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29 September, 2023

How Many Times Does a Court Have to Rule Against Illegal DACA Program Before It’s Terminated?

Once again, a federal district court has ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals administrative amnesty program—originally implemented by President Barack Obama, terminated by President Donald Trump, and reinstated by President Joe Biden—is illegal.

So, how many times do the courts have to strike DACA down before the executive branch finally terminates a program it never had the authority to grant in the first place?

No one knows.

And will the Biden administration actually abide by this most recent court order? No way.

This unlawful assertion of executive power started when Janet Napolitano, then-secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a three-page memorandum in 2012 deferring the removal of illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 who had been in the country for at least five years prior to the date of the memo and were not above the age of 30.

They were granted access to Social Security and Medicare benefits—despite the fact that illegal aliens are barred from those government programs by federal law.  By granting them access to those programs, that made them eligible for certain state benefit programs that depend on whether someone is “lawfully present” in the U.S., which was the label given to them by DHS.

Additionally, the aliens were given work permits, also in violation of federal immigration law, which specifically lists the legally admitted aliens who are eligible for work permits. The aliens covered by DACA are not among those.

The deferral was for a renewable, two-year period, and there were approximately 1.9 million aliens eligible for the program. By 2018, 814,000 illegal aliens had applied for and received DACA benefits and immunity from deportation.

The Obama administration subsequently created a second amnesty program, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, and attempted to expand DACA.

Under both of those programs, half of the then-estimated 11.3 million illegal aliens in the country would have been granted amnesty, according to federal Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, who issued the most recent decision in the matter on Sept. 13.

The procedural history of these programs—both inside the executive branch and in the litigation filed against, and in support of, these programs—is long and complicated, involving numerous appeals and remands.

Twenty-six states initially sued the Obama administration to stop the DAPA program and the expansion of DACA. Hanen issued a preliminary injunction against the programs in 2015, which the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, and the case was remanded back to Hanen.

But when Trump was elected, DHS issued memos rescinding and canceling both programs and the parties agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. But liberal groups and organizations, including the regents of the University of California, filed several lawsuits to stop the termination of the amnesty programs.

When lower courts ruled that the Trump administration couldn’t end the programs, those decisions were appealed to the Supreme Court in 2020, which didn’t rule on the merits, but instead held that the rescissions didn’t meet the procedural requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act for a change in policy.

Those lower court decisions preventing the termination of DACA were particularly bizarre, holding that a subsequent president couldn’t reverse an executive action taken by a prior president through executive action.

Without going into a lengthy recitation of the subsequent action of the Trump DHS to better explain the rescission of the programs to meet the requirements of the APA, and the additional litigation filed against that, as well as the change in policy once again when the Biden administration came in, suffice it to say that the legality of the DACA program ended up back in the lap of Hanen.

The judge’s review was of the new “final rule” of the Biden DHS reimplementing the DACA program as of Oct. 31, 2022, which was being contested by Texas, Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippppi, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Keep in mind that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled that the original 2012 DACA program didn’t comply with the procedural requirements of the APA and that it also violated specific provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act because Obama had no authority to grant government benefits to illegal aliens.

But the 5th Circuit remanded the case back down to Hanen to determine whether the new final rule, which expanded DACA even further by making DACA beneficiaries eligible for Obamacare, somehow legitimized the entire program.

Hanen’s answer was a resounding “no.”

DHS acknowledged that the final rule did not “vary from the substantive aspects of the 2012 DACA memorandum.” In other words, said Hanen, “there are no material differences” between the 2012 and 2022 rules supposedly justifying the program. Thus, DHS “did nothing to change or resolve the substantive problems found by this Court or the Fifth Circuit.”

In fact, the DHS “candidly” admitted “that the Final Rule suffers from the same problems as the 2012 DACA Memorandum and that it is contrary to the 5th Circuit’s opinion.”

The actions of the Biden administration in this context are truly inexplicable.

It did nothing to try to “fix” the problems with DACA that the 5th Circuit said made the original program unlawful, and yet it went to court somehow expecting that judges would overlook that and suddenly conclude that granting amnesty and government benefits to illegal aliens under the new final rule in blatant violation of federal immigration laws was legal.

Set aside the fact that DACA, as originally envisioned, is not “fixable” in the first place, no matter how much fancy lawyering went into it.

But the point is this: The Biden administration didn’t even try to pretend it was fixing the defects.

Hanen must have had quite a feeling of déjà vu in his handling of this latest iteration of the 10-year fight over the illegal actions of the executive branch.

The Biden administration did try to argue that if Hanen found any parts of the DACA program to be unlawful, it should just sever those parts and allow the rest of the program to stay in place.

Hanen also refused to do that, saying that if he did, “it would completely gut the program.”

Hanen expressed his sympathy for “the predicament of DACA recipients and their families” who have relied on this program for a decade. However, as he correctly pointed out, the “solution for these deficiencies lies with the legislature, not the executive or judicial branches.”

The judge added:

Congress, for any number of reasons, has decided not to pass DACA-like legislation. Defendant-Intervenors argue that this program is supported by the vast majority of Americans and that failure to enact it is inexcusable; but Congress’s alleged failure to pass, or, stated differently, its decision not to enact legislation, does not empower the Executive Branch to ‘legislate’ on its own—especially when that ‘legislation’ is contrary to actual existing legislation.

The Executive Branch cannot usurp the power bestowed on Congress by the Constitution—even to fill a void.

Hanen makes clear that his injunction against the DACA program does not require the government to take “any immigration, deportation, or criminal action against any DACA recipient.”

In other words, he is not interfering with the government’s prosecutorial discretion to decide whether or not to detain, prosecute, or remove an illegal alien. But granting them government benefits, such as access to Social Security and a work permit?  That is now out the door.

We will see whether Biden’s Department of Homeland Security actually abides by that restriction. Don’t hold your breath.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/22/how-many-times-does-court-have-rule-against-illegal-daca-program-before-terminated

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27 September, 2023

How Border Crisis Became Focus of Federal Spending Debate and What Elon Musk Has to Do With It

The crisis at the U.S. southern border is now being closely linked to Congress passing annual spending bills.

Congress has until Saturday to pass the 12 government spending bills for fiscal year 2024, or a short-term funding bill, in order to avoid a government shutdown, but some Republican lawmakers say they won’t support funding the government without measures to secure America’s southern border.

“From the beginning of this process, I’ve vowed to defend the 750,000 Texans I represent by refusing to fund a [Department of Homeland Security] that is not doing its job to secure the border,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.

“If the Senate and the president continue open-border policies, then the House will not move a DHS appropriations bill,” Roy said. “Texans are done. We are over it. No matter what happens before this is all over, border security needs to get done, period, full stop. No security, no funding.”

In a letter to his colleagues on Aug. 10, Roy and 14 of his fellow GOP legislators called on other lawmakers to withhold funding from DHS until legislation is passed to secure the border.

The House Freedom Caucus, comprising about 45 of the more conservative Republican members of the House, also issued a letter in August stating that it would oppose any spending measure that does not include a bill the House already passed called the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would institute a number of border security measures, including resuming construction on the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Republicans are digging in their heels and using the power of the purse to demand border security as Customs and Border Protection reported 304,162 illegal aliens were encountered in the month of August, surpassing the previous record high in December 2022 by nearly 2,000.  

The current surge of illegal aliens has overwhelmed the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas—a city of about 30,000 about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio—where the Democratic mayor has declared a state of emergency.  

Over the weekend, Fox News’ Griff Jenkins reported that more than 4,000 illegal aliens crossed the border into Eagle Pass between Friday and Sunday. And according to his CBP sources, Jenkins said Monday that there “were approximately 11,000 migrant encounters at the [southwest] border in the last 24 hours, marking the ‘single-highest day in recent memory.’”

In response to the surge, entrepreneur and tech giant Elon Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he will visit Eagle Pass “to see what’s going on for myself.”

Musk’s post has been seen more than 900,000 times. His visit to the southern border is likely to draw the attention of a wide range of the American public, many of whom might not otherwise be following the current border crisis.

It is too soon to know, but Musk’s trip to Eagle Pass might give conservatives in Congress additional public support and leverage to demand passage of border security legislation alongside federal spending bills.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/28/how-border-crisis-became-focus-of-federal-spending-debate-and-what-elon-musk-has-to-do-with-it/

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26 September, 2023

Here's What Chicago Plans to Do With the Illegal Immigrants Sleeping in Airports, Police Stations

Chicago will set up military-style tents to help get illegal immigrants out of airports and police stations across the city.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration signed a nearly $30 million contract earlier this month with a private security firm to build and operate “winterized base camps.” While it’s still unclear where the tents will be set up, CBS News Chicago reports that one location being discussed is an empty parking lot in the Roseland neighborhood, which could hold up to 1,400 illegal immigrants.

Residents pushed back on the plans, however, arguing that they can’t add illegal immigrants to a community already in crisis.

It’s unclear when the camps will begin getting built, but they are said to house 12 people each. There are also sanitation tents and kitchen units as well.

One part of the contract indicates that if temperatures are in the 40s, the units must be at about 70 degrees, leading to questions about how the tents will withstand Chicago winters.

“I can only imagine what’s going to happen trying to keep an outdoor tent warm in the winter when we know single digit temps will be the norm come January or February,” 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez told WGN9.

Additional benefits illegal immigrants will receive in the tents include all-day child care and transportation to school, doctor appointments, and more.

“We’re not thinking long term,” Lopez said. “We’re only doing crisis to crisis and I’ve said this is not a game of Whack-a-mole.  This has to be a long term thought out process.”

According to WGN9, Chicago will have spent more than $255 million taking care of the illegal immigrants by the year's end.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/09/22/chicago-drops-29-million-to-build-tent-city-for-illegal-immigrants-n2628796

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25 September, 2023

Here’s How Biden Admin Destroyed Our Immigration Law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Federal Border Patrol officers were forced to stand down.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/22/our-self-induced-catastrophe-border

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24 September, 2023

Illegals: The issue the GOP could win on

There's not a corner of this country that isn't sick to death of "migrants" (illegal aliens) streaming into their towns and neighborhoods. And this horror show, now playing nationwide, is 100% Biden's fault. 100%.

Even the most cosseted, liberal "sanctuary cities" have cried uncle, pleading for Biden to cut off the flow of illegals.

Just by way of example:

In New York ("sanctuary city" since 1989), migrants (illegal aliens) are crawling over every square inch of the place. You can't walk down Park Avenue or through Central Park without feeling like you've stumbled into a Caracas shantytown. The migrants (illegals) are expected to cost the city $4 billion this year alone, and government estimates are notoriously low.

Mayor Eric Adams has said the "migrants" (illegals) are going to "destroy" the city, so for the past year he's been trying to dump them on other parts of the state. We're a "sanctuary city"! Let's ruin the suburbs instead. In response, more than 30 of New York's 62 counties have passed emergency measures refusing to take them.

That includes Erie County (Buffalo) -- 2-1 registered Democrats -- where smug executive Mark C. Poloncarz announced in May that it was "morally repugnant" to turn away migrants (illegal aliens). For the cherry on top, he added, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Within weeks of the migrants (illegals) arriving, they'd already committed two heinous sexual assaults, and Mr. "Morally Repugnant" refused to take any more.

The last time New York state voted for a Republican president was in 1984. This is New York today, every day:

-- "Protests erupt outside new migrant facility in Queens"

-- "NYC migrant crisis: Staten Island demonstrators block bus during protests"

-- "NYC migrant shelter tour interrupted by shouting protesters"

-- "Hundreds protest migrant relief center located near Nassau County border"

Republicans, are you awake?

In Massachusetts, the progressive, lesbian governor has declared a state of emergency over the "migrants" (illegals), requested an additional quarter-billion dollars from the legislature to deal with them and attacked the White House for "a federal crisis of inaction."

Yarmouth, Massachusetts, voted 60-40 for Biden. Today, there are daily protests outside the town hall and "heated five-hour" meetings to denounce the migrant influx.

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a teeming horde of 50 illegals to progressive paradise Martha's Vineyard, this "sanctuary destination" called in the National Guard to remove them.

The last time Massachusetts voted for a Republican president was in 1984.

Across Chicago, a city virtually dedicated to giving succor to criminals, residents are up in arms over the "migrants" (illegal aliens).

Headlines:

-- "Residents protest plan to house 300 migrants at Hyde Park area motel"

-- "Edgewater (Chicago) residents protest as city announces plan to shelter migrants at Broadway Armory"

-- "Chicago residents protest new migrant shelter in their neighborhood, leading to delay in opening"

As South Shore community activist Natasha Dunn put it, "Our specific frustration lies in the continuous and blatant disregard for the safety and overall quality of life for black residents, as many of these migrants have been dumped in our neighborhoods."

Just so we're clear, the GOP is never, ever going to win the black vote -- sorry, clueless donors! But black people sure aren't going to hate you for impeaching Biden over his refusal to stop inundating the country with millions of poverty-stricken, illiterate illegals, cutting into Americans' government services. (How many black people do you think care about government spending? Or whites, Hispanics or Asians for that matter.)

Generally, voters don't like government shutdowns. They're also not wild about a president of their own party being impeached.

If you're going to do either one, GOP, for God's sake, at least do it for a cause that's 80-20 popular.

https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2023/09/20/my-party-the-stupid-party-n2628736

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21 September, 2023

Australia: Labor Party’s immigration hypocrisy: young and vulnerable hit hardest

Chris Minns – who lives in a house – seems to think you should live in an apartment, and the Labor Party doesn’t want any further questions on the subject.

Speaking at the Sydney 2050 Summit in May this year, he told the audience that ‘we have to get more comfortable with the idea of going up’.

But unfortunately for most people, Minns’ idea of ‘going up’ means their living standards going down, especially for the young people and workers who will likely be the ones getting crammed into these new apartment buildings.

Two recent polls show that people aren’t too happy about Minns’ idea, with more people preferring to cut migration than they would downsize into apartments.

A Twitter poll run by ABC’s Q+A showed that 65 per cent of Australians think the government should reduce the immigration intake to ease pressure on housing – matching roughly with several other polls showing similar results.

Meanwhile, less than half of people polled support Minns’ policy to increase supply through more apartments in city suburbs, coming in at a rather disappointing 48 per cent.

And is it any wonder, with a 2021 study by Strata Community Association NSW showing nearly four out of every ten new apartment complexes in NSW contained major flaws…

Sydney’s population growth, driven almost entirely by Federal Labor’s record overseas migration intake, is placing mountains of stress on the New South Wales housing and rental market.

To ease this pressure, state Labor is proposing building higher unit blocks alongside main roads and above train stations – perhaps not exactly what we had in mind when the party campaigned on ‘A Better Future’.

And though it may certainly sound like a solution, Minns’ ‘house for me and dog box for thee’ approach to fixing the housing crisis, reeks of elitism and political favouritism, as it completely ignores the community-preferred option of lowering migration.

Yet it’s no surprise really, because the truth is that maintaining high levels of migration is advantageous to Labor’s union and business mates, giving them an endless supply of job sites and workers.

Only it hurts the very people that voted for them, and Labor knows it.

In a recent sitting week, NSW Independent MP Rod Roberts asked Housing Minister Rose Jackson whether she would liaise with her federal counterparts to lower migration to help the housing crisis. Her response said it all.

Instead of conceding community concern about immigration, Rose instead resorted to calling the question a ‘dog whistle’.

One can only assume the 50 per cent of Labor voters who also want lower migration are dog whistling too.

The hypocrisy is astounding. Rose Jackson is also the Minister for Youth and Homelessness, two areas heavily affected, and least benefited, by mass migration.

On the youth front, young Australians, who are most likely to be renters or first-home buyers, are being squeezed out of both a housing market and rental market by record migrant arrivals of nearly 400,000 in the last year alone.

For example, recent data released by the Institute of Public Affairs shows that an incredible 70 per cent of new homes built last year were filled by international students alone.

And homeless numbers are up 5 per cent, with tent cities popping up around the state, as rental availability drops below 1.8 per cent.

This brave new Australia comes with deep social ramifications, including the delay of family formation, worsening of fertility rates, and even worsening mental health, as the stresses of trying to find a place to live weighs heavily.

And sadly, if you have a question about it, you’re dog-whistling.

On the altar of the housing market, working and young Australians are being sacrificed for the greater good of economic growth, and the Labor Party is using culture war tactics to silence any opposition to it.

With no end in sight, people will undoubtedly look for more radical solutions and fringe parties to show their anger, while parties like Labor will continue to try and grapple with this dual allegiance of the wealthy few, and the voting many.

In a way, Minns is achieving his goal of going up, except so far the only things ‘going up’ in New South Wales are the number of migrant arrivals, corporate and union profits, and the stress levels of people trying to find a place to live.

Everything else – living standards, birth rates, and young people’s patience – will continue declining.

If Labor ever truly does want to achieve their election promise of solving the housing crisis, they’ll first have to reconcile these deep hypocrisies of wanting high migration and low housing demand.

But don’t hold your breath, because right now all they’re doing is building castles in the sky, without any regard for what people really want.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/labors-immigration-hypocrisy-young-and-vulnerable-hit-hardest/

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20 September, 2023

Residents in Left-Wing State Sound the Alarm Over Illegal Immigrants

Residents of the left-leaning Cape Cod, Massachusetts are reportedly “pushing back” after a group of illegal immigrants turned up in the area “on short notice.”

Reportedly, the town Select Board sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, urging the state to not send illegal immigrants to the Yarmouth Resort motel. The location has “become a nuisance to the town,” does not have an occupancy permit and the property is under a cease-and-desist order, the letter stated. Additionally, Town Administrator Robert Whritenour said that the state has not been communicating with town officials about the illegal immigrant crisis.

“It's a fluid process with them day-to-day. They often neglect or forget to contact the local municipal officials," Whritenour told NBC Boston. "It's been brutal, quite frankly, in terms of a lot of vitriol that has been directed towards local officials, towards state officials, towards federal officials. And honestly, I think a lot of people are fearful."

Whritenour told the outlet that at least six families from Haiti arrived this month with “very little warning” from the state. And, protestors have been gathering outside of the Town Hall and hotel where the illegal immigrants are staying.

“We fear we’re losing Cape Cod," one woman said at the meeting. "Cape Cod is a special and beautiful place. It’s not just a problem for our town. We need you guys to be working with the other towns to have a unified front on this.”

According to The New York Times, Massachusetts has a “right to shelter” law that guarantees families with children a place to stay if they meet certain criteria. As a result, the number of families living in emergency shelters and hotels statewide has doubled in the past year. And, it is estimated that more than half of currently sheltered families are illegal immigrants from other countries like Haiti.

Breitbart noted that in Cape Cod, some communities voted up to 92 percent for Biden in the 2020 election. The state is also housing migrants on two college campuses and on a Cape Cod military base.

https://townhall.com//tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/09/19/cape-cod-residents-worried-about-migrants-n2628588?utm_source=thdailyvip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&recip=6139244

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19 September, 2023

Uncontrolled migration is putting the future of Europe at stake, Italy warns as the number of people arriving illegally returns to crisis levels of 2015

Italy's hard-Right prime minister has claimed that Europe's future is at stake unless the EU can stop the surge of uncontrolled migration across the Mediterranean.

Giorgia Meloni, leader of the populist Brothers of Italy party, made the declaration alongside the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where thousands of irregular migrants have landed on their journeys to Europe.

'The future that Europe wants for itself is at stake here,' Meloni, 46, declared at a press conference on the island.

'The future of Europe depends on its ability to tackle epoch-making challenges of our time and the challenge of illegal immigration is for sure one of them.'

She said that Italy could not shoulder the full weight of responsibility for fighting irregular migration: 'We all stake our future on this issue. At the very least we need an EU naval mission against smugglers.'

'If we don't work seriously all together to fight the illegal departures, the numbers of this will not only overwhelm the border countries, but all of the others,' she warned.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen stood side-by-side with Italy's first female prime minister, and revealed her ten-point immigration support plan to support the island of around 7,000 residents, telling them: 'You can count on the European Union.'

The EU has pledged to move the 8,500 or so migrants that currently live on the island to other parts of the bloc.

It will also step up border surveillance by beefing up Frontex, the EU's border agency, with more equipment.

Ms von der Leyen also vowed to increase migrants' access to legal channels, telling the press conference: 'The better we are with legal migration the stricter we can be with irregular migration.' She added: 'Irregular migration is a European challenge and it needs a European answer. We will decide who comes to the EU and under what circumstance and not the smugglers and traffickers.'

The major EU pledge comes just three months after both Ms von der Leyen and Ms Meloni travelled to Tunisia to seek its cooperation in the fight against irregular migration across the Mediterranean.

Ms Meloni is looking to get the EU to accelerate a migration deal with Tunisia worth €785million (£676million) that would help the country return migrants to their countries of origin and beef up its coastguard with new and better equipment.

The EU's latest pledge also comes days after France stepped up its border security and Germany had suspended a voluntary programme for the reallocation of migrants, complaining that Italy was not respecting the EU's rules on accepting returned migrants.

The German government later reinstated the programme after von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel intervened.

European sentiment towards migrants has soured as data from Frontex revealed that the EU has faced a 96 per cent increase in irregular crossings via the central Mediterranean route to Italy this year.

Nearly 128,000 migrants have arrived in the EU via Italian soil this year so far, twice as many as last year.

Italy currently bears the brunt of the migration crisis. Half of all irregular border crossings into the EU picked up by Frontex were in Italy.

This month, EU officials said they expected more than a million asylum seekers would register claims this year alone.

In 2015, 1.2million asylum claims were lodged in the EU, which plunged the continent into crisis as more and more EU citizens were driven to hardline anti-immigration parties.

The 2015 migrant crisis also left hundreds of migrants dead as EU states were unable to cope with the massive influx of people, with many bodies being found frozen in refrigerated vans, in the wrecks of capsized boats, and washed up on beaches.  

That September, a shocking image of the body of Aylan Kurdi, a two-year-old Syrian refugee, washed up on a Turkish beach after a failed attempt to get to Greece brought a harsh spotlight on EU countries for not doing enough to prevent migrant deaths.

Despite this scrutiny, two weeks after the photo of Aylan was taken, Hungary put up a hard border with its neighbours Serbia and Croatia, with the aim of increasing border security and preventing irregular migrants from getting in.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12530489/Uncontrolled-migration-putting-future-Europe-stake-Italy-warns-numbers-people-arriving-illegally-returns-crisis-levels-2015.html

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18 September, 2023

Mother and Grandfather Mourn Death of Family Lost to ‘Border Crisis’

Emilia quickly said goodbye to her mom, eager to go inside and see her grandmother, but Elisa Tambunga called her 7-year-old daughter back to give her a big hug and kiss, and to say, “I love you.” Those would be the last words the mother would ever speak to her daughter.  

It was March 13 and Emilia had just started spring break, but her mother still needed to go to work. Given the option to go to work with her mom or spend the day with her grandmother in their hometown of Ozona, Texas, the choice was easy for the 7-year-old. Emilia and her grandmother, Maria Tambunga, had a special bond.  

“We always say as a family, we think I had Emilia just for my mom,” Tambunga told The Daily Signal. “They were just inseparable.”  

Tambunga became pregnant with her daughter Emilia when she was 19 and her mother “was the biggest support from the moment I found out,” she said, adding that Maria Tambunga “was the most loving, strongest person I know.”  

Being with family, according to Maria Tambunga’s husband, Emilio Tambunga, was what made his wife “the happiest,” and March 13 was set to be a happy day.  

“My wife and Emilia had arranged a play date with her cousins at the football field,” Emilio Tambunga said. Elisa Tambunga planned to join her parents and daughter for dinner at home later that night but needed to take an exam for a course first.  

“In the middle of my accounting exam is when I got the phone call,” Elisa Tambunga recalls. She immediately thought something had happened to her mother, adding that in her mind “there was just no way that something could have happened to Amelia.”  

“It wasn’t until I got to the scene that they told me it was my mom and Amelia,” Elisa Tambunga said.  

She soon learned that Rassian Comer, a human smuggler, was involved in a high-speed chase with police and had taken the life of her mother and daughter. Comer flew through a red light traveling at speeds over 100 mph and carrying 11 illegal aliens in his truck. His vehicle collided with Maria Tambunga’s pickup truck, ending her life and that of Emilia, who was in the back seat.  

“He mutilated them,” Elisa Tambunga said of the human smuggler responsible for the crash. “There’s no other way to sugar coat,” she said. “You know, my 7-year-old was murdered. My mom was murdered. And that all has to do with because of our border crisis.”  

The smuggler’s vehicle decimated her mom’s pickup truck, ambulances and police cars flashed their lights, and a helicopter landed to airlift the wounded from the scene.

Two of the 11 illegal aliens in the human smuggler’s truck were also killed in the crash.  

Emilio Tambunga says he was “close to hysterical” when he learned about the accident.  

“Being a Marine [and] in law enforcement … I considered myself pretty tough as far as trauma scenes, accident scenes,” the grandfather and husband said. When he saw the accident, however, Emilio Tambunga says he “just fell apart.”  

Elisa Tambunga described a chaotic scene with sirens and yelling, comparing how she felt at the accident site to something in a movie where everything is in slow motion.  

“I just kept yelling, ‘Where’s Amelia?’” Elisa Tambunga recalls. “And they told me that she was gone, [they] just kept saying, ‘She’s gone, she’s gone, Lisa.'”  

The mother could not comprehend in that moment that her 7-year-old had just been killed and continued to ask, “’Gone where? She’s not gone … where is she?’ And I thought, maybe she’s in an ambulance. Or maybe she’s in that helicopter. I just need to find her.”  

Elisa Tambunga eventually did see the bodies of her daughter and her mother, lying in a funeral home, a moment that was captured on video and that she later had the opportunity to show to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.  

About a month after the accident, Elisa, her father, and her sister traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of the Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference and attend a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing in which Mayorkas was testifying.  

During the hearing, Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told the story of how Maria and Emilia Tambunga were killed, and asked Mayorkas to apologize to the Tambunga family present at the hearing. Mayorkas did so and agreed to meet with the family after the hearing.  

“I was not coming to him as another politician,” Elisa Tambunga said. “I went to him as a mother, as a mother grieving, as a daughter grieving.”  

Elisa Tambunga said Mayorkas appeared “very guarded” at first, but after she showed him the video of her mother and daughter lying dead in the funeral home, Mayorkas “let his guard down just enough for him to be receptive to us,” she said.  

Elisa Tambunga says she told the DHS secretary that she “wanted the border to be controlled,” and for “the administration to be held accountable.” She added that she and her family want to “make sure that not only us American citizens are being protected and kept safe, but everyone.”  

In the moment, Elisa Tambunga says she believes Mayorkas “heard us,” but is not sure “how well he kept, you know, kept it with him.”  

“For me and my family, the blood of my daughter, the blood of our mom, it’s on everybody’s hands,” Elisa said. “I mean, from the administration, down to local officials, from President [Joe] Biden, to Mayorkas, to our senators, to our governors, all of them.”  

The mother says that instead of officials using their offices to create change, “they’re using it as a political playground instead.”

The Tambunga family came to America from Mexico many generations ago, but “we did it the right way.” She added that she understands the “system is broken and that it’s incredibly hard to get over here. And I understand they want a better life, and we want that for them too, but we want it done the correct way.”

The cartel recruited the human smuggler on TikTok, Elisa Tambunga said she learned. The smuggler is in custody and has been indicted. He faces multiple charges, including capital murder, but has not entered a plea and has not been sentenced yet.

The nine surviving illegal aliens who were smuggled into the country were “fingerprinted and they were just let go. There [were] no interviews. There [was] no questioning. They were just released,” according to Elisa Tambunga.  

Customs and Border Protection and the Crockett County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Signal.

Life without Maria and Emilia Tambunga is “painful,” according to Emilio Tambunga. He admitted that he has been sleeping in his granddaughter’s bunkbed because he has not “had the courage to sleep in my wife’s, in our, bed.”

The grandfather says weekends are especially hard because Emilia would often spend the weekend at her grandparents’ house.  

“She’d be the first one to wake up and ask for cereals,” Emilio Tambunga said of his granddaughter, recalling how the two had a habit of mixing different types of cereals together before eating them. “I kind of miss that, eating breakfast together.”  

“We always said the only thing we want is to create change and make sure this never happens to another family again,” Elisa Tambunga said. “And where we live, it happens constantly, and I need … Congress to hear it, that it’s continuing to happen. That we need change.”  

Tambunga told her story before members of Congress during a July hearing. The mother says she is choosing to continue sharing her story “so that no other mother or daughter feels this way again.”  

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/11/killed-human-smuggler-mother-grandfather-mourn-death-family-lost-border-crisis

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17 September, 2023

Illegal Immigration Bites the Democrats

Democrats have controlled the immigration issue for decades, and their success is no surprise.

With the media serving as their mouthpieces, RINOs bending over backwards to look like compassionate conservatives, and businesses lobbying Congress for cheap labor, everyone in power who pushed for open borders got their way. And all the while, Democrats touted the benefits of unlimited immigration, handed out cash, expanded “voting rights,” and offered benefits to those breaking the law.

Without any pushback from Republicans, and with the narrative parroted by the Leftmedia, Democrats took even bolder steps. A case in point: Throughout his tenure, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has proclaimed the Big Apple’s status as a sanctuary city for illegals. Politically, it was a no-brainer. Adams had nothing to lose. As long as the masses of migrants remained in states bordering Mexico, he and others could appear to be compassionate — and nothing matters more to a Democrat than appearances.

In fact, back in October, Adams gushed on social media: “There is a reason that Lady Liberty sits outside of NYC’s harbor. This is the place where we ensure we live up to the expectations of what it is to be an American, an American citizen, or a country that welcomes those fleeing prosecution and persecution.”

What a tear-jerker.

But all that changed when two Republican governors, Texas’s Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, started busing illegal aliens to cities like Chicago and, yes, Adams’s New York. Surely, he welcomed the migrants with open arms, right?

Wrong. Funny how politics works. All it takes is a little resolve from the other side to expose a big-city mayor as a fraud. Adams immediately changed his language and his tone.

“It’s going to come to your neighborhoods,” Adams warned. “All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000. I’m telling you now with 110,000. The city we knew we’re about to lose. And we’re all in this together.”

That’s tough language coming from the leader of a sanctuary city. If you’re on a bus from Austin to Yonkers, you might think twice about getting off that bus. Adams’s rhetoric was so shocking that some Leftmedia talkingheads compared him to Donald Trump.

Now that’s winning, as The Donald would say.

It gets even more delicious: Adams himself spent more than $50,000 in city funds to send migrants to other states and to China in 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, Chicago’s mayor, the unfortunately named Brandon Johnson, wants to move illegals into the suburbs. How rich.

Yet this president and his handlers are going all in on illegal aliens as political pawns. As Christopher Bedford writes at The Federalist, Biden “knows that while his national media allies are happy to turn a blind eye, sanctuary city mayors can’t tolerate the real-life consequences of their party’s policies. In short, the president knows his immigration policies are hurting Americans.”

Bedford adds: “The White House knows this, and they’re trying to hide it; to sanitize it; to keep it out of the view of their children. The White House knows this, and they’re using it to punish their opponents.”

Just this week, more than 100 House Democrats sent a letter to Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to encourage them to “use all the tools available to provide stability to undocumented individuals.” And back in May, five Democrat senators sent a similar letter requesting the “lawful permanent resident status for immigrants who are vital contributors to their American families and our communities.”

The letters make it seem as though we have secure borders and we’re turning people away.

But the opposite is true. So true, in fact, that the Biden administration is ordering the release of illegals onto the streets in places like Arizona and decreasing the number of migrants being sent back to Mexico.

Of course, immigration has always been about politics. But now that a big-city leftist mayor’s ox is being gored, it’s a whole new ball game — and the Democrats are on defense.

What we’ve known all along is now a proven fact: Democrats only like illegal immigrants when they’re in someone else’s backyard. For too long, weak-kneed Republicans were afraid to call them out for their hypocrisy. Now, that hypocrisy is there for everyone to see.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/100489-illegal-immigration-bites-the-democrats-2023-09-15

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14 September, 2023

Migrants Are on a Misguided Path of Unchecked Compassion

Engraved at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, a stirring poem by American poet Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” eloquently captures the essence of compassion and virtue that has defined the American spirit.

This renowned excerpt—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”—has welcomed thousands of immigrants as they journeyed from distant lands to the embrace of America’s shores.

Historically, the United States has stood as a beacon of prosperity and opportunity, its streets gleaming with proverbial gold. Yet, today, this vision of the American dream has become clouded. Government and powerful media outlets have fed a distorted interpretation of it, one that threatens to unravel the very fabric of our great nation.

My heart is heavy with empathy for the relentless struggles faced by every migrant. Americans are privileged to reside in a land brimming with opportunity, safeguarded by justice, and anchored by inalienable rights. Tragically, this sanctuary is a rarity in a world where chaos and violence often reign unchecked.

Just beyond our southern border, a daily tempest of turmoil unfolds. Innocent lives are taken without redress, and communities are ravaged by mass killings, drug wars, violence, and unspeakable brutality. The dream of a secure and comfortable life becomes a distant mirage, obscured by a reality where safety and serenity are luxuries that remain, for many, elusive and unattainable.

This impels tens of thousands of migrants every year to make the perilous journey to the United States in search of a better life.

This brings us to New York City, a sanctuary city where the migrant crisis has reached critical mass. New York state boasts an unimpressive 88 immigration judges. With nearly 90,000 migrants coming to New York City, that’s a little more than 1,000 migrants per judge. The facts of each case are distinct, and the proceedings are often long and drawn-out.

What exacerbates the situation further is the extensive time required to decide asylum cases, often taking years.

Migrants with pending cases aren’t always confined to one location; many skip their hearing dates, which are frequently spaced months apart, and move elsewhere. In fact, data from the Department of Justice shows that nearly half of all migrants skip their immigration hearings. Given that they already have up to a year to apply, this long process can become even more protracted.

We must remember that these are people whose whereabouts are unknown, whose history is a mystery to us, and who are becoming dispersed throughout the United States.

And, of course, this alarming figure assumes that they are even provided with a court date to start. In 2021, there were nearly 600,000 migrants who were released into the United States without such a date.

These numbers are alarming, and the stories of many of these migrants tragic. This requires us to confront a very somber truth: America, despite its might and moral compass, cannot be the savior to all. A delicate balance must be struck between our noble intentions and the realistic capabilities of our nation to ensure the welfare of the greatest number of people.

Though I empathize with the migrants’ plight, I consider the reports of their actions disturbing. There are reports circulating about the migrants demanding treatment that far exceeds what we routinely provide to our own needy American citizens, and of others expressing unhappiness with being here.

Many of the migrants have been housed in four- and five-star hotels, provided with three meals per day and granted access to free health care—all at the taxpayers’ expense. If we must help them, then we should, but to “help” them and to “indulge” in their every need are two vastly different actions.

The old saying, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” has clearly been lost on New York’s leaders. It’s a situation that calls into question the values of gratitude and humility.

Why are our own underprivileged not embraced with open arms, accommodated in luxurious hotels, nourished with fine meals, and provided top-tier health care? Why, instead, are they relegated to grim, perilous shelters, trapped in an existence with scant prospects for improvement?

Ironically, the repercussions of certain policies are now dawning upon those who once championed them.

Before, the problems seemed distant and abstract. It was simple enough to chide states like Texas for their perceived inhumanity and demand more respectful treatment for migrants. Yet now, as the tangible realities of an open-border policy unfold on their own doorsteps, the consequences are becoming unavoidably clear.

America is a place where individuals from all walks of life can pursue success and lay the foundation for prosperity that endures through generations. Every man, woman, and child who sets foot on our cherished soil deserves a chance to partake in this promise.

However, we must recognize the finite nature of our resources and the importance of prioritizing those who have devoted their lives to nurturing and sustaining our nation.

We must first ensure that opportunities are extended to Americans, attending to their needs and potential. Only after fulfilling our commitment to those who call this land “home” can we begin to direct our resources and energies toward assisting those who seek our shores from foreign lands.

Elected officials should recognize that their primary duty is to represent those who have entrusted them with their votes—American citizens. If they wish to fulfill the vision that propelled them into office, they must first honor and prioritize the needs and aspirations of the people who voted for them.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/08/migrants-are-on-a-misguided-path-of-unchecked-compassion/

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13 September, 2023

Illegal Immigrants Can Begin Applying for Driver’s Licenses in One State

Illegal immigrants who are living in Minnesota can begin the process of getting their driver’s license, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Now, around 81,000 people in the state are expected to be eligible for a driver’s license under a new legislation called the “Driver’s License for All” law. Those eligible can begin the application process, but cannot obtain a license until it goes into effect Oct. 1.

The new law removes the requirements for applicants to show legal presence, AP noted.

“We’re incredibly proud to be a part of a handful of states that offer driver’s license for all,” Pong Xiong, Driver and Vehicle Services Director at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said at the news conference over the legislation. “And the first step to getting your driver’s license is to pass that written test.”

Reportedly, Jody-Kay Peterson, the state’s Driver Services Program Director, stated that the agency will not submit the names or personal information of applicants to immigration law enforcement.

Applicants will be required to pass written and road tests, but will not be asked for proof of U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status. They must present identifying documents, such as an unexpired foreign passport or a birth certificate from another country.

In March, Townhall reported how Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed the legislation.

“Ensuring drivers in our state are licensed and carry insurance makes the roads safer for all Minnesotans,” Walz said in a statement about the bill signing. “As a longtime supporter of this bill, I am proud to finally sign it into law, making our roads safer and moving us toward our goal of making Minnesota the best state to raise a family for everyone.”

Local outlet Fox 9 previously reported that Republicans who opposed the change argued that expanding access to driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants would lead to election and benefits fraud. The law itself reverses a 2003 rule implemented by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican. He created the rule post-9/11 to prevent people without legal status in the U.S. from getting licenses.

Last year, Townhall reported that an issue was placed on the ballot in Massachusetts for voters to decide on rejecting a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Voters decided against repealing the law.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/09/11/illegal-immigrants-in-minnesota-can-begin-applying-for-drivers-licenses-n2628257

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12 September, 2023

The NYC migrant surge is a disaster for learning — for ALL kids

Democratic politicians and the liberal media made the first day of school all about welcoming migrant children.

That’s sheer propaganda.

Parents deserve the truth. The migrant surge is a disaster for their kids.

The surge will worsen our education system’s twin failures: plunging math and reading scores and the failure to ensure newly arriving kids learn English so they can succeed too.

Kimberly Carchipulla, who came from Ecuador and has been living at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan with her son, brought him to school Thursday and said through a translator, “What I want for him is a future.”

That’s what all parents want. But when migrant children are added to the class, the rest of the kids get less of their teacher’s attention.

A teacher will have to focus on the needy newcomers who speak no English and may not have been to school before.

For the rest, it could be a year of lost opportunities.

Public-school students’ reading and math scores have been falling for decades and just hit a new low, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.

One reason is the soaring number of non-English-speaking students, up from only 9% of public-school students in 1980 to nearly 25% now.

Until the 1960s, children arriving in this country were put in public school without interpreters and bilingual teachers.

Children were taught in one language — English. No confusion.

The current approach is a disaster for migrants and the rest of the kids in class with them. The data don’t lie.

Now typically, a bilingual teacher and teaching assistants try to teach — math, science, art, any subject — in two or more languages, speaking English at times but also answering questions in Spanish and other languages.

It’s chaos. Everyone learns less.

Jean Skorapa, superintendent for a rural school district in Maine, says the 67 migrant children enrolling “are a tremendous, tremendous benefit”: “They make our community diverse and more well-rounded.”

All true. But that’s happy talk.

What about the impact on learning?

Geralde Gabeau, with Immigrant Family Services Institute in Massachusetts, explains migrant children will be placed “in a first grade with children who know their ABCs, who already know how to read, so those children are going to suffer.”

New York City has disastrously low reading scores. The influx of non-English-speaking students makes the challenge greater.

European countries are also grappling with waves of migrants.

IZA, a European think tank, found that “a high share of immigrant children in schools leads to lower test scores of native children.” OECD researchers report similar findings.

It’s not about race or ethnicity. It’s about too many languages spoken in the classroom.

Politicians would rather pander than address it.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont says, “From the bottom of my heart, I want to make sure this is the most welcoming state in the country.”

Yet state education statistics show that the more “high-needs” kids in the class, including non-English-speaking students, the lower the reading and math scores for the others.

The system is lose-lose, hurting migrant kids as well. They’re given too many opportunities not to learn English.

Lamont, for example, is expanding translation services for parents and interpreters for students.

That’s misguided. Families need to be prodded to learn English, not linger in a language ghetto.

Some school districts in New York state are experimenting with temporarily schooling newcomers separately, offering them months of intensive language preparation to succeed as English-speaking students. Good idea.

But the United Nations insists children have a “right” to be educated in their native language.

Nonsense. It dooms them to low-paying jobs.

The vast majority of non-English-speaking students — 97% according to one report — lack English proficiency when they graduate from US high schools.

That’s the definition of failure.

Last week, mothers gathered outside Park Avenue elementary school in Port Chester to pick up their kids. Few spoke English.

Some mothers had attended the same school decades earlier. Yet they can’t speak English. Tragic.

Tell the pols to stop romanticizing this lose-lose disaster and start fixing it.

This is America.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/11/nyc-migrant-crisis-is-a-disaster-for-learning-for-all-kids/

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11 September, 2023

It wasn’t back-to-school as normal this week in the Big Apple. Schools in the city were pushed beyond capacity due to more than 21,000 newly enrolled illegal immigrants entering the education system.

On Thursday, the line to get inside Newcomers High School in Long Island City wrapped around the block and forced some students to a facility across the street because the building’s max capacity had been reached.  

“They should have worked this out two days ago!” a frustrated teacher told the New York Post.

One student, 14-year-old George Kara Lekas, talked to the Post about the chaotic scene as he and his classmates had to wait for a principal to usher them across the street since the school was inundated with illegal immigrants.

“They gave us crap! No information!” Lekas said. “I’m getting a late start and I left early! I’m two subway stops away. I mean, look at this? I’m going to try and transfer into the Academy of American Studies, like as soon as I can!”

Another 14-year-old student, Alex Gonzalez, said this was his "worst nightmare."

“I wanted to get here early because I’m new. I’m going to be lost and so are all of these guys? I think they should have let them come a day before. I hate being stuck in crowds and this is definitely my worst nightmare. I’m just going to be going crazy!”

Prior to the start of the new school year teachers were given a “pathetic” memo on how to handle the new illegal immigrant students.

The 2-page missive, entitled “Guidance on Project Open Arms,” tells teachers they are on their own when it comes to procuring supplies for migrants and says it’s their responsibility to find teachers who can communicate with the students, most of whom speak no English.

It doesn’t even tell local school leaders how many migrants will show up on day one.

“Principals have been preparing their schools for weeks and months and to get something two days in advance seems delinquent on the part of the DOE,” said Craig Slutzkin, a DOE parent who sits on the Community Education Council for District 2, which has saw a large influx of migrant students last year. (New York Post)

The chaotic start to the school year comes after Mayor Eric Adams warned that the illegal immigrant crisis will "destroy" New York City.

https://townhall.com//tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/09/09/nyc-schools-illegal-immigrants-n2628152

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10 September, 2023

Biden Battles Texas Border Buoys

In an Austin, Texas, federal courthouse on Tuesday, the Biden administration squared off against the Abbott administration in the battle over border sovereignty: Texas Governor Greg Abbott believes we have it; President Joe Biden believes otherwise.

At issue is whether a 1,000-foot string of large, floating, ball-shaped buoys, which Abbott ordered to be placed in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass in order to deter illegal immigration into Texas, could remain in place.

An Austin-based district court judge, a Reagan appointee named David J. Ezra, ruled that the barrier must go because it didn’t ask “pretty please” of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

We kid you not. As the Texas Tribune reports: “In issuing a preliminary injunction to remove the barrier, Ezra wrote, ‘Governor Abbott announced that he was not "asking for permission” for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier. Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters.’“

As the Tribune continued, "The Justice Department said in its lawsuit that Texas didn’t receive the necessary authorization for the structure from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and that the barrier obstructs navigation on the Rio Grande.”

Governor Abbott was rightly incensed:

“Today’s court decision merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along,” Abbott said. “This ruling is incorrect and will be overturned on appeal. We will continue to utilize every strategy to secure the border, including deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers and installing strategic barriers.” He added: “Our battle to defend Texas’ sovereign authority to protect lives from the chaos caused by President Biden’s open border policies has only begun. Texas is prepared to take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

In better news, a U.S. appeals court yesterday granted a temporary stay on Ezra’s ruling, meaning that the border barrier can remain in place until further adjudication.

This, of course, isn’t the Biden administration’s first attempt to thwart the border-security efforts of a Republican governor. As we wrote in December: “As if we needed additional proof that Joe Biden is unserious about — indeed, even hostile toward — border security, we need only look at the lawsuit filed last week by the Biden Justice Department against [then-Arizona Republican Governor] Doug Ducey, whose administration [had] been using shipping containers to build a makeshift wall along the state’s border with Mexico.”

How intent is the Biden administration on keeping the border open, and how unserious are its arguments for doing so? This intent, and this unserious: The Biden DOJ claimed that Ducey’s makeshift barrier trespasses on federal property. “Arizona has unlawfully and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from lands owned by the United States or over which the United States holds easements, thereby damaging the United States,” the lawsuit argues.

You read that right: Restricting the flow of illegals into our country is “damaging the United States.”

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported on yet another desperate measure from the open-borders zealots within the Biden administration: a plan to force some illegal immigrant families “to remain near the border in Texas while awaiting asylum screening, effectively limiting their ability to travel within the United States.”

Why might they do that? Our guess is that it’s designed to keep Governor Abbott from continuing to bus thousands of illegals out of Texas and into Democrat-run sanctuary cities such as LA, New York, Chicago, and DC.

Sanctuary, you see, doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

“Of course the illegals are destroying America,” said Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, “but so are the rest of Biden’s policies. So why doesn’t [New York City Mayor Eric] Adams take his message to Washington, to the White House? Why doesn’t he ask to reinstate ‘remain in Mexico,’ immediate deportations?”

Strange, but we seem to remember another such policy that worked remarkably well at stemming the tide of illegals — but that policy was called “Remain in Mexico,” engineered by the hated Trump administration, and so the Biden administration fought all the way to the Supreme Court to have it overturned.

There will be no shortage of reasons for informed citizens to cast their ballots for Republican candidates next November, but one of the biggest reasons is surely border security. The ongoing test case has been plain to see since 2017: Our southern border was secure under President Donald Trump, and it isn’t under President Joe Biden.

As Newt Gingrich points out in his new book, Beyond Biden: Rebuilding the America We Love, a rational border policy is one that “prioritizes the well-being and happiness” of the American people rather than that of illegal immigrants.

Power-mad Democrat racists, though, don’t see these massive waves of poor and unskilled illegals as the reason for a humanitarian mission. Instead, they see these brown and black border-crossers as future government dependees and future Democrat voters.

And that’s all we need to remember about the Democrats’ motivations.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/100300-biden-battles-texas-border-buoys-2023-09-08

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8 September, 2023

No One’s Buying the Border Lies

The border has been a longtime issue that’s gotten significantly worse under President Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. What in 2016 would have been considered a crisis level of illegal border crossings in a month is a daily occurrence in 2023.

Yet the president and his team are doing everything they can to gaslight the American people about the border and about their policies that have allowed for hundred of thousands more to enter via flights. All the while, they continue to insist that everything is fine.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently stated, “Look, the president has done what he can from here, from the federal government, from the White House to put forth and manage our border in a safe and humane way to respect the dignity of every human, as he says all the time, and making sure that our communities are safe, and you have seen him do that.”

By “done what he can,” she probably hoped we didn’t notice that Biden has been doing everything in his power to thwart border towns from increasing their border protection while simultaneously silently auctioning off bits of unused border wall.

Jean-Pierre’s worst gaslighting came later when she said: “The president has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else. He really has. June saw the single largest month-to-month drop in unlawful border crossing because of the policies this president put in place.” As National Review reports, Biden’s team has overseen the reversal of policies like Remain in Mexico and Title 42, both of which cut down exponentially on the influx of illegal border crossers.

No one is buying this fabrication from KJP. June may have seen a drop to “only” 100,000, but July (133,000) and August (180,000) saw spiking numbers again. August also saw an arrival of 91,000 members of a family group. That doesn’t even include the number of illegals invited in by the mobile app CBP One or via a loophole that allowed another influx of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The border-crosser numbers, according to Breitbart, should really be 260,000 for the month of August, and that doesn’t even count the “gotaways” who evaded detection altogether.

The estimate of total “gotaways” since Biden took office is something like 1.5 million.

Biden’s open border has created a humanitarian crisis among those desperate souls seeking to enter the country illegally. Women and children often suffer greatly at the hands of the unscrupulous cartels that “help” them cross the border. Older kids in particular are especially vulnerable to human trafficking. The vast majority of border crossings are “military aged men,” according to Breitbart — though last month marked the first month in Biden’s presidency that families made up the largest demographic. These men are taking American jobs, wreaking havoc in American cities, and filling up homeless shelters. There has also been a huge influx of fentanyl coming in with the illegal crossers. This deadly drug is bringing about devastation within American communities.

Not only is it a humanitarian crisis, but the influx of illegal immigrants is a huge drain on the tax dollars of American citizens. According to The Daily Wire, arresting and ejecting illegal immigrants, as well as housing and caring for the ones who have made it into the country, costs the American people approximately $151 billion per year.

Not even the Democrats are buying this song and dance about the border. According to a recent Fox News poll, Biden’s approval rating on the border is 35%, and a whopping 62% disapprove. It’s also one reason why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making rumblings in the Democrat primary. One of RFK Jr.‘s main platforms is his pitch to “secure the border” and “end this humanitarian crisis.” Which is probably sounding great to Democrats in sanctuary cities.

Speaking of such cities, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles are feeling the squeeze. Earlier this month, the governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to help. Citizens of these states and cities are experiencing the flood of humanity thanks in part to the busing of migrants from border states like Texas and Florida. New Yorkers in particular are starting to raise Cain with protests and demonstrations.

This is a disaster entirely of the Democrats’ own making, but they are going to continue to allow the streams of humanity to enter and the invasion to continue.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/100248-no-ones-buying-the-border-lies-2023-09-07

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7 September, 2023

Migrant woman arrested after slapping NYPD cop trying to confiscate her unregistered motorbike outside NYC shelter

A migrant woman was arrested after she slapped an NYPD officer who was attempting to confiscate her unregistered motorbike in front of a Manhattan shelter for asylum-seekers earlier this week.

The arrest came as several people were caught on camera tussling with cops as they tried to conduct a scooter crackdown Thursday at West 71st Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side, steps from the Stratford Arms Hotel, which is being used as a migrant shelter, according to police.

“Get back!, Get back,” an officer is heard warning the crowd in the clip, before ushering a young man away from the bike onto the sidewalk as he warned, “Bro, you’re going to get arrested.”

Baibaia Rodriguez, 20, was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration and harassment after she “hit an officer with an open hand,” around 10:30 p.m., according to police.

She had also been arrested in July for felony assault in connection with an attack on her boyfriend in a Bronx apartment and was currently being housed at the Stratford Arms, police said.

Migrant woman allegedly slaps cop for confiscating her unlicensed motorbike
Baibaia Rodriguez, 20, was arrested after she slapped an NYPD officer who was attempting to confiscate her unregistered motorbike in front of the Stratford Arms shelter this week.
The incident and arrest was first reported by West Side Rag.

Some Stratford Arms neighbors, led by Joe Germanotta, the father of pop singer Lady Gaga, have voiced concerns about its new residents to city officials, claiming residents have inundated the area with trash, drugs and public disturbances.

“The worst part’s at night. The noise. It starts at about 10 o’clock, and it’ll go until 4 in the morning. Playing music and racing their motocross and motorbikes up and down the streets,” Germanotta, 66, told The Post last month.

Migrant woman allegedly slaps cop for confiscating her unlicensed motorbike
The arrest came as several people were caught on camera tussling with cops as they tried to conduct a scooter crackdown Thursday at West 71st Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side, steps from the Stratford Arms Hotel.
Thursday’s scooter crackdown came after “community complaints,” according to police.

The NYPD confiscated four mopeds, one motorcycle and one scooter in addition to nine bicycles that NYPD said were illegally “chained to a pole,” West Side Rag reported.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/02/baibaia-rodriguez-arrested-for-slapping-nypd-cop-trying-to-confiscate-e-bike-outside-nyc-shelter/

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6 September, 2023

Smuggler with ties to ISIS helped migrants enter US from Mexico, raising alarm bells across government

The FBI is investigating more than a dozen migrants from Uzbekistan and other countries allowed into the US after they sought asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year, a scramble set off when US intelligence officials found that the migrants traveled with the help of a smuggler with ties to ISIS, according to multiple US officials.

While the FBI says no specific ISIS plot has been identified, officials are still working to “identify and assess” all of the individuals who gained entry to the United States, according to a statement from National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson. And they are closely scrutinizing a number of the migrants as possible criminal threats, according to two US officials.

Though there is no evidence at this point to justify detaining anyone, the episode was so alarming that an urgent classified intelligence report was circulated to President Joe Biden’s top Cabinet officials in their morning briefing book. For some counterterrorism officials, it shows that the US is deeply vulnerable to the possibility that terrorists could sneak across the southern border by hiding amid the surge of migrants entering the country in search of asylum.

The incident kicked off a flurry of urgent meetings among top national security and administration officials at a time when Republicans have hammered Biden on the security of the southern border heading into the 2024 campaign. Staff on key congressional committees have been informed of the incident, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Earlier this year, a cohort of migrants from Uzbekistan requested asylum and were screened by the Department of Homeland Security, part of a rising number of asylum seekers who have traveled to the US from Central Asia in recent years. There was no information in any of the intelligence community’s databases that raised any red flags and the people were all released into the US pending a court date.?

It was only later, when the FBI learned about the existence of a human smuggling network helping foreign nationals travel to the US – and that this network included at least one individual with connections to ISIS – that national security officials put the pieces together.

FBI agents around the country immediately rushed to try to locate the migrants and investigate their backgrounds. The bureau also worked with Turkish authorities, who arrested the smuggler and other members of his network at the behest of the US, and has subsequently obtained information from him to aid its investigation, US officials said.?

“There was no indication—and remains no indication—that any of the individuals facilitated by this network have a connection to a foreign terrorist organization or are engaged in plotting a terrorist attack in the United States,” Watson said in a statement to CNN.

Since the intelligence became available, homeland security officials also began detaining, vetting and, ultimately, expediting the removal of other migrants encountered at the southern border who “fit the profile associated with individuals who were facilitated by this network,” Watson said.

The ISIS-linked smuggler is not believed to be a member of the terror group, but more like an independent contractor who has personal sympathies with the organization, according to US officials. The intelligence community now believes it is unlikely that he was assisting these individuals at the behest of ISIS. Most are believed to be seeking a better life in the United States.?

For some Biden administration officials, the episode is an example of the system working as it should: intelligence came to light about a particular group of migrants and the US responded with an investigation determining that they did not pose a threat.

“While the FBI has not identified a specific terrorism plot associated with foreign nationals who recently entered the United States at the southern border, we always work with our field offices across the country, as well as our domestic and international partners, to identify any potential illegal activity or terrorism threats,” the FBI said in a statement to CNN.

But the US has not yet located all of the individuals who traveled as part of the network, according to Watson’s statement. And more than 15 of the migrants tracked down are still under scrutiny by the FBI as possible criminal threats, according to one US official.

Some law enforcement and intelligence officials privately expressed concerns that an unusual increase in the number of migrants from Central Asia, a region that isn’t known to be a major source of refugees, didn’t spark more investigation by US border authorities.

“We continually assess our security architecture to ensure that we are best poised to respond to threats to the homeland,” Watson said in her statement to CNN. “Moreover, we will continue to constantly recalibrate our screening, vetting, and processing of those encountered entering the United States to ensure that we are taking into account the most up-to-date information at our disposal and with an unyielding commitment to protecting Americans and the homeland from the full range of potential threats.”

Watson also said in her statement that the US is working with foreign partners to shut down travel routes associated with the smuggling network.??

In a statement to CNN, an official from the Turkish Embassy in Washington said that Turkey had arrested four members of a smuggling ring that, the official said, the US had told Turkey aided the travel of Uzbeks, Russians, Chechens and Georgians residing in Turkey to the United States.

The Turkish official denied that there was a connection between any of the four arrested individuals and ISIS.

A senior administration official suggested that Turkey did not have access to the same intelligence as the US about the smuggler’s links to ISIS.

“Working with partners, the US can’t always share the full scope of the information picture. We appreciate Turkey’s cooperation,” the official said.

A DHS spokesperson told CNN that the department along with its “counterterrorism, and law enforcement partners screen and vet individuals prior to their entry to the United States to prevent anyone known to pose a threat from entering the country. DHS continually monitors all available sources of intelligence and information related to potential threats and if any new information emerges, we work closely with the FBI and other partners to take appropriate action.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/29/politics/migrants-us-southern-border-smuggler-isis-ties/index.html

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5 September, 2023

NYC spends $35 million for 2 migrant hotels as border crisis festers

New York City has forked over $35 million to a pair of nonprofits to house migrants at hotels in Manhattan and Queens — part of the $5.2 billion racked up so far to navigate the growing crisis, The Post has learned.

The city’s Department of Homeless awarded $26.4 million to the Volunteers of America to aid migrants at the Paul Hotel in Midtown, and another $9.48 million to Lutheran Social Services of Metropolitan New York, which has been hosting migrants at a Fairfield Inn in Long Island City.

Both locations are designated in the city record as a “city sanctuary facility for families with children” and are among the 200 city shelters currently housing nearly 60,000 migrants.

Mayor Eric Adams has claimed the cost to shelter and provide other services to the asylum seekers — which so far is $5.2 billion — could shatter $12 billion over three years. He has repeatedly appealed to President Biden for help, including financial assistance and expedited work permits for migrants, but to no avail.

Families congregated in front of the Paul hotel on West 29th Street Monday — with some coming as far away as Russia and Venezuela.

A National Guardsman patrolling the site moved some children’s bikes off the sidewalk, which was also scattered with toys.

“We came here to avoid mobilization for the war,” said Leila Usmanov, who fled Russia with her husband Ruslan Usmanov and their three children, ages 16, 10 and 3. “We didn’t want to fight against our own. Ukrainians and Russians are the same people.”Leila said the family was “grateful to the US government” but complained the food the city was providing at the swanky hotel-turned-shelter was less than nutritious.

“My husband and I have high blood sugar, and the food isn’t very good for us. Our kids don’t want to eat it,” she said.

Ruslan added, “Come here in the evening and you will see a giant pile of wasted food they’re throwing out. Ninety percent of the food here isn’t eaten.”

Jony Martines, who walked by foot to the US-Mexico border before making his way to the Big Apple, was looking forward to being able to work legally.

National Guard specialist Mohamed Maouchi, assigned to patrol the hotel and keep the peace, insisted that the migrant-filled Paul hotel was orderly and safe.

On Sunday, The Post reported that at least 41 migrants have been arrested on charges including domestic violence at the  Roosevelt Hotel shelter on East 45th Street.

“We make sure everything goes smoothly. We make sure the women are protected from, you know, domestic abuse situations. We provide the food,” Maouchi said. “There haven’t really been any problems. Everything is peaceful.”

He defended the meals, saying the migrants are well fed.

“We give them really good food here. Vegetables, nutritious stuff,” he said.

Fairfield General Manager Louis Gonzales told The Post the 40th Road hotel has housed migrants since January without major problems after once serving as a halfway house for ex-convicts.

“We had sheltered people here through Exodus Transitional Housing, former convicts, contracting with the city, but we phased them out. It was a lot worse. Trash, smoking, noise,” Gonzales said.

By comparison, he said migrant families haven’t given the staff any trouble. He said the premises have been kept clean and the neighbors haven’t voiced the opposition that has bubbled up elsewhere.

“When we started taking in migrants, we spoke with members of the community, had conversations, and everyone was on board. We’ve had a lot of families here. They’ve all been fine. No problems. The premises are kept clean. No complaints from the community,” Gonzales said.

“Now, I have heard the stories from other places. Noise, trash, stuff being left out. I know there have been problems in other places, but that hasn’t been the case here.”

https://nypost.com/2023/09/04/nyc-spends-35-million-for-2-migrant-hotels/

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4 September, 2023

National Guard Activated in Massachusetts as the Left-Wing Chickens Come Home to Roost

The Democrat Governor of Massachusetts has activated the National Guard following an outcry by aid groups as the state sees an influx of illegal immigrants due to the Southern Border crisis.

The blue state had been insulated in previous years from the repercussions of lax border policies, but campaigns by Republican governors to bus illegal immigrants to "sanctuary" jurisdictions have changed the game. Like in New York, cities in Massachusetts are absorbing thousands of illegal immigrants as border states continue to be completely overwhelmed.

Massachusetts officials overwhelmed by arriving migrants have activated the national guard as they scramble for more housing, while aid groups say they have been pushed to the limit and protests abound.

Gov. Maura Healey mobilized 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard on Thursday to help transport the latest wave of asylum seekers to shelters across the state.

But much like the crisis overtaking the Big Apple, Massachusetts has nowhere near enough housing or resources currently available to accommodate the influx.

“Right now, the non-profits that are in Massachusetts are stretched and so thin they cannot provide anymore staff,” state Sen. Jamie Eldridge told CBS News.

The number of illegal immigrants in Massachusetts is a tiny fraction of what states like Texas and Arizona are dealing with, which makes the complaints coming from Democrat officials all the more pathetic. This is the chickens coming home to roost after years and years of pushing open-border policies.

All it took was a relatively small bussing campaign for these sanctuary cities and states to completely flip on their own rhetoric. All the "diversity is our strength" talk goes out the window when there aren't enough shelters and people are sleeping on the streets. Meanwhile, protests are breaking out as local residents decry how their local governments are handling the situation.

Of course, none of this changes unless people start voting differently. It's hard to muster sympathy for these far-left areas when they put the people in power who have created this situation. None of these Democrat politicians cared one bit about the border crisis until it ended up in their backyards. If voters want competent leadership, they have to start demanding accountability.

Lastly, I'd just note that Gov. Greg Abbott and other governors took a lot of heat for bussing illegal immigrants out of their states. They were accused of perpetrating a "political stunt." It's not a stunt any longer, is it? Credit where credit is due.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/09/03/national-guard-activated-in-massachusetts-as-the-left-wing-chickens-come-home-to-roost-n2163393#google_vignette

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3 September, 2023

The fundamental factor driving Australia’s housing crisis in not an inability to build homes. Rather, it is that Australia runs one of the world’s largest immigration programs, thereby ensuring that housing demand outpaces supply

When I first studied high school economics in 1994, we learned about “supply and demand”. You know, basic economics.

When you read the media and the commentary surrounding the Australian housing market, you would think there’s only a supply side. The demand side rarely gets a mention.

This narrative ignores the fact that last decade – over the 2010s – Australia experienced the largest dwelling construction boom in history. As a nation, we built more homes than ever, as illustrated below:

Indeed, the OECD’s Affordable Housing Database shows that Australia has built significantly more dwellings per capita than most other OECD countries:

Australia ranked fourth in the OECD for housing construction in 2020.

Australia’s dwelling construction rate was also unchanged from 2011, according to the OECD.

Australia also has one of the highest shares of construction workers in the OECD:

Australia is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis. Rents have soared. Increasing numbers of people are living in group housing. More Australians are being driven into homelessness. There’s a lot of panic around.

In response, national cabinet has committed to building 1.2 million new homes over five years, starting July 1, 2024.

Federal, state and territory governments won’t build these 1.2 million homes. Their plan is to relax planning and zoning rules to allow higher density in the hope that private developers build them.

It is telling that the Albanese Government’s own contribution to the supply target through the Housing Australia Future Fund, assuming it ever passes the Senate, will be just 30,000 homes. That is just 2.5 per cent of the total target: similar to recent construction levels of public housing by state and territory governments:

The national cabinet’s 1.2 million housing target is destined to fail for multiple reasons.

First, it is not in developers’ interest to flood the market with supply because that reduces their profits. Private developers have an incentive to drip feed supply to keep prices high.

Second, national cabinet’s plan is to build 240,000 homes a year, or 660 homes a day. However, Australia has only ever built more than 220,000 homes in a year once in 2017 when it built 223,000.

Australia’s 40-year average home construction rate is only 160,000 – i.e. 80,000 less than national cabinet’s target.

How will Australia build more homes than we ever have before in an environment of widespread builder collapses, shortages in materials and labour, and higher interest rates?

Third, what about the corresponding infrastructure to accommodate these new homes and population? Most roads, schools and hospitals in our major capital cities are already at capacity.

Finally, even if we could magically build these 1.2 million homes, they are likely to be low quality.

The previous decade’s construction boom was associated with widespread defects including cracks, water leaks and balcony problems (e.g. the Opal and Mascot Towers in Sydney).

Building so many apartments as quickly as planned by national cabinet will inevitably compromise on quality leading to the same types of structural issues we witnessed last decade.

The solution to Australia’s housing shortage rests on the demand

The fundamental factor driving Australia’s housing crisis in not an inability to build homes. Rather, it is that Australia runs one of the world’s largest immigration programs, thereby ensuring that housing demand outpaces supply.

In the 20 years to 2002, Australia’s net overseas migration (NOM) averaged 96,000 people a year and population growth averaged 216,000 people a year.

In the 20 years to 2022, Australia’s NOM averaged 190,000 and population growth averaged 328,000 people a year. This period included the negative NOM experienced over the pandemic:

Australia’s population has grown by 7.4 million people (39 per cent) this century, representing the nation’s largest population increase on record.

This strong population growth, combined with falling investment, has driven the shortage of public housing to its current dire levels:

Between 1955 and 1993, Australia built approximately one public home for every 12 to 30 new Australians.

Over the following decades, the ratio of public housing to new Australians fell to a low of one home every 168 new Australians in 2022.

The housing situation will only worsen from here.

The 2023 federal budget projected that Australia’s population would swell by 2.18 million people (equivalent to the population of Perth) over the five years to 2026-27, driven by 1.5 million net overseas migrant arrivals (equivalent to the population of Adelaide).

Last week’s Intergenerational Report (IGR) projected that Australia’s population will swell to 40.5 million by 2062-63, driven by long-term NOM of 235,000 per year.

This means Australia will grow by 14.2 million residents over the next 40 years, which is equivalent to adding a combined Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide to Australia’s current population of 26.3 million.

How will Australia’s housing supply ever keep pace with demand when the population is projected to grow by 355,000 people a year on average for 40 consecutive years?

Australia has not built enough homes over the past 20 years. Although the rate of dwelling construction surged last decade, this construction boom was insufficient to keep pace with the massive increase in immigration-driven population growth from the mid-2000s:

What makes anybody believe that we will achieve better outcomes over the next 40 years?

Moreover, do Australians want to live in high-rise apartments? Because that will become the norm with a population of 40.5 million, and a Sydney and Melbourne of nine million people each.

The same criticisms can be made about Australia’s infrastructure, which has become increasingly crush-loaded by the 7.4 million population increase this century.

How will Australia catch up on its accumulated shortfall of roads, public transport, hospitals and schools, let alone provide enough infrastructure for another 14.2 million people? It is an impossible task.

It’s the immigration …

Australia’s housing shortage is a direct result of nearly 20 years of excessive immigration, which is projected by the IGR to continue for at least another 40 years.

If the Albanese Government genuinely wanted to end the nation’s housing shortage, it would run an immigration program that was substantially lower than the overall expansion in the housing stock, not the other way around.

It is time to stop scapegoating a ‘lack of supply’ and start acknowledging the immigration elephant behind Australia’s housing shortage.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/housing-market-fix-that-simply-wont-work/news-story/5ec76182fa454a5d608fa70500fa870f

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1 September, 2023

Quick work permits for migrants is unfair way to make crisis worse

You have to have got caught up in the legal system to realize how slowly it grinds.

You have to have tried renting an apartment in New York to know how many traps lie in your way.

It’s the same with getting permission to work in this country legally.

Because obviously most Americans are born here, few have an idea how hard it is to obtain the right to work in this country.

Everyone who has moved to this country to work here legally can swop horror stories of the grinding procedures, the lengthy processing times, and the expense.

Because yes, most people (or their employers) will pay considerable sums to gain the right to work legally in the US.

And why not? It isn’t just a right that anyone in the world can work here. Or so I thought.

Now I’m once again feeling like a right dupe.

In fact, after this week’s announcements, I have the same feeling I get in Duane Reade when I’m the only mug actually paying for my shopping.

Because the rules appear to be changing.

As Hochul said in a statement, “Securing expedited work authorization for asylum seekers and migrants has been and remains my top priority. It is the only way to help asylum seekers become self-sustaining, so they can move into permanent housing.”

Of course she is right in wanting to tackle the cost of illegal migration to the state.

As I wrote here recently, within two years this city will be in serious deficit, with the costs solely accounted for by the price of illegal migration.

Even if no more illegal migrants were to arrive in New York the city will still be paying billions of dollars a year to house and otherwise look after the city’s latest arrivals.

Hochul is not the only one pushing expedited work authorization as a solution.

Mayor Adams has been doing the same.

In a speech in May he said: “We have one message, let them work. That is our clear message that we are sending. We must expedite work authorization for asylum seekers, not in the future, but now.”

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have voiced the same idea.

It is understandable. The idea of illegal migrants paying their way is an attractive one. Until you take a step back and look at the much bigger picture.

Because if the expedited work authorization passes then you can expect the current relative trickle of migrants to turn into a roaring river.

Why? Because the final incentive will have been added to the mix. Meaning the encouragement of mass illegality at the border will grow.

Consider the most basic facts. In Mexico the minimum wage is just over $7 a day. Here in New York the minimum wage is $15 an hour.

In Colombia the average monthly salary is just over $1,000. In New York it’s four times that.

And these are the comparatively more peaceful and stable countries to our South. I’m bypassing for now the countries — like Venezuela — where there is serious insecurity.

So the question is, why would anyone from Mexico or anywhere else in Central and Southern America who wants to make more money not now just walk into the US?

If they came legally and applied to work then they would have to go through an expensive and long-winded bureaucracy.

Whereas if they just walk over the border they will be greeted by the authorities, taken to a city like this one, put up in a hotel and then immediately given the opportunity to earn a salary.

Can you imagine the lure of that for the hundreds of millions of people living in relative poverty across a whole continent?

Many arrivals will send what money they earn back to their families.

Rarely will the migrants come even close to paying back in taxation what they have cost the state just by arriving here.

The benefits of such illegal immigration accrue solely to the migrant.

The costs, by contrast, go solely to the American taxpayer.

If America wanted an immigration system that carefully plugs specific labor and skills shortages then that would be one thing. But this system is not that.

The system we are now moving to is one in which people only have to break across the border to gain the lifestyle that most of the world dreams about.

https://nypost.com/2023/08/31/quick-work-permits-for-migrants-unfair-way-to-make-crisis-worse/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
    
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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