Amid President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown, one congressional Democrat is calling for reparations for foreign nationals who are affected.

“We are going to have some form of reparation for the kids and the families that have been traumatized through all of this,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Friday during a congressional hearing, referring to illegal immigrants. “You talked about how there’s no support for people even once they’re released. We need to make sure that we are funding that kind of work to continue to provide relief.”

Jayapal, the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), made the comments during the seventh installment of a hearing series titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Attack on Children.”

The left-wing lawmaker said reparations for illegal immigrants affected by Trump’s crackdown efforts would be just one item in a series of reforms she would push Democrats to pursue if they retake House control in November. 

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Jayapal, who was born in India and became a U.S. citizen in 2000, also said she wants “offensive action” regarding those who are carrying out Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown. 

“We need real accountability, because at the end of the day, the people that have been inflicting this harm need to be prosecuted,” Jayapal said. “They need to be brought before us, and they need to be held to account for the trauma that they have created.”

A spokesperson for Jayapal did not respond to a Fox Digital inquiry about who specifically she wants to see prosecuted or who would be eligible for reparations.

Reparations refer to financial compensation for a specific group intended to address reputed economic harms. Many progressive Democrats have long advocated for reparations for the descendants of American slaves.

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Throughout the hearing, congressional Democrats repeatedly called attention to the children of deported illegal immigrants, while saying little about the victims of illegal immigrant crime.

The group of Democratic lawmakers did not discuss 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, who was allegedly shot and killed by a Venezuelan national illegally living in the United States in Chicago earlier this month.

Jayapal’s comments came during the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has continued to drag on with no end in sight.

She and nearly all House Democrats have refused to fund the department until the Trump administration agrees to various proposals that could rein in immigration enforcement.

“I have been clear since the start of the appropriations process: I will not vote to give Trump’s ICE or CBP another cent without major reforms,” Jayapal said Friday following her vote against a two-month DHS funding extension.

Though Democrats have been willing to fund the non-immigration parts of DHS, most Republicans have rejected that idea because it would effectively defund law enforcement.

Zeroing out appropriations for ICE and the Border Patrol would continue to force support staff employed by those agencies — have not received a full paycheck during the seven-week funding lapse — to keep working without pay.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is threatening legal action against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as it reportedly considers releasing potentially damaging files just weeks before he faces voters in California’s wide-open gubernatorial race.

Lawyers for Swalwell sent a cease-and-desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, warning the bureau would violate federal privacy law if it moves ahead with releasing records regarding the congressman’s decade-old relationship with a suspected Chinese spy named Christine “Fang Fang” Fang. 

“[Y]our attempt to release the file is a transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for Governor of California,” Swalwell’s attorneys, Sean Hecker and Norm Eisen, said in a recent letter to Patel obtained by The Associated Press. “Your actions threaten to expose you, others at the FBI, and the FBI itself to significant legal liability. Indeed, disclosure of the investigative file would violate federal law in several respects.”

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The letter comes as The Washington Post first reported that Patel is weighing the release of investigative records related to Swalwell’s past relationship with Fang, who is accused of cultivating ties with Swalwell and other California Democrats for espionage purposes. 

The suspected Chinese spy operative helped fundraise for Swalwell’s 2014 House re-election campaign and placed at least one intern in his office. Swalwell cut off ties with Fang in 2015 after the FBI alerted him to the suspected Chinese influence campaign.

The Justice Department did not pursue criminal charges at the time and Swalwell has denied any wrongdoing. A probe launched by the House Ethics Committee also concluded in 2023 without accusing Swalwell of any violations.

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Swalwell’s lawyers also accused Patel of potentially violating long-maintained DOJ policy that prohibits law enforcement from taking any public investigatory action against political candidates in the two months prior to an election. 

Early voting for California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary begins in early May. Swalwell is vying to be among the top two vote-getters that advance to the general election after jumping into the race in late 2025.

“It’s not lost on me that we’re 34 days until Californians start voting,” Swalwell told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Monday. “We’ve consistently been in the lead in this governor’s race. And the president wants a Western White House.”

Swalwell is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and served as an impeachment manager during the president’s second impeachment in 2021, following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The California Democrat has also been criminally referred to the DOJ for alleged mortgage fraud.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has also blasted Patel for reportedly advocating for the release of the so-called “Fang Fang” files. 

“What the hell does that have to do with law enforcement?” Raskin said Saturday. “This is plain weaponization of the FBI for partisan political purposes.”

The House Democrats’ campaign committee chair charges that “skyrocketing” gas prices sparked by the Iran war are “another broken promise” by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene told Fox News Digital that House Democrats will keep spotlighting gas prices as part of their affordability messaging as they aim to win back the chamber’s majority from Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. topped $4 per gallon on Tuesday, according to national averages from AAA and GasBuddy, the highest level in four years.

The surge in gas prices comes amid the monthlong attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel. In response, Iran has targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply to a halt and sending global fuel prices sharply higher.

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The White House says the surge in prices is temporary.

“When Operation Epic Fury is complete, gas prices will plummet back to the multiyear lows American drivers enjoyed before these short-term disruptions,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Tuesday.

OIL HAS SURGED SINCE THE IRAN CONFLICT BEGAN, BUT GAS PRICES MAY NOT BE DONE RISING

Leavitt emphasized that “President Trump remains committed to fully unleashing American energy dominance, lowering costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families.”

The gas price surge is giving Democrats more political ammunition to target the GOP.

“BREAKING: National Gas Prices Skyrocket to $4 Per Gallon,” read the headline from an email Tuesday morning from the Democratic National Committee.

The DCCC last week launched digital ads showing prices at the pump going up and an image saying “D.C. Republicans Did That!” Sources say to expect another round of ads on gas prices in the coming weeks.

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DelBene argued that “Trump went into this war without thinking through the implications, and we’ve seen gas prices skyrocket across the country, on top of prices going up for families, housing, food, healthcare, all going up because of actions taken by this President and Republicans in Congress.”

As they fight to hold their slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds, as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterms. They also face a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns over persistent inflation, an unpopular war with Iran, and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

A spotlight on inflation helped fuel sweeping victories by Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections, when they won back the White House and Senate and successfully defended their slim House majority.

A laser focus on affordability by Democrats has fueled a slew of victories and overperformances in 2025’s off-year elections and in special elections in the 14 months since Trump returned to the White House.

“Affordability is a huge issue,” DelBene emphasized. “Folks are angry, they’re upset, and they’re struggling, and they need folks who are going to actually stand up and look out for them.”

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DelBene argued that “this is yet another broken promise from the President saying that he’s going to lower costs on day one. That’s been a broken promise… And he promised no forever wars, that he wouldn’t get involved in a conflict like this.”

But DelBene’s counterpart at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) welcomes the fight over affordability.

NRCC’s chair, Rep. Richard Hudson, in a Fox News Digital interview, pointed to tax cuts in the Working Families Tax Cuts, the name of the sweeping GOP domestic policy bill passed along party lines and signed into law by Trump last summer.

With the tax filing deadline quickly approaching, Hudson said, “Folks who work overtime, folks who work for tips, they’re going to see a lot more money in their pocket thanks to no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.”

“Our policies are making the American people more prosperous, and they’re going to start feeling it more and more,” Hudson emphasized. “And these are promises that President Trump made. These are promises that we’ve kept.”

Fox News’ Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Colorado cannot enforce its so-called “conversion therapy” ban regarding conversations between therapists and minors, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment by allowing some viewpoints but not others.

In an 8–1 decision, the high court said the law favors one viewpoint by allowing therapists to affirm a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, but not help them to change it if they want to.

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian therapist, who argued her conversations with youth clients were a form of protected speech. The Colorado government had said the conversations amounted to professional conduct that the state was allowed to regulate.

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At issue in the case was a law Colorado passed in 2019 that banned what the state government described as conversion therapy.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, saying the question before the high court was a “narrow one” and that Chiles did not seek to toss out the Colorado law but rather consider whether it could apply to therapy that was strictly conversational.

“The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country,” Gorsuch wrote. “It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for discovering truth. However well-intentioned, any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an ‘egregious’ assault on both of those commitments.”

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In the lone dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the majority “plays with fire in this case” and that she feared “the people of this country will get burned.”

“Before now, licensed medical professionals had to adhere to standards when treating patients: They could neither do nor say whatever they want,” Jackson wrote. “Largely due to such State regulation, Americans have been privileged to enjoy a long and successful tradition of high-quality medical care.”

About two dozen states and Washington, D.C., have laws in place that are similar to Colorado’s that could be affected by the Supreme Court’s decision.

Chiles’ lawyers had said in court papers that she believed that people “flourish when they live consistently with God’s design, including their biological sex.” They said Chiles used faith-based counseling to “reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with one’s physical body.”

Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson had countered during oral arguments in October that no court had ever held that a law like Colorado’s implicated the First Amendment, saying the law applied only to treatments.

“A state cannot lose its power to regulate the very professionals that it licenses just because they are using words,” Stevenson had said. 

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jim Campbell, who argued the case on behalf of Chiles before the Supreme Court, called the ruling a “significant win.”

“Kids deserve real help affirming that their bodies are not a mistake and that they are wonderfully made. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today is a significant win for free speech, common sense, and families desperate to help their children,” Campbell said in a statement. “States cannot silence voluntary conversations that help young people seeking to grow comfortable with their bodies.”

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report. 

The Department of Homeland Security is firing back at comedian Jimmy Kimmel, accusing the late-night host of ridiculing Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s blue-collar roots.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a DHS spokesperson defended Mullin’s journey from a family plumbing business to the president’s Cabinet.

“Secretary Mullin represents the best of blue-collar America, and failed comedian Jimmy Kimmel chooses to ridicule him for it,” the agency said.

The disagreement began after Kimmel mocked Mullin’s qualifications during his show last week. He compared the former senator’s qualifications to those of the famous Nintendo character Mario, a plumber.

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“He’s the now-former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?” Kimmel said.

Mullin attended college on a wrestling scholarship before leaving to take over his family’s plumbing business when his father became ill. Before becoming Homeland Security secretary, Mullin represented Oklahoma in the House and Senate for over a decade.

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“In what other country could a young plumber from rural Oklahoma get fed up one day, run for Congress, serve his community in the House and Senate, and then be called to serve in the president’s Cabinet to protect the homeland?” DHS added.

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Kimmel defended his original comments on Thursday, directly addressing the backlash during his monologue.

“Let me make this very clear, I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber. I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber,” Kimmel said, accusing conservative commentators of twisting his words and arguing he was not trying to insult plumbers.

“I wouldn’t put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn’t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet. OK? We all have our areas of expertise,” Kimmel added.

The DHS statement also pointed to comments from President Donald Trump on “The Five” Thursday, where he called Mullin “country smart” and well-respected. Mullin was sworn in as DHS chief last week after his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

A representative for Kimmel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.