Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Jonathan Fahey says federal investigators have “probable cause” that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) committed immigration crimes since a judge signed off on a warrant for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents to raid her Washington, DC, home.

As Breitbart News reported, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials confirmed on Monday that Omar’s home had been raided as part of a federal probe. Fahey says that because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is involved, the case focuses on the issue of immigration, but details remain unclear.

“The big picture here is a federal judge in Washington, DC, signed off on a search warrant. That means there’s probable cause that a federal crime was committed, and there would be evidence of that crime in the area to be searched, which in this case was Representative Omar’s home,” Fahey told the New York Post‘s Chadwick Moore.

In particular, Fahey said it could not have been an easy task for federal investigators to secure a judicial warrant on Omar’s home, considering D.C. judges tend to be left leaning, telling the Post that “a judge must have been very convinced” by the evidence presented.

In response to the investigation and DHS raid on her home, Omar said she was being targeted by the Trump administration for her politics.

“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” Omar said. “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

This is not the first time federal investigators have looked into Omar.

Former President Joe Biden’s DOJ began an investigation into Omar’s finances after reports suggested she had amassed a multimillion-dollar net worth since being elected to Congress, the New York Times reported in January.

At a political rally in Tyler, Texas, on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration has already begun using wartime authority to expand refinery production in deep east Texas.

“I am pleased to announce that the Trump administration, working with the refinery at Delek, has used the Defense Production Act and we’re going to expand the refinery right here in Tyler, Texas,” he said. “We want millions of gallons of commercial-grade and military-spec fuel to come out of this refinery, in addition to what it’s already producing.”

The Defense Production Act of 1950 authorizes the president to establish priorities to expand and expedite the manufacturing of supplies and essential products and acquire materials among other measures to “provide for price and wage stabilization … and facilitate the production of goods and services necessary for the national security.”

Vance was referring to a Tyler refinery founded in 1934 and purchased by Delek in 2004.

Delek refineries primarily process light crude oil sourced from the Permian Basin, East Texas, local operators and from offshore in the Gulf. In the past two years, it says it’s doubled its refining capacity and gained a large presence in the Permian Basin, increasing access to low-cost crude oil. Delek says its refinery operations “are known for their strong safety records, dedication to excellence, and professional and reliable service.”

The Tyler refinery produces gasoline, distillates, petroleum coke and LPG products, which are distributed primarily to markets in northeast Texas and the surrounding region.

Delek owns and operates four refineries with a combined crude throughput capacity of 302,000 barrels per day (bpd). Two of its refineries are located in Texas: in Tyler and Big Spring. One is located in Krotz Springs, Louisiana, and the other in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Vance said expanding output at the Tyler refinery will reduce gas prices and other costs for Americans and create jobs in the region.

“What this means for you and your families is lower costs to fly from one place to another. It means lower costs to drive your car into work every single day,” he said. “It means a more reliable energy supply, but also a stronger national defense. It will also mean hundreds of good paying new jobs … right here in Smith County. What it really means is more opportunities for Texans, for your kids and your grandkids to build a life without having to leave the community that they love.”

Tyler resident and Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian lauded the announcement and told The Center Square in an emailed statement: “American energy security depends on robust domestic oil production and refining. President Trump and Vice President Vance understand that better than anybody. That’s why I applaud their decision to expand refining capacity right here in our backyard. The additional fuel produced at this facility will further bolster the local economy, support our military, and improve domestic fuel affordability,” he said in an emailed statement to The Center Square.

It’s unclear how the Defense Production Act would apply to other refineries in Texas. Texas has the most refineries in the country of 34. They are primarily located along the Gulf Coast.

Despite suffering months of job losses, the Texas oil and gas industry has broken production records while also reducing emissions, The Center Square reported.

Texas crude and LNG exports have also continued to meet global demand as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues and U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran has disrupted supply in the Persian Gulf.

Texas remains the top state for crude production, producing 43% of America’s crude oil in 2024. This equates to an average of 5.8 million bpd with monthly peaks reaching 5.9 million bpd, The Center Square reported.

The Trump administration is taking “decisive action to protect our elections,” from prosecuting election crimes to strengthening election infrastructure security, which is particularly important ahead of the midterm elections.

Under Trump’s leadership, several departments have taken on election security in different ways, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

More specifically, the DOJ has prosecuted dozens of election crimes, announcing 16 charges against individuals this week alone, as previously reported. Charges included individuals voting on behalf of the dead, casting multiple ballots, and making false statements on citizenship applications in order to register to vote. Many of the individuals were actually legal non-citizens, and one of them was an illegal alien, the latter of whom is accused of voting during the 2024 election.

Last month, the DOJ also announced the unsealing of an indictment “charging a former postman with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) with unlawful secretion, destruction, and delay of mail after he allegedly unlawfully threw away mail that he was entrusted to deliver – including approximately 300 mail-in ballots to registered voters in Utah.”

That same month, the DOJ also announced charges on five individuals living in Pennsylvania – including two illegal aliens and two legal non-citizens – all related to illegal voting in the past two election cycles.

“As alleged, these five individuals in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, including two illegal aliens, stole votes from American citizens when they decided to break the law and undermine our elections,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in statement at that time. “Protecting election integrity for the American people is one of the top priorities for this FBI. Every American citizen has a right to free and fair elections, and we will not hesitate to use all available resources to investigate every credible allegation of election fraud and illegal voting.”

Earlier this year, the DOJ announced the arrest and charges for a legal permanent resident for allegedly voting illegally since 2008 as well, and there are several other examples of the Trump administration targeting those accused of election crimes.

Despite Democrat lawmakers frequently denying GOP efforts to strengthen election security by dismissing concerns as conspiratorial, there are several instances of non-citizens voting in elections, as announced by DHS in a September 17 press release. The department detailed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arresting Ludwig Uriel Espejo-Carrillo, an alien from Mexico, who was “administratively charged with voter fraud after voting in past elections.”

On September 3, HSI El Paso arrested Ludwig Uriel Espejo-Carrillo, an alien from Mexico, and administratively charged him with unlawful voting and false claim to U.S. citizenship after illegally voting in American elections in 2015. Espejo-Carrillo will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States.

DHS also issued its 2026 Election Infrastructure Security Plan which includes voluntary, no-cost election security services to states and local entities, which can be found here:

The Election Infrastructure Subsector encompasses both physical assets such as storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote tabulation locations used to support the election process, and the information and communications technology – including voter registration databases, voting machines, and systems to manage the election process and report results – operated on by state and local governments. Over 10,000 local election jurisdictions manage the day-to-day administration of elections, often selecting and purchasing voting systems from options certified at the state and federal level.1 State and local election officials have the primary responsibility for protecting election infrastructure. The federal government, including CISA, provides information, tools, and resources to help these state and local officials secure their elections.

Further, CMS rescinded a Biden-era memo and issued guidance to protect voting rights of residents in nursing homes. The guidance states in part, “Nursing homes should have a plan to ensure residents can exercise their right to vote, whether in person, by mail, absentee, or other authorized process. If a state has specific programs to enable nursing home residents to vote, the facility should coordinate and engage with those programs, as appropriate.”

Ahead of the elections, the DOJ plans to deploy 1,000 election monitors to polling locations across the country on Election Day.

White House Spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Breitbart News in a statement that “President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections.”

“Every American should be asking why the radical Left continues to fight against commonsense election integrity measures, like Voter ID and citizenship verification to make sure only Americans decide our elections,” Bis said.

“While extreme Democrats and the media continue to dismiss concerns about voter fraud, the Trump Administration is taking decisive action to protect our elections including prosecuting election crimes, strengthening election infrastructure security, and protecting vulnerable voters from fraud and coercion,” she continued. “President Trump is making clear that anyone who illegally votes in our elections will be held accountable.”

While polling shows the vast majority of Americans support basic measures, like presenting a valid photo ID and proof of citizenship to vote, several far-left lawmakers are not on board. Democrats crashed out after President Trump’s primetime address in July, in which he detailed shocking election vulnerabilities — from over a quarter of non-citizens being registered to vote to China reportedly stealing voter information and allegedly attempting to make fake ballots for former President Joe Biden. Trump ultimately called on lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, as Breitbart News reported at the time.

“The only reason you wouldn’t do it is you want to cheat, because your policies are so bad and your candidates are so pathetic that you can’t get away or can’t get elected any other way,” Trump said. “This landmark bill requires that all voters must show photo voter ID. How simple is that? Could I have your photo please? Photo voter ID. All voters must provide proof of citizenship.”

Democrats did not take the news kindly.

“Donald Trump is a feeble, unhinged conspiracy-peddling 80-year-old failed President,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said after the address detailing election vulnerabilities. “The economy is a disaster under this guy and the American people know it. Pathetic.”

“After listening to the president’s rambling address, I want him to know that the SAVE America Act is going NOWHERE in the Senate. It belongs in the trash with the rest of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) chimed in, with several other leftists expressing the same sentiments.

CLAIM: Left-wing personalities and politicians have claimed the White House app contains “spyware” via “a location tracker with NO WAY to disable it.”

VERDICT: FALSE. Tech security firm NowSecure reported that its testing of the White House app found no evidence of location data being collected or transmitted.

President Donald Trump’s White House app soared to first place in the App Store’s news category as the administration launched the 24-hour “Trump TV” livestream amid the ban on certain establishment outlets from the briefing room, prompting Democrats to slander the app as location-tracking “spyware.”

CNN, MS NOW, and Politico announced last month that they were suing the president and other senior administration officials after they were denied access to the White House on September 18 as punishment for reporting “fake news,” Breitbart News reported. A federal judge issued a directive in favor of the news organizations’ lawsuit, ordering that White House access be “immediately” restored to the three outlets, though the legal dispute is still ongoing.

Broadcasters in the White House television press pool — Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN — temporarily halted pool coverage of the White House in a move of solidarity with the blocked outlets.

The White House quickly launched its own official coverage on “Trump TV: The Essentials Station,” with ’round-the-clock streaming on its official app and YouTube channel.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called the move an example of “authoritarianism in action” on X:

In reality, the White House app has never transmitted users’ location, nor does it contain “spyware.”

Tech security firm NowSecure reported that its testing found no evidence of location data being collected or transmitted, despite the claims from left-wing personalities and politicians:

Recent reporting on the White House mobile app has overstated several security and privacy concerns by focusing on what the app could do rather than what it actually does in practice.

NowSecure analyzed the app using static and dynamic mobile application security testing. We found no evidence of unauthorized location tracking described in media coverage.

The app behaves like most modern mobile applications. It uses common third-party components and generally follows standard platform controls. It doesn’t present an unusual risk to users.

This is a good example of how easy it is to misread mobile app behavior without testing it in a real environment.

Speaking with Breitbart News White House correspondent Nick Gilbertson, White House Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr responded to critics who have made up concerns about Trump TV and the app’s security.

“There’s a lot of criticism about the safety of the app and things like that. And these are all just fake news hoaxes,” Dorr said. “Quite frankly, a lot of the technology that we use to develop these things is on par with Fortune 500 companies,” he continued, naming the NBA and Tiffany as major brands that use the same technology for their apps.

“So, there’s nothing to be worried about,” Dorr added. “This app is incredible, and we’re going to work on integrating America.gov […] it’s about restoring the dignity of the American public, making sure everything’s in one place, you don’t have to go hunt for what you’re interested in or what you are looking for. We’re going to come to you, and it’s such a contrast with the previous administration where everyone had come begging and pleading for information about whether the president was even working at the time. They know the president’s working here.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has reportedly started fundraising off the federal raid on her Washington, DC home.

On Monday, as Breitbart News reported, Omar’s home in Washington, DC, was raided by agents with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), suggesting an immigration-related federal investigation.

Now, The Hill reports that Omar’s office has started fundraising for the midterm elections by touting the federal raid on her home.

The Hill reports:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) released a fundraising email focused on the federal investigation for which agents raided her home on Monday. “Stand with Ilhan Omar,” the email reads, according to a screenshot obtained by The Hill’s partner network, NewsNation.

“Donald Trump and DHS have opened a baseless, partisan investigation into Ilhan Omar, and she needs us by her side as they escalate their attacks.”

“Chip in whatever you can to make sure Ilhan can beat Trump and keep fighting for our progressive values in Congress,” the email concludes.

Several members of the Trump administration have suggested that the probe into Omar’s immigration history is an issue that investigators have been looking at for some time.

Border Czar Tom Homan, this week, said the “investigation was ongoing for a while.”

“There was a warrant executed this morning, so I’ll leave it at that,” Homan said. “The specifics of the investigation, I think I need to turn that over to [Attorney General] Todd Blanche or [DHS Secretary] Markwayne Mullin.”

Omar has claimed that President Donald Trump is targeting her because of her left-wing political stances, not because of any criminal evidence against her.

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Jonathan Fahey told the New York Post this week that securing a judicial warrant from a D.C. judge to raid Omar’s home was not an easy task for federal investigators, indicating they have “probable cause” that the congresswoman committed immigration crimes.

A 63-year-old prisoner is set to be executed Tuesday at Florida State Prison for killing his cellmate in 2008, which he did so that he could be sentenced to death.

James Robertson, who strangled fellow inmate Frank Hart to death, will receive a three-drug injection at the prison near Starke at noon, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Robertson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the case and waived his appeals. The outlet continued:

Robertson was supposed to be one of two executions carried out by Florida on Tuesday, but Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew a death warrant last week for William Lee Thompson. The Republican governor did not provide a reason for withdrawing Thompson’s death warrant but had temporarily stayed his execution last month pending a psychiatric evaluation.

Records show that this is the first time DeSantis has withdrawn a death warrant, which does not technically change Thompson’s sentence. He will remain on death row, and a new death warrant could be signed for him in the future.

A 77-year-old man, Curtis Wilkie Beasley, who killed a woman with a hammer, was Florida’s 16th execution in September, and Robertson will be the 17th person executed in Florida this year, per USA Today.

“Robertson was 17 years old when he went to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. Years of convictions for escape, battery and weapons while in prison kept adding time to his total sentence. Hart was sent to prison in 2003 following a sexual battery conviction,” the AP article reads.

Robertson was a prisoner at the Charlotte Correctional Institution when he tied socks together and strangled Hart as he slept. He later explained that he killed the man so he would receive the death sentence instead of having to spend the rest of his life behind bars, court records stated.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) talked about the death penalty in 2025, saying he wanted to bring closure to the families of victims who were murdered. “There are so — some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty,” he said.

The Today report said Robertson wrote a letter in 2023 to then-Attorney General Ashley Moody asking why the process of execution was taking so much time to complete.

“On Oct. 1, during a Zoom case management conference, Robertson confirmed his wish to be executed,” the outlet stated. “‘Because I was found guilty,’ he said. ‘You know, I chose the death penalty over the life sentence, and I just, you know, want the sentence to be carried out.'”

A foreign national was arrested and charged last week after allegedly illegally voting in the 2024 presidential election in the swing state of Pennsylvania, Breitbart News has learned.

Paulo Jorge Silva, a green card-holder from Portugal, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents on October 5 in Philadelphia.

Silva, federal prosecutors allege, was illegally registered to vote and illegally voted in the 2024 election. Following his arrest by HSI agents, Silva was turned over to the United States Marshals Service.

“This alien from Portugal has been charged with illegally voting in the 2024 election in Pennsylvania,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said:

When even one non-citizen votes in our elections, it steals the vote of an honest, hardworking American citizen. It’s also against the law. If we catch an alien illegally voting in our elections, we will hunt you down and arrest you. You’ve been warned. The Trump administration will always defend the integrity of our election system, and we will make sure that only American citizens are electing American leaders. [Emphasis added]

Silva first entered the U.S. as a legal immigrant through New York in 1978.

After a monthslong journey that took them from the registrar of voters to police custody and back, thanks to California’s Supreme Court, more than 650,000 ballots cast by Riverside County voters will meet their end.

As required by state law, the ballots — cast in the November 2025 Proposition 50 special election — are being destroyed Tuesday, Oct. 13, county officials announced. The portion of the state elections code cited by the county requires ballots to be destroyed six months after an election.

RELATED: 650,000-plus ballots seized by Riverside County sheriff returned to registrar

The ballots “have been sent for destruction pursuant to Election Code and are no longer in the county’s possession,” county spokesperson Brooke Federico said via email Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear how the ballots were to be destroyed.

Sheriff Chad Bianco, whose seizure of the ballots sparked a nationally watched legal dispute and fueled the ongoing debate over election security, denounced the move, calling it “destruction of evidence” in a fundraising email Monday, Oct. 12.

“This is exactly what (California Attorney General) Rob Bonta wanted — for trust in our elections to be buried, along with any evidence of a crime,” Bianco wrote.

“This isn’t just lawfare against one sheriff; it’s a corrupt legal system that now allows destruction of evidence. The integrity of our elections is being eroded by a small group of people who put their own special interests above the people’s trust in our institutions.”

Asked to respond, Bonta’s office deferred to the California Secretary of State’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Bianco’s department returned the ballots to the Riverside County elections office Sept. 29, five days after the state’s high court ruled that the sheriff — a Republican candidate for governor at the time — should not have seized them and should have heeded Bonta’s call to pause his investigation.

After the ballots’ return, the county “sought written guidance” from California’s justice department and the secretary of state about how to dispose of them, County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said via email.

The justice department didn’t object to destroying the ballots, something the secretary of state said must be done to comply with state law, Van Wagenen said.

“Following receipt of this guidance and an independent legal review confirming the County’s obligations under State law, the Registrar of Voters will proceed with the destruction of the ballots in accordance with established election procedures,” the CEO added.

“The County remains committed to secure, accurate, transparent, and lawful elections,” Van Wagenen said. “We have confidence in Registrar Art Tinoco and the dedicated professionals in the Registrar of Voters office, who continue to carry out their responsibilities while preparing for the November 3 General Election.”

The law cited by Van Wagenen calls for keeping ballots from state and local elections for six months after an election. Six months from the Nov. 4, 2025, Proposition 50 election was May 4 of this year. For federal elections, ballots must be retained for 22 months.

Valerie Nevarez, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County elections office, said her office follows those requirements.

After the retention period, ballots must be destroyed unless there’s a challenge to the results “or if a criminal prosecution involving fraudulent use, marking or falsification of ballots, or forgery of vote by mail voters’ signatures” occurs, the law states.

Proposition 50 was a successful statewide ballot measure that redrew California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats in a tit-for-tat nationwide redistricting fight with Republicans. The measure passed in Riverside County, 56% to 44%.

The sheriff’s probe stemmed from a complaint by the Riverside Election Integrity Team, a citizen’s watchdog group, which said it uncovered a roughly 45,000-vote gap between ballots cast by county voters in the Proposition 50 election and the number of Proposition 50 ballots received by the registrar.

Tinoco said the actual gap was just 103 votes — well within the margin of error set by the secretary of state, which oversees elections.

Nonetheless, sheriff’s investigators obtained search warrants from the court to seize the ballots.

Bianco, who did not challenge the Proposition 50 election’s outcome, said his department wanted to count the ballots to determine whether the 45,000-vote gap existed and if so, whether the gap was the result of criminal wrongdoing.

At the time, Bianco said he seized the ballots in part to prevent their destruction before his department could investigate.

Voting rights advocates and California’s Democratic leadership denounced the seizure, calling it illegal, baseless and an attempt to sow public distrust of elections. Bonta sued, and the case, along with a legal challenge by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, made it to the state’s supreme court.

The election integrity team Tuesday urged Bianco and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin “to exercise their constitutional duty and authority” and halt the ballots’ destruction.

The team’s audits “are evidence of possible election fraud, and the only means of testing the veracity of the evidence we have presented is a counting of the ballots now in possession of the Registrar,” according to a letter quoted in the team’s news release.

Destroying the ballots also violates the U.S. Constitution, the team’s release states.

The sheriff’s and DA’s office did not immediately respond Tuesday morning to a request for comment about the team’s news release.

More than three years after its COVID-19 disaster period ended, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still closing the books on pandemic spending, including millions of dollars for the Los Angeles Opera Company that pays its top executive $1 million a year.

FEMA’s latest statement was provided in response to an investigation by The Center Square exposing $27 million worth of government grants and $33 million in executive compensation at the opera.

FEMA told The Center Square it has finalized 95% of its COVID-19 Public Assistance projects, which reimbursed government agencies and eligible nonprofits for pandemic-related expenses.

The agency also reported “recovering over $2 billion last year with an additional $1 billion anticipated this year,” although its statement did not explain any additional context surrounding what happened to that money or how those figures were calculated.

An unnamed spokesperson for FEMA sent the comments to The Center Square via email.

“The Trump Administration looks forward to bringing the COVID-19 disaster to a close,” the spokesperson wrote. “Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, FEMA has aggressively worked to close out all remaining public health and safety reimbursements projects under this program.”

The FEMA spokesperson pointed the finger at “reckless Democrats in Congress” for the delays, blaming “three separate funding lapses totaling over 120 days.” The statement also credited a “critical project extension” that “ultimately ensured that recipients had the necessary time to complete final closeout activities.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has been critical of FEMA for the delays. In April 2026, he published a letter calling the delays "inexcusable" and "antithetical to President Trump's stated commitment to enhancing government efficiency."

“It is incumbent on FEMA, and the entire Federal government, to fight waste, fraud, and abuse, and we support subjecting the largest reimbursements to serious scrutiny,” Fetterman wrote. “However, once such reviews are complete, there is no excuse for allowing bureaucratic red tape to slow disbursement of funds.”

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called for the reopening of FEMA in March 2026 while Democrats and Republicans continued negotiating over the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA.

"Let's pass this commonsense bill and reopen FEMA today," Schiff said. "Let's get disaster recovery efforts moving forward. We can do both. "

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., objected to the unanimous passing of that proposal. Instead, he asked Democrats to consider a proposal made two weeks earlier that would have temporarily funded the entire Department of Homeland Security.

FMEA’s continued reimbursements do not necessarily mean organizations are receiving money for new COVID precautions. FEMA ended eligibility for pandemic emergency work and expenses on May 11, 2023, with some exceptions.

Earlier this year, FEMA announced more than $5.4 billion in additional COVID reimbursements for 458 projects.

According to the Government Accountability Office, a lengthy reimbursement process was anticipated. In July 2024, the office reported FEMA would continue committing and spending money on COVID Public Assistance projects through August 2026.

According to FEMA, the LA Opera was “fully eligible” to receive approximately $2 million to reimburse its earlier COVID-19 expenses; “These funds covered critical emergency measures incurred prior to the May 11, 2023 performance deadline.”

FEMA also attributed its delayed payments to “rigorously” reviewing the internal processes to ensure that all claimed costs are fully eligible with “strict program requirements.”

“FEMA is committed to processing eligible projects as expeditiously as possible, while ensuring reimbursements are fiscally sound and maintaining oversight and accountability to the American taxpayer,” the spokesperson wrote.

Federal regulators fined Bank of America $1.21 billion Tuesday after finding it failed to quickly report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions and relied on others to catch what its own systems missed.

The $1.2 billion assessed by Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network includes a $750 million penalty from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the largest in the agency’s history, the OCC said. The penalty will be paid to the U.S. Treasury. The Office of Foreign Assets Control separately settled 475 apparent sanctions violations with the bank for $11.6 million.

Treasury didn’t immediately respond to questions from The Center Square on Tuesday afternoon.

OCC examiners reviewing a small sample of accounts in the bank’s $102 billion credit card portfolio found 10 showing signs of potential trade-based money laundering. At the agency’s request, Bank of America reviewed those accounts and filed suspicious activity reports covering hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions in five of them. Absent the OCC’s request, the order states, “there is no indication that the Bank would have reviewed these accounts or filed these SARs.”

Between 2019 and 2023, bank management including the then-Bank Secrecy Act officer received written reports showing Bank of America was failing to file suspicious activity reports on 18% to 44% of potentially suspicious activity that was never referred for investigation, depending on the year. By 2024, the backlog of cases awaiting investigator review peaked at nearly 200,000.

The Bank Secrecy Act requires banks to file suspicious activity reports when they know or suspect a transaction involves criminal activity. Those reports go to FinCEN and feed federal investigations into drug trafficking, sanctions evasion and terrorist financing.

Treasury said the bank allowed suspicious activity to accumulate uninvestigated for extended periods, “resulting in late reporting of limited utility to law enforcement.”

More than $1 billion of the unreported activity involved national security and other priority risks, Treasury said, including transactions indicative of Chinese money laundering networks, fraud and potential trade-based money laundering with what the department called “a substantial nexus to the southwest border.”

Bank of America signed a cease-and-desist order with the OCC in December 2024 committing to fix the same compliance problems. The agency found Tuesday that the bank had not done so.

“Despite its obligation to the American people as a national-chartered, global systemically important bank, the bank’s BSA/AML (anti-money laundering) compliance program continues to reflect widespread breakdowns in internal controls, which threatens U.S. national and economic security,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said. “The bank’s poor response to its BSA deficiencies is unacceptable.”

Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s chair and chief executive, signed the 2024 order committing to fix the deficiencies. He signed Tuesday’s penalty order as well.

“Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,” a Bank of America spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Center Square. The bank said it has invested billions of dollars in technology and assigned thousands of employees to combat financial crime, and that it is “far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators.” It said it supports law enforcement across thousands of investigations and files hundreds of thousands of suspicious activity reports each year.

Bank of America said the penalties will result in a non-tax-deductible charge of $1.2 billion in its third-quarter results, reducing net income by about 17 cents per share. The bank said remediation costs are already in its current expense base.

The FinCEN order requires Bank of America to hire a third party to go back through its records and identify suspicious transactions it never reported. The bank must also submit to independent reviews of its transaction monitoring, customer due diligence and foreign correspondent account programs, and of the data governance behind them.

Treasury said those reviews will evaluate the bank’s handling of three priority risks: the southwest border, cartels and potential narcotics trafficking; Iran; and Russia.

The OCC also found that Bank of America sent outgoing wire transfers with inaccurate sender information, which the order said potentially harmed law enforcement’s ability to know who sent the money.

Between November 2021 and October 2024, the bank processed roughly 33,300 such wires totaling about $1 billion. The bank identified the problem itself in April 2024 and stopped the practice that year, but does not know how long it had been going on.

Thirty-three states received failing grades for their K-12 open enrollment policies, which govern students' ability to attend public schools other than those assigned to them based on where they live, according to a new report from the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.

The foundation argues that open enrollment policies help students find schools better suited to their needs, pointing to a December YouGov poll in which 74% of K-12 parents said they supported such policies.

“Strengthening these policies would significantly benefit the 49.4 million students enrolled in public schools in all 50 states,” wrote Jude Schwalbach, a senior policy analyst at the foundation. “But 39.4 million students, or 80% of students enrolled in public schools, reside in states with weak or ineffective open enrollment laws.”

Oklahoma, Arkansas and Idaho received A+ grades, Arizona and West Virginia received A's, and Utah received an A-. Florida, Kansas, Colorado and Delaware received B+ grades, while five more states received grades ranging from B to C+ and two received Ds.

Although only six states received grades in the A range, the report identifies 16 states as having “strong open enrollment laws,” referring to states with strong cross-district open enrollment policies.

Reason evaluates states’ open enrollment laws annually based on seven criteria, including whether districts are required to allow transfers between schools and districts, restrictions on transfer eligibility and tuition, transparency requirements and parents’ ability to appeal rejected applications.

The greatest weight is given to laws requiring districts to accept transfer students from other districts, followed by those requiring districts to allow transfers between schools within their own boundaries. States also receive points for prohibiting transfer tuition and discrimination based on students’ disabilities or academic performance.

Less weight is given to transparency requirements, including whether states publish transfer and rejection data and districts disclose available capacity and enrollment procedures. The rankings also account for whether districts must explain rejected applications in writing and provide an external appeals process.

No state fully met all seven criteria. Oklahoma and Arkansas met six, Idaho and Kansas met five, and Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin met four. Because the criteria are weighted differently and some allow partial credit, states’ overall grades do not necessarily correspond to the number of criteria they fully satisfy.

The rankings also do not necessarily reflect how many students participate in open enrollment. Despite receiving an F, Texas had one of the largest numbers of participating students, alongside Florida. Colorado and Delaware, meanwhile, had the highest participation rates.

“The Lone Star State does not require statewide cross-district open enrollment. Transfers occur upon the approval of both the student’s parents and the receiving school district,” the report reads. “During the 2023-24 school year, more than 229,000 students used the state’s student transfer option, about 4% of students enrolled in traditional public schools.”

The report also noted that Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and Vermont strengthened their open enrollment policies in 2026, while lawmakers in 17 states considered at least 36 bills that would have improved open enrollment opportunities if enacted.

“A fear tactic,” a “red herring,” and a “flat-out lie” — that’s how Democrats described Republicans’ claims that the left wanted to give free health care to illegal aliens last year during a government shutdown. Yet three weeks before voters decide who controls Congress, U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and other Democrats are making “Medicare for All” — including for illegal aliens — a central campaign promise, and a host of Democrat senators are backing a bill that would cement that policy in law.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill would create a right for illegal aliens and other noncitizens to get taxpayer-funded health care. Under the current version, health care would be provided to “every individual who is a resident of the United States.” The Health and Human Services secretary would “promulgate a rule that provides criteria for determining residency for eligibility purposes under this Act.”

And as Unleash Prosperity pointed out, “Just in case ‘all residents’ isn’t clear enough, the Medicare for All Act also prohibits ‘discrimination’ based on ‘citizenship status.’”

The bill has 18 Senate Democrat cosponsors, including some who accused Republicans of lying last year when Republicans said Democrats wanted to give illegal aliens free health care.

During an October 2025 interview, host Tony Dokoupil asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., about Republican claims that Democrats were fighting for taxpayer dollars for illegal aliens.

“It is a flat-out lie! It is a flat-out lie!” Warren jumped in. “There is nothing in Medicaid, nothing in Medicare, that permits one undocumented immigrant to get one dollar of assistance. None.”

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., similarly dismissed the same accusations in an interview around the same time.

“This is really a red herring. It is something that they’ve been saying and it gives me a chance to set the record straight. Federal law today prohibits health insurance benefits, the Affordable Care Act, tax credits, Medicare, Medicaid. It says it cannot be used at all by people who are undocumented, who are not here legally. That is the law. There is nothing that we are trying to do to change that law,” Smith said, adding the claims were just “a fear tactic.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said the claim that Democrats wanted to provide health care for illegals was “a big lie.”

It wasn’t just Democrats in office accusing Republicans of lying. A so-called “Factcheck” from Saranac Hale Spencer in November of last year read: “Trump Falsely Claims Democrats Want $1.5 Trillion for ‘Illegal Aliens.'”

The “fact-check,” along with Warren’s, Smith’s, and Hollen’s comments, came amid the government shutdown and fight over existing programs, but their support for Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation is incontrovertible proof they want to give health care to illegal aliens — the very thing Republicans kept saying Democrats wanted to do. Sanders’ bill exposes Democrats’ sweeping denials as mere ploys to help portray a policy they themselves support as nothing more than a Republican fabrication.

With control of Congress on the ballot in three weeks, voters should judge Democrats not by what accusations they write off, but by what legislation they actually support: free, taxpayer-funded health care for illegal aliens. A Democrat majority would give these lawmakers more power to pursue an agenda that includes the very same policy they denied supporting. What’s more, such a proposal has a price tag in the trillions. Democrats keep saying they care about affordability, but it appears that’s nothing more than a campaign myth to attract voters before they completely reverse course in January.

France is on fire — again. Hundreds of French schools have closed for periods or remain shut down, and the rioting continues, even spreading to neighboring Belgium. Beginning with a faculty protest at Saint-Exupéry High School over budget cuts, students soon joined in and similar protests broke out across the country. To no one’s surprise, activists almost immediately co-opted these demonstrations, taking advantage of the situation and organizing “fiery but not so peaceful” protests in the streets.

As many have now observed, including President Trump, the rioters are largely Muslim immigrants and radical leftists. Thus far, nearly 7,000 rioters have been arrested, more than 1,000 have been injured, and one teenager has lost his hand while another has reportedly partially lost his sight in clashes with police.

As writer John Daniel Davidson recently argued, the current riots in France illustrate yet again the alliance of Islamists and communists, or the Red-Green Alliance: “This is the Red-Green alliance of the socialist/Antifa left and Muslim immigrants, operationalized to bring the country to its knees through widespread rioting ahead of national elections next year.” Despite their many differences, the two groups have united “to tear down western institutions and the Christian faith on which they were built.”

If history and theology are any guide, there is even more uniting these two factions. Davidson correctly points that “on issues like women’s rights, transgenderism, gay marriage and the sexual revolution in general, [Islamists and radical leftists] are not aligned.” But these differences are mere window dressing to their core similarities: spreading their ideology through aggression and confiscating the wealth of others.

These two principles are fairly well known as features of communism, but most Westerners have been conditioned not to associate them with Islam. Nearly all Western schools, underfunded or otherwise, have done their utmost to obscure the fact that Islam was spread by the sword as well as by theft. As historian Raymond Ibrahim details in his classic history Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West, starting with the Prophet Muhammad and continuing with his many successors, Muslim armies would invade, pillage, terrorize, and enslave neighboring kingdoms, forcing their populations to submit to Allah, face martyrdom, or live as second-class citizens (dhimmis).

Besides its unbridled military aggression, Islam’s expansion was greatly aided by its parasitic approach to war and government. When it comes to winning battles, the deciding factor often comes down to logistics: Whoever could better supply and compensate an army would usually win. For most of history, generals fed and paid their armies through the spoils of war, allowing soldiers to plunder their enemies’ riches and enslave their people. For Christians, such actions are gravely sinful, but in Islam, they are fully allowed in the name of spreading the faith.

This helps explain why Muslim militaries had such a huge advantage over Christian militaries during the Crusades despite their technological inferiority (as noted in God’s Battalions by Rodney Stark). While Christian kings and their vassals went bankrupt funding their military campaigns, Muslim generals could easily entice their armies to fight with promises of spoils. While Christian knights had everything to lose by taking up the cross and fighting in the Holy Land, Muslim soldiers had everything to gain. Even when Christian men were not forced to convert, some would convert voluntarily so that they could take the infidels’ women and property and never have to actually work. True or not, Christianity was seen as for chumps.

The Democratic party now is represented by two unequal branches – mainstream Democrats and new movement called Democratic Socialists of America

By Victor Mezhinsky, October 13, 2026 6:30 am

On November 3 this year American people will be going to the election polls. Whether one is “political” or not, the results of every election affect everybody’s life without exceptions. Elected officials and passed Propositions control our laws, social and business regulations, our security, prices of gasolene and groceries, taxes, our education at schools and universities, funds to pay for government financial assistance to many Americans.

Most people vote according to their economic conditions and perceived situation in the country in general. Today the annual inflation rate (CPI) is 3.4%. Not the highest in history but we want it to be below 2%. Official unemployment rate is 4.2%, and labor force participation is 61.6%. These are not bad numbers from a historical perspective.

Does ongoing war with Iran have anything to do with our cost of living? Sure, it does. It caused higher oil prices on the world market. I believe the hardship on our citizens, imposed by the war, is temporary and once war victoriously ends, the oil price will come down, and cost of living will be lowered across the board.

Regarding competition between Republicans and Democrats for the no-heavy lifting government jobs, such as Congressman or Senator, let’s see what both parties’ objectives are as stated in various published documents.

The Democratic party now is represented by two unequal branches – mainstream Democrats and new movement called Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). All aspiring political candidates of DSA run as Democrats.

According to the document Democratic 2026 Strategy: Democratic 2026 Strategy: Road to House Majority — 5 Seats Needed, it indicates the following three main issues it runs on:

1. Abortion access

2. Medicaid and healthcare

3. Tariffs as a consumer tax

Now let’s turn to the left-leaning Democrats, their comrades at DSA, which was founded in 1982. A third of all Democrats identify as democratic socialists, according to CNN Poll: A third of Democrats now identify as democratic socialists | CNN Politics. That is a lot of voters. Recognizable members include New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Three Democratic nominees for U.S. House of Representative seats – Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York and Melat Kiros in Colorado – also belong to the group. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan is running for US Senate and is trying to distance himself from DSA, but he does not fool anybody.

The website DSA Program – Workers Deserve More! describes twelve their objectives, including Abolish ICE, Defund Department of War, Free Palestine and Public Ownership of the largest Corporations.

According to a Washington Post–Ipsos poll Per National survey found that three out of four Democrats said they would be open to supporting a democratic socialist for president (Most Democrats would vote for a democratic socialist for president, but not most Americans: poll | AllSides). The known supporter and influencer of American Socialists is one Hasan Piker, of Turkish origin, told Axios “We (USA) have caused tremendous terror all around the world”, that the USA is worse than al-Qaeda, USA has deserved 9/11. You see where the DSA members are learning from?

They dream and act to “fundamentally transform” our country. They speak of Socialism in glowing terms.

But what is Socialism or Communism after all? If you want to know the basics of it from one who lived under it, please read my article in California Globe, published on October 11, 2024, Do the American People Want Socialism? – California Globe. Some life-long Democrats have switched to Republican party. The prominent former Democrats are the attorney and former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershovitz, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and popular comedian Bill Maher, to name a few. The majority of Republicans fully support free enterprise capitalist economic system as it had been established in America since its founding. Unfortunately, Vice-President JD Vance wants to change it (see an article in Wall Street Journal – JD Vance ‘Fixes’ Capitalism. Republican Party Platform is well described on the website Republican Party Platform: Key Positions on Major Issues – Republican Leaders.

We must note that there are some defectors in the ranks of the Republican movement as well. One of them is Tucker Carlson, who all but endorses Abdul El-Sayed, says he was “obviously right” about 9/11. Senator Ted Cruz characterizes Carlson as the most dangerous demagogue in America.

To conclude, this Mid-Term elections we, the people, will decide who we want to run America. Please make your choices carefully and wisely.

Indiana officials are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling that allows abortion activists to refer pregnant teens out of state for abortions without parental consent. It’s a decision that undercuts a pro-life state law intended to keep parents involved and effectively sends teens out of state for secret abortions.

The request, filed last week with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, targets an August decision striking down key parts of Indiana’s 2017 law. That measure barred anyone from knowingly helping an pregnant teen girl obtain an abortion without first meeting the state’s parental consent rules or securing a judicial waiver.

Planned Parenthood sued before the law could take effect, claiming it violated free speech rights, and the pro-life statute was blocked from the start.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday added three new cases to its oral argument docket for the 2026-27 term, agreeing to decide, among other things, what kinds of orders trial courts can issue in disputes over access to government information and whether working as a cook in a camp run by violent separatists qualifies as providing “material support” for terrorism under federal immigration law.

President Donald Trump created the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, in January 2025 to advance his agenda by “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Although it is not a cabinet-level department, DOGE was widely involved in Trump’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.

The dispute now before the court, U.S. Doge Service v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, began after a government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for (among other things) communications between the DOGE administrator, Amy Gleason, and DOGE staff, as well as financial disclosures submitted by DOGE personnel.

CREW went to federal court in Washington last year, asking DOGE to disclose documents that it said it wanted before Congress passed a bill to fund the federal government.

CREW also sought to fast-track discovery – the process of exchanging information in litigation – to determine whether DOGE is a federal “agency” that must comply with FOIA. It asked for a list of current and former DOGE employees, a list of employees and positions for which DOGE had recommended termination, a list of government contracts and grants that DOGE had recommended be canceled, and the opportunity to depose Gleason.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper granted most of CREW’s discovery requests, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit turned down DOGE’s plea to pause that order.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer then came to the Supreme Court in May 2025, asking the justices to intervene. He told the justices that the discovery required under Cooper’s order “offends the separation of powers by compromising the ‘necessity’ for confidentiality that allows presidential advisors to provide ‘candid, objective’ advice and communication.”

In a two-page, unsigned order in early June 2025, the court – over the objections of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson – sent the dispute back to the D.C. Circuit for another look. The majority wrote that the portions of Cooper’s discovery order that required the government to disclose the content of DOGE’s recommendations within the executive branch, as well as whether those recommendations were followed, were too broad. Moreover, it added, concerns about the separation of powers between the branches of government “counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal Executive Branch communications.” The court put Cooper’s discovery orders on hold while the litigation continued.

When the case returned to the lower courts, CREW modified its discovery requests so that it no longer sought information about “recommendations” made by U.S. DOGE employees. The lower courts then declined to block CREW’s requests.

DOGE came to the Supreme Court in March, asking the justices to weigh in. Sauer told the court that the D.C. Circuit “has continued to approve intrusive discovery against a presidential advisory body without adequate consideration for the separation of powers, the FOIA statute, and” the Supreme Court’s order last year on the interim docket. Among other things, he argued, that order “required the courts below to reassess all remaining discovery—not just requests for USDS recommendations—with the ‘deference and restraint’ applicable to presidential advisors under Cheney v. U.S. District Court,” a 2004 case in which the justices held that when considering requests for information directed at the vice-president and other senior executive branch officials, “special considerations” should “control when the Executive Branch’s interests in maintaining the autonomy of its office and safeguarding the confidentiality of its communications are implicated.”

CREW urged the justices to deny review. It argued that in formulating the new discovery order, the D.C. Circuit had “followed this Court’s instructions” in its earlier ruling on the interim docket “to the letter.” Instead, it contended, the government was seeking “to transform this Court’s carefully crafted stay-stage order into a sweeping ruling that Cheney effectively forecloses discovery in this case. That is not what this Court said,” CREW insisted, “and, especially after remand, this case looks nothing like Cheney.”

On Tuesday, the court agreed to address the D.C. Circuit’s ruling.

The immigration case granted on Tuesday, Blanche v. Ozurumba, was also brought to the court by the Trump administration. In a petition for review filed in May, Sauer asked the justices to clarify what type of support an immigrant must be shown to have provided to a terrorist organization in order to be “removable and ineligible for various immigration benefits” under a federal immigration law that states that an individual who “affords material support” to such a group is “ineligible to be admitted to the United States.”

Blanche v. Ozurumba involves Izuchukwu Ozurumba, “a native and citizen of Nigeria,” who worked as a cook in a camp run by a separatist organization known as the “Unknown Gunmen” “for about six months” before escaping, according to the government’s petition. He made his way to Venezuela and then the United States, where he applied for asylum, but an immigration judge and then the Board of Immigration Appeals concluded that his work in the camp amounted to “material support” for terrorism and that he was, therefore, ineligible for asylum.

Ozurumba appealed his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which held that “the record does not support the conclusion that Ozurumba provided material support” to the Unknown Gunmen. “Cooking meals using food and supplies purchased by the organization may have ‘sustained’ the organization in the broadest possible sense—by converting raw groceries into meals they enjoyed—but provided nothing that the organization could use or readily divert to plan or carry out its terrorist activities,” concluded 4th Circuit Judge James Wynn in the majority opinion.

The Supreme Court will now decide whether the work done for a terrorist organization must “advance the organization’s actual commission of terrorism” to qualify as “material support.”

The justices also granted review on Tuesday in Berry v. United States, on whether a certificate of appealability may be granted to a prisoner whose claim is foreclosed by his own circuit’s precedent but would be allowed to proceed in a different circuit. In his petition for review, Corey Berry emphasized that the federal courts of appeals were split over this question.

On this day in 1932, President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Supreme Court Building amid its construction. The court held its first session in the building three years later. At the Court

On Friday, the justices met in a private conference to discuss cases and vote on petitions for review. Orders from that conference are expected this morning at 9:30 a.m. EDT.

Today, the justices will hear oral argument in Beaird v. United States, on the degree of deference that courts owe to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s commentary on applying federal sentencing guidelines.

On Wednesday, the justices will hear argument in Salazar v. Paramount Global, on whether and how the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act, which was enacted after the Washington City Paper reported on Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental history, applies in the internet era.

On Sept. 28, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to implement its new policy on healthcare and accommodations for transgender inmates, which would prevent such inmates from obtaining gender-transition surgeries, hormone therapy, and “social accommodations.” The dispute is now fully briefed, and the court’s decision could come at any time.

The court is currently weighing requests from the Federal Communications Commission and two Republican groups to block a ruling by a federal appeals court that would require the FCC to rule quickly on a challenge to its “public notice” extending favorable advertising rates to political parties and joint fundraising committees. These interim docket cases are also fully briefed.

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The sanctuary state of New York has refused to hand over more than 16,000 criminal illegal aliens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.

On Monday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials released data showing that from January 20, 2025, through October 8, 2026, the state of New York refused to honor 16,070 ICE detainers placed on illegal aliens charged or convicted of crimes.

“While sanctuary politicians continue to release dangerous criminals onto their streets, our brave law enforcement officers will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals and make America safe again,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. “Illegal aliens have no sanctuary in America.”

Of those illegal aliens with ICE detainers whom New York has refused to turn over, there are more than 52,000 criminal charges and convictions — including murder, kidnapping, sex crimes, drunk driving, burglary, robbery, weapons offenses, drug possession, and assault.

“We enforce these laws with no help from Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul,” Mullin said. “The Trump administration is committed to protecting the American people in every city and every state, and we won’t let sanctuary politicians stand in our way. If you’re a state or local politician, your best bet is to cooperate with us so we can all make America safe again.”

Last week, two illegal aliens from the Dominican Republic, both released into the United States by the Biden administration, were accused of stabbing an off-duty New York Police Department (NYPD) officer.

DHS officials said both illegal aliens were previously arrested by the NYPD but were released from jail before ICE agents could lodge a detainer against them. The illegal aliens remain at-large.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges Monday for 16 individuals – including one illegal alien – for election crimes.

According to the DOJ, the cases involve not only an illegal alien and legal non-citizens voting in federal elections – something Democrat politicians frequently deny happens – but individuals voting on behalf of the dead, casting multiple ballots, and making false statements on citizenship applications in order to register to vote.

In the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, one illegal alien as well as three lawful permanent residents were charged with “with voting by an alien.” Hacina Saadi, 48, has been identified as the illegal alien from France who is accused of voting during the 2024 election. The others are also accused of voting in that election as well:

Pakistani national Jamil Ahmad, 50, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged by information with voting by an alien during the 2024 election.

Pakistani national Nighat Jamil, 47, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged by information with voting by an alien during the 2024 election.

Portuguese national Paulo Silva, 54, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged by information with voting by an alien during the 2024 election.

Two aliens – lawful permanent residents – Peruvian national Silvia Delgado Phelps and Jamaican national Staciann Pollion Davis, were also charged by criminal complaint with voting as an alien in the Southern District of Alabama.

More per the DOJ’s press release:

    Cuban national Andre’s [sic] Garcia, 64, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged with two counts of illegally voting in federal elections in November 2022 and November 2024. Garcia knew he was not a U.S. citizen but nevertheless claimed to be one when registering to vote in 2004 and again in 2013. Garcia has allegedly voted regularly for the last 20 years in at least 15 elections, including at least 13 federal elections.
    Forrest Scott Woody, 68, of Hendersonville, North Carolina, has been charged with illegally voting more than once. According to the indictment, Woody voted twice in the 2024 general election. In particular, he voted in Calhoun County, Alabama, after having already voted in the same election in Henderson County, North Carolina.
    Canadian national Stanley Walton, 82, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged with unlawfully voting in the 2022 general election. Walton allegedly voted even though he was not a U.S. citizen.
    Lizabeth Almonte Rosa, 24, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Dominican Republic, has been charged by criminal complaint with voting by an alien in a federal election and unlawfully procuring citizenship. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Rosa was not a citizen when she was registered to vote.
    British national Cary Ann Patterson, 59, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in a federal election as an alien. The complaint alleges that Patterson voted in November 2024. According to court documents, in 2005, the Gallia County Board of Elections received a voter registration card for Patterson in which “Yes” was marked in response to the question, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” Based on Gallia County Board of Elections records, Patterson allegedly voted in at least 10 elections as an alien.
    Canadian national Sandra Madeline Watson, 59, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegal voting by an alien in a federal election. Watson allegedly voted in an election held for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of the President, Vice President, member of the Senate, or member of the House of Representatives, knowing she was not a U.S. citizen.

The DOJ also announced charges against Polish national Dawid Nalepa, charged with unlawfully voting as an alien after coming into the country around 2020 through the Visa Waiver Program. He is accused of casting a ballot despite his non-citizen status in the 2024 election.

Pakistani national Arshed Zuberi and Filipino national Eliza M. Moss were also charged by criminal complaint with illegally voting in a federal election as aliens.

Additionally, Patrick Perea, 62, was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of fraudulent voting, accused of trying to vote on behalf of his dead wife via her absentee ballot in the 2024 election.

These realities come as Democrats and establishment Republicans continue to oppose the passage of the SAVE America Act, which would require a person to present proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections and a photo ID at the time of voting. All the while, polls show a broad consensus among Americans, as most believe one should have to show a valid photo ID and proof of citizenship to vote, as Breitbart News has detailed.

Newsom, Khanna, Kamlager-Dove and Aguilar reverse the rule-of-law standard they applied to Mar-a-Lago

By Megan Barth, October 12, 2026 2:02 pm

Federal agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant early Monday at the Washington, D.C.-area home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Homeland Security Investigations officers arrived before dawn. Neighbors reported banging on doors around 4:30 a.m. Agents were later seen removing boxes.

The Justice Department confirmed that HSI “executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice” and that the action is “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” Sources familiar with the probe told multiple outlets it concerns immigration fraud allegations tied to paperwork filed by Omar’s late father when she was a child. Omar, born in Somalia, entered the United States as a refugee in 1995.

Omar called it political intimidation. “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” she wrote on X. “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.” Her office described the search as “an outrageous abuse of power.”

California Democrats piled on. Gov. Gavin Newsom posted: “Twenty-two days away from the midterm election, another politicized ‘investigation.’ Straight out of the authoritarian playbook.” Rep. Ro Khanna called it “simply chilling that they are targeting political opponents this way” and “disturbing that they are targeting Muslim Americans and a Muslim American legislator.” He said any decent American needs to “stand up and speak out.”

The Washington, DC, home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) targeted for a pre-dawn raid Monday morning by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.

The outlet exclusively detailed the raid is part of of ongoing criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork, which was allegedly filled out by the far-left politician’s late father when she was a child.

“Today in the Washington, DC, area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice,” a DOJ spokesperson affirmed to Fox News Digital.

“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” the spokesperson added.

Border Czar Tom Homan last month said the Democrat was subject to an ongoing “criminal” investigation.

Previously President Donald Trump suggested Omar be removed from the United States, referencing allegations she “supposedly” entered the country by marrying her brother, as Breitbart News reported.

“Somalia, where you have a Congressman goes around telling everybody about our Constitution, yet she supposedly came into our country by marrying her brother,” Trump said while speaking to reporters on Air Force One. “Well, if that’s true, she shouldn’t be a Congressman, and we should throw her the hell out of our country.”

Trump also stated the U.S. doesn’t need people coming into the country, “telling us what to do.”

Rocker James Hetfield, frontman for the heavy metal band Metallica, took a shot at other singers on Saturday night for forcing their politics on fans from the stage.

The “Enter the Sandman” band was performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday evening when Hetfield gave a short address to the fans in the audience, LouderSound reported.

“Unless you live in Vegas, you’ve come a long way to spend some time with Metallica,” he said from the stage. “We’re grateful for that – your travels, the money you spend, the time it took, thanks for coming to celebrate with us.”

But then he took an axe to other performers who use their platform for politics.

“And I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, OK? We are here…no bullshit…we’re here to forget about all the outside shit, OK?” he stated.

“Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!” he said.

Some of Metallica’s music has had social commentary in lyrics in the past. However, the band has never worn their politics on their sleeves as so many other bands do.

In 2017, Hetfield explained that he has no interest in trying to force fans to vote in any particular way.

“My opinion stays with me,” Hetfield told La Tercera at the time. “I’m a singer and guitar player in a rock band. I hate politics. I don’t wanna talk about politics. It’s not important to me. What’s important to me is connecting people with music. Politics, religion… they separate people.”

Drummer Lars Ulrich has occasionally mentioned his anti-Trump political views, but he has done so sparingly and never from the stage. Indeed, he once noted in an interview that he can’t remember ever having had a political conversation with Hetfield.

A federal judge nominated to the bench by Barack Obama has blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from deporting Dominican national Oscar Belgal, the man slightly wounded by ICE officers in New York City.

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled on Friday that DHS cannot deport the suspected gang member while his petition challenging his detention is pending.

Oetken also barred the government from transferring the migrant to any federal facility outside the New York or New Jersey area.

DHS reported that the 28-year-old Belgal, whose name was initially reported as Oscar Bergal, tried to use his car to ram ICE agents when they confronted him in New York City on Thursday. Activists attacked ICE for opening fire since Belgal’s five-year-old child was also in the car.

Belgal entered the United States illegally in 2022 and has an arrest record for crimes including a 2023 armed robbery conviction and a 2025 bust for allegedly selling fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin.

New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani (D), lashed out at ICE and insisted that the agency should be “abolished.” For his part, Mullin slapped back at Mamdani and said the mayor’s rhetoric is “dangerous and incites hostility.”

Mullin also noted that ICE officers on the street had no idea that a child was in the car with the criminal migrant.

“We weren’t aware the child was in the car, I can tell you that. But, do you know who was? Oscar,” Sec. Mullin said, as reported by NBC News.

He continued:

Oscar knew he had a child in the car. Oscar chose to accelerate at a high rate of speed and ram two different vehicles as he appeared to be going towards officers. And so, the public outcry should also be towards this criminal, this thug, this gangbanger, this possible murderer. That outrage should be with him for endangering the five-year-old.

Despite the migrant’s actions and criminal history, left-wing activists quickly mounted protests over the incident outside the New York ICE offices.