Tag Archives: Texas Department of Public Safety

Stopping Illegal Votes Before They Start

Posted on by

On Friday, The Texas Scorecard posted an article about the efforts being made in Texas to ensure the integrity of the election vote.

The article reports:

In a major reversal from her guidance just days ago, Secretary of State Jane Nelson now says non-citizen driver’s licenses may not be used as a form of voter identification.

The Texas Department of Public Safety issues driver’s licenses and personal identification cards to lawfully present noncitizens, which are clearly marked “Temporary Visitor” or “Limited-Term” and expire after one year or when the individual’s period of lawful presence ends.

An advisory from the Secretary of State issued Tuesday afternoon stated that while citizens should not use these types of IDs to vote, poll workers should nonetheless offer a regular ballot to people on the voter rolls who present a noncitizen ID. This contrasts with previous guidance from the Secretary of State’s office in 2018, which specifically stated that DPS-issued driver’s licenses and personal identification cards “should not be used if ‘Limited Term’ or ‘Temporary Visitor’ appears on the face of the card, as this indicates the person is not a U.S. Citizen.”

Instead, voters with such IDs were urged to show other forms of identification, including naturalization certificates or passports.

The article concludes:

“Secretary of State Nelson did the right thing,” said Paxton. “Her amended election advisory closes a potential loophole that could have allowed noncitizens to attempt to vote. Texas must do everything in its power to prevent noncitizens from voting, and this is a critical step toward securing our elections.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy reported Thursday evening that, according to DPS, 2,824,613 noncitizens have driver’s licenses or IDs issued by the state.

Preemptive measures are the only way to ensure election integrity in November.

Taking Action When The Federal Government Won’t

Posted on by

One of the supposed duties of a government is to secure the safety of its people. Obviously no government can 100 percent guarantee the safety of its citizens, but it is theoretically required to make the effort. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has not made that effort and has not secured our southern border. Because of that, some states have taken the responsibility for the safety of their citizens.

On Friday, Texas Scorecard reported the following:

Texas has successfully curtailed cartel presence and criminal activity on an uninhabited border island after declaring it state property last year. 

Fronton Island—located in Starr County and sitting in the Rio Grande—was once a hotspot for cartel activity. As part of Operation Lone Star, Texas law enforcement cleared it out. 

Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman Chris Olivarez said that due to the combined efforts of the General Land Office, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, Texas DPS, and the Texas National Guard, human smuggling and other criminal enterprises that once flourished on the island have come to an abrupt halt. 

“The 170-acre island had been a foothold for the Mexican Cartels to carry out their criminal activities – human & drug smuggling for decades,” Olivarez said on X. Now, that activity is virtually nonexistent. 

The article concludes:

Earlier this month, the federal government demanded that Texas return the island to its condition before the state militarized it. The Biden-Harris administration alleged that Texas was trespassing on federal land while managing the “cleanup” of the island and facilitating security. 

In response, Gov. Greg Abbott blasted the federal government in a letter. “You are either unaware of or indifferent to, what those ‘pre-construction conditions’ were,” he wrote. 

“I will not cede state land to transnational criminal cartels smuggling people, weapons, and drugs,” the letter continued. “Nor will I sit idly by as these threats endanger Texas law enforcement and Texas communities.”

The Biden administration should be celebrating this–not condemning it!

Texas Is The Example

Posted on by

On Saturday, Just the News posted an article highlighting the actions of Texas in dealing with the gang violence in Uvalde County.

The article reports:

Thirty-three members of violent gangs were arrested as part of a multi-agency operation targeting transnational and organized crime in the border town of Uvalde, Texas, and surrounding area in Uvalde County.

“Gang violence has no place here in Texas, we will bring the full force of justice down on these famous criminals,” Gov. Greg Abbott said when directing Texas Department of Public Safety to surge resources there to root out organized crime in September 2022.

Nearly two years ago, a multi-agency operation began, made possible through additional state funding and criminal investigative oversight from DPS targeting an extensive organized crime network operating at the Texas-Mexico border. The investigation focused on the selling and distribution of narcotics, weapons, extortion, aggravated assaults and organized criminal activity of multiple gangs associated with transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels.

The article notes:

After an extensive investigation, 33 gang members were arrested, including from the Latin Kings, West Texas Tango, Tango Blast, Tango Orejon, Tango Aguilon, Texas Syndicate, Paisa, Texas Mexican Mafia, Maniac Latin Disciples, and San Antonio Walked Down Gang, according to a statement from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

The 38th Judicial District handed down 68 state indictments related to narcotics trafficking and engaging in organized criminal activity. The U.S. Western District, Del Rio Division, handed 17 federal indictments related to racketeering and conspiracy.

Texas DPS criminal investigators have identified gang activity “as a growing and serious problem in Uvalde and the surrounding area.”

Joining them in the investigation were investigators with the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, Uvalde Police Department, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations. The 38th District Attorney’s Border Prosecution Unit and the U.S. Attorney’s office are prosecuting the case.

The investigation targeted the Uvalde area nearly 10 years after a joint operation in 2015 vanquished major gang operations there resulting in the Latin Kings being disbanded, the sheriff’s office said. Since that time, gang activity increased with the “most recent gang activity involve[ing] some of the children of those former incarcerated gang members.”

The only way to deal with the problem of the open southern border is to arrest the people who are involved in the criminal activity related to the open border. We need to arrest them, deport them, and seal the border. None of that will happen under a Biden-Harris administration or under a Harris-Walz administration.

One Consequence Of An Open Border

Posted on by

Texas has been the state that seems to be most effected by America’s porous southern border. A recent report posted by the Center for Immigration Studies show the negative impact of that open border on the
State of Texas.

This is the summary of the report:

Activists and academics have been misusing data from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in studies claiming that illegal immigrants have relatively low crime rates. These studies do not appreciate that it can take years for Texas to identify convicts as illegal immigrants while they are in custody. As a result, the studies misclassify as native-born a significant number of offenders who are later identified as illegal immigrants.

Facts About the DPS Data:

    • Due to delays in identification, the number of illegal immigrants arrested or incarcerated in Texas is undercounted at any given time.
    • Recently convicted illegal immigrants are the most likely to be undercounted.
    • Conversely, Texas is more likely to ascertain the immigration status of offenders who have served long prison terms for serious crimes.
    • The illegal immigrant conviction rate for “any crime” — which would be dominated by offenses requiring little or no prison time — is not meaningful due to undercount.

Properly interpreted, the DPS data suggests that illegal immigrants in Texas are convicted of homicide and sexual assault at higher rates than the state average. Significant uncertainties remain, however, especially regarding lesser offenses.

The report includes the following chart:

As illegal immigrants are being shipped around the country, these statistics are coming to your town. If you want the border closed, you need to vote for conservatives in November. Democrats and Country-Club Republicans will not close the border. If either party currently serving in Congress wanted the border closed, it would have been closed by now.

Correcting Serious Mistakes

Posted on by

On Friday, MSN reported that the Uvalde, Texas school district police force has been suspended.

The article reports:

The Uvalde, Texas, school district — still facing withering criticism over its police department’s failings both during the May 24 elementary school massacre and since — announced the suspension of the entire district police force on Friday.

Hours later, Uvalde school district Superintendent Hal Harrell announced he would be retiring. There was no timeframe given for Harrell’s retirement, but the transition will be discussed in a closed session of the school board on Monday.

The district said it’s requested more Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to be stationed on campuses and at extracurricular activities amid the police department suspension, adding, “We are confident that staff and student safety will not be compromised during this transition.”

The length of the school district police suspension is not clear.

The article concludes:

The school district said in Friday’s statement that “decisions concerning” the school district police department have been pending results of investigations from the Texas Police Chiefs Association and the private investigative firm JPPI Investigations, but “recent developments have uncovered additional concerns with department operations.”

Results of the JPPI investigation “will inform future personnel decisions” and the Texas Police Chiefs Association’s review “will guide the rebuilding of the department and the hiring of a new Chief of Police,” the statement said.

The school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, was fired in August.

The shooting was a nightmare that no one was prepared for. We need to learn from the mistakes made. As we go forward, I am sure those mistakes will come to light.

When The Shoe Is On The Other Foot

Posted on by

I didn’t hear a lot of complaints from New York City when the southern towns of Texas were being overrun by illegal immigrants. Now that Texas and Florida are shipping those illegal immigrants north to the self-proclaimed ‘sanctuary cities,” those cities are suddenly facing the consequences of declaring themselves sanctuary cities. On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about how New York City is dealing with being a sanctuary city.

The article notes:

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a “state of emergency” Friday to manage the influx of illegal migrants bused from the southern border to the Big Apple.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing illegal migrants to New York City in August and, since then, the city has received around 17,000 illegal migrants, Adams said. Adams’ declaration will allow city agencies to construct “humanitarian relief centers” to address the surge.

…Abbott’s office called Adams “an absolute hypocrite” for his decision in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“In a city with a population of over 8 million, he’s claiming an emergency for just over 3,100 migrants being bused into his self-declared sanctuary city,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze told the DCNF. “That’s not even 1% of the population of New York City.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety posted the following statistics:

According to DHS status indicators, over 382,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and September 30, 2022, of which over 263,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.

Between June 1, 2011, and September 30, 2022, these 263,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 442,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 820 homicide charges; 53,672 assault charges; 8,162 burglary charges; 53,687 drug charges; 856 kidnapping charges; 21,511 theft charges; 34,571 obstructing police charges; 2,480 robbery charges; 5,600 sexual assault charges; 6,584 sexual offense charges; and 5,087 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 164,000 convictions including 391 homicide convictions; 20,131 assault convictions; 4,200 burglary convictions; 23,008 drug convictions; 272 kidnapping convictions; 8,767 theft convictions; 14,330 obstructing police convictions; 1,439 robbery convictions; 2,653 sexual assault convictions; 3,106 sexual offense convictions; and 1,769 weapon convictions.

Northern states and northern cities didn’t really care about illegal immigration until is showed up on their doorsteps. Maybe that will be the key to ending the Biden-administration-approved invasion of our country.

Finally!

Posted on by

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.

Isis In Central America

Posted on by

Judicial Watch posted the following on its website yesterday:

In a startling revelation, Guatemala’s president announced in the country’s largest newspaper that nearly 100 ISIS terrorists have been apprehended in the impoverished Central American nation. Why should Americans care about this? A caravan of Central American migrants is making its way north. Let’s not forget that Guatemala is one of the countries that bombarded the U.S. with illegal immigrant minors under Barack Obama’s open border free-for-all. They came in droves from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala through the Mexican border and for years Uncle Sam rolled out the welcome mat offering housing, food, medical treatment and a free education

A terrorist could have easily slipped in considering the minors, coined Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), were not properly vetted and some turned out to be violent gangbangers who went on to commit heinous crimes in their adopted land of opportunity. In fact, the nation’s most violent street gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), was energized by the barrage of UACs. The Texas Department of Public Safety even issued a report documenting how the MS-13 emerged as a top tier gang in the state thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that came with the UACs. At the time more than 60,000 UACs—many with criminal histories—had stormed into the U.S. in a matter of months. Tens of thousands more eventually made it north.

Guatemala has long been known as a major smuggling corridor for foreigners from African and Asian countries making their way into the U.S. Last year Guatemala’s largest paper, Prensa Libra, published an in-depth piece on the inner workings of an international human smuggling network that moves migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh to the U.S. Individuals are sent to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates then flown to Brazil before heading to Colombia. Once in South America, the migrants are transported to Panama before moving on to Costa Rica then a central point on Guatemala. One Spanish news report refers to Guatemala as a human smuggling paradise because it’s so easy to get fake passports. A few years ago, the head of Guatemala’s passport division got arrested for selling fake passports to a group of Colombians, according to a government announcement.

All this makes ISIS terrorists operating in Guatemala incredibly alarming. President Jimmy Morales confirmed it during a recent security conference attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador and other Latin American dignitaries. Morales said that his administration has captured “close to 100 persons completely involved with terrorists, with ISIS and we have not only detained them within our territory, but they have been deported to their country of origin.” Several of the terrorists were Syrians caught with fake documents, according to Guatemala’s head of intelligence. At the same event, President Morales also revealed that Guatemalan authorities captured more than 1,000 gangbangers, including members of the MS-13.

Many more probably make it into the U.S. via the Mexican border and a lot of them get released inside the country. In fact, Border Patrol agents in Texas have been ordered to release illegal immigrants caught entering through Mexico because detentions facilities have no bed space, according to a news report. Earlier this year Judicial Watch exposed a secret program—started by Obama and continued by Trump— that quietly relocates illegal immigrants to different parts of the country on commercial flights. Years earlier Judicial Watch uncovered a similar DHS initiative that transported illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and released them without proper processing. The government classified them as Other Than Mexican (OTM) and transferred them 116 miles north from Tucson to a Phoenix bus station where they went their separate way. The OTMs were from Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala and a security company contracted by the U.S. government drove the OTMs from the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector where they were in custody to Phoenix. Some could have been ISIS operatives.

A secure border protects our country. It is time to build the wall.

Sometimes There Is A Reason A Law Needs To Be Changed

Posted on by

Today Hot Air posted an article about some changes Texas has made in its voting laws.

The article explains the conflict between the state of Texas and Eric Holder‘s Justice Department:

What Holder proposes to do is to tell Texas to get DoJ approval for its voting (and redistricting) laws before putting them in force, right after the Supreme Court told Texas and the other Section 4 states that they don’t need to do so.  Holder can file a lawsuit to attempt to force compliance, but that’s just bluster. Texas isn’t going to comply, and it’s doubtful a federal court would do anything but laugh at the filing after the ruling last month.  The DoJ has no more jurisdiction to tell Texas to get pre-approval for laws passed under its own sovereignty.  This is grandstanding on a particularly demagogic scale.

In 2011, Texas passed a law requiring the following forms of identification in order to vote (according to the Texas.gov website):

With the exception of the U.S. citizenship certificate, the identification must be current or have expired no more than 60 days before being presented for voter qualification at the polling place

Why are these laws necessary? As I reported in rightwinggranny.com in September 2010, this is what happened when a group of people decided to investigate who was voting in Texas:

“”The first thing we started to do was look at houses with more than six voters in them” Engelbrecht (Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote) said, because those houses were the most likely to have fraudulent registrations attached to them. “Most voting districts had 1,800 if they were Republican and 2,400 of these houses if they were Democratic . . .

“”But we came across one with 24,000, and that was where we started looking.”

“Vacant lots had several voters registered on them. An eight-bed halfway house had more than 40 voters registered at its address,” Engelbrecht said. “We then decided to look at who was registering the voters.”

“Their work paid off. Two weeks ago the Harris County voter registrar took their work and the findings of his own investigation and handed them over to both the Texas secretary of state’s office and the Harris County district attorney.

“Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Sean Caddle, who formerly worked for the Service Employees International Union. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid. The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures.”

It seems as if voter id would be a good idea after that kind of fraud. Why would the Department of Justice want to prevent a law that would stop voter fraud?

Enhanced by Zemanta