White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki struggled to answer questions from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Wednesday about President Joe Biden’s border crisis, including whether Biden has ever even been to the southern border.

“Just following up on this very basic, but very important question, you’re telling us that the DHS chief has the most recent numbers about how many of these Haitians under the bridge have been sent back and how many have been released into the U.S.,” Doocy said. “The DHS chief is telling us that he doesn’t know. So, who else can we ask?”

“You can certainly ask the Department of Homeland Security,” Psaki said.

“The chief says he doesn’t know,” Doocy responded.

“I am confident he wanted to have the most up-to-date numbers, and we will venture to get you those, I promise you, this afternoon,” Psaki claimed.

WATCH:

DOOCY TIME: “You’re telling us that the DHS chief has the most recent numbers about how many of these Haitians….have been sent back and how many have been released into the U.S. The DHS chief is telling us he doesn’t know, so who else can we ask?” pic.twitter.com/4rRipqGIbJ

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 22, 2021

“Is this an issue of not knowing, or is this an issue of a lot more people are being released into the U.S. than are being sent out?” Doocy pressed.

“That is certainly not the issue,” Psaki claimed without evidence. “First, I think it’s important to reiterate what I conveyed earlier about what the actual process is: Individuals are expelled under Title 42. If they can’t be expelled under Title 42, they are put into a removal process. If they’re put into a removal process, they’re either transported to an ICE facility or released with a legal document. That legal document includes fingerprints, photos, phone numbers, an address in the United States, and a background check.”

WATCH:

Doocy: “Is this an issue of not knowing or is this an issue of a lot more people are being released into the U.S. then are being sent out?”

Psaki: “That is certainly not the issue.” pic.twitter.com/8mpjikTv7n

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 22, 2021

“Has President Biden ever been to the southern border?” Doocy pressed.

“In his life?” Psaki asked.

“Yes,” Doocy answered.

“I will have to get — look back in my history books and check the times he’s been to the southern border. I’d be happy to,” Psaki claimed.

“We have been looking all morning, and we cannot find any record of him visiting the border as president, vice president, senator, or even as a concerned citizen,” Doocy responded. “Why would that be?”

“I can check and see when the last time or when he may have been,” Psaki claimed.

WATCH:

Doocy with the question of the day: “Has President Biden ever been to the southern border…We have been looking all morning and we can not find any record of him visiting the border as President, Vice President, senator, or even as a concerned citizen. Why would that be?” pic.twitter.com/JJF5NasUy6

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 22, 2021

“But tell me more about why you’re asking,” Psaki continued.

“Because this is a president who makes a point when there are disasters in this country, like a wildfire or a hurricane, to go and see for himself firsthand what the needs are of the local community so that he can have an informed POV to make policy,” Doocy answered. “Why doesn’t he do that — why doesn’t he go down to Del Rio, Texas, and see what’s going on?”

“Well, first of all, Peter, I think the situation at the border is the result of a broken system,” Psaki claimed. “And the president certainly relies on his experience.”

Psaki claimed that Biden relies on “all of his experiences and his time in office” to deal with the problem, even though she could not name a single time that Biden has ever been to the border.

WATCH:

Doocy: “This is a President who makes a point when there are disasters in this country, like a wildfire or hurricane…so that he can have an informed POV to make policy. Why doesn’t he do that? Why doesn’t he go down to Dell Rio, Texas and see what’s going on?” (6/6) pic.twitter.com/fFj04LkTA9

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 22, 2021

WATCH: Fox News Reporter Peter Doocy Grills Psaki Over Key Issues Related To Biden’s Border Crisis | The Daily Wire

Move comes as Biden administration faces an influx of illegal immigrants in Del Rio, Tex.

The Biden administration is tapping a left-wing attorney who has publicly endorsed sanctuary laws for illegal aliens to serve as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s top prosecutor, according to an internal memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

ICE announced the hiring of Kerry Doyle, a longtime partner at the Boston-based law firm Graves & Doyle, as the agency’s new principal legal adviser, a role that oversees 25 field locations and 1,250 attorneys. The office serves as ICE’s representative in all removal proceedings and litigates cases against illegal aliens and terrorists. 

“Throughout her legal practice in Boston, Ms. Doyle worked closely with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and Massachusetts Law Reform Institute providing technical assistance and public testimony and various immigration-related policy issues before the state legislature and Boston City Council,” the ICE memo reads. 

A spokesman for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Doyle’s appointment comes as the Biden administration faces an influx of Haitian refugees, who are overrunning the border city of Del Rio, Texas. After reversing a bevy of Trump-era immigration rules, an uptick in illegal migration across the Southern border has strained resources and presented a political problem for the president, who repudiated Trump’s hardline approach to policing the border but risks political blowback from an influx of illegal residents. 

Doyle’s LinkedIn profile spotlights her work as co-counsel in a case that pushed for — and won — a temporary restraining order against then-president Donald Trump’s 2017 travel ban. The attorney also spoke in favor of a Massachusetts bill called the “Safe Communities Act” in early 2020 arguing that ICE was “out of control.” . The measure would have applied sanctuary city laws nationwide and sharply limited the state’s cooperation with the federal government on the deportation of illegal immigrants.

“The Safe Communities Act limits state cooperation … [with ICE]: don’t ask about immigration status; don’t pay for sheriffs to act as ICE agents; tell people their rights,” a description of the bill by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts reads. In June, Doyle told a local news outlet that the state must pass the bill, saying state Democrats should not trust “the Biden administration’s more supportive tone as an excuse not to do what our state needs to do.”

Doyle, who did not respond to a request for comment, has also helped represent illegal aliens convicted of crimes in the past. In March, she filed a petition with ACLU Massachusetts to release two criminal aliens with medical conditions, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. Doyle’s name has since been scrubbed from her previous law firm’s website.

One of President Joe Biden’s first executive orders in office was to suspend arrests, deportations, and investigations of most criminal aliens for 100 days. Deportations under Biden have hit a record low. U.S. immigration judges ordered just 25,000 deportations by the end of August, compared to 152,000 in August 2020. The total number of cases completed by immigration courts are at a 28-year low, even as Border Patrol apprehensions hit a 21-year high. 

Doyle will succeed John Trasviña, who assumed the role in January. 

Biden Taps ‘Sanctuary City’ Supporter To Oversee ICE Prosecutions (freebeacon.com)

Even when President Joe Biden tries to get the situation under control at the border, things still seem to spiral out of hand.

Last week, after letting a camp of mostly Haitian migrants build up at the border in Del Rio, Texas, the Biden administration ordered the prompt removal of the illegal immigrants back to their country of origin. According to The Associated Press, there would be seven expulsion flights planned daily beginning Wednesday.

Three flights Sunday carried over 320 migrants back to their country of origin after they crossed the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

Roughly 3,300 migrants were moved from the Del Rio camp between Friday until Sunday, according to the AP, which cited Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz. Of the 12,600 migrants that remained, Border Patrol hoped to have 3,000 of them removed in another day and the encampment gone within one week.

This was at least a sign that the Biden administration was trying to get the situation under control, even if the migrant camp in Del Rio was more of a symptom of a larger problem than the problem itself. However, even in the decision to remove the migrants from the camp and return them to Haiti, there was another sign of the administration’s inability to handle the crisis: A transport bus was overtaken by illegal immigrants about to be deported.

According to the Washington Examiner, a bus bound for San Antonio, Texas, from the Del Rio International Bridge was hijacked by migrants on Monday afternoon during the two-and-a-half hour trip on the contracted private vehicle. Several migrants then escaped from the bus, although they were later taken back into custody

“They did break out of the bus, and they did escape,” a senior law enforcement official told the Examiner.

Brownsville, Texas-based KVEO-TV, reported Monday evening that “several non-citizens attempted to flee the contracted bus.”

All individuals who escaped were back in custody as of 7:15 p.m. No one was hurt.

SOURCES: Haitian migrants revolt while in custody and seize control of privately contracted bus, escape federal custody https://t.co/uDr5hWZidg

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) September 21, 2021

The bus was under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, WVEO reported.

“The safety of our personnel and the people in our custody is of utmost priority, the … noncitizens are all back in our custody,” an ICE representative told the outlet.

This is probably something the administration should be defending itself over. Instead, it’s focused on investigating a wildly false accusation that Border Patrol agents on horseback have been using whips on Haitian migrants.

Border patrol is mounted on horseback rounding up Haitian refugees with whips.

This is unfathomable cruelty towards people fleeing disaster and political ruin. The administration must stop this. pic.twitter.com/BSjT91NSj0

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 20, 2021

Border Agents Furious After What Kamala Harris Said About Them

This is Sawyer Hackett, executive director of former Obama-era Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro’s political action committee People Future First.

Vice News also ran a story titled “US Border Agents Are Removing Haitian Migrants Using Horses and Whips.”

Some outlets ran a version of the story in which the agents were using lassos, instead. None of this was true, naturally; the pictures show horse reins flying, not whips cracking.

But never mind that. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the images  “obviously horrific,” according to a White House transcript of Tuesday’s news briefing.

WH Secretary Jen Psaki on footage appearing to show border patrol agents using whips against Haitian migrants coming into the United States from Mexico: “I have seen some of the footage. I don’t have the full context. I can’t imagine what context would make that appropriate.” pic.twitter.com/83O2bjZCyp

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 20, 2021

“I have seen some of the footage. I don’t have the full context,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a media briefing on Monday.

“I can’t imagine what context would make that appropriate, but I don’t have additional details … I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate.”

Except the footage Psaki is so worried about is being grossly misinterpreted and the country is having a national debate over something that never happened. Vice President Kamala Harris called the images “horrible” and wants a “thorough investigation,” as the Daily Caller reported.

Meanwhile, Haitian migrants hijacking an ICE-contracted bus passes by with almost no notice whatsoever. Oh, our media seem to be saying, they commandeered the transport that was taking them to the airport for deportation? Well, gosh — all’s well that ends well, right? Let’s talk about that Border Patrol agent again. Now, if you look at those reins in just the right light, it could be a lasso, right?

According to a New York Post report, over 6,000 Haitians had been removed from the encampment between Sunday and Tuesday. Given there were nearly 15,000 migrants at the camp at its height, that still means there’s plenty of work to be done.

The administration will be lucky if it doesn’t end up with another bus hijacking like this one. God forbid it turns out to be worse.

Then, the media might start asking questions that don’t have to do with chimerical Border Patrol agents with whips on horseback.

Biden’s Border Crisis Explodes as Haitian Migrants Take Control of ICE Transport Bus (westernjournal.com)

Border Patrol agents who were insulted by Vice President Kamala Harris following erroneous reporting from the establishment media have fired back to defend themselves, with one of them calling those who run our country — people such as Harris — “idiots.”

Leftist Democrats and corporate media liars don’t know an awful lot about rural life, law enforcement or horses, among other things which are so common for many Americans. They certainly, most of them anyway, don’t know anything about corralling a horse with reins in a high-stress situation.

Naturally, when these people saw viral images of Border Patrol agents on horseback on Monday, they arrived at the absolute worst conclusion possible: Cops were out in the desert whipping Haitian migrants.

Reuters apparently knew better, so the agency’s social media managers resorted to using language which was intended to deceive people. A harmless horse rein was called a “whip-like cord” in a headline used by the wire service.

The White House criticized the use of horse reins to threaten Haitian migrants after images circulated of a U.S. border guard on horseback charging at migrants near a riverside camp in Texas https://t.co/g6x1sHyCt6

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 21, 2021

Brandon Darby, a Breitbart News reporter who has spent years covering drug cartels and illegal immigration in Texas, assisted those who could not understand what they were seeing in the viral images that sent the establishment media into its predictable meltdown.

“Let me help you be more accurate. First photo appears to show Border Patrol using ‘whip-like cord’ on migrant. Second photo of same event shows it’s just the horse reins slinging around and agent is not whipping migrant,” Darby tweeted.

Let me help you be more accurate. First photo appears to show Border Patrol using “whip-like cord” on migrant. Second photo of same event shows it’s just the horse reins slinging around and agent is not whipping migrant. pic.twitter.com/wfFB2Dgweg

— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) September 21, 2021

Harris apparently never saw the message. She did revert to the standard Democratic Party line which is used any time not all the facts are in, but law enforcement is involved in controversy: She attacked embattled police officers, and said she was “troubled” by their inhumane behavior.

“What I saw depicted about those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were is horrible, and I fully support what is happening right now, which is a thorough investigation,” she said on Tuesday. “Human beings should never be treated that way.”

VP HARRIS: “What I saw depicted about those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were is horrible…Human beings should never be treated that way.”

“…As a member of the Western Hemisphere, we’ve gotta support some very basic needs…” pic.twitter.com/Q8l5S6W8gi

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 21, 2021

What an absolute halfwit. Is it really any wonder that people don’t like this woman? At least her take wasn’t as bad as that of CNN contributor and former FBI agent Asha Rangappa:

Kamala Harris Exposes Idiocy of COVID Narrative, Says Vaccinated People Need Protection

Let’s start at the beginning. *takes deep breath*

Who issued…whips. To Border Patrol. 😑 https://t.co/GrkMKGfVoh

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 21, 2021

Some of our country’s fine border enforcement people fired back at Harris and her establishment media comrades to correct the record. Upset Border Patrol agents who have been working 10 hours a day, six days a week to protect a border Harris refuses to do anything about explained the situation to Fox News.

Undersupplied and outmanned, agents have resorted to using horses to get around. This is because as many as 15,000 illegal aliens have descended on Del Rio, Texas, thanks in large part to Harris.

“This whole situation is blowing up and even liberals are turning on this administration,” one unnamed Border Patrol agent told the network. “[Harris] is placing blame on agents to deflect because she and Biden are not going to change how they are handling this.”

Another agent who remained anonymous said the dustup “proves what absolute idiots [those in charge] are.”

“With basic knowledge and two brain cells, anyone knows those agents use split reins. They do use them as a whip, on their horses,” that agent added. “This helps get a quicker response from the horse to move out when needed, especially when the horse may be hesitant with groups of people or other animals.”

“Again it is clear that those ‘in charge,’ a term that is disgusting to use, have no clue about our operations and frankly operate by ignorance and unhinged emotions,” the agent concluded.

Harris, in all fairness, probably doesn’t know a great deal about horses. We know she doesn’t know a lot about policing — which, if this were anyone else, would come as a surprise. She was once California’s top law enforcement agent as the state’s former attorney general, after all.

Of course, if she ever wanted to educate herself about policing, or even horses, there are probably lots of people who would be more than willing to show her the ropes down at the southern border. She would even be in a position to solve a crisis or two while there.

Border Agents Furious After What Kamala Harris Said About Them (westernjournal.com)

Border Patrol agents say they have uncovered part of a human smuggling operation in Texas after discovering illegal immigrants packed into a hotel room.

As part of the investigation, Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents found that illegal immigrants were using a storm drain to illegally cross the border and slip into Edinburg, Texas, according to a news release posted on the Customs and Border Protection website.

The investigation began on Friday with a tip that illegal immigrants were being warehoused in one room at a local hotel, according to the release.

When agents went to see what was going on, “agents observed two individuals enter the suspect room carrying several jugs of water and groceries. Their ongoing surveillance identified other factors indicating that the room was being used to harbor migrants.”

The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office then used its authority to conduct a welfare check and found 16 people in the small hotel room.

#HumanSmugglers #Texas
Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings: Hotels near Highway 281 used for illicit activities!

RGV agents and Hidalgo County Seriff’s Office arrested 16 migrants, who claimed they were held for nearly 30 days by human smugglers. pic.twitter.com/0FWnpHGFMf

— RawNews1st🎥📰 (@Raw_News1st) September 21, 2021

The group, made up of illegal immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico, said they had been parked in the room for almost 30 days, the news release stated.

The next day, McAllen Border Patrol Station agents watching a storm drain in Hidalgo, Texas, saw several people emerging from it.

In cooperation with the Hidalgo Police Department, seven people, including one unaccompanied child, were arrested.  The illegal immigrants were from Honduras and Mexico, the release said.

But the day was not over. That night, four illegal immigrants, from Mexico and Honduras, were arrested after popping out of the storm drain.

Border Patrol agents have been dealing with a spike in human smuggling ever since President Joe Biden took office, especially in the Rio Grande Valley.

A tip from the community led Weslaco agents to a human smuggling stash house in McAllen, TX, resulting in the apprehension of 10 migrants.

In Hidalgo, TX, agents encountered a group of 147 migrants. This is RGV’s 60th large group of 100 or more people smuggled this year. pic.twitter.com/jBDmrrgg9R

— Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) June 14, 2021

Top House Republicans Demand Nadler Take This Action on Biden Border Crisis ‘Immediately’

The flood of illegal immigrants into the U.S. during the Biden presidency was the subject of biting commentary from two Fox News hosts.

“Imagine we shipped thousands and thousands of migrants into Delaware and they’re fishing on the bay or they’re riding Amtrak, packed in unvaxxed, with little English and no skills,” Jesse Watters, co-host of “The Five, ” said Monday as he noted that Biden is insulated from the reality taking place along the border in Texas.

“Where are they going to live? In tents? Are they going to live on the beach? Are we going to put them in starter homes? You’ll have to double every classroom size of every public school district. You’re going to have to raise taxes to pay for the social services,” he said.

“Hannity” host Sean Hannity echoed the thoughts Monday night.

“Biden’s border crisis is worse than ever: Seven months after it started and eight months after he lifted nearly all of President Trump’s border protections,” he said.

“President Trump gifted President Biden with a secure border. But Joe screwed it up,” Hannity said.

Border Patrol Makes Disturbing Discovery Inside Hotel After Receiving Tip (westernjournal.com)

DHS plan calls for hundreds of agents to be reassigned to deal with influx from Haiti

The Department of Homeland Security’s plan to send hundreds of Border Patrol agents to Del Rio, Texas, is leaving large swaths of the U.S.-Mexico border wide open, according to interviews with officials from both agencies.

In response to the surge of mostly Haitian nationals swarming the southern border, DHS committed to moving “400 [Customs and Border Protection] agents and officers” to the Del Rio sector in order to accelerate processing and deportations. DHS will not disclose where those extra agents are coming from, although one Border Patrol agent who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon said DHS requested 30 agents from his outpost in the southwest to be transferred to Del Rio. The plan threatens to exacerbate the existing border crisis in other parts of the country.

“We’re already so stretched thin,” the individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. “This puts so much more strain on our normal border patrol work.”

A spokesman for CBP said he did not have an exact breakdown of where officers would be coming from and referred the Free Beacon to a public memo from DHS, which laid out its “new comprehensive strategy to address the increase in migrant encounters in the Del Rio Sector of South Texas.” The effort to address the 13,000 and growing migrants in Del Rio comes at the cost of leaving hundreds of miles along the U.S.-Mexico border unpatrolled, said one senior DHS official. Another official went on to say that the agency is already creating “processing facilities on the fly,” distracting staff from anti-cartel and other security operations.

The official went on to blame the Biden administration’s decision to exempt most migrant families from Title 42—a Centers for Disease Control power that allows the U.S. government to turn away migrants before they can apply for asylum. 

“Releasing families on notices to appear [before an immigration judge] is pretty much telling them to go back and kidnap someone, grab a bunch of kids, or lie about any random person with you being your family,” the official said. “It’s just extremely stupid.”

Bruno Lozano, the Democratic mayor of Del Rio, is pleading with the Biden administration to do more to curb the influx of migrants into his town. 

“This is something that really needs to be brought to light,” the mayor said in a statement posted on Twitter. “We need quick action from the administration. We need quick attention to this. We need a response in real-time.”

In his statement, Lozano emphasized the potential security and health threats caused by the thousands of migrants. A Sept. 10 Report released by the DHS inspector general criticized the Biden administration for the lack of disease safety protocols, including the fact that only migrants who show symptoms of illness are tested for COVID-19. 

More than 1.5 million migrants have crossed the southern border in 2021. The month of July saw the most migrant encounters in more than two decades. August saw 208,887 encounters, a slight dip from the previous month but still a 317 percent increase from August 2020.

DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to Del Rio on Monday and told migrants that the U.S. border, contrary to the beliefs of many attempting to cross into the country, is not open. 

“I want to make sure that it is known that this is not the way to come to the United States. That is false information,” Mayorkas said. “Irregular migration poses a serious security risk to the migrants themselves. Trying to enter the United States illegally is not worth the tragedy, the money, or the effort.”

Biden’s Scramble to Control Del Rio Crisis Leaves Large Border Sections Unguarded (freebeacon.com)

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to Del Rio, Texas, on Monday to address the recent crossing of the southern border by thousands of mostly-Haitian migrants, but refused to say the border is in crisis.

Townhall reporter Julio Rosas published a video on Twitter that included a portion of Mayorkas’ remarks, with a reference to comments Mayorkas made that were leaked to a Fox News correspondent in August.

“I asked Sec. Mayorkas if he will publicly admit the situation at the border is a crisis since he was recorded last month privately admitting there is a crisis and it’s unsustainable,” Rosas wrote.

“He did not, instead saying DHS is focused on ‘meeting the challenge.’”

I asked Sec. Mayorkas if he will publicly admit the situation at the border is a crisis since he was recorded last month privately admitting there is a crisis and it’s unsustainable.

He did not, instead saying DHS is focused on “meeting the challenge.” pic.twitter.com/TmYoxUaqsM

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 20, 2021

Mayorkas arrived in Del Rio earlier on Monday, when he visited the migrant camp under the Del Rio International Bridge where approximately 12,000 people remained after the Rio Grande crossing was closed on Sunday.

BREAKING: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is on the ground here in Del Rio. He just flew into the international bridge area via helicopter. He is now getting a tour of the migrant camp and is receiving an operational update. He will then have a press conference. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ToZ38uBbWc

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 20, 2021

In a video Rosas published to Twitter on Sunday, Del Rio Mayor Bruce Lozano, a Democrat, said he has still not heard from President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.

“He feels the White House needs to be transparent about the border crisis in real time,” Rosas wrote with the video.

Del Rio Mayor Lozano (D) says he still has not heard directly from Biden or Harris after getting a briefing with DHS Sec. Mayorkas today.

He feels the White House needs to be transparent about the border crisis in real time. pic.twitter.com/AdGOMHxNDH

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 19, 2021

The remarks by Mayorkas followed a visit to Del Rio on Friday by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Being briefed by @CBP on the escalating #BidenBorderCrisis while yards away from over 10,000 illegal aliens,” Cruz wrote in a Twitter post.

“This is a manmade disaster. And it is a direct result of Joe Biden’s political decisions,” Cruz said.

Being briefed by @CBP on the escalating #BidenBorderCrisis while yards away from over 10,000 illegal aliens.

This is a manmade disaster. And it is a direct result of Joe Biden’s political decisions. pic.twitter.com/gLUFq4LTjw

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) September 17, 2021

“Joe Biden’s policies are encouraging this staggering rush of illegal aliens,” Cruz wrote in a separate Twitter post on Thursday.

Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security Refuses to Admit There Is a Border Crisis (westernjournal.com)

Democratic Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano has called out President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to make an appearance at his town as it battles with an overwhelming illegal immigrant crisis that has left Border Patrol agents struggling to process thousands of people.

More than 15,000 illegal immigrants, including Haitian, Cuban, and Venezuelan nationals, have illegally entered the United States in recent days and taken shelter underneath the border bridge connecting Del Rio, a Texas town of about 35,000 people, to Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

While numerous official figures and congressmen, including Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have visited the town, shared images, and urged the Biden administration to take action, both Biden and Harris have been noticeably absent.

Del Rio now: US on the left, Mexico on the right.
Constant stream back and forth as the illegal immigrants get supplies in Mexico.

Law enforcement preparing against a rush for the border fence as the aliens find out they might be deported. pic.twitter.com/TgxK5Sdrv1

— Charlotte Cuthbertson (@charlottecuthbo) September 18, 2021

On Sept.18, as Pfluger warned that the situation has “reached boiling point,” Harris made an appearance at Howard University where she led a coin toss at the university’s football event.

Questioning why the vice president, who in March was tasked with handling the border crisis, had not yet visited Del Rio, Lozano asked on Twitter on Saturday, “The VP is able to visit the fun events across the country, while American communities continue to grapple with failed immigration reform. Where is the visit to Del Rio, TX?”

In a separate post alongside aerial footage showing thousands of immigrants surrounding the overcrowded bridge in makeshift tents, the mayor wrote, “We need you to visit Del Rio, Texas.”

Lozano also responded to a Twitter post shared by Harris on Saturday that read, “The U.S. is falling behind, on a global scale, on investing in childcare. We invest fewer public dollars in early childhood education and care relative to GDP than almost all other developed countries. With our Build Back Better Agenda, @POTUS and I are determined to change that.”

Questioning Harris and Biden’s failure to visit Del Rio again, he asked, “The US is failing to protect its borders. Why aren’t you here? @POTUS.”

The Del Rio Mayor also engaged the president, responding to a Twitter post that Biden shared on Saturday regarding his plan not to raise takes for anyone making under $400,000 a year.

Lozano replied, “The President has a plan for taxes. Where is the plan to protect our southern border?”

The mayor also asked Biden directly, “Where is your plan to protect American communities at the southern border? I spoke to Governor Abbott today. We have developed a temporary plan, we’d like to see yours.”

On Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it will start expelling adult male illegal immigrants who have entered the United States at Del Rio. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told Fox News that single adult men will be expelled under the federal government’s Title 42 rule.

However, most family units who have crossed the border illegally will be processed and released into the United States with a notice to appear in an immigration court.

Ortiz said at a Sept. 19 news conference that deportation flights sending some illegal immigrants back to Haiti have already begun.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.

Del Rio Mayor Calls Out Biden, Harris for Failing to Visit Border in Crisis: ‘Why Aren’t You Here?’ (theepochtimes.com)

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Sunday ruled that Democrats can’t include in their $3.5 trillion spending bill a provision aimed to give millions of illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.

MacDonough in her guidance said that the Democrats’ provision is “by any standard a broad, new immigration policy,” and that it does not meet the stringent requirements of what can be included in the budget resolution.

“The policy changes of this proposal far outweigh the budgetary impact scored to it and it is not appropriate for inclusion in reconciliation,” she wrote, referring to a parliamentary procedure that allows certain budget bills to pass through the deliberative upper chamber with only a simple majority, bypassing a likely filibuster by opponents altogether.

First used by Congress in 1980, the process allows for expedited consideration of certain tax, spending, and debt-limit legislation. Ultimately, what is allowed under this process is up to MacDonough, whose job it is to protect independent due process.

Earlier this month, Democrats proposed to include in their plan immigration reform measures that would grant amnesty to four groups of nearly 8 million illegal immigrants—former President Barack Obama “Dreamers,” temporary protected status (TPS) holders, agricultural laborers, and essential workers, among others.

“Dreamers” entered the United States illegally as children and were granted amnesty under Obama’s controversial executive order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

In a statement, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats were “deeply disappointed in this decision but the fight to provide lawful status for immigrants in budget reconciliation continues.”

Schumer added that Senate Democrats have prepared alternate proposals and hope to schedule additional meetings with MacDonough.

In a statement, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) described Democrats’ provision as “inappropriate” and “radical,” adding that he is “glad it failed.”

“Senate rules never contemplated a majority circumventing the filibuster by pretending that sweeping and transformational new policies were mere budgetary changes. Tonight’s ruling confirms that principle,” he said.

“Democrats will not be able to stuff their most radical amnesty proposals into the reckless taxing and spending spree they are assembling behind closed doors,” McConnell added. “This just illustrates how radical Democrats’ aspirations are and how unmoored their far-left wish list has become from the procedures they want to use to ram it through.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

Budget Provision by Democrats to Grant Amnesty to 8 Million Illegal Immigrants Blocked (theepochtimes.com)

Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) is sounding alarm after after spending a day in the border town of Del Rio, Texas, where the illegal immigrants crisis, he said, “has reached a boiling point.”

Pfluger posted on Twitter new photos showing the makeshift campsite full of individuals who illegally entered the United States and took shelter underneath the border bridge connecting Del Rio to Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. He noted that there the crowd has grown to 15,000 on Saturday from 12,000 just the day before, with “hundreds more gathering every hour.”

Devastating scenes from Del Rio today.

I’ve talked to local leaders and seasoned law enforcement officers—the number 1 thing I’m hearing is this the worst they have ever seen it.

Where is the Administration? What is it going to take to get @POTUS and @VP‘s attention on this? pic.twitter.com/W8sOzZ4rk8

— Rep. August Pfluger (@RepPfluger) September 18, 2021

“Most were military aged males between the ages of 18-35. The majority of migrants were Haitian, but I talked to migrants from 6-7 countries including Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras, and more,” he wrote.

According to Pfluger, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have been overwhelmed by the influx of illegal crossings, as undeterred migrants were “being pushed over the border.” The CBP has already closed the port in Del Rio, making Eagle Pass, which is located 60 miles southeast, the nearest port of entry.

“400 more CBP agents are being sent to Del Rio and CBP is utilizing flights to repatriate Haitians back to their home country, but based on what’s happening on the ground, this is not nearly enough to tamper the chaotic situation,” he added. “This crisis has reached a boiling point—Del Rio officials are not equipped to handle nearly 15,000 migrants pouring into their community.”

Pfluger’s visit comes as Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano called out President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, demanding that they pay attention to what is happening in his town.

Harris, who in March was tasked with handling the border crisis, on Saturday made an appearance at Howard University, where she led a coin toss at the university’s football event.

“The VP is able to visit the fun events across the country, while American communities continue to grapple with failed immigration reform. Where is the visit to Del Rio, TX?” Lozano, a Democrat, commented on Harris’ post of her coin toss.

He also responded to another post by Harris where she said, “The U.S. is falling behind, on a global scale, on investing in childcare. We invest fewer public dollars in early childhood education and care relative to GDP than almost all other developed countries. With our Build Back Better Agenda, @POTUS and I are determined to change that.”

“The US is failing to protect its borders. Why aren’t you here? @POTUS,” Lozano wrote.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has urged President Joe Biden to deploy the National Guard to help deal with the illegal immigrant surge along the southern border, insisting the situation is a national security crisis and blaming the Biden administration for a “failed response.”

McCarthy made the remarks in a Sept. 17 statement that came as thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Haiti, were congregating under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas while they await processing by Border Patrol.

“The Biden Administration must recognize this for what it is: A National Security Crisis. As such he must fully deploy the National Guard to the southern border to help our Border Patrol agents with more resources to control the situation,” the Republican leader said.

“Recently, over 10,000 migrants have surged to the border in Del Rio. It is no coincidence this is happening as Democrats in Congress are moving to pass legislation that would grant immediate citizenship for up to 10 million illegal immigrants. This is a wakeup call to Democrats that their policies are putting American lives in danger and must be abandoned,” McCarthy said.

The number of individuals gathering at the Del Rio bridge has skyrocketed in less a week, from only a couple of hundred on Sept. 9 to around 9,000 by Sept. 16, according to Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez. Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano confirmed that another 20,000 are on their way.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who on Thursday traveled to the border, called the scenes at the Del Rio bridge “the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen.”

“There are right now, as we’re speaking, there are 10,503 people under that bridge. It is packed in as a mass of humanity,” Cruz said. “They take your breath away because it just goes on and on and on—infants, little children, people struggling enormously.”

Being briefed by @CBP on the escalating #BidenBorderCrisis while yards away from over 10,000 illegal aliens.

This is a manmade disaster. And it is a direct result of Joe Biden’s political decisions. pic.twitter.com/gLUFq4LTjw

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) September 17, 2021

Cruz, too, blamed the Biden administration for the situation and called for deportation flights to Haiti to resume.

“It’s a political decision that Joe Biden could end tonight by simply following the law and saying we’re going to send people back to Haiti, which is what federal immigration law requires,” Cruz said.

The Biden administration paused deportation flights to Haiti after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated the country on Aug. 14. There has been media speculation that the Biden administration was working on plans to start deporting people back to Haiti, though these reports remain without official confirmation. The Associated Press cited anonymous administration officials as saying that deportation flights were to resume next week, while NBC News cited internal documents to that effect.

More than 50 Democrat lawmakers urged Biden in a Sept. 16 letter (pdf) to extend the deportation pause indefinitely “for noncitizens who pose no threats to public safety or national security.”

The mayor of Del Rio said that it’s not clear who the illegal immigrants are and that he is concerned about security.

“I’m deeply frustrated. The thing that I worry about is a stampede. The thing I worry about is terrorism,” Lozano said, adding, “We don’t really know who they are.”

The United States recorded more than 208,000 illegal immigrant arrests at the border in August, one of the highest months on record. Under the Biden administration, the country is on pace to set records for the highest number of fiscal year and calendar year encounters.

Charlotte Cuthbertson and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

McCarthy Calls for National Guard to Help Cope With Del Rio Illegal Immigrant Surge (theepochtimes.com)

The Biden administration ban on drones at the new epicenter of the border crisis may not be legal, according to Senate Republicans.

The Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, imposed on Thursday the no-fly-zone for drones and other unmanned aircraft in Del Rio, Texas, where thousands of illegal immigrants have amassed.

“I believe that the reason that they’re limiting drone usage is because they don’t want the American public to know, and I think this is illegal,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on “Fox & Friends.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) also questioned the drone ban, which he said has grounded drones that were being used by news organizations to cover the border crisis.

“Any government stifling of First Amendment activities is unacceptable,” Johnson wrote to Troy Miller, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The ban was imposed on the same day that Fox News flew a drone in the area and captured aerial footage of the immigrants.

The FAA said in announcing the ban that it was driven by “special security reasons.” Johnson asked what those reasons were. The agency told The Epoch Times in an email that Border Patrol requested the restrictions “due to drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border.” Johnson asked for more details on the alleged interference.

Other Republicans also questioned the ban, including Reps. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Brian Babin (R-Texas), and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.).

“The FAA’s conveniently placed a ban on drones flying over the international bridge where [10,000 plus] illegal aliens are waiting to be processed—preventing media from covering the scene,” Babin wrote on Twitter.

President Joe Biden “doesn’t want you to see what a disaster he’s created,” he added.

CBP and the White House did not respond to early morning requests for comment. The FAA declined to say under what authority the agency issued the flight zone restrictions.

The White House did not hold a briefing on Friday and Biden traveled to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for the weekend without speaking to reporters. He has no public events scheduled.

The FAA said Friday in a statement that Fox applied for and received clearance to operate drones in the restricted airspace and directed any other media organizations wanting to apply for exemptions to the restrictions to its website.

“As with any temporary flight restriction, media is able to call the FAA to make requests to see if it is possible to safely operate in the area,” the agency told The Epoch Times.

While Fox’s drones were still grounded, correspondent Bill Melugin went up in a helicopter with the Texas Department of Public Safety and recorded fresh aerial video footage and photographs.

‘This Is Illegal’: Republicans Question Biden Administration’s Ban of Drones at Epicenter of Border Crisis (theepochtimes.com)

The border crisis got ratcheted up another notch this week as a bridge connecting Mexico to south Texas has become the focal point of another massive influx of migrants.

According to a Friday Reuters report, over 10,000 individuals — mostly Haitians, but also Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans — had set up a camp underneath the Del Rio International Bridge in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

“More migrants were expected after long and harrowing journeys through Mexico and Central and South America,” Reuters’ Alexandra Ulmer reported. “Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border said most of the migrants were Haitians.”

It was unclear what prompted the sudden rush of Haitian migrants to the border, although the country has been hit with a 7.2 magnitude earthquake and a new round of political instability after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July.

Del Rio, Texas Mayor Bruno Lozano said more than 2,000 migrants arrived on Thursday, driving the number from 8,200 to 10,503 in a matter of hours.

“Most of the migrants at the camp appeared to be men, but women nursing or carrying kids also could be seen,” Reuters reported.

By Friday, The New York Times reported, the number had increased to an estimated 14,000.

If you want to really get an idea of how bad things are, take a look from the sky:

SHOCKING report just now from @BillFOXLA on Fox.

Our border is *wide-open*

This is BIDEN’S border crisis. pic.twitter.com/QgcEbV8ZFv

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 17, 2021

Fox News’ Bill Melugin took a helicopter over the encampment on the Mexico side and found many of the migrants weren’t waiting for Border Patrol agents to process them.

Instead, they were crossing the Rio Grande on their own.

“This is non-stop, guys,” Melugin said. “This is a non-stop trail of migrants who are crossing the Rio Grande in multiple areas here.”

“This is a steady line of hundreds of people … that is a steady trail of hundreds of people crossing from Mexico as we speak right now, arriving into the United States illegally. Wow. That is a lot of people.”

Melugin also said he’d been “noticing … these folks are allowed to go back and forth between the United States and Mexico. There are no Border Patrol agents down there. There are no immigration agents on the Mexican side.

“It almost looks like it’s a water park down there. People are playing in the water, just going back and forth between the United States [and Mexico].”

Unfortunately, the Six Flags-style atmosphere has real-world consequences, particularly given the illegal immigration numbers we’ve seen over the last few months.

According to Customs and Border Protection numbers released this week, Border Patrol apprehensions in August totaled 208,887. CBP noted that this represented “a 2 percent drop compared to July.” That’s no great shakes, considering the number in July was 212,672. Also, compared to the number of apprehensions in August of 2019 and 2020 — 62,707 and 50,014 respectively, according to ABC News — it appears the border crisis is showing no signs of abating.

The apprehension numbers were considerably higher than earlier in the year, as well — even though President Joe Biden himself claimed in March that those earlier numbers, already high, were caused by a seasonal surge in illegal immigration during the winter months.

“There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March. It happens every year,” Biden said during a news conference. “The reason they’re coming is that it’s the time they can travel with the least likelihood of dying on the way because of the heat in the desert.”

Apparently, migrants didn’t get that message, because they’re coming in record numbers — and the Haitians at the Del Rio International Bridge could mean September’s numbers are even higher.

CBP said they were increasing their numbers at the border crossing to deal with the surge.

Law enforcement source on the ground at the bridge this morning just sent me this video showing the situation there. I’m told a large majority of the migrants are Haitians and more are crossing into the US and arriving at the bridge by the minute. BP w/ limited manpower @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/dHWCrhFikq

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 16, 2021

“The Border Patrol is increasing its manpower in the Del Rio Sector and coordinating efforts within DHS and other relevant federal, state and local partners to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process,” a CBP statement to The Washington Post read. “To prevent injuries from heat-related illness, the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into USBP custody.”

According to The Associated Press, the administration has promised “the widescale expulsion of Haitian migrants from a small Texas border city by putting them on flights to Haiti starting Sunday, an official said Friday, representing a swift and dramatic response to thousands who suddenly crossed the border from Mexico and gathered under and around a bridge.”

The Biden administration has temporarily closed the Del Rio crossing in response to the surge. As Bill Melugin noted in the helicopter, however, “This does not look like a closed border from the air.”

It doesn’t. It’s also another immigration black eye for the administration after its failures in the Afghanistan airlift, which saw national security threats and men with child “brides” they had allegedly sexually assaulted brought into the United States.

So what’s the president doing?

He’s in Delaware for the weekend, of course, at his vacation home in North Shores. At least Biden’s staying true to form, having spent the weekend where Afghanistan fell at Camp David.

The president may go away, but the crisis won’t — and even if the administration sends the Haitians back, its immigration policies are only inviting more scenes like this in the future.

Shocking New Video from Southern Border Shows the Crisis Is Worse Than We Could Have Imagined (westernjournal.com)

President Joe Biden is on vacation again this weekend as the crises his administration has created consume a troubled country which he apparently needs a few days to forget about while at the beach.

NBC News chief White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell shared images on Twitter Friday of Biden landing in Delaware to bask in the sun before the lunch plates had even been washed on the east coast.

President Biden has taken Marine One to a landing zone at Rehoboth Beach where he will spend the weekend at his Delaware beach house. pic.twitter.com/sfwrbVk0rj

— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) September 17, 2021

Peculiarly, there were no stories headlining Biden’s getaway on the Associated Press home page. That’s odd, because on Dec. 25 last year, the AP printed this: “President Donald Trump spent his Christmas golfing in Florida as a government shutdown looms and COVID relief hangs in the balance.”

Of course, Trump was a Republican president, and few people in the decrepit establishment media view Christmas as anything special. That being noted, it was major news when Trump went home for Christmas.

The AP added in its holiday hit piece, “Trump tweeted that he planned to make ‘a short speech to service members from all over the world’ by video conference Friday to celebrate the holiday…”

Remember what it was like before Big Tech goons colluded with leftists Democrats to censor sitting presidents and other people en masse? Remember when we had a president who was capable of addressing people?

Trump was more present while golfing than Biden is while addressing the country — which is rarely.

Biden was gone from the White House earlier this year when border communities across the southeast were first inundated with COVID-positive illegal immigrants.

The president was also missing in action at Camp David last month as his administration’s decisions in Afghanistan resulted in a humanitarian crisis.

Thirteen U.S. service members were soon after killed by a suicide bomber as Biden’s military leadership surrendered to the Taliban, put troops in a defensive position and gave away weapons and equipment to terrorists as he assumedly still wanted to disarm the American people.

This weekend, as the country is again consumed by a crisis, Biden will be on the beach in Delaware at his Rehoboth Beach resort. The country has entered a full-blown moral crisis and we have no one to lead us through it.

We already don’t know for sure who is really running the White House when Biden is there. We know he definitely won’t be calling the shots until Monday.

Perhaps Gen. Mark Milley, an accused traitor who during the final months and days of Trump’s presidency allegedly betrayed the country’s civilian leader and phoned China, will have his feet up on the Resolute desk all weekend reading Marx as Biden wanders around a beach while avoiding questions about the seven innocent children military leaders like Milley killed last month in Kabul by a drone strike.

Milley inexplicably is still employed, even after he botched Afghanistan, reportedly betrayed his commander-in-chief and called killing foreign kids “righteous.”

A report last week from The New York Times which claimed that a U.S. military drone killed an innocent Afghan aide worker and his family was confirmed by the Pentagon. That confirmation came on Friday. Isn’t that convenient?

Nobody will be around to answer for that all weekend, or for the fact that France, our oldest ally, is walking away from us.

Biden will also have his toes in the sand as an estimated 10,000 reportedly mostly Haitian migrants sleep under a bridge in south Texas. Do you think that campout will be labeled a COVID super spreader? Don’t count on it. The Haitians didn’t vote for Trump.

Biden isn’t concerned, about any of this. He won’t have to answer for the Taliban’s butchers decapitating children as they seek to cleanse Afghanistan of all former American support. He can also avoid any talk of still-rising inflation and totally avoid the fact the country is hopelessly divided along ideological lines and missing its identity.

Remember when he promised to unite us all and then told private companies that they have to tell their employees what they must put into their bodies? He probably doesn’t, either.

The country right now seems like one giant powder keg. The only question for the White House seems to be, who’s tapping the keg in Rehoboth Beach?

The mayor of Del Rio, Texas, has closed the international U.S.–Mexico bridge after thousands of illegal immigrants arrived in the area and set up camps underneath and around the bridge.

Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano, a Democrat, declared a local state of disaster and said his city is closing toll booths on the international bridge to the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna to halt traffic, while adding that he has requested state assistance to deal with the burgeoning crisis. City officials, he said, are expecting about 8,000 more illegal aliens to arrive in the area in the coming days.

“Dire circumstances require dire responses,” Lozano said during a news conference, saying that such measures are done as a security precaution.

“There’s people having babies down there [under the bridge], there’s people collapsing out of the heat,” the mayor said. “They’re pretty aggressive, rightly so—they’ve been in the heat day after day after day.”

He added that “it’s something that [is] very challenging to describe in words, but it’s extremely chaotic.”

In all, there are about 12,000 illegal immigrants amassed around the international bridge, the mayor said. Highlighting the significant increase in illegal aliens over the past week, Lozano said there were only 2,000 under the bridge on Monday.

“We’re hearing reports that there [are] unauthorized bus systems transporting individuals to the border states” such as Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico, he said.

10,503 illegal aliens are under this bridge tonight because Joe Biden made a political decision to cancel deportation flights to Haiti.

The Border Patrol is overcapacity. It’s indefensible, it’s inhuman, and it was entirely caused by Biden & Harris. #BidenBorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/LmWV52nmJc

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 17, 2021

Journalists on the scene say that the majority of those assembled under the bridge are Haitian nationals who are seeking asylum amid political instability. Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens said that he believes the vast majority are Haitian, adding that some families have been under the bridge for six days, according to The Associated Press.

Amid the crisis, Republicans in Congress have gone on the offensive against President Joe Biden, accusing him of not doing enough to prevent the surge in illegal immigration at the border. Since taking office, Biden has signed dozens of executive orders to rescind Trump-era policies, including suspending construction of the border wall.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a judge’s order to reinstate the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy, although the Justice Department said in court filings this week that discussions with the Mexican government are underway.

On Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who traveled down to Del Rio to observe, released a video from beneath the bridge. The footage showed thousands of illegal immigrants behind a metal fence.

“The reason they’re here is simple,” Cruz says in the video. “Eight days ago, the Biden administration made a political decision, a political decision to cancel deportation flights to Haiti. They did that on Sept. 8. Eight days later these numbers appear.”

“On Sept. 8, underneath this bridge, there were between 700 and a thousand people,” Cruz continued, adding: “But when the word got out that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were no longer deporting people who came from Haiti, suddenly everyone who was here called their friends, called their family, and the numbers surged to 10,503. That’s what’s here today. It is more than the capacity of the Border Patrol to handle.”

The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment.

Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said during an MSNBC segment Friday that the administration “will address it accordingly.”

Texas Border Mayor Declares Disaster, Closes US–Mexico Bridge After Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Arrive (theepochtimes.com)

The Democratic mayor of a Texas border town is pleading with the Biden administration to do more to stop the flood of migrants at the southern border at the same time the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found that the federal government’s failure to test migrants for COVID-19 puts the health of Americans at great risk.

Bruno Lozano, who serves as mayor of Del Rio, Texas, put out a video on Twitter Friday morning warning about the “real time threats” of COVID-19 and “other communicable diseases.”

“This is something that really needs to be brought to light,” the mayor said. “We need quick action from the administration. We need quick attention to this. We need a response in real-time.”

Those health threats were underscored in a government watchdog report on the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis. The IG report called out Customs and Border Protection’s failure to “conduct COVID-19 testing for migrants who enter…custody” and noted that the White House has not required it to do so. That policy, the IG wrote, puts federal employers’ “support staff, communities, and migrants at greater risk of contracting the virus.”

Lozano says nearly 11,000 migrants currently sit under the Del Rio International Bridge, with thousands more crossing in every few hours. At the current rate, the number of migrants waiting for processing at the Del Rio International Bridge could soon surpass the entire population of the city, which sits at just under 36,000.

Texas governor Greg Abbott (R.) attacked the federal government’s response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Del Rio, noting the lack of proper shelter, health care, and safety precautions for the thousands of migrants in the city.

“The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,” Abbott said.

A COVID-19 outbreak among the migrants could prove disastrous for the town of Del Rio. The regional hospital in the area, Val Verde, only hosts seven ICU beds.

According to the IG, the Biden administration never “documented” a “formal policy” for COVID-19 testing of migrants. The sheer volume of migrants crossing the border makes “proper physical distancing in holding facilities” impossible. The crisis grew so dire in the Del Rio sector that the Department of Homeland Security deployed agents from its Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office from March until May.

Despite Lozano’s appeals to the White House, DHS leadership told watchdogs the agency’s chief medical officer will not finish its “active monitoring and impact analysis of mitigation efforts” against the spread of COVID-19 until Sept. 30, 2022.

“The Department will prioritize efforts related to the DHS Chief Medical Officer to enhance the level of coordinated oversight and resource support for the DHS public health and medical enterprise,” the agency wrote in the report. “The estimated completion date is September 30, 2022.”

More than 1.5 million migrants have crossed the southern border in 2021. The month of July saw the most migrants encounters at the southern border in 21 years. The 212,000 apprehensions eclipsed the previous record high set in June. August saw 208,887 encounters—a 317 percent increase from August 2020.

Local Democratic officials are beginning to push back against the White House. The city of Laredo, Texas, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on July 16, alleging that DHS’s practice of releasing migrants into the town spread COVID-19 and contributed to overcrowding in hospitals.

“Unfortunately, the federal government has left this public health concern to be tackled by our local government with no consideration of the city’s little to no resources nor regard for the deadly ramifications it could have on the country,” the lawsuit says.

The IG report placed the spread of COVID-19 among migrants in part on the Biden administration’s “erosion of Title 42 authority,” a federal law that empowers the federal government to turn away migrants at the border out of concern they may spread disease. On Jan. 30, President Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise of exempting children from Title 42. He has since broadened that exemption to many migrant families and others facing purported humanitarian concerns in their home countries.

IG Blasts Biden’s Handling of Border Crisis as Surge Overwhelms Del Rio (freebeacon.com)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shut down six ports of entry with Mexico amid a surge of illegal immigrants trying to cross into the United States in recent months. However, hours later, Abbott said that the Biden administration changed course and decided against closing down the border crossing areas.

“I have directed the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to surge personnel and vehicles to shut down six points of entry along the southern border to stop these caravans from overrunning our state,” said Abbott, a Republican, in a statement to news outlets on Thursday.

But Abbott later said that the decision was reversed by the federal government.

“Six hours after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection requested help from Texas to close ports of entry and secure the border, the Biden Administration has now flip-flopped to a different strategy that abandons border security and instead makes it easier for people to cross illegally and for cartels to exploit the border,” the governor said in a statement to news outlets. “The Biden Administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuations from Afghanistan,” Abbott said.

It’s not clear what ports of entry were shuttered by Abbott’s order. The Epoch Times has contacted Abbott’s office and CBP for comment.

Dennis Smith, a CBP spokesman, said the agency has received no directive from the federal government to close ports of entry.

BORDER NOW: Heard from sources last night that there’s 6,000 illegal immigrants under this international bridge in Del Rio now.

Chatter about another 20k on the way, unconfirmed. Mostly Haitians, some Cubans, Venezuelans.

Most transported to BP station, processed, released. pic.twitter.com/mK3e1d07Ov

— Charlotte Cuthbertson (@charlottecuthbo) September 16, 2021

“I couldn’t comment on anything the governor said, I don’t have any information on that,” Smith told the Texas Tribune.

Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Victor Escalon earlier in the day said that all points of entry in Del Rio would be closed due to the large numbers of illegal aliens in the area.

“Six, seven days ago, Del Rio saw 400 migrants sitting, underneath the bridge, the (point of entry) in downtown Del Rio … there’s about 6,000 sitting there right now and more are coming,” Escalon told CNN. “Before I came here today, my last instructions are, we’re going to shut down all the POEs in Del Rio,” he continued.

Images captured by The Epoch Times this week showed thousands of illegal immigrants amassing under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. A source with the Border Patrol said that about 8,000 illegal aliens, including Haitian, Cuban, and Venezuelan nationals, are in the area.

Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, meanwhile, said that Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed by the sheer number of illegal immigrants who arrived in the area.

“They just can’t process them fast enough, so there’s a backlog of these individuals underneath the bridge. They’re not detained, they’re just gathered there waiting their turn to get processed,” he told the Tribune.

Texas Governor Says White House Reversed Course in Border Crossing Closures (theepochtimes.com)

Seizures have nearly doubled 2020 numbers

Fentanyl seizures in 2021 have nearly doubled 2020 numbers, according to records quietly released by Customs and Border Protection.

The “Drug Seizure Statistics” tool run by the agency disclosed on Monday that agents already seized 9,337 pounds of fentanyl by the end of July, a 94 percent increase from the 4,791 pounds seized in the entirety of 2020. In 2019, the agency seized just 2,804 pounds. CBP did not publicly announce the updated statistics.

According to CBP’s data, the vast majority of fentanyl seizures—1,110—have taken place at the southwest border, highlighting how the migrant crisis creates opportunities for cartels and other criminal organizations as law enforcement finds its resources strained. The influx of fentanyl also comes at a time when overdoses from the drug are set to break all-time records this year.

In 2020, more than 93,000 Americans died from drug overdoses—a 29 percent increase from the previous year and the biggest one-year jump since 2016. President Joe Biden declared the week of Aug. 29 as “Overdose Awareness Week,” pledging a “strong response … to reduce the supply of illicit drugs.” Since 1991, 841,000 Americans have died from a drug overdose, with 70 percent of those deaths caused by opioids.

Experts say that just two milligrams of fentanyl can cause a lethal overdose to people with no tolerance for the drug, meaning the amount of the drug seized by CBP through July could potentially kill two billion people. A senior CBP official told the Washington Free Beacon that an increase in drugs across the southern border comes as no surprise, citing intelligence that concluded cartel operations increase during times of migrant surges.

July saw the most migrants encounters at the southern border in 21 years at 212,000, beating a record previously held by the month of June. According to Fox News, the month of August saw 208,887 encounters, a slight dip but 317 percent higher than the number of encounters in August 2020.

States at the epicenter of the opioid crisis are already challenging the Biden administration’s border policies. West Virginia filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Aug. 19 over his decision to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which forces asylum seekers to remain in Mexico before their court dates in the United States. Proponents of the policy say it acts as a deterrent for migrants and allows law enforcement agencies to focus their resources on criminals.

In its lawsuit, West Virginia cited the “devastating deadly flood of fentanyl across the Southwest border” as a consequence of that decision.

“By its consequences burdening and distracting the Border Patrol, the termination of the MPP decreases the security of the border against fentanyl trafficking between ports of entry, leading directly to both increased numbers of smuggling attempts and increased rates of success in evading Border Patrol,” the lawsuit stated.

The Supreme Court ordered the Biden administration to reinstate MPP on Aug. 24, saying the government improperly justified its rationale for ending the program on June 1. Although the White House said it would continue to look for ways to repeal MPP, the Free Beacon reported that senior DHS officials had been working on instituting a modified version of the policy before the Supreme Court’s decision.

Fentanyl Smuggling Surges at Border (freebeacon.com)

For 20 years since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. presidents have been saying their anti-terrorism policies have worked, as evidenced by no new attacks on America. While we should be grateful another attack hasn’t occurred, past performance is no guarantee of future success. Fanatics are nothing but patient, as we have seen in Afghanistan.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley has said the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could lead to civil war and the possible “reconstitution of al Qaeda.” That should come as no surprise as the goals of our enemies in the Middle East have been expressed openly for decades. Their actions have proven a commitment to killing Americans and destabilizing democracies and their economies.

Underestimating one’s enemy is always a fatal error as we saw on 9/11. President Obama once dismissed al-Qaeda as the “JV team.” In fact, they are the varsity. It is difficult to deter or destroy an ideology whose adherents are willing to die for its cause, especially when they believe they are carrying out orders from their god.

In its March 2015 issue, The Atlantic noted a New York Times story about confidential comments made by Major General Michael K. Nagata, at the time the Special Operations commander for the U.S. in the Middle East. Gen. Nagata reportedly admitted he had yet to figure out the appeal of one of many terrorist organizations. About the Islamic State, he said, “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.” Whose fault is that?

With their win in Afghanistan, terrorists by whatever name, can only be further motivated to conduct new attacks. What might those look like? From experience we know they prefer the big event, such as crashing airliners into buildings and blowing up high value targets. There are other options when big targets are not vulnerable.

Lone suicide bomber incidents can also strike fear into a nation, especially if they are sustained and coordinated.

In 2003, Tom Clancy wrote a novel called “The Teeth of the Tiger” about terrorists who sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border and in coordinated attacks shoot up suburban shopping malls. Fear of terrorists slipping over the border is not fiction, but of growing concern.

Small-scale attacks, undetectable in advance, have been occurring since 9/11.

Two recent incidents demonstrate what we’re up against.

On the Sunday before the last American military planes left Kabul, a gunman shot and killed a Lyft driver in Garland, Texas. He then drove to a nearby police station and began shooting at people inside. The gunman was identified as Imran Ali Rasheed. Police killed him.

The FBI said Rasheed “may have been inspired by a foreign terrorist organization to commit these crimes.” Ya think? Suspected terrorists are crossing our southern border at “unprecedented level,” according to the outgoing U.S. Border Patrol chief. In New Zealand, a man named Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen stabbed seven people inside a store where he had bought a knife. Police shot and killed him. Authorities drew the obvious conclusion, calling it a “terrorist attack.”

Who knows how many—if any—terrorists are among the thousands of Afghan refugees now pouring into America? The Biden administration claims the vetting system should weed out anyone who means us harm, but there are no guarantees and the radicals can be expected to lie and perhaps even have forged papers.

After turning back German General Erwin Rommel’s forces in what Winston Churchill called “The Battle of Egypt,” Churchill famously said: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Given the commitment and resourcefulness of this modern enemy, I’m not sure we are even at the end of the beginning.

The Next Terrorist Attack (theepochtimes.com)

Border Patrol agents have arrested 8,691 criminal aliens coming across the southern border in the past 10 months. Between them, the aliens have committed 12,685 crimes.

On Aug. 14, border agents in south Texas arrested two MS-13 gang members. One, a convicted murderer from El Salvador, was apprehended after illegally crossing into the United States with a group near Mission, Texas. The 44-year-old man spent three years in prison for a murder in California in the late ’90s and was imprisoned again in 2005 for “re-entry of a deported alien,” according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Many criminal aliens are arrested while trying to evade Border Patrol, or as they attempt to blend into large groups crossing the border. While Border Patrol agents are tied up dealing with large groups, the cartels and criminal organizations smuggle contraband and people through unpatrolled areas nearby.

Several Border Patrol agents told The Epoch Times that agents estimate they’re apprehending between 10 percent and 20 percent of all illegal border crossers, although it’s impossible to estimate how many have avoided detection and capture.

Since February, Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 1 million illegal aliens.

In the busiest sectors along the U.S.–Mexico border, agents are constantly being pulled off the line to help process large groups of illegal border crossers—many of whom seek out Border Patrol, knowing they’ll be released into the interior of the country with a request to report at a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office when they reach their destination.

Additionally, at least 300,000 illegal aliens have slipped past border agents in the past 10 months, according to estimates based on statistics provided by Acting Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.

The 8,691 criminal alien arrests over the past 10 months is about a 328 percent increase over fiscal 2020, if accounting for the two-month reporting difference.

Border Patrol agents are often not able to immediately check for criminal convictions in an alien’s home country, so most convictions that pop up are from crimes committed in the United States that have been recorded in the National Crime Information Center database.

On Aug. 19, Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas, apprehended Mexican national Marco Antonio Tellez, who was previously arrested for first degree attempted sexual abuse of a child in Lexington, Kentucky. He was sentenced to one year in prison, registered as a sex offender, and then deported, according to records.

Two days earlier, Honduran national Arlin Reinaldo Ruiz-Cardona, was arrested as part of a group of 46 in Rio Grande City, Texas. In 2011, Ruiz-Cardona was arrested in New York City for raping an 8-year-old girl multiple times, according to New York records. He was sentenced to four years in prison and subsequently deported in June 2015.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas have arrested more than 140 illegal alien gang members affiliated with 10 different street gangs this fiscal year.

One of the most recent arrests was conducted by Texas state troopers about 70 miles north of the border. On Aug. 22, troopers apprehended two illegal immigrants at the Brooks County rest area. One of the men was a confirmed MS-13 gang member from El Salvador with a 2009 conviction for sexual battery in Hall County, Georgia.

Border Patrol Arrests Nearly 8,700 Criminal Aliens Despite Thin Ranks (theepochtimes.com)

National security officials fear newly freed Afghan terrorists may exploit border crisis

The Taliban’s release of prisoners throughout Afghanistan poses a security threat on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to senior Department of Homeland Security officials and national security experts.

The Taliban freed thousands of prisoners, many of whom either worked directly with or had ties to al Qaeda and ISIS, when it captured Bagram Air Base on Aug. 15. Afghan soldiers surrendered the base with virtually no resistance, leaving U.S. intelligence officials with little ability to track suspected terrorists. The crisis at the southern border could prove an inviting target for terrorists, according to the DHS official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“We’ve always been surprised by the countries of origin we see individuals coming from along our southwest border. It’s more than likely some Afghans will arrive now as well,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s definitely a national security threat, and the strain of forces currently along the border would make it more likely that some would slip through illegally.”

The intelligence community warned the administration about terror threats at the southern border just weeks after President Joe Biden announced the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. National security officials warned the White House in a classified memo, first reported by the Free Beacon, that border patrol officers had arrested two Yemeni nationals on the terrorist watch list as they attempted to cross into the United States from Mexico. One of the two men was also on the FBI’s no-fly list. Their names have not been released to the public.

The Biden administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Senators from both parties pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley on whether the Pentagon would change its terror assessment of Afghanistan following the collapse of the U.S.-backed government. The two acknowledged their report to Congress in June—that Afghanistan contained only a “medium” risk of terror groups—was likely obsolete. 

Individuals who had worked on assessing terror threats at the southern border told the Free Beacon that the surge of migrants has left border patrol officers ill-equipped to face the new terror challenge. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief of staff Jon Feere said the record-setting influx of illegal border crossings will only exacerbate the threat.

“When it comes to cross-border illegal immigration that goes undetected, there is obviously no background check taking place,” Feere, who now works at the Center for Immigration Studies, said. “Customs and Border Protection apprehended foreign nationals from countries across the globe and that means there are likely many aliens from problematic countries getting past the border patrol already.”

Border patrol agents already complain about a lack of resources to adequately police the southern border. Biden administration officials have also come to acknowledge the strain. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas privately told border agents, “If our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” according to Leaked Audio of his remarks. 

More migrants were recorded crossing into the country in July—212,000—than at any point in the last 21 years. Illegal crossings jumped 13 percent from June, which previously held the 21-year record. 

DHS Braces for Terror Threat on Southern Border (freebeacon.com)

US Border Patrol agents are reportedly suffering low morale, to the point they feel “almost dead inside,” as President Joe Biden’s policies leave only skeleton crews working in the field to intercept national-security threats.

“Everyone shows up to work sort of downtrodden, almost dead inside, for lack of a better term,” Jon Anfinsen, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s union, told the Washington Examiner in an article published on Sunday. 

They’re not allowed to [do] the job, and they know that people are getting away every single day, every hour.

The US has set new 20-year highs in each of the past two months for the number of illegal aliens encountered by Border Patrol, including 213,000 in July, after Biden dismantled the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, which he called “an assault on the dignity of immigrant communities.” Agents know that many more people are crossing the border undetected, as hundreds of agents have been pulled from the field to process and care for the crushing flow of migrants.READ MORESuspected terrorists are crossing into US at ‘level we have never seen before,’ outgoing Border Patrol chief tells agents – report

“Agents are primarily indoors, processing, and we’re dealing with the people who are flagging us down – the ones who are walking up to us and turning themselves in,” Anfinsen said. “Meanwhile, the immigrants who don’t want anything to do with us, they’re running away, although sometimes they’re walking because they have no need to run because we’re not there.”

In one 245-mile stretch of the southwest US border, there are only 12 agents patrolling, a record low, the Examiner said. On one recent day, the busy McAllen, Texas, Border Patrol Station had just one person and a dog working in the field because all other agents were needed for non-enforcement tasks, such as processing and transporting illegal migrants.

That’s especially troubling to agents, knowing that drug traffickers and suspected terrorists, among other threats, are exploiting the porous border. People on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist are crossing into the US at an unprecedented level, according to Rodney Scott, whom the Biden administration forced out as Border Patrol chief earlier this month. Also this month, Mark Morgan, a top border official in the Obama and Trump administrations, said the Biden administration has dropped at least 40,000 illegal aliens infected with Covid-19 into US cities.

The Examiner said many field agents have been turned into corrections officers, being jammed into crowded holding facilities with dozens of migrants packed in small rooms. Morgan said 37 employees have died from the virus since the pandemic began.ALSO ON RT.COMBiden administration has dumped 40,000 Covid-positive migrants into US cities, former border chief tells newspaper

The newspaper said its reporting was based on interviews with five current agents and three former senior officials who worked in the Biden administration. The administration has prohibited Border Patrol employees from speaking to media outlets without permission and stopped allowing reporters to do ride-alongs with enforcement agents.

“The mission is no longer deter, detect, detain,” one agent said. “It is wait until they have all crossed, Uber them to the station and process. Morale is below the Mason-Dixon line. We need more agents on the line, not at hospital or processing.” 

The agent added that more operatives are also needed to do intelligence work to target the cartels that are smuggling migrants.

Asked about the alleged plunge in morale, the US Customs and Border Patrol sent a statement to the Examiner, saying it’s fortunate to have agents who “remain resilient as we seek to improve enforcement efforts along the border.” The statement added, “Day in and day out, our Border Patrol agents continue to meet the need to protect our nation’s border as well as process migrants safely and expeditiously.”

Morale among ‘downtrodden’ Border Patrol agents PLUMMETS as Biden policies leave them unable to protect national security – report — RT USA News

On Saturday 18 RINOs joined Democrats to pass the Democrat Party’s infrastructure bill. Democrats never allowed a similar bill to reach President Trump’s desk last year.

The RINOs gave Joe Biden a rare win at a time when the illegitimate president is sinking in the polls and continues to struggle with his diminishing faculties.

Mitch McConnell led the charge of the RINOs.
Here are the 18 GOP members who voted for this monstrosity on Saturday:

** Mitch McConnell
** Roy Blunt of Missouri,
**Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia,
**Bill Cassidy of Louisiana,
**Susan Collins of Maine,
**John Cornyn of Texas,
**Kevin Cramer of North Dakota,
**Mike Crapo of Idaho,
**Chuck Grassley of Iowa,
**John Hoeven of North Dakota,
**Deb Fischer of Nebraska,
**Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,
**Rob Portman of Ohio,
**Jim Risch of Idaho,
**Mitt Romney of Utah,
**Thom Tillis of North Carolina,
**Todd Young of Indiana
**Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

On Sunday morning Senator Kevin Cramer joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss his vote for the Socialist infrastructure plan. Big mistake. Maria Bartiromo chewed him up and spit him out — as he deserved.

TRENDING: MUST SEE: Mike Lindell on War Room Lays Out Day-by-Day Schedule on What to Expect at Much Anticipated Cyber Symposium This Week (VIDEO)

Bartiromo pointed out in the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” monstrosity there is not a single dime for a border wall during the worst border crisis in US history. Cramer had no response. Instead he started spouting off about the globalists at the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable who support the Uniparty spending plan.

Cramer was outmatched and looked ridiculous.
Maria destroyed him.

On Monday the War Room panel pointed out that there is not a dime in the trillion dollar plan supported by RINOs for border security.
And yet 18 Republicans voted for it.
It is clear these dirty RINOs DO NOT support their constituents.

Below are the 17 REPUBLICAN Senators and links to EMAIL THEM, keep your messages short, but let’s flood their email boxes with messages like “VOTE NO on Trillion Dollar Infrastructure bill”, “NO to Socialism”, “NO to GREEN NEW DEAL”.

Via Midnight Rider:

Contact Sen Blunt
https://www.blunt.senate.gov/contact/contact-roy
Senator Burr
https://www.burr.senate.gov/contact/email
Senator Cassidy
https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/contact
Sen Capito
https://www.capito.senate.gov/contact/share-your-opinion
Senator Collins
https://www.collins.senate.gov/CONTACT
Senator Cramer
https://www.cramer.senate.gov/contact/contact-kevin
Senator Crapo
https://www.crapo.senate.gov/contact/email-me
Senator Graham
https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-senator-graham
Senator Grassley
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact
Senator Hoeven
https://www.hoeven.senate.gov/contact/email-the-senator
Senator McConnell
https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact
Senator Murkowski
https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact/email
Senator Portman
https://www.portman.senate.gov/meet/contact
Senator Risch
https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email
Senator Romney
https://www.romney.senate.gov/contact
Senator Tillis
https://www.tillis.senate.gov/email-me
Senator Young
https://www.young.senate.gov/contact

Read More

THEY HATE YOU: Mitch McConnell and 17 RINO Senators Vote for Infrastructure Bill that Included ZERO DOLLARS for Border Security During Greatest Border Crisis in History – Orwellian Post

DEL RIO, Texas—Border Patrol agents have arrested 353 illegal aliens with sex-related criminal convictions so far this fiscal year. A large number of the detainees had prior convictions for crimes involving a minor.

In the same period in fiscal 2020, agents apprehended 55 criminal sex offenders, and 58 total in all of fiscal 2019.

The number of criminals illegally crossing the southwest border has spiked in tandem with the border crossing surge this year. Convicted criminals are the most likely population of illegal aliens trying to avoid capture by Border Patrol.

Border Patrol has detected more than 250,000 illegal aliens who have evaded capture so far this year, according to newly appointed Acting Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on June 24. It’s impossible to estimate how many have evaded Border Patrol without detection.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t read a paper or a report from my agents that talks about criminal aliens, sexual offenders that they’ve apprehended out there,” Ortiz said during an event in Del Rio, Texas.

“Those folks aren’t getting released in these communities. Guess what happens to them? They go to jail. When they get out of jail, they go back to their country of origin.”

According to reports by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), many of the criminals being caught have already been deported, sometimes on multiple occasions.

On June 24, agents in Rio Grande City, Texas, arrested convicted sex offender Benito Gomez-Lopez, from Mexico. Gomez-Lopez was arrested in May 2020 by the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department in North Dakota for possession of certain prohibited materials and promoting a sexual performance by a minor, according to CBP.

He pleaded guilty to both counts and was sentenced to three years confinement, but was repatriated to Mexico in July 2020.

On June 14, a Peruvian child rapist was arrested by Border Patrol after he entered the United States illegally near Roma, Texas, according to CBP. Pedro Asuncion Ore-Quispe, 43, had been deported in 2020 after serving more than five years for felony rape of a child in Idaho.

On June 20, Mexican national Isidro Efrain Gallardo-Rangel was apprehended as part of a group of 24 illegal aliens near Laredo. Gallardo-Rangel is a registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history and a conviction for indecency with a child in 2018 in Dallas, Texas, according to CBP.

Del Rio Sector

Once a relatively quiet region for illegal border crossings, the Del Rio Sector in Texas is now the second busiest, after the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase. So far this year, this fiscal year, today, we’ve caught 144,000 people in the Del Rio sector,” said Sector Chief Austin Skero on June 24.

“We’ve gone through this before—we’ve seen these increases, these surges, for the last 30 or 40 years. It’s never been this bad. I’ll tell you that straight up—I’ve never seen it this bad.”

Skero said the sector has seen a 1,400 percent increase in the number of sex offenders arrested by Border Patrol agents.

A Del Rio resident said that prior to January, he had seen two illegal aliens pass through his backyard.

Now, he said, it’s hundreds per day.

“I have four daughters—does it concern me when you say there’s a 1,400 percent increase in sex offenders? Yes, it concerns me,” the resident said during a border update on June 24.

“I’m concerned about the single men who are running through my backyard, sneaking. And I’m about a 50 percent success rate on whether or not I get an agent to come out to my place when I call. And when they do, it’s awesome, they bring helicopters, they bring support.

“Otherwise, I’m sitting there unarmed and there’s a guy soaking wet in my backyard screaming at me in Spanish. I don’t know what to do with this guy.”

The resident asked Border Patrol if they could provide some type of training to citizens to prepare them for such encounters.

Skero suggested for residents to not engage with illegal aliens who are on their property and to call Border Patrol.

“We’re going to come just as soon as we can. Sometimes it will be immediate, sometimes it might take us an hour.”

But, he said, if an illegal immigrant is endangering a resident’s family, or is being assaultive, call 911.

State Response

At the behest of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) started surging extra law enforcement resources to the border beginning in March.

In the three months from March 4 through June 3, DPS has arrested 1,489 criminals.

In addition, state troopers have been involved in 340 vehicle pursuits along the border and have dealt with 630 vehicle bailouts. A bailout occurs when a vehicle being pulled by law enforcement stops and the illegal immigrant occupants scatter and flee to avoid capture.

Abbott issued a state of disaster declaration on June 10, highlighting 34 border counties that are struggling with cross-border crime and illegal immigration.

“We’re going to start making arrests, sending a message to anyone thinking about coming here: You’re not getting a free pass. You’re getting a straight pass to a jail cell,” Abbott said.

Last week a prison unit in Dilley, Texas, was being emptied in preparation for illegal alien criminals.

Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also issued a call for help to other governors on June 10.

“With your help, we can apprehend more of these perpetrators of state and federal crimes, before they can cause problems in your state,” Abbott and Ducey, both Republicans, wrote in a letter.

So far, several Republican governors have pledged support by way of sending law enforcement personnel or National Guard troops.

542 Percent Increase in Convicted Sex Offenders Arrested at Border (theepochtimes.com)

Border officers are releasing illegal immigrants who test positive for COVID-19 to a nonprofit organization, Texas authorities said this week.

The immigrants were handed over to the Catholic Charities of The Rio Grande Valley, which arranged for their stay in a La Joya, Texas, hotel that it had rented out entirely, La Joya police officials said.

“We did not know this. No one told the city of La Joya. No one told the police department that these people were here. And no one told us that these people were possibly ill,” La Joya Sgt. Manuel Casas told reporters at a July 27 press conference.

The situation came to light on July 26, after a concerned citizen reported to a police officer that she saw members of a family who were coughing and sneezing without covering their mouths at a Whataburger location, and they weren’t wearing masks. Management at the restaurant where the incident was reported said they wanted the family to leave because they were disregarding other people’s health.

The officer went to the family, who told the officer they had been apprehended by Border Patrol agents just days before, but were released because they had COVID-19. The family was being housed at the Texas Inn Hotel, which authorities later learned had been completely booked to house such immigrants.

“The information we have is that everybody that is staying in that hotel is COVID-19 positive,” Casas said.

Officers later witnessed a group of 20 to 30 people staying at the hotel outside. Most of them weren’t wearing masks.

Officers also later learned that the illegal immigrants being detained by Border Patrol were given over to the nonprofit to be placed in hotels in the La Joya and McAllen, Texas, areas.

“We have been doing well as a community in slowing the spread of this deadly virus. But ill-conceived policies by both the federal and state governments are beginning to have serious consequences on Hildago County. I call on federal immigration officials to stop releasing infected migrants into our community,” Richard Cortez, the county judge, said in a statement.

A Catholic Charities of The Rio Grande Valley representative didn’t return a request for comment by press time.

The charity’s executive director, Sister Norma Pimentel, told Border Report that the group has been helping house COVID-positive immigrants in hotels. Pimentel said that a security guard is now at the La Joya hotel to keep the immigrants inside.

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told The Epoch Times via email that the agency in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector “continues to encounter significant numbers of undocumented migrants crossing the border.”

Undocumented migrants is a term for illegal aliens.

“RGV continues to expel individuals under Title 42 authorities as part of COVID mitigation efforts and utilizes pathways under Title 8 proceedings to remove those amenable to their home countries,” the spokesperson wrote. “During these challenging times, our federal, state, and local partnerships are indispensable as we work to secure our borders and to quickly move individuals out of USBP custody and through the appropriate immigration pathway.”

Border agents in the Rio Grande Valley apprehended more than 20,000 illegal immigrants in a single week this month, part of a dramatic rise in apprehensions seen during President Joe Biden’s first term.

Texas authorities have begun taking matters into their own hands, arresting immigrants on trespassing charges. The city of Laredo, Texas, sued the Biden administration last week in a bid to stop the transfer of thousands of illegal immigrants from among those apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio to the city.

US Releasing Illegal Immigrants Who Test Positive for COVID-19: Texas Police (theepochtimes.com)

Illegal immigrants are crossing into the United States from Mexico in record-shattering numbers, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ignoring a congressional request for information regarding where the government is relocating them, lawmakers say.

“On April 15, 2021, 34 Members of the House of Representatives sent a letter requesting important information regarding the destinations within the interior of our nation of the heavy illegal migration over our nation’s border,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) told DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an Aug. 5 letter.

The letter was also addressed to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. The two departments are responsible for implementing President Joe Biden’s open border policies on immigration.

“As of the date of this letter, the response from [HHS] deferred to [DHS], and regrettably, DHS has not responded to the Congress’ letter,” Braun and Gohmert told Mayorkas and Becerra.

The lawmakers said the repeated requests for relocation information were made because “border crossings remain unsustainably high. In July, it was reported that attempted crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border remain at a historically high level not experienced in at least 21 years.

“In June, more than 188,829 individuals were taken into custody by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), including 15,018 unaccompanied children. This former figure represents an alarming 141 percent increase from January 2021. Like so many in our nation, we remain deeply concerned about this unlawful, manmade humanitarian and national crisis that is being facilitated on our southern border.”

In addition to Braun and Gohmert, the April and August letters were signed by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).

Members of the House of Representatives who signed the letters include Reps. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Matthew Rosendale (R-Mont.), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Vicki Hartzler (R-Mo.), and Pete Sessions (R-Texas).

Representatives from DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

The information sought by the lawmakers includes the following:

“The locations where illegal immigrants have been sent, transported, or provided ability or funding to travel to, or allowed to travel to by other funding including their own or private funding for all individuals who entered the U.S. without visas.

“For each named location, the total number of immigrants who have been sent, transported, or provided ability or funding to travel to, or allowed to travel to by other funding, including their own or private funding to such city.

“The number of immigrants tested for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the number of immigrants that tested positive for COVID-19, and [DHS’s] course of action to respond to immigrants that test positive for COVID-19.”

The signers noted that “this requested information is critical to understanding how the unabetted flow of illegal aliens over the Southern border affects all Americans in each of the 50 states.”

“It must be reiterated that members of the executive branch have a duty, and many have sworn an oath that would include the requirement to carry out the lawfully enacted legislation under the Constitution,” the letter reads.

“With an open border facilitating illegal entry into our nation and the manifold resulting criminalities, the executive branch is failing miserably in its duty.

“Your failure to provide this requested information over the past three months, an eminently reasonable amount of time, raises further concerns about the lack of transparency and your unwillingness to provide this important information to elected representatives of the people of this nation.”

Homeland Security Ignoring Congressional Requests for Info on Where Illegal Immigrants Are Being Sent (theepochtimes.com)

Fellow American:

Did you see the news? 

Joe Biden released 50,000 illegal immigrants into the United States without even giving them a court date. 

We don’t know how many are violent criminals, how many work for the drug cartels, or how many are infected with Covid-19. All we know is that the Left’s plan is working.

They don’t see the lawless humanitarian crisis on the border as the problem. To Democrats, the crisis is the solution. 

ONLY A CONSERVATIVE HOUSE CAN SEAL THE BORDER. CLICK HERE TO GIVE TO HOUSE FREEDOM FUND TODAY!

Democrats want chaos at the border so that they can sneak in as many illegals as possible, right under your nose. So far, more than 1 MILLION illegals have crossed the border since Joe Biden took office! 

Biden isn’t turning them back to Mexico. He’s letting them into our towns, without Covid tests or court dates, while telling American citizens we have to start wearing masks again!

What happened to our country? America belongs to the people who love her, and it’s time to take her back.

Support the House Freedom Fund today, and join the fight to win America back.

HFF is the only organization in the country exclusively committed to electing TRUE CONSERVATIVES to the U.S. House.
      
HFF only supports fighters – men and women like Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, and Lauren Boebert. These are leaders ready to take on the socialist Left, the establishment GOP, the Big Tech billionaires, and the mainstream media.

I know because HFF supports me, and that’s no small thing. I’ve learned that when conservatives truly fight the liberals, even many of the leaders in our own party will abandon them.

Electing more Republicans won’t change anything. Only electing conservatives can make the House great again. HFF is the Right’s secret weapon against the woke socialist Left.

As you know, under our Constitution, the House holds the power of the purse over the federal budget. If we nominate and elect enough conservatives next year, we can cut off Biden’s allowance:

❌ No more money to relocate illegal immigrants into our hometowns;
❌ No more money to poison our children with Critical Race Theory;
❌ No more money to get Big Tech to spy on American citizens;
❌ No more money for new mask mandates or school closures; and
❌ No more money to finance coronavirus experiments by Communist scientists in Chinese labs.

If Democrats won’t turn away illegal immigrants, then the American people have to turn away the Democrats.

Please join me in supporting HFF today!

Thank you for considering this urgent request and doing so much to help fight for America’s future.

Sincerely,

Marjorie Taylor Greene
U.S. Congresswoman (R-GA)