American officials in Mexico have issued the highest-level travel warning amid increased gun battles, kidnappings and IEDs in a town that sits on the Texas border. The State Department has put the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, which sits across the border from McAllen, Texas, under a ‘Level 4: Do not travel’ advisory.

‘As a precaution, U.S. government employees have been ordered to avoid all travel in and around Reynosa and Rio Bravo outside of daylight hours and to avoid dirt roads throughout Tamaulipas,’ the consulate wrote in a statement.

Authorities are urging Americans to avoid dirt roads, not to touch unknown objects near or on roads and to plan travel during daylight hours. Additionally, Americans are advised to notify family and friends of their whereabouts ‘for your safety.’

The State Department’s Level 4 warning indicates that there is a ‘greater likelihood of life-threatening risks.’ Additionally, the department warns that the U.S. government ‘may have very limited ability to provide assistance, including during an emergency’ to Americans in areas under its highest-level advisory.

‘The Department of State advises that U.S. citizens not travel to the country or to leave as soon as it is safe to do so. We advise that you write a will prior to traveling and leave DNA samples in case of worst-case scenarios,’ the State Department’s website reads.

Last year, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos told Fox News Digital that the American people were ‘exhausted’ by lawmakers ‘just kicking the ball’ on immigration.

Illegal immigration played a major role in the election, with both President Donald Trump and his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, making trips to the border.

Since taking office, President Trump has made major changes to US immigration policy and leaders in his administration are taking action. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement raid in New York City on Tuesday.

Noem posted footage and images of the raid, saying that ‘Criminal alien with kidnapping, assault & burglary charges is now in custody – thanks to [ICE.] Dirtbags like this will continue to be removed from our streets.’

A DHS spokesperson said the dawn operation targeted ‘murderers, kidnappers, and individuals charged of assault and burglary.’

Earlier this month, then-incoming border czar Tom Homan reiterated Trump’s pledge to ‘run the biggest deportation operation this country has ever seen,’ adding that it would focus on ‘public safety threats.’

While Tamalipas, Mexico, remains under a Level 4 advisory, there are several parts of the country that are under lower-level advisories. The State Department keeps an updated interactive map on its website to help Americans understand risks when planning international travel.

House Republicans are set to hear from Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday, the second day of their annual issues conference, as they work to chart a path forward on plans for a massive conservative policy overhaul.

GOP lawmakers have chosen sunny South Florida for their annual retreat. In a sign of President Donald Trump’s enduring influence on his party, the three-day event is being held at the commander in chief’s golf course and resort in Doral. 

It is not clear yet what Vance is expected to say, but a copy of the lawmakers’ schedule for the week obtained by Fox News Digital suggests the discussion will primarily focus on the budget reconciliation process. 

Republicans have been negotiating for weeks on how to use their razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate to pass massive conservative policy changes through the reconciliation process.

By reducing the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a 51-seat simple majority, reconciliation allows a party in control of both congressional chambers to enact sweeping changes, provided they are relevant to budgetary and fiscal policy.

However, there has been some disagreement for weeks over how to package the GOP’s priorities. Senate Republicans have pushed for breaking the package up into two bills in order to score early victories on border security and energy policy, while leaving the more complex issue of tax reform for a second bill.

House Republican leaders, however, are concerned that the heavy political lift that passing a reconciliation bill entails would mean lawmakers run out of time before they can extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of this year.

Vance has not publicly said which approach he favors. 

Trump, who previously called for one ‘big, beautiful bill,’ was less committed to the strategy during his own remarks to House Republicans in Florida on Monday night.

‘Whether it’s one bill, two bills, I don’t care,’ he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he wants the House to have passed a reconciliation bill by early spring. 

Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of ISIS murder victim Kayla Mueller, offered their full endorsement of Kash Patel for FBI director, after years of building a personal relationship with the Trump administration nominee. 

‘He loves his country. He loves the people of this country,’ Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview via Zoom on Monday morning. ‘To us, you know, he is a person that we would go to for help. And he is so action oriented.’ 

‘Just like Trump,’ Carl Mueller added to his wife’s comments on Patel’s action-motivated personality.

The Muellers wrote a letter this week to Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offering their full endorsement of Patel to serve as director of the FBI under the second Trump administration. 

Their daughter Kayla was abducted by terrorists while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013, when she was assisting with humanitarian efforts amid the country’s bloody civil war. She was held hostage for 18 months, when she was believed to be repeatedly tortured and raped by ISIS militants, including then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

She was killed in 2015 — with her parents speaking to Fox Digital just days ahead of the 10-year anniversary of her death, on Feb. 6. 

Patel served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the first Trump administration, which put him in the Mueller’s orbit when he assisted in overseeing the military operation to eliminate ISIS chief al-Baghdadi in 2019. 

‘We would like to add our voices to those in support of Kash Patel’s nomination to be the director of the FBI,’ the Mueller’s letter to Senate lawmakers and obtained by Fox News Digital reads. ‘Any family who has lived through such an experience will know the value of dedicated, compassionate law enforcement officials.’ 

‘Because we have watched him at his work over time, and because we have personal experience of his dedication, we know that Kash Patel is such a person,’ the letter continues. ‘We continue to see in him a genuinely kind, thoughtful, action-oriented man who focuses on what is true and right and just. He loves our country and our citizens and wants the best for us all. He wants our country to be the best it can be.’ 

Patel personally has been at the Muellers side over the past five years, they told Fox News Digital. He has stood out from the crowd as a federal government employee who sincerely cares for Americans who are suffering and will pick up the phone ‘night or day’ to speak with them following the tragic loss of their daughter. 

‘I’m confident if I texted him right now, he would get back to me before this interview is over,’ Carl Mueller said. 

Patel previously served as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade area, as well as a Department of Justice official during the Obama administration, when he won awards for his prosecution and conviction of 12 terrorists responsible for the World Cup bombings in 2010. 

Patel hit the national radar during Trump’s first administration, including when he worked as a national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of then-Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

The Muellers reflected on the first time they met with Patel at the White House nearly five years ago when he served on the National Security Council, and how he told them to contact him at any time with questions about their daughter or to just talk.

‘We actually met Kash — we were back in D.C. at the White House, and he actually came to us and found us. That’s the first time we met him and wanted us to go meet with him and National Security Advisor, [Robert O’Brien]. So that’s how we first came to meet him. So it’s been almost five years ago. And they wanted to sit down and talk with us about Kayla. And we told them that we were working, and we’re still working with, [former FBI agent] Ali Soufan. And they told us to continue to work with him and they would help in any way they could. And so that was our first meeting,’ Marsha Mueller said. 

In their letter endorsing Patel, the Muellers reflected on the nominee’s note to them encouraging them to reach out, which came as a departure from their treatment under the Obama administration, they said. 

‘It was actually after that first meeting when we met him, and he wrote us the note, and he said, ‘Please contact me at any time, day or night, with whatever questions you may have, or simply if you just need someone to speak with. I’ll always answer your call.’ And, you know, he’s kept every promise he’s ever made to us, as we knew we would from meeting him that first time,’ Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital. 

The Muellers previously spoke out against the Obama administration’s handling of their daughter’s captivity in Syria, repeatedly saying she would not have been murdered if Trump was in office when she was taken hostage. Carl Mueller underscored the conviction in his interview on Monday, adding that the second Trump administration not only reopens lines of communication for his family, but extends hope to families around the country who have loved ones in the hands of terrorists. 

‘We didn’t want to forget to mention to the families of current American hostages that their chances of getting their loved ones home have exponentially increased with the Trump administration in there,’ Carl Mueller said. ‘As I said before, if Trump would have been in office, Marsha and I are convinced that Kayla would be home. And we feel that he will do everything to get current American hostages. So just a word of encouragement and hope for them, because we know that sometimes hope is all they have.’ 

Then-President Barack Obama offered his condolences to the family following Kayla’s death in 2015, vowing that the U.S. would bring the terrorists to justice.

‘She has been taken from us, but her legacy endures, inspiring all those who fight, each in their own way, for what is just and what is decent.  No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death,’ Obama said at the time, just roughly four years before the Trump administration wiped out ISIS’s leader. 

Kayla Mueller’s remains have not been recovered, but the couple believes the second Trump administration reinvigorates efforts to bring her and other hostages who have been murdered back to the U.S. 

‘We believe [the Trump administration] will work closely with Ali Soufan to help us find Kayla and hopefully other hostages that were killed and bring them home as well,’ Marsha Mueller said, referring to a former FBI agent who has worked with the Muellers across the years following Kayla Mueller’s captivity and murder. 

Patel, if confirmed, will replace former FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom the Muellers also lauded as a compassionate man who has also helped their efforts across the years. Looking ahead to the next four years, they said they are ‘very fortunate and looking forward to more progress and finding Kayla through the Trump administration.’ 

Patel is set to join the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday as the final leg of his nomination process kicks off in earnest. Patel has been on Capitol Hill meeting with Senate lawmakers to rally support for his nomination, earning praise from conservative lawmakers such as Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as endorsements from key law enforcement groups, such as the National Sheriffs’ Association. Patel is expected to face an uphill battle overall to secure the nomination, as Democrats balk that he lacks the qualifications to lead the law enforcement agency and would politicize the agency.  

The Muellers explained that even when Patel was no longer serving in the first Trump administration, he met with the couple and other families suffering from losing a loved one to terrorist captivity. The Muellers were among family members who attended the trial of ISIS terrorist El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the so-called ‘ISIS Beatles,’ who admitted to his involvement in and knowledge of Kayla Mueller’s captivity. 

Elsheikh’s trial was held in 2022, when he was convicted by a jury in the Eastern District of Virginia and sentenced to eight concurrent terms of life imprisonment for holding four American citizens, as well as British and Japanese nationals, hostage before their deaths. 

Patel joined the Muellers and other affected families during the trial, the couple explained, meeting them and ‘anyone that wanted to talk with him’ at their hotel and speaking to them for maybe an hour. 

‘It was not just the Americans that came down when we were sitting there with him,’ Marsha Mueller said. ‘Actually, people from other countries did, too, because … he was willing to sit and talk with us. I was really deeply touched by that.’

‘But, you know, there was no reason, he was not in government anymore. But yet it was still in his heart and soul for justice,’ she said. 

The couple reflected on the past decade, when they first learned their daughter was murdered, remarking that Obama administration officials ‘will have to live with’ their failure of not bringing the American citizen home before her death. 

Marsha Mueller also read her daughter’s letter to her family while she was held captive, including a portion of the note that was not widely reported. 

‘We always like Kayla to speak for herself. And there’s a quote out there that most people know, but they don’t know what she said after that quote, and if I can get through it, she said, ‘I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.’ But she went on to say, ‘that is my life’s work, but my family is my life.”  

‘That’s Kayla,’ Marsha Mueller said through tears. ‘She loved us. We love her. And we encourage her to go out and help all the people she could in this world.’ 

The Trump administration will hold its first White House press conference with newly minted press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday afternoon, White House officials confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

President Donald Trump has been on a media blitz since his inauguration on Jan. 20, including sitting down for his first White House interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and speaking with the media as he traveled to states rocked by natural disasters, including North Carolina and California. Trump’s press secretary also has frequently joined media outlets for interviews since Trump was sworn in, but has not yet held a White House press briefing. 

Leavitt, 27, is the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history — unseating President Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969. Leavitt was a fierce defender of Trump throughout his hard-fought campaign against former Vice President Kamala Harris, and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022. 

Leavitt served in Trump’s first administration as assistant press secretary before working as New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director following the 2020 election. She launched a congressional campaign in her home state of New Hampshire during the 2022 cycle, winning her primary but losing the election to a Democrat. 

Leavitt picked up the torch of press secretary from the Biden administration’s chief spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre. 

Trump’s first week in office was a whirlwind of executive orders and actions as part of his mission to follow through on campaign promises, such as securing the border and removing diversity, equity and inclusion practices from federal offices. 

‘I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success,’ Trump said during his inaugural speech on Jan. 20. ‘A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.’ 

Trump repeatedly has made himself available to the media since his inauguration — a departure from former President Joe Biden’s infrequent availability to the media — speaking to reporters for about 45 minutes on the evening of his inauguration and again speaking with reporters on Tuesday for another 30 minutes. 

Trump also sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday, where the pair discussed issues ranging from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to hurricanes and wildfires under the Biden administration and declaring that his return to the White House serves as evidence that policies from the ‘radical left’ do not work and were rejected by voters. 

‘I think it’s bigger. It’s bigger than if it were more traditional,’ he said on ‘Hannity,’ referring to serving two nonconsecutive terms. ‘I think we got there just in the nick of time.’

Dozens of senior officials in the U.S. agency that administers foreign aid were reportedly placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into alleged resistance to President Donald Trump’s orders.

At least 56 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officials were placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits, Politico first reported. Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere were also laid off, a current and a former official told the Associated Press. 

These actions come after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting on Trump’s executive order, paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID. The 90-day pause has halted thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide and forced aid organizations to lay off hundreds of employees because they can’t make payroll.

According to the Associated Press, an internal USAID notice sent late Monday said new acting administrator Jason Gray had identified ‘several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people.’

‘As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions,’ Gray wrote.

The notice did not say which of the dozens of executive orders Trump has signed since taking office the USAID officials were accused of violating, according to the AP.

The White House and USAID did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Those placed on leave were career officials who had served in multiple administrations, including Trump’s, the former USAID official told the AP.

Before those officials were removed from the job Monday, they were scrambling to help U.S.-funded aid organizations cope with the new funding freeze and seek waivers to continue life-saving activities, from getting clean water to war-displaced people in Sudan to continuing to monitor for bird flu globally, the former official said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has specifically exempted only emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt from the freeze on foreign assistance.

Trump has criticized foreign aid and called for a review of U.S. aid programs to determine which put American interests first and which should be eliminated. 

The U.S. is the largest donor of aid globally. During fiscal year 2023, the U.S. dispersed $72 billion in assistance. It also provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Senate Democrats have obtained a whistleblower report claiming that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020.

The whistleblower letter, obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., claimed that Patel leaked news that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels. The whistleblower claims Patel leaked news of the trade to the Wall Street Journal hours before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody, potentially endangering the deal.

The protocol of the multi-agency group in charge of the mission was to withhold information about hostage deals until the subjects were both in U.S. custody and their families had been notified, according to the whistleblower.

A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a ‘track record of success.’

‘Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,’ the official said. ‘He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the court room to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.’  

In the October 2020 case, the deal went forward without any issues, with the two Americans and the remains of the third being transferred to U.S. custody. In exchange, the U.S. arranged for the release of some 200 Houthi fighters being held prisoner in Saudi Arabia.

Alexander Gray, who served as Chief of Staff for the White House National Security Council under Trump’s first administration, also called the allegations ‘simply absurd.’

Robert C. Obrien, who served as National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021, argued that the whistleblower was jeopardizing decades of bipartisan work on hostage deals by coming forward.

Senate Democrats delivered the whistleblower letter on Monday morning to Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Acting Treasury Secretary David Lebryk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CBS News reported.

The report comes just days before Patel is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an extensive confirmation hearing.

The Senate’s ‘advice and consent’ role allows the body to review the president’s appointments and provide oversight on key positions. The picks require a majority vote in the Senate with Republicans holding a 53-47 vote advantage over Democrats.

Patel has called for radical changes at the FBI and was a fierce and vocal critic of the bureau’s work as it investigated ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

He held numerous national security roles during the first Trump administration and was the chief investigator in the congressional probe into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, uncovering government surveillance abuse that led to the appointment of two special counsels: one who determined that there had been no such collusion and another who determined the entire premise of the FBI’s original investigation was bogus.

Patel was an integral part of the creation of a memo released by then-Chair Devin Nunes in February 2018, which detailed the DOJ’s and FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

He’s been a loyal ally to Trump for years, finding common cause over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the ‘deep state’ — a catchall used by Trump to refer to unelected members of government bureaucracy.

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report

The White House has reportedly issued a memo that broadly suspends federal grants, loans and other financial assistance programs for executive departments pending an assessment of the funding. 

The Wall Street Journal first reported the memo, saying it was sent out by the Office of Management and Budget around 5 p.m. on Monday. 

The memo, which takes effect Tuesday at 5 p.m., said agencies ‘must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal,’ according to the Journal. 

The memo reportedly said the federal government spent more than $3 trillion on federal assistance, including grants and loans, in the 2024 fiscal year and that the pause allows ‘time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities.’

Each agency must ‘complete a comprehensive analysis of all their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders,’ the memo continued, according to the Journal, adding that the pause must be applied ‘to the extent permissible under applicable law.’ 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned the memo, telling the Journal that pausing the funding puts ‘billions upon billions of community grants and financial support that help millions of people across the country’ at risk. 

‘It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities, state disaster assistance, local law enforcement, aid to the elderly, and food for those in need,’ Schumer said, adding that Congress approved the funding for the federal assistance programs.

The memo included a footnote that said Medicare, Social Security benefits and assistance provided directly to individuals were exempt from the pause, but its otherwise broad language caused confusion Monday night among some federal employees, as administrators requested advice from their internal counsel regarding which programs the pause applied to and how the departments should respond, one source told the Journal. 

The memo included a Feb. 10 deadline for agencies to submit a thorough summary of all paused programs, projects and activities to the Office of Management and Budget.