Tag Archive for: OpenSouthernBorder

Here’s How Biden Admin Destroyed Our Immigration Law

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Since early 2021 we have witnessed somewhere between 7 million and 8 million illegal entries across the now-nonexistent southern border of the U.S.

The more the border vanished, the more federal immigration law was rendered inert, and the more Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spun fantasies that the “border is secure.” He is now written off as a veritable “Baghdad Bob” propagandist.

But how and why did the Biden administration destroy immigration law as we knew it?

The Trump administration’s initial efforts to close the border had been continually obstructed in Congress, sabotaged by the administrative state, and stymied in the courts. Nonetheless, it finally had secured the border by early 2020.

Yet almost all of the Trump administration’s successful initiatives were immediately overturned in 2021.

Construction of the wall was abruptly stopped, and its projected trajectory was canceled. The disastrous Obama-era “catch and release” policy of immigration nonenforcement was resurrected.

Prior successful pressure on Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to stop the deliberate export of his own citizens northward ceased.

Federal Border Patrol officers were forced to stand down.

New federal subsidies were granted to entice and then support illegal arrivals.

No one in the Democratic Party objected to the destruction of the border or the subversion of immigration law.

However, things changed somewhat once swamped southern border states began to bus or fly a few thousand of their illegal immigrants northward to sanctuary city jurisdictions—especially to New York and Chicago, and even Martha’s Vineyard.

The sanctuary-city “humanists” there who had greenlighted illegal immigration into the southern states suddenly shrieked. They were irate after experiencing the concrete consequences of their own prior abstract border agendas. After all, their nihilism was always supposed to fall upon distant and ridiculed others.

New York Mayor Eric Adams went from celebrating a few dozen illegal immigrants bused into Manhattan to blasting his own party for allowing tens of thousands to swamp his now bankrupt city.

But why did the Biden administration deliberately unleash the largest influx across the southern border in U.S. history?

The ethnic chauvinists and Democratic Party elites needed new constituents, given their increasingly unpopular agendas.

They feared that the more legal Latino immigrants assimilated and integrated into American society, the less happy they became with left-wing radical abortion, racial, transgender, crime, and green fixations.

Democratic grandees always had bragged that illegal immigration would create what they called “The New Democratic Majority” in “Demography Is Destiny” fashion. Now they slander critics as “racists” who object to left-wing efforts to use illegal immigration to turn southwestern red states blue.

Mexico now cannot survive as a modern state without some $60 billion in annual remittances sent by its expatriates in America. However many illegal immigrants rely on American state and federal entitlements to free up cash to send home.

Mexico also encourages its own abject poor and often indigenous people from southern Mexico to head north as a safety valve of sorts. The Mexican government sees these mass exodus northward as preferable to the oppressed marching on Mexico City to address grievances of poverty and racism.

The criminal cartels now de facto run Mexico. An open border allows them to ship fentanyl northward, earn billions in profits—and kill nearly 100,000 Americans a year. Illegal immigrants pay cartels additional billions to facilitate their border crossings.

Don’t forget American corporate employers. Record labor nonparticipation followed the COVID-19 lockdown. In reaction to the dearth of American workers, the hospitality, meat packing, social service, health care, and farming industries were desperate to hire new—and far cheaper—labor.

Human rights activists insist that the borders themselves are 19th-century relics. And the global poor and oppressed thus have a human right to enter the affluent West by any means necessary.

Many in the tony suburbs and in universities do not live anywhere near the southern border. So they pontificate on the assurance that thousands of unaudited illegal immigrants will never enter their own enclaves or campuses.

The result is elite-bottled piety—but not firsthand experience with the natural consequences of millions chaotically fleeing one of the poorest countries in the world to pour into the wealthiest. Without background checks, vaccinations, and health audits, legality, high school diplomas, English facility skill sets, or capital, the result is an abject catastrophe.

Polls continue to show that the American people support measured, diverse, legal, and meritocratic immigration as much as they oppose mass illegal immigration into their country and the subsequent loss of American sovereignty on the border.

They understand what the Biden administration does not: No nation in history has survived once its borders were destroyed, once its citizenship was rendered no different from mere residence, and once its neighbors with impunity undermined its sovereignty.

Ending illegal immigration now depends solely on the American people overriding the corrupt special interests and leaders who profit from the current chaos and human misery.

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This article was published by Daily Signal and is reproduced with permission.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Unconscionable Surge At The Border Must End

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

The immigration crisis is crushing New York City. According to ABC7 news, last week alone 2900 new “asylum seekers” entered one of the city’s 200 new emergency shelters.

Mayor Eric Adams says the city spends $383 per day per family on food, shelter and other expenses, which are deemed the migrants’ right to receive for no charge or obligation because well…just because.

The formerly elegant Roosevelt Hotel has been designated the nerve center for services to accommodate the 120,000 illegal immigrants now in the city. Mayor Adams estimates the city will incur a $12 billion deficit as a result of the influx, meaning that “every service in the city is going to be impacted”.  Fifteen percent across-the-board budget cuts are seriously looming.

Yet the expenditures are not adequate to address the surge. Immigrants are occupying the sidewalks in front of the Roosevelt, locals are fuming over the takeover of schools, parks, and other public facilities while reports of subway crime are beginning to pop up. Maybe the sanctuary status the Mayor pressed for, when the costs were borne elsewhere, isn’t such a great idea after all.

Mayor Adams correctly points out that since border law is a federal matter, the feds should help alleviate the distress they are causing. What we’re getting instead is outrageous gaslighting.  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insists that President Biden has actually done a great job of protecting the border “and you have seen him do that.”

We have? This is the president who unilaterally eliminated policies like Remain in Mexico and Title 42, which effectively reduced the number of illegal border crossings. The result has been a surge of approximately 2.7 million people on Biden’s watch, 260,00 this August alone.  That doesn’t include the “getaways”, who are uncountable, but estimated to number at least 1.5 million during the Biden administration.

It’s no wonder Americans are starting to feel the strains in social services, healthcare, schools, and prisons. Their advocates claim illegal immigrants are an economic boon, but if that were so, why do leftist enclaves complain bitterly about receiving them instead of requesting more?

Truth check: immigrants cost taxpayers $150 billion annually and growing. Even worse is the humanitarian crisis caused by cartels victimizing women and children vulnerable to “human trafficking“.

Illegal immigrants are often erroneously referred to in the popular press as “asylum seekers“. That’s a lie.  Imaginary asylum-seeking is the (very successful) strategy used to circumvent lawful border enforcement. Immigrants not otherwise eligible for entry are coached to say “I feel unsafe” to border agents. That automatically entitles them to an asylum hearing, which, because of the crowding at the border, is scheduled years in the future.

It’s a farce. They pretend to be seeking asylum and we pretend to believe them. Fewer than 10 percent are eligible for legitimate asylum.  Most never show up for their hearing.

Democrats also like to pretend there is nothing they can do about the ongoing border invasion because Republicans once voted against a bill that included additional border funding. But if Republicans were willing to discuss comprehensive immigration reform, maybe we could talk…

That gives away their game. “Comprehensive” reform is a euphemism for citizenship. The Biden administration willingly pays a high price politically for their devastating border policies.  The hardships caused by unlimited immigration are causing widespread resentment. An election looms.

Yet they soldier on, refusing to consider even the most reasonable measures to reduce the ongoing surge. There’s only one possible explanation: they are playing the long game, taking hits now to achieve future political domination.

They see the 20 million or so foreign nationals now living here as future Democrats, who they will relentlessly portray as victims if not eventually granted citizenship. The gambit  will work again. The American political landscape will be changed forever.

There is a way out. It’s not more money. It’s not more laws.  It’s not even a wall.  We must simply follow the example of decent self-respecting nations throughout history and employ the lawful force of government to maintain our sovereign borders.

Follow the Law.  It’s doable, it’s moral and it’s necessary to protect legal immigrants, American citizens, and America’s future.

Wealthy Democrats Aided And Abetted The Biden Border Crisis, Now They’re Whining About It

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Amid the scrum of news this week about Democrat-led schemes to put former President Donald Trump on trial during the GOP primaries and rig the 2024 election in plain sight, you might have missed a cautionary tale out of New York City, where Democrat millionaires are whining about a migrant crisis they helped create.

A group of more than 120 executives, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Larry Fink of BlackRock, and Jane Fraser of Citigroup, sent a letter to the Biden administration and congressional leaders asking for more federal aid to New York, to help with what they call “the humanitarian crisis that has resulted from the continued flow of asylum-seekers into our country.

Credit where credit is due: These wealthy New York executives seem to have figured out the connection between huge numbers of illegal immigrants — sorry, “asylum-seekers” — and the humanitarian crisis that always follows.

It’s a connection many of us made years ago, back when massive waves of illegal immigrants were overrunning Texas border towns and gathering in sprawling makeshift encampments along the north banks of the Rio Grande. Unable to house or even properly process these people, federal border officials resorted to dropping them off at bus stations in places like McAllen and Del Rio, Texas — relatively small towns with few resources to cope with the thousands of illegal immigrants released from federal custody, sometimes on a daily basis.

But so long as the chaos and crisis stayed in south Texas, Democrats in deep-blue enclaves like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles were happy to tut-tut anyone who claimed there was a problem at the border or suggested that maybe we should do something to stop the flow of illegal border-crossers. If you complained or proposed solutions, you were a racist — just like those Border Patrol horsemen with their “whips.” How dare they try to stop foreigners from illegally entering the country right in front of them?

But now that hotels and shelters are filled to overflowing in these cities, now that the crisis has come directly to open-border Democrats’ homes and places of work, wealthy urban elites want the government to do something about it. (A New York Times story this week mentioned that new arrivals are being forced to sleep outside over-capacity shelters, including one at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, “just blocks away from JPMorgan’s offices.”)

The New York letter, whose list of signatories includes people like Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, ends with a plea to Washington “to take immediate action to better control the border and the process of asylum and provide relief to the cities and states that are bearing the burdens posed by the influx of asylum seekers.”

Of course, to hear White House flack Karine Jean-Pierre tell it, President Biden is controlling the influx of migrants at the border and, in fact, has stopped the flow! She actually said that this week, even though as Bill Melugin of Fox News was quick to point out, it’s completely false.

Leaving aside idiotic White House spin, do the wealthy letter-signers of New York realize that one very effective way to “better control the border” is for state and local law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ensure illegal immigrants under an order of deportation by an immigration judge are actually deported? Do they know that kind of enforcement is a powerful deterrent to would-be illegal border-crossers abroad, and lack of such enforcement is a powerful pull factor that encourages more illegal immigration?

It would seem they do not. These are the same people, after all, who tacitly supported a 2019 law making it much easier for illegal immigrants to get a driver’s license in New York, thus shielding them from detection, while also prohibiting ICE and CBP from accessing New York DMV records.

Did the current Democratic mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, support this policy when it was introduced four years ago? He was a state senator for years; surely he knew about it. Today, Mayor Adams says that any plan to address the migrant crisis in his city that does not involve stopping the flow of illegal immigration at the border “is a failed plan.”

I hate to be the one to break it to him, but stopping the flow of illegal immigration at the border means taking away the incentives for people to illegally cross the border in the first place. Making it easy for illegal immigrants to get a driver’s license, for example, while helping to shield them from federal immigration authorities, is a recipe for more, not less, illegal immigration.

New York is of course only one state among many that have passed such laws. Indeed, a vast illegal immigrant sanctuary network has sprung up nationwide in recent years among blue cities, states, and counties that have enacted laws, ordinances, regulations, and policies that hinder immigration enforcement and shield criminal aliens from ICE.

Still, even amid the crisis, with migrant families sleeping on the streets of New York and other major cities, blue-state elites don’t quite seem to grasp what’s happening, which is why they aren’t demanding deportation but better processing and expedited work permits for “asylum-seekers” — policies that do nothing but provide more and stronger incentives for migrants to enter the United States illegally.

And make no mistake: Would-be migrants are acutely aware of the incentives and disincentives at work here. As Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies noted in a recent interview, “All U.S.-bound immigrants pay very, very close, almost academic attention, to any and all policy pronouncements uttered or implemented by American leaders about immigration. They also pay close attention to news of all immigration-related court rulings. The reason they are so disciplined is because this or that policy or court ruling either makes illegal entry easier or harder.”

Which means, in turn, that surges in illegal border crossings of the kind we’ve seen since Biden took office — a record 2.3 million border arrests last year and on track for the same or greater this year — are driven almost entirely by policy decisions coming out of Washington, D.C., and legal rulings from the federal judiciary.

If New York millionaire Democrats paid half as much attention to border policy as illegal immigrants do, maybe they’d grasp what’s going on at the border, and why. Maybe they could then start to make sense of the anger and frustration of working- and middle-class residents of their cities, who increasingly show up at public meetings to express outrage at the migrant crisis. One woman, a Chicago resident speaking at a recent meeting about a migrant shelter in Hyde Park, was blunt about it: “I don’t want them there. Take them someplace else or send them back to Venezuela. I don’t care where they go. This is wrong. You got 73 percent of the people homeless in this city are black people. What have you done for them?”

Maybe, just maybe the wealthy elites who run our blue cities are beginning to wake up and realize that soon that woman’s question will be on the lips of every resident of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and every other place where Democrats have helped create the conditions for this crisis.

Here’s hoping they can connect the dots. If they can’t, they can always go down to the local migrant shelter and have an asylum-seeker explain it to them.

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This article was published by The Federalist and is reproduced with permission.

House Freedom Caucus: No Security, No Funding

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

With the clock ticking closer to the Sept. 30 government funding deadline, the conservative House Freedom Caucus this week outlined its official position on Washington’s latest spending debate.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., a member of the Freedom Caucus, spoke to The Daily Signal about why conservatives are insisting House Republicans honor their promise to reduce government spending while also enacting three policies:

  1. Securing the border
  2. Ending the weaponization of DOJ and FBI
  3. Stopping the Defense Department‘s woke agenda

Good, who represents Virginia’s 5th District, explains what’s at stake and why conservatives should make this their priority.

Listen to the full interview [Rep. Bob Good: No Sec…] on “The Daily Signal Podcast” or read a lightly edited transcript below.

 

Rob Bluey: Let’s start with the big question on people’s minds, which is, will the government shut down after Sept. 30? The Freedom Caucus put out a list of principles, which to most conservatives are reasonable things they expect Washington to accomplish. Can you walk us through what those are?

Good: Yes. The Freedom Caucus put out a position essentially saying we are committed to the spending cuts that were part of Limit, Save, Grow, which, as you might know, originated as Shrink Washington, Grow America.

That was a Freedom Caucus position we put out before it was largely adopted by the House, which was a reasonable bill that had significant cuts and reforms to take a significant step toward fiscal stability that was passed with 217 votes out of the House.

It was a strong Republican coalition, but as you also know, most of that was discarded or set aside or jettisoned for the terrible, what I called the “Failed Responsibility Act” that was struck between House and Senate and White House leadership, or lack thereof, perhaps you might say.

We are committed to going back to the pre-COVID spending level for nondefense discretionary that the speaker agreed to in order to become speaker back in January.

And also, as you know, after the debt ceiling caught so much criticism from conservatives—some of us in the House and then conservatives like yourself across the country—the speaker said, well, the debt ceiling levels, or of course it was an unlimited increase of debt ceiling, but the spending levels of the debt ceiling agreement, that was a ceiling, not a floor. We can go lower in the appropriations process.

So we intend to hold him to that or to use every amount of leverage that we have to do that.

>>> House Conservatives Say Any Spending Bill Must Address Border Security, DOJ Weaponization

We’re recognizing the House failed once again to do its job, and we passed one out of 12 appropriations bills primarily because we would not go along without having a total spending cut plan. In other words, we didn’t want to pass a handful of them upfront not knowing what the spending cuts were on the back end and how the whole puzzle fits together.

So we passed one … we’ve only got, I think it’s 11 legislative days when we get back, and unless we come back early—certainly I’m ready to go back early to get our work done. But if we don’t do that, the calendar’s really challenging.

So what we were saying in response to the speaker telling the conference, “Hey, maybe we need to have to do a CR, or continuing resolution,” is that if we’re going to do that, we’ve got to get a win for the American people to do it.

We can’t just kick the can down the road 30 or 60 days. And really, we think 60 would be terrible, to kick it to Dec. 1. And then the members on both sides are, “Oh, Christmas, we got to leave because of Christmas. Let’s just do an omnibus.” We’ve seen that play before, as you know.

So we’re saying we got to get a win for the American people. No. 1 would be securing the border, implementing HR 2, the bill we passed out of the House.

We also would like to attack the weaponization of federal government against its citizens and the emasculating or the weakening, or I call the wussifying, of our military at the hands of this administration.

So we’ve got to get some wins, not for the Republican Party, not for Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy or the Freedom Caucus, but for the American people in exchange for extending the time period for us to get our work done to pass the appropriations bill.

Bluey: It all seems quite reasonable. These are issues that the American people care about. We consistently see border security as one of the top concerns on the minds of not just conservatives but Americans who see it affecting their communities all across this country.

I’m glad you began with the issue of spending. You were one of the group that held out when Speaker McCarthy was running for election in January. Take us back to that moment and why it was so important to reform to the process.

Good: Well, to clarify, I was part of the 20 that was part of the 15-vote process, but I was part of that final six who never switched our vote to yes.

So I wasn’t directly involved with the negotiations or the agreement that was made by my friends who were part of the 14, but I was involved in the discussions with them, but not direct on the speaker on that. So I just want to clarify on that…..

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Continue reading this interview or listening to the podcast at the Daily Signal.

IG: Known And Suspected Terrorists Falling Through The Cracks At Border

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

As agents continue to apprehend more known, suspected terrorists (KSTs) illegally entering the U.S., internal federal agency processes have allowed them to enter the U.S. and “potentially threaten national security and public safety,” an Office of Inspector General report found.

The OIG, which audited the Department of Homeland Security, the agency created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks tasked with defending Americans from terrorism, identified ineffective practices and highlighted an example of a known terrorist being released into the U.S. after illegally entering in Yuma, Arizona. The KST was caught only through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screening in California when trying to board a plane en route to Tampa, Florida.

The OIG report found that a KST was released because of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “ineffective practices and processes for resolving inconclusive matches with the Terrorist Watchlist led to multiple mistakes.”

The Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS), referred to as the Terrorist Watchlist, is the federal database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities, CBP explains. It originated as a consolidated terrorist watchlist “to house information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) but evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals.”

The OIG audit also found that after the KST was identified, it took two weeks for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to make an arrest because of “multiple challenges sharing information.”

The OIG recommended that CBP resolve its inconclusive terrorist watchlist matching process and that ICE improve its internal mechanisms to more effectively implement removal and enforcement operations. It made three recommendations, with which DHS agreed.

Jim Crumpacker, CFE director with the Department of the Government Accountability Office-Office of Inspector General Liaison Office, expressed concerns about the report’s title, saying it “misleads readers into believing that CBP knowingly released” a known or suspected terrorist. He also said the report “mischaracterizes how and when the individual’s location was identified.”

The OIG disagreed, stating CBP releasing a KST “is accurate and supported in the report findings. The report explains that CBP released [the KST] without sharing information that would have confirmed the Terrorist Watchlist match.”

The 24-page redacted report explains that the Department of Homeland Security’s process to protect Americans from potential terrorists includes screening, arresting and removing foreign nationals who threaten national security. To do this, agents in CBP’s National Targeting Center (NTC) coordinate with Border Patrol agents to provide the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) with information to determine if foreign nationals are in the TSDS. Agents also interview foreign nationals and perform other criminal background checks. The TSA also screens everyone before boarding domestic flights to ensure they aren’t on the TSDS. The law requires ICE agents to arrest foreign nationals identified as KSTs and process them for removal.

The report describes how one KST fell through the cracks. On April 17, 2022, a group presenting as a family unit in Yuma, Arizona, was screened by Border Patrol agents. One, who was determined to be an “inconclusive” Terrorist Watchlist match, was released two days later.

Four days after entering the U.S., the individual was flagged by TSA at the Palm Springs International Airport in California, identified as a known, suspected terrorist. It took another two weeks for ICE agents to arrest the KST on May 6, 2022.

One of the problems the OIG identified is that CBP sent a request to its Tactical Terrorism Response Team to interview the KST but sent it to the wrong email address so the interview never happened. CBP also gained information from an international partner about the KST but never forwarded it to the FBI. Two CBP officials told the OIG they “did not recall” why they didn’t forward the information. The report doesn’t state if they face disciplinary charges or were fired.

One Yuma official told the OIG he was unable to respond quickly to email because he was busy processing a flood of illegal foreign nationals into the country with a station at capacity. The agent released the individual without checking if the NTC and TSC had exchanged information to confirm a positive KST match.

Another problem the OIG found is that ICE agents requested the KST’s file – but didn’t receive it for 8 days – through the mail. Despite the individual’s file showing prior acts of violence, the individual was still released into the country.

“CBP missed multiple opportunities to help the TSC verify the migrant was a positive Terrorist Watchlist match before releasing the migrant,” OIG concluded. “CBP’s ineffective practices resulted in sending an interview request to an incorrect email address, obtaining but not sharing information requested by the TSC, and releasing the migrant before CBP finished coordinating with the TSC. If CBP’s ineffective practices for resolving inconclusive Terrorist Watchlist matches continue, the component risks releasing individuals into the United States who potentially threaten national security and public safety.”

The report was published after more than 8 million illegal border crossers have entered the U.S. from over 170 countries since January 2021. Among them are at least 1.7 million people who evaded capture. DHS has no idea if they are KSTs, who, or where they are.

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This article was published by Center Square and is reproduced with permission.

Border Patrol Agents: June Southwest Border Apprehension Data Is A ‘Shell Game

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Apprehension and gotaway data for June, which was significantly lower than previous months, is deceptive, a Customs and Border Patrol agent, as well as the former acting CBP Chief and former Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, told The Center Square. 

They spoke in response to lower numbers reported for the month by Border Patrol agents that total over 135,000, which is significantly lower than previous months even though large numbers of people are still coming through.

Every month, The Center Square reports preliminary data obtained from a Border Patrol agent and later reports on the official numbers published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The preliminary data only includes Border Patrol data and excludes Office of Field Operations data. Total official numbers are always higher when OFO data is publicized.

The preliminary data has proven to be an accurate benchmark and sheds light on gotaway data, which CBP doesn’t publicize. The Center Square first started shedding light on gotaways to provide a greater context about what’s happening at the border, and crime stemming from it in communities across America.

“Gotaways” is the official U.S. Customs and Border Protection term that refers to the number of foreign nationals who are known and reported to illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry who intentionally seek to avoid getting caught by agents and law enforcement officers and don’t return to Mexico.

The Border Patrol agent provides the preliminary data on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. The agent told The Center Square the gotaway numbers are less than half of what they were in May because what’s being reported “only represents known and recorded. There are also known and unrecorded, meaning sectors are still fudging numbers.”

Not all gotaways are recorded because not all are identified, officials have told to The Center Square. As more agents are pulled off the line and out of the field they aren’t able to identify everyone who’s gotten away.

“We don’t have operational control of the border, which means we don’t have situational awareness,” the agent said. “So, we don’t know who, what, when, how, or where people are coming across.”

The cartels are “using drones to bypass our movements, including sensor locations,” the agent added. “They know where we are at all times. They know how to get around us.”

The nearly 33,000 gotaways reported in June is a significant drop compared to the more than 60,000 reported in the previous month and even higher numbers in previous months. But it “doesn’t mean less people are coming through,” the agent said. “There is no way to gauge how many people are coming across. The number isn’t held accountable by anyone.

“It’s a subjective number,” the agent continued because some “agents don’t care so they don’t call in gotaways. Supervisors also decrease the numbers each shift, and station chiefs and sector chiefs don’t post accurate depictions of what’s happening on social media. There is no way to hold them accountable.”

Because there are no consequences to illegal entry and it’s encouraged through the use of a new CBP One App established by the Biden administration, illegal foreign nationals are increasingly “coming through ports of entry, posing as fake family units,” the agent said.

The June apprehension data excludes CBP One App entries, which include those being allowed in through the newly created parole program allowing for 30,000 from four countries each, totaling 120,000 to enter every month.

Agents have no access to this system and don’t know who’s coming through, the agent said, adding the administration was operating a “parallel system operating in the dark.”

On the morning of the day, the agent spoke with The Center Square, for example, Border Patrol agents “caught a group of over 100 – all fake family units. The cartels found a loop in the system. This decreases the amount of people [gotaways] running. There’s no risk of getting caught.”

The loophole the agent is referring to is the Biden administration no longer uses DNA testing to determine who is a family member. That ended May 31. Anyone can show up at the border with an untold number of children and claim to be family members, and Border Patrol agents have no way to test to disprove their claims.

Morgan expressed similar sentiments. While total Border Patrol apprehensions were down last month, he said, “that’s all they’re talking about,” referring to the Biden administration. “It’s a shell game.”

“As the Border Patrol apprehensions go down [between ports of entry], the encounters at Office of Field Operations are skyrocketing,” he explained. “There were over 90,000 OFO apprehensions in April. June will be higher, he said.

 “OFO apprehensions alone are on pace for one million encounters this fiscal year, a 300% increase from fiscal 2020.”

The Biden administration is “shifting the crisis from in between the ports of entry to the ports of entry themselves,” Morgan said, while at the same time, the administration is calling the change “a new legal pathway and claiming victory. It’s a perversion and violation of the law. A big lie. One government-sponsored shell game.”

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This article was published by The Center Square and is reproduced with permission.

The Impact Of The Asylum Rule Reversal

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Impact of Asylum Rule Reversal on Arizona’s Southern Border and Influx of Illegal Immigrants

 

The recent ruling by a federal judge striking down the Biden administration’s temporary restrictions on migrants seeking asylum has significant implications for immigration policy and the influx of illegal immigrants at the Arizona southern border. The judge’s decision, while celebrated by advocates of immigrant rights, has sparked a debate over the balance between humanitarian concerns and national security interests. How does this ruling impact the situation at the Arizona southern border and the challenges posed by illegal immigration?

The ruling’s immediate impact on the Arizona southern border is likely to be a surge in the number of migrants attempting to cross into the United States. The decision to lift the restrictions on asylum claims for those who crossed the border illegally and penalize migrants who scheduled appointments could create incentives for increased illegal immigration. Arizona, being a major entry point for unauthorized border crossings, is likely to witness a higher influx of migrants seeking asylum, further straining resources and services at the border.

The state’s border enforcement agencies may face challenges in managing and processing the increased number of migrants. Additionally, the ruling might lead to a surge in border apprehensions, as migrants may perceive a higher chance of gaining entry into the United States through the asylum process. This, in turn, could escalate tensions between border communities and federal agencies and heighten security concerns.

The Influx of Illegal Immigrants

With the lifting of restrictions, the influx of illegal immigrants into Arizona and other border states could exacerbate existing immigration-related challenges. The increased volume of asylum seekers may overwhelm the existing immigration infrastructure, including detention centers and asylum processing facilities. Consequently, the processing of asylum claims could be significantly delayed, leading to a backlog of cases and prolonged stays for migrants in detention.

The surge in illegal immigration may also create economic pressures on local communities and public resources. Local governments and social service providers may struggle to accommodate the sudden increase in demand for housing, healthcare, education, and other essential services. This could potentially strain relationships between migrants and host communities and may even result in social tensions.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

While advocates of immigrant rights celebrate the ruling as a victory for humanitarian values, critics argue that it interferes with the executive branch’s ability to enforce immigration policy and uphold national security interests. The ruling raises questions about the separation of powers and the extent to which the judiciary should be involved in immigration matters. The judicial intervention in this policy area may be seen by some as an overreach of power, as decisions regarding immigration are often considered to be within the domain of the executive and legislative branches.

Furthermore, the ruling’s implications go beyond domestic considerations. The United States is part of international agreements and conventions related to refugee protection and asylum rights. The decision to lift restrictions on asylum claims for those who crossed the border illegally could be interpreted as a departure from the principles outlined in these agreements. This may have broader implications for how the U.S. is perceived on the global stage and could impact diplomatic relations with other countries that are also grappling with refugee crises.

The situation at the Arizona southern border will require careful monitoring and thoughtful responses from policymakers to strike a balance between protecting vulnerable populations seeking refuge and upholding national security interests.

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Michael Infanzon is a political and government policy contributor at The Prickly Pear.

 Michael writes about government policies that affect millions of Americans, from their introduction in the legislature to their implementation, and how this all impacts our everyday freedoms.

 Michael is the Managing Partner for EPIC Policy Group, located in Phoenix, AZ. EPIC has clients ranging from motorcycle rights organizations, firearms organizations, 2A rights organizations, veterans advocacy, and chambers of commerce to agricultural products and personal freedoms among other policy issues.

You can follow Michael on Twitter (@infanzon) and email him at infanzon@epicpolicygroup.com

Movie Review: The Sound of Freedom

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

From seemingly out of the blue, an independent film about child sex trafficking has eclipsed some heavyweight Hollywood productions for the summer box office draw. In actuality, we learn the film was produced some five years ago and it took all this time and struggle to get it to the big screen.  Why such a struggle?

Like many of you, we have heard about the film and the criticism that it was simply a front for the blatherings of QAnon conspiracy advocates.  But most of this is coming from talking heads on left-wing TV networks and we discounted much of what they said.

Besides, The Prickly Pear had run some important articles (here and here) about the film, so we decided to see it for ourselves.

There have also been anecdotal reports of “funny business” by some theatres to suppress viewership.  We had our own experience and can’t verify the experience in the video below.

 

We saw the show at a multiplex in Arrow Head Mall in West Phoenix.  As we attempted to purchase for a matinee show, we were shown a diagram of a full theatre with just two seats available, right up against the big screen in the extreme right-hand extreme corner.  We decided to take them knowing that a visit to the chiropractor would likely follow almost two hours of stressed necks.  After all, we were late getting to the facility and felt that was the penalty for tardiness.  But once we were in, we found at least a half dozen empty seats and moved to more comfortable seating.  Why would theatres do that?  Was this deliberate or just incompetence? Aren’t they dying to win back customers?

We were glad to find seating. Wow, what a movie!

Both my wife and I felt we could not recall ever seeing a movie as moving as this one.  It is extremely well-acted.  We marveled at where the producers found these child actors and actresses. Jim Caviezel is outstanding and believable.

This is no date night movie.  The theme is a dark one, and that is perhaps what is drawing the ire of the Left.  It suggests there are boundaries when it comes to sexual behavior and the children are off limits.  This happens to be a big topic right now in our society and the Left seems hell-bent on sexualizing children.  For what ends are debatable but the attempt is undeniable.

Some, of course, will not tolerate any “God Talk” in a movie, although they are quite happy to see lots of secular moralizing about “global warming”, racism, and gay rights.  But we found really no political content in this movie.

There is mention of God only twice I can recall.  One involves the statement that “God’s children are not for sale.”  One would have to be really jaded to object to that.  The movie does not do a lot of moralizing but the story itself carries the burden.

We are very hard-pressed to see why so many critics either ignore or criticize this movie.  You would think if there was any subject where a bipartisan consensus could be achieved, it would be in opposition to child sex slavery.

Conservatives need to support all the forms of new communication that help break the monopoly of the Left on our culture. See the film and support its producers.  Moreover, see this film because it is powerful and beautiful art that tells an important story and you are well justified to see it on those grounds alone.

Is Mexico Our Friend?

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

The United States has enjoyed unique stature among the nations of the world. For over a century, we have been separated from the rest of the world by two oceans with two major friendly countries on our northern and southern borders. We have enjoyed particularly cooperative relations with both during this time. Times are changing with our northern neighbor adopting some restrictions not allowed by our Bill of Rights. More importantly, our southern neighbor has policies that are openly hostile to our country and deadly to our citizens.

The first of the two hostile policies is their refusal to stop migrants from traversing their country to arrive at our border with the notion of entering the United States illegally. The second is the production and transporting of harmful drugs that are killing our fellow citizens by the tens of thousands. Both of these policies feed the coffers of criminal cartels within the Mexican borders and are barely combatted by the Mexican government.

The flow of migrants is separate from what the Mexican government has done to encourage their own citizens to break our laws and cross our borders illegally. The principal purpose of sending their own citizens is two-fold. They don’t have to develop their own economic base where their citizens can stay in their country and keep their families together. These people are sending an estimated $60 billion annually from the United States to support their families and the floundering Mexican economy.

How does it help our country to employ people who then ship their earnings out of the country? They don’t spend it in our stores, they don’t pay for their healthcare, and they don’t save for retirement. This is trickle-out economics.

It has been suggested that we impose a 10% excise tax on those wire transfers. My suggestion is more like 25%. That will put a monkey wrench in the Mexican government’s scheme to freeload on our country and encourage illegal border crossing.

The second aspect of the illegal migrants entering our country from Mexico is the people traversing from Mexico’s southern border through their country to enter our country. Mexico is aware the people entering their own country from the worldwide movement have little interest in remaining there because of their dysfunctional national government and rampant lawlessness. If Mexico was really our friend, they would halt all traffic coming through their own southern border and further stop them at other choke points throughout the country. They have made little effort to stop this because their criminal element profits significantly, which then feeds their corrupt regional and national governments.

The second reason to be concerned as to whether Mexico is our friend concerns the drugs coming across our southern border. Forty years ago, we had a serious problem with cocaine and heroin. Those were significant concerns but have become secondary to the much deadlier drug – fentanyl. As bad as the epidemic of cocaine and heroin was, it pales in comparison to fentanyl. Producing and using that drug outside of a proper medical application has virtually no reason to exist other than to kill people and in this case, Americans.

We know the drug is being produced in Mexico even if the raw materials are being created in China. Since Mexico’s current leader (Andrés Manuel López Obrador or “AMLO”) has taken office, there has been an explosion of fentanyl trafficking offenses as they have increased by 950%.

AMLO has once again denied any responsibility or cooperation. “In Mexico, we don’t produce fentanyl,” he told reporters last month, once again pushing back at Washington. He blames the crisis on a lack of family values in the United States that drives people to use the drug. This comes from the man who destroys families in Mexico by shipping residents to the United States and has turned over large portions of his country to criminal operations threatening the safety of every family in large areas of the country which he is sworn to protect.

The amount of fentanyl seized (God knows how much was actually shipped) just in the month of March was 645 million deadly doses. This is causing the death of an average of 196 Americans per day. Every day. If we had an enemy army on our border killing that many Americans, we would certainly not consider them friendly.

Fortunately, a bi-partisan, bicameral group of Congressional members has proposed the Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act of 2023. It calls for not only the intervention of our law enforcement entities but our military to intercede to crush the cartels and their supply lines in Mexico. This should sail through Congress. We have yet to hear from the Biden Administration as to whether they will support this proposed law.

We know AMLO is currently resistant. It might be because he has accounts in Switzerland and/ or the Cayman Islands. He claims it would harm the sovereignty of his country. As if the drug cartels are not harming his sovereignty. Since we have done this intervention with other countries in the past (Colombia) and never taken away any of their sovereignty, his argument rings hollow.

We will soon have a definitive test of whether Mexico is still our friend. As of right now, it is clear to me that we could not have a more clearly defined enemy on our border.

*****

This article was published by Flash Report and is reproduced with permission by the author.

China’s Saboteurs Are Coming to America

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
  • There is now a Chinese invasion of the U.S. homeland.
  • Chinese migrants are entering the United States on foot at the southern border. Almost all are desperate, seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Some, however, are coming to commit acts of sabotage.
  • Many [Chinese], however, are short-circuiting the long waits at the consulates. At the southern border, Chinese migrants are entering the United States in unprecedented numbers.
  • Once here, the military fighters can link up with China’s agents already in place or Chinese diplomats.
  • How many of the PLA fighters have slipped into the United States this way? Some estimate 5,000, others 10,000. Those numbers sound high, but whatever the actual figure more are coming.
  • These are China’s shock troops. The concern is that, on the first day of war in Asia they will take down America’s power lines, poison reservoirs, assassinate officials, start wildfires, spread pathogens, and create terror by bombing shopping malls and supermarkets.
  • The saboteurs will almost certainly attack American military bases. China has already been probing sensitive installations. Chinese agents posing as tourists have, for instance, intruded into bases, including the Army’s Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.
  • “When the Chinese Communist Party starts its war against Taiwan and the United States, Americans should expect that Chinese sleeper agents now in America will hit targets like gas stations and military-age Chinese now crossing our border will be mobilized for assassination attacks and assaults on U.S. military bases.” — Richard Fisher, International Assessment and Strategy Center, to Gatestone, June 17, 2023
  • [T]he next war in Asia will almost certainly be fought on U.S. soil, perhaps on its first day. Unsuspecting Americans will be in the fight.
  • Immigrants make countries strong, and almost all the Chinese migrants crossing the southern border will contribute to American society. Some, however, are coming to wage war on the United States.
How many soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army have slipped into the United States across the southern border? Some estimate 5,000, others 10,000. The concern is that, on the first day of war in Asia they will take down America’s power lines, poison water reservoirs, assassinate officials, start wildfires, spread pathogens, and create terror by bombing shopping malls and supermarkets. Pictured: Migrants, headed for the U.S., travel through the jungle in Darien Province, Panama, on October 13, 2022. (Photo by Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)

There is now a Chinese invasion of the U.S. homeland.

“The jungle is filled with Chinese marching to America,” said war correspondent Michael Yon to Gatestone.

Chinese migrants are entering the United States on foot at the southern border. Almost all are desperate, seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Some, however, are coming to commit acts of sabotage.

China is in a state of distress; gloom pervades Chinese society. Chinese by the hundreds are now patiently waiting for visas in sweltering heat in lines at U.S. consulates in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Many, however, are short-circuiting the long waits at the consulates. At the southern border, Chinese migrants are entering the United States in unprecedented numbers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that the number of apprehensions of Chinese migrants in the first five months of the current federal fiscal year was more than double that during all of the last fiscal year. The 8,000 Chinese migrants apprehended this calendar year are more than quadruple the number apprehended in the comparable period a year ago.

Chinese nationals are flying to Ecuador, which permits them to enter visa-free. They then make their way to the southern edge of the Darien Gap, about 66 miles of jungle separating Colombia and Panama. The migrants cross the natural barrier on foot, and once safely on the north side continue the journey to America, often by bus.

Some Chinese migrants are poor. Many, however, are middle-class. They can afford to pay $35,000 each to Mexican cartels to be smuggled into America.

“It’s like an animal stampede before an earthquake,” said “Sam,” a Chinese migrant who crossed into America first in February at Brownsville, Texas, to Axios.

Some migrants are almost certainly members of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Representative Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said at a press conference on the 14th of this month that a Border Patrol sector chief informed him that some of the Chinese migrants at the southern border have “known ties to the PLA.”

“We have no idea who these people are, and it’s very likely, using Russia’s template of sending military personnel into Ukraine, China is doing the same into the United States,” said Green.

These military-linked migrants, despite their affiliations, have been released into America.

There is no question that China’s PLA is inserting saboteurs through Mexico. “At the Darien Gap, I have seen countless packs of Chinese males of military age, unattached to family groups, and pretending not to understand English,” said Yon, the war correspondent. “They were all headed to the American border.”

“Normally in groups of five to fifteen, they typically emerge from the Darien Gap and spend one night in the U.S.-funded San Vicente Camp, or next door in the Tonosi Hotel, before boarding luxury buses for the trip up Highway 1 toward Costa Rica,” Yon reports. “One group of six young men bought a chicken at the Tonosi Hotel, drank its blood from small glasses, then cooked the chicken themselves in the hotel restaurant, according to the hotel manager. Drinking raw chicken blood is a rite among some PLA soldiers.”

Once here, the military fighters can link up with China’s agents already in place or Chinese diplomats.

How many of the PLA fighters have slipped into the United States this way? Some estimate 5,000, others 10,000. Those numbers sound high, but whatever the actual figure, more are coming.

These are China’s shock troops. The concern is that on the first day of war in Asia they will take down America’s power lines, poison water reservoirs, assassinate officials, start wildfires, spread pathogens, and create terror by bombing shopping malls and supermarkets.

The saboteurs will almost certainly attack American military bases. China has already been probing sensitive installations. Chinese agents posing as tourists have, for instance, intruded into bases, including the Army’s Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska. There, the suspected Chinese agents drove past a base gate and were later apprehended with a drone inside their car.

“Ancient Chinese strategists prized the use of subterfuge and surprise to achieve victory, and the two PLA colonels who wrote Unrestricted Warfare in 1999 were full of praise for the tactics of Osama bin Laden,” Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center told this publication. “When the Chinese Communist Party starts its war against Taiwan and the United States, Americans should expect that Chinese sleeper agents now in America will hit targets like gas stations and military-age Chinese now crossing our border will be mobilized for assassination attacks and assaults on U.S. military bases.”

Therefore, the next war in Asia will almost certainly be fought on U.S. soil, perhaps on its first day. Unsuspecting Americans will be in the fight.

Immigrants make countries strong, and almost all the Chinese migrants crossing the southern border will contribute to American society. Some, however, are coming to wage war on the United States.

*****

This article was published by the Gatestone Institute and is reproduced with permission.