Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) have betrayed the country once again by voting the opposite of what they campaigned on, especially on border security and the budget.
Revenge Of The Swamp: DC RINOs Attempt to Sabotage President Trump’s Re-Election With Retirements, Insurrection Legislation – President Trump Must Work On Counter-Strategy Before It’s Too Late
By Paul Ingrassia – March 28, 2024
The Uniparty is quietly scheming (again) to rig the system and prevent President Trump from ever becoming President. This scheme involves a two-part strategy: using a combination of strategically planned retirements of Republican House members, coupled with the passage of carefully tailored legislation to remove President Trump from the ballot on bogus Insurrection grounds that would likely pass muster with moderate justices on the Supreme Court, like John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, who prefer to avoid deciding on “controversial” legal questions and risk being seen in a bad light by their liberal peers. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump
A group of several hundred illegal immigrants forcibly pushed past Texas National Guard troops on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, breaking through razor wire and assaulting guardsmen as they forcibly rushed a border gate. Video of the clash, which was filmed by reporters from the New York Post, quickly went viral. It shows the crowd of migrants, all of them adult men, at first putting their hands up as they crowd around a small group of Texas guardsmen trying to block an opening in the fence the migrants had created. After what appears to be a brief physical altercation, the crowd rushes past the guardsmen. The Post reporter at the scene described it as a “riot.”
The video is shocking. It underscores not only how unstable the border has become but also what has been true for a while now: This is an invasion. What began as a crisis created by the Biden administration’s lax border policies is now an open conflict careening toward disaster.
This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today
What can be done to stop this? In the near term, mostly nothing. The riotous scenes at the border, the millions of illegal immigrants processed and released into the country by federal immigration authorities, the chaos of homeless illegal immigrants camped out on the streets of major American cities — all of these were totally predictable policy outcomes that the Biden administration knew would happen. They did it anyway, and they will probably not do anything to stop it.
But even if the Biden administration recognized that the border invasion might be a political liability going into the November presidential election, the steps required to bring the situation under control at this point are so drastic that there’s almost no chance the Biden White House would even consider them.
The key thing to understand about the crisis is that it’s being managed by Mexican cartels, along with their partners inside the Mexican government, as a for-profit enterprise. Under Biden, the cartels have turned illegal immigration into big business, a massive black market in which every illegal immigrant who crosses the border represents a source of income for the cartels. They are all being trafficked, in other words. It is not too much to say the cartels are running slave markets, as my friend Joshua Treviño did in these pages recently, “in which children are bought and sold to increase the chances that the norteamericanos will admit a supposed family unit, and also to provide supply to the vile and ravenous market in sex.”
The Mexican government is complicit in all this. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, has not tried to hide his longstanding connections to the country’s most powerful cartel, Sinaloa, nor has he done anything to rein them in during his presidency, consistently pursuing the drug war policy he outlined when running for president in 2018: “hugs, not bullets.”
In recent years, he has become testy and aggressive on matters related to immigration and the border. AMLO is especially incensed at efforts by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to crack down on illegal immigration. Asked about the new Texas law that would allow state law enforcement officers to arrest and deport illegal border-crossers, which a federal appeals court temporarily blocked this week, AMLO strongly implied the Mexican military would help illegals cross the border. His foreign secretary, Alicia Bárcena, said the government would put “increased vigilance and controls” at border crossings to prevent Texas from carrying out deportations if the law goes into effect. While AMLO would not say clearly what steps he would take, he did suggest some kind of retaliation: “We will not just sit around with our arms crossed.”
This is not how a friendly neighbor talks nor how a partner nation behaves. The truth is, Mexico is neither. One of the great fictions Washington policymakers have labored under for decades is the notion that our southern neighbor is anything but an antagonist on the border issue and that carrots, not sticks, are sufficient to secure its cooperation.
But the truth is just the opposite. Unless Mexico is credibly threatened with concrete measures that would harm its economy, AMLO will not act to alleviate the illegal immigration crisis. During Trump’s term in office, he was only able to get his Mexican counterpart to cooperate with his border agenda by threatening to slap tariffs on Mexican goods coming across the border. In many ways, Trump’s clear-eyed dealing with Mexico is what made policies like Remain in Mexico successful.
Something similar will be required in any future Republican administration. The only way to deal with the border crisis, at this point, is to carry out mass deportations. That will mean forcing Mexico to accept deportees and do more — far more — to control the flow of illegal immigrants north to the U.S. border. Absent the threat of crippling economic sanctions — or something worse — Mexico will not act to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
Until GOP leaders get that through their heads, they will be left in the ridiculous position of doing what House Speaker Mike Johnson did Thursday after the El Paso video went viral: pathetically tweeting about how it’s all Biden’s fault for “refusing to secure our border and protect America.” This, from one of the only Republicans in a position to actually do something about the border. Johnson could shut down the government over the Biden administration’s refusal to address the crisis, but he won’t.
It’s going to take stronger leadership than that to really deal with the invasion at the border, if and when a Republican takes back the White House. It will mean a total shift in conventional thinking about Mexico — and a willingness to treat our southern neighbor like the antagonist it has become.
John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Pagan America: the Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come, to be published in March 2024. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.
With the border out of control, inflation through the roof, and the economy and the world in disaster, due mainly to Bidens and Democrat policies, Crooked Joe has decided to take aim at shrinkflation. Something he himself caused.
Snickers Bar Maker Denies Biden’s State of the Union “Shrinkflation” Charge
By Kristinn Taylor March 11, 2024
The maker of the Snickers candy bar released a statement refuting Joe Biden’s “shrinkflation” charge made in Thursday’s State of the Union address that the candy maker has reduced the size of Snickers bars but kept the same price.
Scott Jennings, a conservative commenter on CNN, queried Mars, Inc., the maker of Snickers for comment. The reply confirmed his suspicions about Biden’s claim “As I suspected. The president is literally slandering a candy bar. Official statement given to me by the Mars/Snickers people. Will literally slander anything and anyone. Total hack.” READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
With so many homeless veterans, Biden and the Democrats are focusing millions in tax dollars on the healthcare, feeding, and housing of the illegal immigrants coming across Bidens open borders.
Report: Biden Administration Considering Pulling Health Care from Veterans to Treat Illegal Aliens
By Richard Moorhead
Did you, or a family member, serve your country with the expectation of receiving the health care benefits you were promised? Sorry, illegal aliens apparently come first in President Joe Biden’s America. The Biden administration reportedly is considering diverting doctors from the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat the massive inflow of illegal aliens expected at the southern border this spring and summer. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is hiring illegal border crossers with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and equipping them with guns to police American citizens in California.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 DACA order indefinitely delays the deportation of illegal border crossers who enter the United States claiming to be minors. Recipients do not start becoming U.S. citizens unless they apply for a green card. That is why many seek endless DACA renewals that allow them to continue working and living in the States while still foreign citizens and admitted border lawbreakers.
Until recently, California only allowed U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in the process
of obtaining citizenship to serve as law enforcement. In 2022, the Democrat legislature passed a law authorizing any of the hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossers, including DACA recipients, who obtain work authorization to join police forces across the state. While some cities like Sacramento refused to hire illegal border crossers due to concerns about gun law violations, LAPD handed jobs and firearms to nearly a dozen DACA aliens. Capt. Robin Petillo told CalMatters these illegal border crossers will “possess department-issued firearms on and off duty.” The department also plans to give jobs to illegally present foreigners who are currently in police training.
“We’ve tried to carve just what is necessary for DACA, and these individuals be treated on the same basis of which non-DACA recipients are, as to the possession of a department firearm and its use,” Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told ABC 7.
The Second Amendment states it is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” “The people,” according to American court precedent, refers to U.S. citizens only. The 1968 Gun Control Act, passed by a Democrat trifecta, also prohibits illegally present foreign citizens from possessing firearms and ammunition. The Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled in 2017 that DACA does not exempt illegal border crossers from that gun law. An exception in the 1968 law, however, allows for illegal border crossers to possess guns “for the use of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof.” That means this federal provision technically provides any local or state government office, even if they don’t have a law like California’s, to arm illegal border crossers.
So, in the case of the LAPD, a criminal foreign citizen who doesn’t have the constitutionally secured right to bear arms but was hired by a U.S. police department could arrest and even disarm a U.S. citizen who does have Second Amendment rights.
Under President Joe Biden and Democrats, illegal border crossers aren’t just getting jobs in local police departments, they are being rewarded for breaking U.S. laws with free transportation, shelter, and prepaid debit cards.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
Laken Riley is another of many victims Biden’s and the Democrats’ open border policies have claimed. Over 100,000 Fentanyl deaths, human trafficking, and crime have saturated Biden and the Democrats’ hands with the blood of these victims, all the while blaming Congress when Biden ended all the Trump border executive orders that were effective against drastically curbing the invasion at the border.
Biden Cracks a Joke About His Age After Refusing to Mention Georgia College Student Killed By One of His Illegal Aliens (VIDEO)
By Cristina Laila – Feb 28, 2024
Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered remarks on his so-called ‘actions to fight crime and make communities safer.’ This is while he’s allowing millions of military-age males from some of the most dangerous parts of the world to invade the US. Venezuela emptied its prisons and some of its most dangerous gang members and murderers have illegally crossed into the US on Joe Biden’s open border invitation.
Biden’s open borders policies are getting Americans killed.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A New Gallup poll finds a record-high number of Americans believe illegal immigration is a “critical threat” to the nation’s vital interests. Voters are clearly blaming President Joe Biden and his band of leftists for the invasion the nation has endured over the past three years.
The latest survey of more than 1,000 adults nationwide, conducted Feb. 1-20, shows 55 percent of U.S. respondents believe that “large numbers of immigrants entering the United States illegally” is a “critical threat” to the nation — up 8 percentage points from last year’s poll. The significant majority of Americans deeply concerned about illegal immigration surpasses the previous high of 50 percent recorded in 2004, according to Gallup.
“Significantly more Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. (28%) than did a month ago (20%),” the famed national pollster notes. “Immigration has now passed the government as the most often cited problem, after the two issues tied for the top position the past two months.”
Concern over the illegal immigration crisis is at the highest level in the 40-plus years Gallup has been tracking the issue.
The poll finds congressional job approval, long in the basement, dipped to just 12 percent. It’s the lowest approval rating for the legislative body since November 2015, when it hit 11 percent, and just a few points above its rock bottom of 9 percent in November 2013.
Gallup conducted the poll as a ludicrous border “reform” bill, which was really just a Trojan horse for more Ukraine funding and would have codified the continuing illegal immigration threat, faltered in the U.S. Senate. The deal, puppeteered in large part by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would have faced a near-certain death in the Republican-controlled House.
Biden’s job performance on immigration has sunk to 28 percent, a personal low for the Democrat, according to the new Gallup poll. That’s down from a CBS poll last month that found just 32 percent of respondents approved of Biden’s handling of border security, an all-time low at that time. The latest monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, released on Monday, records a 35 percent approval rating for Biden on immigration, his lowest rating on any issue in that survey.
“While many Americans regard the economy, generally, or inflation, specifically, as the most important problem facing the U.S., far more name immigration,” Gallup notes in an overview of the poll. “Immigration now sits alone at the top of the most important problem list, something it has done only occasionally in Gallup’s trend and not since 2019.”
Biden’s Border Debacle Hitting Home
Not even the coddling accomplice media can cover for the addled president and the disasters his immigration policies have wrought. The let-‘em-all-in left certainly can’t hide from the stark numbers.
In fiscal year 2020, the last full year of President Donald Trump’s tenure, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded about 400,000 encounters of illegal aliens attempting to enter the southwest United States. Three years later, on Biden’s watch, agents encountered 2.4 million illegal immigrants at the border with Mexico, 3.2 million nationwide.
Facing abysmal poll numbers and a real threat to his reelection chances, Biden audaciously told 30 of the nation’s governors last week that his hands are tied on cleaning up the mess he’s made. In a bald-faced lie for the ages, the president barked at a White House meeting that he’s not to blame for the border debacle and that the governors need to “show a little spine” and urge their members of Congress to pass the “bipartisan security bill” that recently went down in flames.
Half of the nation’s governors are standing with Texas in its right to defend itself against the invasion of illegal immigrants attempting to flood the Lone Star State. The Biden administration has fought against Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to “fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” according to the governor’s office.
“Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies,” stated an Abbott press release issued after the governor welcomed 13 of his fellow Republican governors to Eagle Pass, a border town overtaken by illegal aliens.
Biden’s helpless act isn’t playing well with Americans. Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said the president has had the authority to tighten security at the southwest border since he took office at noon, Jan. 20, 2021 — if nothing else, by leaving things alone.
“The law is not only clear that he not only can enforce immigration laws, he is required to enforce them and he simply has been ignoring them,” the immigration reform activist told me last week on the “Simon Conway Show” on WHO in Des Moines.
In fact, Biden has signed an array of executive orders — early and often — reversing Trump’s work on securing the border. One of his first acts as president was killing construction of his predecessor’s border wall. Biden brought back catch-and-release and ended the remain-in-Mexico policy, among other executive actions that have effectively erased the United States’ southwest border.
“I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said at the time.
The results have been devastating, well beyond the border. Americans from the largest cities dealing with the massive influx of illegal aliens to small towns confronting rising crime and a fatal fentanyl epidemic are on the frontlines of Biden’s war on the border.
Last week, 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student Laken Hope Riley was assaulted, kidnapped, and murdered. An illegal immigrant from Venezuela has been arrested in connection with the crime, according to law enforcement, and is reportedly “expected to be charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another.” As my Federalist colleague Jordan Boyd writes, corporate media are trying to cover up that inconvenient truth, but Americans know the deadly consequences of Biden’s open border policies. The latest poll numbers confirm it.
Organizations like the Job Creators Network want to make sure Americans don’t forget who is responsible for the border invasion. JCN recently put up a billboard in New York City’s Times Square featuring a video of NYPD officers being beaten by a group of illegal immigrants. The billboard’s message to the president — and the country: “Hey Joe! If cops aren’t safe because of your open borders, nobody is.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
ERA would create a ‘blank check’ to discriminate against people of faith, expert warns.
ERA would create ‘blank check’ to discriminate against people of faith, expert warns. The proposed amendment does not include any protections against religious discrimination.
The Minnesota Queer Caucus held a press conference Thursday to reaffirm their support for the so-called “Equal Rights Amendment” (ERA). Attempting to enshrine abortion and gender identity into Minnesota’s constitution, the ERA is a major priority for the Democratic majorities in Minnesota’s state legislature.
“We are going to pass the most inclusive, comprehensive ERA off the floor that we can this year,” said Rep. Leigh Finke, a transgender legislator and chair of the Queer Caucus. READ MORE…
Washington D.C. seems to be more concerned with Ukraine’s borders than the millions invading their own U.S. borders from countries around the world with military-age men, crime, Fentanyl killing our kids, human trafficking, and Terrorism threats. Nor are they troubled by the $33 trillion debt that has grown out of control.
Biden Border Crisis: Military-Age Syrian Men Illegally Cross Into San Diego (VIDEO)
Three Syrian men were encountered by Griff Jenkins of Fox News at the southern border. The invasion of illegals has spiked in Jacumba (east San Diego County) since Texas has locked up the border.
“Where are you from?” Griff Jenkins asked. “From Syria,” the illegal said. Syria is a country known for its ties to terrorism yet military-age men from this region are pouring over the border on Joe Biden’s open border invitation. San Diego County has seen an increase of illegals coming through the southern border. TGP previously reported that in one week’s time illegals from 73 different countries were reported in San Diego. READ MORE.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
In his appearance Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” embattled U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did what any failed political leader possessing little integrity and less self-awareness would do: He blamed others for his mistakes. Asked whether he bears any responsibility for the nightmare the Biden administration has wrought at the U.S. southern border and beyond, Mayorkas effectively said, don’t look at us.
“It certainly is a crisis and we don’t bear responsibility for a broken system, and we’re dealing a tremendous amount within that broken system,”he told moderator Kristen Welker.
Maybe the secretary should talk to the people living in and around the border towns, local law enforcement, and his own U.S. Border Patrol agents.
“Ask the people at the border in Texas. They think the blame belongs squarely with [the Biden administration],” the FAIR media director told me Monday morning on “Need to Know With Jeff Angelo” on NewsRadio 1040 in Des Moines.
Earlier this month, Mehlman and his traveling companions saw the illegal immigration crisis firsthand at Eagle Pass, a south Texas city of about 28,000 people bordering Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the Rio Grande. As the Dallas Morning News explained, “Eagle Pass, with two small international bridges, features relatively gentle Rio Grande currents that invite migrant crossings. It became a focal point of Texas action in December when the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants over multiple weeks overwhelmed Border Patrol agents and city resources.”
The border town has become a hive of humanity, as its population swells from a wave of illegal aliens pouring over the border on promises of easy entry from President Joe Biden and his nearly impeached Homeland Security chief. U.S. Customs and Border Protection still has yet to post numbers for January apprehensions at the Southwest border, but December saw a new all-time monthly record with more than 300,000 migrant apprehensions. Eagle Pass and its Del Rio sector alone have recorded a whopping 152,252 encounters in the first three months of the federal fiscal year, beginning in October, according to the agency.
Eagle Pass is now ground zero in a standoff between the state of Texas and the Biden administration, just as it is Exhibit A in the administration’s chaotic immigration policy. Gov. Greg Abbott, backed by several states, ordered state National Guard troops to stand guard at Eagle Pass’s gates and erect razor wire to check the invasion. A divided 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court order gave the administration the go-ahead to cut the wire, but Abbott is holding firm, arguing his state is under attack and the president is doing nothing to stop it. Abbott stands on his constitutional obligation to defend and protect his state, and the United States at large, from invasion.
“The message from the Biden administration is: Not only don’t we want to enforce immigration laws, we don’t want anyone else to do it,” Mehlman said.
The immigration reform activist says, from what he saw on his latest trip to Eagle Pass, Abbott’s strategy is working. And, from what’s he’s heard from law enforcement officials, there have been few attempts from federal authorities to remove the deterrents Texas has put in place. Abbott has said his Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration numbers, a claim backed by a new Washington Examiner analysis.
“The numbers show how the percentage of arrests in Texas versus other border states has shifted. In 2021, 69% of illegal immigrant arrests across the southern border occurred in Texas,” the publication reported on Monday.
“As Abbott stepped up security at the start of the Biden administration in 2021, arrests of illegal crossers began to fall and dropped to just 34% last month.”
“This is a manageable problem, as Gov. Abbott has now demonstrated. If you deter people from coming across you will see the results almost immediately,” Mehlman said.
Mehlman does acknowledge, however, that the migrants are simply rerouting to Arizona and California, border states led by leftist governors committed to Biden’s open border policies.
Shifting blame, Mayorkas insists Congress is the “only one who can fix” the five-alarm border fire that he and Biden have dumped gasoline on. The secretary conveniently omits the many Trump-era policies the president has reversed and the orders he could sign to turn the tide of the illegal immigration flood. My colleague Tristan Justice last week detailed the dozens of times Biden has gutted border security since he took the oath of office.
The U.S. Senate’s bad joke of a border deal that died an ignominious death last week would have essentially codified the Biden administration’s awful policy to date. Mehlman and other critics say it would have exacerbated the crisis. He said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his top negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., “sold out” the House’s “good” version of the bill, creating a “lose-lose situation” for lawmakers serious about border security.
Meanwhile, last week’s failed effort by House Republicans to impeach Mayorkas is regrouping. Speaker Mike Johnson appears to believe his fellow Republicans will have the numbers —narrowly — this time around as Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is back to political business after undergoing cancer treatment during last week’s vote.
Mehlman said Mayorkas deserves to be impeached.
“He has undermined the enforcement of our immigration laws, he has violated his oath of office and he’s been derelict in his duty as secretary of Homeland Security,” the Federation for American Immigration Reform official said.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
Biden is losing more of the Black Vote every day to Trump along with other minorities according to recent polls. Mainly because of his disastrous economy and open-border policies.
Black Voters in South Carolina Turn on Joe Biden Ahead of Democrat Primary (VIDEO)
Black voters in South Carolina are turning on Joe Biden ahead of the Democrat primaries set for February 3. “Biden just wants to cause more bills for everybody, and he’s got a lot of homeless people out here,” one black South Carolina voter told the media of Joe Biden losing support among blacks. “It ain’t the Black community — it’s everybody’s community,” he said.
As TGP’s Kristinn Taylor reported, a poll released last month by Morning Consult shows Joe Biden losing support among black voters while President Trump is gaining support. Over the past year, Biden is down nine points, from 70 to 61 percent while Trump is up seven points, 15 to 22 percent. READ MORE…
The border crisis is 100% caused by Biden. He ended Trump’s policies that kept the border secure, and for 3 years continued to allow millions of illegal immigrants into the U.S.. Biden’s refusal to close the border with existing tools at his disposal is allowing rising crime, human trafficking, and Fentanyl into our country, killing and destroying the lives of millions of Americans.
BIDEN BORDER CRISIS: A Record 302,034 Illegal Aliens Encountered at Southern Border in December
A record 302,034 illegal aliens were encountered at the US-Mexico border in December. It has been estimated that more than 11 million illegal aliens – mainly military-age males – have crossed over the border since Joe Biden was installed in January 2021. The Biden Regime waited more than 3 weeks to release the numbers and then decided on a Friday news dump. READ MORE
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The Senate’s emergency appropriations bill released on Sunday won’t address the border crisis, and contrary to the accomplice media’s spin, the spending bill won’t “severely curtail asylum at the US southern border.”
The bill could have had the Senate reclaim the reins of lawmaking from the executive and judicial branches and clarify that widespread criminality in another country is not a basis for asylum in America. Instead, the 370-page bill, the “Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024,” includes funding for both Israel and Ukraine, plus decidedly insufficient provisions for addressing aliens and immigration.
The backers of the Senate bill seek to portray its provisions as, in the words of Joe Biden, the “toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades.” There is little that is “tough” in the bill, however, and what is can easily be sidestepped — either by the Biden administration or the throngs of illegal aliens invading from the south.
Consider, for instance, the “emergency authority” the bill would grant to the secretary of homeland security to “summarily remove” aliens. But that authority only arises if the number of encounters with aliens at the border averages 4,000 for seven consecutive days or more than 8,500 in any one day.
Beyond the flood of aliens allowed to enter the United States without triggering the emergency authority, the statutory exemptions gut the secretary’s authority. Specifically, the bill provides that the border emergency authority cannot be used against “an unaccompanied alien child,” so every illegal alien who is under 18 — or can pass as someone who is under 18 — will be allowed in.
Likewise, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can exempt aliens from the “border emergency authority” based on supposed “operational considerations.” An immigration officer can exempt other aliens for public health, humanitarian, and a smattering of other reasons. The president also has the power under the Senate bill to unilaterally suspend the secretary’s border emergency authority, meaning Biden can stop summary removals at will — at least temporarily.
The country has seen these types of exceptions swallow the rule since the Biden administration supplanted President Trump’s border policies, and there is no reason to believe things will be any different after nearly four years of an open border.
Empty Asylum Reform
The Senate bill’s claimed toughening of asylum procedures is similarly impotent. Most glaring is its provision stating that individuals seeking asylum will be “released from physical custody.” The sections and subsections that follow then detail the process for handling asylum claims.
The supposed improvement here is that asylum decisions are to be completed expeditiously, within 90 days. But the Senate includes the squishy “to the maximum extent practicable” to that 90-day timetable. That’s assuming the alien, who recall is “noncustodial,” does not abscond. The bill also allows for aliens to seek review of negative decisions, meaning they’ll have a second opportunity to flee even if they appear for the first hearing.
That the Senate bill provides for the release of aliens pending a hearing renders any other tightening of the asylum process meaningless. What would have sent a message, however, would have been for the Senate to clarify that facing general violence, including gang violence, in a country of origin, is not a basis for asylum.
Congress previously defined the grounds for asylum as limited to those who are unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin “because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion…” The statutory “membership in a particular social group” language has led to claims for asylum premised on spousal abuse, threats by gang members, and individuals targeted because of their occupation.
Attempts at Reform
Under the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sought to “return some semblance of meaning to the ‘membership in a particular social group’ category by holding that an applicant ‘must demonstrate: (1) membership in a group, which is composed of members who share a common immutable characteristic, is defined with particularity, and is socially distinct within the society in question; and (2) that membership in the group is a central reason for her persecution.’”
As Sessions explained in his decision interpreting the statutory language, “nothing in the text of the [Immigration and Nationality Act] supports the suggestion that Congress intended ‘membership in a particular social group’ to be ‘some omnibus catch-all’ for solving every ‘heart-rending situation.’” The former AG’s opinion further indicated that “victims of private criminal activity” will generally not qualify for asylum, absent “exceptional circumstances.”
Following Joe Biden’s election, his DOJ issued an opinion vacating Sessions’ opinion, suggesting asylum was more readily available for victims of private criminal activity. But rather than explain, Merrick Garland noted he would leave the question to rule-making. Such a fundamental question should not be left to unelected bureaucrats, however, especially given the unsustainable levels of asylum applications seen in the last few years.
Asylum for All
Maybe Congress wants to open America to every citizen of the world who heralds from a country where the government cannot control crime — which is the conclusion that follows from the Biden administration’s all-inclusive reading of the statutory “membership in a particular social group” language. If so, Congress should say so. But if not, Congress should make clear that asylum provides a safe haven for those persecuted by their government because of their race, religion, sex, political views, or whatever other specific classifications our elected officials believe appropriate.
The irony here is that the Biden administration’s reversal of the Trump policies has fortified the funding of cartels, gangs, and traffickers — so much so that those flooding our shores will now be able to honestly say their government cannot protect them. And if “non-gang members” qualifies as a “social group,” it will be asylum for all.
Is that what Congress believes is appropriate? We don’t know because the cowards prefer to leave it to the administrative state. The Senate bill proves that.
Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. Margot’s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion (forthcoming), National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press. She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prive—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments—her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, a white Minnesota farmer is suing Gov. Tim Walz and the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) for racial discrimination.
On July 20, 2023, Lance Nistler applied for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s “Down Payment Assistance Grant” program. This program awards qualified farmers with up to $15,000 in grant funding to help them purchase their first farm. Among the requirements, applicants must be Minnesota residents who intend to farm the land they purchase for a minimum of five years and who have never owned a farm before. However, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic majorities in the Minnesota Legislature authorized a new preference system last year which changes how grant funding is awarded under the program. READ MORE
Biden created the border crisis by inviting the world to illegally enter the U.S. while at the same time removing the tools Trump put in place through executive orders.
BIDEN BORDER CRISIS: A Record 302,034 Illegal Aliens Encountered at Southern Border in December
A record 302,034 illegal aliens were encountered at the US-Mexico border in December. It has been estimated that more than 11 million illegal aliens – mainly military-age males – have crossed over the border since Joe Biden was installed in January 2021.
The Biden Regime waited more than 3 weeks to release the numbers and then decided on a Friday news dump. “This represents a 460 percent increase from the average December during the Trump administration.” RNC Research said. Last month a mass of thousands of illegal aliens waited to be processed by Border Patrol at the Eagle Pass port of entry were spotted after they invaded Texas. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trum
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that he will send members of the Florida National Guard and the Florida State Guard to assist Texas in its efforts at the southern border. Florida will offer a battalion of National Guard members to be deployed based on the needs in Texas, said DeSantis, who last month dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
The deployments join the more than 90 officers from Florida’s Highway Patrol, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Department of Law Enforcement who have already been deployed, and DeSantis noted in a statement that more law enforcement resources are coming.
“States have every right to defend their sovereignty and we are pleased to increase our support to Texas as the Lone Star State works to stop the invasion across the border,” he said. “Our reinforcements will help Texas to add additional barriers, including razor wire along the border. We don’t have a country if we don’t have a border.”
Maj. Gen. John Haas, the adjutant general of Florida, said the deployments are not a new mission, as Florida has supported border security missions in Texas, including federal and state deployments.
“Last spring the Florida National Guard was one of the first in the nation to deploy rotations of soldiers to support Operation Lone Star in Texas,” Haas said. “We have proudly and readily supported our own state’s efforts in similar roles here in Florida.”
“Florida State Guard Director Mark Thieme said his branch is prepared to stand “shoulder-to-shoulder” with its state agency partners in Texas who are “grappling with an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration along their border. The Florida State Guard is postured to deliver rapid emergency response, public safety operations, and humanitarian assistance — wherever the need arises.”
DeSantis’ office noted that since 2021, when President Joe Biden took office, the state has been providing direct law enforcement and military assistance to Texas, including with the Florida National Guard in support of the Texas Military Department in several missions, including with roving patrols, engineer assistance, and observation points.
Further, the Florida Highway Patrol has made contact with nearly 150,000 illegal aliens while conducting over 27,000 traffic stops, resulting in 2,102 human smuggling or human trafficking charges with 2,278 overall arrests, the governor’s office said.
It was also noted that the federal Customs and Border Patrol recorded 2.5 million encounters at the border in fiscal year 2023, including 169 people on the terrorism watchlist trying to come into the U.S. across the southern border.
“More than 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border, including more than 1.7 million known got-aways,” the statement said, adding that in December alone, “roughly 260 million lethal doses of fentanyl were seized at the border.”
House Republicans will proceed with impeachment charges against President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary this week. On Sunday, Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee unveiled two articles of impeachment against Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the administration’s efforts to actively undermine border security.
“These articles lay out a clear, compelling, and irrefutable case for Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment,” Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green of Tennessee said in a statement to The Federalist. “He has willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress. He has breached the public trust by knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people, and obstructing congressional oversight of his department. These facts are beyond dispute, and the results of his lawless behavior have been disastrous for our country.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., introduced a resolution to impeach Mayorkas last year, but it was referred to the House Homeland Security Committee in November. Since then, House Republicans have held two hearings on the secretary’s impeachment in January. The embattled DHS chief was absent for each. In a statement, Green called Mayorkas’ refusal to testify “deeply troubling.”
“We have given him every opportunity to explain his handling of the crisis,” Green said in a statement earlier this month. “Unfortunately, this pattern of defying Congress has continued with his refusal to testify before this Committee specifically about his handling of this crisis and his failure to enforce America’s immigration laws. Apparently, accountability and transparency are not high on his priority list. The American people deserve better than this.”
On Sunday, Green proposed an amendment in the nature of a substitute, or new bill language, as the base text for the articles being formally introduced this week. Charges will include “Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply With the Law” and “Breach of the Public Trust” stemming from the secretary’s failure to secure the border.
Republicans say Mayorkas has acted contrary to his obligation to provide border security with programs facilitating open migration such as the expansion of the CBP One App, which allows migrants to enter the country after scheduling an appointment with officials. According to the Washington Examiner, the app has also been abused by Central American cartels with virtual private networks (VPN) to smuggle people across the border.
Green said Mayorkas has “empowered and enriched cartels, mass fentanyl poisonings, surges of terror watchlist suspects, more criminal illegal aliens causing harm in our communities, and traumatized and exploited migrants.”
December set a new single-month record for border arrests, with more than 300,000 illegal aliens encountered by U.S. border officials. According to an October report from the House Judiciary Committee, an estimated 1.7 million more known “gotaways” have come in undetected since Biden took office, bringing the estimated number of illegal entries under this Democrat administration to roughly 10 million or more.
At the House Homeland Security Committee’s second and final impeachment hearing for Mayorkas last week, Republicans featured victims of the fentanyl crisis. Fentanyl seizures by federal border enforcement are up 860 percent since 2019, according to ABC News.
“In my humble opinion, Mr. Mayorkas’ border policy is partially responsible for my daughter’s death,” said Josephine Dunn, whose daughter died from fentanyl poisoning.
If Republicans are successful, Mayorkas would become the second presidential cabinet member to be impeached. William Belknap, who served as war secretary under President Ulysses S. Grant, was impeached in 1876 shortly after resigning over allegations of corruption. Belknap was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
More than two dozen Republican attorneys general sent a stern message to President Joe Biden and his border czar, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, on Monday: If you’re not going to enforce the law at the southern border, then “get out of the way so Texas can.”
The letter, spearheaded by Iowa AG Brenna Bird and signed by 25 other AGs and the GOP leaders of the Arizona legislature, followed a similar letter from Republican governors last week showing solidarity for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s waging a two-front battle: against Biden in the courtroom and what Abbott calls an “invasion” of illegals pouring through the border.
Monday’s six-page letter also comes after the Biden administration’s release Friday that December set a record with more than 302,000 migrant encounters at the southern border, part of a “staggering” and record-setting 371,036 overall encounters nationwide. It also comes as myriad Democrat lawmakers and leaders call on Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard, a move Abbott said Friday would be “boneheaded.”
“What you should do is simple: enforce the law and protect the border,” the letter stated. “And despite some recent suggestions that you should nationalize control of the Texas National Guard as a ruse, we would like to remind you that you cannot do so without legal authority that you currently lack. If you cannot bring yourselves to enforce the law, get out of the way so Texas can.”
Further, the letter says Border Patrol “used a forklift to lift the wire to let more than 300 people crossing the Rio Grande into Texas.”
The letter also addresses the Supreme Court’s ruling last week that allowed the Biden administration to remove razor wire deployed at the orders of Abbott, but it did not issue a cease-and-desist to Texas.
“As lawyers yourselves, you must know that reports that Texas is ignoring or ‘defying’ the Supreme Court are wrong, either misunderstanding or deliberately misstating the law,” the AGs wrote. “The Supreme Court’s order did not tell Texas that it could or could not do anything. Texas should be applauded for continuing to try to protect the border despite the federal government now, again, being able to try to destroy the barriers Texas builds.”
The letter goes on to assert that Texas and other states “must be able to defend themselves from invasion.”
At least one Biden administration official agrees. A Customs and Border Patrol senior official told Fox News that the relationship between Border Patrol and Texas law enforcement “remains strong.”
“Bottom line: Border Patrol has no plans to remove infrastructure (c-wire) placed by Texas along the border,” the official said. “Our posture remains the same. If we need to access an area for emergency response, we will do so. When that happens, we will coordinate with Texas (Department of Public Safety) and (Texas Military Dept.).”
Border Patron has become nothing more than processing agents for the radial left’s voter enhancement program. Biden and the Democrats continue trying to impede Texas’ ability to enforce immigration law.
It’s Official: 50 Texas Counties Declare Border ‘Invasion’ Due to Biden’s Policies
The Constitution is clear on what the role of the federal government is when it comes to illegal immigration.
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence,” Article IV, Section 4 declares.
As we’ve seen, President Joe Biden’s administration and his Democratic enablers in Congress don’t want to meaningfully protect U.S. citizens from the invasion of illegal immigrants and criminal cartels at our southern border. They don’t want to protect voters in border states against the flood of fentanyl and lawlessness with anything except words. READ MORE
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A talking point cropping up on social media and press contends that Texas Governor Greg Abbott is “ignoring” or “defying” the Supreme Court by continuing to erect fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. This is wrong.
Abbott can’t ignore the Supreme Court because Texas wasn’t ordered to do anything. SCOTUS vacated an order against the Department of Homeland Security [sic] that stopped the Feds from cutting down razor fencing along the border. Nothing says that Texas can’t erect the fencing.
Though, you must marvel at the breathtaking audacity of Democrats suddenly treating the court’s (non-existent) words as if they were sacred text. This very week, President Joe Biden again ignored the court, rolling out yet another iteration of his unconstitutional student “loan forgiveness” program. Biden habitually circumvents, ignores, defies, attacks, and demeans SCOTUS — and Democrats cheer him on along the way. Senate leaders and “dark money” fake media organizations like ProPublica have poured millions into delegitimizing and smearing the court to undermine its authority.
Now, it is true that Biden has the power to ratchet up the fight, take federal control of the border, and implement any policy he desires — or, more specifically, any non-policy he desires. The Biden administration is standing in the way of Texas’ efforts to enforce state and federal law. Once that happens, we can have our constitutional crisis.
As a political matter, the case tells us that the border mayhem is not only a matter of historic incompetence but is also driven by ideology. Many Democrats believe limiting illegal immigration is immoral. They believe anyone who wants to walk over the border should be able to do so without any incumbrances.
This week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that razorwire at the southern border is ineffective and gets “in the way” of law enforcement. I’m no expert on border control, admittedly, but I am relatively certain that any fence is better than what is happening now.
A few years back, Nancy Pelosi distilled the left’s view on physical barriers when she called them an “immorality,” the “least effective way to protect the border,” and too expensive. “I can’t think of any reason why anyone would think it’s a good idea — unless this has something to do with something else,” the then House Speaker said. None of that is true, either. The idea that real fences and walls can’t mitigate the movement of people is undermined by looking at the entirety of history. The least effective way is probably what we’re doing now.
The “something else,” of course, is meant to call you a racist. The reality is that Mexico is the top origin country for legal immigrants. Most Americans still see immigration as a net positive. The lawlessness at the border, and now in major cities, is helping undermine that sentiment.
One of the vital jobs of the federal government is to protect the sovereignty, borders, and citizens of the nation — even more important than creating “book ban” czars or banning Zyn packets. But not only has Biden abdicated his responsibility on that front, he wants to stop others from doing their duty, as well. But sometimes, it seems like the lawlessness is the point.
Democrats are promising more money for the border but we all know it’s so they can process more illegals, not to stop the flow, and they want it tied to more Ukraine money.
Republicans in the Senate Suddenly Take Strong Stand on the Border and Illegal Immigration in Exchange for Funding Ukraine
Days after new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) again put the Biden administration and the Senate on notice that he would only consider funding for Ukraine if strict border and immigration reforms in H.R 2 were enacted, Republicans in the Senate have suddenly taken a hardline stand on the border and immigration in negotiations with Democrats on funding for Ukraine to defend itself from the ongoing… READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Mexican and U.S. officials have agreed to work together more closely to tackle record migration at their shared border, the countries’ governments said in a joint statement Thursday, a day after high-level talks on stemming record numbers.
Following a visit to Mexico by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the countries said they would seek to strengthen a sponsorship initiative for Venezuelan, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Haitian migrants and look to tackle the root causes of migration.
The delegations, who are set to meet again in Washington next month, also discussed regularizing the situation of beneficiaries of the U.S. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – the so-called Dreamers who were brought into the country illegally as children – and long-time undocumented Hispanic migrants living in the United States.
The talks came after the U.S. temporarily shuttered some border crossings to redeploy agents toward enforcement, sparking a trade slowdown and criticism by Republicans of the Biden administration’s border policies. Immigration and the border are expected to be top issues in the U.S. 2024 elections, where President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is running for a second term.
Earlier Thursday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the two parties had agreed to keep border crossings open after the temporary closures.
“This agreement has been reached, the rail crossings and the border bridges are already being opened to normalize the situation,” Lopez Obrador told a morning press conference.
Lopez Obrador said Wednesday’s meetings with the U.S. delegation were “direct,” and he praised the Biden administration’s relationship with Mexico.
‘Faith in God’
More than half a million migrants this year crossed the dangerous Darien Gap jungle connecting South America with Central America – double last year’s record – with many fleeing crime, poverty and conflict to seek better prospects in the United States.
The latest of a series of caravans of migrants and asylum seekers, many with small children, is slowly walking across southern Mexico, heading towards the U.S border. Lopez Obrador estimated that the caravan counts some 1,500 people but some activists and local media have put the figure at 7,000.
“We have to have faith in God,” Honduran migrant Marvin Mejias said as he traveled with his son, who has had foot surgery. Mejias said he hoped the governments had reached a deal which would help him enter the U.S. and be able to work there.
Lopez Obrador said the issue of fentanyl, a powerful and deadly opioid that Mexican cartels have been trafficking into the U.S., was “hardly discussed” in Wednesday’s meeting.
The United States has been pressing Mexico to do more to combat fentanyl trafficking, while Mexico has been pushing for stronger U.S. controls to prevent U.S. firearms from reaching the powerful cartels.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., told Newsmax on Friday that Republicans must make it clear that they “will hold the ground on border security” when it comes to passing additional aid for Ukraine. Spartz, the first native Ukrainian to serve in U.S. Congress, told “Newsline” in an interview that there’s “no doubt” that negotiations on a deal on border security and Ukraine aid haven’t progressed as far as some would hope.
She said that Republicans must ensure that “Democrats understand … that we will hold the ground on border security because if we don’t protect our country there is no hope for anyone else in the world.”
Spartz went on to accuse President Joe Biden of “slow-walking aid to Ukraine” and allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin “to advance that far and fortify … which costs a lot of money and a lot of lives for Ukrainians.”
She continued, “I think we need to be tougher, but we have to have … [an] agreement on border security and [Biden] needs to understand we will hold the ground.”
The congresswoman said Biden is “getting better” when it comes to policies for asylum seekers, “but he’s not willing to … tighten the parole that he’s been abusing.”
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The U.S. Senate is expected to delay the start of its holiday break as bipartisan talks on border security and providing more aid to Ukraine and Israel continue, multiple senators said on Thursday.
“We’re making progress and the White House is engaged, which is good. Everything’s encouraging,” Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, told reporters, cautioning that “right now, they’re still talking concepts.”
Lawmakers said the Senate would return on Monday, delaying the start of its holiday break.
President Joe Biden has been urging lawmakers to pass a supplemental aid package to provide $50 billion in new security to Ukraine as it fights off Russian invasion, as well as $14 billion for Israel as it wages war against Hamas in Gaza.
Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as Republicans in the Democrat-majority Senate, have repeatedly said they will only vote for that aid if it is paired with new controls for the U.S.-Mexico border.
Any deal reached in the Senate, which Democrats control by a 51-49 majority, would also need to win the approval of the House, which Republicans control 221-213, before passing into law.
House lawmakers left Washington as scheduled on Thursday to begin their holiday recess.
“There is too much on the line for Ukraine, for America, for Western democracy to throw in the towel right now. We must keep talking, we must keep working,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said in a floor speech on Thursday morning.
Biden administration officials including President Joe Biden warned over the weekend that Hamas’ attack on Israel has resulted in an increased threat of terrorism within U.S. borders. FBI Director Christopher Wray warned on Saturday that the “heightened environment” presented by the fighting in Israel and Gaza has caused “an increase in reported threats.”
“We’ve got to be on the lookout, especially for lone actors who may take inspiration from recent events to commit violence of their own,” Wray said during his address at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. “I’d encourage you to stay vigilant because as the first line of defense protecting our communities, you’re often the first to see the signs that someone may be mobilizing to violence.”
Biden similarly confirmed during a “60 Minutes” sit-down that Americans are at greater risk of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil after the events of the last week and a half.
“Because of what we’re seeing in the Middle East, is the threat of terrorism in the United States increased?” CBS’s Scott Pelley asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied. “I had a meeting this morning with the Homeland Security people, with the FBI, in the Situation Room for the better of part of an hour to discuss how we make sure that we prevent a lone wolf and or any coordinated effort to try to do what was done in synagogues before, do what was done to Jews in the street.”
Biden claimed that his administration is “making a major effort to make sure that doesn’t happen,” yet he has no concrete plans to cut off the biggest potential terrorist pipeline into the United States.
Hama’s “global day of rage” prompted terrorist attacks and anti-Israel demonstrations not just in France, China, Jordan, Iran, and Italy, but also in states like Washington and California. In addition to the Iranian spies who made their way into the Biden administration and the terrorist sleeper cells already embedded in U.S. cities, foreign incendiaries who wish ill on Americans can literally walk right into the U.S. via our compromised Southern border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources confirmed to Fox News on Monday that two of the Iranians caught sneaking across the Southern border in the last month were pinned as “raising red flags that they could pose a significant security threat.” Their information was later located in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).
The capture is not the least bit surprising to border officials who, since October 2022, arrested nearly 160 illegal border crossers whose information was found on the TSDB. The Department of Homeland Security even admitted last week that “[t]errorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States” via its open Southern border.
Yet, Biden has no plans to stymie the border crisis created by his commitment to undo Trump-era security policies. On the contrary, the Democrat has repeatedly reinforced that he does not care to stop the collapse of the Southern border.
When word spread that Biden, in a major reversal, sought to build part of the Trump border wall he had been “quietly”auctioning off, the Democrat regime scrambled to assure Americans that the administration did not care to secure the nation’s borders, especially with physical barriers.
I want to address today’s reporting relating to a border wall and be absolutely clear.
There is no new Administration policy with respect to border walls. My full statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ga1fEMqvN8
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) October 5, 2023
Biden is not blind to the fact that nearly 7 million illegal border crossers have marched into the country detected by border officials, though likely not detained for long. Instead of addressing the border crisis that is clearly used as a pathway by potential terrorists to infiltrate the states, however, Biden is planning a trip to Israel to discuss its border issues.
If the Biden administration can waive more than two dozen laws to begrudgingly erect part of the border wall, it could easily reinstate other border security measures that would keep illegal border crossings down and free up Border Patrol to capture the several potential terrorists who inevitably make up part of the 1.5 million gotaways who made it into the U.S. under Biden.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
We can no more count on Biden to defend our border than to assist Israel. That means states and local communities must take their fates into their own hands.
“Such is the nature of Evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads. A Shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So, it ever was, so it always will be.”
These words from the movie adaptation of The Hobbit were quoted by my colleague Dr. David Wurmser, who is presently in Israel reporting as he can between rocket attacks and shelter-in-place orders.
Only Tolkien’s stories of the changeless sweeping malevolence of evil across the ages seem appropriate to encapsulate the tremendous paradigm shift represented by the horrific massacre perpetrated by Hamas over the weekend. The losses suffered, perhaps as many as 1,000 dead and many thousands more wounded, are of such a horrific scale in light of Israel’s small population that regardless of how the fight proceeds now, Israeli society is likely to be changed forever. The attack, in which as many as 1,000 Hamas jihadists crossed the Gaza border under the cover of a massive rocket barrage and drone attacks, seized control of towns in Southern Israel and went from door to door to rape, torture, and murder every Jew they could find, all on video, instantly evoked horrors known to most of us only from black and white newsreels in previous centuries.
As the perpetrators have openly admitted, the massacre was planned and prepared with the help of Iran, whose other terrorist proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, and Houthi terrorists in Yemen, remain at the ready to expand the fight on Tehran’s orders.
A New Age, A Timeless Evil
The likely purpose of the attack from Iran’s perspective was to undermine peace efforts between Israel and Arab states, most especially Saudi Arabia. Not coincidentally, this has also been a major effort of the Biden Administration, which has sought to undermine the historic Abraham Accords achieved under President Trump by injecting the Palestinian issue into the center of the Arab-Israel conflict, even while pretending to seek an agreement.
The Biden Administration has released $6 billion dollars to Iran, currently stored at a bank in Hamas-friendly Qatar. It has provided funds to Gaza which they admitted would result in arming Hamas, and pillaged stockpiles of U.S. arms stored in Israel as part of a long-standing agreement, and sent them to Ukraine.
Like the conniving Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings, the Biden administration, as the Obama administration before it, has at every turn counseled Israel to maximize restraint and complacency in the face of a growing peril, all while professing friendship.
Here at home, the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that consists of numerous Democrat politicians at the local, state, and federal level, hosted the largest Pro-Hamas rally thus far, in New York City replete with open calls in support of terrorist violence. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group with close ties to Hamas, has called for a National Day of Resistance and a “Unity Intifada” in solidarity with the Hamas attack for Thursday, Oct. 12.
In the face of this reality, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley saying the attack represents “an attack on America,” or Qatar-friendly Sen. Lindsay Graham issuing threats against Iran is mere fecklessness and bravado. The truth is that as it is currently constituted, the U.S. government, especially the State Department and intelligence agencies, are unlikely to do anything but deliberately hamper Israel’s attempts to defend itself and seek ways to further bolster Iran and its proxies behind the scenes.
Americans should demand the American government keep out of meddling with Israel’s response and allow it to defend its citizens as it sees fit. Certainly, the U.S. should honor existing agreements and obligations (refilling drained stockpiles for instance) but over-the-top or performative action will likely only amount to interference.
The Invasion on Our Own Border
Meanwhile, we should tend urgently to our own border and security. Israel’s border with Gaza was one of the most heavily surveilled and monitored borders in the world. As events have shown, surveillance is not enough. U.S. border doves for years promised that a border can be protected by a mere “virtual fence” of cameras and sensors. The reality is that only real physical barriers, like walls, watched over by sufficient numbers of properly armed and trained men constitute a secure border. Anything else is theater. On the other side of that border are barbaric criminal cartels and narco-insurgents every bit as murderous as Hamas and Hezbollah. In fact, Hezbollah has extensive ties with various drug cartels, which it has used to try and conduct attacks inside the United States. Hundreds of individuals already named on the terrorist watchlist have crossed into the country.
Israeli awareness of the situation in Gaza now being criticized as insufficient, is undoubtedly far superior to our own understanding of the threats on the other side of our own border.
The Biden administration continues to facilitate an invasion, consisting of as much as an entire infantry division a day, mostly of military aged males across the Southern border. They come from all over the world, including places rife with jihadist terrorists, and increasingly from hostile adversaries like China. Some, likely working with the cartels, cross the border wearing camouflage and carrying firearms.
Iran’s parliament is chanting “Death to Israel! Death to America!
This would not be happening under Trump! Joe Biden just gave them 6 Billion Dollars.
We can no more count on the Biden Administration to defend our border than to assist Israel. That means states and local communities must take their fates into their own hands.
In the wake of the attack from Gaza, Israel immediately loosened its otherwise quite strict gun laws to increase the number of prepared citizens able to defend themselves from terrorists. The reality is that no government force can respond quickly enough against such overwhelming violence to prevent tragedy. Americans should strongly oppose any efforts to restrain our own Second Amendment and take advantage of the ability to possess and train with firearms for their own defense whenever and wherever possible.
Bolster Law Enforcement
Local communities in Israel were quickly overwhelmed by the coordinated terrorist attack, and local police were not equal to the onslaught. It has been reported that over 30 Israeli police were trapped in a police station that came under siege by Hamas gunmen. Many fought bravely and lost their lives.
In America, both urban and rural areas are struggling to recruit, train, and outfit sufficient law enforcement officers following the left’s assault upon policing in 2020. Many local agencies are hundreds of officers below their required needs. Cities continue to attempt to replace armed law enforcement with mere social workers.
Americans everywhere should endeavor to support and bolster the morale of their local law enforcement, most especially their elected Sheriff. Encourage your community to provide the necessary funding to train, recruit, and equip the best possible local law enforcement, without relying upon fickle and restrictive federal grants. Law enforcement leaders should consider ways to augment smaller or struggling police forces with citizen auxiliaries, properly vetted and trained. States should look at ways to bolster their National Guard and State Defense Forces and prepare them for the kinds of violence we know are possible.
Things will get worse before they get better. The attack on Israel is an unmistakable sign that we have entered a dangerous and trying time. The forces of evil fester and spread, not just in the Middle East, but here at home.
First and foremost, we should, as Tolkien wrote, set ourselves to “uprooting evil in the fields that we know” and encourage our friends abroad to do the same.
Kyle Shideler is senior analyst for Homeland Security at the Center for Security Policy.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign against the idea of a border wall, his administration is filling in small gaps along the southern wall, the Washington Examiner reported.
Workers are halfway through filling in 129 gaps in border wall projects, the Examiner said. Gaps have been filled in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, where more than 450 miles of 18-and 30-foot steel wall was put up by former President Donald Trump’s administration.
But despite such efforts, much of the 2,000-mile boundary is wide open. According to the Examiner the work to fill in the gaps has been done without any fanfare.
When Biden took office, he immediately signed an executive order halting all border wall construction, but his administration has approved projects at multiple locations along the border, the Daily Mail reported in July, 2022.
“To date, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has authorized the completion of multiple life, safety, environmental and other remediation activities which include, among other activities, the closure of 129 gates and gaps across the southwest border,” CBP [Customs and Border Protection] said. “Of the 129 approved gates and gaps, 68 have been completed to date with an additional 50 anticipated for completion by Sept. 30, 2023. The remaining 11 are anticipated to be completed in fiscal year 2024.”
And Ken Oliver, director of Right on Immigration at the Texas Public Policy Foundation said: “There never was any legitimate justification for waiting nearly 2 1/2 years to get around to doing construction that should have never stopped and that should have been completed by now.
“It was a highly irresponsible and unlawful action by the Biden administration to halt construction of duly appropriated border-wall funding in the first place.”
The Examiner noted that filling in the gaps is being funded with leftover money from the Trump wall projects. The Biden administration has not disclosed how many miles the gap projects total. One gap in Deming, New Mexico, was no wider than 20 feet, but had been left open for 2 1/2 years. It was finally closed up in the last two weeks, according to landowner and fourth-generation rancher Russell Johnson.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who visited the border city of Yuma in June, said the gaps are being closed.
“Significant progress has been made on construction for all the gaps, with two nearly finished and all four expected to be complete within two months,” a spokesperson for Kelly said in a statement to the Examiner. “This remains a priority for him, and he will continue pushing to have the construction finished as soon as possible.”
The news outlet pointed out that instead of installing the same type of dark steel slatted beams, CBP in Yuma constructed 30-foot-tall wire mesh panels in some of the gaps. The sections included doors that open to allow police to come and go.
Unveiling his 2024 presidential campaign border policy Monday in Eagle Pass, Texas, Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to “turn the screws on sanctuary jurisdictions” and “kneecap the cartels.”
“We’re gonna turn the screws on sanctuary jurisdictions,” DeSantis said at a campaign event, which aired live on Newsmax. “They get a lot of money. All these localities and states get a lot of money from the feds. They get grants. They get all that.
“You know, we’ll make sure to turn the screws so that it pays to follow the law, and it doesn’t pay to violate the law.”
It is not just about money with the Democrat-run cities and states that are “virtue signaling” with their open immigration policies in violation of U.S. law — and in defiance of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — it is also about public safety, according to DeSantis.
“What will happen is you’ll have somebody who’s in the country illegally, they’ll commit a serious crime, they’ll serve a prison sentence; when they’re done with their prison sentence, a state or a locality, that sanctuary will not notify ICE that they’re getting out of prison, because if they do ICE can take them and send them back,” DeSantis lamented.
“Instead they release them back into the community. How is that something that’s acceptable? It’s not.”
President Joe Biden has taken the “virtue signaling” that started by anti-Trump forces during the Trump administration to whole new depths and the open borders must be closed, DeSantis vowed.
“Joe Biden’s dereliction of duty has made our southern border a disaster zone,” DeSantis said. “The Biden administration is the critical link in an illegal transnational human smuggling syndicate.
“For decades, leaders from both parties have produced empty promises on border security, and now it is time to act to stop the invasion once and for all.
“As president, I will declare a national emergency on day one and will not rest until we build the wall, shut down illegal entry, and win the war against the drug cartels. No excuses. We will get it done.”
A key piece of DeSantis’ plan is declaring the Mexico drug and human trafficking cartels Transnational Criminal Organizations in a federal order-led effort to “kneecap the cartels.”
“We’re going to be leaning in against these drug cartels,” DeSantis said. “I think that they are killing a lot of Americans. They are effectively in control of this border to begin with, and part of the reason it’s gotten this way is they don’t get any pushback.
“They’re able to just do this with impunity, and so we will designate them either Transnational Criminal organization or foreign terrorist organization. Chip and I are talking about that.
“The bottom line is we’re going to give them a designation so that we can unleash more federal power to be able to kneecap the cartels.”
Chip refers to his early endorser Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who once helped run the presidential campaign for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and is currently active among the House conservatives pushing back against Biden’s open border policies.
“Washington’s status quo approach to border security is one of the biggest failures of our generation,” Roy, speaking before DeSantis, said. “This crisis has decimated ranchers, killed Americans with dangerous narcotics, placed migrants in horrific situations from sex trafficking to death, and placed American national security at risk to China and cartels.
“Texans and our courageous DPS Troopers deserve credit for standing in the breach created by Joe Biden. We need a president in the White House who is not afraid to use the full weight of his office to build the wall, stop the flow, and force Congress to send a bill to sign to fix the laws once and for all.
“Ron DeSantis not only has a strong plan to secure the border — in line with our Texas plan — he has the courage to finally deliver results.”
Notably, DeSantis has been one of the leading men in America in forcing sanctuary cities and states to take on the border crisis in their own backyards, having sent migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and California.
The Biden administration began implementing a sweeping policy shift at the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday as a COVID-era order that had allowed the swift expulsion of many migrants expired and new asylum restrictions took effect amid confusion and uncertainty. Several last-minute court actions added to questions about how President Joe Biden’s reworked border strategy will play out, with advocates filing a legal challenge to the new asylum regulation as it was enacted.
Facing concerns that the end of a 3-year-old order – known as Title 42 – could further strain U.S. border facilities, cities and towns, U.S. officials were keeping a close eye on the movements of migrants that had already reached record numbers in recent days.
“We continue to encounter high levels of non-citizens at the border, but we did not see a substantial increase overnight or an influx at midnight,” when Title 42 expired, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Blas Nunez-Neto told reporters on Friday.
Seeking to discourage migrants from traveling to the border, the Mexican government said its national migration institute has ordered its offices not to issue immigration documents or other permits enabling travel within the country, creating another obstacle for migrants. Though a chaotic race to U.S. border ports of entry on Thursday appeared to have given way to relative calm on Friday, there was a sense of confusion among some migrants.
At the U.S. border fence dividing El Paso, Texas, from Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, hundreds of migrants who had slept there overnight formed a single file line to be brought into the U.S. by authorities and put on buses. Texas National Guard, state troopers and border agents patrolled the area. Immigration advocates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge against the new asylum bars, claiming they violate U.S. and international laws.
Advocates argue the new regulation, put in place by Biden’s Democratic administration to curb illegal crossings, resembles restrictions imposed by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, that they had successfully blocked in court. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the Biden regulation, saying it aims to encourage migrants to enter using legal pathways. “It’s going to be a tough transition,” he told MSNBC.
U.S. asylum officers hurried to figure out the logistics of what would be required to apply the new asylum regulation. Returns of some migrants to Mexico – Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans – were due to begin on Friday under the new border provisions, a homeland security official said.
SCRAMBLE AHEAD OF THE CHANGES
In chaotic scenes on Thursday, migrants scrambled to enter the country before the new rule went into effect. The regulation presumes most migrants are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other countries without first seeking protection elsewhere, or if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry, which Biden has expanded.
Tens of thousands of migrants this week waded through rivers, climbed walls and embankments onto U.S. territory. In San Diego, a Colombian man, who was among asylum seekers taken to a hotel for processing, said he and his wife crossed on foot east of Tijuana and spent four nights outside. He was granted an asylum hearing in 60 days and paroled.
“We didn’t have anywhere else to go,” said the man, who described himself as a former Colombian air force member who had been threatened by armed groups in his homeland.
Around 25,000 migrants were being held in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities near the border on Friday, down slightly from record highs earlier in the week, according to the National Border Patrol Council, a union for agents. About 10,000 migrants per day were reported crossing illegally this week.
A 17-year-old Honduran boy died after being found unconscious in a Florida shelter on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Unaccompanied children are exempt from the new regulation, and advocates have warned that parents might send their children across the border alone.
COVID EMERGENCY ENDS, ASYLUM BAN BEGINS
Trump first implemented Title 42 in March 2020 as COVID swept the globe, with U.S. health officials saying it was needed to curb the spread of the virus in detention facilities. The order allowed American authorities to quickly expel migrants to Mexico or other countries without a chance to request asylum.
Some Democrats and immigration advocates say Biden’s new regulation is too harsh. The measure also counters previous statements Biden made in 2020 on the campaign trail, when he said he thought it was “wrong” for people not to be able to seek asylum on U.S. soil.
Biden, who campaigned on reversing Trump’s policies and is now running for re-election in 2024, kept the order in place until now.
Migrants have been expelled more than 2.7 million times under Title 42, although the total includes many repeat crossers.
Mexico has generally only accepted certain nationalities – its own citizens, migrants from northern Central America and more recently migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua. So, during the same period, around 2.8 million migrants ineligible for expulsion were allowed into the United States under a process known as Title 8 to pursue their immigration claims in court, which can take months or years.
Republicans fault Biden for easing Trump’s more restrictive policies, while the Biden administration has blamed Republicans for blocking legislation to reform the immigration system.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and Presiden
The Biden administration will send 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
“At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary [Lloyd] Austin approved a temporary Department of Defense (DoD) increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel to supplement U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts on the U.S. Southwest Border,” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
“For 90 days, these 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, until CBP can address these needs through contracted support. Military personnel will not directly participate in law enforcement activities. This deployment to the border is consistent with other forms of (?)”
It was unclear when the troops would be deployed.
The COVID-19 restrictions allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for an expected surge of migrants. Even amid the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.
Biden’s actions follow similar moves by then-President Donald Trump, who deployed active duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were already working in that capacity. There are already roughly 2,700 National Guard members at the border.
For Biden, a Democrat who announced his reelection campaign a week ago, the decision signals his administration is taking seriously an effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, a potent source of Republican attacks, and sends a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey. But it also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Biden’s Republican predecessor, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.
It’s another line of defense in an effort to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise as border officials move away from the COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, administration officials announced they would work to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally through another country on their way to the U.S. border.
They will also open centers outside the United States for people fleeing violence and poverty to apply to fly in legally and settle in the United States, Spain or Canada. The first processing centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia, with others expected to follow.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Such a smash success has Joe Biden’s presidency been so far that even the Chinese are sending up balloons. That’s more or less what Biden will say, over and over, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. The economy is humming. Inflation is cooling. Electric vehicle sales are raging. There has never been a more orderly southern border.
It will all sound very scary to viewers who will rightly begin to question their own sanity. Or perhaps it will make you feel like everyone else is getting ahead while you’re inexplicably falling behind.
Don’t panic. When confronted with these anxieties, there are steps you can take to re-ground yourself in reality. For instance, when Biden says something confusing — something like, “Folks! Energy costs are down, folks!” — remember to yourself that this is a lie. As of Monday, national gas prices averaged higher per gallon than a year before. It’s more than a dollar per gallon higher than it was in January 2021, the month Biden was inaugurated.
Biden will likely also mention “steps” he has taken to control the unabated flow of hundreds of thousands of destitute migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. In that stupefying moment, take a deep breath and refer to this chart maintained by Biden’s own administration, showing that December had the highest number of illegal aliens encountered by border agents — ever. That month, there were more than 250,000 migrants who unlawfully crossed into the U.S. The month before, almost 235,000. That’s nearly half a million migrants throwing themselves into the care of the American taxpayer in just two months’ time. They openly say they’re here because of Biden.
Democrat congressmen will leap to their feet and clap with ferocity when Biden says inflation is down. (Or even that higher prices are actually a great thing!) He might even say costs increased less than 6 percent from this time last year. If you feel a spinning sensation, close your eyes, count to 10, then look at this data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The less-than-6 stat is if you exclude food and energy prices.
In other words, if you don’t account for the things you depend on to survive, inflation really isn’t that bad! By itself, food cost is actually up more than 10 percent. It’s probably close to 12 — and maybe much more. Energy is up more than 7 percent. Mind you, this has been a year of rising costs, where each month it’s been more expensive to simply live than it was the same time a year before.
Biden’s vertigo-inducing speech will surely go on for what feels like an eternity, earning applause for assertions that are the exact opposite of reality. But remember, this too shall pass.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Donald Trump.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Donald Trump.
Trump administration officials were preparing to send a quarter of a million troops to the U.S.-Mexico border before former Defense Secretary Mark Esper shot the plan down, Esper said in an interview airing Sunday. Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller was behind the effort to deploy 250,000 troops to the border to mitigate the flow of migrant caravans, Esper said during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” about his upcoming book. Esper said he was ultimately able to kill the plan after getting Gen. Mark Milley involved.
“It’s just so absurd. I can’t even consider it. I mean, again, we don’t even have 250,000 troops to send to the border. And to do what? It’s just ridiculous,” Esper said.
Esper was in the Oval Office waiting for President Trump with Miller when he first heard of the idea, which he said shocked him.
“We’re in a meeting waiting for the president to come out. We’re standing around the resolute desk, and he’s behind me and this voice just starts talking about caravans are coming and we need a quarter million troops,” Esper said.
“And I think he’s joking. And then I turn around and look at him and these dead pan eyes. It’s clear that he is not joking,” he added.
"We had developed a plan, initial concept of how [sending 250,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border] might happen. And I was just flabbergasted," former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper tells @NorahODonnell.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was equipped to handle such an occurrence at the border, Esper said, telling Miller at the time that he didn’t even have the requested troops for the effort.
“And so I say something like, ‘well, look, DHS can handle whatever caravans are coming up. They’ve done so in the past. And he says, he repeats, ‘no, we need a quarter million troops.’ And I just turned squarely around to him, face him and say, ‘I don’t have a quarter million troops to send on some ridiculous mission to the border,” he said.
The plan was already in the works at the Pentagon when Esper talked with Milley, Esper said.
“I was just flabbergasted that not only was the idea proposed, but that people, people in my department were working on it,” Esper said.
However, the plan “died” after Esper directed Milley to tell the Pentagon’s Northern Command “to cease and desist.”
“It was dead. And it died, as it should,” Esper said.
Neither the Pentagon nor Miller responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Wet clothes sit along the river where migrants have crossed from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas (Jennie Taer//Daily caller News Foundation)
A nongovernmental organization in a small Texas town is working to keep up with large numbers of migrants in need of their support ahead of Title 42’s end and is hoping they can sustain their efforts. The Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition has had to exponentially increase its aid supplies and hopes it can continue to sustain what is already a large number of migrants seeking support after the pandemic health policy ends, the group’s director, Tiffany Burrow, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Title 42, the Trump-era policy used for expedited expulsions of certain migrants during COVID-19, is set to end May 23, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing to accommodate 18,000 migrants each day when the order is lifted.
The organization, based out of Del Rio, Texas, is already seeing numbers similar to when it was helping handle the thousands of Haitian migrants who arrived last September, Burrow told the DCNF.
“So, for March, 5,028 [migrants] with 33 countries represented. Before I left, we were at 3,500, which is a pretty significant number for us. When we had the 16,000 underneath the bridge, that month was at 3,549. So, March was huge, and April was a significant month as well,” Burrow said.
Rather than having to obtain “cases “of water and supplies for the migrants, the group is now having to ensure they have “pallets” of supplies to handle the large number of migrants, Burrow said.
The faith-based organization helps facilitate travel for migrants released from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody, but doesn’t pay for their transport.
Biden Admin Unveils Plan To Deal With Expected Massive Migrant Surge
The plan includes 6 pillars to address the migrant flows, including CBP having the capability to hold around 18,000 migrants at a time in custody by May 23, when T42 is set to end.https://t.co/XPtGl3pJge
The number is not as high as the average numbers of migrants encountered in March and April, but it’s still enough to “knock … most field operations for several stations” out of commission, Anfinsen said.
“We are just handling it one day at a time, so some days we are able to be in the field, and other days we aren’t,” he added.
Burrow emphasized the element of danger migrants face during their journeys as a result of the cartels in Mexico and the trauma they carry once they get to her.
“There are more really unfortunate cases that are coming through. As long as cartels are involved, I think we are going to continue to see more situations like what we’re seeing right now,” she said.
Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.
Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated– $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.
Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated– $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has signed a short-term contract with the non-profit division of Endeavors to provide temporary shelter and processing services for families who have not been expelled and are therefore placed in immigration proceedings for their removal from the United States,”said in a statement the ICE acting Director Tae D. Johnson.
“The $86.9 million contract provides 1,239 beds and other necessary services. The families will receive a comprehensive health assessment that includes COVID-19 testing.”
Endeavors is a non-profit organization which provides direct care, migrant wellness support, case management, home study and post-release services, staffing, and holistic programming for unaccompanied migrant children and families. Endeavors has served migrants since 2012.
“Our border is not open. The majority of individuals continue to be expelled under the Centers for Disease Control’s public health authority,”continued ICE acting Director in his statement.
Project Veritas Exclusive Photos From Inside Texas CBP Facility Show Horrific Border Crisis
In a stunning revelation of how horrific conditions at the border have become, Project Veritas released exclusive photos Monday from reportedly inside one of the border’s detention facilities.
The never-before-seen photos are said to have been taken from inside a Customs and Border Patrol facility in Donna, Texas. In the images (scroll down for more) you can see asylum seekers in tight spaces wrapped in space blankets, lying shoulder to shoulder on the floor.
The facility currently houses thousands of immigrants that travel illegally across the border and is beyond its capacity. Indeed, according to the Project Veritas source that provided the photos, “there are eight pods with eight cells each in the facility. At any given moment,” the source explained, “an average of 3,000 people in custody here.”
In addition, the source tells Project Veritas that the immigrants are “separated by age or physical size depending on room. Fifty were Covid positive in these cells over the last few days. There have been multiple sexual assaults, normal assaults and daily medical emergencies.”
Courtesy: Project Veritas
Axios also reported horrible conditions at the same facility. In a report Monday, Axios quoted Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) who recently toured the Donna facility and described the conditions as “terrible for the children.” The Congressman added that Border Patrol agents are “doing the best they can under the circumstances” but are “not equipped to care for kids” and “need help from the administration.”
A reported 15,500 children are now in federal custody at the border.
Though Representative Cuellar was unable to take pictures, he was able to gain a tour of the facility. But he’s one of the few to have seen the conditions directly. Indeed, there has been what appears to be a deliberate and coordinated effort to keep journalists out of the facilities.
Meanwhile, an attorney representing migrant youth in the custody of the U.S. government was recently denied a tour of the Donna, Texas facility. Naha Desai told CBS News, that she interviewed children who said they were hungry and never saw the sun. “Some of the boys said that conditions were so overcrowded that they had to take turns sleeping on the floor,” she explained.
On March 2nd, the Donna complex was said to be holding more than 1,800 people — 729% of its pandemic-era capacity, which is designed for 250 migrants, according to CBS. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security head is calling on volunteers to assist CBP at these facilities complaining that the most number of migrants in 20 years have arrived.
New York, California, and numerous other states could soon become some of the highest tax places in the world if the Biden Administration gets its way. The Biden tax plan that Congress is debating this week would raise the top income tax rate to 39.6% from its current 37% today.
And that’s not all…
Biden wants to place a new payroll tax of 15% on earnings over $400,000 (or $200,000 each for a married couple.) This combined payroll and income tax hike would bring the marginal tax rate on an additional hour of work to 54%.
State and city taxes can no longer be deducted from federal returns. As such, high-tax states like New York, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Oregon, Iowa, Arizona and New Jersey would all see marginal tax rates approaching 70%.
Meanwhile, if California and New York get their way, taxes could go even higher. Both states are discussing ways to shore up their disastrous finances. In California, the General Assembly is considering raising the state income tax to 16.5%. And, in New York, the embattled Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a two percentage point hike. This would raise income taxes in New York City to 15.5%.
As economists at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity point out, if New York and California are successful with their tax hikes, they will officially become home to some of the highest tax places in the world.
Hey, who needs Bernie Sanders when President Joe Biden is willing to go so far left and turn us into a socialist state?
To be clear — higher taxes is not a sustainable path forward for America. Instead, we need pro-growth policies that will generate more wealth for the country as a whole, instead of onerous taxation that will discourage prosperity.
The Biden tax hikes, the largest since 1993, should not be approved.
President Donald Trump slashed the inflow of southern migrants from 400,000 in 2019 to just 14,000 in 2020, according to acting homeland security chief Chad Wolf.
The coronavirus crash is creating a new surge of migrants up to the U.S. border, Wolf warned in his October 21 speech. “Should our critics be successful and repeal the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] CDC order, we would face an unimaginable public health crisis,” Wolf said in a Phoenix, Arizona, speech, adding:
The only reason today’s crossings have not reached a crisis level is because of the policies and procedures the Department has put in place during the past four years. If these critical tools are removed or overturned, then the Department—and you, our frontline partners—would be imperiled by another immigration crisis.
Wolf described the administration’s huge and successful efforts to curb the southern migration into U.S. blue-collar workplaces. Prior Presidents did little or nothing, but Trump’s hard-fought upgrades have helped push up wages and opportunities for tens of millions of Americans — including blue-collar blacks and Latinos. Trump’s effort also protected many millions of Americans from losing their jobs amid relentless Wall Street pressure for corporate cost-cutting.
“In perhaps no area did the Washington special interests try harder to stop us than on my policy of pro-American immigration,” Trump said in his August 28 acceptance speech.
Wolf also touted the agency’s efforts to start shielding all Americans from the trillion-dollar economic threat caused by the legal and illegal migration of white-collar workers. Wolf used his speech to describe the administration’s pro-American actions:
1. Border agencies have stopped the catch-and-release of migrants, said Wolf. CBP and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency caught and released 400,000 migrants in 2019, but just 15,000 in 2020, mostly for humanitarian reasons, Wolf said.
We have effectively ended the practice known as “catch and release,” which refers to releasing illegal aliens into the United States while they awaited hearings in immigration court—rather than holding them in detention. Thanks to our actions, illegal aliens will no longer be released into our country. They will no longer be able to abscond without consequence. And they will be quickly returned to their country of origin.
2. Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols ensured that “more than 65,000 aliens have been returned to Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings,” Wolf said. Because they are returned to Mexico, the migrants cannot get the U.S. jobs they need to pay their debts to the coyotes, preventing the coyotes from making a profit and helping to break the profitable business of transporting migrants into Americans’ jobs.
3. The administration has reformed asylum rules to exclude ineligible economic-migrants, according to Wolf. “We want to encourage meritorious asylum claims, adjudicate them expeditiously, and root out fraudulent claims,” he said, by:
Tightening up standards for asylum applicant employment authorization;
Elevating legal standards of proof for asylum and statutory withholding of removal screening; and
Instituting new mandatory bars to asylum.
DHS also suspended asylum for individuals who traverse through a safe country where they could seek asylum but decided not to. DHS is also currently finalizing regulations to prevent criminal aliens from obtaining asylum to remain in the United States.
4. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency “is returning approximately 90 percent of individuals who would otherwise be kept in CBP facilities back to Mexico within two hours,” said Wolf. That is a huge shift from prior years because the quick deportations prevent migrant from using lawyers, asylum claims, and jobs to extend their stay in the United States.
5. Border agencies can now prosecute and penalize migrants because Trump ended “prosecutorial discretion,” Wolf said:
Obama’s administration adopted a “prosecutorial discretion” policy … This devastating policy hamstrung ICE’s ability to identify, locate, arrest, and deport criminal aliens. Today, ICE no longer exempts any removable aliens from having our laws enforced on them. If you break our laws, you will be arrested and removed from our country.
…
The results bear out the success of this policy shift. Between 2017 and 2019, the Trump Administration removed from the United States more than 574,000 illegal aliens, including 16,000 gang members … [and] ICE has removed over 182,000 aliens in the first 50 weeks of 2020.
6. DHS has begun using a deportation power granted by Congress in 1996 and long ignored by prior administrations. “The Department has also ensured that certain aliens encountered anywhere in the country within two years of unlawful entry will be removed quickly—referred to as “expedited removal,” Wolf said.
7. The administration has built the border wall to curb migration and drug-smuggling, Wolf said:
Today, we have completed almost 400 miles of the new border wall system in high priority locations like San Diego, El Centro, Yuma, Tucson, El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley Sectors. And we have another 221 miles currently under construction and 157 miles in a pre-construction phase.
Each and every mile of border wall construction is new—whether we are constructing in a place where previously no barriers existed or replacing a 5-foot steel vehicle barrier with an 18- or 30-foot steel bollard wall complemented with roads, enforcement cameras, and other related technology. In fact, wherever effective border wall systems have been constructed, the number of illegal crossings—and crime—has gone down.
8. Protecting Americans from abuse of the legal immigration system is “equally important,” said Wolf:
this administration has had a laser focus on protecting the American worker. But amazingly, the immigration rules on the books seemed to always put foreign workers first in line for American jobs. In a major historical shift, the Trump Administration has put America First. Our results show the Department’s commitment and success in this area.
…
To that end, DHS announced an interim final rule that strengthens the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program to protect U.S. workers, restores integrity to the H-1B program, and better guarantees that H-1B petitions are approved only for qualified beneficiaries and petitioners. This rule will combat the abuse of H-1B workers to serve as low-cost replacements for otherwise-qualified American workers. It will also deter companies from gaming the immigration system to fill their own coffers.
Supporting this action is President Trump’s philosophy that we must take care of Americans first.
Trump’s 2020 plan offers broadly popular — but quite limited — pro-American restrictions on migration and visa workers. In many speeches, for example, Trump ignores the economic impact of blue-collar and white-collar migration on Americans while stressing issues about crime, outsiders, diseases, or welfare, even though his low-immigration policies have been a popular boon to Americans.
Joe Biden’s 2020 plan promises to let companies import more visa workers, to let mayors import temporary workers, to accelerate the inflow of chain-migration migrants, to end migration enforcement against illegal aliens unless they commit a felony, and to dramatically accelerate the inflow of poor refugees to at least 125,000 per year. This policy has helped Biden to win huge donations from investors on Wall Street.
Open-ended legal migration is praised by business and progressives partly because migrants’ arrival helps to transfer wealth from wage-earners to investors and stockholders.
The media and political class become more and more outraged over the Trump administration’s decision to detain and prosecute immigrants illegally crossing the border. Lost in the debate is any acknowledgment that President Obama’s administration also used detention facilities.
Current U.S. immigration laws, when enforced, have the consequence of temporarily separating adults who arrive with children into separate detention facilities in order to prosecute the adults. The policy of prosecuting immigrants for crossing the border illegally has been in place for multiple administrations. The Obama administration prosecuted half a million illegal immigrants and similarly separated families in the process. So did the Bush administration.
Personal accounts from immigration lawyers tell a tale of Obama being equally concerned about unaccompanied minors traveling to the border and wanting to create a deterrent.
Photos of border detention facilities from the Obama-era, taken during 2014, look nearly identical to the ones taken during the Trump era. You never see them, however. Here they are, taken in 2014during a media tour of Obama-era detention facilities in Brownsville, Texas, and Nogales, Arizona.
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As the Daily Caller previously reported, “Obama administration prosecuted nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants between FY 2010-FY2016. They referred 1/5 of illegals for prosecution, which often resulted in family separations.”
Editor’s Note: Two of the 32 photos originally included in this post were found to be from a CPB press handout June 17, 2018. They have since been removed.
Illegal immigrants attempting to avoid capture assaulted three more Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents over the weekend. One of the incidents involved alleged drug smugglers.
Border Patrol agents responded to a tip that a group of men were smuggling large bundles across the Rio Grande River border with Mexico near the town of Roma, Texas, on Sunday. When the agents arrived, the smugglers abandoned their cargo and attempted to flee back to Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
One of the agents intercepted a fleeing smuggler, officials stated. The smuggler began to fight the agent. He allegedly pushed and scratched the agent in an attempt to avoid arrest. A second agent assisted the struggling colleague and the two agents took the man into custody.
A records check on the man revealed he has previous arrests on drug charges. He also has a history of two deportations.
The other smugglers escaped, but not before the agents were able to seize the bundles, weighing a total of 150 pounds. Officials estimated the value at $120,000.
Agents working near Rio Grande City came upon a man who crossed the border. As the agent attempted to arrest him, he became combative and struck the agent in the chest. The agent subdued the man and placed him under arrest. A background investigation revealed the man to be a Mexican national.
On Friday, an agent assigned to the Rio Grande City station came upon an illegal immigrant who attempted to enter the U.S. near Roma, officials said. As the agent attempted to take the man into custody, the illegal immigrant threw a handful of dirt in the agent’s face. After regaining his vision, the agent place the man under arrest. Agents then learned the illegal immigrant is from Honduras.
These assaults come on the heals of four others in the same sector, Breitbart Texas reported. The attacks all occurred during a one-week period.
More than 300 Border Patrol agents were assaulted in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2018, officials reported. This compares to 462 during the same period in FY 2017.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, GAB, and Facebook.
President Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order is once again to largely go back into effect after the Supreme Court of the United States stayed two lower courts’ injunctions Monday.
The orders come in response to filings by the Department of Justice Friday, asking the Supreme Court to stay the preliminary injunctions in the two main travel ban cases, Hawaii v. Trump in the Ninth Circuit and International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump in the Fourth Circuit. These cases have been proceeding up and down the federal court system for months.
The district courts, especially that of Barack Obama-appointed District of Hawaii Judge Derrick Watson, have repeatedly ruled that the bans must be blocked from going into effect or must, in the interim, be interpreted in such a way as to have little effect on the list of mostly Muslim majority countries from which travel is prohibited under the orders.
The petitions in the two cases were made to Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts respectively. Only Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor declined to sign on to the orders staying the Fourth and Ninth Circuits.
“This a substantial victory for the safety and security of the American people,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in statement after the orders were announced.
He continued:
We are pleased to have defended this order and heartened that a clear majority Supreme Court has allowed the President’s lawful proclamation protecting our country’s national security to go into full effect. The Constitution gives the President the responsibility and power to protect this country from all threats foreign and domestic, and this order remains vital to accomplishing those goals.
With the order, the third – permanent – version of the travel ban, promulgated in September after an interagency review of the dangers posed by the different countries included, will go back into effect while the case on the merits works its way through the court system. The Supreme Court had dismissed the earlier lawsuits based on the earlier, temporary versions of the ban because they had expired.
The government, represented by Solicitor General Noel Francisco, asked the justices to re-instate the ban based in part on the findings of the review, which provided new security-based justifications for the inclusion of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen and, he argues, turns the likelihood of success against the plaintiffs.
Nearly 300 MS-13 gang members are behind bars following the conclusion of a joint international law enforcement effort led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “Operation Raging Bull” resulted in the arrests of 214 MS-13 members and affiliates in the U.S. and 53 in El Salvador.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents executed Operation Raging Bull in support of the Department of Justice’s recent prioritization of enforcement actions against violent transnational gangs.
“MS-13 has long been a priority for ICE. However we are now combating the gang with renewed focus and an unprecedented level of cooperation among DHS’s components and our domestic and international partners,” ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Thomas Homan said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “ICE has the ability to pursue complex criminal cases using our statutory authorities and to prevent crime by using our administrative arrest authorities to remove gang members from the country. We will not rest until every member, associate, and leader of MS-13 has been held accountable for their crimes, and those in this country illegally have been removed.”
Phase one of the operation followed up on the results of an 18-month investigation in El Salvador. The probe led to the arrests of 53 MS-13 gang members and affiliates in El Salvador. In early October, the second phase began in the States. Running from October 8 to November 11, law enforcement officers and agents from federal, state, and local agencies arrested 214 gang members and affiliates across the U.S.
“With more than 10,000 members across 40 states, MS-13 is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the United States today,” Sessions said in a statement on Thursday. “President Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to reduce crime and take down transnational criminal organizations, and we will be relentless in our pursuit of these objectives.”
“So far this year, we have secured convictions against more than 1,200 gang members and worked with our partners in Central America to arrest and charge some 4,000 MS-13 members,” the AG explained. “These 267 arrests are the next step toward making this country safer by taking MS-13 off of our streets for good.”
Ninety-three of the 214 arrests made in the U.S. were based on federal and/or state criminal charges, officials stated. Those charges include: murder, aggravated robbery, racketeering influenced corrupt organization (RICO) offenses, violent crime in aid of racketeering (VICAR) offenses, narcotics trafficking, narcotics possession, firearms offenses, domestic violence, assault, forgery, driving under the influence, and illegal entry/reentry. Immigration violations made up the remaining 121 arrests.
Operation Raging Bull – Nations of Origin chart – ICE
Only 16 of those arrested were U.S. citizens, the report states.Illegal aliens made up the overwhelming majority of those arrested. Officials arrested a total of 198 immigrants — 193 of which had no legal status. The MS-13 gang members came from El Salvador (135), Honduras (29), Mexico (17), Guatemala (12), Ecuador (4) and Costa Rica (1).
Of those arrested after entering the U.S. illegally, ICE officials reported that 64 came to the U.S. as Unaccompanied Alien Children — most of those are now adults.
Operation Raging Bull – Arrest Map – ICE
ICE officials provided examples of the types of crimes carried out by these MS-13 gang members:
In Baltimore, Maryland, the arrest and indictment of four MS-13 members on charges that include violent crimes in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering.
In McKinney, Texas, the arrest of an MS-13 gang member and citizen of El Salvador who is wanted for homicide by the National Civil Police of El Salvador (PNC).
In Denver, Colorado, the arrest of an MS-13 gang member and citizen of El Salvador who is wanted on an outstanding warrant for DUI and was found with three machetes in his possession.
In Los Angeles, California, the arrest of an MS-13 member and citizen of El Salvador, subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice for gang offenses and involvement with the murder of an PNC officer in El Salvador.
In San Francisco, California, the arrest of an MS-13 member and citizen of El Salvador, who is a wanted fugitive in El Salvador on an arrest warrant for violent crimes including homicide.
ICE officials added six MS-13 gang members to their most wanted list, including one wanted in Montgomery County, Texas, on murder charges. The other five fugitives are suspected of murdering Salvadoran police officers.
Operation Raging Bull – Most Wanted List – ICE
ICE uses the following criteria in confirming MS-13 gang membership or affiliation:
Individuals are confirmed as gang members if they admit membership in a gang; have been convicted of violating Title 18 USC 521 or any other federal or state law criminalizing or imposing civil consequences for gang-related activity; or if they meet certain other criteria such as having tattoos identifying a specific gang or being identified as a gang member by a reliable source.
Gang associates are individuals who exhibit gang member criteria but who are not formally initiated into the gang. Law enforcement officers encountering these individuals will determine whether indications of gang association are present by referring to the gang membership criteria.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, GAB, and Facebook.
WASHINGTON, DC — Breitbart News executive chairman and former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon warned a room full of immigration activists on a Washington, DC, afternoon that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi lives for that “one more bullet in the chamber,”to impeach President Donald Trump if Democrats win back the House of Representatives.
Bannon called out House Speaker Paul Ryan for attempts to “slip amnesty into a spending bill,”warning also that if he continues to press for amnesty, “Republicans are going to lose the House of Representatives.”
“It’s so obvious,”said Bannon, who further alerted the crowd at the Remembrance Project conference that “if they lose the House of Representatives, you’ve already got a Wall Street billionaire in Tom Steyer up there putting what? Millions of dollars in the ads to do one thing, what? Impeach the president of the United States. That’s all Nancy Pelosi lives for.”
On Thursday New York Times politicalreporter and MSNBC Contributor Jeremy Peters told MSNBC viewers that Pelosi will impeach Trump if Democrats win back the House.He suggested that the real purpose of Trump’s negotiations with Pelosi was to “undermine” Ryan and McConnell.
Pelosi has tried to tamp down on the idea that she is for impeaching Trump after billionaire Steyer ran ads calling for Trump’s impeachment. Vanity Fairreported on the ads and fears within Democrat leaders that these calls for impeachment “could imperil the party’s chances of retaking congressional control in 2018 and winning the White House in 2020.”
“She thinks she’s got one more bullet in the chamber,”Bannon said of Pelosi, adding that she has fought back attempts to drive her out of Democratic Party leadership. “She’s not going. You know why? She knows Ryan’s going to play right into her hands.”
Pelosi knows Ryan will keep trying to “force amnesty down the throats of the Republican Party and voters of the Republican Party and break the back of the grassroots and their enthusiasm for 2018,” he said. If the House then flips to Democrat control, Bannon said the first action Democrats will take against Trump is “payback for all of this.”
“So this is a struggle, this is every day, and the first struggle, as we often have, is the Republican establishment. Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan,” said Bannon, who said the fight doesn’t start in 2018, but in the next 30 to 40 days, or the next two months. He warned that the Republican establishment will try and “hide the football and they’re gonna try to tell you that they’ve got enhanced border security and they’ve got 10 times more ICE agents and they’re gonna have, this is never gonna happen again.”
“They’re lying,” warned Bannon. “And here’s the important thing, you know they’re lying. You’re on to their game now.”
“This fight is going to be so nasty,” said Bannon. “They’re gonna tell so many lies, but at the end of the day I’m glad I’m on your side of the football.”
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weekend. One of the incidents involved alleged drug smugglers.
Reported 
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