Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
A far-right Florida congressman was just caught on video rifling through a voter’s mailbox, which is a textbook federal felony. A Republican congressman in South Carolina is turning on Donald Trump for endorsing his primary opponent, accusing the president of abandoning his MAGA base. Minnesota is suing Texas’ Republican governor for refusing to extradite an ICE agent charged with shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis. And a new bombshell report finds that ICE has knowingly hired and even promoted agents with histories of sexual violence against women and children.
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GOP Lawmaker Caught Committing Felony on Camera
Republican Congressman Randy Fine of Florida has built his political career on making bigoted remarks, especially about Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community. Now he’s facing accusations of committing a federal felony, which a voter caught on their doorbell camera.
The video shows Fine canvassing ahead of today’s primary in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. He seen ringing a voter’s doorbell. When nobody answers, he opens the mailbox and looks through the contents for several seconds before walking away.
Fine’s office confirmed to TMZ that it’s him in the video. Legal experts note that 18 USC Section 1702 clearly states that makes tampering with someone else’s mail is a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Fine is running with Trump’s endorsement. Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin mocked the video, joking that MAGA’s newest hero is now breaking federal law “just like Daddy Trump.” Former Florida candidate Barbie Harden Hall called it creepy and said Fine was a menace to basic decency.
I know the news is a lot these days but it’s worth just stating for the record that we’re talking about a sitting congressman getting caught digging through a stranger’s mail while trying to win their vote. Whether he’ll be charged remains to be seen, but the video will last forever.
MAGA Congressman Turns on Trump for Endorsing His Primary Rival
A real rift is opening up inside the Republican Party in South Carolina.
GOP Congressman Ralph Norman, who is vice chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is running in a two-way Senate primary runoff against Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. Trump endorsed her over Norman in next week’s runoff, and Norman is furious.
Norman told Bloomberg the president’s decision is “an enigma,” insisting that true South Carolina conservatives are backing him while “so-called Republicans” back Graham and Trump. Norman has the endorsement of Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, along with the support of outgoing Congresswoman Nancy Mace.
Norman also questioned why Trump was spending time in a deep-red state campaigning against one of his biggest supporters, arguing Republicans would be better served by the president focusing on races in swing districts in New York, Minnesota, or Virginia. He also pushed back on the idea that a Senate seat could be inherited, saying Darline was a great sister to Lindsey Graham but that alone shouldn’t qualify her for the job.
Graham finished first in the August 11th primary but didn’t clear the threshold to avoid the runoff. Norman says he hasn’t heard from Trump since first asking for his endorsement, and the White House has referred to Trump’s posts praising Darline Graham as the one to honor her brother’s legacy.
The Freedom Caucus’ second-in-command publicly accusing the president of siding with the establishment over the base shows a genuine crack in MAGA world that’s likely to widen even more between now and November.
Minnesota Sues Texas to Force Extradition of ICE Agent Charged in Shooting
Minnesota is now officially suing Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, after he refused to extradite U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Christian Castro. Hennepin County prosecutors charged Castro in the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis earlier this year, and he faces four counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Texas Rangers arrested him in May, and he remains jailed in the Lone Star State.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz initially sought to extradite Castro in June. Abbott still hasn’t signed off, even after prosecutors in Minneapolis formally requested extradition in July. Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison escalated this week with the lawsuit, arguing Abbott’s refusal to extradite Castro is unconstitutional. Ellison added that Abbott is trying to prevent Castro from being held accountable in the jurisdiction where the alleged crimes occurred.
The shooting happened in January during Operation Metro Surge, which was the name the Trump administration gave its ICE crackdown in Minneapolis. Prosecutors say Castro was chasing a man who fled into his home. The ICE agent then fired through the front door, hitting the man’s roommate, Julio Sosa-Celis, in the leg. Federal prosecutors initially charged the two immigrants based on Castro’s claim of self-defense, but dropped the charges once body camera video debunked Castro’s version of events.
The shooting of Sosa-Celis happened just a week after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good, sparking nationwide protests. Minnesota clearly isn’t backing down, and now the ball is in Texas’ court. Abbott is running in a tight reelection race against Democrat Gina Hinojosa, and is likely doing his best to shore up his MAGA bonafides by stiff-arming prosecutors in the blue state Trump has gone out of his way to antagonize.
New Report Reveals ICE Knowingly Hired and Promoted Agents Convicted of Sex Crimes
A blistering new report from the Ohio Immigrant Alliance (OIA) has found that the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly hired, retained and even promoted ICE agents despite multiple documented warning signs of violent and/or predatory behavior.
The OIA looked at six decades of cases involving ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and related contractors charged or convicted of violent or sexual offenses. Of 152 people identified since 1982, more than 86 percent were charged with or convicted of sex offenses. 78 of the cases in question involved children. 45 percent were directly tied to the person’s law enforcement work.
The OIA report concludes that federal agents used their badges as a weapon for coercion and access to vulnerable people.
Some of the cases are jaw-dropping. One agent, who was convicted of assaulting a child as a juvenile, was later hired by Border Patrol and worked there for nearly 20 years before being caught again. Another, whose job was conducting background checks for DHS, was eventually convicted of soliciting a minor. Another agent allegedly assaulted two teenage sisters inside a CBP office. A former special agent for ICE was even sentenced to life in prison for assaulting two women and using his badge to threaten and silence them.
DHS’ pattern of enabling and protecting predators appears to be accelerating at a rapid rate. OIA documented 14 cases in 2025 alone and 22 more in just the first eight months of this year. That’s nearly a quarter of the entire dataset packed into two years. ICE reportedly doesn’t include family court records in its background checks, and recruits have even shown up to training without completing any background checks at all.
The OIA is now calling on Congress to freeze hiring for ICE and Border Patrol, rescreen the entire workforce and create independent oversight with real subpoena power. If Democrats retake Congress in the fall, this could be near the top of their list.
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I’m British Chris, with Raw America. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent media.
Here are some stories you may have missed:
Federal Judge Order Release of Files Pertaining to Most Prominent Epstein Victim. A federal judge in Manhattan this week ordered that Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s 2025 lawsuit against Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell be unsealed, following eight years of litigation. Maxwell’s attorneys had fought to keep the lawsuit’s contents sealed, but U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, a George H.W. bush appointee, ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act necessitated the unsealing process.
ICE Detains Mom While U.S. Citizen Husband and Their Baby Watch. Federal immigration authorities recently detained Kentucky resident Armelle Bondonga, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, during an immigration interview while her 18-month-old child and her U.S. citizen husband were present. Bondonga’s attorney said his client went to the hearing in order to abide by the legal process for her to obtain residency, given that she was married to a U.S. citizen. Bondonga, who is 21, entered the U.S. 13 years ago on a visa.
Judges Strike Down South Carolina’s Restrictions on Mail-In Voting. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a South Carolina law imposing restrictions on voters under 65 casting ballots by mail was unconstitutional. The law had required voters under 65 to obtain permission from their employer saying they wouldn’t be able to vote in-person on Election Day, or obtain documentation that they are caring for a sick or disabled person, are incarcerated, or will be out of their home county, in order to obtain a mail ballot. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Roger L. Gregory, a Clinton appointee, ruled that the law “constitutes an abridgement of the right to vote on the basis of age and contravenes the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.”
