Cruz moves to penalize groups funding antisemitic, anti-ICE riots
FIRST ON FOX: Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced legislation that would identify and penalize organizations and individuals who are allegedly funding and directing "violent" and "extreme" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and antisemitic protests across the country.
The Financial Underwriting of Nefarious Demonstrations and Extremist Riots (STOP FUNDERs) Act was introduced in the Senate Tuesday, which would allow the Department of Justice to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act to issue conspiracy charges, asset forfeiture, and enhanced criminal penalties to organizations or individuals who fund or coordinate violent interstate riots.
"Every American has the right to freedom of speech and peaceful protest, but not to commit violence," Senator Cruz told Fox News Digital. "Domestic NGOs and foreign adversaries fund and use riots in the United States to undermine the security and prosperity of Americans.
ICE TORCHES 'DEAFENING' SILENCE FROM MAMDANI ON CBP OFFICER SHOOTING
"My legislation will give the Department of Justice the tools it needs to hold them accountable, and I urge my colleagues to pass it expeditiously," Cruz added.
As recently as June, thousands of rioters took to the streets of Los Angeles in protest of President Donald Trump's fulfilled campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants and secure the border. Los Angeles officials reported more than $20 million in total damage across the city from the destruction of public buildings and funding for law enforcement overtime.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security revealed an 830% increase in assaults on ICE officers.
HARVARD, TRUMP BATTLE FOR BILLIONS IN FEDERAL FUNDS AS JUDGE WEIGHS NEXT STEPS
On college campuses, antisemitic attacks have ravaged multiple universities across the country, canceled classes, and rattled student life since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
The Anti-defamation league (ADL) reported 2,637 anti-Israel incidents of harassment, assault, protests and other attacks on college campuses from June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024, a 628% increase from the same period in the previous year.
These prominent protests have been speculated, though not confirmed, to receive funding and direction by outside groups linked to domestic nonprofits and some wealthy individuals. Last month, the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into where the funding is coming from and specifically noted China-based billionaire Neville Roy Singham.
PENTAGON ORDERS 700 MARINES TO WITHDRAW FROM LOS ANGELES AS STABILITY RETURNS FOLLOWING ICE PROTESTS
"It has been reported that Mr. Singham is 'the main backer behind' the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which has organized nationwide protests, including the Los Angeles riots," GOP Oversight members wrote in a letter to Singham. "He has created an elaborate dark money network which allows him to send funds to a series of non-profits, such as the 'United Community Fund' and 'Justice Education Fund,' that have almost no real footprints."
Singham denied the allegations set forth by the New York Times in a 2023 statement, saying, "The [New York Times] intentionally chose not to publish all the factual rebuttals that I provided to them on July 22, 2023, prior to their publication date."
"The [New York Times] has done a great disservice to the cause to press freedom," Singham added. "I categorically deny and repudiate all claims of illegality and impropriety and wish to set the record straight."
Fox News Digital reached out to Mr. Singham for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The STOP FUNDERs Act will now head to committee and begin the legislative process.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Senate GOP-led legislation is cosponsored by Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, Senator Tom Tillis, R-North Carolina, Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, and Senator Bill Hagerty, R-Tennessee.
Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kaylee Goncalves' Sister Alivea Says She Was 'Prepared to Be Arrested' After Statement at Bryan Kohberger's Sentencing
"I had one shot at it, and I was going to make the most of it," Alivea said of the powerful victim impact statement she delivered Alivea Goncalves opened up about the powerful victim impact statement that she made at Bryan Kohberger's sentencing for the murder of four University of Idaho students, including her sister Kaylee Goncalves. On Wednesday, July 23, Kohberger was sentenced to four life terms in prison for the November 2022 murders of Kaylee, 21; Maddie Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. During the sentencing, multiple people who were close to the victims delivered statements, including Alivea who spoke directly at Kohberger. "You want the truth? Here's the one you'll hate the most. If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your f------ ass," she told him. On July 28, Alivea reflected on the statement during an interview with Good Morning America and confessed that she was concerned at one point that she might get in trouble for what she had to say. "I was prepared to be arrested that day," she said, adding, "I think that every single one of us were." She added that she was "fueled by the rage on his face" as she spoke to him. "Man, was he mad. "That was obviously a big point of why I did what I did. To make him feel small because he is. It actually makes me really emotional. I got up there knowing that my speech wasn't to Kaylee and Maddie. It was for them," she said. Alivea memorized her statement so that she could deliver it while maintaining eye contact with Kohberger, GMA reported. "I had one shot at it, and I was going to make the most of it," she said, adding that she did a lot of work in advance to prepare something to say. That entailed doing research on Kohberger. "I mean, I stalked the stalker. I found everything that I could online from the beginning of time to now. It fueled me to know that I got you pegged," she explained. Before she was killed, Kaylee told multiple people about incidents of someone watching her. Dylan Mortensen, who survived the attack and also delivered a victim impact statement, told the Moscow Police Department shortly after the murders that Kaylee told her "an individual was following her" weeks before she died, while she had also mentioned seeing a shadow while out walking her dog Murphy a month before. During her speech, Alivea took direct aim at Kohberger while remembering her sister and Kaylee's best friend Maddie. "They were everything that you could never be — loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave and powerful," she said while describing Kohberger as "painfully average." "You aren't profound, you're pathetic," she said. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Speaking to NewsNation after the statement, Alivea compared speaking to Kohberger to being "face to face with an alien." "I'm not intimidated by him, truly, I'm not, but…there's a primal sense of alarm, like my body was telling me, 'Run, get out. This is a threat,' " she shared. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘The whole thing was a fake': Trump says Democrats could have ‘put things in' the Epstein file
President Donald Trump baselessly suggested that any mentions of his name in criminal case files related to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein would be there as a result of Democratic efforts to ensnare him in a 'hoax.' Sitting next to British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during an hour-long media availability in Scotland, Trump called the continuing furor over the case of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, 'a hoax that's been built up way beyond proportion' and accused his predecessor of having tampered with the infamous case files. 'Those files were run by the worst scum on Earth. They were run by Comey, they were run by Garland, they were run by Biden, and all of the people that actually ran the government, including the auto pen. Those files were run for four years by those people. If they had anything, I assume they would have released it,' Trump said Monday. The president made his claims about a week after a Wall Street Journal report stated that officials told him his name was in the files. Being mentioned does not mean wrongdoing and hundreds of names are reportedly included. Trump's administration has created uproar among its base after a July memo from the Department of Justice that stated that Epstein had no so-called 'client list' and that no more information would be released. That was after Attorney General Pam Bondi had claimed for months that officials were reviewing documents. The decision not to release more information was met with anger and Democrats and Republicans have called on Trump to release more from the investigation. On Monday, Trump also suggested that his adversaries could have 'easily put something in the files that's a phony' and compared the hypothetical result of such tampering to the infamous, salacious and unverified dossier on his alleged links to Russia that was compiled by ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele during the 2016 presidential election. 'Christopher Steele, as an example, wrote a book a dossier. We call it the fake news dossier. And the whole thing was a fake. The whole thing was a fake. They could put things in the file that are fake, but those files were run by bad, sick people,' he said. Continuing, the president mused aloud about why the previous Democratic administration didn't release any damaging information in the case files about him during last year's election, when revelations about his relationship with the infamous sex trafficker might have cut into the lead he held over his opponents, then-president Joe Biden and later then-vice president Kamala Harris. 'The whole thing was a fake. They could put things in the file that are fake, but those files were run by bad, sick people. If they had anything, why didn't they use it when I was killing Joe?' Trump asked the media in attendance. For years, the president's supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events. Trump indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last year's presidential election. But after the DOJ and FBI issued a memo stating that there was no such client list and announcing that no additional files relating to the case would be made public, many of Trump's most fervent boosters have cried foul, leading to a rare split between the president and a significant segment of his political base. Trump is said to be 'exasperated' by the scandal and is growing 'increasingly frustrated' with how his administration has handled the Epstein files saga and media attention on the president's ties to the sex offender. During a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, Trump groused about the way the burgeoning scandal has gained traction with Democrats in Congress, some of whom have joined with members of his own party to push for the Justice Department to release more information from the case files. 'All they know how to do is talk and think about conspiracy theories and nonsense,' he said. 'If they'd waste their time talking about America being great again, it would be so much nicer.'
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Attorneys: 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees held without charges, barred from legal access
Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys, are being held without any charges and that a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings. A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was being held Monday on a lawsuit that was filed July 16. A new motion on the case was filed Friday. Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees have been told that the immigration court doesn't have jurisdiction over their clients, the attorneys wrote in court papers. The immigration attorneys demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees and start accepting petitions for bond, claiming the detainees constitutional rights to due process are being violated. 'This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,' the immigration attorneys wrote. 'This is an unprecedented and disturbing situation.' The lawsuit is the second one challenging 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Environmental groups last month sued federal and state officials asking that the project built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades be halted because the process didn't follow state and federal environmental laws. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has praised Florida for coming forward with the idea, as the department looks to significantly expand its immigration detention capacity. ___ Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @ Solve the daily Crossword
