Politics
Critics bash SCOTUS decision allowing feds to cut razor Texas installed to stem illegal border crossings
Critics are heaping scorn on a Supreme Court decision Monday allowing Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas had installed to stem the tide of illegal crossings.
Texas had installed the roughly 30 miles of concertina wire along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border near Eagle Pass. The razor wire had been at the center of an escalating standoff between the Biden administration and the state over immigration enforcement.
FILE: A National Guard soldier stands guard on the banks of the Rio Grande at Shelby Park on January 12, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. ( (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images))
The deciding vote was cast by Justice Roberts, while Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh were in the dissent. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, also sided with the majority.
None of the justices provided an explanation for their 5-4 vote.
MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT SOUTHERN BORDER HIT RECORD 302K IN DECEMBER, SOURCES SAY
The Justice Department has argued the barrier impedes the U.S. government’s ability to patrol the border, including coming to the aid of migrants in need of help.
Gov. Abbott said the fight was “not over.”
“Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent to the illegal crossings Biden encourages,” he said. “I will continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Administration from destroying our property.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the SCOTUS ruling “extremely disappointing and frustrating.” He singled out Chief Justice Roberts for siding “with the liberals on the Court on this import border issue.”
“Our country is being invaded by millions, including terrorists, dangerous criminals, and smugglers bringing in fentanyl that kills Americans every day. Justice Roberts did not explain his vote.”
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina blamed the Biden administration’s policies for creating the “illegal immigration crisis.”
“But this is beyond inaction,” he said. “President Biden is actively aiding and abetting the largest southern border invasion our country has ever seen.”
TEXAS AG PAXTON PROMISES ‘FIGHT IS NOT OVER’ AFTER SCOTUS RULE ON BIDEN ADMIN’S RAZOR WIRE CUTTING
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida questioned how there could be “a ‘border security deal’ with a Biden administration that just went all the way to the Supreme Court to stop border security?”
During a Monday night appearance on the Ingraham Angle, Rubio called for an overhaul of the asylum process, saying it was being “abused.”
“The laws have to be executed by the executive branch,” Rubio said. “The laws have not changed from the time Trump was president to the time Biden became president. What changed was the way the law was applied and executed.”
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called on Congress to step in.
“You know who could fix this – literally overrule the Supreme Court and the White House on the Texas v Biden dispute? Congress,” he said. “In fact, it was explained to a group of us by Justice Scalia during breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club. He told us to quit funding things we don’t like.”
The Texas GOP, meanwhile, urged Texans to tell Gov. Abbott “to stand firm and the feds to come and cut it!”
The White House has applauded the Supreme Court’s decision. White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said the razor wire had “prevented frontline personnel from performing vital federal functions and interfered with their ability to address urgent humanitarian situations and enforce our laws.”
MIGRANT CARAVAN FROM HONDURAS DISSOLVES BEFORE REACHING US BORDER, GUATEMALA SAYS
“Texas’ political stunts, like placing razor wire near the border, simply make it harder and more dangerous for frontline personnel to do their jobs. Ultimately, we need adequate resources and policy changes to address our broken immigration system,” he said.
Port officials using concertina wire to repel unlawful entries. (Texas DPS)
“That is why on his first day in office, President Biden presented Congress with a comprehensive immigration reform plan and that is why he is working to find a bipartisan agreement with Congress that includes additional resources and meaningful policy reforms.”
A DHS spokesperson said enforcing immigration is a federal responsibility.
“Rather than helping to reduce irregular migration, the State of Texas has only made it harder for frontline personnel to do their jobs and to apply consequences under the law,” the spokesperson said. “We can enforce our laws and administer them safely, humanely, and in an orderly way.”
But the Border Patrol Union rejected the Supreme Court decision.
Gov. Abbott had authorized the wire as part of aggressive measures to curb illegal crossings from Mexico. A federal appeals court last month forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire.
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The concertina wire stretches for roughly 30 miles near the border city of Eagle Pass, where earlier this month the Texas Military Department seized control of a city-owned park and began denying access to Border Patrol agents.
Eagle Park has become one of the busiest spots on the southern U.S. border for migrants illegally crossing from Mexico. Abbott has said Texas won’t allow Border Patrol agents into Shelby Park anymore, having expressed frustration over what he says are migrants illegally entering through Eagle Pass and then federal agents loading them onto buses.
Texas authorities place razor wire in Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, defying a Biden administration order to end the state’s seizure of the area along the Rio Grande. (Matt Finn)
Abbott also has authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges. The administration also is challenging those actions in federal court.
In court papers, the administration said the wire impedes Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas’ own efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
Texas officials have argued that federal agents cut the wire to help groups crossing illegally through the river before taking them in for processing.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Politics
Jared Kushner’s overseas luxury resort project faces anti-corruption investigation amid violent protests
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Albanian anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating changes to the protected status of a coastal wetland where a luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, has drawn environmental opposition and protests, according to Politico.
SPAK, Albania’s special anti-corruption prosecution office, has opened a probe into changes made to the status of the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape in Zvërnec, Politico reported. The coastal wetland area is home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, and sea turtle nesting sites, Politico reported.
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Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff participate in a charter announcement for President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2026. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)
In 2024, Kushner publicly discussed plans for his firm, Affinity Partners, to develop luxury tourism projects in Albania, including in the Zvërnec area. Earlier this year, he visited the area with his wife, Ivanka Trump.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently confirmed to Politico that talks were ongoing between the government and Kushner over the deal, which is expected to include roughly 10,000 hotel rooms and villas.
EUROPEAN CAPITAL ROCKED BY VIOLENT PROTESTS AS GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION PROBE FUELS UNREST
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks during a press conference following the EU-Albania Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels, Belgium, on May 26, 2026. (Daniel Gnap/NurPhoto)
“I want to make Albania a country that is a destination to be envied in the region, and this project is part of this effort,” Rama said Monday.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Affinity Partners and SPAK for comment.
Protests by Albanian citizens and nonprofit groups began in May when large, barbed-wire-topped fences were erected at the proposed site, preventing locals and tourists from accessing the beach. On Sunday, protesters assembled outside government offices to demand an end to the project as well as Rama’s resignation.
Jared Kushner speaks during the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19, 2026. Kushner is facing pushback in Albania over a luxury development project. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Following Sunday’s protests, footage emerged showing private security guards appearing to assault and drag a protester along a cliff. Some guards allegedly threatened other demonstrators who were attempting to remove fences and halt construction.
The licenses of two private security companies were revoked following the incident. Meanwhile, around 15 protesters have been charged, and the local police chief has been stripped of his duties.
Politics
NBC News will put ‘Kornacki Cam’ on the L.A. mayoral, California gubernatorial races
After the polls close in California on Tuesday, NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki will just be getting started.
Since December, the khaki-clad vote-counting guru has been going live and uninterrupted on streaming platforms to provide results and analysis of every special election and even some state Senate contests.
The stream — called the Kornacki Cam — provides unadulterated number crunching without any pundits weighing in. Rather than getting updates that last a few minutes, Kornacki provides continuous real-time results until the last available total is counted.
“This all happens in full view,” Kornacki said Monday in a phone interview. “The audience gets to see the whole thing. They get to see the buildup, the anticipation, the payoff.”
In the 10 Kornacki Cam sessions streamed by NBC News so far, 19 million viewers have sampled them across all platforms. The coverage — consisting of Kornacki, his Big Board, his producer and a Stedicam operator — is available on YouTube, NBCNews.com, the NBC News app and the division’s social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
The Kornacki Cam will focus on the primaries for Los Angeles mayor, California and several congressional districts, shortly after the state’s polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific. NBC News has its own decision desk, which the network said has called the results of 70% of the 2026 elections ahead of the Associated Press.
In a Monday chat with The Times, here are the trends Kornacki says he’ll be looking for on the night.
Polling in mayoral races is typically pretty unreliable. What do you make of the contest based on what you’ve seen?
You don’t always have super-competitive mayoral elections and they’re not all created equal. It’s not quite like a presidential election so you just don’t have a wealth of data to draw on for expectations either.
I’ve seen the polling you’ve seen. It suggests that of the three candidates (Mayor Karen Bass, reality TV star Spencer Pratt and City Council member Nithya Raman), Bass is in the best position to get into the runoff. It also suggests that Spencer Pratt has had the most positive movement in the last month or so of the campaign. But we go in knowing there will be volatility and I’m open to any and all possibilities.
Spencer Pratt is an unusual candidate who has been able to take up a lot of oxygen in the race. Is there a hidden vote for him that people might not be eager to admit to pollsters?
You can look at the city and know where to look for whether Pratt is having a big night. The San Fernando Valley is gonna be more than a third of the vote, probably close to 40%. If he gets in the general election, he wants to be winning there by a big margin. If it’s not happening there for Pratt, I don’t think it’s happening anywhere else. Karen Bass is going to rely on central and South L.A., with probably a third of the vote coming out of those two places. Those should be her bulwarks. The Westside, I think could be more of a toss-up. There’s a fair chunk of the vote there.
We don’t do a ton of mayoral races around the country. So we’re still trying to figure out exactly how detailed we’re going to be able to zoom in, at the neighborhood level and the precinct level.
Turnouts usually are low for Los Angeles mayoral races. Will this year be different?
This mayoral race has received a lot more national attention than 2022. So my thought is that the turnout would be higher, just based on that. But this is something that is resonating nationally because Pratt has that celebrity factor. The number was 646,000 (total votes) for 2022. So that’s something we’ll be following — are we trending over or under that?
And what will be the best indicators for the gubernatorial race?
The place that I kind of got circled here is Orange County. In the last two sort of major statewide elections, it was the first to report out (its) vote. At 8:06 p.m local time in California, in 2024, Orange County reported out half of its vote, right? So you’re getting, you know, you’re getting hundreds of thousands of votes, potentially, from this enormous county within, potentially within 10 minutes of polls closing. There were a couple others — the Central Valley, and we got a good chunk of Merced and Fresno quickly.
So how long are we going to have to wait for a result on Tuesday night?
One of the other things that just surrounds everything in California, whether it’s the mayor’s race, or governor’s race, or anything else, is nothing is definitive in the first hour or so after the polls close. We’re probably realistically looking at a days or even weeks-long process of getting all the vote counted.
I know it drives many people nuts. Without editorializing on that, it’s just a fact that they can get out of about two-thirds of their vote on election night, and if the races aren’t clear and definitive, then you’re generally in for a pretty long haul.
We do know in California that they’re not going (to count) nonstop until they get a result. They’re going to then start doing updates as they process and count the remaining vote by mail, which is usually a considerable pile in a lot of these places. The vote by mail in California can continue coming in for seven days after the election.
So do you think your coverage reflects a shift in what the consumer wants? We already know how fragmented the audience is. Are there now enough political junkies who want the pure uncut stuff?
I’ve been doing this about 20 years, and when I would tell people that I reported on politics for a living, they either moved away from me or changed the subject. And now, you know, I found the last, you know, 10 years or something, has just totally changed. People come up to me, even if they don’t know I work in politics, and they want to talk politics. Everybody seems into it whatever side they’re on.
Politics
Video: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public
new video loaded: Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public
transcript
transcript
Judge Decides to Keep Charlie Kirk Hearings Open to Public
Utah district judge, Tony Graf, rejected the defense’s bid to close the hearings in the Charlie Kirk murder case. The defendant, Tyler J. Robinson, is accused of fatally shooting Mr. Kirk, the conservative activist.
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A party seeking to close a preliminary hearing must show that adverse publicity traceable to the opening hearing poses a realistic likelihood of prejudice to a fair trial. Public access to the judicial — to judicial proceedings also serve in an important role in maintaining confidence in the fairness and transparency of the judicial process. This court finds these showings have not been made here.
By Meg Felling
June 1, 2026
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