FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is blaming President Biden for the ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border as border officials prepare for the ending of the Title 42 public health order this week — with Haley promoting her plan to secure the border if she were to become president.

‘Never forget that Joe Biden created this crisis. He urged migrants to ‘surge’ the border,’ she said, referring to remarks Biden made as a presidential primary candidate.

Haley then noted Biden’s reversal of Trump-era policies such as the Remain-in-Mexico policy and border wall construction — which Republicans have argued were working to bring down apprehensions.

‘He caved to the radical wing of his party and reversed polices that were working. Now, Biden has turned every state in America into a border state,’ she said. ‘The first step to securing the border is to vote Joe Biden out. My plan calls for implementing a national E-Verify program, defunding sanctuary cities, stopping handouts to illegal immigrants, and firing Biden’s new IRS agents and hiring 25,000 new Border Patrol and ICE agents.’

Haley became the first announced 2024 candidate to visit the border last month, where she made a number of stops in Texas. She also used that trip to roll out her plan for the border, which includes the mandate for E-Verify. Haley had previously backed the program when she signed legislation as governor of South Carolina to require all businesses to use the immigration status verification tool.

‘We did a mandatory E-Verify program that said none of our businesses could hire anyone that was in this country illegally,’ she said on ‘One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.’ ‘That is what got them out of South Carolina because there were no jobs for them to come to, that’s what will get them out of this country, we’ve got to make sure none of our businesses hire anyone that is here in the country illegally, and we’ve got to start taking this seriously. Every state is a border state.’

Her plan would also restore the ‘Remain-in-Mexico’ policy — which kept migrants in Mexico while their immigration hearings proceeded, instead of releasing them into the U.S. Republicans have credited that policy with reducing the pull factors which drew migrants north. 

Additionally, she has said she would cut funding to states that have been used to give money to illegal immigrants — such as the billions used by New York to cut checks to illegal immigrant workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic.

Haley’s remarks come as Title 42 — which has allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border due to the COVID-19 pandemic — is set to expire on Thursday along with the COVID-19 national emergency.

Migrants are already flooding to the border, and numbers are expected only to surge in the coming days when the order ends as migrants believe they are more likely to be released into the U.S.

The Biden administration has been warning people not to make the journey, and has taken a number of actions, including cooperation with Mexico on deportations and an increase of penalties for illegal entry — but so far it does not seem to be dissuading migrants. 

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., has been hit with federal charges in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), sources tell Fox News.

Santos, who is the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation, is expected to appear at EDNY Central Islip on Wednesday afternoon for his first appearance. 

The charges, first reported by CNN, come after the scandal-plagued congressman last month announced his candidacy for reelection.

Fox News has reached out to Santos’ office and the DOJ for comment.

The freshman congressman flipped New York’s 3rd Congressional District for Republicans last year, partly by selling an inspirational personal backstory to voters that he later admitted was largely fictitious.

California’s reparations task force is calling on the state legislature to mandate ‘anti-bias training’ and an assessment based on that training as graduate requirements for medical school across the Golden State.

The task force, which was created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved over the weekend its final recommendations to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

Much of the public’s attention has been focused on the price tag of the proposed reparations: up to $1.2 million for qualifying Black Californians as initial ‘down payments’ while they wait for the purported full amount of money loss due to slavery and subsequent racism to be calculated.

Economists predicted in a preliminary estimate in March that California’s reparations plan could cost the cash-strapped state more than $800 billion. The task force said at the time that the total didn’t include compensation for property deemed to be taken unjustly or for the devaluation of Black-owned businesses.

However, several aspects of the committee’s recommendations have received little attention, including its proposals regarding health care.

One of the more striking health-related proposals is to mandate anti-bias training in order for medical professionals in California who study at state-funded programs to graduate.

‘To address discrimination against African Americans in health care, the task force recommends the legislature add the completion of an evidence-based anti-bias training and an assessment based on such training to the graduation requirements of all medical schools and any other medical care provider programs in California receiving state funding and not already covered, including mental health professional programs (psychologists, Ph.D, or Psy.D), masters-level programs in psychology or therapy (for counselors, clinicians, and therapists), and programs for clinical social workers,’ the committee states in its proposal.

The reparations plan also calls for similar training and testing to be ‘graduation requirements of all dental schools in California receiving state funding’ and ‘requirements for licensure by the Dental Board of California for licensed dentists and registered dental assistants.’

Meanwhile, the task force is pushing another controversial measure that could face backlash in the legislature: a universal, single-payer health care system as a way to achieve health ‘equity’ for Black residents.

‘The task force recommends closing the health coverage gaps through the adoption of a comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and health care cost control system for the benefit of all African Americans in Californian, with a special consideration for those who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States,’ the panel’s final draft report states.

It’s unclear whether the task force is recommending the legislature create a government-run health care system that would extend coverage only to California’s Black residents or to everyone in the state. The task force didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

Either way, California lawmakers have previously tried and failed to implement a universal health program. The state currently operates Medi-Cal, its own Medicaid program meant to provide health coverage to people with low incomes and limited ability to pay for their own health care. According to the task force, the state should put more money into the program to ‘achieve parity’ with private health insurers.

‘For the many African Americans in Californian who remain on Medi-Cal, the task force also recommends increases to the Medi-Cal reimbursement rates to achieve parity with the reimbursement rates of private insurance,’ the report says.

Such measures, according to the task force, are among those required for the state of California to make amends for slavery and broader anti-Black racism and discrimination. 

‘Due to discrimination, disempowerment, and neglect of African American patients by health care institutions, African American communities have suffered major gaps in health care delivery,’ the task force writes. ‘The impact can be seen across in virtually every aspect of physical and mental health outcomes.’

California never allowed slavery in its history, but critics argue the state still worked to uphold the institution and discriminated in other ways against Black Americans.

The reparations committee argues health disparities between White and Black Americans is connected to the latter suffering from ‘constant stress from chronic exposure to social and economic disadvantage, which leads to accelerated decline in physical health,’ adding unequal health outcomes ”cannot be explained away by factors like age, income, or education level’ — through implicit biases and racism, the health care system treats Black Californians differently.’

To address what the task force describes as systemic racism, the panel recommends the legislature authorize and provide ongoing funding to a ‘California Health Equity and Racial Justice Fund’ within the California Health Department’s Office of Health Equity, which already exists.

Under the task force’s plan, the Office of Health Equity would administer an annual $115 million
grant program ‘to address health disparities, focusing on social determinants of health.’

The reparations committee’s final recommendations include dozens of additional measures concerning mental and physical health. One such proposal calls for the Office of Health Equity to conduct an annual review of California health care laws and policies and to include how to ‘design and implement consequences for health care providers who do not address and reduce identified treatment disparities.’

The report notes this recommendation builds on a California Senate resolution from 2021 that stated, ‘The legislature declares racism to be a public health crisis and will actively participate in the dismantling of racism.’

A California state bill introduced in 2020 would have declared racism a public health crisis and established the state’s first Racial Equity Commission. The bill did not pass, but Newsom went on to create a Racial Equity Commission in September 2022 by executive order.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an emergency declaration on Tuesday in response to illegal migrants being sent to her city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Lightfoot issued the emergency declaration following the arrival of 48 migrants on Tuesday, according to a press release, which states that the city and state have provided emergency care for over 8,000 migrants since August 2022.

‘We should all understand that this crisis will likely deepen before we see it get better, so as we move forward, the City of Chicago will have to bring additional locations online to prepare for the arrival of more individuals and families and to relieve Chicago Police Department districts,’ Lightfoot’s office said. ‘The City of Chicago is in the midst of a national humanitarian crisis, and through a unified effort in accordance with its values as a welcoming city, Chicago is doing everything it can to respond to the urgency of this matter. The City has continued to call on federal and state governments to support the new arrival mission with much-needed additional funding and resources for emergency shelter and resettlement, as there are not enough resources currently to meet the need.’

The emergency declaration signed by Lightfoot states that Chicago’s resources are ‘now stretched to the breaking point,’ adding that hundreds of migrants are temporarily ‘sheltering in police stations.’

Video obtained by Fox News’ Matt Finn shows what appears to be migrant families taking shelter inside Chicago’s 19th police district. Migrants appear to be sleeping on the floor without proper access to showers or bathrooms. 

Chicago leadership has boldly advertised the city as a sanctuary city for more than five years, despite not having adequate resources to house migrants. 

Lightfoot, who is only in office until May 15, also reserved the authority to request a mobilization of the Illinois National Guard to address the influx of migrants.

The state of emergency declaration comes just days before Title 42 is set to expire, which is expected to cause a surge of migrants to cross the United States’ southern border.

Lightfoot sent a letter to Abbott in late April pleading with him to stop sending migrants to the sanctuary city.

‘Nearly all the migrants have been in dire need of food, water, and clothing and many needed extensive medical care,’ Lightfoot wrote. ‘Some of the individuals you placed on buses were women in active labor, and some were victims of sexual assault. None of these urgent needs were addressed in Texas. Instead, these individuals and families were packed onto buses and shipped across the country like freight without regard to their personal circumstances.’

Abbott began sending migrants to Chicago in response to ‘President Biden’s open border policies overwhelming border communities in Texas.’ The Republican governor has also sent migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C.

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.

As Republicans advocate for spending cuts in their debt ceiling stand-off with Democrats, an anti-government waste group called out three GOP lawmakers for shuffling more taxpayer dollars to pet projects than anyone in Congress.

Two now-retired Republican senators each raked in over half a billion dollars for their home states through earmarks in fiscal 2023, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) reported in its annual Congressional Pig Book. And a GOP congressman was the top spender in the House, funneling over a quarter of a million dollars to his district. 

‘Legislators are now well on their way to breaking the all-time record,’ CAGW President Tom Schatz told Fox News. ‘And it may happen as soon as next year.’

‘MOST CORRUPT’ GOVERNMENT PRACTICE AT NEAR-RECORD LEVELS: WATCHDOG

Earmarks, or pork, are line items lawmakers add to spending bills that designate tax dollars to programs and projects in their home states or districts, circumventing regular budgetary procedures. Last month, CAGW’s Pig Book exposed the 7,396 earmarks that weaseled their way into legislation throughout fiscal 2023 and cost taxpayers $26.1 billion. 

‘Earmarks are the most corrupt, costly and inequitable practice in the history of Congress,’ said Schatz. ‘It encourages a lack of fiscal discipline because members are looking for their little piece of pork and they in turn vote for the whole bill, which they might not otherwise support.’ 

Republicans hog top Oinker Awards

While Democrats took advantage of earmarking more often than Republicans, according to Pig Book, it was GOP lawmakers who received the largest sums in both chambers. Now-retired Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama’s 18 earmarks in fiscal 2023 cost taxpayers $666 million, and retired Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe worked in 63 earmarks, costing $541 million, CAGW reported.

The top spender in the House was Rep. Randy Weber received 10 earmarks costing $288 million, Pig Book shows. The report also highlighted another Republican, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, as a winner in its ‘Oinker Awards’ for allocating $6 million to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University in Starkville.

‘I have seven ports deeply tied to shipping goods and energy products worldwide, and given the nature of my district, I’m advocating on behalf of the gulf coast of Texas and the entire nation,’ Weber told Fox News. ‘I was tired of faceless and nameless Washington bureaucrats making decisions we were elected to make.’ 

‘Our country cannot afford the woke and weaponized spending that has been foisted upon us,’ the Texas Republican added. ‘We must shrink Washington and grow America.’

Shelby, Inhofe, and Hyde-Smith didn’t immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

‘Taxpayers understand that the increase in spending has been a key factor in inflation,’ Schatz told Fox News. ‘Taxpayers are more and more aware that not only is there wasteful spending, but there are ways to stop the government spending so much money.’ 

The $26.1 billion of earmarked spending revealed in this year’s Pig Book marks the third-highest total since CAGW began tracking the practice in 1991. In 2006, earmarks hit $29 billion and $27.3 billion in 2005.

The 89 members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, which make up only 17% of Congress, were responsible for 41.4% of the earmarks in 2023, CAGW found. 

While earmarking only accounts for 1% of government spending, Schatz said that money bypasses the appropriate budgetary processes ‘and benefits a small group of members of Congress.’

‘That’s what people need to understand about earmarks, and then perhaps they will be eliminated,’ Schatz added.

President Biden is set to meet with top Republicans and Democrats in Congress this week to try to resolve a standoff over the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and avoid default before the end of the month. 

Democrats, including the president, are calling to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit without conditions. House Republicans, however, passed a bill in April that would raise the debt limit but also make sweeping spending cuts over the next decade.

The fact that tying the debt ceiling to spending cuts ‘seems to be gaining popularity is certainly a sign that taxpayers have had enough of overspending,’ Schatz said. 

The GOP bill would reduce spending back to 2022 levels — a 9% cut from the 2023 budget — while raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever came first, and reducing future deficits by nearly $5 trillion over the next decade.

‘That’s the least that can be done. Anybody can find 10% to cut back,’ Schatz told Fox News. ‘The impact of inflation over the last year has been a 10% increase for a lot of people on a lot of the goods and services they buy. They’ve had to cut back.’ 

‘Benefits their districts or states, not the whole country’

Congress imposed an earmark moratorium in 2011 following multiple cases of corruption and misuse. But in 2021, Democrats in both chambers as well as House Republicans voted to lift the moratorium, though restrictions were added to stave off abuse, including capping earmarks at 1% of discretionary spending, barring funds from going to for-profit entities and requiring lawmakers to disclose their earmark requests. 

Since 1991, CAGW has identified 124,212 earmarks costing $437.5 billion.

‘Members of Congress add these projects and programs because it benefits their districts or their states, not the whole country,’ Schatz said. ‘Many of them think it helps them get re-elected, but that became problematic when members and lobbyists went to jail as a result of the corruption associated with the earmarks.’

‘That hasn’t happened yet with the revival of earmarks, but it may happen soon enough,’ he added. 

Schatz said lawmakers treat the Department of Defense in particular as ‘a bottomless money pit.’

CAGW found $1.5 billion allocated through three earmarks for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Included was funding for 18 aircraft that the Pentagon didn’t request.

All told, the Defense Department received $10.1 billion from 134 earmarks in 2023, acocording to the report. 

Lawmakers, ‘in the name of national security, add money, but they are not following what the Pentagon wants,’ Schatz said.

Additionally, the watchdog group found $67 million earmarked for museums, $26 million for theaters and $13 million for presidential libraries. 

‘There are numerous programs throughout the federal government that provide grants and loans to museums already,’ Schatz said. ‘These museums went around that grant process, and they got the money directly through their members of Congress.’

A number of Republicans have supported the idea of permanently eliminating earmarks. Rep. Tom McClintock, for example, put forward an amendment to bar member-directed spending in November, but House Republicans killed it in a 52-158 vote.

Schatz said Congress needs to show more fiscal restraint, stop using earmarks and push for spending cuts. 

‘Almost $4 trillion was spent over the last two years, some of it for quote-unquote COVID-19 relief,’ Schatz told Fox News. ‘Now the pandemic emergency is over. Whatever is left that is not spent should be taken back.’ 

‘That should be the very least that’s done on this debt ceiling bill,’ he said. ‘And there are a lot of other examples of duplication and overlap.’

To watch the full interview, click here. 

Reactions from Donald Trump’s GOP rivals in the 2024 race came in Tuesday after a jury found the former president liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. 

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy questioned whether there would have been a lawsuit had the defendant been anyone other than Trump. 

‘Based on the sheer timing of the allegations – that the alleged offense occurred in the mid-1990s and Ms. Carroll did not sue until 2019-2022, far beyond the normal statute of limitations for the underlying offense, and in the middle of a spate of other legal charges against Trump for other ancient allegations – this seems like just another part of the establishment’s anaphylactic response against its chief political allergen: Donald Trump,’ Ramaswamy said. 

Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old first-time candidate and multi-millionaire entrepreneur who announced his candidacy in late February, said the 2024 presidential race would be easier without Trump, but lamented the weaponization of ‘the law with decades-old allegations to undercut’ political opponents. 

‘I want to win this race by showing voters how I will take the America First movement beyond Trump, and I look forward to facing him on the debate stage,’ Ramaswamy said. 

Former two-term Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson took a different approach from his younger rival, saying the jury’s decision ought to be taken seriously. 

‘Over the course of my over 25 years of experience in the courtroom, I have seen firsthand how cavalier and arrogant contempt for the rule of law can backfire,’ Hutchinson said in a statement to Fox News. ‘The jury verdict should be treated with seriousness and is another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump.’ 

A jury found Trump liable Tuesday for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million. 

The verdict was announced in a federal courtroom in New York City on the first day of deliberations. Jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped, but found Trump liable for sexual abuse and for defaming Carroll after she made her allegations public.

Trump chose not to attend the civil trial and was absent when the verdict was read.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Arizona Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego twice voted to protect a Biden Administration rule allowing pension fund managers to use so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when choosing investments for workers’ retirement plans, which some lawmakers have likened to ‘woke’ banking practices focusing on left-wing agendas.

Gallego’s move, in turn, also guarded a close friend and donor’s company in which he’s invested. In 2019, the Arizona Democrat reported attaining up to $50,000 in non-public stock in Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC, a financial technology company that partners with FDIC-member banks. 

Gallego, however, had failed to divulge the purchase in his financial disclosure report until 2022 despite Congressional members having to declare assets valued at more than $1,000.

Aspiration was founded in 2013 as a ‘digital bank for environmentally conscious consumers’ but has since concentrated on selling carbon credits, according to Forbes. It’s also one of only a few financial technology companies ‘fully embracing the booming movement around environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing,’ the publication wrote in 2021. 

Aspiration disclosed that nearly 70 percent of its revenue comes from ESG services in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from that same year.

The company was co-founded and is co-owned by Joe Sanberg, Gallego’s longtime friend and donor. The pair attended Harvard together, and Gallego took part in Sanberg’s 2021 wedding in Puerto Rico, social media posts show. Sanberg has provided more than $20,000 to Gallego’s campaigns and leadership PAC since 2014, according to a search of federal filings. 

Gallego first revealed banking with Aspiration in 2017. His most recent financial disclosure shows he owns shares in the Aspiration Redwood Fund — a ‘100% fossil fuel-free ESG fund’ with reportedly ‘high fees and lackluster performance’ — and the non-publicly traded shares in Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. 

Since 2017, Gallego has garnered as much as $12,200 in income from his Aspiration holdings, according to his financial disclosure forms.

‘This was a Republican messaging bill passed with Republican votes,’ Gallego’s communications director Jacques Petit told Fox News Digital on his two votes against H.J. Res. 30, which would have blocked a Labor Department rule allowing employers to consider ESG factors when choosing investments for workers’ retirement plans.

The joint resolution, however, did receive bipartisan support. Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden backed it in the House of Representatives, while Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin backed it in the Senate.

He did not specifically address Gallego’s investments or his relationship with Sanberg. Instead, he said the information in the inquiry was ‘grasping at straws.’

Aspiration also operates the Aspiration Impact Foundation, a nonprofit that has funneled cash to far-left endeavors. The nonprofit has given $1,000 to the Trevor Project for climate change initiatives, its tax forms show. The Trevor Project also advocates for ‘using proper trans terms,’ believes gender is a social construct and published a manual on being an ally to transgender and young nonbinary individuals. 

Additionally, the foundation provided a $5,000 grant to climate activist group 350 New Orleans, whose parent group has called for a ban on all new oil and gas projects and seeks to ‘defund’ fossil fuel companies.

The Biden administration has indicated that ESG is a top priority. Last November, the Department of Labor unveiled a rule that went into effect on Jan. 30 that allows managers to factor environmental and social issues into investment decisions for the retirement funds of more than 152 million Americans.

Gallego first voted against the resolution targeting the rule on Feb. 28. Nearly a month later, on March 20, Biden vetoed the bill. Days after the veto, on March 23, Gallego voted against overturning Biden’s veto when the effort to override the veto had failed.

A UCLA and NYU study from earlier this year discovered that over the last five years, ESG funds underperformed compared to the broader market at an average of 6.3% to 8.9%.

Republicans have since targeted ESG banking. In late April, Republican Arizona Rep. Andy Barr announced he’d roll out legislation prohibiting banks from denying fair access to financial services under the standards of ‘woke corporate cancel culture,’ preventing financial institutions from being weaponized for political purposes.

‘Banks should make lending decisions relying on objective, risk-based metrics, not the standards of woke corporate cancel culture,’ Barr previously told Fox News Digital. 

‘My legislation codifies the Fair Access Rule to ensure that Radical environmentalists, gun control advocates, crypto antagonists and other political activists cannot weaponize financial institutions in their fight to achieve their political agenda,’ he said.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed reporting.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, says he learned from the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, that more than 80,000 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, are moving toward the U.S.-Mexico border, ahead of Thursday’s expiration of Title 42.

President Giammattei also said he tried to call the White House on the matter, but nobody would take his calls.

The news of the exodus comes as several migrants continue to surge along the border ahead of the end of Title 42 on May 11.

Title 42 is a public health order that has been in place since 2020 to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants quickly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once the order ends, droves of migrants are expected to arrive at the border, believing they have a better chance of being admitted into the U.S., although the Biden administration has said that is not true.

The president and his team have warned that penalties will be stiffened for those who enter the country illegally, and they are encouraged to use expanded legal pathways instead.

But it has not stopped migrants from trying to sneak into the U.S. for freedom illegally.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced it was launching a ‘targeted enforcement operation’ in El Paso, Texas, to process and possibly deport illegal immigrants.

The operation was to be executed by agents and officers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in one of the border’s hotspots for migrant crossings.

On Tuesday morning, illegal immigrants who were camped on the sidewalks in downtown El Paso told Fox News they were woken up by authorities and handed pamphlets urging them to turn themselves in to CBP.

One man told Fox News the person who handed him a pamphlet had a badge and a gun. That was not enough to scare the man, though. In fact, he told Fox News, ‘I’m not gonna turn myself in.’

Migrants are also lined up along the border in Brownsville, Texas, nearly 800 miles south of El Paso.

In one video, a group of several hundred migrants are seen illegally crossing the border, with more coming.

Last week, the Biden administration announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the border. It also announced the establishment of migrant processing centers across Latin America and a deal for Mexico to take back non-Mexican illegal immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security announces the distribution of $332 million in funding to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and local governments to help migrants who are released from custody.

Along with these additions, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to say the border is not open, stressing that migrants can face consequences such as re-entry bans and criminal prosecution if they enter the U.S. illegally after Thursday.

Adam Shaw of Fox News contributed to this report.