Wednesday, April 15, 2026
White House: 'Era Of Amnesty Is Over'
by Catherine Salgado via PJ Media,
“No more activist judges shielding criminal illegals. No more endless delays. Only results.” The Trump White House is celebrating multiple massive immigration enforcement wins that signal the era of mass migration and mass amnesty is over.
Since Donald Trump came back into office, federal authorities have removed three million illegal aliens from the United States through ICE deportations or voluntary deportations, which is the biggest reduction in illegal migration in modern history, according to a White House press release on April 9. This is exactly what the American people voted for. This is the sort of reform we hoped to see when immigration became one of the top issues in the 2024 election.
Besides the three million deportees, border officers have not released a single illegal alien into the United States at our borders for 11 straight months. The “era of amnesty is over,” indeed.
The overwhelming majority of asylum claims have long been fraudulent, and that is one major area where the Trump administration implemented reform. The U.S. immigration authority now grants asylum in only 7% of cases, slashing the number of criminals and illegal aliens who tried to use asylum claims as a free ticket into our country. In contrast, under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the government approved over 50% of asylum claims, according to the release.
I will give just two illustrations of why this is a big deal. First, just this week, the U.S. State Department revoked the lawful permanent resident status it had granted to Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, the niece of mass-murdering Iranian jihad leader Qasem Soleimani. Afshar had obtained residency and a life of luxury in the United States by claiming asylum here. Yet she repeatedly returned to Iran and regularly spouted pro-regime propaganda, illustrating how bogus her asylum claim was. And second, back in 2024, an Ecuadoran “asylum seeker” raped a 13-year-old at knifepoint in New York. These are only two examples of how broken our asylum system was before the Trump administration took over.
The White House release also highlighted the following wins:
Deportations and removal orders are surging: In fiscal year 2025, immigration courts issued nearly 500,000 removal orders — a 57% increase over the prior year — as criminal illegals are removed faster and in far greater numbers than ever before.
The massive court backlog is being slashed: Hundreds of thousands of cases have already been cleared since Inauguration Day, with reductions accelerating every month — ending the years-long delays that let illegals remain indefinitely.
And, as noted above, the Trump administration has successfully closed our borders.
The White House press release enthusiastically concluded, “President Trump promised to end the open borders nightmare — and he is delivering on that promise with unrelenting force. The era of catch-and-release, mass releases, and activist judicial amnesty is over.”
As we celebrate the 250th year of America’s existence, there is no better time to reflect on what national sovereignty and security mean.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/white-house-era-amnesty-over
Treasury Secretary Says Order On Citizenship Proof For Banking Is 'In Process'
by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday confirmed that an executive order mandating banks to collect citizenship information on customers is underway.
“It’s in process. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable, because, why don’t we have information on who’s in our banking system?” he told Semafor in an April 13 interview, responding to whether the Trump administration was working on the banking order.
“I have a place in the UK; they want to know who lives in every apartment—and how do we know that it’s not part of a foreign terrorist organization?” he added.
At least one Republican lawmaker has asked the Trump administration to implement such an order, and The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources, that banks could be tasked with requiring people to submit passports under the policy.
In a post issued on X in October 2025, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) included a letter he sent to Bessent urging the secretary to carry out a “comprehensive review of current rules that allow illegal aliens to obtain financial services and access to the U.S. banking system.”
“Access to the American banking system is a privilege that should be reserved for those who respect our laws and sovereignty,” Cotton wrote in the letter. “When individuals are allowed to open accounts without verifying legal status, we are permitting illegal aliens to establish financial roots and integrate economically, all while bypassing the legal channels that millions use properly.”
Cotton asked whether the administration could implement the order under the USA PATRIOT Act, a Bush administration-era law enacted in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, or the Bank Secrecy Act, a 1970 anti-money laundering law.
The Trump administration has prioritized cracking down on illegal immigration as well as entitlement fraud. Since he took office in January 2025, President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive orders and memoranda to boost the deportation of illegal immigrants and end temporary deportation protection programs for certain countries.
Trump has also called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate, to require photo IDs for voting and proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
In a post last month, the president said that there would be no deal to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unless some Democrats join Republicans to pass the measure.
The bill must include “their approval of Voter I.D., (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our precious children,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on March 22. He also called on congressional lawmakers to stay in Washington during the Easter recess, although the lawmakers ultimately went on their break.
Last month, the Trump administration established an anti-fraud task force that would investigate instances of illegal immigrants engaging in benefits fraud as well as other forms of waste and abuse.
The Epoch Times contacted the White House for comment on Tuesday.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/treasury-secretary-says-order-citizenship-proof-banking-process
Medvedev: European drone makers potential targets
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned on Wednesday that facilities across Europe used for manufacturing drones for Ukraine might become targets of Russian strikes.
Medvedev drew attention to a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry earlier today about a "sharp escalation" with Europe, which he said "must be taken literally," adding that sites used for the production of other types of military equipment may also be struck. "When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners!" Medvedev concluded.
The rhetoric marks a noticeable shift in Moscow's position, seemingly indicating a willingness to consider direct attacks on European countries that aid Ukraine.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Medvedev:-European-drone-makers-potential-targets/66077638
Trump praises Qatar's mediation efforts
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and United States President Donald Trump talked over the phone on Wednesday, the former's office shared in a statement.
During the conversation, Trump praised Qatar for its regional mediation role, adding that Washington is ready to continue coordinating with the country on various matters, including energy security.
On his part, Al-Thani stressed that it is important to boost international efforts to "prevent further escalation in the region," also underlining that diplomatic means should be the primary way to deal with the crisis in the Middle East.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Trump-praises-Qatar's-mediation-efforts/66078200
US Probes Suspicious Oil Trades Made Before Trump Iran Pivots
The top US derivatives regulator is investigating a series of suspiciously well-timed trades in the oil futures market ahead of recent policy pivots by President Donald Trump related to the war in Iran, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is leading the probe into trading of oil futures contracts on platforms belonging to CME Group Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc., said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Both exchanges were asked to hand over data, the people said.
How so many Iranians got wealthy in Los Angeles
In Iran, people are struggling to afford meat and eggs — thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, many from the same country are building real estate empires.
In early 2026, the Islamic Republic of Iran killed thousands of protesting citizens who took to the streets out of financial desperation.
“If you cannot afford your rent, if you cannot pay for food, then you have nothing to lose,” says Sarmen Gorjian, an insurance agency owner, who immigrated to the US from Iran in 2010.
Watching from thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, California is the largest group of Iranians outside Iran. They’re also known as one of the most affluent and successful immigrant communities in the United States, with the nickname Tehrangeles.
“Especially in Los Angeles, a lot of Persians share that — It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, you probably own four or five properties as well. And you have two under construction,” says Shervin Roohparvar, a real estate developer who also starred on reality TV series “Shahs of Sunset.”
Ironically, Tehrangeles grew out of the same revolution in 1979 — that helped set the stage for the financial struggles of Iranians in Iran today, as well as the war rocking Iran and the wider Middle East today. That revolution set in motion two very different realities on opposite sides of the world.
The Iranian community in LA largely started from refugees fleeing regime change in the ’70s and ’80s, who avoided the devastating currency collapse and inflation that eventually followed. Many lost nearly everything in the transition.
They rebuilt in Los Angeles, somewhere that felt… kind of familiar.
“I think at least the Tehran that I remember was not very different from Los Angeles at the time. It was a really vibrant city. You had people from all over the world there all the time,” said Bobby Samini, a celebrity lawyer who has represented the likes of T-Pain and former Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
“So I think they almost would have been parallel cities. They would have been sister cities if things had been different.”
Today, about one quarter of Beverly Hills residents are Iranian, including its mayor Sharona Nazarian, who left Iran’s capital Tehran as a child during the revolution.
Much of Rodeo Drive was developed by the Mahboubi family, who moved to LA from Iran in the 1970s.
The exiled crown prince’s daughter Princess Noor now lives here.
There are even reality TV shows, like “Shahs of Sunset” and “The Valley: Persian Style” riffing off the reputation of Iranians in LA as wealthy and glamorous.
But it’s not just LA. In the US, Iranians are better off than average. Iranian immigrants report median income that is about 23% more than the total immigrant population, and about 20% more than all US-born Americans.
Watch the video to find out how so many Iranian refugees got rich in Los Angeles, and how the same moment in history sent millions of Iranians down paths that look drastically different today.
https://nypost.com/2026/04/15/us-news/how-so-many-iranians-got-wealthy-in-los-angeles/
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