This Shouldn’t Even Be Constitutional

On Monday, The Federalist posted an article about the Ukraine spending bill that just passed the Senate. Hopefully it will die in the House of Representatives–it protects everyone’s border but America’s!

The article reports:

A Ukraine aid supplemental negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate GOP leadership includes a provision setting the stage for a potential third impeachment of Donald Trump, according to Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

“The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration,” Vance wrote in a letter sent to congressional Republicans on Monday. “All Republicans should oppose its passage.”

Vance’s letter is in reference to a $95 billion aid package advanced by the Senate on Sunday, which includes funding for (mostly) Ukraine, as well as Israel and Taiwan. Noticeably, the measure — which was supported by 18 Republicans — does not address the ongoing invasion at the U.S. southern border.

Just as Congress is not supposed to pass laws that limit or control the actions of future Congresses, Congress should not be allowed to pass a law that limits the foreign policy of a future President. 

The article notes:

“If President Trump were to withdraw from or pause financial support for the war in Ukraine in order to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, ‘over the objections of career experts,’” as Democrats claimed in their 2019 impeachment of Trump, “it would amount to the same fake violation of budget law from the first impeachment, under markedly similar facts and circumstances,” Vance wrote. An anonymous U.S. official told The Washington Post last month that the Biden administration is hoping to provide “’future-proof’ aid for Ukraine against the possibility that former president Donald Trump wins his reelection bid.”

In recent days, the Senate has proposed a horrible border bill followed up by a horrible foreign aid bill. Neither bill did anything significant to help with American border security. If this continues, we need a new Senate.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

On Monday, The New York Post posted the following headline:

Don’t believe the lies: The UN is paying illegals using US taxpayer cash

Why are we still supporting the UN? Can’t we kick them out of New York City and use the building for kitchy condos?

The article reports:

In 2021, early on in America’s historic border crisis, I wrote that the United Nations was abetting the problem by handing out debit cards and cash vouchers to aspiring illegal border crossers on their way north.

One outraged group of 21 border security-minded lawmakers pitched a bill that would require the United States, the UN’s largest donor, to turn off the taxpayer money spigot.

H.R. 6155 never caught fire, though, in no small part because “fact checks” from outlets such as the AFP claimed that the UN was doing no such thing.

Those fact checkers lied.

The UN’s just released the 2024 “Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela” (R4V for short), a planning and budget document for handing out $1.6 billion in 17 Latin America countries.

It confirms the UN, with the helping hands of 248 named non-governmental organizations, is indeed giving debit cards to illegal migrants — funded, in large part, by US taxpayers.

Despite the R4V plan title naming Venezuelans as recipients of this aid operation, the document’s fine print (footnote on page 14 and paragraph on page 43, for instance) says the largesse goes to “all nationalities” and “multiple other nationalities.”

We are sending foreign aid to these countries which is being misused and stolen by the tyrants who govern them, and then we are giving money to the people who flee those tyrants. Until the citizens of those countries are willing to stay in those countries and fight for freedom, nothing is going to change. America is the country it is because our Founding Fathers fought for it. Admittedly we are not currently going in the direction that they planned, but their system of government has generally held. It’s time to cut off the funding that is not going directly to the people in need. American money does not need to uphold tyrants or encourage people to break the law, either directly or through the UN.

Rebuilding Only A Part Of The Wall

On November 1st, The Daily Caller posted an article about the Biden administration’s rebuilding of a small part of the border wall.

The article reports:

Republican Texas representatives are demanding that the Biden administration explain its reason for changing its tune on border wall construction, according to a Wednesday letter first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Over 20 Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Chip Roy are questioning how the Biden administration came to reverse its previous promise to the delegation of lawmakers sent Wednesday to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to the letter. Mayorkas initially wrote that there was an “immediate need” for such action in an Oct. 5 filing in the Federal Register initiating the construction, but quickly attempted to walk back the admission.

The interesting part of this story is where the wall is actually being built.

The article notes:

On Inauguration day in 2021, President Joe Biden terminated the Trump administration’s previous border wall construction. The Trump administration oversaw the construction of 452 miles of border wall during his four years in office, according to Politico

“The recent notice to restart border wall construction – only in Starr County – raises the question of whether or not DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are preempting a Starr County-specific lawsuit filed by GLO [General Land Office]. It also raises questions as to why the Biden administration is not restarting border wall construction in other border sectors,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Our border is still in chaos. The American people deserve to know the extent of the executive branch’s border security decisions and the motivations behind them,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Biden administration has also slowly filled in gaps in the border wall in Yuma, Arizona, which is a major crossing point for illegal immigration.

It is also interesting that at the same time the government is building this small section of wall, it is selling off the material originally purchased to build the wall (article here).

Creating Global Chaos

The Biden administration has created global chaos. Remember when voters were told that President Biden would bring stability and ‘normalcy’ to America? How is that working?

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted a list of President Biden’s foreign policy ‘accomplishments’.

Here is a summary of the list:

1) Joe Biden abruptly pulled all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

2) The Biden Administration allowed a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon to traverse the continental United States, spying on key American military installations.

3) In March 2021, at an Anchorage, Alaska mini-summit, Chinese diplomats unleashed a relentless barrage at their stunned and mostly silent American counterparts.

4) In June 2021, in response to Russian cyber-attacks against the United States, Biden meekly asked Putin to at least make off-limits certain critical American infrastructure

5) When asked what he would do if Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden replied that the reaction would depend on whether the Russians conducted a “minor incursion.”

6) Between 2021 and 2022, Joe Biden serially insulted and bragged that he would not meet Muhammad bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and one of our oldest and most valuable allies in the Middle East.

7) For much of 2021, the Biden Administration made it known that it was eager and ready to offer concessions to re-enter the dangerous Iran nuclear deal—at a time when Iran has joined China and Russia in a new geostrategic partnership.

8) Almost immediately upon inauguration, the administration moved the United States away from Israel, restored financial aid to radical Palestinians, and both publicly and privately alienated the current Netanyahu government.

9) In serial fashion, Biden stopped all construction on the border wall and opened the border.

10) In the last two years, the Pentagon has embarked on a woke agenda.

Please follow the link to read the details. If this is normal, I don’t like it.

The Party Of Parents?

On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article with the following headline:

JOSH HAMMER: The New GOP Is The Party Of Parents

The article notes the shift in recent years in the Republican party toward the party of working people and parents.

The article reports:

Some recent examples hint that the GOP may be moving beyond mere rhetorical platitude, and into the realm of concrete policy and action.

The No. 1 killer today of Americans aged 18-45 years old is fentanyl trafficked by Mexican drug cartels, as some Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans pointed out this week during a hearing with hapless Attorney General Merrick Garland. A recent Axios-Ipsos poll showed that a 37% plurality of Republicans surveyed consider opioids and fentanyl to be the single greatest threat to U.S. public health, and at least some in the party are coming around to acting accordingly. Besides securing the U.S.-Mexico border once and for all, perhaps the other single most effective action the federal government could take on this front would be to formally designate the cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Last month, a coalition of 21 red-state attorneys general sent a formal letter to President Joe Biden, exhorting him to instruct his State Department to do precisely that.

…The fights against transgender surgeries for minors and Big Tech addiction are two other powerful examples of what a more hands-on, culturally pugnacious, parents- and children-first GOP can, and should, prioritize. Whereas the older, corporate-centric GOP was a party of “openness” and eschewed using statecraft to impose limitations, the newer, parents- and children-centric GOP must embrace the more frequent imposition of legal limitations and outright bans in the name of the common good.

Just this week, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made the Magnolia State the eighth to fully ban “gender-affirming care” procedures for minors. On Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee made the Volunteer State the first state to affirmatively ban drag shows in the presence of minors. (In Florida, DeSantis has at times revoked liquor licenses for venues hosting drag shows with minors.) And at the federal level, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has pushed for an investigation of The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a whistleblower provided viscerally shocking details to Bari Weiss’s The Free Press last month. Hawley’s related post-whistleblower Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act would helpfully create a private right of action for individuals who were harmed by “gender-affirming care” when they were minors.

It’s time for common sense to make a comeback and end some of the harmful things that have invaded our culture. I think most Americans still believe that what a person does in their own bedroom is their business, but when people try to push their non-mainstream views into the mainstream, parents and other people need to object.

Finally!

On July 7th, The Daily Caller reported that Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order allowing the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas National Guard to arrest and return illegal migrants to the border. That is the proper way to secure a border.

The article reports:

“While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border. The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl,” Abbott said in a statement.

The article concludes:

Abbott cited Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution, which states “‘[t]he United States . . . shall protect each [State in this Union] against Invasion,” but his office didn’t respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s inquiry on whether he will similarly declare an invasion.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nor did Customs and Border Protection (CBP) respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Whether anyone chooses to declare it or not, this is an invasion. No country can reasonably expect to assimilate this number of people coming into the country who speak a different language and have a different culture. I fear that within the next five years, America will no longer be recognizable as America. Remember, that to become a citizen you have to take a citizenship test that talks about our founding documents. People who come into our country illegally do not have to take that test. When you combine that with the fact that most of our school children are not taught the founding documents, the future outlook for America is not good. People will not work to preserve what they don’t know.

Who Is Crossing Our Southern Border?

On Saturday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about some recent statistics about people crossing into America via the open southern border.

The article reports:

More illegal immigrants on a terror watch lift have been caught crossing the southern border so-far this year than during the last five years combined, figures reveal.  

Since the fiscal year began in October, 50 migrants who appeared in the federal Terrorist Screening Dataset have been intercepted while trying to cross into the US between official checkpoints at the southern border, according to Customs and Border Patrol statistics. 

That’s up from just 15 for the 2021 fiscal year, three in 2020, none in 2019, six in 2018 and two in 2017 according to the enforcement statistics data released on Wednesday by CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection).

The article includes the following chart:

The article also notes:

The subject of potential terror suspects using the southern land border to enter the US unlawfully has gained increasing attention in recent months.

CBP only resumed publishing its data on the subject last month, following pressure from Republican lawmakers.

Soon after President Joe Biden took office, CBP stopped posting updates on terror watchlist encounters, labeling the issue ‘law enforcement sensitive’. 

These numbers not only need to be published, they need to be shouted from the rooftops by all Americans until Congress does something about our border security. If either party in Congress wanted to correct this situation, it would have been corrected by now. The Democrats want future voters and the Republican establishment wants cheap labor. Until we drain the swamp, we will not fix the border.

When You Don’t Complete Your Assignment At Work…

What would happen at your job if you left exactly at the end of the day and simply put all of your unfinished work in a drawer and left it there? Then, at the end of every month, if you simply emptied the drawer into the trash? I don’t think you would be a valued employee for long. Well, that’s about what President Biden is telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutors to do.’

On Tuesday, April 5, Hot Air reported:

There is a backlog of about 1.5 million cases pending in immigration courts. The Biden administration sent out a memo Monday instructing ICE prosecutors to dismiss older cases of illegal immigrants who are not considered public safety threats. What could possibly go wrong?

Last fall DHS Secretary Mayorkas distributed some new rules to ICE agents. The focus of the new rules is to deprioritize deportation of illegal immigrants who are not a threat to public safety. They carried out the crime of illegally entering the United States but since then have not posed a threat to the general population. The backlog of cases has grown unsustainable during Biden’s time in the White House, thanks to Biden’s border crisis, so in order to ease the backlog, ICE prosecutors have received permission to just dismiss older cases.

Congress hasn’t reformed any immigration laws. It’s their job to do so but in the meantime, Team Biden is running roughshod over the immigration laws on the books. The memo was distributed as the end of the use of Title 42 at the southern border approaches. The date set for Title 42 to end is May 23. More than 2.2 million illegal migrants have been apprehended at the southern border since Joe Biden took office and that number could triple with the end of Title 42. Title 42 has been an effective tool used during the pandemic, at CDC’s recommendation as a way to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic, but now that the pandemic is waning the Biden administration is ending the program that progressives have demanded he end since he took office.

BuzzFeed News got a copy of the ICE memo. It allows ICE attorneys to exercise “prosecutorial discretion authority” under the guise that such discretion will help “build public confidence in our immigration system.” That’s a take. What about the public confidence of Americans who expect the president to secure our borders and protect the sovereignty of the United States?

What ever happened to the concept of “legal immigration”?

The article concludes:

I am watching a news report of a bus full of illegal migrants arriving in Brownsville, Texas as I write this. They all look to be adult women. This scene is played out daily along the Texas border. Some reports estimate as many as 170,000 migrants waiting along the border to enter the United States. Most are waiting for the green light when Title 42 ends. The Biden administration doesn’t show much concern about the coming explosion in migrants who will be attempting to enter the United States. Dismissing cases and allowing those here illegally to remain in this country is how Team Biden plans to ease the backlog. All this will do is further encourage the waves of migrants to try to make it to the southern border. The Biden border crisis is deliberate and will only get worse.

There really is no excuse for the lack of security at our southern border. It is not a mistake–it is deliberate.

Things That Would Unite America

Americans have a lot of political disagreements right now. We have some pretty wide divisions. However, there are some things that the majority of us agree on. Policies based on issues of agreement would unite us. On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an list of twelve principles that unite us as Americans. See if you agree with the list.

Here is the list:

1. Protect Our Vote.

2. Secure Our Border.

3. No More Debt.

4. Stand Up to China.

5. Don’t Raise Taxes.

6. Stop the Woke.

7. Cut Red Tape.

8. Sleep Safe at Night.

9. Stop Big Tech.

10. Deliver School Choice.

11. Empower Patients, Not Government.

12. Make Our Streets Safe.

Protecting our vote means making it easy to vote legitimately and hard to cheat. Securing our border means finishing the fence and enforcing present laws. No more debt, standing up to China, and not raising taxes are things that would obviously unite us. Stopping the woke means reminding Americans that we are all Americans regardless of race, color, ancestry, etc. We need to end any vestiges of racism in America–that does not mean simply supporting racism on the part of a different group. Cutting red tape allows the economy to grow more quickly and reduces the cost of living for everyone. Regulations are expensive to consumers. Sleep safe at night refers to keeping the level of America’s defensive forces high enough to defend us.

The last four items on the list are obvious. We have wandered into a world where we are spied on and manipulated by our government and by big tech. This needs to stop. We need school choice to insure that the upcoming generations will have the critical thinking skills to protect the freedom that we in America enjoy. Getting the government out of healthcare will decrease the cost for everyone and will provide a path for everyone to receive the healthcare they need. Making our streets safe includes not only making sure we have enough law enforcement, but teaching our children (and grownups) to respect the police and follow any instructions given by the police. Police shootings generally don’t happen unless someone is resisting arrest or shooting at the police. We need to remember that.

This list is very obvious, but it illustrates the fact that we have not done our job as informed voters. In the future we need to elect people who will work toward unifying principles–not ideas that tear the country apart.

Ending Success In The Name Of Politics

There are a lot of reasons why the Democrats (and some Republicans) hate President Trump. He had the audacity to show that some problems in Washington could actually be solved by common sense and without raising taxes and increasing regulation. The Washington Swamp hated that. Aside from that, he was the ultimate outsider. He wasn’t part of their elite club, and no matter what he did (or didn’t do), they weren’t going to let him in. The hatred has led to a rush to undo anything President Trump did, even in undoing it hurts America and Americans. Unfortunately that is where we are right now.

On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about three of President Trump’s foreign policy successes that President Biden is undoing.

Here are the three:

Border policy: President Trump signed agreements with Central American countries that slowed the flow of migrants. In June 2019, he announced a deal with Mexico under which it would deploy troops to its southern border and allow asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases were adjudicated in the U.S. That fall, he reached deals with the “Northern Triangle” countries to keep asylum-seekers home. There is no reason for Biden to have dismantled these humane policies, which kept vulnerable migrants out of the hands of cartels and deterred thousands from undertaking a risky journey (and sending their children to do the same). He could have kept them in place even while changing U.S. immigration policies….

Middle East: President Trump signed the Abraham Accords, creating a network of peace deals between Israel and many Arab and Muslim states. Biden has punished many of the key players: raising tariffs on the United Arab Emirates (UAE); withholding arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia; de-listing the anti-Saudi, pro-Iran Houthi militia as a terror group; publishing an intelligence report naming the Saudi Crown Prince as a key player in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi; and appointing the same pro-Iran diplomats who crafted the disastrous Iran nuclear deal….

Keystone XL Pipeline: It was understood that Biden would rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement — even though the U.S. reduced carbon emissions without it, and experts admitted it would not be enough to make an real impact on the global climate. However, he went further, canceling the permit for the Keystone XL — a pipeline that would have created tens of thousands of “good, paying, union jobs” (to quote Biden’s favorite refrain) on both sides of the border. The pipeline is the cleanest, least carbon-intensive way of transporting oil that will now most likely be moved by rail and by truck. Canada’s Liberal government, under Justin Trudeau, was only too happy to see the project canceled, never mind the economic cost. But all Biden needed to do was leave the Keystone XL in place.

Policies in the Middle East will also be impacted by the fact that the Biden administration has already had a very negative impact on America’s energy independence. Those of us who remember the gas lines of the 1970’s are very aware of how energy policy impacts international relations and how foreign policy impacts America’s energy supply. None of the above policies are helpful to Americans. Hopefully they can be reversed with a future Republican Congress.

 

Bad Policies Can Be Fatal

One of the first Executive Orders by the Biden administration was to stop construction of the southern border wall. That decision has had consequences, some more serious than others. One sad result of that decision is that it is empowering the coyotes and the cartels.

Yesterday The New York Post reported that at least fifteen people were killed in southern California in a vehicle crash involving a van carrying illegal aliens.

The article reports:

Fifteen suspected illegal Mexican immigrants died in a horrific crash just north of the border in California when their SUV packed with 28 people collided with a big rig hauling gravel, officials said.

The collision happened just after 6:15 a.m. local time off Highway 115 in Imperial County where a red Ford Expedition, carrying 28 people, was t-boned by on the driver’s side big rig, police and hospital officials said.

California Highway Patrol Chief Omar Watson said it was unknown if the SUV had stopped at the stop sign — but it was clear that the overpacked vehicle caused “numerous” passengers to be ejected after the collision.

“Obviously that vehicle was not meant for that many people,” Watson said in a press conference. “It’s unfortunate that that number of people were put into that vehicle because there’s not enough safety restraints to safely keep those people within the vehicle.”

The article concludes:

The driver of the truck was one of the injured and was being treated at a local hospital, authorities said. 

Cops put the number of dead at 13 and counted 25 passengers in the SUV but hospital officials released the updated figures moments before the police press conference. 

Law enforcement and hospital officials said they were in contact with the Mexican Consulate in Calexico to help identify who was in the vehicle and track down the families of those killed. 

Dr. Adolphe Edward, the chief executive of the El Centro hospital, said he believed the passengers were “undocumented migrants,” according to the New York Times

Edward later referred reporters to law enforcement officials, who did not provide their country of origin.

US Border Patrol was assisting in translating, Watson said. 

“We’re not sure exactly what caused the collision but there was no law enforcement involved,” Watson said, explain that it was not connected to any type of Border Patrol pursuit.

Someone was well paid to transport these people into America. Obviously there was little regard for their safety. This is the result of bad border security policy.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Yesterday The American Thinker reported that the Biden administration has instituted a program that provides free free flights for illegal immigrants to their destination of choice. Paid for by the American taxpayer of course.

The article quotes a report from Hot Air:

Since January, according to the Washington Post, “the number of [illegal immigrant] minors in federal custody has more than tripled to 7,000” and that Health and Human Services has instructed ICE to “purchase airplane tickets and cover other transportation costs for minors whose relatives are already living in the United States.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is “getting ICE to help transport migrants northward so they can be processed and released.”

So what is this about? If Americans don’t see the number of illegal aliens massing at the border, they may not realize the enormity of the problem we are currently having with border security because of changes to the law that the Biden administration has made.

The article at Hot Air also notes:

I hope Mayorkas is at least negotiating a discount price on those airline tickets. The Trump administration purchased discounted tickets when it deported illegal migrants back to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The idea is to move them away from the border and further north, into other states for processing and release. Biden is moving a catch and release mandate outside of Texas as border towns are complaining of increased burdens of accomodating increasing numbers of illegal migrants, often just released into towns and cities without the ability to take care of themselves

Mexicans and Central Americans know that Joe Biden is not serious about border security. He is bending over backward to promote open borders. Human trafficking will flourish and coyotes will reap the financial rewards of exploiting desperate people. They’ve been told that unaccompanied minors will be taken care of and families often send them ahead, expecting them not to be turned away. By releasing them further into the country, just to ease crowding at the border, the possibility that they go to people with less than good intentions increases.

The current Biden administration policy on border security poses a risk to Americans. Unfortunately, it make take an act of terrorism or a gang attack on Americans for voters to realize that.

 

This Really Does Not Seem Smart

Every day the news tells us how many people are hospitalized or have died from the coronavirus. We are told to wear masks, social distance, stay home, avoid family gatherings, get the vaccine, and generally avoid anything that may involve having fun. Small businesses are being destroyed as rich corporations prosper. Restaurants are going out of business. Some small businesses will never reopen. With all of this going on, we should at least be able to expect some common sense from our government. Nope.

Yesterday Breitbart reported the following:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not requiring all border crossers to get tested for the Chinese coronavirus before releasing them into the United States, the agency confirmed to Breitbart News.

A DHS spokesperson responded to a question from Breitbart News about whether President Joe Biden supported mandatory coronavirus testing for border crossers released into the U.S. interior.

“As Customs and Border Protection always has, it adjusts resources as needed to meet the demand at the border and regularly screens individuals for signs of health issues when they are encountered, including COVID-19,” the spokesperson told Breitbart News. “Anyone who shows signs of illness receives the appropriate medical treatment.”

The response confirms that untested border crossers are continuing to be released into the U.S. interior as long as they are not exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.

On the other hand, DHS officials have said that migrants enrolled in the now-defunct Remain in Mexico program, set to be released into the U.S. interior this month, will have to undergo coronavirus testing. Internal communications reviewed by Breitbart News, though, show no mentions of this requirement.

“Individuals processed through this program will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the United States,” the administration confirmed.

Most border crossers apprehended and released at the southern border also appear to enjoy a less stringent testing standard that even foreign travelers to the U.S. experience.

Shortly after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring foreign travelers to the U.S. “to the extent feasible” to produce a negative test for the coronavirus prior to entry and to either isolate or quarantine themselves for several days after they arrive.

This week, Breitbart News reported that 25,600 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program are to be released into communities in El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, California. The mass release effort comes after Biden ended the program despite its effectiveness in drastically reducing asylum fraud.

If we are currently in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic as the government continually tells us, these policies not only do not make sense, they put Americans at risk.

Making Progress Two Weeks At A Time

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported:

A federal judge in Texas extended the suspension of President Joe Biden’s 100-day moratorium on deportations until Feb. 23.

U.S. District Court Judge Drew Tipton in the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday ruled that the federal government cannot make immigration enforcement changes without consulting Texas. As a result, he extended the temporary restraining order by another 14 days, asserting that the state of Texas would face more harm than the federal government if the extension wasn’t granted.

”The irreparable harm that would accrue to Texas if an extension of the [temporary restraining order] is not granted before consideration of its motion for a preliminary injunction is more substantial than any harm incurred by the defendants,” wrote Tipton in his ruling, adding that his ruling will give parties more time to “provide for a more fulsome record” to assist the court in “adjudicating Texas’s motion for a preliminary injunction.”

This is the information on the lawsuit that has resulted in the suspension:

Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sued the Biden administration over its order to pause some deportations, asserting that the White House would violate its agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S.-Mexico border security, and instead requires 180 days’ notice to change immigration policy.

“On its first day in office, the Biden Administration cast aside congressionally enacted immigration laws and suspended the removal of illegal aliens whose removal is compelled by those very laws. In doing so, it ignored basic constitutional principles and violated its written pledge to work cooperatively with the State of Texas to address shared immigration enforcement concerns,” Paxton’s lawsuit said. “This unlawful reversal will cause Texas immediate and irreparable harm if it is not enjoined.”

So why is a secure border important? Well, Mexico has a high rate of the coronavirus–if Americans are being told to wear masks, socially distance, and get the vaccine, why are we letting unmasked, unvaccinated groups of illegals potentially create a ‘super-spreader’ event? Why are we letting the cartels bring drugs and human trafficking victims across the border unchecked? Why are we allowing potential terrorists into the country without being screened? The Biden administration’s immigration policy is not only a threat to the safety and security of Americans, it will also result in higher unemployment for Americans. We need more states to sue and more judges to stand up for the rule of law.

Why Borders Are Important

Yesterday The Washington Times reported the following:

Border Patrol agents arrested 11 Iranians Monday after they sneaked across the border into Arizona.

The five women and six men were traveling as a group, and were nabbed on a bridge near San Luis, a border crossing point. Agents said the group had just crossed the border.

These men and women may have simply been people seeking a better life, but because our southern border is generally porous, they were able to enter America illegally. We have no idea how many Iranians or people from countries that wish America harm have come in through our southern border.

If we intend to remain a country, we need to secure our borders.

Chutzpah In Action

On Tuesday, Judicial Watch posted an article about a drug smuggling tunnel recently discovered in San Diego.

The article reports:

Mexican drug smugglers are really getting bold. A cross-border tunnel recently discovered by U.S. authorities exits in a San Diego warehouse right next to a busy Customs and Border Protection (CBP) port of entry. It gets better. The southern California warehouse is manned by Illegal immigrants even though it is situated just a few hundred yards from a hectic border crossing staffed with federal agents around the clock.

A Mexican national with legal residency has been arrested and charged in connection to the operation, federal prosecutors announced this month. His name is Rogelio Flores Guzman and he helped construct the tunnel, which runs 2,000 feet from a Tijuana warehouse to the south San Diego depot. The U.S. has charged the 31-year-old with trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana via a subterranean tunnel stretching from Mexico to a warehouse in Otay Mesa. When authorities entered the tunnel, they found around 575 packages of drugs worth nearly $30 million, according to a bulletin issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ). This sets a record because it marks the first time that five different types of drugs are found in a tunnel, according to the feds.

Agents from a special tunnel task force confiscated 394 packages containing 585 kilograms of cocaine; 133 packages containing 1,355 kilograms of marijuana; 40 packages containing 39.12 kilograms of methamphetamine; Seven packages containing 7.74 kilograms of heroin and one package containing 1.1 kilograms of fentanyl. “Cross-border tunnels always spark fascination, but in reality they are a very dangerous means for major drug dealers to move large quantities of narcotics with impunity until we intervene,” said the federal prosecutor in charge of the case, U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer. “We have seized this tunnel, confiscated almost $30 million in drugs and now we’ve charged one of the alleged crew members.”

That $30 million in drugs might have killed a lot of Americans.

The article notes the changes in drug smuggling techniques since President Trump closed the border:

There was a significant increase in Mexican smuggling tunnels after President Donald Trump increased border security in 2017. One southern California news conglomerate reported that criminal organizations in Mexico were improving the tunnels they use to smuggle people and drugs under Trump’s border fence, making them smaller and maintaining a high level of sophistication that includes railways and electricity. “In San Diego, tunnels are usually sophisticated partly because of the highly organized criminal organization operating in Baja California – the Sinaloa Cartel – as well as the characteristics of Otay Mesa, a neighborhood that exists on both sides of the border,” the article states. “In the U.S. and in Mexico, Otay Mesa is crowded with warehouses, providing numerous spaces to hide tunnel entry and exit points.” Operating one right next to a U.S. border crossing packed with federal agents is quite brazen.

We need to stop the smuggling, but we also need to find a way to help the people who are addicted to these drugs. There would be no point in smuggling the drugs if there were no market for them in America.

Rhode Island Has Discovered Border Security

Yesterday The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about a recent policy enacted by Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island.

The article reports:

Governor Gina Raimondo announced. Starting immediately, anyone coming into the state from New York state will be mandated to self-quarantine for 14 days, the governor said.

“No matter how you come to Rhode Island – bus, car, train, plane – you are ordered to quarantine for 14 days,” Raimondo said. “In my judgement this is the most prudent form of action in light of the crisis.”

Members of the National Guard will be stationed at train and bus stations to gather the contact information of anyone coming in from New York. In addition, the Rhode Island State Police will station troopers at the state border to flag down vehicles with New York license plates. The information collected will be used only for contact tracing by the Rhode Island Department of Health, Raimondo said.

“This is different. This is unusual. This is radical,” Raimondo said. “I don’t want anyone to panic. If anything, Rhode Islanders should breathe a sigh of relief. We are doing things to keep ourselves safe.” 

This is unbelievable. How many illegal immigrants has Rhode Island let in that hadn’t been vaccinated for the diseases that Americans are routinely vaccinated for? Were they ever quarantined?

The article concludes:

Keeping tens-of-thousands of migrant travelers from central America and Mexico out of the United States is an abomination to the humanitarian interests of our nation.  However, allowing Americans to cross state borders during a national health emergency is apparently a bridge too far.

One of the under-appreciated benefits of this COVID-19 crisis, is exposing the hypocrisy of the limo-liberal elite.   Notice how quickly a Democrat can turn totalitarian? I digress….

Funny how it was only a few short months ago when Russia, Russia, Russia hype was declared to be influencing the national political conversation, while these same democrat governors were quoting the statue of Liberty.  Alas….

I wonder if anyone will question whether or not this is constitutional.

Why Border Security Matters

Yesterday Fox News posted an article about a recent drug seizure at the Arizona border.

The article reports:

A drug bust last year was hailed as the largest fentanyl bust in U.S. history—254 pounds seized at an Arizona border crossing.

The seizure came as the scourge of fentanyl continues to fuel the opioid epidemic, ravaging communities across the U.S. while killing tens of thousands of people.

“Fentanyl also continues to be a tremendous problem, contributing to 68,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2018,” Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Congress in November. He said CBP’s seizures of fentanyl rose by 30 percent in fiscal year 2019, totaling 2,770 pounds.

Fentanyl comes from China. Often it is smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico by drug cartels involved in a violent war with Mexican police and military forces.

The historic 254-pound bust was just one of a half-dozen big fentanyl busts recorded by law enforcement in recent years, a tally shows.

These six busts have led to the seizure of some 818 pounds of fentanyl–enough to kill 229 million people, according to authorities.

The article lists the six major drug busts. Please follow the link above to the article to see the details.

On March 22, 2019, I Heart Radio reported:

A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows how the opioid epidemic has ballooned over the past six years. The report found that from 2011 to 2016, the number of overdose deaths from the synthetic opiate fentanyl has risen by over 1000 percent.

The CDC says that in 2011 and 2012, around 1,600 people died each year from a fentanyl overdose. The number of deaths rose to 1,900 in 2013, but in 2014 officials saw the number of fatalities jump to 4,223. In 2015 the number of deaths nearly doubled to 8,251, and in 2016 there were another 10,000 deadly overdoses, bringing the total to 18,335 for the year.

The massive spike in fentanyl-related deaths was seen mainly in men. Up until 2013, the number of men and women who overdosed on fentanyl was about the same, but in 2014 the numbers began to diverge, and in 2016 there were three times as many men killed from an overdose as women.

Fentanyl is now considered the deadliest drug in America and is responsible for 29% of all overdose deaths in the nation.

Border security matters.

Why Do We Need A Secure Border?

There are a number of different reasons we need to secure out borders–north, south, east, and west.

The researchers at The Heritage Foundation list a few basic facts about our current border situtation:

  • Over the past two years, roughly 235,000 illegal immigrants were arrested—including roughly 100,000 for assault, 30,000 for sex crimes, and 4,000 for homicides.
  • 300 Americans die of heroin overdoses a week, and 90 percent of that heroin is smuggled through our southern border.
  • Loopholes in our immigration law coupled with our porous border encourages parents to send their children on a dangerous journey to the U.S., often at the hands of threatening human traffickers. 68 percent of migrants are victims of violence along the journey. One in three migrant women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek to the border.
  • Securing the border is the first step. We also need rational reforms such as a skills-based migration system and an end to chain migration.

So what is the solution? Below are some of the items President Trump has asked Congress to fund:

  • $5.7 billion for construction of approximately 234 miles of steel barrier along the Southern Border
  • $675 million to deter and detect dangerous materials crossing our borders like narcotics and weapons
  • $563 million that would provide for 75 additional immigration judges and support staff who are necessary to reduce the backlog of immigration cases that are sitting right now at the border
  • $211 million for 750 additional border patrol agents, who DHS officials have deemed paramount to this fight
  • $571 million for additional ICE personnel
  • $4.2 billion for detention center materials and personnel

As a first step to combat this crisis, Congress must pass a spending bill that provides the funding that the President has requested. In addition to obtaining increased border security funding today, we must continue to push for real reforms to our legal immigration system. Necessary reforms include ending chain migration, adopting a skills-based immigration system, and closing loopholes in the asylum claim process.

Securing the border should not be a political issue. It is an issue that impacts all Americans–lower wages for low-skilled workers, drugs smuggled in that have killed countless Americans, increased crime, and an unsustainable burden on those government programs designed to create a safety net for Americans in need. It’s time to seal the border and take care of the needs of Americans among us who are homeless or living in poverty,

Who Is The New Guy?

LifeZette posted an article today about the seemingly abrupt resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan will now become the new acting head of the Department of Homeland Security.

The article tells us a little about Acting Secretary McAleenan:

1.) McAleenan is a longtime border officer, “reflecting Trump’s priority for the department initially founded to combat terrorism after the September 11 attacks,” as Fox News noted.

2.) Trump wanted the “toughest cop” around on border security — “and McAleenan fit the bill,” the outlet also reported.

3.) McAleenan served as head of Customs and Border Patrol and was the nation’s top border security official; he was sworn into that job in March 2018. Prior to his confirmation, he was acting commissioner beginning Jan. 20, 2017, according to his biography.

4.) In that role, McAleenan oversaw 60,000 employees, managed a budget of over $13 billion, and ensured “CBP’s mission to protect national security while promoting economic prosperity,” as his biography also noted.

5.) Before that, he held several leadership positions at CBP and at one of its agencies, the U.S. Customs Service. In December 2011, he became acting assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Field Operations, leading “agency operations to secure the U.S. border while expediting lawful trade and travel at 329 ports of entry in the United States and 70 international locations in more than 40 countries.”

6.) From 2006 to 2008, he served as area port director of Los Angeles International Airport, directing CBP’s border security operations there and at 17 other airport facilities.

7.) After the 9/11 terror attacks, McAleenan focused on national security issues. In November 2001, he helped establish the Office of Antiterrorism in Washington, D.C. Two years later, he became executive director.

8.) Prior to government service, McAleenan practiced law in California. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

9.) He earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Amherst College in Massachusetts.

10.) He is 47 and was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is married to Corina Avalos McAleenan, a Deloitte executive; they have two children.

Congratulations, sir, you have probably just accepted the most miserable job in the universe–Congress not only won’t help you, they will fight you and the President in the courts every step of the way. However, the American people are behind you.

According to an article posted at Power Line yesterday by John Hinderaker:

Do you think illegal immigration is a serious problem? If you are like 67 percent of likely voters, you do. If you think illegal immigration is a very serious problem, you have plenty of company–47 percent of voters.

Of course, if you are running for president as a Democrat, you don’t think illegal immigration is a problem at all. Eight percent of likely voters agree with you. Not only do none of the Democratic presidential candidates want to build the wall, some of them want to tear down barriers where they already exist.

Best wishes, Secretary McAleenan, I sincerely hope you can do what needs to be done.

Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Testimony

An article posted at The Federalist on Thursday includes the testimony of Federalist senior correspondent John Daniel Davidson, delivered before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Some highlights of his testimony:

McAllen, a city of fewer than 150,000 residents, is now facing the prospect of thousands of migrants discharged from ICE custody, wandering the streets and sleeping in doorways and on park benches—the city’s mayor has said as much. What’s more, in February the city ordered Catholic Charities to vacate the former nursing home and find a new location within 90 days, citing complaints from neighbors about constant traffic and strangers wandering nearby streets where children play. By any measure, the situation in McAllen is an emergency.

This is just one border town in Texas. Something similar is playing out all up and down the U.S.-Mexico border. In El Paso, hundreds of migrant families are turning themselves in to Border Patrol every day, overwhelming federal facilities and personnel. In a five-minute stretch one day in late March, Border Patrol apprehended two different groups totaling 400 people. On the night of President Trump’s rally in El Paso in February, a group of 300 turned themselves in to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol station, which sits on an empty stretch of New Mexico scrubland 22 miles west of El Paso. Agents had to move all the ATVs out of the garage just so a hundred or so migrants would have someplace warm to sleep that night. Since then, things have been getting worse.

The testimony states:

If you spend enough time talking to migrants themselves, a pattern begins to emerge. Most of them have similar stories about why they left their home countries in Central America, and they report similar experiences of how they made their way through Mexico to the southern U.S. border. A few common characteristics stand out:

  • A majority of the “family units” are men traveling with one or more children;
  • Many of these men say they have a wife and other children back in their home country and that they intend to secure work in the U.S. and send money back to support them;
  • They are headed for all points across the U.S. and have family members or friends in those places. Many of them also have jobs already lined up;
  • Nearly all of them say they left their homes because it is dangerous, citing gang violence, threats, extortion, etc.; they are all claiming asylum.
  • At the same time, many of them will admit that they don’t plan to remain in the U.S. permanently, and in fact have a set amount of time they plan to live and work here before returning home;
  • All of them say they paid a smuggler to secure safe passage to the border (the amount varies from $2,000 to $6,000 per person, sometimes more). Generally, they say they took cars or buses for transit through Mexico.

The testimony concludes:

Without a doubt, there is a crisis at the southern border. But it’s a deeply misunderstood crisis that’s being driven by specific factors and disproportionately affecting specific regions of the border, primarily the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso. In general, the growing numbers of migrants now crossing the border are being driven by three major factors:

  • If you’re a minor or a family, it’s even easier to enter the U.S. now than it was during the Obama administration for the simple reason that there is no capacity at federal detention facilities and families can expect to be released soon after being detained by Border Patrol.
  • Smugglers are now marketing to people —women, families—who don’t want to undertake an arduous or dangerous journey. They have created a sophisticated and efficient busing package that has proven very popular with families, and word has gotten back to communities in Central America that, if they pay, the journey will be short, safe, and they will not be detained for long once inside the U.S.
  • Conditions in Central America have not improved enough to induce people to remain in their home countries. Persistent poverty, violence, and corruption, combined with the fear that it’s not going to be this easy to get into the U.S. forever, is prompting families to come now.

There is no easy solution to this crisis. Border security is part of the solution, but so is congressional action.

As long as Central American families know they can gain entry to the U.S. by initiating asylum proceedings upon crossing the border, the crisis will continue. As long as cartels and criminal networks know they can profit from trafficking migrant families to the border, they will do so. And as long as conditions in Central America continue to fester, families who can afford it will seek a better life for their children by traveling north.

The crisis on our southern border is not the result of anything President Trump has done. It is the result of years of inaction by Congress and previous administrations. As previously stated–Democrats see illegal immigrants as future Democrat voters; Republicans see illegal immigrants as cheap labor. Neither party sees them as desperate people. President Trump is at least trying to discourage them from making a long, dangerous trip. President Trump is also trying to protect America from being overwhelmed. If you doubt what this is about, look up the Cloward-Piven strategy. It explains what is currently happening (and illustrates why it must be stopped).

A Border Will Will Save Taxpayers Billions

Betsy McCaughey posted an article at Townhall today about the cost of not having a border wall.

The article reports:

Look what it costs us when a Central American teen crosses the border illegally without an adult. Uncle Sam spends a staggering $775 per day for each child housed at a shelter near Florida’s Homestead Air Reserve Base. There they have access to medical care, school and recreation. They stay, on average, 67 days at the Homestead shelter before being released to a sponsor. Do the math. That’s almost $52,000 per child. American parents would appreciate the government spending that money on their kids. Imagine the government handing you a check for $52,000 for your teenager.

However, there are bigger costs ahead. The number of illegal border crossers just hit an 11-year high with a total of more than 76,000 during the month of February alone. U.S. and Mexican officials predict hundreds of thousands more in the coming months.

The migrants use the word “asylum” as their get-in-free card. When they say it to a border agent, they gain entry to the U.S. 80 percent of the time according to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. They are temporarily housed and eventually released with an immigration court date. But half never go on to file an asylum claim, disappearing into the U.S., said former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Asylum is supposed to be reserved for people facing persecution and danger in their home country whose safety depends upon their leaving that country. People who simply want better lives are asked to go through the legal process. Unfortunately our southern border is so porous that it is very easy for people to come here illegally and then simply disappear. We need a wall. It is sad that Congress is playing political games in order to avoid building one. Congress has never wanted a secure southern border–the Democrats see future voters and the Republicans see cheap labor for the corporate sponsors. No one is looking at the security of America right now except the President and very few members of Congress.

If It Walks Like A Duck And Quacks Like A Duck…

The New York Post posted an article about the crisis at our southern border yesterday written by its editorial board. The Democrats are saying that there is no emergency at the border and that it is a ‘made up crisis.’ The facts show otherwise.

The article reports:

More than 76,000 migrants crossed the southern border illegally last month, the highest number in 12 years. So much for all those media “fact checks” arguing that there’s no emergency to justify President Trump’s wall.

Immigration officials say the number is only going to increase, creating what Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan warns is “a border security and a humanitarian crisis.”

Why are they coming in such vast numbers? Because smugglers have put them wise to how to take advantage of recent court decisions to claim asylum and remain here indefinitely.

They’re coming (mainly from Guatemala) in ever-larger groups, mostly families as opposed to individuals. They’ve been told that if they cross the border illegally, they only need cry “asylum.” And adults traveling with children have a better chance to stay.

The article explains why the migrants are coming:

Consider: Officials say the biggest “pull factors” for migrant families are court settlements that not only bar deportations without lengthy proceedings, but also prevent the detainment of families for more than 20 days.

After that period, families must be allowed to settle here while their cases wind their way through immigration court.

In other words, once they make it across the border, we can’t reject them and we can’t hold them. That situation, McAleenan warns, is “unsustainable.”

The article then reminds us that it is up to Congress to fix the broken immigration laws. As much as Congress may resent the President using his emergency power to build the wall, the blame for the crisis falls on Congress. The blame falls on those Republicans, bought and paid-for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in search of cheap labor, and the Democrats, who want illegal aliens to vote. Both sides need to be voted out of office. Otherwise we will lose what is America. We cannot sustain this level of immigration and remain the republic our Founding Fathers created. We have only to look to Europe to see the consequences of allowing mass migration.

 

What The Media Didn’t Want To Tell You

Yesterday The New York Post posted an article about a recent shooting death in the New York City subway. The murder was gang related, but the NYPD wasn’t interested in having that information available to the public.

The article reports:

He’s an MS-13 gangster and illegal immigrant accused of murdering a rival on a subway platform — but you wouldn’t even recognize him on the street if the NYPD had its way.

Cops bent over backward Tuesday to shield alleged killer Ramiro Gutierrez from public scrutiny after his arrest for Sunday’s broad-daylight slaying in Queens — going so far as to feed reporters bogus information about his whereabouts and claim ignorance on his illegal status hours before President Trump’s State of the Union Address renewing his request for a border wall.

Gutierrez, 26, has been in custody since Monday for the execution-style killing of Abel Mosso, 20, in front of horrified straphangers.

But cops waited until 4 a.m. Tuesday to announce that he had been formally charged.

Then they called reporters Tuesday afternoon to say that he would be walked out of the 115th Precinct station house at 4 p.m. — only to sneak him out a back door by 2 p.m. en route to a courthouse in Queens.

The article continues:

Gutierrez’s NYPD rap sheet goes back to at least 2010, when he received a summons for disorderly conduct, according to sources.

He’s been collared on at least nine misdemeanors and four felonies, including for drug possession, sources said, noting that five of his arrests are sealed.

Gutierrez was out on $2,500 bail for felony conspiracy charges when he allegedly killed Mosso.

He was arrested last Dec. 11, and by Dec. 13 he had pleaded “not guilty” and posted bail, records show.

The arrest put him on ICE’s radar, but the agency was not aware he was in the US illegally until Tuesday, agency officials said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders seized on Mosso’s killing to make the case for tighter border security.

“These things should not be happening,’’ she said Tuesday on CNN.

“We know that the crime and the drugs and those things drastically stop if you have real border security, and that includes a wall.’’

Coming to a city near you unless we get the southern border under control.

Do The Statements Line Up With The Actions?

Yesterday CNS News posted an article that reported the following:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday reiterated that “Democrats are committed to border security” after President Donald Trump agreed to a deal to re-open the government for three weeks while the White House and Democratic congressional leaders negotiate over Trump’s proposed border wall.

“And we have no complaint,” Pelosi said on Friday.

The article continues:

“We look forward to Congresswoman Roybal-Allard [D.-Calif.] taking the lead in terms of the substance from her standpoint as Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee and commend, again, our Chair of the Appropriations Committee [Nita Lowey (D.-N.Y.] for her leadership on this,” Pelosi said. “They bring knowledge, they bring perspective, they bring the enthusiasm of the consensus of our Caucus to that conference.”

So let’s take a look at Congresswoman Roybal-Allard for a minute. The Center for Security Policy put her on a list of “national security failures” – legislators who scored a total of less than 25%, based on all scored votes for which they were present. The Center’s findings indicate 149 Members of the House of Representatives and 46 Senators are national security failures based on their voting record in the 111th Congress.

It gets better. Opensecrets.org listed the details of the Congresswoman’s campaign contributions:

I am not sure that this is the most qualified person to put on the committee. California has been something of a shining example of the negative impact of unchecked immigration on a state’s finances and quality of life.

Somehow I am not looking forward to rational solutions to the problem at our southern border from the Democrats on the Homeland Security Subcommittee.