Florida authorities arrested five suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in connection with a string of retail thefts, and one of the suspects was seen sobbing during his interview with law enforcement.
Alexis Jose Rodriguez-Benavides, Darwins Smith Vasquez-Leon, Ildemaro Miguel Escalona Mendoza, Ramon Jesus Carpintero-Luna and Samuel Oglis David Anthony Charlie are facing charges for organized retail theft and robbery. Investigators are also working to add racketeering charges, according to Fox 13.
The five suspects are all in the U.S. without authorization.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd shared an image at a news conference of Carpintero-Luna appearing to be sobbing while being interviewed by investigators.
SUPREME COURT BLOCKS NEW DEPORTATIONS OF VENEZUELANS IN TEXAS UNDER 18TH CENTURY ALIEN ENEMIES ACT
Ramon Jesus Carpintero-Luna sobbing while being interviewed by law enforcement.(Polk County Sheriff’s Office)
Judd said the investigation into the retail crimes began in October, when Publix reported that a series of high-end liquor items were being stolen from stores in Central Florida. Walmart and Sam’s Club made similar reports of thefts at their stores.
Investigators reported 32 theft and robbery cases in Polk County alone.
The incident that helped investigators bust the suspects happened last month at a Sam’s Club in Lakeland, where the suspects attempted to steal a shopping cart filled with $3,200 worth of liquor, according to the sheriff.
Alexis Jose Rodriguez-Benavides, Darwins Smith Vasquez-Leon, Ildemaro Miguel Escalona Mendoza, Ramon Jesus Carpintero-Luna and Samuel Oglis David Anthony Charlie(Polk County Sheriff’s Office)
In that incident, the suspects injured a female worker who grabbed the cart in an effort to stop them, Judd said. The group left for a car that they then crashed in the parking lot before escaping in an Uber.
Investigators searched the car and found stolen liquor, cellphones and a passport.
After identifying the suspects, law enforcement learned that two of the men were already in custody for a different robbery in Osceola County. The other three suspects were arrested Thursday night.
JUSTICE KAGAN DENIES EMERGENCY APPEAL TO HALT DEPORTATION OF MEXICAN NATIONALS CLAIMING ASYLUM FROM CARTEL
The incident that helped investigators bust the suspects happened last month at a Sam’s Club in Lakeland.(Getty Images)
“I can tell you that this violent gang was alive and well in Central Florida,” Judd said at the news conference, referring to Tren de Aragua.
The sheriff said the suspects face enhanced charges due to their immigration status, as he railed against people he described as “criminal illegal aliens.”
“They are tormenting and terrorizing and stealing and robbing and murdering people,” Judd said.
President Trump on Friday said that career government employees working on policy matters for the administration will be reclassified “Schedule Policy/Career,” – or at will employees – and will be fired if they don’t adhere to his agenda.
“Following my Day One Executive Order, the Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees,” the president wrote on Truth Social Friday afternoon.
He added, “Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance.”
This comes as the Trump administration continues to fire federal employees in an effort to shrink the government.
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS HALT TO TRUMP ADMIN’S CFPB TERMINATIONS
President Trump on Friday said that career government employees working on policy matters for the administration will be reclassified “Schedule Policy/Career,” – or at will employees – and will be fired if they don’t adhere to his agenda.( Win McNamee/Getty Images))
The administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) estimated the rule change in Trump’s executive order “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” would affect around 50,000 employees or 2% of the federal workforce, the White House said in a Friday memo.
The regulations for civil service employees “with important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties” will now be considered “at-will” employees, “without access to cumbersome adverse action procedures or appeals, overturning Biden Administration regulations that protected poor performing employees.”
Protesters rally outside of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in February in support of federal workers. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Trump added in his post: “If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job. This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!”
SUPREME COURT RULES ON STATUS OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FIRED PROBATIONARY EMPLOYEES
The White House said the “rule empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of Presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.”
The employees aren’t required to personally support the president, but “must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been working to shrink the government by firing federal workers. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The proposed rule won’t change the status of affected employees’ jobs until another executive order is issued, the White House said.
Jesus Jiménez, a New York Times reporter, goes to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles to look into the burnt lots on sale for millions of dollars. Several weeks after wildfires destroyed the wealthy neighborhood, homeowners are assessing the damage, their insurance coverage and the costs of rebuilding, and some are deciding to cut their losses and leave for good. Jiménez reports on who is selling and who is buying.
This is the latest instalment of a Global News series called ‘On the Brink,’ which profiles people who are struggling with the rising cost of living. In this story, an ordinary Ontario family talks about their struggles to get by.
These days, Cheyenne Allen says her family must count every dollar they have just to get by.
The 34-year-old event planner and soon-to-be mother of two from London, Ont. says 20 years ago, owning a home and living off two incomes would’ve been stable.
But ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, things have changed.
“I spent a lot of time in my 20s working two part-time jobs and going to school, and I was just making it,” she told Global News.
“Now I’m in my career, my husband has his career, he bought this house in 2019, and we were doing well, and then the pandemic hit.”
‘It doesn’t go as far as it used to’
Allen said she and her husband, a boilermaker, bring in roughly $147,000 a year before taxes. With that income, she feels they should have more opportunities to be better off.
“It doesn’t go as far as it used to. It just doesn’t,” Allen said.
This situation isn’t unique to Allen and her family.
Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University, said over the past five years, Canadians’ buying power has seen a noticeable drop.
However, it’s been steadily declining since the 1980s.
Lander used the McDonald’s Big Mac as an example.
“If you earn $20 an hour and a Big Mac costs around $7, then you’re working for three Big Macs an hour equivalent. If, in the past, you were working for two Big Macs an hour, then it really doesn’t matter how many dollars you were earning; your purchasing power is increased because you can now buy more Big Macs with one hour of your time than you could in the past,” he said.
“What’s happened then is that essentially, the prices of the Big Macs have risen faster than the dollar amounts that we’ve earned at our job have risen, so the number of Big Macs that we can purchase has fallen.”
With the post-pandemic increase in the cost of living and a growing family, Allen said they stress about where each dollar is going.
The couple pays roughly $2,000 a month right now for a mortgage, but they also have condo fees that keep going up.
While on a reasonably low rate now, Allen said she is worried about their mortgage coming up for renewal in two years, right around the time her maternity leave will end for their second child.
“That’s kind of scary because that’s when I’ll have to be going back to work and looking at health-care costs for two babies, and it’s hard,” she said.
The cost of growing a family
With a one-and-a-half-year-old and a second on the way, Allen said costs can quickly add up.
“I was lucky enough to be able to nurse my baby, so I hope that I’ll be able to do so with the second one because the price of formula is staggering,” Allen said.
With baby formula costing around $50 per week, Allen said it leaves some families deciding between what bills to pay and feeding their child.
While Allen tries to find deals, she said it can be hard to find good-quality baby items, even second hand, with everything feeling picked through.
Her daughter is currently in daycare part-time, at $600 a month, but the cost would be $1,000 a month if she were there full-time.
While she tried to get her daughter on a list for a $10-a-day childcare spot when she was five months pregnant, nearly two years later, she has yet to hear back.
Allen worries about what will happen when she returns to work after her maternity leave is over.
“It seems like we’re just one bill away from paying to go back to work. If we don’t end up hearing from one of the $10-a-day daycares, we’re going to have to seriously look at our options,” she said.
Food prices in Canada likely to increase: report
The 15th annual food price report, released in December 2024 by a partnership of four Canadian universities, predicts that in 2025, food prices will increase overall by three to five per cent.
The report says the average family of four is expected to spend $16,833.67 on food in 2025, an increase of $801.56 from 2024.
The report found that food affordability remains a major concern for Canadians.
It is a concern shared by Allen, who thinks the prices of essential items should be better controlled.
Allen said her family has started gardening and preserving food as one way to combat food costs, but with the impact the U.S. trade war is having, she is considering expanding her garden.
“People need food to live, people need water to live,” Allen said.
“And I think it’s a little extortionate to pay $6 for a little half a pint of blueberries.”
The fourth story in Global News’ relaunched On the Brink series is set to publish next Saturday.
If you have a story about the cost of living you would like to tell, please email us below.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling early Saturday morning blocking, at least for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law.
The justices instructed the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.”
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority opinion.
ACLU APPEALS TO SUPREME COURT TO STOP VENEZUELAN DEPORTATIONS; BOASBERG HOLDS EMERGENCY HEARING FRIDAY NIGHT
Venezuelan migrants repatriated from the U.S. gesture seen upon arrival at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, on April 4, 2025. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
The court’s ruling comes after an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union arguing that federal immigration authorities appeared to be working to resume the removal of migrants from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Two federal judges earlier declined to step in and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has not made any decision.
DEMOCRAT SENATOR VAN HOLLEN MEETS, SHAKES HANDS WITH ABREGO GARCIA
A Venezuelan migrant repatriated from the U.S. walks upon arrival at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, on April 4, 2025. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, with the most recent being during World War II to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps.
The Trump administration claims the act gave them the authority to swiftly remove immigrants they accuse of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, regardless of their immigration status.
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April 19, 1995, started off as a beautiful spring day for Amy Downs, a teller at a credit union inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
“I remember the red buds were blooming,” Downs recalled to Fox News Digital. “I was so excited. I was getting ready to close my very first house. I don’t think I did any work in that first hour of the day. I was running around talking to all my friends about the house.
“And then I was looking at my watch, thinking, ‘Oh gosh, it’s almost nine o’clock. I’m going to get in trouble. I had better get back to my desk.’”
Downs flew past her boss. A co-worker who was six months pregnant sat beside her. Downs asked if she needed anything.
OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING: FBI AGENT REFLECTS ON RESPONSE TO ATTACK 29 YEARS LATER
Amy Downs is speaking out in National Geographic’s “Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day In America.”(National Geographic/Brandon Widener)
“I don’t know if the words even came out of my mouth or not, because that’s when the bomb went off and everything went black,” Downs said.
It was 30 years ago when a truck bomb detonated outside a federal building in America’s heartland, killing 168 people in the deadliest homegrown attack on U.S. soil. Downs and other survivors and witnesses are speaking out in a new National Geographic docuseries, “Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America.”
April 19, 1995, started as a beautiful spring day for Amy Downs. Then her life forever changed.(National Geographic/News9 Oklahoma City)
“I think it’s so important to remember what happened and the lessons that were learned,” Downs said of why she chose to come forward.
A rubble pile and heavy damage are visible at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on the afternoon of April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, Okla.(National Geographic/Danny Atchley)
Downs was 28 years old when she found herself trapped upside down in her office chair. She had fallen three floors down and was buried under 10 feet of rubble. Whenever she gasped for air, it burned down to her chest. Her body was pierced with glass.
“I remember hearing roaring and screaming, and this powerful rushing sensation, like I was falling,” said Downs. “I found out I had fallen. … I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. It was very hard to breathe. I had no idea what had happened. I just knew it was bad.”
Firefighters ran through thick smoke toward the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.(National Geographic/Danny Atchley)
Downs screamed for help, but no one replied. In the darkness, she heard silence. Suddenly, after what felt like an eternity, there was a sudden commotion of firefighters. One said, “Let’s split up. Let’s look for the daycare babies.”
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Edye Raines and her mother, Kathy Sanders, realize the blast occurred in the building where America’s Kids Daycare is located.(National Geographic/News9 Oklahoma City)
They were referring to the children at the America’s Kids Daycare inside the building.
“I was confused,” said Downs. “I thought, ‘Why are they looking for the daycare babies here? The daycare is on the second floor, and we’re on the third floor.’ I had no idea that we were at the bottom of what was once this nine-story building.”
Rescue workers search through the rubble looking for survivors. (Roman Bas/AFP via Getty Images)
Fire Chief Mike Shannon heard Down’s cries for help. Just as he was about to go get her, his crew learned there was a possibility of another bomb that was about to go off. It forced them to immediately evacuate, leaving Downs behind.
District Fire Chief Mike Shannon heard Amy Downs’ cries for help. (National Geographic)
Shannon was determined to stay with Downs, but fellow firefighters refused to leave him behind. In the documentary, Shannon described how he heard the echoes of Downs sobbing, begging him to save her, as he was being rushed out.
At that moment, Downs believed her life was coming to an end.
Mike Shannon recalled hearing Amy Downs’ pleas for help. (National Geographic/Brandon Widener)
“I now knew it had been a bomb, and it looked like there was another one,” she said. “I was getting ready to die. I prayed, or maybe you could call it bargained with God. I kept promising God anything, just to be able to live. I prayed for a second chance. My reality was that I was 28 years old and getting ready to die, and I’ve never really lived. I had a lot of regrets about how I had not been living.”
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Panicked onlookers, survivors and first responders clear the area after the threat of a possible second explosive device in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City.(National Geographic/News9 Oklahoma City)
In between tears, she began to recite portions of Psalm 23 to comfort herself.
“The only thing I could remember was, ‘I walked through the valley of the shadow of death,’” said Downs. “I couldn’t remember what came next. I thought that was awful. And then, of all the weird things to do, a song popped into my head that we used to sing growing up in church. I started singing this song, and I felt peace. This was the first time that I thought I was at peace with what was getting ready to happen.”
Luke Franey, who had just escaped through the rubble, is led away.(National Geographic/News9 Oklahoma City)
There was no second bomb. Once the firefighters realized this, they rushed back in. Shannon remembered to look for Downs. When Downs heard the sounds of men again, she promised in the darkness to bake them, anyone, chocolate chip cookies if they could save her.
Amy Downs speaking to her mother from the hospital bed after her rescue. (National Geographic/KFOR-TV)
Six and a half hours later, she was free.
“I was in the hospital for about eight days,” she said. “The biggest injury was my leg, which had been split open. My bone was intact, but the leg was open. But the hardest part was finding out that 18 of my 33 co-workers were killed. … Grief is something that I couldn’t comprehend. Dealing with the grief and trauma was the hard part. The injuries were nothing.”
President Bill Clinton departs the White House briefing room in Washington, D.C., April 19, 1995, after meeting with reporters to discuss the bombing.(National Geographic/Marcy Nighswander/The Associated Press)
Downs was one of the last survivors to be pulled from the rubble after the bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. Nearly 700 others were injured.
GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB
The Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people, including 19 children.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Downs struggled with survivor’s guilt.
“I remember on the eighth day in the hospital, they found my best friend’s body,” she tearfully said. “She had baby girls at home.”
District Fire Chief Mike Shannon confers with a colleague at the site of the bombed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.(National Geographic/Danny Atchley)
As Downs grieved, the community banded together. In just 72 hours after the bombing, 7,000 people waited in line to donate blood, FOX25 reported.
An Oklahoma City firefighter walks near explosion-damaged cars on the north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City after a car bomb explosion April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City.(National Geographic/Jim Argo/USA Today Network)
“We have our differences, and differences are not a bad thing,” she said. “But I think it’s cool when we know when to put aside those differences and come together for good.”
Downs was still in the ICU when she saw a group of nurses glued to a television screen. It was revealed that the bombing was orchestrated by two former U.S. Army buddies, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
Timothy McVeigh is pictured sitting on his car while he was selling anti-government bumper stickers at Mount Carmel, Waco, during the ATF/FBI standoff with the Branch Davidians in April 1993.(National Geographic/Michelle Rauch/Courtesy FBI Multimedia)
They shared a deep-seated hatred of the federal government fueled by the bloody raid on the Branch Davidian religious sect near Waco, Texas, and a standoff in the mountains of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that killed a 14-year-old boy, his mother and a federal agent.
Timothy McVeigh is escorted out of the Noble County Courthouse in Perry, Okla., to be transferred to Tinker AFB for his arraignment April 21, 1995.(National Geographic/News9 Oklahoma City)
“When I found out that it was an American, not only that, but somebody who also served in our military … I struggled with that,” she said. “I could not wrap my brain around that. My father is from the Greatest Generation. He lied about his age when he was 17 years old to fight World War II. It just didn’t add up. How could you be an American? How could you serve our country? How could you do this?”
According to the documentary, Downs later faced McVeigh in court.
Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001.(Getty Images)
“It was very disturbing,” she said, shuddering. “He almost seemed proud of it.”
Terry Nichols was convicted of being an accomplice to Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.(Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)
McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001. He was 33. Nichols, now 70, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Downs was ready to embrace her second chance at life. She went from a 355-pound “couch potato” to losing 200 pounds and completing a full ironman triathlon. She went on to work for the same credit union, now called Allegiance Credit Union, where she served as president and CEO.
Amy Downs said, after her rescue, she was determined to turn her life around.(National Geographic/Danny Atchley)
“I’d flunked out of college because I couldn’t pass a math class,” she said. “But I was very fortunate to have bosses who mentored me and believed in me. … I had promised God that I would never live my life the same if I survived, and I meant that. … I went back to college, got my degree, did all the things. … And just this week, I retired. So, I decided to launch a new chapter.”
WACO DOC: CULT LEADER DAVID KORESH ‘NEEDED TO FULFILL HIS DESTINY,’ RESULTING IN HORRIFIC TRAGEDY
Mike Shannon is featured in the National Geographic docuseries “Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America.”(National Geographic/Brandon Widener)
Today, Downs is a full-time speaker. She also created a new bucket list. She and her sister are planning to walk about 160 miles of Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage known as “The Way of St. James.” She’s also eager to ride her bicycle across the United States.
“I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up,” the 58-year-old chuckled.
The Oklahoma National Memorial on the day of Timothy McVeigh’s execution June 11, 2001, in Oklahoma City, Okla.(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Downs hopes viewers watching the documentary will learn how a community became united during tragedy.
Floral tributes commemorate the 19 children killed in the Oklahoma City bombing at the base of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in April 1995.(National Geographic/Courtesy The Stephen Jones Oklahoma City Bombing Archive, Dolph Briscoe Center, at the University of Texas)
“It showcases the strength of the human spirit and the courage of these men who rushed in to help,” she said. “And the way we came together. The thing is, we are all going to face times in our lives when we’re buried under the rubble, where devastation comes to us. … We will face difficult times.
“I think the lesson from this is that, as people, we can come together. And when you come together during times of difficulty, you are stronger than you realize. And together, you will get through it.”
National Geographic’s “Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America” is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
And this year, Congressional Republicans converted tax season to “sales” season. Republicans and President Donald Trump are pushing to approve a bill to reauthorize his 2017 tax cut package. Otherwise, those taxes expire later this year.
“We absolutely have to make the tax cuts permanent,” said Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., on FOX Business.
“We’ve got to get the renewal of the President’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That’s absolutely essential,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on FOX Business.
Rates for nearly every American spike if Congress doesn’t act within the next few months.
CONFIDENCE IN DEMOCRATS HITS ALL TIME LOW IN NEW POLL
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with the media after the House passed the budget resolution on Thursday, April 10, 2025.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“We are trying to avoid tax increases on the most vulnerable populations in our country,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee which determines tax policy. “I am trying to avoid a recession.”
If Congress stumbles, the non-partisan Tax Foundation estimates that a married couple with two children – earning $165,000 a year – is slapped with an extra $2,400 in taxes. A single parent with no kids making $75,000 annually could see a $1,700 upcharge on their tax bill. A single parent with two children bringing home $52,000 a year gets slapped with an additional $1,400 in taxes a year.
“Pretty significant. That’s an extra mortgage payment or extra rent payment,” said Daniel Bunn of the non-partisan Tax Foundation. “People have been kind of used to living with the policies that are currently in law for almost eight years now. And the shift back to the policy that was prior to the 2017 tax cuts would be a dramatic tax increase for many.”
But technically, Republicans aren’t cutting taxes.
“As simple as I can make this bill. It is about keeping tax rates the same,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, on Fox.
Congress had to write the 2017 tax reduction bill in a way so that the reductions would expire this year. That was for accounting purposes. Congress didn’t have to count the tax cuts against the deficit thanks to some tricky number-crunching mechanisms – so long as they expired within a multi-year window. But the consequence was that taxes could climb if lawmakers failed to renew the old reductions.
“It sunsets and so you just automatically go back to the tax levels prior to 2017,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
A recent Fox News poll found that 45% of those surveyed – and 44% of independents believe the rich don’t pay enough taxes.
Democrats hope to turn outrage about the perceived tax disparity against Trump.
“He wants his billionaire buddies to get an even bigger tax break. Is that disgraceful?” asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a rally in New York.
“Disgrace!” shouted someone in the crowd.
“Disgraceful! Disgraceful!” followed up Schumer.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., (R) speaks alongside Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., (L) to reporters during a news conference on the impacts of the Republican budget proposal at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Some Republicans are now exploring raising rates on the wealthy or corporations. There’s been chatter on Capitol Hill and in the administration about exploring an additional set of tax brackets.
“I don’t believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
“We’re going to see where the President is” on this, said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent while traveling in Argentina. “Everything is on the table.”
A Treasury spokesperson then clarified Bessent’s remarks.
“What’s off the table is a $4.4 trillion tax increase on the American people,” said the spokesperson. “Additionally, corporate tax cuts will set off a manufacturing boom and rapidly grow the U.S. economy again.”
Top Congressional GOP leaders dismissed the idea.
“I’m not a big fan of doing that,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson on Fox. “I mean we’re the Republican party and we’re for tax reduction for everyone.”
FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY RESTRICTS DOGE ACCESS TO PERSONALIZED SOCIAL SECURITY DATA
“I don’t support that initiative,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., on FOX Business, before adding “everything’s on the table.”
But if you’re President Donald Trump and the GOP, consider the politics of creating a new corporate tax rate or hiking taxes on the well-to-do.
Sunrise light hits the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress is set to begin Friday.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The president has expanded the GOP base. Republicans are no longer the party of the “wealthy.” Manual laborers, shop and storekeepers and small business persons now comprise Trump’s GOP. So maintaining these tax cuts helps with that working-class core. Raising taxes on the wealthy would help Republicans pay for the tax cuts and reduce the hit on the deficit. And it would shield Republicans from the Democrats’ argument that the tax cuts are for the rich.
Congress is now in the middle of a two-week recess for Passover and Easter. GOP lawmakers and staff are working behind the scenes to actually write the bill. No one knows exactly what will be in the bill. Trump promised no taxes on tips for food service workers. There is also talk of no taxes on overtime.
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BLUNTLY SHOWS WHERE PARTIES STAND ON IMMIGRATION AMID ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION
Republicans from high-tax states like New York and Pennsylvania want to see a reduction of “SALT.” That’s where taxpayers can write off “state and local taxes.” This provision is crucial to secure the support of Republicans like Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. But including the SALT reduction also increases the deficit.
So what will the bill look like?
“Minor adjustments within that are naturally on the table,” said Rounds. “The key though, [is] 218 in the House and 51 in the Senate.”
In other words, it’s about the math. Republicans need to develop the right legislative brew which commands just the right amount of votes in both chambers to pass. That could mean including certain provisions – or dumping others. It’s challenging. Especially with the slim House majority.
People attend a press conference and rally in support of fair taxation near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2025. (Bryan Dozier / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)
“There were trade-offs and offsets within that bill that many people are dissatisfied with,” said Bunn of the 2017 bill. “And it’s not clear how the package is going to come together with those various trade-offs.”
Johnson wants the bill complete by Memorial Day. Republicans know this enterprise can’t drag on too late into the year. Taxpayers would see a tax increase – even if it’s temporary – if working out the bill stretches into the fall when the IRS begins to prepare for the next tax season.
It’s also thought that finishing this sooner rather than later would provide some stability to the volatile stock markets. Establishing tax policy for next year would calm anxieties about the nation’s economic outlook.
“The big, beautiful bill,” Trump calls it, adding he wants the legislation done “soon.”
And that’s why tax season is now sales season. Both to the lawmakers. And to the public.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
A harrowing video captured Florida State University students hiding under a desk on campus as the mass shooting was unfolding Thursday.
“I’m scared,” a woman was heard saying in the footage taken by an English graduate student inside the campus’ William Johnston Building.
“Attention! Attention! This is an FSU alert,” a pre-recorded voice added in a message being played over a loudspeaker. “A dangerous or life-threatening situation exists on campus. Take shelter now in a secure location. FSU police are responding. Remain alert.”
A woman could then be heard sobbing as she crawled under a desk to join other students.
MORE DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY SHOOTING SUSPECT PHOENIX IKNER AS MOTIVE REMAINS A MYSTERY
Students are seen hiding under a desk on Thursday, April 17, during a mass shooting at Florida State University.(Sophia Ziemer/TMX)
The student who took the video, identified as Sophia Ziemer, told TMX News that “We ran into people from Art Education who let us into their conference meeting room” and “That’s where we were able to take shelter.”
Phoenix Ikner, a 20-year-old believed to be a student at Florida State University, was identified as the suspect in Thursday’s mass shooting, which left two dead and six others injured.
The motive for the attack remains unclear.
FLORIDA STATE SHOOTING SUSPECT: WHO IS PHOENIX IKNER?
A memorial for the victims of the Florida State University shooting was held on Thursday.(Pilar Arias for Fox News Digital)
The Tallahassee school is now allowing students on Friday to retrieve their personal belongings from buildings on campus.
“The university will hold a vigil for the victims at 5 p.m. Friday, April 18, at Langford Green in front of the Unconquered Statue,” it also said.
FSU President Richard McCullough called the shooting a “tragic and senseless act of violence at the heart of our campus.”
“At lunchtime, an active shooter opened fire at the Student Union,” he wrote on X on Thursday.
A Leon County Sheriff’s Office vehicle is seen at Florida State University following the shooting on Thursday in Tallahassee.(Pilar Arias)
“We are heartbroken. We are grieving with the families, friends, and loved ones of those who were lost. We are holding close those who are injured, and we are standing by everyone who is hurting,” he added.
A government memo obtained by CBS News shows the Trump administration created broad rules outlining which migrants can be held at Guantanamo Bay, allowing officials to send non-criminal detainees there despite a vow to hold “the worst” offenders at the naval base.
As part of his aggressive crackdown on immigration, President Trump in late January directed officials to convert facilities inside the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into holding sites for migrants living in the country illegally. At the time, Mr. Trump said “the worst” migrants would be held at the base, directing officials to make space for “high-priority criminal aliens.”
But a previously undisclosed agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense indicates that the Trump administration gave officials wide-ranging discretion to decide who to send to Guantanamo Bay, enacting criteria not predicated on the severity of detainees’ criminal history or conduct. In fact, the memo does not mention any criminality assessment. [Read the full memo at the bottom of this story.]
Instead, the agreement, signed on March 7 by top DHS and Pentagon officials, says the departments agreed to use the Guantanamo base to detain migrants with final deportation orders who have “a nexus to a transnational criminal organization (TCO) or criminal drug activity.”
Officials defined “nexus” in broad terms. A nexus can be satisfied, the memo says, if migrants with final deportation orders are part of a transnational criminal group or if they paid one “to be smuggled into the United States.” The latter condition could be used to describe many of the migrants and asylum-seekers who have illegally crossed the U.S. southern border, as criminal groups in Mexico largely control the illicit movement of people and drugs there.
Migrants who overstayed a visa are not eligible to be sent to Guantanamo Bay, the document says. But if the nature of a migrant’s entry is unclear, the memo allows officials to assume that the person paid a criminal group to enter the U.S. and to send them to Guantanamo if they hail from a nation “where the preponderance of aliens from that country enter the United States in that fashion.”
The conditions for transferring migrants to Guantanamo, as outlined in the memo, seem to be at odds with statements by Mr. Trump and high-ranking members of his administration that have suggested the base would be used as a detention site for dangerous criminals.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former U.S. immigration official during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said the memo’s rules “apply very broadly to any immigrant who came to the U.S. via the U.S.-Mexico border.”
“It’s very well known that almost every immigrant who makes it to the U.S.-Mexico border would have to pay some sort of money to the cartels that control the territory on the Mexican side, directly or indirectly,” she said.
Cardinal Brown added that the rules do not appear to include “any individualized assessment” to determine whether migrant detainees pose a threat, before transferring them to Guantanamo.
Department of Defense spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson confirmed the existence of the memo, saying it “strengthens DoD and DHS collaboration by clarifying roles and responsibilities, and fostering efficient and coordinated operations at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.”
CBS News reached out to DHS representatives for comment.
The Guantanamo operation is not the only Trump administration immigration effort to face scrutiny over who exactlyhas been targeted. In mid-March, for example, the administration deported 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador, so they could be imprisoned inside that country’s infamous mega-prison. The Trump administration said they were all criminals and gang members, but a “60 Minutes” investigation did not find a criminal record for 75% of the Venezuelan deportees.
A high-profile yet largely secretive operation
The Trump administration first began sending migrants to Guantanamo in February, initially only transferring Venezuelans there, including men it accused of having ties to the Tren de Aragua prison gang. The first group of Venezuelan detainees was eventually flown to Honduras, where the Venezuelan government picked them up so they could be transported back to their homeland.
Since then, the administration has sporadically flown migrants from different countries to the base, before transferring them back to the U.S. or other nations. Administration officials have regularly touted the flights to Guantanamo but have provided limited details about the operation, including on costs and who is eligible to be sent to the base.
What has been publicly revealed, by CBS News and other media outlets, is that officials have transferred both detainees considered to be “high-threat” and “low-risk” to Guantanamo, including migrants whose relatives have denied allegations of gang membership and criminality.
Government guidelines define migrant detainees as posing a “high” threat if they have violent or serious criminal records, histories of disruptive conduct or alleged gang ties. Low-risk detainees are defined as migrants who face deportation because they are in the U.S. illegally but who lack any serious criminal record — or any at all.
Those sent to Guantanamo and considered to be “high-threat” migrants have been held at Camp VI, a section of the post-9/11 prison that still houses roughly a dozen terrorism suspects. Migrant detainees deemed to pose a “low” risk have been transferred to the base’s Migrant Operations Center, a barrack-like facility that has historically housed asylum-seekers intercepted at sea.
Wilson, the Department of Defense spokeswoman, said there are currently 42 migrants detained at Guantanamo, 32 of them housed at the Migrant Operations Center and 10 so-called “high-threat” detainees held at Camp VI.
The March 7 memo obtained by CBS News sheds light on other aspects of operations at Guantanamo. For example, it confirms the migrant detainees transported there remain in the legal custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though the military is providing access to its facilities to detain them.
As part of the agreement, DHS also accepted the conditions at Camp VI and the Migrant Operations Center as adequate to hold migrant adults, noting it would not transfer children to the base. The department agreed to send ICE officers or contractors to the base, including to oversee security at the Migrant Operations Center.
The memo makes DHS responsible for providing detainees services like recreation and religious accommodations; determining whether migrants get access to lawyers; and administering “involuntary medical treatment,” such as force-feeding during hunger strikes.
The agreement also charges DHS with overseeing the transfer of detainees from and to Guantanamo, requiring the department to relocate migrants from the base no more than 180 days after their deportation orders are issued.
The military, as stipulated by the agreement, is principally responsible for providing security at Camp VI and in the perimeter of the facilities. It also agreed to provide toilets and hygiene facilities, as well as medical care to both ICE personnel and detained migrants.
The memo says the Department of Defense committed to erect tents at the base to hold additional detainees, though those sites have not been used to detain migrants yet. The agreement notes, however, that those tents “do not have power, lighting, or heating/air conditioning.”
The effort to hold migrants at Guantanamo faces legal challenges by advocates, including at the American Civil Liberties Union, the Trump administration’s chief adversary in federal court.
The ACLU alleged in court filings that migrants were initially held incommunicado at Guantanamo, without access to relatives or lawyers. The administration subsequently said it took steps to give migrant detainees access to lawyers.
The ACLU has also described detention conditions at Guantanamo as deplorable, citing declarations from migrants held there. In one of those declarations, a Venezuelan man previously held at the base said he went on a hunger strike after feeling he had been “kidnapped.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the lead architect of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, said earlier this week there are no plans to stop using Guantanamo to detain migrants.
“It’s wide open,” Miller said on Fox News. “Gitmo is open.”
Read the memo below:
Eleanor Watson
contributed to this report.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.
FIRST ON FOX: Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, who was recently deported to El Salvador, was suspected of partaking in labor/human trafficking, according to a 2022 Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) report obtained by Fox News. The report also stated that “official law enforcement investigations” revealed that Abrego-Garcia was a member of the notorious gang MS-13, which President Donald Trump has designated as a terror organization.
According to the report, on Dec. 1, 2022, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper stopped Garcia after he was “observed speeding” and unable to stay in his lane. The trooper noticed eight individuals in the car with Abrego-Garcia, who said he began driving three days prior from Houston, Texas, to Temple Hills, Md., via St. Louis, Mo. to “perform construction work.” The report states that the trooper suspected it was a human trafficking incident, as there was no luggage in the vehicle. Additionally, the individuals in the car reportedly gave the same address as Abrego-Garica’s home address.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022, according to a DHS report obtained by Fox News.(Department of Homeland Security)
TRUMP CALLS SEN. VAN HOLLEN A ‘FOOL’ AFTER MEETING WITH DEPORTED MS-13 SUSPECT IN EL SALVADOR
When speaking with the trooper, Abrego-Garcia allegedly “pretended to speak less English than he was capable of and attempted to put encountering officer off-track by responding to questions with questions.” After the incident, the officer decided not to give Abrego-Garcia a citation for the driving infractions, but rather to give him a warning for driving with an expired license.
The HSI report also notes that in October 2019, the Prince Georges County Police Gang Unit identified Abrego-Garcia as a member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang.
“Abrego Garcia is a MS-13 gang member, illegal alien from El Salvador, and suspected human trafficker. The facts reveal he was pulled over with eight individuals in a car on an admitted three-day journey from Texas to Maryland with no luggage,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News. “The facts speak for themselves, and they reek of human trafficking. The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart. We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”
In this undated photo provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is led by force by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BLUNTLY SHOWS WHERE PARTIES STAND ON IMMIGRATION AMID ABREGO-GARCIA DEPORTATION
Abrego-Garcia was also recently revealed to have a record of being a “violent” repeat wife beater, according to court records filed in a Prince George’s County, Md., district court by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez.
In the 2021 filing, written in Vasquez’s own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: “At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.”
Abrego-Garica’s deportation has caused uproar among Democrats, many of whom have referred to him as a wrongfully deported “Maryland man.” He has been held in El Salvador’s megaprison “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT).
Kilmar Abrego Garcia meets with Sen. Van Hollen, D-Md.(X / @ChrisVanHollen)
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., flew to El Salvador where he met with Abrego-Garcia, and was mocked by Trump for being a “fool.” Other Democrat lawmakers reportedly made plans to visit Abrego-Garcia after Van Hollen’s announcement.
The White House has not held back in its criticisms of Van Hollen’s visit. On Friday, the White House tweeted side-by-side photos of Trump meeting with the mother of Rachel Morin, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023, and Van Hollen sitting with Abrego-Garcia with the caption “We are not the same.”
Rachel Morin was a Maryland resident, as is her mother, Patty, who said that Van Hollen had not reached out to her since her daughter was murdered.
Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.
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