Republicans in Congress have proposed charging asylum seekers $1,000 to gain entry into the United States.
The proposal is part of a 116-page bill released by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday, which Republicans are seeking to include in a larger package implementing President Donald Trump&#8217;s agenda, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/us/politics/house-republicans-asylum-fees.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. If passed, the Republicans&#8217; proposal would mark the first time the United States charged migrants to claim asylum from countries where they face persecution. The money generated by the asylum claims would go toward securing the southern border.
Backers of the proposal say it would cut down on the total number of asylum claims and allow those with legitimate asylum claims to be admitted into the country more quickly. Proponents also argue that the $1,000 fee would weed out those from the process who are only trying to get a free ride to the United States and deter illegal entries at the southern border, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5271541-republicans-immigration-bill-judiciary-trump-agenda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hill</a>.
Those sponsoring children would face a $3,500 fee, and asylees already in the United States would be charged $550 to apply for a work authorization, according to the House GOP proposal. The measure was proposed after the Trump administration unveiled a program in February to give wealthy foreigners a path to citizenship in the United States with a &#8220;Trump Gold Card,&#8221; which would be sold for $5 million. The president said that he hoped the Gold Card would generate trillions of dollars in revenue, which could go toward paying off the national debt.
Revenue from the GOP-proposed asylee fees would likely go toward building new immigration detention centers, hiring more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff, and helping immigration judges better staff their courts. The Times reported that the Republicans&#8217; budget blueprint calls for $45 billion for immigration detention centers and $8 billion for ICE staff.
Earlier this month, House Republicans <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hold-trump-scores-big-beautiful-victory-house-budget-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> a budget plan that gets the ball rolling for Trump&#8217;s domestic agenda and allows for lawmakers in both the House and the Senate to begin developing legislation. The House Judiciary Committee is set to discuss its legislation, which includes the plan for asylee fees, this week. After House committees mark up individual bills that deal with their respective jurisdictions, Republicans will combine them into one reconciliation measure and try to pass the legislation with a simple majority vote.

Non-governmental Organizations Offer Support To Migrants Stranded In Mexico City

House Republicans Propose Fees For Asylum Seekers

Donald Trump

House Judiciary Committee

House Republicans

Immigration

Federal agents arrested a Venezuelan illegal alien who flaunted his stash of grenades on social media and is believed to be a leader of the vicious Tren de Aragua.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested Yonaiker Gallegos, who posed with an AR-15 and several grenades online, in Los Angeles County on Friday.
“On Tuesday evening April 22, 2025, HSI was able to locate Gallegos who was utilizing the false name Yoniaker Rafel MARTINEZ-RAMOS, who was in state custody in Los Angeles County on misdemeanor charges,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a <a href="https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/1917040814745915616">statement</a> to Fox News.
The HSI National Gang Unit was able to identify the suspected Tren de Aragua leader as Yonaiker Gallegos after cross-referencing booking photos and social media images, using facial comparison tools to confirm his true identity. HSI successfully took Gallegos into custody for violations of Title 8, an immigration policy.
The arrest marks the latest crackdown by the Trump administration on the violent Venezuelan gang. The criminal enterprise was one of eight cartel and gang organizations <a href="https://www.state.gov/terrorist-designations-of-international-cartels/">designated</a> as a foreign terrorist organization by Trump’s State Department.
A multi-agency raid over the weekend resulted in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/multi-agency-raid-hits-tren-de-aragua-hotspot-officials-take-more-than-100-into-custody?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Multi-Agency+Raid+Hits+Tren+De+Aragua+Hotspot%3A+Officials+Take+More+Than+100+Into+Custody">capture</a> of over 100 illegal aliens at an underground nightclub in Colorado that authorities say was being used by Tren de Aragua members. The raid, which was carried out by agents from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and even the United States Postal Service and IRS, also resulted in the seizure of drugs and weapons.
Trump’s Department of Justice recently charged 27 current and former suspected Tren de Aragua members under the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), leveraging a law best known for its use against the mafia against cartels. The charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, spanned three different states and “will devastate TdA’s infrastructure.”
The administration also employed the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leave-now-trump-admin-vows-to-keep-deporting-suspected-gang-members-after-scotus-win?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=‘LEAVE+NOW’%3A+Trump+Admin+Vows+To+Keep+Deporting+Suspected+Gang+Members+After+SCOTUS+Win">deportation </a> of Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador&#8217;s Terrorism Confinement Center. Now the administration is locked in an ongoing l<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/26/texas-judge-venezuela-deportation-tren-de-aragua/83298669007/">egal battle</a> with federal judges over its use of the law to remove the criminal aliens.

HSI Arrest

Feds Say They’ve Captured Tren De Aragua Leader Who Flaunted Grenades On Social Media

Crime

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Tren De Aragua

U.S.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions impeding federal immigration enforcement.
The directive requires the Justice Department to compile a list of all sanctuary city jurisdictions and then take action to cut off or suspend federal funding to those places. Under Trump, cities across the country, like Boston, have already made it difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to apprehend illegal immigrants.
&#8220;This invasion at the southern border requires the Federal Government to take measures to fulfill its obligation to the States,&#8221; Trump wrote in the executive order. &#8220;Yet some State and local officials nevertheless continue to use their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration laws. This is a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law and the Federal Government&#8217;s obligation to defend the territorial sovereignty of the United States.&#8221;
After the list of sanctuary jurisdictions is published, those entities would be given the chance to comply with federal law. If they don&#8217;t comply, they could lose federal funding.
The executive order also directs the Justice Department and Homeland Security to ensure that federal benefits are not provided to illegals in sanctuary jurisdictions and to &#8220;take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable.&#8221;
The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-protects-american-communities-from-criminal-aliens/">provided</a> examples of sanctuary jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with ICE. For example, authorities in Massachusetts declined to hold multiple illegal immigrants accused of raping children. The White House also said that officials in Philadelphia ignored an ICE detainer on a Honduran man who went on to rape a child.
Earlier this month, Trump called sanctuary jurisdictions &#8220;death traps&#8221; and promised to cut off federal funding.
&#8220;No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims. They are disgracing our Country and are being mocked all over the World,&#8221; he posted on Truth Social. &#8220;Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!&#8221;
While some jurisdictions have doubled down on their sanctuary status, New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams has walked back some of his city&#8217;s lax immigration policies. Earlier this month, he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-mayor-adams-reverses-sanctuary-policy-restores-ice-presence-on-rikers-island" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that ICE would be allowed to resume operations at Rikers Island jail to target criminal gangs and drug trafficking, reversing a previous policy banning the agency from the facility. Adams did specify that NYC would work with ICE on criminal matters, not civil.

The-Philadelphia-Eagles-At-The-White-House

Trump Puts Sanctuary Cities On Notice With New Executive Order

Boston

Eric Adams

Executive

Executive Orders

Illegal Immigation

Politics

Sanctuary Cities

Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that Joe Biden was the first president in history to intentionally leave the border unsecured.
Homan made the comments at a White House briefing to discuss border enforcement during President Donald Trump&#8217;s first hundred days. Homan said that under Trump, unlawful crossings were &#8220;historically low&#8221; and that the border was the most secure it has ever been, in contrast to the record number of illegal immigrants that entered the United States under the Biden administration.
&#8220;Every president I ever worked for took border security seriously because you can&#8217;t have national security if you don&#8217;t have strong border security,&#8221; Homan said. &#8220;Even President Obama and President Clinton took some steps to secure the border because they understood national security was important. Joe Biden is the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose. That&#8217;s just a fact.&#8221;
He later said that Biden&#8217;s immigration policies were motivated by the desire that a future Democratic president would give illegal immigrants released into the country amnesty, saying Biden was &#8220;selling this country off for future political power.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Border Czar <a href="https://twitter.com/RealTomHoman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealTomHoman</a>: &quot;Joe Biden is the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border ON PURPOSE.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/yMYKgNyTaZ">pic.twitter.com/yMYKgNyTaZ</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1916837282302018031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Contrasting Biden and Trump, Homan said that between 11,000-15,000 people were crossing the border illegally per day this time of the year under Biden, while under Trump, just 178 had crossed in the last 24 hours. During the same time, he said there were 1,800 known &#8220;gotaways&#8221; under Biden, compared to just 38 under Trump. Homan added that from January 20 to April 1, 2024, Biden released 184,000 illegals out of federal custody into the country. The Trump administration has only released nine total, including four so they could testify in criminal cases and four with extreme medical conditions.
In total, Homan said that there have been 139,000 deportations under Trump. He added that the administration was prioritizing the estimated 700,000 illegals who have been charged with crimes. The Trump administration on Monday placed signs on the White House lawn featuring mugshots of deported illegals arrested over crimes like rape and murder.
&nbsp;
During the briefing, Homan also weighed in on the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on Friday over allegations that she helped an illegal immigrant from Mexico evade ICE.
&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to support ICE&#8217;s operations. You can support sanctuary cities if that&#8217;s what you desire to do. Sanctuary cities can stand aside and watch ICE keep their communities safe,&#8221; Homan said. &#8220;When you cross that line to impediment or knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien from ICE, you will be prosecuted, judge or not.&#8221;

White House Press Secretary Leavitt And Border Czar Homan Hold Briefing On Border

Tom Homan: Biden First President To Intentionally Leave Border Unsecured

Border

Joe Biden

Tom Homan

Speaking on MSNBC over the weekend, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) railed against President Donald Trump and his administration, saying they were “trying to intimidate judges.”
Schumer spoke as the two discussed the case of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, whom the Trump administration charged with two felonies for obstructing immigration agents. In mid-April, when immigration, DEA. and FBI agents came to apprehend Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal in Dugan’s courtroom to face domestic violence charges — and Dugan had been notified that there was an administrative warrant for the Flores-Ruiz’s arrest — “Judge Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” the<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/fbi-arrest-judge.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> criminal complaint</a> stated.
“Trump wants to be king,” Schumer whined to MSNBC host Al Sharpton. “A king doesn’t have a Constitution. A king just does whatever he wants. And [Attorney General Pam] Biondi (sic) just goes along with him. They’re trying to intimidate judges. This is not the first time or the second. They’ve said they want to impeach judges. They said they’re going to go after judges who don’t agree with them. That is so against the Constitution. The Constitution believes and has been written with the wisdom of the founding fathers, that we should have separation of powers.”
“There should be an independent judiciary,” he continued. “When you go before a judge, you think that you hope and believe that that judge is impartial. What Trump, Biondi (sic), and the whole Justice Department are trying to do is push that judge, threaten that judge, so the judge is no longer impartial. &#8230; I don’t believe ICE or anything they say, because they’ve made up things so many times in the past. This is a constitutional crisis. You cannot have a — you cannot have a democracy without an independent judiciary. And they’re trying to clip the wings of that independence.”
Schumer’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. In March 2020, he threatened conservative members of the Supreme Court for considering abortion rights cases, shouting at an abortion rights rally:
<blockquote>Inside the walls of this court, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments, as you know, for the first major abortion rights cases since Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch came to the bench. &#8230; I want to tell you Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.</blockquote>
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was critically injured when shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter, called Schumer&#8217;s comments “unhinged,&#8221; adding, &#8220;This rhetoric has dangerous consequences.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 UNHINGED → Schumer threatened conservative justices Kavanaugh &amp; Gorsuch on the steps of the Supreme Court:
&quot;You have released the whirlwind &amp; you will pay the price. You won&#39;t know what hit you.&quot;
Enough. This rhetoric has dangerous consequences. Where&#39;s the media outrage? <a href="https://t.co/SiGNHxG0iX">pic.twitter.com/SiGNHxG0iX</a>
&mdash; Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveScalise/status/1235299202542063616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
2025: Chuck Schumer says Trump wants to intimidate and threaten judges.
2020: Chuck Schumer tries to intimidate and threaten Justices of the Supreme Court. <a href="https://t.co/FdisnZKk0I">pic.twitter.com/FdisnZKk0I</a>
&mdash; Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1916594680260968939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

Hypocrite: Schumer Wails Trump ‘Trying To Intimidate Judges.’ He Threatened SCOTUS In 2020.

Chuck Schumer

Judges

Supreme Court

The United States endured a never-before-seen surge in illegal immigration under President Joe Biden, watching as hordes of migrants <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/03/22/opinion/el-paso-border-rush-video-shows-damage-open-borders-joe-has-done/">charged border barriers</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-has-my-town-become-springfield-residents-say-its-falling-apart-amid-haitian-influx">towns</a> across the country were reshaped virtually overnight by mass migration.
The issue, perhaps more than any other, propelled President Donald Trump to victory in the 2024 election. Trump <a href="https://archive.ph/G2Tm4">pledged</a> to end the “invasion on our southern border&#8221; throughout his campaign. And in the first 100 days of his second administration, the president has slashed border crossings to a fraction of what they were just months ago.
Through a combination of policy changes, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-ice-arrests-1000-illegal-workers-pushes-for-fines-on-businesses-using-illegal-labor?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=9&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump%E2%80%99s+ICE+Arrests+1%2C000+Illegal+Workers%2C+Pushes+For+Fines+On+Businesses+Using+Illegal+Labor">arrests and deportations</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-treasury-sanctions-cartel-drug-runners-behind-fentanyl-trafficking-human-smuggling?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=13&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump%E2%80%99s+Treasury+Sanctions+Cartel+Drug-Runners+Behind+Fentanyl+Trafficking%2C+Human+Smuggling">sanctions</a>, and coordination with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-officials-bukele-tear-into-cnn-reporter-who-asked-if-illegal-alien-will-be-returned-to-u-s?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=14&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Officials%2C+Bukele+Tear+Into+CNN+Reporter+Who+Asked+If+Illegal+Alien+Will+Be+Returned+To+U.S.">foreign governments,</a> Trump says his  administration has facilitated a dramatic <a href="https://x.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1916478016286323049">99.9 percent drop</a> in border encounters.
Customs and Border Protection data recorded <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters">over 11 million</a> illegal alien encounters nationwide under the Biden administration — <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters">roughly 9 million</a> of which took place at the southern border. By May of Biden’s last year in office, federal data showed that 1.7 million illegal alien <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/05/16/us-news/1-7-million-gotaways-have-sneaked-into-us-under-biden-data/">&#8220;gotaways&#8221;</a> entered the country.
Illegal immigration was so dramatic under Biden that the foreign-born population surged to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-born-population-surges-to-new-high-with-illegal-immigration-driving-increase-report-finds">new high</a> of 53 million. Two-thirds of the growth of the foreign-born population during the Biden presidency is estimated to be due to illegal immigration. There are approximately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-alien-population-surges-to-record-high-bombshell-study-finds">18.6 million illegal aliens</a> currently present in the United States, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
But the situation on the southern border changed drastically after Trump&#8217;s inauguration.
“From Jan. 21 through Jan. 31, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85% from the same period in 2024,” the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/illegal-border-crossings-plummeted-in-january/">pointed out</a> in a press release, citing ABC News.
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-celebrates-steep-drop-in-illegal-border-crossings?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=75&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Admin+Celebrates+Steep+Drop+In+Illegal+Border+Crossings">recorded a 93 percent drop</a> in illegal border crossings in the eleven days after Trump&#8217;s inauguration. The decline proved to be even more precipitous by March, when Vice President JD Vance visited the southern border and boasted of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-does-victory-lap-at-border-all-it-took-was-a-new-president?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=55&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Vance+Does+Victory+Lap+At+Border%3A+%E2%80%98All+It+Took+Was+A+New+President%E2%80%99">98 percent reduction</a> in border crossings.
The rapid drop in border crossings came after Trump announced and implemented sweeping changes to immigration policy. Upon taking office, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-declares-a-national-emergency-at-the-southern-border/">declared</a> a national emergency at the southern border, ordering the Secretary of Defense to deploy troops to the border and for border wall construction to resume.
By early March, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/us/politics/military-border-immigration.html">roughly 9,000</a> active-duty soldiers were at the southern border.
One of Trump&#8217;s most consequential policy changes was the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-administration-reinstating-remain-mexico-program-2025-01-21/">reinstatement</a> of the Remain in Mexico policy, which requires migrants to stay in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed.
It&#8217;s a departure from the Biden administration&#8217;s catch-and-release policy, which allowed asylum seekers to enter the United States and live and work in the country while their claims are processed. Some migrants freed into the country under Biden were given court dates in <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/11/migrants-admitted-to-us-given-2035-immigration-court-dates/">2035.</a>
Trump also immediately <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/realigning-the-united-states-refugee-admissions-program/">suspended</a> the Refugee Admissions Program and halted <a href="https://cis.org/Bensman/Government-Admission-Biden-Parole-Flights-Create-Security-Vulnerabilities-US-Airports">flights of migrants</a> from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador, which the Biden administration used to streamline more than 300,000 migrants into the interior of the United States.
In March, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-transforms-bidens-cbp-one-app-leave-now-and-self-deport">repurposed</a> an online application that the Biden administration used to bring hundreds of thousands of migrants into the interior of the country. Formerly called CBP One, the Biden administration used the app to let migrants remotely schedule asylum appointments. It has since been renamed CBP Home, and allows migrants to alert the government of their “intent to depart” the United States.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security even launched an <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/03/15/dhs-launches-international-ad-campaign-warning-illegal-aliens-self-deport-and-stay">international advertising campaign</a> warning would-be illegal aliens not to attempt to enter the United States.
“If you are a criminal alien considering entering America illegally: Don’t even think about it. If you come here and break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says in the ads, which have been broadcast on television, radio, social media, and even through targeted text messages.
The effects of Trump’s immigration policies weren’t just seen at the southern border. They&#8217;ve even been noticed by Latin American countries like Colombia, which watched as caravans of migrants traveled through it on their way to the United States.
Colombia <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/latin-american-country-sees-massive-drop-in-migration-attributes-decline-to-trump-border-policies?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=47&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Latin+American+Country+Sees+Drop+In+Migration+To+U.S.%2C+Attributes+Decline+To+Trump+Border+Policies">recorded</a> a 61 percent decline in migratory flow through the country to the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle that migrants cross through on their way to the United States in the first month of Trump’s administration. Colombia attributed the decline to “the change in U.S. immigration policy” under Trump.

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How Trump Sealed The Border In His First 100 Days

Border Wall

mass immigration

Trump

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a second illegal alien who the Trump administration deported to El Salvador and says is a gang member.
United States District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-orders-return-second-migrant-deported-el-salvador-2025-04-24/">issued the decision</a> Wednesday, ruling that the deportation of the Venezuelan national violated a previous court settlement. Gallagher argued that a settlement agreement she approved in November on behalf of thousands of migrants required the man’s asylum case to be heard before he was deported.
“A core purpose of the Settlement Agreement would be nullified if Class Members with pending asylum applications could be summarily removed from the United States and thus rendered ineligible for asylum,” Gallagher said as she addressed the case of the Venezuelan national, identified only as Cristian.
The Trump administration argues that Cristian’s deportation did not violate federal law, as it had invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies act, thereby making the Venezuelan national ineligible to receive asylum and remain in the United States.
The administration is also locked in a battle with United States District Court Judge James Boasberg, who recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-judge-threatens-to-hold-trump-admin-in-criminal-contempt-of-court-over-deportation-flights?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Liberal+Judge+Threatens+To+Hold+Trump+Admin+In+Criminal+Contempt+Of+Court+Over+Deportation+Flights">threatened</a> to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the removal of more than 250 suspected gang members to the El Salvadoran prison.
The new ruling from Gallagher comes after a different judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of El Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the White House says is a member of MS-13.
Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele said that he had no intention of returning Garcia to the United States. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said in response to a journalist while meeting with Trump in the White House, also adding that he also will not release him from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.
“I’m not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country … we just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the western hemisphere and you want us to go back?” Bukele noted. “That’s not going to happen.”

CECOT

Baltimore Judge Gets In The Way Of Another Trump Gang Member Deportation

Courts

Deportations

Judge

Trump Administration

Colony Ridge’s defense lawyer and a land developer lobbying group teamed up to draft legislation that would exempt Texas developments like Colony Ridge from certain consumer protection regulations, communications obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire reveal.
A <a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB4166/id/3160963">House bill</a> and its companion<a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB2508/id/3173475"> bill in the Senate</a> would carve out an exemption in mortgage origination laws for Texas residential real estate developers, threatening to embolden developments like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-colony-ridge-the-fastest-growing-development-in-the-u-s-is-a-magnet-for-illegal-immigrants">Colony Ridge</a> that cater to illegal aliens and foreign nationals. The legislation has already passed through the House Committee on Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services but is still under consideration in the Senate&#8217;s Business and Commerce Committee.
<a href="https://www.colonyridge.com/complaintrecovery-fund-notice/">Colony Ridge</a> and the Texas Land Developers Association (TLDA) members that employ similar strategies are currently required to inform consumers that they can contact the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending in the event that they have complaints.
But under the new legislation, the developments would not be under the purview of the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending, and the legal risk would be offloaded to loan originators instead. That means there would be even less oversight of developers who have built businesses by catering to illegal aliens and <a href="https://x.com/SpencerLndqst/status/1890063065489735954">selling land to foreign buyers</a> who haven&#8217;t been qualified as borrowers — often charging sky-high interest rates and reselling land after borrowers default.
The bill would strip the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending’s authority to regulate residential real estate developers who provide mortgage loans to purchasers of property, and would limit oversight to separately licensed residential mortgage loan originators and companies.
This legislation, according to documents obtained by The Daily Wire, came about through a partnership between Colony Ridge’s defense lawyer and the Texas Land Developers Association, a lobbying organization whose former president defended the infamous development’s strategy of selling American land to illegal aliens en masse.
A leaked email viewed by The Daily Wire indicates that Jason Ray, a lobbyist who is defending Colony Ridge in the Department of Justice <a href="https://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txsdce/4:2023cv04729/1945245">lawsuit</a> against the development, worked with the TLDA to prepare the legislation. In a November 21, 2024, email obtained by The Daily Wire, <a href="https://texaslanddevelopers.org/about-us/">TLDA president Kevin Campbell</a> identifies Colony Ridge lawyer Jason Ray as “the attorney that prepared the bill language.”
<div id="attachment_911543" style="width: 801px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911543" class=" wp-image-911543" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/TLDA-Jason-Ray-300x179.png" alt="" width="791" height="472" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/TLDA-Jason-Ray-300x179.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/TLDA-Jason-Ray-964x576.png 964w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/TLDA-Jason-Ray-768x459.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/TLDA-Jason-Ray.png 1292w" sizes="(max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px" />Obtained by The Daily Wire</div>
The TLDA and Ray are attempting to create a special carve-out for developments like Colony Ridge with the help of a former Democrat in the statehouse who is financially intertwined with special interests who stand to gain.
Ray discusses the bill at length in a December 6, 2024, email to Kevin Campbell, TLDA compliance officer Heather Oakes, and Kacee Jackson, a TLDA board member. The Colony Ridge defense lawyer told The Daily Wire that he did not draft the bill, but did not respond after being asked if he had any role in the bill&#8217;s preparation.
This marks the latest attempt from developers to impose their will on Texas politics. A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/colony-ridge-gave-greg-abbott-1-5-million-heres-what-greg-abbott-gave-colony-ridge?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Colony+Ridge+Gave+Greg+Abbott+%241.5+Million.+Here’s+What+Greg+Abbott+Gave+Colony+Ridge.">Daily Wire investigation</a> revealed that Governor Greg Abbott nominated Colony Ridge to become a federal Opportunity Zone, granting investors special tax breaks meant to spur development, after he received a $100,000 campaign donation from the developer&#8217;s wife in 2018.
Abbott hosted Colony Ridge developer Trey Harris and State Senator Brandon Creighton at the Governor&#8217;s Mansion for a lunch meeting as he nominated the development for the lucrative status. Then, just about a year after Colony Ridge was named an Opportunity Zone, the company Creighton works for announced that it would be building homes inside the controversial development. Creighton now sits on the Senate committee considering the new legislation.
State Representative Janis Holt, who defeated former Representative Ernest Bailes after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-colony-ridge-the-fastest-growing-development-in-the-u-s-is-a-magnet-for-illegal-immigrants">exposed</a> the latter&#8217;s ties to Colony Ridge, warned that the legislation could enable fraud and money laundering, all while encouraging more developments like Colony Ridge to crop up around Texas.
“The Colony Ridge &#8211; Harris Brothers real estate model started on a small scale, which allowed them to operate under the radar and gradually expand their influence,” Holt <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/853245812/Rep-Janis-Holt-Opposes-HB-4166?secret_password=dC0OEsQxCTM5ZDq6wSQf">wrote in a letter</a> to the Chairman of the House Committee on Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services.
“The Colony Ridge development in my district has already placed enormous strain on local resources, including schools, roads, and county services. The business model employed by Trey Harris, which is currently under scrutiny by the Department of Justice for predatory lending practices, further exacerbates these issues,” she explained. “Allowing exemptions could worsen the situation by enabling similar practices elsewhere.”
“The aforementioned reasons and the crippling effects of Colony Ridge remove any possibility that I would support this legislative approach,&#8221; she added.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-developer-admits-colony-ridge-relies-on-subprime-lending-to-non-citizen-buyers">previously reported</a> that Scot Campbell, the former head of the TLDA, admitted that the Colony Ridge business model relies on giving loans to foreign nationals and illegal aliens to buy American land, all without checking if the individuals are creditworthy.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
EXCLUSIVE: A Texas land developer admitted that the Colony Ridge business model relies on selling land to unqualified foreign buyers:
&#8220;We will not be able to sell our developments if each of our buyers have to have SS#’s.&#8221;
I obtained his stunning admissions🧵 <a href="https://t.co/f2nWFuWA5r">pic.twitter.com/f2nWFuWA5r</a>
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpencerLndqst/status/1890063065489735954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
“We will not be able to sell our developments if each of our buyers have to have SS#’s and we have to qualify each buyer as to the buyer’s ability to repay,” Scot Campbell, the former head of the Texas Land Developers Association, admitted in the email. “It will kill our industry and will make our future resale of foreclosed lots worth a lot less … because we will all be fighting over a few qualified buyers,” he added.
The legislation is now being carried in the Texas House by a representative who’s accepted $20,000 from individuals and entities that stand to gain from the proposal.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Democrat-turned-Republican who <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/candidate/ryan-a-guillen-coh/contributors?cycle=2015-to-now&amp;page=2">received $14,000</a> from the now-defunct Texas Land Developers Association PAC. Guillen represents House District 31, which stretches from the southern border to Floresville, just southeast of San Antonio.
Guillen took <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/contributor/kyndel-bennett/?cycle=2015-to-now">$1,000</a> from Kyndel Bennett, the CEO of Cayetano, a land development company that allows foreign nationals to buy Texas land along the southern border using documents from the Mexican government as identification instead of a Social Security number. Bennett is also a TLDA board member.
He received an additional <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/contributor/5609957?cycle=2015-to-now">$5,000 from Scot Campbell</a>, the former TLDA chairman behind the email defending Colony Ridge’s practice of selling out American land to illegal aliens.
The House bill has <a href="https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1868238">companion legislation</a> in the Texas Senate sponsored by Sen. Adam Hinojosa of the 27th district, which covers the Rio Grande Valley along the border. Like Guillen, Hinojosa has taken money from TLDA members and <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/contributor/scot-campbell?cycle=2015-to-now">received $11,500</a> from Scot Campbell. Neither Guillen nor Hinojosa responded to a request for comment.
TLDA President Kevin Campbell initially told The Daily Wire that the legislation “will have no impact on larger lenders like TLDA members.” But the legislation would benefit residential real estate developers of all sizes in Texas by allowing them to receive an exemption from mortgage origination regulations.
The Daily Wire followed up, asking why the TLDA had invested so heavily in the legislation, was working with a lawyer to draft and modify the bill language, and why it was being carried by a Representative and a Senator who both had financial ties to TLDA members, if TLDA member companies did not stand to gain. Campbell did not respond.

Colony Ridge sign

This Texas Bill, Written By Lawyer For Colony Ridge, Could Sprout More Illegal Immigrant Hotbeds

Colony Ridge

Texas

A twice-deported illegal alien who killed a young couple in a drunk driving accident was set to be let out of a California prison more than six years early.
Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano, a Mexican national, was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to ten years in prison after he <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-trump-officials-file-charges-against-illegal-immigrant-after-fox-news-exposes-early-release-plans">killed</a> Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin in a drunk driving accident in Orange County, California, in November 2021.
The young couple was burned alive after Ortega-Anguiano barreled into their vehicle while high, drunk, and driving nearly 100 miles per hour. The family was notified by the state that the illegal alien was set to be released from prison after serving just over one-third of his ten-year sentence.
Anya Varfolomeev’s father <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/illegal-immigrant-convicted-killing-teens-high-speed-crash-released-early">decried</a> the planned early release of the illegal alien. “It&#8217;s disgusting. You have two young, unbelievable future, productive American citizens killed for nothing and that illegal immigrant who already has been deported twice is going to be released again? For what?” Anatoly Varfolomeev said. “If even he is deported, he will come back.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed an immigration detainer on the illegal alien, and after public backlash, Governor Gavin Newsom&#8217;s press office has announced that the state will be <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1915107716688962033">honoring the request</a>.
“After being deported in 2013, this individual unlawfully re-entered the US &amp; committed heinous crimes,” the governor’s press office said in a post on X. “CDCR will again coordinate with ICE — as they have w/ 10,000+ inmates — to transfer him before release.”
Ortega-Anguiano will face new federal charges from the Department of Justice (DOJ) for illegally reentering the United States after having previously been deported.
“My office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326,” Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California wrote on X. “If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the [Department of Justice] will.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
My office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326.
If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheJusticeDept</a> will. <a href="https://t.co/wTuQdun1as">https://t.co/wTuQdun1as</a>
— US Attorney Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) <a href="https://twitter.com/USAttyEssayli/status/1915069030349648125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
“This is absolutely unconscionable. What about Justice for these teens? What about the rights of their parents?” Attorney General Pam Bondi <a href="https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/1915040349937954960">said on X,</a> adding that the DOJ “will work with ICE to make sure this illegal alien receives full punishment for his crimes.”

Illegal alien car crash

California Nearly Freed A Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Drunk Driver — Now Newsom Is Backtracking

California

Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel, a mother of five, was raped and murdered by El Salvadoran illegal immigrant Victor Martinez-Hernandez in 2023, condemned Democrats for championing the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 member whom the Trump administration deported to El Salvador, while ignoring her pain and never reaching out to her.
Morin spoke of the White House press briefing last week at which she spoke, telling <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6371804501112">Fox News Digital</a>, “People were literally shoulder to shoulder cameras, microphones everything going and as soon as I get up to the podium, everyone shut off their cameras; everyone shut off their microphones.”
“People don’t realize what actually happened to my daughter,” she said. “And during the trial, and before the investigation, they only gave us an outline; they didn’t give us details. And during the trial, we actually saw the crime scene photos and the autopsy photos and they had so many expert witnesses come in and testify to this horrendous, gruesome brutal murder, this thing that happened to my daughter. And so I went in and I described, summarized, what had happened to her. She was dragged 150 feet; they followed a 150-foot blood trail to the culvert where her body was. Her body was outlined in blood. The silhouette of her body is against the tunnel ball outlined in the blood that was gushing from her head. She was raped. She was strangled. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t have some kind of bruise, abrasion, cut some kind of abuse to it.”
“And none of them had their recorders on or their cameras on because they didn’t want the American people to know how violent these crimes are and how rampant they are,” she stated. “There’s only one or two maybe three that have hit the headlines, but there are thousands of these stories all over America that aren’t being covered because either 1) the family is ashamed; 2) law-enforcement doesn’t wanna cause a panic, and 3) it’s usually blue states or Democrats that wanna downplay it because for some reason, they are profiting in some way from having these 20 million illegal immigrants in our country.”
“I had somebody just this past weekend come up to me and said that there has been migrant crime going on in Maryland and in our county for decades,” she recalled. “He cited one that happened 20 years ago and he said people don’t realize that that was a migrant crime because media and law enforcement kind of played it down.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) flew to El Salvador last week and met with Garcia. Democrat Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon flew there on Monday.
“It’s been about 20 months since my daughter was murdered; it’s been about ten months that we’ve known it’s been an illegal immigrant, and in all this time, President Biden never reached out; Kamala Harris never reached out; Mayorkas never reached out,” Morin said. “Senators here in Maryland have not reached out at all. And it’s been almost 20 months, total. So their silence and their actions or lack of actions speak volumes to their character and the values that they hold. And as an American citizen, as a Maryland citizen, and as a mom, it tells me that I‘m not important or valuable, and that an illegal immigrant — that means he’s broken federal law by coming into the country and staying here, has broken state law by coming to the country and staying here, and then beating his wife, it’s in court; he’s broken other state laws — they would rather champion his cause, a criminal, than the victim. I think it is utterly despicable.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 BREAKING STUDY: The anti-American media obsessed over illegal &#8220;Maryland man&#8221; for over 143 minutes and only spent 12 seconds covering the trial of Rachel Morin&#8217;s killer.
The leftist media are America last! <a href="https://t.co/4TFpbxbupq">https://t.co/4TFpbxbupq</a>
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) <a href="https://twitter.com/newsbusters/status/1915048523613024302?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-8007

‘Utterly Despicable’: Rachel Morin’s Mom Slams Dems Visiting MS-13 Member In El Salvador

Chris Van Hollen

illegal immigrant

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Murder

Rachel Morin

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it would be impossible to give a trial to each one of the millions of migrants who illegally entered the country under former President Joe Biden, adding that he hoped he would get cooperation from the courts for his mass deportation plans.
Trump said that he won the election on his promises to deport illegal migrants and that the country would be very &#8220;dangerous&#8221; if his administration were blocked from carrying out those deportations. Various federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scotus-blocks-trump-from-deporting-alleged-tren-de-aragua-gang-members" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bogged down</a> the administration&#8217;s efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected gang members.
“We’re getting them out. I hope we get cooperation from the courts, because we have thousands of people that are ready to go out and you can’t have a trial for all of these people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It wasn’t meant. The system wasn’t meant. And we don’t think there’s anything that says that.”
“A judge can’t say, ‘You know, you have to have a trial.’ The trial is going to take two years,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;No, we’re going to have a very dangerous country if we’re not allowed to do what we&#8217;re entitled to do. And I won an election based on the fact that we get them out.” 
Trump also said that there was &#8220;virtually&#8221; no one crossing the border illegally under his watch, stating that the border was &#8220;a tad stronger&#8221; than it was during his first term in office.
The comments come after Trump made multiple posts on Truth Social talking about how long it would take to give a trial to the more than 10 million illegal migrants in the United States.
&#8220;How can Biden let Millions of Criminals into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted, with no Legal authority to do so, yet I, in order to make up for this assault to our Nation, am expected to go through a lengthy Legal process, separately, for each and every Criminal Alien. As usual, TWO DIFFERENT STANDARDS, only leading to the Complete and Total Destruction of the U.S.A,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114378317437182332" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
In a second post, he said it would take 200 years to give trials to everyone.
&#8220;If we don’t get these criminals out of our Country, we are not going to have a Country any longer. We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years,&#8221; he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114377993807616549" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the Country.&#8221;
The Trump administration has been locked in a battle with the courts on numerous immigration actions, including the deportation of suspected MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to his home country of El Salvador. A federal judge has ordered that Garcia be returned to the United States due to an &#8220;administrative error,&#8221; but the Trump administration has so far resisted these orders. The Supreme Court has also limited immigration enforcement, blocking the administration from deporting alleged Tren de Aragua members to Venezuela.

US-POLITICS-ECONOMY-MARKETS-SECURITIES

Trump: Illegal Migrants Let In By Biden Should Not Get Trials Before Deportation

The Department of Justice (DOJ) unleashed unprecedented criminal charges against members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, invoking a law that is best known for its use against the mafia in the fight against the foreign terror organization.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Matthew Podolsky, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that it charged a total of 27 current and former Tren de Aragua members under the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for the first time ever, marking a new development in how the federal government prosecutes the cartels.
The indictment, Bondi says, will decimate the criminal network’s infrastructure.
“As alleged, Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities,” Bondi charged. “Today’s indictments and arrests span three states and will devastate TdA’s infrastructure as we work to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country.”
The indictment targets both current and former members of Tren de Aragua, charging them with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, robbery, and firearms offenses. Of the 27 individuals charged by the DOJ, 19 of them are alleged to be members of a Tren de Aragua splinter group referred to as “Anti-Tren.”
The unsealed indictment outlines a number of specific charges against the alleged current and former Tren de Aragua members, accusing them of sex trafficking, drug trafficking, carjacking, and a litany of firearms charges.
The DOJ also explained that the foreign terror organization has been particularly active in New York City, specifically in the Bronx and Queens.
“Tren de Aragua is one of the most dangerous gangs in the country, and the NYPD has taken significant action to shut down their operations in New York City,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch remarked. “For the first time ever, TdA is being named and charged as the criminal enterprise that it is. This isn’t just street crime—it’s organized racketeering, and this gang has shown zero regard for the safety of New Yorkers.”

TdA Arrest

DOJ Unleashes Unprecedented Charges Against Tren De Aragua Members

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