We Need To Secure Our Borders Quickly

On Wednesday, Pamela Geller posted a story on her website reporting that three Pakistani Muslims were arrested at the Arizona border.

The article reports:

U.S. Border Patrol agents in Nogales, AZ, apprehended three Pakistani nationals on Nov. 11. As a standard procedure, agents processed the individuals and checked their identities against numerous law enforcement and national security related databases. Record checks revealed no derogatory information about the individuals. The individuals are currently in Federal custody while they await the outcome of their immigration cases.

Additional information on the individuals was obtained by federal agents working under the umbrella of CBP, but it is important to note that the additional details were not confirmed by CBP.

“One of them had a shit load of hits from a bunch of places he’s been. He had entered and exited numerous countries that were not in his route to the U.S. This raises red flags because people leaving a foreign country to come here usually take the quickest route, but one of them did not,” said one of the sources.

The source continued, “One of the men had his hair died [sic] blonde to disguise his appearance and all of the men spoke perfect English.”…

It is possible (although unlikely) that these men were simply refugees fleeing Pakistan. However, the fact that one of the men had a list of various countries he had visited before coming here is a concern. Where did he get his travel money? Who were his contacts in those countries?

Breitbart posted this story on November 17th, but included the following additional information:

Breitbart Texas previously broke the news that five men from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan were caught within 17 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in the same vicinity as the current apprehensions of Pakistani men. In that case, the FBI later confirmed to other news outlets that the details from Breitbart Texas sources were correct.

Sealing the border is about national security. A wall is a really good step to take in keeping Americans safe from terrorism. It won’t solve the entire problem, but it would be a step forward.

Another Reason To Know Who Is Coming To America

On January 11, the Judicial Watch Blog posted an article about a recent murder in Massachusetts.

The article reports:

It appears that the recent execution-style murder of a Massachusetts man was committed by two Central American teens that came to the U.S. as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) under President Obama’s open border free-for-all. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrant minors—mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—have entered the country through the Mexican border since the influx began in the summer of 2014 and the administration has relocated them nationwide.

News reports indicate that the 17-year-olds charged in the gruesome Massachusetts killing entered the U.S. recently as UAC’s and both have ties to MS-13, according to authorities cited by various outlets. They lived in Everett and one of the teens, Cristian Nunez-Flores, moved to Massachusetts from his native El Salvador a year and a half ago which is when the influx of Central American minors began. His parents remain in El Salvador, according to a local news article. The other gangbanger’s name is Jose Vasquez Ardon and he too is a recent arrival from Central America. Prosecutors say the teens, described in a local news article as “baby-faced boys,” shot a 19-year-old in the head. Both are being held without bail for obvious reasons.

The first batch of UAC’s arrived in 2014.

The article further reports:

Homeland Security sources directly involved with the UAC crisis told JW that street gangs, including MS-13, went on a recruiting frenzy at U.S. shelters housing the illegal alien minors and they used Red Cross phones to communicate. The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.

…The affiliation between gangs and the hordes of illegal immigrant youths that the Obama administration keeps taking in is a story Judicial Watch has been reporting for more than a year. Last fall the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 is a top tier gang thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that have crossed into the state recently. The number of MS-13 members encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector has increased each year, accelerating in 2014 and coinciding with increased illegal immigration from Central America during the same period, the agency disclosed in a report linked to JW’s story. This clearly refers to the UAC crisis that saw over 60,000 illegal immigrants—many with criminal histories—storm into the U.S. in a matter of months.

Securing the border is not an issue that should be political. One of the purposes of government is to provide for the safety of its citizens. The Obama Administration is not doing a very good job of doing that. Hopefully the next administration will take our national security more seriously.

Donald Trump’s Immigration Plan

I will repeat–I am not endorsing Donald Trump, but a friend emailed this to me and I think it is interesting. Also, I am told that anything with Donald Trump’s name in it will get multiple clicks, and I am not above pandering. At any rate, this is Donald Trump’s plan:

IMMIGRATION REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

The three core principles of Donald J. Trump‘s immigration plan

When politicians talk about “immigration reform” they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders. The Schumer-Rubio immigration bill was nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties.

Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globetrotting donors. We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own. That must change. Here are the three core principles of real immigration reform:

1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.

2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.

3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.

Make Mexico Pay For The Wall

For many years, Mexico’s leaders have been taking advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export the crime and poverty in their own country (as well as in other Latin American countries). They have even published pamphlets on how to illegally immigrate to the United States. The costs for the United States have been extraordinary: U.S. taxpayers have been asked to pick up hundreds of billions in healthcare costs, housing costs, education costs, welfare costs, etc. Indeed, the annual cost of free tax credits alone paid to illegal immigrants quadrupled to $4.2 billion in 2011. The effects on jobseekers have also been disastrous, and black Americans have been particularly harmed.

The impact in terms of crime has been tragic. In recent weeks, the headlines have been covered with cases of criminals who crossed our border illegally only to go on to commit horrific crimes against Americans. Most recently, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, with a long arrest record, is charged with breaking into a 64 year-old women’s home, crushing her skull and eye sockets with a hammer, raping her, and murdering her. The Police Chief in Santa Maria says the “blood trail” leads straight to Washington.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office found that there were a shocking 3 million arrests attached to the incarcerated alien population, including tens of thousands of violent beatings, rapes and murders.

Meanwhile, Mexico continues to make billions on not only our bad trade deals but also relies heavily on the billions of dollars in remittances sent from illegal immigrants in the United States back to Mexico ($22 billion in 2013 alone).

In short, the Mexican government has taken the United States to the cleaners. They are responsible for this problem, and they must help pay to clean it up.

The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices.

Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options].  We will not be taken advantage of anymore.

Defend The Laws And Constitution Of The United States

America will only be great as long as America remains a nation of laws that lives according to the Constitution. No one is above the law. The following steps will return to the American people the safety of their laws, which politicians have stolen from them:

Triple the number of ICE officers. As the President of the ICE Officers’ Council explained in Congressional testimony: “Only approximately 5,000 officers and agents within ICE perform the lion’s share of ICE’s immigration mission…Compare that to the Los Angeles Police Department at approximately 10,000 officers. Approximately 5,000 officers in ICE cover 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, and are attempting to enforce immigration law against 11 million illegal aliens already in the interior of the United States. Since 9-11, the U.S. Border Patrol has tripled in size, while ICE’s immigration enforcement arm, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), has remained at relatively the same size.” This will be funded by accepting the recommendation of the Inspector General for Tax Administration and eliminating tax credit payments to illegal immigrants.

Nationwide e-verify. This simple measure will protect jobs for unemployed Americans.

Mandatory return of all criminal aliens. The Obama Administration has released 76,000 aliens from its custody with criminal convictions since 2013 alone. All criminal aliens must be returned to their home countries, a process which can be aided by canceling any visas to foreign countries which will not accept their own criminals, and making it a separate and additional crime to commit an offense while here illegally.

Detention—not catch-and-release. Illegal aliens apprehended crossing the border must be detained until they are sent home, no more catch-and-release.

Defund sanctuary cities. Cut-off federal grants to any city which refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

Enhanced penalties for overstaying a visa. Millions of people come to the United States on temporary visas but refuse to leave, without consequence. This is a threat to national security. Individuals who refuse to leave at the time their visa expires should be subject to criminal penalties; this will also help give local jurisdictions the power to hold visa overstays until federal authorities arrive. Completion of a visa tracking system – required by law but blocked by lobbyists – will be necessary as well.

Cooperate with local gang task forces. ICE officers should accompany local police departments conducting raids of violent street gangs like MS-13 and the 18th street gang, which have terrorized the country. All illegal aliens in gangs should be apprehended and deported. Again, quoting Chris Crane: “ICE Officers and Agents are forced to apply the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Directive, not to children in schools, but to adult inmates in jails. If an illegal-alien inmate simply claims eligibility, ICE is forced to release the alien back into the community. This includes serious criminals who have committed felonies, who have assaulted officers, and who prey on children…ICE officers should be required to place detainers on every illegal alien they encounter in jails and prisons, since these aliens not only violated immigration laws, but then went on to engage in activities that led to their arrest by police; ICE officers should be required to issue Notices to Appear to all illegal aliens with criminal convictions, DUI convictions, or a gang affiliation; ICE should be working with any state or local drug or gang task force that asks for such assistance.”

End birthright citizenship. This remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration. By a 2:1 margin, voters say it’s the wrong policy, including Harry Reid who said “no sane country” would give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

Put American Workers First

Decades of disastrous trade deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class. Today, nearly 40% of black teenagers are unemployed. Nearly 30% of Hispanic teenagers are unemployed. For black Americans without high school diplomas, the bottom has fallen out: more than 70% were employed in 1960, compared to less than 40% in 2000. Across the economy, the percentage of adults in the labor force has collapsed to a level not experienced in generations. As CBS news wrote in a piece entitled “America’s incredible shrinking middle class”: “If the middle-class is the economic backbone of America, then the country is developing osteoporosis.”

The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working class Americans – including immigrants themselves and their children – to earn a middle class wage. Nearly half of all immigrants and their US-born children currently live in or near poverty, including more than 60 percent of Hispanic immigrants. Every year, we voluntarily admit another 2 million new immigrants, guest workers, refugees, and dependents, growing our existing all-time historic record population of 42 million immigrants. We need to control the admission of new low-earning workers in order to: help wages grow, get teenagers back to work, aid minorities’ rise into the middle class, help schools and communities falling behind, and to ensure our immigrant members of the national family become part of the American dream.

Additionally, we need to stop giving legal immigrant visas to people bent on causing us harm. From the 9/11 hijackers, to the Boston Bombers, and many others, our immigration system is being used to attack us. The President of the immigration caseworkers union declared in a statement on ISIS: “We’ve become the visa clearinghouse for the world.”

Here are some additional specific policy proposals for long-term reform:

Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program’s lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.

Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need to companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed. Petitions for workers should be mailed to the unemployment office, not USCIS.

End welfare abuse. Applicants for entry to the United States should be required to certify that they can pay for their own housing, healthcare and other needs before coming to the U.S.

Jobs program for inner city youth. The J-1 visa jobs program for foreign youth will be terminated and replaced with a resume bank for inner city youth provided to all corporate subscribers to the J-1 visa program.

Refugee program for American children. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers to crack down on abuses. Use the monies saved on expensive refugee programs to help place American children without parents in safer homes and communities, and to improve community safety in high crime neighborhoods in the United States.

Immigration moderation. Before any new green cards are issued to foreign workers abroad, there will be a pause where employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers.

I don’t agree with everything listed, but I think it is time to have a discussion that includes compassion for refugees who want to come here and some protection for unemployed Americans.The ideas above might be a place to start the discussion.

Do We Actually Have A Southern Border?

On Saturday, the Washington Times posted a story about the latest Congressional oversight report on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This was Senator Tom Coburn‘s final oversight report. CBN News also reported a similar story today.

The article in the Washington Times points out a few highlights in the report:

Less than 3 percent of illegal immigrants will ever be deported, and more than 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border remained unsecured as of 2014.

…The report also said corruption is a serious problem in the Border Patrol, but said agency officials actually told internal affairs investigators to cut down on the number of cases they were pursuing, according to the former division head.

In another finding Mr. Coburn’s staff on the Senate Homeland Security Committee found mission creep to be a problem: agents at one immigration agency spent time cracking down on women’s lingerie that they believed infringed on Major League Baseball’s officially licensed logos. The agents raided a lingerie store in Kansas City, Mo., flashed their badges and confiscated 18 pairs of underwear marked with an unauthorized Kansas City Royals logo, Mr. Coburn’s investigators found.

The article at CBN News reported:

“Ten years of oversight of the Department of Homeland Security finds that the Department still has a lot of work to do to strengthen our nation’s security,” Coburn explained. 

“Congress needs to review the Department’s mission and programs and refocus DHS on national priorities where DHS has a lead responsibility,” he added.

Coburn also says 700 miles of the southern border is still unsecured.

The agency also has problems protecting itself from online attacks, even though it’s supposed to protect the country from them.

Needless to say, the DHS had a different take on the oversight report (as reported in the Washington Times):

Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Marsha Catron thanked Mr. Coburn for his report, but said it didn’t capture the extent of the work her department does.

Dr. Coburn’s report on DHS overlooks much of the concrete and recent progress we have made over the past year to improve homeland security and the manner in which DHS conducts business,” she said.

You will have to excuse my skepticism. I think it’s time to reevaluate the mission and success of the DHS and consider more effective ways to guard America’s security.

One Consequence Of Our Open Border

Fox News is reporting today that MS-13 gang members are said to be crossing into America from Mexico along with the minor children that are coming in unaccompanied.

The article reports:

“They’re now using the Nogales processing center as a recruitment hub for new members to come in. They’re trying to recruit other teenage boys that are sharing cells with them and they’re using the phones that the Red Cross has set up. They’re supposed to be using those to call back home or to call family members in the United States. They’re also using those as a way to communicate with gang members already in U.S. cities,” she said.

Pavlich said the Border Patrol‘s hands are tied because they cannot separate the gang members from other children. She said according to her sources, these MS-13 members are scheduled for placement somewhere in the United States, adding that I.C.E policy has been to release illegal immigrants with a notice to appear at a hearing at a later date.

Our current government seems to have some difficulty understanding what the U.S. Constitution requires of them:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It seems to me that protecting the border would be part of providing for the common defense.

The President’s Oath of Office states:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The M-13 gangs are a threat to the security of the United States. Is anyone in Washington paying attention?

Why Is The Obama Administration Closing Border Crossing Stations ?

Yesterday PJ Media posted an article stating that the Obama Administration is closing nine border crossings in four states. Five of those border crossings are in Texas.

Just in case you need to be reminded of why securing the southern border is so critical, here is a link to a Washington Times article from February 2011.

The article at the Washington Times reports:

Three days after Ms. Napolitano spoke, the U.S. Border Patrol captured Said Jaziri, a radical Islamic cleric, hidden in the trunk of a car 50 miles east of San Diego. Mr. Jaziri, one of the imams who had called for the death of the Danish cartoonist behind the drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, purportedly paid a Mexican human-trafficking cartel $5,000 to smuggle him into the country. The court set his bail at $25,000. There is little to prevent him from posting bail and disappearing into the countryside, where he most certainly will find refuge among sympathetic supporters.

Mr. Jaziri’s capture is merely the latest in a long string of other-than-Mexican (OTM) arrests going back several years. A couple of days before the imam’s capture, Border Patrol officers found a discarded Iranian book of martyrdom along a well-known smuggling route. For all of the so-called martyrs, the book provided biographies, letters addressed to their families, and, in some cases, their last wills and testaments. Though U.S. officials do not know who discarded the book or when, we do know that it is the latest example of radical Islamist paraphernalia that has been found along the border.

Closing these border crossing stations is a threat to our national security. I am not as concerned about illegal aliens who come to America to work (although they are taking jobs from Americans) as I am with jihadists who have found an easy way to get unto the country untraced for nefarious purposes.

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Does The Government Want To Enforce The Border With Mexico ?

CBN News posted a story today about a technology that would make a huge difference along America‘s southern border with Mexico.

The article reports:

Arlington, Texas, is home of the Cowboys stadium, and one of the most technologically advanced municipalities in the country.

CBN News met a man there who developed the security system for the Super Bowl, and may also hold the key to securing the southern border.

“The fence is a wonderful tool if you want to stop wildlife, if you want to stop livestock, if you want to stop somebody for 30 seconds,” Dan Hammons, owner of Hammons Enterprises, explained.

“We think the border needs to be a line in the sand as opposed to a wide area,” he added.

“If a person crawls over that fence or crosses that border illegally, we have a wide array of sensing technologies that will set off an alarm and will turn on a camera on a node tower,” Hammons said. “So you can determine, is it a person, is it a deer, is it a cow.”

“With our system, I’m confident that we are going to detect 100 percent of the people crossing that border illegally,” he boldly claimed.

Mr. Hammons ‘security system costs about $1 million less per mile than the border fence. Because of the bandwidth of his security system, Border Patrol agents would be able to see thousands of video streams covering thousands of miles in real time.

The article at CBN reports the government’s response:

Still, decision makers in Washington have repeatedly turned down Hammons’ ideas.

“They have shut the door in our face,” he said.

“We offered to do this for them for free. We wanted to build a three-mile section of it for free. No cost or obligation to the government, all we wanted was an operational evaluation,” Hammons recalled.

He hinted that the system’s potential may be viewed by some as a political problem.

“We’re going to be able to tell the truth about what’s going on on the border,” Hammons said. “We’re going to be able to show the American public exactly what is happening down there.”

In the meantime, ranchers along Arizona’s border feel like they’re stuck in a war zone.

“Regardless of what Homeland Security and Border Patrol says, the border isn’t as safe as it’s ever been,” Ladd said. “There’s more drugs coming right now than ever before.”

“A guy driving a Border Patrol truck up and down the fence isn’t going to cut it,” he added.

Why is the government ignoring a solution to securing our border that would be both cheaper and more effective?

 

 

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