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October 31, 2023

Left-Wing City Offering Illegal Immigrants One-Way Plane Tickets to Leave

New York City is directing illegal immigrants in town to a “reticketing center” where they can obtain a complimentary one-way plane ticket to “anywhere in the world,” according to a report from the New York Post.

The reticketing center is located in a repurposed church office in East Village to help “asylum seekers” leave town.

“With no sign of a decompression strategy in the near future, we have established a reticketing center for migrants,” a spokesperson for Mayor Adams told the outlet. “Here, the city will redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants to help them take the next steps in their journeys, and it helps us triage operations at The Roosevelt for new arrivals.”

Reportedly, the cost of buying a plane ticket is cheaper than the $380 it sets the city back each day to house an illegal immigrant in one of the city’s shelters.

According to Politico, Democrat Mayor Eric Adams has warned illegal immigrants arriving in the city that they may be sleeping outside in the winter as the shelters are full.

“When you are out of room, that means you’re out of room,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Every year, my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to all sleep at my house. There’s no more room. That’s where we are right now.”

Reportedly, the migrants who’ve been vacated from city shelters are immediately redirected to the reticketing center.

New York City Council Member Shahana Manif reportedly said that Adam’s administration has not “used a tone of inclusivity and welcome” to the illegal immigrants.

“What we’ve witnessed from this administration — even if they’re not directly saying ‘you’ve got to get out of here’ — is that they’ve consistently created hysteria and chaos and confusion,” she claimed.

On Wednesday, Politico noted, “a trickle of men” from Mauritania were offered free flights. They rejected the offer to stay in New York to find work.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/10/30/nyc-tickets-for-illegal-immigrants-to-get-out-of-town-n2630473?utm_source=thdailyvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&recip=6139244

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October 30, 2023

Texas immigration bill allowing local police to arrest migrants clears state house

The Texas state House of Representatives passed three bills Thursday morning intended to bolster border security.

One bill sets aside over $1 billion to construct border barriers, and the second increases sentences for human trafficking.

The third — known as House Bill 4 — would allow local police to arrest and deport illegal migrants.

The bills have been divisive in state politics, sparking debate that lasted for hours between Wednesday and Thursday.

State Rep. Cody Harris of Palestine motioned to block new amendments, ending debate before the bill ultimately passed with a vote of 84-60.

"It hurts us to our f---ing core," state Rep. Armando Lucio Walle of Houston told Harris after the Republican successfully ended discussion of the bill. "And you don’t understand that. You don't live in our skin. And that’s what pisses me off."

The bill aims to re-empower Texas officers to handle illegal immigration directly, despite rulings by federal courts that gave jurisdiction of the border to the federal government.

The bill will now head to the state Senate, where Republicans maintain a similarly commanding majority and are expected to approve the legislation.

"It is a humane, logical and efficient approach," state Rep. David Spille from Fort Worth said of the bill.

He added, "There is nothing unfair about ordering someone back from where they came if they arrived here illegally."

The Biden administration announced new border numbers for September, which marked the highest number of monthly encounters and records, meaning FY 23 as a whole has seen the most yearly encounters on record.

Meanwhile, the administration recently doubled down on its opposition to border walls after citing an "acute and immediate" need to waive federal regulations to allow construction in South Texas.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-immigration-bill-allowing-local-police-arrest-migrants-clears-state-house

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29 October, 2023

Germany ‘must deport on a large scale’, Scholz says

Germany must “finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay” in the country, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has declared in the wake of massive pro-Palestinian protests and incidents of anti-Semitism.

Mr Scholz outlined the tougher approach to migrants in an interview with Der Spiegel on Friday, following a trip to Israel where he met with family members of German citizens taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.

He slammed recent violent anti-Semitic protests in Berlin, and said Germany stood by its Jewish citizens against those who “unashamedly celebrate the death of those killed in the Hamas terror attack”.

The interviewer asked, “Among those in Germany who harbour hatred for Israel are many people with Arab roots. Did German policymakers ignore for too long the deep hatred entrenched in some groups?”

Mr Scholz denied the issue had been “ignored”, but said going forward “we will now be differentiating even more precisely” who was coming to the country and who was allowed to stay.

“On the one hand, there is the immigration of workers that we need,” he said.

“And there are those who are seeking asylum because they are the targets of political oppression. On the other hand, though, that means that all those who don’t belong to one of those groups cannot stay. That is why we are limiting irregular migration to Germany. Too many people are coming.”

He outlined a “package of measures” to reduce the number of people coming to Germany, including working with the European Union to ensure migrants are “fairly distributed”, tighter border controls and winding back cash payments.

“And I haven’t even mentioned one important one yet — we must finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay in Germany,” Mr Scholz said, referring to asylum seekers found not to be genuine.

“Those who are not likely to be granted permission to stay in Germany because they cannot claim a need for protection must go back,” he said.

“To make that possible, our public authorities must be reachable around the clock so that someone can actually be deported when the federal police take them into custody.”

Mr Scholz said immigration procedures “must be accelerated, with asylum applications and initial interviews taking place in the initial reception facility”. “Court proceedings must also speed up,” he said.

“In some states, initial rulings in deportation cases come after four months, while in others, it takes 39 months. That is unacceptable. We have to deport people more often and faster.”

Germany took in more than 1.1 million migrants in the wake of the 2015 crisis, leading to a rise in crime and sexual assaults — infamously in the city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015.

Growing public discontent has led to a surge in popularity of the far-right AfD party, which recently made unprecedented election gains in the west German states of Hesse and Bavaria, putting pressure on the three-party governing coalition led by Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats.

His government has already signalled it is looking to tighten immigration policy, which is considered by 44 per cent of German voters to the country’s “biggest political problem”, “way ahead of environmental and climate issues (18 per cent) and the cost of living (13 per cent)”, Aston University’s Ed Turner and University of Birmingham’s Julian Hoerner wrote for The Conversation last week.

“The success of the AfD is also evidence of a further ‘normalisation’ of the German far right,” they wrote.

“In Bavaria, 85 per cent of AfD supporters state they do not mind that the party is considered ‘extreme’ in parts as long as it focuses on issues that matter to them. The post-war West German taboo against voting for the far right is an increasingly distant memory.”

They noted that some AfD candidates for next year’s European elections had “publicly defended the extreme-right ‘identitarian movement’ and some members spread tropes associated with conspiracy theories such as the ‘great replacement’”.

“Certain party representatives are even monitored by the German internal intelligence services,” they added.

Speaking to Der Spiegel, Mr Scholz denied the recent success of the AfD has caused him to “change your tune” on migration.   “Your impression is wrong,” he said. “I am opposed to tactical politics. It must always be about the matter at hand and about finding concrete solutions to specific problems.”

Mr Scholz said the German government would “stand together closely together on this issue”. “We all know what has to be done,” he said.

“And it is my job as chancellor to ensure that there is no delay. The important thing is that our policies are not driven by malice. We must be firm in cases where someone does not have a right to stay. But at the same time, we have to be open and modern, because we need workers from other countries.”

Der Spiegel’s interviewer suggested that “those who demand limitations on uncontrolled immigration are quickly accused by the left of being inhumane and racist”.

“That does happen, but that’s not how most people see it,” Mr Scholz said.

“What matters now is keeping our society together. Those who want unlimited immigration must be honest enough to say that we would no longer be able to maintain our current social-welfare system. We would have to accept conditions with problematic parallel structures, such as those that exist in other countries. Nobody can seriously want such a thing.”

https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/germany-must-deport-on-a-large-scale-scholz-says/news-story/362a13b1fb137219be982ea58ad4908f

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October 26, 2023

CBP Agents Receive New Warning in Light of Israel-Hamas Conflict

Authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border are being warned by the San Diego Field Office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to keep an eye out for "foreign fighters" connected to the terrorist groups waging war against Israel for the last two-plus weeks, another sign that the border crisis has wide-ranging national security implications.

First reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation's Jennie Taer, the "Situational Awareness" bulletin sent Friday is titled "Foreign Fighters of Israel-Hamas Conflict May Potentially be Encountered at Southwest Border" and is marked "unclassified/law enforcement sensitive."

The bulletin explains:

San Diego Field Office Intelligence Unit (SDFO-FITU) assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt to travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border.

Foreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the US to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico.

Among the items border agents are advised to watch for are military patches for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Hezbollah terrorist organizations — all funded by the regime in Iran.

Other possible indicators are military age males, military gear including weapons, camouflage, and the previously mentioned terror group patches, single travelers, and those with undetermined return plans or associations to Israel, the Palestinian territories or regional affiliations.

Agents are also given "questions of interest" to ask potential suspects with ties to the terrorist organizations to probe whether individuals have any "association with military or security services or government civilian agencies?" or "personal or familial association with Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) or any other similar groups?"

It's unsurprising that there's growing fear that terror-linked individuals may be seeking to take advantage of the border crisis after a record-setting number of apprehensions and "gotaways" have been recorded on the Biden administration's watch, including an alarming number of individuals whose names matched with people listed in U.S. terror watch lists.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2023/10/23/us-border-agents-warned-to-look-out-for-hamas-fighters-n2630232?utm_source=thdailyvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&recip=6139244

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October 24, 2023

The Australian Border Force has confirmed it sent 11 asylum seekers to Nauru in September, the first transfer to immigration detention on the Pacific nation in nine years

Australia is one of the few Western nations to have control over its borders

The evidence to Senate estimates on Monday from the head of operation sovereign borders (OSB) confirms a report in Guardian Australia revealing the Albanese government sent asylum seekers to Nauru just months after the last people were removed from detention on the island.

Rear Adm Justin Jones, the head of OSB, told estimates the 11 people were transferred “from Australia to Nauru” on 7 September.

A whistleblower told Guardian Australia there is an enormous amount of “secrecy” surrounding the group of asylum seekers.

“How many more sad people are going to be stuck here for god knows how long,” they said. “I’ve been witness to so much heartache. It’s just so sad.”

At estimates, officials refused to say how many boats the 11 “unauthorised maritime arrivals” came on, where the boat or boats were intercepted, their country of origin, and whether there are any minors in the cohort.

The Greens senator Nick McKim accused the government of “outrageous secrecy” and “lack of transparency” for refusing to answer questions about “on-water matters”, in line with policies introduced by the Coalition.

Jones said these details were all “operationally sensitive” because they go “to the heart of relations with neighbouring countries across the region”.

Michael Thomas, the first assistant secretary of people smuggling policy in the home affairs department, said the cohort were in an “initial reception” phase in detention where they are identified and subject to health checks.

“At this stage providing more detail on the cohort may have an impact on relations with Nauru, as well as privacy and safety,” he said.

At one point McKim referred to Murray Watt, who was representing the home affairs minister, as “Mr [Scott] Morrison”, in reference to the former immigration minister who instituted the policy of refusing to comment on on-water matters. McKim withdrew the remark.

McKim complained that even under the Coalition officials answered questions about whether children had been detained. “That’s your narrative,” Watt replied.

McKim concurred, commenting the major parties’ policies were the “same rubbish, different bin” when it comes to offshore processing.

Asked why their boat wasn’t turned back, Jones replied: “If we are able to safely and lawfully turn or take back personnel we will do that. In this case we were not able to safely or lawfully conduct a take-back or turnback.”

Jones confirmed it would not be lawful to turn or take back a boat that had reached Australia’s migration zone.

Thomas said 13 asylum seekers on Nauru, including the 11 in the new cohort, were in detention, who he suggested could move to community accommodation after assessment by Nauru.

Jones said there had been seven ventures intercepted en route to Australia in 2022 and the vessels in all cases were rated not seaworthy.

He vowed that dangerous boat journeys “will not succeed”. “We will not allow the door to tragic loss of life and criminal exploitation to open again,” he said.

Jones said in one operation in 2022, marine crew spent 20 hours in “suboptimal sea conditions, transferring passengers and crew from their foundering vessel to safety”.

“The risk of life and safety of all involved is real. This is why we work so hard to protect people from the false promises of criminal people smugglers.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/23/labor-accused-of-outrageous-secrecy-as-border-force-confirms-11-asylum-seekers-sent-to-nauru

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23 October, 2023

High migrant numbers break multiple records in new blow to Biden border strategy

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Saturday announced that migrant numbers at the southern border for the month of September had reached new levels with the highest monthly encounters on record as well as the highest fiscal year total on record, in a significant blow to the Biden administration’s border strategy.

There were 269,735 migrant encounters in September, of which 218,763 were encountered entering illegally by Border Patrol agents. That brings the yearly total for migrants at the southern border for FY 23 to 2.48 million, higher than the 2.38 million in FY 22 and 1.73 million in FY 21. There were just 458,088 encounters in FY 2020.

Of those who entered, 43,000 individuals were processed in through ports of entry via the controversial CBP One app, which allows migrants to schedule an appointment to be paroled into the U.S.

Meanwhile, there were 18 encounters of people on the terror watch list between ports of entry at the southern border, taking the total for FY 23 up to 169 — a new record and more than the last six fiscal years combined.

In a statement, acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said that the agency is surging resources and personnel "in response to high rates of encounters" at the border. The White House this week asked Congress for $14 billion in funding for its border strategy, including more staffing and money for migrant services.

Miller also noted the start this week of deportation flights directly to Venezuela, where a significant part of the migrant population is coming from.

"We are continually engaging with domestic and foreign partners to address historic hemispheric migration, including large migrant groups traveling on freight trains, and to enforce consequences, including by preparing for direct repatriations to Venezuela," Miller said. "CBP will continue to remain vigilant, making operational adjustments as necessary and enforcing consequences under U.S. immigration law."

"The supplemental funding request announced yesterday would provide critically needed additional resources, including additional CBP agents and officers to support our essential missions: from border and migration management, to countering fentanyl and keeping dangerous drugs out of our communities," he said.

The numbers mark the latest blow for the Biden administration’s post-Title 42 border strategy, which focused on reasserting "consequences" for illegal entry while working with international partners and expanding what it calls "lawful pathways" for migrants to enter the U.S.

Numbers dropped sharply after the end of Title 42 in May after record-high daily numbers leading up to it, bucking predictions from Republicans that there would be an explosion in encounters at the border.

As numbers remained relatively low through June, the administration pointed to the numbers as a sign that the strategy was working — just as it called on Congress to provide more funding and provide immigration reform to fix what it says is a "broken" overall system.

"Our approach to managing the borders securely and humanely even within our fundamentally broken immigration system is working," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told House lawmakers in July. "Unlawful entries between ports of entry along the southwest border have consistently decreased by more than half, compared to the peak before the end of Title 42."

Numbers skyrocketed in July, August and September, leading to increasing criticism from not only Republicans but also Democratic officials in large cities, like New York, which have been overwhelmed by migrants flooding into their communities.

"This fiscal year may have ended, but the historic crisis at our Southwest border sparked by Secretary Mayorkas’ policies rages on," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said in a statement. "These numbers demonstrate beyond a doubt that Secretary Mayorkas’ refusal to enforce the law and secure our border is jeopardizing our safety and security. Additionally, CBP and the Border Patrol continue to be completely overwhelmed by the flood of illegal immigration that has not stopped since he and President Biden took office."

"We also can’t forget about the 1.7 million known gotaways, some of whom may be seeking to cause the same type of devastation we saw in Israel on October 7. Secretary Mayorkas’ policies have failed, but he has only doubled down on them," he said. "He must be held accountable."

The administration has continued to lean heavily on "lawful pathways," including establishing migrant processing centers in Central America to help migrants identify refugee, parole and other pathways for which they may be eligible. It also granted deportation protections and work permits for over 470,000 Venezuelan nationals last month.

There have also been some signs of greater enforcement measures from the administration, which this week touted not only its direct deportation flights to Venezuela, which resumed this week, but also highlighted statistics that it has returned over 110,000 people via expedited removal since May. It has previously said that it has returned or removed more people since Title 42 ended than in the same period in FY 2019 during the Trump administration.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also recently cited an "acute and immediate need" to waive federal regulations in order to build the border wall in South Texas this month, which led to claims from Democrats and Republicans that it is changing its anti-wall position. But DHS said it has been obligated to spend that money due to an FY 19 appropriation, and that its position of opposing wall construction has not changed.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/high-migrant-numbers-break-multiple-records-new-blow-biden-border-strategy

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22 October, 2023

GOP lawmakers call for pro-Hamas student visa holders to be deported: 'Not welcome here'

 
Nineteen Republican lawmakers are calling for foreign students who are in the U.S. on temporary visas and have expressed support for Hamas to have their visas revoked and be deported from the country -- in the wake of the deadly terror attacks on Israel.

Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., -- both members of the Anti-Woke Caucus -- have led the letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, expressing concern about reports of pro-Hamas demonstrations.

"We write to request information regarding the potentially unlawful presence on U.S. soil of non-immigrant foreign nationals who have endorsed terrorist activity," they say.

They note that students on student visas can be disqualified under the Immigration and Nationality Act from being eligible for a visa if they endorse or espouse terror activity. While that is normally checked at the time they apply for their visa, holders can also have their visa revoked if they breach the terms of their visa.

The lawmakers highlight a number of pro-Palestinian protests in universities and colleges across the country, including reports of throat-slitting gestures and statements that praise terrorists as "liberation fighters" and "martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for liberation."

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. since 1997.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-lawmakers-call-pro-hamas-student-visa-holders-deported-not-welcome-here

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20 October, 2023

Relieved Residents of Texas Illegal Immigrant Town Love Gov. Abbott’s New State Police Surge

COLONY RIDGE, LIBERTY COUNTY Texas – Something new besides explosive growth is happening in this Texas enclave of some 50,000-75,000, perhaps the largest illegal immigrant settlement in America hundreds of miles inland from the completely overrun southern border:

Policing.

On October 5, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a significant surge of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and criminal investigators to fan out over the 60-square-mile unincorporated Colony Ridge 40 miles northeast of Houston for the first significant policing in the colony’s 10 years of nonstop growth.

The verdict after two weeks of saturation state police patrols years after population far-outstripped Liberty County Sheriff Office staffing: They love it, a number of people told me during a Saturday night ride-along with Texas Highway Patrol officers.

“We feel safer, with less wild people,” said Carolina, an entrepreneur selling roasted corn concoctions in a gas station parking lot. Out of gratitude, she had just refused payment by a Texas trooper who was taking a break from backing another trooper on a traffic stop.

“Before [the Texas surge], it was too much noise going on with a lot of gun shots… a lot of bad driving, and we don’t go out from the house to do much stuff around in this neighborhood.”

Because there weren’t enough police, I interjected?

“No, not enough. Not enough,” Carolina said. But now, I asked?

“Right now, we see a lot of cops. We appreciate it. We appreciate it a lot around here.”

I and national media had quoted legal and illegal residents, business owners, school officials, as well as local sheriffs complaining about general lawlessness in the policing void, Mexican cartel activity, and a vast community expansion now underway that would accommodate thousands of the new strangers now pouring over the southern border in the largest mass migration in U.S. history.

A mere two or three Liberty County sheriff’s deputies might be assigned to this restive community on any given shift, an extremely low policing level complemented by no substantial investigative or intelligence collection capability to jumpstart organized crime cases.

In addition to the ground action now underway in the self-titled “colonia,” Abbott seemed to suggest that other communities like it are now cropping up elsewhere when he called a special legislative session. In the coming weeks, he’s asked state legislators to consider whether to do more “concerning public safety, security, environmental quality, and property ownership in areas like the Colony Ridge [author’s emphasis]” as millions of foreign nationals entering over the border look for space to live.

For the time being, between 30 and 50 Texas Highway Patrol officers in black and white Chevy Tahoe suburbans hunt traffic violators day and night. The state also has thrown in criminal investigations division agents to suss out organized criminal activity like gang- and cartel-related cases. Undercover officers in plain clothes conduct public surveillance looking for crime.

There’s no hard data this early on in the Texas campaign far from the border, but Lt. Craig Cummings, the public information officer assigned my escort, said the state police have seized drugs, arrested fugitives, suppressed drunken reckless driving, vehicle crashes, and probably sent really bad guys fleeing to less hostile territory.

State police are not asking about immigration status but are noting how many are driving without licenses, an indicator of illegal presence. Asked if cartel associates work in Colony Ridge, Cummings responded: “We know that the cartels are operating here. They’re not operating in an overt way. It’s not that you’ll see them, but they’re here.”

Eventually, major drug trafficking or human smuggling cases may emerge as criminal investigators work intelligence information and informants.

But for now, the otherwise ubiquitous nighttime recreational gunfire that all who live here describe was absent this night, other than five or six rounds I heard as the troopers helped sheriff’s deputies check on a raucous party. During the Saturday night shift, the troopers pulled over a dozen drivers, citing or issuing warnings for driving without licenses.

“The law enforcement effort in this area is making an impact,” Cummings explained about the usual nerve-wracking nightly gunfire, and more. “The troopers are noticing, just anecdotally, as they’re out there conducting their business that the crashes in the area have stopped and that anyone out driving a vehicle who decides they’re going to drink and drive knows with some degree of certainty that they’re likely to be stopped and possibly face jail time.”

So they’re behaving out here now, I asked Lt. Cummings?

“I think that the law enforcement presence is having a positive impact,” he responded. “We’re seeing that from community members mentioning that to us and so, really, it’s a win-win. We’re reducing crime not only on traffic enforcement level but also addressing things with narcotics investigations and trying to apprehend felons who are wanted for some violent offenses.”

A three-year Colony Ridge resident who gave his name as Gilbert told me lawless behavior of many kinds “was starting to get worse out here” as the community population quickly expanded as millions cross the border.

“It’s people doing stupid stuff, shooting out here, people pulling their guns,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes on over here.”

But the DPS surge has brought peace.  “They’re just keeping everything calm. So, I like it! I like it!”

Confirming reports like that hint at a starkly different Colony Ridge just weeks earlier, which I and others have described as a veritable police no-go zone, so thinly patrolled was it by Liberty County and federal agencies like ICE, which neighboring Sheriff Greg Capers said declines all requests for help with the “vast” sea of illegal immigrants in the broader region.

Colony Ridge’s developers John and Trey Harris, who provide high-interest owner-to-buyer property loans to buyers with no credit or job histories that any mainstream bank would require, have found liberal media outlets willing declare, as “right-wing conspiracy theories,” perceptions about crime and illegal immigration that a broad diversity of local residents and officials have voiced, like Liberty County Sheriff Bobby Rader and neighboring San Jacinto County Sheriff Capers, school officials, business owners and both legal and illegal immigrants living there. They did not respond to my request for comment about the surge.

Without evidence or fact-checking challenge, media outlets like Center Square, the liberal Texas Monthly, and the Houston Chronicle also allowed the developers to purvey a patently false claim that Colony Ridge enjoys a high officer-per-resident ratio with 12 full-time officers in total. A simple fact-check of police management studies about one common benchmark measure would have shown that policing in Colony Ridge is woeful.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police, for instance, suggests 3.4 officers for every 1,000 residents in recent years. The national average is 2.5 full-time officers per 1,000 residents, the FBI reported a few years ago.

But assuming Colony Ridge’s population is 50,000, the police-to-resident ratio would be one officer per 16,700, a terrible number for any community to suffer. At the higher population estimate of 75,000, the ratio falls to one cop per 25,000 people.

“Some reporter reported that we had a no-go zone, which is not true,” Sheriff Rader recently quipped to a radio interviewer, about me. “If you’d said, ‘a not-enough-go-zone,’ it would be accurate.”

Senior Texas officials have never said how long the Colony Ridge operation will go on.

Short of any solution at the state’s special legislative session, whatever peace the state intervention has achieved for Colony Ridge will prove short-lived as hundreds of new residents per month, many perhaps having come over the border, move in there – or into any new Colony Ridges that might be cropping up.

https://townhall.com/columnists/toddbensman/2023/10/19/relieved-residents-of-texas-illegal-immigrant-town-love-gov-abbotts-new-state-police-surge-n2630033

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19 October, 2023

Over 100 migrants deported from US to Venezuela as repatriation flights resume

The Biden administration flew more than 100 Venezuelans back to their authoritarian socialist homeland on Wednesday as deportation flights to the troubled nation resumed for the first time in years.

The Department of Homeland Security announced earlier this month that it would resume direct repatriations to Venezuela in an effort to deter illegal border-crossings after a decision by Venezuelan authorities to accept the return of Venezuelan nationals.

“This flight to Venezuela is the first I’ve seen in my career of an entire charter flight of Venezuelans going back to their country,” Corey Price, an acting executive associate director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Associated Press.

“And we plan on having several more of these in the coming days and weeks,” he added.

The roughly 130 migrants on Wednesday’s first flight traveled aboard ICE Air, a Boeing 737 jet chartered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that took off from the Texas border town of Harlingen and stopped in Miami before continuing to Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas.

All passengers on the first flight had illegally entered the US between ports of entry, according to US Border Patrol, and wore wrist and ankle restraints and were patted down as they boarded the jet.

ICE is prioritizing recent arrivals and migrants who have committed crimes during their time in the US for the initial deportation flights.

Nearly a half-million Venezuelans have illegally crossed the southwest border since President Biden took office — with the surge peaking at more than 34,000 arrests in April and more than 31,000 stops recorded in August, the most recent month for which data are available.

Roughly 200,000 Venezuelans illegally crossed the southwest border in the most recent 11 months of Customs and Border Protection data, forming about 9% of all such transits.

Last month, Biden, 80, extended temporary protected status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the US by July 31 of this year, which grants the cohort protection from deportation and the right to live and work legally in America due to their home country’s dysfunction.

“Venezuelans who have not applied for TPS and have deportation orders could be affected,” Rachel Leon, an immigration attorney in Florida, told the AP. “Those who are eligible for TPS should apply as soon as possible to avoid facing deportation.”

https://nypost.com/2023/10/18/over-100-migrants-deported-to-venezuela-as-repatriation-flights-resume/

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18 October, 2023

Iranians on America’s Terrorist Watchlist Encountered on Southern Border Iranians on America’s Terrorist Watchlist Encountered on Southern Border

Illegal aliens on America’s terrorist watchlist are crossing America’s southern border, including at least two from Iran so far this month, authorities say.  

Since Oct. 1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has apprehended at least two Iranians at the border who are on the watchlist, officially called the Terrorist Screening Data Base, according to Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins, who broke the news Monday morning on X, formerly Twitter.

From Oct. 1, 2022, to Aug. 31, 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported encountering 151 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist between ports of entry on the southern border, plus 76 more at ports of entry. This number does not include an unknown number of “gotaways” who successfully evaded Border Patrol agents and entered the interior of the U.S.  

The number of illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist encountered by the Border Patrol on the southern border has risen sharply in the past four years—from three in fiscal year 2020 to 15 in fiscal 2021 to 98 in fiscal 2022, and now over 150 in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30.  

The terrorist watchlist includes “individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” according to CBP. The government’s chart below refers to the watchlist by the acronym TSDS.

News of Iranians on America’s terrorist watchlist being encountered on the southern border comes just over a week after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel Oct. 7, killing 1,300.  

Iran not only served as a “cheerleader” while Hamas terrorists “decapitated babies,” but also likely helped Hamas “in supporting and planning the terror campaign” against Israel, said James Carafano, a national security expert at The Heritage Foundation who is the think tank’s E.W. Richardson fellow and senior counselor to the president. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)   

Following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his Islamist regime was not involved in the deadly strike.

It’s well known that Iran “has supported Hamas financially by the provision of rockets and arms and by training.” Haleh Esfandiari, an Iranian American who is a distinguished fellow and former director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based think tank The Wilson Center, writes in a recent report.

“Iran’s modus operandi in the Middle East has long been to avoid direct involvement but act through proxies—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza, and militias in Iraq—to expand its influence and achieve its policy goals,” Esfandiari writes. “The long-term planning that made last week’s Hamas attack possible strongly suggests an Iranian role.”

Fox News reported last week that the U.S. Border Patrol has encountered 72,823 “special interest aliens” on America’s borders over the past two years—many from the Middle East.  

Special interest alien is a government term used to refer to an illegal alien from a nation that promotes terrorist activity, harbors terrorists, or poses a possible security threat to the U.S.  

Fox reported that Border Patrol agents encountered 6,386 nationals from Afghanistan between October 2021 and October 2023, as well as 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran, and 538 from Syria. Fox cited data it said had been confirmed by multiple Customs and Border Protection sources.

Additionally, Fox’s Bill Melugin reported, in those two years Border Patrol agents encountered 139 illegal aliens from Yemen, 123 from Iraq, 164 from Lebanon, 1,613 from Pakistan, 15,594 from Mauritania, 13,624 from Uzbekistan, and 30,830 from Turkey.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/16/iranians-americas-terrorist-watchlist-encountered-southern-border/

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17 October, 2023

Biden Administration Sends Banks a Message About Lending Money to Illegal Immigrants

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department released a joint statement on Thursday notifying financial institutions that they cannot discriminate against illegal immigrants.  

“All credit applications are protected from discrimination on the basis of their national origin, race, and other characteristics covered by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, regardless of their immigration status,” the reminder states.

DOJ and CFPB said they released the statement over reports of consumers being denied credit cards as well as auto, student, personal, and equipment loans due to their immigration status.

“Fair access to credit is crucially important for building wealth and strengthening household financial stability,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The CFPB will not allow companies to use immigration status as an excuse for illegal discrimination.”

While the Equal Credit Opportunity Act allows a creditor to consider immigration status when determining the “creditor’s rights regarding repayment,” DOJ and CFPB emphasized that unnecessary reliance on a person’s immigration status may violate federal law.

“Lenders should not deny people the opportunity to take out a loan to buy a home, build their businesses or otherwise pursue their financial goals because of unlawful bias and without regard to their actual ability to repay,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This guidance reminds lenders that denying someone access to credit based solely on their actual or perceived immigrant status may violate federal law.”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/10/15/biden-admin-sends-message-to-banks-over-lending-to-illegal-immigrants-n2629805

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16 October, 2023

US ‘Will Never Be the Same,’ Tucker Carlson Says of Country ‘Being Invaded’ by Flood of Illegal Aliens

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson says the U.S. is “being invaded” and “will never be the same” after playing a video that showed illegal immigrants rushing toward the southern border in El Paso, Texas.

“This was the scene at the so-called border at El Paso, Texas, the other day,” Carlson said on X, formerly Twitter, before showing the video footage.

“That’s your country being invaded. It will never be the same. Republicans in Congress, the Republican governor of Texas, do nothing as this happens,” Carlson said afterward. “Democrats cheer it on. They know that America will soon be a one-party state, and they’ll be in charge.”

“Immigration is the reason,” Carlson added.

Todd Bensman, author of “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History,” told Carlson, “Right now, immigrants from 160 different countries are crossing this border.”

“These are going to be people from, other than Mexico and other than Central America, really from all over the world—Middle Easterners, people from every country of Africa,” said Bensman, who was in Piedras Negras, Mexico, at the time of the interview. “And the numbers are absolutely stupendous.”

“This mass migration crisis of the last 36 months, 30-plus months broke every record in the national history books already. But now we’re in a surge that is breaking all of those records,” he said, adding:

We’re looking at, you know, 14,000 apprehensions a day; 10,000, 11–, 12,000 a day, where like 1,000 a day, once upon a time a few years ago, was considered a national emergency. It’s 14,000.

The number of illegal aliens who have entered the interior of the U.S. under the Biden administration now is greater than the individual populations of at least 22 states, as well as that of the District of Columbia, The Daily Signal previously reported.

Data released Monday by the House Judiciary Committee reveals that at least 3.8 million illegal aliens either have been released into the nation’s interior or successfully evaded the Border Patrol to enter the country since President Joe Biden took office Jan. 20, 2021.  

The new data and other information reveal that the Biden administration has “failed to remove, through immigration court removal proceedings, over 99% of those illegal aliens who have been released into the country” since Biden became president, the committee’s interim staff report concludes.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., chairman of Judiciary’s immigration subcommittee, said they obtained nonpublic data from the Department of Homeland Security that provides previously unknown official numbers.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of DHS, reports that more than 5 million illegal aliens were encountered at America’s southern border between the start of the Biden administration and this past March 31. Of those 5 million illegal aliens, at least 2.46 million “had no confirmed departure from the United States,” the report found.  

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/13/us-will-never-be-the-same-tucker-carlson-says-of-country-being-invaded-by-flood-of-illegal-aliens

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15 October, 2023

Ron DeSantis says US should NOT accept refugees from Gaza because 'they are all anti-Semitic'

Ron DeSantis on Saturday insisted the United States should refuse to take in any refugees from Gaza, saying they were 'all anti-Semitic'.

The Israeli military has ordered Gazans living in the north of the country to move to the south, ahead of an expected ground invasion.

The tiny enclave, among the most densely-packed territory in the world, is home to two million people - half of them children.

With their land surrounded by Israel and the eight-mile border with Egypt closed amid diplomatic wrangling over letting Gazans out, the people living there are trapped.

DeSantis said they should not be allowed in to the United States.

'I don't know what Biden is going to do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,' DeSantis told a gathering in Creston, Iowa on Saturday.

'I am not going to do that. If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic. None of them believe in Israel's right to exist.

'None of the Arab states are willing to take any of them. The Arab state should be taking them.

'You don't fly people and import them into the United States of America.'

Of the seven million Palestinians living outside of their territory, 6.3 million are in Arab countries, according to 2021 data reported by the Washington DC-based think tank Arab Center.

Jordan has the largest population of Palestinians living outside of their homeland, followed by Israel, Syria, and Chile - home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East.

Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all have significantly larger Palestinian communities than the United States.

Approximately 170,000 Palestinians live in the United States, according to census data.

Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat congressman representing New York and a member of the progressive 'Squad', said on Saturday that the United States should open its doors.

'Fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children. The international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas,' he said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12631477/ron-desantis-gaza-refugees-not-welcome-united-states.html

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13 October, 2023

Texas Seizes Large Sanctuary Island in Campaign Against Cartels

Dawn was breaking on Monday as a Texas Rangers commander spoke to a heavily armed assembly of state police and Texas military personnel, much like a World War II military commander pep-talking soldiers about to invade an enemy-held Pacific Island.

It so happened that the Texans also were about to invade an enemy-held island, this one being a 170-acre, mile-long land mass in the middle of the Rio Grande. The declared enemy: ultra-violent Mexican cartels that have occupied and used it with impunity to smuggle cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, weapons, and illegal immigrants, all while shooting at American cops, riddling Border Patrol boats with bullets, and intimidating Texas farmers, ranchers, and the 180 residents of the isolated Texas riverfront village of Fronton.

But no more after Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently decided in ordering his Texas military force and state police to retake “Fronton Island” by force and to hold it, come what may. With D-Day about to start, the Rangers officer dished advice and encouragement to his force.

We have medical evacuation plans and extra blood on hand “in case we do get engaged and someone is shot or something,” he told the gathered men, some of whom shifted from one foot to another or repositioned their M-4 rifles.

“Let’s keep a close eye on those structures that are up there that have that height advantage on us,” he warned of the burned out, bullet-pocked structures up on a Mexican side bluff overlooking Fronton Island. They were often used as sniper’s perches, with many marked by spray-painted cartel acronyms.

“We have not seen people in there this morning, but we know that that’s what they’re used for.”

Because an improvised explosive was found on Fronton Island last month amid a stash of semi-automatic rifles and ammunition, don’t disturb backpacks or piles of clothes as you secure the island today, he warned, because there’s a fair chance they’re now booby-trapped. Mark it and call one of three bomb squads on call.

A Texas Rangers captain interjected to tell the troops not to take it personally if a typical eruption of combat between warring cartel factions over there happened to send rounds their way. Don’t automatically just shoot back.

“When those guys engage, we have a lot of bullets fly our way,” the captain explained. “It’s not directed fire, so just be aware of that. If they start firing on someone over there, you’ll kind of just want to take some cover. Bullets have definitely flown over our heads.”

But if they do direct fire at any of you while you’re taking the island, the first officer warned, make sure you don’t kill a Mexican soldier by accident to avoid international controversy, maybe even a Mexican extradition and trial. If fire comes from cartel gunmen fleeing a losing gun battle, as often happens, “That will initiate a large response from us, rightfully so,” the Ranger said. And, oh yeah, watch out for Africanized bees found on the island, he added. “They’re aggressive.”

When the invasion pep talk ended and the sun was spreading orange rays of light, dozens of heavily armed men, including some military special forces personnel who refused to be photographed, boarded roaring convoys of all-terrain vehicles and invaded Fronton Island.

With police drones scouting the brush ahead for gunmen, they ground through mud left by a rare overnight rainfall. The officers were sweating from humidity, body armor, and stress, trying to familiarize themselves with the island where many will spend their future shifts for months or even years to come. Depending.

The idea was for these vanguards to secure Fronton Island enough now to have Texas National Guard engineers go in with heavy earth-moving machinery to completely denude its thick, covering blanket of vegetation, fortify its newly barren length with concertina wire, and deny its future use to these cartels by force of arms. It is the third and largest Rio Grande island that Texas has seized in 2023. The earlier two were taken in the Eagle Pass area, mainly to deny their use by illegal immigrants.

All the national media was in Eagle Pass Monday to monitor illegal immigration. The Texas seizure of Fronton Island, however, highlights a consequence of the overall border crisis that went largely unnoted but demands equal attention: While Border Patrol agents have been busy processing illegal immigrants for three years, the cartels have gone unchecked.

https://cis.org/Bensman/Texas-Seizes-Large-Sanctuary-Island-Campaign-Against-Cartels

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12 October, 2023

Here’s How Many Illegal Aliens From Terrorist or Suspect Nations Were Encountered at Border

The U.S. Border Patrol has encountered 72,823 “special interest aliens” on America’s borders over the past two years—many from the Middle East—according to an exclusive Fox News report.  

A special interest alien is a government term used to refer to an illegal alien from a nation that either promotes terrorist activity, harbors terrorists, or poses a possible security threat to the U.S.

Data obtained by Fox and “confirmed by multiple CBP [Customs and Border Protection] sources … which reflects apprehensions between ports of entry between Oct. 2021 and Oct. 2023, shows that agents encountered 6,386 nationals from Afghanistan in that period, as well as 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran and 538 from Syria,” according to the outlet.  

Additionally, in the last two years, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reports that Border Patrol agents have encountered 139 illegal aliens from Yemen, 123 from Iraq, 164 from Lebanon, 1,613 from Pakistan, 15,594 from Mauritania, 13,624 from Uzbekistan, and 30,830 from Turkey.  

“Border Patrol sources tell me they have extreme concerns about who is coming into the country because they have little to no way of vetting people from these special interest countries,” Melugin wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday.  

“I’m told unless [illegal aliens] have committed a crime previously in the U.S., or they are on some sort of federal watchlist, there’s no way to know who they are because most of their home countries don’t share data/records with the U.S., so there is nothing to match a name to when BP agents run fingerprints,” Melugin said.  

The numbers Melugin reports do not include those encountered at ports of entry or “gotaways” who have successfully evaded Customs and Border Protection.  

Responding to Melugin’s report, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked in an X post, “If these individuals were caught, how many got away?”

A new report from the House Judiciary Committee found that “more than 1.7 million known ‘gotaways’” have successfully evaded Border Patrol agents and entered the country during the first 26 months of the Biden administration.  

News of the “special interest aliens” who have been encountered on America’s borders comes just a few days after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, killing hundreds, including Americans. Victoria Coates, The Heritage Foundation’s vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, says Iran no doubt provided Hamas with resources to launch the missile and ground attacks on Israel.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/10/10/data-reveals-70000-illegal-aliens-terrorist-threatening-nations-encountered-border

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11 October, 2023

Reason record numbers of migrants are flooding into Australia is exposed by top government official

One of Australia's most powerful public servants has used predictions about an ageing population and a falling birth rate to justify record-high immigration.

Steven Kennedy, the secretary of the Treasury who also sits on the Reserve Bank board, slammed the notion a rapidly ageing population would be temporary.

'There is sometimes a perception that the ageing of population is a temporary phenomenon particularly as the baby boomers age,' he told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia think tank on Monday.

'However, this is not the case.'

Dr Kennedy quoted from Treasury's Intergenerational Report predicting the proportion of people aged 65 and over would climb to 23.4 per cent by 2062-63, up from 17.3 per cent during the last financial year.

The share of those aged 85 and over was predicted to surge to five per cent, up from 2.9 per cent.

This is occurring as Australia's fertility rate falls, where couples are on average having less than two children, or below replacement level.

'So long as the fertility rate is below replacement, successive generations will be smaller,' Dr Kennedy said.

Australia's cost of living crisis is set to worsen as the terrorist attacks on Israel push up crude oil prices - potentially sparking another rate rise with the local currency at the weakest level in a year.

Australia's fertility rate has been below 2.1 since the 1970s, with the 1.98 level of  2008-09 a temporary high point in recent years.

Higher immigration over recent decades has failed to stop Australia's population getting older, with Treasury's Centre for Population calculating the nation had a median age of 38 years and six months in mid-2022, up from 32 years and eight months three decades earlier.

Nonetheless, Dr Kennedy said Australia's population would be even older without the immigration surge of the past two decades.

'Higher migration has been the primary driver of the larger and younger population,' he said. 'Our population growth has been higher than all the G7 nations reflecting higher migration.'

A record 454,400 migrants moved to Australia in the year to March, with this figure including both the permanent intake of skilled migrants and long-term international students.

Australia's net overseas migration rate, based on arrivals minus permanent departures, is quadruple the 110,104 level of two decades ago.

An immigration surge, to make up for Australia's border closure in 2020 and 2021, has also coincided with a productivity plunge, where output for every worker is falling.

Productivity, based on gross domestic product per hour, fell by 3.6 per cent in 2022-23.

During the past decade, when 200,000 migrants have been moving to Australia a year, productivity growth has been stuck below one per cent.

This is a far cry from the two per cent pace of the 1990s, when annual immigration was mainly below 100,000.

But Dr Kennedy said an ageing population would mean weaker-than-average economic growth in decades to come.

'The lower growth reflects slower productivity and population growth, and reduced participation due to ageing,' he said.

'Projected slower productivity, population growth and lower participation is not unique to Australia. 'These outcomes are anticipated for most developed countries.'

Australia's population grew by 2.2 per cent in the year to March with immigration making up 80.7 per cent of the increase.

But Treasury is expecting that to slow to 1.1 per cent over the next 40 years, putting it below the 1.4 per cent level of the past four decades, as Australia's population grows from 26.5million to 40.5million by 2062–‍63.

Treasury advocates higher immigration so it can reap more taxation revenue.

The Business Council of Australia, which represents big corporations, has lobbied for higher immigration since the borders were reopened in late 2021.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12612523/Reason-record-numbers-migrants-flooding-Australia-exposed-government-official.htmls

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10 October, 2023

Over 99 Percent of Border Encounters Under Biden Result in No Deportations: House Report

In a scathing interim staff report released on Oct. 9, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) presented a grim assessment of the Biden administration's immigration policies, highlighting its failure to remove more than 99 percent of illegal aliens encountered at the U.S.–Mexico border.

The report, titled "The Biden Border Crisis: New Data and Testimony Show How the Biden Administration Opened the Southwest Border and Abandoned Interior Immigration Enforcement" contains previously undisclosed data, painting a stark picture of the immigration enforcement challenges faced by the United States.

“There is virtually no enforcement of our immigration laws,” the report reads, citing transcribed interviews with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and slamming Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for making America “less safe.”

One of the most alarming revelations is that between Jan. 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023, there were more than 5 million illegal alien encounters at the southern border. Shockingly, at least 2,464,424 of these encounters had no confirmed departure from the United States, indicating a significant issue with deportation procedures.

During the same period, the DHS released at least 2,148,738 illegal aliens into the United States. Of these, only 5,993 illegal aliens were placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge and subsequently removed from the country. This represents a mere 6 percent of those released.

"Because of the unprecedented order crisis, some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been forced to abandon arrests and removals of aliens, including criminal aliens, to process the illegal aliens who have arrived at the southwest border," the report reads. "Meanwhile, the Biden Administration’s own policies and so-called enforcement 'priorities' have contributed to reduced arrests and lower removals of aliens."

The report highlights a troubling lack of scrutiny for potential asylum seekers. Only 6 percent of the illegal aliens released into the United States were screened for fear of persecution, a fundamental aspect of the asylum process.

Since March, only 874 of the illegal immigrants whose claims were heard by an immigration judge and found to have a legitimate fear of persecution had been deported by the DHS. An astounding 205,473 aliens were released into the country through various illegal parole programs.

The report underscores the persistent demands by the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement for basic information regarding the state of the border crisis. In response to these demands, the DHS provided previously undisclosed data that paint a concerning picture of the ongoing immigration challenges faced by the United States.

Mr. Jordan and Mr. McClintock have called for immediate attention to address these issues and secure the nation's borders, emphasizing the importance of immigration enforcement and border security in light of these troubling statistics.

According to Politico's report on the document, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández responded to the report.
“This so-called report is full of lies from House Republicans who continue to play politics while sabotaging President Biden’s work to ramp up enforcement and personnel at the border," Ms. Fernández said.

The White House aide also cited statistics from the administration, stating that roughly 3.6 million repatriations and expulsions have been made since January 2021, as well as pointing to President Joe Biden’s $4 billion request to Congress for troops, border agents, and other resources.

It comes days after the White House made crucial policy pivots, restarting some border wall construction and unfreezing deportations of Venezuelans. Democratic governors continue piling on the Biden administration, demanding help with the flood of migrants coming to their states.

Another shutdown deadline is just 40 days away, with Republicans pushing for border funding and policy concessions and Democrats showing some willingness to negotiate. And Mr. Jordan is running for House speaker, making border issues one of the centerpieces of his pitch.

"In transcribed interviews before the Committee, ICE officials ... have testified that under the Biden Administration, releases have increased, removals have decreased, American communities have become less safe, and the Biden Administration has all but abandoned immigration enforcement," the report from Mr. Jordan's committee reads.

“The testimony from these front-line immigration enforcement officials vividly shows the dangerous consequences of the Biden Administration’s open-borders policies.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/over-99-percent-of-border-encounters-under-biden-result-in-no-deportations-house-report-5506648?ea_src=au-frontpage&ea_med=us-news-left-1

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9 October, 2023

Doubling of NYC migrant inflow proves the border is still open — and Adams’ trip won’t change a thing

In all the other noise last week, at least one grim fact got rather buried: The number of new migrants arriving in the Big Apple daily has doubled over the past year.

The recent peak is about 800, actually, but even 600 is twice the level of a year ago, which already rightly had the mayor screaming for relief.

And while arrivals in the city may not correlate perfectly with how many migrants are getting waved in under President Joe Biden’s policies, it’s surely yet another sign that he’s done absolutely nothing to meaningfully restrict the flow. Indeed, it’s getting worse.

And Homeland Security’s belated move to build a few miles of wall won’t change that.

Nor will Mayor Eric Adams’ odd Latin American trip, even if he spent every minute lecturing about the foolishness of coming to the city.

Every wave of migrants decides whether to come overwhelmingly on the basis of what they hear from people they have good reason to trust: people they know, who are just like them — except they’ve already arrived.

If Adams thinks thinks his “nightmare in pursuing the ‘American Dream’” talk will yield anything other than blank nods and polite requests for directions to the Roosevelt Hotel, he’s even more absurd than Vice President Kamala “Root Causes” Harris.

On Wednesday Oct 4th 2023 three bus loads of migrants arrived at the Port Authority from Texas.
About 800 migrants arrived in New York City in a single day last week — double the typical number.

Unless and until migrants who’ve already tried to make the trek start sending back word that it’s not worth it, they’ll keep on coming.

The real “root cause” is the fact that Team Biden will wave you in as long as you play the right “asylum seeker” cards, and (in NYC’s case) that Team Adams will find you somewhere to stay and enough to eat, plus free health care and so on.

Potential migrants know a good deal when they see it.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/08/nyc-migrant-crisis-worsens-as-inflows-double-thanks-biden/

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8 October, 2023

‘Biden lied’: Democrats come down hard on border wall backflip

Washington: Military veterans, environmentalists and progressive Democrats have hit out at US President Joe Biden after he reneged on an election promise not to build a wall at the US-Mexico border.

One day after the Biden administration announced it would waive 26 federal laws and regulations to allow a border wall to be constructed in an area of south Texas with a high number of migrant crossings, the president has faced an angry backlash, with some members of his own party accusing him of hypocrisy and lies.

The backflip came despite Biden entering office promising “there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration” and beginning his presidency by immediately dumping one of his predecessor Donald Trump’s signature policies.

Almost two years later, his government has reversed course as urban cities and regional border towns across the country struggle to deal with the ongoing influx of migrants from South and Central America, and as far as Africa and South Asia.

“This is hypocrisy at its finest,” said Rio Grande Mayor Joel Villarreal, a Democrat whose city is part of the area where construction for a new section of wall was given the go-ahead. About 30 kilometres will be fenced along the Rio Grande that separates Mexico from the US.

“The bottom line is President Biden lied to the American people.”

The policy shift was also met with anger by members of Congress, who demanded the administration reverse the decision and come up with meaningful immigration reform.

“You could build a great big Trumpy wall on the entire US southern border and it’s still not going to fix this problem,” New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram.

“The US and US foreign policy is contributing to this problem, and if we do not address the migrant crisis at its root, it is still going to be a problem.”

Common Defence – America’s largest grassroots organisation of military veterans, which represents 200,000 veterans, military family members and civilian supporters – agreed.

“We should be creating safe pathways for people instead,” the group’s climate justice director Perry O’Brien told this masthead.

“We are deeply disappointed and think that this is just playing into the hands of defence contractors and the xenophobes on the far-right who want to turn the southern border into our next forever war.”

The backflip underscores the political and policy challenge that Biden – who has had about 6 million asylum seekers detained or intercepted under his watch – faces ahead of next year’s election.

According to a recent Gallup poll, his overall approval rating sits at a low 42 per cent, but Americans view his performance on immigration to be much worse, at 31 per cent.

While building a border wall was one of Trump’s signature policies, Democrats have traditionally taken a more cautious approach to immigration.

However, the White House has hardened in recent months, coinciding with Republican governors sending scores of migrants to Democratic cities such as New York, Chicago and Washington to goad the president over the crisis.

Biden sought to defend the decision again on Friday (Saturday AEDT), telling reporters at the White House that he had wanted Congress to redirect the funds towards other measures, such as more border patrol agents or drug-detecting capabilities.

However, the money had been appropriated by Congress in 2019, when Trump was still in power, specifically for the construction of the wall. “I was told that I had no choice,” Biden said.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/biden-lied-democrats-come-down-hard-on-border-wall-backflip-20231007-p5eag9.html

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5 October, 2023

Biden administration reverses course, clears way for new border wall by waiving environmental laws

The Biden administration has paved the way for the construction of a new wall along the southern border in Texas by waiving more than a dozen federal laws in a stark reversal of its previous stance on the physical barrier.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the plan to bypass long drawn-out environmental reviews in order to expedite border wall construction in Starr County, TX as the administration struggles to handle an ongoing migrant crisis that has strained local and federal resources.

The area where construction is planned has seen “high illegal entry,” according to authorities.

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, said in a notice posted on the US Federal Registry.

The Democratic administration is picking up where former President Donald Trump left off.

One of Trump’s biggest campaign promises was to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and his administration constructed about 450 miles of border barriers between 2017 and January 2021.

DHS’s decision to build more walls contradicts Biden’s previous promise to end the construction. “Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” Biden said in a proclamation to stop the building on Jan. 20, 2021.

US Customs and Border Protection argued that the planned construction, which could add up to 20 miles of barriers to the existing wall in the area, does not violate Biden’s proclamation.

“Congress appropriated fiscal year 2019 funds for the construction of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, and DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose,” CBP said in a statement.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/05/biden-administration-reverses-course-clears-way-for-new-border-wall/

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4 October, 2023

Bill Clinton Breaks With Democrats, Makes Concession on Illegal Immigrant Surge

Former President Bill Clinton conceded a change is needed to New York's "right to shelter" law as top state officials have sounded the alarm about illegal immigrants arriving in New York City in recent months.

"It's broken. We need to fix it ... it doesn't make any sense," the former president told host John Catsimatidis on WABC radio's Cats Roundtable show on Sunday.

He added: "They come here, and we're supposed to shelter people who can't get work permits for six months. We need to change that. They ought to work. They need to begin working, paying taxes, and paying their way. Most of these people have no interest in being on welfare."

President Clinton did not directly address the recent surge of illegal immigrants pouring across the U.S.–Mexico border. Republicans and Border Control unions have said that the Biden administration's policies have led to the rise in illegal immigration, namely after it terminated a number of Trump administration rules.

However, with the recent increase in illegal immigrants in New York City, President Joe Biden and Democrats will face political fallout, he said.

“The Democrats lost enough seats in New York because of reaction to the crime problem here and the sense that—we didn’t have—we my party—didn’t have a good common-sense approach to it,” he stated. “The swing vote is for common sense and solving problems.”

He further added that the U.S. immigration system is "built to handle about 400,000" people and argued that the federal government "should build more housing just over the Rio Grande," referring to Mexico.

“Keep people there, and let them in as quickly as possible if they are going some place where we know they can get a job and they’ll be welcome," the former president said, adding that the United States has "a negative birth rate" and suggested it can only be ameliorated by mass immigration.

That proposal bears some similarity to former President Donald Trump's migrant protection protocols, or the "remain in Mexico" policy, which requires some alleged asylum-seekers to go back to Mexico to await immigration proceedings. The Trump policy was ended by President Biden in April 2022 after a judge struck it down.

"If that happens, the only way to keep your economy growing is either with immigrants or machines,” the former Arkansas governor argued.

More than 110,000 illegal immigrants have entered New York City since April 2022, according to reports. Some city and state officials have argued that the "right to shelter" law should only apply to already-homeless people living in the city, not illegal immigrants.

“The original premise behind the right to shelter was, for starters, for homeless men on the streets, people experiencing AIDS, that was [then] extended to families,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month, adding, “But never was it envisioned being an unlimited universal right, or obligation on the city, to house literally the entire world."

Over the past weekend, Mrs. Hochul criticized U.S. border policies and said it's "too open" for people to cross. She argued that more border agents should be hired to apprehend illegal immigrants.

“It is too open right now,’’ the governor told CBS’s “Face the Nation’’ on Sunday. “We want [Congress] to have a limit on who can come across the border,’’ she added.

“People coming from all over the world are finding their way through, simply saying they need asylum, and the majority of them seem to be ending up in the streets of New York, and that is a real problem for New York City,” the governor continued to say.

However, some Republicans have said that the border-related comments from Mrs. Hochul and other Democrats are simply reactions to negative poll numbers.

“Kathy Hochul sees the same polling that we are looking at, and she and New York Democrats are in free fall," House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said in a recent statement.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/bill-clinton-breaks-with-democrats-makes-concession-on-illegal-immigrant-surge-5502640

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3 October, 2023

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker calls on Biden to direct migrants AWAY from his state - despite boasting it was the 'most welcoming in the nation'

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has become the latest Democrat to beg President Joe Biden to divert migrants away from his state.

It comes just two years after declaring his state the 'Most Welcoming State in the Nation' and expanding immigrant protections.

Pritzker joins New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy among liberals who have professed pro-migrant policies but asked that they not be housed in their jurisdiction.

Chicago alone has seen 13,000 migrants arrive in the city since August 2022, and the surge is expected to cost taxpayers $302 million by the end of the year.

In the letter, Pritzker calls the crisis in his state 'untenable' with 'lack of intervention and coordination at the border,' demanding he stop laying the crisis on the hands of leaders from the Democrat Party.

'Allowing just one state to lay the burden upon a certain few states run by Democrats is untenable,' Pritzker wrote.

We are a nation that has welcomed immigrants and refugees since our founding, and we have done so in a bipartisan manner. It cannot be that just a few cities and states should now bear the cost of this effort alone.'

The second-term governor, who has been fantasized by some as a potential replacement for the 80-year-old Biden, made several demands to stop the crisis.

'Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government,' Pritzker wrote.

He recommended the White House name a point-person as a go-between to cut down on red tape and asked the federal government to further manage where migrants are relocated.

Pritzker's other suggestions included providing financial support to state and local governments for various services, accelerating employment authorization and approving the state's requests for federal services.

Just two years ago, however, Pritzker bragged about how welcoming the state was toward migrants in a press release naming Illinois the 'Most Welcoming State in the Country.'

'Throughout my governorship I've directed my administration to adopt policies that make Illinois a welcoming state for immigrants, and I'm proud to sign these accountability measures into law to advance our cause,' Pritzker said at the time.

'Every family, every child, every human being deserves to feel safe and secure in the place they call home. I am committed to making sure that value defines what it means to live in Illinois.'

The announcement included a new 'Welcoming Illinois Office' and expanded services for migrant families.

It comes as Chicago residents are becoming increasingly concerned about a surge of asylum seekers arriving on buses from southern states. Many of the migrants have been transported north from Republican border states in a bid to prove the Democrats' open arms policies are a disaster.

The number of migrants who need shelter in Chicago has continued to increase in recent months, and city leaders have stated they will follow New York's lead in turning different locations around the city into shelters for migrants.

'We've identified multiple locations around the city that can be suitable to treat the family and individuals who are here by law, seeking asylum constitutionally and legally, to have a place that recognizes their dignity,' Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Chicago officials have yet to specify which locations they are looking at, but they will reportedly be climate-controlled military-grade tents, according to alderwoman Maria Hadden.

The former Halsted Indoor Mall parking lot at 115th and Halsted Streets could be one of the locations for a planned tent camp, CBS Chicago reported. The space was supposed to be redeveloped into affordable housing but is currently sitting vacant

Last week, Chicago Democratic lawmakers traveled to New York City to 'bring back' lessons on how to deal with a migrant surge in the Windy City.

Furious New Yorkers heckled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was leading their visit, outside the iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, which has become the center of the migrant scandal in the Big Apple.

The lawmakers were forced to cut the press conference short as the crowd kept drowning out Ocasio-Cortez.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12586555/pritzker-biden-migrant-hypocrisy.html

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2 October, 2023

Biden’s Worsening Border Crisis Is an Attack on Self-Government

The Biden administration apparently wants to transform the United States into a poorly managed economic zone.

It’s hard to conclude otherwise amid the latest mayhem at the southern border.

When border-crossing numbers briefly dipped during the summer, legacy media outlets were eager to declare the crisis overblown. One opinion writer in The New York Times declared that if you’re hearing about the border, “someone is trying to scare you.”

We were supposed to ignore the years of evidence and millions of illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden and pretend that this was all no big deal. It was a temporary, two-year blip and nothing more. The “Big Guy” has it all under control.

That mild reprieve was short-lived. Now, the situation is worse than ever.

As Fox News border reporter Bill Melugin said, it’s a “free-for-all” in Eagle Pass, Texas, right now as thousands of Venezuelans are crossing the border en masse.

The numbers are truly astounding.

The Biden administration has repeatedly demonstrated that it’s not only fine with that, but it will also do anything to ensure that the situation continues.

The White House created a visa program for illegal immigrants that allows them to stay in the country if they find a “sponsor” to support them. But the sponsor can be another illegal alien. Yes, really.

That’s why it’s fair to say that we have a completely open border. Even in the case where illegal immigrants are apprehended, the administration has pulled the plug on every tool that would allow the government to quickly deport them.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is effectively acting as a rogue prosecutor on the national level.

Maybe we should do something about that.

Count on the administration to do petty things to keep the border open, too.

Texas authorities put up razor wire around the border point at Eagle Pass. The Border Patrol—obviously under direction from the Biden administration—cut it down, according to Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Biden and company have gone out of their way to demonstrate their contempt for U.S. law and anyone who would dare question whether we should accept this mass invasion as legitimate.

Texas started busing illegal immigrants to “sanctuary cities” such as New York and Chicago, and the administration reportedly now has threatened to implement a “remain in Texas” policy to keep illegal immigrants from leaving the state.

Texas still votes Republican, so the Left wants to hold the state’s metaphorical head under water until that changes, it seems.

What’s happening at the border is indefensible. Biden has shown no inclination toward getting the problem under control.

The administration sent 800 troops to the border to deal with the latest surge. That’s good, I suppose. But when the administration combines that with arbitrarily granting work permits to nearly half a million illegal immigrants, this seems like putting a miniature Band-Aid on the stump of a severed limb. It’s more insulting than helpful.

When Biden made a speech at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday—a mile from the Roosevelt Hotel, where illegal immigrants are being housed en masse—he spoke about Ukraine and climate change, but said nothing about the border.

We have to assume at this point that the chaos is intentional. Help is most definitely not on the way.

Facilities and hospitals on the border are overrun, state and city budgets are going bust, and even sanctuary cities are in a panic. But don’t expect the White House to repurpose the message of “15 days to stop the spread.”

It’s more like “15 months to end America as we know it.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/21/bidens-worsening-border-crisis-is-an-attack-on-self-government/

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1 October, 2023

Elon Musk Decries Open Border in Visit to Eagle Pass, Texas

Elon Musk toured the U.S. southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday as illegal aliens continue to stream across the border.  

Musk, the tech mogul and CEO of X, formerly known as Twitter, livestreamed portions of his trip, saying he wanted to show the “real story” of what is happening on the U.S. border with Mexico.  

Sporting a black cowboy hat and sunglasses, Musk toured a section of the border about 145 miles west of San Antonio with Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas. Gonzales told Musk that “the folks who are coming over now are impoverished, they have no money, and they have nowhere to go … it’s a bad situation all the way around, and a large part of it is because the [Biden] administration is attracting these folks to come, knowing full well … it’s a dead-end road that they’re going down.”

“This sounds like complete madness,” Musk responded.

“It is,” Gonzales said. “Imagine if you have to live it every single day,” the Texas lawmaker said, adding that the concerning thing is the situation is now becoming “normal.”

“Normalizing insanity,” Musk said. “We’re living in a clown world here.”  

Eagle Pass continues to face a flood of illegal aliens entering the community. Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas told Musk his city has a population of 28,000 people, but has had “over 19,000 people in the last about 10 days come in, so we don’t have the resources.”  

Fox News reported Friday that Customs and Border Protection encountered 10,000 illegal aliens along the border in just 24 hours.  

As an immigrant to the U.S. from South Africa, “I’m extremely pro-immigrant,” Musk said to those watching his video on X, adding he thinks that “we need a greatly expanded legal immigration system and that we should let anyone in the country who is hardworking and honest and will be a contributor to the United States. We should have expedited legal approval for anyone who sort of falls in that category.”

“But then, by the same token,” Musk continued, “we should also not be allowing people in the country if they’re breaking the law. That does not make sense. The law is there for a reason.”


Gonzales told Musk that the “biggest issue” is that Border Patrol agents are spending their time processing illegal aliens when they want to be out in the field “catching bad actors.”  

If Border Patrol agents can return to patrolling the border, “then we keep America safe from fentanyl, from opioids, and some of these things that are killing all Americans,” Gonzales said.  

CBP has seized more than 25,000 pounds of fentanyl on America’s borders since the start of fiscal year 2023, and has encountered a record 2,860,127 illegal aliens on the nation’s border and at ports of entry.  

Musk and Gonzales agreed it is important for Americans to understand that illegal aliens are streaming across America’s borders from all over the world. “This is an open border for all of Earth,” Musk said, while Gonzales nodded in agreement, adding that “this is an open border to 8 billion people.”

Musk appeared surprised to hear Gonzales say that 90% of the illegal aliens who cross the border do not qualify for asylum, and of those who do not qualify, “zero” are returned to their home country.  

There are “no repercussions” for those who cross illegally, Gonzales told Musk, later adding that the situation is “getting worse.”  

Sheriff Randy Brown of Medina County, Texas, just west of San Antonio, told Musk that the “open border policies from the White House” have “overrun” border communities.  

“They don’t have a clue what’s going on here,” the sheriff said of the Biden administration, “because if they did, maybe they would care.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/29/elon-musk-visits-eagle-pass-livestreams-real-story-of-whats-happening-at-southern-border

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