Trump Watch

Blurb:

What happens with a secure border?

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau describes a remarkable set of changes happening in the United States. Population growth is slowing or reversing toward decline in many metropolitan areas, and population losses are accelerating in some counties that were already shrinking.

Several things are happening behind those changes, but here’s what the Census Bureau identifies as the biggest cause:

“These shifts were largely due to lower levels of net international migration (NIM), which declined nationwide. Nine out of 10 U.S. counties experienced lower NIM levels between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, compared to the year prior. The one in 10 counties that did not see a drop in international migration did not see an increase either.”

Blurb:

“One woman became so sick from eating the food that she began vomiting blood.”

“My kids are terrified; we are all depressed.”

“I always ask my children for forgiveness for making them suffer through all of this.”

Though the number of families inside Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas has dropped dramatically in recent months, for dozens of children still inside, such brutal conditions remain. Now, at the risk of their stories fading to the background of the Trump administration’s cascading crises, Ms. Rachel, the beloved children’s educator, is calling on the public to fight for their release.

“We have to hold on to hope for families who are locked in Dilley and keep going,” Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, told Mother Jones. “I do believe the public outcries and the people who have come together and worked on this long before I have are making a huge difference.”

“I do believe the public outcries and the people who have come together and worked on this long before I have are making a huge difference.”

Blurb:

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is doubling down on earlier promises to arrest and prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, this time threatening agents deployed to his city’s airport.

The George Soros-backed prosecutor made his threats during a Tuesday press conference, directing his remarks to federal ICE agents who helping to patrol Philadelphia’s International Airport.

Blurb:

The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to temporarily place a fee on packages due to rising fuel prices as the war in Iran continues to rattle energy markets.

The 8% fuel surcharge on packages under Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select is expected to take effect on April 26 and remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027. The Postal Regulatory Commission must review and approve the fee before it is enacted. If approved, first-class stamps and other mail services would not be affected.

“Transportation costs have been increasing, and our competitors have reacted with a number of surcharges,” the service said in a statement on Wednesday. “We have steadfastly avoided surcharges, and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone.”

The development comes as the war in Iran has triggered the largest disruption to the global energy supply in history, due largely to Iran’s sweeping blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices have spiked roughly 40%, approaching a record $120 a barrel earlier this month before stabilizing slightly.

Blurb:

Democrats have spent the past year calling ICE agents the nazi secret police, disappearing random brown people off the streets. I know that you know that I know that you know their real concern was all the undocumented democrats Trump was deporting, but that’s besides the point. They lied about ICE agents, then held Homeland Security funding hostage until Republicans reformed (defunded) ICE based on those lies.

Chaos was caused at airports. Americans were made to suffer on behalf of the Democrat Party agenda. Trump sent ICE agents to the airports to help. Democrats said they were going to shoot passengers. It was going to be a disaster.

Congrats to Chuck Schumer and Temu Obama. You just played yourself.

Blurb:

The Trump administration has taken a significant step toward shutting down the Department of Education by transferring one of its largest responsibilities, student loan operations, to the Treasury Department.

The move signals what officials describe as the most substantial phase yet in a broader effort to wind down the federal agency.

Major Shift in Student Loan Control

The Department of Education announced an interagency agreement with the Treasury Department that will transfer responsibility for collecting defaulted federal student loan debt.

Under the agreement, Treasury will “assume operational responsibility for collecting on defaulted Federal student loan debt and provide operational support to ED’s efforts to return borrowers to repayment,” the department said.

Nicholas Kent, Undersecretary of Education, described the move as part of a larger strategy:

“I think we’ve been very clear about this last week that this is a multiphase process.”

Blurb:

California Democrats are melting down after a viral video showed federal immigration authorities arresting two illegal aliens at San Francisco International Airport.

The footage shows one of the illegal aliens, a woman, wailing and dropping to the ground as plainclothes agents take her into custody while a child cries nearby.

In response to the footage, Democrats deceitfully described the woman as a “Sacramento mother.”

Democrats Condemn Arrest

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) responded by condemning the arrest and demanding answers from federal authorities.

“I am deeply angered by the video released of a Sacramento mother being forcibly detained by ICE in front of her young daughter at San Francisco International Airport this weekend,” Matsui said.

“This is our neighbor and a member of our community.

“This video showcases the cruelty we have come to expect from Trump’s ICE agents…

“I am demanding answers as to why ICE treated this Sacramentan so violently in front of her daughter.”

Blurb:

Over the weekend, Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Medina-Medina was arrested for murdering 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman. Gorman, 18, was walking with friends in Chicago when Medina-Medina shot her in the head. He was released at the border by the Biden administration back in 2013.

Medina-Medina missed his court appearance yesterday because he was hospitalized with tuberculosis.

Here’s more:

Sheridan Gorman spent the early morning hours on Thursday with friends, watching the skyline on the Loyola Beach Pier, prosecutors said, when she noticed someone hiding.

As the group started to run away, Jose Medina, 25, fired a gun, prosecutors alleged Monday, hitting the 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student in the back while her friends took cover in a grassy area of the beach.

Though a full detention hearing was postponed because Medina is hospitalized with tuberculosis, Cook County prosecutors gave a brief account of the shooting that plunged the Rogers Park university into mourning and generated international headlines when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it had lodged a detainer request asking Illinois officials not to release Medina, who is a Venezuelan national.

Medina is facing charges of murder, among other felonies, in the slaying of Gorman, who was a first-year student from Yorktown Heights, New York. He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday where his public defender will detail any mitigating circumstances.

Blurb:

The problem with crime committed by illegal aliens is that it is 100% preventable. Far too many Americans have tragically lost their lives because the left refuses to admit that borders are, in fact, morally and legally permissible. According to leftist logic, though, so long as no human is illegal, none of this matters. And in that pathetic pursuit, another innocent American has lost her life far too soon.

Even worse is that Chicago Democrat and 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden has decided to victim-blame, as she claims that if Gorman had been elsewhere at the time of the crime, none of this would have happened.

And to call this the perfect example of fake leftist compassion would be an understatement.

According to The Post Millennial:

18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman was shot and killed in the early hours of Friday morning when she was out with her friends near Tobey Prinz Beach Park in Chicago. The suspect in that killing is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela Jose Medina, 25, who was released into the country under the Biden administration and was further caught and released after a shoplifting arrest.

Blurb:

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman on Tuesday criticized his party over its response to an illegal immigrant allegedly killing female college freshman Sheridan Gorman.

Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan who was released into America under former President Joe Biden after being arrested by Border Patrol, allegedly shot and killed Gorman on Thursday near her Loyola University campus as she attempted to flee, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Fetterman suggested on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that Democrats were not properly mourning the killing or accepting accountability for it.

WATCH:

“[W]hy can’t we just talk about that life lost? Why can’t we just acknowledge this is a serious, serious failure … it’s devastating as a father,” Fetterman said.

The senator noted that he was a co-sponsor of the Laken Riley Act.

“[W]e have to require to protect America from the dangerous elements that shouldn’t even be here illegally always,” he said.

“I think only seven or eight Democrats even voted for Laken Riley. Why can’t you just agree that if you’re breaking the law and you’re already here illegally, deport them,” Fetterman added. “I just don’t understand. And then tragedies just like what happened to that young woman, they are going to continue to happen. That’s justice, that’s beyond common sense. Why can’t you just support this? Why is that unreasonable to anybody?”

Blurb:

Epic Games said on Tuesday (Mar 24) it would cut more than 1,000 jobs after a drop in engagement for Fortnite, its flagship title, the latest cuts in the video-game industry whose growth has stalled amid economic uncertainty.

The cuts, along with more than US$500 million in savings from lower contracting and marketing spending and unfilled roles would put the company in “a more stable place,” Chief Executive Tim Sweeney said in a note to employees.

The cuts are the latest in the gaming sector, where companies have faced weaker growth as consumers have been sticking with proven titles amid economic uncertainty.

But even those, especially live services games, which depend on a steady stream of new content to keep players engaged, are now showing signs of cracks.

Blurb:

An illegal alien previously released twice before by sanctuary city Chicago is now in custody again and charged with murdering an 18-year-old woman on Thursday.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement released Sunday:

“According to local reports, 18-year-old Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman was shot and killed on Thursday morning around 1:00 am while she was walking in a park with friends. Medina-Medina is accused of approaching her while wearing a mask and armed with a gun.

“As she attempted to flee, he fired his gun and shot her. Gorman was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.”

Blurb:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained and deported hundreds of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants since the start of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed for the first time Wednesday. Federal policy says that such individuals should only be detained in limited circumstances.

Between January 1, 2025, and February 16, 2026, 363 pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants were deported, DHS reported in response to questions submitted last fall by Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat. Sixteen miscarriages were recorded during that time period. In total, 498 pregnant, postpartum and nursing people were reported as “booked out” of ICE detention in that timespan, meaning that they were detained and then left ICE facilities.

As of February 16, 121 people who were actively detained were pregnant, postpartum or nursing, according to DHS. Of those, nine were in their third trimester of pregnancy.

Blurb:

There are fears that a period of elevated oil and gas prices could trigger a damaging wave of global inflation.

Oil prices have risen more than 5 percent following an Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gasfield as the United States-Israeli war on the country continues to escalate.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 5 percent to $108.66 a barrel on Wednesday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1, the price barometer for US oil, gained 2.5 percent to $98.65, widening its discount to Brent to the largest since May 2019 on fears of a prolonged conflict.

Blurb:

On Monday, the Supreme Court added two significant immigration cases to its docket. The cases are styled Noem v. Doe and Trump v. Miot, and both involve the issue of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The first comes out of the Southern District of New York and involves TPS for Syrians; the second comes from the D.C. District and involves Haitians.

Some background:

Congress enacted the Temporary Protected Status program in 1990. The program gives the Department of Homeland Security the power to designate a country’s citizens as eligible to remain in the U.S. and work if they cannot return to their own country because of a natural disaster, armed conflict, or other “extraordinary and temporary” conditions there.

Blurb:

It can’t be said often enough: States around the country have granted tens of thousands of commercial drivers’ licenses (CDLs) to illegal aliens who can’t read English, don’t understand road signs, don’t know the rules of the road, and whose prior driving records are unknown.

And American drivers are dying as a result.

During the month of February, for example, illegal aliens caused two fatal crashes in Indiana. The first killed four Amish men — Henry Eicher, 50, Menno Eicher, 25, Paul Eicher, 19, and Simon Girod, 23 — after Bekzhan Beishekeev, an illegal from Kyrgyzstan, swerved into a lane of oncoming traffic, hitting their van head-on. Beishekeev came to the United States using the CBP One app developed by the Biden administration to help illegal immigrants enter the United States more easily. He was released into the country in 2023, and soon thereafter, Beishekeev got a CDL in Pennsylvania.

The second crash happened later in the month when illegal alien Singh Sukhdeep allegedly ran a red light in his big rig, causing a crash that killed 64-year-old Terry Schultz. Sukhdeep entered the United States as a minor, and the Flores settlement has continued to shape how minors are processed and released. The first Trump administration tried to change that framework in 2019, but federal courts blocked key portions of that effort and the agreement remained in effect.

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Late last year, my colleague Elizabeth Stauffer reported that “ultra-conservative” candidate José Antonio Kast had won a landslide victory in Chile’s presidential election.

And by “ultra-conservative,” what is really meant is running for office by promising to take actions that normal people want and need. Kast, a Roman Catholic and lawyer, had a campaign centered on restoring order, cracking down on crime and illegal immigration, and revitalizing Chile’s market-oriented economic model through spending cuts and pro-business reforms.

How is Kast doing at this point? Less than a week after his inauguration, construction of a border wall between Chile and Peru began.

Less than a week after his inauguration, Chile’s arch-conservative president on Monday began overseeing preparations to build a border barrier — part of his flagship campaign promise to block immigrants from crossing illegally.

From Chile’s northern frontier area of Chacalluta, where legions of immigrants have slipped across the Peruvian border into one of the region’s most prosperous nations, Kast vowed to implement what he calls his “Border Shield” plan. Among other steps, it involves the construction of a physical barrier at the nation’s northern border made up of ditches and fences and patrolled by drones and the military forces.

…Kast assured the public that “for all of Chile, this is a milestone.”

“We have taken clear and concrete decisions to close our border to illegal immigration, drug trafficking and organized crime,” he said. “We want to implement this without any delay.”

Blurb:

Diesel fuel, the lifeblood of U.S. industry, crossed an alarming and historic benchmark Tuesday.

Amid the Iran War and the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the U.S. average retail diesel prices have crossed $5 a gallon, the highest since December 2022.

This marks only the second time diesel prices have hit the historic 5-dollar benchmark, according to Reuters. Tuesday’s new average of $5.04 is now a record high, according to analysts at GasBuddy.

Meanwhile, gas prices across the country have surged 74 cents a gallon. This reportedly marks nearly a 30% increase over the past month, the highest monthly spike since Hurricane Katrina.