Happy New Year 2025

Tag: border

Goya Cares partners with border czar Tom Homan to help trafficked migrant children: ‘No way to stop it alone’

CEO of Goya Bob Unanue and Fox News contributor Sara Carter join ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss the Goya Cares initiative teaming up with Tom Homan to locate missing migrant children.

Goya Cares is teaming up with Trump border czar Tom Homan and investigative journalist Sara Carter to track down trafficked migrant children and reunite them with their families.

“We were involved in the movie Sound of Freedom, where we became aware of this tremendous evil of trafficking. So, with that awareness, we formed a coalition of different people and organizations that, to raise awareness, we’re going into schools… to bring awareness to this problem, because before that, we weren’t aware that this last administration was actively bringing this in,” Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue said on ‘Fox & Friends Weekend,’ Sunday.

“We’ve gone from 85,000 children missing to 340,000, but they’re not missing. They’ve been sold. They’re purchased, basically, and then handed off to sponsors. Forty children at one address — that’s not a home. It’s a business.”

ANTI-TRAFFICKING ACTIVIST EXPOSES HOW ‘SLAVE LEDGER’ IS BEING USED BY SMUGGLERS TO CONTROL MIGRANTS

An American flag flies outside the Goya Foods Inc. corporate office and distribution warehouse in Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S., on Monday, April 23, 2018. (Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Goya Foods is America’s largest Hispanic-owned food company that produces and distributes items in the U.S. as well as Spanish-speaking countries. The company launched the Goya Cares initiative in 2021 to focus on combating child trafficking and advocating for children’s mental health.

Sara Carter, a Fox News contributor, says solving the child trafficking crisis will require “huge cooperation” with federal, local and state law enforcement officials, among others.

“There’s no way to stop this kind of crisis alone. Everybody has to be working together,” she said.

“With Goya Cares, we’re able to get out there and educate students in the schools. We’re able to find, within the communities, those kids that may be trafficked, that may be afraid they can’t go to someone, feel safe and report what’s happening, but then it’s the aftercare that’s the most important…”

LATINO COMMUNITY GOING ‘HEAD OVER HEELS’ FOR TRUMP, GOYA CEO CLAIMS: WE’RE ‘FED UP WITH BEING EXPLOITED’

Incoming “border czar” and former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan visits Camp Eagle where members of the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety officers convene for a Thanksgiving meal in Eagle Pass, T (Scott Stephen Ball for The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Aftercare focuses on mental health and reconnecting children with their parents or guardians.

“We know that children have been trying to contact relatives. HHS has a hotline. Some of these children have called that hotline. These children are going to find their way back to safety because Tom Homan is going to be leading that effort with President Trump,” Carter continued.

“And the people who are trafficking these children in the United States need to be held to the full extent of the law. They absolutely have to be punished. There is no way that we can allow this to continue to happen. We’re a nation that is based on principles and morals, and we can’t sit around, and we can’t accuse anyone else of doing anything if we’re not willing to take care of the problem that has happened in this country because of a wide open border under President Biden.”

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Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue on President-elect Trump turning around the Latino vote and his hope for economic and national security improvement.

January 27, 2025
Graham says Republicans must get border czar Tom Homan funding: ‘Hit a wall’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned that congressional Republicans must expedite funding for President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to continue his mass deportation plan, or else they could “own another attack on this country.”

Graham made appearances on NBC and CNN Sunday shows advocating for two separate bills – a $100 billion border package, and a second $200 billion bill centered on “national security.”

As deliberations in both chambers continue, Graham cautioned Republicans against taking too long to reach a consensus. He said Homan needs immediate funding to further execute his mass deportation strategy, including to increase the number of detention beds from 41,000 to approximately 150,000, to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, finish the border wall and secure new technology.

HOMAN WARNS DAILY MIGRANT ARRESTS WILL ‘STEADILY INCREASE’ AS TRUMP ADMIN TARGETS NONVIOLENT ILLEGAL ALIENS

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, speaks during a confirmation hearing for Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nominee, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“This whole debate in the Republican Party, do you need one bill or two right now? Right now, Tom Homan needs more money to hire ICE agents. He needs more money to finish the wall to increase bed space,” Graham told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He doesn’t have the tools necessary to carry out this plan that President Trump gave him until Congress appropriates more money.”

Graham argued that the tax debate could wait until the end of the year, but Congress cannot delay funding for the border given the national security implications.

“So to my Republican colleagues, we’ve hit a wall here. We’re not building a wall. We’ve hit a wall,” Graham told CNN. “We need to appropriate money to Tom Homan so he can do what President Trump promised. And if we delay that – the taxes expire in December, we got plenty of time to deal with that – I worry that we’re going to own another attack on our country. I worry that we’re delaying this plan that President Trump ran on if the Congress doesn’t give his administration, Tom Homan, the money to do the plan that he promised, that President Trump promised. We need to come together quickly on this, in my view.”

Tom Homan speaks during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

TRUMP DHS REPEALS KEY MAYORKAS MEMO LIMITING ICE AGENTS, ORDERS PAROLE REVIEW

“We need more money for Tom Homan. I’m for deporting illegal immigrants here who are criminals. Most people are. The public’s with him. But if you don’t get new money into the system, Tom Homan can’t do his job,” Graham added. “We need more bed space. We need to finish the wall. But I think the signature issue for Donald Trump was to get a handle on illegal immigration, and he’s off to a good start. We just need to help him in Congress.”

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Graham doubted that Homan was interested in deporting close to the approximately 11 million people in the U.S. illegally. As host Kristen Welker noted Trump has signaled potentially being interested in cutting a deal related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for people who were brought into the United States illegally as minors, Graham said the Trump administration’s focus with deportations appeared to remain on criminal illegal immigrants. He cited how there are about 1.4 million illegal immigrants “who’ve had their case fully adjudicated, and they’re still here,” and there are “about 680,000 convicted of serious crimes.”

Graham said Homan needs more congressional funding to hire ICE agents. (Getty Images)

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“Here’s the question for the Republican Party. We talk about doing this, but we don’t have the resources. We haven’t given the Trump team the resources. Tom Homan, the border czar, said yesterday, ‘without money from Congress, I can’t do this’,” Graham said, adding: “Give Tom the tools he needs to execute a mass deportation strategy to deal with a mass illegal immigration problem created by Biden,” Graham told NBC. “Without new money, he cannot do this.”

Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @danimwallace.

January 26, 2025
Trump floats gutting the IRS, moving agents to the border armed with guns

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President Donald Trump floated moving nearly 90,000 IRS agents hired under the Biden administration to the border to patrol the area while armed with guns.

“On day one, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. They hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 new workers to go after you. And we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we’ll move them to the border. And I think we’re going to move them to the border,” Trump said during a rally at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday evening.

“Where they’re allowed to carry guns, you know, they’re so strong on guns, but these people are allowed to carry guns, so we’ll probably move them to the border,” he continued. Certain special IRS agents are permitted to carry firearms as part of their duties, according to IRS Code, 26 U.S. Code § 7608.

Trump joined supporters in Las Vegas this weekend after touring destruction in North Carolina left by Hurricane Helene in September, as well as California, where he toured Los Angeles and met with local leaders about the wildfires that have ripped through the area this month.

TRUMP VOWS TO DELIVER ON ‘NO TAX ON TIPS’ CAMPAIGN PROMISE DURING LAS VEGAS SPEECH: ‘100% YOURS’

President Donald Trump speaks about the economy during an event at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/John Locher)

While floating moving the thousands of IRS agents to the border, Trump also suggested ending income tax across the board, saying his plans on tariffs could fill the financial gaps.

“How about just no tax,” he said to cheers, while he chuckled. “You could do that. You know if the tariffs work out like I think, a thing like that could happen, if you want to know the truth.”

‘FLOODING THE ZONE’ TRUMP HITS WARP SPEED IN FIRST WEEK BACK IN OFFICE

“Years ago, 1870 to 1913, we didn’t have an income tax. We had, what we had is tariffs, where foreign countries came in and they stole our jobs, they stole our companies, they stole our product. They ripped us off. And, you know, they used to do numbers. And then we went to tariff, a tariff system. And the tariff system made so much money. It was when we were the richest from 1870 to 1930. Then we came in with the – brilliantly came in – with an income tax,” he continued, explaining the Great Depression rocked the U.S. shortly after moving away from the tariff system of the 1800s and early 1900s.

Immigrants try to pass over razor wire after crossing the border into El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Democrats in 2022 approved $80 billion in funding for the IRS, including to hire roughly 87,000 new agents across a 10-year period as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law that year.

IRS BANNED FROM BUYING GUNS, AMMO WITH TAXPAYER FUNDS UNDER NEW BILL FROM SEN. ERNST

Trump’s Vegas speech focused on taxes, hearkening back to his June campaign rally in the state when he first announced he would eliminate taxes on tips.

President Donald Trump departs after speaking about the economy during an event at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/John Locher)

“Any worker who relies on tips [as] income, your tips will be 100% yours,” Trump said on Saturday in the city that is run by service workers at flashy hotels and casinos and restaurants.

IRS documents (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

DEMOCRATS HIRE ARMY OF AGENTS AT IRS TO SQUEEZE HONEST TAXPAYERS FOR GREEN NEW DEAL

Trump also touted that a handful of his campaign promises are already unfolding into real results, including withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) and dismantling some federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.

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“We got rid of the woke crap,” Trump said Saturday. “A lot of crap… you know, these people were petrified of it. I’ll tell you, these companies, they run these big companies, they were petrified of it.”

Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.

January 26, 2025
Texas Gov. Abbott asks government to reimburse $11B spent on border security

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is requesting that the federal government reimburse his state more than $11.1 billion for taxpayer money spent on securing the southern border during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Abbott, who sent letters to U.S. Congressional members on Thursday, said the Biden administration’s “refusal to do its job the last four years” resulted in the crisis at the southern border that has spilled into the rest of the country.

“President Biden’s policies left Texas and the rest of America defenseless against an unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors, like the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua,” the governor wrote.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN INTRODUCES BILL TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR BILLIONS SPENT TO SECURE BORDER

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the federal government to reimburse his state for the more than $11 billion of taxpayer money it has spent on border security over the past four years. (REUTERS/Callaghan O’hare)

In response to the federal government’s lack of action at the border, Abbott took matters into his own hands and launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, which deployed the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to the US-Mexico border.

Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 87% over the past four years, proving the “effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures,” according to Abbott, who added that his efforts have shone a national spotlight on the crisis.

The governor outlined that the operation has also resulted in the apprehension of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopped more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the US, made more than 50,000 criminal arrests, seized more than half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl, built more than 240 miles of border barriers and established the only National Guard base along the Texas-Mexico border.

“In short, Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS RENEW PUSH TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR ‘OPERATION LONE STAR’ BORDER SECURITY PUSH

Though he is proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success came with a high price tag of more than $11.1 billion, which has been, and continues to be, paid by Texas taxpayers when it “should have been the federal government’s responsibility.”

In a document breaking down the costs, Abbott said that prior to the Biden administration, the state of Texas spent approximately $800 million every two years to supplement federal efforts at the border.

Illegal immigrants pass through coils of razor wire while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in March 2024. The wire was placed by the troops as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” to deter migrants from crossing into Texas. ( John Moore/Getty Images)

“The burden that our State has borne is a direct result of a refusal by the federal government to do its job,” Abbott wrote. “The work that Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire country.”

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House Republicans have introduced bills in the past requesting Texas be reimbursed for the billions spent on border security, but legislation has never been passed.

January 24, 2025
Trump applauded for ‘significant’ immigration action after Biden admin ‘ruined’ US border

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, says President Donald Trump is starting from ‘square one’ on the border on ‘Kudlow.’

During his first week in office, President Donald Trump launched an immigration crackdown with a number of border security measures. The efforts are one of many campaign promises Trump has worked to keep since assuming office Monday.

One Republican lawmaker applauded Trump for his immigration efforts, calling out former President Joe Biden for leaving the border “wide open” for years.

“Donald Trump has shown that he’s willing to deliver on campaign promises. Promises the American people have been relying on him to deliver and promises that really are long overdue,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on “Kudlow” Thursday.

TRUMP BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN REVEALS ICE TEAMS ARE ALREADY ARRESTING ‘PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS’

“This also shows just how inexcusable the Biden administration’s inaction was. They claimed over and over again, we can’t do it for this reason, that reason or any other reason. This was a willful subversion of America’s border security, an intentional weakening of our national security.”

Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., joins ‘The Evening Edit’ to discuss the House passing the Laken Riley Act and how it may affect illegal immigration.

Upon taking office, Trump signed orders declaring a national emergency at the border, deploying the military and ending the use of the CBP One app to process migrants at ports of entry via humanitarian parole.

His administration has also launched a mass deportation operation, with ICE agents active in multiple cities and states across the nation.

The Department of Homeland Security has also issued memos rescinding limits placed on ICE by the Biden administration, ordering a review of parole and expanding the use of expedited removal for recently-arrived illegal immigrants.

BORDER ENCOUNTERS DROP SHARPLY AS TRUMP LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

“Biden created so many problems with his open borders, problems that have resulted in death, destruction, suffering and theft, among other problems for the American people. So President Trump’s right to start where he started,” Lee said when asked about the deportation operations.

“Our hope and expectation is that in some cases, some of these folks will have enough presence of mind to realize it might make sense for them to leave on their own. For those that don’t, they will find out the hard way.”

Texas Public Safety Department Lt. Chris Olivarez discusses the border crisis under the Trump administration.

Trump’s administration has also moved to restore border wall construction and reinstate the Remain-in-Mexico policy, which requires migrants to stay in Mexico for the duration of their asylum cases.

Trump also signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants — a move which quickly sparked a lawsuit from nearly two dozen Democratic-led states. A federal judge in Seattle Thursday temporarily blocked the president’s birthright citizenship order, describing the action as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“Now that Donald Trump is having to go back almost to the drawing board, as it were. Start from square one and he’s already making significant progress. I applaud him for that,” Lee said.

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Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

January 24, 2025
Border encounters drop sharply as Trump launches crackdown on illegal immigration

EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. southern border has seen a sharp drop in illegal immigrant encounters in the first days of the Trump administration, compared to the final few days of the Biden administration, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) source tells Fox News Digital.

The number of Border Patrol encounters at the southern border in the first three days of the Trump administration is 35% lower than the final three days of the Biden administration, the source said. The numbers do not include encounters at the northern border, or encounters at ports of entry by CBP’s Office of Field Operations.

On Jan 17, there were 1,288 encounters nationwide, then 1,266 on Jan 18 and 1,354 on Jan 19. That is 3,908 encounters in total.

TRUMP’S ICE RACKS UP HUNDREDS OF ARRESTS, INCLUDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED FOR HORROR CRIMES

President Donald Trump holds a document on the day he issues executive orders and pardons for January 6 defendants in the Oval Office at the White House, January 20, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Trump took office on the 20th, when there were 1,073 encounters. It then declined further to 736 encounters on the 21st and again to 714 on the 22nd – making up 2,523 encounters.

Numbers fluctuate sharply at the border on a daily and weekly basis, but numbers have been relatively low since June, when President Biden signed an executive order limiting asylum. That followed a historic migrant crisis from 2021 that had shattered records repeatedly.

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States who previously requested an appointment on the CBP One Mobile application, are silhouetted as they queue at El Chaparral border crossing toward the U.S. to attend their appointment, in Tijuana, Mexico January 18, 2025. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)

President Donald Trump implemented additional restrictions. On taking office, he signed orders declaring a national emergency at the border, deploying the military to the border and ended the use of the CBP One app to process migrants at ports of entry via humanitarian parole.

His administration has also launched a mass deportation operation, with ICE agents active in multiple cities and states across the United States.

‘PROMPT REMOVAL’: TRUMP DHS EXPANDS EXPEDITED DEPORTATION POWERS AS OPERATIONS RAMP UP

The Department of Homeland Security has also issued memos rescinding limits placed on ICE by the Biden administration, ordering a review of parole, and expanding the use of expedited removal for recently-arrived illegal immigrants.

Trump’s administration has also moved to restore border wall construction and reinstate the Remain-in-Mexico policy, which requires migrants to stay in Mexico for the duration of their asylum cases.

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Trump also signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants — a move which quickly sparked a lawsuit from nearly two dozen Democratic-led states.

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Although the data is preliminary, lower numbers will likely fuel speculation about a “Trump effect,” in which migrants are discouraged from making their way to the border if they believe they are less likely to be admitted, or more likely to be deported if they are.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.

January 23, 2025
Pentagon sending additional 1,500 troops to southern border: US official

The U.S. Pentagon is sending an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border by the end of the month, a U.S. official told Fox News on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear what specific units would be sent, though the Trump administration is expected to make a formal announcement later Wednesday.

There are already 2,500 U.S. service members stationed at the southern border. The troops were ordered there in May 2023 during the Biden administration under title 10 authorities, were approved by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and are planned to be in place until the end of FY2025, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson.

The 1,500 additional service members will deploy to different locations along the southern border by the end of the month, the U.S. official said.

BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SENDS MESSAGE TO FAR-LEFT OFFICIALS PUSHING BACK AGAINST MASS DEPORTATIONS: ‘GAME ON’

The U.S. Pentagon is sending an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border by the end of the month, a U.S. official told Fox News on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

The added troops will act in the same roles as the service members already there, providing aerial reconnaissance, data entry, training, vehicle maintenance, detection and monitoring, and some other logistical support roles.

Migrants walk along the US-Mexico border fence in Lukeville, Arizona, on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. An influx of migrants crossing the border unlawfully has overwhelmed U.S. border officials. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The announcement will mark the third time that U.S. troops have been sent to the southern border in the last two years.

VERMONT BORDER PATROL AGENT ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY GERMAN NATIONAL WORKED IN PENTAGON DURING 9/11: FAMILY

In May 2023, former President Joe Biden and Austin approved a request from former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to send an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border for 90 days to assist with the influx of migrants after pandemic era health restrictions ended in May 2023.

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In March 2024, Austin approved another DHS request for 2,500 service members, including national guardsmen under Title 10 duty status.

Liz Friden is a Pentagon producer based in Washington, D.C.

January 23, 2025