'I DON'T GIVE A DAMN, SO WE'LL KEEP REPORTING': Bill Melugin Slams Lack of Coverage on Shocking Immigration Stories
Bill Melugin, Los Angeles-based correspondent for FOX News Channel, joined The Guy Benson Show today to break down the Trump administration's new voluntary self-deportation plan, which would offer illegal immigrants free airfare and a $1,000 stipend to return to their home countries. Melugin shared details on how the policy might be implemented, and Melugin and Guy speculated whether or not criminal offenders would be eligible. Melugin also detailed his latest breaking report on the brutal beating death of a man in Los Angeles at the hands of alleged illegal migrants from Georgia who had previously been released under the Biden administration. Guy and Bill wrapped by offering commentary on why mainstream media refuses to acknowledge the legal status of illegal immigrant criminals, and you can listen to the full interview below!
Listen to the full interview below:
Listen to the full podcast below:
Bill had this to say on why he's unafraid to share about breaking immigration stories:
'They need access to these politicians who create the sanctuary policies, and they don't want to piss those politicians off and risk that access by reporting a story that might anger those politicians. I've seen it over and over and over. I don't give a damn about access out here. I've worked in the Los Angeles market since 2017. I've got my own contacts. I don't need politicians to talk to. Whether they like my stories or not, I don't give a dam. So we'll keep reporting these stories, and if the others want to ignore them, that's fine. We're gonna keep putting them out there.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Immigrants at ICE check-ins detained, then held in basement of federal building in Los Angeles, some overnight
Many undocumented immigrants who went to their Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-in appointments at a federal building in Los Angeles this week were taken into custody and brought to the basement and held there, some overnight, according to immigration lawyers and family members. It was unclear how many people were affected, but the attorneys told CBS News hundreds of immigrants were detained – dozens in the basement in rooms that could fit up to 30 at a time. CBS News reached out to the representatives of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. One attorney, Lizbeth Mateo, said ICE officials slated several of her clients for check-ins at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown L.A. but when they showed up on Tuesday, they were detained and immediately escorted to the basement. Mateo said a couple and their two children, one of whom is a U.S. citizen, spent the night in a room with no beds and limited access to food and water. Mateo said the father had previously been issued a stay of removal, barring him from deportation but he and his family were detained anyway. His wife was released Wednesday evening along with their children since she needed medical attention due to a high-risk pregnancy. He was still being detained early Friday, Mateo said. "This is something I've never seen before," she added. "Under the first Trump administration, I represented clients with very difficult cases, but never anything like this. Under any other circumstance, he would have been released." On Thursday evening, CBS News spoke to people waiting outside the building who claimed they had relatives in the basement who were texting them. "We are telling them that we are waiting for them outside and to remain calm," a woman using the name Maria to protect her identity told CBS News. "We just want to make sure their children, my nieces, have food." Maria said her brother was in the basement along with his wife and their two children – they'd been scheduled for an ICE check-in on Thursday morning. Their asylum requests had previously been denied in court. The family was apparently still being held early Friday. Immigration lawyers said it was also unclear why people were being held in that basement. "They're having to literally house these immigrants in a makeshift detention center, which on its face is illegal," said Juan Proaño, Chief Executive Officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "It is beyond inhumane treatment for any immigrant and in this particular case, you're talking about families." CBS News obtained internal government data showing arrests by ICE during President Trump's second term topped 100,000 this week, as federal agents intensified efforts to detain unauthorized immigrants in courthouses, worksites and communities across the U.S. ICE recorded more than 2,000 arrests on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, a dramatic increase from the daily average of 660 arrests reported by the agency during Mr. Trump's first 100 days back at the White House, the federal statistics show. During former President Joe Biden's last year in office, ICE averaged roughly 300 daily arrests, according to agency data. The latest numbers show ICE is getting closer to meeting the demands of top administration officials like White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who has forcefully pushed the agency to make "a minimum" of 3,000 arrests each day. "The Trump administration, DHS, ICE have gotten way ahead of themselves. They haven't necessarily planned this properly and don't have the capacity required in order to continue with these large-scale deportations," Proaño asserted. contributed to this report.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Sanctuary cities forced to comply with federal immigration rules due to innovative program
Sanctuary cities' runaround of the law may have finally come to an end, thanks to a creative program called Operation Guardian Angel. Launched by Bill Essayli, the new U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, this commonsense approach to force scofflaw sanctuary cities to cooperate with—and stop obstructing—federal immigration authorities should be copied by U.S. attorneys around the nation to help rid the country of criminal illegal aliens being detained by local authorities. It's a no-brainer. Sanctuary Cities 101 California has been a sanctuary state since 2018, when former Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law turning it into a sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens. But California's move to create a safe haven for criminals started even earlier, at the local level. In 1979, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates implemented "Special Order 40," which prohibited his police officers both from making contact with anyone for the sole purpose of learning their immigration status and from making arrests for violations of U.S. immigration law. In 1985, San Francisco's then-mayor Dianne Feinstein signed legislation designating the city as a sanctuary for aliens whose asylum claims had been rejected by the federal government. In 1989, San Francisco voters passed an ordinance extending that protection to all illegal aliens, prohibiting the city's police force from aiding federal immigration officers. In 2013, San Franciscans passed the "Due Process for All" ordinance, which limited when local law enforcement officers could give Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) advance notice of an illegal alien's release from a local jail and prohibited cooperation with ICE detainer warrants or requests. In 2016, San Franciscans amended the law again to impose even further restrictions on city employees that, in essence, ban any and all inquiries into the immigration status of any resident and prohibit any cooperation with federal officers. Sanctuary City Crime Hell Holes Is it any surprise that California as a whole and particularly its cities have become a magnet for illegal aliens? It shouldn't be. And is it any surprise when some of those illegal aliens commit additional crimes, including rape and murder? Sadly, no. But lawmakers and elected politicians there think it's better to endanger the safety of their constituents by releasing these criminals back into local communities rather than turning them over to the feds so they can be deported and returned to their native countries. This has consequences. Take Kate Steinle. She was murdered on Pier 14 in San Francisco by José Inez García Zárate, a career criminal with seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times. He had recently been released from local custody back out on the streets after San Francisco dropped drug charges that were pending against him and refused to cooperate with the immigration detainer ICE had filed against him. California's brand of egregious sanctuary legislation explains how it's possible for 250,000 illegal aliens to have a combined total of nearly 1.7 million arrests for three million offenses committed on U.S. soil, as one 2011 study showed. Of course, those numbers have likely expanded exponentially after four years of Biden's open border policies with virtually no vetting. Just this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a list of sanctuary jurisdictions across the country, including entire states, counties, and cities. That list includes a total of over 560 sanctuaries that release thousands of deportable criminal aliens every year. Between 2021 and 2024 alone, 22,000 illegal aliens were released from sanctuary city jails without notification to ICE. One of these released illegal aliens was Jose Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan man who brutally murdered Laken Riley in February of 2024. The 22-year-old nursing student was jogging on the University of Georgia campus when she was attacked by Ibarra. DNA evidence showed Riley fought back against Ibarra, who was trying to rape her. After a struggle, Ibarra bashed her head in with a rock multiple times. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. But it was New York's sanctuary policy that allowed it to happen. Shortly before Laken's murder, Ibarra had been released from New York custody after being arrested on local charges, but ICE was not informed. Tragically, Laken and Kate's stories are not unique. Every day, thousands of Americans are victimized by violent illegal aliens, who are escorted right past ICE and into our communities by the district attorneys of sanctuary cities. Flouting Federal Law Local and state laws that claim sanctuary status directly violate federal law— specifically, 8 U.S.C. §1373, which bans local governments from preventing law enforcement from sharing information about the "citizen or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual." Laken Riley would be alive today had New York's rogue prosecutor Alvin Bragg waited until the DHS issued a detainer for Ibarra and then cooperated with DHS the way the law requires. Kate Steinle's life would have been spared if San Francisco hadn't enacted a policy banning local police officers from notifying DHS when they arrest an illegal alien. A New Way Forward Fortunately, one U.S. attorney is finally fed up with his fellow Californians being slaughtered, assaulted, raped, and otherwise victimized by criminal illegals benefitting from the Golden State's irresponsible policies. Operation Guardian Angel closes the loophole in sanctuary cities' blatantly lawless schemes that allow them to simply ignore administrative ICE detainer warrants. How? Two words: judicial warrants. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli pulled together an all-star federal taskforce comprising agents from five federal law enforcement agencies—including ICE and the FBI—all working out of an office in Los Angeles. When an illegal alien with a prior deportation is inevitably arrested, upon identification and booking into the local jail, the taskforce seeks a federal criminal warrant—signed by a federal judge—for felony re-entry under 8 USC §1326. By using available criminal databases to find illegal aliens who were arrested and jailed the day before, the team quickly learns of each new offender. Then, a federal warrant is served on local officials, who obviously won't buck a federal judge's warrant. That warrant requires local officials to hand over the illegal criminal alien to ICE. As Essayli said in one interview, "They have no choice; they will comply." And it's already working. Operation Guardian Angel started May 10th, and by the 15th, ICE agents had made 13 arrests. Once fully underway, the taskforce expects to make 40-50 arrests weekly, even despite the obstructionist sanctuary policies of the city and the state. There is no reason why every one of the 93 U.S. Attorney's offices shouldn't be copying Essayli's playbook. His simple, effective strategy returns to immigration law enforcement the power that his sanctuary state wrongfully stole. Operation Guardian Angel is a step in the right direction of recovering the Central District of California from the open border crisis, removing criminal illegal aliens, and restoring sanity in a state that has lost its way.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump's Gold Card Sees Rich Applicants Flock to 'Red Carpet Visa'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump's $5 million "gold card" visa is attracting a surge of interest from ultra-wealthy investors seeking a fast track to U.S. citizenship through what has been dubbed a "Red Carpet Visa." Despite the lack of official launch details, immigration advisers and legal experts say inquiries are pouring in from high-net-worth people, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, eager to capitalize on Trump's latest overhaul of the immigration system. Newsweek has contacted the Commerce Department for comment via email. Why It Matters In February, Trump proposed a gold-card visa program that would offer U.S. residency to people who invest $5 million in the country. Since returning to office on January 20, Trump has proposed sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy and has moved to limit other immigration pathways, with his administration pausing the processing of some green-card applications, ending the temporary legal status of certain migrant groups, and halting student visa applications. President Donald Trump holds up the $5 million gold card as he speaks to reporters while on Air Force One on April 3, 2025. President Donald Trump holds up the $5 million gold card as he speaks to reporters while on Air Force One on April 3, 2025. Pool via AP What To Know Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at international investment migration advisory firm Henley & Partners, told Newsweek that interest has surged from affluent people in Asia. "We have already received genuine and committed interest from clients across our more than 60 offices worldwide, particularly UHNWIs in Asia, with affluent Indian and Bangladeshi nationals expressing a keen interest to apply at an exclusive event we held in Singapore last week," Volek said. While the White House has yet to confirm when the program will officially launch, inquiries are surging, experts said. Ashok Kumar Adusumilli, director of noted a spike in interest from longtime Indian entrepreneurs living in Dubai. "I have received a handful of inquiries from entrepreneurs based in Dubai, primarily of Indian origin who have been residing in the UAE for over 20 years," Adusumilli told Newsweek. He added that investors are also seeking clarity on whether the $5 million investment threshold applies per family or individual. Florian Demmler, chief marketing officer at WINHELLER GmbH, a German-based law firm that specializes in U.S. work visas, told Newsweek that they are receiving inquiries on a "daily basis." "We have many inquiries on the Gold Card," Demmler said. "On a daily basis, we are answering calls and mails from around the world. We have a lot of influx from all possible regions of the world, across all continents." Implementing the policy would require a major amendment to the Internal Revenue Code—specifically, the creation of a new taxpayer category separate from existing classifications like U.S. citizens, green-card holders and those meeting the substantial presence test, all of whom are taxed on their global income. Such a change cannot be made through executive order; it would require formal legislation passed by both chambers of Congress. So far, no such provision is included in Trump's "big, beautiful bill" currently under debate on Capitol Hill. What People Are Saying Florian Demmler, chief marketing officer at WINHELLER GmbH, told Newsweek: "We also have inquiries from the USA, especially by people who apparently already have valid residence permits but want to 'upgrade' their residence authorization. Most often, people ask, if they can apply already. They also ask, how high the investment should be and which documents they must provide." Ashok Kumar Adusumilli, director of told Newsweek: "One potential investor was particularly interested about the zero tax obligations on global income and wanted to know whether the gold card would allow for part-time residency in the U.S. without the physical presence requirements typical of green-card holders. This concern stemmed from reports of green-card holders being questioned or detained at U.S. ports of entry after extended stays abroad. Another inquiry centered on whether the proposed $5 million investment threshold would apply per family or individual. "At this time, the specifics of the gold-card program remain unclear, and we are waiting for a proposal or bill from Congress or the Trump administration for more concrete details." Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, told Newsweek: "President Trump is a businessman and innovator who is always looking for new ways to bring investment back to the United States and encourage legal immigration." What Happens Next Despite the buzz, the specifics of the gold-card program remain under wraps. There is no formal proposal or legislation yet from Congress or the Trump administration. As legal professionals field global inquiries, the administration faces mounting questions to clarify the launch date.
