Blog

USDA Imposes New Verification Rules on Food Stamps to Tackle Exploitation by Illegals

The Trump administration is taking a hardline stance against illegal immigrants exploiting food stamps, issuing strict new guidance to state agencies to ramp up identity and immigration verification.

On Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Acting Deputy Under Secretary John Walk directed states running the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to tighten the screws on fraud.

The Department of Agriculture’s new rules demand states use more reliable documents to confirm identity, crack down on fake Social Security numbers, and fully utilize the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system—provided free by DHS. States are also urged to adopt stricter identification processes and conduct more in-person interviews.

A memo from Acting Deputy Under Secretary Walk noted, “By law, only United States citizens and certain lawfully present aliens may receive SNAP benefits. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) established that “aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs.” SNAP is not and has never been available to illegal aliens.”

“To ensure that tax dollars do not fund SNAP benefits to illegal aliens or other ineligible aliens, State agencies should carefully examine their identity and immigration status verification practices and make necessary enhancements.”

Keep reading

FBI Arrests Democrat New Mexico Judge and Wife for Harboring Illegal Tren de Aragua Gang Member in Their Home

The FBI has arrested former New Mexico Magistrate Judge Juan Cano and his wife Nancy Cano for allegedly harboring an illegal alien with suspected ties to Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang known for trafficking, extortion, and violence.

The arrest comes just weeks after Cano resigned from his judicial post following a dramatic federal raid at his Doña Ana County residence, where agents apprehended Cristhian Ortega Lopez, an illegal immigrant now charged with unlawful firearm possession and gang affiliation.

The Gateway Pundit was one of the first outlets to report that longtime Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano — a Democrat and former police officer — abruptly resigned after federal agents arrested an alleged member of the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang at a residence he owns.

The bombshell resignation letter, dated March 3, came just days after federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations raided a property tied to Cano and his wife, Nancy, arresting 23-year-old Cristhian Ortega-Lopez on federal gun charges, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Keep reading

As predicted, AOC is clearly running for president

Here at American Thinker, we predicted that AOC is a real possibility as the 2028 Democrat party presidential candidate. Yesterday, AOC made it plain that she thinks so, too.

AOC’s appeal to the left is obvious: She’s female, glib, telegenic, well-recognized, vaguely Hispanic, antisemitic, and a truly leftist ideologue. Bernie Sanders rightly sees her as the bridge between his old-fashioned class warfare and the new multi-culti warfare, both vehicles for the Marxist overthrow of the West. That’s why the two of them have been appearing in venues across America to rally the true believers.

The fact that AOC’s sole life experience before politics has been as a bartender/waitress is irrelevant (although it exceeds Bernie’s pre-political life experience). That this might not prepare her for managing the vast enterprise that is the United States government, dealing with foreign leaders, or having any wisdom at all fades into insignificance compared to her leftist virtues.

That’s the only possible spin to put on this video, which shows that AOC also thinks that her leftist virtues mean that she’s got to seize the moment.

Keep reading

Four dead, over 500 injured as ‘massive’ explosion hits Iran’s Bandar Abbas

A massive explosion and fire at Iran’s largest commercial port has killed at least four people and injured more than 500 others, authorities say.

“Unfortunately, at least four deaths have been confirmed by rescuers,” Babak Mahmoudi, head of the Red Crescent Society’s Relief and Rescue Organisation, said on the state television on Saturday.

The Iranian state media reported that at least 516 people were injured at the explosion at Shahid Rajaei port, located more than 1,000km (620 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

Iranian state television said initial reports indicate negligence in the storage of flammable materials at the site, while Tehran Times reported that the explosion of several containers was the initial cause of the blast.

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, director of Hormozgan province’s crisis management organisation, told state television that the injured have been transferred to medical facilities.

He said that safety officials had previously visited the site of the incident, and issued safety warnings.

Keep reading

FBI memo examined activities of far-right radical Catholics ahead of 2024 election

In January of last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an 11-page memo outlining details of an investigation into what it called “radical traditionalist Catholic,” or RTC, elements within U.S. society.

Then the memo leaked. Republicans in Congress used the leak to accuse the Biden administration of persecuting Catholics and conservatives solely because of their beliefs.

The memo was quickly “withdrawn from FBI systems,” said an April 18 statement from the FBI. But a redacted copy of the document continues to linger online within the Justice Department, under whose jurisdiction the FBI falls.

So what does it say?

The FBI’s office in Richmond, Virginia, conducted the assessment. The memo’s executive summary said the presence of “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” – known in FBI parlance as RMVE – “in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation.”

It added, “FBI Richmond makes this assessment with high confidence based on FBI investigations, local law enforcement agency reporting, and liaison reporting, with varying degrees of corroboration and access.”

The memo said, “According to an FBI Richmond contact with direct access reporting for the first time, prior to RMVE actor [redacted]’s [redacted] 2022 arrest he had been attending the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)-affiliated [redacted] Virginia, for approximately seven months and was participating in catechism classes as part of the process to become baptized. Prior to attending [redacted] stated he wanted to find a church that was ‘anti-Zionist’ and ‘anti-progressive’ because ‘that’s where God lives.’”

Keep reading

Netflix, the FBI, and a Federal Frame Job That Took Down a Wellness Company…

There’s a dangerous trend happening in this country that we’re all aware of—and it’s picking up speed. The federal government is using the justice system as a weapon. Not to punish real crimes, but to punish the people it doesn’t like. That’s what lawfare is, and it’s been the go-to move of the FBI and DOJ for years now.

Conservatives have felt the bitter sting of lawfare more than anyone. From Douglass Mackey to the January 6ers to President Trump himself, the feds have gotten really comfortable twisting the law into a pretzel to go after political enemies. But here’s the curveball—what happens when they start using those same dirty tactics on people or groups who aren’t categorized as Trump supporters?

That’s what makes the case against the California-based wellness company OneTaste so disturbing. Not because the group is conservative—far from it—but because their prosecution reveals just how brazen and far-reaching lawfare has become.

OneTaste started as a Silicon Valley wellness company, but over time, it started to be accused of being a “sex cult.” We’re talking taboo rituals, a tight rein on emotions, and a setup that felt more like a tribe than a business. Most conservatives would take one look at this group and say, “No thanks”—but that’s not the point of this story, as you’ll find out below. And that’s precisely what makes the case so important.

Keep reading

Batya Ungar-Sargon Slams Dems for Continually Invoking the Nazis Over Trump: ‘A Big Part of Why They Have Lost’

Batya Ungar-Sargon, who is a liberal and also Jewish, recently appeared on CNN and slammed Democrats for constantly invoking Hitler and the Nazis when talking about Trump and the people who voted for him.

She held out Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who recently wrote a column for the New York Times which bashed Bill Maher for having dinner at the White House with ‘Hitler’ Trump.

She reminded the CNN panel that when you use this kind of rhetoric, you are labeling millions of working class American voters as Nazis. These are the same voters that Democrats lost in the 2024 election.

Do Democrats really think this is the way to win these people back?

Transcript via the Vigilant Fox on Twitter/X:

“To call Trump Hitler, is to call over 80 million Americans, 35% of Jewish Americans, 56% of Hispanic men, and the majority of Americans who make under $100,000 a year, Nazis,” she said.

“Because those are the people who gave Donald Trump his victory.”

“I just have a pro tip for any Democrats who are thinking about winning back the working class,” she said.

“Those people who make under $100,000 a year, who a majority of whom voted for Trump—you should have a visceral disgust for someone like Larry David, who’s worth $400 million sitting there and sneering and smearing the hardest working Americans for refusing to cosign their own disinheritance.”

“That’s effectively what they are doing when these millionaires come out here and call Trump Hitler,” she added.

“They are calling working class Americans, Nazis, because they chose the person they thought would give their children back, the future they were promised by this country.”

Keep reading

FBI bombshell: Venezuelan officials are using gangbangers as ‘soldiers’ inside US…

Somehow, in today’s upside-down world, the radicalized left has decided that violent gang members are the new underdogs they need to defend. Instead of standing up for law-abiding American citizens, they’ve gone all-in on protecting the worst of the worst—drug traffickers, sex offenders, murderers, and now, even foreign-backed gangbangers. And while they’re busy shedding tears for MS-13 and waving in cartel thugs at the border, everyday Americans are being thrown to the wolves.

But now we’ve reached a whole new level of disturbing. A new report from Fox News has dropped—and every single American should be talking about it. This isn’t a border security issue anymore. This is now a national security issue that involves deeply dangerous and deadly foreign interference. And at the center of it is Venezuela’s evil dictator Nicolás Maduro and the violent criminal gang known as Tren de Aragua.

According to Fox’s exclusive report, the FBI has uncovered a plot that includes Venezuelan officials helping gang members sneak into the US—and not just to commit random crimes, but to carry out Maduro’s sinister agenda. According to the report, these gangbangers are being used like pawns in a proxy war and were sent here to intimidate and possibly kill critics of the regime right here on US soil.

And what did the Biden regime do about it while they were in power? Nothing. Or maybe worse than nothing. They opened the floodgates at the southern border and rolled out the red carpet for these violent thugs. No vetting, no questions—just a welcome mat and a pat on the back as these gangbangers illegally flooded in.

Whether they were complicit or just blindly obsessed with social justice, the result is the same: Biden and the Dems helped Maduro destabilize the United States—and now President Trump is left to clean up the mess.

Keep reading

Katie Hobbs’ Arizona Agriculture Employee ARRESTED for Alleged Human Smuggling of Illegal Aliens

In yet another stunning failure of leadership from Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a now-former employee of the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) has been arrested at the southern border for alleged human smuggling of illegal aliens — a scandal that now threatens to sink Hobbs’ controversial nominee to lead the agency.

Joshua Castro, who served as a produce inspector for the AZDA, is facing both felony and misdemeanor federal charges after Border Patrol agents caught him allegedly transporting illegal aliens across the U.S. border earlier this month, KOLD reported.

According to a federal complaint filed by the U.S. District Attorney of Arizona, Castro was first spotted on April 9 speeding away from a known smuggling route near Nogales.

Border agents later caught up to him after witnessing the same vehicle ferrying two illegal aliens — Mexican nationals who admitted to paying between $7,600 and $12,000 each to be smuggled into the United States.

According to the news outlet, Castro was wearing his state-issued uniform during the incident, despite being off-duty.

Keep reading

Zelensky demands ‘at least’ Israel-style support from US

Kiev expects Washington to provide long-term security assistance modeled on the US relationship with Israel, Vladimir Zelensky has said, after Ukraine’s European backers reportedly rejected several points of US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan.

Washington presented its draft deal to end the hostilities between Kiev and Moscow during talks in Paris last week. At a follow-up meeting in London on Wednesday – which was downgraded at the last minute after Zelensky publicly rejected key US suggestions – Ukrainian officials and their NATO European counterparts reportedly put forward a counterproposal.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, Zelensky insisted that any future peace deal with Moscow must be backed by sustained US military, financial, and political support.

“Discussions in London have focused on security guarantees from the United States. We hope them to be at least as robust as those provided to Israel. Additionally, we anticipate support from our European partners and are actively developing the infrastructure necessary for these guarantees,” Zelensky said.

Keep reading