE WAS RELEASED FROM ICE DETAINER

New York ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents then arrested Rojas outside his residence in Queens on Dec. 17.

U.S. Border Patrol first arrested Rojas, following three separate attempts to unlawfully enter the U.S. near Douglas, Arizona, in May 2002.

Border protection officials then arrested Rojas again on Jan. 6, 2012, at Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Arizona, when he attempted to enter the country using a fake Arizona Driver's License and U.S. birth certificate. Just days later, on Jan. 11, border authorities again removed Rojas after he attempted to enter the country using fraudulent documents at another port of entry in Nogales.   

New York ICE Field Office Director Kenneth Genalo commented on the arrest, saying: "This criminal has repeatedly shown he has absolutely no regard for our nation’s laws, as evidenced by his repeated attempts to unlawfully or fraudulently enter the United States."

ICE NABS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN ALASKA, WASHINGTON STATE, OREGON, TEXAS WITH CONVICTIONS FOR CHILD EXPLOITATION

"As this case illustrates, it only takes one successful unlawful entry to do irreparable harm to a member of our community," he continued.

He said that local "non-cooperation policies" in place had prevented ICE from taking immediate custody of Rojas following his sentencing by the Brooklyn court. 

"However, due to the diligence of our officers, ERO New York City was able to rapidly apprehend this public safety threat before he could harm any other New Yorkers," said Genalo.

According to the statement, Rojas is currently in ICE custody pending removal to Mexico. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a new billboard campaign on Thursday to warn potential illegal immigrants about the "horrific" reality of human trafficking, violence and danger facing them if they attempt to illegally enter the U.S.

Abbott said the state is placing dozens of billboards with warnings in several languages throughout Mexico and Central America.

"We’re here to expose the truth to immigrants who are thinking about coming here, the truth about the traffickers who assault so many of the women and children along the way," the governor said. "The message is: Do not risk a dangerous trip just to be arrested and deported."

Abbott, who recently made another trip to the border with the incoming border czar, Tom Homan, also emphasized that the new Trump administration will "prioritize for deportation illegal immigrants who have been arrested."

INCOMING BORDER CZAR HOMAN ISSUES WARNING IN TEXAS TO DEMS OPPOSING TRUMP DEPORTATIONS: 'DON'T TEST US'

Billboards will be written in Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic, and will be placed along migrant travel routes.

The governor made his announcement at a ranch on the southern border. He was standing by a burned "rape tree," where property owners have said migrant women were routinely raped. Abbott said the billboards "tell the horror stories of human trafficking" and "inform potential illegal immigrants about the reality of what will happen to them if they try to enter Texas illegally."

One billboard written in Spanish depicts a little girl and simply asks: "How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?"

'SHUT IT DOWN': RED STATE MAKES MASSIVE LAND BUY TO RAMP UP BORDER WALL EFFORTS AMID MIGRANT SURGE

Another depicts a pregnant woman and says: "Your wife and daughter will pay for their trip with their bodies."

Abbott criticized governments and private groups who "make it sound like it may be harmless going into the state of Texas," and said the state is trying to "provide reality facts for immigrants thinking about coming here to save their lives, to save them from sexual assault, save them from being arrested and let them know there are consequences if they take any further steps to come to the state of Texas."

"This is tough medicine, but we want no more rape trees in Texas," said Abbott. "Do not make the dangerous trek to Texas."

The governor went on to lament the historic surge in illegal immigration under the Biden administration, saying: "It's a deadly situation, a horrific situation, a horror that we fully expect to end beginning in about a month when President Trump takes office and shuts down the border and restores safety and normalcy to the immigration process."

Deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) caught up to levels seen during the Trump administration in Fiscal Year 2024, just as the number of illegal immigrants not in ICE detention soared to new highs.

The annual ICE report released Thursday shows that ICE deported 271,484 illegal immigrants to 192 different countries in fiscal year 2024. Of those, 32.7% had criminal histories and 237 were known or suspected terrorists.

It’s a significant increase from more than 142,000 deported in FY 23, and around 72,000 in FY 2022. In FY 2020, the last year of the Trump administration and which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, there were around 185,000 deportations and in FY 2019 there were 267,000 deportations. 

TRUMP'S TRANSITION TEAM EYES EXPANSION OF ANKLE MONITORS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NOT IN CUSTODY

However, those numbers also include removals of those encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the border, which typically make up the vast majority of ICE deportations. Of removals of those arrested in the interior by ICE itself, just 47,000 illegal immigrants were deported, compared to 44,255 last fiscal year and 28,204 in FY 2022. 

That compared to 62,739 in FY 2020 in the last full year of the Trump administration and 85,958 conducted in FY 2019, nearly double that of FY 2024.

ICE says that its resources were strained by having to shift staff and attention to the southern border to help with the migrant crisis, as well as an increase in those released into the interior.

"In addition, ERO detailed significant numbers of its personnel to support DHS efforts for managing irregular migration at the Southwest Border over the past several fiscal years, further straining ERO’s finite resources," the report says.

Consequently, it says the number of arrests by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) dropped in FY 2024.

"In FY 2024, ERO arrested 113,431 noncitizens — a 33.5% decrease from FY 2023, when ERO conducted a total of 170,590 arrests," the report said. "Although shifts in arrest numbers are driven by multiple complex factors, many of ERO’s resources throughout FY 2024 were concentrated on processing and removing noncitizens at the Southwest Border, limiting interior law enforcement actions. This focus on border cases impacted routine interior enforcement operations."

Both ICE arrests and the number of deportations of those arrested by ICE are expected to increase under the next administration, which has indicated it intends to drop the restrictions put on ICE during the Biden administration and launch a "historic" mass deportation campaign.

‘STANDING BY TO HELP:’ RED STATE REVEALS PLAN TO PURCHASE BORDER WALL MATERIALS TO STORE FOR TRUMP

That promise was a centerpiece of Trump’s 2024 campaign and his team are already making concrete steps towards that goal. It has already drawn resistance from some Democrats, but also some support from others in cities that have been overwhelmed by the massive migrant influx that the country has seen since 2021.

The scope of that challenge is emphasized by the ICE report, which shows that the number of illegal immigrants on ICE's non-detained docket has exploded during the Biden administration to nearly 7.7 million, more than doubling what it was when Trump left office. It was at 3.2 million at the end of FY 2020.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

The non-detained docket is made up of illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings, who are not in ICE custody, but who may be in federal, state or local custody or in forms of monitoring. 

This includes illegal immigrants who were caught and released at the border and are waiting for their court dates, as well as illegal aliens who have already been ordered deported by a DOJ immigration judge after already having their cases heard. 

Fox has previously reported that there are over 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the US with final orders of removal, meaning they have been ordered deported but are still in the U.S. The report revealed that ther were more than 701,000 Venezuelan illegal immigrants on ICE's non-detained docket, but only 1,470 were in ICE detention.

Meanwhile, despite a surge into the U.S. of more than 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children into the U.S. during the Biden administration, just 411 were removed in FY 2024, an increase from the 212 in FY 2023. For comparison, more than 4,000 were removed in FY 20202.

Immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn is sharing this advice with her high-tech clientele: Get back to the US before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The new year brings Trump's return to Washington, and with it, immigration lawyers like Alcorn say they're fielding nonstop calls from tech worker clients to discuss policy changes that may take place under the second Trump administration. Alcorn said she's helping clients file petitions and extensions under current policies and is telling those with valid visas to consider returning to the country from temporary travel overseas before Trump takes office out of an abundance of caution.

Trump swept to victory on promises to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally, but he's offered few hints into how he will shape a legal immigration system that pipes highly educated foreign workers into tech jobs.

During his first term, Trump signed a series of executive orders that limited access to many work visa types, impacting an important source of technical talent, according to conversations with four immigration attorneys.

They expect Trump to run some of those plays again. "A storm is coming," said Jason Finkelman of Finkelman Law, "and this time, we know exactly what it's going to bring."

A travel ban 2.0 could limit access for the tech talent pool

In the first week of his first term, Trump signed an executive order restricting travel from seven countries with large Muslim populations, virtually blocking immigration from those nations. It also prevented professionals from traveling out of the country for work or personal reasons because they feared they would be unable to return.

In a September speech prior to the election, Trump said he would reinstate his "famous travel ban" and expand it to prevent refugees from Gaza from entering the country.

The last travel ban sparked outcries from tech firms that rely on foreigners with special expertise to fill their ranks and help shape their technologies. Hundreds of executives and employees such as Sam Altman and Sergey Brin converged on San Francisco International Airport in protest, while Box CEO Aaron Levie and the founders of Lyft pledged their support to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the order.

The travel ban faced a series of challenges in the lower courts and didn't take full effect until the Supreme Court upheld the order more than a year after Trump signed it.

"I think its possible that Trump may attempt to impose travel bans from certain countries just as he did when he initially tried to implement travel restrictions," said Jason Finkelman, who's based in Austin. "While I think travel bans will likely face challenges in the courts it may lead to issues of US employers being restricted from hiring and retaining the foreign talent they need for their operations."

Elizabeth Goss, who runs her own law practice in Boston, and Justin Parsons, a partner at Erickson Immigration Group's office in Arlington, Virginia, said they believed a travel ban 2.0 would affect different countries this time around, based on this administration's priorities.

"The wildcard for me," said Parsons, "is what happens to China." The president-elect has vowed to enact higher tariffs on Chinese goods, in an effort to hobble the world's second-largest economy. Parsons has asked himself if Trump would ban travel from China to further these efforts.

Trump could decrease access to a commonly used visa type by tech companies

The tech sector is the biggest beneficiary of the H-1B visa, which allows employers to fill specialty roles with highly educated foreign workers. Last year, more than half of these visas went to workers in computer-related roles, according to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

During Trump's first term, government data shows that denial rates for new employees and requests for further evidence of eligibility surged. In 2020, the Trump administration temporarily paused the issuance of new green cards and many work visa types, arguing that this would protect American jobs during a pandemic decline in employment.

The Biden administration has moved to reverse some of these policies and facilitate the processing of work-related visas. In December, the White House published new regulations that allow the immigration agency to process applications more quickly for most individuals who had previously been approved for an H-1B visa.

Jason Finkelman said the new rules "give predictability to employers and foreign nationals on the extensions of their visa petitions when there has been no change in the job duties or the employer." He added that it's plausible Trump can withdraw the regulations once he takes office, however.

Elizabeth Goss offered a more optimistic outlook. She suggested that if Elon Musk has Trump's ear, he might be able to persuade the president to leave the program untouched or even expand the number of visas issued, though such a move hasn't been made since President Bill Clinton raised the limit at the top of the dot-com bubble.

Canadians could be turned away

Historically, Canadians have had access to temporary work visa types, the L-1 and the TN, which allowed them to move across the border with less friction. However, according to Justin Parsons, they could face new headwinds under Trump.

Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple have relied heavily on the L-1 visa to transfer an executive or manager from one of their foreign offices to one of their domestic offices. Canadians have been able to apply for this visa at an international airport or border station without having to file a petition with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, a far more cumbersome process.

In 2017, under the Trump administration, some border agents began refusing to process or renew work visas for Canadians already working in the country, Parsons said. The border agents would challenge their eligibility over what Parsons described as arbitrary reasons, or direct them to the immigration agency. This delayed workers who were traveling home from returning.

At the time, Parsons also observed Canadian clients on the TN visa — a temporary work visa for Canadians and Mexicans created under the North American Free Trade Agreement — come under increased scrutiny at the border.

Parsons expressed concern for Canadians that the probing measures might be reintroduced and potentially intensified under Trump's second term.

• Dual citizen Michael Stiege was raised in Canada but spent many years working in the US.
• The darkness and cold climate of Canada pushed him to sunny California.
• For Americans thinking they can simply move up north, it's not that easy, he said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Stiege, 75, a dual citizen of the US and Canada. Stiege was raised in Canada and spent roughly 30 years working in California before moving back to Canada 15 years ago. He soon plans to split his time between the US and Canada. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Because I'm a dual citizen of America and Canada, traveling between the two countries is virtually a non-issue.

If you're an American coming to Canada, you can travel visa-free. Still, if you're planning to move here and be able to work here, that's another story.

You can visit for six months as long as you leave before the end of the six-month period. You can do that back and forth all the time — but you won't get access to the social system and healthcare.

My friends, who used to live in Chicago, moved to California and said, "We're going to move up to Canada when we retire," but they couldn't get a visa.

This fellow's a Ph.D. and a really smart technical guy — and his wife is pretty bright, too. They couldn't get a visa because they were simply too old. Once you're — let's say 50 — the immigration system disadvantages you. They have a merit-based point system and start worrying about things like age. That's the thinking. Once you reach a certain age, or if you don't have certain other legs up, the criteria by which you can get a working visa is stacked against you.

[In Canada's Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) — which rates potential immigrants based on age, language fluency, education, professional expertise, and if you have a Canadian partner — applicants 45 years old or older receive 0 points.]

Whereas if you're a young guy just out of college, you have some reasonable skills, and you even know a few words of French, you probably wouldn't have a problem.

There are ways around it, but if the expectation is, "I'm just going to go up there and apply for a visa and get a visa," it may not happen like that.

I needed a change from the cold and long nights in Canada

I was born in Stuttgart, Germany. When my parents and I moved to Canada, I was about 3 and written into my parents' passports.

They got their visas and eventually became naturalized Canadians, which was bestowed on me. So, for all practical purposes, I'm a Canadian.

I grew up in Toronto, went to school in Toronto, and it wasn't until the early side of my career that I moved out into western Canada to Calgary and British Columbia.

I have an engineering degree and an MBA — which, at that time, was a pretty good combination to earn a job and make a living. I looked at the available jobs in the market and thought, "Go to Silicon Valley, where your skills will be valued the most."

I applied to a couple of things and got a call one day. It said, "Are you interested in coming down?" I said yeah, and there I was.

I needed warmer weather, and I was able to get rid of Canada's long winter nights. The summers in Canada were great — you could golf at 11 p.m. — but the winters were awful.

Seasonal affective disorder really got to me. It's not so much the cold as the long winter nights. It's dark. My wife says I had started hibernating, so I wanted to leave that behind.

I rented in the US and bought a home in Canada

When I moved to the US, I found that if I pushed myself, I could've bought a house, but I kept holding off. I found it easy to rent — it was affordable. I could get by without any problem. What I didn't put into a mortgage, I put into stocks and stuff like that.

I lived there for almost 30 years in two or three residences. I paid about $3,200 monthly in Los Altos Hills, California, right by Stanford University.

I came close to buying a couple of times, but the property tax burden in California is significantly higher than what you would find in Canada.

If you buy a house in California for $3 million, you're looking at $40,000 yearly in property taxes. [Zillow estimates a $3 million home in Santa Clara County would cost $36,300 annually in property taxes.] I could go on a trip for six months on that.

If I did the same thing in Toronto, I might spend between $6,000 and $8,000 — and that's a big difference. [According to the city of Toronto, a $3 million home costs $21,459 in city, education, and building fund taxes.]

I moved back to Canada about 15 years ago. My father was 96 then, and I said, "Let's go back." My wife is Canadian, and we have family up here. We settled in and bought our house.

We have a summer home up north in the lake country. It's not bad, but it gets cold in the winter.

If I ever move back to the US, my preference is California.

Police in Aurora, Colorado, have detained five more migrants in an armed home invasion and kidnapping that occurred early Tuesday morning.

This brings to 19 the number of migrants detained in the incident, which involved two victims being beaten, bound and kidnapped in a Denver suburb

A spokesperson for ICE told Fox News Digital 16 of those in custody have been identified as Venezuelan nationals in the U.S. without authorization and "are suspected of being members or associates of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua."

Tren de Aragua, or TdA, is a violent international criminal group that has been terrorizing Aurora residents for over a year.

TREN DE ARAGUA ARE IDEOLOGICAL TERRORISTS DISGUISED AS A STREET GANG WARNS FORMER MILITARY OFFICER

The ICE official said the 16 suspects "will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings or hearings before an immigration judge."

Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain said Tuesday the home invasion was "without question a gang incident."

However, Joe Moylan, a representative for the Aurora Police Department, told Fox News Digital police are still working to identify the suspects and have not yet been able to officially confirm whether the incident was gang-related.

Police were called to an Aurora housing complex, The Edge at Lowry Apartments, just before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday in response to a reported armed home invasion in which victims were assaulted and taken to another apartment in the same complex.

COLORADO VIDEO SHOWS TREN DE ARAGUA GANG BEATING APARTMENT COMPLEX WORKER IN EXTORTION BID, COMPANY SAYS

One of the victims, a man, sustained a stab wound but is expected to survive. Both victims are still at a hospital for treatment. 

Moylan said Aurora police served an additional warrant at the apartment complex late Tuesday afternoon, resulting in their taking in the five additional migrants for questioning. He said police are working in conjunction with federal authorities, including Homeland Security Investigators who are helping to identify everyone involved.

Moylan said the Aurora police chief will likely address the incident further in another press conference once more details are confirmed.

BLUE STATE FACES SPIKE IN MIGRANT SEX CRIMES AS TOP CITY PLEDGES RESISTANCE TO TRUMP DEPORTATIONS

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Roger Hudson, a city council member in nearby Castle Pines, Colorado, who has had contact with the apartment owner, told Fox News Digital most people in the area believe Tren de Aragua is behind the incident. In recent months, the gang has only become "more powerful, more dangerous and more desperate," he said. 

Hudson bashed the sanctuary policies passed by Colorado and the City of Denver, which he said have made it more difficult for state and local law enforcement to protect Coloradans from the likes of TdA.

"These policies make all of our communities less safe," he said. "This is lawlessness in the West, and you can't have that. That's not who we are as a country. That’s not who we are as a state."

Members of the House Border Security Caucus pledged to back President-elect Trump and his border czar Tom Homan’s mass deportation plans and vowed to crack down on "particularly pernicious" sanctuary city policies protecting "evil terrorists" and "cartel thugs."  

Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, decried the historic level of illegal immigration under the Biden administration and the subsequent dramatic rise in migrant crime and gang activity, including the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.

He called for the rest of Congress to stand behind Trump’s border security plans, saying that "every single one of these cartel thugs and evil terrorists needs to be deported immediately."

‘100% ON BOARD’: BORDER STATE OFFERS TRUMP MASSIVE PLOT OF LAND TO AID MASS DEPORTATION OPERATION

"The American people can finally breathe a very big and deep sigh of relief," said Babin. "The disastrous Biden administration is coming to an end and with that, that will be an end of open borders, asylum abuse, lawlessness, sanctuary cities – all these will end as well."

"But for us, as members of the House Border Security Conference," Babin went on, "our job is just begun."

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock also said congressional Republicans’ "first priority" must be passing the Secure the Border Act. He said this would "assure that future presidents cannot subvert the law as Biden has." 

"President Trump proved that simply enforcing laws can produce secure borders," he said. "But President Biden proved that a president intent on leaving our borders wide open can do so as well."

'PATTERN OF DISREGARD': RED STATES SEEK COURT ACTION AGAINST BIDEN ADMIN'S ‘SHAMEFUL’ BORDER WALL DISPOSAL

McClintock also said Congress needs to sanction sanctuary jurisdictions that are protecting criminal illegal immigrants from deportation.

Texas Republican Rep. Michael Cloud backed this idea as well, saying that Republicans in Congress need to "steel our spine" to defund agencies and cities that serve as magnets to draw illegal immigrants into the country.

"As Congress, we need to defund the wrong things. We need to stop sending these agencies' money to do bad things. And that includes the magnet that continues to draw people here through wrong and illegal processes," he said. "So, we will have to take the tough votes. We will have to do the job that's required of us in Congress… to make sure that we make good on the promise that we have given the American people."

BLUE STATE FACES SPIKE IN MIGRANT SEX CRIMES AS TOP CITY PLEDGES RESISTANCE TO TRUMP DEPORTATIONS

Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs called the sanctuary city issue "particularly pernicious."

He mentioned how his home state governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, has pledged to resist Trump’s efforts to secure the border, saying she "unequivocally" "will not tolerate" the plan. Hobbs is one of several other Democratic leaders in over a dozen sanctuary states and dozens more sanctuary cities who have similarly pledged to resist the mass deportations. 

"The problem is this, when you prevent the arrest of a criminal, illegal alien, you prevent the safety of the community," said Biggs. "When you ignore the law, the community is put at risk."  

 NEW YORK VOTERS WANT STATE TO SUPPORT TRUMP DEPORTATIONS, POLL FINDS

Biggs said mayors and governors doubling down on sanctuary policies and pledging resistance are "going to find themselves in hot water," and will likely face obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting criminal cartel charges.

"The cartel knows that Donald Trump means business and Tom Homan means business," he said. "And, hopefully, Congress means business."

FIRST ON FOX: A top Texas official is slamming what she says is the "downright shameful" auctioning off of border wall materials as the state asks a district court to investigate whether the Biden administration has violated a court order.

"The Biden Administration's latest attempt to block Texas and President-Elect Donald Trump's efforts to secure the southern border is downright shameful and demonstrates a continued pattern of disregard for the safety of Texas and American families in favor of increasingly disastrous open border policies," Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Buckingham’s office, along with the states of Texas and Missouri filed a motion late Tuesday in a district court in the southern district of Texas to hold a status conference to determine if the government is in breach of the court’s permanent injunction from earlier this year. That injunction barred the administration from using funds obligated for wall construction for anything other than that purpose.

The Biden administration has been auctioning off border wall parts since at least 2023 with parts listed for sale on auction marketplaces, after it abruptly shut down most border wall construction in 2021.

GOP SENATOR MOVES TO BLOCK FEDS FROM DISPOSING OF BORDER WALL MATERIALS AMID AUCTION BACKLASH 

Those auctions have continued, with border officials telling Fox that auctions now occur weekly and have been for some time. But the practice made news last week when The Daily Wire published video showing parts being transported, and cited Border Patrol agents who said the goal was to clear it out before Christmas.

A defense official told Fox News last week that the Pentagon has been disposing of excess wall construction in accordance with the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which required the defense secretary to submit a plan to use, transfer or donate all remaining wall material purchased with Pentagon funds. That plan was submitted in March.

The official said border states, including Texas, were first offered that material for purchase before auction. The official also said the materials no longer belong to the U.S. government, adding the Defense Department has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of it.

‘STANDING BY TO HELP’: RED STATE REVEALS PLAN TO PURCHASE AUCTIONED BORDER WALL MATERIALS TO STORE FOR TRUMP

"Through our reutilization, transfer and donation process, nearly 60% of those materials were transferred to authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California," the official said. "The remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet under a competitive sales contract process beginning in June 2024. The material currently being sold through GovPlanet online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DOD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns."

However, those statements have not stopped the outrage from Republicans, who see the auctions as a move to stop the Trump administration building the wall. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., introduced legislation this week to stop ther practice.

President-elect Trump, meanwhile, said on Monday he had been working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others to acquire the materials.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

"What they're doing is really an act, it's almost a criminal act," he said. "They know we're going to use it, and if we don't have it, we're going to have to rebuild it. And it'll cost double what it cost years ago, and that's hundreds of millions of dollars because you're talking about a lot of, a lot of wall."

Paxton said in a statement that Texas is going to court to "prevent any border security materials from being unlawfully sold and to find out the truth about what the federal government may be doing to subvert border wall construction."

"President Trump has an overwhelming mandate from the American people to build the wall and I will do everything in my power to prevent any acts of sabotage by the outgoing administration," he said.

Texas has said it intends to do all it can to help the incoming administration build the wall at the southern border when it enters office. Officials said this week they intend to purchase the auctioned off materials, and Buckingham said she intends to store it on state land for the new administration.

"I made a promise to use every tool at my disposal from the GLO to secure our border and protect Texans," Buckingham said in the statement to Fox. "That is why I have offered state leaders and President-Elect Donald Trump the opportunity to store any wall panels his incoming administration may acquire on state land. I will never give up the fight to secure our porous southern border and protect our sons and daughters from violent, criminal illegal immigrants."

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A top Republican senator is introducing legislation to block the federal government from disposing of border wall materials after a controversy over the auctioning of border wall parts made headlines again.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., is introducing legislation to prohibit the use of federal funds "to deconstruct, dismantle, or otherwise render inoperable any segment of the physical barrier along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

The bill would also bar the use of funds "to auction, sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of any materials or supplies purchased or otherwise acquired by the Federal Government for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, or reinforcing a physical barrier along such border."

‘STANDING BY TO HELP’: RED STATE REVEALS PLAN TO PURCHASE AUCTIONED BORDER WALL MATERIALS TO STORE FOR TRUMP

The bill comes in response to the ongoing controversy over the auctioning of border wall materials by the Biden administration.

The Biden administration abruptly ended border wall construction in January 2021 after 450 miles had been built during the first Trump administration.

The auctioning of border wall parts began in 2023 with parts listed for sale on GovPlanet.com, an online auction marketplace. The Defense Department's logistics agency told media outlets the excess material had been turned over for disposition by the Army Corps of Engineers and was for sale.

Those auctions have continued, with officials in Arizona telling Fox News Digital that auctions have been occurring weekly for some time. The practice made headlines last week when The Daily Wire published video showing unused wall parts being transported on flatbed trucks in Arizona even though the materials could be used by the next Trump administration. 

A furious President-elect Trump called the moves "almost a criminal act" and called on President Biden to "please stop selling the wall." 

TRUMP CALLS FOR END TO BORDER WALL AUCTIONS: ‘ALMOST CRIMINAL ACT’ 

The president-elect also said he is working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Texas leaders to reacquire the materials.

"What they're doing is really an act, it's almost a criminal act," he said. "They know we're going to use it, and if we don't have it, we're going to have to rebuild it. And it'll cost double what it cost years ago, and that's hundreds of millions of dollars because you're talking about a lot of, a lot of wall."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

A defense official told Fox News last week that the Pentagon has been disposing of excess wall construction in accordance with the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which required the defense secretary to submit a plan to use, transfer or donate all remaining wall material purchased with Pentagon funds. That plan was submitted in March.

The official said that border states, including Texas, were given preference for materials and that the materials no longer belong to the U.S. government, adding the Defense Department has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of it.

"Through our reutilization, transfer and donation process, nearly 60% of those materials were transferred to authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California," the official said. "The remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet under a competitive sales contract process beginning in June 2024. The material currently being sold through GovPlanet online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DOD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns."

Hagerty's bill would supersede any existing law, including the NDAA. His office says the NDAA provision was intended to encourage border wall construction.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump transition team is considering a significant expansion of the way ankle-worn GPS monitors are used to track illegal immigrants who are not in federal immigration detention, Fox News Digital has learned.

President-elect Trump has pledged to launch a mass deportation operation once sworn into office, and his transition team has already been engaged in planning to make that happen. 

Multiple sources familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital the priority for the incoming administration is the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants along with preventing them from entering the U.S. in the first place.

However, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention capacity in the tens of thousands, compared to the millions who are not currently in detention, officials are also expected to ramp up the monitoring of those not in detention until they can be removed. 

‘STANDING BY TO HELP:’ RED STATE REVEALS PLAN TO PURCHASE BORDER WALL MATERIALS TO STORE FOR TRUMP

Under the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, newly arrived illegal immigrants going through court proceedings are monitored by either an ankle-worn or wrist-worn device or use a cell phone app under which they are required to check in with ICE. According to ICE data as of November, just 187,747 individuals are being monitored by technology, including about 25,000 on the ankle monitors or wrist-worn devices. Typically, migrants are placed on ATD from their release at the border and earlier on in the lifecycle of their cases.

The Trump administration is looking at ways to increase the number of illegal immigrants being monitored by an ankle or wrist monitor, while also sharply reducing the numbers of those not detained. Officials also want GPS tracking to be available for much longer than it is currently. Sources emphasized that if entries at the southern border are shut down, as the administration plans to make happen, it allows for more people in the interior to be moved to devices and for longer because the devices are no longer needed for new arrivals entering into the U.S.

‘LEGAL AUTHORITY’: SENATE DEMS DEMAND BIDEN EXTEND PROTECTIONS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AHEAD OF TRUMP ADMIN 

Advocates of ATD and ICE have argued that compliance by those enrolled when monitored remains high, and it is cheaper than detention – $8 a day compared to $150 a day. But some immigration activists have slammed the ATD program as creating "digital prisons," while some on the right have argued that the technology needs to be extended so that it can allow illegal immigrants to be tracked down and removed if they are given a final order of deportation.

The increase in the use of GPS monitoring could also be accompanied by additional penalties for a lack of compliance, although it is still not clear what those penalties would be.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

Increasing the number of non-detained immigrants on ATD has been a priority for Republicans. The Justice for Jocelyn Act, introduced this year by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, would require the government to enroll all illegal immigrants on the non-detained docket into continuous GPS monitoring. It would also require those enrolled to be home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. and would punish any noncompliance with an order that they be removed in absentia.

A significant expansion of ICE capacity has been expected in the upcoming administration, given the promise of a mass deportation campaign. The GEO Group, which is the exclusive contractor for that technology, announced a $70 million investment Monday to increase its capabilities to deliver detention capacity, secure transport and electronic monitoring services to ICE.

President-elect Donald Trump blasted the Biden administration for selling off unused border wall materials at a discounted rate, which he called "almost a criminal act."

Trump said the auctions would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to re-purchase the large steel bollards and concrete. He called on President Biden to "please stop selling the wall" and suggested his team would obtain a restraining order to halt the sales.

The president-elect also said he is working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Texas leaders to re-acquire the materials.

"What they're doing is really an act, it's almost a criminal act," he said. "They know we're going to use it and if we don't have it, we're going to have to rebuild it, and it'll cost double what it cost years ago, and that's hundreds of millions of dollars because you're talking about a lot of, a lot of wall."

ON CLEARANCE: WHY IS THE BIDEN ADMIN SELLING OFF BORDER WALL MATERIAL?

This comes a week after videos released by the Daily Wire showed large portions of border wall materials being carted off from the border to be sold at auction. The Daily Wire reported that a whistleblower at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed the administration’s goal was to sell off all the unused border wall materials along three stations of Arizona’s border with Mexico in Tucson, Nogales and Three Points by Christmas.

A representative for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Fox News Digital that construction and management of the border wall is handled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

An official at the Department of Defense told Fox News Digital that the materials currently being sold through online auctions were already sold off by the federal government earlier this year, with a large percentage of the materials being sold to a government surplus retailer called Gov Planet.

The Defense official said the materials no longer belong to the U.S. government, and the Defense Department has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of it.

TOM COTTON DEMANDS DOD RECORDS ON BORDER-WALL MATERIAL SALES BE PRESERVED

Meanwhile, a local leader for Yuma County, which is on the far western side of Arizona, further confirmed with Fox News Digital that the Biden administration’s sales of unused border materials have continued at a regular pace since beginning in 2021.

Jonathan Lines, a Yuma County supervisor, told Fox News Digital that the equipment dealer Iron Planet has been partnering with the federal government to sell the materials over the last three years. He explained that though auctions for the pieces start at $5, they typically end up being sold for between $8,000 and $10,000.

Despite this, Lines pushed back on reports that the Biden administration is increasing its sales of border wall materials in attempts to get rid of the materials before the Trump inauguration, calling these "sensationalism."

"They sell it consistently, every week or every other week there are sections of the wall that go up for sale," he explained.

TEXAS SHERIFF FRUSTRATED WITH BIDEN ADMIN FOR SELLING BORDER WALL PARTS

Border wall materials were listed by Gov Planet last week at $5 as the minimum opening bid for 20 tons of steel bollards on an online auction site that advertised multiple lots.

Trump, who has made government efficiency a top priority for his second administration, took particular issue with the financial waste of the auctions.

"The people that are buying it or trying to buy it are trying to make a deal with us to sell it back at hundreds of times more, hundreds of times more than we paid," he said. "Just think about how ridiculous it is, and this is just people that don't want this country to succeed. And this has nothing to do with Democrat or Republican, this has to do with common sense. We won on common sense, and this is maybe one of the most egregious examples I've seen."

"So, I'm asking today, Joe Biden, to please stop selling the wall," he went on. "It's something that people can't even believe is happening. So, hopefully, Joe will be able to stop it." 

CHICAGO – Community activist and Chicago Against Violence founder Andre Smith may be a Democrat, but he says he's willing to work with incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan to deport illegal immigrants from the Windy City. 

"I welcome in Chicago the border czar [Tom Homan]," Smith told Fox News Digital in an interview. "And [truth] be told, I wouldn't mind working with him seeing that I was the first person in Chicago to stand up and fight against the migrants."

Smith, who is also a preacher, has been on the front line of helping his community in Chicago, from helping the homeless population to fighting against local efforts by Mayor Brandon Johnson to disperse migrants throughout the city. 

CHICAGO RESIDENTS SLAM THE 'STUPIDITY' OF MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON'S LIBERAL POLICIES DURING CITY COUNCIL MEETING

"I would love when he come[s] to Chicago to work with him, and getting them expedited back where they came from," Smith said of Homan. "Because to lie to a federal official is a federal offense, and if they came over on the pretenses of they are in fear of their life, then you have women, you have men, and all of them said they're in fear for their life because someone is going trying to kill them, and lying, you have to make examples."

Smith's comments come as many Chicago residents have been outraged by "sanctuary city" policies that have brought in thousands of migrants to a city already plagued by one of the highest violent crime rates in the U.S.

"Here we are in Chicago, where we [are] supposed to be celebrating a season of joy, love and happiness," Smith continued. "And a lot of people have Christmas trees and under their trees in Chicago. We are unwrapping gifts of neglect. We are unwrapping gifts of disappointment and heartaches. We are unwrapping gifts of $575 million of taxpayer dollars given to and misallocated to give to illegal migrants. We need solutions, and we need change."

NEW DATA REVEALS AMERICA HAS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS FROM US ADVERSARY WITH DEPORTATION ORDERS

Following President-elect Donald Trump's re-election, Johnson — who allocated millions of dollars to migrant resources — vowed to defend the illegal migrants residing in Chicago, saying "we will not bend or break," according to local news outlet WTTW. 

"Our values will remain strong and firm. We will face likely hurdles in our work over the next four years, but we will not be stopped, and we will not go back," Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Homan spoke in Chicago last week and told local Republicans he wanted Illinois Democrats to "come to the table," but if not to "get the hell out of the way."

That comment sparked a fiery response from Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill.

"Tom Homan, the next time you come to #IL03 — a district made stronger and more powerful by immigrants — you better be ready to meet the resistance," she warned.

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR SAYS 'VIOLENT' ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SHOULD BE DEPORTED, OPEN TO MEETING WITH TRUMP OFFICIALS

"You may think Chicago needs to get out of the way of Trump's plans for mass deportation, but we plan to get ALL UP IN YOUR WAY."

Ramirez's comments add to a growing number of statements from Democratic leaders nationwide vowing to oppose or refuse cooperation with Trump's mass deportation plans. 

But while Homan may face opposition from Illinois Democrats, there's one Democratic leader willing to work with him: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

"Violent criminals who are undocumented and convicted of violent crime should be deported," Pritzker said at a Northwest Side GOP gathering last week. "I do not want them in my state, I don't think they should be in the United States."

Pritzker, 59, is considered a potential 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful.

Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw and Pilar Arias contributed to this report.

A Tennessee state lawmaker introduced a bill to require law enforcement to send illegal migrants accused of minor crimes to sanctuary cities rather than deporting them to another country.

State Rep. Todd Warner, a Republican, filed the bill, the Tennessee Illegal Immigration Act, ahead of the legislative session. The proposal would also ensure that all law enforcement agencies report illegal migrants to federal immigration authorities.

Warner told Fox 17 that sending migrants to a sanctuary city could cost the state less than deporting them to their home countries, even if the federal government would eventually take on the deportation costs.

"It seeks to make Tennessee safer. It seeks to make the federal government, you know hold their feet to the fire and enforce immigration law and it seeks the state to recoup some costs back out of it," he said.

INCOMING MISSOURI STATE LAWMAKER INTRODUCES BILL TO GIVE $1K TO ANYONE WHO TURNS IN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS

Under the bill, if ICE fails to show up in 48 hours to pick up an illegal migrant who is detained, law enforcement would help send them to a sanctuary city. Warner said the arresting agency would be responsible for relocating the detained migrants.

Warner said this would be paid for by withholding money Tennessee generates for the federal government through the gas tax.

The lawmaker said he plans to add an amendment clarifying that the bill would only apply to illegal migrants charged with a minor offense. Violent criminals would still be subject to deportation.

GREG ABBOTT BLASTS MIGRANT ACCUSED OF SETTING TEXAS HOME ON FIRE WITH CHILDREN INSIDE: 'LOCATE & DEPORT'

"This is for victimless crimes. This is not for someone that has committed a terrible crime," Warner told Fox 17.

Hannah Smalley, the Advocacy and Education Manager at Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors, argues that the proposal would unnecessarily separate migrant families.

"The mere act of being transported away from your family is damaging," she told Fox 17. "This means that people, including people who have not been charged with crimes, are going to be facing these really punitive consequences just on the basis of their immigration status."

"When U.S. citizens commit crimes and we pay a fine or we go to jail," she added. "Immigrants are also doing that. So to then make this about someone's immigration status, which is totally separate from any kind of crime that they would have committed, is not productive to our community as a whole."

Warner said he still has to tweak the bill, but he is hoping it will receive bipartisan support in the legislature.

An expert on the international criminal group Tren de Aragua (TdA) is warning that if sanctuary city and state policies are allowed to continue, the U.S. will soon be facing a slate of targeted assassinations across the U.S.

"The next step is targeted assassinations," said Jose Gustavo Arocha, a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan army. "That is what has happened in Venezuela, what is happening in Latin America and that will happen here in the U.S."

Tren de Aragua, which means "Train from Aragua," is a massive criminal and terrorist organization that originated a decade ago in a Venezuelan prison. In addition to Venezuela, the group has already established a significant presence in Southern American countries, including Colombia, Peru and Chile and is present in 30 major U.S. cities.

SANCTUARY CITY DENVER SPENDING A WHOPPING $356 MILLION ON MIGRANTS: STUDY

According to Arocha, who fled the country after being imprisoned by socialist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro for eight months, TdA is a "state-sponsored, Maduro regime organization," formed and trained by the Venezuelan government to sow chaos, violence and discord throughout the Western hemisphere.

"Right now is the right moment to take action," he said. "If you let them grow, they are going to be more embedded in the communities, it's going to be harder to take any action against them, and it's going to be painful for U.S. society."

He said that recent movements to defund the police and enshrine sanctuary city and sanctuary state policies into law only further embolden and enable TdA to carry out its crimes with impunity.

If policies like this are allowed to continue, he said TdA is "going to be all over the United States" like a "disease."

LOS ANGELES BECOMES SANCTUARY DESPITE DOZENS OF MURDEROUS, CHILD-PREYING ILLEGALS ARRESTED IN CITY THIS YEAR

"When I listened last year to the 'defund the police' [movement], I said … ‘something is going to happen here because it is the same playbook," he explained. "Because if you don't have rule of law, you don't have police, it’s like a special ground for this kind of organization to establish and then they control the society because there are no police, there is no rule of law. They're going to do whatever they want."

Who will be in Tren de Aragua’s crosshairs? Arocha said TdA’s primary targets will be law enforcement officials, such as ordinary police officers, police chiefs and sheriffs, as well as any elected officials who attempt to crack down on them.

Besides law enforcement and political leaders, Arocha said it is likely that TdA will also target enemies and refugees of the Maduro regime.

VENEZUELAN GANG TREN DE ARAGUA IS A 'NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT,' WARNS RETIRED ICE SPECIAL AGENT

According to Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, the TdA assassinations in the U.S. have already begun.

She pointed to the case of TdA member Yurwin Salazar who she said beat, tortured and killed a former Venezuelan police officer named Jose Luis Sanchez Valera in Miami in November 2023. In addition to the murder, Salazar also stole the former police officer’s life savings.

Agreeing with Arocha, Vaughan said that sanctuary policies are especially harmful to efforts to combat TdA.

"The sanctuary policies have to go," she said. "It's critical that these local law enforcement agencies are able to share information with ICE and vice versa."

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"It's no coincidence that so many of these TDA members are in sanctuary jurisdictions like Chicago, Colorado and New York. That is not a coincidence. They know that they can hide behind their sanctuary policies and that is one reason they choose these communities because they know that the local authorities are not going to turn them over to immigration agents for removal," she explained.

While some individual states, such as Texas, have taken significant steps to root out TdA, she said that ultimately the federal government will have to lead the effort and incorporate all aspects of government to dismantle the group.

"It's too big a problem to solve at the local level," she said. "And one of the most important elements of that campaign to eliminate TdA has to be building more effective partnerships with local law enforcement agencies, particularly in the areas where TdA has been operating, some of which are sanctuary jurisdictions. So, this artificial obstruction between local law enforcement agencies and ICE that's been imposed for political reasons has to end."

FIRST ON FOX: A labor union representing thousands of Border Patrol agents is all in on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, calling on senators to confirm her nomination "qui​​ckly." 

"On behalf of the men and women of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) who protect our nation's borders, we are excited to provide our support for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee, Governor Kristi Noem, to be the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security," National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez wrote in a letter to Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rand. Paul, R-Ky., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, respectively. 

Perez sent the letter, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, to the senators on Thursday, joining a growing chorus of law enforcement groups throwing their support behind Noem. The DHS oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The union, which represents about 18,000 Border Patrol agents, wrote in their letter to Paul and Peters that Noem has showcased her ability to "get things done" both at home in South Dakota, and on the national stage when she aided Texas’ "Operation Lone Star" to battle the immigration crisis. 

'SECURE OUR BORDER': MASSIVE POLICE ORG CALLS FOR SWIFT CONFIRMATION OF NOEM TO DHS

"Governor Noem is a seasoned leader who knows how to get things done – not only as chief executive of her home state but also in Washington, DC, where she served with distinction and integrity in the U.S. House of Representatives," Perez wrote in the letter, which was also sent to Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the incoming Senate majority leader. 

"Governor Noem was the first governor to deploy National Guard personnel to the border in Texas to support Operation Lone Star. This deployment bolstered our resources at a critical time along the border and helped to protect Texans and Americans alike."

TRUMP SELECTS SOUTH DAKOTA GOV KRISTI NOEM TO RUN DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Noem has repeatedly deployed South Dakota National Guard troops to the southern border in Texas to help stem illegal border crossings. 

"The border is a war zone, so we’re sending soldiers," Noem said in a press release in February, which marked the fifth deployment of National Guard troops to the border under the Biden administration. "These soldiers’ primary mission will be construction of a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, drug cartels, and human trafficking into the United States of America."

Earlier this month, Washington, D.C., insiders told Fox News Digital that they anticipate Noem will earn endorsements from a long list of law enforcement groups for her federal nomination. 

GOV KRISTI NOEM REFLECTS ON TRUMP WIN, SAYS DEMOCRATS 'TRY TO PUT WOMEN IN A BOX'

Fox News Digital previously reported that the largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, sent letters to both President-elect Trump and Paul outlining their staunch support of Noem as secretary of homeland security. 

​​"Governor Noem has been a longtime ally of the FOP during both her tenure in the House of Representatives and as Governor of South Dakota. The South Dakota State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Governor Noem for her re-election campaign in 2022, citing her belief in the rule of law and commitment to public safety," Fraternal Order of Police national president Patrick Yoes wrote in a November letter to Trump, which was obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Perez echoed that sentiment for Border Patrol agents, specifically, calling for Noem’s speedy confirmation to bolster the border and homeland security overall. 

"We are confident that as Secretary, Governor Noem will continue to ensure Border Patrol agents have the resources and manpower that we need to secure our border. We urge you to quickly begin consideration of this critical nomination and confirm Governor Noem as Secretary once President Trump is sworn in," Perez said. 

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT KRISTI NOEM, THE 'BORDER HAWK' NOMINATED BY TRUMP TO LEAD DHS

Noem has served as governor of the Mount Rushmore State since 2019, and notably gained national attention and praise from conservatives during the pandemic when she bucked lockdown orders and mask mandates common in liberal states such as California and New York. 

Trump, who ran on a pledge to end the immigration crisis at the southern border and crack down on the deadly drug epidemic ravaging communities across the nation, announced his nomination of Noem just days after his decisive win over Vice President Kamala Harris last month. 

EX-TRUMP OFFICIAL PREDICTS ‘ENTIRE MINDSET CHANGE’ AT SOUTHERN BORDER, HAILS ‘FANTASTIC’ PICK TO LEAD DHS 

"Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times. She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries. I have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects – She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again," he wrote last month in his announcement. 

Noem began meeting with Senate lawmakers last week to rally their support for the confirmation process. 

"We’ve just had great conversations with Sen. Peters, talked about some concerns within the agency, what we can do to solidify our national security interests," Noem told reporters, according to Roll Call. "And I think Republicans and Democrats in this country recognize how important homeland security is, and that we’re working together to make sure that we’re safe."

• In recent years, remote work and affordable housing drove young Americans to move to rural areas.
• Places like Dawson County, Georgia, are seeing growth among young people seeking space and savings.
• It reverses a decadeslong trend of movement into cities.

Chase Voss, 36, moved this year from Hawaii to rural Georgia to be closer to family.

His new home, Dawson County, is one of the fastest-growing counties in the US for young people, amid a wave of movers into rural areas that's reversing a decadeslong trend toward cities.

Voss, a real-estate agent, said many younger and middle-aged families have moved to Dawsonville from out of state for job reasons. Though there aren't many jobs in Dawsonville itself, which has a population of just over 4,600, some work tourism or nature jobs in the nearby mountains, while others commute the over 50 miles to Atlanta or work remotely.

"Dawsonville is far enough away where they can feel that remoteness but still close enough to the city that they can have access to everything," Voss said.

In recent years, younger professionals have been bucking a longtime trend of their age group: moving to cities. Now, with flexible work arrangements and high housing costs, many are forgoing more densely populated areas in favor of rural America. Those areas bring bigger houses, lower prices, and a different pace of life — and their own new challenges.

Where younger people are moving

A recent analysis of Census data by Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia, found that 63% of rural counties or counties in small metros experienced increases in their populations of 25- to 44-year-olds between 2020 and 2023, compared to 27% between 2010 and 2013.

Northern Georgia, the Mountain West, and New England were rural regions with particularly strong population growth among young Americans. The 10 counties that saw the biggest influxes of younger adults were largely rural; the most populated of all of those areas is Hays County, Texas, in the suburbs of Austin, which had a population of around 280,500 in 2023. Musselshell County, which is the least populous, had just 5,308 people as of 2023.

That's a big shift from pre-pandemic patterns: From 1980 to 2020, white-collar workers increasingly moved into densely populated areas, per Lombard's analysis. That trend was expected to continue — until the pandemic and the rise of remote work. Since 2020, Lombard found, rural areas and smaller cities have attracted that younger workforce at the highest rate in nearly a century.

Jeannie Steele, a real-estate broker in Townsend, Montana, has seen an influx of young people. Broadwater County, with about 8,000 residents, was the third-fastest-growing county for Americans ages 25 to 44, Lombard's analysis found. Townsend is located about 30 miles from Helena, though Steele said many commute to Bozeman or Three Forks.

Steele said she previously considered her area a retirement hub. However, the construction of a new elementary school starting in 2019 brought many younger families, particularly some working in construction, mining, or medicine. Many are moving from Washington, California, and Minnesota, Steele said.

"We have a lot of people here that come and have this vision of homesteading," Steele said. "They want to grow their own food. They want to have chickens and gardens. Interestingly enough, though, all those things in our environment are difficult."

In Custer County, Colorado — the area that's seen the highest net percent increase of 25 to 44-year-olds — 28-year-old Arrott Smith has seen many more nice cars driving around as younger, well-off remote workers move into town.

"For the most part, that's kind of a weird juxtaposition because it is a very working-class county," Smith said.

Smith, the manager and a roaster at local haunt Peregrine Coffee, said that the area has traditionally skewed older — but saw a big influx of younger workers over the last few years. Smith said that the area's newer residents are buying homes even as costs have gone up.

"To me it's more like the people that are moving here have a romanticized version of what it is to live up here," Smith said.

Going rural can be challenging

Economist Jed Kolko said that, with the proliferation of remote work, Americans moved out of bigger urban areas into nearby suburbs or smaller towns. But headwinds in some occupations might slow down the influx of newcomers.

"If unemployment rises, particularly in the kinds of occupations where remote work is more common, employers might be more able to insist on workers spending more days in the office," Kolko said. "Even if that doesn't cause people to reverse the moves that they made during or after the pandemic, it could still slow down that trend in the future."

Meanwhile, in areas that have seen a rush of new residents like Townsend, Kolko said it's key for housing to keep up with demand. If not, affordability challenges from big cities could spread out.

New challenges confront the residents reshaping these areas. Steele said many people moved to her part of Montana after the TV series "Yellowstone" aired, though she's seen many younger people regret their moves. She said many don't anticipate the challenges of living in a more remote part of the US, such as navigating storms, buying goods in bulk, or dealing with isolation.

Recently, rentals have gone really fast, Steele said, adding that rents, on average, have increased from about $750 in 2019 to well over $1,000 monthly. A more stark comparison is some of the county's single-family homes, many of which were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s; while they sold for about $100,000 in 2017, they range from $390,000 to $400,000 today, Steele said.

Housing affordability pushed Solitaire Miles, a Gen X musician, to move from Chicago to northwestern Indiana in 2013. Miles and her husband lived in the Chicago area for about 13 years. While they were gainfully employed, she said, they weren't earning enough to live comfortably while renting. They couldn't afford a home in Illinois, especially with high property taxes. But in Indiana, they found a home with three-quarters of an acre of land just 50 miles from Chicago for under $200,000.

Miles loves having the space. A quieter pace of living has helped stimulate her creativity and her at-home border collie rescue — they currently have five of their own dogs.

But the area has changed over the past few years; the pandemic also fractured her community.

"After Covid, everything just kind of went downhill. So many people died, a lot of elderly died, or they left and they moved south," Miles said.

She's glad they ended up buying out there, and if and when they choose to sell, they'll make a tidy profit. Even so, though, the move came with its own struggles.

"It was hard. I had the gym that I loved and the spas and my beauty salon and the restaurants — all of our friends," she said. "I mean, I did make friends here, but it took time, and I had to go to places where I knew they would be."

For Voss, the real-estate agent, it took him time to acclimate to the South. As a gay man, he noticed more hostility toward his community, though he said many in Dawsonville have appreciated his advocacy work. He's enjoying rural Georgia for the time being but anticipates splitting his time with Hawaii in a few years.

"Georgia is beautiful, I love it. It's so great for so many people," Voss said. "But for me, because of the mentality of the people here, I just don't see myself staying full-time."

Have you moved to a rural area and regretted it (or loved it)? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

Countries in Europe are slamming the brakes on asylum cases filed by Syrian migrants in the wake of the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad, but it is not yet clear whether the U.S. will take similar action.

The U.K. and Norway, along with E.U. countries of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Finland, Ireland and Sweden, have suspended applications from Syrians after the fall of the Assad regime.

While it does not necessarily mean those people will be returned to Syria, it puts those applications in limbo in a continent that saw a massive surge of Syrian migration during the 2015 European migration crisis.

TRUMP'S PLEDGE AGAINST ‘FOREVER WARS’ COULD BE TESTED WITH SYRIA IN HANDS OF JIHADIST FACTIONS 

The European Union has also said that conditions are not currently in place for the safe return of nationals to Syria.

While Europe has seen a considerably more sizeable influx of migrants from Syria than the U.S., it is not clear how those cases in the U.S. will change, if at all, given the changing political dynamics in the Middle Eastern country.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services handle asylum cases, and asylum officers are instructed to consider changes in circumstances when considering those cases. So, if an applicant’s country becomes more stable, then the consideration of that case changes dynamically. Therefore, if Syria stabilizes, it may make it harder for Syrians to receive a positive ruling on their cases.

US GROUP LOOKS FOR KIDNAPPED AMERICANS IN SYRIA AFTER FALL OF ASSAD REGIME: WON'T ‘LEAVE A STONE UNTURNED' 

But so far, there have been no pauses of Syrian asylum cases announced by the Biden administration. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

One factor that could change in the next year is Temporary Protected Status, which grants deportation protection and work permits for nationals of countries deemed unsafe. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended and redesignated Syria for TPS in January, and that lasts until September 2025.

Should the Trump administration choose not to extend or redesignate Syria for TPS, it would require those who are no longer protected from deportation and who do not have another legal status to leave the U.S. or face deportation.

However, the number of Syrians protected under TPS is relatively few, compared to other nationalities and the situation in Europe. DHS estimated that around 8,000 Syrians were eligible for TPS in January.

The Center for Immigration Studies cited statistics showing that the number of Syrians granted asylum between 2011 and 2023 was just over 7,000. Meanwhile, data obtained by Fox News Digital this week shows that there are 741 Syrians with deportation orders on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) non-detained docket. In Europe, around 183,000 Syrians applied for asylum in 2023, according to the Associated Press.

The U.N. refugee agency has called for "patience and vigilance" for Syrian migrants, arguing that much will depend on whether Syria's new government is respectful of law and order.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden is facing increasing pressure from Senate Democrats to make a last-minute move to extend protections from deportations for some illegal immigrants, before the incoming Trump administration launches a mass deportation operation next year.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., held a press conference this week with immigration activists to renew calls to urge Biden to make moves for illegal immigrants currently protected by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

TPS allows nationals who are living in the U.S. and are from countries designated unsafe for them to return to, to obtain work permits and be shielded from deportation. DACA is a 2012 Obama-era executive order that allowed for some illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the country free from deportation. 

TRUMP CLAIMS GOP ‘VERY OPEN’ TO KEEPING ‘DREAMERS’ IN US, TAKES SHOT AT ‘VERY DIFFICULT’ DEMS

The incoming Trump administration is expected to allow TPS to expire for many countries, as it attempted to do in the first administration. Republicans have been deeply critical of the use of TPS, accusing the Biden administration of abusing the tool. A bill introduced by Sen.-elect Jim Banks in the House would restrict TPS designations by requiring Congress to approve them for 12-month terms, and requiring additional moves by Congress to extend them. 

However, Trump has expressed willingness to make a deal with Democrats to allow DACA recipients to remain in the U.S. 

"I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan, but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the Dreamers. The Dreamers, we're talking many years ago. They were brought into this country many years ago, some of them are no longer young people, and in many cases, they become successful," Trump said this week.

DEM SENATOR URGES BIDEN TO EXTEND PROTECTIONS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN: ‘NOBODY IS SAFE’

But Trump’s campaign was defined by a promise to launch a mass deportation campaign, and with that looming, Democrats want Biden to act before it takes effect.

"The president has legal authority to act to give these long-term immigrant communities certainty, and he should use it," Cortez Masto said at the press conference.

"We know the incoming administration is going to try to implement chaotic immigration policies that tear our families apart," she said.

She was also skeptical of Trump’s promise to protect DACA administration, given what she said were his actions in the first Trump administration: "We brought him a bipartisan bill to protect our Dreamers -- he killed it."

"President Biden, you have the chance to cement your legacy on the economy as well as your humanitarian legacy, use this moment to protect long-term immigrants and strengthen our nation’s economy," Padilla said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

The press conference came days after a letter from Democrats led by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., which expressed "deep concern about the threat the incoming administration poses to immigrants in our communities."

"We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration’s policies is closing rapidly. We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families," they said.

FIREBRAND GOP LAWMAKERS DEMANDS MAYORKAS PRESERVE BORDER CRISIS RECORDS FOR TRUMP ADMIN: ‘UNDO THE DAMAGE DONE' 

So far, there have been no indications that Biden is planning any such action on DACA. TPS extensions and redesignations are typically announced by the Department of Homeland Security. The White House did not respond to requests for comments from Fox News Digital.

The Trump administration pushed unsuccessfully to end DACA, being blocked by the Supreme Court. The matter remains in court, with a lawsuit challenging the legality of the policy under review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

In 2019, Trump proposed an additional three years of protection for DACA recipients and others in exchange for money to build a wall along the southern border. Democrats rejected that deal as "hostage taking."

A former high-ranking Venezuelan military officer is sounding the alarm about the migrant gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) being used as a tool of the Venezuelan government to sow violence and discord throughout the United States.

Tren de Aragua, which means "Train from Aragua," is a massive criminal and terrorist organization that originated a decade ago in a Venezuelan prison and is already present in more than 30 major U.S. cities.

José Gustavo Arocha, a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan army, told Fox News Digital that socialist Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is behind much of TdA’s growth and rapid expansion, first in Latin America and now in the U.S.

VIOLENT VENEZUELAN GANG TREN DE ARAGUA SPREADS TO ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST REMOTE STATES

Arocha fled Venezuela to the United States in 2015 after being imprisoned by the Maduro regime for eight months. Since then, he said the situation has only worsened with Maduro asserting ever more control over the region. This year, Maduro retained control of the country by prevailing in a hotly contested election that was widely believed to be fraudulent. 

"We have to understand also something of the Tren de Aragua, the TdA. It's a state-sponsored Maduro regime organization," he said. "The real boss of the Tren de Aragua is in Caracas, Venezuela. It is the Maduro regime, because they created TdA, and they use the TdA as a blackmail [tool] for any situation."

Arocha said the Maduro dictatorship’s counterintelligence agency – the Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, also known as "DGCIM" – has been using TdA as an asymmetrical warfare tool, giving itself "plausible deniability."

EX-ICE OFFICIAL WARNS TREN DE ARAGUA HAS GROWN FASTER INSIDE US THAN MURDEROUS RIVAL GANG: ‘PUT THEM OUT NOW’

Tren de Aragua first burst onto the scene in the U.S. when several members of the gang violently took control of an apartment building in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado. Since then, the gang has been responsible for a steady stream of violent attacks and gang-related crimes, including the high-profile murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia.

While some media reports have portrayed TdA as a simple gang, Arocha said the group has been trained and enabled by the Venezuelan government and DGCIM to advance a specific agenda and criminal ideology. Even the name "train from Aragua," he said, evidences the group’s intent to transport its ideology throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Arocha said the Venezuelan government has already used TdA to inflict crippling crime waves in surrounding countries, helping to usher in a slate of socialist-friendly governments in Colombia, Peru and Chile.  

"They want to create all sorts of chaos in countries in order to shape the contours of the borders and also to create a sensation of instability [and] criminality," he said. "This kind of culture they are exporting outside from Venezuela, first of all [to] Latin America, and right now the U.S."

VENEZUELAN NATIONAL AND TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBER ARRESTED IN TRUMP’S BACKYARD

According to Arocha, the Venezuelan government has seized on the historic migrant crisis under the Biden administration as a "big opportunity" to "create roots" in the U.S. The administration further worsened the situation by temporarily lifting key oil sanctions previously in place against Maduro.

"Just imagine, there are more or less 8 million Venezuelan migrants. It’s a huge number," he said. "If you look at that, it's like a wall where it's spreading all over the states. And when you take into consideration the bussing of the migrants from Texas to other states, they are spreading like a disease, like a virus, all over the country."

With President-elect Donald Trump soon to replace Biden, Arocha said Trump must put the destruction of Tren de Aragua at the "top" of the list of day-one priorities. While acknowledging that it's crucial to close the southern border, Arocha said Tren de Aragua will simply return if the U.S. does not "contain" Maduro.

"Just imagine that, OK, you take all of Tren de Aragua and send [them] to Venezuela or whatever country. It's going to come back. That’s not going to finish the disease," he said. "You have to combat the cause of TdA. The cause of the TdA is the behavior of the Maduro regime that is trying to hurt the American people by using this asymmetrical tool."

"The rule is to not give Maduro the ability to continue in Venezuela," Arocha said. "What I mean is that if you let Maduro to have oil revenues, have the access to resources, you have to have TdA here in the United States."