The Concern Over Iranian Illegal Migrants, "Sleeper Cells"
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I'm Ben Domenech. I'm Ainsley Earhart. I'm Trey Gowdy, and this is the Fox News Rundown. Wednesday, June 25th, 2025. I'm Dave Anthony. The Iran-Israel conflict has led to a growing worry about a potential terror threat.

As immigration agents arrest Iranians here in the U.S. illegally. One of them has ties to Hezbollah. Another is an alleged former Iranian army sniper who had his Iranian army ID on him when they arrested him. And another was a known or suspected terrorist.

I'm Jessica Rosenthal. President Trump says he won't push for regime change in Iran, but what do we know about what the Iranian people want? When the Islamic regime was presented with a choice of reform versus repression, they've always picked up repression. And I'm Riley Gaines. I've got the final word on the Fox News Rundown. ♪

When Iran threatened to retaliate to the American airstrikes over the weekend that did damage to Iran's nuclear facilities and their bomb-making capability, there was a lot of concern about a potential for terrorism here in the U.S. And that threat may have slipped across the southern border in the surge of illegal immigration when President Biden was in office. It was gross incompetence. And among everything else, he let a lot of supercells in, many from Iran.

But hopefully we'll take care of them. What Biden did to this country should never be forgotten. That was President Trump on Air Force One on his way to the NATO summit going on today in the Netherlands.

Monday at a House hearing, Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked about the Iranians who came here. I can tell you we are on high alert and everyone is looking at that very closely. So how many Iranians are we talking about? According to a CBP source who got us some internal data, between 2021 and 2024, under the Biden years, when everything was open and unsecure, there were 1,504 Iranian nationals who Border Patrol caught

while crossing our southern border illegally. Bill Malugin is a Fox News correspondent based in L.A. He's reported many times from the southern border, and he's been covering the immigration raids and the Trump crackdown. We spoke to him Tuesday early in the afternoon. Of that number, 729 were released in the U.S., so that's almost half. That's 48%.

of the Iranians caught by Border Patrol were released into the country. Now, that does not account for the gotaways, which is what people are really worried about. During those four years, there were more than 2 million known gotaways. Those are people who were recorded sneaking into the country without ever being out

apprehended. And some people will sometimes ask me, well, if they were never caught, how do you know how many they are? How do they count it? It's because border patrol has cameras and sensors all over the place. They might see them on cameras. They might see them on sensors. They might see footprints in the sand. They just don't have the agents to get to them. So that's how they're able to calculate that number. You talk about 2 million. We're not talking about 2 million Iranians. We're talking about 2 million total. 2 million total, not 2 million Iranian. We'll never know how many Iranian gotaways there were. We'll also never know how many of the Iranians I mentioned who were

caught and recorded by Border Patrol, how many of them could have been on a terror watch list? Because last year, Fox News placed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests in with the Biden administration, DHS, asking for the nationalities of people on the terror watch list, not names, not any personal identifying stuff, just nationalities. And they repeatedly denied our requests. What about during now with this new administration? Have you gotten that information? I've talked to them and they told me they're going to look at opening it back up for us. So, yeah, hopefully we're going to be able to get that. But

Yeah, I mean, so just to put it in a nutshell, 1,500 Iranians came across, about 729 were released, and we don't really know how many, if any, were on its air watch list. We do know in the last couple of days that ICE agents have apprehended some of these Iranians here. Do we know if they're... A lot of times these ICE raids have gone after people here illegally who have committed crimes, who are considered national security threats. Are they...

In both categories or just the threat category? Both. So they arrested 11 Iranian nationals in a 48-hour span over the weekend. And one of them has ties to Hezbollah. Another is an alleged former Iranian army sniper who had his Iranian army ID on him when they arrested him. And another was a known or suspected terrorist. They call them KSTs.

So some other ones had criminal convictions for weapons. So again, it's just 11 people, but it does show that ICE is now, given this threat, turning their eyes towards trying to find some of these Iranians who are in the country, who may have final orders of removal, or who may have questionable ties in their past, and they want to scoop them up. There was an American citizen also arrested for, accused of harboring one of these weapons.

uh... iranians in the country illegally we hear about the once in a while americans caught up in these raids that ices been conducting is that how they get caught up or some of mistakenly caught up uh... it's usually pretty purposeful i mean that you have to blatantly interfere with ice or or harbor there's different crimes for it a lot of his eight u_s_c_ thirteen twenty four which is harboring uh... a fugitive really galilean and the way i send d_h_s_ and d_o_ j look at it is

If you try to impede ICE's efforts in any way, shape or form to stop them from doing their job in arresting an illegal immigrant, whether that's physically trying to block them or say hiding somebody in your basement or something like that,

that's harboring a fugitive and it's interference, it's obstruction of justice and they're going to go after you for it. And we're starting to see these prosecutions, right? Not just Joe Schmoes on the street. You had Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin get arrested. You've had politicians being arrested. You had Representative LaMonica McIver in New Jersey being arrested. So they are arresting people if they try to interfere with ICE. And she's facing federal charges, Congresswoman McIver. There was a mayoral candidate in New York City who I don't think has been charged.

for getting involved. Yeah. So you've been dealing with the border surge in the Biden years and now with what's happened with the crackdown in the second Trump presidency. You've been with ICE on some of the operations. There's one in particular a couple of days ago last week where you went out and they arrested someone who said,

You talked to him. This doesn't happen very much. You actually interacted with someone that ICE was arresting. Only Fox News was with ICE and HSI officers in Los Angeles as they moved in to take down a high-priority aggravated felon. His name is Alexander Palacios Guevara.

Now that this convicted murderer is in federal custody, he's coming here to the ZEISS facility where he's going to be booked. They're going to take his fingerprints, take his biometrics. He'll be placed in a cell. But as we were reporting on what would happen next with Guevara, he interrupted us to repeatedly say he shouldn't be deported because he has a special form of relief called CAT. ZEISS says you have a deportation order since February 2024, sir. No, I just got CAT on December the 18th.

of last year by the BIA. You can call my lawyer. So he starts talking to you. Were you shocked? I was. I've done a lot of ICE operations. That's the first time I've ever had someone talk to me. And yes, he was a convicted murderer from El Salvador.

And Ice was about to take him in through the Sally port, and then he starts yelling out, no, no, no, I have cat, I have cat. And at the time, I thought he meant like he physically had a cat at his house that he didn't want to go hungry or something like that. That's fair. Yeah, why wouldn't you? He says...

And then he goes, call my attorney. So it turns out we find out the next day he had a form of protection called DCAT, and that's deferred removal under the Convention Against Torture that was granted to him in December 2024 under the Biden Department of Justice. And essentially what it says is.

He cannot be deported back to El Salvador because he fears someone in his home country will kill or torture him. Now, he can be removed to another country, a third-party country. Which we'll get to in a minute. Yep, but he cannot go back to El Salvador. So ICE actually had to briefly release him for a little bit. Then they went out and re-arrested him the next day because they figured, no way, if this guy's too much of a public safety threat, he's a convicted murderer, we're going to hold him and we're still going to try to remove him and we're going to wait for the Supreme Court case to come down, which came down last night.

All right, so when they arrested him and you had that interaction with him, you say he's a convicted murderer. Had he served his time? He did. Okay. He was sentenced to 25 to life, and that was back in 1994, and we believe he got out around 2019-ish, is what we think.

It's hard to get the records in California, but we know for a fact he was sentenced to 25 to life. And then he was allowed to stay here, and then in 2024, allowed to continue to be free. And the sanctuary state of California. I mean, he apparently wasn't handed over to ICE. Obviously, a convicted murderer would be high on ICE's list. And yeah, for whatever reason, he was just out living freely when ICE found him. Now to that Supreme Court decision Monday.

Then White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told Fox's Hannity is a big victory. It allows President Trump to send illegal aliens convicted of rape, murder, homicide, assault, battery, crimes against children to any country around the world that is willing to accept them. The justices in a 6-3 decision lifted a lower court block on sending illegal immigrants to countries they're not from if their homelands don't want them back.

The judge had ruled the migrants who challenged their deportations must remain in U.S. custody until their concerns about where they'll be sent are considered. It was about eight people who were put on a plane, a deportation flight heading to Africa. The Trump administration wanted to deport them to South Sudan because they were from countries where they're...

host country wouldn't take him back, but some of the worst of the worst, multiple convicted murderers, you had a child rapist, uh, other sexual crimes. And every guy on that plane had a deportation order. Some going back as far as 1999, 2009, 2000. I mean, these guys had their due process and they've been ordered deported, uh,

One of them when I was in third grade, you know, I mean, and a federal judge in Boston stepped in and said, no, issued a nationwide injunction, said you can't do these third party removals. And the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court and SCOTUS came down with a ruling that says, yes, they can remove them third party. And DHS put out a statement saying, quote, fire up the deportation flights because they're going to start loading them up.

So you've been doing this from the last several years. You've been back to the border since President Trump came back into office. What's it like now? Completely dead, completely quiet. If I were sent down there by Fox right now, I'd have trouble finding a single person.

I used to see thousands a day right in front of our cameras walking in line like they're in line at Disneyland, waving to our cameras. There's nothing going on down there right now. I mean, you consider across the entire southern border, almost 2,000 miles of it. The other day, they had 98 apprehensions. That is unbelievable.

Right. Absolutely unheard of. You couldn't fill up two school buses with that. I think one month in the Biden time, there was like 300,000. There was. And you just look at gotaways at the all-time highs of the Biden administration in 2023, they're averaging about 1,800 gotaways per day. Right now, it's, I think, 20. Do we have any word that maybe they're just waiting for something? There's caravans or something looming? I'm sure there's still migrants in Mexico, but it's...

People thought, well, there'll be a spring surge. Oh, there'll be a summer surge because it's seasonal. There's been nothing. It's gone even lower. The things we've seen traditionally in the past, they're not happening right now. There's just fear amongst migrants. Under Biden, everything seemed open and welcoming and they knew they were going to be caught and released. And you had Biden going out there saying, we got rid of all Trump's policies. We're

Then Trump comes in and it's a total 180. It's promising consequences. And what is he doing? He's showing images of people in shackles, people being sent to sea cotton, El Salvador, warning you if you if you don't self-deport, you're going to be arrested. And we might we might send you to South Sudan. So he's putting the fear in their minds. And that word of mouth spreads on social media right now is not the time you want to cross. There is a hearing.

Wednesday in Nashville for Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Judge wants him released. He's facing human trafficking charges. He's the one of all those gang members alleged that were sent to El Salvador in March. They brought him back. There was a big controversy about his deportation.

the administration is still going to try to keep him in custody, right? There is no world in which he'll be released onto American streets, even if this judge in his federal case for his human trafficking orders him to be released.

That's fine. That's his criminal case. ICE is still going to arrest him on civil immigration charges. There is no world in which he gets released on his criminal case and just goes out into the public. ICE has a detainer on him. ICE will find him. ICE will take custody of him. ICE will put him in immigration detention. He's going to be at some point

removed from this country. Yes. And now that they got third party removals approved by the Supreme Court, if he can't go back to El Salvador, maybe they'll try to send him to South Sudan now. We don't know. But yes, they will remove him. They will keep him in custody. And like DHS has said over and over, there is no world in which he'll be free on American streets. Bill Malugin, Fox News national correspondent based in Los Angeles, but here with us in the studio in New York. Great to have you here. Thanks for having me.

Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com.

I'm Emily Campagno. This week on the Fox True Crime podcast, I speak with Enrico County attorneys Matthew Ackley and Susan Parrish to discuss their prosecutorial work in the murder case of John Rafter Jr. Listen and follow now at foxtruecrime.com. This is Riley Gaines with your Fox News commentary coming up.

Before leaving for the Netherlands for a NATO summit, the president expressed optimism that Iran's nuclear program had been completely demolished. Aboard Air Force One, he was asked if he wants to see regime change in Iran. If there was, there was. But no, I don't want it. I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible.

regime change takes chaos and ideally we don't want to see so much chaos so we'll see how it does if there were to be regime change it would be up to the iranian people there's a feeling of hopelessness from them right now iranian american journalist carmel melamed is in touch with many young activists who he says have fled the capital city of tehran the irgc thugs and the besieged thugs

are still in control and people are really fearful that the regime is going to be lashing out and randomly arresting people, torturing, executing in order to keep people in their place.

Malamed says many Iranians have engaged in protest before, but when they hear talk of rising up, he notes people are not armed in Iran and they don't want to die. The only hope that they're holding out for is if some military, not the IRGC, but the army and the police decide to defect and

and join the people and give them arms. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grassi, told Martha McCallum on Tuesday that Natanz's nuclear facility suffered serious damage. He'd previously said Fordow was badly damaged. The Iranian nuclear program, he said, has been set back significantly, though he wouldn't put a time frame on it. And he still has questions about the whereabouts of roughly 900 pounds of uranium. Iran's parliament is considering ending ties with the IAEA.

Now, those in touch with the Iranian people say they are well aware of all of this, everything that's gone down over the last two weeks.

The people in Iran that have reached out to me and other my colleagues who are Iranian or Iranian-American, they basically have a range of opinions on this. Dr. Nazni Moirian has a PhD in Iranian foreign policy, and she's an associate fellow at the Middle East Institute. We spoke Tuesday afternoon. And I don't know if I can relay every sentiment that they share with me. It's come

It's kind of homogenous how they feel about the turn of events, the president's decision, the sacrifice of American servicemen, the sacrifice of Israeli soldiers and what they've been through. So, you know, there's a lot of gratefulness going on and gratitude. Do they have an understanding of...

what has happened, like that the political leadership hasn't necessarily been impacted, but the IRGC and nuclear scientists have. Like, do they have this full picture? Can you educate us about how they get their media if the internet is either spotty or not accessible at all times? That's a great question. They are fully aware.

Iranians are very sophisticated, very technologically connected. They have there's about 100,000 Starlink dishes, not pies. I mean, I don't know what the unit is called. And there is Starlink on. It has been on for some time in Iran. And, you know, there are ways that they could bypass Starlink.

the obstacles the regime has put in place to get online. Because they're so savvy, because they speak English fluently, I've been shocked by some of the videos I receive of even little kids as little as eight or nine years old that have

sent me their wish for their country in fluent English because they watch movies online and they have learned English. So I have no doubt that what I get from them is how they respond to the unfolding events.

Based on what you read and who you talk to, like, is there, for example, a belief that the nuclear program in Iran is over or that this is, is this looked at as a setback and that this regime will continue on and carry on and try and continue to build a nuclear weapon? When the Islamic regime was presented with a choice of reform versus reform,

repression they've always picked up repression so they have never wavered from understanding that the only way they can hang on to this power is by cracking down not only on their own citizens but spreading this mayhem this unrest this absence of ruin instead of access of resistance in the region so that is

is basically a continuation of what Khomeini in 1979, the leader of the Islamic revolution, had envisioned. So in other words, there is a belief that this, as long as this regime is, a nuclear program would be. So that, in other words, a nuclear program...

nuclear weapons program is really needed by this regime because it guarantees its shelf life. It prolongs its hold on power. We've had this argument that, you know, they're not going to exploit it over Israel. They're not going to exploit it over other adversaries. And that may have been true at some point 20 years ago. But as we'd seen with October 7th, there was a

switch that was reset. And we understand from the documents that were discovered both in the hands of IDF and the ones that were smuggled out to the Western countries that the Islamic regime has every intention to physically attack Israel, disarm Israel,

destroy Israel. And then once that's done, the rest of the world is their frontier. What is the obsession with Jews, with Israel, with the West? Is it a spiritual quest to destroy world Jewry? So the obsession that you and I understand, both as Jews and as people who are used to liberal ideas, is

is a growing obsession on behalf of Khomeini that the Western civilization is the root cause of evil and injustice. So they believe, their clerical regime believes, and Khomeini is the one that kind of handed this doctrine over, that the Muslim lands were usurped and destroyed

looted by the Jews and by the colonial powers. And there has to be a time where this needs to be avenged. And vengeance doesn't stop with the Western powers and the Jews, also individual vengeance. So he really hated the Shah of Iran. It was a personal vengeance because

In 1963, when he was exiled, the Shah of Iran had passed a set of reforms called the White Revolution that had given women full status, had given the women family protection laws, matrimonial laws.

had allowed them to really really um become a participant in the fabric of their society and help the iranian state achieve its glorious place in the community of nations so that's his personal vengeance against the shah of iran you know how come this is against the sharia women are not allowed to work women are not allowed to be seen in public women are not allowed to speak and sing and

be heard and their voices have to be only for their husbands. So, you know, like, you know, medieval things that we know and have read about. That kind of resonated with a branch of Muslim Brotherhood, which at the time, it was called Fidayen Islam, which means people who sacrificed their lives for Islam. And they took up the mantle of Khomeini.

married it to Marxists and intellectuals in Iran who saw a problem with moving forward, with progressing, with becoming part of the Western civilization. So the obsession that you said, and it's a correct word, is according to the leader of the Islamic revolution, Khomeini, is an obsession against

his conception of injustice to the Muslim lands by the Jews, by the Western powers, and then contemporarily by the state of Israel. President Trump says he doesn't want regime change. That would mean chaos. He said Iran can continue selling its oil to China. When you hear things like that, the reaction from Americans, whether it's the left or the right, there's this

desire not to be involved the way we have just become involved. What is your reaction to sort of our reaction to this? I'm not shocked. Who wants war, Jessica? And who wants to be doing somebody else's bidding? I mean, we've done every nation's bidding around the world. And

fought for them and really paid dearly about it, especially in the Middle East. Unfortunately, as Walter Russell Mead, my friend and colleague says, our achievements in Middle East are not crowned in glory. We have messed a lot of things up. So here's another scenario where Americans are looking at President Trump and saying, you know, you promised us not to take us to another war. And that's completely understandable.

What I like about the scenario, and I hear it even more often, is that I was told when I was a graduate student and then when I was a doctoral student and I spoke to many Iranian diplomats who came to the United Nations with a big smirk on their face that, you know, you guys are playing checkers when we're playing chess. And

You know, they would hang the word there and leave it at that. And now I think we have a president that plays poker. And that's exactly where you corner the Islamic regime. So I kind of understand how the president said we achieved our strategic objective, which was we will never allow them to have a nuclear weapon. We showed American military prowess.

We dropped 14 PO ordinances or the 30,000 pound bombs without losing a single serviceman. That's a huge achievement. And I still have my best ally, my most important ally in the Middle East as a friend,

And I have kept my promise to my nation. I think this is a win-win for America. It's a win-win for Israel because they still have a tight relationship. The Tel Aviv has a tight relationship with Washington, despite the back and forth and maybe the angry phone calls.

Tel Aviv has maintained a posture and will maintain a posture that we are watching you, the Islamic regime. We are watching you. We have infiltrated you. We know where you are. We know where you hide. We can shoot a missile from a thousand mile cross, like a three-point basketball game, and take your bad guys out. So...

So I think this is a win-win for Israel and U.S. And I'm very proud of the president for having made another tough decision, by the way. Dr. Nazim Moynihan, thank you so much for the time, the history lesson and your expertise. Appreciate you. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Thank you.

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Rate and review the Fox News Rundown on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It's time for your Fox News commentary. Raleigh Gaines. What's on your mind? Fifty-three years ago, a generation of fearless women paved the way for the rest of us. Leaders like Representative Patsy Mink, the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, and Bernie Sandler, known as the godmother of Title IX, fought to pass a law that guaranteed women the same rights as men to learn, compete, and succeed.

For most of history, women were denied the opportunity to grow and compete in sports. In 1966, Bobbie Gibb became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, but only by hiding in the bushes and running without an official number. A year later, Katherine Switzer registered under her initials, K.V. Switzer, and was nearly tackled by a race official trying to stop her from competing. These women and countless others laid the foundation for the creation of a separate women's division in 1972.

That same year, Title IX became law, opening doors for women to step onto fields and into leadership. These women were equipped to compete and win, both in sports and in life. Just this year, a record-breaking 235,735 women competed in NCAA sports, a testament to the enduring legacy of Title IX.

I am one of them. As a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer, I credit Title IX for my athletic career and for shaping who I am. Waking up at 4 a.m. to train for hours every day, racing against the clock and against my limits, learning how to lose, how to lead, and how to rise again. These experiences taught me discipline, humility, confidence, and camaraderie. They gave me a voice. They made me whole.

But just as women were reaching new heights, earning scholarships, shattering records, and leading teams, Title IX was hijacked. Democrats redefined Title IX to accommodate radical gender ideology, allowing men who identify as women to compete in women's sports, access women's locker rooms, and displace the very people Title IX was meant to protect.

This is a war on women. It's a deliberate coordinated effort to tear down the very structure built to elevate us. Just as we were finally reaching parity, our hard-earned protections were rewritten and erased. When I tied with a male swimmer at the NCAA Championships, I wasn't just denied a trophy. I was denied fairness. I was devalued and I was told to shut up and take it. That was the moment I realized this isn't just about me. It's about every girl whose voice, safety, and opportunity are being stolen.

Thankfully, change is happening. President Trump has proven to be a champion for women, standing up against gender ideology extremism. Under his leadership, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education have taken bold steps to restore Title IX to its original intent. The biological definition of sex under Title IX has been reinstated. Funding has been frozen for schools that violate the law. A new Title IX special investigations unit has been created to hold institutions accountable, and states like Maine and California have proven they have their work cut out for them.

Title IX was written to protect women based on biological sex, not self-identified gender. To lose that foundational truth is to lose the heart of the law itself. Because growth in sports is about more than medals. It's about pushing ourselves mentally and physically, developing character, working hard, failing with grace, and winning with integrity. Sports are the training ground for life, and if we allow Title IX to be redefined, we risk losing not just championships, but the next generation of women leaders.

The fight isn't over, but if we pursue truth with courage and clarity, we will win. For them, for us, and for every girl yet to chase her dreams, including our little girl, who will be born in just a few months.

Thanks for listening. Be sure to check out youtube.com slash outkick to check out all things Gains for Girls, my podcast with Outkick. You've been listening to the Fox News Rundown. And now, stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon Music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.

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