The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has less than 10% of front-line staff available for deployment amid preparations for the second major hurricane to hit the Southeast this month, according to the agency’s daily operations briefing.

FEMA released a daily briefing on Wednesday revealing the agency had only 8%, or 1,115, FEMA staff members currently available as preparations continue for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to hit Florida in the coming days. This number represents a significant drop in availability from a year prior, after an operations briefing from late September 2023 showed the agency had 20% of the same staff available for deployment. 

A FEMA spokesperson indicated to Fox News Digital that the availability numbers released by the agency are only in reference to the cadre of staffers who are part of FEMA’s incident management core capacity. They are the first line of FEMA staffers to deploy in any disaster. 

Meanwhile, the FEMA spokesperson pointed out the agency has a total workforce of 22,000 staffers it can tap, as well as resources from other agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security.  

The fear of front-line FEMA staffing comes amid other concerns about FEMA’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including claims that the agency spent its money on housing for migrants and is blocking private relief distributors from entering areas in North Carolina impacted by Helene.

FEMA HEAD DENIES AGENCY IS SHORT ON MONEY FOR DISASTER RELIEF BECAUSE FUNDS WENT TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS  

In May 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report indicating that, as of the start of Fiscal Year 2022, FEMA was understaffed by 35% with an overall staffing gap of approximately 6,200 employees. FEMA officials attributed the shortage to “responsibilities due to COVID-19 and managing the rising disaster activity during the year, which increased burnout and employee attrition,” according to the GAO.

With Hurricane Helene making a destructive and deadly sweep across the south, FEMA has been under high pressure to deliver aid to those in need. In the latest update on FEMA worker numbers, the agency indicated more than 5,600 personnel from across the federal workforce have been deployed, including more than 1,500 from FEMA. Additionally, the agency noted it has shipped more than 11.5 million meals, more than 12.6 million liters of water, 150 generators and more than 400,000 tarps to the region, while also helping thousands of Helene survivors with more than $45 million in “flexible, upfront” funding.

Despite the current staffing shortage, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorks insisted during an interview with MSNBC that Americans “should rest confident that FEMA has the resources” necessary to recover from Helene and prepare for Milton.

“We have search and rescue teams. The Army Corps of Engineers are there. We are ready,” Mayorkas said of Florida, in reference to the federal government’s preparation for Milton. “FEMA likes to say it is, ‘FEMA-flexible.’ We can respond to multiple events at a single time.”

VIDEO RESURFACES SHOWING FEMA PRIORITIZING EQUITY OVER HELPING GREATEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN DISASTER RELIEF

However, despite the optimistic response to concerns about FEMA resources, Mayorkas did say last week during a formal press conference that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.”

Questions about FEMA funding have been exacerbated by suggestions that the agency was giving disaster relief money to migrants. FEMA has sent aid to migrants, but the money was part of the Shelter and Services Program, which remains separate from disaster relief funds. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R–La., acknowledged that the funds were part of a separate program unrelated to disaster relief, but noted that he didn’t think the agency should be involved in the migrant crisis.

SPEAKER JOHNSON ADDRESSES CLAIMS FEMA DIVERTED FUNDS TO IMMIGRATION EFFORTS: ‘AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTED’

“The streams of funding are different, that is not an untrue statement, of course,” Johnson told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. “But the problem is with the American people, see, and what they’re frustrated by, is that FEMA should be involved.”

Concerns that private relief distributors are being blocked from entering parts of North Carolina that were impacted have also circulated. “Some of the reports that I’ve received through some of my contacts who are trying to provide assistance… they’re being told that they need special requirements from FEMA in order to enter these certain areas,” said Joe Rieck, vice president of My Patriot Supply, an emergency preparedness company. 

Before Helene made landfall, Congress passed a stopgap spending bill that included money for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, but excluded billions in additionally requested supplemental disaster funding. On Friday, President Biden wrote a letter to Congress urging them to provide additional funding because “while FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund has the resources it requires right now to meet immediate needs, the fund does face a shortfall at the end of the year,” he said. 

“Without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs,” Biden added. “The Congress should provide FEMA additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off and to give the communities we serve the certainty of knowing that help will be ongoing, both for the short- and long-term.”

When pressed about reconvening the House for a special session to approve additional funding, Johnson suggested FEMA has the funds it needs right now and, in order to approve additional funding, Congress needs requests from individual states to tabulate how much to provide. 

“The way the process works is the states, local authorities, they band together, they assess the damages, they send that to the federal authorities and it’s all worked through in that manner,” Johnson responded when pressed about whether he had plans to reconvene Congress for the matter. “It will take some time to tabulate this storm – it’s one of the biggest in our history – so a lot of that work is being done immediately. I think the timing of that will probably correspond when Congress is expected to return to session right after the election.”

North Korea is now sending troops to fight and die in Ukraine alongside Russian soldiers, according to Seoul’s defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun.

Kim told South Korean politicians on Tuesday it was “highly likely” six North Korean officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Donetsk last week. 

“We assess that the occurrence of casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine is highly likely, considering various circumstances,” Kim said, adding that they expect Pyongyang to send more soldiers to Russia in the near future. 

“The relations between Russia and North Korea are evolving to be almost as close as a military alliance,” he said. “As such, more North Korean troops could be deployed in the war, from how we look at it.”

RUSSIA JAILS MERCENARY STEPHEN HUBBARD FOR FIGHTING AS A MERCENARY IN UKRAINE 

The defense chief corroborated Ukrainian reports that North Koreans were now directly involved in the war. 

Russia and North Korea have deepened relations since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The two nuclear-armed states signed a defense pact in June when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea.

Both Russia and Ukraine have resorted to foreign fighters as their numbers of draft-age men dwindle. 

South Korea claims that Pyongyang has become a major supplier of weapons for Russia in the war. 

FMR ESTONIA PRESIDENT TELLS US TO STOP BEING AFRAID OF PUTIN 

North Korea has recently ramped up production and testing of artillery and cruise missiles. In March, Russia used its veto power at the United Nations to end monitoring for violations of a ban on North Korea testing ballistic technology.

A Ukrainian drone struck a key arms depot inside Russia around 70 miles from the border, where weapons gifted by North Korea were stored, the Ukrainian military said Wednesday. 

Hugely powerful glide bombs that have terrorized civilian areas of Ukraine and bludgeoned Ukrainian army defenses were also kept at the arsenal, located 115 kilometers (70 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and some of the ammunition was stored in the open, Ukraine said.

Iran, too, has been shipping missiles to Russia in recent months, according to U.S. defense officials. Russian soldiers have been training in Iran on the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles.

On Friday, Putin will meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. 

On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wished his “closest comrade,” Putin, a happy birthday, and claimed the two nations’ military alliance would make them “invincible.”

Kim said Putin would lead “great Russia on the road to victory.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

PHOENIX – Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda told Fox News Digital she was not impressed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent trip to the border, which she called a “photo op,” while explaining her belief the Biden-Harris administration has failed the American people at the border.

“I think President Biden abandoned this country and I think Vice President Harris is without a clue,” Swoboda told Fox News Digital. “She’s without a clue of what regular people are going through. She’s without a clue about the border. I do not think she cares.”

Swoboda told Fox News Digital she often talks to ranchers along the border whose families have lived there for 100 years and described the situation as “total devastation,” adding that Harris’ recent trip to the border was nothing more than a “photo op.”

“I’ve been to the border, you have to do more than just go down there and do a photo op and leave,” Swoboda said. “You have to consistently, I don’t expect the politicians themselves to be able to spend time here all the time, but when President Trump built the wall, I mean, he kept coming down, and you have to have people on the ground that are reporting to you.”

NEW POLL SHOWS WHO HISPANICS ARE BACKING IN SOUTHWEST SWING STATES

“This administration that’s in office has not called the head of the Border Patrol. The head of the Border Patrol union was giving remarks that said, like for a year, for two years, for three years, they didn’t even hear from the administration as we’re having the biggest crisis on the border we’ve ever had.”

Swoboda told Fox News Digital she doesn’t think Harris is “competent or qualified” to solve the border issue.

LAKE RIPS BIDEN-HARRIS ‘DOUBLE WHAMMY’ POLICIES AFFECTING ARIZONANS : ‘DRIVEN US OVER THE CLIFF’

“I don’t think she really understands what the role is to be the chief executive of the United States of America,” Swoboda added. “So we know we have one candidate that cares very deeply, that had the most secure border in my lifetime. And that’s what we really need back for Arizona. And what do they say? Every state is a border state now. It’s everywhere.”

A new Fox News survey of Arizona voters in late September showed Harris trailing by 3 points with Trump leading on the immigration issue by 15 points over the vice president. 

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Trump is also seen as being better at making the country safe by 7 points.  

In a five-year span, thousands of minors had gender reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone treatments at a number of children’s hospitals and medical facilities across the country, a medical watchdog is reporting via their new national database.

Do No Harm, a national advocacy group of medical professionals against “woke” hospital agendas, shared the database, called “Does My Hospital Transition Kids?”, with Fox News Digital this week. In total, the group conservatively identified 5,747 minor patients who received sex-change surgery, and 13,994 received some sort of gender reassignment treatment between 2019 and 2023.

The data, de-identified to meet HIPAA compliance rules, shows nearly $120 million total in charges for treatments like sex change surgeries and hormone blockers. 

“This is a very, very important issue, and it’s a very important issue to get right,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm’s chairman, said in a press conference this week. 

COLORADO STATE WINS IN STRAIGHT SETS AFTER DECIDING TO PLAY AGAINST TEAM MIRED IN TRANS PLAYER CONTROVERSY

“And I think, as you’ll hear, we’ve really been meticulous in trying to make sure that the data are as clear as possible and are as accurate as possible. And because of that, you’re going to find that, if anything, we’re showing the lower limits of what’s going on in this whole arena,” he said.

“And to be certain that we’re not overstating it one iota, we’re probably, and almost certainly, understating the nature of the problem,” he added.

Researchers analyzed insurance claims from private insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare, excluding data from Kaiser, self-pay and charity care. They also profiled 68 children’s hospitals across the country and identified what they called the “Dirty Dozen” institutions, which is a “list of the 12 worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors,” according to the new website.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was identified as number one, followed by the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Minnesota, Seattle Children’s, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Rady Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Children’s Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

According to the data, there are massive differences state by state, particularly in more liberal areas.

ABUSIVE: PEDIATRICIAN GROUP’S SUPPORT FOR TRANS THERAPIES REBUKED BY STATE AGS

In California, charges exceeded $28 million from over 2,000 minor patients, while Massachusetts saw around $10 million in expenses from 671 minor patients. New York also had one of the highest rates of transgender treatments for young people, with 1,154 minor patients undergoing sex changes between 2019 and 2023.

California, one of the first states to declare itself a “sanctuary state” for transgender procedures, also had the most irreversible surgeries, with 1,359 minors undergoing surgical procedures, followed by Oregon with 357, Washington with 330, Pennsylvania with 316 and Massachusetts with 300.

“Adults can do as they wish, but we feel very strongly that the science behind using these treatments in children is extraordinarily flawed and suggests that children are being harmed in that sense. One of the important issues is to develop some quantitative notion of what’s really happening in this arena,” Goldfarb said. “And there are lots of myths that are out there, lots of ideas that this is a rare event, lots of ideas that this is localized to just a few places.”

Activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole, who underwent a double mastectomy at 15 years old and put on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13, said the new database “proves the lies from the medical establishment and radical politicians who argue that cases like mine are rare.”

“The stats in this database represent thousands of kids who are being treated like Guinea pigs for unproven, and sometimes dangerous, medical experiments. I hope politicians and parents alike use this database to see where these treatments are happening and protect their children from being rushed into irreversible, life-altering treatments,” Cole said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

Some of the listed hospitals’ board members have openly advocated for transgender youth care over the years. CHOP also has a specific Gender and Sexuality Development Program department, which “supports children and teens up to age 21 who are gender nonconforming, gender expansive and transgender,” according to its website.

Madeline Bell, president and chief operating officer of CHOP, affirmed at the time of the department’s launch in 2014 the hospital’s commitment to providing “culturally competent and affirming healthcare” to LGBT patients and their families.

“This is a tremendous honor that reflects CHOP’s dedication to provide culturally competent and affirming healthcare to our LGBT patients and families,” Bell stated.

BIDEN OFFICIALS PUSHED TO DROP AGE LIMIT ON TRANS SURGERIES FOR MINORS: REPORT

In June 2019, president of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. David Nichols, emphasized the increasing need for “specialized healthcare” for the growing transgender youth population during the release of the 30th edition of the “KIDS COUNT Data Book,” published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This annual report provides a comprehensive review of child well-being in the U.S.

“We have a growing transgender youth population that is receiving healthcare, and the pediatric community has had to adapt to that with clinics and programs to care for these kids. This was not something that existed 30 years ago when ‘KIDS COUNT’ first started,” Nichols said. 

Pressure from conservative politicians and activists has been mounting in recent years against medical providers who conduct transgender surgical procedures on children. Last month, a group of attorneys general across the country demanded that the American Academy of Pediatrics rescind its support for transgender procedures – such as puberty blockers and surgeries – on children. 

The database is just another tool to “expose the dangers of experimental pediatric gender medicine and bring the practice to an end,” Do No Harm stated in a news release. 

A lawsuit lodged against Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares and various state elections officials alleges that an effort to eliminate noncitizens from voter registration rolls runs afoul of federal law.

The suit refers to the voter roll maintenance effort as a “Purge Program” and asserts that it violates the National Voter Registration Act.

Plaintiffs include the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, League of Women Voters of Virginia and the League of Women Voters of Virginia Education Fund.

VIRGINIA’S IN-PERSON EARLY VOTING BEGINS AS ELECTION SEASON PICKS UP STEAM

“Less than 60 days ago, Defendants announced the latest version of an effort to implement an ongoing program to systematically remove certain voters from the rolls. But federal law mandates that no such voter cancelation or list maintenance programs may be conducted during the 90-day ‘quiet period’ before an election,” the suit reads. 

“It is an illegal, discriminatory, and error-ridden program that has directed the cancelation of voter registrations of naturalized U.S. citizens and jeopardizes the rights of countless others,” the suit claims.

YOUNGKIN MANDATES ALL PAPER BALLOTS FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN VIRGINIA

Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), has defended the process.

“Every step in the established list maintenance process is mandated by Virginia law and begins after an individual indicates they are not a citizen. The DMV is mandated by law to send information about individuals who indicate they are a noncitizen in DMV transactions to (the state elections office),” Martinez noted, according to The Associated Press. “Anyone spreading misinformation about it is either ignoring Virginia law or is trying to undermine it because they want noncitizens to vote.”

THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS REMOVED FROM VOTER ROLLS, DOZENS OF LAWMAKERS WANT ANSWERS FROM GARLAND

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The AP also reported that Shaun Kenney, a spokesperson for the attorney general, noted via email, “We feel confident in the position the Department of Elections has taken and stand ready to defend.”

Early voting in Virginia for the 2024 elections began last month.

For a year now, freeing the hostages taken by Hamas has been a top goal for Israel, but 101 still remain unaccounted for. Hope of a deal to get them home in the foreseeable future is waning quickly. 

Of the 240 people taken hostage from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, 117 have either been freed during temporary truces or rescued during Israel Defense Forces (IDF) missions. Dozens of the 101 who have not been freed are believed to be dead. 

Four Americans – Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Omer Neutra, 22, and Edan Alexander, 21 – remain trapped among them.  

Many hostage families have lost faith in the U.S. and Israeli governments. “We don’t believe that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s priority is to bring home the hostages,” Hannaha Siegel, Keith Siegel’s niece, told CNN on Monday. 

“The ability to negotiate with [Hamas Leader Yaya] Sinwar to try to get the hostages that remain alive out is extremely unlikely,” said Mark Schwartz, a retired Army general and former U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“There’s no strategic benefit at all for Hamas. The hostages are useful human shields and getting several hundred Palestinians out of prisons, big deal,” he said, referring to a potential prisoner exchange. “That’s not going to extend the life of Hamas leadership that resides inside Gaza.” 

KAMALA HARRIS COURTS DISILLUSIONED ARAB AMERICANS OVER JEWISH VOTERS, RECORDS SHOW 

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have for months implored Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire deal that would see the hostages returned home. 

However, as war spread from Gaza to Lebanon to Tel Aviv – and with Israel considering an aggressive response to Iran’s most recent missile attack – U.S. calls for a cease-fire increasingly rattle around an empty echo chamber. 

“The mood is poor right now,” said Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

“What’s in Sinwar’s interest to make a deal? Hamas’ military capability is pretty much destroyed. I don’t think he thinks he’s ever going to get out alive. I don’t think he necessarily wants to leave Gaza alive anyway.”

Sinwar, Hamas’ shadowy leader and the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is believed to be alive and still committed to the destruction of Israel. 

HARRIS WON’T SAY WHETHER BIDEN ADMIN HAS ANY ‘SWAY’ OVER NETANYAHU

On the eve of the anniversary of the attacks, Netanyahu held his first meeting on the plight of the hostages in a month. According to The Times of Israel, his officials warned him intel on the hostages was quickly drying up. They reportedly told him they believed half of the hostages remained alive and were subject to increasingly squalid conditions. They also warned that Hamas militants were under orders to execute them if they felt the IDF was closing in on their position. 

Hamas executed six hostages in a tunnel in Rafah in August as the IDF drew near. 

“You want to hold out hope for someone to be rescued, but for a hostage deal, it’s not looking good,” said Makovsky. 

“I think Netanyahu should have demonstrated more sympathy towards the hostages early on, and then it became kind of entrenched that half the Israeli electorate didn’t like him anyway, so he didn’t care.

“In fairness to him, he was the prime minister that cut what turned out to be a terrible deal – which they released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners – for one Israeli hostage in Gaza,” added Makovsky. “One of those prisoners was Sinwar.”

In 2011, Israel agreed to an exchange where it released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners – including Sinwar – for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar was 22 years into four life sentences he received in Israel for orchestrating the killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he believed to be collaborators in 1989. 

Gershon Baskin, who led negotiations on that deal, said he believes Hamas is ready to strike an agreement – and it is not the one U.S. officials have worked on for months. 

“It would end the war in three weeks with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. They would release and return all the hostages, military, civilian, alive and dead, and there would be an agreed-upon release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has agreed to me in writing that they would transfer the governance in Gaza to a civilian, technocratic, professional government, which they will not be part of.” 

Critics of such ideas say they fall short of eliminating Hamas, which could rebuild itself and once again threaten Israel.

Baskin does not work on behalf of Israel or Hamas in any official capacity, but he said U.S. officials are aware of the offer and need to pressure Netanyahu and Hamas to work it out between themselves. 

In May, Biden unveiled a three-phase deal that would see Hamas return 18–32 hostages in exchange for 800 Palestinian prisoners and a six-week pause in fighting. 

“It’s a bad deal, and I know that the American leadership – [CIA Director Bill] Burns and [White House Middle East coordinator Brett] McGurk and others have invested themselves deeply in these negotiations, but they need to simply recognize that it’s not going anywhere,” Baskin said. “It’s a dead deal, and they need to pick up another deal that might actually work.” 

Efforts to reach the White House and the Israeli government for comment for purposes of this story were unsuccessful at press time. 

Fulton County, Georgia sued the Georgia State Elections Board this week in what was the latest development in an unfolding battle between the two entities over how to monitor and ensure election integrity in November.

The county board filed the lawsuit on Monday, the Associated Press reported, asking a judge to declare that the state board lacks the authority to force it “to accept, and Fulton County to pay for, additional monitors for the 2024 election that have been hand-picked by certain State Election Board members.”

“The State Election Board has no statutory authority to force the Fulton County BRE [Board of Registration and Elections] to accept, and Fulton County to pay for, election monitors hand-picked by the State Election Board,” the lawsuit says.

On Tuesday, the Georgia State Elections board responded by voting 3-2 to subpoena a trove of 2020 election documents from the Fulton County clerk of court, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

‘TOUGH CALL’: ATLANTA VOTERS SPLIT ON WHO WILL WIN GEORGIA

The State Election Board in May found that the county violated some parts of the state election code. It voted to issue a letter of reprimand, which included instructions for an agreement on a mutually acceptable monitor to be entered into by the board’s August meeting.

But the county and state election boards have been unable to reach an agreement. The county favors a team it has already approved that was proposed by Ryan Germany, a former chief lawyer for the secretary of state’s office, and the Atlanta-based Carter Center. The Trump endorsed majority on the State Election Board has proposed an alternative slate that includes people who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election.

 An Aug. 19 legal opinion written by state Attorney General Chris Carr and obtained by The Associated Press says final decisions of the State Election Board are “preclusive” and that “re-litigation of all claims which have already been adjudicated, or which could have been adjudicated, is therefore prohibited.” Fulton County attorneys assert that the approval of the motion at the May meeting and resulting reprimand meant the case is closed and can’t be reopened, and that “argument is likely correct,” Carr wrote.

GOV. KEMP SUSPENDS GEORGIA MAYOR CHARGED WITH LEAVING ALCOHOL IN DITCH FOR INMATES

Asked about the attorney general’s guidance, Johnston said, “That was opinion. That’s not a legal finding. That was their advice or opinion. We have different opinions about that.”

The Republican majority on the State Election Board repeatedly said during meetings in August that they did not approve of the county’s team. But the county board reaffirmed its selection, and county commissioners voted to approve the contract days later.

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The recent development comes a week after the Georgia State Election Board sparked controversy by voting 3-2 to approve a rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand after voting is completed in a decision that was opposed by the state attorney general’s office, the secretary of state’s office and an association of county election officials but supported by many conservatives.

The new rule, according to the Associated Press, requires that the number of paper ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same. If a scanner has more than 750 ballots inside at the end of voting, the poll manager can decide to begin the count the following day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
 

The Biden administration’s decision to not renew parole for more than half a million migrants who came under a controversial migrant flight program was greeted with surprise by some when it was announced, but conservatives are warning it will not make much of a difference.

“This move is yet another optics-driven smokescreen from the Biden-Harris administration,” House Homeland Security (DHS) Committee Chairman Mark Green said in a statement.

The DHS confirmed last week that the administration will not extend the two-year parole status for migrants who came in via the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) program. The program, established in 2022 and expanded in early 2023, allows migrants to receive travel authorization and parole for two years.

BIDEN ADMIN WON’T EXTEND PAROLE FOR 500,000+ MIGRANTS IN US VIA CONTROVERSIAL FLIGHT PROGRAM 

It allows 30,000 in each month, and so far nearly 530,000 migrants have flown in under the program. However, the administration said those paroles will not be renewed.

“As initially stated in the Federal Register notices, a grant of parole under these processes was for a temporary period of up to two years. This two-year period was intended to enable individuals to seek humanitarian relief or other immigration benefits for which they may be eligible, and to work and contribute to the United States,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

“Those who do not have pending immigration benefits or who have not been granted an immigration benefit during their two-year parole period will need to depart the United States prior to the expiration of their authorized parole period or may be placed in removal proceedings after the period of parole expires,” they said.

While the decision was greeted with disappointment by some immigration activists, conservatives have noted that Haitians and Venezuelans may in many cases be eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) which was renewed by the Biden administration and protects from deportation. Venezuela was renewed for TPS last year, and Haiti was renewed this summer, meaning those who arrived before those redesignations are eligible. Cubans, meanwhile, can apply for green card status via the Cuban Adjustment Act. Nicaraguans do not have a clear pathway but may be able to apply for asylum.

“There are numerous other ways these inadmissible aliens could be—and likely will be—allowed to stay, including through applying for asylum or Temporary Protected Status. Even if they don’t, however, given ICE’s low enforcement rates under this administration, most simply will not be priorities for removal,” Green said.

NEW POLL REVEALS TRUMP HAS SIGNIFICANT LEAD ON IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE 

Gene Hamilton, vice president and general counsel of America First Legal — an organization that worked with more than a dozen states to sue the Biden administration over the program — was also skeptical of the impact of the decision not to renew parole. He noted that the administration has no plans to wind down the program itself, so more migrants will be coming in. He called it “political theater.”

“We’re left with a situation where they’ve brought in all these people by the hundreds of thousands. They’re going to use TPS to allow them to stay here for as long as TPS is designated. And they’re not saying that they’re going to end this program in terms of bringing new people in and, of course, what that all amounts to is that none of these folks are going to be going home,” he told Fox News Digital.

He said he believes that the administration is trying to “save face” on border-related issues and also suggested that he believes that the administration may be nervous about the ongoing legal battle over the program, given the wide use of parole by the administration. 

DHS DOCS REVEAL WHERE PAROLED MIGRANTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN FLIGHT PROGRAM ARE LANDING 

“If they get a poor decision from their perspective about the authority to bring in these aliens into the United States under parole, they’re going to be in a world of hurt. Because for them the abuse of the parole authority is really the end all, be all across the spectrum,” he said.

Conservatives have long argued that the use of parole, which is limited by Congress to a case by case basis, for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

“If they’re viewed as bringing people in and then renewing it indefinitely, it undermines the integrity of their arguments that this is only on a temporary basis,” Hamilton said.

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Hamilton also argued that it is hard for even conservative administrations to deport migrants in many cases, given the refusal of some countries to take back their nationals, in addition to legal limits on TPS. Consequently, he said that under a Biden or Harris administration, he doubts that there will be a significant number of deportations of these migrants.

“The chances are effectively zero,” he said.

The move comes as the Biden administration has claimed its more recent policies at the southern border are working. Officials have pointed to a sharp drop in illegal encounters at the border since a presidential proclamation limiting entries in June. Officials say that since June 5, they have removed or returned more than 131,000 individuals to more than 140 countries, including operating more than 400 international repatriation flights. 

“Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010 and a majority of all southwest border encounters during the past three fiscal years resulted in a removal, return, or expulsion,” DHS said in a release last month.

Fox News’ Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.

Arizona began early voting Wednesday, marking yet another major swing state where voting is underway in the 2024 election.

With Arizona now in the mix, 41 states and Washington, D.C., have launched some form of early voting.

Here is everything you need to know to cast your ballot in the state.

NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION HAS TO ‘GET SERIOUS’ ABOUT IMMIGRATION, SAY VOTERS IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE

President Biden scored a crucial victory in Arizona in the last presidential election, flipping the state to the Democrats for the first time since 1996.

Four years later, the state remains highly competitive. In late September, a Fox News Poll put Republican former President Trump at 50% and Democrat Vice President Harris at 47% among likely voters; an AARP survey around the same time had Trump two points ahead of Harris at 49%-47%.

Maricopa County remains the most important battleground in the state. It is the fourth-highest populated county in the United States, represents more than 60% of Arizona’s registered voters and has a large suburban population, particularly in Mesa.

Arizona is also home to a higher proportion of Hispanic voters than the rest of the country, and while they favored Biden by 19 points in the last election, they have shown signs of shifting toward Trump.

Republicans are strongest in sparsely populated rural areas, particularly Mohave County (Trump +51) and Graham County (Trump +45), but they run up the margin most in the outer suburbs and exurban areas in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties.

Arizona is a Toss Up on the Fox News Power Rankings.

The Grand Canyon State will also vote for a new senator after independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema decided not to run for re-election this year. The Republican candidate is Kari Lake, a former TV news host who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022. The Democrats have fielded Rep. Ruben Gallego, a former Marine who represents Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District.

The Senate race is ranked Lean D.

There are two competitive House districts in Arizona:

This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for Arizona.

Arizona began absentee voting on Monday. Residents do not need to provide an excuse in order to receive a ballot. State officials must receive a ballot request by Oct. 25 and that ballot must be delivered to state officials by Nov. 5.

Arizona offers early in-person voting beginning Oct. 9 and running through Nov. 1.

Arizona residents were required to register to vote by Oct. 7.

PHOENIX – Abe Hamadeh, a Republican running for Congress in Arizona’s 8th Congressional district, told Fox News Digital that ‘radical’ Biden-Harris immigration policies are leading to increased gang violence in the key swing state of Arizona that is driving voters toward former President Trump.

“The border is the number one issue for everybody,” Hamadeh told Fox News Digital. “Every time I’m in my district, it’s the number one issue people talk about because they see the effects of the border crisis every single day, and we’ve had nighttime burglary, robberies happening in Arizona, in Maricopa County, particularly, these Chilean, illegal immigrants from Chile, this Chilean gang that were breaking into people’s homes.”

Hamadeh continued, “So you’re starting to see it’s not just crime on the streets, in the inner cities, but now it’s going into the sort of suburbs and that’s why the border, everywhere I go, it’s the number one issue.”

Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported on a home theft ring operated by members of a South American criminal gang that has been targeting high-end homes in the Phoenix area, resulting in the arrest of three Chilean citizens living illegally in the United States, authorities said. 

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The gang, which has been referred to as “tourist burglars” and the “dinnertime thieves”, has committed crimes all across Phoenix, and the suburbs of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Chandler, Gilbert and Peoria.

“People are concerned, rightfully so,” Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda told Fox News Digital. “Take Scottsdale as an example. Scottsdale is a nice little suburb in Maricopa County and there is this huge increase in homelessness. There was a series of home robberies and the police said it was a Chilean gang. So a gang from Chile came and started hitting houses in Scottsdale on a pretty routine basis and they were calling them like dinnertime robberies and you’re sitting down to dinner after you worked all day and now here comes the Chilean gang to rob your house.”

“This is crazy.”

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Migrant gangs have garnered national attention in recent months, particularly in Aurora, Colorado, where a Venezuelan gang has been tied to numerous crimes in the city. 

Hamadeh told Fox News Digital that the “radical” immigration policies of the Biden-Harris administration are playing a major role in the increase of gang activity in Maricopa County.

“Everybody knows it’s a joke,” Hamadeh said about the immigration policy put forward by Harris during her recent speech along the southern border. “We can’t escape the commercials that are on constantly, she’s walking on our southern border with Trump’s border wall which we all know she opposed. She’s the most radical person ever to run for president.”

“Everybody who’s law enforcement, Border Patrol, anybody who knows what’s going on is supporting President Trump because Kamala Harris is in a position of power and has done nothing about it. So we all know that this is her attempt at trying to just, you know, get votes. But we know that the radical left is adamant about keeping our border open, and it’s creating a national security risk.”

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That national security threat, Hamadeh told Fox News Digital, will ultimately result in voters supporting Trump in a key swing state where 11 electoral votes could decide the election.

” In my district, particularly, you know, we have all these Taiwanese companies moving into my district for the microchip industry, it’s 50 to $100 billion. That’s creating a national security risk,” Hamadeh said. “It’s great for economic development, but we have an open border, and you’ve got 30,000 Communist Chinese who have crossed our southern border last year. Unvetted.”

“That’s a prime intelligence target. I’m a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and we’re putting a target right now here in Arizona for some of these foreign adversaries to take advantage of. Just last week, we discovered that Iran or somebody may have snuck through ten shoulder-fired missiles possibly. I mean, we’re talking about the United States. How are we not securing our border? It seems like the easiest concept for everybody to understand and that’s where, in my district that’s why it is the number one issue and Kamala Harris is failing at it and that’s why she’s going to lose the election.”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report