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)

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)

President Joe Biden’s administration has not returned a single illegal immigrant to Mexico under the Migrant Policy Protocols after being ordered to restart the program by the Supreme Court last month.

U.S. government officials are in talks with officials in Mexico on rebooting the program but Mexico is so far resisting a formal resumption, court documents filed this week say.

“Discussions with Mexico are ongoing and are proceeding in good faith, but, as of yet, Mexico has not yet agreed to accept returns under the Court-ordered restart of MPP,” Brian Ward, a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice, wrote in one filing.

The forms were submitted to U.S. District Judge Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee who initially ordered the Biden administration to restart the program, commonly known as “Remain in Mexico” or MPP.

The Trump-era program centers around making many immigrants who seek asylum wait in Mexico while their claims are heard. More than 55,000 were returned through Oct. 28, 2019, under the program. Mexico’s government agreed during the previous administration to provide the migrants with protection and care, though later reports indicated that some were living in poor conditions.

The Supreme Court upheld Kacsmaryk’s ruling on Aug. 24, finding that the administration’s ending of the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” which violates federal law.

The ruling ordered the Biden administration to “enforce and implement MPP in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the” Administrative Procedure Act and until the U.S. government has enough detention capacity to detain all illegal immigrants that must be deported under 8 U.S. Code § 1255 “without releasing any aliens because of a lack of detention resources.”

The Department of Homeland Security said the same day that it had started to engage with the government of Mexico on restarting the program but in the new filings, indicated that little progress has been made.

“In order to restart MPP, the two governments must reach agreement on a number of foundational matters, including: the make-up of individuals who are amenable to MPP, in what circumstances and locations returns to Mexico and reentry into the United States to attend court hearings can occur, how many individuals can be enrolled in given locations, and the types of support these individuals will receive in Mexico. All of these topics, and others, remain under active negotiation,” Ward, the U.S. government lawyer, said.

“Importantly, MPP cannot function without Mexico’s agreement to accept individuals returned from the United States under the program,” he added.

At the same time, the U.S. government is working on organizing other parts of the program, such as exploring funding and obtaining contracts to rebuild facilities used for hearings for illegal immigrants who are part of the program.

The facilities used before were repurposed and would have to be rebuilt with COVID-19 measures taken into account, the U.S. government says. The initial cost is pegged at $14.1 million for construction with another $10.5 million per month required to operate the facilities.

The contacts won’t be executed until an agreement is reached with Mexico.

Mexico’s government has said little about MPP beyond stating it was not bound by the U.S. court decisions but would discuss the matter with U.S. officials.

The U.S. government update was made to adhere to Kacsmaryk’s order, which said that as the U.S. government worked to restart MPP, it would need to file a report with him each month, beginning Sept. 15, on progress made and the situation regarding illegal immigration in the country.

U.S. border agents made over 200,000 arrests at the southern border in August, one of the highest months on record, as the Biden administration grapples with a massive influx that shows no signs of abating.

States along the border have tried fighting back in court. The order to resume MPP came from a lawsuit filed by the states of Missouri and Texas.

Biden Administration Blames Delay in Restarting ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program on Mexico (theepochtimes.com)

“That’s it. I’m outta here.” So a friend told me after the blowout recall loss Tuesday. This friend long has been wavering on whether to leave California for relief from taxes and the general “Crazifornia” atmosphere. If the recall had been close, with Gov. Gavin Newsom still winning, my friend might have stayed because there was hope of reform. But a 64 percent “No to Recall” vote decided the issue.

Several other friends also said they’re leaning more toward the “leave” option.

All these folks would be following the roughly 650,000 who are skedaddling every year. Of course, folks still come here: tech hotshots to Silicon Valley, wannabe movie stars to Hollywood, illegal aliens to everywhere. But as everyone now knows, in recent years more people, for the first time in history, are leaving than coming.

I provided details in my Aug. 25 Epoch Times article, “California Businesses Exiting Faster Than Ever.”

The Babylon Bee just ran a spoof, “Gavin Newsom Named U-Haul Salesperson of the Year.” It quoted the firm’s fictional Western Regional Director, Fennick Buggstein: “We are deeply grateful to Gavin for our success in 2021. The only problem now is that we’re all out of trucks. And no one is willing to drive a U-Haul back to California. And I’m leaving with my family as well. So I guess this is it! Bye everyone!”

Seriously, if that’s possible, with the recall now in the past, what issues now are facing the Golden State?

1. A $1 trillion public unfunded liabilities debt hanging over the state from pensions and retiree medical care. It currently costs $8 billion from the state general fund just to service that debt, not to mention billions more from local and school pensions. The amount only will grow, requiring tax increases.

2. A school system that perennially scores 48th on national tests. “Better than Mississippi” is not a great selling point. The powerful California Teachers Association and California Federation of Teachers continue to oppose school choice, merit pay for the best teachers and other reforms.

3. A record high tax burden. Income, sales and gas tax rates top those in any other state.

4. A crumbling infrastructure. The $5 billion yearly gas tax increase from 2017 only partly has filled potholes because there are so many of them. And the tax increase only was “needed” because of other foolish spending priorities. See No. 1, above. And see the High-Speed Rail boondoggle, still choo-chooing along despite Newsom’s promise in 2020 to get rid of it.

5. Punishingly high housing prices. What young couple can afford a home when the median housing price is $800,000 statewide, even higher in coastal areas? Efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other barriers to more construction never get far.

6. Environmental unrealism raises the price of everything. As I detailed in “California Wildfire Greenhouse Gases Dwarfed by China’s” from Aug. 12, the problem is not in CA, but the PRC. Yet our residents keep getting punished for something not our fault. Newsom banned selling gas-powered cars by 2035, just 14 years from now. He couldn’t totally ban older, gas-powered cars. So California increasingly will resemble Communist Cuba, where cars like ’57 Chevys just keep getting older, patched up more ingeniously each year.

7. Not just the teachers unions, but the other unions will keep getting stronger, devouring more of the state economy. These include AFCME, the SEIU, the Correctional Peace Officers Association (prison guards), the numerous sheriff and cop associations and the surprisingly powerful California Nurses Association.

After the Newsom victory, AFSCME Local 3299—University of California service workers—sent out this gloating email: “We rose to defend our state from the anti-union and anti-science extremism at the heart of this recall. Together, we united behind a Governor who has prioritized our health, the safety of essential workers and school children, and an economy that works for all of us because California deserves nothing less.”

And you can bet they’re going to expect big-time payback during next year’s pay negotiations.

8. Critical Race Theory and other schemes to continue to pit Americans against one another will be advanced. Shouldn’t we be coming together to provide opportunity for all, making the pie bigger instead of dividing it up into ever more divisive pieces?

Hope From Latinos

Finally, let me end on a hopeful note. Especially as we now already have begun the next cycle racing toward the November 8, 2022 election.

Latinos, although opposing the recall, voted more in the GOP direction than in recent elections. Some are calling it the “canary in the coal mine,” warning Democrats they ought to stop taking for granted that Latinos will keep backing a party that does nothing for them.

As Larry Elder brought up many times during his campaign, Latinos and blacks are being shafted by the horrible California schools system, which benefits the teachers’ unions at the expense of students.

In a July 18 ET column, I urged, “The Only Way Republicans Could Displace Gavin Newsom” was to emphasize education almost exclusively precisely to garner these Latino and black voters. I’m not blaming Elder. He ran a valiant campaign.

He’s hinting at a run next year. I hope he, or whomever the GOP ends up pushing past the senseless, anti-democratic Top Two system, adopts that strategy. Sure, there are so many other things one could address, and Elder did address—most listed above.

But for a Republican to have any chance, there should be one topic: education. Hammer it home.

Newsom Recall Aftermath (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)

Arrests at the United States’ southern border topped 200,000 for a second consecutive month and remain on track to set a new yearly record, according to newly released data.

Border agents apprehended 208,887 people last month, a slight dip from July but up more than four times from August 2020 and three times from August 2019, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show.

Most of the illegal immigrants caught were single adults, nearly 100,000, while approximately 80,000 people who were arrested were part of a family unit. About 18,500 unaccompanied children were apprehended.

“The men and women at CBP continue to step up to meet the demands of high numbers of encounters at our southern border,” Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement.

The number of border arrests had gone up for 16 straight months, starting during the Trump administration, after hitting a low of just 17,106 in April 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic started.

The apprehensions jumped after President Joe Biden took office and dramatically changed the immigration enforcement system, altering or outright stopping key tenets of the former administration’s policies.

In one such policy change, the Biden administration stopped using Title 42 powers, activated because of the pandemic, to expel unaccompanied minors, with officials arguing that doing so would be cruel. Expulsions of other illegal immigrants through the powers have also dropped. Officials used the powers on under half of the encounters in August, after previously utilizing them on over 60 percent early this year.

The new numbers bring the total number of encounters for this fiscal year to 1.54 million. That means the Biden administration could eclipse a fiscal year record, depending on the flow in September. The current record is 1.64 million, set in 2000.

Even if that doesn’t happen, the administration is almost certain to set a calendar year record, Steven Kopits, president of the conservative Princeton Policy Advisors, told The Epoch Times last month.

Many migrants kicked out of the United States aren’t being dissuaded from trying again, data show. A quarter of the immigrants arrested in August had at least one prior encounter with U.S. agents in the prior 12 months, a jump from 14 percent in previous years.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the new data show the United States is experiencing “the worst unlawful migration crisis in more than 20 years.”

Portman said he looks forward to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifying before the panel next week. He plans “to ask him when the administration will change course and address this surge of unlawful migrants,” he said, adding, “I urge the Biden administration to take action because the migrant crisis is a direct result of its decision to dismantle the previous administration’s policies with no consideration of the historic influx it would incite.”

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the chairman of the panel, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the White House, which hasn’t commented on the numbers.

US–Mexico Border Arrests Top 200,000 for Second Straight Month (theepochtimes.com)

Plenty of people have pointed out what went wrong in Afghanistan, but far too few people have asked who should now be held accountable for this national disgrace.

The debacle in Afghanistan should be setting off alarm bells in Washington. We surrendered the country that we’d been defending to a seventh century tribe, which had endured immense casualties and was unable to defeat the United States on the battlefield. But the Taliban was able to defeat America politically and psychologically.

In a healthy country, the Taliban takeover would be a real crisis—one that causes a fundamental rethinking within the Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community about how they’ve been operating.

How can we have spent 20 years, thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars and then lose to a band of medieval thugs with no air force? This is the kind of question the generals, diplomats, and analysts should be asking in the halls of government.

It’s troubling how unphased many of our leaders appear to be, especially the principals of the Biden administration. What they don’t seem to understand—or perhaps worse, don’t recognize the importance of—is that what happened in Afghanistan isn’t just about Afghanistan.

China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, other jihadists—they’re all taking note of what’s transpired over the past several weeks. The world now sees America as completely unreliable. We need to show that we’re both reliable and dangerous.

Accountability is absolutely crucial to come to grips with how big a problem this is and to reestablish respect among allies and enemies. The leaders who, through their shameless incompetence, threw away two decades of sacrifice in a matter of days, left Americans behind enemy lines, betrayed our Afghan allies, and left Afghanistan to reemerge as a terrorist haven must be held responsible.

Someone who’s trying to hold these people accountable is retired Maj. Gen. Joseph Arbuckle, a decorated veteran who first entered the Army in 1969. Currently, Arbuckle is the founder and spokesperson of Flag Officers 4 America, an organization of retired military officers dedicated to supporting and defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Flag Officers 4 America just organized an open letter from retired generals and admirals regarding Afghanistan. The letter, signed by Arbuckle and 160-plus retired military leaders, demands accountability for the botched withdrawal and for both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to resign for their handling of the situation.

Arbuckle told me why he wrote the letter and analyzed the scene in Afghanistan last week on my podcast, “Newt’s World.” As the general explained, this was a difficult decision, but accountability is a foundational principle of the military. President Biden’s military advisers knew the fiasco that would ensue by not extending the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline. When Biden decided to push ahead with his plan, Arbuckle said, Austin and Milley had two choices: resign in protest or follow the order and take responsibility for the outcome.

Unfortunately, no one is taking responsibility—not Biden, not Austin, not Milley. And the nation will suffer as a result, with its leaders refusing to learn lessons from their failures. This should be unacceptable to the American people.

For those interested, Flag Officers 4 America recently partnered with the Committee to Support and Defend so that civilians and veterans who are non-flag officers can also have a voice and sign onto similar letters to the one organized by Arbuckle.

As Arbuckle and I discuss, with our military leadership focusing on critical race theory rather than warfighting, the country is in trouble. Holding leaders accountable is the first step to getting us back on track—and earning back the respect of the rest of the world that was lost in Afghanistan.

From Gingrich360.com.

Time to Hold Our Leaders Accountable for Afghanistan Fiasco (theepochtimes.com)

DEL RIO, Texas—Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Haiti, are congregating under a bridge in Texas while they wait to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Immigrants were spread out over a span of dirt, many sitting or lying on blankets. Others stood, chatting with companions.

Some 8,000 illegal immigrants, including Haitian, Cuban, and Venezuelan nationals, are in the area, a Border Patrol source told The Epoch Times.

The number increased by about 2,000 overnight, sources said.

Other immigrants are making their way towards Del Rio through Mexico.

It’s not clear why they’ve chosen Del Rio, though migration patterns show that people from certain countries have favored routes into the United States. Haitians, especially, often choose to cross the Rio Grande River to enter the Texas border town.

The illegal immigrants are waiting in the area to turn themselves in to U.S. border agents, who will transport them to Border Patrol facilities for intake and processing, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email this week.

Because of the massive influx of aliens, U.S. officials have set up drinking water, towels, and portable toilets under the bridge, leading many to congregate there.

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

The spokesman did not pick up the phone or return voicemails or an email on Thursday as the number of illegal immigrants continued to swell.

“It’s completely predictable because Biden is basically inviting in illegal immigrants,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank that advocates for a pro-immigrant, low-immigration system, told The Epoch Times.

“This just seems to be an extreme example of what we’ve been seeing since Jan., 20, which is illegal immigrants, taking Biden up on his offer that if they manage to get into the United States, they’ll be let go,” he added.

President Joe Biden upon entering office quickly overhauled the U.S. immigration system, ending construction on the border wall and a program that forced many asylum seekers to wait in Mexico.

Biden administration officials also stopped using the federal government’s Title 42 authority, which was established during the COVID-19 pandemic, to expel unaccompanied minors, or illegal immigrant children.

The use of Title 42 has dropped in recent months as Democrats pressure Biden to end the authority. Officials applied it to just 44 percent of the illegal immigrant encounters in August.

The decline in federal immigration enforcement has prompted Texas authorities to fill the void. Both state and local law enforcement have ramped up enforcement of illegal immigrants, including in Del Rio, where the mayor has pleaded with Biden to stop releasing illegal immigrants as local conditions deteriorate.

“This is beyond crisis. This is urgent. This is dire,” Bruno Lozano, the Democrat mayor of the city, told KSAT-TV on Wednesday.

The mayor noted he asked the Biden administration in February to take action to staunch the surge in illegal immigration. “I’m still waiting for the plan of action,” he said.

Crossing the border into the United States without proper papers is illegal, but after entering an immigrant can claim asylum, or fear of persecution if they are returned to their home country. If they do, they are often released into the United States. If they don’t, they are processed under Title 8, or federal law, typically getting a court date or told to appear at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office on a certain day. Most don’t end up appearing.

The CBP spokesperson told The Epoch Times that “the vast majority of single adults and many families will continue to be expelled under the CDC’s Title 42 authority, and those who cannot be expelled under Title 42 and do not have a legal basis to remain will be processed under Title 8 authorities.”

There are indications that a number of single adults are being allowed to remain in the country, particularly foreign nationals whose nations have been granted a special type of protection called Temporary Protected Status by U.S. authorities.

One Haitian man, a single male who crossed with some 350 other illegal immigrants from Mexico into Del Rio in July, spoke to The Epoch Times after entering the United States. About a month later, he texted to say he’d made it to Boston and was fine.

A Cuban man in his late 20s, Eduardo, told The Epoch Times this week at a gas station in Del Rio that he was waiting to be picked up by his parents, who live in Houston. He said he traveled from Panama through Central America before making it through Mexico to reach Del Rio, walking most of the time.

“There’s no freedom in Cuba,” said Eduardo, who was also not expelled.

The United States recorded over 200,000 illegal immigrant arrests at the border in August, one of the highest months on record. Under the Biden administration, the country is slated to set new records for the highest fiscal year encounters and the highest calendar year encounters.

The administration would have known about the large groups of immigrants that are now in Del Rio, Jaeson Jones, CEO of Omni Intelligence, told The Epoch Times.

U.S. intelligence programs monitor Central America to detect large groups forming, according to Jones, a former Texas Department of Public Safety intelligence and counterterrorism captain, who worked closely with Border Patrol.

“No one in the federal government has acknowledged what was coming, stated that this was happening, nor did they do anything to mitigate it, because this should have been stopped. This is a large caravan of people that wasn’t stopped,” he said.

“To me, this just is more validation of the level of failure of leadership within the current administration.”

Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Amass Under Bridge in Texas (theepochtimes.com)

Recently released drone footage is revealing the “out of control” situation taking place at the US-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas; showing thousands of Central American migrants waiting to be processed by Federal Agents before entering the United States.

“Our drone is back over the international bridge in Del Rio, TX. Per source, the number of migrants waiting to be processed has now swelled to approx 8,200. It was 4,000 yesterday AM. Doubled in one day. BP overwhelmed, & I’m told situation is ‘out of control,’” posted Fox News’ Bill Melugin.

BREAKING: Our drone is back over the international bridge in Del Rio, TX. Per source, the number of migrants waiting to be processed has now swelled to approx 8,200. It was 4,000 yesterday AM. Doubled in one day. BP overwhelmed, & I’m told situation is “out of control” @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ThJJJ0JWCT

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 16, 2021

The number of migrants crossing the United States border from Mexico continued to surge this summer, with new data from the Department of Homeland Security showing more than 200,000 encounters between immigrants and Federal Agents.

That’s up 317% compared to August 2020.

“The source told Fox that there were 208,887 encounters in August. While it marks the first decrease in migrant encounters seen under the Biden administration, where migrant encounters have been sharply rising for months, it is only a 2% drop over the more than 212,000 encounters in July,” reports Fox News.

“Additionally, the 208,887 number for August represents a 317% increase over last August 2020 which saw 50,014 apprehensions — and a 233% increase over August 2019, where there were 62,707 apprehensions during that year’s border crisis,” adds Fox.

“We have a plan, we are executing our plan and that takes time,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month.

“A couple of days ago I was down in Mexico, and I said look, you know, if, if our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” Mayorkas said. “We can’t continue like this, our people in the field can’t continue and our system isn’t built for it.”

Read the full report at Fox News.

IMAGES SURFACE: New Drone Footage Shows ‘Out of Control’ Situation at US-Mexico Border | Sean Hannity

In a special briefing Tuesday, the Biden administration detailed its plan and efforts to relocate and settle Afghan refugees across the country in the near future.

The teleconference was held by the spokesperson office of the Department of State.

“The Department of State works with nine resettlement agencies and their networks of more than 200 local affiliates across the country to resettle Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and Reception and Placement Services,” one senior official said during the briefing.

Non-SIV holders, such as SIV applicants and other vulnerable Afghans who have entered as parolees, are transferred to one of eight domestic military installations for additional immigration processing and medical screenings before they’re resettled, the official continued.

“Afghans granted parole will receive State Department-funded assistance through these resettlement agencies via the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program, the APA. Through the APA Program, individuals will be placed in communities across the country to begin to rebuild their lives,” the official added.

The Department of State reported that more than 124,000 individuals had been evacuated from Afghanistan, including 6,000 American citizens.

On Sept. 3, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said nearly 40,000 people had arrived in the United States, about 20 percent of them are American citizens or permanent residents.

Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees are still being processed in overseas bases such as in the Gulf area and Europe. It’s unclear how many more will come to the United States in the coming months.

During Tuesday’s teleconference, a senior official said that “a core tenet” of the settlement program is family unification.

“As with traditional refugee and SIV resettlement, placement of individuals will prioritize reunification with U.S.-based family and friends and will consider the needs and characteristics of each case,” the official said.

Other factors in determining where Afghans will be relocated include reasonable housing, job opportunities, and community capacity, the official added.

Between October 2001 and August 2021, over 97,000 Afghan refugees and SIV recipients have settled in the United States, U.S. News reported, citing data from the State Department.

According to the data, over 80 percent of Afghan refugee and SIV recipients were resettled in 10 states since 2001. The 10 states are California, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, and Missouri. California alone admitted 31,695 Afghan refugees, almost one-third of the total.

During the teleconference, officials said HHS would provide vaccines, “short-term emergency health insurance,” and “time-limited cash and medical assistance” to refugees and all other eligible populations, among other services.

HHS has requested additional funding to support these new arrivals from Afghanistan, the official added.

In August, President Joe Biden authorized an extra $500 million for relocating Afghan refugees, including applicants for SIVs.

Last week, the Biden administration requested Congress to provide $6.4 billion in the fiscal year 2022 to support processing Afghan refugees, provide resources for new and future Afghan arrivals, and for other humanitarian needs.

Biden Administration Details Plan to Relocate Afghan Refugees Across the Country (theepochtimes.com)

Senate Democrats are trying to convince the Senate parliamentarian—a nonpartisan figure who arbitrates disagreements over Senate rules—to allow them to include about eight million green cards into the $3.5 trillion budget resolution.

The blessing of the current parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, will be necessary because of the peculiar track Democrats are using to pass the budget.

Specifically, they are using the reconciliation process, a parliamentary procedure added to the Senate’s rule in the early 1970s. The process allows some types of budget bills to pass through the deliberative upper chamber with only a simple majority, bypassing filibuster by opponents altogether. Ultimately, what is allowed under this process is up to MacDonough, whose job it is to protect the rights of both parties.

At a press conference Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) explained that the Senate Judiciary Committee “believe[s] immigration is a critical element in reconciliation.”

“How many years have we all complained that the immigration system in America is broken and needs to be fixed?” he asked, adding that the last comprehensive immigration reform to come from Congress was passed 35 years ago and signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Durbin then presaged the challenge that Democrats will have in convincing the parliamentarian. He said, “this immigration package does have a cost associated with it.”

Under the standing rules of the reconciliation process, provisions in reconciliation bills must have an impact on the federal government’s spending and revenues that is more than “merely incidental.” Durbin also notes that staffers from relevant committees have already met with the parliamentarian, hoping to convince MacDonough that the immigration provision is legally allowed under the reconciliation process’s rules.

“If more and more people become legal permanent residents, they qualify for some government programs,” Durbin conceded. “But,” he contended, “economists agree that for every dollar paid out through a government program to a legal permanent resident, ten dollars is returned to the economy.”

As to whether MacDonough will be likely to support the measure, Durbin admitted that he was uncertain, noting that the decision is “entirely within her hands at this point.”

Democrats must have the full support of the parliamentarian, who can unilaterally shoot down the measure on her own authority.

Parliamentarian Has Strict Track Record on Budget Reconciliation

In that capacity, MacDonough has not been shy to kill priorities by both parties that she considered to be outside the scope of reconciliation.

For example, in 2017 Republicans tried to add a provision to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—passed through the reconciliation process—that would have repealed restrictions on churches, charitable foundations, and universities that forbade such nonprofits from becoming politically involved or endorsing candidates.

After Democrats took back the majority, MacDonough also put restrictions on what they were permitted to do as well. In February, the parliamentarian ruled against including a $15 minimum wage in a CCP virus (Chinese Communist Party virus) relief package proposed by President Joe Biden.

In both cases, the majority party tried to convince MacDonough that the provisions were budget-related to little avail. Now, Democrats are trying to get the parliamentarian’s blessing for a similarly expansive provision: one that would allow up to eight million illegal aliens to receive green cards, putting them on a path to citizenship.

Included under this provision would be so-called Dreamers—a group of people who entered the United States illegally as children and were granted amnesty under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) a controversial executive order signed by President Barack Obama—agricultural laborers, and other essential workers, among others.

This target of a path to citizenship for eight million illegal aliens falls short of the president’s more ambitious targets on the campaign trail.

Then-candidate Biden was asked during an October presidential debate about the Obama Administration’s track record. On the 2008 and 2012 campaign trails, comprehensive immigration reform was a key Obama-Biden priority, but the administration failed to bring these promised changes about.

Biden explained that he and former President Obama “made a mistake … we took too long to get it right.”

Biden then made his ambitious promise, saying that within his first 100 days he would “send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people.” He continued “those so-called Dreamers … [are] going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship.”

While one of Biden’s main priorities on the campaign trail—a path to citizenship for and continued protection of Dreamers—would be included in the provision if accepted by the parliamentarian, it would still fall far short of this 11 million amnesty goal.

Amnesty Effort ‘Unprecedented and Dangerous’: FAIR

Preston Huennekens, the Government Relations Manager at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), criticized this most recent amnesty effort.

FAIR is a nonpartisan organization that describes its mission as “seeking out solutions that help reduce the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration on the nation’s security, economy, workforce, education, healthcare, and environment.”

Huennekens began, “The effort by House and Senate Democrats to use the budget reconciliation process to amnesty millions of illegal aliens is unprecedented and dangerous.”

He then listed concerns that he and the organizations have about the move. First, he said that “Granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens will exacerbate our raging border crisis and deeply harm our nation for decades.”

Currently, the southern border is experiencing unprecedented levels of immigration. Republicans have blamed this on Biden’s relaxed attitude towards the border. In a letter (pdf) to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused the Biden Administration of “refus[ing] to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress.”

Huennekens also warned that allowing the provision in the reconciliation bill “would set a terrible precedent and an opportunity for the party in power to get around the traditional legislative process to enact unpopular special interest priorities unrelated to spending or revenue.”

“This move,” he said, “is clearly ‘merely incidental’ to the goals of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package,” thus falling outside the purview of the reconciliation process. Rather, “it is drafted with the single goal of amnestying illegal aliens.”

Huennekens concluded: “This has nothing to do with spending or the Federal budget. It is a naked attempt by Democrats to pass legislation that is politically and practically impossible outside of the budget reconciliation process.”

Democratic Amnesty for 8 Million Illegals in Budget is ‘Unprecedented and Dangerous’: FAIR (theepochtimes.com)

Six confirmed, 17 suspected cases is a “major public health threat” and “has the potential to seed countless U S community outbreaks,” CDC chief warns in private letter obtained by Just the News.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a private warning to the chief of Afghan evacuation operations that measles is spreading among refugees and poses a “major public health threat” that includes the potential for “larger imminent outbreaks” in U.S. communities already reeling from the coronavirus.

CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky’s memo Tuesday night urged Operations Allies Welcome senior official Robert Fenton to take “urgent public health action” that includes mass vaccinations of refugees, revealing there are now six confirmed cases of measles in Afghan refugees, 17 suspected cases and hundreds of exposures in U.S. hospitals.

“The large number of unvaccinated Afghan evacuees as seen already has the potential to seed countless U.S. community outbreaks,” Walensky warned in the four-page memo obtained by Just the News.

“These outbreaks represent a major public health threat and rapid mass vaccination and expanding quarantine and isolation capacities are essential,” she stressed.

You can read the memo here: CDCMeaslesWarningFinal.pdf (Alternate Location)

She also wrote the current cases are “an indicator of potentially much larger imminent outbreaks” that could already overwhelm hospitals fighting the deadly surge of the Delta coronavirus variant.

“Immediate implementation of CDC public health standards is imperative to prevent introduction of measles into US communities and to respond to multiple concurrent measles outbreaks,” Walensky wrote.

She added, “Health care facilities are already at limited capacity as they battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which requires tremendous workforce in laboratory assets.”

Measles was declared eradicated from America decades ago after an aggressive vaccine campaign, and its reintroduction to U.S. communities could prove deadly to those it infects who aren’t vaccinated, officials warn.

Walensky’s memo used stark language to describe the consequences if the outbreaks aren’t thwarted soon through quarantine and vaccination campaigns.

“Failing to swiftly execute the measures outlined above will likely result in increased exposure to evacuees and personnel supporting OAW operations, including safe havens,” she wrote. “Further, evacuates who have not been vaccinated (41% of children under five years old are not currently protected against measles) pose a public health threat.”

The imminent fears of large outbreaks comes less than a week after the first measles case was detected in an Afghan refugee patient at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. 

EXCLUSIVE: CDC warns Afghan refugees pose threat of ‘larger imminent outbreaks’ of measles in U.S. | Just The News

President Joe Biden’s administration is accepting new applications from parents who want to bring children as old as 20 from Central America, years after former President Donald Trump ended the program.

The Central American Minors Program was launched in 2014 during the Obama administration to let certain parents legally present in the United States bring their children from Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador to the United States if their request was cleared by U.S. authorities. It was first announced by Biden, then the vice president, in November 2014.

Trump terminated the program in 2017.

Now it’s being restarted as part of the Biden administration’s attempts to expand legal pathways to enter the United States. New applications were accepted for the first time in four years on Sept. 14.

The administration not only rebooted the program, but expanded it. In addition to parents, legal guardians can ask for their kids to be flown from their home country to the United States. The parents or legal guardians can even have pending asylum cases, or be in America on parole, and apply.

“We are firmly committed to welcoming people to the United States with humanity and respect, and reuniting families. We are delivering on our promise to promote safe, orderly, and humane migration from Central America through this expansion of legal pathways to seek humanitarian protection in the United States,” the Departments of State and Homeland Security said in a statement.

Marta Youth, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department, told reporters in a remote news conference that some 1,400 cases would be reopened as part of the program’s resumption, Reuters reported.

America’s Voice, a pro-immigrant group that wants to make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens, was among those praising the resumption of the program.

“CAM offers a safe, expeditious and orderly way for young people to seek safety and apply for reunification with loved ones from the region. After vetting and approval, these young people will board airplanes and join family in America. This provides an alternative route to protection,” Frank Sharry, executive director of the group, said in a statement.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, though, argued that the program elevates illegal aliens above U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.

“Virtually all Central American minors who were left behind by parents who entered the U.S. illegally will be able to be admitted or paroled to the country and the American taxpayers will bear the costs of administering the program, while lawful immigration programs continue to experience historic delays and backlogs,” Matthew Tragesser, spokesperson for the group, which seeks to reduce immigration levels, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“The reimplementation of this program reveals where the Biden administration’s immigration focus stands right now. It does not want to secure our southern border or limit incentives for illegal aliens, despite illegal immigration increasing every month under the administration and apprehension totals reaching figures not seen in two decades,” he added.

Illegal border apprehensions have shot up since Biden took office in January, hitting a 21-year-high in July. One expert projected arrests at the border setting a new record this year. The jump has included an unprecedented number of unaccompanied minors, or illegal immigrant children who arrive without a responsible adult. Over 13,000 unaccompanied minors were in U.S. government custody as of Sept. 13.

Biden administration officials have asserted that the chaos seen at the border is a result of changing what was a “cruel” immigration system under Trump. They’ve said it takes time to alter the system and that some areas have seen improvement.

Changes so far include stopping construction of the border wall, halting the “Remain in Mexico” program, and proposing to let immigration officers take over hearing some asylum cases from judges.

The dramatic alterations have hit some roadblocks, with judges ruling against the administration in a series of key cases, including ordering officials to resume Remain in Mexico.

A Department of Homeland Security official told The Epoch Times in a recent email this week that the department has not yet started to return illegal immigrants to Mexico, the core part of the program.

The agency was scheduled to deliver a report on the resumption on Sept. 14.

Biden Restarts Program That Lets Parents Bring Central American Children to US (theepochtimes.com)

Dems hope reconciliation end-around can achieve amnesty through party-line vote

Democrats are trying to grant mass amnesty to illegal immigrants by arguing that amnesty’s $140 billion price tag qualifies as a budget issue—a legislative maneuver that will allow millions of people to achieve legal status through a party-line majority vote.

According to Politico, Democratic congressional staffers argued on Sept. 10 that because mass legalization will add to the deficit, the provision should be included in a reconciliation bill nominally meant to fund the federal government for the next year. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Democratic plan to legalize eight million immigrants will add $139.6 billion to the budget deficit by 2032, almost entirely due to increased use of entitlement programs and tax credits.

“Democrats’ central argument to the parliamentarian is that offering green cards to certain undocumented immigrants would unlock federal benefits for them, causing effects on the budget that they say are a substantial, direct and intended result,” Politico reported.

The Democrats’ argument contradicts the rhetoric of amnesty supporters, who often point to the cost-saving measures of a mass amnesty program. During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden attacked then-president Donald Trump for “costing taxpayers billions of dollars” on border security measures, said Trump’s hardline stance against immigration was “bad for our economy,” and cited the “$23.6 billion from 4.4 million workers without Social Security numbers” who “contribute in countless ways to our communities, workforce, and economy.”

To include a provision into the massive reconciliation plan, Democrats need to prove that it would have a significant impact on the federal government’s debt, spending, or revenues. Democrats are opting to pass Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget through the parliamentary trick to avoid a GOP filibuster, a move Republicans call an abuse of the process.

Senior GOP aides who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon balked at the argument, with one calling it “obvious desperation.” Another called it “pathetic” and added that the Senate parliamentarian might have felt “insulted” by the proposal.

Many illegal immigrants who work in the United States already pay into Medicare and Social Security through payroll taxes. With permanent residency, they would now be able to fully partake in those programs. The immigrants covered by the Democratic proposal would include Temporary Protected Status holders, farmworkers, “essential workers,” and those enrolled in the Dreamer program.

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough rejected a Democratic scheme to include a $15 minimum wage into the pandemic relief bill. MacDonough called the wage’s potential impact on the budget “merely incidental.”

Democrats were careful to say that the proposed bill would not grant citizenship to millions of illegal aliens. Federal immigration law, however, states that anyone with a green card can apply for citizenship after five years. And left-wing activist groups such as the National Immigration Law Center have called the proposal a “pathway to citizenship.”

“Immigrants are an essential part of our communities, not only as our family members and neighbors but also as people who have continued to show up day after day during this pandemic to keep our country going,” National Immigration Law Center executive director Marielena Hincapié said in a statement. “As we enter our recovery phase, we must also recognize that there is no recovery without immigrants—and passing a pathway to citizenship through reconciliation would provide urgently needed relief and stability for millions of DACA recipients, [Temporary Protected Status] holders, farm workers, essential workers, and their loved ones.”

Democrats Justify Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants by Arguing It Will Increase Deficit (freebeacon.com)

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee strictly oppose the immigration reform measures in the committee’s portion of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution package because they say the bill grants amnesty to nearly 8 million illegal immigrants and encourages more people to flood the southern border.

“June was the highest month on record until July when 212,000 enforcement encounters took place; my guess is August will be higher yet. So, what are Democrats focused on in this legislation? Putting amnesty in a bill for—approximately 8 million illegal immigrants—in a bill that spends $3.5 trillion,” Jordan said in his opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee hearing Monday.

Jordan said he opposes the immigration reform bill put forth by Democrats in the FY 2022 budget resolution, because it fails to protect American citizens and adhere to our founding documents. “Government’s primary responsibility is to protect Americans’ liberties, to protect the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. It’s why we have separate and equal branches of government,” said Jordan.

Members of the House who represent communities on the southern border say the surge in illegal immigration is a humanitarian issue and is flooding their communities with illicit drugs.

“As I have continuously said, there is a humanitarian crisis at our southern border. The children who have made this journey are alone and vulnerable—facing the threat of murder, kidnapping, rape, sexual slavery, and forced labor at the hands of violent criminal organizations,” said Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) told a local radio interviewer that his district is being inundated by illegal drugs. Roy said there has been “an 800 percent increase in fentanyl stops, here in Texas—800 percent increase in the first five months of 2021 over the entirety of the previous four years combined.”

Meanwhile, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said the immigration provisions (pdf) will grow the economy and strengthen communities.

“It does this in two key ways, by providing a path to permanent residence and improving the green card process for those who are already making a significant contribution to our country; and by providing additional resources to community violence intervention initiatives at … the Department of Justice,” said Nadler during Monday’s hearing.

“The immigration provisions in this legislation serve as a vital investment in human infrastructure that reflects our commitment to a stronger U.S. economy and a vibrant future for all Americans,” Nadler said about the immigration reforms portion of the bill.

The main part of the bill the Judiciary Committee is debating today will provide a pathway to citizenship for DREAMERS, those with Temporary Protected Status, farmworkers, and “other essential workers;” and it will recapture the availability of immigrant visas and expand green card processing.

Opponents of this immigration measure say it will reward illegal immigration and increase the surge of people crossing the southern border. In addition, Republicans on the committee slammed the bill for giving Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas additional “congressional authority” to determine eligibility for illegal immigrants coming into the United States.

“The bill is a blank check. He can do whatever he wants. He gets to fill in all the details that this bill does not address. Even the DREAM Act, at 54 pages; the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, 231 pages; and the U.S. Citizenship Act, 353 pages. With this bill [Immigration Provisions] it’s only 18 pages because it basically says to the Homeland Secretary, ‘you can grant entry to anyone you want without numerical limitation,’” said Biggs.

“The Secretary of Homeland Security shall adjust to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence … ,” states the bill. In addition, the secretary has the authority to determine the status of illegal immigrants who file an objection to their removal proceedings.

Chairwoman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), said it (the budget resolution), “could not be more fitting or appropriate that we are considering today, legislative changes to our immigration system, to realize those economic benefits through budget reconciliation.”

The reconciliation process will allow the Democrat Majority to pass the $3.5 trillion spending bill with no Republican votes, so long as most of the House Democrats vote in favor and all 50 Democrat Senators do the same.

Nearly 8 Million Illegal Immigrants to Get Amnesty Under Biden’s Budget Resolution Says House GOP (theepochtimes.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)

HUIXTLA, Mexico—Mexican security and migration officials early on Sunday blocked the passage of a new caravan of illegal aliens, detaining several people, as the government moved to break up the group just a day after it set off from southern Mexico for the United States.

At around 5 a.m. local time, members of Mexico’s National Guard and the National Institute of Migration (INM) began surrounding the illegal immigrants on the edge of the southern town of Huixtla, prompting some of them to flee, a Reuters witness said.

The officials sought to intercept the ones who ran for the banks of the River Huixtla. The caravan was made up largely of Central Americans, Haitians, and some Venezuelans.

The operation to stop the caravan of around 400 people comes a few days after officials dispersed another large group and followed comments by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that he wanted illegal immigrants to stay in southern Mexico.

Lopez Obrador also urged the U.S. government to help the illegal aliens find work, speaking ahead of a high-level meeting of U.S. and Mexican officials on Thursday that is due to address economic matters and also expected to encompass migration.

As had occurred with the previous caravan, some illegal aliens accused Mexican security forces of using excessive force during their intervention, and Maria Martha Ramos, a Honduran woman, said some of the officials threw stones to detain people.

Ramos said she would see if the main body of the illegal aliens regrouped so she could continue her journey north.

The Mexican government recently condemned officials committing acts of violence that were captured on video against the previous group of illegal border-crossers.

Mexican Officials Cut Off New Caravan of Illegal Aliens, Breaking up Main Group (theepochtimes.com)

Weeks after government whistleblowers exposed “widespread” COVID-19 infections at a major shelter housing illegal immigrant youths, a Texas county reports a startling 107% increase in cases among underage migrants in facilities within its boundaries. The government classifies the young migrants as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and the U.S. is currently caring for about 14,319, according to figures provided by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency in charge of the madness. American taxpayers provide the illegal immigrants with a variety of costly services, including a classroom education, mental and medical health services, and an array of recreation activities.

Government shelters across the nation are overcrowded because the number of UAC has increased dramatically in the last few months. Nearly half (46%) are from Guatemala, government figures show, with 25% from Honduras, 14% from El Salvador and 8% classified as “other.” The overwhelming majority (72%) are over 14 years old and 68% are boys. Reports indicate that COVID-19—and probably other ailments—is rampant among this impoverished population, which arrives at the U.S. border with an unknown health history in the middle of a global pandemic. For a Texas county near the Mexican border, it has become a serious problem. Officials in Cameron County, with a population of around 423,000, release weekly Covid-19 statistics on their government website and the numbers are scary. The figures include the county’s general population broken down by city, gender, and age. They also include infections among UAC and the adults that care for them.

In the latest breakdown, the county figures reveal that the number of UAC in area detention centers and shelters infected with COVID-19 rose 107% in less than a week. An online publication dedicated to covering the U.S.-Mexico border reported the story this week based on the latest distressing health stats posted on the Cameron County website. The figures show that just a few days ago the county had only 28 COVID-19 cases among UAC and this week there are 58. The UAC infections constitute about 20% of the 300 new COVID-19 infections reported in the county in a period of just three days. The records show that all but two of the infected UAC were between the age of 10 and 19. HHS evidently did not return the media outlet’s calls requesting information on the facilities where the UAC are being held and what precautions, if any, are being taken to stop COVID-19 from spreading further.

In late July two federal employees who volunteered to work at a UAC shelter under a Biden administration initiative to increase staff to handle the influx went public with the COVID-19 crisis at another Texas facility. This one is at Fort Bliss in El Paso, and it has the capacity to hold 10,000 UAC. In a federal whistleblower complaint the employees, Arthur Pearlstein and Lauren Reinhold, write that COVID-19 is widespread among children at the facility and eventually spread to many employees. “Hundreds of children contracted COVID in the overcrowded conditions,” the complaint, which is addressed to various congressional committees, states. “Adequate masks were not consistently provided to children, nor was their use consistently enforced. Every effort was made to downplay the degree of COVID infection at the site, and the size of the outbreak was deliberately kept under wraps.” The document also trashes two private contractors hired by the government to run the facility and says the whistleblowers “witnessed significant waste, fraud and abuse.”

As early as March, data released by the Texas Health and Human Services Department exposed the COVID-19 outbreak in state shelters housing UAC. At the time 37 of the 44 facilities in Texas reported COVID-19 infections among illegal immigrant youths. At a converted camp for oil field workers in west Texas, more than 10% of the population tested positive for COVID-19 in its first four days, according to a national news story, and at least one UAC had to be hospitalized. Dozens of facilities in Texas house illegal immigrant minors for the federal government and many have been embroiled in controversy. Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants them shut down and has issued an order to revoke their licenses, asserting that the “unabated influx of individuals resulting from federal government policies threatens to negatively impact state-licensed residential facilities, including those that serve Texas children in foster care.”

Some 40,000 people airlifted from Afghanistan have arrived in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday.

U.S. troops flew or facilitated the flight of more than 120,000 people from the airport in Kabul during about two-and-a-half weeks through Aug. 30, when the troops withdrew from Afghanistan completely.

Approximately 13 percent of the evacuees that have entered the United States have been U.S. citizens, according to Mayorkas. Another 8 percent were lawful permanent residents. The rest were Special Immigrant Visa holders or applicants or other Afghan nationals deemed vulnerable to Taliban terrorists if they had not been evacuated.

Mayorkas has been using his powers of parole to let in some Afghans who lack a visa, the Department of Homeland Security revealed last week. Mayorkas declined to say how many Afghans have been granted parole.

The evacuees were initially flown from Kabul to U.S. military bases in third countries, such as Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

After vetting by a team of hundreds of government workers, including FBI officials, the cleared evacuees were flown to the United States. Most have been landing at Dulles International Airport in Virginia or Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania.

They are then shuttled to one of eight military bases scattered across the country, including Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

Approximately 25,600 Afghans were being housed at the military bases as of Sept. 3, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

The military has a capacity across the eight installations for about 36,000 but is working to increase that to at least 50,000. No more bases are expected to be needed to house the evacuees.

About 1,000 Afghans have been resettled, or moved off of bases, according to U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command.

Mayorkas said the number of evacuees is expected to come in above 50,000.

“The number is something I don’t want to estimate because—as I’ve mentioned before—our commitment is an enduring one,” he said. “This is not just a matter of the next several weeks. We will not rest until we have accomplished the ultimate goal of Operation Allies Welcome.”

U.S. officials pledged to Afghans who helped U.S. troops in the war in Afghanistan that they would be evacuated before troops withdrew. Some were not. Between 100 and 200 Americans were also left behind.

Governors from each party have said they will welcome refugees to their states.

“The Afghans fleeing the Taliban regime served alongside America’s military forces and fought for freedom. We’re grateful for their efforts and Arizona wholeheartedly welcomes our fair share of the refugees in our state,” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, both Republicans, said in a joint statement last month.

But some officials have expressed concern about the influx of refugees, arguing they could pose security problems.

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) said he visited Fort McCoy last week and discovered all Afghan nationals there were on parole.

“The Biden administration has circumvented the SIV process,” he said.

Afghans are also being allowed to leave the base at will, he added.

40,000 From Afghanistan Airlift Have Entered United States: Official (theepochtimes.com)

Nine days after the Supreme Court ordered the Biden administration to restart the Remain in Mexico program, no information is available on new enrollees, and border agents are saying the program hasn’t yet been reinstated.

The program, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), was launched during the Trump administration and terminated by President Joe Biden on his first day in office.

The program required asylum-seekers and other illegal aliens to remain in Mexico while their cases were adjudicated. It was “​​the most significant game changer” and largely responsible for a 75 percent drop in illegal crossings, Mark Morgan, who was acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection at the time, told The Epoch Times.

As of Sept. 2, more than a week after the decision, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hasn’t responded to multiple requests for information. The agency did respond to the Supreme Court decision, stating in an Aug. 24 press release that it “will comply with the order in good faith,” while it appealed the original 5th Circuit ruling.

“Alongside interagency partners, DHS has begun to engage with the Government of Mexico in diplomatic discussions surrounding the Migrant Protection Protocols,” DHS stated. “DHS remains committed to building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system that upholds our laws and values.”

One Border Patrol agent in the Rio Grande Valley Sector told The Epoch Times on Sept. 2 that nothing has changed as far as how illegal immigrants are processed—agents are still releasing many into the United States with a Notice to Report or a Notice to Appear. The majority of single adults and some families are still being turned back under the Title 42 health provision put in place in March 2020.

The agent said nothing has come down the chain of command regarding restarting the Remain in Mexico program.

Another two Border Patrol agents from the Rio Grande Valley confirmed that nothing is happening regarding the program.

“The Supreme Court said to do it, but does the president listen to anyone?” the agent told The Epoch Times on Sept. 2. The agents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussion.

MPP originally was slowly rolled out along the southern border from late 2019 and was touted as a breakthrough in stopping the phenomenon of “catch-and-release.”

“Overnight, it sent a clear message that that no longer was a child going to be able to be exploited and be utilized as a passport to gain entry to the United States to be released, never heard from again,” Morgan told The Epoch Times on Aug. 25.

“We knew that 90 percent of those coming illegally—that were released and not detained—were either filing fraudulent asylum claims and/or they wouldn’t show up for court. We shut that down.”

Morgan said “there’s no reason” why DHS can’t start sending people back to Mexico under MPP “today,” at least in one or two sectors to start. But he said his sources in the agency have said DHS intends to “slow roll the implementation” of the program.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responded to the Supreme Court order on Aug. 24, saying his government doesn’t take a position on the ruling.

“However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that such a judicial decision does not bind Mexico and that its immigration policy is designed and executed in a sovereign manner,” López Obrador said in a statement.

“In the spirit of responding in a humanitarian manner to the needs of migrants, in the context of a complex regional situation, the Government of Mexico will initiate a technical dialogue with the Government of the United States with the central objective of evaluating the scenarios for the management of migratory flows at the shared border in a orderly, safe and regular manner.”

On Sept. 2, López Obrador said he intends to contact Biden by letter next week to discuss the causes of migration, “because we cannot only be detaining, holding back.”

“Cooperation is required for development, both feet, there needs to be investment in Central America, that is what we are proposing,” the Mexican president said.

He hopes the United States will invest in a tree planting program in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that he says will produce 330,000 jobs.

Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead border security efforts, with the main focus being to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration. Harris has visited Mexico and Guatemala in recent months.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Jan. 21 briefing, “Immigration, we consider, is part of racial equity—which is a broad issue, but that’s how the president has spoken about that crisis over the past several months.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which assisted with the Remain in Mexico program under the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times, “We will have to refer you to the State Department and DHS as to whether the MPP program has restarted.”

DHS Quiet on ‘Remain in Mexico’ Restart After Supreme Court Order (theepochtimes.com)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) fired off a letter Thursday, excoriating the Biden administration over their “reckless immigration policies” and demanded the “immediate” end of “unvetted” illegal immigrants being funneled into his state.

If Biden won’t deport the illegals, DeSantis suggested the administration direct them to a different state that supports the “flouting of our immigration laws” — not Florida.

“While Floridians are working to ensure that criminal aliens are not released back into our communities, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appears to be hard at work resettling ever-larger numbers of illegal aliens who have no lawful status under federal immigration law from the southwest border to Florida,” the governor wrote in the five-page letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “I ask that DHS immediately cease any further resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida and that the aliens instead be removed from the United States or resettled in states that support the administration’s continued flouting of our immigration laws.”

“Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of Florida and the American people, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that your department is aiding and abetting on the southwest border,” DeSantis said.

In a statement about the letter, the Republican further blasted: “President Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and their administration have refused to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress and the resulting influx of unvetted illegal aliens endangers our national security and undermines the socioeconomic wellbeing of hardworking American citizens. Unfortunately, even though the federal government is responsible for immigration enforcement, it is the states who bear the brunt of this administration’s reckless immigration policies.”

“I have been to the border and I observed firsthand the chaos that this administration’s policies have created. To fill the void left by the federal government, Florida deployed its own law enforcement officers to the border, and they’ve (been) told that many of the illegal aliens apprehended there plan to end up in Florida. Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of our citizens, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that this administration is aiding and abetting, and frankly encouraging, on the southwest border,” DeSantis elaborated.

The press release noted the following:

• The number of encounters at the southwest border have skyrocketed from 78,417 in January 2021 to 212,672 in July 2021, a 171% increase and the highest in more than 20 years.
• The number of illegal aliens who were issued a notice to appear or order of recognizance and subsequently released by the Border Patrol in July alone was a staggering 59,691, a massive increase from the 1,324 in this category who were released in January. By contrast, in the last full month of the Trump administration, only 17 aliens in this category were released.

DeSantis also requested DHS provide more information about the illegals to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) by September 30, 2021. The press released outlined the following matters:

• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida;
• the names and destination of the illegal aliens;
• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who were tested for COVID-19 and the results of such tests;
• the identities of illegal aliens who have criminal records and who have previously entered the U.S. illegally; and
• the number and identity of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who have failed to appear for their removal proceedings.

In the lengthy letter, the governor said he’s “under no illusion” the Biden administration will reverse course but emphasized that “the states, not the federal government, bear the brunt of this administration’s lawless immigration policies.”

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DeSantis Warns Biden: Deport Or Send ‘Unvetted’ Illegals To Democrat-Run States, Not Florida | The Daily Wire

Since the introduction of the so-called “For the People” election bill (S.2093) in the Senate, Republicans have criticized the bill for facilitating voting by illegal immigrants; Democrats have responded by saying they want to make it easier for “eligible voters” to register and attend the polls.

Despite these assurances, some still have concerns that several pieces of legislation introduced by Democrats would help ineligible voters bypass current security measures, get registered, and vote.

Before the Senate went on their month-long August recess, Democrats attempted to move S.2093 out of committee.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blocked this effort.

Speaking about the legislation on the Senate floor, Cruz said, “It would strike down virtually every reasonable voter integrity law in the country, including voter ID laws … [and] prohibitions on ballot harvesting … [both of which are] supported by the overwhelming majority of this country.” He then criticized the provisions of the bill that “would mandate felons be allowed to vote, and would automatically register millions of illegal aliens to vote.”

In fact, the bill does have provisions that would explicitly bar states from withholding the vote to convicted felons. But voting for illegal aliens is not explicitly outlined in the text of the bill; rather, opponents argue that sections of the bill would make it easy for illegal immigrants to vote without explicitly giving them the right to do so.

A key concern for these critics is a provision buried deep within the bill that would establish an automatic voter registration system. By authorizing various government agencies to share information, the bill would create a system that registers voters automatically using that shared info. Below this section, S.2093 adds that there are to be no consequences for illegals who are automatically registered. Beyond this, the bill would allow people to register to vote on election day without a state-issued identification card—it would only require people to show a student ID, which many schools offer to illegal aliens, or to sign a form swearing that they are legally allowed to vote.

‘For The People’ Election Bill Shields Illegal Aliens

Preston Huennekens, the Government Relations Manager at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), explained some concerns that the organization has towards S.2093.

FAIR is a nonpartisan organization that describes its mission as “seeking out solutions that help reduce the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration on the nation’s security, economy, workforce, education, healthcare, and environment.”

Huennekens called the bill “a deeply flawed piece of legislation.”

He said: “On immigration alone, it prohibits the prosecution of any illegal alien under Federal or State law if that alien illegally registered to vote or voted in elections. [It] leaves no room for doubt—this bill shields and excuses fraudulent voting by illegal aliens.”

Asked whether Cruz was correct that the bill would facilitate voting illegally, Huennekens said: “Senator Cruz’s warning that this bill would allow illegal aliens to vote is not far off of the mark. While the legislation itself does not specifically grant illegal aliens the right to vote, it prevents any enforcement taken against those who do. In this way, Section 1014 of the bill [by shielding illegal voters from penalties] is a de facto acceptance and endorsement of illegal voting.”

Higher Education Bill Bars Higher Tuition for Dreamers

In regards to Rep. Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) “Higher Education Dream Act,” Huennekens said the purpose is “to prohibit discrimination in higher education against certain noncitizen students on the basis of immigration status.” The group of “noncitizen students” protected under the legislation is limited to so-called Dreamers, a nickname for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a program for people who entered the United States illegally as children. Dreamers have received temporary immunity from deportation under an Obama-era executive action.

Estimates of how many of these Dreamers have received this protection vary widely, from 600,000 on the low end to upwards of 800,000 on the high end. In any case, Gallego’s bill would be hugely consequential.

The short bill outlines several notably expansive protections for Dreamers.

The bill reads: “An institution of higher education that receives federal funds or financial assistance under any federal program shall not discriminate against or penalize in the admissions process a Dreamer student who is otherwise qualified for admission to the institution, on the basis of that individual’s immigration status, nor shall such an institution differentiate in the admissions process on the basis of residency between a United States citizen applicant and a Dreamer student applying from the same state.”

This would make it illegal for higher education institutions to even consider the legal status of these applicants; schools who violate this clause would be at risk of receiving federal penalties similar to existing penalties for discrimination.

The legislation also overturns a standing U.S. law from 1998 that makes it illegal for non-tax-paying illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition rates, rates that are only possible because of subsidies from state-level taxes. Should the bill pass, schools would be barred from charging a higher rate of tuition to these applicants than they would charge their state or out-of-state citizen peers.

Finally, the bill would make it illegal for state, federal, or school officials to use information obtained from Dreamers’ admission application to “arrest, detain, or initiate removal proceedings against any person identified in that information.”

“FAIR opposes [Gallego’s bill],” Huennekens said. “The federal government should not force colleges and universities—whether private or public—to admit illegal aliens against the will of their admissions boards.”

He warned that the federal takeover of college admissions would compel universities—in some cases—to admit illegal aliens in place of American citizens.

This concern is well-founded. According to a New American Economy report, estimates drawn from a 2018 survey showed more than 450,000 illegal immigrant students were enrolled in postsecondary education, about two percent of all postsecondary students (pdf).

Admission of illegal aliens has been a policy long in place at many institutions. In an article discussing the situation, the College Board said: “Undocumented students may incorrectly assume that they cannot legally attend college in the United States. However, there is no federal or state law that prohibits the admission of undocumented immigrants to U.S. colleges, public or private.”

But it also notes that many institutions do require such a proof of residence. As an example, the organization points to requirements at four-year universities and colleges in Virginia. Other schools that do admit illegal aliens often require these students to pay out-of-state tuition rates.

Under this legislation, both policies would be a federal offense.

Because of these provisions, Huennekens said the bill “is a disturbing normalization of illegal immigration.”

However, both bills are far from becoming law.

The “For the People Act” has only recently managed to move out of committee in the Senate. Even with this victory for Democrats, the bill is unlikely to pass. With Democrats’ razor-thin majority, even a single vote against such partisan legislation would kill the bill. But it is already clear that Democrats are not unified behind the bill. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has publicly spoken out against the bill, saying that it would divide the country rather than unify it. But even if Manchin changed his mind, the bill would almost certainly be killed by a filibuster.

Gallego’s bill has an even bigger challenge. It has yet to be moved out of committee, and would likely face stiff opposition from both Republicans and moderate Democrats in the House. But even if Democrats united and made the bill a top priority, it would likely face the same failure by filibuster in the Senate.

Democrat Bills ‘Normalize Illegal Immigration’: FAIR (theepochtimes.com)

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. – On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding transparency and that they cease sending “illegal aliens” to Florida.

“President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and their administration have refused to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress and the resulting influx of unvetted illegal aliens endangers our national security and undermines the socioeconomic wellbeing of hardworking American citizens,” DeSantis said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, even though the federal government is responsible for immigration enforcement, it is the states who bear the brunt of this administration’s reckless immigration policies.”

In the letter (pdf) to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the Republican governor wrote that he wanted an end to the mass resettlements of “illegal aliens” into the United States. DeSantis also urged the Department of Homeland Security to provide more transparency when it comes to the resettling of illegals in Florida and to give advance notice to “state leadership” before illegals are resettled into the state.  He called the Biden administration’s border policies “disastrous” and gave a deadline of September 30, 2021, to give the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) a long list of information and data before sending more illegals into the state.

DeSantis’ letter requested that the Biden administration disclose the following information to FDLE:

• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida;
• the names and destination of the illegal aliens;
• the number of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who were tested for COVID-19 and the results of such tests;
• the identities of illegal aliens who have criminal records and who have previously entered the U.S. illegally; and
• the number and identity of illegal aliens resettled in Florida who have failed to appear for their removal proceedings.

The letter went on to accuse the Biden administration of operating its own human smuggling operation.

“My office has received information indicating that ICE, sometimes with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has chartered flights transporting illegal alien adults and children to Florida,” the governor wrote. “Given the overall lack of transparency, I am concerned that the federal government is running its own massive human smuggling operation, surreptitiously resettling illegal aliens in the various states without consultation or even advance notice to state leadership.”

The governor wrote that this practice is “intolerable and unacceptable.”

DeSantis wrote that he knows “firsthand” about the border crisis as he visited the border and deployed law enforcement officers to aid Texas law enforcement and border patrol agents with the surge of migrants attempting to cross the border.

“I have been to the border, and I observed firsthand the chaos that this administration’s policies have created,” DeSantis said. To fill the void left by the federal government, Florida deployed its own law enforcement officers to the border.”

After speaking with law enforcement officers who were deployed to the border to aid Texas law enforcement, DeSantis said they have told him that many of the migrants that were apprehended at the border said they plan to come to Florida.

“Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of our citizens, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that this administration is aiding and abetting, and frankly encouraging, on the southwest border,” DeSantis said.

Law enforcement officials, according to the governor’s office said that most of the migrants indicated their final stops were going to be larger Florida cities such as Kissimmee, Orlando, Miami, Hialeah, and Jacksonville.

In April 2021, DeSantis had written to Mayorkas’s office requesting that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remove all illegal alien felons who had completed their prison sentences in Florida.  The governor said in his current letter that he has seen “no action” to enforce the federal immigration laws.

DeSantis wrote that it was his opinion that DHS was resettling large numbers of illegal aliens who have “no lawful status under federal immigration law from the southwest border to Florida.”

He wrote: “The Constitution charges the President with the duty to faithfully execute the laws, and with respect to immigration enforcement, the federal government, with the Supreme Court’s blessing, has assumed near exclusive responsibility. Unfortunately, President Biden and this administration refuse to fulfill their responsibility to enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress.”

DeSantis said in his letter that the “Remain in Mexico” program that was administered under the Trump Administration was ultimately replaced with “catch and release” by the Biden administration, which he attributes to the massive influx of migrants.

“The administration’s reversal or weakening of the prior administration’s enforcement policies had amounted to an open invitation for mass illegal migration the United States, and the results have been predictably catastrophic,” DeSantis wrote. “Since this administration took office, the number of illegal aliens encountered at the southwest border has skyrocketed, increasing each month at an unrelenting pace.”

When Biden took office in January the number of border encounters was 78,417. In one month that number increased to 101,098; 173,283 in March; 178,797 in April; 180,569 in May; 188,934 in June and 212,672 in July according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  This puts a total number of encounters for the fiscal year to be approximately 1.3 million.  In the last year of the Trump administration the total number of encounters was 458,088.

The governor ended his letter with doubts that the federal government would comply with his request and reminded the secretary that it was the states who were “saddled” with the costs of having illegals in their states.  Also, he said that massive illegal immigration increases the spread of COVID-19 and will consume taxpayer money and overload government services including the education system.

“Although I seek an immediate end to the resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida, at the very least, DHS should provide the requested information in the interest of greater transparency,” DeSantis wrote. “The State of Florida is entitled to this information to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its people.”

Efforts to obtain a response from the White House were made with no response.

Gov. DeSantis Demands Biden Administration Cease Resettlement of Illegals in Florida (theepochtimes.com)

Business headquarters are leaving the state at an accelerating rate. That’s according to a new report (pdf) for the Hoover Institution by Joseph Vranich and Lee E. Ohanian, “Why Company Headquarters Are Leaving California in Unprecedented Numbers.” Ohanian is a Hoover research fellow and professor of economics at UCLA.

Vranich has been one of my sources for 20 years. His Spectrum Location Solutions used to be in Irvine. Now it’s in McKinney, Tex., near Dallas. Just like so many ex-California firms and people.

The new report’s shocking news: For the first six months of 2021, company headquarters exiting California has doubled from the same period in 2018. And in the first half of this year, 74 headquarters skedaddled, more than all last year.

The reasons: “High tax rates, punitive regulations, high labor costs, high utility and energy costs, and declining quality of life for many Californians which reflects the cost of living and housing affordability.”

However, the authors caution the 2020 numbers were affected by COVID-19, which slowed planning and scouting for new locations.

From 2018 to 2021, here are the main destinations for company HQs:

Texas 114;

Tennessee 25;

Arizona 17;

Nevada 15;

Colorado 14;

Florida 13;

North Carolina 8;

Georgia 5;

Idaho 4;

Kentucky 4;

Virginia 4;

Indiana 4;

Alabama 3;

Missouri 3;

Minnesota 3;

Oregon 3.

The study notes of this and other data: “Additional companies have relocated their headquarters to other states, but the only states listed above are those where such events are public knowledge. The states listed have likely experienced more wins.”

Anecdotal evidence also supports the data. I know many people who have left, mainly for Texas and Tennessee. Almost everybody I know talks about getting out, although it’s still difficult to depart the balmy weather, family, friends, and local connections.

No Awareness

I asked Vranich if there’s any awareness of this exodus among Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s other top political leaders. “No,” he replied. He said the state isn’t even thinking about cutting taxes, despite what Newsom claims is a $78 billion budget surplus (but which the Legislative Analyst pegged at a still hefty $38 billion).

And he pointed to this July 2021 statement by Ohio Lt. Gov. John Husted: “Fifteen years ago we began reforming our tax plan—we eliminated the corporate franchise tax … eliminated the death tax—we went from a high-tax state to a lower-tax state. We absolutely do see it as a time to compete. Capital will ultimately go where it can be the most appreciated.”

The Hoover report itself noted: “Ohio is gaining popularity as the place where more companies call home. Five states lowered corporate income tax rates for 2021—Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa and Mississippi.”

And: “Gov. Newsom’s strategy is not to reduce taxes but to increase incentives offered to companies, thus increasing taxpayer burdens…. Since the start of the Newsom Administration in January 2019, GO-Biz awarded 147 businesses a total of $593,844,974 in California Competes Tax Credits.”

I asked Vranich if there were any good signs. He said, “An honest politician would admit that the only bright spots include growing tax revenue from Silicon Valley’s billionaires and also from film-making that is being preserved thanks to the state’s generous economic incentives.”

Dismal Rankings

The study cited Chief Executive magazine’s ranking of state business climates, which pegged California the worst of the 50 states and Texas the best—in each case, for the 17th year in a row.

On the Tax Foundation’s 2021 State Business Tax Climate Index, California did better—49th place, after New Jersey. Their analysis: “California’s poor position is unlikely to improve considering that its businesses routinely face threats of increases in income taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes along with higher county and municipal taxes and fees.”

They key to what’s left of California’s once tolerable tax climate is Proposition 13, the property tax limitation passed by voters in 1978.

Vranich and Ohanian warn: “Pro-tax coalitions launch continual efforts to eliminate or weaken Proposition 13’s protections—coalitions comprised of legislators, deep-pocketed special interests, and interests such as government contractors and state and local government-employee unions. Such entities have spent millions of dollars to overturn Proposition 13. Thus far they have not been successful, but they certainly will try again.”

Losses By County

The largest California counties also suffered the largest losses of business HQs:

Los Angeles 54;

San Francisco 47;

Orange 29;

Santa Clara 28;

Alameda 20;

San Diego 17;

San Mateo 13;

Sacramento 8;

Contra Costa 6;

San Bernardino 6;

Riverside 5.

However, San Francisco’s population is 873,965 (2020 U.S. Census) compared to Los Angeles’s 3.9 million. That’s 4.5 times higher. So the per capita San Francisco HQ loss is about four times that of Los Angeles.

By contrast, Orange County’s population of 3.2 million (2020 U.S. Census) is just behind L.A.’s 3.9 million. But OC suffered only about half L.A.’s headquarters losses.

OC’s business and tax climate is well known as more welcoming than Los Angeles. For example, the City of Los Angeles’ sales tax rate is 9.5 percent. By contrast, most OC cities’ rates are 7.75 percent.

The study especially scorches California’s addiction to litigation. They charge, “Lawmakers in Sacramento continually enact laws designed to expand civil liability on business and property owners … California’s statutes and regulations are so unreasonable that companies have reported in confidence that their legal costs in California are disproportionate to the number of employees they have in the state.”

No wonder the American Tort Reform Foundation brands California a “legal hellhole.”

Workers Compensation Costs

California reformed workers compensation laws in 2003 under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It worked for a while. But a friend of mine in the industry said since then the reforms have been undercut by laws, court rulings and new legal maneuvers devised by plaintiff attorneys.

The Hoover study listed the average workers compensation costs, per $100 in 2020:

Worst:

New Jersey $2.52;

New York $2.23;

Vermont $2.21;

California $2.16;

Hawaii $2.08.

Best:

North Dakota $0.67;

Arkansas $0.72;

West Virginia $0.79;

Utah $0.85;

Texas $0.98.

Shocking Energy Costs

Business energy costs also are excessive. All that “green energy” doesn’t come cheap. Here are the electricity prices paid in March 2021, cents per kilowatt-hour:

Worst:

Hawaii $30.76;

Alaska $18.89;

California $17.20;

Connecticut $16.98;

Massachusetts $16.81.

Best:

Oklahoma $6.36;

Nevada $7.15;

Idaho $7.76;

Virginia $7.77;

Utah $8.01.

It’s going to get worse for California: “Customers in all parts of California are likely to see energy cost increases by virtually every utility. PG&E Corp. submitted a proposal to regulators for a rate increase totaling $3.6 billion starting in 2023 to help make its system more reliable and safer by sparking fewer fires.

“Southern California Edison in April 2020 increased its rates by approximately 7 percent overall. In 2021, SCE requested an additional residential rate increase of 14 percent, while commercial rates are estimated to rise between 9 and 11 percent.”

Major Firms Leaving

The report identified large and medium firms whose relocation can be found in news accounts. But many small firms just up and leave with no notice.

At the end the report lists all the corporate HQs that have left from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2021. Some of those include:

Charles Schwab, from San Francisco to Westlake, Tex.;

DailyWire (Ben Shapiro’s website), from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tenn.;

Dole Food Co., from Los Angeles to Charlotte, N.C.;

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, from Santa Clara to Houston, Tex.;

Joe Rogan Experience, from Los Angeles to Austin, Tex.;

Kaiser Aluminum, from Lake Forest to Franklin, Tenn.;

Lockheed Martin FBM, from Sunnyvale to Titusville, Fla.;

Musk Foundation (Elon’s nonprofit), from Menlo Park to Austin, Tex.;

Mitsubishi Motors, from Cypress to Franklin, Tenn.;

National Hot Rod Association, from Glendora to Indianapolis, Ind.;

Nestle USA, from Glendale to Arlington, Va.;

Conclusion

In sum, it’s a dismal report. The state budget currently is buoyed by the bounty from Silicon Valley, whose revenues just keep growing and growing.

But for just about any other firm in California, the times are tough and getting tougher. And when the going gets too tough, even the tough get out.

California Businesses Exiting Faster than Ever (theepochtimes.com)

Was the longest war worth it?

After two decades of combat, Americans by more than 2-1 say the war in Afghanistan, launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, wasn’t worth it. In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, 3 of 4 predict the Taliban-led country will once again become a haven for terrorists targeting the United States.

For President Joe Biden, the cost of the war’s chaotic end has been steep. His overall job approval rating now stands at 41% who approve versus 55% who disapprove – a big drop in the closely watched barometer of political health. Until last week, national polls generally showed his approval rating above 50%.

Now, while he has held the backing of 87% of Democrats, only 32% of independents say he’s doing a good job.

The poll was taken Thursday through Monday, when the nation’s headlines were dominated by scenes of desperate families trying to evacuate the Kabul airport and a surge of COVID-19 cases across the United States.

Half approved of his handling of the pandemic, 39% of his handling of the economy, 26% of his handling of the Afghan withdrawal.

“Today, President Biden’s overall approval has taken a turn for the worse due to his awful job performance rating on Afghanistan,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk Political Research Center. “His approval on immigration and the economy are also upside down. The only issue keeping him remotely in the game is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he is barely at 50%.”

Latest on Afghanistan:U.S.-Taliban meeting reported, UN issues warning on human rights

Biden’s decision to pull out troops was backed by most Americans, 53%-38%. But almost two-thirds, 62%, disapproved of the way his administration has handled that withdrawal.

“He basically handed the Taliban all these weapons, and he’s inspired a resurgent ISIS now,” said Aubrey Schlumbrecht, 51, of Lakewood, Colorado, a home health-care nurse and political independent who was among those polled. “He is not even taking any responsibility. He says he owns it, but he’s blaming other people and he’s blaming the Afghan people themselves.”

John Plaskowsky, 55, a business manager from Suwannee, Georgia, said the news media’s coverage of the tumultuous withdrawal has been unfair to Biden.

“I would say probably for the last 10 years they’ve been ignoring Afghanistan, then President Biden gets handed a horrible deal from the previous administration,” he said in a follow-up interview. While noting that he is a Republican, he said former President Donald Trump played a role by negotiating with the Taliban for a U.S. withdrawal that was supposed to be completed by May 1.

“There needs to be some accountability to the previous administration on the deal they cut,” he said.

Some say Afghanistan war was ‘all for nothing’

Attitudes toward the war in Afghanistan and the leadership of the commanders-in-chief who waged it are complicated.

“There were objectives in the very beginning that were probably good objectives,” said Leif Hassell, 46, a Democrat and public health administrator from Little Rock, Arkansas. “But we spent a long time there and used a lot of treasure and a lot of American lives. There was no clear goal, and there’s been no clear benefit from it.”

While most of those surveyed say Biden mishandled the exit in Afghanistan, few blame him for what went wrong in the war itself. Among those who say the war wasn’t worth it – a view held by 60%-28% – just 7% identify Biden as the president who is most responsible for that. Fifteen percent cite Barack Obama, who vowed to end U.S. participation in the war and didn’t.

Nearly two-thirds, 62%, put the responsibility on George W. Bush, the president who ordered the invasion in 2001.

“He’s the one that had the big push into Afghanistan,” said Ryan Haugh, 27, an independent from Camphill, Pennsylvania. “After 9/11, I think there was very few Americans that were against war at that point because of what happened with the World Trade (Center) and the Pentagon. But I think some of the reasons that we were there were the wrong reasons. And then, ultimately, if you look at the end goal, or the end game, where we’re at now, it’s kind of just like it was all for nothing.”

Foreign policy and defense strategists in a string of administrations say the war was a success in routing the Taliban and combating terrorist groups, if not in establishing a stable democracy. 

But now 73% of Americans believe Afghanistan will once again become a base for terrorists who want to attack the United States. There is scant support for developing diplomatic relations with the emerging rulers there; 71% say the United States should not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

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

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 Patrol agents have continued to apprehend an increasing number of illegal aliens each month this year, and June was no exception.

Agents apprehended 188,829 people illegally crossing the border in June, up from 180,034 in May, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That averages 6,294 apprehensions per day for the month.

The number of illegal aliens detected by Border Patrol but who evaded capture isn’t released, although Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said on June 24 that the number has exceeded 250,000 so far this fiscal year.

The number of people who pass undetected is impossible to estimate.

Along with the increase in crossings, more illegal immigrants are dying of heat-related exposure, dehydration, and drowning. Water is scarce, it’s not hard to get lost, and smugglers will leave illegal immigrants behind if they’re slow or injured.

In June, 109 bodies were recovered by Border Patrol, up from 61 in May, according to numbers obtained from CBP by Jaeson Jones, host of “Tripwires and Triggers.” That brings the total for fiscal 2021 to 321 bodies recovered by Border Patrol, with three months to go.

A major change to the current border flow is expected after July 21 if Title 42 is revoked, which is largely seen as the remaining tool holding back the floodgates. Title 42 allows for Border Patrol to turn back illegal border crossers almost immediately as a pandemic measure, rather than be placed in ICE custody for a more protracted process through deportation proceedings under Title 8.

“When we do lose Title 42, the number of people that were previously being expelled are going to have to be processed under Title 8, and we’re going to be spending more time with them,” Texas’s Del Rio Sector Chief Austin Skero told The Epoch Times on July 15.

“So that is going to be … increasing the amount of time that our agents are processing and decreasing the amount of time that our agents can be in the field.”

Currently, single Spanish-speaking adults and some families are still subject to Title 42 and are turned back to Mexico. Once the policy is lifted, border facilities are likely to be quickly overwhelmed.

In some border sectors, particularly the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, the Border Patrol facilities have been so overwhelmed that many individuals weren’t released with the common Notice to Appear document that states a date and time to appear in court. Rather, they received a Notice to Report, which is an honor system that requires the person to check in at their closest ICE facility within 60 days.

“Title 42 is absolutely critical,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tae Johnson said during a congressional hearing on May 13.

“There’s certainly some gaps in our ability to track” illegal immigrants after they’re released, he said.

Under the agency’s narrowed criteria for priority removal, most of those who abscond won’t be a priority for ICE to track down unless they commit an aggravated felony.

ICE had around 55,000 detention beds in 2019; however, the capacity was reduced to 30,000 beds in the fiscal 2021 appropriations package.

Newly appointed Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said the main focus for the agency is to increase the ability to process illegal immigrants faster.

“It includes speeding up the process so we’re not bogged down in these communities,” Ortiz said in Del Rio on June 24.

He said a quicker electronic system to process aliens will be rolled out in about 90 days.

“[Agents] should be able to do everything on a tablet, they sign it, you move on,” he said.

Skero told The Epoch Times that a soft-sided, 500-person processing tent had been erected in Eagle Pass to help mitigate the anticipated increase.

“One of the difficulties that we have here in the sector is managing the flow of people that are coming, managing detention and the processing, and the distribution,” he said.

“And then trying to use whatever resources we have left to get after the folks who are getting away from us, the folks who don’t want to give up, who don’t want to surrender. That’s where the criminal element is really alive and well.

“But the reality is, even now, we don’t have enough people.”

Border Patrol Apprehends 188,829 Illegal Immigrants in June (theepochtimes.com)

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Border Patrol’s apprehension numbers of illegal migrants broke records in July for the sixth consecutive month following Joe Biden’s taking office as president, with the numbers reaching an “historic crisis level.”

While the “sweltering” heat of June and July usually slows down illegal immigration at the southern US border, according to Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), in June and July of 2021 border traffic actually increased. Bensman said:

“For the sixth consecutive month since President Joe Biden took office and followed through on campaign promises to dismantle his predecessor’s deterrence-based policies, the number of illegal immigrants encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection broke records, reaching 210,000 in July, the Associated Press reported Monday. The outlet cited a court filing by David Shahoulian, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security. Based on past trends, the vast majority of those encountered were likely illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol.”

Authorities encountered on average 6,770 individuals every single day of July, and many of these people were families and “unaccompanied alien minors.” Single adult “runners” were also driving the wave of immigration. Border Patrol is struggling to push these people back into Mexico over and over again, its resources “strained.” The CBP encountered 210,000 illegal aliens in July, and it is estimated that 37,000 migrants evaded Border Patrol altogether, a number which Bensman calls a “likely… significant undercount.”

While June’s apprehension number of 188,829 illegal migrants was the largest for one month in 21 years, July’s number of 210,000 exceeded that record. Overall, in this fiscal year, which ends September 30, CBP encounters reached the staggering number of 1.3 million. The last time border apprehension numbers hit the mark of a million was back in 2006.

In the border crisis “epicenter” of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, the numbers of illegal migrants stopped by Border Patrol were 51,149 in May, 59,380 in June, and 78,000 in July.

“The July numbers, once finalized and released in the next couple of weeks, will show that the border crisis is going from record high to record high in an upward climb into a red-zone crisis that will defy any control, short of a radical about-face by the Biden administration. Few signs point to any such policy reversal, although the White House has tentatively begun long-haul deportations to Central America aboard ICE jets.

Border Patrol and CBP facilities, meanwhile, are overrun in the crisis’s Texas epicenter, as are hundreds of border communities that have rarely experienced anything like the steadily worsening chaos of wandering immigrants; high-speed car chases; crime; fear of Covid; and widespread insecurity.”

Bensman explained that promises by Democrat candidates for president in 2019 and 2020 to welcome illegal immigrants and institute policies highly favorable to those migrants caused migrants to begin massing in southern Mexico and even increase CBP apprehension numbers, despite then-President Trump’s “tough turn-back policies.” Individuals who had previously been “unable to advance through Trump’s border restrictions” saw a chance to be successful migrants. As polls pointed to a Biden win, migrants continued to cross in increasing numbers. Some of the migrants in Mexico told Bensman they were planning to “wait out” what they expected to be the last few months of Trump’s presidency.

Bensman calls this steadily growing surge of illegal immigration the “Biden effect,” and said that the border crisis was predicted by an October 2020 national threat assessment from the Department of Homeland Security. Biden’s exemption of “unaccompanied alien minors from pandemic-related ‘Title 42’ instant expulsions to Mexico” and effective ending of interior removals for all those migrants who had successfully evaded Border Patrol as soon as he took office made the crisis rapidly worse.

“The exempted family groups and unaccompanied alien minors have driven the crisis, because they have forced Border Patrol agents ‘off the line’ to deal with their care and processing. Agents processed a whopping 80,000 illegal family unit immigrants in July, Shahoulian said, a leap from June’s 55,805. Reports coming from the border in recent days indicate they have been showing up in individual groups of 500, and even 1,000.

U.S. officials probably picked up more than 19,000 unaccompanied children in July, exceeding the previous record of 18,877 in March.”

If the Biden administration continues its failed border policies, apprehension numbers are likely to continue in an upward trend.

Border Patrol Apprehension Numbers Point To Historic, Crisis Levels At American Border. – The National Pulse

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)

A Spanish-language flyer by the Red Cross provides detailed routes to the US southern border, shelter locations, and instructions on how to jump off a moving train safely

UVALDE, Texas—Rancher John Sewell recently picked up a pamphlet that had fallen from the backpack of an illegal immigrant who was trespassing on his property near Uvalde, Texas—about 50 miles from the U.S.–Mexico border.

On one side is a map that details transport routes from Panama to the United States. It pinpoints in great detail where migrants can find shelter or get medical help along the way. The other side is full of useful information, in Spanish, including how to more safely travel through forests and jungles, find shelter, get medical help, and deal with immigration authorities.

It was published by the Red Cross and is titled “Messages of Self-Help for Migrants.”

The pamphlet crosses a line beyond providing life-saving information to facilitating illegal immigration, according to Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

“It’s practically a road map or a TripTech for an illegal migrant,” she told The Epoch Times. “It’s one thing to give out water to migrants. It’s quite another thing to help them migrate illegally—and breach the sovereignty of a border.”

The pamphlet includes advice such as that “it’s always safer to travel in a group, especially for women,” and to stay in contact with relatives and friends, “especially before crossing the border.”

It warns against getting on or off a train when it’s moving or wet, but then advises: “If you do get off a train when it’s moving, keep running so that others don’t fall on top of you,” and “Try not to get on a train if you haven’t eaten or rested. You may fall off if you are sleepy.”

It goes on to say: “Don’t hide in vehicles or in small places where you might suffocate, drown, or get sick. Be sure you have enough space to breathe.”

In Uvalde, where Sewell obtained the pamphlet, Border Patrol has seen a 911 percent increase this year in stowaway illegal aliens on freight trains traveling from the border to San Antonio.

On Aug. 13, on one train inspected by Border Patrol, agents found 20 illegal aliens hiding in the beds of new pickup trucks being hauled in two different train cars. Several of the aliens had been apprehended the previous day by the same agent at the same location. All were single males from Mexico and Honduras.

The map also highlights Red Cross shelters in Mexico and other places that are run by religious organizations, such as the Good Samaritan House in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Catholic Charities in Tucson, Arizona.

Vaughan said that, rather than being a “benign underground railroad-type of exercise,” the pamphlet is “enticing criminal behavior that is also very, very dangerous and illegal.”

She said the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations should be telling migrants not to come. She said most illegal immigrants entering the United States don’t meet the criteria for asylum and won’t be granted asylum status by an immigration judge. Many Central Americans, the largest population of illegal immigrants, don’t end up claiming asylum once they’re in the United States, and of those who do, less than 15 percent are granted relief.

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the organization doesn’t prevent or encourage migration.

“As an impartial, neutral and independent organization, our actions are focused on addressing the humanitarian needs of migrants to ensure they are treated with dignity, both in their countries of origin, transit and destination, and regardless of their immigration status,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.

The ICRC didn’t respond to a question asking where it makes the pamphlets available, but the Red Cross logos from seven countries are printed on the flyer, including the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama.

The spokesperson said the organization provides humanitarian assistance at key points along the route.

“We also inform them of risks they’re undertaking while using the migration route,” the spokesperson said.

“It is essential to prevent the loss of lives and to promote a humanitarian approach. Addressing the needs of this vulnerable population is a shared responsibility, of the authorities in the countries of origin, transit and destination, and of the international community.”

The Geneva-based ICRC operated in 100 countries in 2019 and spent more than $2 billion, according to its latest annual report. It is funded mainly by voluntary donations from governments, and national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, according to its website.

Vaughan said the United States should investigate how the flyer came to be published and with whose funding.

“They should be helping people in the countries where the migrants live, not aid and abet this illegal migration that is so dangerous and has created so many problems for all of the countries where it occurs,” she said.

Red Cross Pamphlet Facilitates Illegal Immigration, Says Expert (theepochtimes.com)