When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. 

But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated in math. 

According to federal law, the H-1B program gives visas to foreigners coming to perform services "in a specialty occupation." A specialty occupation is defined as requiring "theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge," plus higher education requirements. 

US 'REPORT CARD' SHOWS STUDENTS HAVE FALLEN BEHIND IN READING, BARELY BUDGED IN MATH: ‘THE NEWS IS NOT GOOD’

The program is annually capped at 65,000 regular H-1B visas, with another 20,000 for those foreigners who have earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities. 

Given Musk’s vehement support of the program, it is no surprise that a federal report states that in 2023, "computer-related occupations were the largest major occupational area, accounting for 65% of all beneficiaries [of the program]." In comparison, less than 1% of H-1B visas were given to foreigners in the social sciences. 

While much of the coverage of the H-1B debate focuses on the foreign-versus-American-worker angle, the real issue regarding H-1Bs is that the U.S. is failing to produce domestic workers with the requisite math skills required by Musk’s SpaceX and other high-tech companies. 

In 2024, a shocking 72% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam failed to score at the proficient level -- a full 6% increase over the 66% of eighth graders failing to achieve proficiency in 2019.

Why are American students doing so badly in math? The answer lies in the ineffective math instruction they are receiving. 

In the early 2010s, most states adopted the Common Core national education standards, which were touted as a cure for America’s math woes. Unfortunately, Common Core turned out to be bad medicine. 

Common Core confused many students by emphasizing indirect ways to arrive at the right answer instead of just learning straightforward mathematical operations. 

For example, in multiplying numbers, children are often asked to draw pictures instead of simply memorizing the multiplication tables. 

Michael Malione, a professional math tutor in California, said that his students were instructed by their public schools to draw and shade different areas of rectangles when multiplying fractions, rather than simply multiplying the numerators and multiplying the denominators to get the correct answer. Requiring students to learn math this way is both inefficient and ineffective. 

"We’re going to draw a picture every time we’re given 10 problems with fractional multiplication, when you could do them in your head?" Malione asks. "That’s insane." 

Malione sees students "who are completely lost and they’re not getting the step-by-step guidance early on." 

Given Malione’s experience, it is unsurprising that a federally funded study found that Common Core had significant negative effects on the math achievement of eighth graders. 

College math professors are shocked at students’ poor math skills. 

One college math instructor in the Silicon Valley lamented that the lack of algebra knowledge is "the number one deficiency and its chronic." He said, "we’re not producing the kinds of students and graduates that Silicon Valley needs."

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Sugi Sorensen, a top engineer at famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory who also tutors students in math, urged a return to proven traditional math practices, which includes mastering the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through "the memorization of math facts and procedures" so that students "can perform computations quickly, accurately, and effortlessly." 

Further, math topics should be sequential, "where new concepts are built upon previously learned ones in a structured, hierarchical manner," Sorensen said. 

Finally, Sorensen recommends that math operations such as long division "should be explicitly taught and practiced until mastery," with an emphasis on accuracy. 

America has nearly 50 million K-12 students. If schools use proven math instructional methods instead of failed progressive techniques, there would be less need for H-1B visas because there would be more than enough young Americans with the skills companies need. The tech titans at Trump's inauguration should lean on schools to do just that. It is time to make math great again. 

Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of the PRI book The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools. 

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Chicago political leaders are encouraging local residents' efforts to defy the federal government as it attempts to carry out mass deportations in the city, vowing to "hold the line and push back every single time."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has faced pushback from local groups aiding illegal immigrants as its agents are sweeping the city as part of a nation-wide illegal immigration crackdown, the Chicago Tribune reported. Windy City non-profits have launched Facebook groups, apps and have put up flyers across the city with instructions on how to avoid being detained by ICE. Left-wing political leaders are cheering the acts of resistance, as ICE is estimated to have detained some 100 migrants so far.

"The actions coming from the White House are rooted in xenophobic, nativist and racist lies. We must hold the line and push back every single time — as we’ve done before," Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García said at an event at Malcolm X College on Wednesday. "People are exercising their rights."

TRUMP'S BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN UNVEILS 'GAME-CHANGING' MIGRANT NUMBERS UNDER NEW ADMIN

Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan has blasted Chicago and other sanctuary cities, claiming that they are obstructing the administration’s efforts to deport criminal illegal migrants from the country.

"Sanctuary cities are making it very difficult to arrest criminals. For instance, Chicago, very well-educated, they’ve been educated (on) how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE. And I’ve seen many pamphlets from many of the (nongovernmental organizations). … They call it ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it how to escape arrest. There’s a warrant for your arrest — they tell you how to hide from ICE," Homan said in a CNN interview.

Illinois State Rep. Delia Ramirez, however, considers those resisting Trump’s mass deportation program to be "courageous."

"We have shown them that we are courageous. We have shown them that we are organized. And we have shown them that they will not break us," she said.

CHICAGO HORROR: 2 MIGRANTS CHARGED WITH MURDER AS HOMAN LEADS ICE RAIDS

Illinois is home to 300,000 of the 11 million total illegal immigrants in the U.S. as of 2022, according to Pew Research Data. ICE claims it has made 710 immigration arrests per day from January 23 through January 27. 

Two illegal migrants were charged in the murder of a 63-year-old man whose body was found tied up at his Chicago home on Sunday, the same day that Homan led an immigration enforcement operation in the city. 

President Donald Trump's administration has reached a deal to grant the Texas National Guard new authority to make immigration arrests this weekend.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott referenced the deal on social media, saying it would "boost manpower for border security." Under the agreement, Texas National Guard troops would be able to arrest illegal immigrants so long as there is a U.S. immigration officer or Border Patrol agent present. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Abbott said the deal was "effective immediately" as of Sunday night.

The deal is only the latest front in Trump's nationwide blitz against illegal immigration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other border security groups have leaned into their deportation efforts since Trump gained office.

TRUMP FOE LETITIA JAMES SLAMMED FOR POST-NYC ICE RAID COMMENTS: ‘GET ON THE SAME PAGE’

Trump's 2024 campaign promised to curb illegal immigration that flourished under the Biden administration. The 47th President promised to deport migrants, including those who had long rap sheets or ties to gangs or terrorist organizations.

On the first day of his second term, Trump issued ten executive orders aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration law and policy. Less than a week back in the Oval Office, Trump touted that he is keeping his promises.

"Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency at our southern border. I sent active duty troops on the border to help repel the invasion. Tom Homan is leading the charge. You know that. We like Tom Homan. Doing a great job," Trump said at a recent rally.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

"We immediately halted all illegal entry and began sending every border trespasser and violator back to the places from which they came. I signed an order that will designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. It's a big deal, it's a big deal. Biden didn't want to do that," he added. "Biden didn't know he was alive. He didn't want to do it."

Federal officials deported some 7,300 illegal immigrants in the opening week of Trump's administration alone.

Fox News' Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report

Demonstrators in Arizona took to the streets to protest against President Donald Trump's mass deportation plan on Sunday, and police say officers were assaulted amid the demonstration.

Glendale Police confirmed to Fox News Digital that there was a large group of people who gathered in protest of federal immigration policies.

A police spokesperson said a police vehicle was stolen by one protester but no arrest has been made.

The demonstrator "jumped into one of our patrol vehicles and drove it a short distance before it was quickly recovered," the spokesperson said, adding that the suspect was unknown at that time.

LA FREEWAY BLOCKED BY ANTI-DEPORTATION PROTESTERS IN RESPONSE TO CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Traffic was still shut down in all directions in the area of the protest as of early Monday morning. Glendale and Phoenix Police were on the scene monitoring the situation, which Glendale Police said had begun "to fizzle out due to the excellent work conducted by Glendale and Phoenix Police Officers on scene."

Officers deployed chemical agents to disperse the "unruly and defiant crowd," the Glendale Police spokesperson said.

Several officers were assaulted, police vehicles were damaged and surrounding businesses and personal property were damaged, the spokesperson said.

Investigators will be looking into possible crimes at the protest and will work towards identifying suspects.

Anti-deportation protests were held over the weekend in multiple other cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta.

This comes amid the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts — with officials admitting that higher deportation numbers is the goal rather than the removal of violent migrants in the country illegally.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were directed by Trump officials to aggressively increase the number of people they arrest from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500 because the president had been disappointed with the deportation numbers, The Washington Post reported last week.

The president also reversed a directive under the Biden administration that had told immigration officials not to make arrests in sensitive areas like schools and churches.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that the administration is seeking the removal of all immigrants in the country illegally — not just those who committed criminal offenses — and falsely alleged that all migrants accused of being in the U.S. illegally are "criminals."

'DEPORTATION FLIGHTS HAVE BEGUN' AS TRUMP SENDS 'STRONG AND CLEAR MESSAGE,' WHITE HOUSE SAYS

"I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that's exactly what they are," she said at a press briefing, declining to say if all the migrants in the U.S. illegally had criminal records.

People who cross the border illegally have committed a crime, but simply being in the U.S. illegally is a civil violation, not a criminal one. Someone could be in the country illegally without breaking laws to enter, such as overstaying a Visa.

Trump said in his inauguration speech last month that his administration would quickly deport "millions and millions" of migrants with criminal records, although the number of migrants with criminal records who are in the country without authorization is significantly less than those millions, according to Axios.

Studies also show that both legal and illegal migrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens.

Newly elected Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg has previously called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished and for the defunding of police.

"Defund the police not USPS," Hogg, who first entered the national spotlight after surviving the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, said in an X post on Aug. 15, 2020.

"Abolish ICE," Hogg said in a different post two weeks earlier.

DAVID HOGG SAYS HE RECEIVED 'AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF VITRIOL' FOR ASKING ABOUT DEM OUTREACH TO YOUNG MEN

The posts, which were made more than two years after Hogg survived the Florida school shooting, came as he became increasingly involved in political activism, most notably by his staunch advocacy for stricter gun laws.

Hogg has also made controversial posts on other topics, including a January 2021 call to declare the NRA a "terrorist organization."

"The NRA needs to be designated a terrorist organization for the role their supporters played in staging an insurrectionist coup," Hogg said in the post.

Hogg also made posts about climate change and incorrectly predicted the outcome of the 2024 election.

"Unlike Covid there is no vaccine for climate change once we start feeling the impacts we can just implement and survive. There is only one solution – prevention," Hogg said in in one post.

"If this election is a match up between Taylor Swift and Ted Nugent I think it's safe to say I've seen enough – Biden wins the 2024 election," Hogg said before former President Joe Biden made the decision to drop out of the 2024 race.

Now just 24 years old, Hogg took to social media early Sunday to celebrate his election to leadership within the DNC.

DEMOCRATS CONSIDER REBRAND AFTER TRUMP WIN, WANT TO AVOID ‘FREAK SHOW’ PARTY LABEL: REPORT

"I’ve just been elected as a Vice Chair of the DNC. I’m deeply grateful to the members for their trust and belief in me and I don’t take it lightly. Now it’s time to get to work," Hogg said in a post on X, going on to promise a "Democratic Party that is authentic, relatable, earns people's trust, and wins again."

"It’s time we stop surrendering, go on offense, and take the fight to Donald Trump and every single Republican who is gutting our rights, attacking workers, and rigging the system for the wealthy and well-connected," Hogg said.

But the elevation of Hogg to vice chair of the DNC also comes at a time of deep soul-searching for the Democratic Party, with many analysts blaming the party’s poor 2024 showing on its seemingly soft stances on crime and illegal immigration.

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Nevertheless, Hogg called on the party to "rethink the way we've been doing things" in his post on X, arguing that it is vital "to rid our party of its judgmental attitudes, and do the work to win back every group we lost this year, from the working class to young people."

The DNC did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a worksite raid at a car wash in Philadelphia that led to the arrest of seven illegal immigrants, the agency announced. 

ICE confirmed they conducted a worksite enforcement operation on Jan. 28 at Complete Autowash in Philadelphia based on allegations that employees were being subjected to labor exploitation.

The agency said that ICE agents encountered, interviewed and arrested seven illegal aliens for immigration violations, who were later detained pending removal.

When asked about the worksite raid, one senior ICE official's reaction to the operation was "Wowsers," according to Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin. 

ICE CRACKDOWN SEES 7,400 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS ARRESTED IN 9 DAYS

Melugin noted that worksite operations like this were not happening under the Biden administration.

President Donald Trump's Border Czar Tom Homan has repeatedly said that if someone is in the U.S. illegally, "they're on the table," regardless of if they have criminal convictions. 

Of those arrested, ICE confirmed that six were from Mexico and one was from the Dominican Republic.

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

"The successful execution of this worksite enforcement operation underscores our determined commitment to national security and public safety," Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia acting Field Office Director Brian McShane said in a statement.

"We were able to apprehend individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States. These operations highlight the dedication and diligence of our officers and agents in protecting our communities from potential threats by enforcing immigration laws in accordance with U.S. laws and Department of Homeland Security policies."

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

ICE has arrested more than 7,400 people in nine days across several states amid its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration since the new Trump administration came into office. 

ICE officers have been seen carrying out raids of homes, work sites, and other establishments, while deportations have also ramped up, with the Trump administration vowing to send the most violent migrants to Guantánamo Bay.

According to a compilation of daily totals of arrests, as of Jan. 31, ICE has so far arrested 7,412 people who the agency says are in the country illegally. The agency says that nearly 6,000 ICE detainers have been placed on individuals.

Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report. 

Federal agents arrested another suspected Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang member in Aurora, Colorado, Saturday morning. 

An illegal immigrant from Venezuela was charged locally with property damage and domestic violence, the Denver office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said. 

The arrest was carried out by ICE Denver and the Denver office for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). 

The suspect will remain in ICE custody "pending a hearing before an immigration judge," ICE Denver wrote on X. The post did not further identify the suspect.

TREN DE ARAGUA MEMBER WANTED FOR AURORA, COLORADO, APARTMENT TAKEOVER BUSTED IN ICE RAID IN NYC 

The Trump administration said Friday it was in talks with El Salvador to revive an agreement that could allow the United States to send non-Salvadoran migrants to the Central American country.

This time, though, the government would also aim to send members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to Salvadoran prisons, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the State Department’s special envoy for Latin America, said in a call with media outlets.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in El Salvador as part of President Nayib Bukele's gang crackdown. Despite international human rights concerns, El Salvador has seen a sharp drop in violence in the country once plagued by the warring Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs.

Meanwhile, six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela in recent months were freed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro after he met Friday with a Trump administration official tasked with urging the authoritarian leader to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States. President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, announced the release of the six men on social media. 

Grenell’s hours-long trip to Venezuela, according to the White House, was focused on Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelans back to their home country. 

Trump wrote Saturday on his social media site Truth Social that he was happy to have the Americans back home.

'WE STOPPED THAT': NOEM CANCELS BIDEN ADMIN'S 11TH HOUR DEPORTATION SHIELD FOR VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS

"And very important to note, that Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua. Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back," he wrote. "We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back."

ICE has been conducting operations across the United States prioritizing criminal illegal immigrants as part of Trump's campaign pledge. 

On Friday, ICE Denver announced that its officers arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico charged with assault and kidnapping. 

The suspect was identified as 48-year-old Juan Benitez-Ortega, who unlawfully entered the United States in November 1998 "at an unknown location." Benitez-Ortega was taken into custody on Thursday in Adams County, Colorado. 

"Officials in Adams County, charged Benitez with felony assault, kidnapping or false imprisonment on Dec. 28. Benitez also has a prior conviction for driving while ability impaired," ICE Denver said. "ICE officers issued Ramirez an intent to reinstate a prior order of removal, and he will remain in ICE custody until his removal from the U.S." 

As of Friday, ICE reported 864 arrests and 621 immigration retainers lodged across the country. 

A Latino pastor said churches are fearful of mass deportations at services as President Donald Trump's administration rapidly cracks down on illegal immigration.

"We're called as pastors to serve all communities," Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero told Fox News Digital. "So we don't ask, as pastors, whether people are immigrants and what their status is. We don't have the bandwidth, and we're not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. We're not police. But we're deeply concerned about how these policies are going to affect children in our Sunday schools and for families that are in our worship service."

Salguero is pastor of The Gathering Place in Orlando, Florida, and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, (NaLEC), which represents thousands of Latino evangelical churches and faith leaders across the nation. 

Since returning to office, President Trump has rapidly begun to fulfill his campaign promise to curb the illegal immigration crisis and deport violent criminal migrants, issuing several executive orders aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration law and policy.

FLASHBACK: TOP DEMOCRATS TOUT DEPORTATIONS, TOUGH IMMIGRATION POLICIES

Thousands of violent criminals have been detained by ICE, according to the White House, with 962 criminal illegal immigrant arrests recorded on Wednesday alone.

Trump has authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to roll back guidelines that restricted ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement at "sensitive" locations, like schools, churches and hospitals.

"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest," the DHS said in a statement on January 21 announcing the changes. "The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."

Salguero's group, NaLEC, has come out against these policy changes, calling them "harmful" and an attack on religious liberty.

The church coalition is supportive of Trump's actions to deport violent criminals, but also has concerns about other immigrants being targeted.

"We want to make sure that in this kind of enforcement, there's not a chill sent up the spine of Latino evangelical churches and communities for those people who are not violent criminals, but are people who are starting small businesses, who are going to school," Salguero told Fox News Digital. 

TRUMP OUTPERFORMING 2020 SUPPORT AMONG HISPANICS, WHO PREFER HIM ON IMMIGRATION, POLL SHOWS

"We're looking for a sober approach that deals to violent criminals, secures the border, but finds a way to integrate the majority of immigrants who are trying to do good to this country," he continued.

Fears over Trump's immigration policies had caused attendance and church participation to decline, according to Salguero.

"They said, 'We can't go to church. We don't feel safe. We're not sure how this is going to work out,'" he told Fox News Digital of comments he'd heard.

The faith leader acknowledged that ICE and other immigration officials have a right to enter their worship spaces to enforce the law and should be treated respectfully. His group is training spokespersons for each church who can respond in a calm way if immigration officers visit their church. They are also giving parishioners information about their rights.

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He believes that Latino pastors have a responsibility to both follow the nation's laws and keep their biblical commitment to serving all people.

"For us, this is not a partisan issue. This is a pastoral issue. Christ has called us to walk alongside these families, to love them," he said.

Salguero is a registered independent, but emphasized that Latino evangelicals are not a "monolith" and share a variety of opinions on Trump's immigration plans.

He said NaLEC has spent the past two decades calling on Congress for "common sense, bipartisan immigration reform."

In a press release, NaLEC asked the Trump administration to "reconsider these harmful policies while continuing to work with Congress toward comprehensive immigration reform that is grounded in justice, compassion, and respect for the dignity of all people, regardless of their immigration status." 

At Friday's press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, referencing a New York Times poll showing "83%" of Americans supported deportations of violent criminal illegal immigrants, and "97%" of the deportations carried out by the Trump administration so far had deportation orders from the previous administration, according to ICE. 

The Department of Homeland Security and White House did not return a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

This summer, our beleaguered big screens will welcome the return of America’s most famous illegal alien: Superman. This much needed reboot comes as President Trump, who earned my vocal support, is rebooting our country’s immigration policy and culture more broadly. 

The changing story of our first superhero offers a mythological mirror on the challenges we’re confronting as a nation, from without and within. What should it mean to be and become an American? How do we see ourselves, as heroic or villainous? And how might we forge a new way forward? I have a few ideas plucked straight from the political forbidden zone. 

Post-Truth, Social Justice, and the Anti-American Way 

Baby Clark Kent crash-landed in America during our last major wave of immigration in the 1920s and 30s. And like so many new Americans, including my own Italian great-grandparents, he embraced his new home with gusto, coming to our defense against the Nazis and then the Communists. His motto reflects our highest values: Truth, Justice, and the American Way… at least it used to. 

U.S IMMIGRATION WEBSITE STOPS ACCEPTING APPLICANTS FOR BIDEN PROGRAM IN TRUMP CRACKDOWN

The last part of our famous Kryptonian-American’s super-slogan, "the American Way," fell out of favor in recent decades with the rise of anti-heroism and so-called "critical social justice." Academia, entertainment, and the news media made it their full-time jobs for decades to portray America and our history as the world’s greatest supervillain.

Every aspect of American culture has been under siege. Our kids are now taught that our real birth as a nation wasn’t 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, but 1619 with the arrival of the first slaves in an effort to portray a previously universal, and despicable, practice as uniquely American. So much for "truth".

Having defeated the Nazis and the Soviets in wars both hot and cold, most on the left and even some on the right now see the US as a too-often belligerent force on the world stage. Even Superman himself, in Frank Miller’s bold and bleak 1986 graphic novels, was reduced to a cynical super-weapon of the military industrial complex, destined for defeat by the Dark Knight. Justice died in darkness too. 

Our world-leading economic growth is decried as a scourge on the planet, producing a "climate crisis" that threatens to extinguish all mankind. Make that personkind, since the basic definitions of man and woman have come under assault, and with them, our kids mental health and future fertility much to the convenient satisfaction of those same climate alarmists. 

And finally, pulling a page from the 2000 Superman comics, we’re told that Donald Trump is our real life Lex Luthor, a corrupt billionaire fascist supervillain turned-president. 

It should come as no surprise that poll after poll has found that patriotism, especially among young Americans, has completely collapsed. Axios found that only 18% of 18-34-year-olds are "extremely proud" to be American. That’s down from 85% in 2013 before the woke reign of terror ramped up. A 67% drop! That same timeframe has also seen a complete collapse in perceived race relations in America, for similar, and similarly fraudulent reasons.

One of the ironies of our modern era is that as our elite has poisoned our patriotism at home, we’ve also seen more people flood INTO this country from abroad than ever before in our history! While blue-haired banshees on TikTok and silly "studies" professors bash America at every turn, millions of poor and huddled masses, (mostly) yearning to be free, have flooded into our alleged hell-hole. It’s a stark reminder that while we’re building a wall to keep people out, actually hellish countries wrecked by communism and its various "progressive" cousins have historically had to build walls to keep their own people IN.

And so, here we are as Americans, just like Superman at the start of his newest big screen trailer: face-down in the snow, beaten, and bloodied.

A Dark Night for America

"Make America Great Again" resonates with voters because so many Americans believe that our country is no longer great. Too many think we never were. Let’s be clear: our country DOES face a flood of very real problems, each one is impacted by immigration, though the outcomes are subject to good-faith disagreement. 

Last fall, I quixotically released a Hamilton-style musical, Battle of the Borders, that brought all of these issues on both sides and more to life with the production value of a summer superhero blockbuster. In working through the details of the immigration debate, I found my own views shifting, though I remain more pro-immigration than many of my fellow Trumpian travelers. 

Millions of working-age men have left the labor force even as some measures suggest that a majority of new jobs have gone to immigrants. Yet many (maybe most) economists agree that immigration is a net contributor to growth and a powerful tool for countering inflation. 

Crime is up across the country, yet some statistics suggest that immigrants, including illegals, commit less crime than native-born citizens. That’s cold comfort to the victims of violent illegal gang violence. And how much should anyone trust these government statistics in the first place, given recent FBI revisionism? 

Our opioid epidemic is a humanitarian disaster destroying millions of lives and flooding our streets with the desperate and homeless. But a big beautiful wall on our southern border won’t change the demand-side of the equation. Plus, our nation’s history of alcohol prohibition has lessons we shouldn’t be so quick to forget. 

Meanwhile, cities across the country have seen their schools, hospitals, and shelters pushed beyond capacity by the Biden-era wave of illegal mass migration. Remember, our last big wave of immigration, when Kal-El first arrived in Kansas, took place before the dawn of the progressive welfare state.

When even the Democrat mayor of Gotham City, Eric Adams, is warning that migrants will destroy the city, we should probably take notice. 

Our Complicated Culture Matters Most

None of the immigration-related issues we face cut as deep for the future of America as our changing culture, which as Andrew Breitbard noted is upstream of politics and policy. And this is where my friends on the right proclaiming "culture matters" need to clarify: which culture? 

Buchanan-style populists like to point to our white, Western European history as a guide for our future. But that Europe is a distant memory. A look at the beliefs of our mostly-white, politically engaged elite should give every patriot serious pause. I’m afraid the W in WASP now stands for "woke". 

Consider that it mostly wasn’t Latin American immigrants who tore down statues of Abraham Lincoln during the BLM riots in 2020 or dressed a George Washington statue up as a Hamas fighter in 2023. Those were our native-born and bred, college-indoctrinated kids who did that! While they were burning American cities after their Starbucks shifts, 55% of Latino men were busy voting to re-elect Mr. MAGA himself.

Mindset matters more than skin color or country of origin. 

Put bluntly, I’d gladly welcome two hard-working new Americans from Mexico in exchange for every one native-born America-hating gender studies graduate from Harvard. I’ll welcome ten more graduates from Guatemala’s Universidad Francisco Marroquín before considering a single censorious, terror-sympathetic Oxford Anglo. 

My point here is simple. We shouldn’t expect newcomers to assimilate into America and WANT to be American… if our native culture despises our country! The woke warriors have told us and our kids that we should hate America. Their nihilistic cries for "land back" and "reparations" might as well say: come on in and strip us for parts! We deserve it! 

What a self-defeating mantra for newcomers to embrace! If that is our "way", we won’t be a country for much longer. Luckily, that tide is finally turning, if slowly.

A New American Way on Immigration 

Most people, including President Trump, believe we need continued immigration into America. Immigration in general has historically been good for our country and still can be. But the past four years of black market open borders through willfully neglecting the law was never tenable or just. 

Biden and Harris encouraged millions of people to skip the line, come to America through the back door, and remain in the shadows with an unstable and uncertain future. And they’ve let thousands of seriously "bad hombres" in along the way. That’s a supervillain move if I’ve ever seen one, complete with Joker-style laughter.

Protecting our citizens and sovereignty is the most basic function of government. I support President Trump’s efforts to restore the rule of law at our borders. I also hope that success in that effort will lay the foundation for a more honest debate over the legal path for future American immigrants. That will involve making political compromises in an era of polarization. 

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So here’s a potential policy compromise to consider: let’s prioritize more and easier permanent legal residency and in exchange, tightly restrict full citizenship and voting rights to natural-born Americans alone, along with universal voter ID like every other major civilized nation with same day vote counts. 

While restricting the franchise to natural-born citizens may be political Kryptonite, it would help depoliticize immigration by eliminating migrants as a voting bloc up for grabs. No more Tammany hall style vote-buying by left-wingers or reactionary right-wing restrictions for fear of an imported electorate! And besides, why should any newcomer get to change the rules of the game they just joined? If you don’t like our rules, don’t come to play.

One thing is crystal clear: the immigration debate is fundamentally a debate about the future of American culture. Who are we, as a nation? Which values should we cherish, promote, and expect newcomers to assimilate in to? What is "The American Way"? We shouldn’t just drop that from our super slogan. We need it and need it well-defined. 

We don’t need to reinvent this wheel. America’s creed is the best of Western Civilization: Freedom. Individual responsibility. Religious liberty, rooted in Judeo-Christian values. Opportunity. Identity-blind equality under the law. Local authority. Voluntary association. 

This is what Truth, Justice, and the American Way means to me. This is what newcomers should be expected to embrace. And here’s hoping that, like Superman, it’s about to make a comeback.

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Venezuela "agreed to receive" illegal immigrants his administration is planning to deport.

"Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua," President Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back. We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back."

On Friday, Trump’s envoy for special missions Ric Grenell met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas to discuss his country accepting violent criminals deported from the United States.

TRUMP OFFICIAL TRAVELS TO VENEZUELA IN PUSH FOR MADURO REGIME TO TAKE BACK TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBERS

That same day, during a call with reporters, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy to Latin America, said Grenell would tell Maduro to take back all the Venezuelan criminals and Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members that have been "exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition."

Members of the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang TdA have been found across the U.S. over the last few years as illegal immigration exploded. In a video that went viral, suspected TdA members were seen taking over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, where they terrorized residents for months.

DHS SEC. NOEM ANNOUNCES END TO TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS FOR VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem joined federal immigration authorities for a series of immigration raids in New York City where she claims they encountered a TdA member trying to buy grenades.

"He had just been a part of a gun weapons exchange and was trying to buy grenades," Noem said during an appearance on "Fox & Friends." "Why would anybody in this country need to buy a grenade and go out and perpetuate violence?"

Two other suspected TdA members were charged with the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. They are accused of sexually assaulting the young girl before ultimately killing her and leaving her body under a bridge.

In addition to persuading Maduro to take back violent criminals deported from the U.S., Grenell succeeded in securing the freedom of six Americans, who joined him on his flight back to the US. The Trump administration official tweeted a photo of the men on the plane, saying that "couldn’t stop thanking" President Trump.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than 7,400 people in nine days across several states amid its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration since the new Trump administration came into office. 

ICE officers have been seen carrying out raids of homes, work sites, and other establishments, while deportations have also ramped up, with the Trump administration also vowing to send the most violent migrants to Guantánamo Bay.

According to a compilation of daily totals of arrests, as of Jan. 31, ICE has so far arrested 7,412 people who the agency says are in the country illegally. The agency says that nearly 6,000 ICE detainers have been placed on individuals.

NYC RESIDENTS PRAISE ICE RAIDS AFTER VIOLENT GANG MEMBER CAPTURED

ICE has posted nine daily arrest totals to X and has also posted details from various raids across sanctuary cities like New York City, Chicago and Boston where they have scooped up illegals accused of sex crimes against minors, rapes, guns and drug offenses, while violent gang members belonging to Tren de Aragua and MS-13 have also been taken off the streets. 

Border czar Tom Homan has said the administration is currently only targeting violent illegal aliens while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE, says federal immigration authorities are arresting the "worst of the worst" in raids. She says the streets are now safer as a result.

Many of the ICE raids have been carried out alongside other federal agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Noem joined an immigration enforcement raid in New York City Tuesday morning in which officers picked up Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, an alleged ringleader of the violent Tren de Aragua gang. Zambrano-Pacheco is the same man caught on camera in a viral video showing heavily armed men kicking down an apartment door at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, last summer.

Luis Adolfo Guerra Perez, 19, a Guatemalan citizen and MS-13 gang member, was arrested by ICE in Massachusetts last week. He was facing state gun charges and had previously been ordered to be deported before he was released by a Boston court.

ICE has published details of more than 60 cases while the White House X account has posted details of at least 20 others.

NOEM SAYS 'WORST OF THE WORST' ARRESTED IN NYC RAID TARGETING CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

However, for the vast majority of the 7,412, details on their criminal histories are not yet available.

The arrests total come as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that the "worst of the worst" criminal migrants will be temporarily housed at Guantánamo Bay detention camp and that "all options will be on the table" for military action against the cartels.

Hegseth made the announcement in an interview with "Fox and Friends" on Friday and it came on the heels of an announcement made by President Donald Trump on Wednesday that he will be instructing the Pentagon to prepare Guantánamo Bay to detain 30,000 "criminal illegal aliens."

"Today I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay," Trump said. "Most people don't even know about it."

It was later learned that Trump signed a presidential memorandum, not an executive order, on the matter.

News of the arrests has been generally well-received by locals living in these areas. 

Ramses Frías, a local Queens activist who’s voiced concerns over a crime crisis gripping his neighborhood, which is partially represented by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said the raids have also been warmly received by the community.

"Many residents, from immigrants to citizens, welcome ICE coming in and taking the criminals out of these communities," Frías, a city council candidate, told Fox News Digital. "They welcome law and order and want safe streets."

However, not everyone agreed with the raids and Mayor Brandon Johnson recently "reaffirmed" his commitment to keep Chicago a sanctuary city, as did Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is urging Colombian nationals in the U.S. illegally to return home, promising to provide loans to those who return, days after being embroiled in a diplomatic controversy with the U.S.

"I ask undocumented Colombians in the US to immediately leave their jobs in that country and return to Colombia as soon as possible," Petro said on X.

"Wealth is produced only by working people.

COLOMBIA PRESIDENT WELCOMES FIRST FLIGHTS OF DEPORTED MIGRANTS AFTER LOSING PUBLIC SPAT WITH TRUMP 

"The Department of Social Prosperity … will seek to provide productive loans to returnees who enroll in its programs," he said. "Let's build social wealth in Colombia."

Petro had initially refused Sunday to take U.S. deportation flights carrying Colombian nationals, saying the U.S. cannot "treat Colombian migrants as criminals." 

The Trump administration, in response, announced the immediate suspension of visa issuance and travel sanctions on government officials. President Donald Trump warned he would slap 25% tariffs on all goods from Colombia.

"Measures will continue until Colombia meets its obligations to accept the return of its own citizens," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. "America will not back down when it comes to defending its national security interests."

A VICTORY FOR TRUMP'S 'FAFO': HOW THE WHITE HOUSE STRONG-ARMED ONE-TIME CLOSE ALLY COLOMBIA OVER IMMIGRATION

At first, Petro retaliated with his own 25% tariffs on U.S. goods. Petro insisted he would not accept the return of migrants who were not treated with "dignity and respect" and who had arrived shackled or on military planes. 

But the White House later said Colombia's president had caved "to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay," 

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On Tuesday, two Colombian air force planes carrying deportees arrived in Bogotá. 

On Friday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed that visa processing in Bogotá had resumed.

"Our commitment to work together with Colombia to advance our mutual interests remains steadfast," she said.

Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson continued his attack on President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying anyone questioning what the U.S. would look like had the Confederacy won, should have no question at this point under his administration.

A reporter asked Johnson during a press conference on Wednesday if he planned to go to Washington, D.C. to testify about sanctuary cities as the Trump administration continues to conduct operations targeting criminal illegal aliens.

House Republicans, including U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Tenn., chair of the GOP-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform, called on sanctuary city mayors to testify next month about the policy’s impact on public safety and the refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

This oversight committee, of all the things that they want to have sight over, they should look at the White House right now," Johnson said. "That White House is being ran in one of the most raggedy forms of government that I've ever seen. If anybody is questioning whether or not what our country would look like had the Confederacy won, there should be no question now. They want us to be afraid. Do not be afraid, Chicago."

CHICAGO MAYOR RIPS ICE OPERATIONS, SAYS TRUMP ‘IS ATTEMPTING TO GET US TO SURRENDER OUR HUMANITY’

CHICAGO MAYOR IMPROPERLY ACCEPTING DESIGNER GIFST LIKE HUGO BOSS CUFF LINKS, GUCCI BAGS AND MORE: OIG REPORT

The mayor said he will not be intimidated by an individual who refuses to stand up to another individual who believes "he’s a supreme being."

Johnson also accused Trump of rejecting the U.S. Constitution by carrying out his responsibilities.

"If they want to have a real discussion about undocumented individuals who are criminals, they should look at the very individuals who enslaved my people and colonized this land," Johnson said.

Earlier in the press conference, another reporter asked the mayor if he had toned down rhetoric about relitigating the civil war.

COMER LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO SANCTUARY CITIES, ASKS MAYORS TO TESTIFY

"I still believe that there are people who have not accepted the results of the Civil War, and here’s the thing: I said that before this administration took office," Johnson said. "Unfortunately, I’m right. I mean, you have an entire administration that is looking to take away federal protections for the people who are most vulnerable.

"So, no, my position has not changed," he added.

The mayor’s statement comes more than a week after he doubled down on a vow to oppose Trump’s sweeping reform aimed at removing dangerous illegal immigrants accused of crimes from the U.S. once he returns to the Oval Office.

TRUMP'S ICE NABS CHILD SEX OFFENDERS AMONG 530+ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CAUGHT IN SINGLE DAY

On day one of his second term, Trump issued ten executive orders aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration law and policy, and since then, armed federal immigration agents have swept cities in the first deportation raids. 

In a letter, Comer, Johnson and other mayors of sanctuary cities, to provide documents and information related to the sanctuary policies of each city.

Sanctuary cities limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Supporters argue that enforcement of immigration is the job of the federal government. 

Opponents say sanctuary policies harbor criminals, as well as those in the country illegally, and put the public, including legal and illegal immigrants, at risk.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

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

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." 

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. 

"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. 

Ten alleged members and associates of the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) have been indicted in a massive arms and drugs-running operation spanning at least six states and prosecutors said they had plans to expand on an international level to Colombia.

In New York City on Wednesday, police said that one of the accused violent migrant gangbangers broke an NYPD officer’s arm after he got into a scuffle during his arrest.

Authorities seized a cache of 34 illegal guns, including AR-15 assault rifles and a Glock 9mm with a trigger modification making it an automatic, tied to the suspects, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. 

NYC RESIDENTS PRAISE ICE RAIDS AFTER VIOLENT GANG MEMBER CAPTURED

Katz said the TDA gang members were also peddling deadly drugs including pink cocaine, a designer street drug that includes a mixture of ketamine, MDMA and ecstasy.

All ten are migrants – including two women – are from Venezuela and entered the country illegally via the southern border, police said. 

This subset of the gang was spearheaded by two Venezuelan nationals who came to New York City two years ago and established a gun-running crew that was also comprised of other foreign nationals. 

Enyerbert Blanco, 24, the alleged ringleader, has been in custody in Florida since October after being charged in connection with a human trafficking case involving a 15-year-old girl, Katz said.

"We allege that as members and associates, they trafficked weapons and made money in furtherance of TdA’s agenda and as they seek to establish themselves in New York City, we are individually dismantling them," Katz said. 

Katz said the investigation, dubbed Operation Train Derail, began more than a year ago and was carried out by her office and the NYPD.

Five of the 10 are charged with two counts of criminal sale of a firearm and face up to 25 years in jail if they are convicted. 

The remainder are variously indicted on firearm possession charges and other crimes. They face a maximum of 15 years in prison. All ten of them are charged with conspiracy to possess and sell illegal firearms in New York City. 

NOEM SAYS 'WORST OF THE WORST' ARRESTED IN NYC RAID TARGETING CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Four are now in custody in New York City, while four others are behind bars outside the state, including two in Texas and two in Florida. The others are still on the loose. Their illicit operation also spanned Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Colorado, Katz said.

Katz didn’t say whether ICE would be deporting the suspects, insisting she was treating the operation as a gun-running case.

She said that the group were brazen in gun dealings.

"In one instance, the defendant transported an AR-15 wrapped in a black garbage bag for sale in the Bronx County. This buy occurred at 3:45 p.m. in front of a residential building."

Five other firearm buys – between Oct. 30 through Dec. 10 - took place inside a Target car park in College Point, in Queens.

The going rate for an assault weapon is $2,500 to $2,800, while loaded operable handguns sold between $1,200 and $1,800, she said. 

"This group was very entrepreneurial. They really made sure that this business was run like a clock," Katz said. "They stole firearms that were proceeds of burglaries and car break-ins from other states. They relied on use of rental vehicles to come up the iron pipeline and sell them to people in the city of New York. They were aware that they could make money in the city of New York, and they even discussed potentially smuggling them into Columbia due to the success of this investigation."

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that the injured officer is set to have surgery after this week and separate charges will be filed. 

"TDA is a dangerous transnational gang that has specialized in murder, trafficking, and mayhem," NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said. "The NYPD will always work with our federal and our local partners to take down international gangs like TDA, who would wreak havoc on this city."

Some of the TDA members indicted include Wrallan Meza, 27; Leoner Aguilera, 21; Brayant Aguilar, 21; Rosemary Sanchez, 24; Enyerling Zambrano, 29; Alejandro Rondon, 19, and Oscar Sosa, 31.

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The bust in Queens came a day after immigration raids in the Bronx which saw gang member Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, picked up by Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

Zambrano-Pacheco is wanted by police in Aurora, Colorado, for first-degree burglary and menacing with a firearm from an Aug. 18, caught-on-camera incident where police say he and five other armed men are accused of breaking into an apartment at gunpoint.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tells Fox News that Zambrano-Pacheco is also wanted in part of a gun weapons exchange and was trying to buy grenades. Police say he’s also been charged with kidnapping, extortion, and menacing.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website is no longer accepting forms needed to sponsor migrants as part of the Biden administration's defunct parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV).

The 2023 program, which allowed certain migrants to apply for U.S. entry and stay for up to two years, was shut down on President Donald Trump's first day in office.

As of August 2024, nearly 530,000 people were granted parole through the program, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

TRUMP DHS REPEALS KEY MAYORKAS MEMO LIMITING ICE AGENTS, ORDERS PAROLE REVIEW

Requirements included having a U.S.-based supporter, passing security vetting, and meeting other criteria. 

The "Online Request to be a Supporter and Declaration of Financial Support" form, an avenue to meet one of the main requirements, was bumped from the website, as of Wednesday night.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently removed expedited removal restrictions and allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to review migrants' parole status – which may include changing it.

TRUMP'S ICE NABS CHILD SEX OFFENDERS AMONG 530+ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CAUGHT IN SINGLE DAY

A memo obtained by Fox News Digital noted parole is a "positive exercise of enforcement discretion to which no alien is entitled" and that it should "not be regarded as an admission of the alien," according to previous reporting.

While the Biden administration claimed the program would expand legal pathways to citizenship and decrease illegal border crossings, Republicans contended it was an abuse of limited parole power.

Prior to Trump's reelection, the program was temporarily paused amid fraud claims. 

An internal review was ordered, leading to the DHS adding enhanced vetting measures for U.S.-based supporters in August 2024.

ICE and CBP officials have been tasked with compiling a list of instructions, policies and procedures related to parole, reviewing them, and creating a plan to phase out any that are not in accord with the statute.

Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this story.

A British woman is accused of disguising herself to pose as at least 14 people while taking citizenship tests in the United Kingdom.

The unnamed 61-year-old woman used an array of wigs and disguises to impersonate male and female applicants, the U.K. Home Office said. 

"These fraudsters lead to people wrongly being granted the right to remain, putting the public at risk," the agency said on social media. 

ELON MUSK DEMANDS UK ACT ON GROOMING GANG SCANDAL AMID GROWING CALLS FOR PROBE

During her arrest, Immigration Enforcement officers seized several false documents and the wigs, which were believed to have been used in the scheme.

She is believed to have carried out the scheme at multiple test centers across the United Kingdom between June 2022 and August 2023, authorities said.

BRITAIN HIT BY ANOTHER ASIAN GROOMING GANG SCANDAL AS REPORT EXPOSES CHILD SEX ABUSE IN MANCHESTER

Immigration enforcement criminal and financial investigation inspector Phillip Parr said a "complex investigation" had "put a stop to this dangerous scheme," Sky News reported. 

"This individual is believed to have orchestrated a pre-meditated plan to avoid detection, meticulously selecting disguises and test center locations across the country to evade the authorities," he told the outlet. 

The Life in the UK Test, a requirement for anyone seeking to obtain indefinite leave to remain or to become a British citizen, consists of 24 questions aimed at proving the applicant has sufficient knowledge of British values, history and society, the BBC reported.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday the department has stopped all grant funding to nonprofits that operate outside of government control, saying they have been "perverted into a shadow government" that feeds illegal immigration.

Noem said some non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which receive millions in federal grants, have been facilitating illegal immigration by helping aliens cross the U.S. border.

"Many of these NGOs actually have infrastructure and operations set up in Mexico, on that side of the border, and are telling those illegal immigrants to come to them, and they will get them across the border," Noem said on Fox News Channel's Will Cain Show. "So they're not just operating in the United States, they're operating outside the United States to help make it easier for those who want to break our laws."

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TOUTS 969 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS IN ONE DAY: ‘HERE ARE SOME OF THE WORST’

The first step to curbing the issue is to freeze the funds, reevaluate them, and make sure taxpayer dollars are going toward safe causes, she said.

"I think people are curious [to see how] grants that are given out by federal agencies [are] utilized," Noem said. 

Until an evaluation is completed, Noem said the department is "not spending another dime to help the destruction of this country."

She added not all NGOs are what they appear to be, and some could be a risk to national security.

"When somebody said NGO to me, I thought that [was] a nonprofit telling somebody about Jesus or spreading faith and salvation…," Noem said. "Then I realized over the years, it's been perverted into this shadow government."

Noem explained that NGOs create an entity to use taxpayer dollars, funding an operation the federal government cannot legally implement itself.

TRUMP-ERA SOUTHERN BORDER SEES MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS PLUMMET BY OVER 60% AS NEW POLICIES KICK IN

Recently, she said they have been used to undermine the country's national security. 

Approximately 1.5 million NGOs operate in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State.

NGOs can range from political advocacy groups, to religious volunteer organizations or labor unions.

There are no laws prohibiting foreign funding of NGOs, whether that be from other governments or non-government sources, according to the State Department.

In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $380 million on sheltering and service programs for illegal immigrants.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday announced that her agency had canceled a Biden-era extension of deportation protections for Venezuelan migrants — accusing her predecessor of tying the hands of the Trump administration.

In a notice, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it has vacated a Jan. 10 decision by then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to extend a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation to Venezuelan nationals by 18 months.

"Before he left town, Mayorkas signed an order that said for 18 months they were going to extend this protection to people that are in Temporary Protected Status, which meant they were going to be able to stay here and violate our laws for another 18 months," Noem said, announcing the move on "FOX and Friends." "And we stopped that today."

MAYORKAS EXTENDS DEPORTATION SHIELD FOR EYE-POPPING NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS AHEAD OF TRUMP ADMIN

TPS grants protection from deportation and allows work permits for nationals living in the U.S. from countries deemed unsafe for them to be returned. Mayorkas announced extensions for TPS for Venezuela, as well as El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine for an additional 18 months.

Venezuela's extension applied to approximately 600,000 nationals already covered by TPS, but would not allow new applications. The extension would have further complicated the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants from Venezuela, which has been a focus given the rise of Tren de Aragua (TDA), a bloodthirsty street gang from Venezuela.

TRUMP-ERA SOUTHERN BORDER SEES MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS PLUMMET BY OVER 60% AS NEW POLICIES KICK IN

"We signed an executive order within the Department of Homeland Security in a direction that we were not going to follow through on what [Mayorkas] did to tie our hands, that we are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country, including the Venezuelans that are here and members of TDA," she said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

The announcement came a day after Noem oversaw an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in New York City, where officers have been targeting criminal illegal immigrants. That operation is part of a broader nationwide effort to deport illegal immigrants throughout the U.S. DHS has made a flurry of moves to empower ICE officers, including taking Biden-era limits off expedited removal powers and canceling the use of parole. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, signed a slew of executive orders concerning border security and illegal immigration.

"Listen, I was in New York City yesterday, and the people of this country want these dirtbags out. They want their communities to be safe. It was so amazing to me to see people walk by us on the street early in the morning and just say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for being here,’" Noem said. "So this is part of our plan to make sure that we're protecting America, keeping it safe again, just like President Trump promised."