FIRST ON FOX: A federal timeline provided by officials overseeing unaccompanied migrant children challenges reports that a 1-year-old boy was left to navigate immigration court without counsel, showing that legal service providers intervened to secure representation following an initial hearing.

Addressing media reports highlighting toddlers appearing before immigration judges, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Acting Director Angie Salazar and Senior Advisor John Fabricatori pushed back on headlines alleging systemic gaps in child legal representation, arguing that contractor failures and lack of invoice oversight created the initial court lapses.

"We don't have this big movement where we have a bunch of 1-year-olds who are going to court," Fabricatori told Fox News Digital.

SEX CRIMINALS, GANG MEMBERS ABUSED CHILD IMMIGRATION PROGRAM TO ENTER US, DHS REVEALS

According to ORR timeline records obtained by Fox News Digital, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers first encountered the 1-year-old boy and his 17-year-old mother near Naco, Arizona, on June 25. The child was accompanied by his mother at all court proceedings.

The critical gap occurred in July under the agency's former contractor, the Acacia Center for Justice, records show.

On July 1, Acacia completed legal orientation and consultation for the mother and child, but failed to file an E28 notice of appearance before the immigration court.

Consequently, during the child's first scheduled court hearing on July 8, no attorney was present — not even as a friend of the court — despite Acacia holding an active federal legal services contract at the time. The federal legal services contract with Acacia officially ended July 31.

FORMER USCIS OFFICIAL, ACCOMPLICE CHARGED IN ALLEGED $960K CITIZENSHIP BRIBERY SCHEME

Following the end of the Acacia contract, the agency transitioned legal service oversight to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), which officially initiated legal services Aug. 5. During an Aug. 7 appearance, the mother and child were granted additional time to obtain counsel, while USCRI representatives attended subsequent hearings on Aug. 17 and Aug. 28 as a friend of the court.

On Aug. 31, a motion was filed by the friend of the court and mother requesting court-appointed counsel at government expense, which was later denied by the immigration judge.

Progress continued into September as child advocates were officially appointed on Sept. 23, and USCRI filed a formal E28 notice of appearance on Sept. 25 to become the attorney of record. On Sept. 29, USCRI officially represented both mother and child in immigration court. The judge subsequently granted a continuance on Oct. 2, leading into a follow-up hearing scheduled for Friday.

Officials explained that the July breakdowns highlighted the core reason the administration terminated Acacia's multimillion-dollar contract, which was awarded under the Biden administration in November 2023. According to federal contract records on USAspending.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services had awarded the Acacia Center for Justice a $356.3 million bridge contract for legal services for unaccompanied children. Of that total award, more than $236.9 million had been outlaid prior to the contract's dissolution.

The network previously provided counsel to roughly 20,000 migrant children across the U.S., according to its website.

"I knew we were signing off on every invoice that we were receiving for legal services to the tune of $20-plus million sometimes each month," she told Fox News Digital. "So it made no sense to me that legal service providers were saying kids were unrepresented for a lack of funding."

"I tried to understand who was represented before," she added. "I tried to understand what we were paying for under this direct representation, but the invoices we received were completely redacted. There is no way I could ever know exactly what service was provided during the month."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Acacia Center for Justice for comment. The contract funded a slew of services, including legal screenings, representations and presentations on the rights of migrant children in detention.

Following the dissolution of the Acacia contract, the ORR entered into a $20 million contract with USCRI, which expires Dec. 31.

"So USCRI was showing up in court as a friend of the court to ensure that there was at least somebody present in case Acacia did not show up," Fabricatori said. "Now, as those cases are being looked at, USCRI is able to go in and actually meet with these children and then represent them in a follow-up hearing. So there may be some hearings where a child shows up, and initially they don't have representation, but USCRI will be there, identify that child, and then be able to move forward in the future as a representative for that child."

WOMAN EXPOSED RUNNING VISA FRAUD SCHEME SPANNING YEARS, POSING AS IMMIGRATION OFFICER

Salazar emphasized that ORR officials track which children are represented by which lawyers on specific dates, noting that the agency respects attorney-client privilege.

"The former provider refused to give us those measurables," Fabricatori said. "They refused to give us the alien registration number so we could determine what cases they were actually representing. They didn't want to give that. They refused to give that, and that was a holdup for us because we needed to know who was actually being represented so we can ensure that every kid at least had their legal orientation and had a legal representative that was talking to them."

HUNDREDS OF JAILED ILLEGAL ALIENS RELEASED BACK ONTO BLUE-STATE STREETS DESPITE ICE DETAINERS, RECORDS SHOW

Salazar noted that about 2% of migrant children in ORR custody are under the age of 5. Another 85% are ages 13 to 17, with 62% falling into the 16-to-17 bracket.

"What we said to our new grantee (USCRI): ‘We want you in 100% of the hearings where kids in our care are showing up to their immigration hearings,’" she said. "That is happening. I think we're at like 98%."

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Fabricatori added there are currently 1,690 migrant children in ORR custody.

"Under Biden, they had 22,000 in care a day. So it's a very vast difference," he said. "We've been able to lower that census, get kids through the court process quicker, and get them back with their parents if possible."

CBP commissioner Rodney Scott says $46bn Texas project is justified amid court-ordered pause on wall’s construction

The Trump administration’s top border official defended plans to build a wall and other infrastructure in the Big Bend of Texas despite mounting opposition against the project and a court-ordered pause on construction, saying his goal of fortifying the country’s borders was “non-negotiable”.

Rodney Scott, the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said the $46bn wall project was justified despite a bipartisan coalition of landowners, local businesses and environmentalists who view it as a waste of taxpayer money that could be destructive to a region with historically low migrant crossings, in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press.

On Thursday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Last Word,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) stated that the Trump administration “reviles immigrants” and Elon Musk is “an immigrant who came in, who never really inhaled the real values of our country. …

The post Raskin: Musk ‘an Immigrant’ ‘Who Never Really Inhaled the Real Values’ of U.S., Trump Admin. ‘Reviles Immigrants’ appeared first on Breitbart.

President Donald Trump called on Thursday for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to be disqualified from Congress and resign immediately.

The post Trump Tells Rally That Rep. Ilhan Omar Has Used a ‘False Name’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Obama-endorsed Iowa Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Josh Turek said illegal immigrants should not face immediate deportation during an exchange with NBC News anchor Tom Llamas, while inaccurately linking Republican Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) and Randy Feenstra (R-IA) to the Dignity Act, immigration legislation that would establish a pathway to legal status for certain illegal immigrants.

The post Iowa Dem Josh Turek Rejects Immediate Deportation of Illegal Aliens, Incorrectly Links Reps. Miller-Meeks and Feenstra to Dignity Act appeared first on Breitbart.

Eric Flores, a Republican vying to unseat incumbent Democrat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) in Texas's 34th Congressional District, said he witnessed the realities of the border crisis firsthand in Texas during his time as a solider on Operation Guardian Support during President Donald Trump's first term.

The post Exclusive — TX GOP Candidate Eric Flores: I Saw the Border Crisis Firsthand in Texas as a Soldier appeared first on Breitbart.

South African police on Thursday said they were investigating the killing of a foreign national at the hands of a mob in the coastal city of Durban. 

The post South African Police Investigate Mob Lynching of Foreigner appeared first on Breitbart.

“Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is under investigation for potential immigration fraud that could have major consequences, and Senator Slotkin of Michigan is warning Republicans not to work for Trump, or they might be investigated,” asks Peter Schweizer. “Is this political targeting? Is it all the same?”

The post Peter Schweizer: the Immigration Questions Ilhan Omar Dodged for a Decade appeared first on Breitbart.

A former retirement home earmarked to become asylum accommodation in an English village has burnt down.

The post Police Consider Potential Arson After Potential Asylum Accommodation Burns appeared first on Breitbart.

The FBI has posted surveillance photos and a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of an unidentified male who investigators say threw a “Molotov cocktail-style device” at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in downtown Atlanta on Tuesday night.

The post FBI Offers $20,000 Reward for Info on Suspect Who Threw Molotov Cocktail at Atlanta ICE Building appeared first on Breitbart.

Abdul El-Sayed should be asked why he tried in 2017 to conceal his birth in the United States, Vice President JD Vance told streaming host Mark Halperin.

The post JD Vance Says Abdul El-Sayed Shows ‘Revulsion to Native-Born Americans’ appeared first on Breitbart.

A top federal prosecutor in California said federal investigators have determined that all 20,000 people they flagged on the state's voter rolls as "likely noncitizens" are not U.S. citizens.

Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for California's Central District, told Fox News Digital that federal investigators have evidence that these 20,000 individuals received mail ballots this month. His office sued California last week seeking a court order to prevent any ballots they return from being counted.

"We're not asking California to take any drastic steps other than to sequester the ballots from the suspected noncitizens," Essayli said in an interview on Wednesday. "We believe it's at a minimum of 20,000. That's the floor."

The potential ceiling, he said, is much larger. Essayli referenced a letter Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent to California in July that flagged nearly 200,000 voters as possible noncitizens.

DOJ OFFICIAL DEFENDS TRUMP'S NONCITIZEN VOTER PROBE ON '60 MINUTES,' ACCUSES SHOW OF EDITING OUT HER ANSWERS

Since then, federal investigators have been sifting through those records to identify people they believe they can verify as noncitizens.

He said 20,000 is only the current tally and expects thousands more names to be added in the coming days.

Earlier this week, Essayli got into a social media spat with Gov. Gavin Newsom over the state's safeguards against noncitizen voting.

Essayli argued that California is allowing people without citizenship onto the voter rolls through its supposedly lax verification processes, while Newsom said the state follows all relevant federal law governing the integrity of elections.

In court filings, California election officials have pushed back against the Justice Department's demands, arguing that county election offices lack both the authority and access to federal records needed to verify voters' citizenship status.

They have also said that sequestering ballots from people on the DOJ list is impossible in cases where the ballots have already been processed. Once a ballot's signature is verified, it is removed from its identifying envelope and processed alongside other ballots, meaning it can no longer be traced back to an individual voter.

STATE DEPARTMENT CONSIDERS SHARING PASSPORT RECORDS FOR VOTER CITIZENSHIP CHECKS

"That is true. That's why we're getting an emergency court order requiring them to put those ballots aside," Essayli said. "Ballots have already gone out, people are filling them out and they're being returned in process as we speak. So, the crime is occurring in real time."

The DOJ escalated its push for immediate court intervention Wednesday, asking the judge to rule on its emergency request by noon Thursday. In Los Angeles County alone, officials have already processed 331,000 ballots, according to court records.

Essayli's office filed suit on Oct. 15, roughly two weeks after California sent out mail ballots, including to the possible noncitizens on the DOJ list, according to the federal government.

When asked why the Justice Department didn't act sooner, Essayli explained that investigators did not know exactly which voters would receive ballots until they were sent.

ELECTION CRIME ARRESTS KEEP PILING UP AS DEMS INSIST IT 'JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN'

He said California should cooperate with the federal government to expedite the process of verifying voters' citizenship.

That would involve providing additional identifying information, including driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers when available, that federal investigators could cross-check against government databases.

California and dozens of other states treat this information as confidential and have refused to turn it over to the federal government, prompting the DOJ to take several of them to court.

In a separate lawsuit from Sept. 2025, the DOJ tried to compel California to provide its complete, unredacted voter-registration database, including names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and voting histories.

In January, a district court sided with California and dismissed the case, calling the government's request "unprecedented and illegal." The DOJ appealed the ruling and litigation is ongoing.

MAP IT: DOJ ILLEGAL VOTING CRACKDOWN SWEEPS 17 STATES AS RAZOR-THIN ELECTIONS FACE SCRUTINY

"If California will make available or submit its records, we can quickly put them through our established systems to determine who's a citizen and who's not," Essayli told Fox News Digital. "They're forcing us to do it the hard way, which we're willing to do because this is very important."

He said every person on the current 20,000-name list was individually reviewed by a federal employee at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations.

California officials, however, have questioned the reliability of the DOJ list.

Monica Flores, an assistant registrar-recorder in Los Angeles County, said in a court declaration that her office conducted a preliminary review of a sample of 200 records from the list that were associated with LA County addresses.

Of those, 112 corresponded to canceled or inactive voter registrations, meaning no ballot was mailed to those individuals for the November election, Flores said.

TRUMP ADMIN WANTS TO REQUIRE TAX FILERS TO DISCLOSE CITIZENSHIP STATUS TO IRS

"I don't believe that, actually," Essayli said. "The information we have is that they likely received ballots. So we are asking for the names of people they claim whose registration has been canceled."

Essayli added LA County did not say when these registrations were canceled. He raised the possibility at least some were canceled after federal officials provided the state with their list.

"If they're canceling now based on the records we provided, that's great news," Essayli said. "But that's all to be determined."

In the 200-person sample reviewed by LA County, Flores said that among records where birthplace was "meaningfully reported," 38.9% indicated the person was born in the United States, which she called "strong evidence of citizenship."

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Essayli similarly disputed this conclusion, arguing that the birthplace information — much like the citizenship information itself — was provided by the registered voters themselves.

"They're not independently checking any of this information," Essayli said. "They're going off the information that was provided to them by the person who registered to vote."

The California Secretary of State's office and the LA County Registrar-Recorder's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

Essayli said that his office is determined to follow through with its investigation because "one noncitizen voting is too many."

"One illegal vote cancels out the vote of an American citizen. There are a lot of local elections that are decided on very few votes," he said. "Noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections, and we intend to enforce that law."

The Pentagon’s Active Denial System shoots energy beam that causes ‘sensation of intense heat on surface of skin’

Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, reportedly signed a memo last month permitting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a non-lethal “heat ray” for potential use at the US southern border.

The “heat ray”, known as the Active Denial System, is a military-grade weapon that shoots an energy beam causing “a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin”, according to a 2009 National Defense University case study on the weapon.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. refer to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi" in their latest filing.

The post Feds Refer to Rep. Ilhan Omar as ‘Ilhan Nur Said Elmi,’ Renewing Allegations She Married Her Brother appeared first on Breitbart.

Modern Times Café, the Minneapolis restaurant that eliminated prices for meals to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has apparently protested itself right out of business.

The post Minneapolis Restaurant that Eliminated Prices to Protest ICE Raids Announces It Will Close appeared first on Breitbart.

An illegal alien, released into the United States by the Biden administration, was freed from jail by officials in Deschutes County, Oregon, a sanctuary jurisdiction, after having allegedly killed newlyweds 25-year-old William Micah Carter and 24-year-old Jennifer Lynn Lower in December of last year.

The post Biden-Released Illegal Alien Freed from Jail in Sanctuary Oregon After Allegedly Killing Young Newlyweds appeared first on Breitbart.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) urged Kansans who voted for President Donald Trump to turn out in the Senate election, arguing that border security, lower taxes, and military funding were at stake in his race against Democrat Adam Hamilton.

The post Roger Marshall Reminds Kansas Voters Border Security, Tax Cuts Are at Stake in Senate Race appeared first on Breitbart.

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.

FORMER USCIS OFFICIAL, ACCOMPLICE CHARGED IN ALLEGED $960K CITIZENSHIP BRIBERY SCHEME

"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.

WOMAN EXPOSED RUNNING VISA FRAUD SCHEME SPANNING YEARS, POSING AS IMMIGRATION OFFICER

"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.

BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE DEALS TRUMP ANOTHER SANCTUARY CITY DEFEAT IN MAJOR IMMIGRATION FIGHT

"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.

BIRTH TOURISM SELLS AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP, AND TRUMP IS SHUTTING IT DOWN

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.

DOJ SAYS 11 MIGRANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-STATE SEX TRAFFICKING, DRUG, FIREARMS CASE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

While prosecutors described Gonzalez as the ringleader of the operation, authorities arrested four other co-conspirators involved in the scheme.

Fox News Digital's James Cirrone contributed to this report.

Federal prosecutors in Texas connected three members of a cartel-connected human smuggling organization during a jury trial that led to a conviction this week. Prosecutors linked the suspects to large-scale smuggling of migrants, with some migrants dying during smuggling attempts. Two of the convicted members are also tied to kidnappings, hostage taking, extortion of migrants, and multiple murders -- including one where the victim was dissolved in acid and then set on fire.

The post Cartel-Connected Human Smuggler Convicted for Shooting, Setting Fire to Victim near Texas Border appeared first on Breitbart.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., denied Wednesday that she married her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, to commit immigration fraud and pushed back against claims that they are related.

But when asked if there's any familial relation with her ex-husband, Omar admitted, "Not to my knowledge." 

The interview marked the Somali-born congresswoman's first time speaking with the media since federal agents searched her Washington, D.C., residence on Oct. 12. The congresswoman's office has not responded to Fox News Digital's repeated requests for comment regarding the investigations and raid on her home earlier this month.

ILHAN OMAR BELIEVES TRUMP RAID ON HOME WAS MEANT TO 'INTIMIDATE AND SCARE PEOPLE' FROM VOTING

"It all started with the Somali blog," Omar told MS Now host Chris Hayes regarding longstanding rumors that they are siblings. "Somebody put it there, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect."

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents executed a court-authorized search warrant as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation into possible false statements in Omar's immigration and naturalization documents.

The Justice Department has not publicly detailed the allegations.

FEDERAL AGENTS RAID ILHAN OMAR'S DC HOME AMID IMMIGRATION FRAUD INVESTIGATION

U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved the warrant, according to court-related reporting.

Omar has denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated. She appeared publicly for the first time since last Monday's raid with a video posted to social media from the back of a car where she asked supporters to keep sending her money.

Federal authorities issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to members of Omar's family, and seized her cellphone during the investigation, according to The Associated Press.

Fox News Digital reported that Omar's sister, Sahra Noor, spoke with federal investigators last week in the wake of the raid.

ILHAN OMAR RAID SPARKS OMINOUS PREDICTION FROM WATCHDOG: 'THEY PROBABLY GOT THE GOODS'

A separate inquiry from the immigration fraud investigation is examining Omar's campaign finances and financial disclosures. 

That investigation reportedly began during the Biden administration in 2024. The complaint about her massive wealth disparity in her disclosures was dismissed by congressional ethics hawks but is now being investigated by authorities outside the Capitol, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced last week.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Both investigations remain ongoing.