The Trump administration scored two legal victories this week in combating illegal immigration.

Appeals courts cleared the way for building a Florida immigration detention center that President Donald Trump calls “Alligator Alcatraz” and halted a California law requiring agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to unmask.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday stopped enforcement of the California law.

“This Department of Justice stands in unwavering and total support of the brave men and women of ICE who put their lives on the line every day to enforce our immigration laws and keep American citizens safe,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on X, regarding ICE, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Justice Department’s Civil Division defended the case.

“Today’s legal victory in the 9th Circuit halts enforcement of California’s mask ban for ICE agents and is a big win to protect law enforcement,” Blanche continued. “Congratulations to DOJ’s Civil Division on this major win in the 9th Circuit—another decisive victory in this administration’s effort to remove illegal aliens from this country.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had signed the bill requiring ICE agents to remove their masks, which he touted as the “first in the nation.”

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have argued that agents need masks for privacy reasons, as people have taken their photos for online posts, threatening them and their family members.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, which defended the state in the case, did not respond to an inquiry for this story by publication time.

In Florida, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed a lower court’s injunction against the construction of an ICE detention center for illegal aliens in the Everglades.

In a post on X, the Justice Department called the court ruling a “decisive victory in our effort to deliver on President Trump’s immigration agenda.”

The lower court had determined the facility did not comply with federal environmental review laws.

“This fight is far from over. Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, in a statement after the appeals court ruling. “We are pursuing every legal avenue available to right this wrong.”

The Trump administration is upping its anti-fraud efforts with $300 million in funding to investigate and prosecute fraudsters and drug traffickers.

The Justice Department announced the “Special Attorneys Program,” in which state, local, tribal, and territorial governments can apply for grants for a federal prosecutor to probe crimes in their jurisdictions.

This is part of a broader whole-of-government effort following President Donald Trump’s appointment of a Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. The task force aims to work with every department and agency to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within federal benefit programs.

A key focus of the program would be investigating illegal aliens taking advantage of federal benefits, as well as drug and human trafficking crimes, according to the DOJ.

“This unprecedented funding opportunity is part of the Department of Justice’s historic effort to activate every available tool to secure the physical and financial security of our nation,” Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, said in a public statement.

“We invite prosecutors across the country to join the mission to eliminate fraud, defeat the drug cartels, and rescue victims of trafficking,” McDonald added.

Under the Special Attorneys Program, the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division will appoint a special attorney in a U.S. attorney’s office for the qualifying jurisdiction.

The Trump administration has increased its anti-fraud efforts following reports of about $9 billion in fraud in Minnesota that included several politically connected nonprofits accessing federal funds.

This week, the Justice Department secured a grand jury indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center on charges it paid about $3 million to various white supremacist organizations and misled donors and banks.

The Justice Department has also been investigating alleged hospice fraud in California.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson.  Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.

Jack Fowler: Victor, before we get to Mark Kelly, I did want to mention this news. There are too many names here, but these—Michigan had a Democrat convention yesterday, on Sunday. 

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. I saw that. 

Fowler: And Amir Makled, who is a lawyer, a guy from Dearborn, and a Hezbollah praiser. He defeated—Democrats have the right to appoint a regent to the University of Michigan board. And the incumbent was Jordan Acker, who is, I’m assuming, Jewish because his house and his car were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. But the Democrats of Michigan nominated this radical guy to sit on the board of the University of Michigan. So this party that was the party of Dan Rostenkowski and Tip O’Neill and even Bill Clinton—this is dead and over. 

Hanson: Yeah, I think they’re captive of a very small but apparently very influential group of people who are Islamic, and they vote a straight ticket, apparently. Because—I say that because the—is it El-Sayed, the candidate in the same state for the Senate? 

Fowler: Right. 

Hanson: He had a hot mic on where he said that he had to be careful about expressing any opinion about the death of Khamenei, this cruel, horrible dictator in Iran who had butchered 40,000 of his own people. Because it might not go well with his constituency. Meaning they were pro-Hezbollah. 

Fowler: Yeah. 

Hanson: And we had that person that tried to ram the synagogue, and he was an active—his family were active Hezbollah terrorists. 

So I don’t know what’s happened to the Democratic Party, but one of the worst things that historically happens to a party or a group or a nation when they spiral down into suicidal hatred, tribalism, is antisemitism is one of the first—it’s kind of like, you know, a sore throat when you know you’re getting very ill. And when you see it everywhere—and I see it everywhere—and it has so many manifestations. 

In Tucker’s case, it’s just the sheer volume. If he were to do one show every five or every ten on Bibi, or one in every eight on Israel, then you could argue that he’s just critical of Israel and the support that it garners. But it’s about 70% of his shows. And they’re all negative. And he had never done that before. 

And then when you see these random attacks on Jews, and you have nothing happening, you get the impression that either the majority of the Democratic Party agree, or they’re afraid to express opposition or objection because they’re going to be, themselves, targeted. So they wanted to cut off aid. Most of the Democrats, with few exceptions, wanted to cut off aid to Israel right when it’s in its existential war with Iran. 

I think that Europe is pro-Hezbollah. It’s pretty clear they are. France was, until they lost a French soldier. Now, all of a sudden, they’re worried. 

But if this doesn’t stop, this momentum—and I never thought I would say that about the United States—you’re going to see Jews that are targeted. Just everyday Jews. And they’re going to be—it’s going to be like, at the elite level, it’ll be like Gentleman’s Agreement, the Gregory Peck movie about that you politely don’t hire Jews or you don’t recruit them. 

Fowler: We don’t have a reservation at the restaurant or at the hotel, yeah. 

Hanson: And given Jewish meritocracy that dominated the Ivy League—30 or 40% in some years—after the antisemitic restrictions were removed. And then we went to the SAT meritocratic equality-of-opportunity admissions. It’s down to about—I think the Jewish numbers are way, way down by almost—they’ve decreased by two-thirds. And, so I don’t see a new young generation of Jews emerging from this country without having to be targeted by mostly people who are Islamic and the people who aid and abet them. 

And it’s going to be—I predict, unless somebody comes out and stops it—it’s going to get worse and worse and worse. All we can do as people is—each person, according to your station—is to demand that you treat people as an individual and not a collective. And you don’t pander and you don’t criticize, but when you hear people attacking Jews, you speak up against it. 

If you don’t, then you’re part of the problem. 

Fowler: There’s a great piece on that, if I just may make a note, Victor, to our, our, viewers and listeners who are very intelligent people. There’s a great online magazine called Tablet Magazine, and it

Hanson: It is—it’s excellent. I saw that article. Are you referring to the woman who was a Ph.D.? She’s a veteran and— 

Fowler: Yes. Meghan Mobbs, and she— 

Hanson: What to Die For? 

Fowler: The Things Worth Dying For, yeah. 

Hanson: That was a wonderful article. It was so rare to see somebody that was so brave and so persuasive. 

Right. And she’s also a Catholic, and it was an interesting thing about this journal. You know, they’re—I don’t want to say eclectic—but it’s that they allow these other kinds of voices to write for them. 

Yeah. I think that’s one—I remember, I think I told you once I was at my graduation and there was a person at this—I had won this award, and the awardees were at the table with the provost. And this woman was attacking the United States in World War II. 

And she kept going, going, going, and saying we were war criminals. And my father and my mom watched him drink one glass, two glasses, three glasses. And then I said to my mom, hey Mom, I think the fuse is lit. And then he got up and said, I didn’t fly 40 missions over Tokyo and my first cousin didn’t get killed in Okinawa for me to sit and hear this. Now you’re going to hear something. And then he let loose. So I feel that way about all the people who fought. That’s what her point was in the article. They didn’t fight and die and risk everything that so the University of Michigan could select somebody whose principal qualification was that he hated Jews. And he was pro-ISIS and Hezbollah and the whole bunch and was not shy about it. 

And so why I always think that, given our ethos, that a person who comes from a different country, if he qualifies for citizenship—he or she—and he’s a citizen, then they have as much right as somebody that I’ve been here on my mother’s side from the 18—I don’t know—20s. My father’s from 1870, ’80. 

But my point is they are just as much American. But that being said, if you do come over here and then when you arrive and you go full Ilhan Omar and you call it a trashy country and a dictatorship, then that allows people who have been living here to say to them: We didn’t die on Iwo Jima. We didn’t die at Belleau Wood. We didn’t die at Gettysburg for you to come over here and tell us that we’re no good. And we’re not going to take it. I’m sorry. And we need that attitude a lot more. So the immigrant has really changed. 

When we had Max Nikias, he was the ideal immigrant. He’s the ideal immigrant. He loves the country. He contributed so much to it. And yet that profile that he and millions represent—had once represented—is under attack now. I think it’s because of the indoctrination in the university. And the DEI component, that if you’re a DEI qualifier, you feel that you’re exempt from criticism and you have a right or a duty to trash your host country as white, racist, heterosexual, a whole bit. You know?

And I think it will continue until people say, You know what? You’re absurd. We’re not going to listen to you anymore. If everybody would say that, no matter what your particular background is, I think it would stop very quickly. 

Fowler: Someone was mentioning at the Philadelphia Society meeting, which I was at in Tampa this past weekend, about Peter Schramm, who I think you must have known Peter. 

Hanson: I met—yeah, I knew him a lot. I spoke in Ohio. Was it Ohio he was at? 

Fowler: He was at the Ashbrook Center. Yeah. He ran that. And Peter was born in Hungary and his family escaped during the ’56 revolution. But he asked his father, Why here? And essentially the father said, We were always Americans. We just weren’t born there. And I do think there are a lot of people that think like that and feel like that and are pat—but there are many, many more like Ilhan Omar and others who are still Somalians and still Pakistanis and Afghanis and whatever the heck. And do not like this place, yet they are big welfare recipients. 

Hanson: I don’t know. I’m really upset, though, because I was looking at some of the—Steve Hilton now claims, by the way, that the fraud in California has gone up to 400 billion. Billion. 

I mean, that would almost cut 25% of the deficit. And when you look at that and you look at the names that are coming in, a lot of them are naturalized citizens or they’re here as green card hold—I don’t know. But the reason I mention that is the immigrant has a special onus on him that his host was generous and allowed him to come in—just like a guest into somebody’s home. In that, you have to behave extraordinarily well. So when these people say, Well, he only had a DUI, why deport? 

You shouldn’t have any crime. You should be exemplary because this country bent over backwards to allow you to be a guest. And then when you come in here as the Somali community did, in many cases, and you defrauded the country, then you should be deported. Get a fair trial, adjudicate the evidence, and get out. Because you’ve abused the hospitality. And you rewarded our magnanimity with contempt. 

And so I’m getting really sick of all of this. And, you know—oh, immigrants, immi—immigration has been the backbone of the country. But there was a demonstration that said immigrants built the country. Well, they did in the sense that we only had a small population and we were immigrating here from 1820, 1810, even before. 

But that’s not what the sign meant. It meant that only people who were illegal had built the country. And that’s not true. It’s not true. 

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Senate adopted a budget framework to provide funds for immigration enforcement that Democrats have denied since February.

But getting that framework through the House in order to ultimately send a bill to the president’s desk may be a challenge.

Senate Republicans are pursuing a two-track approach—a party-line “reconciliation” bill to fund immigration enforcement, and a bipartisan appropriations bill to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Senate has already sent the House a bill that would fund all of DHS except for immigration enforcement. The House has yet to take action on it, as conservatives have demanded progress on reconciliation first.

The reconciliation process allows for Congress to enact major budgetary changes with a simple majority in the Senate.

The Senate voted 50-48 to adopt a budget resolution—a nonbinding blueprint for a party-line budget reconciliation bill. Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined all present Democrats in opposition.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Budget Committee, has spearheaded the plan to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.

The law that governs reconciliation sets up a “vote-a-rama” before the final vote on any budget resolution, in which senators can propose as many amendments as they want.

The Senate followed the urging of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to keep the resolution “skinny,” voting down every amendment that was proposed, except for one from Graham to fund DHS’ efforts to apprehend illegal immigrants convicted of violence against minors.

The amendments were mostly Democrat-backed and aimed at forcing Republicans to vote down measures to boost entitlement spending. 

However, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., proposed an amendment to the goals of the SAVE America Act—a bill that would require photo identification and proof of citizenship in federal elections.

It failed as Republican Sens. Murkowski, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined Democrats in opposition.

Now, to open the path for reconciliation, the House will have to approve the resolution. 

Although the resolution does not have the force of law, the House rank-and-file will hold leverage in this situation, as leadership must get a resolution passed to move to reconciliation. The House has flouted leadership on recent critical votes.

Uniting the House Republican conference may be difficult, given that members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, distrustful of splitting up DHS funding, have called for a reconciliation bill to fund the whole agency, not just ICE and CBP.

Thune told reporters after the resolution’s passage that he hoped the White House and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., could get House members to unite around passing the resolution as is.

“They know it’s coming, and you know [Johnson’s] obviously got people who want to expand the scope too. But I think, hopefully, the White House will be engaged in trying to make sure we get the budget resolution done,” Thune said.

“It doesn’t seem like this should be that heavy of a lift, but nothing is easy these days,” he added.

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Daily Signal Thursday morning that he believes the House might oppose the piecemeal funding of DHS.

“I think it will have a hard time passing the House,” Cloud said. “Isolating part of appropriations … it’s just the wrong way to run Congress.”

Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

 He told The Daily Signal he would prefer to keep the reconciliation bill skinny out of respect for appropriators’ authority.

“As an appropriator, that’s a preferred way,” he said, adding that the House is choosing to “trust but verify” and proceed with reconciliation before appropriations.

“I don’t want to expand it,” he said.

The Justice Department reached a settlement with Carter Page, a 2016 Trump campaign aide targeted for surveillance as part of a federal investigation into alleged collusion with Russia.

The Associated Press cited a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity in saying the settlement was for $1.25 million. The Justice Department’s filing to the Supreme Court Wednesday did not reveal a dollar amount.

The Justice Department and the FBI investigated whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russians to affect the outcome of the election. The probe ended in 2019, when special counsel Robert Mueller issued a report finding no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia. Page has consistently denied any improper ties to Russia.

The Justice Department Office of Inspector General later issued a report critical of the Russia investigation and found problems with the surveillance applications in the case.

Page sued in 2020, asserting he was the victim of “unlawful spying” by the FBI. The federal complaint alleged the FBI’s 2016 and 2017 applications for warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court contained omissions and errors. The same year Page filed the lawsuit, his book “Abuse and Power: How an Innocent American Was Framed in an Attempted Coup Against the President,” was published.

Lower courts determined that Page waited too long to file a lawsuit, so he appealed to the Supreme Court. The appeal was pending when the Justice Department informed the high court Wednesday that it had reached a settlement with Page on his claims.

It’s fascinating to watch as American cities are forced to rediscover common sense.

An interesting report in The Atlantic, of all places, on Monday highlighted how the San Francisco Bay Area, like a broken clock, finally hit on a good idea.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system, which for years has been plagued by low ridership and dysfunction, has apparently had a huge turnaround.

The Atlantic’s Henry Grabar noted, with some surprise, that all it took was one simple trick: Last year, BART widely installed new fare gates by station exits and entrances.

These new and improved gates made fare evasion dramatically more difficult than it was with the old 1970s-style, waist-high gates. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen fare evaders effortlessly hop over those old gates as if they weren’t even there.

The effect of just this one change has been staggering, apparently. Crime is way down 41% since last year, according to BART’s numbers—and maintenance costs have plummeted.

“Workers spent nearly 1,000 fewer hours cleaning up after unruly passengers in the six months following the gates’ installation, compared with the six months before,” The Atlantic noted.

This while ridership is way up. Revenue is now projected to increase by $10 million a year thanks to the change.

BART General Manager Bob Powers said in January that “infrastructure upgrades” alongside “improved fare gates and station lighting, with additional safety presence and customer-centered service” have made BART a more “comfortable experience for everyone who rides.”

What do you know, they’ve finally dabbled in the most basic steps to improve public transit ridership by making it *gulp* safer. Maybe this doesn’t seem as remarkable to you as it does to me, but I grew up in the Bay Area. The depth of policy idiocy in the land of my birth is typically bottomless.

But lo and behold, the green shoots of sanity in the craziest part of California.

It’s notable that this happened after a study by Yale’s Center for Policing Equity said last May that stopping fare evasion wouldn’t decrease crime or make the system safer.

Furthermore, the study said that doing more to make sure people obeyed the law would disproportionately affect “marginalized groups, including black and brown riders, low-income individuals, people experiencing mental health crises, and individuals who are unhoused.”

The report recommended that additional social workers, less enforcement, and discounted fares for special groups would solve things.

I guess not.

Crime is down and left-wing social engineers suffer most.

It’s in that Yale study where you see the roots of why everything seemingly went to hell following the 2020 Great Awokening. It was ideology, force-fed to our society by do-gooder social elites with impressive credentials and an equally impressive misunderstanding of human nature.

The most prestigious institutions in the world convinced Western societies that they had to throw out good sense and good policy to stop “systemic racism.” What followed was more criminality, more dysfunction, and ultimately more suffering for people of all skin colors.

The Atlantic’s Grabar acknowledged that BART’s “success story with lessons for all types of public spaces.” Grabar called it the “fare-gate theory.”

“To protect the shared rooms of communal life, human intervention isn’t always necessary, affordable, or desirable. Instead, physical and technological obstacles—an architecture of good behavior—can keep out bad actors and deter the worst impulses of everyone else,” he concluded.

That’s funny, because this is hardly a new idea. It’s based on the same set of principles that drove New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s crime-fighting revolution in the late 1990s. The “broken windows theory” essentially came down to policing small crimes to stop bigger ones.

The truth is that most people are not criminals. Most obey the laws and try to do what’s right. Most crime, whether petty or felonious, is committed by the same antisocial people.

A September report by the New York Post illustrated this point.

According to NYPD statistics, a group of 63 people had more than 5,000 arrests among them. Yet, the New York Post reported, only five were in jail as of the piece’s publication.

“The motley crew has amassed a disturbing rap sheet for crimes including assault, robbery, theft, turnstile-jumping and a string of other nuisance offenses—but they largely remain free because the state’s lax criminal-justice reforms bar judges from holding them on bail,” the Post reported.

A later New York Post report in March tracked just five Subway career criminals who had a “whopping 590 busts between them—including more than 100 arrests for violent felonies like robbery and rape.”

Now, most of these folks should be behind bars more permanently. That would keep the whole city safe from their villainy. But it appears that putting up even the smallest barriers to entry could at least keep public transportation safe. And that would be a huge win for the countless people who’ve been victimized and perhaps many others who want to use subway but are too afraid to do so.

Unfortunately, New York is going the opposite direction as the democratic socialist mayor still wants to experiment with his “free bus” idea. It’s a plan that’s both unaffordable and neglects the lesson that BART so recently learned about how fare enforcement keeps the crime away.

There are more and more examples of how increased law enforcement and even minimal prevention methods work. Let’s hope that this trend continues. Enduring increased criminality doesn’t have to be the price for living in or visiting a city.

Rep. Chip Roy told The Daily Signal that the Justice Department’s indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, while a welcome move, represents just one step in a broader effort the administration has undertaken against leftist groups.

“The indictments are an enormously important step forward and an indication that the administration is taking this seriously,” the Texas Republican member told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Wednesday. Roy said the administration recognizes “the need to not just expose” the Left’s activities but “to actually have consequences” for them.

“We know that there are significant efforts underway across agencies to continue to root out not just SPLC but the vast array of Marxists and leftists that are actively engaging in this activity to undermine our society,” he added. “I think it’s important that the indictments are indicative of what we know of the SPLC but we also know that it’s a much bigger network and the administration does, too.”

“We know that the administration is looking beyond SPLC and are actively engaged in investigations in pursuing the overall network,” Roy concluded.

Roy responded to the DOJ’s indictment, handed down Tuesday, which alleges the SPLC had paid $3 million to a set of “informants” in white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. The indictment charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of false statements to banks (regarding shell companies it created to cloak these payments), and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment of money laundering.

Roy called for an investigation into the network of leftist nonprofits funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American billionaire now living in China, after leaders of that network met with the Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo.

Roy has called for a select committee in Congress to investigate Antifa and the radical Left’s infrastructure after the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

“I don’t know how we hold them accountable yet,” he admitted. “We should try, but the one thing I know we must do is expose it.”

“We need to expose it on the national stage for all to see what they’ve been up to and that it’s purposeful and that every American’s life is more in danger or in jeopardy because of it,” he warned.

Roy sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and to the chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., respectively, on Sept. 11, citing “a sustained breakdown of law and order, fueled not by chance, but by anti-American ideology.”

The letter cites numerous examples of violent threats, including the assassination attempts on President Donald Trump, the shooter who targeted Republican members’ 2017 Congressional Baseball Game practice, crimes committed by illegal aliens, violent riots featuring Antifa, the soft-on-crime approach of prosecutors supported by Hungarian American billionaire George Soros, and more.

The Open Society Foundations, founded by Soros and chaired by his son, Alex, responded to Trump’s recent suggestion that Soros funds violence. The foundations “do not support or fund violent protests,” the group stated. “Allegations to the contrary are false, and the threats against our founder and chair are outrageous.”

Roy’s letter notes that the Southern Poverty Law Center put both Turning Point USA and the conservative Christian nonprofit Family Research Council on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, only for both organizations to be the target of shootings.

The SPLC, which gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy in the 1980s, has put nonprofits such as Focus on the Family, PragerU, Moms for Liberty, and more on the “hate map,” saying they form part of the “infrastructure upholding white supremacy.” The SPLC has reportedly engaged in information sharing with Antifa agitators through a mediator, and one of its lawyers was arrested at a Molotov cocktail riot.

The Treasury Department, the IRS, the FBI, and other agencies are reportedly investigating left-wing groups accused of funding or organizing violence.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune encouraged senators to stop talking about President Donald Trump’s stated priority of nuking the filibuster, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 

After a few moderates at the Senate’s Wednesday steering lunch urged the Republican conference not to talk about nuking the filibuster, Thune agreed that the move lacks the necessary support in the current conference, the sources said. 

Thune clearly seemed to agree with the members asking their colleagues to stop discussing it, the sources said. 

Trump has repeatedly demanded that Republicans eliminate the filibuster to require only a simple majority vote to pass key agenda items, instead of needing the customary 60 votes to end debate. His agenda includes the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to vote in federal elections, as well as funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

Some in the Republican caucus remain firmly opposed to eliminating the filibuster, while others are warming up to the idea. 

“By ending the filibuster now, Republicans could pass important legislation that the public overwhelmingly supports, but Democrats oppose,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., wrote in The Wall Steet Journal in March.

“My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote in a March 11 opinion article for the New York Post. “But when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said he has “seen enough” and is ready to abolish the filibuster.

“I have seen enough, and heard enough excuses. We cannot let Democrats sabotage this country,” he said. “If nuking the filibuster is the only way to deliver on wildly popular legislation like the SAVE America Act, then we need to nuke the filibuster and start passing bills.”

But Thune has repeatedly said that there are not enough votes to eliminate the filibuster. 

“Again, reality is, the votes aren’t there, and we can talk about the relative merits of the filibuster, or whether it’s relevant in the modern world,” Thune recently told reporters. “All those things are great conversations, but the practical reality is, the math isn’t there. It doesn’t add up, we don’t have the votes.” 

However, Trump has said that terminating the filibuster will yield key victories for Republicans.

“I say, end the filibuster,” Trump told The Daily Signal March 29. “Terminate the filibuster. Just vote, and you’ll get everything you want.”

As Los Angeles continues to face major troubles from its homeless population, a new issue is bubbling to the surface—animals are being abused on Skid Row.

In the city run by Mayor Karen Bass, Skid Row, the 50-block district in downtown, is home to almost 4,000 homeless Californians. 

Not only are the residents plagued with crime, trash, drugs, and medical emergencies, but animal advocates say pets are experiencing abuse as well.

“He was dissecting the dog’s leg,” Joey Tuccio, a volunteer with the nonprofit group Starts With One Today, told The Daily Signal, referencing an incident he encountered on Skid Row.

According to Tuccio, the dog had a leg that was badly infected, and the owner attempted to treat the injury.

“The dog’s leg was rotting so bad that it ended up needing an amputation,” he said. “We took him, and now he’s adopted, but we found out later that his owner, who was severely on drugs, was seen trying to dissect his leg with tweezers. We see things like this happen all the time.”

According to other animal advocates, this was not an isolated incident.

“[Dogs are being] force-bred, sold, and starved. They are infected, fought, and being raped by humans—yes, they are being raped by humans on our city streets,” Rebecca Corry, executive director of Stand Up for Pits Foundation, said during a hearing at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Corry’s nonprofit is suing the City of Los Angeles, Bass, the Los Angeles Police Department, and others over what it described as “the unethical treatment of animals in city shelters and on downtown’s Skid Row.” According to information obtained by TMZ in December, the lawsuit alleges the city has failed to enforce its animal cruelty statutes.

Tuccio said he agrees with Corry about the severity of the abuse, noting “it’s an incredibly huge issue.” Last week, he posted photos on social media that showed dogs suffering from neglect.

Tuccio relayed multiple incidents to show just how desperate animal abuse on Skid Row can get, including dogs that have overdosed accidentally by ingesting drugs.

“I was sent a video someone captured of a homeless man beating his dog. I sent it to the police and animal control, and I think they just gave him a citation. That was it,” Tuccio added.

The animal welfare volunteer said he has sent reports of abuse to police and animal control, but the group’s volunteers often have to address the immediate urgency of the situation.

“Sometimes, sadly, it’s so urgent that we just have to remove the dog ourselves,” Tuccio said. “But most of the time, we do call animal control and the police first. Sadly, we don’t normally get the response we want.”

“We’ll call animal control, and maybe one out of every 10 times they come,” he added. 

When asked by The Daily Signal what needs to be done, Tuccio replied, “We need to get the drug use issue under control.” 

“When I’m volunteering there, I walk by the homeless casually smoking crack. Homeless people are selling dogs to buy more drugs,” he said, adding that people breed dogs and sell them to homeless individuals who want companionship from a pet.

“We saw a case where a person made $500 from selling a litter of puppies on Skid Row. … They take that money and use it to buy more drugs.” 

Animal welfare activists said they are documenting incidents and posting on social media to raise public awareness on an often-overlooked issue.

“Don’t take my word for it—go to Skid Row … with a group of experienced people and see it for yourself,” Tuccio said.

The Daily Signal contacted Bass’ office for comment but did not receive a response.

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal that Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution to expel him from the U.S. House of Representatives as a deflection from her own personal controversies.

“We do know for a fact that she’s currently under attack,” Mills said. “Her ex-fiancé had to file a restraining order for harassment.”

“She’s under actual allegations, accusations, and investigations,” he added.

On a Tuesday social media post, Mills asked Mace if her inability to file the resolution for a vote is because she “didn’t think [she] would get called out?”

Mills’ comments came after Mace introduced a resolution Monday calling for his expulsion from the U.S. House of Representatives. In the resolution, Mace accused Mills of lying about his military record for political gain and physically abusing his former girlfriend.

Mills denied the allegations in statements to The Daily Signal.

“Show me where I’ve ever been charged or found guilty of anything,” Mills said.

Mills also criticized the resolution on social media, accusing Mace of avoiding a vote because she fears what could be uncovered about her personal life.

Mace did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on Mills’ statements. However, she described Mills’ response as typical behavior of a “sexual predator,” accusing him of attacking “the women who expose them.”

According to the resolution shared by Mace’s office and posted to the House website, the congresswoman contends the evidence against Mills is substantiated and warrants expulsion.

“We pulled all from public reporting,” Mace’s press secretary, Carlie Baker, told The Daily Signal. “I attached the resolution so you can see which sources we pulled from.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Speaking before an electrified crowd at Ohio State University on Tuesday, Vivek Ramaswamy discussed his experience with the American dream while promoting his campaign for governor.

“I wasn’t born a billionaire, I wasn’t born a millionaire, I wasn’t born an anything heir. I was an heir to nothing. But here I am now,” the American entrepreneur and Ohio gubernatorial candidate told the audience.

“And with your help, God willing, [I am] in a position to lead the very state where I was born and raised. That story is only possible in the United States of America.”

Ramaswamy was born and raised in Cincinnati, but his parents emigrated from southwest India. They came to America “with nothing to their name,” the candidate said, adding that their decision gave him the opportunity to become a successful businessman. He also is the youngest person to have run for president as a Republican, which he did in 2024 at the age of 37.

Ramaswamy later touched upon his agenda for Ohio. His said his priorities, should he be elected governor, include boosting jobs, lowering or ending capital gains and income taxes, and producing more energy in the state to help lower the cost of electricity.

On social issues, Ramaswamy attacked “wokeness” and spoke about improving schools.

“By the end of next year, this much I know: Our schools will be performing better because we will replace woke indoctrination with actual academic standards in math, reading, writing, and civics. You got to know something about your country to pledge allegiance to your country and be proud of your country,” Ramaswamy said to applause.

In a line that was reminiscent of Charlie Kirk, and the polite way the Turning Point USA founder engaged those on the political Left, Ramaswamy said he would bring that same agreeableness to Ohio politics.

“By the end of next year in this state, people of differing political beliefs will actually be able to be friends with each other and get together at the dinner table, like the Ohio I grew up in,” he said.

During the Q&A session, one audience member asked how Ramaswamy would ensure that the state’s “public services wouldn’t fail or really underperform” in light of his many proposed tax cuts. He replied that his policies will create an economic boom in Ohio, making up for any revenue shortfall related to lower taxes.

“I think if you have someone at the top who’s focused on cutting red tape and speeding permitting timelines, and if you combine all of that with actually taking the income and capital gains tax rate to zero, cutting property taxes, de-layering government, and then you market the state to the country, I think we’re going to have a boom that this state has not seen since the first Industrial Revolution,” he said.

Attendees were urged to vote for Ramaswamy in the upcoming May 5 Republican primary. If he wins, he will face Democrat Amy Acton in the general election.

Ramaswamy referred to the former Ohio Department of Health director as “Amy Lockdown Acton,” drawing boos as he criticized her COVID-19 response, including unpopular school closures.

In a head-to-head race between Ramaswamy and Acton, recent polling predicts a close result. A Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll conducted April 7-14 has Ramaswamy leading Acton with 48% of the vote to her 47%.

He closed the night with a return to the importance of making America a land of opportunity for everyone.

“I am grateful to this country for giving me those opportunities. That is the American dream. That is what makes us the greatest nation known to the history of mankind,” he said.

“I know that, together, we can lead Ohio to be the top state in the country. To raise a young family, to live the American dream, and to give your kids a world-class education, that is your birthright as an Ohioan.”

He concluded: “Ohio’s best days, and through Ohio, America’s best days, are actually going to be ahead of us.”

The candidate appeared Wednesday at family-owned Tee Jaye’s Country Place restaurant, where he continued campaigning and encouraged young people to “shape the future” and not to see themselves “as victims.”