The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday it is slackening restrictions on asylum applications set in place after an Afghan asylee allegedly murdered one West Virginia National Guardsman and gravely wounded another in Washington last fall.

The November incident near Farragut Square led President Donald Trump to crack down on allowing asylum seekers into the country, and the administration hammered more lax Biden-era policies that allowed Afghans such as the suspect into the country.

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the stringent screening process itself will not change, nor will restrictions on emigrants from a list of “high-risk” countries.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, maximum screening and vetting for all aliens continues unabated,” the spokesperson said.

DOJ ACCUSES COURTS OF UNDERCUTTING EXECUTIVE POWER IN HIGH-STAKES SUPREME COURT BORDER CASE

An ICE agent monitors hundreds of asylum seekers being processed upon entering the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

“USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) has lifted the adjudicative hold for thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non-high-risk countries. This move allows resources to focus on continued rigorous national security and public safety vetting for higher-risk cases.”

Some of the 39 countries the administration deemed lacking in the provision of adequate screening and vetting information to U.S. officials still include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and Sierra Leone; the latter being where two different migrants named Jalloh, accused of recent violent crimes in Virginia, hailed from.

JUSTICE JACKSON AUTHORS UNANIMOUS SCOTUS OPINION HANDING TRUMP AN IMMIGRATION WIN

“Since taking office, President Trump has prioritized national security and public safety by implementing a series of executive orders and proclamations that mandate strict screening and vetting of foreign nationals seeking entry or immigration benefits,” USCIS said in a statement.

The agency said that security gaps in applications for naturalization or permanent residency exposed serious public safety risks and endangered the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.

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“[A]pplications were approved and individuals were naturalized who should not have been,” the agency said.

The latest move is expected to have limited impact on the situation, according to The Hill newspaper, but will still ease the overall restrictive environment.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is calling on prosecutors to try, convict and punish the undocumented killer of Stephanie Minter, arguing that he must face American justice before he’s ordered to leave the country.

Kaine said he fears deportation could be a form of leniency.

“I’m not sure that if he’s deported, [that] he will really face the punishment that he should face. If you do a deportation now, what’s the guarantee he would really face severe consequences for what he’s done?” Kaine said.

“I think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and then possibly deported after that, but I wouldn’t want him to escape accountability for the crime.”

TRUMP ADMIN ASKS SPANBERGER, VIRGINIA OFFICIALS NOT RELEASE ILLEGAL CHARGED WITH GROPING HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to reporters as he walks into the Senate Chamber on Dec. 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Authorities are charging Abdul Jalloh, a 32-year-old Sierra Leone native, with the murder of Stephanie Minter after authorities found her dead at a bus stop in Fairfax, Virginia last month.

Jalloh had already been arrested more than 30 times before his fatal confrontation with Minter, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Among others, his previous charges included rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing and more.

Local authorities dropped previous charges against Jalloh, allowing him to walk free.

IGNORED ICE DETAINERS ‘PUT LIVES AT RISK,’ DHS SAYS, TARGETING NEWSOM, PRITZKER, HEALEY

Kaine believes this time should be different.

“I think he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and then possibly deported after that,” Kaine said.

Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop.  (Fox 5 DC)

Jalloh has been charged with second-degree murder.

Even as questions remain about why Virginia authorities let Jalloh go, Kaine, who served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, posited that ICE may have failed to follow through on requests to detain Jalloh ahead of Minter’s murder.

“My experience when I was governor — and this is now 15 or 20 years ago — is that we would normally let ICE know before we let anybody out of prison in Virginia, and then they wouldn’t show up,” Kaine said.

VIRGINIA PROSECUTOR’S RECORD ON VIOLENT OFFENDERS SCRUTINIZED AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED IN MOM’S MURDER

Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C. on March 13, 2025.  (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“We would give them two-weeks notice [and say] ‘Hey, here’s somebody who’s here, come pick them up,’ and they wouldn’t show up. That was more my experience.”

Fox Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

“No Kings” protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, rewriting a familiar American hymn to include a “thy immigrant” verse, as tensions over immigration enforcement and a prolonged government shutdown continued to escalate.

During the rally in D.C. protesters can be seen singing “America the Beautiful,” and adding additional lines such as: “For beautiful, thy immigrant / Who hail from every land / By grace and work and diligence / Like gifts from God’s own hands… America, America… To greet the poor, / And reach the shore / With open arms again,” according to video captured at the scene by reporter Brecca Stoll with “The Daily Wire.”

The protest marked the third nationwide “No Kings” demonstration since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. The D.C. rally was one of many around the nation.

Protestors gather on Courthouse Square in Scranton, Pa., for a ‘No Kings’ protest on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jason Ardan/The Citizens’ Voice via Getty Images)

500 GROUPS WITH $3B IN REVENUES ARE BEHIND THE #NOKINGS PROTESTS AND COMMUNIST CALL FOR ‘REVOLUTION’

An estimated crowd of thousands was seen Saturday outside the Lincoln Memorial during a march in the nation’s capital — numbers similar to “No Kings” protests across the U.S.

“No Kings” says on its website that “As President Trump escalates his attempts to control us, it is on us, the people, to show that we will fight to protect one another and our country.”

The movement provided protesters a highly-structured document for organizers titled “March 28 Toolkit,” instructing viewers on how to recruit their own speakers, delegate roles, register their event and use “No Kings” branded media materials. It also laid out best practices for logistics, as well as how to avoid permitting and insurance requirements for event-holders.

Representatives from “No Kings” did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AFTER GOP REJECTS THEIR COUNTER, THUNE SAYS SCHUMER ‘GOING IN CIRCLES’

Protesters gather in Washington DC for the No Kings Day protest on October 18th, 2025  (Fox News Digital/Emma Woodhead)

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

The demonstrations come as scrutiny intensifies over ICE operations, particularly following two January 2026 incidents in Minneapolis. Residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed in separate encounters involving federal immigration agents, fueling criticism from activists and lawmakers.

Their deaths prompted administrative changes, with border czar Tom Homan stepping in to oversee operations in Minneapolis and ending the ICE operation there. Border patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino was reassigned and later retired, while former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was replaced by former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

Protesters gather in Washington, D.C. for the No Kings Day protest on October 18th, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Emma Woodhead)

SEN MAZIE HIRONO TROLLED FOR ADMITTING TRUMP NOT ‘A KING,’ AND ‘NEVER HAS BEEN’

The broader dispute has also been tied to the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has disrupted travel nationwide. Unpaid TSA agents have skipped shifts, contributing to long airport lines during peak travel periods.

Homan maintained that ICE personnel had helped stabilize conditions, arguing their presence reduced delays, while continuing to press lawmakers to restore funding. 

Meanwhile, Democrats have refused to advance funding without changes to ICE, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reiterating that his caucus would not support legislation absent reforms.

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent looks on passengers queue to go through security at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on March 22, 2026. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)

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A short-term DHS funding bill passed by House Republicans on Friday was quickly rejected by Senate Democrats, with Schumer calling it “dead on arrival” and emphasizing concerns over enforcement practices and accountability.

As negotiations stall, both sides remain entrenched, with protests expected to continue and administration officials continuing to push for a resolution to restore DHS operations and address disruptions tied to the shutdown.

On Thursday, March 19, an 18-year-old college student at Loyola University in Chicago named Sheridan Gorman was allegedly shot dead by an illegal alien from Venezuela, Jose Medina. The networks could barely touch the story, or talk about the immigration status of the alleged shooter. CBS only spent two minutes, followed by ABC at 79 seconds and NBC at 23 seconds. Searching for it on PBS or NPR found nothing.

PBS stations did waste 90 minutes on a documentary titled, “White With Fear,” about how Republicans use overtly racist tactics to win elections, and one of those, they claimed, was highlighting violent crimes by illegal immigrants. Their primary example was conservatives reporting on the 2015 killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco.

The networks hate reporting on crime committed by illegal immigrants. They would insist it’s atypical. They love to proclaim that illegal immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans – if you’re willing to dismiss the crime of entering the country illegally or overstaying a visa. But this ignores the obvious logic for grieving families like Gorman’s – if the alleged illegal alien killer hadn’t been allowed into the country, their loved one would still be alive.

GORMAN FAMILY CALLS OUT JOHNSON AND PRITZKER FOLLOWING COLLEGE STUDENT’S KILLING IN CHICAGO

Gorman’s family put out a statement about their loss and the politics of it: “Sheridan’s death cannot be reduced to a general ‘tragedy,’ nor can it be explained away by broad references to failures somewhere else,” the family said. “We are not interested in political arguments or in watching responsibility shift from one place to another. If there were failures—as the Governor [J.B. Pritzker] himself has acknowledged—then every one of them must be identified, examined, and addressed directly.”

Sheridan Gorman smiles alongside the Chicago skyline in Illinois. (Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram)

“Our daughter is not a policy debate. She is a life that was taken, and that demands accountability,” they added.

The networks could cover this story by leading with empathy and not politics, but they’re too defensive of the Democrats, and these stories feel like “pro-Trump” narratives, so they fear upsetting their liberal friends more than they fear looking insensitive to the victimized. They don’t want anyone to think that mass deportation will deter violent crime.

In a sad note for the future of journalism, the editors of Loyola’s student newspaper abjectly apologized for describing the alleged assailant accurately in the headline as an “Immigrant man.” They changed it to merely “man” and then described him as a “Rogers Park resident” instead of an illegal immigrant. “That headline didn’t reflect the most important elements in the story, and it was taken down minutes later to prevent any further harm to affected community members,” they wrote. As opposed to the “harm” the illegal immigrant is alleged to have done.

ANGEL MOM, GOP BLAME SPANBERGER AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH 30 ARRESTS CHARGED IN KILLING

Gorman is not alone. Stephanie Minter, age 41, was stabbed to death on February 23 at a bus stop near George Washington’s Mount Vernon in northern Virginia. The alleged killer is Abdul Jalloh, an illegal alien with more than 30 arrests. “Jalloh is currently being held in Fairfax County on murder charges in Minter’s death,” according to WJLA in Washington, D.C. We didn’t find that story on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS or NPR.

But they will pounce on the immigration enforcers when someone dies while obstructing their enforcement. The ICE agent shooting Renee Good as she drove into him was a national cause for weeks, drawing hours of coverage. But Laken Riley and Rachel Morin and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray were skipped over as MAGA talking points. Riley and Morin’s convicted murderers were illegal immigrants. The alleged attackers charged in Nungaray’s murder are also illegals.

Last year, at the Media Research Center, we found that ABC, CBS, and NBC had spent 143 minutes from April 1 to 23 championing the cause of accused MS-13 gang member and “Maryland man” Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, who Trump deported to a “notorious” prison in El Salvador. But the trial of the illegal-alien assailant of Morin, a mother who was raped and murdered in Maryland during a jog, drew a mere 12 seconds on NBC, and nothing on CBS or NBC.  The networks spent 717 times more coverage on Abrego-Garcia.

Rachel Morin’s mother’s condemnation of Maryland Democrat Sen. Van Hollen — in front of the White House press corps — could not spur network coverage. But ABC’s Mary Bruce did promote the “remarkable image” of Van Hollen’s visit in El Salvador with “wrongfully deported” Kilmar-Garcia.

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Also in Maryland, an illegal immigrant named Hugo Hernandez-Mendez was charged with the murder of 19-year-old Black woman DaCara Thompson last September, to zero coverage on the networks. The alleged perpetrator had been arrested in April and charged with driving under the influence by the U.S. Park Police, but was let go pending his trial in that case.

The networks could cover the Sheridan Gorman story by leading with empathy and not politics, but they’re too defensive of the Democrats, and these stories feel like “pro-Trump” narratives…

Thompson’s mother said she was “very disappointed” to learn that her daughter’s alleged killer had been released in April instead of being remanded to ICE custody. “We may not be here today if they did what they were supposed to do.”

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This underlines that the “nightly news” on these elitist networks is not an objective assessment, but a carefully manufactured narrative, where the “news” they favor helps the politicians they favor. No one was seeking to embarrass Maryland’s members of Congress or Maryland Democrat Gov. Wes Moore for these murder victims.

In this midterm election year, journalists will try to keep immigration as a negative issue for Trump and the Republicans. They imply everything Trump touches turns into disaster. They helpfully promoted Democrats claiming ICE might kill people when they helped out the TSA with security at American airports. The “news” feels upside down – that ICE is “lawless” and the illegal immigrants are all nonviolent and “law-abiding.”

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The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday, but the 43-day shutdown could drag on for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, where any funding bill needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning buy-in from a handful of Democrats. That hurdle has not stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that their rejection of a Senate-passed deal — and pitching a subsequent rival DHS funding proposal — is the way out of the shutdown.

“We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters leaving the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. “We just couldn’t do it.”

“House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,” Johnson said earlier Friday on “The Ingraham Angle,” in a scathing takedown of the Senate-passed deal that stopped short of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

TSA CALLOUTS HIT HOUSTON, ATLANTA, NEW ORLEANS HARDEST, 450 OFFICERS HAVE QUIT NATIONWIDE

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters outside his office on day 28 of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.  (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

But the full-court press launched by House Republicans aimed at persuading the Senate to return to Washington to take up their bill is likely to fall on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

Senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess after unanimously approving a DHS funding measure in the early morning hours Friday with some traveling abroad on congressional delegations.

“I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. “That is what they were elected to do. So they’re going to stay out on recess for two weeks and not come back while people don’t get paid. That’s pretty sad.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also called on the Senate to return to Washington “immediately” to take up the House-passed measure in a statement late Friday. 

House lawmakers are also scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Left holding the tab in the cross-chamber feud are the tens of thousands of DHS employees working unpaid during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to shield TSA agents from further financial distress by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds. 

The roughly 50,000 agents have missed two full paychecks during the ongoing funding lapse, leading hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial distress.

The president’s move is likely to alleviate lengthy wait times at TSA security checkpoints, though senior officials have warned of long-term impacts due to more than 500 agents quitting during the funding lapse.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, March 20, 2026, in Washington, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AFTER GOP REJECTS THEIR COUNTER, THUNE SAYS SCHUMER ‘GOING IN CIRCLES’

However, other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and certain support staff working for ICE and CBP will still have their paychecks withheld until the department’s funding is restored. 

“Anybody who shows up to work deserves to get a paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do their job,” McClain told Fox News on Friday. 

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next several weeks blaming Republicans for the impasse after Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal. 

“We’re here dealing with a partisan spending bill that the Senate has already indicated is dead on arrival,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. “And so Republicans have taken the decision to own this shutdown decisively. There is no doubt.”

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and has no partisan policy riders.

Trump also came out against the bill Friday afternoon in an interview with Fox News.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., didn’t believe that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., nor House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would be honest brokers in the upcoming DHS negotiations.  (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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The bill notably does not include any of the reforms that Democrats have demanded for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening warrant requirements and prohibiting agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who warned throughout the funding stalemate that nobody wins in a shutdown, has indicated that Democrats are less likely to get those demands met than when the funding lapse first started.

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Thune said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A state-run immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” must provide people detained there with better access to their attorneys, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued a preliminary injunction saying Alligator Alcatraz officials must provide access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored, unrecorded outgoing legal calls. They must also provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people held in the facility. The order also outlined information that must be made available to the detained people and their attorneys in multiple languages.

Attorneys previously filed statements with a federal court in Fort Myers saying their clients were unable to call them using staff cellphones and the attorneys were unable to make unannounced visits to the facility.

A state contractor testified in January that both options were available to detained people and their attorneys during a hearing over whether people held at the facility were getting adequate access to their lawyers.

The Florida Department of Emergency Management, the state agency overseeing the detention center, didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry Friday. The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to support President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Florida also has built a second immigration detention center in north Florida.

The lawsuit from people formerly held at the Everglades facility claims that their First Amendment rights were violated. They say attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detained people often are transferred to other facilities before their attorneys’ appointments to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees were unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.

State officials who are defendants in the lawsuit have denied restricting detained people’s access to their attorneys and cited security and staffing reasons for any challenges. Federal officials who also are defendants denied that detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated.

An appeals court paused a pair of lower court rulings in Oregon that restricted federal agents’ use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions during protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request for temporary administrative stays in two cases in a 2-1 ruling.

Anti-ICE demonstrators have held protests at the building since June, as part of protests across the country challenging President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Two lawsuits were filed over federal agents’ crowd control tactics — one brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists and another brought by the residents of an affordable housing complex across the street from the ICE building.

OREGON JUDGE LIMITS FEDERAL AGENTS’ TEAR GAS USE AT PORTLAND PROTESTS

Federal agents lobbed tear gas and flash bangs at protesters in front of the ICE building on Jan. 31, 2026, in Portland, Oregon. (Allison Barr/The Oregonian via AP)

The complaints argue that federal agents’ use of chemical and projectile munitions has violated the rights of plaintiffs — including a demonstrator known for wearing a chicken costume, a married couple in their 80s and two freelance journalists who said federal agents used chemical spray and projectile munitions against them.

The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that the agents have “followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property.”

Earlier this month, the federal judges in Portland overseeing the separate cases both issued preliminary injunctions limiting federal agents’ use of tear gas, pepper spray and other chemical munitions unless someone poses an imminent threat of physical harm.

The agents were also ordered not to fire munitions at the head, neck or torso “unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person” and were told not to use pepper spray against a group in an indiscriminate way that would affect bystanders. Additionally, they were told to only target people who were engaging in violent unlawful conduct or actively resisting arrest, noting that trespassing, refusing to move and refusing to obey an order to disperse are acts of passive resistance, not active resistance.

ICE agents deploy pepper balls, tear gas, and flashbang grenades as hundreds of protesters march from Portland City Hall to an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, on Feb. 1, 2026. (Sean Bascom/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Plaintiffs provided numerous videos, which were received in evidence and unambiguously show DHS officers spraying OC Spray directly into the faces of peaceful and nonviolent protesters engaged in, at most, passive resistance and discharging tear gas and firing pepper-ball munitions into crowds of peaceful and nonviolent protestors,” U.S. District Judge Michael Simon wrote in his ruling on March 9 in the case brought by the ACLU.

“Defendants’ conduct — physically harming protestors and journalists without prior dispersal warnings — is objectively chilling,” he added.

JUDGE RULES FEDERAL AGENTS MUST LIMIT TEAR GAS AT PROTESTS NEAR PORTLAND ICE BUILDING

The Ninth Circuit panel said on Wednesday that oral arguments in the two cases will be consolidated and scheduled for April 7.

Earlier this year, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson called on ICE to leave the city after federal agents deployed tear gas at a crowd of demonstrators outside the agency’s building. The mayor described the protests as peaceful and criticized federal officers’ use of pepper balls, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets.

Jack Dickinson, dressed in a chicken costume, looks to other protesters outside an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

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“Federal forces deployed heavy waves of chemical munitions, impacting a peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces,” he said in a statement at the time.

“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” he added, accusing federal officials of “trampling the Constitution.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, signed legislation on Wednesday to limit the use of face coverings for law enforcement, including federal ICE agents, 

The law, which requires officers to present identification before detaining someone, comes as some federal agents have sought to hide their identities during immigration raids in communities across the country.

Sherrill, who was sworn into office in January, said the mask restriction is part of an effort to ensure the safety of residents of the Garden State.

“I can’t believe we have to say this, but in the United States of America, we’re not going to tolerate masked roving militias pretending, pretending to be well-trained law enforcement agents,” she said.

NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR TO LAUNCH PORTAL FOR UPLOADING VIDEOS OF ICE TACTICS: ‘THEY HAVE NOT BEEN FORTHCOMING’

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation limiting face coverings for ICE agents. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The law is part of a package that the governor said will “protect people’s privacy and their rights” and “strengthen trust between law enforcement and our communities.”

Democrats in Congress and in various state legislatures have sought for months to adopt measures that would ban immigration agents from wearing masks to hide their identities, arguing that such legislation is needed to ensure transparency.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, also signed a law earlier this month limiting face coverings for ICE agents.

The Department of Homeland Security has criticized efforts to unmask ICE agents, including calling the new Washington state measure “irresponsible, reckless and dangerous.”

BOSTON’S WU ORDERS RELEASE OF ICE SURVEILLANCE AND BODY CAM FOOTAGE, SAYS FED GOVERNMENT ‘HIDES BEHIND MASKS’

The measure requires officers to present identification before detaining someone. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

“To be crystal clear: we will not abide by this unconstitutional ban,” the department said at the time.

Sherrill’s signature on Wednesday comes as she continues to target the Trump administration’s immigration raids. Earlier this year, she announced a portal to allow residents to upload photos and videos of ICE agents conducting immigration operations.

“If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out, we want to know,” Sherrill said at the time. “They have not been forthcoming. They will pick people up, they will not tell us who they are, they will not tell us if they’re here legally, they won’t check. They’ll pick up American citizens. They picked up a five-year-old child. We want documentation, and we are going to make sure we get it.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has criticized efforts to unmask ICE agents. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

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“We saw people in the street with masks and no insignia. So not accountable at all, hiding from the population — and we saw again and again an undermining of what law enforcement should do to keep people safe,” she added.

The Trump administration is also suing New Jersey over Sherrill’s executive order last month that prohibits federal immigration agents from making arrests in nonpublic areas of state property, including correctional facilities and courthouses. The order also blocks the use of state property as a staging or processing area for immigration enforcement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nearly a dozen Illinois Democrats are declining to defend their votes against the Laken Riley Act after the killing of a Loyola student allegedly by an illegal immigrant who, under the law, could have been detained following a prior arrest.

Sheridan Gorman, 18, was shot and killed by Jose Medina-Medina, authorities allege, who had previously been picked up for shoplifting in Cook County. That charge would have qualified him to be held for federal detention and processing instead of being released back onto the streets, where he could reoffend, under the act named for a Georgia college student slain by another illegal immigrant repeat offender.

DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital that Gorman’s death could have been prevented if not for sanctuary state and city policies and if a law like the Laken Riley Act had been in effect sooner.

“Sheridan Gorman — just like Laken Riley and countless other American victims — would still be with us today and with their families if it were not for sanctuary politicians’ refusal to cooperate with ICE,” Bis said.

CHICAGO LAWMAKER RIPPED OVER ‘DISGUSTING’ RESPONSE TO COLLEGE STUDENT KILLED BY ALLEGED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

Sheridan Gorman was allegedly killed by Jose Medina. (Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram and DHS)

The Illinois delegation voted 11-5 against the Laken Riley Act, with Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider not voting due to a medical emergency but later saying he would have voted “no.”

All three Republicans, along with Democratic Reps. Nikki Budzinski and Eric Sorenson, voted for the act, but 11 other Democrats opposed it, along with Schneider.

“While I firmly believe that the government has a responsibility to keep our communities safe and do everything in its power to keep dangerous criminals off our streets, this bill, as written, opens the door to the targeting and detention of innocent people, something clearly prohibited by our Constitution,” Schneider said in a January 2025 statement, going on to say he would support something more along the lines of the Lankford-Sinema immigration bill opposed by President Donald Trump.

Schneider said at the time the Laken Riley Act used the student’s death to “score cheap political points.” He did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Nine of the 11 Democrats who voted “no” did not respond or did not provide comment, except Reps. Jonathan Jackson of Chicago and Jan Schakowsky of Evanston.

Jackson, the son of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, told Fox News Digital that Gorman’s murder is a “senseless tragedy.”

“My deepest condolences go out to her family, friends, and the entire community who are mourning this unspeakable loss. The person responsible for Sheridan’s murder must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

“But let’s be clear: this is about more than a single piece of legislation,” Jackson said in reference to the Laken Riley Act.

DEM GOVERNOR UNDER FIRE AFTER ILLEGAL ALIEN ALLEGEDLY STABS WOMAN TO DEATH AT BUS STOP: ‘HEINOUS’

Sheridan Gorman, a Loyola University Chicago student who was fatally shot near campus, is shown alongside the school’s Lake Shore Campus in Rogers Park. (Alyssa Schukar for The Washington Post/Getty Images)

“I encourage my colleagues to prioritize bills that strengthen, not divide, our communities and policies which would build safer, thriving communities, and save lives, by investing in effective community-based violence interventions.”

A Schakowsky spokesperson directed Fox News Digital to a public statement by the retiring Democrat:

“There are no words for a loss like this. Sheridan Gorman was just 18 years old, with her whole life ahead of her. My heart is with her family, her friends, and every member of the Loyola community mourning this senseless tragedy,” Schakowsky said, while however offering no comment on the Laken Riley Act itself.

DHS was adamant that Gorman’s death was preventable had the Laken Riley Act been made law.

“These politicians would rather release criminal illegal aliens from jails into our communities to perpetuate more crimes and create more victims. Sheridan Gorman was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who released this illegal alien twice before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” Bis told Fox News Digital.

She called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago leaders to stop releasing criminal illegal immigrants back on the streets and said Trump signed the Laken Riley Act to prevent cases just like Gorman’s.

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She said 21,400 illegal immigrants have been arrested or detained thanks to the Laken Riley Act in one year since its passage.

Meanwhile, nine other Illinois Democrats remained officially mum on their no votes.

A representative for Rep. Danny Davis of Chicago said the congressman was on another call when a reporter followed up earlier, but Fox News Digital never received a call back.

Requests for comment were sent to Reps. Delia Ramirez, Robin Kelly, Mike Quigley and Jesus Garcia of Chicago; Bill Foster of Aurora; Lauren Underwood of Naperville; Sean Casten of Downers Grove; and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg.

Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth also voted “no” and did not respond to requests for comment.

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Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., who authored the House version of the Laken Riley Act, said in a statement that he did so to get criminals like Medina-Medina off the streets.

“This young woman (Gorman) had her whole life ahead of her, and it was taken away by an illegal alien who had already been arrested in a sanctuary city,” Collins said. “If [the act] had been law in 2023, she would still be alive today.”

As congressional Democrats continue to vote to defund the Department of Homeland Security, the agency is calling out the “dangerous derangement” of sanctuary state leaders who it says are “putting American lives at risk” by releasing illegal immigrant pedophiles, murderers and gang members.

A spokesperson for DHS slammed Democratic governors Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois, both rumored 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, and also Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.

“Governor Newsom and his fellow sanctuary politicians—including Pritzker and Healey—are releasing murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers back into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

The spokesperson cited statistics showing that seven out of 10 of the safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They issued a personal appeal to the Democratic governors, saying, “If we work together, we can make America safe again.”

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Left: California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Center: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker; Right: Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images; Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images; Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“Criminal illegal aliens should not be released from jails back onto our streets to terrorize more innocent Americans,” the spokesperson continued, adding that the agency is “calling on sanctuary politicians to stop this dangerous derangement and commit to honoring ICE arrest detainers.”

Most of the 10 safest cities on U.S. News & World Report’s list are located either in states or counties that have laws directing municipal authorities to cooperate or coordinate directly with federal immigration enforcement. That cooperation often occurs through 287(g) agreements, which allow local law enforcement agencies to work directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The cities also share other traits, such as high median incomes and a lack of mixed-use zoning or transient rental housing, underscoring the ongoing debate over whether immigration enforcement cooperation plays a meaningful role in public safety.

According to the DHS, there are over 33,000 criminal illegal aliens in California’s custody.

The spokesperson cited several illegal immigrants with criminal records arrested by ICE in the last year who were released in California despite ICE detainers, including child predators and gang members.

One of these individuals, Hector Grijalba-Sernas, from Mexico, was previously arrested for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old. DHS said that despite ICE lodging a detainer against Grijalba-Sernas, he was released last year. He is currently in federal custody.

Another, Xujin An, from China, who was arrested for sexual penetration with force and sexual battery in Westminster, California, was arrested by ICE after its detainer was not honored, according to DHS. An is currently in ICE custody pending judicial proceedings.

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Left to right: Hector Grijalba-Sernas, Xujin An and Angel Navarro Camarillo. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for National Urban League; DHS)

A third, Angel Navarro Camarillo, who DHS said is a member of the La Familia street gang, was arrested by ICE following an arrest by local authorities for a sex offender violation. Likewise, the detainer against Navarro Camarillo was not honored, according to DHS. He has since been removed from the United States.

Carmelo Corado Hurtado, from Guatemala, was arrested by ICE following an unheeded detainer request and his conviction of first-degree murder, driving under the influence and second-degree robbery. ICE removed Corado Hurtado from the U.S. last year.

In Illinois, DHS said that ICE arrested illegal immigrant Jose Manuel Fuentes-Vargas, from Mexico, after its detainer against him was not honored and following his conviction of sexual assault of a victim less than 13 years of age. Fuentes-Vargas is currently in ICE custody.

Another, Leonardo Ignot-Osto, a Mexican national who illegally entered the U.S. at least four times and was convicted of child abduction of a victim less than 17 years old, was arrested by ICE last year after its detainer was not honored. He was removed from the U.S.

A third, Jaime Mandujano-Nunez, from Mexico, was arrested by ICE late last year after he was released by authorities on an unknown date following his conviction of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. He has also since been removed from the U.S.

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Left to right: Jose Manuel Fuentes-Vargas, Leonardo Ignot-Osto and Jaime Mandujano-Nunez. (iStock; DHS)

This comes amid mass outrage over the killing of Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, allegedly by an illegal immigrant, Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina.

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According to DHS, Medina-Medina, 25, entered the U.S. during the Biden administration and had been previously arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, marking a prior criminal incident before the alleged murder.

On Sunday, the Chicago Police Department formally charged Medina-Medina with murder in the shooting of Gorman. In a statement, the department said Medina-Medina was currently facing six felony charges, including a count of first-degree murder.

A spokesperson for Pritzker’s office told Fox News Digital, “Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and Loyola University community grieving the senseless murder of Sheridan Gorman.”

Pritzker’s spokesperson said that “violent crime has no place in our streets, and we expect the alleged perpetrator to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

They added that the Trump administration “needs to stop politicizing heinous tragedies and instead focus on real solutions, like reinstating federal funds to prevent violence that support our public safety efforts.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to the offices of Newsom and Healey. 

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz, Matt Finn, Emma Bussey and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.