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Texas AG demands Biden-Harris admin help verify citizenship of nearly 500K registered voters

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has written to the Biden-Har­ris administration urging it to provide data that would help identify up to half a million people who could be erroneously registered to vote in the state but not be a citizen.

Paxton, a Republican, said that the Biden-Har­ris administration has “legal obligations” to hand over such information so that the Lone Star state can help determine the citizenship status of certain registered voters who do not have a state of Texas-issued driver’s license or identification card since those are only issued after citizen checks. 

Non-U.S. citizens lawfully present cannot legally vote but can lawfully apply for and receive a driver’s license or ID card.

Paxton said he is investigating those registered voters so Texas can be in compliance with federal and state election laws which prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting. He penned his letter Monday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou.

ARIZONA LAW REQUIRING PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP TO VOTE SUPPORTED BY 24 STATE AGS IN EMERGENCY STAY WITH SCOTUS

“I demand full cooperation from the federal government to ensure that any noncitizens remaining on Texas’s voter registration rolls are identified,” Paxton said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration is legally obligated to assist States in doing so, and it is imperative that we use every tool available to uphold the integrity of our elections.” 

Paxton said that while it is a crime for noncitizens to register to vote, federal law paradoxically creates opportunities for non-citizens to illegally register to vote while also prohibiting states from requiring voters to have proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

He said it is particularly troubling given the current scale of the illegal immigration and that the Senate has not passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (“SAVE Act”), which would allow states to ensure that votes are being cast legally by eligible voters. He said that requiring proof of citizenship is a commonsense measure that helps identify illegal registration.

Paxton has obtained a list of approximately 454,289 Texas registered voters who have never had their citizenship verified. The list is derived from the Texas Secretary of State’s (SOS) computerized list of voters the office is required to maintain.

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

“Although I have no doubt the vast majority of the voters on the list are citizens who are eligible to vote, I am equally certain that Texans have no way of knowing whether or not any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote,” Paxton wrote in the letter.

“Indeed, a recent SOS audit verified that over 1,300 noncitizens were registered to vote in the four randomly chosen counties that were subject to an election audit—and that is just what was verifiable. That is 1,300 too many when so many of our federal, state, and local election are decided by a handful of votes.”

Paxton has been trying to crack down hard on non-citizens voting. 

In August, his office’s Election Integrity unit executed searches in three South Texas counties as part of his ongoing probe to investigate fraud and ballot harvesting allegations. 

In the same month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced 6,500 potential noncitizens had been removed from the voter rolls since 2021. Approximately 1,930 had a voter history.

Republicans have raised concerns about voter integrity issued and non-citizens being registered to vote ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

Officials in Oregon announced Monday that they have identified an additional 302 people on the state’s voter rolls who didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote. The announcement comes just two weeks after officials in the Beaver State said 1,259 possible noncitizens have been registered to vote since 2021, bringing the total number of mistaken registrations to 1,561. 

Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that nearly 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will be allowed to vote in the upcoming state and local elections.

New poll reveals which voter group are fueling Trump to a narrow edge over Harris in battleground

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Former President Donald Trump holds a razor-thin two-point edge over Vice President Kamala Harris in battleground Arizona, according to a new public opinion poll.

Fueling the former president’s margin appears to be support from voters age 50 and over.

Trump stands at 49% among likely voters in Arizona, with Harris at 47%, according to an AARP poll conducted Sept. 24-Oct. 1 and released on Tuesday. According to the survey, Green Party candidate Jill Stein grabs 1% support, with 3% undecided.

The survey points to a generational divide.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW

“Among voters 50+, Trump is ahead by 7 points, driven by a 14-point lead among voters 50-64,” the poll’s release highlights.

Harris holds a 4-point advantage among voters under 50, according to the survey, “while the race is a tossup with seniors.”

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

The poll also points to a gender gap in Arizona which favors Trump.

The former president and Republican nominee is up 11-points over the vice president and Democratic nominee among men, but down only 6 points among female voters, the survey indicates.

The survey is the latest to indicate a margin of error race between Harris and Trump in Arizona, a state President Biden narrowly carried over Trump in the 2020 election.

Arizona’s one of seven crucial battlegrounds whose razor-thin margins decided Biden’s White House victory four years ago and are likely to determine if Harris or Trump win the 2024 election.

NEW POLL INDICATES WHETHER HARRIS OR TRUMP IS WINNING KEY VOTERS IN TWO CRUCIAL SOUTHWEST BATTLEGROUNDS

The survey was released on the eve of the kick-off of early in-person voting in Arizona.

The major party vice presidential nominees – Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota – each hold campaign events in Arizona on Wednesday. Harris returns to the state on Friday.

Besides being a crucial presidential swing state, Arizona is also holding one of a handful of competitive Senate elections that will decide if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority.

The AARP poll indicates Democratic Senate nominee Rep. Rueben Gallego holding a 51%-44% lead over Republican nominee Kari Lake, a former news anchor who narrowly lost the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election.

The AARP poll was conducted by the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward (Republican) & Impact Research (Democrat). The firms interviewed 1,358 likely voters in Arizona. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Hispanic voters rail against ‘dishonest’ Biden-Harris border record as poll shows Trump gaining in key states

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LAS VEGAS – Hispanic voters at a pro-Trump event in Nevada ripped the Biden-Harris administration on immigration following news that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants charged with rape and murder are in the United States.

The current administration are very, very responsible,” Demesio Guerrero, a Trump supporter at a GOP Hispanic outreach event in Clark County, Nevada, told Fox News Digital in response to a question about recently released ICE data showing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sexual assault and murder convictions are living in the United States. 

They are like traitors of the United States. Because you know what, all the crimes, all the innocent Americans that are dying every day in many, many, many cities in the United States are the result of those criminals being loose.”

Blanca Fox, a Trump campaign volunteer originally from Guatemala, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration should have warned the American public about the ICE numbers. 

HARRIS SURROGATES TRY TO EXPLAIN AWAY ‘FLIP-FLOPPING’ IMMIGRATION POLICY

“They’re being like so dishonest right now with the whole country,” Fox said. “Everybody is hurt and they don’t see the reality that Kamala Harris has been for four years in the [vice] presidency and all we have is like problems. We have no solutions with them. We’re not against people to come to the United States, but the legal way, if you come to look for a better future, do it the right way and don’t come and commit crimes and be a problem.”

Lydia Dominguez, a Trump supporter from Clark County who spoke on a panel at the Latinos for Trump event, told Fox News Digital that “there is a crisis occurring at the border.”

HARRIS SUPPORTERS SAY SHE’LL FIX IMMIGRATION, BLAME TRUMP FOR BORDER CRISIS

“Between the drugs, the human trafficking, and now the millions of illegal immigrants that we have crossing over that we have not vetted or that have actually been charged for murder in other countries,” Dominguez said. “So it’s alarming what’s happening at the border.”

“They say that that’s only a very small group,” RNC Hispanic communications director Jaime Florez told Fox News Digital about criminal illegal aliens in the United States. “You know, try to explain those statistics to the parents of the girl that was killed in the University of Georgia. When 10 million people come into this country without being vetted in any way, it is impossible to think that no criminal is going to come among them.”

A Las Vegas resident called the current status of the southern border “terrible,” pointing out that “anyone can declare” asylum and “they’re just allowed to come in.” Former Texas congressional candidate Rolando Rodriguez told Fox News Digital that he grew up around the border and explained that today it is a “disaster like never before in the history of this nation and probably in the history of the world.”

This week, a pair of Suffolk University/USA Today surveys showed that Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters in the key swing states of Nevada and Arizona, but also showed Trump has made gains with younger male Hispanic voters compared to four years ago.

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

“So far, Harris is falling short of the 24-26 point advantage that Joe Biden carried with Hispanic voters in Arizona and Nevada in 2020, according to the exit polls from those states,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos highlighted. “This Democratic shortfall is largely due to young Hispanic men.”

The Hispanic voters who spoke to Fox News Digital expressed a similar sentiment to what was highlighted in the polling and said they expect Trump will increase his numbers with Hispanic voters in 2024, in part because of the immigration crisis. 

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President Reagan used to say Hispanics are Republicans. They just don’t know it yet,” Florez told Fox News Digital. “We’re finding out. I think that many Hispanics that are Democrats found out that the Democratic Party has taken them for granted for way too long. They have made us promises that they never fulfilled, including immigration reform that President Obama promised never happened.”

“We had a great time, it was a very prosperous time for us when President Trump was in the White House,” Florez added, noting that Hispanic household income was up during the Trump presidency.

“I’m sure that Trump is going to win Nevada. Definitely.”

Mayorkas rips ‘politicized’ atmosphere over FEMA disaster response amid GOP criticism: ‘It sows distrust’

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been a political lightning rod for controversy during the Biden-Harris administration, on Monday pushed back against what he claimed was “intentionally false information” about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) work.

“I have not seen it ever before at this level,” he said on MSNBC, speaking to host Jen Psaki. “You and I both remember a time when an extreme weather event, a natural disaster, actually brought people together. Now, unfortunately, tragically, quite frankly, it is politicized.”

Both DHS and FEMA have been under fire over their response to Hurricane Helene, with claims that it has diverted resources to illegal immigrants, has been delayed in its response, and is out of money.

SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ 

Much of the controversy was triggered last week when Mayorkas said FEMA “does not have the funds to make it through the season.” He went on to say that the agency has the money for “immediate needs” but is concerned about not having a stable supply of funding. Congress recently freed up $20 billion for the disaster fund, but officials have called on Congress to pass a supplemental spending bill.

Critics quickly pointed to FEMA’s role in distributing more than $650 million in funds to help illegal immigrants as part of its Shelter and Services Program (SSP). Former President Trump recently accused the Biden administration of stealing FEMA money “for their illegal immigrants.” 

However, the Biden administration has noted that that funding, which comes from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and is congressionally appropriated for grants to local governments and nonprofits, is entirely separate from the significantly larger Disaster Relief Fund.

“No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts,” FEMA said in a release this week.

HURRICANE HELENE: NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AS BASIC GOODS BECOME SCARCE

It has still faced questions from some Republican senators about whether its “entanglement” in the border crisis has affected its operational readiness.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, told Fox News Digital last week that the administration has “failed in that response.”

“They are scrambling to cover their egregious errors and mistakes. And there’s an effort to blame others or blame circumstances when this is just purely a lack of leadership and response,” the speaker said.

FEMA also faced backlash last week after its unearthed emergency management “equity” blueprint went viral. The number one goal listed in the Biden-Harris agency’s priorities is to “instill equity as a foundation of emergency management.” 

According to FEMA’s plan, “Diversity, equity, and inclusion cannot be optional.” 

This week, FEMA has been pushing back against claims that FEMA grants have to be repaid, that it is restricting airspace for rescue and recovery operations, and that it is distributing aid based on demographic characteristics. It has published a fact sheet to check some of those claims.

Mayorkas, who was impeached by the Republican-led House this year, on Monday again stressed that there is help available for those who need it, and warned of the effects of misinformation.

TRUMP TARGETS BIDEN, HARRIS OVER FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE: ‘INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED’

“What happens is the people who are victimized by the natural disaster are the ones who will suffer,” he said. “It sows distrust in their government, and therefore they don’t seek the help that they truly need.” 

“We have funds to put in their pockets to be able to help them address immediate needs. These individuals are not seeking that relief because of the disinformation, the intentionally false information they are receiving.”

He also said the misinformation hurts the workforce.

“These are individuals who are putting their lives on the line to search and rescue for victims of Hurricane Helene, a hurricane of historic magnitude,” he said. “It is very sad.”

Critics have pointed to his handling of the historic crisis at the southern border, including his fueling of a since-debunked controversy about Border Patrol agents on horseback allegedly mistreating Haitian migrants, when judging his record.

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

Biden cancels overseas trip as Milton bears down on Florida; DeSantis tells VP ‘it’s not about you Kamala’

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With a second powerful hurricane in less than two weeks bearing down on Florida, President Biden on Tuesday canceled an upcoming international trip in order to oversee federal storm preparations and response efforts.

As the death toll rises and nearly 200,000 people remain without power or running water over a week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through the southeast United States, Hurricane Milton – an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm – is on course to slam into Florida on Wednesday.

“Given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton, President Biden is postponing his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton, in addition to the ongoing response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Tuesday.

The president was scheduled to leave for Berlin on Thursday, followed by a stop in Angola before returning home on Oct. 15. The trip would have marked Biden’s first stop on the African continent during his tenure as president.

EYE OF THE STORM: BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IMPACT HARRIS-TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the president called Milton a potentially “devastating” storm that could be one of the worst to hit Florida in a century. He also urged anyone under an evacuation order to “evacuate now, now, now.”

“It’s a matter of life and death,” Bien emphasized.

Biden also said he spoke on Monday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, adding that the conservative governor had been cooperative and that he gave his personal phone number to DeSantis.

CLICK HERE FOR UP-TO-DATE FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE STORMS

When asked about the federal storm response, DeSantis said during a news conference on Monday that “we have gotten what we need from the feds… the president has approved what we asked for… I’m thankful for that.”

“Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved,” DeSantis highlighted.

The governor reiterated those comments Tuesday morning in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”

“Every request that we’ve made – I’ve been in contact with the president, I’ve been in contact with the FEMA director,” DeSantis highlighted. “All of our requests have been answered.”

While DeSantis has complimented the president’s actions, he has taken aim at Vice President Kamala Harris. The Democrats’ presidential nominee on Monday – reacting to reports that the governor had refused to take her calls regarding federal storm efforts – described him as “selfish.”

When asked about the dispute, DeSantis argued in his “Fox and Friends” interview that “my focus has not been on dealing with Kamala Harris. I saw the news report. I didn’t know that she tried to contact me. But I’d also say it’s not about you, Kamala. It’s about the people of Florida. My focus is exactly where it should be.”

“I’ve worked on these Hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She’s never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now. Why all of a sudden is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics. We know it’s because of her campaign. I have zero time to entertain these political games,” DeSantis charged.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS WEATHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE MILTON

The war of words appeared to be triggered by reports from NBC and later ABC News on Monday afternoon that the Florida governor was not taking calls from Harris regarding storm recovery efforts, citing unnamed aides to the governor who said the calls seemed political in nature.

When asked a couple of hours later, DeSantis said he was not aware Harris was trying to reach him.

“I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.”

Speaking around the same time, as she departed the nation’s capital for New York, the vice president took aim at DeSantis.

“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations…is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris charged. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

However, DeSantis, pushing back in his Fox News interview, argued that “Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this. The idea that I should be…worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is quite frankly absurd.”

When asked if his vice president has been helpful as the federal government deals with back-to-back dangerous hurricanes, Biden nodded and told reporters “yes.”

Harris, speaking on Tuesday on the popular daytime program “The View,” said “I have called and talked with, in the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, with Democrat and Republican governors…. So, obviously, this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders, but maybe it’s for others.”

With four weeks to go until Election Day in November and Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election – the politics of federal disaster relief are once again front and center on the campaign trail.

Trump, for a week and a half, has been repeatedly attacking Biden and Harris over the federal response to Hurricane Helene, and making unproven claims. 

On Monday, Harris clapped back, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.” 

Fox News’ Nick Rojas contributed to this story.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Oregon mistakenly registered hundreds more voters without proving citizenship

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Officials in Oregon announced Monday that they have identified an additional 302 people on the state’s voter rolls who didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote.

The announcement comes just two weeks after officials in the Beaver state said 1,259 possible noncitizens have been registered to vote since 2021, bringing the total number of mistaken registrations to 1,561. 

The mistakes occurred in part because Oregon passed a law in 2019 allowing some residents who aren’t citizens to obtain driver’s licenses. And the state’s so-called “Motor Voter” law, which took effect in 2016, automatically registers most people to vote when they seek a new license or ID. 

OREGON MISTAKENLY REGISTERED NEARLY 1,260 POSSIBLE NONCITIZENS TO VOTE, DMV ADMITS

The improper voter registrations stem from clerical errors at the state DMV. 

On Monday, the DMV released an “After Action Report,” which identified errors in its processes that led to the mistakes, with Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade then directing county elections officials to inactivate all 302 voter registrations. 

Griffin-Valade and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, both Democrats, called for an independent, external audit of the motor voter system in a joint statement.

“Thanks to the swift action of elections officials, I have full confidence that these new errors will not impact the 2024 election,” Griffin-Valade said. “The DMV’s After Action Report raises serious concerns about this important part of our voter registration system. The first step in restoring the public’s trust in Motor Voter is a transparent review by a neutral third party operating under strict government auditing standards.” 

DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said the agency believed two weeks ago that it was confident it understood and had reviewed all records at risk of error.

“We have since learned this confidence was misplaced based on new information outlined in this announcement and after-action report and for this, we are sorry,” Joyce said in a statement. “DMV will follow the Governor’s directed actions and remains committed to continuous learning, corrective action, transparency and accountability.”

Griffin-Valade has ordered her office’s elections division to immediately hire a new Motor Voter oversight position, according to the statement. And she has instructed the division to establish a documented process for performing regular data checks with the DMV and update the administrative rules governing the Motor Voter system.

She said the Oregon Elections Division will work with the 36 county election officers to determine if any of the erroneously registered voters have previously cast a ballot. Every registered voter in Oregon is sent a ballot in the mail and the state had an 81.97% voter turnout rate in 2020. President Biden beat former President Trump comfortably in the 2020 election, winning the state by more than 380,000 votes. 

RNC BLASTS WALZ ADMIN’S NONANSWER ON HOW NONCITIZENS MADE IT ONTO MINNESOTA VOTER ROLLS: ‘NO HYPOTHETICAL’

Of the 302 additional cases, 178 were due to people from the U.S. territory of American Samoa being misclassified as U.S. citizens, the DMV report said.

However, under federal law, people from American Samoa are U.S. nationals, not citizens, and don’t have the same right to vote. Another 123 records stemmed from the previously identified clerical error, but weren’t included in prior reviews due to a newly identified software issue. And one case was caught by the DMV’s new quality controls.

Griffin-Valade’s office says they are doing everything they can to prevent the 302 mistakenly registered voters from receiving a ballot, but cannot guarantee that all 302 ballots will be removed before they are mailed. Her office is putting in place a process that will ensure those ballots are not opened or counted.

Of the 1,259 possible noncitizens identified last month, 10 mistakenly enrolled individuals went on to cast a ballot, according to Oregon’s secretary of state, although at least one became a citizen before voting.

A DMV audit found staff may have accidentally selected “U.S. passport” when presented with a foreign passport, or “U.S. birth certificate” when given a foreign document, triggering voter enrollment.

The DMV said its drop-down menu has now been rearranged so “U.S. passport” is no longer the first, default option. Staff must also enter the state and county for all U.S. birth certificates and respond to a prompt when passport information is entered confirming that the documentation is accurate.

About half of all states, as well as Washington, D.C., have implemented automatic voter registration, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But there have been numerous allegations of improper enrollment in states without automatic registration too.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in August that officials have purged 1.1 million ineligible names from the voter rolls since the 2020 presidential election. 

Ohio’s secretary of state referred 138 noncitizens believed to have voted in previous elections to the state’s attorney general for possible criminal charges. 

And a conservative watchdog group is suing Arizona’s Maricopa County for allegedly failing to remove more than 35,000 people who did not provide proof of citizenship.

Fox News’ Hannah Ray Lambert and Anders Hagstrom, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this story. 

GOP lawmaker unveils effort to ban illegal immigrants from using IDs to buy guns

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FIRST ON FOX: A House lawmaker is raising concerns about the possibility of people who are in the country illegally being able to purchase firearms through the same process a U.S. citizen would use.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., is unveiling a new bill called the “No Guns for Illegal Aliens Act,” which would explicitly ban illegal immigrants from buying firearms using government-issued IDs.

He also expressed support for former President Trump’s controversial mass deportations plan, which would likely be the largest such move in U.S. history, while criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

MEXICAN GOVERNMENT BUSES MIGRANTS TO US BORDER AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BECOMES TOP ELECTION ISSUE

“Border Czar Kamala Harris has allowed criminal illegal aliens to enter our country and roam our streets. Meanwhile, radical liberals like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are offering driver’s licenses to illegals – creating a recipe for disaster,” Clyde told Fox News Digital.

“As we await President Trump’s historic mass deportation effort, we must ensure illegal aliens with government-issued IDs cannot obtain firearms and wreak havoc on our communities.”

It’s the latest move in a wider push by House Republicans to direct attention to crime perpetuated in the U.S. by illegal immigrants after several high-profile incidents in the last few years, including the killings of Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

FOCUS GROUP REACTS TO TRUMP CLAIM THAT MIGRANTS ARE ‘EATING THE DOGS’ IN OHIO TOWN

The three high-profile killings did not involve a gun, but Clyde argued that progressive policies allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses could open the door to more crime.

Clyde, a gun store owner, has had his own firearms license for over 30 years, according to his office.

As of now, 19 states plus Washington, D.C., offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also recently developed a pilot program to distribute federal IDs called “Secure Docket Cards” to people who cross the border illegally and are awaiting immigration proceedings. It’s not immediately clear if these IDs can be used to purchase guns, however.

The rate of crimes committed by illegal immigrants is lower than that of U.S. citizens, according to a study by the National Institute of Justice.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

But Republicans argue that the act of entering the U.S. illegally is a crime in itself, and that instances of violent crime by such groups could be prevented just by having tougher border and immigration laws.

The Minnesota Governor’s Office directed Fox News Digital to the Harris-Walz campaign when reached for comment, but it did not immediately respond. 

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Office of the Vice President for comment.

NYC First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigns as Eric Adams’ administration suffers more departures: report

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New York City First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright reportedly resigned from her position Tuesday after the FBI raided her home in early September, becoming the latest senior official to depart Mayor Eric Adams’ administration as he faces federal corruption charges. 

Wright’s reported resignation comes just days after her husband, New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks, announced that he would resign earlier than expected in October. The New York Times, citing sources, says Wright is expected to be replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, who is the current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce.  

When asked about the matter on Tuesday morning, the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital that “No announcement is final until and if it is made.” 

On Monday, Winnie Greco, the mayor’s director of Asian affairs, also resigned from her role, according to the New York Post. 

Her attorney Steven Brill – who did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital – told The City that Greco “officially resigned… on her own volition.” 

ERIC ADAMS CHANNELS TRUMP AS HE RAMPS UP REVENGE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, EXPERT SAYS 

The same day, Rena Abbasova, a staffer for Adams who worked in the office of international affairs, was fired from her job, with sources telling Fox News that she was let go because she is the “key cooperating witness” in the federal investigation of Adams. 

Senior New York City Hall official Mohamed Bahi also stepped down on Monday. This morning, federal prosecutors announced they unsealed a complaint charging him “with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in connection with a federal investigation of unlawful contributions to a particular 2021 mayoral campaign.” 

“If there were no vulnerabilities here, nobody would have to resign,” former NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro told Fox News Digital. “Obviously, a lot of them are trying to make the point ‘oh I was going to leave anyway’ — but these are all the people from [Adams’] tightest inner circle and this is the team he put together to run the city and for them to be leaving prematurely when he would normally be gearing up for re-election, I don’t see how you can argue that this is business as usual. It’s very obvious something heavy is going on.” 

MOST NEW YORK CITY RESIDENTS WANT INDICTED MAYOR ERIC ADAMS TO RESIGN: POLL 

Adams is facing a five-count indictment on fraud, bribery and corruption charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. 

The mayor, 64, is accused of soliciting illegal campaign donations from foreign entities and falsifying paper trails to cover it up. As part of the plot, he allegedly defrauded taxpayers for $10 million over the past decade and frequently took free or steeply discounted vacations bankrolled by his foreign benefactors. 

Adams has said in a video statement that any charges filed against him would be “entirely false, based on lies,” and he insinuated that his criticism of the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies made him a target for retaliation. 

ERIC ADAMS IS LIKELY TO FACE MORE CHARGES 

The mayor was quoted by The New York Times as saying in a statement that will be circulated Tuesday that “We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done to deliver for children, families, and working-class New Yorkers.”  

“She is an exceptional leader who assembled a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city,” he reportedly added. 

The mayor’s office says on its website that Wright served in the administration since January 2022, first as deputy mayor of strategic initiatives and then as first deputy mayor starting in January 2023. 

“During her time in the administration, she helped launch the first phase of the MyCity portal, a one-stop-shop where New Yorkers can easily apply for and track city services and benefits. She has helped the city deliver on key planks of the Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City — most notably, clearing a backlogged waitlist for vouchers and allowing families of 36,000 children to apply for low-cost, high-quality child care,” her bio reads. 

Wright, a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School, also “previously served as the first female president and CEO of United Way of New York City,” it added.

Fox News’ Alexis McAdams, Michael Ruiz and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

House GOP targets Biden ‘social cost’ policy for rising energy prices

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FIRST ON FOX – House Republicans are moving to roll back a progressive Obama-era regulatory metric for greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that it’s sandbagging the U.S. energy sector by using “nonscientific” standards.

“North Carolinians are struggling to fill up their tanks and pay their electricity bills. The last thing they are worried about is the ‘social cost’ of energy,” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.

“We need to be unleashing American energy to lower prices, not crippling production with burdensome, costly regulations.”

Hudson, who also chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, is leading 12 fellow GOP lawmakers in introducing a bill to stop federal agencies using the “social cost of carbon” when creating new regulations for the U.S. energy sector.

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Models calculating the “social cost” of greenhouse gases use several factors, including population health, sea level changes, economic impacts and other human-felt costs.

Because of the vastly different indicators, “social cost” emissions projections can vary widely, according to the Brookings Institute.

It was first used as a federal regulatory tool under the Obama administration but was rolled back by former President Trump.

President Biden made it part of his clean energy plan when he took office, directing a task force to study where federal agencies should consider the “social cost of greenhouse gases” as part of an executive order titled “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”

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Democrats have held it up as a necessary tool that presents a more holistic picture for the long-term harms of carbon pollution.

Republicans, however, have criticized the metric as a nonscientific tool that’s responsible for burdensome regulations.

Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., a co-sponsor of the bill, said the “social cost” metric and the Biden administration’s green energy push overall was pushing gas prices up.

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“It’s just a fact that government interference in the energy industry has directly contributed to these rising costs. No more manipulated studies and biased research – the American people deserve transparent and honest information,” Hern told Fox News Digital.

Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, another co-sponsor of the bill, said, “The Biden-Harris White House has proven their willingness to hide behind biased and flawed research to advance their war against American energy producers.”

“The White House should unleash clean, affordable American energy to bring costs down for the American people,” he said.

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

PA gov takes victory lap after Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to overturn election law ‘usurpations’

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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected hearing a Republican-backed challenge to an executive order signed by President Biden that works to broaden voting access and registration, just roughly one month before Election Day. 

The Supreme Court reconvened Monday for its 2024-2025 term and rejected a bevvy of cases, including one backed by dozens of Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania who claimed President Biden’s 2021 executive order on voter access was unconstitutional and attempted to interfere with the election. The lawsuit also targeted an edict from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro for enacting automatic voter registration across the state. 

The justices did not comment when rejecting the appeal. 

Shapiro’s office took a victory lap following the Supreme Court’s rejection of hearing the case, calling GOP efforts a “bad faith attempt” to disenfranchise voters. 

“This petition was yet another bad faith attempt to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters – and the U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision to deny the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus petition,” Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. 

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“Governor Shapiro has consistently fought to protect our democracy – including defeating Donald Trump and his allies in court dozens of times to defend Pennsylvanians’ votes and protect access to the ballot box. Yesterday, election deniers went 0-2 at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Bonder said. 

Biden signed the executive order on Promoting Access to Voting in March 2021, which directs federal agencies to expand access to voter registration, works to overhaul the government’s Vote.gov website, and notes that the federal government has a “duty to ensure that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so.”

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Executive Order 14019 states that “executive departments and agencies should partner with State, local, Tribal, and territorial election officials to protect and promote the exercise of the right to vote, eliminate discrimination and other barriers to voting, and expand access to voter registration and accurate election information.”

The executive order set off a firestorm of criticism among Republicans, most notably with 27 Republican Pennsylvania lawmakers filing a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

The lawmakers argued that the executive order essentially serves as an executive get-out-the-vote effort targeting demographics that would benefit the Democratic Party. They argued the move was unconstitutional as Congress never enacted a law that grants such an action from the White House. 

A federal judge rejected the lawsuit in March, citing it lacked legal standing, setting up a legal showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

“We think it’s really important for President Biden to be held accountable,” Erick Kaardal, an attorney for the lawmakers, told Fox News Digital in April. 

“For him to violate such a big law when all the little people have to follow the laws, even little laws … it’s clear President Biden has issued an executive order without congressional enactments to get himself re-elected. It’s ridiculous,” Kaardal added. 

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In their petition filed to the Supreme Court in April, the Republican lawmakers asked the court to weigh in on the case. They argued that, for the 2024 election, they cannot “do their part” in suing to stop “federal and state executive usurpations of Pennsylvania state law, pursuant to the Elections Clause and Electors Clause, unless the Court does its part and declares individual state legislator standing in this case.”

The lawmakers had called on the Supreme Court to bypass the federal appeals court, and determine if they have standing to bring the case ahead of the 2024 election. 

Following the court’s rejection of the case, Shapiro’s office told Fox Digital that the governor is zeroed-in on “protecting our democracy and ensuring our elections are free, fair, safe, and secure.”

The Supreme Court this term will hear a handful of other high-profile cases, including laws banning “ghost guns,” the legality of Tennessee’s ban on transgender surgery for children, as well as the legality of federal bans on flavored e-cigarette vapes.Â