Happy New Year 2025

Tag: Dems

Dems rail against ‘egregious’ ICE raid after military veteran questioned

A New Jersey mayor and other leading Democrats have blasted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a worksite which they say resulted in undocumented residents as well as a U.S. citizen being “detained.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka slammed the operation as an “egregious act” and a violation of the Fourth Amendment after agents reportedly swooped in to raid a business establishment “without producing a warrant.”

Baraka said that one of those detained is a U.S. military veteran who “suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.”

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Tanya Breen/USA TODAY NETWORK)

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

“This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures….’” Baraka wrote in a statement.

“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” Barak said, adding that he is “ready and willing to defend and protect civil and human rights.”

It is not clear if the U.S. citizen in the Newark case was taken into custody, with an ICE spokesperson telling Fox News that the U.S. citizen was asked to produce identification.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark, New Jersey,” an ICE spokesperson told Fox News in relation to Thursday’s Newark operation. “This is an active investigation, and, per ICE policy, we cannot discuss ongoing investigations.”

An exterior view of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency headquarters. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

ICE raids have ramped up across the country this week as President Donald Trump looks to clamp down on illegal immigration, a key campaign promise. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan has said ICE agents will focus on the “worst first, public safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

New Jersey senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim joined Baraka in condemning the raid.

“We are deeply concerned about the news of an ICE raid in Newark today. Our offices have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to demand answers,” the senators said in a joint statement.

“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics. We will continue to work with Mayor Baraka and other local officials to gather more information to ensure all New Jerseyans are safe and their dignity and rights are protected.”

Baraka, a progressive Democrat, has been mayor of Newark since 2014 and is running for New Jersey governor this year. He has called for a “progressive overhaul” of the blue state and his campaign agenda includes reparations, sanctuary state laws, baby bonds, and a universal basic income.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also slammed the raid. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., also slammed the raid in a statement.

“Already, Trump’s attacks on immigrant communities are hitting home and we will not back down,” she said. “We will always fight for the dignity and rights of everyone in our district and across the country.”

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In the first days of the Trump administration, ICE has made more than 460 arrests of illegal immigrants, including those with criminal histories that include sexual assault, domestic violence and drugs and weapons crimes. Arrests took place across the U.S., including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland.

Agents arrested nationals from a slew of countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin, Stephen Sorace and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.

January 24, 2025
204 House Dems vote against bill to give lifesaving treatment to infants who survive abortions

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would penalize doctors who do not provide life-saving care to infants born alive after an abortion attempt.

All but one Democrat voted against the bill, which passed 217 to 204, with all Republicans in favor. One Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, voted “present.”

The bill directs health care practitioners to operate with the “same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence” for a baby born with a heartbeat after an abortion as during a normal birth. Doctors who run afoul of the rule would be fined or given up to five years behind bars.

WHITE HOUSE OPM ORDERS ALL DEI OFFICES TO BEGIN CLOSING BY END OF DAY WEDNESDAY

All House Democratic leaders voted against the bill (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

House GOP leaders lauded the bill, with Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., telling Fox News Digital, “Requiring medical care for babies born alive after a failed abortion isn’t controversial, it’s common sense.”

“The fact that Democrats would rather support infanticide than vote in favor of this bill shows how extreme and out-of-touch their party has become,” Emmer said.

Democrats have argued that the bill is redundant, given existing laws against infanticide and murder, and could imperil the lives of women seeking late-term abortions due to medical emergencies while unfairly penalizing doctors.

TRUMP TO DEPLOY MILITARY TO BORDER, END BIDEN PAROLE POLICIES IN FLURRY OF DAY ONE EXECUTIVE ORDERS

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer criticized all Democrats who voted against the bill. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

“No one goes through pregnancy and all that comes with it…and then after eight or nine months of that is like ‘nah, I don’t want to do this,’” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said during debate on the bill, adding that late-term operations made up about 1% of abortions. “It is because of a serious fetal abnormality or the health of the mother.”

She said the bill was “not based on science or reality.”

Several Democrats who spoke out against the bill themselves went through emergency abortion procedures with a nonviable pregnancy.

Among them was Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., who said the bill would allow women to “die on the operating table because doctors are scared of going to jail.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs was among the Democrats who spoke out in favor of the bill. (Getty Images)

Republicans, meanwhile, argued the bill would stop babies from being “left to die in a closet, alone and discarded like medical waste,” as Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., said during debate.

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“These precious babies, fellow Americans, deserve protection because they are alive,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

The vote comes after Democrats tanked the bill in the Senate earlier this week. The legislation failed to pass a procedural hurdle that needed 60 votes to allow for debate on its final passage.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

January 23, 2025
Dems ask Trump USDA pick who will do ‘backbreaking’ farming amid mass deportations

Democratic lawmakers are worried American farms will suffer under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation initiative.

Approximately 40% of crop farmworkers are not approved to work in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey, and Democratic lawmakers are curious about who will step in to work in the heat or cold.

As a result, senators questioned Trump’s pick to lead the Agriculture Department, Brooke Rollins, about whether mass deportation under the Trump administration will undermine the farming workforce.

“Can we expect this administration to be raiding farms, going after the immigrant farmers?” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said during Rollins’ confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Thursday.

‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY:’ TRUMP DECLARES AMBITIOUS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN IN INAUGURAL ADDRESS

Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“Listen, the president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support,” Rollins said.

Rollins then promised to help Trump execute his agenda, while also “defending” American farmers and ranchers.

“But when you’re talking about massive deportation, we’ve gone beyond dangerous criminals,” Durbin said. “I just wonder if we ought to give fair warning to farmers and ranchers across America that if you have immigrant labor, you can expect federal agents to come and search your property.”

“I have not been involved in the president’s current plan, I cannot answer that one way or the other,” Rollins said.

Trump has promised to take an aggressive approach to border security and illegal immigration, and the Department of Homeland Security issued a notice Tuesday to green-light expedited deportation of illegal immigrants.

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

Brooke Rollins attends a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing on her nomination for Secretary of Agriculture, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Other Democratic senators, including Peter Welch of Vermont and Adam Schiff of California, echoed similar sentiments regarding the implications of mass deportation on farms.

While the lawmakers acknowledged that those who pose a public safety threat shouldn’t remain in the U.S., they also said Americans are less inclined to work in the harsh conditions that farming requires than illegal immigrants.

Schiff said estimates suggest half of California’s farm workforce is undocumented, and asked Rollins how farmers were supposed to survive if half their workforce is cut, because “Americans don’t want to do that work,” since it’s “too backbreaking.” As a result, Schiff asked who would work on California’s farms.

Rollins said she would work with the committee and with the Labor Department on the matter.

“We will work together to understand and hopefully solve for some of these problems. The dairy cattle have to be milked, but if we’ve got a mass deportation program underway, then there’s a lot of work that we need to do,” Rollins said.

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

Brooke Rollins, U.S. President Trump’s nominee to be secretary of agriculture, testifies before a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 23, 2025. (Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Reuters)

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also voiced concerns about how farmers will fare, should Trump follow through on his plans to implement tariffs. Trump’s economic plan calls for imposing tariffs ranging from 10% to 20% on all imported goods.

When Trump’s first administration imposed tariffs, China issued their own retaliatory tariffs that cost the federal government billions of dollars in government aid to farmers.

“I’m trepidacious that this is going to come back to our farmers,” Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said.

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“My commitment is that there will be no sleeping, that we will work around the clock to ensure that our AG communities across this country are represented in those discussions and at the table,” Rollins said.

Rollins previously worked as the director of the Office of American Innovation and acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term. After working for the Trump administration, Rollins co-founded the America First Policy Institute think tank.

The secretary of the Agriculture Department is responsible for managing farm and nutrition, forestry, food safety, rural development, and agricultural research.

Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.

January 23, 2025
‘Tides are shifting’: Push to codify key Trump-era policy snags dozens of cosponsors, including Dems

FIRST ON FOX: A bill to restore the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, introduced recently in the House, is racking up cosponsors as it becomes the latest immigration bill to pick up bipartisan support in the chamber.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, a freshman lawmaker, introduced the Remain in Mexico Act this month.

The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols, which were introduced during the first Trump administration and required migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum cases were heard, part of an effort to end the practice known as “catch and release.” The protocols were scrapped by the Biden administration, which argued they were cruel and ineffective.

TRUMP’S REMAIN IN MEXICO POLICY COULD BE REVIVED UNDER NEW HOUSE GOP BILL

Then-President Donald Trump, left, speaks with U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott as they participate in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, on June 23, 2020. (SAUL LOEB/AFP )

President Donald Trump has signed an order requiring the protocols to be restored, but codifying the policy in federal law would make it significantly harder for critics to then repeal it under a different administration.

However, with the bill now before Congress, it has already picked up over 100 cosponsors, Fox News Digital is told. That includes two Democrats, Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

“I am overwhelmed with gratitude that over one hundred of my colleagues have shown bipartisan support for my REMAIN in Mexico Act that codifies President Trump’s executive border action into law,” Gill said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump made southern border security a top priority of his administration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci | Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The tides are shifting under President Trump—Congress knows we must strengthen our national security, prevent fraudulent asylum claims, and put our citizens first,” he said.

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

The bill is one of a number of pieces of immigration legislation that have been introduced, with increasing signs of support from Democrats after a year in which illegal immigration was a top issue for voters and resulted in Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White House.

On Wednesday evening, the House passed the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of illegal immigrants accused of theft-related crimes. It had previously passed the Senate. In the House, 46 Democrats voted in favor of it.

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The House is expected to be active on illegal immigration, reflecting a flurry of orders coming from the White House. Those orders include declaring a national emergency at the border, sending troops to the border and canceling a slew of Biden-era parole programs.

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

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.

January 23, 2025
VA Dems reject Youngkin’s antisemitism expert pick from George Mason Univ board amid troubling incidents

As George Mason University grapples with the latest incident of antisemitism linked to its Fairfax, Virginia, campus, Democrats in the Virginia State Senate rejected Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nomination of one of the nation’s preeminent antisemitism scholars to its Board of Visitors.

Kenneth Marcus, the Brandeis Center’s founder and a former undersecretary in the Education Department’s civil rights division, was one of a few Youngkin nominees who were struck from consideration by the Senate Privileges & Elections Committee on a party-line vote.

Marcus has been described by The New York Times as “the man who helped redefine campus antisemitism,” and told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday interview he had hoped to continue that work at GMU.

“It was disappointing to see Democratic senators moving to block my nomination at precisely the same time that we were achieving a fairly significant victory over antisemitism in our Harvard University case,” Marcus said, noting he had served without incident on the GMU board since mid-2024.

HARVARD SETTLES TWO LAWSUITS DEALING WITH ALLEGATIONS OF ANTISEMITISM

George Washington University students take part in a Gaza solidarity encampment in conjunction with other Wasington, D.C.-area universities. (Getty)

“There’s really nothing that I can think of that I have done that would stir any controversy other than working to protect George Mason students from antisemitism,” he said, noting the school has struggled with the issue as of late.

A GMU freshman IT major and Egyptian national is being investigated by the FBI on charges of distributing information on weapons in furtherance of a violent crime and threats against a foreign official, according to NBC News.

Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, 18, of Falls Church, Virginia, was allegedly trying to orchestrate a bombing of the Israeli Consulate in New York City.

Leaders from Students for Justice in Palestine were also banned from campus after police found “Death to Jews” and “Death to America” signage along with firearms.

“This is a huge issue right now at George Mason with some very disturbing high-profile issues happening,” Marcus said.

A person familiar with Youngkin’s thoughts on the situation said the governor has “kept his cool” and is not engaging publicly but is incensed about the Democrats’ move.

“He is quietly working in hopes Democratic senators are seeing the error of their ways,” the person told Fox News Digital.

YOUNGKIN ‘PERSONALLY INVITES’ NEW TRUMP ADMIN WORKERS TO SETTLE IN VA OVER DC, MD

Marcus said he worked hard to combat antisemitism on campus in the seven months he has been on campus. “I have been very pleased to have the opportunity to work with the administration and board of that institution to address a very serious problem going on here.”

Marcus said one item he had been working on was incorporating antisemitism definitions into GMU’s anti-discrimination policy.

“Since I joined the board, the most significant thing I’ve done has been to work with the administration to incorporate the idea of a working definition of antisemitism into George Mason’s anti-discrimination policy. That was a huge advance, and it’s been very influential. It was disappointing to see members of the General Assembly respond as they have,” he said.

GMU has also been subject to anti-Zionist vandalism. As of last February, GMU President Gregory Washington said there had been at least 70 antisemitism incident reports to administrators and acknowledged a federal probe into reported malign activity.

“I have been asked on numerous occasions to stop the student protests. Even when you’re protesting against me, I still support it because I support freedom of speech,” Washington told the Fourth Estate student newspaper.

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The Virginia State Capitol. (Getty)

The Senate P&E Committee also removed nominations for former Vice President Mike Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short and Nina Rees, a senior official for the George W. Bush Presidential Library, as well as an education attorney from the Richmond firm McGuire-Woods.

Richmond Republicans are hoping to add Marcus’ name back to the legislation listing confirmed nominees on Thursday, but a source suggested their path remains unlikely without any Democrat defections in the 21-19 Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to both Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Alexandria, and Senate P&E Committee Chair Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, about Marcus’ rejection.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

January 23, 2025