Tag: latest news

EXCLUSIVE:
 A former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, who served during the final days of President Trump’s tenure in the White House, is warning of the danger some congressional Democratic candidates pose to the agency’s mission of securing America’s borders and protecting United States citizens.

Several Democrats running for office in states around the country have come under fire for their views on immigration and how they believe issues at the southern border should be handled as border patrol agents continue to be overwhelmed by large influxes of illegal migrants.

One Democratic Senate candidate in particular, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is seeking to unseat incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson in the Badger State’s Nov. 8 midterm election, has liked numerous tweets that called for ICE to be abolished and criticized the agency. Similarly, in 2019, Barnes told the Wisconsin-based immigration group Voces de la Frontera Action that the “wrong ICE is melting.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Jonathan Fahey, a former deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security who later served as the acting director of ICE from December 2020 to January 2021, reacted to the rhetoric from Barnes and considered it to be detrimental to ICE’s mission to provide safety for Americans.

“It’s kind of interesting how he’s trying to walk this back now because he’s running for election, trying to center himself to the middle,” Fahey said of Barnes. “He was associated with groups, liked tweets and other stuff to show that he wanted ICE abolished and it’s really just anti-ICE. He and others have been on this crusade to just take down ICE, demonize ICE agents in every single respect by calling them racists, delegitimizing what they’re doing, and treating them like they’re doing something heavy-handed, unlawful, when they’re simply just doing their job, trying to keep our communities safe and our country safe.… It really is disgraceful.”

Read more:
Dem candidate’s support for abolish ICE movement is ‘disgraceful,’ former immigration official says

A blogger who shared racist remarks about former President Barack Obama was paid by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s campaign for “advertising services” on two separate occasions.

In November 2014, Juan Montoya, who operates the El Rrun Rrun blog, amplified the insensitive comments that were penned by Jerry McHale, another blogger who was revealed in July to have made numerous racist and sexist remarks through his own blog that targeted GOP Rep. Mayra Flores.

In the post shared to Montoya’s blog, McHale, who was also paid by the Gonzalez campaign for “advertising services” through his own blog, made racist comments through “one of his alter personalities” known as Dr. G.F. McHale-Scully.

Describing Republican politicians who he believed the GOP should prop up in elections, McHale stated: “The voters look at the Cameron County Republicans as viable options. If the party of the rich, racists and religious right ran Terry Ray or Bud Richards or Harry McNair, the Democrats would prevail in landslides, but Tony Garza, Cascos and Garcia aren’t reactionary ideologues, born-again Christians or prudes.”

“They like to f— and drink. They are reasonable individuals who aren’t ranting and raving that Barack Obama is a god–mn n—– who is bringing the world to an end,” he added. “They aren’t wasting any rhetoric opposing gay marriage, abortion or legalizing marijuana.”

As of Thursday afternoon, advertisements for Gonzalez’s campaign remain active on Montoya’s blog, leading those who inquire to the Texas candidate’s Facebook page.

In a statement to Fox, the Gonzalez campaign insisted that it has “already cut ties with the author of this post” and that the language used in the blog post is “abhorrent.”

Read more from Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie here: Dem candidate paid blogger who amplified remarks using the n-word to describe Obama to promote campaign

Speaking in a Thursday morning media briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that first responders had descended on southwest Florida following Hurricane Ian.

Operations are ongoing, with 28 large helicopters between the National Guard and Coast Guard performing rescue missions, and more air assets brought in as the day continues.

DeSantis said his office had also been working with hospitals overnight that have been on generator power and were in the process of evacuating health care facilities to safer locations.

The governor noted that, in addition to the more than 2.5 million power outages reported in the state, more outages were anticipated in central and northeastern Florida.

“Lee and Charlotte are basically off the grid at this point,” he explained, adding that infrastructure would likely have to be rebuilt there and that damage to the counties was “extensive.”

DeSantis said that, after interruptions in communications, 100 portable cell towers were being deployed in southwest Florida.

Furthermore, 100 engineers were on site to do bridge inspections, and he noted that there were reports of structural damages to bridges like the Sanibel Causeway and Pine Island Bascule Bridge.

DeSantis warned that the amount of water that’s been rising and will continue to rise is “basically a 500-year flood event.”

The governor said he had spoken with President Biden earlier in the morning, and that additional major disaster declarations are expected for more Florida counties.

Water is anticipated to subside in barrier islands and on the coasts, but DeSantis told reporters that standing water is likely inland for the coming days.

“Those who are in need of life support right now: Help is on the way,” he said, pointing out that efforts were first focused in the hardest hit areas.

“The impacts of this storm are historic
… But, I think we’ve never seen a flood event like this … And, it’s going to end up doing extensive damage to a lot of peoples’ homes,” DeSantis pointed out.

The governor said most school districts will be able to reopen on Friday or Monday.

Answering questions later in the news conference, DeSantis responded to a report of “hundreds” of fatalities in Lee County: “So, none of that is confirmed.”

He said that a number put out by Lee authorities was “basically an estimate” of people calling 911 and saying that water was rising in their homes.

“They may not have ended up getting through,” DeSantis said, telling the reporter that he hoped they could be rescued at this point.

He clarified that there were two unconfirmed fatalities and that they had not yet been confirmed to be related to the storm.

“I mean, our assumption is, it likely is,” DeSantis said.

An ad from gun control advocacy group Giffords PAC used footage of the Columbine High School shooting and other violent mass shootings to target GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, prompting criticism.

“Here in Colorado it just keeps happening, but instead of standing up for Colorado families, MAGA Republican Joe O’Dea is standing with the gun lobby, opposing Common Sense gun safety reforms like closing loopholes and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals,” the narrator in the ad says, as brief footage of people fleeing the Columbine shooting and the Aurora movie theater shooting flash on the screen.

“Here in Colorado we felt the pain of gun violence so many times but Joe O’Dea sides with the gun lobby not us,” the ad says.

O’Dea’s campaign called the ad a “dishonest attack” that is “disgusting even for the low-life political hacks who run Joe Biden’s political operation” in a press release.

Supporters of O’Dea also came to his defense, saying his plan of “more cops and a criminal justice system getting serious about enforcing the numerous gun laws already on the books — will do more to protect Colorado than a bunch of politicians in Washington, D.C. passing another law,” according to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader.

“They’re using this tragedy without consideration of victims and survivors. It’s shameful,” said school safety advocate John Castillo, who has argued for arming school staff to prevent violent attacks.

“Joe O’Dea has a plan to protect our communities. Cut the federal bureaucracy to fund more cops and more border security,” said Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers. “Invoking images of Columbine and Aurora is a new kind of tawdry, and as Colorado has proven, more gun laws don’t stop these tragedies. More cops in our communities and schools will.”

Giffords PAC, which endorsed Democratic incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet in the Colorado Senate race, said last week that it will spend $2.5 million to run the ad on TV and online.

“Joe O’Dea’s support of the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda is wrong for Colorado,” said Peter Ambler, executive director and co-founder, Giffords. “Coloradans know the consequences of gun violence all too well, and we are confident they will oppose Joe O’Dea in large part because of his refusal to keep communities safe from this public health crisis.”