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31 January, 2024
University of California Officials Delay Plan to Hire Illegal Immigrant Students
The University of California Regents delayed a plan that would have allowed illegal immigrant students to have jobs on campus, Politico reported.
The UC Regents voted on Thursday to put the plan on hold for at least a year, according to Politico. The Department of Homeland Security previously pressed UC officials to reconsider the plan, which it saw as a violation of federal law.
“We concluded that the proposed legal pathway is not viable at this time, and in fact carries significant risks for the institution and for those we serve,” UC President Michael Drake told Politico. “For that reason, it is inadvisable for the university to initiate implementation right now.”
There are an estimated 4,000 undocumented students enrolled in the UC system who will be unable to obtain campus jobs and paid fellowships, according to Politico. The students are among illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and cannot work because of legal challenges to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
UC Regent John Perez was saddened by the decision, according to Politico. “Quite frankly, I wish I was more surprised,” Perez told Politico.
The university will pursue “experiential learning” opportunities for students, instead, Drake reportedly said.
Immigration is a pivotal issue for the upcoming 2024 presidential election, with 43% of Hispanic adults identifying immigration as the No. 1 issue, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. The Biden administration has released more than 800,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. with future court dates in 2023.
UC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/26/university-of-california-officials-delay-plan-to-hire-illegal-immigrant-students
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30 January, 2024
Thousands of migrants pour in as extraordinary stand-off erupts between Federal Border Patrol and local forces
Clutching assault rifles, and surrounded by Humvee armoured cars and state police, a group of National Guardsmen in full combat gear stand menacingly next to a gate under a 20ft-high reinforced steel fence.
Given the endless strife along America's southern frontier a few hundred yards away, it's not an unexpected sight in this rough-and-ready border town.
But these troops are not facing Mexico. Instead, they're staring back towards the Texan town of Eagle Pass — and the rest of America.
For this particular display of military muscle isn't meant to send a signal to the hordes of asylum seekers pouring into the country week after week. Instead, it's to stop the federal law-enforcement agents of the Biden administration from coming anywhere near.
In an extraordinary development that illustrates both the ferocious political polarisation of the U.S. and the growing rancour surrounding America's immigration crisis, an armed stand-off between the Texas National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol has developed in this proudly independent corner of the country.
The remarkable scenes that the Mail witnessed stem from a highly provocative decision this month by Texas's Republican Governor, Greg Abbott, to order armed troops and police to take control of Eagle Pass's 47-acre Shelby Park — a critical entry point for undocumented migrants — and freeze out the Border Patrol. Since Biden was elected, Abbott has lambasted the Democrats for doing much to encourage the migration crisis.
During his election campaign, the President vowed to 'restore [America's] moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers': music to the ears of Left-wing voters and, fatally, would-be immigrants, too.
Rather than sneak into the U.S. and go into hiding, most migrants know that the first thing they need to do is find a Border Patrolman and request asylum.
They will then be swiftly processed and released into the care of a non-governmental organisation. They can legally remain and work in the U.S. until their application is decided — a process that often takes years.
As the floodgates opened, Eagle Pass, a small town with a population of just 28,000 people, became a focal point for the migrant influx.
In the week before Christmas alone, the local Border Patrol apprehended more than 22,000 undocumented migrants, most from Latin America.
Many were held in a field in Shelby Park, overwhelming local police, fire and ambulance services. The already cash-strapped town lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in income when one of the two economically crucial bridges into Mexico was closed to free up more border agents.
A few months earlier, Abbott had ordered a 1,000-ft string of buoys, separated by serrated metal plates akin to circular saw blades and supporting a submerged mesh net, to be installed near Eagle Pass in the Rio Grande, the river that marks the border between Texas and Mexico. The move sparked outrage from the Mexican government and human rights groups.
Then, just over two weeks ago, Abbott took what many regarded as the nuclear option and decided to enforce his views down the barrel of a gun.
National Guardsmen occupied Shelby Park overnight and — against the wishes of the town, which owns the park — started strengthening fortifications against both migrants and federal agents.
Announcing that it was taking over the park indefinitely both to stop asylum seekers entering and to block 'organisations that perpetuate illegal immigrant crossings', the Texas Military Department left little doubt that it meant the hapless agencies of the Biden administration.
As commander-in-chief of the 18,000-strong Texas Army National Guard — and, in emergencies, of its state police — Abbott has been able to flood the park's 2.5-mile stretch along the river with manpower and hardware such as searchlights and cameras.
He has barred entry by Border Patrol officers despite the federal agency being tasked with policing the border. It once used the park as a key migrant holding area.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13020987/echoes-American-Civil-War-Texas-border-town-thousands-migrants-pour-extraordinary-stand-develops-governments-Border-Patrol-local-forces-trust-Bidens-White-House.html
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29 January, 2024
Millions of Illegal Aliens Are Costing Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions. Biden Couldn’t Care Less.
President Joe Biden has transformed America’s southern border into a humanitarian catastrophe and a national security nightmare. This bloody, deadly mess is a clear and present danger to this republic.
But this also is a massive fiscal threat. Biden’s obliteration of the border is evaporating federal, state, and local coffers.
Precise figures on anything illegal are, by definition, elusive. Nonetheless, the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s report, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers 2023,” estimates that taxpayers bleed $182.1 billion in annual benefits to illegal aliens. That includes $66.4 billion in federal spending and an additional $115.7 billion in state and local outlays to those who have broken into America.
“No sweat!” illegal-alien apologists argue. “They work hard, pay taxes, and pull their own weight.”
If only.
“Taxes paid by illegal aliens only cover around 17.2% of the costs they create for American citizens,” FAIR calculates. That includes $16.2 billion in federal taxes and $15.2 billion in state and local levies. These $31.4 billion still stick U.S. citizens with 82.8% of the illegal immigrants’ $150.7 billion annual tab.
Extrapolating that figure suggests that—since Biden took control three years ago Saturday—these foreign invaders have siphoned some $452 billion from the U.S. Treasury, statehouses, and city halls across America.
Every penny of this largesse is avoidable. Sealing the southern frontier and requiring that immigrants present visas would halt this relentless onslaught. The fact that illegal-alien encounters have soared 336% under Biden vs. President Donald Trump pins this evil on No-Borders Biden and the DEI Democrats.
“The impact of these policies is causing social upheaval, setting states against other states, big cities against surrounding communities, overwhelming school districts and social service providers, as economic migrants from all across the globe pour across our borders,” said FAIR President Dan Stein.
This foreign menace plagues U.S. cities and states:
Due to the 37,000 illegal aliens who have swamped Denver since December, Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston said Wednesday that his city faces “a fiscal crisis unlike anything we have seen in the last 25 years.” He expects illegals to cost Denver $180 million this year. Denver Health hospital is in critical condition because 8,000 illegals have paid nothing for their 20,000 visits.
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, told Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney on Jan. 4: “Since Joe Biden has taken office, Texas taxpayers have borne the brunt of about $10 billion in costs for Texas to do the federal government’s job to try to secure the border.”
Some 160,000 illegal aliens have flooded New York City since spring 2022. So, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to slash spending across the board 5% for three years each.
This nominal 15% reduction in police, fire, sanitation, education, and all else totaled $12.25 billion to keep illegals clothed, fed, housed, and education. Hence, Adams canceled five police academy rookie classes.
Unexpectedly higher revenues let Adams pare those cuts to $10.6 billion. Regardless, New York’s residents anticipate deadlier streets, brighter infernos, dirtier sidewalks, and dimmer students.
Adams detonated a rage bomb on Jan. 9 when he bused 1,900 illegal “guests” from a rain-soaked tent city to Brooklyn’s James Madison High School and banished its students to Zoom classes. This betrayal infuriated Madison’s largely black and Hispanic Democratic parents.
Biden’s border-killing policies have lured an estimated 8.47 million illegal aliens into the hands of sadistic cartels and rape-happy human smugglers. He shines a green light for foreign criminals, spies, and terrorists. On Biden’s watch, 312 of the latter have been nabbed at the border, versus 11 under Trump—up 2,736%. How many have slipped through? Who knows?
Meanwhile, Biden offers U.S. taxpayers two words: Drop dead.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/19/millions-of-illegal-aliens-are-costing-taxpayers-hundreds-of-billions-biden-couldnt-care-less/?utm_campaign=capitol-bell&utm_edition=202401251000&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
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28 January, 2024
Border Patrol Turns on Joe Biden, Proclaims Support for Texas National Guard
Is there going to be a major confrontation on the border following Joe Biden's ultimatum that Texas National Guard forces be removed from Shelby Park and other "disputed" areas? Not if the rank-and-file of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol have anything to say about it.
According to a new post put out by the Border Patrol Union, and a new report from Griff Jenkins of Fox News, Biden has lost operational control of the situation, at least in a practical sense.
The Biden administration had initially warned Texas that it had until mid-day Friday to relinquish control of Shelby Park, the nearby boat dock, and the International Bridge. That deadline has now come and gone, and instead of there being a major clash between the Border Patrol and the state-controlled soldiers on site, it appears those on the ground have already de-escalated the situation.
The Border Patrol Union ends by slamming Biden for creating the current "catastrophe" and reiterating that there will be no conflict between CBP agents and state forces. The statement is a clear signal of support for the Texas National Guard, its mission, and those leading it, including Gov. Greg Abbott.
Rank-and-file BP agents appreciate and respect what TX has been doing to defend their state in the midst of this catastrophe that the Biden Admin has unleashed on America.
We want to be perfectly clear, there is no fight between rank-and-file BP agents and the TX NG, Gov. Abbott, or TX DPS. It may make flashy headlines, but it simply isn't true.
Furthering the division between the Border Patrol and the White House was a senior CBP official who said they have no plans to follow through on removing the razor wire put up by Texas. Biden has completely lost whatever leverage he had.
This is an incredible turn of events. I don't know if "mutiny" is the right word here, but clearly, Biden has no way to enforce his threats at this point. Border Patrol agents are not going to go along with it and short of using the Insurrection Act to mobilize the U.S. Army (and they likely wouldn't act either), this represents a major roadblock to the president's attempts to further destroy the Southern border.
We are in uncharted territory right now, and I'm certainly thankful cooler heads have prevailed, at least at this point. Will this force Biden's hand toward some kind of renewal of enforcement of immigration laws? Surely, with his bluff having been called by his own law enforcement officials, he has to try a different approach. Never underestimate the propensity of Washington politicians to keep making the wrong decisions, though.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/01/26/huge-border-patrol-turns-on-joe-biden-proclaim-support-for-texas-national-guard-n2169256
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25 January, 2024
'Enough Is Enough': Governors Rally Behind Abbott As Biden Threatens Texas
As Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues to "hold the line" against President Joe Biden and his administration's attempts to deny the Lone Star State the right to defend itself from the illegal immigrant invasion declared by Abbott, the leaders of other states facing the effects of Biden's border crisis are standing with him.
Abbott has declared that he will not back down in the face of mounting legal harassment from the federal government and defiantly ordered the installation of more razor wire to enforce the international border based on his constitutional right to self-defense after the Supreme Court granted Biden's emergency appeal to allow federal agents to cut the wire that is helping prevent the influx of illegal immigrants that set another record in December of more than 300,000.
Among those standing with Abbott is Governor Kevin Stitt of neighboring Oklahoma.
In addition, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin posted his support for Abbott and Texas' work to do "the job Joe Biden and his border czar [Vice President Kamala Harris] refuse to do."
"Enough is enough," declared Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in declaring "full support" for Abbott and the State of Texas.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has sent Sunshine State officers to help Texas with Operation Lone Star, noted that Biden's argument that Texas (or any state) is "powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn't have been ratified in the first place."
Up in South Dakota, Governor Kristi Noem praised Abbott's actions as "exactly right."
Montana's Governor Greg Gianforte also noted that Abbott is doing what Biden won't and reminded that Biden's willful effort to make the border less secure "is inviting cartels, illegal drugs, and human trafficking into the United States."
Emphasizing how Biden has turned every state into a border state, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee noted that the "federal government's failure to secure our nation's southern border is jeopardizing the safety of all Americans."
Biden, who has shown no interest in securing America's international borders or preventing illegal immigrants from streaming into the country without consequence since his first day in office, faces increasing pressure to do something — anything — to address the crisis he's created. Yet, he still refuses to act. The least he could do would be to stop attacking those, with Governor Abbott leading the way, who are doing something to stop the invasion of Texas.
If Biden refuses to realize the error of his attempts to deprive Texas of its constitutional right to self-defense against an invasion while Biden abdicates his duty to protect Texas, Abbott must continue to stand strong and, in the spirit of Texas' rich history, tell Biden to "come and take it."
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2024/01/25/stand-with-texas-gop-govs-back-abbotts-fight-for-a-secure-border-n2634155
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24 January, 2024
Texas AG Responds After SCOTUS Sides With Biden Admin in Razor Wire Dispute
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to continue fighting after the Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol to continue cutting razor wire Texas had installed to deter illegal border crossers.
“The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America,” Attorney General Paxton said in a statement. “The destruction of Texas’s border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberal justices on the bench in the 5-4 decision.
Paxton had sued the administration in October over its damaging of the wire, accusing the administration of disrupting state efforts to secure the border and damaging the ability to deter illegal entry.
The Biden administration has argued that once migrants are on U.S. soil, Border Patrol agents must apprehend them, and has claimed the wire "inhibits Border Patrol’s ability to patrol the border." The administration has also argued that federal immigration law supersedes Texas' own efforts to control the border.
A Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel had granted a request for a preliminary injunction. The DOJ had asked the Supreme Court for temporary relief so that it could remove razor fence at the federal government’s discretion.
"The court of appeals’ contrary ruling inverts the Supremacy Clause by requiring federal law to yield to Texas law," its application to the Court argued. "If accepted, the court’s rationale would leave the United States at the mercy of States that could seek to force the federal government to conform the implementation of federal immigration law to varying state-law regimes." (Fox News)
The release from Paxton’s office emphasized the order is temporary since the appeal is ongoing. The Attorney General will argue the case on Feb. 7 before the Fifth Circuit.
This is not the only conflict between Texas and the Biden administration over immigration. The federal government is also suing the state over a recently signed law making illegal border crossing a state crime.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2024/01/23/texas-paxton-vows-to-keep-fighting-n2634050
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23 January, 2024
Buying Passports — A World Tour
David North
Rural Migration News, an affiliate of UC Davis, has just published a long, fascinating article about the purchase of some overseas citizenships through large investments from aliens seeking a refuge in another nation, or at least a secondary passport.
This is a useful introduction to an element of international migration by the rich (and sometimes the corrupt rich) that calls out for more journalistic and academic attention; a tiny minority of international migrants can buy their way around many nations’ immigration rules by simply filling in some forms and writing some checks, with some small island nations offering quick service, and other countries, such as the U.S. and the UK, providing the wanted relief only under some complex circumstances and after lengthy delays.
Often the motivation for getting the second passport is not to obtain admission to the country issuing it, mostly small island states, but to use the document to travel to other larger nations, such as the U.S. or members of the European Union.
The article is unsigned, as is the custom for that newsletter, and thus may well have been written by the publication’s editor, Philip Martin, an old friend of mine and a well-traveled global immigration scholar, some of whose work has been published by CIS. Martin is a professor emeritus at the University of California at Davis, which is the nation’s leading university on all things agricultural.
There are two layers of the so-called golden passports; some nations, particularly small ones, offer full citizenship in exchange for either an investment in the nation’s economy or a simple payment to the government concerned. Other nations, particularly larger ones such as this nation and the United Kingdom, provide a multi-step process to citizenship. The American EB-5 program, for example, moves the rich alien who follows all the rules from alien status to a short-term conditional legal status, then permanent legal status, and finally to full citizenship. That rich alien has to pony up $800,000 for an investment (usually in real estate) that has been accepted by the Department of Homeland Security, but not guaranteed. Such an investment in the U.S. brings a family-sized set of green cards to the investor, his or her spouse, and their children under 21.
Sometimes the alien’s money goes straight into the treasury of the nation involved, as a direct payment; sometimes it is a loan to the government (sometimes interest-free), sometimes it is the purchase of real estate, and sometimes (as with the U.S. program) an investment in the private sector. The price varies, often seemingly related to the country’s size; Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica, both ex-Brit colonies in the Caribbean, are at the bottom of the scale at $100,000 each, while U.S. is near the top at $800,000.
I have been following CBI (citizenship by investment) for years but learned a lot from the article. For instance:
For those with a particular taste, an alien can buy citizenship in Russia;
The little Caribbean island nation of Dominica (not to be confused with the larger Dominican Republic) recently received half of its total government income from this source; and
Another island nation, a larger one, Vanuatu, the locus of the musical “South Pacific”, received 40 percent of its government income from CBI. It formerly was a condominium, run jointly by France and the UK, then known as the New Hebrides.
The article has a chart showing a (partial) list of 23 nations that either have had, or continue to have, one of these programs. Of the 23, 11 have dropped out under pressure from larger nations; of those leaving, six of the 11 formerly were in the British Empire, three were once in the German empire, two in the Ottoman Empire, and one each had been under the French and the Spanish flags, with multiple imperial ties in four cases. Most of the old, established European nations do not use the program and they are rarely seen in Africa.
Tonga, a Pacific nation, one of the first to sell its passports, was forced to abandon the program when the U.S. discovered that a Tonga investment passport was accepted in some nations, but not in Tonga itself. At that point the U.S. refused to honor these passports.
The European Union has a dim view of these programs, and has forced Montenegro to drop out.
What’s Missing
The article says that there are about 25 golden passport countries (offering full citizenship) and about 50 golden visa ones (for less permanent arrangements). I would love to see a full listing of both categories that would carry a date, as these programs both come and go. It offered no such comprehensive lists.
Also missing for some reason was any discussion of the four large, English-speaking nations with these programs (Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S.) or of the Canadian experiment, now ended. The Australian program has been around for a long time and I was once retained by its government to study it (and encountered the highly dramatic Aussie rules football as a by-product).
https://cis.org/North/Buying-Passports-World-Tour
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22 January, 2024
Texas Authorities Begin Arresting Illegal Immigrants at Southern Border
Texas authorities have begun arresting illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in Eagle Pass, according to multiple reports.
This week, Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman Chris Olivarez shared on X that illegal immigrants would be arrested going forward.
“Under the authority of Gov. @GregAbbott_TX’s Border Disaster Declaration, @TxDPS Troopers are arresting illegal immigrants for criminal trespass at #ShelbyPark in Eagle Pass,” he wrote. “Troopers are enforcing criminal trespass on single adult men & women. The State of #Texas will maintain a proactive posture in curbing illegal border crossings between the ports of entry.”
Late last month, Townhall covered how the Biden administration warned Texas that it will sue the state if it implemented the law.
"Because SB 4 is unconstitutional and will disrupt the federal government's operations, we request that Texas forbear in its enforcement," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton said in a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
If Texas did not heed the Biden administration's demand, "the United States intends to file suit to enjoin the enforcement of SB 4," Boynton warned.
In response, Abbott stated that the Biden administration “refuses” to enforce immigration laws.
“The Biden Admin. not only refuses to enforce current U.S. immigration laws, they now want to stop Texas from enforcing laws against illegal immigration,” Abbott wrote. “I’ve never seen such hostility to the rule of law in America. Biden is destroying America. Texas is trying to save it.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administration claimed that Texas denied federal agents access to a section of the southern border in their efforts to save three illegal immigrants who drowned. Shortly after, the Texas Military Department (TMD) responded to the claims.
“TMD was contacted by Border Patrol at approximately 9:00pm in reference to a migrant distress situation. TMD had a unit in the vicinity of the boat ramp and actively searched the river with lights and night vision goggles. No migrants were observed,” the statement read.
“At no time did TMD security personnel along the river observe any distressed migrants, nor did TMD turn back any illegal immigrants from the US during this period. Also, at no point was TMD made aware of any bodies in the area of Shelby Park nor was TMD made aware of any bodies being discovered on the U.S. side of the border regarding this situation,” it continued.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2024/01/20/texas-authorities-begin-arresting-illegal-immigrants-at-southern-border-n2633881
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21 January, 2024
Unrest in rural Ireland as locals declare there’s no room for asylum seekers
Riot police standing guard outside the Racket Hall hotel in rural Tipperary are tetchy. The 40-room guest house in one of Ireland’s oldest market towns remains intact, but recent history suggests that it could soon be reduced to a smouldering wreck.
Local lorry driver Justin Phelan has no intention of setting the building alight, but his message to the 160 asylum seekers destined for his hometown is clear: “Roscrea is full”.
“The services are on the ground here in this town,” Phelan, 34, said. “Not just in this town – all across the country they’re on the ground. There’s god knows how many people on trolleys today in Limerick hospital.
“We have around five GPs in this town. You call any of them this minute and he’ll say, ‘I don’t have space, I’m full up.’ There’s 33 children in my daughter’s class. Just imagine adding two more, with language difficulties. What effect is that going to have on the rest of the children already in the class?”
Phelan is one of many holding a vigil outside the hotel in what has become a snapshot of unrest across rural Ireland at the government’s perceived clumsy handling of a surge in migration.
Protests have been rising across the country at resettlement programs as Ireland’s housing system creaks, leading in some extreme cases to public buildings being torched.
Huddled around one of the open fires at the Roscrea hotel entrance, Phelan said he has “been here every day” since last Thursday, when the Irish government gave local politicians 24-hours notice that the hotel was being closed down to the public to house asylum seekers.
Weddings and parties scheduled to take place in the town’s only hotel have been cancelled after the owners reached an agreement with the government.
After some demonstrators tried on Monday to block a bus carrying the first 17 arrivals, mainly women and children, from entering the car park, violent scuffles with the gardaí, members of the Irish police force, broke out.
Immigration to Ireland rose by 32 per cent to more than 140,000 in the year ending April 2023. Of these arrivals, more than 13,000 were asylum seekers. And since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nearly 100,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland.
The immigration influx – the largest since 2007 – comes amid a shortfall of 250,000 homes in Ireland and astronomical rent prices.
The Irish government recently admitted that there was not enough room to house new arrivals, slashing the monetary allowance for Ukrainians by four fifths and offering new asylum seekers tents to sleep in.
In Roscrea, many locals have been camping outside the Racket Hall hotel through the night.
“This is the only hotel in our town and if you take it away, as bad as our town is now, it’s going to be worse,” said Phelan.
But the local reaction in Roscrea has not all been negative, with some leaving toys outside the hotel’s doors for its young guests. A number of families who have attended the demonstrations are at pains to point out that their gripe is with government policy, not with the individuals arriving in their town.
While Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, acknowledged people living in communities where asylum seekers were being housed had legitimate “fears”, he said “nobody in a democracy has the right to veto … who moves into their area”.
A poll by the Business Post/Red C in May 2023 found that 75 per cent of Irish voters believed Ireland had taken in “too many” refugees.
Migration protests have also been staged in the disadvantaged suburb of Ballymun and rural towns in counties Carlow and Mayo.
The disaffection has escalated to full-blown revolt by some in local government, with Mayo county council on Tuesday voting unanimously to cease co-operation with the central government over the housing of asylum seekers – the first council in Ireland to do so.
Mattie McGrath, an independent Teachta Dála for Tipperary, said on Monday he was “shocked to my bloody core” at the government’s response to the protest in Roscrea, adding that he “didn’t expect to see the riot squad called in”. He accused the government of treating the people of Tipperary – “who aren’t willing to do their bidding and lie down before them” – with “contempt”.
Responding to the backlash, Varadkar on Tuesday said the 10 areas most “under pressure” because of refugee arrivals would receive additional resources in policing, education and health. He went on to condemn the move by Roscrea locals to obstruct the arrival of the asylum seekers as “anti-democratic” and “against the spirit and the values of our nation”.
Last year, thugs rioted in Dublin setting trams and police cars alight and looting shops in response to an incident outside a school in Dublin after an Algerian, who was an Irish citizen not born in Ireland, allegedly went on a stabbing spree. The violence was organised online in WhatsApp messaging groups with one chat encouraging members descending on the city centre to “kill all foreigners”.
There has been a spate of 13 arson attacks on migrant facilities, and venues wrongly thought to be housing migrants, in Ireland over the past year, with no arrests made. A threat of arson against the Racket Hall Hotel in Roscrea was also reported to the gardaí on Monday.
There are particular concerns in Roscrea and elsewhere about the influx of “unvetted” single males into the country.
In 2023, almost 70 per cent of “international protection applicants” arriving at Dublin Airport where most asylum seekers are processed did so without valid identity documents, according to the Irish Department of Justice.
That year, the number of male asylum seekers was more than double that of women. In 2022, 4,200 people arrived without documentation – and most asylum applicants that year were also single men.
There is also widespread concern about dwindling public services. Last year, the Irish College of General Practitioners warned the country’s GP shortage posed a significant public health risk, and that the crisis was particularly stark in rural Ireland. However, rural towns have also taken a disproportionate number of refugees in the past year, according to a recent analysis of Ukrainian asylum seekers by the Irish Independent.
This has led to a sense of unfairness with how migrant accommodation has been allocated. The population of some towns, such as Lisdoonvarna, in County Clare, have more than doubled as a result of incoming refugees, many of which are from Ukraine. Sandra, 47, a local support worker, said her town’s predicament also applied to the rest of rural Ireland: “Any town which is a pushover gets bombarded. We stayed quiet for so long but it’s time to speak up.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/unrest-in-rural-ireland-as-locals-declare-there-s-no-room-for-asylum-seekers-20240118-p5eyhl.html
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18 January, 2024
ALG opposes Schumer-Lankford illegal immigration amnesty deal
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in opposition to a deal reported by the Immigration Accountability Project between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on illegal immigration amnesty:
“Americans for Limited Government ardently opposes the Schumer-Lankford illegal immigration expansion deal. President Biden’s failure to enforce the law should not be rewarded with an acceptance of more than 150,000 entries a month. The bad deal effectively normalizes catastrophic levels of illegal immigration while knowing those who created the crisis by ignoring the law for the past three years will continue ignoring it in the future. Senator Lankford is a man of honorable intentions dealing with those without them and the result must be defeated.”
https://getliberty.org/2024/01/alg-opposes-schumer-lankford-illegal-immigration-amnesty-deal/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=515893d8-e786-4096-ae77-64bf9424ba21
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17 January, 2024
"GESTAPO": Canadian Reporter Arrested for Questioning Deputy Prime Minister
Good hats but fried brains
Canadian police have arrested a reporter for asking a question.
David Menzies of Rebel News approached Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday to ask her why Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is not classified as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.
Freeland was leaving a vigil honoring the memory of 55 Canadians who were killed in 2020 after the IRGC fired surface-to-air missiles at a plane leaving Tehran. Ontario’s Superior Court at the time ruled the attack an intentional act of terrorism. All passengers aboard the flight were killed.
“How come the IRGC is not a terrorist group?” Menzies asked the deputy PM. “Why is your government supporting Islamic nationalism?”
Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers grabbed Menzies and slammed him bodily against a nearby partition, saying, “Sir, you’re under arrest for assault.” Menzies offered Freeland’s bodyguards his press credentials, explaining that he was just trying to ask the deputy prime minister a question.
The guard stared at Menzies before saying, “Police. You’re under arrest for pushing her.” When Menzies asked what crime he’d committed, the officer changed his narrative and said the reporter was under arrest for “assaulting a police officer.”
Another officer then told Menzies that he was simply being too “aggressive” and “almost pushing people over.” When Menzies noted that he had the entire incident on video and could show that he hadn’t shoved anyone, the officer said, “There were a lot of shuffling feet.” Uniformed officers then pressed Menzies’ face against a wall and handcuffed him, saying, “Don’t resist.”
The reporter cried out, “I’m just doing my job.” He then turned to the camera and said, “This is what they do to journalists. … This is now a trumped-up charge of assault, folks.” He added, “This is your Canada now, folks. This is the Gestapo taking Blackface’s orders,” referring to leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal.
“A Canadian government that props up an Islamo-fascist regime, that’s OK,” Menzies quipped as he was being marched away. “But if you ask questions about that, that’s not OK. This is an absolute outrage.”
Pierre Poilievre, a member of Parliament and the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, condemned the arrest of Menzies, writing on X, the former Twitter, “Trudeau has divided media into two groups: Those he’s bought off with bailouts, and those he censors and has arrested.”
Elon Musk, owner of X and founder of Tesla, also commented on the arrest, predicting that Trudeau and his Liberal Party “won’t make it past the next election.”
Members of the Conservative Party have announced their intention to launch a parliamentary investigation into Menzies’ arrest. Freeland’s treatment of the reporter has also been covered by mainstream news outlets such as Fox News, the National Post, the Toronto Sun, and even left-wing government broadcaster CBC.
Menzies noted, “The entire mainstream media in Canada has been bought and paid for by the Liberal government. … How can you expect somebody on the government payroll to cover the government fairly?”
The police’s treatment of Menzies is in stark contrast to their treatment of pro-Palestine protesters. For example, police brought coffee to protesters who were blocking off a bridge on Saturday. Rebel News founder, CEO, and publisher Ezra Levant vowed to take legal action against Freeland, the RCMP, and the York Regional Police for arresting Menzies.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/11/this-is-the-gestapo-conservative-canadian-journalist-arrested-for-asking-deputy-premier-a-question/
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16 January, 2024
Recent Sky-High Levels of Illegal Migration Are Dropping Fast — and Here’s Why
Hint: Biden and Mexico’s Obrador have arranged an out-of-view crackdown that could endure through the U.S. presidential election and serve them both politically
Nothing in the American experience has ever compared to the 10,000-14,000 illegal crossings every day the last several months that afflicted major American cities or those poor federal government souls who must manage the U.S. southern border.
But November’s and December’s latest “newest” record-smashing crossings, which exacerbated an already significant political liability to President Biden’s November reelection bid, were falling fast by New Year’s Day. And they’re still dropping.
Daily Border Patrol encounters of illegally crossing foreign nationals in the first weeks of January, in fact, were down by up to 70 percent from the 12,000 and 14,000 per day of recent weeks, to a still managerially catastrophic 4,000 and 5,000, according to government data shared confidentially with me.
What led to those numbers dropping from ionospheric heights the national media had no choice but to cover in a presidential election year? Will it last? Is this one real?
It helps to know that the falling numbers neatly coincide with recent shuttle diplomacy to Mexico City about the (political) crisis by Biden personally and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 22 and then DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Blinken on December 27. The second meeting produced a joint communique lacking any useful details about the horse-trading, as my colleague Andrew R. Arthur has still managed to expertly analyze.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Arthur told me. “There’s a deal. We just don’t know what the deal is.”
But the hardly reported or analyzed on-the-ground fruits of all this cannot go ignored for much longer because media visuals of the chaos have loomed so very large in Republican political campaigning — as in ongoing negotiations with Republican senators holding up Ukraine war funding and in House negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.
The fact that the camera-loving high numbers at the heart of all this are dropping so precipitously now warrants some discussion.
Mexico Is Cracking Down in Old and New Ways to Slow the Flow
Migrants board a freight train near Monterrey Mexico in the spring of 2023
In a nutshell summary of Mexico’s doings, according to my own content analysis of Mexican media, forces under control of Mexico’s central government are rounding up immigrants in the country’s north and shipping them by bus and airplane to southern cities like Tapachula in Chiapas State (on the border with Guatemala) and Villahermosa in Tabasco State. They are all expected to go home or stay put alongside those continuing to enter from Guatemala.
They’ll be held back to wait for a molasses-slow bureaucracy to approve individual travel papers. Tens of thousands are filling those southern provinces now.
Meanwhile, federal forces are installing new road checks to hem them in, a la the Gaza Strip, and in the northern provinces to catch, return, and deter runners still getting through.
Probably to instill an enforcement vibe, Mexico also appears to be ramping up air deportations from its rapidly filling southern provinces that may send increasing numbers of uncooperative, rebellious, or repeat attempting immigrants caught in this southern bureaucracy back to distant home countries.
The bottle-necking strategy is actually nothing new and easily undone; I’ve been reporting on it since 2019 (See “Video Report: How Trump’s Policies Ended the Mass Migration Crisis on Mexico’s Southern Border – For Now”). But the Biden administration has long let Mexico slide on it so long as Mexico did it in a way that American TV cameras couldn’t see (See “Mexico’s Duplicitous ‘Ant Operation’ Moved Tens of Thousands of the U.S. Border Sight Unseen — and Will Again Through 2022”).
To eliminate another obvious draw, Mexican authorities have emptied and then bulldozed at least one longstanding migrant camp, the sprawling one in Matamoros across the Rio Grande from Brownsville and reportedly dug deep anti-pedestrian trenches to deny further easy access to popular crossings there. Other ad hoc camps also are probably scraped away by now, too, or soon will be if this continues.
Perhaps one of Mexico’s most impactful slow-down measures is that, finally, it is doing something about “La Bestia”, the system of cargo trains that have super-powered the Biden border crisis for three years running by transporting hundreds of thousands of migrants from deep southern Mexico to its northern border cities.
More here:
https://cis.org/Bensman/Recent-SkyHigh-Levels-Illegal-Migration-Are-Dropping-Fast-and-Heres-Why
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15 January, 2024
Report: Criminal Aliens Are Beneficiaries of Biden Immigration Policies
For the past three years, the Biden administration has asserted that its immigration policies prioritize addressing criminal aliens more effectively than the Trump administration. However, a Center for Immigration Studies analysis comparing ICE criminal data from fiscal years 2017-2019 to 2021-2023 finds that criminal aliens have been top beneficiaries of the Biden administration’s immigration agenda.
Contrary to the administration’s promises, official data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show a significant decline in arrests, prosecutions, and removals of criminal aliens under the Biden administration compared to the Trump administration.
The report, authored by Jon Feere, the Center’s Director of Investigations and a former ICE Chief of Staff, reveals alarming statistics:
57 percent decrease in arrests of criminal aliens
68 percent decrease in at-large arrests of criminal aliens
44 percent decrease in detainer requests issued on criminal aliens
67 percent decrease in deportations of criminal aliens
55 percent decrease in immigration-related criminal convictions
The report further exposes the impact on public safety by examining total numbers of offences on the records of aliens arrested (many committed more than one crime). The findings: a 63 percent decrease in larceny records, a 57 percent decrease in stolen vehicle records, a 55 percent decrease in burglary records, a 48 percent decrease in assault records, a 47 percent decrease in robbery records, a 34 percent decrease in kidnapping records, and significant decreases in all other criminal record categories reported by ICE.
Notably, compared to the first three years of the Trump administration, the Biden administration’s policies have led to a 56 percent decrease in the total number of criminal offenses on the records of aliens arrested.
Feere states, “The Biden administration’s failed policies have proven that taking large numbers of criminal aliens off our streets requires a robust, broad approach to enforcement. Their gutting of immigration enforcement has been a win for criminal aliens and a disaster for public safety. If Congress wants to put an end to the lawlessness, it must significantly increase resources for interior enforcement and demand that taxpayer funds are spent in a manner that gets results.”
https://cis.org/Report/Three-Years-Biden-Immigration-Policies-Have-Benefitted-Criminal-Aliens
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14 January, 2024
Abbott says claims Texas allowed migrants to drown in Rio Grande are false: 'They forgot to get the facts'
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said Sunday Democrats' accusations that Texas allowed migrants attempting to cross the southern border into the U.S. to drown in the Rio Grande by preventing Border Patrol from accessing the river are inaccurate.
Federal officials and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, claimed the state was responsible for the deaths of three migrants – a woman and two children – on Friday after purporting that the Texas Military Department had denied Border Patrol access to the area to help six migrants in distress.
"This is a tragedy, and the State bears responsibility," Cuellar said in a statement.
An investigation by the Texas Military Department determined the accusations were "wholly inaccurate," explaining the drownings had already happened by the time Border Patrol requested access.
"At the time that Border Patrol requested access, the drownings had occurred, Mexican Authorities were recovering the bodies, and Border Patrol expressed these facts to the TMD personnel on site," the TMD said in a news release.
Abbott said in response to the investigation's findings that Cuellar and others who blamed Texas for the drownings left out key facts.
"Turns out @RepCuellar (& some media) were so eager to point finger(sic) at Texas for drowning of migrants they forgot to get the facts," Abbott wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "When BP requested access to river the drownings had already occurred & found in MX. The fact is the deaths are b/c of Biden's Open Border magnet."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abbott-says-claims-texas-allowed-migrants-drown-rio-grande-false-they-forgot-facts
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11 January, 2024
The American People say Border is in Crisis, Demand Biden be Tougher on Immigrants and Deport Them to Mexico While They Await Hearings
An explosive new poll proves that Biden and the Democratic Party’s approach to the southern border crisis – neglect, blame-shifting and a refusal to face facts – is creating a massive backlash among the American people against the modern immigration system. In three short years, the American public have shifted from mild tolerance of our porous southern border to labeling the border a national security concern and a massive crisis that they demand the next administration solves.
Immigration is now the second most important issue facing the country according to the latest CBS News / YouGov poll, with 21% of Americans citing immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border as the most important issue facing the country, while 29% say the economy is the most important. Support for Biden’s immigration policy is now at its lowest point on record, and an increasing number of Americans see the border as a crisis compared to ten months ago and want harsher treatment of illegals.
The poll shows Biden’s approval rating on the U.S./Mexico border crisis has fallen to its lowest point on record, with Americans giving Biden negative marks by a margin of 70% to 30%. By a margin of 63% to 16%, Americans believe the Biden Administration should be tougher on illegal immigrants.
The poll also shows the share of Americans who say the border is in crisis has risen seven percentage points since last May, from 38% to 45% presently. In addition, some 81% of Americans who say the border is in crisis cite national security as a key concern for why they feel this way.
Democrats, in particular, are growing weary of the modern policy of transporting illegal immigrants from largely Republican border states to largely Democratic-run northern states.
Republican governors in hot-bed states for illegal immigration such as Florida, Arizona and Texas began to revolt against the onslaught of illegal immigrants and bus them into “sanctuary” cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC. However, Democrats – and independents – are much less supportive of this policy. According to the poll, Democrats disapprove of border states shipping migrants to northern states by a margin of 66% to 34%, and Independents disapprove 56% to 44%. Republicans favor the practice narrowly, 53% to 47%.
In addition, the share of Americans willing to “temporarily house migrants” in their own towns has decreased seven percentage points since last May. Americans now reject the idea of being forced to temporarily house migrants in their town 55% to 45%, a reversal from May 2023 when the public narrowly supported this practice, 52% to 48%.
What is more, an increasing share of Americans say they notice an influx of immigrants into their cities, with 40% saying they notice immigrants to their area increasing compared to 25% who say the numbers are decreasing.
When asked what should be done with asylum-seekers at the U.S. Mexican border, over half of the public (57%) believes the asylum seekers should either remain in Mexico and wait for a hearing or be deported permanently. Just 43% of the public believes illegals should be allowed to remain the United States while waiting for a hearing.
Notably, we see a continuation of a distinctly negative view of immigration’s long-term impact, with the public saying 48% to 22% that the influx of migrants will make society worse in the long term.
According to Gallup, the share of Americans who say immigration is a good thing has dropped precipitously by nine percentage points in three years since Biden took office, from 77% in 2020 to 68% today. October polling from YouGov showed Americans are deeply concerned about the toll illegal immigration is taking on the country, and broadly reject the idea of expanding the refugee program.
The poll asked Americans whether the United States should or should not accept refugees from Syria, Gaza, El Salvador, and Ukraine, and Americans strongly oppose accepting refugees from all countries except Ukraine.
Americans do not believe the U.S. should accept refugees from El Salvador by a fifteen-percentage point margin, 45% to 30%, even though El Salvador is one of the regions the Biden Administration is greatly expanding entry from. Americans don’t believe the U.S. should accept refugees from Syria by a fourteen-percentage point margin, 46% to 32%, and Americans reject the idea of accepting refugees from Gaza by a thirteen-percentage point margin, 46% to 33%.
According to the poll, only around a third of Americans (34%) say immigration makes the United States better off, and support for expanding the refugee program is even lower. Just 29% of Americans say refugees improve the U.S. compared to 39% who say they do not, a ten-percentage point difference.
These numbers come on top of polling from Reuters/ Ipsos that showed Americans say 54% to 46% that immigration is contributing to increased difficulties for native-born Americans. Concerns about elevated crime and a slew of drugs and other smuggled items streaming over the southern border are major drivers behind this shift in sentiment on immigration. Strains on U.S. resources are also a concern.
Biden and the Democratic Party’s refusal to secure the border and deport those who break the law and enter our country illegally has created one of the most anti-immigration generations in decades. By refusing to enforce the laws, and denying proper funding to our border patrol, globalists have turned one of the most hospitable counties on earth against an immigration system many Americans now view as exploitative and unfair. These views are rising not only on the right, but among Independents and Democrats as well, who are increasingly dissatisfied with the lawlessness of the modern immigration system, and demand the laws be enforced.
https://dailytorch.com/2024/01/the-american-people-say-border-is-in-crisis-demand-biden-be-tougher-on-immigrants-and-deport-them-to-mexico-while-they-await-hearings
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10 January, 2024
Biden’s Border Chaos—Crime Soars as Punishment Vanishes
There is a thread running through progressive ideology that explains a lot about the state of our country and the world: the Left doesn’t like laws enforced or people punished for doing wrong.
Take the U.S. southern border, where we’re seeing record numbers of illegal aliens “encountered,” often with 5,000 a day just let go into the interior of the United States. The unmitigated chaos is so bad, it sometimes gets covered by a legacy media that usually prefers to ignore reporting on the border.
Americans can see that President Joe Biden’s strategy of pouring billions into “root causes of illegal immigration” aid to Latin America, inventing bogus “parole” programs to bring inadmissible aliens into the United States off the books, and releasing even more aliens caught at the border, has utterly failed.
Biden’s excuse for releasing and paroling millions, instead of detaining or sending them back to their home countries, is to pretend they are all asylum-seekers. To qualify for asylum, they’d have to prove they are fleeing persecution at home. Just living in a poor country and wanting a job in the U.S. isn’t enough, or else why would we still bother to have visas?
The biggest lie Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas keeps telling is this: “We will work to remove, as quickly as possible, those who do not qualify for relief under our laws.” But deportations dropped to 72,177 in fiscal 2022, a quarter of the 2019 total. Though badly overworked, immigration judges still order over 20,000 illegal immigrants deported every month (after due process). The math reveals the truth: the Biden administration won’t ever enforce the law and deport most failed asylum-seekers.
Republican presidential candidates all campaign to restore sanity to the border. If reelected, Donald Trump promises to reemphasize deportations. In reaction, leftist national media, politicians, and activists are freaking out.
But rather than being some dystopian nightmare, this would simply begin a return to historical norms and restore the rule of law. Applicants who lack any legal right to remain in the United States must be returned to their home countries. By failing to do that, the system has lost all credibility. That has sent a clear message to the world that if they show up at our border, they will get in—and stay for years.
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Tom Homan gets that. “Part of due process is executing the final decision of the court,” he said. Like every American who believes in the rule of law, Homan wonders, “If the court orders aren’t going to mean anything, what the hell are we doing? We might as well take the Border Patrol off the border and shut down the immigration courts because, obviously, there’s no enforcement of our immigration law.”
Enforcing laws passed by Congress is hardly an extreme position. A Pew poll last year found that 73% of Americans thought it “very” or “somewhat” important to “increase security along the U.S.-Mexico border.” A CBS poll in September showed 66% of Americans disapproving “of the way Joe Biden is handling immigration” and only 34% approving. A recent Fox News poll of national voters showed 67% of respondents “support deporting those here illegally.” A CBS poll of likely Republican voters before the upcoming primaries showed 80% of New Hampshire voters and 85% of Iowa voters “want a GOP nominee who’d deport millions of undocumented immigrants.”
Even among Texas Hispanics, 40% surveyed “agreed with the idea of deporting undocumented immigrants.” Hispanic support for a controlled border is likely growing with each day’s mass release of illegal aliens into already poor U.S. border communities and with each preventable crime against American citizens and legal residents.
The idea that if you don’t enforce laws, people ignore them, applies in many other contexts, too.
In Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves didn’t prosecute 67% of the suspects arrested by police last year. Meanwhile, violent crime rose 39%, murder 34%, robbery 68%, and carjacking 88%. Many of those carjackers are teens who should be in school. In possibly related news, 60% of Washington high schoolers were “chronically absent” last year, and in one high school, almost 90% of the students were “chronically truant.”
In the Gulf of Aden in the Middle East, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are lobbing drones and rockets at commercial and U.S. Navy ships, which, so far, have kept them from hitting the targets. Why do the Houthis continue their provocation with the world’s mightiest navy at their doorstep? Because they can. They fire rockets; we send strongly worded statements. Does anyone doubt that a significant response from the United States could put an end to this terrorist hazard? But on it goes. Oil and shipping companies are rerouting ships around the threat. Longer journeys mean more time and fuel, passed on to consumers through higher prices.
Portland, Oregon, decriminalized drug use in 2020. Fentanyl pills—all coming through Mexico with ingredients from China—sell for only a dollar or two, down from three times that in 2020. (This is one notable area where “Bidenomics” actually lowered the price of something.) Kevin Dahlgren has worked with the homeless for 30 years and calls Portland “the largest open-air drug zone in state history.” He has written, “I have found more dead people and seen more overdoses this year than in all the other years of my working and volunteering, combined.”
In Washington state, theft up to $750 is only a misdemeanor, and just like in big California cities, prosecutors often choose not to prosecute shoplifting. In November, unionized workers went on strike at three Seattle-area Macy’s, saying the chain “is not doing enough to address shoplifting, violent shoppers, and other safety threats to workers and customers.” One worker said that when she called police to report “a repeat shoplifter that even law enforcement was familiar with,” she was suspended without pay.
The above examples have this in common: If you enforce laws, people obey them more. It’s human nature.
When it comes to immigration, conservatives want the current law enforced before we talk about reforming the system. That means raising the bar for asylum claims to weed out applicants who are gaming the system, ending mass release of illegal crossers at the border, and limiting Biden’s rampant abuse of immigration parole.
Even if they want more legal immigration for labor needs, most elected Democrats can see the distinction between workers brought in on visas Congress has authorized and aliens illegally entering over a border Biden has left wide open. For instance, while calling for more low-skilled labor, Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said, “We need to bring some of these people—immigrants—but we don’t want illegals.”
Let’s have the debate about the future of immigration—what’s fair, what’s possible, what’s in the national interest. But not under the extortionate threat of tens of thousands of aliens crossing our border every single day.
Anyone serious about border security or immigration reform knows that the only way to reduce the current uncontrolled mass migration—with its collateral evils of dead migrants, American fentanyl overdoses, and collapsing city budgets—is to restore credible enforcement.
That shouldn’t be a partisan political issue. Otherwise, like Portland’s drug addicts, Washington’s carjackers, and Houthi rocketeers, illegal aliens won’t be deterred from continuing to break the law.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/22/borderline-progressives-bring-you-crime-punishment/
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9 January, 2024
Eric Adams’ dire migrant messaging threatening Dems in pivotal election year
Two years ago, Eric Adams and the New York Post teamed up to deliver an incessant warning: Crime is out of control. The rhetoric proved devastating to Democrats, who lost four competitive House races in districts where the blood-and-guts headlines resonated with voters.
Now, history is repeating.
The moderate Democratic mayor rarely lets a week go by without issuing new pleas for Washington to help stem the flow of migrants into the nation’s biggest city. Neither does the Post, an influential conservative tabloid that seems equally fixated.
The ceaseless, dire messaging is threatening Democrats in a pivotal election year, giving suburban New York Republicans another potent issue in competitive congressional races.
Since Adams began raising concerns about migrants in 2022, the Post has published 54 covers focused on the issue — all with blaring headlines like “Kids ‘Sacrificed’” (about the city using school gyms to house migrants), “Border Storm” (alongside a photo of Adams predicting a “financial tsunami”) and “New Year’s Wave” (next to a photographed migrant convoy approaching the border).
The Rupert Murdoch-run Post even gave migrants top billing the day other outlets featured Donald Trump being kicked off the Colorado ballot.
There are clear indications the migrant talk is connecting in the same way crime did in 2022, and not just in the suburbs: A December poll found 85 percent of New York City voters were concerned about the city accommodating the surge of migrants, up from 63 percent 10 months earlier.
“If you listen to the mayor and you read the New York Post, you believe that everywhere you look in the city, there are migrants and asylum seekers on the street and you’re stepping over them,” said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic political consultant.
For New York Democrats hoping to retake some of those lost House seats, the surge from the Southern border is tricky terrain made more difficult by Adams and the Post. For Republicans, the current migrant policies — like crime two years ago — are being attacked in campaign ads as a threat to New Yorkers’ way of life, even in districts that aren’t directly affected.
“It’s one of the top-polling issues,” vulnerable Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito said in an interview. “The migrant issue equates to crime.”
D’Esposito was among the Republicans swept into office in 2022 by his party’s case that Democrats were worse equipped to keep the suburbs safe. As he and colleagues in swing districts look to retain their seats against formidable Democratic challengers this year, their messaging is reinforced by Adams, who has warned that the migrant crisis will “destroy” his city if he doesn’t get adequate federal resources.
But migrants aren’t as visible a presence in much of the city, including in corners where outcry against sheltering them has been the loudest and angriest.
“In neighborhoods where it’s just something you see on the news or read in the paper, it becomes a specter that demagogues can use as the threat du jour,” Democratic City Council Member Justin Brannan said in an interview. “It used to be ‘defund the police’ or bail reform. Now this is the new thing they can divide and conquer on.”
Brannan was referring, of course, to Republicans. In purple districts like his in southern Brooklyn, the rhetoric is impactful and the rallies against migrants are forceful.
Former GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa would know — he leads many of the massive protests around newcomers being housed in pockets of the city.
“I’m invited and called in like what they used to call Barack Obama — a community organizer,” Sliwa said in an interview. “I know how to organize people.”
In politically moderate suburbs surrounding the city, concerns about migrants flooding neighborhoods beyond the five boroughs has remained just that — a concern.
“Thankfully, we have a strong county executive who’s made sure it’s not a sanctuary county. But we are dealing with it coming so close to the city line,” D’Esposito said.
Laura Gillen, the Democrat and former Hempstead Town supervisor seeking to unseat D’Esposito, countered: “All he wants to do is fearmonger, and he should be ashamed of himself.”
“He mainly points to the migrants who are being housed in New York City. Migrants are not being housed right now in Nassau County,” Gillen added in an interview.
In the most recent election cycle the issue was nonetheless featured in political ads from Long Island to upstate New York.
In one such ad, new Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican, said he would “say no to Suffolk becoming a sanctuary for unvetted migrants” — unlike his Democratic opponent Dave Calone.
An ad from Chrissy Casilio, a Republican who unsuccessfully challenged the Democratic Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, told voters her opponent “invited the migrant crisis here.”
“Then migrants were arrested for rapes, stabbings and destroying property. I’m Chrissy Casilio and this would not have happened under my watch,” the ad continued.
The migrant crisis undoubtedly has had a major impact on New York City: More than 160,000 people have been processed in the five boroughs since last spring, and about 68,000 of them remain in shelters, according to City Hall.
The Adams administration has struggled to stand up enough emergency facilities to continue housing the newcomers, and the mayor estimates the crisis will cost $12 billion over three years. He’s blamed the lack of aid from the federal government for steep cuts he’s mandated to police, schools and sanitation to plug a $7 billion budget hole.
The mayor’s recent executive order limiting when buses carrying migrants can arrive from Texas to the city underscored his desperation. “We’re dealing with a bully right now,” Adams said Tuesday of GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, “and everything is on the table that conforms with the law.”
But the mayor’s fiery rhetoric has also served as useful fodder for Republicans in their electoral quest.
Recently, the Republican National Committee posted a clip of his comments about the White House, writing on X, “Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams on the flood of illegal immigration: ‘Help is not on the way.’”
Adams is almost an anomaly in Democratic messaging, having been elected to office in 2021 as a conservative Democrat who promised to usher in a new era of public safety.
“The mayor is the first through the door on the immigrant issue, sounding the alarm on why this is bad for cities, which is (made up of) mostly Democrats,” said a City Hall adviser granted anonymity to speak freely. “And still, he is called a Republican, he is called ultra-conservative for simply pointing out how people feel.”
But there are no plans to pivot, the person said, adding: “He’s done with worrying about what it means nationally or how other people try to use his words in political fights.”
One person involved in a competitive Democratic campaign this year said the mayor’s comments on the migrant crisis in recent months have “affected the way Democratic voters thought about it and made it more conservative how they were thinking about it.”
The person, also granted anonymity to speak freely, said, “There were definitely times on the campaign when we were like, will he shut up already?”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/08/eric-adams-migrant-messaging-election-year-00134228
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8 January, 2024
Free Health Insurance for Migrants Is Lunacy
If they can do harm while appearing to do good, Leftists will leap at it. And spreading the available funds more widely will harm native-born Americans who might otherwise benefit. And many Americans are already dealing with inadequate and very expensive care. How about helping them instead? As it is, almost everyone is going to be getting inferior health support
Across the globe, millions of people are on the move, defying borders and violating laws to escape poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and break into rich countries. The United States is their No. 1 destination.
The U.S. needs a strategy to limit the burden on Americans and protect our quality of life. Instead, the Democratic Party merely virtue signals, saying, “Welcome, take whatever we have.”
As of Jan. 1, California is offering Medi-Cal to approximately 760,000 undocumented migrants of all ages.
California’s health care system is already strained, with long emergency room wait times and a dire nurse shortage. A shortage of beds and mental health facilities prevents municipalities from moving the thousands of drug-addicted homeless people off the streets and into treatment. The state faces a staggering $68 billion deficit.
Yet the Left opts to spend money on migrants instead of on California’s own, showing utter disregard for the health care of local residents.
The California Republican Party warns that adding 760,000 undocumented people to the state’s health insurance rolls will exacerbate “access problems.” In short, Californians will wait longer and settle for less care.
Don’t think this lunacy is limited to one state. Oregon, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Illinois, Washington state and Massachusetts already cover migrants in specific age categories, and left-wing lawmakers are pushing to expand the coverage to all ages. New York lawmakers came close in June, but ended the legislative term without passing it.
In blue state after blue state, Democrats are pushing to give migrants taxpayer-funded health coverage. It’s a knife in the back of hardworking Americans who struggle to pay medical bills. It will also doom this nation to a never-ending flood of strangers seeking government handouts.
Connecticut’s Democratic-controlled legislature has gone off the deep end, offering “Baby Bonds,” or taxpayer-funded savings accounts, for every child — including children of migrants in the country illegally — whose birth is covered by the state’s HUSKY public insurance program, even if their migrant parents arrived just days before the birth. Nest eggs courtesy of the taxpayer, for the express purpose of “closing the wealth gap.”
The Democratic Party’s zeal to provide migrants with free health insurance is extreme, compared with what is occurring around the globe, even in socialist-leaning countries.
In June, the Biden administration made the U.S. one of only a few first-world countries to sign on to the Rabat Declaration, sponsored by the United Nations, which declares that all migrants should have access to a country’s national health insurance programs. Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Sweden and several other European countries that receive large numbers of migrants did not sign.
Even socialist countries like Norway are strictly limiting migrants to emergency care only, no comprehensive health insurance. French President Emmanuel Macron’s government is reassessing whether it can provide health benefits to migrants.
These countries see what the Democratic Party in the U.S. refuses to admit: that free health care is a magnet.
Contrary to Vice President Kamala Harris’ blather, the flood of migrants across the southern border is not due to “root causes” the United States can ameliorate with diplomacy and foreign aid. It’s a worldwide phenomenon. Many European and Scandinavian countries are adjusting their policies to protect their own residents from undue burdens. The U.S. is simply surrendering.
Offering health insurance also invites an influx of sick people from countries that cannot provide care. Venezuela’s health care system has collapsed. Hospitals there lack 80% to 90% of essential medicines, a situation that is pushing the sick and their families to flee. Neighboring Brazil is reporting the reappearance of communicable infections such as tuberculosis, hepatitis A, whooping cough, diphtheria and measles because of the influx of Venezuelans needing care. Expect similar problems in the U.S.
Open borders, free meals and hotel rooms, and promises of free health coverage produce predictable results. Migration across the U.S. southern border set yet another record in December.
As Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) commented on Newsom’s health policy, “Nothing is free, the California taxpayers have to pay for it.” She added, “It’s treason. No other way to say it.”
At the least, it’s a betrayal.
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/103264-free-health-insurance-for-migrants-is-lunacy-2024-01-03
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7 January, 2024
Feds Threaten to Sue Texas Over State Law Enabling Arrest of Illegal Immigrants
The Justice Department threatened to sue Texas if the state enforces a new law empowering local officials to arrest migrants who enter illegally, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that the law is unconstitutional because the federal government is responsible for controlling international borders, according to the letter obtained by Hearst Newspapers. The Justice Department will “pursue all appropriate legal remedies” if Abbott declines to halt enforcement of the law by Jan. 3, the Chronicle reported.
Abbott signed the bill into law, along with other border security legislation, on Dec. 18.
“President [Joe] Biden has repeatedly refused to enforce federal immigration laws already on the books and do his job to secure the border,” Abbott previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In his absence, Texas has the constitutional authority to secure our border through historic laws like SB 4. Texas will take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to protect Texans from President Biden’s dangerous open-border policies.”
The Justice Department’s letter cites a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that found Arizona’s state immigration laws, including one that made it a crime to be in the state without authorization, were preempted by federal law, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“Indeed, the Supreme Court has confirmed that ‘the removal process’ must be ‘entrusted to the discretion of the Federal Government’ because a ‘decision on removability’ touches ‘on foreign relations and must be made with one voice,’” the letter states, per the newspaper.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued Texas the day after Abbott signed the law, arguing in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, American Gateways, and the County of El Paso, Texas, that the law oversteps federal authority.
Chuck DeVore, chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in November that the measures in Texas’ bill are “fundamentally different” than the ones in the Arizona law that the Supreme Court struck down. Texas’ law offers those crossing illegally the choice of returning to Mexico or facing the threat of arrest for being in the state illegally, while Arizona’s law was “essentially affirmatively enforcing federal immigration law insofar as asking people for their status and then acting upon that,” he said.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/29/feds-threatens-sue-texas-state-law-enabling-arrest-illegal-immigrants
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4 January, 2024
Brandon Johnson has blasted Greg Abbott for flying migrants to the Windy City - despite previously painting it as a haven for the undocumented
The ultra progressive Democratic mayor laid into the Texas Governor for being 'determined to continue to sow seeds of chaos' by sending them his way.
He also tried to pass off the city's spiraling migrant crisis as Abbott's fault for a lack of coordination in the moving of them.
It comes just months after he claimed on the campaign trial in March that Chicago would have no migrant problem if he was elected.
'Chicago must lead with and live by the promise to be a sanctuary city. Longtime Chicagoans don't have to lose for new arrivals to gain - there's enough space at the table for all of us to sit and eat. Immigrants are welcome here,' he wrote on March 10.
One user on X wrote after the post resurfaced: 'This tweet didn't age well did it? Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson better buy a bigger table if he's still planning on feeding all those migrants.'
On Sunday in front of CBS' Face the Nation, Johnson continued to complain about the havoc he said Abbott had caused him, calling the governor 'afraid and mad'.
'What we have said repeatedly is that we need Congress to act to provide the resources that are needed in order to carry out this mission,' Johnson said.
'But what we can't have is a governor in the state of Texas, acting the way he is acting and quite frankly, the rogue buses that are being dropped off across this country in the middle of the night, leaving people with no real support at all, no coordination with the local municipalities.'
He then accused Abbott of dividing Americans against one another over the crisis.
'That type of chaos, it's certainly dividing our country, and we need better coordination between all levels of government to be able to respond to this mission.'
'This is certainly a matter of, not just of our national security, but it's the type of chaos that this governor is committed to administering,' Johnson added.
Renae Eze, a spokesman for Abbott, called out Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnson - who appeared with him in the interview - over their hypocrisy.
'They are now going to extreme lengths to avoid fulfilling their self-declared sanctuary city promises, yet they remain silent as President Biden transports migrants all around the country and oftentimes in the cover of night,' Eze said.
'Instead of attacking Texas' efforts to provide relief to our overwhelmed border communities, these Democrat mayors should call on their party leader to finally do his job and secure the border – something he continues refusing to do.'
Chicago has spent $138 million on the crisis that is only expected to get worse as temperatures drop as winter goes on.
Earlier Sunday on CNN, Johnson said about 15,000 asylum seekers were crammed into 27 shelters across the city after being bused in from the US-Mexico border, particularly Texas.
Abbott has sent more than 25,300 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, on buses and more recently on charter flights.
About 10,000 migrants are crossing the border every day and many of them are sent to 'sanctuary cities' like Chicago, New York, and Denver.
Johnson said he appreciated the federal government handing out work permits to get immigrants into jobs so they could support themselves.
But he warned: 'Without significant investment from our federal government, it won't just be the city of Chicago that won't be able to maintain this mission. 'It's the entire country that is now at stake.'
He shot another barb at Joe Biden by calling for 'real, substantive immigration reform and policies that allow us to have a structure and a pathway to citizenship'.
The mayor claimed since he was elected seven months ago, poor coordination between federal, state, and local government had made the crisis worse.
'What I've worked to do instead of having chaos is provide some structure and calm around this situation and without significant federal support. This is not sustainable,' he said.
'We're talking about individuals who have suffered miles, thousands of miles of treachery, quite frankly, to get to the border.
'And so what we've seen... is that lack of coordination has caused tremendous stress.'
An example included Abbott loading as many immigrants on to buses as he could and sending them to Illinois with no warning.
Chicago tried to have them arrive at designated locations during business hours and impounding buses that didn't follow these rules.
However, bus companies responded by dropping off migrants as far as 60 miles from Chicago, and Abbott started sending them on charter flights.
Texas spent $86.1 million so far sending migrants to 'sanctuary cities' around the country, about $1,650 per person.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12920511/Brandon-Johnson-Chicago-migrant-crisis-greg-abbott-hypocrisy.html
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3 January, 2024
Immigration Roundup: Three Encouraging Little Items as the Year Ends
Three totally unconnected bits of good news have emerged as the year ends for those of us who do not want totally unlimited migration. They came from aviation authorities in France, a federal judge in Florida, and USCIS.
The most surprising to me carries the dateline of Vatry, France, some 75 miles east of Paris near the WWI battlefields of the Marne. There is a minor international airport there and French authorities stopped and turned around a chartered plane with a suspicious flight plan: India to France to Nicaragua.
There were 303 passengers, all of whom the French decided were on their way to a legal entrance to Nicaragua, and then seeking a less legal trip to the U.S. Of that number 27 stayed in France, seeking asylum in some cases, and the rest were sent back to India.
This is a useful precedent and parallels an earlier move by the government of Haiti. Were other nations to take similar moves it would lower the pressures against our southern border.
The second bit of good news comes from Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has been pressing his state legislature to restrict illegal migration. One of the governor’s initiatives was challenged in the federal courts, and we learn from Law360.com that:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can't be sued over a state law criminalizing the transport of unauthorized immigrants, a federal court ruled, saying the bill's critics hadn't shown that the governor was personally responsible for enforcing the law.
The judge’s rationale may be odd, but a win is a win.
Our third tidbit comes from USCIS itself, which has decided to raise the fees on five different kinds of priority processing by about 12 percent. Raising the cost of this process, will, to some extent:
reduce the use of these quicker visas for the well-connected; and
make it more likely that the aliens using this system will pay the full cost of processing, rather than have it underwritten by tax dollars.
Given the complexity of the immigration system, you might expect a complex menu or price list, and you would be right. The base prices to be raised are: $1,500, $1,750, and $2,500 for each of the price groups (some immigrant, some nonimmigrant.) Within those groups are 42 different visas. See the full menu here.
Most of these fees being increased are for skilled workers, but the list also includes H-2B nonskilled, non-ag workers; R-1 religious workers; and P-visa-holding baseball players.
It will be nice to see MLB, a citadel of ultra-prosperity, paying Uncle Sam an extra 12 percent. It is also a reminder that in baseball, that most American of sports, baseball owners can – and do – bring in foreign players to displace American ones.
https://cis.org/North/Immigration-Roundup-Three-Encouraging-Little-Items-Year-Ends
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2 January, 2024
Welfare Use by Immigrants and the U.S.-Born
This report is based on newly released data from the 2022 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Analysis of this data shows both immigrants and the U.S.-born make extensive use of means-tested anti-poverty programs, with immigrant households significantly more likely to receive benefits. This is primarily because the American welfare system is designed in large part to help low-income families with children, which describes a large share of immigrants. The ability of immigrants, including illegal immigrants, to receive welfare benefits on behalf of U.S.-born citizen children is a key reason why restrictions on welfare use for new legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants, are relatively ineffective.
Among the findings:
The 2022 SIPP indicates that 54 percent of households headed by immigrants — naturalized citizens, legal residents, and illegal immigrants — used one or more major welfare program. This compares to 39 percent for U.S.-born households.
The rate is 59 percent for non-citizen households (e.g. green card holders and illegal immigrants).
Compared to households headed by the U.S.-born, immigrant-headed households have especially high use of food programs (36 percent vs. 25 percent for the U.S.-born), Medicaid (37 percent vs. 25 percent for the U.S.-born), and the Earned Income Tax Credit (16 percent vs. 12 percent for the U.S.-born).
Our best estimate is that 59 percent of households headed by illegal immigrants, also called the undocumented, use at least one major program. We have no evidence this is due to fraud.
Among legal immigrants we estimate the rate is 52 percent.
Illegal immigrants can receive welfare on behalf of U.S.-born children, and illegal immigrant children can receive school lunch/breakfast and WIC directly. A number of states provide Medicaid to some illegal adults and children, and a few provide SNAP. Several million illegal immigrants also have work authorization (e.g. DACA, TPS, and some asylum applicants) allowing receipt of the EITC.
No one program explains the higher overall use of welfare by immigrants. For example, excluding the extensively used but less budgetary costly school lunch/breakfast program, along with the WIC nutrition program, still shows 46 percent of all immigrant households and 33 percent of U.S.-born households use at least one of the remaining programs.
The presence of extended family or unrelated individuals does not explain immigrants’ higher welfare use, as the vast majority of immigrant households are nuclear families. Further, of immigrant households comprised of only a nuclear family, 49 percent use the welfare system compared to 35 percent of nuclear family U.S.-born households.
The high welfare use of immigrant households is not explained by an unwillingness to work. In fact, 83 percent of all immigrant households and 94 percent of illegal-headed households have at least one worker, compared to 73 percent of U.S.-born households.
Immigrants’ higher welfare use relative to the U.S.-born is partly, but only partly, explained by the larger share with modest education levels, their resulting lower incomes, and the greater percentage of immigrant households with children.
Immigrant households without children, as well as those with high incomes and those headed by immigrants with at least a bachelor’s degree, tend to be more likely to use welfare than their U.S.-born counterparts.
Most new legal immigrants are barred from most programs, as are illegal immigrants, but this has a modest impact primarily because: 1) Immigrants can receive benefits on behalf of U.S.-born children; 2) the bar does not apply to all programs, nor does it apply to non-citizen children in some cases; 3) most legal immigrants have lived here long enough to qualify for welfare; 4) some states provide welfare to otherwise ineligible immigrants on their own; 5) by naturalizing, immigrants gain full welfare eligibility.
https://cis.org/Report/Welfare-Use-Immigrants-and-USBorn
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1 January, 2024
Biden administration threatens to SUE Texas if it allows local cops to arrest, jail and prosecute migrants flooding across the border illegally
The Biden administration has threatened to sue Texas if it allows police officers to arrest, jail and prosecute migrants who are crossing the border from Mexico.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a new law on December 18 which allows for local and state law enforcement to arrest and deport illegal border crossers without going through federal government channels.
But the Justice Department has warned it will file a lawsuit in protest of the bill, known as SB4, if the state did not provide assurances to federal officials by January 3 that it would refrain from enforcing it, according to CBS News.
A letter was sent to Governor Abbot on December 28 which said the new law would criminalize already illegal actions, undermine relations with Mexico and stop officials from enforcing federal immigration laws.
It comes after border officials recorded the highest number of migrant crossings ever with a seven-day average of more than 9,600 in December.
The letter sent by the Justice Department threatens legal action over the bill signed by Republican Abbott which he says could slash the number of crossings by up to three quarters as illegal entries continue to rise through the winter.
'Because SB 4 is unconstitutional and will disrupt the federal government's operations, we request that Texas forbear in its enforcement,' Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote.
He added that if the state did not back down 'the United States intends to file suit to enjoin the enforcement of SB 4'.
Democrats in El Paso County and two immigration rights groups have already launched legal action against the bill and argue it is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit argues that the federal government and immigration agencies have the ultimate and exclusive authority to carry out arrests, detentions and deportations – and that Abbott cannot circumvent these procedures.
They claim that the law violates the Constitution and claim it invites racial profiling of Hispanic citizens.
SB4 would be the strictest state immigration law in modern US history and gives Texas law enforcement authorities power to stop, arrest and jail migrants on newly established state-level illegal entry charges.
State judges in Texas will also be able to issue de facto deportations against suspected violators of the law.
Entering the US illegally from Mexico could be treated as a misdemeanor, under the new bill, and would be punishable by up to 180 days in jail as well as a fine of up to $2,000.
While illegally reentering the country would be a felony and could lead to a sentence of up to 2, 10 or 20 years in jail, depending on criminal history.
It's not immediately clear how the law will be enforced or how it will work with federal authorities – like Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement – also operating within Texas and other border states.
New video has revealed the human tidal wave of migrants riding trains in northern Mexico just hours away from the US border- as thousands of migrants in a caravan are traveling through southern Mexico.
Separately, thousands more asylum-seekers are already in Northern Mexico waiting to cross over.
In Chihuahua, a Mexican state just south of Texas, about 800 migrants left the capital city Christmas day headed for Juarez-- the Mexican town directly across the international boundary from El Paso, Texas, according to the Border Report.
Footage showed hundreds a top a train heading north while cars honked and cheered as they drove past the train cars.
Another 3,000 migrants are a few hours south in the town of Jimenez in a migrant camp.
It could be just a matter of days before the South and Central American asylum-seekers arrive at the US-Mexico border and begin attempting to cross into West Texas.
There is nowhere for the migrants who cross in Eagle Pass to go and they have been forced to sleep in makeshift camps and shelters.
They have been spotted patiently waiting for their turn to be processed, and were wrapped in 'space blankets' - sheets of foil commonly seen after marathons that effectively retain heat.
El Paso has sent 139 buses to Chicago in recent months with the help of state officials, according to the City of El Paso's migrant dashboard.
Last week, the Texas Division of Emergency Management or TDEM, which handles migrant transports, chartered its first flight with migrants to Chicago to avoid growing restrictions over when and where migrants can be dropped off.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12907973/Biden-administration-threatens-SUE-Texas-bill-prosecute-migrants.html
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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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