by Matthew Holloway | Sep 4, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
On Saturday, in a video recorded at the ICE Eloy Detention Center, Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ03) again falsely described the illegal aliens held there as her “constituents.”
In the political spectacle, a repeat of Ansari’s controversial visit in July, the congresswoman accused the facility of holding her “constituents, who are trapped inside,” claiming there is “dehumanizing, racist, unacceptable treatment happening inside the Eloy Detention Center that is run by a private company called Core Civic.”
Ansari cited the ongoing case of a foreign national known as ‘Yari,’ identified by ABC15 as Arbella Rodríguez Márquez. Yari is a U.S resident whose green card was revoked after being denied parole on human smuggling charges in July and suffers from Leukemia.
Ansari claimed that Rodríguez Márquez has not received “proper medical treatment,” however, these allegations have been repeatedly refuted by the Department of Homeland Security DHS. Assistant Secretary of the DHS Tricia McLaughlin stated in a post to X:
In her remarks, Ansari said that “the accusations against [Rodríguez Márquez] are egregious,” and that she “was a green-card holder.” But she continues to refer to the foreign national as a “constituent,” despite a statement from a DHS spokesman in July that firmly rejects Ansari’s allegations and Rodríguez Márquez’s misrepresented status as the congresswoman’s “constituent.”
After Ansari claimed that she was denied access to the Eloy Detention Center in July, a DHS spokesman told 12News:
“Allegations that Congresswoman Ansari was denied access to the Eloy Detention Facility are FALSE. After being told that Ansari would be unable to speak with detainees—illegal aliens, not constituents—she did not even show up or have the courtesy to send a cancellation notice to ICE.
“While ICE law enforcement officers face an 830% increase in assaults against them, Congresswoman Ansari is has demonized ICE law enforcement in the past—calling them a ‘military force hell bent on terrorizing immigrant communities.’
“Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are FALSE. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
As a legal resident in the United States and not a citizen, even before the revocation of her residency, Rodríguez Márquez was unable to vote in U.S. federal elections legally. Following the revocation of her residency, her legal status reverted to that of a foreign national in the U.S. illegally or an illegal alien and a detainee.
Libs of TikTok observed the discrepancy in a post to X writing, “Rep Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) says she has ‘many constituents’ who are in ICE detention facilities[.] Why do you have ‘constituents’ who are in our country illegally @RepYassAnsari?? Does @RepYassAnsari care this much about her actual constituents who are American citizens?”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Ethan Faverino | Sep 3, 2025 | News
By Ethan Faverino |
The Trump administration announced that it has successfully located over 23,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who were previously unaccounted for during the Biden administration, marking a significant step in addressing the crisis.
This figure represents approximately 7% of the estimated 300,000 unaccompanied children that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported as untraceable under the prior administration.
Border Czar Tom Homan, a key figure in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the issue.
“The last administration wasn’t even looking for them,” said Homan. “We’re not going to stop until we find every one of them.”
The administration is prioritizing resources in sanctuary cities like Chicago, where local policies limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, to ensure the safety and accountability of these vulnerable children.
The Biden administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) was unable to contact approximately 85,000 unaccompanied children by phone after their release to sponsors between January and May 2023. A later DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report in August 2024 further highlighted systemic failures, estimating around 300,000 unaccompanied children remained unaccounted for.
The report noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to monitor the location and status of these children after their release from federal custody, with over 32,000 failing to appear for immigration court hearings between fiscal years 2019 and 2023.
Additionally, 31,000 children were released to sponsors with invalid or incomplete addresses, enhancing the risk of losing track of them.
The DHS OIG report also revealed that ICE failed to serve Notices to Appear (NTAs) to over 291,000 unaccompanied children as of May 2024, meaning these children had no scheduled immigration court dates.
The report shows the heightened risk of trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor for children who did not appear in court, raising serious concerns about their safety.
In response, the Trump administration launched an aggressive initiative in May 2025 to conduct welfare checks on the estimated 450,000 unaccompanied children who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration.
By June, approximately 500 children were taken into government custody due to unsafe living conditions or immigration enforcement actions against their sponsors.
The issue was a focal point during a November 2024 Homeland Security Committee hearing, where congressional leaders examined the breakdown in government processes under the Biden administration that led to the disappearance of these children. The Trump administration’s proactive measures stand in contrast to the previous administration’s shortcomings, as evidenced by the historic low of 4,598 total apprehensions along the southern border in July 2025—the lowest ever recorded—compared to over 10,000 daily apprehensions under the Biden administration.
Additionally, ICE has arrested over 160,000 illegal immigrants within the U.S., primarily those posing public safety and national security threats.
“We have the most secure border in the history of this nation, and the data proves it,” said Homan. “President Trump has been a game changer, and his leadership makes the country safer every day. Promises made. Promises kept. Promises proven.”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Aug 22, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Social media commentator Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok account is calling for charges against current Phoenix City Councilwoman and former Arizona State Senator Anna Hernandez (D) after she allegedly posted a warning threatening the security of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and interfering with their legal operations.
In a now-deleted post, screen-captured by Libs of TikTok, Hernandez allegedly wrote, “ALERT/ALERTA” and provided an address in Phoenix where ICE Agents were observed to be operating, along with the main cross streets. She wrote, “ICE IS PRESENT/LA MIGRA ESTÁ PRESENTE” and provided a phone number for a “línea de Defensa” or line of defense, which traces back to the Puente Human Rights Movement, an illegal immigrant advocacy organization.
Libs of TikTok wrote, “Anna Hernandez (D), a Former Arizona State Senator and current Phoenix Councilwoman, made a post on her Instagram doxxing ICE’s live location. She’s interfering with ICE and helping criminal illegals evade arrest. Charge her.”
In a follow-up video post to the platform, Hernandez advised her followers to “resist by:”
- “Demanding transparency from our new police chief
- Forcing MCSO to cut ties with ICE
- Investing in care, not criminalization
- Protecting each other at the neighborhood level”
She wrote that President Donald Trump “federalized D.C.’s police — even though violent crime is at a 30-year low. He deployed the National Guard, swept through historically Black neighborhoods, and targeted residents experiencing homelessness.”
She then claimed, “We’re already seeing PPD violate the rights of unhoused people and put immigrants at risk of deportation. A Trump takeover of PPD would only escalate this violence.
As recently as May, Hernandez was organizing demonstrations against ICE at Arizona’s federal immigration court in Phoenix, writing, “ICE is back, making arrests at Phoenix courts. Community with safe status, it’s time to stand up and make our voices heard!”
The allegations against Hernandez came just days after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was forced to relocate her personal residence due to increased threats to her person and family, along with “vicious doxxing,” described by a Homeland Security spokesman to Fox News.
“Following the media’s publishing of the location of Secretary Noem’s Washington D.C. apartment, she has faced vicious doxxing on the dark web and a surge in death threats, including from the terrorist organizations, cartels, and criminal gangs that DHS targets. Due to threats and security concerns, she has been forced to temporarily stay in secure military housing,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Secretary Noem continues to pay rent for her Navy Yard residence,” she added. “It’s a shame that the media chooses sensationalism over the safety of people enforcing America’s laws to keep Americans safe.”
In July, ICE officers reported a massive increase in assaults, according to a memo sent by U.S. Homeland Security, with extremist groups targeting ICE personnel and their families through similar coordinated doxxing.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Aug 17, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The case of a Chinese illegal-immigrant-turned-Peoria restaurateur, Lai Kuen “Kelly” Yu, is raising questions among the Republican Party grassroots.
Yu was arrested on May 28th by ICE agents, and her pending deportation back to China has caused what many see as an inexplicable alignment of Democrat politicians, one Republican leader, and the avowedly anti-Trump group ‘Northwest Valley Indivisible.’
Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, laid out plainly in a written statement to AZCentral that Yu, who was reportedly trafficked into the U.S. illegally in 2004, has exhausted all legal avenues to remain in the country. “Lai Kuen Yu, an illegal alien from Hong Kong, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona on February 4, 2004, and two days later was released into the country. She exhausted all her due process and appeals. She has no legal pathways to remain in the U.S.”
Lisa Everett, Republican chair of Legislative District 29, told The Center Square in an interview this week contrary to court records, “Kelly is a woman who came to the United States when she was 18 years old, 21 years old at the time. She was pregnant, fled China due to the one-child policy, and when she arrived, she immediately applied for asylum.”
“She sponsors the high school softball team. She helps with fundraisers for the fire and police department. She has no criminal record, and she does in fact pay her taxes, the business as well as her personal because there are forms you can use to do that,” claimed Everett. “She was scooped up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while she was at an immigration meeting that she had to go to because she is married now, and she’s trying to use being married to an American to become a citizen.”
Everett has teamed up with Brent Peak, co-chair of radical leftist activist group Northwest Valley Indivisible, which has rallied with the socialist Working Families Party and aggressively targeted the GOP’s top priority ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, and his supporters.
As recently as April, Everett, her LD29 team, and supporters from Legislative District 28 were out counterprotesting against Indivisible’s anti-Trump demonstrations on an almost daily basis for nearly two weeks.
The stunning about-face has made significant waves among West Valley Republicans. One commenter on a post by the Maricopa County Republican Committee asked, “Why is she still in position of the Republican chair?”
Another commenter observed, “We’re seeing a growing problem of white progressive women rebranding themselves as ‘conservatives’ just long enough to slide onto Republican tickets. They talk a good game on vague GOP talking points, but when it comes to the hard issues — border security, law and order, the culture war — they fold right back into Democrat-lite positions. This is how the Uniparty works: infiltrate, dilute, and derail. If we don’t vet candidates for values instead of just labels, we’ll keep getting wolves in MAGA clothing.”
Alongside Everett and Brent, prominent Democrats, including Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, and Congressman Greg Stanton, have also weighed in on the matter to support Yu. However, the story of Yu’s illegal entry into the U.S. is not entirely clear-cut, and many unanswered questions remain.
According to Yu’s husband, Aldo Urquiza, per AZ Central, she immigrated to the United States illegally via Mexico through a human smuggler. She was reportedly pregnant and fled China due to the CCP’s one-child policy. Initially, she sought legal asylum in the U.S. in 2004 and was released. According to U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, a federal immigration judge issued a removal order in 2005, as reported by Fox 10. This order went through various appeals until Yu was denied asylum by the Ninth Circuit Court in 2016. However, according to the August 2016 unanimous ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Yu’s request for asylum did not rest on China’s One Child Policy but rather her seeking protection “from her father,” and from “persecution based on discrimination against her as an unwed mother.”
The court found:
Lai Kuen Yu, a native and citizen of China, petitions pro se for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) order dismissing her appeal from an immigration judge’s decision denying her application for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252. We review for substantial evidence the agency’s factual findings, Zehatye v. Gonzales, 453 F.3d 1182, 1184-85 (9th Cir. 2006), and we deny the petition for review.
Even if not barred from asylum based on firm resettlement, substantial evidence supports the BIA’s determination that Yu did not demonstrate that she suffered harm rising to the level of persecution in Hong Kong or China. See Nagoulko v. 1NS, 333 F.3d 1012, 1016 (9th Cir. 2003) (persecution is “an extreme concept that does not include every sort of treatment our society regards as offensive”).
Substantial evidence also supports the BIA’s determinations that Yu failed to demonstrate the government would be unwilling or unable to protect her from her father, see Rahimzadeh v. Holder, 613 F.3d 916, 920 (9th Cir. 2010) (applicant bears the burden of establishing that abuse was committed by the government or an agent the government is unwilling or unable to control), and that Yu failed to establish a well-founded fear of persecution based on discrimination against her as an unwed mother, see Nagoulko, 333 F.3d at 1016-17 (being “teased, bothered, discriminated against and harassed” did not compel a finding of persecution); Fisher v. INS, 79 F.3d 955, 962 (9th Cir. 1996) (en banc) (persecution does not include “mere discrimination, as offensive as it may be”). Thus, Yu’s asylum claim fails.
Because Yu failed to establish eligibility for asylum, she necessarily cannot meet the more stringent standard for withholding of removal.
McLaughlin told The Center Square in an email, “On November 14, 2013, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed her appeal and upheld her final order of removal. On August 23, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied her appeal. On June 12, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted her a temporary stay of removal while they consider her motion to reopen. She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal proceedings.”
While Yu is lauded by her supporters for her civic contributions to her community, critics question how her minor generosity absolves her of illegally overstaying in the U.S. for 21 years.
“Why are so many Democrats and even at least one Republican lining up to take up her case when Yu’s deportation was initiated under the Biden Administration after being adjudicated under the Obama Administration,” questioned one Republican activist.
Yu married her husband Aldo Urquiza in 2025, and according to Everett, is “trying to use being married to an American to become a citizen,” raising the question whether this attempt, if true, places Yu at risk of prosecution under 8 U.S.C. § 1325 and 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a).
According to a source on Capitol Hill, several members of Congress have inquired as to the status of the case and the implications suggest that, short of direct intervention from President Trump, Yu’s deportation order is likely to stand.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jul 16, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-LD15) suggested Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ handling of a “foreign cyberattack” looks like a “massive cover-up” in a fiery exchange on X, posted Tuesday.
Further allegations from Hoffman that “Adrian Fontes is lying” followed Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer’s post about the reported hacking of the Secretary of State’s Candidate Portal. Hoffman added that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are now involved in the matter.
In his initial post Bowyer wrote, “BREAKING NEWS: I was just was told by an inside source at the legislature that it appears the Arizona Secretary of State’s portal was hacked, believed to be impacting the Candidate portal, but possibly much more.”
The Secretary of State responded with a reference to his office’s July 1st press release writing, “Your ‘inside source’ finally read the press release we issued on July 1? Breaking news indeed.”
In the press release in question, Fontes’ office stated:
“The Secretary of State’s Office detected and successfully responded to a malicious adversary that targeted the Arizona Secretary of State’s website. These attempts were investigated, our security controls tuned for similar attack patterns, and applicable threat intelligence was shared with our cybersecurity partners. The Arizona statewide voter registration database was not targeted and is unaffected by this event. The integrity of all Secretary of State systems has been maintained and the office remains in a heightened security posture as we continue to monitor for new and evolving threats.”
In a statement Fontes said, “Our office identified patterns of activity consistent with what others are now publicly acknowledging, and we took decisive action to strengthen our defenses early on. I’m proud to say that critical systems—like Arizona’s voter registration database—remained secure and protected throughout. We will continue to lead with urgency and vigilance, because defending democracy doesn’t come with a pause button.”
In a response posted Tuesday night, Hoffman blasted Fontes writing, “July 1st press release looks like a MASSIVE cover up[.] FBI & DHS (at least!) now involved[.] A private briefing was held TODAY and legislators have confirmed that a ‘foreign cyberattack’ on AZ’s election system occurred[.] The public is totally in the dark[.] Adrian Fontes is lying!”
In a follow-up post he wrote, “AZ ELECTION CYBER ATTACK COVER-UP Legislators report a briefing last week for GOP members downplaying severity of hack[.] NOW: Reports of a briefing today for DEM legislators only telling the full story[.] FBI & DHS are confirmed to be involved[.] Why is Adrian Fontes lying?”
AZ Free News has reached out to Senator Hoffman seeking elaboration on the “private briefing” held Tuesday and the involvement of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security that “confirmed” a “foreign cyberattack’ on AZ’s election system.”
As of this report no response has been received.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
