Rather than walk back his controversial defense of a convicted child rapist who stole into the homeland, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) bemoaned the pedophile’s deportation by the Trump administration and emphasized the supposed need not to judge him by his “worst day.”

Tou Lue Vang, a 42-year-old illegal alien from Laos, repeatedly raped a young girl over a two-year period, beginning when she was just 10, and in one instance, offered her $10 for her silence, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

‘Child molesters are among the classes of criminals most likely to re-offend.’

When interviewed by police, the pedophile reportedly suggested that his child victim was as guilty as he was, and downplayed his horrific child sex crimes as “a cultural thing … to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.”

Following Vang’s conviction for first-degree criminal sexual assault, a Justice Department immigration judge issued the rapist a final order of removal in October 2006. Vang, however, having been given 30 years of probation and no prison time, remained in the country for another two decades. Seeking to rectify this matter, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and detained Vang on Dec. 10.

The Trump administration’s efforts to give the child rapist the boot were frustrated, first when a judge ordered Vang’s release in February, and then again on June 10 when — just a week before he was finally set to be deported — Walz joined leftist Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson in voting to pardon the child rapist.

Walz claimed during the pardon meeting that since his days as a child rapist, Vang “has started a family, he’s become a critical member of the community, and he has lived a life without any serious criminal violations since that time.”

RELATED: Marco Rubio takes action to END the threat from Tim Walz’s illegal alien pedophile pardon

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Ellison said that the decision was unanimous and made “after an exhaustive process, which included a statement of support for the pardon from the victim, a recommendation to grant the pardon from the Clemency Review Commission, and a large number of community support letters.”

The pardon evidently wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week both that he had revoked Vang’s legal status and that the pedophile had been removed from the United States on Friday.

“This foreign criminal will never pose a threat to any American ever again,” said Rubio.

Walz is evidently cut up about the child rapist’s successful deportation.

“I guess the question I would ask is, did that make us any safer?” Walz said with regard to the child rapist’s ouster. “Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable?”

“Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?” continued the governor, who also acknowledged that Vang committed “horrific crimes.”

This commentary by the self-identified “knucklehead” has prompted more disgust.

The Department of Homeland Security responded to Walz’s remarks this week, stating, “For Tou Lue Vang this wasn’t just one ‘worst day’ — it was YEARS of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl starting when she was 10. Just disgraceful.”

“Tim Walz asked, ‘How does this make us safer?’ in response to Secretary Rubio stepping in to remove an illegal alien convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl,” wrote Republican Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer. “Well, Tim, typically, communities are safer when convicted child predators aren’t just roaming the streets.”

“I am very willing to judge this guy — and Tim Walz — by his worst day,” tweeted Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R).

The White House’s official rapid response account on X noted that “Walz is one seriously sick, depraved individual.”

“Good grief,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (D) said of Walz’s remarks. “Also, child molesters are among the classes of criminals most likely to re-offend, so it’s not just one day but probably a pattern of malicious conduct that creates a number of victims. Why would you not want an illegal alien that fits this profile to be deported?”

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​Illegal alien, Tim walz, Minnesota, Rapist, Marco rubio, Democrat, Keith ellison, Immigration and customs enforcement, Crime, Politics 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released exclusive details to Blaze News related to a $28 million counterfeit bust from the Port of Louisville.

The shipment from Hong Kong was seized by CBP officers on July 9. It was discovered when officers pulled it for inspection on its way to Illinois.

‘Officers are trained to identify illicit shipments and work diligently for American consumers by stopping the flow of unlawful trade.’

The shipment included 200 watches that bore suspected trademarks of the Audemars Piguet brand.

The Centers of Excellence and Expertise of the CBP determined the watches to be inauthentic. They were seized for “bearing counterfeit versions of registered and recorded trademarks,” according to the CBP news release.

Last month, the CBP claimed it had seized a similar shipment at the same port of 375 counterfeit watches that were worth $54 million of the genuine products. It had also been shipped from Hong Kong.

“Counterfeit goods are poor-quality products costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars a year while robbing our country of jobs and tax revenues,” said Philip Onken, Louisville’s port director. “Officers are trained to identify illicit shipments and work diligently for American consumers by stopping the flow of unlawful trade.”

The CBP reminds Americans to shop at reputable websites to avoid receiving counterfeit products.

RELATED: Sports memorabilia in chaos after seller admits massive scheme to fake signatures, then commits suicide

U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release

CBP said 70,000 men and women comprise the federal agency.

“We enforce safe, lawful travel and trade and ensure our country’s economic prosperity. We enhance the nation’s security through innovation, intelligence, collaboration, and trust,” the agency said.

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​Customs and border protection, Counterfeit bust, Economy, Trade, Politics 

Modern water utilities run on digital control systems that regulate water pressure and chemical mixtures. If a hostile actor compromises these networks, they control the physical flow of liquid life across American communities.

A recent simulation conducted by cybersecurity analysts, as reported by Wired, modeled exactly what happens when those controls get hijacked. The results proved that America’s interconnected society is essentially a giant Jenga tower built on a foundation of pumps and pipes.

Emergency response teams face an impossible numbers game.

Earlier this year, the FBI officially classified a breach of a U.S. government monitoring network as a “major incident.” This is the government’s polite way of saying someone managed to hot-wire the digital locks on the country’s critical infrastructure.

The Beijing-backed hacking group Volt Typhoon has spent years setting up camp inside American pipelines and power grids. The group is seeking to disrupt the systems that everyday Americans depend on.

And the easiest way to do that is through the kitchen sink.

A single water utility failure can trigger a much wider economic crisis. Data centers require thousands of gallons of water daily to prevent high-density server racks from melting into expensive puddles of plastic. When water pressure drops, those servers overheat and initiate automated shutdowns. This instantly halts the cloud computing services that manage corporate logistics, processing networks, and emergency communications. Your local water plant goes down, and suddenly the entire digital economy vanishes into thin air.

Hospitals face an immediate crisis when the taps run dry. Modern medical facilities rely on water for everything from sterilizing surgical instruments to running the HVAC systems that maintain sterile operating rooms. Without water pressure, air conditioning units fail, ambient temperatures surge, and hospital administrators must evacuate intensive care units. It turns out that advanced 21st-century medicine completely falls apart if you can’t wash a scalpel or flush a toilet.

On the brink of disaster

The United States maintains roughly 151,000 public water systems, and the vast majority serve populations of fewer than 3,300 residents. These small municipal water districts operate on razor-thin tax revenues that barely cover basic pipe repairs. They absolutely do not have the budget to hire elite cybersecurity teams to defend their networks. Instead, their digital infrastructure relies on outdated software and default, easily cracked factory passwords like “admin123.” They’re practically inviting foreign adversaries to waltz in and run riot.

The attackers use a strategy known as “living off the land” to maintain their presence inside these small networks. Instead of dropping obvious malware that sets off digital tripwires, they repurpose legitimate administrative tools already built into the operating software. Security logs register their malicious commands as routine network maintenance performed by a local employee. This allows foreign operators to map out vulnerabilities and position themselves to cause maximum damage whenever they feel like flipping the switch.

RELATED: China’s new AI master plan: Total technological control

bernie_photo/Getty Images

Emergency response teams face an impossible numbers game during a multi-regional infrastructure crisis. The federal government possesses a limited pool of cybersecurity experts capable of removing nation-backed digital squatters from industrial control systems. A widespread outage forces these responders to triage assistance based on economic importance and military necessity. A defense manufacturing facility or a major metropolitan hospital receives immediate technical support, while suburban neighborhoods and rural farming towns wait weeks for a repair crew.

Commercial insurance policies offer a hilarious lack of protection against this kind of systemic infrastructure failure. Standard cyber insurance contracts contain explicit exclusions for acts of war, cyber terrorism, or hostile actions directed by sovereign nations. The moment the federal government attributes a major utility breach to a foreign power, insurance corporations will invoke these clauses to deny payouts. Municipalities and local taxpayers are left holding the multi-billion-dollar bill to restore their own poisoned or impaired water systems.

No bathroom breaks

The simulation concluded with a darkly absurd enforcement of operational reality. Organizers denied participants bathroom breaks for the final 12 hours. In the hierarchy of emergencies, a number one had officially fallen below the number one priority.

There are no breaks in a real incident response, and walking away from your terminal means missing the exact second a water pump explodes. It provided a clear demonstration of the high-stakes pressure facing the IT professionals who hold the line between modern civilization and medieval living conditions.

Washington remains trapped in a reactive loop, preparing for cyber disasters after they occur instead of making the initial intrusion impossible. The final lesson of the war game is that there is no magical reboot button for a society deprived of its basic utilities. Communities descend into chaos, valve by valve. Corporate executives and politicians argue over who gets the first drop of clean water. Preventative defense is the only viable option. Because once the taps stop running, restoring normal life becomes a slow and uncertain process.

​Water, China, Cyberattack, Cybersecurity, Tech 

The mother of three children is recovering from a “catastrophic” boating accident where only a “miracle” saved her life, according to Idaho police.

The unidentified woman was tubing and enjoying the day at Bear Lake when she was sucked into the propellers of a boat and her legs were severed.

‘She just looked at me, and she just said, ‘Go get your tourniquet.”

Dan Taylor recalled to KSL-TV that he was just getting to the lake with his family when he heard the commotion from the tragic accident.

“Everybody was out on the bow shouting, ‘Help, help, please help,'” Taylor said. “Somebody on the boat said, ‘Get the kids out of here.'”

Taylor said his wife was closer to the boat and surmised the direness of the situation before he could.

“She told me to get my paddleboard up to the side of the boat to use as a gurney,” he said. “She just looked at me, and she just said, ‘Go get your tourniquet.'”

He said both the woman’s legs were missing, and he and his family members immediately applied a tourniquet to one leg, then used a strap on the other leg. It took medics between 10 and 15 minutes to arrive to the scene.

“The victim was so courageous, and she was conscious through the whole thing,” he added. “Her spirit of just staying in the moment and staying calm was nothing I ever could have conceived in a situation like that.”

Taylor said he had a tourniquet in his van in case of emergencies, and the topic had come up just a few weeks prior at a mountain biking first-aid class.

He remembers praying for the woman until an ambulance and helicopter arrived.

“An hour in that situation just felt like an eternity,” he said. “With bleeding that severe, minutes can be something that ends somebody’s life.”

The Bear Lake County Sheriff’s Office praised Taylor in a post on its Facebook page.

“These actions ultimately saved her life,” police said.

RELATED: Homeless man allegedly choked 13-year-old at school bus stop until Good Samaritan beat his face with a toolbox

Taylor says he is grateful that he was at the right place to help the woman.

“I know the term ‘miracle’ gets thrown around a lot, but it was absolutely miraculous to think about, of all the places that they could have been,” he said, “and how many people in that whole beach and how many of them have a tourniquet, and of those people, how many of those people had a first-aid training and it was front of mind three weeks ago?”

A GoFundMe account was set up for the woman, who was described as a “devoted wife, loving mother of three, and cherished friend.” The police department confirmed that the funds would go to the woman involved.

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​Boating accident, Good samaritan, Idaho, Lake, Human interest 

Inflation and invasion. Those were the two issues that propelled Donald Trump to victory in 2024. Now Congress is facing what is essentially its last chance to fulfill those election mandates after squandering its best political capital during the first year and a half of this term.

Yet as Republicans push their third and final party-line budget reconciliation bill, the priorities are once again random and disconnected from the two central campaign promises.

Republicans appear poised to end this Trump trifecta the same way they ended the last one: without enduring victories.

Just like the first two bills.

Truth is, neither reconciliation bill cut the deficit on net. Neither defunded sanctuary cities, birthright citizenship, amnesty programs, or the judicial review now hampering every facet of immigration enforcement.

The first bill — the one fueled by the greatest political capital Republicans had enjoyed in years — focused on a random assortment of tax provisions that failed to excite the country and likely added significantly to the deficit. It also contained more defense spending.

The second bill simply threw more money at the Department of Homeland Security, which, under current failed policies, will not change the dynamic of litigating every last illegal alien removal to death.

So what is in Reconciliation 3.0?

The bulk of it is $73 billion for the military, mainly for the Iran war, though it will likely include funding to rebuild Arab Gulf states.

So despite complaints that the GOP cannot move beyond its myopic focus on taxes and defense spending, 11 years into the MAGA movement, that is still all Trump and Republicans seem capable of producing: more tax cuts, more spending, and more money thrown at a wasteful Pentagon.

In fact, while this bill earmarks $73 billion for defense, Trump originally asked for $350 billion.

Let’s start with the military component.

If our military cannot keep the Strait of Hormuz open on a $1 trillion annual budget, then something is wrong with the weapons we are buying, the strategy we are pursuing, or the will to use the tools we already possess.

Republicans cannot continue mindlessly increasing the defense budget without auditing our strategic interests and determining whether the current procurement regime satisfies our needs.

Throwing another $100 billion or $200 billion at Boeing and General Dynamics will not change the dynamic.

RELATED: The GOP’s 2028 ticket math is already brutal

Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Last June, the House Oversight Committee’s Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee held a roundtable highlighting a GAO report on procurement waste.

“DOD now plans to invest over $2.4 trillion in its costliest weapon programs,” the report found. “However, because the department remains alarmingly slow in delivering capabilities, these investments are at high risk of becoming obsolete before they even reach the field.”

So long as the defense industry knows congressional appropriations are effectively unlimited, it will continue gouging taxpayers for these weapons systems.

Meanwhile, Congress should be asking a basic question, regardless of one’s view of the decision to go to war with Iran: How do we still lack the leverage to keep shipping lanes open against an adversary that essentially lacks an air force and a functional navy?

And if we lack the weapons and strategy to protect shipping lanes against Iran, how do we plan to deter China from doing the same in the South China Sea after it has already built extensive military infrastructure on artificial islands?

It will not happen by throwing another $100 billion at the same system.

This bill will therefore accomplish what Republicans usually accomplish when in power: It will add to the debt.

We all lamented Bidenflation. But since the debt ceiling was lifted during last year’s budget reconciliation bill, the debt has increased by $3.2 trillion. The monthly tab for interest on the debt in June was greater than the cost of the military and roughly on par with Medicare spending.

Meanwhile, despite the Federal Reserve lowering the federal funds rate over the past two years, the 10-year Treasury remains near a 19-year high. That means debt maturing this year will roll over at much higher interest rates.

So we print more money to service more debt, which is why the M2 money supply just hit another record.

In the wake of that debt service, we will not see a long-term easing of inflation.

As for immigration, this bill does nothing about anchor babies, sanctuary judges, or sanctuary cities. It does nothing to defund foreign-worker programs fleecing American workers and college graduates.

Instead, it includes $10 billion to bribe states to deal with voter fraud, including the threat of noncitizens voting. But the only states likely to use the money properly are the states already combatting voter fraud.

RELATED: Trump’s mass-deportation promise needs receipts

David McNew/Getty Images

There is no point passing this provision without the legal enforcement of the SAVE Act. Frankly, there is little point passing the SAVE Act without fixing the antecedent problem: our immigration policies.

Then, of course, the bill contains a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt by Trump’s other failed signature economic policy: tariffs.

But if this same Congress and White House continue pushing a farm bill that perpetuates the subsidy regime harming small farmers — and if they continue supporting endless rezoning of farmland for data centers — what is the point of throwing more good money after bad?

The lesson is obvious.

Republicans appear poised to end this Trump trifecta the same way they ended the last one: without enduring victories.

Sure, they passed Elizabeth Warren’s Section 8 bill. But they have not passed a single major provision that seriously addresses immigration or inflation.

They had three chances to do something transformational.

They struck out.

But fear not. In congressional baseball, there is always a fourth chance for voters they treat as suckers.

“We’re right now looking at a reconciliation 4.0 to do the things that are left out of this one,” a House Republican told Politico on Wednesday. Oh, joy!

​Congress, Debt, Deficit, Elizabeth warren, Inflation, Iran war, Opinion & analysis, Reconciliation, Republicans, Save act, Spending, Bidenflation, Immigration 

Justice Amy Coney Barrett — who, in a slap in the face to American-born citizens, just ruled in favor of birthright citizenship — told the House Appropriations Committee that the mounting threats against her have taken a toll on her children.

“They have required my children to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about,” Barrett testified, sharing that her security detail gave her a bulletproof vest to wear.

When she brought it into her bedroom, her young son asked what it was.

However, BlazeTV host Steve Deace doesn’t have much sympathy for the Supreme Court justice.

Deace explains that he asked Grok how often Barrett has voted with the Democrat block of justices, to which the AI answered 50% to 75% of the time.

“So, my Grok account literally said to me, if, based on how you typically propose such questions, you need to consider that within that 75% she’s often voting on things that are obvious to the majority of the court, that are 7-2 decisions or greater,” he says.

“But, Grok said, if you’re factoring in the more contentious kinds of issues that, given what you typically ask me about, are really what you care about, it’s about 50-50,” he continues.

This means, Deace says, that “Amy Coney Barrett, on the most important things, is essentially a coin flip.”

“That’s essentially what she is on the most important things, the things that we think are fundamental, existential in determining what kind of people ought we to be and will ultimately become. She’s a flip of a coin,” he explains.

“What are you gaining by simping for this worldview about half of the time in your most important rulings? Whose favor are you incurring? What cocktail party are you now being invited to? What aura of respectability there in suburban D.C. are you now being granted?” he asks. “Because by your own admission, the answer is nothing.”

Deace corrects himself, noting that she didn’t actually receive nothing. She got a bulletproof vest.

“Forgive me. I don’t have much sympathy,” he says.

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​Amy coney barrett, Birthright citizenship, Justice, Steve deace, Supreme court, Bulletproof vest, Democrats, Steve deace show 

President Donald Trump told the nation from the White House Thursday that the Chinese government has interfered with American elections and gained access to “sensitive” voter data of tens of millions of Americans.

Trump also accused deep-state bad actors of “deliberately massag[ing]” his daily briefings and even of attempting to run a “shadow government” during his first term to keep the information about “China’s election meddling” from him, other lawmakers, the media, and the American public.

Trump reiterated his demand that Congress pass the SAVE America act, and accused Democrats of stalling on the bill because it would keep them from cheating in elections.

The president said evidence of his claims are available for review at the White House website.

“The documents … show that over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history — resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files,” said the president.

He said the information China collected included “names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences, and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening.”

Trump then said the White House Government Transparency Task Force had gathered evidence that the “deep state” had worked to cover up the Chinese acquisition of U.S. voter data.

“U.S. spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020 when they discovered that tens of millions of voter data … in 18 states have been bought, stolen, or hacked by China. Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,” he said.

He also claimed, citing a CIA document, that during his first term, China sought to influence major American business leaders and persuade them “to turn against the president of the United States.” Trump further claimed China tried to buy off seemingly anti-Trump American journalists with “large sums of money” to write even more “negative articles about him.”

He even claimed China tried to create bogus ballots in the 2020 election.

“Raw intelligence obtained by the FBI in 2020, yet buried by rogue bureaucrats, stated that China’s activities even included an attempt to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden,” he added.

He went on to allege that officials had found as many as 287,000 non-citizens were found registered to vote nationwide.

The president also claimed that classified material that was supposed to be destroyed in “burn bags” was never actually destroyed, and he called on the FBI and the DOJ to investigate and to “prosecute those responsible for any crimes.”

Trump reiterated his demand that Congress pass the SAVE America Act and accused Democrats of stalling on the bill because it would keep them from cheating in elections.

“The only reason you wouldn’t [pass it] is you want to cheat because your policies are so bad and your candidates are so pathetic that you can’t get away or can’t get elected any other way,” Trump claimed.

The SAVE America Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote in elections and require a photo identification to cast a ballot. Left-wing critics of the proposal say it would disadvantage minorities and other Democratic demographics.

The president completed his address by calling on all Americans to pick up a phone and call their representatives to ask for the SAVE America Act to be passed.

RELATED: Trump team slams ‘b***h’ Democrat for floating bizarre conspiracy theory on housing bill delay

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said he was briefed on the president’s speech before the address and described it as possibly the “most important Oval Office address since the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

He added, “The time for complacency with China is over.”

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​President donald trump, White house, Election, Election fraud, Save act, China, Deep state, Politics, Joe biden 

Baltimore Police posted video Wednesday showing six “younger males” ganging up on and brutally beating a 74-year-old man outside a 7-Eleven; the attackers also were wielding a rifle and a sword, police said.

Police said the “attempted armed robbery” occurred in the 2500 block of Liberty Heights Avenue around 3:46 a.m. July 7.

‘Wish he was armed and eliminated some/all [of] the threat.’

The video police posted shows the victim seemingly headed to the door of the convenience store when two of the offenders — one of them pointing what police called a “gray assault-style rifle” at the elderly man — run up to him. The rest of the suspects follow seconds later and begin surrounding the victim.

Soon the group begins taking turns shoving and throwing objects at the elderly man, who does his best to fight them off and shield himself.

But one cowardly culprit sneaks behind the victim and shoves him to the parking lot surface, after which the others take turns stomping him. One of the attackers appears to bash the victim over the head with the rifle.

In another portion of the video, the elderly man goes after a suspect appearing to hold the rifle, but a second suspect throws an object at the victim from behind, then scampers away.

Soon a suspect appearing to hold a sword approaches the victim and waves it at him before he and another attacker throw objects at the elderly man at the same time.

RELATED: Elderly Air Force veteran assaulted, robbed after withdrawing cash from ATM; video shows juvenile taking victim’s wallet

In one of the more gut-wrenching portions of the video, the victim is holding what appears to be a pair of milk crates to defend himself when one of the attackers shoves him to the parking lot surface, after which he’s stomped and punched.

Seconds later, after the victim rises to his feet, the same attacker who just shoved him from behind repeats his cowardly act, knocking the elderly man to the ground from behind again — and then skips away in what appears to be a kind of celebration.

The victim tries to get up, but the same attacker who knocked him down twice jumps in the air and kicks him. The video doesn’t show how the incident was resolved.

According to WJZ-TV, a store employee said the 7-Eleven was closed at the time of the attack, and police said the victim was treated for minor injuries afterward.

Police said robbery detectives need the help of the public to identify the culprits seen in the video, and those with information are urged to call Citywide Robbery detectives at 410-366-6311 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup.

A number of commenters who reacted under the police department’s X post about the incident were far from happy:

“Stop pretending anything will happen if they’re found,” one said. “Please.””ATTEMPTED armed robbery?!? How about ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON?!? Fk you Baltimore. No wonder you’re a third world s**t hole,” another commenter wrote. “How ANY law abiding citizen could live there is beyond me.””Hope we catch them, we all got somebody heading home or out this time of day,” another commenter stated. “Wish he was armed and eliminated some/all [of] the threat.”

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​Baltimore, Physical attack, Attempted armed robbery, Rifle, Sword, Ganging up, Elderly man, Brutal beating, Surveillance video, Crime 

The two lethal shootings during federal immigration operations in the last couple of weeks have led to restrictions on traffic stops by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Initially the traffic stops were temporarily paused after the shooting deaths of a Mexican migrant in Houston and a Colombian migrant in Maine.

‘Over half of all ICE field offices now do have body cameras, and the remainder of the field offices are expected within 60 days.’

President Donald Trump stepped in to order that the traffic stops continue as part of his promise for mass deportations, but a Daily Wire report on Thursday indicated that new restrictions were approved.

Traffic stops will be allowed in operations where at least one officer had a body camera and one teammate had training in specialized prosecutions. In addition, the stop needs to have an “operational” justification.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin said his ICE sources confirmed the report.

In both recent lethal incidents, no officers were wearing body cameras. Officials explained that the rapid expansion of officers led to a shortage of cameras available in the field.

“Basically, it boils down to, unless someone has a body-worn camera, no vehicle stops can be made,” one agency source said to the Daily Wire. “Since the majority of officers do not have body-worn cameras, hardly any stops will be made.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt admitted that the body camera rollout had faced difficulties.

“With respect to body cameras, I know there’s been some questions about that in recent days. Over half of all ICE field offices now do have body cameras, and the remainder of the field offices are expected within 60 days,” Leavitt said to reporters.

“It’s been a slower rollout than we would have hoped, but that’s because of the Democrats’ decision to shut down DHS for several weeks,” she added. “So, we expect to fully execute on the promise of body cams to all field offices across the country very soon.”

RELATED: Meth-like substance found in van of illegal alien killed by ICE, FBI says — but Democratic DA disputes

The Wall Street Journal reported that the pause on traffic stops was made unilaterally by Markwayne Mullin, the secretary of Homeland Security, and angered the president.

“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands,” Trump wrote in response on social media.

“The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch,” he added. “I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming!”

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​Ice traffic stops, Immigration and customs enforcement, Markwayne mullin, Immigration, Mass deportations, President donald trump, Politics