Happy New Year 2025

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Trump nominates judge to serve as next US attorney for Southern District of Florida

President Donald Trump announced three new members of his administration on Sunday, including Judge Jason Reding Quiñones, who the president has nominated as the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

“A former Federal prosecutor and Justice Department National Security Official, Judge Reding Quiñones currently serves as a highly respected State Trial Judge in Miami, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “As the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Reding Quiñones will restore Law and Order, prosecute violent crimes and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

Along with Quiñones, the president announced that Jim Byron will serve as the senior advisor to the acting national archivist, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Having already worked with the NARA, Trump said Byron understands the responsibility that goes into preserving the country’s history.

TRUMP LANDS KEY TULSI GABBARD CONFIRMATION FOLLOWING UPHILL SENATE BATTLE

President Donald Trump nominated Judge Jason Reding Quiñones to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida on Sunday. (Florida Courts)

In his role, Byron will manage the archives on a day-to-day basis as the Trump administration continues its search for a full-time archivist.

Trump also nominated John Jovanovic to serve as the chairman and CEO of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM).

TRUMP’S NOMINEE FOR SMALL BUSINESS CHIEF PRIMED FOR FINAL VOTE AFTER CLEARING PROCEDURAL HURDLE

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“John will utilize his extensive experience in finance, investments, and business building across the Energy, Commodities, and Critical Infrastructure sectors to Make America Energy and Manufacturing DOMINANT Again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Jovanovic is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his master’s in business administration in finance and management.

He also attended Princeton University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in politics.

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“He will work tirelessly to protect all of the gains from our strong Tariff Policies, guarantee that our Exports receive fair treatment, and always put American companies, and our Energy exports, FIRST,” Trump said. “Congratulations John!”

Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @GregWehner.

February 16, 2025
Five Walgreens stores in Southern California reportedly closing

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A handful of Walgreens retail pharmacy stores in Southern California are expected to close permanently.

The company plans to shut down five locations in Whittier, Los Angeles, Orange, Placentia and Stanton in late March, Walgreens confirmed to FOX Business.

“Increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures” impacting the “ability to cover” rent, staffing and supply costs played into the pharmacy store chain’s decision to shutter the locations, Walgreens said in a statement.

“When closures are necessary, like those here in California, we will work in partnership with community stakeholders to minimize customer disruptions,” the company said.

Walgreens unveiled a “footprint optimization program” last year that it said would entail shedding about 1,200 locations over a three-year period. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Los Angeles Daily News earlier reported on the upcoming closures.

WALGREENS CEO REVEALS ANTI-THEFT MEASURES OF LOCKING UP PRODUCTS HAD THE OPPOSITE EFFECT

A merchandise aisle and a prescription sign at a Walgreens store in New York City. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via / Getty Images)

This comes after news of a dozen Walgreens stores in San Francisco facing closure later this month. The company previously cited the impact of “increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures” on costs for those locations as well.

A DOZEN WALGREENS STORES IN SAN FRANCISCO TO CLOSE

Walgreens unveiled a “footprint optimization program” last year that it said would entail shedding about 1,200 locations over a three-year period. A total of roughly 500 will shutter in fiscal 2025, the company said at the time.

CEO Tim Wentworth said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call last month that the “cornerstone of our turnaround is stabilizing the U.S. retail pharmacy business” and that Walgreens “showed progress across several key planks of this plan,” including its footprint optimization program.

WALGREENS TO CLOSE 1,200 STORES AS PART OF TURNAROUND EFFORT

He said the company “expect[s] our future footprint to support stronger performance.”

An exterior view of a Walgreens store in Mill Valley, California, is seen on Jan. 6, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“Currently, we see comparable front end sales in our retained store fleet outperforming those stores slated to close this year by approximately 250 basis points and comparable pharmacy scripts by approximately 390 basis points,” Wentworth said. “To be clear, even with our future footprint, we have to execute on our longer-term merchandising and consumer engagement initiatives in order to grow. However, this data supports our view that the smaller footprint will be a healthier one for our company.”

In the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Walgreens Boots Alliance generated $39.46 billion in sales. The company reported a net loss of $265 million, or 31 cents per share.

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WBA WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE INC. 9.47 +0.11 +1.18%

February 13, 2025
Trump holding Oval Office meeting with Texas Gov. Abbott over ‘securing the southern border’

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott meets at the White House on Wednesday with President Donald Trump to discuss their efforts to beef up security along America’s southern border with Mexico.

“Governor Abbott is meeting with President Trump to discuss their continued partnership in securing the southern border and keeping Americans safe,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris told Fox News Digital when asked about the Oval Office get-together.

Ahead of his meeting with Trump, the three-term conservative Lone Star State governor met with Tom Homan, the president’s border czar.

TEXAS’ ABBOTT MAKES MAJOR MOVE IN BORDER SECURITY BATTLE

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump attend a briefing with state officials and law enforcement at the Weslaco Department of Public Safety, before touring the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Weslaco, Texas. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

“Looking forward to meeting with President Trump today. Earlier this morning, I spoke with Tom Homan about immigration enforcement strategies. Today, and the coming days, should be great for Texas,” Abbott wrote in a social media post.

It would be hard to find another governor who has done more to support, and help implement and endorse, Trump’s hardline border security and immigration agenda.

Texas, under Abbott’s leadership, has spent billions of dollars on border security the past couple of years under Operation Lone Star. And now the GOP-dominated legislature is proposing allocating an additional $6.5 million to implement Trump’s border and immigration agenda.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott listens to former President Trump during a visit to an unfinished section of border wall, in Pharr, Texas, June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

And this week, Abbott, in an unprecedented move, gave Texas National Guard soldiers the power to arrest undocumented immigrants in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Trump, speaking to an overflow crowd of supporters gathered at the U.S. Capitol for his inauguration last month, praised Abbott.

“He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a phenomenal job, but now you’re going to have a partner that’s going to work with you,” Trump said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Twitter/Greg Abbott)

And Abbott returned the compliment this past weekend, as he delivered his State of the State address.

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“We have a president who will partner with Texas to deny illegal entry,” Abbott said. “To support that mission, I have ordered Texas state agencies to assist the Trump administration with arresting, jailing and deporting illegal immigrants.”

February 5, 2025
Hegseth declares ‘new era’ under Trump in visit to southern border in Texas

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday visited the southern border, declaring a “new era of determination” as the Trump administration doubles down on its efforts to secure the border and stop illegal immigration.

“Because of President Donald Trump, this is a new era at the southern border, a new era of determination, a new era of cooperation. And at the Defense Department, we are proud to be a part of it,” Hegseth told reporters at a press conference in El Paso, Texas after Hegseth had toured the border.

Hegseth emphasized that, rather than focusing on foreign territory, the administration wanted to focus first on U.S. sovereignty.

HOMAN, LAWMAKERS SIGNAL COOPERATION ON ‘OVERLOOKED’ NORTHERN BORDER AMID MIGRANT SPIKE: ‘SAME VISION’

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visits Texas border to inspect the efforts against irregular migrants with Tom Homan, who is in charge of border security in Texas, United States on February 03, 2025. ((Photo by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth/Anadolu via Getty Images))

“Guys and gals of my generation have spent decades in foreign countries guarding other people’s borders. It’s about time we secure our own border,” he said.

Trump deployed the U.S. military to the border on his first day in office, with over 1,500 troops joining forces already there. It’s part of a blitz that has correlated with a sharp drop in encounters at the southern border.

Hegseth said the men and women dispatched to the border are excited to be there.

“They’re motivated to be here because they’re defending their friends, their family, their communities, their church, their schools, their loved ones from an invasion of people whose intentions we don’t know,” he said. “We are going to get control of this border.”

NEW SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO PAUSES REFUGEE OPERATIONS, RAMPS UP VISA VETTING

A group of people cross the US-Mexico border from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, into Sunland Park, New Mexico, US, on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (Justin Hamel/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hegseth’s visit to the southern border is the latest migration-focused trip by a Trump Cabinet official.

His trip comes after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was at the southern border in Del Rio, Texas on Saturday. She said she was there to see “firsthand what’s happening and how we can best support our Border Patrol agents.”

“Under President [Trump] the days of open borders are over,” she said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had a migration-packed first week in office, left Saturday for his first overseas trip to Latin America.

His visit includes trips to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. He is expected to return Thursday, and issues including migration, drug trafficking and gang violence are expected to be at the top of his agenda.

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Hegseth spoke alongside border czar Tom Homan, who said what was occurring with the use of the military and other government agencies to facilitate security and deportations is a “game changer.”

“We will finally succeed and have an operational control of our southern border with this president in charge,” he said.

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.

February 3, 2025
Democrats press Army secretary nominee if ‘readiness’ will be affected by southern border deployments

Democrats sounded off about the White House sending U.S. troops to the southern border, but Army secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll insisted that he did not believe it would affect readiness.

“Is there a cost in terms of readiness?” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat in the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Driscoll during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

“The Army has a long, 249 history of balancing multiple objectives,” Driscoll said. “If this is important to the commander-in-chief, the Army will execute it.”

“I think border security is national security,” he went on. “We’ve had soldiers at the border for a number of years, and the Army stands ready for any mission.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., also voiced concerns about sending the military to the U.S. border.

“We’re seeing now active duty military, Army, be sent to the border, being sent on missions right now to support DHS,” she said. “But according to our Constitution, the US military active duty cannot perform law enforcement roles.”

ARMY SEC NOMINEE QUESTIONS WHETHER MILITARY PILOTS SHOULD TRAIN NEAR DC AIRPORT

U.S. soldiers patrol the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 24, 2025. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Slotkin, a former CIA agent, said she was concerned that without proper training an incident could occur that would turn public opinion against the nation’s armed forces.

“I’m deeply concerned that active duty troops are going to be forced into law enforcement roles, and we’re already hearing stories that really, really touch right on the line,” she said.

“They’re not properly trained. There’s going to be an incident,” she said. “Someone’s going to get hurt, there’s going to be some sort of blow up, and suddenly we’re going to have a community that’s deeply, deeply angry at uniformed military who were just told to go and drive those DHS vehicles through that building, perform support for somebody.”

Slotkin asked Driscoll if he would follow an order from President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if it “contravened with the Constitution.”

“I reject the premise that the president or the secretary would ask for an order like that, but I will always follow the law,” Driscoll said.

HEGSETH SHARES DETAILS ON BLACK HAWK CHOPPER TRAINING FLIGHT

Slotkin shot back: “Your predecessor, Army Secretary [Mark] Esper, had this exact thing that he wrote about in his book, 82nd Airborne Army was asked to come in and clean up a peaceful protest in Washington, DC. So I reject your rejection that this is theoretical.”

“We’re counting on you to protect the integrity of a non-political military that is not trained in law enforcement roles.”

Daniel Driscoll, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the Army, said: “I think border security is national security.” (AP)

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a former CIA agent, said she was concerned that without proper training an incident could occur that would turn public opinion against the nation’s armed forces. (Reuters)

Immediately upon taking office, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and 1,500 active duty troops — 1,000 Army personnel and 500 Marines — deployed to the southern border.

There already were 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 approved by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and are planned to be there until the end of fiscal year 2025, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson.

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“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” Hegseth said Monday, hinting at the possibility of additional deployments in the coming weeks.

Trump also signed an executive order designating drug cartels in Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations, granting the military greater authority to interdict them.

January 30, 2025
Trump-era southern border sees migrant encounters plummet by over 60% as new policies kick in

EXCLUSIVE: The number of migrants arriving at the southern border has dropped by over 60% since President Donald Trump took office last week, new data obtained by Fox News Digital shows.

There were 7,287 migrant encounters at the southern border in the first seven days (Jan 20-26) after Trump’s inauguration by both Border Patrol between ports of entry and by the Office of Field Operations (OFO) at ports of entry, with a daily average of 1,041 encounters a day.

That compares to 20,086 encounters in the seven days in the final days of the Biden administration (Jan 13-19) prior to Trump’s inauguration, averaging 2,869 encounters a day.

BORDER AGENTS RECORD SHOCKINGLY LOW NUMBER OF ILLEGAL CROSSINGS ONE WEEK INTO SECOND TRUMP PRESIDENCY

US Army soldiers patrol the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on January 24, 2025. US President Donald Trump ordered 1,500 more military personnel to the border with Mexico as part of a flurry of steps to tackle immigration, his spokeswoman said on January 22. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

That equals more than a 63% decrease in the number of encounters at the southern border.

President Trump entered office last week and immediately declared a national emergency at the southern border, and ordered the expulsion of migrants without the possibility of asylum.

He also shut down the Biden-era use of the CBP One app that allows migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry so they can be allowed into the U.S. via humanitarian parole. The numbers suggest that the moves are having an impact at both the ports of entry and for those crossing illegally.

COLOMBIAN LEADER QUICKLY CAVES AFTER TRUMP THREATS, OFFERS PRESIDENTIAL PLANE FOR DEPORTATION FLIGHTS

Fox News reported on Monday that fewer than 600 people crossed illegally into the U.S. on Sunday, and that not a single of the nine sectors received more than 200 illegal crossings. The Del Rio sector – which is the same sector that would sustain over 4,000 crossings per day during the height of the border crisis in December 2023 – only recorded 60 crossings.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Trump has sent the U.S. military to the border, ordered the continuation of wall construction and has shut down additional parole programs, including the processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

President-elect Donald J. Trump and President Joe Biden attend inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States takes place inside the Capitol Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Monday, January 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times/Pool via Getty Images)

Separately, his administration has launched a mass deportation program, quickly racking up daily arrests of more than 1,000 as raids take place in sanctuary cities including Boston and New York City.

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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem oversaw one of the raids on Tuesday in New York City, saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement caught “dirtbags” — including an illegal immigrant with kidnapping, assault & burglary charges.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

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 28, 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