Bipartisan lawmakers demand action after Raw Story mail crime investigation

ALSO READ: Trump pushed us to the edge of disaster. It will soon be too late to step back

As United States Postal Service letter carriers face increasing violence and assaults on the job, the police officers who could protect them have been sidelined by the government, a new Raw Story investigation revealed.

With letter carrier robberies skyrocketing by 543 percent between 2019 and 2022, the issue has spurred a bipartisan group of Congress members to introduce legislation aimed at providing more secure mailbox equipment and better protecting letter carriers.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who introduced the Protect our Letter Carriers Act last week, said Raw Story's investigation should urge Congress to turn the bill into law.

“The concerns highlighted in this story only increase the urgency needed in Congress to pass the bipartisan Protect our Letter Carriers Act," Fitzpatrick said in a statement to Raw Story. "The United States Postal Service must have the resources to update its outdated arrow keys and harden mailboxes. We must also increase the prosecution and lengthen sentences of individuals arrested for assaulting and robbing letter carriers. I will do whatever is necessary to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this crucial piece of legislation.”

A 2020 statute reinterpretation by the Postal Service curtailed uniformed postal police officers' ability to patrol the streets where mail crimes typically occur, restricting them to working on postal property such as post offices and distribution centers. Meanwhile, the number of postal police officers overall has shrunk from a high of more than 2,600 in the 1970s to about 450 officers today.

In a phone interview with Raw Story, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said mail theft is "rampant" in her district and is an issue she's heard about across the country from her colleagues. Postal police officers aren't currently "doing any good being confined to postal property," Norton said.

"The spike in mail crime only reinforces my notion that we need to have postal police go wherever the crime is," Norton said.

If postal police officers began patrolling the streets again, there would be "a better chance of restricting crimes for the Postal Service," said Norton, who is a co-sponsor of the House version of the Postal Police Reform Act alongside Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Ken Calvert (R-CA) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ).

Calvert himself lost nearly $10,000 in campaign cash last year because of mail theft, Raw Story first reported.

"I think the bill has a good chance of passing not only because of what we're experiencing in the district but because this issue is nationwide," Norton said.

There's a Senate version of the Postal Police Reform Act, as well, introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Susan Collins (R-ME), along with 10 other co-sponsors, including Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).

“Postal carriers routinely deliver lifelines to Marylanders and others across the country. They should not be left vulnerable to dangerous situations that leave them and mail recipients in potential danger – from theft and the lost items," Cardin told Raw Story in a statement. "This is a growing problem that Congress should address, preferably in partnership with the USPS.”

Read Raw Story's full investigation: Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines police

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Melania Trump tells Fox News US citizens on the street are 'harassed or murdered or raped'

First Lady Melania Trump suggested that "all the people" who walk on the street in the U.S. are "harassed or murdered or women raped."

During a Thursday interview on Fox News, Trump opened up about her husband's vision for his country.

"He would like to have a country that all of the people can walk down the street and not to be harassed or murdered or women raped," Trump observed. "I think it's very important."

"And what happened a few years ago, so many criminals came over the border. And he closed the border now a while back already. And we need to take care of our citizens," she added.

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Trump caused 'big unknown' for markets with one 'real failure' move: expert

Market uncertainty is lingering after one particular action from Donald Trump caused a long-term disturbance, a financial analyst has shared.

Nicholas Sargen, an economic consultant, believes Trump has done little to appease the markets after a pitched takeover of Greenland. Writing in The Hill, Sargen suggested there could be a worsening of economic standings in the next few weeks. He wrote, "Nonetheless, the big unknown is how long markets will stay calm in the face of growing geopolitical uncertainty. In this regard, there are several indications of growing unease."

"One is the steady surge in prices for gold and silver to record highs and renewed pressure on the U.S. dollar recently. It sank to a four year low this week after Trump said he was not concerned about the slide.

"Another is evidence that trading partners of the U.S. are diversifying their exports away from the U.S. to Asia, Latin America and other regions. Canada is also in the process of securing a trade deal with China, for which President Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on it."

European markets may react poorly too, with Sargen suggesting there could be trouble brewing in worldwide markets.

He wrote, "Meanwhile, some observers have speculated about Europe 'weaponizing' its sizable holdings of U.S. stocks and bonds. The likelihood of mass selling of U.S. securities is low, however, as most of them are held by private funds."

"That said, international equities have outperformed U.S. stocks over the past year following a prolonged period in which they underperformed. One sector that has produced stellar returns is defense stocks. A Bloomberg article notes that a Goldman Sachs basket of European defense stocks is off to a strong start in 2026 following a 90 percent advance in 2025."

"Amid this, investors need to consider what a weakening of U.S. leadership would mean for the world. "

Reporter presses Tom Homan on Trump admin 'creating fear' with ICE behavior in Minneapolis

President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan was grilled by reporters in Minnesota after announcing a shift in tactics for federal immigration agents.

The president dispatched Homan to the state and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demoted Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino following the fatal shootings of two citizen observers this month in Minneapolis, and the border czar told reporters that the mission was intended “to regain law and order" by focusing on subjects who illegally entered the country and committed crimes.

“President Trump want’s this fixed, and I’m going to fix it,” Homan said.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz pressed Homan to explain who had made the decisions that sparked the violence that he was seemingly sent to tamp down as political pressure mounts on the administration.

"How did we get here in terms of, you had Greg Bovino who was the face of this immigration operation?" Prokupecz said. "The mission, as you say, to having Border Patrol agents in the interior of this country stopping U.S. citizens, asking them for ID, creating this fear, in places like Chicago and now here. And then, finally, it took really the death of Alex Pretti for us to get here. How did that happen? Who made the decisions to allow this kind of operation to proceed in this way and to create such fear?"

Homan took the question as an opportunity to bash Trump's predecessor.

"Well, look, the Border Patrol last four years under Joe Biden, we had an open border where 10,[000], 12,000 people a day are coming across the border," Homan claimed. "Border Patrol got overwhelmed, which means we send thousands of ICE agents down there to help deal with that humanitarian crisis, help secure the border. Now we have millions of people released in this nation, many unvetted. Now we got to find them. Before the Big Beautiful Bill, we had a total just under 5,000 deportation officers to look for millions of people, many in public safety threats."

He then claimed demonstrators posed threats against immigration agents that justified the violent crackdown.

"So yes, we needed Border Patrol to come and help on our mission now, and reason for the massive deployment is because of the threats, because of the violence, our officers need to be protected," Homan said. "If I'm on operation, an arrest team, I'm going to a house, I've got to be busy with that guy, the dangerous guy, and I can't keep looking over my shoulder. What's happening outside the house? So we brought extra resources in to provide that security, and as I said, as we drill down on these great agreements, we got this great understanding we have means less so we can draw down those resources. When the violence decreases, we can draw down those resources."

"But based on the discussions I've had with the governor and the [attorney general], we can start drawing down those resources," he added. "As far as those looking for public safety that's being released and do it in the jail with much, much less people. So the drawdown is going to happen based on these agreements. But the drawdown can happen even more if the hateful rhetoric and the interference will stop. So Border Patrol, I was a Border Patrol agent. These men and women are patriots, God bless, God bless them. They're here to help us."

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