[VIDEO] Krauthammer: Chinese & Korean Nuclear Missiles Affect Trump’s Moves in Asia
Posted: March 11, 2017 Filed under: Asia, China, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Donald Trump, Japan, Mexico–United States border, Official, President of the United States, United States, United States Department of Health and Human Services, United States Department of Homeland Security, United States Department of State 1 Comment“The worrisome thing here is the outside partner. This is not just a three sided game, North Korea, South Korea, and the U.S. — it’s the Chinese reaction. The Chinese are watching the United States after eight years of withdrawal, accommodation, and essentially no response to Chinese expansion — they’re seeing the United States now asserting itself. The U.S.S. Carl Vinson an aircraft carrier is now in the South China Sea. Trump has just sent B-52’s into South Korea as a way to threaten the North Koreans, and everyone knows what they carry, they carry nuclear weapons. But the worst thing from the Chinese point of view is the THAAD: This is the antimissile system. The Chinese react to that the way the Russians did to the anti-missile system we wanted to put in Eastern Europe. They get very upset because it can be applied against them. Yes, our reason for doing it is to defend the South Koreans against the North. But the overall effect is to put up a missile shield that could degrade and weaken the Chinese arsenal. They know that. They are very worried about that. And they’re getting semi-hysterical. Global Times which is a government-friendly publication just this week said that the government of China will no longer rule out a first nuclear strike. That’s a big deal. That’s not an official statement, but it tells you how much the Chinese are upset, which is why we are now rushing to install the THAAD by the end of April before the election so at least it’s a fait accompli — but this is a tinderbox.”
Source: National Review
Trump Administration Warns Against Iran Travel
Posted: March 8, 2017 Filed under: Foreign Policy, Global, White House | Tags: "The Case Against the Iran Deal: How Can We Now Stop Iran from Getting Nukes?, American Civil Liberties Union, Americans, Donald Trump, Iran, Mexico–United States border, Muslim world, Official, President of the United States, United States, United States Department of Homeland Security, United States Department of State Leave a comment
Iran seeking revenge for Trump’s halt on immigration
Adam Kredo reports: The Trump administration is emphasizing warnings against travel to Iran by U.S. citizens in light of the Islamic Republic‘s latest effort to implement a travel ban on Americans, which comes in response to the White House’s new immigration order temporarily halting all immigration from Iran and several other Muslim-majority nations designated as terrorism hotspots, according to U.S. officials.
Iranian officials announced this week that they are poised to implement their own travel ban on U.S. individuals and entities they described as aiding “terrorist groups or [helping] regional dictatorial rulers crack down on their nations,” according to comments carried in the country’s state-controlled media.
Iran said the effort is part of a package of reprisals against the United States for the Trump administration’s latest immigration order, which stops Iranian citizens and others from entering the United States for several months as American authorities seek to strengthen vetting procedures.
When questioned about Iran’s potential travel ban on Monday, a State Department official confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that the Trump administration is aware of the effort and emphasized current warnings against travel to Iran by U.S. citizens. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Lawmaker Wants Victims to be Able to Sue Sanctuary City Politicians
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: 2016, Crime, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Executive order, Los Angeles, Mexico–United States border, New York City, Sanctuary city, Shooting of Kathryn Steinle, U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Leave a commentErnest Luning reports: A Colorado Springs Republican wants victims of what he calls “sanctuary city policies” to be able to file lawsuits and lodge criminal complaints against the “lawless politicians” who put the policies in place.
State Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs, is pictured before his election on July 1, 2016, at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. (Photo by John Tomasic/The Colorado Statesman)
State Rep. Dave Williams said Monday he plans to introduce “The Colorado Politician Accountability Act” this week, legislation aimed at holding officials criminally liable for the “carnage” committed by some immigrants.
“If being a ‘sanctuary city’ means that we value taking care of one another and welcoming refugees and immigrants, then I welcome the title.”
“As the first Latino elected to Colorado House District 15,” said Williams, who was first elected to the heavily Republican district in November, in a statement, “I think it’s important that we do all we can to uphold the rule of law and ensure all communities, regardless of race or ethnicity, are protected from dangerous policies that are forced on us by radical, out-of-touch politicians who continually sell out to an unlawful agenda that increases the number of criminals, and needless deaths among our fellow citizens.”
“It’s beyond any reasonable thought as to why the Democrats, along with Mayor Hancock, would continue to not only act outside the law, which they swore to uphold but also enjoy immunity from their reckless decision to place Coloradans in danger because of the sanctuary city policies that they created and continue to implement.”
Announcing the bill, Williams took aim at Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who said in a video posted online Friday that he was fine with calling Denver a “sanctuary city.”
“If being a ‘sanctuary city’ means that we value taking care of one another and welcoming refugees and immigrants, then I welcome the title,” Hancock said. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: John Kelly Confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary
Posted: January 20, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, War Room | Tags: -elect, Deportation, Donald Trump, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Jeh Johnson, Mexico–United States border, National security, Obama administration, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Leave a comment
Kelly, a four-star general who had been head of the U.S. Southern Command, retired from the Marines in 2016.
Michael Kruse reports: The Senate Friday overwhelmingly confirmed retired Marine Gen. John Kelly to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security. Read the rest of this entry »
Byron York: ‘Democrats are particularly anxious about immigration because of the unusually tenuous nature of President Obama’s policies on the issue. Those policies can be undone unilaterally’
Posted: November 20, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Center for Immigration Studies, China Investment Promotion Agency, Donald Trump, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration, Immigration law, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Migration Policy Institute, U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States, United States Department of Justice Leave a comment
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is Democrats’ nightmare.
There are extensive, and in some cases, strict immigration laws on the books, passed by bipartisan majorities of Congress. Obama wanted Congress to change those laws. Congress declined. So Obama stopped enforcing provisions of the law that he did not like. A new administration could simply resume enforcement of the law.
Byron York writes: President-elect Trump’s transition team knew that nominating Jeff Sessions for Attorney General would set off controversy.
Tucker Carlson Embarrassed DNC Stenographer, Politico ‘Reporter’ Jonathan Allen
Democrats and their allies in the press have at key times in the past called Sessions a racist — they’re now using the Alabama senator’s full name, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, to heighten the Old South effect — and now, as they oppose Trump at nearly every turn, they’ve turned to race again.
“There are extensive, and in some cases, strict immigration laws on the books, passed by bipartisan majorities of Congress. Obama wanted Congress to change those laws. Congress declined. So Obama stopped enforcing provisions of the law that he did not like.”
Here’s why the effort to stop Sessions is likely to intensify as his confirmation hearings near. Sessions is the Senate’s highest-profile, most determined, and most knowledgeable opponent of comprehensive immigration reform. Democrats are particularly anxious about immigration because of the unusually tenuous nature of President Obama’s policies on the issue. Those policies can be undone unilaterally, by the new president in some cases, and by the attorney general and head of homeland security in other cases. There’s no need for congressional action — and no way for House or Senate Democrats to slow or stop it.
“A new administration could simply resume enforcement of the law — a move that by itself would bring a huge change to immigration practices in the United States. No congressional approval needed.”
There are extensive, and in some cases, strict immigration laws on the books, passed by bipartisan majorities of Congress. Obama wanted Congress to change those laws. Congress declined. So Obama stopped enforcing provisions of the law that he did not like.
[Read the full story here, at Washington Examiner]
A new administration could simply resume enforcement of the law — a move that by itself would bring a huge change to immigration practices in the United States. No congressional approval needed.
“It will be possible for the Trump administration to dramatically increase enforcement of immigration laws by using what is now on the books.”
— Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies
There are laws providing for the deportation of people who entered the U.S. illegally. Laws providing for the deportation of people who entered the U.S. illegally and later committed crimes. Laws for enforcing immigration compliance at the worksite. Laws for immigrants who have illegally overstayed their visas for coming to the United States. Laws requiring local governments to comply with federal immigration law. And more….(read more)
“Democrats are particularly anxious about immigration because of the unusually tenuous nature of President Obama’s policies on the issue. Those policies can be undone unilaterally, by the new president in some cases, and by the attorney general and head of homeland security in other cases. There’s no need for congressional action — and no way for House or Senate Democrats to slow or stop it.”
President Trump could throw PEP out the window. And that would be just a start. The Center for Immigration Studies has published a list of 79 Obama policies the new administration could change without any action by Congress. (The list was compiled in April 2016, before anyone could know who the next president would be.) Among them:
1) End the embargo on worksite enforcement. “Experience has shown that employers respond very quickly and voluntarily implement compliance measures when there is an uptick in enforcement,” Vaughan notes, “because they see the potential damage to their operations and public image for being caught and prosecuted.”
[VIDEO] Victor Davis Hanson on Grand Strategy, Immigration, and the 2016 Presidential Election
Posted: November 8, 2016 Filed under: Education, History, Mediasphere, Politics, Russia, Think Tank | Tags: Associated Press, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hoover Institution, Illegal immigration, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Republican Party (United States), U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Leave a comment
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses Russia, China, and the danger of American withdrawal from the world stage. In addition, Hanson talks about immigration and assimilation in the United States throughout time. Hanson notes that, when immigrants assimilate and embrace the United States, then immigration works and strengthens us, but that when immigrants seek to separate themselves and reject US values and culture, then immigration becomes detrimental. Hanson ends the interview talking about the 2016 presidential candidates and election.
Racist, Xenophobic, Islamaphobic Mexico Builds its Own Wall Against Migrants
Posted: September 14, 2016 Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, Politics | Tags: 2016, Arizona, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Politics of Mexico, President of Mexico, Republican Party (United States), United States 1 Comment
James Fredrick and Jude Webber report: Donald Trump wants a wall on America’s southern border to keep illegal immigrants out. But for people such as Rosa, whose husband, mother, sister, brother-in-law and two nephews were murdered in her native Honduras by gangs who then tried to recruit her 14-year-old son, Mexico already acts as a formidable barrier.
Rosa, who asked for her full name not to be used, fled with her two teenage sons only to find herself trapped in a political controversy that the US Republican candidate has put at the heart of his campaign.
Zero net immigration of Mexicans into the US and an 82 per cent fall in people caught trying to cross the US-Mexico border in the past 10 years means that most would-be immigrants detained there are Central Americans. Even without Mr Trump’s fortress frontier, Mexico finds itself under increasing pressure to stem the migrant tide near its source — its own southern border.
[Read the full story here, at FT.com]
“Mexico has become a wall for migrants,” said Sister Magdalena Silva, co-ordinator of Cafemin, a privately run shelter in Mexico City that takes in refugee families, including Rosa’s. “The current policy is to arrest migrants to stop them from getting to the US border.”
The UN estimates 400,000 Central Americans cross illegally into Mexico each year and as many as half of those are fleeing violence. The majority are quickly deported back to dangerous homes.
Unlike in the US, Mexico has broadened asylum laws to recognise that fleeing violence of the kind practised by the street gangs of Honduras and El Salvador can classify someone as a refugee. But the odds are still stacked against asylum seekers: Mexico deported a record 175,000 Central Americans last year, up 68 per cent from the previous year and nearly two-and-a-half times the number deported by the US.
The US is coy about its role in Mexico’s crackdown but is sending $75m in equipment and training to help stop Central Americans from crossing illegally into Mexico. Hosting Mr Trump two weeks ago, President Enrique Peña Nieto said that “making Mexico’s border with our friends and neighbours in Central America more secure is of vital importance for Mexico and the US”.
Rosa left Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, with her two teenage sons in January 2016 after a gang tried to recruit one of them on his way home from school. “We know when a gang targets someone, they don’t leave them alone and they follow through on their threats,” she said.
The family asked for help on arrival in Mexico and was channelled into official asylum procedures. That is where things started to sour.
First Rosa and her sons were shipped to a detention centre on the outskirts of Mexico City. There they were assigned different cellblocks and limited to three half-hour visits per week for three months. Read the rest of this entry »
Hey America! Clinton’s Residence Enjoys Protections You Aren’t Worthy Of, You Selfish Racist Nationalistic Xenophobic Bigots
Posted: August 12, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, Humor, Politics, Self Defense, White House | Tags: Berlin Wall, Chappaqua, Donald Trump, Facebook, Great Wall of China, Hillary Clinton, Illegal immigration, Mexico–United States border, Moroccan Wall, New York, Politics of Mexico 5 Comments
Hillary Clinton doesn’t miss an opportunity to ridicule Donald Trump’s illegal immigration solution of a wall on the southern border — but that’s exactly what she’s deployed to keep undesirables away from her.
“First of all, as I understand him, he’s talking about a very tall wall, a beautiful tall wall, the most beautiful tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China, that would run the entire border,” Clinton riffed in March.
“He would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for it. It’s just fantasy.” Read the rest of this entry »
Surge in Children, Families at the U.S. Border May Be the ‘New Normal’
Posted: December 19, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, Terrorism, White House | Tags: American Samoa, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Asia, Associated Press, Central America, Chicago, Mexico–United States border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States, United States Border Patrol 1 Comment
Mark Potter and Elizabeth Chuck report: A dramatic spike in unaccompanied children and families trying to slip in across the U.S.-Mexico border may be “the new normal,” officials say, with some believing the surge is linked to a federal ruling that ended long-term detentions.
“The word is, come on ahead and the border is open, the Obama administration is going to take good care of you.”
The number of apprehensions of unaccompanied minors and family units — legal guardians with children under 18 — rushing the nation’s southwestern border peaked last year, then fell off as Obama tapped the Federal Emergency Management Agency to figure out what to do about the young refugees.
“Many Border Patrol agents and officials believe there may be a link between the current surge and a federal court ruling over the summer, when U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered federal officials to change how long they detain the thousands of mothers and children who are caught crossing illegally into the U.S. while fleeing violence in their home countries.”
But in recent months, apprehensions have proliferated again: More than 10,000 undocumented children have been stopped in just the last two months, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The 10,588 apprehensions are a 106 percent increase over the same Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 period from last year, when 5,129 kids were picked up.
A large group of Immigrants, guided by two “coyotes” or guides, walk on the desert of Sonora bound for the border with Arizona. This group consisted of 37 border crossers, from four different countries- They included people from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and one Brazilian.
Sasabe, Mexico. 01/23/05
“We could very well be seeing the new normal.”
— Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Apprehensions of family units have jumped too, with 12,505 detentions in those two months, representing a 173 percent increase from last year’s 4,577 seizures in the same time frame.
“We could very well be seeing the new normal,” Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told NBC News.
Sources told NBC News that many Border Patrol agents and officials believe there may be a link between the current surge and a federal court ruling over the summer, when U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered federal officials to change how long they detain the thousands of mothers and children who are caught crossing illegally into the U.S. while fleeing violence in their home countries.
In a scathing ruling in which Gee said it was “deplorable” that families and young migrants are languishing in detention centers, she argued long-term detention is also in violation of an 18-year-old court settlement that restricted how long the government could house migrants while they pursue asylum. She gave federal officials until Oct. 23 to change the policy.
Under the new rules, an unaccompanied minor must be released from a federal detention center to a relative elsewhere in the U.S. after no more than five days, and their parent should be, too, so long as officials have determined they are not a flight risk. In rare exceptions, migrant children and families can be held up to 20 days, Gee ruled. Read the rest of this entry »
Illegal Immigrant Children, Non-Mexicans Surge Scross U.S. Southwest Border at Record Rate: Obama’s Victory Lap Premature?
Posted: November 22, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, Health and Social Issues, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Central America, Donald Trump, El Salvador, Hyattsville, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Josh Earnest, Mexico–United States border, Oscar Alfaro, United States 1 Comment
The Southwest border has broken open in recent weeks, with non-Mexicans — and illegal immigrant children in particular — crossing at a record rate in October, according to Border Patrol statistics that suggest the administration’s victory lap earlier this year was premature.
“The greatest existential threat to this nation right now is this administration’s open-border policy. This is no longer about immigration, it’s about the president and DHS keeping open the corridors on the southern border that are accessible to anyone in the world.”
Nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children were caught in October, and nearly 3,000 more had been caught in the first half of November — a record pace for those months — and it signals just how closely smuggling cartels and would-be illegal immigrants themselves are paying attention to lax enforcement in the U.S.
“We can defend our country against another country’s navy, a missile threat and even repel a conventional military invasion. But the president’s policy of allowing anyone into the nation as students or refugees presents a serious threat.”
— Rep. Duncan Hunter
Worse yet, the increases are borderwide, with every one of the nine Southwest border sectors showing spikes in what the Border Patrol dubs OTMs, or “other than Mexicans.”
Those who track the issue said the surges show a breakdown in enforcement, and called it worrying at a time of heightened international danger.
“The greatest existential threat to this nation right now is this administration’s open-border policy. This is no longer about immigration, it’s about the president and DHS keeping open the corridors on the southern border that are accessible to anyone in the world,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who has raised concerns over national security risks at the border.
[Read the full story here, at the Washington Times]
“We can defend our country against another country’s navy, a missile threat and even repel a conventional military invasion. But the president’s policy of allowing anyone into the nation as students or refugees presents a serious threat,” he said.
Some 25,000 illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have been caught in the first seven weeks of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1 — an increase of 58 percent. The number of Chinese, Brazilians, Indians and, strikingly, Cubans, has each surged by more than 100 percent, and the number from Pakistan, while small overall, has spiked from 6 at this point last year to 31 now — an increase of more than 400 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
Now Comes the Super-Shocker: 59% Back Trump On Mandatory Deportation of Illegals
Posted: September 1, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Alien (law), Anchor baby, Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Central America, Charles Krauthammer, CNN, Donald Trump, Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Illegal immigration, Jeb Bush, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Republican Party (United States), Victor Davis Hanson Leave a comment
Politicians who ignore this sea change in attitudes on immigration do so at their own peril.
Immigration: When Donald Trump proposed mandatory deportation of illegal aliens, pundits and politicians on both sides of the political aisle were appalled. But on this issue it looks like Trump has the public on his side.
[For an insightful analysis of this, see Victor Davis Hanson‘s How Illegal Immigration Finally Turned Off the Public]
The fire from the right was almost as fierce as that from the left. “It’s not conservative and it’s not realistic and it does not embrace American values,” said Jeb Bush.
Sen. Lindsey Graham called it “absolute gibberish.”
Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer called the idea “crackpot” and “morally obscene.”
Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
“What’s surprising is that 59% of the overall public does as well. Mandatory deportation gets majority support in all age groups except 18-24, every income group, among both women and men, at every level of educational achievement, and in rural, urban and suburban regions.”
But the prize for overheated rhetoric goes to Hillary Clinton, who said Trump wants to “literally pull people out of their homes and their workplaces, round them up, put them, I don’t know, in buses, boxcars, in order to take them across our border.”
“More interesting still is the fact that 64% of independents and 55% of moderates support deportation. Even among Hispanics, the poll found 40% backed mandatory deportation.”
So what do these folks say about the fact that the majority of Americans back Trump on this?
[Read the full text here, at Investors.com]
The latest IBD/TIPP Poll asked 913 adults coast to coast if they “support or oppose mandatory deportation of illegal immigrants in the U.S.” Not surprisingly, 87% of Trump supporters back the proposal. Read the rest of this entry »
La Bienvenida a Nuevos Votantes América! Report: 2.5 Million Illegal Immigrants Have Entered the U.S. Since Obama Took Office, 400,000 Yearly
Posted: July 20, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, White House | Tags: Center for Immigration Studies, Donald Trump, Illegal immigration, Jeb Bush, Jeffrey Goldberg, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Pew Research Center, Republican Party (United States), The Washington Examiner, Twitter 1 Comment
The Center for Migration Studies report found that illegal immigration was higher under former President George W. Bush, potentially undermining the GOP’s bid to sound tough on the issue. Under Bush, 500,000-600,000 illegals surged in a year.
Paul Bedard writes: Some 2.5 million illegal immigrants have flowed into the United States under President Obama, with 790,000 rushing in since 2013, according to a new analysis.
“The immigration watchdog’s analysis of Census Bureau data also showed that an additional 790,000 illegals entered from the middle of 2013 to May of 2015, for a total of 2.5 million new illegal immigrants since Obama took office in January of 2009. That is a rate of 300,000 to 400,000 a year.”
Calculations from the Center for Migration Studies and the Pew Research Center indicate 1.5 to 1.7 million aliens joined the illegal population from 2009 to 2013 — either overstaying a temporary visa or sneaking into the country, according to a Center for Immigration Studies report out Monday morning.
Illegal immigrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico border. AP Photo
“While the level of new illegal immigration is lower than a decade ago, the enormous ongoing scale of illegal immigration is a clear indication that the United States has not come close to controlling it.”
The immigration watchdog’s analysis of Census Bureau data also showed that an additional 790,000 illegals entered from the middle of 2013 to May of 2015, for a total of 2.5 million new illegal immigrants since Obama took office in January of 2009. That is a rate of 300,000 to 400,000 a year.
[More – On immigrant surge, White House story falls apart]
The issue has become explosive under Obama, especially in the last year when tens of thousands of children and young adults joined the regular flow of illegals from Latin America.
[Also see – Joel Gehrke‘s article at The Corner]
It has also embroiled the GOP presidential contest, with Donald Trump blasting Mexico and party leaders worrying about image of Republicans.
Immigration has become a presidential campaign issue. AP Photo
“Had the United States not allowed so many new illegal immigrants to settle in the country since 2009, the total number of illegal immigrants would have fallen by 2.5 million. But the arrival of so many new illegal immigrants offset this attrition in the illegal population.”
But the CIS report written by Steven A. Camarota, director of research, found that illegal immigration was higher under former President George W. Bush, potentially undermining the GOP’s bid to sound tough on the issue. Under Bush, 500,000-600,000 illegals surged in a year. Read the rest of this entry »
Not a Mystery: Border Figures Posted, Removed Month Before Election
Posted: November 7, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gil Kerlikowske, Jason Chaffetz, Jeh Johnson, McAllen, Mexico–United States border, Obama administration, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States, United States Border Patrol 1 Comment
Staggering statistics that show nearly a half-million people were caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally — and more than half were not Mexican, a number far higher than in 2013 — reportedly were posted on a U.S. government website for just a few hours last month before being taken down.
According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, the numbers were posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website on Oct. 10 for roughly five hours. The dramatic numbers raised questions over whether they were yanked to protect the administration before key midterm elections.
“According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, the stats showed about 53 percent of the migrants, or 253,000, caught at the U.S.-Mexico border this year were not Mexican — a number far higher than in 2013. A decade ago, fewer than 10 percent were from countries other than Mexico.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told the Center he’s worried “they may have been taken down for purely political reasons.”
“If the information is ready it should be made available. The idea that it was and then yanked down for political reasons is outrageous,” he said.
“This year, some of CBP’s data was posted on the website prematurely and removed later that day. One of the statistics released was the number of Southwest border apprehensions by the Border Patrol, which was 479,371.”
— CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske
The numbers could have become a political football less than a month before the elections. They emphasize the challenge still facing U.S. border agents — the reported number of apprehensions is larger than the population of major U.S. cities including Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans. The number has dropped from even higher levels a decade ago, but the flow is staying strong, even as a virtual army of border agents numbering close to 20,000 remains posted, to catch them.
The stats also point to a startling shift, with more and more border crossers coming from other countries. It is already well-known that illegal immigrant children from Central America have been crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, but some lawmakers also have suggested the border could be a crossing for Middle East extremists. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] EBOLA MAINA in Sierra Leone: Tear Gas Fired in Freetown After Body Left on Street
Posted: October 15, 2014 Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues | Tags: BBC News, Democratic Party, Duncan Hunter, Ebola, Ebola virus, Freetown, Global Panic, Mexico–United States border, Sierra Leone, United States Department of Homeland Security 2 Comments
Police in Freetown, Sierra Leone, have fired tear gas as people took to the streets to complain about the authorities handling of the Ebola virus.
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They were angry that the body of a woman who died from the disease was left on the street for two days.US, British, French, German and Italian leaders are due to hold a video conference to talk about what to do next to prevent the spread of the disease.
New ISIS Threat: GRID JIHAD
Posted: September 3, 2014 Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, Self Defense, War Room | Tags: Center for Security Policy, Electrical grid, Frank Gaffney, Islamic state, Mexico–United States border, United States, Washington, Washington Examiner 2 Comments
Congress is looking at legislation to protect the grid via the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act
Paul Bedard reports: Former top government officials who have been warning Washington about the vulnerability of the nation’s largely unprotected electric grid are raising new fears that troops from the jihadist Islamic State are poised to attack the system, leading to a power crisis that could kill millions.
“By one estimate, should the power go out and stay out for over a year, nine out of 10 Americans would likely perish.”
— Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington
“Inadequate grid security, a porous U.S.-Mexico border, and fragile transmission systems make the electric grid a target for ISIS,” said Peter Pry, one of the nation’s leading experts on the grid.
“At the afternoon press conference, Gaffney dubbed the potential crisis the ‘grid jihad.'”
Others joining Pry at a press conference later Wednesday to draw attention to the potential threat said that if just a handful of the nation’s high voltage transformers were knocked out, blackouts would occur across the country. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] ISIS Cells In the U.S.: ‘They’re Here, They Cheer, and They’re Capable of Striking’
Posted: September 3, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, CNN, Iraq, ISIS, Jake Tapper, Mexico–United States border, Robert Baer, Syria, United States, Washington 2 CommentsFormer CIA Operative says ISIS Cells are in the U.S.
(CNN) – Jake Tapper reports: Militant group ISIS released another gruesome video, showing the beheading of a second American, journalist Steven Sotloff.
“The people who do this for a living are very alarmed.”
— Former CIA operative Bob Baer
The terrorist group has gained strongholds in eastern Syria and northeastern Iraq, and, according to a former CIA operative, ISIS cells have already infiltrated the U.S.
“The people who collect tactical intelligence on the ground, day-to-day.. say they’re here, ISIS is here, they’re capable of striking.”
“The people who collect tactical intelligence on the ground, day-to-day – and this isn’t Washington – but people collecting this stuff say they’re here, ISIS is here, they’re capable of striking,” said CNN national security analyst and former CIA operative Bob Baer. Read the rest of this entry »
Report Reveals ‘Disturbing Trend’ of Brazen Attacks Against Border Security by Gangs, Drug and Human Traffickers
Posted: July 30, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Border Patrol, Global Panic of July 2014, Mexico–United States border, Rio Grande, Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Syndicate, United States Border Patrol 4 Comments
“This happens all the time. We’re out on the border, often we are alone, and all you hear is gunfire.”
— a Border Patrol agent working an overnight shift along the Rio Grande said last week.
“We are sitting ducks, and it’s only getting worse. Every night, it gets worse.”
And that was just last week.
“In recent weeks the traffic appears to have slowed slightly, yet assaults on law enforcement have increased. This is a disturbing trend that needs to be addressed.”
— Chris Cabrera, vice president of the National Border Patrol Union, Rio Grande Valley Sector
A weekly report distributed by a Texas state agency to senior law enforcement officials paints a grim picture of the Mexican border, where authorities regularly confront illegal immigrant gang members and draw automatic gunfire from across the Rio Grande, and where local, state and federal authorities fight a never-ending battle against drug smugglers. Read the rest of this entry »
CNN Poll: Border Crisis Flips Public Opinion on Immigration
Posted: July 25, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Central America, CNN, Democratic Party (United States), Democrats, Illegal immigration, Mexico–United States border, United States, White House 3 Comments
CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser reports: The current crisis on the nation’s southern border appears to be fueling a notable shift in American attitudes toward immigration policy with border security growing in importance, according to a new national survey.
According to the poll, 51% now say the government’s focus, when it comes to immigration policy, should be formulating a plan to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants
A CNN/ORC International poll released on Thursday also indicates that a majority of those surveyed support making it easier for the United States to return migrant youth from Central America who have surged across the U.S. border with Mexico this year.
Sixty-one percent of Democrats, but less than a quarter of Republicans, say that legal status is more important than border security. Independents are divided.
But according to the survey, a bare majority views the children as refugees rather than illegal immigrants, and most say they’d be willing to have the federal government temporarily relocate some of the children to their communities or their city.
A bare majority views the children as refugees rather than illegal immigrants,
The influx of children trying to cross the southern border, many of them unaccompanied, has been a major media story over the past month. The White House and many Democrats have clashed with Republicans in Congress and governors over who is to blame and what should be done about it. Read the rest of this entry »
‘On the matter of illegal immigration, we are effectively governed by criminals’
Posted: July 6, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Health and Social Issues, U.S. News | Tags: Harry Reid, Illegal immigration, Kevin D. Williamson, Mexico–United States border, National Review, Rio Grande Valley, Texas, United States, United States Department of Homeland Security 2 Comments
Protester Jessica Davis shouts at counter-demonstrators in front of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Murrieta. – Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
For National Review Online, Kevin D. Williamson reports:
Considering the sundry enthusiasms upon which government at all level spends our money — Harry Reid’s bovine literary interests, helping out those poor struggling people who own Boeing — it is remarkable that the job of apprehending a known felon, once deported from the United States and illegally present in Texas, fell to volunteers in Brooks County, near the Mexican border.
Protests in Murrieta – Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Brooks County, like many other border areas, is overrun with illegal immigrants, and the cost of burying those illegals who die in transit, which can run into the six figures annually, has forced the county to cut back on regular law enforcement. And thus we have the volunteer deputies who brought in the felon, who after he injured his ankle had been been abandoned by the coyotes — professional human traffickers — who had brought him across the border.
The volunteers were in the process of working a 26-hour shift — that’s 26 hours, not a typo. Consider for a moment that the cost of illegals’ breaking the law is so high that enforcing the law has been handed over to unpaid volunteers.
Similar scenes are playing out across the border. Nearby Duval County, Texas, was the scene of a dramatic car chase when a truckload of illegals was spotted by police, who determined that the vehicle was outfitted with a fraudulent license plate.
[The Dependency Agenda – Kevin D. Williamson (Encounter Broadsides)]
Two were killed and a dozen injured in the pursuit. (Many years ago, Duval County enjoyed the services of an elected Democratic sheriff whose grandson is a familiar figure here at National Review.) Nearly 200,000 illegals have crossed into Texas’s Rio Grande Valley this year, and the cartels that oversee the coyote operations have the local landowners terrorized into compliance.
Byron York’s Analysis: Obama Has Wrong Prescription for Border Crisis
Posted: July 1, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Central America, El Salvador, Henry Cuellar, Honduras, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Obama, Texas Leave a comment
U.S. Border Patrol agents are swept by dust from a helicopter while tracking drug smugglers through the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, near the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
For the Washington Examiner, Byron York writes: What, exactly, is President Obama going to do about the flood of unaccompanied children illegally crossing the southwestern border into the United States? So far, the White House has given many clues but few details, and when the president took to the Rose Garden to make a statement Monday, he spent nearly all his time talking not about the growing crisis but about his plan to make an end run around Congress on the broader issue of immigration reform.
“The problem is that under current law, once those kids come across the border, there’s a system in which we’re supposed to process them, take care of them, until we can send them back. It’s a lengthy process.”
— President Obama
There are moves the president could make that would greatly reduce the flood of children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador into Texas. But passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill is not one of them.
In the Rose Garden, Obama blamed the current “humanitarian crisis” on the U.S. immigration system. The children crossing the border “are being apprehended,” the president said, “but the problem is that our system is so broken, so unclear, that folks don’t know what the rules are.”
Photo credit: Breitbart Texas
“Every child that is here today — I cannot imagine, at least under this administration, them being removed.”
— GOP Hill aide who works on the issue
It would be more accurate to say the problem is that American law and Obama administration policy make it extremely difficult for the U.S. to send the unaccompanied children home to Central America. The parents and other family members who send the children know that and believe, correctly, that there is a very good chance the children will be able to stay in the United States permanently.
“We ought to have the same protocols that we have for Mexico and Canada for the Central American countries. Forty-eight hours — we should return them.”
— Texas Rep. Henry Culler
If the House passed the Gang of Eight bill today, and the president signed it into law, that problem would not be fixed. Read the rest of this entry »
Flood of Non-Mexicans to Border Control’s Rio Grande Valley Sector Began in 2011
Posted: June 17, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Border Patrol, Illegal immigration, Mexico, Mexico–United States border, Rio Grande Valley, South Texas, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States, United States Border Patrol Leave a commentThe flood of illegal immigrants in South Texas, some of them unaccompanied minors, is largely made up of people from countries Other Than Mexico, or OTMs. To provide context for this unfolding story, this figure shows total apprehensions of non-Mexicans in the Border Patrol‘s Rio Grande Valley Sector:
Source: Center for Immigration Studies
(CNSNews.com) — There were 255 illegal aliens from countries such as Pakistan and Iran that have been officially linked to terrorism by the U.S. government apprehended along the southwest border by Border Patrol in fiscal 2011, data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show.
In fiscal 2011 (Oct. 1, 2010 thru Sept. 30, 2011), the Border Patrol — under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) component of the DHS — arrested a total of 327,577 illegal aliens along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Among those arrested, 46,997 were “Other than Mexican” (OTM), including the 255 who originated from what DHS referred to as “special interest countries,” the data showed.
CNSNews.com obtained from Customs and Border Protection a country-by-country breakdown of the nations of origin for the 327,577 total apprehensions along the southwest border, including the 46,997 OTMs…(read more)
pundit from another planet 