The White House criticized a Columbia University student's remarks about "murdering Zionists," with the student later being banned from the university campus.

Columbia junior Khymani James expressed "regret" early Friday after a video of him previously suggesting people should be "grateful" he wasn't "murdering Zionists" went viral online. 

Without explicitly mentioning what they were, James made the inflammatory comments that were first reported by The Daily Wire, during a livestream of an official Columbia inquiry in January.

COLUMBIA STUDENT BANNED FROM CAMPUS AFTER REMARKS ABOUT 'MURDERING ZIONISTS'

"These dangerous, appalling statements turn the stomach and should serve as a wakeup call," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "It is hideous to advocate for the murder of Jews. President Biden has been clear that violent rhetoric, hate speech, and Antisemitic remarks have no place in America whatsoever, and he will always stand against them." 

When asked by Axios if a White House employee would be fired if they made such statements, Bates said, "they would be fired immediately."

A Columbia University spokesperson said on Friday James had been banned from the campus, with university sources telling Fox News Digital disciplinary proceedings are now underway.

The University had previously put out a campus update calling the video "extremely alarming and upsetting."

COLUMBIA PROTEST LEADER EXPRESSES 'REGRET' FOR DISCUSSING 'MURDERING ZIONISTS,' SAYING THEY SHOULDN'T EXIST

"Calls of violence and statements targeted at individuals based on their religious, ethnic, or national identity are unacceptable and violate university policy," the statement said. "When there are violations of student conduct policies, they are reviewed and disciplinary measures are applied."

"We know that many of you feel threatened by the atmosphere and the language being used and have had to leave campus," Columbia said in a statement released by the President's Office on Friday. "That is unacceptable. Many of you also are concerned about being able to speak out for a cause you feel passionately about. That also is unacceptable. Fundamental to the research and teaching mission of our university is academic freedom and an environment free from discrimination and harassment for every member of our community."

"What is a Zionist? A White supremacist," James said in the resurfaced video.

"Be grateful that I'm not just going out and murdering Zionists," he said at another point. "I've never hurt anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way." 

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James was recently quoted by outlets such as CBS News and The New York Times as a spokesman for the anti-Israel protests at Columbia. In 2021, he was profiled in the Boston Globe at age 17 about his "confrontational" approach to fighting "injustice."

President Joe Biden has not yet traveled to Columbia University but recently came under fire for his statement in response to whether he condemns anti-Israel protests on college campuses. 

Following the president’s Earth Day comments at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, reporters caught up with Biden and asked, "Do you condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses?"

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"I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians," he responded. 

Fox News' Alexa Moutevelis and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report. 

Former President Donald Trump is speaking out aggressively against independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who he claims is a Democratic Party "plant."

Trump made the accusations on Friday night via his proprietary social media platform, Truth Social.

"RFK Jr. is a Democrat "Plant," a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected," Trump wrote.

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He continued, "A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him."

Trump hammered Kennedy on his record regarding Second Amendment rights, border security, and more in the rant.

"Junior’ is totally Anti-Gun, an Extreme Environmentalist who makes the Green New Scammers look Conservative, a Big Time Taxer and Open Border Advocate, and Anti-Military/Vet[.]"

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Democratic leaders have expressed parallel concerns that RFK Jr's campaign may siphon voters from their own camp, making the independent candidate unpopular with both parties' establishment.

Half a dozen Kennedy family members appeared alongside President Biden at an event in Philadelphia to publicly back him over Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is driving Democrats to panic that his independent White House bid could lead to a victory for former President Donald Trump.

"President Biden has been a champion for all the rights and freedoms that my father and uncles stood for," RFK Jr's sister, Kerry Kennedy, said during the event, referencing the late former President John F. Kennedy, the late former U.S. Attorney General and New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and the late former Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Last month, the Democratic National Committee launched an effort to silence the threat to Biden's re-election from third-party candidates, namely Kennedy, in the form of a team that is expected to actively combat them with legal challenges and opposition research.

Since its inception, members of the team post near constant criticism of RFK Jr. on social media, and have frequently referred to him as a "spoiler" candidate. They have also claimed Kennedy is in cahoots with Trump in order to help him win.

Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

A conservative enclave in Southern California is embroiled in a legal dispute with the state's liberal authorities over its voter ID law that was passed by more than 50% of the city's voters. 

Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark told Fox News Digital the latest lawsuit from Sacramento authorities is just another targeted attack on the city's values. 

"I'm a person of color, I grew up in a low-income community in Los Angeles, and we all had IDs," Van Der Mark told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. "And one thing that is really frustrating is they're saying, people like me are too ignorant or incapable of getting an ID, and that's insulting."

"This is definitely government overreach," she said.

California's Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber filed a lawsuit last week against the beach city – which is roughly 35 miles south of Los Angeles – challenging its voter ID law, Measure A, which amends the city’s charter to allow voter ID requirements by 2026. It also includes a requirement for additional in-person voting locations. 

CALIFORNIA SUES HUNTINGTON BEACH OVER VOTER ID LAW BACKED BY MAJORITY OF RESIDENTS

"They're telling us 'it's okay, we don't need these measures of security,' but we're insisting on them," Van Der Mark, elected in 2023, said. "So, they can sue us. We're going to push forward and do what the people want us to do."

In their lawsuit, Bonta and Weber argued that the city’s voter ID law "unlawfully conflicts and is preempted by state law." 

"The right to freely cast your vote is the foundation of our democracy and Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy flies in the face of this principle," Bonta said in a statement. 

He argued that state elections already contain "robust voter ID requirements with strong protections to prevent voter fraud." He said the new requirements would disproportionately burden "low-income voters, voters of color, young or elderly voters, and people with disabilities." 

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The City Council, led by a politically conservative majority since 2022, stirred considerable debate by making contentious decisions on various issues recently, like the government-only flag protocol on city properties and removal of sexually explicit books in the public library.

"Sacramento is trying to make an example out of Huntington Beach," Van Der Mark said. "They're suing us every opportunity they can and every time we do something, they try to write bills to counter what we're doing or to make what we're doing illegal. So, I believe they're trying to sway us into submission, and we're not going to allow that to happen."

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California officials first warned Huntington Beach officials to drop the voter ID proposal in September. The lawsuit argues that Measure A violates state law and is invalid because it conflicts with California's Constitution, which grants charter cities the authority to govern "municipal affairs" but prohibits local laws from conflicting with statewide laws. 

Under current California law, according to the AG's office, "voter identity is established before registered voters get to the polls; at the polls, registered voters are only required to provide their name and address – no further identification is required."

This is not the first time the state has threatened a conservative city over local laws passed. Last year, Bonta threatened several school districts over their parental notification policies. 

Fox News' Bradford Bretz and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

High-stakes climate litigation being pursued across the country and worldwide, purportedly on behalf of children, can be traced to a single, left-wing public interest law firm with big-money backing and ties to longtime progressive activists, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Oregon-based firm Our Children’s Trust (OCT), which is classified as a 501(c)(3) public charity, was established more than a decade ago to provide youth with legal services "to secure their legal rights to a safe climate." Since its founding, OCT has filed multiple federal lawsuits, spearheaded legal actions in all 50 states and is even involved in litigation in Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, India and Uganda.

"These young people are doing exactly what they’ve been taught by elders — when they see a wrong, they take steps to right it," Mat dos Santos, OCT's co-executive director and general counsel, said last week.

Dos Santos, who is tasked with overseeing OCT's legal program, made the comments during a rally outside the White House where activists called for President Biden to take their side in Juliana v. United States, one of several cases the group is pursuing. According to OCT, the plaintiffs in the case are 21 young Americans who are concerned the government has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.

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OCT filed its complaint in Juliana v. United States in 2015, arguing that the federal government has contributed to global warming for decades, despite being well aware of the cataclysmic impacts of climate change. The lawsuit — which is currently making its way through the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — takes aim at policies allowing fossil fuel extraction, transportation and combustion.

Days before the White House rally, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., one of the original architects of the Green New Deal, released a podcast with dos Santos and some of the plaintiffs in the case. In the episode, the senior lawmaker lauded the children for "fighting against what preceding generations have done to pollute and to create this problem."

The group's growing suite of climate litigation, meanwhile, broadly follows the same format, asserting on behalf of a handful of youth that federal or state agencies are harming their future by allowing fossil fuel reliance. 

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OCT's most recent lawsuit was filed in December against the Environmental Protection Agency, and its most successful case so far has been Held v. State of Montana, which yielded a favorable judgment last year. The First Judicial District Court of Montana's ruling, which has since been appealed by the state, struck down certain state laws promoting fossil fuels and concluded youth plaintiffs were harmed by said laws.

"Today, for the first time in U.S. history, a court ruled on the merits of a case that the government violated the constitutional rights of children through laws and actions that promote fossil fuels, ignore climate change, and disproportionately imperil young people," Julia Olson, OCT's chief legal counsel and co-executive director, said after the ruling in August 2023.

But, according to a Fox News Digital review of financial filings, career databases and recruitment documents, OCT has attracted the financial backing of major left-wing philanthropic nonprofits and is led by longtime activists. In its 2023 impact report, the group stated it receives pro bono legal support from people affiliated with Earthjustice and Oxfam America, two massive groups involved in climate lawsuits.

OCT also actively recruits children between the ages of 8 and 18 years old to serve as the face of their legal efforts. Children interested in serving as plaintiffs in OCT's cases are directed to an online interest form, which asks applicants for a wide range of contact information, including their pronouns, and how climate change has impacted them personally.

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"Our Children’s Trust exploits well-intentioned kids, using them as political cover to achieve its goal of shutting down responsible energy development in Montana and around the nation," said Chase Scheuer, a spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. Knudsen has taken the lead in defending his state's energy policies in Held v. State of Montana.

"Unable to implement policies through the normal processes of representative government, they are trying to override the will of the people and use the courts to impose their extremist climate agenda," Scheuer continued.

Overall, OCT reports having more than $5.4 million in net assets and received $2.2 million in financial contributions in 2022 and $3.2 million in contributions a year prior, according to its tax forms. While the group's donors are hidden from public view, a review of various liberal nonprofits' tax forms shows the group routinely receives large grants.

For example, in 2022, it received $200,000 from the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation; $100,000 from the Alex C. Walker Foundation; $100,000 from Impact Assets; and donations worth $50,000 from the Jacob & Terese Hershey Foundation and Park Foundation, among others. Those grantmaking nonprofits generally contribute to progressive social and environmental causes.

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The Amalgamated Foundation, OCT's apparent largest financier, is the charitable arm of Amalgamated Bank, an operation focused on progressive issues and which is majority-owned and controlled by Workers United, a division of the massive labor union Service Employees International Union (SEIU). 

Under the leadership of its executive director Anna Fink, the Amalgamated Foundation spearheaded a campaign after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot to pressure organizations to divert donations for Republicans to the Amalgamated Foundation instead. That program received backing from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.

In addition, dos Santos and Olson, OCT's co-executive directors, have a long history of progressive activism. 

Dos Santos remains on the boards of the Transgender Law Center, Latino Network and the Chosen Family Law Center. He also previously served as legal director of the ACLU's Oregon chapter, where he advocated for LGBT rights, immigrants and criminal justice reform. Dos Santos notably led a challenge against former President Donald Trump's immigration actions and represented a transgender inmate demanding the state provide hormone therapy.

And Olson previously served as an attorney at Earthjustice before beginning her own firm, Wild Earth Advocates.

Other staff and members of OCT's board of directors have ties to climate-focused organizations such as the Women’s Environmental and Development Organization, Western Environmental Law Center, Food & Water Watch and Columbia University's Earth Institute.

OCT and the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation didn't respond to requests for comment.

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — As Border Patrol agents work to combat the movement of illegal immigrants across the southern border in the El Paso Sector, they say a multi-layered enforcement system that has been expanded in recent years and combines the use of barriers with technology and other forms of enforcement has helped thwart cartel smuggling operations and nab illegal immigrants moving into the U.S.

Overshadowing the border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, is miles of border wall. Some of it is border fence built during the Obama administration, while other parts consist of Trump-era bollard wall. 

Fox News Digital was on the ground when agents nabbed illegal immigrants just feet from the fence they had cut a hole through. Even though they got through, it gave agents time to apprehend them. Agents generally prefer the bollard fencing, saying it is harder to cut through. And other parts of the fencing have been reinforced with bollards and, in some cases, filled with concrete.

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: FENCE-CUTTING MIGRANTS BUSTED BY FEDS

However, critics of barriers have noted that barriers are not a fix by themselves. Barriers, even those with bollards and filled with concrete, can be cut through. And strewn along the border were makeshift ladders and ropes, which migrants use to scale the barrier.

Along other parts of the border, wall construction isn't possible. This is the case on the looming Mount Cristo Rey, a steep area where a wall cannot be built and the U.S.-Mexico border is marked only with obelisks. It is here that other layers of the enforcement strategy come into play.

The Biden administration stopped most border wall construction in 2021, although it has continued to make some repairs and moved forward with construction that had already been appropriated. Overall, however, it has instead emphasized the importance of technology. And in this area, agents say the administration has delivered.

There are now 24 autonomous surveillance towers (AST) in the El Paso Sector, and there are more than 50 deployed in the neighboring Big Bend Sector, officials say. The Biden administration’s fiscal 2025 budget includes an additional $127 million for "modernizing border security technology," including additional deployments of towers.

The 24-hour-a-day towers, running on renewable energy, work by scanning the environment with radar. They use artificial intelligence to "hand off" from one another. So, if a group moves out of sight of one tower, the neighboring tower picks it up. The use of AST did not start with the Biden administration. It began during the Trump administration, but it has expanded dramatically under the current administration.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

CBP says the technology comes into play even before migrants get into the U.S., allowing agents to plan before anyone even steps foot on U.S. soil. The AI technology can scan faces, differentiate between humans and wildlife and can send immediate alerts to agents in the field on their phones or tablets. It can also identify how many people are in a group. So, if agents are told to look for a group of eight migrants and find only five, they know there’s another three they still have to track down.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

The towers have been deployed throughout the border, but here they are especially useful given the treacherous terrain in the mountains. With the towers in place, agents don’t need to chase migrants up the mountain. They can monitor and track them via the towers and wait for the migrants to eventually emerge (often exhausted) on flat land. 

Should migrants get through the border wall and become spotted by the surveillance towers, they still need to be apprehended. This is where the Border Patrol agents will make the apprehensions. 

But they have assistance. The CBP Canine Unit is headquartered in El Paso, and some Border Patrol agents are trained how to use specially trained dogs to track down migrants and smugglers, in addition to the unit's roles in other fields throughout CBP’s jurisdiction.

The K-9s can also help apprehend those illegal immigrants who may become violent and try to attack agents. Fox saw Canu, one of the K-9s deployed in Sunland Park, work with his handler as he sniffed the terrain for a possible lead.

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Meanwhile, Border Patrol is also aided by helicopters from CBP’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO). They swoop over the mountains to conduct additional surveillance, scaring off migrants who may be planning on making the run across, while also allowing AMO to help with rescues quickly if needed.  

In the fiscal 2025 budget, the administration wants to invest an additional $210 million in staffing, which includes Border Patrol, as well as $86 million for AMO support.

Another deployment here in El Paso is the use of rescue towers, which allow migrants to press a button to call for help. The 21 towers in the sector warn migrants they are in danger and can call for assistance. The button triggers a sharp blue light on top of the beacon visible by agents miles around.

Fox viewed one rescue tower situated near where there was an infamous case in 2021 of two young girls, 3 and 5, dropped off by a smuggler over the wall. Luckily, agents spotted and rescued them. Other migrants have not been so lucky, and there are plenty of instances of agents coming across dead bodies. These towers are designed to help prevent that.

So far in fiscal 2024, agents in the El Paso Sector have rescued more than 300 migrants, but there have also been 34 migrant deaths.

While in nearby Texas there has been friction between the federal government and state officials, here in New Mexico, local authorities and CBP are working together. 

New Mexico state law enforcement will coordinate with Border Patrol to stop illegal immigrants coming across. Recently, officials in Dona Ana County announced a partnership to prosecute state offenses committed by smugglers.

Overall, Border Patrol believe the multi-layered enforcement strategy is working. They point to a sharp decrease in apprehensions over the last year. There were 427,471 in fiscal 2023 by Border Patrol in the sector. So far in fiscal 2024, which began in October, there have been just over 150,000. 

Separately, officials point to the busting of more than 136 stash houses, with over 1,377 smuggled migrants by their interdiction teams so far in fiscal 2024.