Stephen Dinan

Woman stole nearly 50 years of VA benefits by pretending to be her dead mother

A federal judge cut a break for a 76-year-old Ohio woman, giving her probation but no jail time after she admitted to stealing nearly 50 years' worth of benefit checks from the Department of Veterans Affairs in the name of her long-dead mother.

January 23, 2023

DHS sets new record for illegal immigration at border in December

Homeland Security set a new record for chaos at the southern border in December with more than 250,000 encounters with illegal immigrants.

January 20, 2023

DHS faces blowback over shortchanging Haitian language in new parole program

The Department of Homeland Security's new smartphone app designed to let people sponsor migrants from Haiti comes in English and Spanish -- but not Haitian Creole, the country's most common language, immigrant rights advocates said Friday.

January 20, 2023

Rep. Comer launches probe of effort to sanitize El Paso before Biden’s border visit

The House's top investigator revealed a probe Friday into the attempt to cleanse El Paso, Texas, before President Biden's first border trip earlier this month, demanding Homeland Security reveal whether it was part of the effort.

January 20, 2023

Biden’s ‘parole’ program stretches immigration powers

When Emilio Gonzalez ran U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, offering immigrants "parole" into the U.S. was a selective and specialized occasion -- the sort of thing he would talk over with other agency chiefs before personally making an approval.

January 19, 2023

ICE arrests fake violinist illegal immigrant

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday it will try to deport an illegal immigrant who made tens of thousands of dollars begging for money on Florida streets while posing as a violinist.

January 19, 2023

Supreme Court can’t identify abortion-opinion leaker

The Supreme Court has come up empty in its search for how a draft opinion on last year's highly charged abortion-rights case leaked to the media weeks before it was issued.

January 19, 2023

Biden administration announces private sponsorship program for refugees

The Biden administration announced a new effort Thursday to recruit private citizens to sponsor new refugees seeking to come to the U.S.

January 19, 2023

House Oversight Committee launches probe into border chaos

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Thursday a broad probe into the chaos at the southern border and said he'll give top Border Patrol agents a chance to explain directly to the public how bad things have gotten.

January 19, 2023

New York mayor says other jurisdictions should bear burden of Biden’s border migrants

New York Mayor Eric Adams complained Wednesday that big cities are bearing too much of the burden of welcoming the surge of illegal immigrants from the southern border, and he called for the feds to create a new national system to "fairly distribute" the newcomers.

January 18, 2023

Biden’s army of IRS auditors falls victim to hiring woes, ambiguous marching orders

President Biden's vision for a supercharged IRS is running into the rough realities of hiring problems and difficulties in figuring out who should face more audits.

January 18, 2023

Heroin smugglers who used potato chip bags get 3-year prison sentence

Two Mexican women who smuggled heroin into the U.S. in bags of potato chips were slapped with three-year prison sentences.

January 18, 2023

Bad neighborhoods: 1% of counties responsible for 42% of America’s murders

Homicide rates have spiked, but most of America has remained untouched. Only a tiny fraction of U.S. counties account for nearly all of the country's homicides, according to research released Tuesday that showed a striking concentration where killings take place.

January 17, 2023

Republican majority off to speedy start with House bills, resolutions

While big clashes within the Republican Party and with President Biden have drawn most of the attention, rank-and-file Republicans have used their new majority to create a striking wish list.

January 16, 2023

Federal government hits debt limit, clock starts ticking on potential default

The federal government will bump up against its borrowing limit this week, the Treasury Department said, putting Congress on notice that it must approve an increase or risk Uncle Sam not being able to cover the bills.

January 13, 2023

Illegal immigrant gets 7-year sentence for attempted murder of Border Patrol agent

An illegal immigrant who snuck into the U.S. earlier this year was slapped Thursday with a prison sentence of more than 7 years for trying to murder a Border Patrol agent.

January 12, 2023

Feds announce election fraud charges against Iowa candidate’s wife

Federal prosecutors announced charges Thursday against an Iowa woman they say attempted to falsely register and then cast ballots in the names of dozens of residents to help her husband, a Republican, in his elections.

January 12, 2023

House Republicans eye vote to stop illegal immigrant voting in D.C.

A top House Republican announced legislation Thursday to stop the District of Columbia from allowing immigrants -- including some in the country illegally -- to cast ballots in local elections.

January 12, 2023

DHS slaps new limits on when Border Patrol can chase fleeing smugglers

The Department of Homeland Security announced a new vehicle-pursuit policy Wednesday that will severely limit when Border Patrol agents can pursue migrant smugglers.

January 11, 2023

New GOP majority tells House lawyers to cool the lawsuits

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy installed a new general counsel Wednesday and said he expects the chamber's lawyers to take a more reserved approach in weighing in on hot-button issues percolating in the courts.

January 11, 2023