Stopping Attempts To Keep Americans Safe

On Wednesday, Yahoo News reported on a bill in the Senate that would have required all illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, attempted to bring the bill to the Senate floor, but the bill was blocked by Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who objected to the request.

The article reports:

Ernst requested unanimous consent from her colleagues in order to advance Sarah’s Law to the floor for a vote. During her speech, she pleaded with colleagues to pass her bill, recalling the death of Sarah Root and also referencing the recent death of Laken Riley, both allegedly at the hands of illegal immigrants.

The bill would require ICE to take into custody illegal immigrants who are arrested and charged with causing the death or serious injury of another. This was reiterated by Ernst during her speech: “It would merely require ICE to detain, just to detain, otherwise deportable illegal immigrants charged with killing or seriously injuring another person,” she said.

Durbin said the bill would detain victims of trafficking or domestic abuse who were charged with crimes. According to him, the bill would “deprive immigrants of the due process that everyone is afforded.”

The due process happened when it was established that they were here illegally. At that point it should be legal to detain and deport them. Why are we harboring criminals that don’t even have the right to be here?

The article concludes:

The senator pointed to the immigration practice known as “catch and release” in which illegal immigrants seeking entry on the basis of asylum are released during the processing period.

“Instead of being detained while he was processed, he was released into our country — never to be heard from again,” she said.

While Ibarra may have been prevented from allegedly killing Riley had he been detained upon entry to the country, Sarah’s Law would not have stopped the attack because Ibarra’s criminal record doesn’t include crimes in which others were killed or injured.

Our laws are supposed to protect us–not endanger us.

Changing The Number At The Border Crossings Without Changing The Number Of Illegal Immigrants

The number of illegal immigrants coming across America’s southern border keeps growing. That number is a problem for the Biden administration. Rather than solve the problem of a porous border, they have found a way to allow the same number of illegal immigrants to enter the country without the numbers at the border continuing to grow.

On March 5th, Townhall reported the following:

According to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Center for Immigration Studies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection approved “secretive flights” for 320,000 inadmissible aliens last year. The individuals were pre-approved on the CBP One app and flew into 43 U.S. airports, though the government refuses to identify which ones.

…Through the CBP One app, the individuals apply for travel authorization, and once here, the parole program gives them two-year periods of legal status allowing them to work. This more direct entry, facilitated by the Biden administration, lowers the total number of illegal border crossings at ports of entry. 

…While the government won’t say which foreign airports the “inadmissible aliens” are coming from, according to Bensman (CIS’s Todd Bensman), only citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador are eligible for the program. 

Is anyone willing to guess how many of these illegal aliens will illegally vote in November?

An Executive Order That Will Impact The 2024 Election

Under American law, non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections. In some areas, non-citizens are allowed to vote in local elections, but that is somewhat limited. Unfortunately, due to an Executive Order signed by President Biden in January 2021, non-citizens and illegal immigrants will have an influence on our presidential and Congressional elections.

On Thursday, Fox News reported the following:

Immigration experts are raising the alarm about how the increasing flow of migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. may significantly impact states’ representation in the House of Representatives and Electoral College.

Shortly after taking office in January 2021, President Biden signed an executive order requiring that the U.S. Census Bureau factor in all residents, including noncitizens, as part of its decennial calculation of the U.S. population. As a result, the apportionment of House seats and, therefore, electoral votes for presidential elections, could be swayed as migrants continue to pour over the southern border.

“Illegal immigration has all kinds of effects and among them is that it distorts the mechanics of democratic government,” Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Illegal immigrants aren’t even supposed to be here, so their inclusion in the census count for purposes of apportionment really is outrageous.”

“There are a lot of close votes in Congress, more than there used to be. So, it can, in fact, make a difference,” Krikorian said. “It shouldn’t be a question of: Does this give you personally more influence in Washington? The question should be: Is it right? Is it healthy for our democratic process to be distorted this way? The answer is no.”

The next President can overturn this order if he chooses to. Vote carefully.

This Is Not Legal

The open border and the flood of illegal immigrants has hit many of our major cities hard. Those cities are trying to feed, house, and provide medical care for thousands of new residents–sometimes at the expense of the American citizens who already live there. Recent events in Chicago illustrate the problem.

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported:

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson recently touted his efforts to bestow $18 million exclusively to “black and brown” businesses to feed the thousands of illegal border crossers the city is housing.

Johnson’s administration partnered with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, BJ’s Market, and other nonprofits by diverting the huge sum to minority-owned businesses, according to WFLD-TV.

During a press conference on the partnership, the “sanctuary city” mayor celebrated the program, applauding “black and brown businesses” as the “soul” of Chicago.

“The $17 million investment for these 18 black and brown small businesses, is really the, um… it really captures what I call the soul of Chicago. It’s who we are,” Johnson told the media.

It may be who you are, but I believe it is illegal under the Civil Rights Law to discriminate on the basis of color. Are we now going to have to pass laws prohibiting discrimination against white people?

The article concludes:

Johnson has faced backlash from his own constituency over the billions of dollars he has diverted to give illegals free housing, free food, free clothing, free education, free healthcare, free legal advice, and any manner of freebies that have been denied the Windy City’s black population.

 

The Buck Stops Anywhere But Here

Most Americans are willing to admit that we have a crisis at our southern border. Most Americans are aware that the crisis began when newly-elected President Biden undid all of the Executive Orders President Trump had used to close the border. However, President Biden is still blaming President Trump for the border crisis. Evidently the fact that President Trump has been out of power for three plus years does not play into President Biden’s logic.

On Saturday, Breitbart posted a list of 64 ways that President Biden has opened America’s borders.

I will post part of the list. Please follow the link above to read the entire list and the details.

Here are some of the highlights:

  1. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden terminated the National Emergency at the Southwest border (Proclamation 9844), thereby halting emergency construction of a border wall.
  2. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) further entrenching the unlawful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
  3. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., demonstrating intent to reward illegal border crossers with a path to citizenship.
  4. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden revoked Trump-era Executive Order that was designed to ensure there was meaningful enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
  5. Jan 20, 2021: The Administration issued an Executive action ending limitations and restrictions against immigration from certain countries associated with terrorism.
  6. Jan 20, 2021: The Biden Administration announced a 100-day moratorium on deportations and immigration enforcement, effectively providing amnesty to criminal and other removable aliens and sending the signal the Biden Administration would not enforce the law. 
  7. Feb 1, 2021: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented Acting Secretary Pekoske’s policy requiring a new “process [that] shall provide for assessments of alternatives to removal including, but not limited to, staying or reopening cases, alternative forms of detention, custodial detention, whether to grant temporary deferred action, or other appropriate action.”
  8. Feb 2, 2021: President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14010 and began processing asylum claims at the border.
  9. Feb 6, 2021: Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspended, and began termination procedures, for the Trump Administration’s Asylum Cooperative Agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
  10. Feb 2021: The Biden Administration voluntarily stopped applying Title 42 expulsions to children across the board, setting off a major wave of unaccompanied alien children, family units, and illegal aliens generally heading to the U.S. border.

That’s only the first ten. President Biden willingly ended the programs that were securing our southern border. He is responsible for the disaster that border has become. He is also responsible for any negative results of the large number of military-age men that are coming across that border.

The Government’s Misplace Priorities

On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about some changes being made to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The article reports:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to raise its enforcement personnel by 40 percent by the end of this fiscal year, with revenue agents seeing the largest workforce increase.

For fiscal year 2024, the IRS plans to boost enforcement staff by a net 5,462 employees, according to a Jan. 29 report by IRS watchdog Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). This would take the total number of enforcement personnel at the tax agency to 18,960 by the end of fiscal 2024, which is 40 percent higher than the staffing at the beginning of October 2023.

Out of the 5,462 net additions, 4,704 will be revenue agents who are tasked with conducting “face-to-face audits of more complex returns.”

The tax agency intends to add a net 493 special agents for the year, who are armed officials investigating “potential criminal activities.” Staffing of revenue officers will rise by 265 employees. Revenue officers are tasked with collecting delinquent taxes and securing delinquent returns.

First of all, I do not believe that IRS agents should be armed. Secondly, the idea of an apolitical IRS went out the window when Lois Lerner decided to target conservative groups to delay their 501c3 tax status requests.

The article notes:

By fiscal 2024-end, revenue agents will comprise close to 70 percent of the enforcement personnel. Armed special agents will make up 13.5 percent and revenue officers will account for 16.4 percent.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided the IRS with $79.4 billion in supplemental funding that is available for the agency until September 2031. By the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023, the agency had used $3.5 billion of the funds.

As long as we are arming federal employees, let’s send them to our southern border to enforce our immigration laws.

Failure To Provide Public Safety

On Monday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

Federal authorities caught a terrorist at the U.S. southern border and released him into the country, where he roamed freely for nearly a year before being arrested in Minnesota just days ago, according to an internal federal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The unnamed individual, who the memo only identifies as a member of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab, was released shortly after being caught illegally crossing the southern border near San Ysidro, California on March 13, 2023, according to the memo, which the DCNF is not publishing in order to protect the identity of a confidential source. The Terrorist Screening Center “deemed him a ‘mismatch’” after running his name through the terror watchlist, according to the memo, which was sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

However, on January 18, 2024, the Terrorist Screening Center “made a redetermination” that the individual was “a confirmed member of al-Shabaab” and was involved in the use, manufacture or transport of explosives or firearms, the memo states. Two days later, ICE nabbed the al-Shabaab member in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The article concludes:

The U.S. government has considered Al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization since 2008. The terrorist group operates in Somalia and has also committed attacks in Kenya and Uganda, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

U.S. forces killed three al-Shabaab terrorists in a self defense air strike on Jan. 21 at the request of the Somali government

Al-Shabaab has carried out bombings, including suicide attacks, and the group has assassinated Somali peace activists, international aid workers, journalists and numerous civil society figures, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. The terror group carried out a 2013 attack on Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people, and in 2017 killed hundreds of civilians in Mogadishu through two suicide attacks.

After Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, federal authorities warned Border Patrol to be on alert for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorists attempting to illegally cross the southern border, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the DCNF at the time.

“It is clear that our safety is dependent on enforcing our immigration laws and securing the border,” Fabbricatore said.

ICE didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

It is probably time for every American to take the class to get their concealed carry license. It is becoming very obvious that our government does not have our backs. We need to be responsible for our own safety.

Bidenomics Works For Some People

On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about Bidenomics. Unfortunately it doesn’t work for the average American.

The article reports:

It’s a given that running drugs (and smuggling people) is a lucrative business — else the cartels wouldn’t be in the mix, to begin with. But the amount involved is utterly mind-boggling. While many Americans struggle under the weight of crushing inflation, Bidenomics may have found its champion in the cartels.

According to CBP estimates, the cartels are taking in a cool $32 million…per week. And that’s just in the Del Rio, Texas, sector.

Good to know Biden administration policies are benefiting someone’s pocketbooks, I suppose. 

How many families have been impacted by the illegal drugs coming across our southern border? How many Americans have lost their jobs because illegal aliens are working ‘under the table’ for lower wages?

I was aware of a situation at one point where an illegal alien was taken advantage of by a person from their own country. They were working at a restaurant ‘under the table’ at a very low wage, and when they were fired, the person they were working for refused to pay them for their last two weeks of work. Being in America as an illegal alien does not mean that you will have the opportunity to get rich. Because you are here illegally, you do not have the protections that an American citizen is supposed to have. Admittedly, we are paying illegal aliens money at the border and giving them free tickets to wherever they want to go, but there is no guarantee that when they arrive at their destination there will be a place to work or to stay.  Meanwhile, how many homeless Americans are living on the street?

The number of illegal aliens coming into our country every day is a heath risk, a terrorism risk, a human trafficking risk, and an economic risk (see Cloward-Pivan). We need to redo our immigration system to make it easier to come here legally, but for the time being we need to limit immigration so that the people who are here can assimilate. We should also deport any illegals that have accepted welfare benefits. American taxpayers should not be paying for the mess we have created at our southern border.

An Odd Shift In Reporting By The Mainstream Media

Some of us who watch the mainstream media closely are often suspicious when the media starts covering a story that they have purposely ignored. Generally there is a political motive behind the sudden coverage.

On January 3rd, Issues & Insights posted an article wondering why the mainstream media was all of a sudden concerned about the number of illegal aliens coming into America every day.

The article notes:

After spending three years largely ignoring the border, the mainstream press is suddenly all over it, with headlines blaring about a “surge,” “crisis” and “call for action.” Why now?

…Weirdly, the press is even exaggerating the current “surge.” Consider that CNN story, which says:

“Border authorities encountered more than 225,000 migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border this month, marking the highest monthly total recorded since 2000, according to preliminary Homeland Security statistics shared with CNN.”

Except that’s not true. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, illegal crossings exceeded 225,000 in August, September, October, and November of this year, and in six previous months since President Joe Biden took office.

As a matter of fact, illegal crossings have averaged more than 200,000 since Biden moved into the White House.

Also weird is the fact that the Department of Homeland Security is leaking these numbers for maximum effect, given that Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has spent the past three years insisting that the “border is secure.”

The article points out when the crisis began:

So again, we ask, why now? This is a crisis that began the moment Biden took the keys to the White House.

The Financial Times – in an article headlined “Surge in border crossings creates political upheaval in the U.S.” – offers a clue. It notes that “the migration issue is gaining salience among Democrat voters” and quotes Houston immigration lawyer Charles Foster saying: “It’s gotten to the point that the vast majority of Republicans and a growing percentage of Democrats agree with this concept that the border is wide open now.” 

A December Wall Street Journal poll finds that Biden trails Trump by 30 points on voter confidence in securing the border.

Is this part of the effort on the part of the Democrat party (in conjunction with the mainstream media) to force President Biden not to run again? I believe we will know the answer to that question sometime in March.

Stopping The Invasion

Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D    

I support the Republican effort to investigate Joe Biden for influence peddling.  However, they also need to impeach him for failure to enforce the immigration laws that he swore to uphold. Not only has he failed to enforce the law, but he has intentionally encouraged what amounts to an invasion of this country. It is realistic to assume that our country may ultimately be destroyed if this invasion is allowed to continue. No country can survive when it is over-run by unvetted people many of whom do not share its values and beliefs. Rome was not destroyed by a stronger military force but by the invasion of so-called barbarians who disrupted their system of government. We are facing the same threat.   

The Washington Examiner estimates that over 10 million illegals have flooded this country since Biden took office. This is more people than the total population of 40 states.  This amounts to about 7,000 per day, and since Biden has about 400 days left to his term of office we can expect a minimum of another 2.8 million. The Heritage Foundation reported that 60% of these illegals are receiving some form of social services support further burdening the taxpayers. The immigration policy used to be that an immigrant would not be admitted unless they could prove they had a means of their own support. We are actually paying them to invade.   Unbelievable! It should also be remembered that most come seeking so-called asylum and if admitted are then able to bring in members of their families. 

The Biden regime has encouraged the abuse of the asylum law. Essentially, the asylum law allows anyone to be admitted to this country who claims that they are being persecuted (or fear persecution) in their home country as a result of their race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular group. According to recent data, only 14% of these asylum claims that make it to a hearing are declared to be valid. Most of those admitted never show up for their asylum hearing–currently there is an 8 to 9 year backlog.  It should be noted that the asylum law wording follows almost exactly the wording of a United Nations Declaration that encourages the elimination of national borders.   

Here are some reasonable solutions to this crisis: 

  1. Place a cap on the total number of asylum cases per year.
  2. Remove the category of “ …membership in a particular social group” from the asylum law. It is too vague and limitless in scope. 
  3. Remove the so-called “anchor baby” rule that makes the children of illegals citizens if they are born in this country.
  4. Reinstate President Trump’s policy of remaining in country of origin or intervening country when applying for asylum. Crossing the border illegally should preclude any asylum claim. 
  5. Stop any and all illegals from receiving any form of social services. 
  6. Identify and deport anyone here illegally. 

Of course Biden will never voluntarily agree to any of the above. This is where the rubber hits the road. The House of Representatives should identify key spending budget line items important to Biden and cease/cut funding them until the above items are agreed to. Start with green energy incentives, electric car incentives and funding for aspects the federal Department of Education, the FBI and Department of Justice.  

The House has the so-called “power of the purse”.  Now let’s see if they have the courage to use it.    

Veterans Take Note!

If you are a veteran, the Biden administration is not your friend. At least the Trump administration made some attempt to clean up the problems in the Veterans’ Administration (VA) health system. The Biden administration is working hard to make it worse.

On Friday, Fox News reported:

A long-standing arrangement between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to process claims for migrant medical care is drawing scrutiny from veterans’ advocates — who are concerned that it could affect the agency’s mission of caring for veterans — amid an ongoing border crisis and existing complaints about the care delivered to veterans.

“I’d like to understand why the VA is involved,” Russ Duerstine, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America and a veteran of the United States Air Force, told Fox News Digital.

When an illegal immigrant under ICE detention requires healthcare, they are typically treated on-site by medical professionals. However, if specialist or emergency care is required, they may be transported to an independent private provider.

In such cases, ICE contracts with the VA’s Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) to process reimbursements to those providers. According to a report from July, ICE has hundreds of letters of understanding in which ICE’s Health Service Corps (IHSC) will reimburse providers at Medicare rates. That uses the VA-FSC’s Healthcare Claims Processing System — a portal that allows providers to submit and view claims and access other resources.

The article notes that although the VA plays a role, it does not provide or fund any health care services to individuals detained in [ICE] custody. At no time are any VA health care professionals or VA funds used for this purpose. So why then is the VA even involved?

The article also notes:

Darin Selnick, who served as veterans’ affairs adviser on the Domestic Policy Council during the Trump administration and also as a senior adviser to the VA secretary, said the arrangement was also a surprise to him and others he knew who served during the administration. He believes it would have been stopped if it was more widely known among officials.

“In my position, we would have stopped this, because if the VA had the extra ability to do this, then they should have been doing it for the veterans and not for another agency,” he said.

Duerstine, of Concerned Veterans for America, said he would like to see Veterans’ Affairs committees in Congress take a deeper look into the VA’s role.

 

 

 

The Future If President Trump Is Elected In 2024

If you are a government worker, you should probably work very hard to make sure President Trump does not become President again. The changes he is planning to make will be good for the country, but not necessarily appreciated by government employees.

On Tuesday, Newsmax posted an article about what is being planned if President Trump is elected. President Trump is a much greater threat to the deep state than he was in 2016–he has a much better idea of who the goods guys are and who the bad guys are. That is one of many reasons there will be a desperate attempt to stop him from being elected.

The article reports:

Project 2025, a well-funded effort that is essentially a transition team orchestrated by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, has already begun recruiting and screening potential candidates who would be in place for the next Republican administration.

More specifically, a second Donald Trump administration.

The goal, according to a report by Axios, is to have 54,000 like-minded Trump loyalists ready to be hired and placed across every level of the federal government in January 2025.

The article notes:

In order to install 54,000 federal workers hand-picked by this effort, Trump has said he would reinstate Schedule F, a personnel policy to erase employment protections for tens of thousands of federal workers through reclassification, which makes them easier to fire.

And with the army in place, Trump in the early days of his second administration can revamp the Justice Department, FBI and intelligence community, swiftly move on deporting illegals “by the millions per year,” and eradicate woke ideology from the military, according to Axios.

“And the goal is that we are just like a snowball rolling downhill. It keeps building momentum and whoever the nominee is, whoever the next president is, we’re going to be ready on Day One,” Chretien said.

Sweeping reform is what is needed. The question is whether or not we can have an honest election to allow that reform to happen.

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).

Planned Or Accidental?

On October 2nd, Breitbart posted an article about a recent comment by President Biden.

The article reports:

European-origin Americans deserve respect even after they become a minority in the United States, President Joe Biden told a friendly interviewer in an October 1 interview.

“We’re going to be — very shortly — a minority-white European country, and sometimes my [Democrat] colleagues don’t speak enough to make it clear that that is not going to change how we operate,” he told the progressive billionaire-funded ProPublica website.

…Current polls show mainstream, plurality, or majority opposition to the federal policy of mass migration that has helped suppress incomes for most Americans since 1990. That opposition is rising quickly because Biden has deliberately accelerated the wealth-shifting and population-replacing inflow into Americans’ workplaces, schools, housing, and politics.

…Under the federal government’s pro-migration policy, the immigrant population has grown from one in fourteen in 1955, up to one in seven, or roughly 50 million, in 2023. As a result, the children of European-origin parents were a 45 percent minority of the K-12 school population in 2021.

Biden — in close cooperation with Wall Street investors — has accelerated this very unpopular policy. For example, this year, he has imported roughly one migrant for every American born in the same year.

In the ProPublica interview, Biden did not mention — and was not asked — about the impact of his immigration policy.

The article concludes:

In many speeches, border chief Alejandro Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to elite opinion about “the values of our country,” Mayorkas claims.

Migration — and especially labor migration — is unpopular among swing voters. A 54 percent majority of Americans say Biden is allowing a southern border invasion, according to an August 2022 poll commissioned by the left-of-center National Public Radio (NPR). The 54 percent “invasion” majority included 76 percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents, and even 40 percent of Democrats.

I really don’t mind legal immigrants coming into the country who are willing to work and contribute to the well-being of America. What is do object to is undocumented people coming into the country without being vetted for criminal histories or disease that are hear to live off of the earnings of hard-working Americans. That is not sustainable.

There’s An App For That

On January 5th, The Washington Free Beacon reported the following:

Migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela will have an easier time entering the country thanks to President Joe Biden’s new immigration plan, which he says will stymie illegal border crossings.

The United States will accept up to 30,000 migrants from those countries under a “humanitarian parole” program, Biden announced on Thursday. Migrants who qualify for the program will be able to travel directly from their home countries to the United States after applying to the program through a mobile app, rather than declare asylum at the southern border after crossing from Mexico. Biden in the fall implemented a pilot version of the program for Venezuelans.

…Critics of Biden’s proposal questioned how making it easier for migrants to enter the United States would deter migrants from illegally crossing the southern border. Others raised questions about the legality of Biden’s proposal.

“This is one of the most egregious, unlawful abuses of humanitarian parole authority in the history of our nation—a middle finger to Congress, the American people, and the rule of law,” said Federation for American Immigration Reform director of communications R.J. Hauman.

America needs immigration reform. America was build by immigrants. However, what the Biden administration needs to realize is that we need people who come here to work hard and assimilate into the country–not people who come here to take advantage of our economic safety net.

Coming Here To Give Or To Take?

America was built by immigrants. Immigrants who came here to work and to build a country and a new life. A lot of the beautiful buildings in our cities were built by foreign craftsmen skilled in brick laying and various other trades. These immigrants came here to work. The early English settlers were often second sons coming to make their way in the new world (according to British inheritance laws, the first son inherited everything). Unfortunately, today’s immigrants are not all coming here to work. Some of them are coming to take advantage of America’s safety net. At some point that net is going to break, but the Biden administration does not seem overly concerned about that.

On Thursday, The Washington Times reported the following:

Homeland Security on Thursday announced it has adopted a new lenient policy on immigrants’ use of welfare, tossing a Trump-era policy that would have been far stricter.

Under the new system, known as the “public charge” rule, immigrants will only be penalized for potential welfare use if the government believes they will eventually become “primarily dependent” on government payments.

By contrast, living in government housing, using Medicaid for health coverage or accepting food stamps wouldn’t count against an immigrant.

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the new rule will deliver “fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants.”

“Consistent with America’s bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them,” he said.

The concept of the public charge rule is that immigrants should be able to pay their own way and not be a burden on Americans. A public charge policy has been in place dating back to the late 1800s.

I am willing to let illegal immigrants access any government benefit they choose AFTER we find homes and whatever treatment is needed for America’s homeless population. I am willing to let illegal immigrants access any government benefit they choose AFTER we have provided all necessary medical and other assistance to America’s veterans. I am willing to let illegal immigrants access any government benefit they choose AFTER we balance the budget and pay off the national debt.

The combination of open borders and a generous social welfare program is a recipe for bankruptcy. Remember that as you evaluate the policies of the Biden administration.

Who Is Ketanji Brown Jackson?

President Biden has nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Recently The Daily Wire posted an article about some of the items Judge Jackson has supported in the past.

The article reports Judge Jackson’s stand on various issues:

Abortion: Ketanji Brown Jackson represented NARAL Pro-Choice America, the League of Women Voters, and the Abortion Access Project of Massachusetts during her time in Boston’s Goodwin Procter law firm. In 2001, she helped write an amicus brief supporting a Massachusetts law that barred pro-life advocates from setting foot within six feet of any individual or vehicle that is within 18 feet of an abortion facility. Jackson’s record has earned her the fierce opposition of female leaders in the pro-life movement.

…Crime: Ketanji Brown Jackson served as vice chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission during the Obama administration. In April 2014, the commission propounded the “Drugs Minus Two” rule, which lowered the punishment for all drug-related crimes by two offense levels. The rule, which applied to an estimated 46,000 convicts, allowed judges to reduce convicts’ drug sentences by an average of two years and one month. “The result of the Sentencing Commission’s proposal will be to reward drug traffickers and distributors who possessed a firearm, committed a crime of violence, or had prior convictions,” wrote Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and then-Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) at the time.

Immigration: In September 2019, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a 120-page ruling (Make the Road New York v. McAleenan) that the Trump administration could not expand its use of “expedited removal”: that it could not fast-track the deportation of illegal aliens who had been in the country less than two years.

…Funding teen sex programs: When the Trump administration cut off $200 million in federal funding to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which teaches children as young as 10 to use condoms and other contraceptives without emphasizing abstinence, Judge Jackson ruled that the funding must continue.

…Government bureaucracy and labor unions: In 2018, President Donald Trump issued three executive orders that would reduce the power of public sector unions and make it easier to fire employees for poor performance. They also ordered employees to spend at least 75% of their time on “agency business.” Trump limited the use of “official time,” which allows government bureaucrats to use government resources to conduct union business during working hours, at taxpayers’ expense.

He also said the government would not negotiate with labor unions on issues where it was not legally required to do so. In August 2018, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a 119-page decision eviscerating those orders, denying most of Trump’s actions (American Federation of Government Employees v. Trump). She admitted that, while Trump’s action did not “specifically and directly conflict with individual statutory prescriptions” (i.e., he did not violate the law), it so “diminishes the scope of bargaining” that, it seemed to Jackson, Trump’s orders are no longer “a good-faith effort.” The D.C. Court of Appeals once again overturned Jackson’s decision, ruling that Jackson lacked jurisdiction to rule on the case.

Please follow the link to the article to read all of the notes on Judge Jackson’s previous decisions. She is not someone who is going to put the U.S. Constitution above her own political agenda. I suspect she will be confirmed, but that is not good news for America.

Let The Lawsuits Begin

Sara Carter reported yesterday that the Texas attorney general has filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Biden administration over its order to freeze most deportations for the next 100 days.

The article reports:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) argues that DHS is breaking immigration law by ordering the deportation freeze in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. His statement also claims that the new orders violate the U.S. Constitution, federal immigration and administrative law, and a contractual agreement between Texas and the DHS.

“In one of its first of dozens of steps that harm Texas and the nation as a whole, the Biden administration directed DHS to violate federal immigration law and breach an agreement to consult and cooperate with Texas on that law,” Paxton said in a statement. “Our state defends the largest section of the southern border in the nation. Failure to properly enforce the law will directly and immediately endanger our citizens and law enforcement personnel.”

Moreover, Paxton’s lawsuit asserts that the DHS’s authority does not extend to such a policy.

“If left unchallenged, DHS could re-assert this suspension power for a longer period or even indefinitely, effectively granting a blanket amnesty to illegal aliens that Congress has refused to pass time and time again,” the filing says. “The Constitution, controlling statutes, and prior Executive pledges prevent a seismic change to this country’s immigration laws merely by memorandum.”

Deportation is a necessary part of immigration policy. A person who is in America illegally who commits a crime needs to be deported before his actions endanger the lives of Americans. There are no promises that this case will actually get heard, but the Attorney General is right to pursue it. Congress is supposed to make immigration laws–they are not supposed to be made by Executive Order.

If Presidential Debates Happen, The Will Be Interesting

Breitbart posted an article today about a recent comment made by Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.

The comment:

“unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community.”

Wow.

The article reports:

National Public Radio’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked Biden about whether he would stop the deportation of Cubans.

“I’m going to look at every single country in the world … this guy [President Donald Trump] is sending them back,” Biden said, promising to extend the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program on his first day in office — one of several such first-day promises Biden has made.

Garcia-Navarro followed up, asking whether Biden would attempt to restore the Obama-Biden administration’s policy of improving relations with communist Cuba.

“Yes,” he said.

Biden then went on to add:

“And by the way, w hat you all know, but most people don’t know, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community, with incredibly different attitudes about different things … it’s a very diverse community.”

Biden attempted to explain that point by arguing that Latinos in Florida and Arizona had different views on immigration.

Garcia-Navarro did not ask Biden why he thought the black community was not diverse. She moved on to a different topic.

I think there are a number of black conservatives who might argue that the African American community is diverse and quite capable of thinking as individuals rather as a monolithic group.

An Interesting Campaign Donation

On Friday The Washington Free Beacon reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) funneled $14,000 to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign. Ilhan Omar is in a primary race with four challengers, including attorney Antone Melton-Meaux, who outraised Omar significantly in the second quarter of 2020.

The article reports:

The impressive fundraising haul allowed Melton-Meaux to spend more than $1.7 million over the first three weeks of July. Omar, meanwhile, spent just $784,000. More than $600,000—77 percent of those disbursements—went to a D.C.-based consulting firm run by Omar’s new husband.

Following his spending spree, Melton-Meaux holds $695,000 on hand, down from the $2 million he held at the end of the second quarter. Omar holds $732,000 on hand.

Omar, who did not respond to a request for comment, will square off against Melton-Meaux and three additional Democratic challengers during the state’s August 11 primary election. The late push from Pelosi suggests genuine concern for Omar, who has butted heads with the California Democrat in the past. Pelosi criticized Omar for using “deeply offensive” anti-Semitic tropes in February 2019 and condemned the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which Omar supports, a month later. Omar quickly hit back, saying, “a condemnation for people that want to exercise their First Amendment rights is beneath any leader.” Melton-Meaux has campaigned against Omar’s support for BDS.

Ilhan Omar has some interesting skeletons in her closet. She has been charged with immigration fraud in order to get into America, and her funneling money to her now husband’s consulting firm has raised questions about her basic integrity. Her anti-Semitic comments have also put her in a negative light in some circles. It is interesting that Nancy Pelosi has chosen to support her in her primary campaign.

Who Is Writing The Democrat Party Platform?

Bernie Sanders is not the Democrat presidential candidate. He might have been, but the Democrat political establishment has blocked his nomination twice with backroom deals. However, the proposed party platform seems to have a lot of his ideas included. The Democrats blocked his nomination because they felt that his ideas were too far out of the mainstream for him to be elected, so now they are sneaking his ideas into a platform that very few people will actually read. Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about that platform.

The article reports:

The proposed Democrat platform would expand asylum for migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, freeing them into the interior of the nation while they await their hearings. Gallup research from 2018 finds that nearly 160 million migrants around the world would move to the U.S. if given the opportunity — five million of which are located in Central America.

Likewise, the plan ends construction of the border wall, halts deportations for illegal aliens, ends all travel bans on national security-risk nations, China, Europe, Brazil, and Iran, ends agreements between the U.S. and Central America to reduce illegal immigration, and ends most federal detention of illegal aliens.

The plan also calls for:

    • Restarting DACA for young illegal aliens
    • Restraining DAPA for the illegal parents of DACA illegal aliens
    • Rescinding Trump’s “national emergency” at the border
    • Increasing refugee resettlement
    • Gives Obamacare to DACA illegal aliens
    • Forces Americans to subsidize welfare-dependent legal immigration
    • Expands the scandal-plagued U visa program
    • Restarts employment-based green card system

The massive expansion of illegal and legal immigration — in addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and more than 2.5 million legal immigrants and foreign workers added to the U.S. population every year — would come as more than 35 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed.

This is not a recipe for American success. This is a recipe for creating a permanent underclass of people who will be forever dependent on the government and eventually bankrupt the country (see Cloward-Piven Strategy). Every illegal alien that enters the country depresses the wages of Americans in low-skilled jobs. A country needs to have control of its borders in order to protect the rights and futures of those who live there.

Who is writing the Democratic Party platform, and what is their goal?

Ending Something That Should Never Have Had A Beginning

Yesterday The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the revoking of the the JR Motel’s conditional use permit and the order to the Motel to shut down by the end of the month. So what was the problem?

The article reports:

The JR Motel does not rent rooms to the public, instead, they only cater to wealthy Chinese families who travel to the states to give birth and take advantage of America’s birthright citizenship.

“Though the practice isn’t illegal, city officials said such long-term residency at the motel fits the category of a boarding or lodging house, and the location, 428 E. Lincoln Avenue, is not zoned for either,” the OC Register reports.

The article explains:

California is a popular destination for birth tourism.

“In 2015, federal agents raided homes and apartments across Southern California in a first-of-its-kind raid targeting birth tourism companies. Last December, an Irvine woman was sentenced to a 10-month-prison term, believed to be the first sentence handed to a birth tourism operator helping foreign nationals commit immigration and visa fraud. The woman had already served that time in prison and was released upon sentencing, which included an order of deportation. She didn’t wait to be deported, her attorney said, and left for China in early January,” the Register report concluded.

It is time to end the practice of granting citizenship to anyone born here regardless of the citizenship of their parents. According to Numbers USA, The United States and Canada are the only developed nations in the world to still offer Birthright Citizenship to tourists and illegal aliens. Obviously the Chinese tourists are not here illegally, but they are here taking advantage of a loophole in American laws. At some point we need to realize that China is not our friend and end this practice.

Taking Charge Of Immigration

Yesterday One America News reported that the Supreme Court ruled five to four to expand the “public charge” rule across the entire country. This is the rule that allows states to deny green cards to people that they feel will rely on public assistance. We need to remember that immigrants who arrived in America before the War on Poverty had to provide for their own needs. They were the people who built this country. Unfortunately we are now in a situation where many immigrants come here for what they can get, not what they can contribute.

The article reports:

“President Trump’s administration is reinforcing the ideals of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, ensuring that immigrants are able to support themselves and become successful here in America,” stated USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli.

The Department of Homeland Security defined the scope of “public charge” in August 2019. They expanded it to include immigrants who are likely to use public benefits like Medicaid, food stamp and housing vouchers.

Several states, including California, New York and Illinois, issued “universal” injunctions to stop enforcement of the rule across the country.

“It is a point of principle that we stand up at a moment like this, as a state, and assert ourselves,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.). “(We will) protect not only the values of the state, but the remarkable diversity that we represent within this state.”

Last month, the high court struck down the injunctions and expanded the rule to every state except Illinois, which has been since included in the ruling.

Advocates have urged immigrants not to be afraid of signing up for public assistance. They claimed the affected population will be small.

“The people who are actually, directly impacted by this is very small,” said Immigration Advocates Network Director Rodrigo Camarena. “We should remind our immigrant friends and neighbors that, in all likelihood, this decision does not affect you.”

First of all, we need to do away with the idea of ‘universal injunctions.’ There is no way under our Constitution that one state should be able to control the actions of another state.

The article concludes:

The new order will allow the federal government to enforce the “public charge” rule without being blocked, but courts will still be able to appeal the rule in their state.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Illinois will hear oral arguments on the issue next week. The new rule will take effect nationwide on Monday.

Keep in mind that the Democrats need a dependent class in order to win elections. That is what this is really about.

Don’t Believe Everything You See In A Campaign Ad

President Trump has tried from the beginning of his presidency to end the flood of illegal immigrants coming into this country from our southern border. The Democrat party has fought him every step of the way. Their goal is eventually to change the demographic of the American voter to give them a permanent majority. Of course, admitting that is not an option, but Democrats continue to work to leave our southern border open. We can expect this issue to come up in the 2020 presidential campaign, but don’t look for honesty on the part of Democrat candidates.

The Daily Caller reported today:

Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City and contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, released an anti-Trump campaign advertisement that included footage of caged migrants in 2014 — during the Obama era.

The Bloomberg campaign released an ad that was meant to highlight unflattering events that have occurred during the Trump administration, such as the white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, the aftermath of a Florida school shooting, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Note that the footage was from the Obama administration–not from the Trump administration. This is patently dishonest.

The article concludes:

The DCNF reached out to Julie Wood — a spokeswoman for the Bloomberg campaign — about the image, but did not receive a response.

This is not the first time Obama-era footage of caged migrants has been mistakenly attributed to the Trump administration. In an announcement about “inhumane treatment at the border” in July 2019, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tweeted out the same Getty image. They deleted their tweet following online ridicule.

It really is a shame that political ads cannot be stopped from airing if they fail to tell the truth.

Common Sense In Immigration Policy

On Monday CNBC posted an article about a Supreme Court decision regarding President Trump’s immigration policy.

The article reports:

The Supreme Court said Monday that it will allow the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule to take effect after the immigration policy had been blocked by lower courts.

The 5-4 vote was divided along partisan lines, with the court’s four Democratic appointees indicating that they would not have allowed the policy to be enforced.

The court’s five conservatives, including Chief Justice John Roberts, formed the majority siding with the administration. The decision came as Roberts was presiding over President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.

The rule, which was proposed in August, will make it more difficult for immigrants to obtain permanent residency, or green cards, if they have used or are likely to use public benefits like food stamps and Medicaid.

Under previous federal rules, a more narrow universe of public benefits, such as cash assistance and long-term hospitalization, were considered in determining whether an immigrant was likely to become a “public charge.”

The following statistics are from the Center for Immigration Studies:

  • No single program explains non-citizens’ higher overall welfare use. For example, not counting school lunch and breakfast, welfare use is still 61 percent for non-citizen households compared to 33 percent for natives. Not counting Medicaid, welfare use is 55 percent for immigrants compared to 30 percent for natives.
  • Welfare use tends to be high for both newer arrivals and long-time residents. Of households headed by non-citizens in the United States for fewer than 10 years, 50 percent use one or more welfare programs; for those here more than 10 years, the rate is 70 percent.
  • Welfare receipt by working households is very common. Of non-citizen households receiving welfare, 93 percent have at least one worker, as do 76 percent of native households receiving welfare. In fact, non-citizen households are more likely overall to have a worker than are native households.1
  • The primary reason welfare use is so high among non-citizens is that a much larger share of non-citizens have modest levels of education and, as a result, they often earn low wages and qualify for welfare at higher rates than natives.
  • Of all non-citizen households, 58 percent are headed by immigrants who have no more than a high school education, compared to 36 percent of native households.
  • Of households headed by non-citizens with no more than a high school education, 81 percent access one or more welfare programs. In contrast, 28 percent of non-citizen households headed by a college graduate use one or more welfare programs.
  • Like non-citizens, welfare use also varies significantly for natives by educational attainment, with the least educated having much higher welfare use than the most educated.
  • Using education levels and likely future income to determine the probability of welfare use among new green card applicants — and denying permanent residency to those likely to utilize such programs — would almost certainly reduce welfare use among future permanent residents.
  • Of households headed by naturalized immigrants (U.S. citizens), 50 percent used one or more welfare programs. Naturalized-citizen households tend to have lower welfare use than non-citizen households for most types of programs, but higher use rates than native households for virtually every major program.
  • Welfare use is significantly higher for non-citizens than for natives in all four top immigrant-receiving states. In California, 72 percent of non-citizen-headed households use one or more welfare programs, compared to 35 percent for native-headed households. In Texas, the figures are 69 percent vs. 35 percent; in New York they are 53 percent vs. 38 percent; and in Florida, 56 percent of non-citizen-headed households use at least welfare program, compared to 35 percent of native households.

At this point I need to say that I am not against helping people in need, but we do need to get our priorities in order. Our Veterans’ Administration health system is horrible. It is underfunded and does not have the facilities necessary to meet the needs of our returning veterans. We have been at war for eighteen years, and we have broken faith with those who have fought those wars. Shouldn’t taking care of those veterans be a higher priority than taking care of people who are not American citizens? Look at the budget deficits we are running–we can’t afford to do both.

I applaud the Supreme Court for upholding a common-sense approach to immigration.