Country music icon Don Schlitz, who wrote Kenny Rogers' hit 'The Gambler,' dead at 73

Don Schlitz, the country songwriter behind classics like "The Gambler," has died. He was 73.

The North Carolina native died Thursday at a Nashville hospital following what the Grand Ole Opry described as a sudden illness. The cause of death was not immediately known.

"We are heartbroken by the news of the passing of Don Schlitz. Don loved his family, his home state of North Carolina, and above all, songs and songwriters. He carried that love into every room, every stage and every lyric he ever wrote," said Sarah Trahern, Country Music Association CEO, in a statement Friday.

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"Not long ago, we shared a dinner, and as we were leaving, Don picked up a guitar and began to play. That is how I will always remember him, smiling and with a guitar in his hand. His legacy lives on through his music and the many artists and writers he inspired. He will be deeply missed."

Echoing that sentiment, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young said, "Don Schlitz’s place as a songwriting great would be secure had he never written ‘The Gambler’ or had he only written ‘The Gambler.’ Nashville was richer for his presence and is lesser for his absence."

Schlitz helped shape the sound and soul of artists like Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis and The Judds.

His lyrics fueled hits including "On the Other Hand," "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "When You Say Nothing at All," recorded by Keith Whitley and later by Alison Krauss.

Schlitz was born in 1952 and raised in Durham before packing his bags and heading to Nashville.

The country star was later inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

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"I will never be able to believe that I deserve this, unless I receive it as a representative of my family, my mentors, my collaborators, my promoters and my friends," he said in 2017. "That’s the only way I can deal with this."

His breakout moment came with "The Gambler," recorded by Rogers in 1978, a song that didn’t just define an era — it expanded country music’s reach into the mainstream.

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Rogers later praised Schlitz, saying, "Don doesn’t just write songs. He writes careers."

Schlitz went on to pen tracks for a wide range of artists, from Tanya Tucker to Mary Chapin Carpenter, and even reunited Rogers with Dolly Parton for "You Can’t Make Old Friends."

Despite his behind-the-scenes role, Schlitz earned a front-row place in country music history.

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He was named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year four straight years from 1988 to 1991 and made history at the Opry as its only non-performing songwriter inductee in a century.

He debuted there in 2017 and joined as a member in 2022, a rare honor that underscored his influence far beyond the spotlight. The Opry’s Saturday night show will now serve as a tribute to his legacy.

Schlitz is survived by his wife, Stacey, his children and grandchildren — daughter Cory Dixon and her husband Matt Dixon, son Pete Schlitz and his wife Christian Webb Schlitz, grandchildren Roman, Gia, Isla and Lilah, brother Brad Schlitz and sister Kathy Hinkley.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

source https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/country-music-don-schlitz-kenny-rogers-the-gambler-dead-73

Walz rips Trump and Vance in Europe, says 'feeble-minded, trigger-happy president' has no exit plan for Iran

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz slammed President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at a conference for progressives in Spain on Saturday, accusing Trump of being a "feeble-minded, trigger-happy president" who has "no exit plan" for the ongoing conflict with Iran. 

Walz delivered the criticism after a crowd at the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization event in Barcelona heard video messages from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani about affordability and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaking about the "illegal and dangerous wars being waged by Netanyahu and Trump in Iran and Lebanon." 

"We've got a feeble-minded, trigger-happy president who plunged us into a war where no threat was present, with no clear objectives and no exit plan. We need to call that what it is. That's fascism. Or at least it's fascist curious as they would be," Walz said.  

"Look, it'd be easy to stand up here and just bash Donald Trump. He's an easy target. And if you know me, we don't get along very well," Walz added. "But we've got a lot of bigger fish and bigger problems to fry in this room, because the truth is, authoritarianism is not just confined to the United States. It's everywhere."

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Walz also said "Many of you might know me as the guy who isn't currently the Vice President of the United States, and all I have to say about that is I'm very sorry about that." 

"But unlike our current vice president, I'm not here to arrogantly lecture or scold you. I'm not here to pick up a fight with the Pope, and I'm not here to host a rally for some local wannabe dictator. Instead, I'm here to say thank you and to share some thoughts on what we can do to be part of a progressive movement that moves all of our countries forward," he continued. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for a response.

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Walz told the crowd at one point in his speech, "Please don't give up on the American people." 

"Go ahead and give up and condemn that monstrosity that sits in our White House," he added in reference to Trump. "Keep the pressure on. Keep calling it out. Keep standing up to it. Keep naming it. But know there are more good people that stand on the right side of history. There are more good people that care about equality, that understands it's not America First, it's humanity first. It's all of us together." 

The 2-day Global Progressive Mobilization conference described itself on its website as a "necessary alternative to conservative and far-right forces." 

Prior to Walz’s remarks, Trump took to Truth Social to criticize Spain.

"Has anybody looked at how badly the country of Spain is doing. Their financial numbers, despite contributing almost nothing to NATO and their military defense, are absolutely horrendous. Sad to watch!!!" Trump wrote Saturday. 

Begona Gomez, the wife of liberal Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, also was formally charged this week with corruption following a years-long probe into charges she and her husband deny, according to Deutsche Welle. 

source https://www.foxnews.com/politics/walz-rips-trump-vance-europe-says-feeble-minded-trigger-happy-president-exit-plan-iran

What UNC feeds its football players in the Bill Belichick era

Not all college football players are excited to eat their vegetables. But Bill Belichick's staff at North Carolina has found ways to make sure their players are.

Through a precise food science that requires chopping vegetables into "micro" pieces, or even sneaking extra grains and vitamins into the batter used to fry chicken, the staff is taking every liberty to gain a competitive advantage in the lunch room. UNC's nutrition, hydration and training strategy has become more critical than ever as the team looks to make a second-year jump, as each player has a specific strategy curated to them and their biology.

The strategy even includes a contingency plan, when the team is on the road, sometimes in locations where access to anything but fast food is limited. Public records show the team spent $129,644.38 at vendors that classify as fast food or fast casual during the 2025 season, but head nutritionist Amber Rinestine-Ressa claimed there was a scientific method behind those transactions.

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UNC football head chef Josh Grimes was the New England Patriots executive chef under Belichick from 2018-24. When they came to UNC last year, they recalibrated the nutrition strategy, an NFL-style approach, and Belichick says it is aligned with the fundamental purposes of Tom Brady's approach to nutrition.

"In New England, we had a lot of components and certainly some of Tom's things were important," Belichick told Fox News Digital.

"In the NFL we trained a lot of players who were significantly older than our players are here, and so some of the things that Tom did have more application than players who are older. But still fundamentally, good nutrition, good hydrations, pliability in the muscle tissues and so forth are are fundamentally good things that Tom worked with and that we embrace as well."

For UNC and its players, the strategy may also have NFL Draft implications.

"When you look at an NFL performance. Everything's important and everything that leads to your performance is important. So preparation training nutrition hydration, technique, fundamentals, it all adds up," Belichick said of whether he previously looked at a college player's diet and nutrition program when scouting them for the NFL.

Director of nutrition Amber Rhinestine-Ressa and Grimes aim to make food that players actually want to eat in order to keep them eating in the team cafeteria, and not out. To do that, they prioritize flavor, and work in the nutrition from there.

"If they're not going to change for me, I have to change my approach for each one of them," Rhinestine-Ressa said.

"We don't live in a perfect world, and to create buy-in, I have to have a little leniency... 80% of our diet, we are eating great food for us."

Of the remaining 20%: "Would we rather eat brown rice or a piece of bread? Well, brown rice might have more fiber, but how does our whole day look? Okay then, maybe we could eat this piece of bread."

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She admitted that some players have harder times eating their vegetables than others.

"Some of these kids come in and they see a whole green bean, and not a canned green bean, and they're not receptive to it," she said. "A lot of guys come in here and they have a very small box."

Once they work what kind of food the players want to eat, then come the "sneak" plays to make it as healthy as possible.

"Anywhere we can manipulate an ingredient to where it tastes good, but they don't know, we do," Grimes said.

The kitchen micro-dices vegetables into barely-noticeable pieces, and mixes that into several dishes, along with quinoa, to bolster the vitamin value.

The nutrition team even has a way of manipulating batter for deep-frying things like chicken, Grimes said through a combination of whole wheat flower and Avocado oil.

"We kind of use the fried stuff as more strategic, kind of morale. Like, we try to keep them happy," the chef said.

Grimes said he gave the players a suggestion box when building the menu, and the number one-selected suggested dish that came back was Oxtail. Thus, Oxtail has become a recurring favorite in the team cafe, and a critical play by the staff.

Famed Kansas City Chiefs former head dietitian Leslie Bonci employed similar strategies when curating food to keep the Chiefs healthy through the start of the Patrick Mahomes era and their first two Super Bowls in the last decade.

"Hide the health. Start with familiar and then amplify the nutrition for the intuition in the kitchen," Bonci told Fox News Digital in response to UNC's strategies.

The university credit card statements for Rinestine-Ressa, during the 2025 season and training camp (Jul. 1 to Dec. 4), were been obtained by Fox News Digital via a public records request. 

Of the $129,644.38 that was spent on fast food or fast casual, the team spent the most money at was Al's Burger Shack, at $15,803.

"Al's Burgers, they use 90-10 meat with me," Rinestine-Ressa said, adding they often purchased the burger place for post-game meals last season, for up to 260 people. "So I can influence what they use because we're buying it in such quantity."

Chick Fil-A was second at $13,092.03.

"Chick Fil-A is only ever done when we're about to get on a plane, because it's heavy, they're about to go on a plane, they're about to sleep, and we have no activity for the rest of that day. So I don't really care that much."

Jersey Mike’s was third at $12,613.51 and Mission BBQ was fourth at $12,598.52. Other big spends on the statements were made at popular national chains like Zaxby’s, Moe's Southwest Grill, Dave's Hot Chicken, CAVA and Panera Bread.

Still, there were zero transactions for American fast food staples McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, KFC, or Taco Bell. That is where Rinestine-Ressa draws the line.

"Hell no, those are hard no's, because I can't manipulate those, I can manipulate every other place," she said.

As UNC looks to improve on its 4-8 record from 2025, it will lean on the creativity and discipline of its chefs and nutritionists to make sure the players are fueled to do their jobs.

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source https://www.foxnews.com/sports/unc-feeds-football-players-bill-belichick-era

Ilhan Omar's office says she's ‘not a millionaire’ after $30M filing revised down to under $100K: report

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she is not a millionaire and blamed a major accounting error after a congressional financial disclosure listing her assets as high as $30 million drew scrutiny from Republicans and a congressional watchdog.

An amended filing reviewed by The Wall Street Journal shows Omar and her husband’s assets were between $18,004 and $95,000, a sharp drop from an earlier disclosure that estimated their holdings between $6 million and $30 million.

"The amended disclosure confirms what we’ve said all along: The congresswoman is not a millionaire," Omar spokesperson Jacklyn Rogers told the Journal, adding that the filing was corrected "as soon as the discrepancy was identified."

The revised disclosure came after the Office of Congressional Conduct requested additional information earlier this year, according to the Journal.

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Omar’s attorney said in a letter to the watchdog that the inaccurate filing was unintentional and stemmed from reliance on accountants.

"As the busiest of people, it is very common for members and their spouses to rely on learned professionals like accountants to make calculations and determinations that appear on public filings," the attorney wrote, according to the Journal. "While the error is of course unfortunate, there is nothing untoward and nothing illegal has occurred."

The amended filing shows Omar reported between $102,503 and $1,005,200 in income in 2024 from assets she and her husband own, according to the Journal. Documentation attached to the attorney’s letter showed $213,200 in distributions to her husband from his venture capital management firm and $3,000 from a winery.

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A 2025 email between Omar’s husband and his accountant valued the venture capital firm at $7.9 million and the winery at $1.5 million, though he owns roughly one-third of both businesses, according to tax documents cited by the Journal.

The updated disclosure also shows Omar has between $15,001 and $50,000 in student loan debt and a similar amount in credit card debt.

The discrepancy had already drawn scrutiny from House Republicans, who questioned how such a large swing in reported assets went unflagged.

In a February letter to Omar’s husband, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., raised concerns about financial disclosures showing the value of two companies, eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital, surged from tens of thousands of dollars in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024.

Comer said the sudden increase "raises concerns that unknown individuals may be investing to gain influence," and requested financial records tied to the businesses.

Omar’s office pushed back, describing Comer’s request as "a political stunt" and part of a campaign "meant to fundraise, not real oversight," according to The Associated Press.

A 2025 financial disclosure filing had previously listed Omar’s husband’s business interests in the millions, including a winery valued between $1 million and $5 million and a venture capital firm valued between $5 million and $25 million.

Those valuations were later revised in the amended filing, with the businesses listed as having no net value once liabilities were factored in, according to the Journal.

Omar, a progressive Democrat originally from Somalia and member of the "Squad," has frequently clashed with President Donald Trump since first being elected in 2018 and has long been a target of Republican criticism.

Trump has suggested that Omar benefited from Minnesota’s sprawling welfare fraud scandal involving many people from the Somali community, a claim she has denied.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton weighed in on the amended filing, questioning how previously unreported liabilities wiped out millions in reported assets:

"Ilhan Omar says her congressional financial reports have massive accounting error," Fitton wrote on X. She and her husband only worth 18k-86k, NOT $6 million-$30 million! Previously unreported ‘liabilities’ erase wealth!"

Fox News Digital has reached out to Omar’s office for comment and will update this story with any response.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

source https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omars-office-says-shes-millionaire-30m-filing-revised-100k-report

Obama urges Virginians to vote yes on redistricting measure that could give Democrats 4 more House seats

Former President Barack Obama is urging Virginians to vote in favor of a congressional redistricting ballot measure that if passed, could give Democrats a big boost in this year's midterm elections.

"By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important — not just for the Commonwealth, but for our entire country," Obama said in the video. "By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms."

The video by the former president, who remains one of the most popular former presidents and whose favorable ratings among Democrats remain very high a decade after leaving the White House, was released Friday on the eve of the final day of early voting ahead of Tuesday's statewide referendum.

If the ballot measure is successful, it would give the Democrat-controlled legislature — rather than the current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia's congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.

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That would give Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms, as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.

"By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we're counting on you," Obama said in the video.

Republicans call the Democrats' redistricting effort an "unconstitutional power grab." Democrats counter that it's a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented by Republicans in other states under the urging of President Donald Trump.

The video by Obama is the former president's latest effort tied to the referendum. He has previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.

Virginians For Fair Maps, the leading Republican-aligned group opposing redistricting, is using past comments by Obama against political gerrymandering in their ads opposing the referendum.

"Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and it’s harder and harder to find common ground," the former president says in a clip showcased in the spot.

A separate group that is also urging Virginians to vote no has sent mailers across the state featuring Obama's image alongside a six-year-old quote from the former president saying, "For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government."

Supporters of redistricting have dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum. But polling suggests support for the ballot initiative is only slightly ahead of opposition, amid a surge in early voting.

Virginia is the latest battleground in the high-stakes fight between Trump and the GOP versus Democrats over congressional redistricting.

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Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP's fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, "Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five."

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump's redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

REPUBLICANS TARGET VIRGINIA GOVERNOR IN BID TO DEFEAT DEMOCRAT-BACKED REDISTRICTING

California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state's nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president's push.

In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state's GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Indiana's Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.

Florida is next up.

Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session that kicks off on April 28.

Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.

If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.

But it is very much up in the air — when the court will rule, and what it will actually do.

source https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-urges-virginians-vote-yes-redistricting-measure-could-give-democrats-four-house-seats

Rep Burlison demands FBI probe after top US scientists vanish or turn up dead

House Oversight Committee member Eric Burlison is demanding the FBI get involved after a string of "disturbing" disappearances and deaths involving U.S. scientists and researchers with access to top-level secrets.

Burlison described the pattern as "too coincidental" to ignore after at least 10 researchers have gone missing or turned up dead in the last two years.

"This is a rattling call to pay attention to this issue and make sure that our nation's top scientists are safe and secure. This is too coincidental," the Missouri republican said Friday on "Fox & Friends."

"We have to be investigating this. We need to have our nation’s top investigators, the FBI and every agency looking into this matter," he added.

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Burlison said his office first became aware of the trend last year when an individual scheduled to speak with him, Matthew Sullivan, died by suicide under what he described as suspicious circumstances. He said his office referred the case to the Office of the Inspector General and the FBI, which he said deemed it "credible and urgent."

The recent disappearance of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William "Neil" McCasland in February was another wake-up call. McCasland had been involved in research on unidentified anomalous phenomena and held top roles in space research.

Authorities at the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico said he walked out of his home while his wife was out, leaving his phone behind but taking his wallet and a gun. McCasland’s wife wrote on Facebook that her husband retired years ago, and that it’s "quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him."

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Still, Burlison said the number of cases warrants an investigation.

"What's really disturbing when you look back and reflect on it, you've got Monica Reza, you've got Anthony Chavez, you got Melissa Cassius and you have Steven Garcia, all of which, along with General McCasland, walked out of their homes," Burlison said.

MISSING GENERAL, SCIENTIST DEATHS TIED TO SECRET US WORK PROMPT WHITE HOUSE PROBE

"These are some of the most advanced scientists, researchers in our nation, some of the most important people for our nation's national security efforts, and they all just mysteriously disappeared," he added.

President Donald Trump addressed the disappearances this week but did not say whether he believes the cases are connected. He noted that he would know more soon, having just emerged from a briefing on the subject.

"Hopefully, I don't know, coincidence, if you want it, whatever you want to call it. But some of them were very important people, and we're [going to] look at it," Trump said.

source https://www.foxnews.com/media/rep-burlison-demands-fbi-probe-top-us-scientists-vanish-turn-dead

Turkish grad student who co-authored anti-Israel op-ed at Tufts self-deports after legal battle with DHS

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University medical graduate student from Turkey whose charges were dropped after DHS detained her for allegedly "[engaging] in activities in support of Hamas," has self-deported to Turkey, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

Ozturk self-deported from the U.S. late Thursday night on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, according to sources familiar.

Ozturk was detained by ICE in Somerville, Massachusetts, in March 2025, sparking a battle between the Trump administration and a federal judge over her detainment.

The Tufts graduate student was living in the U.S. under an F-1 student visa, which the Trump administration revoked around March 21, 2025. At the time her visa was revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration were cracking down on student visas for students who were involved in protests and demonstrations regarding Israel and Palestine.

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"After 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my Ph.D. and to return home on my own timeline," Ozturk said in a statement. "The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for. With them in mind, I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States – all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights."

Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece on March 26, 2024 that was published in Tufts Daily, a student newspaper on campus.

"Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide," the op-ed read. 

The authors, including Ozturk, were critical of the university’s response to anti-Israel protests, saying that the university should publicly acknowledge Palestinian suffering. 

Rubio specifically referenced opinion pieces in a statement surrounding the revoking of student visas, notably after the arrest of Ozturk on March 25, 2025.

DHS SAYS COLUMBIA STUDENT TAKEN INTO CUSTODY IS ILLEGAL ALIEN WHOSE VISA WAS TERMINATED UNDER OBAMA ADMIN

"If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you're coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus — we're not going to give you a visa," Rubio said.

Trump's Department of Justice also weighed in on Ozturk's self-deportation.

"Attending elite colleges and universities in the United States is a privilege afforded to foreign students who respect our values and follow our laws," a DOJ official told Fox News. "Rümeysa Öztürk chose not to abide by those simple conditions, and as a result left the United States - something the Administration sought to accomplish from the beginning. We will continue to seek the deportation of any foreign student who abuses their opportunity to study in America by engaging in vile antisemitism, harassment, or other illegal behavior."

Following Ozturk’s arrest, she was transferred to Methuen, Mass., then Lebanon, New Hampshire, and Vermont before she was sent to the South Louisiana ICE processing facility, according to reports.  

Protests erupted at Tufts and across the country over her arrest, and two months later she was released on bail.

ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATOR MAHMOUD KHALIL ONE STEP CLOSER TO DEPORTATION WITH IMMIGRATION BOARD RULING

The legal battle continued between the Trump administration and Ozturk, who was legally represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), until Feb. 9 when Biden-appointed Boston immigration Judge Roopal Patel terminated deportation proceedings. 

Patel ruled that the Department of Homeland Security lacked the legal grounds to deport her. 

"I grieve for the many human beings who do not get to see the mistreatment they have faced brought into the light," Ozturk said in a statement released by her attorneys after the ruling. "When we openly talk about the many injustices around us, including the treatment of immigrants and others who have been targeted and thrown in for-profit ICE prisons, as well as what is happening in Gaza, true justice will prevail."

THE US GOVERNMENT TARGETED ME FOR MY POLITICAL SPEECH. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, TOO

The Trump Department of Justice fired Patel, among other immigration judges, last week.

Since Patel ruled as an immigration judge and not a federal Article III judge, the Trump administration and the executive branch has authority over her tenure.

The White House issued a press release on April 9, titled: "Era of Amnesty Is Over: President Trump Restores Rule of Law to Immigration Courts," in which the administration touted "the most aggressive and successful immigration enforcement overhaul in modern history."

"President Trump promised to end the open borders nightmare — and he is delivering on that promise with unrelenting force. The era of catch-and-release, mass releases, and activist judicial amnesty is over," the White House statement reads.

source https://www.foxnews.com/politics/turkish-grad-student-co-authored-anti-israel-op-ed-tufts-self-deports-legal-battle-dhs