CBP leader arrested: Supervisor allegedly hid and supported illegal alien 'niece' for over a year



A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was arrested and charged this week with allegedly harboring and transporting an illegal alien who prosecutors claim is his niece.

If convicted, Andres Wilkinson III — a CBP supervisory officer who has worked for the agency since May 2001 — faces up to a decade in prison and a potential $250,000 fine.

The CBP Office of Professional Responsibility received information from Homeland Security Investigations in April 2025 that Elva Edith Garcia-Vallejo, the daughter of a man whom Wilkinson listed as a brother in his 2023 background investigation, was allegedly living with the CBP officer at his residence in Laredo, Texas.

'Financially supported her by providing his credit cards, housing, and assistance with her financial obligations.'

Garcia-Vallejo's residency was problematic because she is a foreign national who lacks legal authorization to be in the homeland, which Wilkinson knew, federal prosecutors claimed.

According to the criminal complaint, Garcia-Vallejo entered the U.S. in August 2023 using her nonimmigrant visa number and secured a I-94 travel permit as a temporary visitor for pleasure/tourism to San Antonio — a permit that expired on Feb. 4, 2024.

North of the border, Garcia-Vallejo temporarily resided with her Laredo-based husband, Juan Rodriguez, who filed and then withdrew an immigration petition for her to become a legal resident.

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Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

In May 2025 — eight months after Garcia-Vallejo's last known entry into the U.S. using her B1/B2 nonimmigrant visa number and two months after her travel permit expired — the CBP OPR allegedly spotted Garcia-Vallejo and her daughter meet with Wilkinson outside the Harmony School of Science in Laredo.

Investigators followed the mother — who had no pending immigration applications — and daughter back to their dwelling place. At the time, Garcia-Vallejo was driving a Toyota Rav4 registered to Wilkinson, the criminal complaint said.

Over the next several months, CBP OPR conducted surveillance at the residence and allegedly observed Garcia-Vallejo come and go. They also claimed to have spotted her driving another vehicle registered to Wilkinson.

Finally, on Feb. 5, CBP OPR detained Garcia-Vallejo, who allegedly admitted that she had been living with her "uncle" since at least August 2024; that he had "financially supported her by providing his credit cards, housing, and assistance with her financial obligations, including medical debt, and by adding her to his vehicle insurance," said the complaint.

The supposed niece also admitted to allegedly crossing U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints in a vehicle driven by Wilkinson on multiple occasions.

The criminal complaint refers to Wilkinson in one instance as his supposed niece's "boyfriend" and the DOJ noted in its corresponding release that the two were "romantically involved," but neither document offered supporting details for that characterization of their relationship. While the complaint indicates Garcia-Vallejo is the daughter of the officer's brother, it did not specify whether they are indeed blood relatives.

CBP did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News. Attorneys for Garcia-Vallejo and Wilkinson did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

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‘American citizens need not apply’: US companies ILLEGALLY hiring ONLY visa workers



Americans are being rejected for jobs in their own country. It’s because they’re U.S. citizens.

“We have laws to protect people from discrimination, equal protection violations, in job postings. These companies are literally saying 'we are not going to hire United States citizens,'” Gonzales explains, horrified.

“We need a million citizen journalists to get this under control. It’s a big problem, and it needs to be stopped," she says, before pointing out a recent LinkedIn post that shows a position available for an "Azure cloud engineer” in Dallas, Texas.


In the posting, it also says “H-4-EAD Only.”

“And then it says, ‘Please share the resumes if you’re interested,’” Gonzales says, pointing out that the grammar is bad.

“Now, H-4s are dependent visas for spouses and unmarried children who are under 21. But for dependents or spouses of H-1Bs, H-2A,s and H-2Bs — H-3 as well, I believe — visa holders. So an H-1B can come in and they have strict work requirements, but they can come in with the H-4,” she says.

While the H-4 cannot initially work, the H-4 holder can apply for an employment authorization document.

“This is the whole scheme. You get in, you get to bring your whole family. You bring your whole family. You bring your children. Then your children need to be taught by another H-1B, and then that H-1B brings their family in, and then they bring their children,” Gonzales explains.

“It is just a reoccurring, never-ending cycle,” she says, pointing out that there are many more job postings that “very blatantly” state they will “only accept visa holders.”

“American citizens need not apply. I mean, did you ever think that you would be at a place in America — in the United States of America — where you would see job postings on one of the largest job websites in the entire world ... LinkedIn, where it literally says, ‘Oh, you’re a citizen of this country. You don’t need to apply. We don’t really care that we’re breaking the law,’” she continues.

“I never thought in a million years they would be doing this out in plain sight,” she says. “But here it is.”

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Texas first: Gov. Abbott freezes H-1B visas after damning report from BlazeTV's Sara Gonzales



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed all state agencies on Tuesday to "immediately freeze" new H-1B visa petitions, citing "recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program" and the "federal government's ongoing review of that program to ensure American jobs are going to American workers."

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales, who exposed a rash of possible H-1B visa fraud in the Lone Star State earlier this month, welcomed the governor's directive.

'Bad actors have exploited this program by failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified US workers before seeking to use foreign labor.'

Gonzales told Blaze News, "I am thrilled to hear our work exposing the abuse of the H-1B system is being taken seriously, and I commend Governor Abbott for taking necessary steps to protect American workers in the state of Texas from having their jobs stolen from them."

"I hope this is the first of many statewide actions that course correct on this issue," Gonzales added.

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At the outset of her investigation, Gonzales scrutinized a pair of companies that on paper appear to have relied in recent years on scores of foreign workers: 3Bees Technologies Inc. and Qubitz Tech Systems.

3Bees Technologies Inc. — whose agent, director, and president is Vamsi Krishna Vajinapally — had 27 H-1B beneficiaries approved in 2022 and 19 visa petitions apparently denied the following year. Qubitz Tech Systems had 12 H-1B beneficiaries approved last year.

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BlazeTV

Gonzales' visits to the supposed offices of both companies — a vacant construction site in one case and a vacant, prison cell-size room with a single chair in the other — proved eye-opening, prompting her and others to question whether the companies and their visa sponsorships were above-board.

"Once you start scraping data from H-1B databases, you start seeing immediately all of these patterns," Gonzales said in her damning report. "The biggest question I have right now is: If we were able to find this with just a little bit of Google-searching and follow-up, why hasn't [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] done anything to combat this?"

When pressed for comment, Abbott's office referred Blaze News to his directive, which states:

Evidence suggests that bad actors have exploited this program by failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified U.S. workers before seeking to use foreign labor. In the most egregious schemes, employers have even fired American workers and replaced them with H-1B employees, often at lower wages. Rather than serving its intended purpose of attracting the best and brightest individuals from around the world to our nation to fill truly specialized and unmet labor needs, the program has too often been used to fill jobs that otherwise could — and should — have been filled by Texans.

Per the governor's directive, state agencies are prohibited from initiating or filing any new petition to sponsor a non-immigrant worker under the federal H-1B visa program unless given express permission by the Texas Workforce Commission.

The governor has also given public universities and various state agencies until March 27 to provide an account of how many H-1B visa holders they are currently sponsoring; the countries of origin of their sponsored H-1B visa holders; the expected expiration date for each sponsored visa; and the efforts taken to ensure that Texan candidates were afforded a reasonable opportunity to apply for each position filled by an H-1B visa holder.

"State government must lead by example and ensure that employment opportunities — particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars — are filled by Texans first," Abbott wrote in his directive.

The H-1B visa program enables U.S.-based employers to temporarily hire foreign workers into specialized positions that American citizens supposedly can't do. H-1B specialty occupation workers are generally admitted for a period of up to three years, which can in most cases be extended for another three years.

While Republicans are taking action, lawmakers from both parties have in recent years expressed concerns about H-1B visa fraud and abuse, proposing amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act that would reform or even abolish the program.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' H-1B Employer Data Hub indicates that over 41,500 H-1B visa beneficiaries were approved for fiscal year 2025 in Texas. Oracle America Inc., Tesla Inc., AT&T Services Inc., Hewlett Packard, American Airlines, Texas A&M's flagship campus, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center were among the top sponsors.

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'We will deport these thugs': Rubio's State Department revokes 100,000+ visas in 2025, putting Biden's numbers to shame



The Trump administration has intensified its efforts to enhance vetting of foreign nationals entering the U.S., resulting in a record number of visa revocations.

The Department of State announced that in 2025, it revoked over 100,000 foreign visas, including 8,000 student visas and 2,500 specialized worker visas. That figure is more than double the number of visas that were revoked in 2024 — 40,000 — under former President Joe Biden's leadership.

'The Trump administration will continue to put America first and protect our nation from foreign nationals who pose a risk to public safety or national security.'

Foreign nationals whose visas were canceled included those who had encounters with U.S. law enforcement for criminal activity, the State Department reported.

"We will continue to deport these thugs to keep America safe," the department stated.

The majority of those revoked by the State Department were for business and tourist travelers who overstayed their visas, Fox News Digital reported.

Some students and specialized workers who had their visas revoked also reportedly lost their legal status.

RELATED: Trump admin to vet all visa holders — revoke and deport threats to America

Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Half of the specialized workers whose visas were revoked had previously been arrested for drunk driving; 30% for assault, battery, or confinement charges; and 20% for theft, child abuse, substance abuse and distribution, and fraud and embezzlement charges.

A department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that nearly 500 students lost their visas for charges related to drug possession and distribution.

The State Department announced in August plans to review all of the more than 55 million current visa holders to uncover potential ineligibility, such as overstays, criminal activity, public safety threats, and ties to terrorism.

RELATED: Trump strips 4,000 student visas over first 100 days — 90% flagged for 'serious' crimes

Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

"The Trump administration will continue to put America first and protect our nation from foreign nationals who pose a risk to public safety or national security," State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Piggott told Fox News Digital.

During a press conference last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the administration's increased efforts to revoke and deport foreign nationals.

"Who you allow to visit your country should reflect the national interest. We said that from the very beginning," Rubio told reporters.

"There are some times we'll deny people visas because of activities they've undertaken overseas," he continued. "Other times it's people that have visas but are in the United States doing things that run counter to our national interests. And the law gives us the right — and, in fact, I would argue, the obligation — to remove people like that from our country."

— (@)

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Tiny Caribbean island agrees to offload asylum seekers from US after Trump admin restricts visas



The small Caribbean island nation of Dominica has come to an agreement with the United States as the nation works to resolve some broader restrictions President Trump placed on it late last year.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced Monday that Dominica will begin accepting foreigners seeking asylum in the United States, the Associated Press reported.

'The prime minister still has not told the Dominican public what exactly he has agreed to.'

However, many details about the deal are still unknown, including the number of asylum seekers and whether Dominica has the capacity to absorb them, according to Thomson Fontaine, the leader of the country's main opposition party, the United Workers Party.

“The prime minister still has not told the Dominican public what exactly he has agreed to, in terms of the numbers of persons that are going to come to Dominica, where will they be housed, how will they be taken care of,” Fontaine told the AP.

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Photo by Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images

Dominica has a population of merely 72,000 people.

Skerrit did not provide details about the deal when asked by Fox News, but he did confirm that he has been in ongoing discussions with U.S. officials after the broader visa limitations were announced on December 16.

President Trump announced entry restrictions on several countries last month, including partial restrictions on Dominica. These visa restrictions went into effect on January 1.

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'A direct path to Citizenship': Trump announces official launch of Trump Gold Card visa program



The Trump administration has announced a brand-new visa package that is expected to help some of America's biggest companies keep their foreign talent.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the launch of the Trump Gold Card, an expedited pathway to U.S. residence and even citizenship for a premium price.

'This landmark program fulfills President Trump's promise to attract the world's most successful entrepreneurs and investors to America while guaranteeing they have skin in the game.'

On Truth Social, Trump said, "THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S TRUMP GOLD CARD IS HERE TODAY! A direct path to Citizenship for all qualified and vetted people. SO EXCITING! Our Great American Companies can finally keep their invaluable Talent."

The program has multiple tiers. Individuals can pay a fee of $1 million to receive U.S. residency in "record time" as part of the Trump Gold Card.

RELATED: Walmart, other major companies retreat from sponsoring H-1Bs following Trump administration's reforms

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

The Trump Corporate Gold Card functions similarly but has a fee of $2 million that the company will pay.

The Trump Platinum Card, which the website says is "coming soon," costs $5 million and will allow foreigners to live in the United States for 270 days "without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explained how companies can use this program: "The company can keep them here, and they have a path to citizenship. Obviously, they have to be perfect people in America. And having passed the vetting, after five years, they'll be available to become citizens, and then the corporation puts someone else on the card."

Lutnick added that the proceeds of this expensive program will function as a "gift to the United States."

All applications also require a $15,000 processing fee as part of the vetting process.

The Trump Gold Card functions as a lottery through EB-1 and EB-2 visas, which filter for extraordinary ability in various fields.

"This landmark program fulfills President Trump's promise to attract the world's most successful entrepreneurs and investors to America while guaranteeing they have skin in the game," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X in light of the announcement.

Trump ordered the creation of the Trump Gold Card program on the same day that he ordered the $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications, a popular move that addresses some of the abuses with the H-1B program without canceling it entirely.

The Gold Card office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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Trump Admin Revokes Visa From South African Official Who Spearheaded 'Genocide' Case Against Israel

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked the visa of Naledi Pandor, the South African official who spearheaded a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, spoke by phone with former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, and repeatedly offered support for terrorism, a senior State Department official exclusively confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.

The post Trump Admin Revokes Visa From South African Official Who Spearheaded 'Genocide' Case Against Israel appeared first on .

Free markets don’t need federal babysitters



At a recent competition law symposium in Washington, the Trump administration’s antitrust chief, Gail Slater, made a welcome promise to keep markets open to new competitors and innovation.

That pledge comes at a critical moment. Too many politicians in both parties still believe government’s job is to engineer economic outcomes rather than let consumers decide. That mindset misunderstands what makes markets dynamic — and often locks in the very problems regulators claim they want to fix.

Republicans and Democrats alike have embraced ‘industrial policy’ when it serves their political interests. They call it leadership, but it’s just another form of central planning.

Cronyism takes many forms: subsidies for favored industries, tax breaks for politically connected firms, or lawsuits targeting companies for being too successful.

Take the Biden Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Visa. The administration said it “feared” Visa’s market share, even though the payments space is crowded with competitors — Mastercard, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay, and a swarm of fintech startups. Instead of protecting consumers, the Justice Department tried to punish one company for competing well and dictate the terms of an already vibrant market.

That’s not protecting competition — it’s manipulating it. When government intervenes this way, it distorts incentives, weakens confidence, and replaces consumer choice with bureaucratic preference.

Consumers always lose

When regulators overreach, consumers pay the price. Every dollar a company spends fending off groundless lawsuits is a dollar not spent on innovation. Every subsidy handed to a politically favored firm skews the playing field against smaller rivals. And every new dictate slows the experimentation that keeps markets alive.

Officials who justify these intrusions claim they’re “protecting competition.” But true competition doesn’t need Washington’s help. It needs Washington to step aside. Entrepreneurs, not regulators, create rivals. Consumers, not bureaucrats, decide who wins. The invisible hand disciplines firms far more effectively than any government lawyer.

Free markets need fewer meddlers

Government’s legitimate role is narrow: preventing fraud, enforcing contracts, and protecting property. That’s a far cry from deciding which companies are “too profitable,” which mergers are “too large,” or which industries deserve “strategic” subsidies. When officials cross that line, they stop refereeing and start playing the game themselves — badly.

This temptation spans parties. Republicans and Democrats alike have embraced “industrial policy” when it serves their political interests. They call it leadership, but it’s just another form of central planning that shackles consumers and businesses alike.

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File photo/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The cure is restraint

The best way forward is simple. Washington should stop punishing success and stop handing out favors to friends. It should let consumers and entrepreneurs, not bureaucrats and lobbyists, determine winners and losers.

America’s prosperity was built on open competition and voluntary exchange — not government micromanagement. Crony capitalism is just socialism by another name, and it breeds the same stagnation and corruption.

President Trump’s team understands that prosperity comes from freedom, not favoritism. If policymakers truly care about fairness, they should start by doing the hardest thing in politics: stepping aside.

The migrant crisis is FAR from over — and these INSANE stories are proof



America’s legal immigration system is clearly broken, and there’s a Trojan horse hiding in plain sight: the visa system — which allows migrants to overstay their visas regardless of whether or not they pose a danger to society.

And the stories of these dangerous migrants continue to pile up.

In late October, a foreign graduate student allegedly stabbed two teens with a fork and slapped a passenger on a Chicago flight to Germany, which resulted in the flight diverting to Boston.

Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, 28, was arrested upon landing and charged with one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily harm.


“He just stood up and started randomly stabbing two 17-year-olds. One of them was sleeping, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I woke up to this random Indian guy stabbing me in the head with a metal fork,’” BlazeTV Sara Gonzales explains.

“He stabbed another teen in the back of the head,” she adds.

“But the guy came to the United States legally on a student visa, and then he overstayed. ... It’s legal at first, until it’s not, and then he becomes a dangerous criminal and dangerous to our country,” she says. “This isn’t the first example of similar attacks.”

In Boulder, Colorado, an Egyptian man who came into the country on a visa in 2023 also overstayed and chose to continue residing in the U.S. as a criminal. Then on June 1 this year, he attacked pro-Israeli protesters with Molotov cocktails.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, threw Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine” at protesters. He injured five protesters, and one passed away from her injuries.

“He came in and he overstayed until he decided to just be a total nutjob criminal,” Gonzales comments, disgusted.

In 2021, another Egyptian man in the U.S. on a student visa stabbed a Jewish rabbi eight times outside a Jewish day school in Boston. The rabbi survived his wounds, and the attack has been labeled as a hate crime.

Khaled Awad, 24, was charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer.

“I wonder why it was a rabbi that he chose,” Gonzales remarks sarcastically, before continuing down the long list of violent criminals who overstayed their visas.

“I could just keep going, but I think that you get the point,” she says.

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Islamic group throws fit after Trump admin detains, revokes visa of alleged terrorist sympathizer



The Council on American-Islamic Relations is up in arms over the imminent deportation of Sami Hamdi, a radical Islamic agitator from the United Kingdom who allegedly suggested the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel were worth celebrating.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed in a statement to Blaze News that as the result of work undertaken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, "this individual's visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal."

As of Monday morning, the online Immigration and Customs Enforcement database does not presently have a Sami Hamdi from the U.K. listed as being in custody.

'How many of you felt the euphoria, Allahu akbar?'

"Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country," continued McLaughlin. "It's commonsense."

The State Department said in a statement, "We've said it before, we'll say it again: The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans."

Hamdi's detention came just days after the RAIR Foundation USA published a damning report concerning the British national's history of radical remarks and associations, stating, "Every appearance Hamdi makes in America is not merely a speech — it operates effectively as a deployment node in an organized influence and mobilization program serving a foreign militant Islamic cause on U.S. soil. His talks are not educational but tactical."

During an October 2023 panel discussion at a British mosque, Hamdi suggested that rather than pitying the Palestinians, Muslims should "celebrate the victory," apparently referencing the Hamas terror attacks that claimed the lives of over 1,200 people in Israel including 46 Americans.

"Allah has shown the world that no normalization can erase the Palestinian cause," said Hamdi. "When everybody thought it was finished, it's roaring. How many of you feel it in your hearts when you got the news that it happened? How many of you felt the euphoria, Allahu akbar? How many of you felt it? Why did you feel it? Because the despair vanished."

RELATED: Nigerian Christians are being murdered by Islamic radicals. This congressman has had enough.

Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Image

Hamdi also suggested that the reports of rapes by Hamas terrorists were lies.

Although Hamdi has suggested that his remarks were misrepresented and has denied that he celebrated the events of Oct. 7, he has since characterized the Hamas terror attacks as a "natural consequence of the oppression that was being put on the Palestinians."

Blaze News has reached out to Hamdi for comment.

Hamdi, the managing director of a group that purportedly "advises on political environments across the globe," spoke on Saturday at the Sacramento Valley chapter of CAIR's annual banquet and was scheduled to speak to CAIR Florida on Sunday.

Federal immigration officials detained Hamdi Sunday morning at San Francisco International Airport, cutting short his speaking tour.

CAIR, whose co-founder said in a speech that the Hamas terror attacks on unarmed women and children made him "happy," condemned Hamdi's detention and called for his release.

The organization — which the Justice Department named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing case — stated that "abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government's genocide is a blatant affront to free speech."

"Our attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice. We call on ICE to immediately account for and release Mr. Hamdi, whose only 'crime' is criticizing a foreign government that committed genocide," continued the Washington, D.C.-based group. "Our nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots. This is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end."

The Muslim Council of Britain has signaled common cause with CAIR and called for the U.K. government to "take urgent diplomatic action" to ensure "Hamdi's rights are protected."

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