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GOP zeros in on South Texas Dem who urged Trump to ‘allow people to cross freely’
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FIRST ON FOX: A Democratic congressman representing a South Texas district that Donald Trump carried by double digits is emerging as a top Republican target, with the GOP arguing Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s shifting border record has left him politically exposed at home.
Though traditionally a Democratic stronghold, heavily Hispanic South Texas has trended sharply Republican in recent election cycles. Gonzalez narrowly won his 2023 election over former Rep. Mayra Flores by less than three percentage points. Additionally, the Texas redistricting push last year made Gonzalez’s district seven points more Republican. The race is widely considered a toss-up leaning Republican — one of the few pickup opportunities for the GOP in an unfavorable political climate.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft told Fox News Digital that Gonzalez’s record on border security and former President Joe Biden has come back to bite him, leaving him «like a fish out of water» in his district.
Gonzalez, however, dismissed these criticisms as Republicans «grasping at straws.» He emphasized that «If you look at my record, you’ll see I was one of the toughest Democrats in the country on President Biden’s approach to our southern border, and I continue working to fix our broken immigration system, support CBP and Border Patrol, and rid our streets of criminals.»
HOUSE CANDIDATE PREDICTS HISTORIC RISE OF ‘NEW GENERATION’ IN CONGRESS AS PARTIES TARGET KEY DEMOGRAPHIC
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (left), D-Texas, is facing a difficult reelection race against Republican challenger Eric Flores (right). (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Eric Flores campaign)
Under the redrawn Texas congressional map, Gonzalez’s district in the Rio Grande Valley is one that President Donald Trump won by 10 points in 2024, according to the Texas Tribune.
Highly optimistic about the GOP’s chances, Kraft said that South Texans «do not want to go back to the Biden days where cartels controlled the border and endangered the lives of farmers, families, and Border Patrol agents.»
Gonzalez opposed construction of a border wall in 2019, calling it a «4th-century solution to a 21st-century problem,» according to CBS News.
The outlet also quoted Gonzalez denying there was a crisis at the border in 2019, saying, «When people talk about violence streaming across the border, it’s just nonsense.»
During the Biden administration, Gonzalez took a mixed approach to border policy, at times urging the White House to curb «disorderly» crossings while also pushing for expanded asylum pathways and a more «humane process» for migrants. In 2023 he was critical of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to secure the border, accusing him of «grandstanding … about the way he is treating brown people,» according to the Rio Grande Guardian.
DEM CANDIDATE BLASTED BY GOP OPPONENT OVER JOKE ABOUT BANDMATE CONVICTED OF CHILD SEX ABUSE
An aerial image shows migrants waiting along the border wall to surrender to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United Staes on the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on May 10, 2023. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Image; Mandel Ngan – Pool/Getty Images)
At the same time, Gonzalez said that by adding additional penalties to crossing illegally after the end of Title 42, Biden and then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas «positively impacted our border,» adding, «and that’s a fact.»
«People could point fingers and say things, but the reality is, undocumented crossings are down by 70 percent,» he said.
Border crossings briefly dropped by roughly 65% to 70% after the end of Title 42, a COVID-era public health order that allowed authorities to quickly expel illegal border crossers. However, crossings climbed to record highs later that year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Approximately 11 million border encounters occurred over the course of Biden’s four years in office, according to DHS.
In Biden’s final year in office, Gonzalez voted for a House resolution condemning the «national security and public safety crisis» at the southern border, warning that migrants were arriving in «historic numbers.» He has also said the border was «out of control» under the Biden administration.
Since Trump returned to the Oval Office, Gonzalez has also gone on the record, saying, «I’m happy to see that the border is under control,» according to the Rio Grande Guardian.
In an unearthed interview last year, Gonzalez urged Trump to «lighten up» enforcement and «allow people to cross freely» if vetted, arguing such migrants are «a very important part of our economy.»
DEM CANDIDATE’S UNEARTHED ‘WINTER TEXAN’ COMMENT COULD HAUNT CAMPAIGN
A Border Patrol agent apprehends illegal immigrants shortly after they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States on Monday, March 26, 2018 in the Rio Grande Valley Sector near McAllen, Texas. (Loren Elliott/AFP via Getty Images)
During the same interview, Gonzalez asserted, «We need to find a pathway» for illegal immigrants who have been in the country for decades to «be here legally, pay taxes, pay social security and really get them out of the shadows.»
Gonzalez’s Republican opponent, Eric Flores, an Army veteran and former prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that «South Texas has paid the price for his total failure.»
«Vicente Gonzalez built his record on policies that opened the border and tied the hands of the very federal agents sworn to protect us,» he went on. «I’ve worked alongside Border Patrol and law enforcement on the front lines, both as a Soldier and as a federal prosecutor. I will always stand with them.»
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In response, Gonzalez told Fox News Digital that «Eric Flores and the NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] are drowning and grasping at straws.»
«If you look at my record, you’ll see I was one of the toughest Democrats in the country on President Biden’s approach to our southern border, and I continue working to fix our broken immigration system, support CBP and Border Patrol, and rid our streets of criminals — something this Administration claims it is doing, but instead let DHS shutdown and fixates on targeting law-abiding individuals and their families,» he said.
«The truth is, Republican voters in South Texas are turning away from the extreme mass deportation policies Rubber Stamp Eric will support. The same ones that have led to American citizens being murdered on our streets and labor shortages that are making housing and other essentials more expensive.»
Fox News Digital also reached out to a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for comment.
elections, texas, democrats elections, immigration, republicans elections, border security, greg abbott
INTERNACIONAL
Trump predicted Israel-Lebanon leaders would speak ‘tomorrow’ — Beirut shut it down as ceasefire emerges
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President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, in what he described as a major step toward ending weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Trump said he had spoken separately with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that both sides had agreed to begin formal talks aimed at reaching a broader peace agreement.
«I just had excellent conversations with the Highly Respected President Joseph Aoun, of Lebanon, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel,» Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday.
Trump said he has directed Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan «Razin’» Caine to work with both sides to achieve what he called a «lasting peace.»
IDF UNCOVERS HEZBOLLAH WEAPONS STASH INSIDE HOSPITAL IN LEBANON
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a crowded neighborhood south of Beirut, Lebanon, April 5, 2026. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo)
The president later said he plans to invite Netanyahu and Aoun to the White House for what he described as the first meaningful talks between Israel and Lebanon since 1983.
«Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly!» Trump wrote.
The announcement came after days of intense U.S. diplomacy and appeared to resolve an earlier dispute over whether Aoun would speak directly with Netanyahu.
«We are trying to create a little breathing room,» Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday, adding that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had not spoken in some 34 years and saying, «It will happen tomorrow.»
Earlier Thursday, Lebanese officials had insisted that Aoun would not speak directly with Netanyahu before a ceasefire was reached.
Three Lebanese officials told Reuters that Aoun had no plans to speak with Netanyahu in the near future, and two of the officials said Lebanon’s embassy in Washington conveyed that position to the Trump administration before Aoun held a phone call with Rubio.
A senior Lebanese official later told Fox News Digital that there was intense domestic pressure inside Lebanon against further contacts with Israel while the fighting continued.
According to the official, many in Lebanon believed the government had already entered negotiations without receiving anything in return, making a ceasefire a prerequisite for any direct contact.
But shortly afterward, Lebanon’s presidency announced that Aoun had spoken directly with Trump.
According to the Lebanese presidency’s official X account, Aoun thanked Trump for his efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon and achieve what it described as a lasting peace and stability that could pave the way for a broader regional peace process.
Aoun, who served as commander of Lebanon’s U.S.-backed armed forces before becoming president in 2025, said an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon would be a necessary first step before Lebanese troops could fully deploy to the border region.
The diplomatic dispute comes as the White House presses for a broader deal to end the regional war that erupted after Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group entered the conflict March 2 in support of Iran.
Hezbollah’s intervention opened a new front in Lebanon just 15 months after the last major Israel-Hezbollah war.
Pakistan, which helped mediate the April 8 ceasefire between Israel and Iran, said ending the fighting in Lebanon is essential to preserving that agreement.
ISRAEL WARNS HEZBOLLAH ‘PLAYING WITH FIRE,’ PRESSES LEBANON TO ACT ON WEAPONS PLEDGE
A damaged building after an Israeli strike, following renewed hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 6, 2026. (Stringer/Reuters)
«Peace in Lebanon is essential for peace talks,» Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said.
The Israeli security cabinet met late Wednesday to discuss a possible ceasefire in Lebanon, according to Israeli media.
Israeli officials have signaled openness to negotiations, but they are also insisting on continuing military operations until Hezbollah is pushed away from the border.
Israeli cabinet minister Gila Gamliel told Israeli media that Netanyahu had been expected to speak with Aoun «for the first time after so many years of no contact between the two countries.»
Israel and Lebanon remain formally at war and have had no direct leader-to-leader contact in decades.
The latest U.S. diplomatic push follows a rare meeting Tuesday in Washington between Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad and Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.
Those talks, held at the State Department under U.S. mediation, marked the first face-to-face discussions between senior Israeli and Lebanese officials in more than three decades.
Still, the prospect of a direct call between Netanyahu and Aoun has run into strong opposition inside Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which has opposed any contact with Israel, remains publicly against negotiations.
At the same time, Lebanon’s government has increasingly distanced itself from Hezbollah since the terror group entered the war.
The Lebanese government formally banned Hezbollah’s military activities March 2 and has spent the past year trying to disarm the Iranian-backed group without triggering a broader civil conflict.
Meanwhile, fighting intensified Thursday in southern Lebanon.
IRAN THREATENS TO END CEASEFIRE OVER HEZBOLLAH’S EXCLUSION FROM TRUCE DEAL
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, third left, U.S. deputy special presidential envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, second left, and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa A. Johnson, left, at the presidential palace in Baabda, in east of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency Press Office/AP)
Battles continued around the border town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, a longtime stronghold of Hezbollah — an Iran-backed terror group — that Israeli officials see as a key objective in the current offensive.
Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israeli forces were close to «overcoming» Hezbollah in Bint Jbeil.
The Israeli military’s immediate objective is to push Hezbollah farther from the border and prevent anti-tank missiles and other direct-fire weapons from threatening northern Israeli communities, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
He said Israeli troops are now holding what the military calls «defense lines» several kilometers inside Lebanon, positions designed to keep Hezbollah gunmen and anti-tank squads from once again overlooking Israeli towns.
«We’re going to make sure we keep diminishing them,» Shoshani said.
Lebanese security officials also said an Israeli airstrike destroyed the last remaining bridge over the Litani River leading into southern Lebanon.
The strike effectively cut off nearly a tenth of the country from the rest of Lebanon after earlier Israeli attacks destroyed other crossings.
HEZBOLLAH, IRAN UNLEASH COORDINATED CLUSTER BOMB STRIKES ON ISRAEL IN MAJOR ESCALATION
Smoke billows after reported strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon, March 6, 2026. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
Israel has vowed to turn the area south of the Litani River into a «no-go zone» for Hezbollah.
Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that Hezbollah operatives would no longer be allowed to operate south of the river.
The Litani River, which runs roughly 20 miles north of Israel’s border, has long been viewed by Israel as the line beyond which Hezbollah forces should not be allowed to operate.
Hezbollah responded Thursday with fresh rocket fire into northern Israel.
Warning sirens sounded in several Israeli communities, sending residents into bomb shelters. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
More than 2,100 people have been killed in Lebanon since March 2 and more than 1.2 million have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israeli officials say Hezbollah attacks have killed two Israeli civilians and 13 Israeli soldiers during the same period.
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Hezbollah members salute and raise the group’s yellow flags during the funeral of their fallen comrades Ismail Baz and Mohamad Hussein Shohury, who were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicles, in Shehabiya in south Lebanon April 17, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department, Lebanon’s embassy in Washington and the Israeli government for comment, but did not receive responses in time for publication.
Reuters contributed to this report.
conflicts, lebanon, benjamin netanyahu, middle east foreign policy, israel, war with iran
INTERNACIONAL
Cómo el hallazgo de una variante genética en perros Retriever puede beneficiar la salud humana
El Retriever de Nueva Escocia es un perro de tamaño mediano, pelaje rojizo y gran energía. Surgió en Canadá, donde se crió para atraer y recuperar patos durante la caza.
Esta raza se hizo conocida por su inteligencia y vitalidad, aunque también mostró una predisposición a enfermedades autoinmunes.
Por esta razón, investigadores de Estados Unidos, Australia, Suecia y Canadá analizaron muestras de ADN de perros de esa raza afectados por la enfermedad de Addison y otros trastornos autoinmunes.
El análisis permitió detectar que una variante en el gen RESF1 está directamente relacionada con el desarrollo de estas enfermedades en animales jóvenes.
Como el gen RESF1 también existe en humanos y cumple funciones parecidas en el sistema inmune, los científicos señalaron en la revista Scientific Reports que su hallazgo en perros podría ayudar a entender y tratar enfermedades autoinmunes en personas.
La investigación fue realizada por un equipo internacional de universidades y empresas. Desde los Estados Unidos participaron investigadores de la Universidad de California en Davis, LabCorp, Genentech, Mars Petcare, Zoetis y el Instituto Broad del MIT y Harvard.
En Australia colaboró la Universidad de Sidney, en Suecia la Universidad de Uppsala y SciLifeLab, y en Canadá la Universidad de la Isla del Príncipe Eduardo.
Enfermedad silenciosa en los retriever jóvenes
La enfermedad de Addison afecta las glándulas suprarrenales, que dejan de producir las hormonas necesarias para el cuerpo.
En los perros Retriever de Nueva Escocia o Toller, los síntomas suelen aparecer antes del año y pueden incluir debilidad, vómitos y pérdida de peso.
Muchos de estos animales enfrentan además otras enfermedades autoinmunes, lo que complica su salud y calidad de vida.
El equipo de investigadores quiso averiguar si este patrón repetido tenía una causa genética.
El objetivo principal fue analizar si la enfermedad de Addison en estos perros en realidad forma parte de un síndrome autoinmune múltiple.
Genética, datos y un avance crucial
Durante doce años, criadores de distintos países enviaron muestras de ADN de perros afectados y de sus familiares. Se recolectaron sesenta muestras, de las cuales cuarenta por ciento correspondía a perros diagnosticados antes del año.
Solo cinco de veinticuatro casos juveniles presentaron Addison como único problema. Diecinueve desarrollaron enfermedades autoinmunes adicionales, lo que refuerza la idea de un síndrome complejo. El equipo informó que “el 41,7% presentaba comorbilidades autoinmunes definidas”.
Las pruebas incluyeron estudios genómicos y secuenciación completa del ADN, lo que permitió detectar una asociación significativa en el cromosoma 27.
Se identificó una variante en RESF1 responsable del cuadro en el 76 por ciento de los perros que la heredaban de ambos padres.
El trabajo utilizó PCR en tiempo real, técnicas de inmunohistoquímica y análisis de tejidos para confirmar la infiltración de células inmunes.
Los perros jóvenes afectados vivieron en promedio solo dos años a pesar del tratamiento. El pronóstico dependió más de las otras enfermedades autoinmunes que del propio Addison, lo que mostró la gravedad del síndrome múltiple.
Después de identificar la variante, la Universidad de California en Davis desarrolló un test genético para criadores. El estudio indicó que “no se han reportado nuevos casos de Addison juvenil en perros de padres testeados”.
Prevención, límites y nuevos caminos
Los investigadores recomendaron usar el test genético en la crianza de los Retrievers de Nueva Escocia para evitar transmitir la variante y así reducir la cantidad de cachorros afectados.
Reconocieron que sus resultados se basan en una muestra limitada y que resulta difícil definir el síndrome autoinmune múltiple en medicina veterinaria.
El hallazgo del rol de RESF1 abre la posibilidad de prevenir enfermedades autoinmunes en animales y sirve como modelo para estudiar trastornos similares en los seres humanos, lo que podría beneficiar tanto a la medicina veterinaria como a la humana.
Ahora, la genética ofrece una esperanza para criar perros más sanos y, en el futuro, ayudar a personas con enfermedades similares.
Perro,Retriever de Nueva Escocia,animal,mascota,agua,chapuzón,alegría,movimiento,naturaleza,raza
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