The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts released a video of alleged sham marriage mastermind Jennifer Gonzalez detailing her pay-for-play scheme which officials say netted her over $6 million.
The U.S. Attorney's Office accused Gonzalez of orchestrating fake marriages between U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants, charging the immigrants up to $40,000 per marriage.
Gonzalez can be seen on a video recorded by a witness cooperating with federal law enforcement explaining how her scheme worked.
"They will come, I will present them to the wife, they're like, 'yes, I want them, not a problem, I'll be back in, I don't know, three weeks.' And they would leave and make me hold these girls for months," she explained.
"The payment, it's agreed by both parties, OK? This is the first initial payment for the total amount of $38,000. Now, let me calculate that real quick. So $38,000 minus $3,000," she continued, while using a calculator. "That's going to give us $35,000. And then the day of the wedding, you have to bring me, what? $12,000.
"You and I are the ones in this contract, not nobody else. Because we don't want to get your wife and yourself into a...putting in paper about a fake marriage. You know what I mean? Does that make sense to you? Because if anything happened, we don't want them to have any proof that this was fake," she said.
Gonzalez also explained to the witness, who she believed to be an illegal immigrant, that Massachusetts was the best place to go for illegal immigrants because of its sanctuary state status.
"Massachusetts is best place for you to be. That is a fact," Gonzalez said.
"You get health insurance. You get a lot of help as an immigrant here," she explained, adding, "Trump doesn't like this state because...the state defends us very much."
She also revealed that she stopped arranging the marriages around 2025 because of increased federal immigration enforcement.
Gonzalez further told the witness that she owned multiple properties in the Dominican Republic, which she called "my country," and in Puerto Rico.
"Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country," Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told reporters during a Wednesday press conference announcing the scheme.
As violent riots grip France, British political leader Nigel Farage warned Americans against repeating what he described as Europe's mass immigration failures, arguing that years of unchecked migration have transformed European cities and fueled unrest that could eventually spread elsewhere.
"People like me who were warning about this years ago have sadly been proven right, but the problems are gonna be here for a very, very long time," Farage told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Please, please don't make the same level of mistakes that we have," he said in his message to Americans.
Violent riots have erupted across parts of Europe in recent weeks, particularly in France, with Farage pointing to years of mass migration and failed political leadership as key factors fueling the unrest. The Reform UK leader singled out Emmanuel Macron, arguing that the French president should have mobilized the military to confront the violence, after education protests spiraled into riots, destruction and theft.
"Macron was asleep at the wheel, and it isn't just that he was at a concert," Farage said. "And whilst the French do have effective police forces, the scale of the uprising, I mean the mass looting, the mass looting and violence that took place in Paris was genuinely horrendous."
"Meloni's reaction was swifter and a better sign of leadership," Farage said, referring to the Italian leader deploying 500 military troops to Milan in response to recent riots. "But the problem is, for people like Macron, who have always said, any criticism of immigration, whether legal or illegal, makes you racist, they psychologically find it hard to face up to their own failures of policy."
Farage warned that the unrest he described in France and elsewhere in Europe could eventually erupt in Britain, pointing to demonstrations in London and questioning whether British leaders would respond more forcefully than Macron.
"You know, my real worry is they can happen in this country too," Farage said. "We've got the same hard left here. We've the same hate mobs that march, chanting in the streets of London, from the river to the sea."
"I'm concerned that these things could happen here. And I wonder whether a British prime minister has got any more courage than President Macron in France," he added.
Farage contrasted Europe's failure to control its borders with President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in the United States.
"Look, whatever you think of President Trump's current policies, one thing he has done, and he promised he'd do. He's closed the southern border," Farage said.
Trump vowed Tuesday to treat potential rioters in the U.S. "very rough," pointing to the unrest in France, he said at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, before being interrupted by a protestor in the crowd.
"They're crazy, these people. Look at that guy. He's a nutjob," Trump said, in reference to the protester.
He warned that he would crack down on potential threats, saying he would not allow similar unrest to take hold in the U.S.
"That's what you witness over the last three or four days. You watch nutjobs like him in France ruining their country," Trump said. "We're not going to put up with it by the way."
"If a possible threat, which could happen, I hope you won't get angry if I treat them very, very rough, because that's what's going to happen. They're not going to destroy our country," he said.
On Tuesday, British counterterrorism police rearrested two men suspected of assisting Iranian intelligence in an alleged plot targeting RAF Fairford, a U.K. base used by U.S. bombers.
"I've called again and again for this to be declared a national security emergency. I have been ignored. If the Americans removing their bombers from RAF Fairford isn't enough warning. I don't know what is," he said.
"We've just become so caught up over here in Europe and Britain with this human rights culture, which puts the interests, frankly, of the bad guys above the interests of the majority."
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) praised Somali migrants as the "CEOs of the future" and claimed that Somalis were being criticized because people see "the kind of economy and entrepreneurship" they are trying to build.
An American woman living in Massachusetts has been accused by the Department of Justice of arranging sham marriages to help her clients seek green cards and U.S. citizenship.
Jennifer Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen, collected up to $40,000 per marriage and arranged as many as 20 per year over the last decade, according to Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for the Massachusetts District.
Gonzalez's female employees, who were also charged, married the men looking to get legal status in the U.S., authorities said.
"This conspiracy netted her $6 million during the course of the alleged scam," Foley said during a news conference Wednesday at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. "She bragged that she invested her ill-gotten proceeds in businesses and property in the Dominican Republic, which she repeatedly referred to as 'my country.'"
It appears Gonzalez spilled the details of the scheme to a witness cooperating with federal law enforcement. Foley said Gonzalez believed this individual was an illegal immigrant.
Gonzalez, 43, told a witness who was recording the interaction that Massachusetts was "so special" because it is a sanctuary state where "illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant."
Gonzalez also allegedly said her goal was to give all her children pieces of land in the Dominican Republic they could later own.
"Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country," Foley said.
Gonzalez told the witness she stopped holding phony marriages at the end of 2024 because President Donald Trump was returning to office, before shutting down the scheme entirely in 2025 because immigration enforcement had become "a little harsh," according to Foley.
Gonzalez was described by prosecutors as the "ringleader" of the operation, though there were other alleged co-conspirators.
Amara Pugh, Gonzalez's 31-year-old secretary, along with Jessica Tavares, 31; Erica Daniels, 29; and Jaylin Hill, 26, were allegedly paid to marry Gonzalez's clients. Gonzalez also allegedly entered into a sham marriage herself with an illegal immigrant.
Photographs of at least two marriage ceremonies were included in court records shared by the Justice Department.
In most cases, they would stay married to the illegal immigrants for years, get divorced, then get married to other illegal immigrants as early as a month after their divorces, officials added.
Foley told reporters that another component of the alleged fraud involved Gonzalez applying for and receiving SNAP benefits from 2019 through 2026. She received more than $124,000 from the SNAP program over that time, according to prosecutors.
"She did not list her income from her sham marriage business and did not list anyone else in her household, not the illegal alien she married and not the father of her children, who she referred to as her husband," Foley said.
Gonzalez, Pugh, Tavares and two other conspirators were arrested Wednesday morning, the Justice Department said. Hill is already in state prison for a gun offense.
It is no surprise that a unanimous three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit just enjoined the blatantly unconstitutional attempt by the "No-Longer-So-Golden State" to impose restrictions on the ability of ICE and other federal agents to enforce federal immigration law. That panel was doing exactly what federal courts are supposed to do — uphold the U.S. Constitution.
On October 14 in U.S. v. California, the court tossed the so-called "No Vigilantes Act" (NVA) onto the ash heap. This law was part of the state’s continuing effort to obstruct federal immigration enforcement, which has included relentless public attacks by the governor and state officials on federal agents just trying to do their job of enforcing the law. That includes noxious claims like Newsom likening them to the thuggish "secret police" of an "authoritarian" state.
The NVA required any non-uniformed "federal law enforcement officer" operating in California to "visibly display identification" when carrying out federal law enforcement duties. A federal agent violating this requirement could be criminally prosecuted by the state.
As the Ninth Circuit pointed out, the Supremacy Clause in Article VI makes the "Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … the Supreme Law of the Land." In other words, federal law not only overrides any state law to the contrary, but it requires what is called "intergovernmental immunity." Under "the intergovernmental immunity component of the Supremacy Clause … states may not directly regulate the Federal Government’s operations or property." The panel cites to a 1996 Ninth Circuit decision, Blackburn v. U.S., on this issue, but then points out that this basic legal principle — that states cannot interfere in federal functions — goes all the way back to one of the most seminal Supreme Court cases in our history, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). "It is the very essence of Supremacy," said the Court in McCulloch, "to remove all obstacles to its action within its own sphere, and so to modify every power vested in subordinate governments, as to exempt its own operations from their own influence." That is why "States have no power … to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution the powers vested in the General Government."
California tried to argue that the NVA was constitutional because it did not "substantially burden" federal law enforcement. But the Ninth Circuit shot that down, too, saying any attempt by a state law to directly regulate "the conduct of the United States … is void irrespective of whether the regulated activities are essential to federal functions or operations, and irrespective of the degree to which the state law interferes with such functions or operations."
What made this law even worse was its threat to criminally prosecute federal agents. This is especially ironic because California attempted to do with the NVA what the Supreme Court specifically told the state it couldn’t do 136 years ago in another seminal case, In re Neagle (1890), also cited by the Ninth Circuit panel. That decision reads like a Hollywood movie but also demonstrates just how bizarre state officials have acted in California for a long time, not just in today’s heated political arena.
In re Neagle involved the state of California trying to prosecute a U.S. Marshal for murder. Marshal David Neagle was acting as a bodyguard for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field, a job the U.S. Marshal’s Service still carries out today. He shot and killed the former chief justice of California’s state supreme court, David Terry, at a railway station in the San Joaquin Valley, after Terry tried to assassinate Field. Terry was known for his violent temper and apparently had a grudge against Field for a court decision involving the prior divorce of Terry’s current wife.
The Ninth Circuit quoted the Supreme Court’s opinion in Neagle that even the "most unquestionable and most universally applicable of state laws, such as those concerning murder, will not be allowed to control the conduct a marshal of the United States acting under and in pursuance of the laws of the United States." California couldn’t prosecute a U.S. Marshal then for doing his job, and it cannot criminally prosecute federal agents now who are "acting under and in pursuance of the [immigration] laws of the United States." End of story, end of case, end of unconstitutional state law.
By the way, a second law enacted by California’s constitutionally ignorant legislators, the "No Secret Police Act," was already enjoined by a lower court for the same reason. That law made it a criminal offense for federal agents to wear "a facial covering that conceals or obscures their facial identity." You know, the same agents who have been villainized, doxxed, followed home, harassed, run down by cars, and shot at by thugs who masquerade as protesters.
As the Ninth Circuit correctly recognized, the lawlessness occurring in California is not limited to thugs. Perhaps some remedial courses on the Constitution for Governor Newsom and the California legislature may be in order.
EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a nationwide operation targeting illegal immigrants accused of fraudulently obtaining benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), resulting in multiple arrests, Fox News has learned.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the operation to Fox News, announcing several arrests of illegal immigrants accused of fraudulently receiving SNAP benefits.
"Illegal aliens who have no right to be here in the first place are the last people who should be using SNAP benefits and other forms of welfare," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.
"These programs are for Americans only," he continued. "Even non-violent illegal alien crime can still have devastating consequences when they’re defrauding the American taxpayer."
Mullin said those already apprehended and deported by federal authorities represented "just a drop in the bucket," adding that the Trump administration would continue pursuing individuals accused of fraud.
DHS identified several illegal immigrants accused of SNAP fraud, including multiple Haitian nationals.
According to federal officials, Rubstony Junior Theodore, a Haitian national living illegally in the United States, was arrested by ICE as part of the operation. Theodore's criminal history includes arrests for larceny, obstruction of officers and trespassing, DHS said.
Three other Haitian nationals living illegally in the United States — Wilbert Jean Baptiste, Louis Jean and Jhensly Charles — were also arrested, according to DHS.
Elizabeth Povea Rodriguez, a Cuban national living illegally in the United States who was previously convicted of disorderly conduct and arrested on battery and domestic violence allegations, was also arrested, according to DHS.
"These arrests mark the opening salvo in a sustained, large-scale ICE operation specifically targeting illegal aliens who have fraudulently accessed SNAP benefits that American taxpayers fund exclusively for U.S. citizens in need," DHS said.
"Every one of these individuals entered the country unlawfully, then proceeded to draw from a program designed to feed struggling American families, in some cases while carrying criminal records," the agency continued.
Federal law generally bars immigrants living in the country illegally from receiving SNAP benefits, although certain categories of lawfully present noncitizens may qualify for the program.
DHS said the Trump administration would continue targeting alleged SNAP fraud as part of a broader crackdown on misuse of federal benefits.
A Honduran national who federal authorities say was unlawfully present in the United States allegedly climbed onto his truck and repeatedly swung a hammer at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during a traffic stop in New Jersey this month, federal prosecutors said.
Reinieri De Jesus Licona Amador, 27, was charged with assaulting federal officers and appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal in Camden federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.
"Federal officers put themselves in harm’s way to enforce the law and protect the public," U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said in a statement.
"When an individual responds to a traffic stop by attacking an officer with a hammer, that conduct threatens not only the officer’s safety but the rule of law itself," he continued. "We will not allow violent attacks on federal officers to go unanswered and will hold those responsible accountable under the law."
Federal prosecutors said the incident began during a targeted ICE operation in Gibbsboro, when officers ran a license plate check on a truck traveling through the area.
According to the criminal complaint, the vehicle was registered to Licona Amador, and a search of immigration records indicated he lacked lawful status in the United States.
Officers then activated their emergency lights and pulled over Licona Amador's truck, prosecutors said.
According to the complaint, as officers approached the truck, they saw Licona Amador reach into a tool container in the back seat and pick up a hammer.
Prosecutors said officers ordered Licona Amador to stop moving, but he refused to comply, prompting them to open the vehicle door and attempt to remove him from the truck.
He allegedly pulled away from the officers and moved to the passenger side of the truck, where they again tried unsuccessfully to restrain him.
Licona Amador then climbed out of the passenger side of the truck while holding the hammer, ignoring officers' repeated commands, according to the complaint.
He was arrested without injury and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of assaulting federal officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon.
As relative calm returns amid targeted curfews, PM claims he told Macron after Oct. 7 that 'if we don't eliminate them here, you will have them in Paris,' adding, 'and that is exactly what is happening'
Convoluted hybrid arrangement between local government and Jewish community created tension when images of water damage to complex spread online, led to municipal director quitting
Violent riots sweeping France have exposed a far-left network of communist groups, labor unions and political activists mobilizing around student grievances, raising questions about whether similar political and immigration tensions could ignite unrest on American streets.
A Fox News Digital investigation identified 50 organizations involved in France's student protest movement and its broader network of supporters and international amplifiers, including communist and socialist groups, labor unions and political parties.
The American parallels extend beyond political rhetoric. Fox News Digital previously reported that agitators at Delaney Hall in Newark used encrypted Signal chats to coordinate transportation, supplies and demonstrations before clashes with federal agents.
Santiago Vidal Calvo, a researcher at the Manhattan Institute, singled out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, arguing that their approaches to immigration enforcement could move the United States closer to conditions he associates with France's crisis.
"I have absolutely no doubts that if we had Mamdanis or El-Sayeds or AOCs in charge of immigration policy, our immigration landscape would be very different today than what it currently is," Calvo told Fox News Digital.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has made a similar argument, explicitly tying France's violence to the stakes of the 2026 midterms.
"France is descending into chaos because they wanted OPEN BORDERS — just like the socialist Democrats in America," Johnson wrote on X. "What we are witnessing is a chilling warning for all Americans of what happens if the radical Marxist insurgent left gets their way."
Johnson argued that a Democratic victory in November would lead to more permissive immigration policies, casting the election as a choice between the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the approach favored by Democrats. President Donald Trump similarly posted on Truth Social that "migrants have taken over France," urging the country to "CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!"
The immigration debate is also playing out directly in the 2026 midterms. In Michigan's closely watched Senate race, Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed has made abolishing ICE a campaign position, arguing that the agency cannot be reformed. His Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has sought to portray El-Sayed as an ideological extremist as the two compete for a seat that could help determine control of the Senate.
In New York City, Mamdani signed a February executive order reinforcing sanctuary protections and restricting federal immigration enforcement on city property without a judicial warrant. Both Mamdani and El-Sayed frame their policies as safeguards against abusive enforcement, while critics warn they could weaken immigration controls.
The unrest began with students protesting conditions in France's education system before labor unions, political activists and groups with separate grievances joined the movement. Fox News Digital's investigation found that 15 of the 50 organizations identified in the broader network were student or youth groups.
Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, described a convergence of frustrations over school funding, rising costs, France's stagnant economy and longstanding tensions surrounding immigration and assimilation.
"You've got the simple educational one which is partially economic, you've got the larger economic one and on top of that you have the assimilation issue," Arthur said.
"Now can we see mass protests like this in the United States? I don't think so," Arthur said, noting that protests over urban ICE operations have not escalated into a comparable nationwide movement.
Nathalie Szerman, a Europe-based researcher with the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), pointed to another potential factor: The demonstrations intensified around the 65th anniversary of the Oct. 17, 1961, massacre of Algerian demonstrators by Paris police.
"October 17 is a very symbolic date for the Algerian-ethnic groups," Szerman told Fox News Digital, describing demonstrators memorializing a deadly 1961 crackdown by Paris police on Algerian demonstrators.
"The first protest groups were not ideologically aligned with 'political Islam' but were students from immigrant suburbs, driven by education concerns. Agenda-driven, organized 'Political Muslim' groups used the momentum of the protests for their own ends," Szerman said.
"It's a lot of things together, the resentment towards France and the political agenda," she said.
Alan Mendoza, executive director of the U.K.'s Henry Jackson Society — named for the late Washington Sen. Scoop Jackson — argued that the far-left movement led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon helped encourage broader mobilization ahead of France's next presidential election.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu blamed Mélenchon and his party for the unrest, according to Le Monde, while Mélenchon fired back after Lecornu demanded that LFI "choose a side" between France and the rioters — calling the either-or "detestable."
Mendoza warned that similar political tensions could surface in America, citing backlash against socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani from anti-Israel activists who had previously supported him.
"What was interesting was the sight of him being turned on by the pro-Palestinian protesters the other day, when he was acknowledging October the 7th, the loss of human life on his radio site, he was turned on by the very hard left people who had helped propel him to power," Mendoza said.
"What that shows you is that it is very real a possibility at the hard left who are never satisfied and actually want chaos more than anything else," Mendoza added.
Arthur said France's far left can openly champion expansive immigration policies, while American Democrats face a different political reality: They cannot publicly embrace open borders without risking backlash, he argued, pointing to the Biden administration's tendency to portray illegal immigration as a problem it could not control rather than a policy it actively supported.
"Riot is to France what football is to the United States," said Arthur.
Szerman, however, said comparable unrest was possible despite differences between the two countries.
"I definitely think that what's happening in France could happen in the United States," she said, while noting that the more accommodating U.S. education system and different approach to immigrant integration could reduce the severity of any such violence, making a French-style nationwide crisis less likely.
Calvo, meanwhile, warned that adopting more expansive immigration policies without adequate screening and integration safeguards could create pressures similar to those he believes contributed to France's unrest.
"France is in this mess because of the horrible policies they had in immigration over the last years," he said, warning that importing similar approaches could bring unrest to American communities.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani, El-Sayed and Ocasio-Cortez for comment.
Fox News Digital's Ashely DiMella contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: Rep. James Gallagher, R-Calif., urged FBI Director Kash Patel on Monday to crack down on illegal marijuana cultivation operations in Northern California.
Gallagher sent the letter after the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office reported extensive illegal cultivation and illegal immigrant labor in the region. The congressman said the operations have harmed local ranchers, depleted groundwater supplies and raised concerns about potential financing from Chinese organized-crime networks.
"Entire rural properties are now covered with rows of makeshift, plastic-covered greenhouses, known as ‘hoop houses,’ where marijuana is cultivated using groundwater hauled in from nearby wells," Gallagher wrote in a letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.
"The consequences have been devastating, with residents facing depleted water supplies and threats to their safety, while local farmers and ranchers contend with increased competition for groundwater and the risk of contamination to their agricultural land," he continued.
The letter cited estimates of as many as 7,000 illegal growers in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision alone. Gallagher said illegal cultivation has also expanded onto federal lands, including the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Gallagher also raised concerns that Chinese organized-crime networks could be financing or directing some of the operations.
"In Siskiyou County, investigators have traced cultivation properties to individuals residing outside the county, while those managing the grows often have no apparent ownership interest," Gallagher wrote. "These arrangements raise serious concerns about who is actually financing and controlling these operations and whether the ownership arrangements are intended to conceal their involvement."
Gallagher pointed to a 2018 federal investigation in California involving an illegal marijuana growing operation that authorities said was funded with money from China. The investigation led to federal forfeiture actions involving more than 100 properties in the Sacramento area, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
The congressman also cited environmental damage linked to the illegal grow sites, including the use of toxic pesticides.
"Compounding these concerns is the widespread use of highly toxic pesticides, including chemicals banned in the United States and products bearing Chinese-language labels that are suspected of being illegally imported," Gallagher wrote.
Siskiyou County investigators have identified at least 27 pesticide compounds at illegal grow sites, according to county findings. Officials have warned that the chemicals could pose risks to residents, law enforcement officers and first responders.
A total of twelve people, among them an infant, lost their lives on Monday in two incidents with migrants boats in the eastern Aegean Sea. There is information of missing persons. The one incident took place off the island of Lesvos where a Greek Coast Guard patrol boat collided with the migrants boat doing dangerous […]
Greece remains a major entry point for migrants and refugees attempting to reach the European Union by sea.
On Monday, Greek authorities confirmed that six people died and 14 others were rescued after a speedboat carrying migrants capsized off the island of Samos, hours after a separate collision between a migrant speedboat and a Greek coast guard patrol vessel off Lesvos left six people dead.
The boat capsized during manoeuvres about 3.7 nautical miles north of Samos. A search-and-rescue operation was underway, involving a navy vessel, a coast guard rescue boat and an air force helicopter.
In a separate incident off Lesvos, another eastern Aegean island, four men, a woman and an infant died when a speedboat carrying migrants collided with a Greek coast guard patrol vessel in the early hours of Monday.
Authorities said the migrant boat had made dangerous manoeuvres to evade a coast guard inspection before the collision.
Tra il 2014 e il 2025 almeno 4.414 bambini sono morti lungo le rotte dei migranti: più di uno al giorno, per dodici anni.
Il conto è dell’Organizzazione internazionale per le migrazioni (Oim), l’agenzia dell’Onu che dal 2014 registra i migranti morti e dispersi nel mondo.
The text reads, “Between 2014 and 2025, at least 4,414 children died along migration routes—an average of more than one per day over the course of twelve years. This figure comes from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency that has been tracking migrant deaths and disappearances worldwide since 2014.
In a report published on October 13, produced in collaboration with a network of organizations led by UNICEF, the IOM warns that the actual number is likely much higher. Over these twelve years, nearly 81,000 migrant deaths or disappearances have been recorded; in more than half of these cases, the individuals’ ages are unknown. Among the children whose ages are known, more than a hundred were under five years old.
More than half of these minors died in the Mediterranean, the deadliest route. In 2024, minors accounted for 19% of the people who arrived in Italy and Malta, yet they represented only 2% of the deaths recorded along that same route. This discrepancy exists because many children who die are never accounted for.
Some disappear without their deaths being registered, while others appear in the data without a specific age—particularly adolescents, who are often classified as adults. The most precise age-related data comes from forensic experts and the police, though they document only a small fraction of cases; the rest of the information is gathered through humanitarian organizations, media outlets, survivors, and witnesses.
IOM Director Amy Pope links these deaths to the lack of safe and legal migration pathways. The organization urges states to systematically record the age of deceased individuals and to share this information among police forces, forensic experts, and humanitarian organizations.
‘Every child who dies during a migratory journey deserves to be accounted for. Yet far too many do not appear in the data. We cannot protect children from dangers that we do not see,’ says Stuart Campo, strategy lead for the IOM’s Data Department.”
Eight survivors — four men, two women and two children — were rescued and taken to hospital for treatment. The boat’s 37-year-old Turkish operator was arrested on suspicion of people smuggling.
Greek Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Vassilis Kikilias expressed grief and anger over the deaths off Lesvos. He reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards people smugglers, describing them as criminals who endanger the lives of desperate people for profit.
Greece, located at the southeastern edge of Europe, remains a major entry point for migrants and refugees attempting to reach the European Union by sea.
Analucía Lopezrevoredo says she founded Los Angeles-based social organization Jewtina y Co to answer her longtime question: 'Where do people like me get to be whole?'
Andrej Babis has repeatedly criticized Spain’s migrant regularization initiative.
On Friday, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis suggested the possibility that his country might have to protect its borders against migrants arriving from Western countries.
“We see what is happening in Spain. Some politicians are willing to replace the population with immigrants solely to keep their positions and remain in government, although that does not concern us,” Babis said upon his arrival for the second day of the European Union summit of heads of state and government in Brussels.
The Czech leader added that, for some countries, it was “too late” to manage migration and floated the idea that they “might” have to “defend the borders so that immigrants from Western countries do not come” to Czech territory “if things continue this way.” “We are preparing for that,” he added.
Diplomatic sources explained that the Czech prime minister “was speaking generally about situations in countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Spain,” without specifying which situations he was referring to.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on Ukraine: “We all want peace. I’m not saying peace means accepting Russian ideas… Europe is sidelined, and Trump, by making that deal with Putin, let us down. We have to do something.” pic.twitter.com/FUTFMiEqpw
Babis, an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, has repeatedly criticized Spain’s migrant regularization initiative since this summer.
In August, he accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of promoting migration for electoral purposes, saying on Czech television network Nova that the Spanish leader believed those who benefited from the measure would end up voting for him.
Babis also linked the mass arrival of immigrants in Ceuta to the Spanish government’s migration policy and, in July, even advocated temporarily excluding Spain from the Schengen Area.
The International Refugee Assistance Project warns the new policy could facilitate mass deportations.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the United States will reduce from 30 days to 10 days the period refugees have to defend themselves when the federal government seeks to revoke their immigration status.
The new rule shortens the time available to submit evidence and arguments in response to a notice from authorities stating their intention to revoke that protection.
The measure seeks to “restore integrity to the immigration system, mitigate public and national security risks, and prevent fraud,” DHS said.
Under the law, the U.S. government can revoke refugee status only if it determines that the person did not meet the requirements for obtaining it when they were admitted to the country.
If authorities determine that the evidence and arguments submitted do not justify maintaining the protection, they can revoke the person’s status and subject them to deportation proceedings.
The process of obtaining this protection can take years. Available pathways include referral to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) by the United Nations, a U.S. Embassy, or a nongovernmental organization. Applicants must also pass interviews and security screenings, including background checks conducted by various federal agencies.
ICE deports a man for “traffic infractions” while his wife and kids scream for mercy. If you voted for this you have no soul.
The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) rejected the changes and warned that they would facilitate “mass” deportations of refugees. IRAP said the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been persecuting refugees and illegally detaining them since the beginning of the year.
IRAP has sued the U.S. government over its detention of refugees and attempts to deport them to countries including Rwanda, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Trump’s mass deportation campaign has also affected people who had authorization to remain in the United States.
His administration has revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for several countries, canceled humanitarian parole programs and pushed for certain asylum applications to be denied without a full hearing. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), 1.6 million immigrants lost their legal status during the first year of Trump’s second term.
The shortened deadline turns the process into a “mere formality” to “strip refugees who were lawfully admitted and are lawfully living in the country of their status and deport them to places where they would face persecution or worse,” said Laurie Ball Cooper, IRAP’s vice president of U.S. legal programs.
Près de 12 millions d’euros destinés notamment à l’hébergement de demandeurs d’asile auraient été détournés via des sociétés écrans avant de financer des opérations immobilières au Maroc, au Sénégal et en Mauritanie. Le 11 septembre, le tribunal judiciaire de Créteil a condamné l’ancien directeur territorial de Coallia à sept ans de prison et 500 000 euros d’amende.
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Le montage judiciaire retenu est lourd : détournement de fonds publics, escroquerie en bande organisée, blanchiment, prise illégale d'intérêts, corruption passive. Selon les éléments produits à l'audience, les subventions destinées à l'hébergement des demandeurs d'asile ont d'abord transité par des sociétés écrans avant d'être réinjectées dans des opérations immobilières au Maghreb et en Afrique de l'Ouest.
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L’affaire remonte à des mouvements financiers détectés au printemps 2023 par Tracfin. Le service de renseignement financier avait relevé des opérations atypiques au sein de l’unité départementale de Coallia à Choisy-le-Roi, dirigée depuis 2012 par l’ancien responsable. Les enquêteurs du SDPJ du Val-de-Marne ont ensuite identifié plusieurs sociétés sans activité économique réelle qui auraient reçu plusieurs millions d’euros de l’association entre janvier 2020 et juillet 2024.
Selon les éléments produits à l'audience, les subventions destinées à l'hébergement des demandeurs d'asile ont d'abord transité par des sociétés écrans avant d'être réinjectées dans des opérations immobilières au Maghreb et en Afrique de l'Ouest. Des salariés ont également décrit des demandes de rétrocommissions liées à des marchés. Une partie des fonds aurait finalement été blanchie dans des acquisitions immobilières au Maroc, au Sénégal et en Mauritanie.
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Le 11 septembre, Gaye C. a été condamné pour détournement de fonds publics, escroquerie en bande organisée, blanchiment, prise illégale d’intérêts et corruption passive. Son épouse et son frère ont chacun reçu trois ans de prison, dont deux avec sursis. Deux chefs d’entreprise ont été condamnés à quatre ans, dont trois avec sursis. L’association Coallia a elle-même été condamnée à 50 000 euros d’amende pour détournement de fonds par négligence.
Le montant prend une dimension particulière lorsque l’on considère l’importance de Coallia dans le dispositif public : l’association avait reçu 148 millions d’euros de subventions de l’État en 2022 au titre de la mission « immigration, asile et intégration ». Sa direction affirme n’avoir découvert les détournements qu’à la suite des investigations, évoquant notamment une faille du logiciel de paiement.
Au-delà de la sanction pénale, cette condamnation interroge la chaîne entière de la subvention publique. L'argent du contribuable, censé financer des places d'hébergement pour demandeurs d'asile, a servi à constituer un patrimoine familial à l'étranger, avec la complicité de partenaires commerciaux extérieurs à l'association. Le jugement de Créteil expose les failles structurelles d'un secteur où la confiance accordée aux gestionnaires associatifs tient lieu, trop souvent, de contrôle effectif. La question reste ouverte : combien d’autres circuits similaires fonctionnent encore hors de tout regard effectif ?
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