Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) bucked calls from members of his own party to step down after he voted to support a Republican spending bill to keep the government open. Schumer made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with host Kristen Welker when he was asked if he was “feeling pressure to step down.” “Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer fired back. “And let me just say this, Kristen. I knew when I cast my vote against the government shutdown that there would be a lot of controversy. And there was.” “But let me tell you and your audience why I did it, why I felt it was so important,” he continued. “The CR was certainly bad, you know, the continuing resolution. But a shutdown would be 15 or 20 times worse. Under a shutdown, the Executive Branch has sole power to determine what is ‘essential.’ And they can determine without any court supervision. The courts have ruled it’s solely up to the executive what to shut down. With Musk, and DOGE, and Trump, and this guy Vought, they would eviscerate the federal government.” Welker later pressed Schumer over whether he was “making the same mistake that President Biden did” when he decided to run for re-election and later had to bow out at the last moment because of a disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump. “No, absolutely not,” Schumer said. “I did this out of conviction. And, look, in my caucus, we have a disagreement as to some people voted one way, some people voted the other. But we’ve all agreed to respect each other because each side saw why the other side felt so strongly about it. And our caucus is united in fighting Donald Trump every step of the way.” Schumer also addressed criticism from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who claimed that Schumer gave into Republican demands and did not secure anything in return. “Well, what we got, at the end of the day, is avoiding the horror of a shutdown,” Schumer replied. “There was no leverage point that we could’ve asked for things, they just would’ve said no. And because they control — let’s not forget, they control the House and Senate — they could force a vote, yes or no on the CR, without any additions.” WATCH:

Border Czar Tom Homan said over the weekend that federal investigators relied on a variety of techniques to identify the illegal aliens who were arrested and deported in recent days for being members of Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Homan made the remarks during a Sunday interview on ABC News’ “This Week” with Jonathan Karl when asked about the deportation flights removing the terrorists from the country. “As far as the Venezuelans on that flight, every single one, according to the information given to me from the field, are members of the TDA,” Homan said, referring to the group by its acronym. “And TDA has been determined to be a terrorist organization. They are now classified as terrorists. So that plane removed 240 terrorists from the United States.” When asked how law enforcement identified those individuals as part of the terrorist organization, Homan said that there were numerous techniques and methods involved. “A lot of gang members don’t have criminal histories. Just like a lot of terrorists in this world, they’re not in any terrorist database, right?” he said. “We only know information, what’s in databases based on – for instance, most terrorists we arrest that are identified by the U.S. government are later identified through a Title III investigation or through an undercover operation. They’re not in any terror screening database.” “A lot of gang members — I started as cop in 1984 — many gang members don’t have a criminal history,” he continued. “So, we have to count on social media. We have to count on surveillance techniques. We had to count on sworn statements from other gang members. We had to count on, you know, wiretaps and Title III, to everything involved with criminal investigations.” He emphasized that just because someone has not been arrested or charged with a crime before doesn’t mean that they are not part of a gang or terrorist group. “A lot of officers, a lot of criminal investigators, special agents who’ve done this for decades looked at the intelligence information, the criminal investigation information, all their various social media and surveillance and government records and public records, and they are confident that they’re all members of the TDA,” he said. When pressed by @JonKarl about due process for deported migrants allegedly tied to gangs, Trump border czar Tom Homan says officials are “confident they’re all members of the TDA.” "We're actually using the laws on the books to enforce immigration laws.” https://t.co/oO9fEVxwH1 pic.twitter.com/0ESncDBUhC — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 23, 2025

A former U.S. attorney nominated by former President Joe Biden was found dead over the weekend in Virginia, according to authorities. “This morning, at approximately 9:18 a.m., Alexandria Police responded to the 900 block of Beverley Drive for the report of an unresponsive woman. Officers located a deceased woman,” the Alexandria Police Department said in a statement on Saturday. “Following notification of family members, the Alexandria Police Department can confirm the identity of the woman as Ms. Jessica Aber, age 43, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia,” police added. “As a matter of protocol, an investigation is underway surrounding the circumstances of her death,” the department said. “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia will determine the cause and manner of death.” Aber served more than three years as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. She had been nominated for the role by Biden in August of 2021 and was confirmed by the Senate in October of that year. She resigned on January 20, just as President Donald Trump began his second term. “I’ve had the privilege of spending my career as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia working alongside talented, hard-working public servants who manage matters affecting citizens here and across the world,” Aber said upon announcing her plans to resign. “Concluding my service to the District as its U.S. Attorney has been an honor beyond measure,” she added. “I am deeply grateful to Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (D-VA) and to President Biden for the opportunity to lead this office, and to Attorney General [Merrick] Garland for his steadfast leadership. I am proud of the work we have done with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to enforce the law and build community trust.” A number of officials released statements in response to Aber’s death. “The loss of Jessica Aber, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is deeply tragic. Our hearts and prayers go out to her family and friends during this profoundly difficult time,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. Kaine said in a post on X, “My prayers are with Jessica Aber’s loved ones. Jessica was an exceptional public servant who dedicated her life to serving her fellow Virginians. She will be deeply missed.”

ABC News host Jonathan Karl, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, admitted during an interview on Sunday that the president has scored a significant victory in securing America’s borders after four disastrous years under President Joe Biden. Karl made the acknowledgement while interviewing Border Czar Tom Homan on “This Week” about the state of the southern border. “You have now more than 10,000 U.S. troops deployed to support your mission at the border and two Navy destroyers that have been deployed to patrol the waters around the border as well,” he said. “How long do you expect you are going to need that level of force, military force, at the border, because, as you just mentioned, the numbers are way down?” “I mean they are dramatically down,” he admitted. Homan responded by highlighting some of the metrics showing just how drastically the numbers have dropped. “Illegal entry is down 96 percent,” Homan said. “What’s most impressive is known got-a-ways. Known got-aways under Joe Biden were on average 1,800 people a day crossed the border, weren’t apprehended, weren’t processed, weren’t vetted. We don’t know who they are or where they came from. That’s a huge national security issue. Known got-a-ways are down to, you know, double digits now.” “But we’re not going to be satisfied until that know got-a-way is down to zero,” he continued. “We’re going to secure the border and make sure no public safety threats or national security threats cross the border and get away.” He said that the administration was pouring more resources into maritime patrol to secure coastal areas. “We’re going to secure the border, both the land border and the maritime border to make sure these public safety threats and national security threats won’t get into the country,” he said, adding that the administration will have “total operational control of the border.” WATCH: As the Trump administration increases number of troops deployed to the border, border czar Tom Homan says: “We’ll use these assets as long as we can until we can get to the point where we have total operational control over the border." https://t.co/PXbSR0Y8bi pic.twitter.com/kmHDSBSHz2 — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 23, 2025

The Trump administration is urging hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Latin American aliens given legal status in the United States under former President Joe Biden to self deport. The administration plans to strip those legal protections away from over 500,000 immigrants in late April, according to a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notice. DHS plans to end a Biden-era parole program for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and cancel work permits and other designations for immigrants who entered the United States under it. “DHS has determined that it is now appropriate and necessary to terminate the CHNV parole programs. These programs do not serve a significant public benefit, are not necessary to reduce levels of illegal immigration, did not sufficiently mitigate the domestic effects of illegal immigration, are not serving their intended purposes, and are inconsistent with the Administration’s foreign policy goals,” the notice says. The administration urged those immigrants who entered the United States under the CHNV program to leave the country within 30 days or face deportation. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the immigrants allowed into the United States under the program were “loosely vetted,” according to CBS News. “The termination of the CHNV parole programs, and the termination of parole for those who exploited it, is a return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,” she said. Biden began the program first for Venezuelans in 2022 before expanding it to include the immigrants of the other three countries in 2023. This allowed tens of thousands of immigrants from each country to be paroled into the United States every month. The Biden administration billed the program as a way to decrease illegal immigration from the CHNV countries by creating “legal pathways” for those immigrants to use instead. The Trump administration took steps to roll back the parole program immediately upon Trump taking office. On his first day, Trump signed an order directing DHS to “[t]erminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States established in my Executive Orders, including the program known as the ‘Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.’” Trump also ordered an end to the CBP One app as it was then used. The Biden administration created it to allow immigrants to apply for entry to the United States.