Tag: illegal immigration

Judge Who Helped Illegal Migrant Escape ICE Resigns

A Wisconsin judge who helped an illegal alien escape from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced she would be resigning from her position in response to “unprecedented federal legal proceedings” brought against her.

Matt Smith, the political director with WISN 12 News, shared a letter addressed to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) from Milwaukee Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on X. In her letter, Dugan expressed that the citizens of Wisconsin “deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31.”

“As you know, I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded but which present immense and complex challenges that threaten the independence of our judiciary,” Dugan said. “I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary. However, the Wisconsin citizens that I cherish deserve to start the year with a judge on the bench in Milwaukee County Branch 31 rather than have the fate of that Court rest in a partisan fight in the state legislature.”

Dugan continued on to state that it was “with a heavy heart” that she was submitting “this letter of resignation.”

“My faith in God and in our legal system leads me to trust that in the long run justice will be served for our independent judiciary and for me,” Dugan added.

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500 Illegal Immigrants Arrested In Minnesota, 1,000 Immigration-Fraud Cases Investigated: DHS Official

As additional investigators surge to fraud-plagued Minnesota, federal agents have already arrested 500 illegal immigrants and probed 1,000 immigration-fraud cases during the past two months, a Homeland Security official estimated.

Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary, gave those updated figures Dec. 30 during an interview with the Charlie Kirk Show.

Fraud was substantiated in about half of the immigration-fraud investigations, she said, and many of the arrested illegal immigrants were from Somalia.

Somalis dominate the list of nearly 100 people federally charged in various schemes to defraud the government, authorities have said.

McLaughlin gave additional details in a Dec. 30 Fox News interview. She said “hundreds” of investigators were on the ground in Minnesota.

They were knocking on doors of day care centers, health care centers, and “other organizations that take taxpayer dollars,” she said.

“These suspected perpetrators are really trying to cover their tracks,” McLaughlin said. She accused the suspects of “trying to whitewash” their operations to appear to be “legitimate” businesses, but they are shams, McLaughlin said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ramped up its operations in Minnesota in recent months, well before a media firestorm erupted over widespread Somali childcare fraud.

YouTuber Nick Shirley gained nearly 132 million views after he posted a Dec. 26 video saying he uncovered over $110 million in alleged fraud in a single day.

The video shows Shirley visiting day care centers that appeared to have no children present, yet these sites had received large payments from a federal childcare program run through the state of Minnesota.

Federal officials have since cut off funding to that program in Minnesota, and are demanding more solid documentation from day care providers nationwide.

ICE has frequently encountered resistance and protesters in Minnesota, which is considered a “sanctuary” state that shields illegal immigrants.

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YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP: Portland Rolls Out PAID “Immigration Leave” — City Workers Get 40 Hours Off for Deportation Hearings While Taxpayers Foot the Bill, No Questions Asked

The City of Portland has officially rolled out a new taxpayer-funded benefit: paid “Immigration, Naturalization, and Citizenship Leave” Human Resources Administrative Rule (HRAR) 6.15.

City officials have now committed public funds to cover paid leave for immigration court proceedings—including deportation hearings while blocking basic oversight, all while the city is facing a $66 million shortfall.

As of January 1, 2026, city workers in Portland, Oregon, can now clock out for up to 40 hours a year — without losing pay or benefits — to deal with immigration-related legal matters for themselves or for family members.

Eligible employees may use this leave for activities such as:

  • Obtaining legal support or meeting with immigration or criminal defense attorneys
  • Attending interviews or tests related to naturalization or citizenship
  • Appearing at state or federal criminal court proceedings
  • Deportation hearings
  • Matters involving “unlawful detention” related to immigration status.

For the first 40 hours each year, this leave is paid and coded in the payroll system as IMLV, with the employee remaining on regular payroll the entire time.

The policy does not stop with the employee.

HRAR 6.15 explicitly allows this paid leave to be used to support:

  • A spouse
  • A child
  • A parent
  • A sibling
  • Or anyone with a “close association” equivalent to family.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the policy is its strict privacy mandate.

Under HRAR 6.15, supervisors and managers are prohibited from asking about or collecting information related to:

  • An employee’s immigration status
  • Citizenship status
  • Country of birth

Employees are also instructed not to provide such information to the city, except where strictly required by state or federal law

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ICE Director Says Sanctuary Cities Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Crisis

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Toddy Lyons asserted that Minnesota’s so-called sanctuary state laws are in part to blame for the rampant fraud being exposed in the state. He argued that those laws, ensure that fraudsters, as well as illegal immigrants, have safe havens to abuse the American taxpayers.

“There’s always a tie when it comes to sanctuary jurisdictions, where you can hide in plain sight. You see a lot of these fraudsters use a lot of sanctuary rules and sanctuary protections to enact in criminal fraud just like this,” Lyons said.

We’ve been on the ground for so long looking into these states that are conducting these type of material fraud, and when Homeland Security Investigations goes into these businesses, there is criminal activity when it comes to labor trafficking, child trafficking, human exploitation and that’s what we’re looking at up there in Minnesota. And you’ll always come back to these sanctuary jurisdictions where you’ll find them hiding in plain sight and using those sanctuary protections to employ not only illegal aliens, but to conduct criminal fraud just like you’re seeing right now.

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It’s Official: Tim Walz’s 20-Week PAID Leave Program Now in Effect — Open to Illegals and Non-Citizens

In a move that’s sure to infuriate hardworking American taxpayers, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s radical socialist agenda has kicked into high gear today with the rollout of his so-called “Paid Family and Medical Leave” program.

Under the new law signed by Walz, employees in Minnesota will be eligible for up to 12 weeks of medical leave and 12 weeks of family leave — up to 20 weeks total per year — with partial wage replacement paid out of a state-mandated payroll tax on employers and employees.

But the detail sparking the most outrage isn’t just the length of the leave—it’s who is eligible to collect the check.

If a worker meets the minimum earning threshold of approximately $3,900 in the past year and has paid into the system through payroll taxes, they are eligible to apply for state-funded wage replacement.

No Social Security number? No problem! No proof of citizenship? Who cares!  Walz and his leftist cronies have made sure that anyone, including those who snuck across our southern border, can now access taxpayer-backed paid leave benefits to bond with a new child or recover from an illness for nearly five months of the year.

How It Works

  • The Tax: The program is funded by a new 0.88% payroll tax, split between employers and employees.
  • The Benefit: Workers can take up to 12 weeks for serious medical conditions and 12 weeks for family leave (bonding, caring for a sick relative, etc.), capped at a combined 20 weeks per year.
  • The Payout: Benefits function on a progressive scale, with lower-income workers receiving up to 90% of their weekly wages.

Walz’s rollout comes amid severe criticism of his administration’s oversight of public benefits.

Minnesota was recently thrust into the national spotlight after federal prosecutors exposed over $8 billion in welfare and aid fraud tied to multiple schemes — including cases involving Somali-linked entities — under Walz’s watch.

The fraud centered on a non-profit called Feeding Our Future, which sponsored hundreds of meal sites that claimed to be feeding thousands of children a day during the COVID-19 pandemic. In reality, most of these meals were never served.

Federal authorities have recently surged resources into Minnesota to investigate allegations of similar fraud schemes involving Medicaid, autism services, and daycare centers, again involving networks within the Somali community.

Minnesota’s paid leave scam is just the latest in a long line of Democrat disasters.

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INSANITY: Newsom’s California Delays Revoking 17,000 Commercial Driver’s Licenses Until March Following “Dangerous Foreign Drivers” Legal Challenge

California Governor Gavin Newsom has backed down on federal enforcement of commercial driver’s license revocations, announcing a delay in the cancellation of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued to immigrant drivers — now postponed until March 6, 2026.

The move comes only after immigrant advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit and secured a temporary reprieve against the state’s efforts to comply with federal safety and immigration rules.

The Gateway Pundit reported in November that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had confessed to illegally handing out 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers who have no business operating massive semitrucks or school buses on American roads.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted California for “illegally issuing 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses” to individuals whose credentials did not meet federal requirements, even threatening to withhold up to $160 million in federal highway funds if the state refused to act.

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”

Each of the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders has been issued notice that their license will expire within 60 days, as it no longer meets federal requirements.

FMCSA is now requiring the California DMV to hand over a full audit of all non-domiciled CDLs to verify that every unlawfully issued license is revoked and that the state corrects the systemic failures that allowed this fraud to occur.

Federal auditors found that over one in four foreign driver records sampled in California failed to comply with federal law, including CDLs that extended beyond the expiration of a foreign worker’s visa, a blatant violation of federal safety regulations.

Now, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) confirmed that the previously scheduled cancellation, originally set to begin in early January, will now be deferred while legal challenges play out in court.

This stunning reversal follows a wave of legal filings by organizations such as the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, who rushed to court arguing that the state’s actions threatened the livelihoods of thousands of “hard-working” immigrant truck drivers and bus operators.

Their lawsuit claimed that the DMV’s enforcement actions were unlawful and violated due process, alleging that drivers were not financially or legally equipped to respond to abrupt cancellation notices.

Newsom’s announcement provides additional breathing room for the state, which had been under immense pressure from the Trump Administration — and the U.S. Department of Transportation — to clean up a disastrous licensing program that federal auditors found had issued CDLs beyond the lawful terms of the drivers’ immigration status.

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Court orders Kentucky to release records in driver’s license fraud investigation

A court ruled the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet violated the state’s open records laws by withholding documents tied to an investigation into immigrants illegally obtaining Kentucky driver’s licenses in Louisville, ordering more than 2,300 records released to WDRB.

The ruling marks a major development in WDRB’s ongoing investigation into claims that non-citizens were able to buy Kentucky driver’s licenses under the table, often without proper documentation, Homeland Security screening or required driving tests.

For former licensing clerk Melissa Moorman, the court order brings both validation and frustration.

“I would just like this to be resolved and over so this dark cloud can be removed from my head,” Moorman said.

Moorman said she reported what she believed was widespread fraud at the Nia Center driver’s license branch in west Louisville, only to lose her job after sounding the alarm. She worked as a clerk at the branch through Quantum Solutions, a staffing service contracted by the commonwealth to supplement personnel at regional offices.

She said she was training for a supervisor position, which would have made her a state employee.

“It really did destroy my life,” she said.

Moorman told investigators and WDRB fraudulent documents were accepted, required screenings — including the drivers’ tests — were bypassed, and customers paid about $200 in cash per license under the table.

“There were documents that were being provided that weren’t legit,” Moorman said. “There were employees that were using my login as part of this scam.”

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Trump Administration SUES Virginia for Giving Illegal Aliens In-State Tuition While American Taxpayers Foot the Bill

The Trump administration has launched a sweeping federal lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia, accusing state leaders of openly defying federal immigration law by granting illegal aliens discounted in-state college tuition while forcing American citizens from other states to pay dramatically higher rates.

In a civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the Department of Justice argues that Virginia’s tuition scheme blatantly violates federal law and must be permanently shut down.

The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to block the enforcement of Virginia statutes that classify illegal aliens as state “residents” for tuition and financial aid purposes.

At the center of the case is a law passed in 2021 and effective since 2022, which allows illegal alien students who meet specific residency and high school graduation criteria in Virginia to pay in-state tuition regardless of their immigration status. They can also qualify for state financial aid.

Meanwhile, American citizens from neighboring states—or even military families temporarily stationed elsewhere—are forced to pay out-of-state tuition rates that can be tens of thousands of dollars higher.

The DOJ complaint states plainly that Virginia’s policy gives preferential treatment to illegal aliens over U.S. citizens, calling the practice “squarely prohibited and preempted by federal law.”

“In direct conflict with federal law, Virginia law permits an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States to qualify for reduced in-state rates and state-administered financial assistance based on residence within the state but does not make United States citizens eligible for such benefits without regard to whether the United States citizens are Virginia residents,” the lawsuit reads.

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‘Policies are totally unclear’: Judge berates Trump admin over its sharing of Medicaid data with ICE, but allows certain information to be given

The Trump administration may soon share certain Medicaid information about suspected undocumented immigrants with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal judge ruled.

In a 7-page order issued on Monday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria found that sharing “citizenship and immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid ID” is “clearly authorized by law” and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sufficiently explained to the court why they made the “abrupt departure from their past policies of not sharing or using Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes.”

The agency had reasoned that President Donald Trump issued multiple executive orders demanding that agencies, among other things, carry out immigration laws and “secure our borders.”

Chhabria’s opinion is a victory for the administration to that end. Beginning on Jan. 6, DHS and HHS may share the data with ICE about suspected undocumented immigrants who receive public health insurance, opening up another avenue for immigration law enforcement officers to track down those they believe are here illegally. However, what data they can give is limited.

Chhabria, a Barack Obama appointee, was responding to a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta on behalf of his state and 21 others, which sought to stop the sharing of additional information, which Chhabria granted.

Bonta and the other states filed a lawsuit on July 1, targeting HHS’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handing over of “a trove of individuals’ protected health data” to other federal agencies, including DHS, “without their consent.” Chhabria proceeded to bar the administration from sharing Medicaid data “obtained from the plaintiff states for immigration enforcement purpose” while the case played out and the agencies explained their actions.

The judge determined the Trump administration may not share information beyond “basic biographical, location, and contact” because the federal government’s “new policies are totally unclear about what that information would be, why it would be needed for immigration enforcement purposes, and what the risks of sharing it with DHS would be.”

Such reasoning would rule out the government acting “arbitrarily” in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the statute governing federal agencies’ behavior. And so while Chhabria opined in the recent order that DHS and HHS adequately explained their actions, allowing for the sharing of certain data, he also found that significant questions remain.

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Illegal Aliens Busted for $14 Million Gift Card Fraud

Another day, another exposé of illegal alien crime. It turns out the three men who committed $14 million gift card fraud in Texas were illegal aliens.

Kristians Petrovskis, Romunds Cubrevics, and Nurmunds Ulevicus from Latvia are accused of the fraud, per a news release last week from the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (TFCIC). But KCWX2 shed more light on the crime by stating that all three men entered America illegally and for the express purpose of committing criminal activities.

Petrovskis, Cubrevics, and Ulevicus are accused of gift card cloning, according to TFCIC, and at the time of their arrest had over 400 gift cards in their possession. Authorities say the illegals were stealing multiple cards a day from multiple stores, and have been doing so for most of this year. This was an organized and highly successful racket.

The Biden administration made it extremely easy for foreigners with ill intention to enter the United States. In fact, Democrats practically invited criminals to come to our country, and they are still trying to protect those criminals from being arrested by federal immigration officers. The Biden-Harris administration allowed at least 18,000 known or suspected terrorists into the United States, on top of many more murderers, rapists, thieves, drug traffickers, and other criminals.

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