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

The ruling came after a “coding oversight” in state software prompted the swing state’s Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to insist that he would send out ballots to those affected anyway.

The database error called into question the citizenship status of 100,000 registered Arizona voters, affecting individuals who obtained their driver’s licenses before October 1996, and subsequently received duplicates before registering to vote after 2004.

Fontes and Stephen Richer, the Republican Maricopa County recorder, disagreed on what status the voters should hold following the “coding oversight.”
“This was discovered not because somebody was voting illegally and not because somebody was attempting to vote illegally, as far as we can tell,” Fontes said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference. “And this was basic voter roll maintenance, and it showed us that there is this issue.”

Richer filed a special action Tuesday asking the state Supreme Court to settle the question.

“It is my position that these registrants have not satisfied Arizona’s documented proof of citizenship law, and therefore can only vote a ‘FED ONLY’ ballot,” Richer wrote on X.

The error comes as Arizona Republicans and a conservative watchdog group have been pushing for stricter voting measures that require proof of U.S. citizenship to participate in state and federal elections. Arizona is also a swing state that flipped blue in the 2020 presidential election. 

Fox News Digital’s Jamie Jospeh and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democrats roundly condemned political violence after news that a suspect had been arrested for threatening to hurt and kill six of the Supreme Court’s nine Justices and some of their family members.

“Threats and acts of violence are unacceptable. Period,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told the Washington Post. “As President Biden and Vice President Harris have always said, violence has absolutely no place in our country. Violent rhetoric and threats are unacceptable,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said. “There’s absolutely no place for political violence in this country – full stop,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

It remains unknown exactly which justices 76-year-old Alaska resident Panos Anastasiou intended to attack. 

However, a complaint filed against him Wednesday indicated that his threats included anti-Black slurs, and there is only one Black Supreme Court Justice – Clarence Thomas, who typically votes with the Court’s conservative majority. Additionally, the complaint laid out that Anastasiou’s threats included extreme remarks about a former president described by Anastasiou as a “convicted criminal.” Former President Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony, earlier this year.

ALASKA MAN ARRESTED FOR THREATS AGAINST SIX SUPREME COURT JUSTICES

Democrats have repeatedly slammed the Supreme Court as illegitimate. In a foretelling speech from Duke Law School on Monday, Kannon Shanmugam, who is widely considered one of the nation’s top appellate litigators and has argued 35 cases in front of the Supreme Court, said that “attacks on the legitimacy of the courts are contributing to the threat of violence against judges in general.” 

“Enough is enough. When will the media press Democrats like Sen. Schumer, Sen. Durbin, Sen. Whitehouse, VP Harris and others to stop their baseless attacks on the Supreme Court that have created actual threats to the safety of our Justices?” questioned GOP Florida Sen. Rick Scott following news of Anastasiou’s arrest. “Hey, look, someone who took Chuck Schumer seriously,” said Trent England, the founder and executive director of conservative nonprofit Save Our States. Other critics pointed to how Anastasiou was a frequent donor to Democrats. 

ROE V. WADE ABORTION DECISION: DEMOCRATS CALL SUPREME COURT ‘ILLEGITIMATE’

Trump’s ability to shakeup the Supreme Court with new Justices has not sat well with Democrats. 

In a fiery speech in front of the Supreme Court after a preliminary draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in spring 2020, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., put conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, both nominated by Trump, in his crosshairs: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer exclaimed outside the steps of the Supreme Court in 2020. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

“The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it,” a cohort of Democratic senators said in an August 2019 brief after the High Court took up a case about the constitutionality of a New York City law restricting legal gun owners from transporting their firearms.

In 2020, during the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s final Supreme Court nomination that would eventually make it to the bench, then-Sen. Kamala Harris called the confirmation “illegitimate” and “reckless.” Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Harris warned that there is “a national movement afoot to attack hard-won and hard-fought freedoms.” 

“I don’t want to, at this point, use my voice in a way that is alarmist,” she added earlier this year in an interview with the New York Times. “But this court has made it very clear that they are willing to undo recognized rights.” 

HARRIS WAS ‘OPEN’ TO PACKING SUPREME COURT DURING 2019 PRESIDENTIAL BID

Meanwhile, in July, Sen. Ed Markey said: “Donald Trump and his MAGA partners” were to blame for the fact that “Our most fundamental freedoms are under attack from an illegitimate, extremist U.S. Supreme Court majority.” 

“They started by breaking the rules for confirming justices and ended up breaking the Supreme Court itself,” Markey said.

The DOJ indicated Wednesday that Anastasiou was charged with nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. He faces up to 10 years in jail. 

“Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday. “Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.”

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest political news from Washington, D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

Here’s what’s happening…

– Experts warn US ‘sleepwalking’ into World War III… 

– House passes bill increasing Secret Service protections for presidential, VP candidates

– Anti-Israel agitators rock UNC, vandalize building, pull down U.S. flag

A new requirement in New York that will take effect this weekend is set to grant Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James widespread power over the state’s election process, a New York election attorney said. 

“Nobody is really talking about it or what a big effect it’s going to have,” election attorney Joseph T. Burns, partner at the law firm Holtzman Vogel, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this week. “But it’s interesting because, look, there’s a lot of bad stuff that happens in New York when it comes to the elections and everything else, but this strikes me as being particularly bad. And it’s certainly quite a power grab by the attorney general as well.”

Under the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York, which Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law in 2022, a preclearance requirement is set to take effect on Sept. 22. The new rule requires certain jurisdictions in the Empire State to request preclearance from the attorney general or a designated court to make election-related decisions, which range from changing the hours of early voting to culling deceased residents from a voter list, Burns said. 

Burns published an op-ed in the New York Post this week, warning that the new law hands James “unprecedented power over election processes in some of the most hotly contested congressional districts in the nation, including those on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley.” The upcoming requirement has flown under the radar, Burns said, telling Fox Digital, “Nobody’s talking about. It’s pretty remarkable.”

“The new rule upends the system of constitutionally mandated, bipartisan election administration that has served New York’s voters ably for generations,” Burns wrote in his op-ed, which was published on Sunday. “The law requires certain counties, cities, towns, villages and school districts to get the blessing of the AG or a designated court before making election-related or voting-related changes.”  …Read more

‘CAT AND MOUSE’: Trump assassination attempt suspect played game with police, expert says …Read more

405-0: Secret Service protection bill passes House unanimously after Trump assassination attempts …Read more

EPA BLOCKED: House passes bill blocking Biden admin attempt to require two-thirds of new cars to be electric within years …Read more

BORDER BUCKS: Mayorkas, top border officials in Biden-Harris admin worth millions: report …Read more

NOT PREPARED: US ‘sleepwalking’ into World War III, experts warn nation underprepared …Read more

‘SO NECESSARY’: Dem lawmakers push bill to restore funding to UN agency with alleged ties to Hamas: ‘So necessary’ …Read more

THE ELECTION IS HERE: Virginia’s in-person early voting begins as election season picks up steam …Read more

EMPIRE STATEMENT: NY rallygoers plead for Trump’s return to restore future of blue state, cite migrant crisis as major concern …Read more

MARGIN-OF-ERROR: Razor-thin race in battle to succeed popular swing state Republican governor …Read more

SWING STATE BATTLE: Harris, Trump hit key battleground states as November nears …Read more

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO: Trump has higher favorability than Taylor Swift: poll …Read more

SHORE THING: Down the shore: New Jersey lawmakers seek to undo sunscreen prohibition for kids …Read more

DEEPFAKE WOES: Newsom’s deepfake election laws are already being challenged in federal court …Read more

‘FALSE INFORMATION’: Issa rips State Department for spreading ‘knowingly false’ info on funding migrant counseling to enter U.S. …Read more

US FLAG REMOVED: Anti-Israel agitators rock UNC, vandalize building and remove Old Glory …Read more

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: Vulnerable Sen. Tammy Baldwin loses ground to GOP candidate in Wisconsin, consecutive polls show …Read more

Subscribe now to get the Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

FIRST ON FOX: A group of Republicans wrote to national law enforcement and intelligence heads Friday requesting weekly updates on foreign election interference after bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio, turned out to be “hoaxes” originating overseas.

Ten House Republicans wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, FBI Director Chris Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding to know which country was involved in the 33 “hoax” bomb threats that went out to Springfield and what actions they’d taken to combat social media campaigns, cyberespionage and threats of physical harm perpetrated by foreign actors. 

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine revealed Monday that local law enforcement had responded to 33 fake bomb threats in Springfield made against hospitals, schools and government offices. 

“Thirty-three threats. Thirty-three hoaxes,” DeWine said during a press conference in Springfield. “I want to make that very, very clear. None of these had any validity at all.” 

HAITIAN REFUGEES ‘DON’T UNDERSTAND THE LAWS,’ FORMER LAWMAKER SAYS AMID FATAL WRECK, CULTURAL CLASHES

The governor said many of the threats came from “one particular country,” which he declined to name. 

“We have people, unfortunately, overseas, who are taking these actions,” DeWine said. “Some of them are coming from one particular country.” 

“The American people and Congress deserve to know which of our foreign adversaries are intentionally spreading misinformation to elicit fear and confusion. I stand ready to assist you in any way possible as we work to ensure the security and integrity of the 2024 elections,” Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, wrote in the letter. 

Springfield found itself front and center on the national stage after viral social media posts about Haitian migrants eating pets, claims that turned out to be unverifiable. Former President Trump amplified the unsubstantiated claim during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris Sept. 10. 

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE U.S. NEWS

“These bomb threats have caused closures, evacuations of municipal buildings as well as schools. This placed additional strain on police and social services already overburdened by the community’s influx of Haitian migrants,” the letter, signed by Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mike Carey of Ohio, Gooden and others, said.

“The purpose of these hoaxes is clear: our foreign adversaries aim to stoke the flames of division.”

But the 60,000-person town’s Republican leadership says it has been overwhelmed by the influx of 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian migrants. Many have come to the U.S. under temporary protected status, allowing them to live and work in the U.S. for a limited time. 

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told Fox News Digital the federal government has not properly coordinated resettling those migrants with the town, and it is therefore “stressing the schools, the health care system and the safety net.” He said at least 4,000 of the migrants were receiving government assistance. 

Russia and Iran have been accused of meddling in U.S. elections. Earlier this month, the Justice Department seized websites and indicted Russian media employees it accused the Kremlin of using to spread misinformation and sow discord. 

“We think that this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States,” DeWine said of the foreign actors making the threats. “And they’re continuing to do that.”  

“We cannot let the bad guys win. Our schools must remain open,” he added, noting additional law enforcement resources will be deployed in Springfield amid the flurry of threats. 

“The people who are doing this are doing this to sow discord in our community,” Andy Wilson, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, said. “We just can’t let them do that. We have to keep providing the services that the citizens of Springfield and Clark County expect.”

Springfield city Manager Bryan Heck has said there are “no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

The town canceled its upcoming annual celebration of diversity, arts and culture amid the increase in threats, officials said Monday. 

After months of public optimism about the prospects of a ceasefire, Biden administration officials have soured on the prospects of an end to the war between Israel and Hamas. 

“We aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted to reporters on Wednesday. He called the prospects of a completed deal “daunting.” 

“No deal is imminent,” one U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”

Israelis point the finger at Hamas for killing six hostages earlier this month, including a U.S. citizen. Arab officials lay blame on Israel for explosive pagers and walkie-talkies and airstrikes aimed at killing Hezbollah fighters for making the prospect of a multi-front war more likely. 

“There’s no chance now of it happening,” an Arab official said after the recent campaign against Hezbollah. “Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration.”

For Biden, a former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who ran on his diplomacy chops, failure to secure a deal would be a blow to his legacy. It would mean a presidency bookended by a chaotic pullout from Afghanistan at the start and the false hope that peace — and the return of some 250 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 — was just around the corner after the outbreak of war in the Middle East. 

Along with the recent attacks on Hezbollah, officials cited another main reason for pessimism to the Journal: the number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel would be asked to release to bring home its hostages.

Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state, told Fox News Digital he’s less pessimistic about the potential for a deal. 

“Nobody’s walked away from the table. They haven’t stated they’re done. Qatar and Egypt are still partnering with us on these talks. The three-stage agreed-upon framework is still in place,” he said.

“The hangups are on the implementation side, not the framework side,” he said, noting that negotiations as far as which prisoners will be released, how their safety will be guaranteed and what to do with Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar remain open-ended. 

ISRAEL STRIKES HEZBOLLAH TARGETS IN LEBANON

“These implementation issues keep coming up,” he said. “That’s where you keep hearing Hamas growing its demands, adding new names, expecting more. And that’s where you hear Israel, you know, calling for the Philadelphia corridor, which suddenly has dropped out of the discussion, right? They both want more and more advantage and gains on their side, which is why negotiators are exasperated.”

While the Biden administration continues to try to find ways forward on a deal, public comments that have strung along hope for months are now conflicted by some of the privately held sentiment that cease-fire efforts are futile. 

On July 19, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a cease-fire deal was within sight. 

“I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” Blinken said.

On Aug. 17, President Biden said he was “optimistic” a deal could be reached. “We are closer than we’ve ever been,” he said, adding that he was sending Blinken to Israel to continue “intensive efforts to conclude this agreement.” 

On Aug. 19, Blinken said that Israel had “accepted a proposal” and the next step was for Hamas to agree.

“The next important statement is for Hamas to say ‘yes,’ and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement,” Blinken said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

HOW DID THE HEZBOLLAH PAGER EXPLOSIONS HAPPEN? 5 THINGS TO KNOW

“This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.”

But those comments came one day after Hamas had said it would not agree to that proposal. They objected to Israel having control of the Rafah and Philadelphia corridors, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had demanded. 

Then again on Sept. 2, Biden claimed the U.S. was “very close” to finalizing a cease-fire deal that would see the release of hostages. Asked why he was optimistic despite other deals having failed, he said, “Hope springs eternal.”

Even this week, Blinken expressed optimism about a deal, though he warned after the pager blasts that “escalation” threatens to thwart progress.

“It’s imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could escalate the conflict,” Blinken said at a news conference in Egypt. 

He said he was focused on a deal that would bring calm on all fronts, including Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Blinken said that 15 out of 18 paragraphs of a deal had been agreed by all sides.

He blamed long wait times for messages to be passed between the parties for leaving space to disrupt the talks. 

“We’ve seen that in the intervening time, you might have an event, an incident — something that makes the process more difficult, that threatens to slow it, stop it, derail it — and anything of that nature, by definition, is probably not good in terms of achieving the result that we want, which is the cease-fire,” Blinken said.

After Egypt, he went to Paris to discuss the prospects of a deal with his European counterparts. 

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the seven remaining U.S. hostages held in Gaza, where the families said they “expressed ​frustration with the lack of tangible progress” to Sullivan. 

On Thursday, ​​Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised address called the pager attacks “a declaration of war” and that attacks against Israel would continue until the war with Gaza is over. Likewise, Israel’s defense minister vowed to continue striking Hezbollah in Lebanon, aiming to stop the group’s rocket and missile attacks so some 70,000 Israelis who live in the northern border region could return home. 

The election board in one of the most crucial swing states in the 2024 presidential election approved a controversial new rule that will require the hand counting of ballots on election night. 

The Georgia State Election Board voted 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.

Three board members who were praised by former President Donald Trump during a rally last month in Atlanta voted to approve the measure.

Critics of the move say that the measures came at the last minute and will delay reporting results in the state.

TRUMP LEADS HARRIS WITHIN MARGIN OF ERROR IN TIGHT GEORGIA RACE, POLL FINDS

In a memo sent to election board members Thursday, the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr said no provision in state law allows counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level before the ballots are brought to county election superintendent for vote tallying. As a result, the memo says, the rule is “not tethered to any statute” and is “likely the precise kind of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”

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 board’s chair, John Fervier, a Republican, voted against the rule, saying the “overwhelming number of election officials” who reached out to him were opposed to the change.

NEW TRUMP VOTER FRAUD SQUADS BEGIN GEARING UP FOR ‘ELECTION INTEGRITY’ FIGHT

“I do think it’s too close to the election,” Fervier said. “It’s too late to train a lot of poll workers.”

Other conservatives on social media praised the move as a step in the right direction to avoid voter fraud including former Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington who posted on X that the decision was “great news.”

“YES!!!” Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X. “Way to go GA State Election Board!! Thank you for taking every step to fight for election integrity!!”

In 2020, approximately five million votes were cast in the presidential race statewide, more than half in early voting.

Recent polling shows that Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in Georgia with approximately 46.9% of voters currently saying they would vote for Trump, compared to 44.4% of voters who say they would cast their vote for Harris. 

Fox News Digital’s Timothy HJ Nerozzi, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

The recent attempts on former President Trump’s life have left some House Republicans questioning whether the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) should remain under the control of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“I think that’s something that we should look at — if we need to remove them from Homeland, make them a standalone agency or answer to someone else. I mean, their mission, I think, is entirely different than a lot of the agencies under that Department of Homeland Security umbrella,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., vice chair of the Committee on Homeland Security, told Fox News Digital.

The Secret Service was established in 1865 as a bureau of the Treasury Department to tackle counterfeiting and was authorized by Congress to provide full-time protection to the president in 1913, according to the agency’s website. It was transferred from the Treasury Department to the newly created DHS in 2003.

The agency has faced a barrage of scrutiny after two assassination attempts against Trump. In July, Trump was injured after a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee. Last weekend, officers arrested a 58-year-old man who appeared to have been waiting for Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course with an AK-47.

WATCH ON FOX NATION: THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS OF DONALD TRUMP

No legislative proposal has surfaced on this specific issue, but several GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital the incidents spurred wider conversations among some members about DHS in general.

“I think what this opens up is the extent to which, 20 years later, the wisdom of creating the Department of Homeland Security in the first place should be questioned,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. “Frankly, DHS is failing as a whole, on multiple levels.

“That’s not a testament to any of the line folks. … But the top folks in the bureaucracy, it’s killing us. … Secret Service would be a step.”

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said DHS being “a catch-all agency” was “not working.”

“I just honestly feel that the Secret Service isn’t getting the sunshine or the attention it needs from [Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas], simply because his agency is massive. And I think there’s nothing wrong with us breaking that up,” Donalds said. “And it’s not just Secret Service. It’s border security. It’s immigration processes and all the other stuff.”

TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN-HARRIS ‘RHETORIC’ FOR LATEST ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, SAYS HE WILL ‘SAVE THE COUNTRY’

Donalds added that it would likely not feasibly be done this year, but he suggested there could be a more serious push if Republicans kept the House majority in November.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, recalled that, during his time in the White House medical unit, there was some discontent among agents about being moved to DHS.

“For a while, when it first happened, I know for a fact — because I was around these guys every day being at the White House 14 years — they weren’t big fans of it. … They were kind of a big fish in a little pond when they were with Treasury, and then when they got rolled into this massive, you know, bureaucracy of DHS … they felt like it kind of downgraded their importance and their abilities,” Jackson said.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., similarly told Fox News Digital he “wouldn’t be opposed” to looking at breaking up DHS.

NEW WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS ON FIRST TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ‘HIGHLY DAMAGING’ TO SECRET SERVICE: HAWLEY

And Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., wrote on X in recent days, “We don’t need to throw more money at the U.S. Secret Service — we need new leadership.

“I believe we should move the USSS back under the Treasury Department, away from Homeland Security — which has become a political tool under the biggest liar since Pinocchio, Alejandro Mayorkas,” Alford said.

Several other House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital, however, were either skeptical of the idea or said they had not had such discussions.

“People say a lot of things that, I don’t know if it’s just off the cuff, but they say things are – it’s just a thought process that they’re going through,” said House Trump shooting task force chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa. “There’s a structure in place right now.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Secret Service and DHS for comment but did not receive responses prior to publication.

An illegal immigrant coming across the U.S. border bit a Border Patrol agent in the face while being taken into custody, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to Fox News on Friday.

The agency said that on Thursday an agent encountered a group of illegal immigrants who had crossed the border near Sunland Park, New Mexico.

While taking them into custody, one agent “was physically assaulted and bitten” by one of the illegal immigrants. The agency said that one subject had been arrested for assault and taken to a hospital for medical evaluation.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: FENCE-CUTTING MIGRANTS BUSTED BY FEDS 

CBP later confirmed to Fox News that the agent had been bitten in the face by the illegal immigrant, and that three of the four migrants in the group had crossed back into Mexico.

The agency says that Mexican officials were nearby and grabbed the group as they came across, taking them to the edge of the border for the Border Patrol agents to identify.

Customs and Border Protection recently warned in a press release that it has seen “a significant risk in attacks on Border Patrol Agents recently.” In the El Paso sector of the border, where the latest assault took place, 66 agents have been assaulted so far this fiscal year. Last fiscal year, 104 agents were assaulted.

Sunland Park has been a key crossing area for migrants at the southern border. But apprehensions in the sector are down this year, compared to last year, something agents have put down to an increase in technology and surveillance, as well as existing border barriers.

EX-BORDER PATROL CHIEF RIPS BIDEN ADMIN FOR ALLEGEDLY SUPPRESSING INFO ON MIGRANTS WITH POTENTIAL TERROR TIES

Immigration and border security have become top issues in the U.S. ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The Biden administration has pointed to a recent drop by more than 50% in border apprehensions since President Biden signed an executive order in June limiting arrivals. It has also called for Congress to pass a bipartisan border security bill to provide additional funding and resources to the border.

Republicans have accused the administration of causing the historic border crisis in the first place, arguing that the ending of Trump-era policies and expansion of “catch and release” encouraged millions of migrants to travel to the border and be released into the interior.

Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.

President Biden convened his Cabinet on Friday for the first time in nearly a year – this time with First Lady Jill Biden joining him for the meeting. 

It was the first time the Cabinet has met since Oct. 2, 2023. Jill Biden spoke about a White House initiative on women’s health research before the president fielded a question about the escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon. 

“We’re continuing to try to do who we’ve tried from the beginning. To make sure that both the people in northern Israel, as well as southern Lebanon, are able to go back to their homes and go back safely,” Biden said. “And the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, our whole team is working with the intelligence community to try to get that done. We’re going to keep at it till we get it done. But, we’ve got a way to go.” 

FLASHBACK: BIDEN’S CABINET DOUBLES DOWN ON SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT FOLLOWING DEBATE 

Biden, when asked about the chances of an Israel-Hamas cease-fire in Gaza, responded “If I ever said ‘it’s not realistic’ we might as well leave.” 

“A lot of things don’t look realistic until we get them done. We have to keep at it,” Biden said. 

SECRET SERVICE, HOMELAND SECURITY SUED OVER FIRST TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT 

Biden also highlighted during the meeting the need for Congress to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government. 

At the last Cabinet meeting in October 2023, Biden said he was convening the gathering “to get an update on the progress we’re making on pressing priorities for our country” — specifically the “promise and peril of artificial intelligence” and “taking action on gun violence.” 

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, slammed President Biden’s State Department for being caught with its hands in the “cookie jar” over taxpayer dollars going toward counseling migrants on how to use the asylum process to enter the United States. 

“Your department is responsible for giving us knowingly false information,” Issa told Julieta Valls Noyes, assistant secretary for Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) at the State Department, during a Thursday hearing, referencing the department’s PRM program funding a nonprofit organization known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). 

“We were told…PRM has not funded and does not fund legal representation or counseling related to immigration proceedings,” Issa explained, referencing a letter from the State Department to the committee. “Again, later, in December, from the government of Mexico, PRM does not fund legal representation or counseling related to U.S. immigration proceedings and legal assistance provided to those in Mexico is solely for the Mexican legal processes.”

Issa continued, “Under the rules of US 18 Title 1001, is that a true statement? Either of those?”

EX-BORDER PATROL CHIEF RIPS BIDEN ADMIN FOR ALLEGEDLY SUPPRESSING INFO ON MIGRANTS WITH POTENTIAL TERROR TIES

“Congressman, the U.S. funds,” Valls Noyes responded before Issa interjected and said, “It’s a yes or no. It really is.”

“Yes,” Valls Noyes responded. 

Issa then presented a series of slides from HIAS that showed the group explaining in Spanish the best ways to use the asylum system to enter the United States and detailing the legal process to enter the country.

“Are you aware of this packet that was used throughout 2023,” Issa asked, to which Valls Noyes responded, “Yes.”

“Does it limit to legal activities in Mexico or does it on pages 9, 10, and 11 clearly advise people on how to get asylum in the U.S.?”

Valls Noyes responded by saying “this packet of information was not funded by PRM” and instead by the “U.N. refugee agency.”

BIDEN-HARRIS’ RECKLESS RESTART OF A FRAUD-RIDDEN IMMIGRATION PROGRAM

“Was this organization at this time under funding from the United States,” Issa asked. 

“The organization was, this packet was not,” Valls Noyes responded. 

Valls Noyes said that she was not “aware” of the packet until the department was gathering documents to comply with House oversight, but said again that it was “not funded” directly by PRM.

“Ma’am, I’m going to make something very clear to you,” Issa said. “The intent of Congress is not to use the fungibility of money to give to an organization that goes out with the people that you are funding and those people and that organization do something inconsistent with what you tell Congress your mandate is.”

“Money is fungible. As long as you give to this organization, which I understand you’re still funding around the world, and they have a dual purpose, and they use that dual purpose to do something that Congress clearly doesn’t want. Nowhere in this deck, we’ll call it U.N. funded for a moment just to humor you, nowhere in this deck does it suggest you can seek refuge in Mexico, which under international law you have not only a right to but an obligation to.”

Issa went on to explain that the State Department was effectively encouraging migrants to avoid seeking asylum in Mexico and instead enter the United States at the “federal taxpayers expense.”

“If you fund the meeting, and you use the deck, how is it that you can say you’re telling us without trickery or any kind of misleading that this wasn’t funded, or at least enabled by the United States government, maam?” Issa asked later in the hearing. 

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“Again, congressman, we did not fund the production of the deck, but it is accurate that the deck was used in briefings where we were also informing migrants about the ability to seek asylum in Mexico,” Valls Noyes said. 

“You’re a great diplomat,” Issa responded. “Because diplomats tell people to go to hell and make them pack and look forward to the trip I guess because there is no truth to what you just said. It is extremely clear that if a group, I don’t care who printed it or handed it out, a group you were funding waters and transportation and everything else to bring to an event, host the event, under the color of the United States of America. Not the United Nations. And then you say ‘Oh we didn’t fund it. They got the money fungibly from somewhere else.’ Ma’am, there’s not one American that would believe that.”

Valls Noyes went on to say that the State Department ceased funding HIAS in 2023 and is in fully in compliance with the law and similar slides are not currently being passed out. 

“HIAS is the world’s oldest refugee protection agency, working to provide vital services to refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced and stateless persons around the world as a longstanding partner of the U.S. government and the American Jewish community,” a HIAS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “HIAS complies with U.S. law and our grant agreements, including those applicable to the HIAS project that was discussed at yesterday’s hearing.”

Issa spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital after the hearing and said the exchange represented an “outright lie” from the State Department, who as recently as this year, in a letter to committee Chair Matt McCaul, distanced itself from the slides arguing that PRM did not directly fund the creation of the actual slideshow, but acknowledged funding the session it was used at.

“When you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, the first thing you do is to deny the cookie jar,” Issa said. “The next thing you do is deny the hand and that’s really what she did. Confronted with a document that clearly said this organization was advocating on how to circumvent being rejected at the border. She said we only funded working with the Mexicans to comply with the government.”

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“Then when confronted with, well, no, you paid for these people simultaneously. Well, yeah, but we didn’t pay for that. Then, when confronted with, but you paid for events where they presented it. She said, “But we didn’t pay for the production of the document they presented.”

Issa told Fox News Digital he cited the specific law he cited in the hearing “for a reason.” 

“It doesn’t just say outright lie,” Issa explained. “It says to deceive, to trick. It is intended to make you vulnerable to a fine and even up to five years in prison for deceiving Congress. And clearly, her denials were intended to deceive at least the public. It certainly didn’t deceive Congress because it was pretty obvious on the face of it that our government knowingly facilitated these people providing, circumventing going to the border and in no way were encouraging people to stay in Mexico or comply with Mexican law.”

Issa continued, “You cannot fund an organization, fund the meeting they had, fund bringing the people there, provide lots of other funding, food, water, the like, and then say that the presentation given wasn’t the presentation that was prohibited by law. She acknowledged that that presentation would have been prohibited by law, but she simply said, ‘we didn’t fund it.’ And, you know, that’s sort of like saying we took the person to the bank. Yes, we vouch for them, but the counterfeit bills were printed by somebody else.”

The Center for Immigration Studies reported earlier this year that the Biden administration has been involved for several years in “mainlining taxpayer funds” to a variety of nonprofits that “then distribute them to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants comfortably moving toward illegal U.S. southern border crossings.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a State Department spokesperson again denied that the slide presentation was directly funded by U.S. taxpayers.

“The Department of State’s humanitarian assistance through international organizations and NGOs does not encourage or promote irregular migration and U.S. taxpayer dollars were not used to produce the slides in question,” the spokesperson said. 

“On the contrary, The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration supports programs that help displaced individuals obtain legal status, documentation, employment, and education in countries throughout the Western Hemisphere so people can find stability and integrate,” the spokesperson continued. “All contributions to implementing partners prohibits the use of government funds for activities that “encourage, mobilize, publicize, or manage mass-migration caravans towards the United States southwest border; legal counselling on the United States asylum process; and/or referrals to legal representation in the United States.”

Issa told Fox News Digital that “this is not the end of it all” and he intends to “pursue this into the next Congress.”

“All the people involved in this have to be fleshed out because  you know, oversight is not about asking questions and going away and oversight is not about asking questions and when you’re given the answers, even if they’re untrue, going away,” Issa said. “It’s about not quitting until you have the truth and not quitting until people who attempt to obfuscate or hide have held accountable. And right now, she’s not being held accountable.”