Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced that he has launched undercover investigations to infiltrate and uproot leftist terror cells following high-profile incidents of political violence.

Paxton cited the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the “disturbing rise of leftist violence” across the country.

“Leftist political terrorism is a clear and present danger. Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people,” he said.

CHARLIE KIRK KILLING PUTS RISE IN LEFT-WING TERROR IN SPOTLIGHT AS STUDY SHOWS VIOLENCE HITTING 30-YEAR HIGH

“The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in America,” Paxton added. “There can be no compromise with those who want us dead. To that end, I have directed my office to continue its efforts to identify, investigate, and infiltrate these leftist terror cells. To those demented souls who seek to kill, steal, and destroy our country, know this: you cannot hide, you cannot escape, and justice is coming.”

Paxton said the radical left has “incubated” an environment where political violence is celebrated and praised.

He cited nearly two dozen people allegedly linked to Texas-based Antifa-like groups who are accused of ambushing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Alvarado, Texas.

DAVID MARCUS: WHY ANTIFA IS SO MUCH MORE DANGEROUS THAN OLD-SCHOOL LEFTIST TERRORISTS

Antifa protesters at a rally. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced the launching of investigations into leftist terror cells in Texas amid an increase in political violence.  (Mark Graves/The Oregonian/via AP)

Paxton also noted the Sept. 10 murder of Kirk at a Utah college campus and the shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas.

President Donald Trump has designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization while directing federal agencies to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle the groups involved.

“Building on President Trump’s bold actions, Attorney General Paxton has instructed his office to initiate sweeping investigations into radical leftist organizations engaged in or providing support to those perpetrating political violence,” Paxton’s office said.

Law enforcement agents look around the roof of a building near the scene of a shooting at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. (Julio Cortez)

The Trump administration has taken a hard stand against political violence following Kirk’s assassination. However, a federal judge recently blocked him from deploying the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, where protesters have targeted ICE facilities.

Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday to protect federal personnel and property amid anti-immigration protests, the Pentagon confirmed.

A Pentagon official said 200 guardsmen were mobilized for an initial 60-day period.

Troops arrived in Illinois “in support of the Federal Protection Mission to protect federal functions, personnel, and property,” according to a Pentagon statement.

PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS

About a dozen people have been arrested near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, where anti-immigration crowds have been gathering for days.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Saturday that additional special operations personnel would be deployed to Illinois after federal agents were rammed and boxed in by 10 cars.

PRITZKER SAYS TRUMP ORDERING 400 MEMBERS OF THE TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD TO ILLINOIS, OREGON AND OTHER LOCATIONS

Fox News cameras captured footage Tuesday afternoon outside the Army Reserve Training Center in Elwood, just south of Joliet, showing several National Guard troops on site.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted to X, noting service members are “on the ground and ready to go.”

“They are putting America first by ensuring that the federal government can safely enforce federal law,” Abbott wrote.

A federal agent sits in a vehicle outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, in Broadview, Illinois.  (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reiterated on Tuesday he believes the deployment is “illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous and wrong.”

In an executive order signed Monday, Johnson created “ICE-free zones,” prohibiting federal immigration agents from using city-owned property for immigration enforcement operations.

“The Trump administration must end the war on Chicago,” Johnson said during a news conference Monday. “The Trump administration must end this war against Americans. The Trump administration must end its attempt to dismantle our democracy.”

HUNDREDS OF FEDERAL AGENTS IN CHICAGO CARRY OUT OPERATION TARGETING SUSPECTED TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBERS

Federal law enforcement arrive near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025.  (AP/Erin Hooley)

The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA), a Chicago-based activist group, planned an emergency protest in downtown Chicago set for Wednesday afternoon.

Hatem Abudayyeh, National Chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and a spokesperson for CATA, told Fox News Digital the group “stand[s] united in fighting back against [President Donald] Trump’s racist and white supremacist attacks on our communities.”

“The Guard has been sent to join ICE in wreaking havoc and terrorizing our neighborhoods, because Chicagoans don’t back down from bullies like Trump,” Abudayyeh wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our communities here—especially Mexicanos, Centroamericanos, and Black people—are organizing, resisting, and mobilizing in massive numbers for protests, community education and Know Your Rights presentations, and rapid response teams (led by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights [ICIRR]) that defend our immigrant neighbors directly from ICE. We will continue to resist together, unified across race and class and nationality, and they will never break us down!”

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Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently declared that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering declaring an emergency situation for housing. He pointed out the weakest summer home sales in a decade, with more than 15% of transactions falling through in July, the highest cancellation rate since record-keeping commenced in 2017. Prices, though below pandemic levels, are still too lofty for working- and middle-class Americans.

Bessent is right to sound the alarm, and a housing emergency declaration is long overdue. 

For too long, politicians have praised the virtues of homeownership while supporting policies that make it harder to achieve. America no longer produces enough houses to meet demand, and existing houses have become more costly than they would otherwise have been due to restrictions imposed by government on building and investing.

National housing experts estimate the United States is short between 3.2 million and 5.5 million homes, depending on the methodology used. Freddie Mac puts the gap at roughly 3.8 million units, while the National Low Income Housing Coalition reports a shortage of more than 7 million affordable and accessible units. This gap between supply and demand is the very reason for rising home prices.

DEI IS THE REAL CAUSE OF AMERICA’S HOUSING CRISIS

Government regulations have been largely responsible for causing the shortage.

Studies from the National Association of Home Builders show that federal, state and local regulations account for nearly 24% of the price of a new single-family home and more than 40% of the cost of new multifamily housing. Zoning limitations that restrict density, lengthy permitting programs that draw out projects over years, and building codes that differ significantly from one jurisdiction to another all create unnecessary costs and lost time. For some metro regions, it takes over a decade to transition a project from conceptualization through completion.

If the Trump administration does indeed choose to declare a national housing emergency, its resulting emergency plan should not seek to micromanage local housing markets or build new federal bureaucracies. Instead, it should focus on clearing away the obstacles that make it harder for the private sector to meet today’s growing demand for housing.

HOUSE PRICES SKYROCKETED UNDER BIDEN. NOW, GUESS WHO DEMOCRATS WANT TO BLAME?

Wherever stringent restrictions have been imposed upon developers or landlords, housing availability has contracted and affordability has gotten further out of reach. Conversely, where markets are freed to act – when permitting is streamlined, financing is accessible and development is allowed to respond to demand – housing has become more plentiful and prices have stabilized.

California shows how this plays out. For decades, stringent zoning and environmental vetting brought building close to a halt, leaving the state short almost 1.3 million units , according one recent estimate. By contrast, states like Texas, which moved more quickly on permitting and allowed higher-density development, have seen faster growth in supply and more moderate price increases even as their populations expanded. In fact, home prices are declining faster in Texas than any other state.

Instead of following states like Texas’ lead and tackling the root causes of the housing shortage, Washington, D.C., continues to scapegoat the private sector. 

Take, for example, the trend of blaming rent pricing software.

CON MAN ZOHRAN MAMDANI WANTS TO IGNORE REAL CAUSES OF NYC’S AFFORDABILITY CRISIS

Launched under President Joe Biden, this effort wrongly blames technology tools that give real-time housing pricing. Targeting AI may make for nice sounding press releases, but it’s no different than blaming the weatherman for the rain. This technology just reports on what the market is bearing and regulating it away does nothing to put more homes on the market or reduce costs for families. 

Or how about the federal and state lawmakers who have chosen to point fingers at housing investors? A study led by New York University’s Joshua Coven found that markets with greater institutional investment saw both an increase in available rental housing and a measurable drop in rents. This is because large-scale investors add to the pool of available rentals, which can ease competition and moderate costs. 

In other words, when investment is welcomed and new units are built, families benefit directly through lower costs and more options.

What does this all mean?

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Well, instead of seeing its role as one of restricting market activity, the Trump administration should view its job as one of increasing it. Because the only way to solve an affordable housing shortage is to build and invest more.

One approach could be to catalyze reform at the state and local level by making some programs and grants conditional on removing artificial limitations on construction, such as outdated zoning restrictions that prohibit multifamily development in high-demand areas.

Another could be to streamline federal permitting for infrastructure projects that support housing, such as roads, utilities and transit. These projects frequently get delayed and become more costly or less likely to get constructed as they languish, and streamlining would encourage builders to construct more.

The White House has already prioritized enacting economic policies that have freed workers and businesses from unnecessary burdens – ending taxes on tips and overtime, reducing red tape, and promoting growth through opportunity. Housing deserves the same treatment: less government interference and more room for private investment. 

This approach has worked before. Federal leaders just need to let it work again.

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