Category: Blaze Media
Sundance VIPs take 10-minute protest break in between screenings
What one report called “arguably the shortest of protests in recent memory” rocked the Sundance Film Festival for about 10 minutes on Sunday evening, as around 100 people gathered in Park City to voice their opposition to the ICE raids in Minnesota.
The diminutive demonstration echoed statements made by big-name festival attendees like Edward Norton and Olivia Wilde
‘Turn on your phone light for a minute or two.’
‘Melt’ down
Actress Natasha Lyonne posted a promotional flyer for the event, called “Sundancers Melt Ice,” which read, “Join us tonight to remember Alex Pretti and Renee Good” and “quietly register our collective protest.”
Pretti was recently shot and killed by federal agents during a violent scrum, while Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent as she hit him with her car.
“Turn on your phone light for a minute or two,” the flyer added. “Silent, respectful, together.”
Chants encounter
The 10-minute event included protesters chanting “Love melts Ice! Love melts Ice!” according to Deadline, which noted that actor Elijah Wood (“Lord of the Rings”) turned out to offer his support.
“The folks who have been unlawfully gunned down in Minnesota — it’s awful,” Wood said.
“Here we are at this film festival that is about bringing people together; it’s about telling stories from all over the world. We’re not divided here; we’re coming together,” he continued.
Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Sign decline
The film festival is no stranger to progressive protests; in 2024, demonstrators flooded the streets of the small town to protest on behalf of Palestine, holding signs like “stop the genocide” and “end the occupation.”
“Ceasefire, now!” was chanted by the group, followed by “Free Palestine!”
In 2017, Sundance saw what is recognized as likely the largest protest to take place in Park City, when between 5,000 and 7,000 showed up on Main Street for a “Women’s March on Main,” the day after President Trump was inaugurated for his first term.
Anti-ICE influencers explained: How women get radicalized
As the BLM-fueled chaos of 2020 appears to be repeating itself in 2026, the same demographic appears to be falling hardest for it: liberal white women.
And it only makes sense, as according to a Gallup poll graph, the partisan gap between men and women has almost doubled in the past 25 years — with women moving radically leftward, while men have stayed relatively the same.
BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey explains that the answer as to why this is happening is “not entirely simple.”
However, one reason is that women seek social cohesion, while men are more likely to form an identity outside of a group.
“We’ve all had those moments where we just want to be agreeable. Like, we feel compassion for this person. We want to feel polite. We don’t want to be at odds with them, especially when we’re in conversation,” she explains, using an example from her own life.
Stuckey recalls recently getting her hair done by a hairstylist who was very sweet. When the hairstylist began trying to discuss horoscopes with Stuckey — who doesn’t believe in horoscopes — Stuckey just nodded her head and didn’t say anything.
“You take that, like, one awkward scenario and you extrapolate that, or you make that bigger in how you live your life and make even big political decisions — you can see how that leads someone in the direction of following the cultural zeitgeist, which is progressivism,” Stuckey explains.
Though according to researchers in a study Stuckey reads, these traits “were naturally selected to yield better results in raising children.”
“So there is good reason why we like cooperation. These are not all bad things. These can help in being good moms,” Stuckey says.
“That is part of the psychology, I think, of what is going on here. And that is so like Satan, by the way, to manipulate women and to use really good things about ourselves and to use them as a hook for propaganda and to ask the age-old question, ‘Did God really say?’” she continues.
“It’s just that all of these good things about us make us more susceptible to lies,” she adds.
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Texas first: Gov. Abbott freezes H-1B visas after damning report from BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed all state agencies on Tuesday to “immediately freeze” new H-1B visa petitions, citing “recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program” and the “federal government’s ongoing review of that program to ensure American jobs are going to American workers.”
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales, who exposed a rash of possible H-1B visa fraud in the Lone Star State earlier this month, welcomed the governor’s directive.
‘Bad actors have exploited this program by failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified US workers before seeking to use foreign labor.’
Gonzales told Blaze News, “I am thrilled to hear our work exposing the abuse of the H-1B system is being taken seriously, and I commend Governor Abbott for taking necessary steps to protect American workers in the state of Texas from having their jobs stolen from them.”
“I hope this is the first of many statewide actions that course correct on this issue,” Gonzales added.
RELATED: ‘A direct path to Citizenship’: Trump announces official launch of Trump Gold Card visa program
At the outset of her investigation, Gonzales scrutinized a pair of companies that on paper appear to have relied in recent years on scores of foreign workers: 3Bees Technologies Inc. and Qubitz Tech Systems.
3Bees Technologies Inc. — whose agent, director, and president is Vamsi Krishna Vajinapally — had 27 H-1B beneficiaries approved in 2022 and 19 visa petitions apparently denied the following year. Qubitz Tech Systems had 12 H-1B beneficiaries approved last year.
RELATED: America should eliminate the H-1B and replace it with THIS
BlazeTV
Gonzales’ visits to the supposed offices of both companies — a vacant construction site in one case and a vacant, prison cell-size room with a single chair in the other — proved eye-opening, prompting her and others to question whether the companies and their visa sponsorships were above-board.
“Once you start scraping data from H-1B databases, you start seeing immediately all of these patterns,” Gonzales said in her damning report. “The biggest question I have right now is: If we were able to find this with just a little bit of Google-searching and follow-up, why hasn’t [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] done anything to combat this?”
When pressed for comment, Abbott’s office referred Blaze News to his directive, which states:
Evidence suggests that bad actors have exploited this program by failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified U.S. workers before seeking to use foreign labor. In the most egregious schemes, employers have even fired American workers and replaced them with H-1B employees, often at lower wages. Rather than serving its intended purpose of attracting the best and brightest individuals from around the world to our nation to fill truly specialized and unmet labor needs, the program has too often been used to fill jobs that otherwise could — and should — have been filled by Texans.
Per the governor’s directive, state agencies are prohibited from initiating or filing any new petition to sponsor a non-immigrant worker under the federal H-1B visa program unless given express permission by the Texas Workforce Commission.
The governor has also given public universities and various state agencies until March 27 to provide an account of how many H-1B visa holders they are currently sponsoring; the countries of origin of their sponsored H-1B visa holders; the expected expiration date for each sponsored visa; and the efforts taken to ensure that Texan candidates were afforded a reasonable opportunity to apply for each position filled by an H-1B visa holder.
“State government must lead by example and ensure that employment opportunities — particularly those funded with taxpayer dollars — are filled by Texans first,” Abbott wrote in his directive.
The H-1B visa program enables U.S.-based employers to temporarily hire foreign workers into specialized positions that American citizens supposedly can’t do. H-1B specialty occupation workers are generally admitted for a period of up to three years, which can in most cases be extended for another three years.
While Republicans are taking action, lawmakers from both parties have in recent years expressed concerns about H-1B visa fraud and abuse, proposing amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act that would reform or even abolish the program.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ H-1B Employer Data Hub indicates that over 41,500 H-1B visa beneficiaries were approved for fiscal year 2025 in Texas. Oracle America Inc., Tesla Inc., AT&T Services Inc., Hewlett Packard, American Airlines, Texas A&M’s flagship campus, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center were among the top sponsors.
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Trump’s Greenland talk sparks media panic — but what’s really happening?
As the media continues to speculate on Trump’s negotiations with NATO, Greenland, and Denmark — BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere and Glenn Beck’s head writer Jason Buttrill unpack what they believe is actually happening.
“I find myself in a weird position on the Greenland thing. Which is like, I do see its strategic value. It would be great. I don’t necessarily love the way that we went about all of this, frankly. But I will say I really don’t understand what’s happening,” Stu says.
“I don’t necessarily listen to everything that Donald Trump says, because a lot of times what Donald Trump is saying is not directed at me. It’s not directed at you. It’s directed to some official in some other country. He’s saying it to the world, but he means it so that they react to it,” he explains.
“And then later on, his plan may have been the entire time to, like, make this big claim and kind of pull it back afterward. The art of the deal, if you will,” he adds.
He then asks Buttrill, “Was there ever a plan to try to take over Greenland?”
“No. I never believed that for a second. Although, I mean, going back to the 1800s, that’s been a thing that a lot of U.S. presidents have tried to do,” Buttrill answers.
“I assume that it’s like these back channel discussions. And again a lot of this framework could be more posturing,” Buttrill tells Stu.
“It might not eventually get there, but you can tell where the Trump administration is going. They don’t want to negotiate this in the future because we don’t know if our interests will align in the future,” he continues.
“But it still signals to where Donald Trump is going. So right now it says in this framework, if any of this is true, is that we will have bases, potentially multiple bases, and we will, like the area around our bases, be sovereign. So we’ll never have to negotiate these treaties again. We will just be there indefinitely. That’s what they want,” he explains.
“What was the reasoning for us giving it up in the ’90s? Like we’re like ‘Oh, communism fell. I guess we don’t need this anymore.’ Like we didn’t think there could possibly be a threat? It just seems insane that we would mothball all these bases that we had access to,” Stu chimes in.
While neither Buttrill nor Stu are 100% sure as to what the future holds, Buttrill does know one thing for sure.
“Anytime you see a lot of the stuff that President Trump is talking about, the collective freakout, it’s all directed and the media plays right along with it,” he tells Stu, adding, “And the Trump administration knows the media is going to take it in the most extreme.”
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1 person shot in incident involving Border Patrol near the US-Mexico border
An altercation involving U.S. Border Patrol led to one person in critical condition after getting shot in Southern Arizona, according to a spokesperson for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
The shooting comes only three days after anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement agitator Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when he interfered with an operation while armed with a gun.
‘Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter.’
The unidentified person was shot near milepost 15 on West Arivaca Road in southern Pima County at about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Santa Rita Fire District.
The circumstances of the shooting have not yet been released.
“Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter for rapid transport to a regional trauma center,” said a statement from the fire department. “The incident remains under active investigation by law enforcement agencies.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation.
PCSD said they were conducing a routine investigation into the use of force.
“Such requests are standard practice when a federal agency is involved in a shooting incident within Pima County and consistent with long-standing relationships built through time to promote transparency,” said the agency in a statement.
RELATED: More anti-ICE footage: ‘I am a liberal, leftist, pagan, lesbian, transgender woman, and witch!’
Democrats are threatening to force a partial government shutdown unless Republicans agree to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a new bill that has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Arivaca is a rural community of fewer than 1,000 people about 10 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border.
This is a developing story.
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Anti-ICE brewer’s death wish: Leftist promises free beer when Trump dies ‘in a few months’ — and the Secret Service takes notice
Kirk Bangstad, the Wisconsin owner of Minocqua Brewing Company and the treasurer of a federal super PAC of the same name, has made no secret of his hatred for President Donald Trump, conservatives, and virtually anyone who doesn’t share his leftist worldview.
For instance, Bangstad — who was ordered to pay a six-figure sum for defamation in 2023 and was charged with harassment last year — stated, “F**k Charlie Kirk,” in a diatribe the day after the Turning Point USA founder’s assassination and wrote weeks later, “May his soul never find peace.”
‘Free beer, all day long, the day he dies. Show us this post when it happens in a few months and we’ll make good on that promise.’
Although the leftist brewer has long engaged in this variety of incendiary commentary, which dovetails with his Ben & Jerry-styled progressive marketing, Bangstad recently raised eyebrows and a potential red flag with a post insinuating the president’s death was forthcoming.
Days after circulating a wanted poster for a federal agent, calling for a “regime change” in the U.S., and stating that “it’s just a matter of time” before “every ICE agent will face justice,” Bangstad said in a Jan. 22 post on the brewery’s Facebook page, “Free beer, all day long, the day he dies. Show us this post when it happens in a few months and we’ll make good on that promise.”
When asked by Fox News for comment, Bangstad appeared to confirm that he was referring to Trump and indicated the brewery would be throwing a “party celebrating the impending death of a twice-impeached convicted felon.”
Bangstad, who unsuccessfully attempted to block President Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Wisconsin, did not respond directly to Blaze News’ questions. Instead he accused Blaze News of engaging in “‘gotcha’ state-sponsored propaganda” and shared the contact information of a Blaze News reporter, inviting his followers to email the reporter with their own comments.
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
The U.S. Secret Service told Blaze News, “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the social media post by the Minocqua Brewing Company. Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”
Bangstad’s post also caught the attention of various critics, including Libs of TikTok, who noted, “How are we supposed to share a country with these people? Democrats want us dead.”
The American left appears to have a strong appetite for political violence.
‘That’s kind of shady.’
A survey conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab revealed in April 2025 that 55% of respondents who identified as left of center said that assassinating Trump would be at least somewhat justified.
When asked by pollsters about the September 2024 attempt on the president’s life at his golf course in Florida, 28% of Democrats told RMG Research it would have been better if Trump had been gunned down.
While the brewer’s apparent eagerness to see the president die has attracted attention, his super PAC’s expenditures have also prompted scrutiny in recent months.
Some of Bangstad’s former employees alleged to WISC-TV that some of the over $2 million raised by the brewer’s super PAC has gone toward paying regular brewery staff rather than political activities.
“At first, I was paid by a regular direct deposit, and then he said he’s going to pay me from the Super PAC and from the business. And I started to do some research,” said one former employee who spoke to WISC on the condition of anonymity. “I spoke with a couple attorneys and an accountant, and they said, that’s kind of shady, not a good idea.”
The former employee showed the outlet documentation apparently indicating that he received checks from the Minocqua Brewing Super PAC with “organizing” written in the memo line — something he had reportedly not done for the PAC.
Bangstad admitted that some employees receive PAC funds and suggested to WISC that the payments were aboveboard. A civil lawsuit filed in early 2025 suggested otherwise, accusing the leftist of fraud and misuse of donated funds, reported Wisconsin Public Radio.
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Alex Pretti broke a rib in a previous altercation with feds a week before he died: CNN
The man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with federal agents last weekend had suffered a broken rib in a previous altercation with federal agents, sources claim.
Alex Pretti tried to intervene in another federal immigration operation and got tackled by federal agents about a week before his death, according to the CNN report.
‘That day, he thought he was going to die.’
The report was based on a person who spoke to Pretti about the previous incident but asked to remain anonymous to avoid retribution.
That source said the incident began when Pretti saw federal agents chasing a family, and he reacted by blowing his whistle and shouting at them. The agents tackled Pretti, and one leaned on his back, which led to a rib being broken, according to Pretti’s alleged comments to the source.
Pretti was released at the scene.
“That day, he thought he was going to die,” the source said to CNN.
Records reviewed by CNN showed that Pretti was given medication consistent with treatment for a broken rib.
It was unclear whether federal agents recognized Pretti in the second and lethal encounter, CNN reported.
RELATED: Ilhan Omar accuses Trump of ulterior motive for ICE raids — and JD Vance shuts her down
The CNN report suggested that Pretti could have been known to federal agents because of efforts to collect information about protesters.
“One thing I’m pushing for right now … we’re going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding, and assault — we’re going to make them famous,” said Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, earlier in the month. “We’re going to put their face on TV. We’re going to let their employers, in their neighborhoods, in their schools, know who these people are.”
President Donald Trump sent Homan to oversee the operation in Minneapolis, and Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino is reportedly set to leave the city. Homan will report directly to Trump and is meeting with Tim Walz, the state’s governor, and Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis mayor, to negotiate their cooperation with the federal government.
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Dems’ ‘Unconstitutional’ Bill Would Jail Law-Abiding Virginians For Guns They Already Own
Violators could face up to 12 months in prison and a restriction on ownership or possession of any and all firearms for three years.
Critically ill ‘The Blind Side’ star shows signs of recovery; family credits power of prayer
A beloved Christian actor is showing possible signs of recovery while in hospital on life support.
Quinton Aaron starred in “The Blind Side,” a movie with Sandra Bullock about Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who is taken in by a Christian family and becomes a first-round NFL draft pick.
‘I grew up in the church. I was raised in the church.’
In real life, Aaron’s wife, Margarita, said she rushed the 41-year-old to the hospital after he lost feeling in his legs. The issues were initially thought to be from a bad sleep, but pain persisted in Aaron’s neck and back until he became numb.
His wife is a registered nurse, and she helped him lie down before calling 911. The big man — reportedly around 6’6″ — was in and out of consciousness on the way to hospital.
Doctors allegedly determined after several tests that he had a blood infection and recommended he be put on life support, according to TMZ.
A ‘fighter’
After initial reports looked grim, the outlet explained that Aaron was partially breathing on his own until Monday, when he “opened his eyes today and gave a thumbs-up,” his wife said.
Describing her husband as “a fighter,” Margarita had previously said, “He’s showing a lot of improvement. We all have faith in God that he will walk out of here fully recovered.”
Aaron had been dealing with health issues last March, according to E News. He was hospitalized after experiencing a bloody cough coupled with a fever and was told he was likely dealing with Type A flu and pneumonia.
In 2019, he was also admitted to a hospital for an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis.
Man of faith
The man of faith was interviewed by Blaze News in 2013 when he said, “I grew up in the church. I was raised in the church.”
“I do believe in showing more so than having to say. I feel like if I live the Christian life, then the people should be able to see it in my everyday actions.”
RELATED: Matthew McConaughey: Choose God and family, not ‘participation trophies’
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
Outspoken Christian
Aaron has been outspoken about being a Christian in Hollywood. In a 2017 interview, he noted that many people in the film industry are “not very charitable” unless it benefits them.
“I’ve noticed that, especially with friends in Hollywood, if you want to keep a friend, don’t ask them for anything. I tell people all the time, I say, ‘The moment you ask for a favor, you’re probably never going to hear from them again,'” he explained.
“They may grant that favor, but don’t plan on asking for another one,” the actor added.
Oher, whom Aaron portrayed in the 2009 film, had eight seasons in the NFL, five of which were with the Baltimore Ravens.
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The truth behind the ‘5-year-old detained by ICE’ story — that the Democrats don’t want you to know
The Democrats’ manipulation of the truth is truly unmatched, and the latest example of this is one of the most egregious BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales has seen yet.
In a post on X, the Democratic Party’s official account posted a photo of a young boy whose father was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement alongside the caption, “In Minneapolis, ICE arrested a 5-year-old coming home from preschool and tried to use him as human bait. His teacher describes him as ‘a bright young student.’ These monsters are sick.”
“The claim then got repeated, over and over and over again,” Gonzales says.
Even Kamala Harris bought and sold the lie, writing in her own post on X, “Liam Ramos is just a baby. He should be at home with his family, not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center. I am outraged, and you should be too.”
Ilhan Omar joined in, writing in another X post, “ICE just detained a 5-year-old. Don’t tell us this is about ‘the worst of the worst.’ That’s a lie. Absolutely vile.”
The mainstream media also picked up the claim, with a headline from ABC News reading, “5-year-old asylum seeker detained as ICE expands enforcement in Minnesota.”
Vice President JD Vance also chimed in, but instead of repeating the lie, he told the truth.
“I see this story, and I’m a father of a 5-year-old … and I think to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a 5-year-old?’ Well I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the 5-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien, and then when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” Vance said.
“So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death?” he asked.
“And now the story becomes much different because it transformed from ICE just arrested a 5-year-old to wait a second, this loving father just literally abandoned his kid,” Gonzales comments.
“They’re just trying to save themselves from ICE. And ICE ends up being the true heroes of the story. Ironically enough, ICE were the ones who heroically swooped in to help this poor child who was abandoned by his awful father,” she adds.
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