The primary version of this blog is HERE. The Blogroll. My Home Page. Email John Ray here. Other blogs: "Tongue Tied" "Dissecting Leftism" "Australian Politics" "Education Watch International"
"Political Correctness Watch" "Greenie Watch" "Western Heart" (A summary blog)
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31 July, 2022
Biden Has Released Nearly 1.05 million SW Border Migrants into the U.S.
The latest Biden administration disclosures in Biden v. Texas reveal that in May, DHS released 95,318 migrants CBP had encountered at the Southwest border into the United States, bringing the total of illegal migrant releases there under the Biden administration to 1,049,532 — a population larger than the number of residents in the president’s home state of Delaware, at a rate of 2,115 per day.
Background. Briefly, Texas is a suit brought by the states of Texas and Missouri in April 2021 to challenge the Biden administration’s suspension of the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP, better known as “Remain in Mexico”). The matter was assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
On June 1, while that case was pending, Mayorkas issued a memo terminating MPP. That termination decision was rolled into the pending case brought by the states.
On August 13, Judge Kacsmaryk issued an order enjoining Mayorkas’s termination of MPP. To ensure compliance with that order, the court required DHS to report monthly on the number of CBP encounters at the Southwest border, the number of aliens expelled pursuant to public-health orders issued by CDC under Title 42 of the U.S. Code in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the number released into the United States.
The latest disclosure was filed on June 15, reflecting DHS activity through the end of May. By my count, it is the eleventh such disclosure, including a supplemental one filed on September 23.
The June 15 Status Report. That June 15 disclosure, captioned “Defendants’ Monthly Report for May 2022”, reveals that DHS encountered 239,416 aliens at the Southwest border last month — a combination of illegal entrants who were apprehended by Border Patrol and aliens deemed inadmissible by CBP officers in the Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the land border ports of entry.
Of that number, according to DHS, just short of 100,700 were expelled under Title 42, and an additional 13,755 were removed or returned under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), not counting 2,696 aliens who were removed via expedited removal pursuant to section 235(b)(1) of the INA or voluntary return (117,150 total).
That reveals that, even though it’s a public-health order, Title 42 is critical to managing the chaos at the Southwest border — underscoring the importance of U.S. district court Judge Robert R. Summerhays’ May 20 order preventing CDC from terminating Title 42.
The disclosure also states that while Border Patrol detained more aliens than its detention capacity would normally allow (5,600 aliens, exceeded by 230 percent during the average day in May), ICE is still underutilizing its detention capacity by 19.27 percent on the average day — at a huge cost to American taxpayers.
Next, the government breaks down the total number of “applicants for admission” DHS encountered. As calculated, this is the sum of illegal entrants Border Patrol apprehended and applicants for admission CBP officers at OFO deemed inadmissible at the Southwest border minus aliens expelled under Title 42 (all of whom, confusingly, are counted as “encounters” in CBP’s monthly statistics). I refer to them collectively as “migrants” because they are seeking to migrate to the United States.
In May, DHS recorded 138,717 such migrants/applicants for admission at the Southwest border. Of that number, CBP released 68,527 of them into the United States on an extremely limited authority known as “parole”, despite the fact that section 235 of the INA mandates that each of those migrants be detained.
I have previously explained — in depth — that this is an misuse of the parole authority, and that the Biden administration’s policy of releasing these migrants (who are supposed to be detained) on parole is driving the current Southwest border crisis.
In any event, those 68,527 aliens who were released on parole weren’t the only migrants whom DHS released. An additional 9,946 were set free by ICE — 922 on bond, 4,598 on orders of recognizance, 162 on orders of supervision, and 4,264 on parole.
It sounds like ICE released those migrants under section 236(a) of the INA, but as I have explained before (and as the Fifth Circuit has agreed on slightly different grounds), unless agents in a stunning exercise of clairvoyance were waiting at the border with warrants of arrest naming those aliens, it lacks the authority under that provision to make such releases.
More here:
https://cis.org/Arthur/Disclosures-Biden-Has-Released-Nearly-105-million-SW-Border-Migrants-US
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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29 July, 2022
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser requests National Guard help after busloads of migrants cause ‘crisis’
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested the National Guard step in to help handle the arrival of thousands of migrants from the US-Mexico border, saying the nation’s capital has reached a “tipping point.”
In a July 19 request for assistance to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Bowser reported that “over 4,000 individuals arriving on nearly 200 buses” have come to DC since April, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey pledged to put migrants on charter buses to protest the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
“Our collective response and service efforts have now become overwhelmed,” Bowser wrote.
“[O]ur homeless services system is already under great strain; and tragically, many families arrive in Washington, DC with nowhere to go, or they remain in limbo seeking onward destinations across the United States.
“With pledges from Texas and Arizona to continue these abhorrent operations indefinitely, the situation is dire,” the mayor added, “and we consider this a humanitarian crisis – one that could overwhelm our social support network without immediate and sustained federal intervention.”
Bowser asked Austin to allocate 150 DC National Guard personnel daily to ensure a “24/7 operation” in dealing with the migrants. She also requested use of the DC Armory, or “another suitable federal location in the National Capital Region, as a temporary processing center.
Arizona, Texas sent 79 buses of migrants to DC since mid-April
“These functions are not dissimilar to the use of military personnel and facilities for other humanitarian missions, including assisting Afghan refugees,” wrote the mayor.
Three days later, Bowser turned her attention to the White House, writing Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Intergovernmental Affairs Director Julie Chavez Rodriguez to ask them to support her request.
“The DCNG was instrumental in our Public Health Emergency and can be even more impactful in addressing the needs of asylum seekers,” she wrote, before appearing to appeal to Biden himself.
“I have great empathy for the very difficult situation people boarding buses to unknown locations are facing. I likewise am very concerned that the social safety net I am responsible for ensuring for DC residents is maintained,” Bowser said.
“I know the President shares my empathy, and I look forward to working with the administration to secure the DCNG and a federal facility to process migrants as they seek asylum and a better life in the United States of America free of uncertainty and fear.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred questions about Bowser’s inquiry to the Defense Department and said the migrants were being “used” by the Republican governors.
“There is a process in place for managing migrants,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is not it, what they’re doing currently. That includes expelling migrants, as required by court order under Title 42, transferring them to ICE custody or placing them in the care of local NGOs … using migrants as a political pawn is just wrong.”
All of the migrants who have arrived in Washington have gone there voluntarily, since they are permitted to travel within the US after being processed by Customs and Border Protection.
Typically, when migrants are released from federal custody after crossing the border and evading expulsion, they are given paperwork allowing them to stay in the US as well as an order to appear in immigration court to appeal for asylum.
So far, Arizona has transported 1,262 migrants on 33 buses, Ducey’s office confirmed to The Post.
Abbott and Ducey’s efforts to alleviate strain on border towns – which usually receive the bulk of migrants after processing – has been heavily criticized by both the Biden administration and other Democratic leaders.
Most recently, New York City Mayor Eric Adams blasted the Republicans, calling them “cowards.”
“Our country is home of the free, land of the brave,” Adams said during a City Hall news conference last week. “We do not become cowards and send people away who are looking for help.”
On July 17, Bowser called the arrival of migrants in her city a “significant issue,” telling CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America.”
https://nypost.com/2022/07/28/dc-mayor-bowser-requests-national-guard-help-as-migrants-arrive/
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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28 July, 2022
Are Democrat Mayors Really Just Now Waking Up to the Greatest Mass Migration Border Crisis in US History?
Here’s a news flash and a question for big city Democratic mayors who of late are complaining that illegal immigrants are filling homeless shelters and otherwise straining their municipal social safety nets. First the news: Hundreds of thousands of foreign national illegal border-jumpers have been flooding your cities nonstop for 18 months straight already. Now the question: Have mayors been living in a news-free cave?
First, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser complained that some 6,000 recent border-crossers who volunteered to ride buses provided by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to her city were burdening homeless shelters and taking social service resources for American homeless and needy. She blamed Abbott for “tricking” these immigrants into filling the D.C.-bound buses.
Next came New York Mayor Eric Adams griping that thousands of border-crossing immigrants were taking resources from American citizens down on their luck, somehow also intimating that the Texas Republican governor had something to do with it.
I strongly suspect mayors, governors, school superintendents, and hospital administrators across America have been suffering illegal immigrants in silence for many months already. Now that Adams and Bowser have voiced their complaints, no one should be surprised if a new kind of Me Too movement breaks out among them, especially if there’s federal money in it for them.
But rest assured that the burdens America’s big cities are feeling have nothing whatsoever to do with Texas Gov. Abbott. It was only ever the Biden government that did this, starting on inauguration day 2021, with radical policies gutting routine detention, deportation, and deterrence policies. The neutering of almost all congressionally mandated immigration law unleashed a mass migration crisis far beyond anything in the American experience, greater even than the rates of those incoming at Ellis Island in its early 1900s heyday, one that has smashed every illegal immigration record on the books.
As things stand, a Texas court case that requires regular government reports as to how many were granted interior admittance or who just got past the Border Patrol, well over two million border crossers have fanned out across America. Millions more will be granted admittance in the next two years if the administration stays this course. By the end of the Biden term, at this rate, the number of people let in at the border will probably exceed six million by my conservative estimation.
Where did these mayors think all these hundreds of thousands of people went? Let me give you an idea.
From those hectic first early days of the crisis to the present, as hundreds of thousands a month were storming over to get their quick Biden free passage in, I was there to observe a human conveyor belt system roar to life all along the Texas border. All day and often all night, it moves thousands of illegal border crossers from river, to a day or two of Border Patrol processing and then, with the help of local nonprofits, onto charter and commercial buses and planes that take them to just about every city in the nation.
The first time I discovered the conveyor belt in Del Rio and in San Antonio, Texas was in March 2021. The freshly processed immigrants who were filling buses told me they were going to: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky.
The most recent time I visited the conveyor belt in Del Rio was in late May 2022. The only thing that had changed was that it had become a true behemoth. All day, seven days a week, completely full Border Patrol buses were pulling up to the nonprofit facility – right behind Greyhound buses taking others to cities across the country – and offload them to get onto commercial buses.
They told me they were going to: New Jersey, New York State, Florida, Oregon, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Utah, California, Minnesota, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Colorado.
Most were released on a presumption that they’ll eventually apply for asylum; the Biden government long ago stopped even pretending to follow lawful processes. It’s an honor system now. But all statistics show that most will either never actually apply or will be declined. None will leave after their legal permission slips expire, and the Biden administration has ended deportation as America has always known it. Unless they are terrorists or serial killers, these illegal immigrants will not be deported under Joe Biden, or probably ever.
That means America’s cities are to be stuck with literally millions of illegally present people who are not authorized to support themselves, whose children will attend public schools, who will not have medical insurance but need health care, and who will never voluntarily return home after their asylum claims inevitably fail.
City mayors are probably not the only local leaders publicly or silently fulminating about huge new burdens, and certainly not about how their homeless shelters are overflowing with destitute immigrants that Joe Biden has admitted. School district superintendents should already have noticed a need for expensive portable classrooms to handle influxes of illegal immigrant children, who make up a significant portion of those Biden has admitted. Parents with kids in school across America will notice bond elections and higher tax rates to pay for new schools and expansions and English As a Second Language teachers. Hospital administrators should have noticed by now emergency room backlogs and operation deficits.
It’s too early to calculate the impacts of this historic crisis in American cities.
But big city mayors, administrators, teachers, parents, and anyone else acting like they had no idea this was going on, the time has arrived to get a clue. Stop casting blame on some Republican governor far away. This is a President Joe Biden legacy. And pull out your wallets. This has only just begun.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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27 July, 2022
Illegal immigration starting to hit home for US cities
Big-city Democratic mayors such as New York’s Eric Adams and DC’s Muriel Bowser have realized, suddenly, that illegal immigrants are straining their social safety nets.
They’re accusing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, but there’s only one person to blame: President Biden.
It was only ever the Biden government that did this, starting on inauguration day 2021, with radical policies gutting detention and deportation. They unleashed a mass migration crisis far beyond anything in the American experience, one that has utterly smashed every single illegal immigration record on the books.
As things stand, well over 2 million border crossers have fanned out across America. Millions more will be granted admittance in the next two years if the administration stays this course. By the end of Biden’s term, at this rate, the number of people let in at the border will probably exceed 6 million.
Where did these mayors think all these people were going after Border Patrol processes and releases them into the interior on an honor system to report one day to their local ICE office?
Let me give you an idea. From those hectic first early days of the crisis to the present, as hundreds of thousands a month were storming over to get their quick Biden free passage in, I was there to observe a human conveyor belt system roar to life all over Texas. All day and often all night in Texas and in other border states, it swiftly moves thousands every day through a day or two of Border Patrol processing and then, with the help of local nonprofits, onto charter and commercial buses and planes that take them to just about every city in the nation.
The first time I saw it happening, in March 2021, the immigrants on buses or waiting in Texas bus stations said they were going to: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky.
The last time I visited the conveyor belt in Del Rio was in May 2022. The only thing that changed was that volumes had become massive. All day, every day, full Border Patrol buses were pulling up to the nonprofit facility, right behind Greyhound buses taking others to cities across the country, and offloading them to get onto commercial buses. They told me they were going to: New Jersey, New York State, Florida, Oregon, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Utah, California, Minnesota, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Colorado.
Most were released on a presumption that they’ll eventually apply for asylum; the Biden government stopped long ago even pretending to follow lawful processes. It’s an honor system now. But all statistics show that most will either never actually apply or will be declined. None will leave after their legal permission slips expire, and the Biden administration has ended deportation as America has always known it. Unless they are terrorists or serial killers, these illegal immigrants will not be deported.
That means America’s cities are to be stuck with literally millions of people who are not authorized to work and support themselves. So big city mayors who act like they had no idea this was going on, get a clue. Buck up. Stop casting blame on some Republican governor far away. And pull out your city’s wallet. This has only just begun.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/20/illegal-immigration-starting-to-hit-home-for-us-cities/
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Biden eyes plan to give I.D.s to unauthorized immigrants
The Biden administration plans to test providing temporary I.D. cards to unauthorized immigrants awaiting a final decision on their cases, according to two government sources familiar with the planning.
Why it matters: Recent border crossers and other unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. often do not have I.D.s , making it more difficult to access housing, healthcare, transportation and other benefits.
Officials are considering a pilot program to relieve some of those burdens, while also incentivizing more frequent communication with law enforcement throughout the complicated court process, the sources said.
Don‘t forget: Congressional members included $10 million for the program, which is called the "ICE Secure Docket Card program" in the FY 2023 appropriations bill.
The administration is hoping to get needed Congressional approval before the end of September to roll out a pilot — before a potential Republican takeover in November.
How it works: The details of the program and who would be enrolled in a pilot are not yet decided.
Generally, I.D. cards would be provided to migrants not in detention centers who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border or others without legal status going through the lengthy immigration or removal court processes.
The card would likely include a QR code that would provide the enrollee access to court information and documents via an app, the sources said. This could potentially lessen the mounting number of FOIA requests for information about immigration cases.
It would also allow unauthorized immigrants such as asylum seekers to prove — if stopped by authorities — they are already in the immigration system.
Ideally, it would also incentivize unauthorized immigrants to provide accurate information about their location and virtually check-in more often with law enforcement —rather than having to wait in line at a physical ICE office.
What to watch: If given the green light, there could be even bigger potential uses for such I.D. cards down the line.
They could be presented to TSA agents to allow unauthorized immigrants to more easily travel by plane or to access certain state benefit programs.
What they're saying: “The ICE Secure Docket Card program is part of a pilot program to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card," an ICE spokesperson tells Axios.
The secure card will contain a photo, biographic identifiers, and "cutting-edge security features" to the mutual benefit of the government and noncitizens, the spokesperson added.
Specifics of the program are still under development, but ICE says the primary goal of the SDC is to "improve current, inconsistent paper forms that often degrade rapidly in real world use." Pending the outcome of the pilot, ICE says it will consider to further expand it.
The big picture: It's yet another sign of the administration's attempt to revamp ICE — the agency charged with arresting, detaining and deporting unauthorized immigrants.
Under Biden, the agency has already ended family detention, attempted to focus arrests on immigrants with criminal records and dramatically expanded alternative to detention programs, which use apps and devices to trace unauthorized immigrants as opposed to locking them up.
It would not be the first time the administration turns to mobile apps to deal with a backlogged immigration system. Last year, border officials began using an app to process asylum seekers at the border, as the L.A. Times reported at the time.
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/biden-id-cards-immigrants-undocumented-ice
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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26 July, 2022
U.S. Immigration Policies Impact the World’s Blood Supply — an Odd Story
Migration policy routinely deals with whole human beings, from hairdos to toes. The whole person is either accepted or rejected by the admitting nation.
This post deals with an odd development — how part of the American immigration policy is being used to regulate the international movement of part of a human body — its blood.
It turns out, unknown to most of us, that a very important part of our liquid blood supply has been secured from non-migrant Mexican nationals who cross the border to make some money by selling blood to blood banks. The industry says that fully 10 percent of the nation’s supply, traditionally, has come from the U.S.-Mexico border. They say that our current migration polices are causing world-wide problems with supplies of blood.
The Mexican nationals cannot, by a Mexican law enacted in 1987, sell their blood inside Mexico. There apparently is nothing in Mexican law that forbids its people from leaving the nation to sell their blood.
But the U.S. government in the last year or so, for Covid-19 reasons, has ruled that non-immigrant Mexican nationals cannot cross the border to sell their blood to American blood banks. This deals largely with Mexican nationals with border-crossing cards. The industry, as you might imagine, is upset, and has sued the federal government.
As the story unfolds it sounds like a mirror of the familiar issue of the use of foreign workers’ labor, and the payments made for it, except that blood has been substituted for work. There is a limited supply of both blood and labor and industry wants to change the rules to expand those supplies so that it saves money — and people at the bottom of the labor market suffer accordingly. (I have not seen this notion in print.)
And the cutting edge of the problem is at the U.S.-Mexico border — does this sound familiar?
One thing the industry could do is to raise its prices; but just as industry in general does not want to raise wages in the face of a labor shortage, so the blood banks do not want to raise their prices or set up new ways of finding a greater supply. So it sues the feds.
Interestingly, we are not talking about the American Red Cross here, which so many of us identify with blood drives. Those suing the U.S. government are not U.S. corporations: they are, according to a ProPublica account, the “Spain-based Grifols and CSL of Australia”, two entities new to me.
There’s a further parallel with international migration policies on this scene, those suing want to keep open an American blood-acceptance program that is more exploitative of the blood donors than those of other nations’ programs, just as U.S. foreign-worker programs are often more exploitative than those of Western Europe. The ProPublica article continues:
Many countries place strict limits on blood donations — Germany, for example, allows a maximum of 60 donations per year with intensive checkups before every fifth donation. But the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require comparable donor checkups and allows people visiting American clinics to sell their blood twice a week, or up to 104 times a year.
The limits that other countries set on blood donations have made the U.S. one of the world’s leading exporters of blood. In 2020, U.S. facilities collected 38.2 million liters of plasma for the production of medicine, accounting for approximately 60% of such blood plasma collected worldwide.
My assumption, knowing a bit about the Mexican government and nothing about blood banks, is that back in the 1980s Mexico City noticed the exploitation of its blood sellers by middlemen; then realizing it could not effectively regulate the practice, it simply abolished the business. Meanwhile, if you wanted to give a pint or liter of blood (for free) to your ailing brother, that was OK.
It would seem to make sense for Mexico to get back in the blood bank business if it could find some competent and non-corrupt agency to take on the task, such as one or more of the following: the Mexican Navy (said to be one of the nation’s most honest entities), the Swedish Red Cross, the American Peace Corps, or Doctors Without Borders.
The new entity would start collecting blood — and using German-type regulations with the donors — in its own border communities where there is a known supply of blood sellers. Ideally, it would extend its operations later to impoverished Mexican states, such as Jalisco and Oaxaca, the sources of much illegal migration to the States. Then Mexican blood could aid the Mexican economy, rather than ours or those of the Spanish and Australian firms now suing the United States, and perhaps dampen the emigration pressures.
All of that sounds too good to be true, and it probably is.
https://cis.org/North/US-Immigration-Policies-Impact-Worlds-Blood-Supply-Odd-Story
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Who’s Really Paying for Ukrainians to Come to the United States?
In response to the crisis in Ukraine, the Biden administration has launched a new immigration program called “Uniting for Ukraine.” The program offers Ukrainians (and even non-Ukrainian immediate family members) a chance to come to the United States via supposedly “private,” non-taxpayer-funded sponsorships.
Except that the privately funded program can benefit from taxpayer money.
It does this in two ways: First, public funds can be used to enable private individuals to bring Ukrainians into the United States. Second, Ukrainians would be immediately eligible to receive welfare benefits upon their arrival.
Uniting for Ukraine enables people to travel straight from Europe—where they have already been granted work permits and other benefits by the European Union (EU)—and stay here for an initial period of two years under “humanitarian parole” (which is unrelated to parole in the criminal justice system).
As President Joe Biden announced, the idea is to bring some 100,000 Ukrainians here quickly, with a focus on reuniting families without using federal money. To benefit from this program, Ukrainians will need to be “privately” sponsored by “U.S.-based supporters” who commit to providing them with financial support for the duration of their stay. This sponsor does not have to be a U.S. citizen or even a green card holder. Asylees, refugees, parolees, Temporary Protected Status holders, and beneficiaries of deferred action (including DACA) or Deferred Enforced Departure can also act as supporters under this program.
Even though only one U.S.-based supporter can complete and file online Form I-134 (Declaration of Financial Support) on behalf of one beneficiary, multiple supporters (including representatives from various human rights and refugee advocates organizations) can agree to support one beneficiary to facilitate approval. So, financial support can come from organizations such as refugee resettlement agencies that are, in turn, mostly funded by U.S. government contracts. In the end, U.S. tax dollars that go to resettlement contractors can in turn be used as additional support in the Declaration of Financial Support form submitted to admit a Ukrainian into the United States.
Furthermore, upon arrival, per the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022 (H.R. 7691) signed by Biden in May, Ukrainian parolees will receive federal assistance and refugee resettlement benefits (recently extended from eight to twelve months), even though they're not actually refugees. Typically, parolees are only eligible for employment authorization and Social Security numbers and, unlike refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders (SIVs), they are not eligible for refugee resettlement assistance or other federal benefits.
But H.R. 7691 changed this and gives Ukrainian parolees and their family members (current and future) access to resettlement assistance, entitlement programs, and other federal benefits. The new law also provides $900 million for additional “Refugee and Entrant Assistance,” to be used for grants or contracts with qualified organizations, including nonprofit entities. These nonprofits could very well include the nine refugee resettlement agencies funded by the U.S. Department of State, which can pledge to financially support a Ukrainian beneficiary once in the United States.
But it doesn’t end there. Parolees receiving federal assistance and resettlement benefits can use those funds to sponsor additional Ukrainian parolees who in turn will receive the same federal assistance upon arrival. And, just in case these funds are not sufficient, resettlement agencies will be able to provide additional funds (given to them by the American taxpayer) to get the process in order, potentially creating a cycle of migration.
In sum, this “private” sponsorship program seems more linked to federal money than to individual contributions. But, unlike the official refugee resettlement program which has a ceiling set each year, it flies under the radar when it comes to accountability and numerical ceilings. An unlimited number of Ukrainian beneficiaries can use this “private,” streamlined pathway to come to the United States. Meanwhile, in fiscal year 2022 refugee resettlement admissions remain low. Only a total of 15,100 refugees were admitted so far this fiscal year under a 125,000 ceiling. Of the 15,100 only 1,028 were Ukrainians.
The Biden administration designed this fast-track admission for Ukrainians already in the EU who wish to come to the United States to join family members and/or pursue better opportunities at no cost to the American taxpayer. The reality could be quite different as federal funds will likely be used to facilitate their admission and life in the United States. But who’s counting?
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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25 July, 2022
Arizona Border Patrol agents arrest two American citizens for smuggling Mexican immigrants, drugs into US
Border Patrol agents in Arizona have arrested two United States citizens for allegedly smuggling five Mexican citizens across the southern border while they also possessed methamphetamine and fentanyl.
"Tucson Station agents responded to Sasabe, AZ, after border camera operators spotted suspected criminal activity," Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector John Modlin tweeted Saturday.
Modlin added, "Two U.S. citizens were arrested for attempting to smuggle five Mexican citizens. A loaded firearm was seized along with a small amount of meth and fentanyl. #teamwork."
Modlin also posted photos from the incident showing a firearm and pills of what he says are illegal drugs.
The United States Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
The arrests come as the fentanyl crisis at the southern border continues to spiral out of control and Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram recently called on Mexico to do more to help stop the illegal trafficking of the drug.
A combined total of around 250 pounds of pills that tested positive for fentanyl was found in the vehicle.
A combined total of around 250 pounds of pills that tested positive for fentanyl was found in the vehicle. (CBP)
"We know that the vast, vast majority of that is coming from Mexico, and we know that it is being synthesized openly," Milgram said during an appearance Friday on "America’s Newsroom."
"We lost 107,622 Americans last year," she explained. These two cartels are primarily responsible for the fentanyl and the methamphetamine that is flooding into the United States and is killing people."
The Border Patrol has announced that it encountered more than 200,000 illegal immigrants in the month of June which is down from May’s all-time high of 239,000 but represents the fourth month in a row of more than 200,000 encounters.
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British Prime Minister candidates to send illegal immigrants to Africa
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have pledged to dramatically expand the Rwanda scheme for removing asylum seekers, as they bid with growing ferocity for Conservative members’ votes in the party leadership race.
Both are appealing to the right of the party with pledges on immigration branded “cruel” by charities.
In a bid to stress his Brexiter credentials, Sunak said he would do “whatever it takes” to get the stalled Rwanda plan “off the ground and operating at scale”, along with a vow to pursue more “migration partnerships” with other countries.
Other commitments in a 10-point plan laid out by the former chancellor include capping the number of refugees the UK would accept each year, ending the use of hotels to house migrants while their requests to remain in the UK are processed, and withholding aid money from countries who refuse to take back failed asylum seekers and criminals.
Sunak also took a veiled shot at the prime minister Boris Johnson’s declaration over the weekend that his premiership had achieved the core Brexit goal of taking back control of the UK’s borders.
Sunak, who quit the cabinet just weeks ago, said Britain’s immigration system was broken and chaotic. “Whether you believe that migration should be high or low, we can all agree that it should be legal and controlled,” Sunak said.
Meanwhile, Truss said she was “determined to see the Rwanda policy through to full implementation as well as exploring other countries where we can work on similar partnerships”.
She vowed not to “cower” before the European convention on human rights, which blocked the inaugural removal flight of migrants to Rwanda last month, and reform Britain’s relationship with the court “so it works better”.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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24 July, 2022
Supreme Court Blocks Biden Admin Policy Narrowing Detainment, Deportation of Illegal Aliens
The U.S. Supreme Court gave Texas and Louisiana a temporary legal victory in the border states’ attempt to strike down a September 2021 Biden administration immigration guideline.
The Supreme Court, in a ruling without explanation on Thursday, allowed a federal judge in Texas to block the Biden Administration’s immigration guideline that, according to the border states’ prosecutors, limits the ability of border agents to detain and deport illegal aliens.
The ruling is a political setback for the Biden administration as it tries to juggle an unprecedented surge in illegal immigration, overburdened Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and an agenda to replace the Trump administration’s more stringent border policy amid bipartisan criticism.
Dissenting justices include Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Elena Kagan, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—marking Jackson’s first vote since the start of her tenure last month.
DHS Guidelines
The DHS issued the new immigration enforcement guidelines in late September 2021, directing immigration authorities to exercise “discretion” and prioritize detaining or deporting illegal aliens who “pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security.”
Put into practice, the September 2021 guideline designates that an illegal alien’s lack of legal authorization to stay in the United States “should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.”
This guidance is in direct contrast with the Trump-era DHS policy, which guides immigration authorities to detain and deport illegal aliens in a non-discriminatory manner, except in certain limited cases, such as those who came to the United States as children or are parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The high court’s ruling, which upheld a federal court’s ruling in June 2022 vacating the Biden administration’s September 2021 DHS guidance, gives Texas and Louisiana a temporary victory, at least until the Supreme Court hears the case in the December 2022 argument session.
‘Uncontroverted Evidence’
According to Trump-nominated Judge Drew Tipton from the Texas District Court for the Southern District, it is “difficult to deny” that the DHS’s September 2021 memo inflicted harm on the state of Texas.
Tipton sided with the border states in saying that “uncontroverted evidence” shows that the September 2021 memo led to an increase in the flow of illegal immigrants into Texas, with the state needing to spend more money on prosecution, detainment, healthcare, and administration.
The district court continued by saying that while the DHS argues that some immigration data showed an increase in the number of arrests and expulsions following its guidance to “prioritize” criminally convicted aliens, the increase is disproportionate considering the “unprecedented surge of illegal aliens pouring over the border.”
“Given that the number of encounters with illegal border-crossers is ten times what it was in April 2020 … an increase in arrests and expulsions is far from impressive, especially if … roughly three-fourths of the illegal aliens that cross the border go undetected by DHS entirely,” Tipton wrote.
Border States Sue
The ever-escalating legal clash between the border states and the Biden Administration began two days after Biden took office.
Texas, on Jan. 22, 2021, sought a court injunction on a January 20 DHS memorandum that the state attorney general said suspended the deportation of the “vast majority of illegal aliens without any consideration for individual circumstances.”
As the case spiraled in the courts, the DHS issued a new set of immigration guidelines in February 2021 and yet another in September 2021—the last of which Texas and Louisiana sued in Texas’s District Court for the Southern District.
Tipton sided with the border state attorneys general and ruled in June 2022 that the federal government may not “require its officials to act in a manner that conflicts with a statutory mandate imposed by Congress.
Texas and Louisiana showed that the DHS’s September 2021 guidance, Tipton continued, is “contrary to law,” “arbitrary and capricious,” and “failed to observe” necessary government procedure.
“Using the words ‘discretion’ and ‘prioritization,’ the Executive Branch claims the authority to suspend statutory mandates,” Tipton wrote. “The law does not sanction this approach.”
Split Courts
After Tipton’s ruling, the Biden administration appealed to a three-judge panel—unsuccessfully.
The judges at the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an unsigned opinion dated July 6, 2022, wrote that some of the Biden administration’s concerns advanced in its September 2021 guidelines—particularly those replacing “Congress’s statutory mandates—are “extralegal” and “plainly outside of the bounds of power” conferred to Congress by the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“For example, it provides that the guidelines ‘are essential to advancing this administration’s stated commitment to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality,’” the panel wrote.
The Fifth Circuit ruling came a day after a polar opposite ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on a similar case, in which Arizona, Ohio, and Montana sued the Biden administration on the same grounds.
Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a Bush-appointed judge, sided with the Biden administration, opining in the ruling that the Biden administration, like previous governments, is given “considerable authority” by federal law to shape immigration policy and, therefore, guidelines for detention and removal of illegal immigrants.
The Fifth Circuit court, in explaining its differing opinion with the Sixth Circuit, said that precedent supports its conclusions and that “fulsome fact-findings” from the lower court support Texas’s and Louisiana’s standing.
In an email statement to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson from the DHS said it “is obligated to and will continue to abide” by the Texas District Court’s decision regarding its September 2021 guidelines “as long as the decision remains in effect.”
“In the interim, ICE officers will make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland,” the spokesperson added.
The Texas attorney general celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling as “another win” for Texas and border security.
“Yesterday the Supreme Court made clear that, while we prepare for oral argument this winter, the Biden Administration must detain illegal aliens with criminal convictions,” Paxton said in a July 22 press release.
“It’s the right legal decision, and it’s what’s best for Texas and our nation.”
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As Border Crossings Surge, Biden Admin Hiding Data on Illegal Alien Deaths
Border apprehensions recently topped 1.7 million, with three months of the fiscal year remaining. At the same time, the Biden administration has broken a long-standing policy of publicly releasing the number of illegal immigrants who die while crossing into the United States, or soon after.
The Rio Grande Valley in Texas and the Tucson Sector in Arizona have traditionally been the most deadly border sectors, as the river and the summer heat claim the most lives, and smugglers leave injured and sick aliens to die.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published on its website the number of migrant deaths along the southern border from fiscal 1998 to fiscal 2020, but stopped once the Biden administration took over the agency.
Over the course of three months, The Epoch Times made multiple requests to CBP for the missing data from fiscal years 2021 and 2022 to date. But CBP, to date, has declined to provide the information.
Previous CBP data show 247 illegal immigrants died near the border during fiscal 2020, while 300 died in fiscal 2019.
This June, according to unpublished CBP data obtained by The Epoch Times, 111 illegal immigrants died while crossing into the country, or soon after. An additional 53 died in a tractor-trailer unit outside San Antonio.
The highest number of deaths on CBP’s record was 492 people in fiscal year 2005. In the same year, Border Patrol apprehended about 1.2 million illegal immigrants.
The historical CBP data include a footnote indicating that the “data may be subject to change based on new discoveries of remains and possible dates of death as determined by a medical examiner.”
Not all migrant deaths are counted in the CBP data, as Border Patrol agents aren’t always involved in the discovery. Sheriff’s offices have their own tally of bodies discovered by ranchers, hunters, or others.
Brooks County in Texas accounts for many border-related deaths, and sheriff’s deputy Don White of Remote Wildlands Search and Recovery often finds the bodies. The illegal immigrants traveling through Brooks County have evaded law enforcement at the border and are walking on ranchland 70 miles farther north to skirt the Border Patrol checkpoint on Highway 281.
So far this year, White has recovered 64 bodies and is set to break last year’s record of 119 recovered from the brush and 11 from nonpursuit traffic situations. In comparison, 34 bodies were found in 2020.
“A video has surfaced of two men supporting a third man. The third is environmentally stressed, and is not doing well,” White posted on Facebook on June 19. “The two men supporting him are cleaning out his pockets, and putting his personal items in their pockets. Then they walk him off the trail and lay him in the brush. Cruel, if found, the young man will not have an ID.”
He shares another story of a woman who was “stressed and lost.” White searched for the woman at a GPS location she had sent to her parents, but she had moved.
“She sent a new GPS location to her husband in Amarillo. He didn’t want authorities to be involved, so he drove down to get her. She was where the GPS he had said she was. Deceased,” White posted on Facebook on June 12.
“If he would have thought of her life first and called it in, the outcome would have been different. Shaping up to be a savage summer.”
In Arizona’s remote desert areas, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (OME) works with nonprofit group Humane Borders to document illegal immigrant deaths.
So far this fiscal year, with three months remaining, the Tucson sector has recovered 128 bodies.
“Since January of 1990, over 3,600 undocumented migrants have died within the Pima County OME jurisdiction,” Humane Borders states on its website. “And in any case, many remains will never be found or reported.”
The Pima County OME recorded the highest number of body recoveries (226) in fiscal year 2021, according to its annual report.
A Government Accountability Office report issued in April said CBP hasn’t “collected and recorded, or reported to Congress, complete data on migrant deaths or disclosed limitations with the data it has reported.”
The report evaluated the Missing Migrant Program implemented by Border Patrol in June 2017 “to help rescue migrants in distress and reduce migrant deaths along the southwest border.”
The program focuses on an area consisting of 45 counties on or near the nearly 2,000-mile international border with Mexico.
As of February this year, Border Patrol had placed 165 rescue beacons and more than 2,500 “911” placards along the southwest border, the report stated.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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22 July, 2022
More grim border numbers suggest Team Biden has simply given up
Doing its best to bury the news, Team Biden released the latest border-crossing numbers Friday night: June saw 207,416 illegal migrants “encountered,” the fourth straight month over 200,000; it’s exceeded 150k for 16 months now. By the administration’s own estimates, 4 million have come in under President Joe Biden, plus another 800,000 who made it without getting intercepted.
Seizures of meth and fentanyl are also at record levels, but that’s universally understood to mean that smugglers are moving more through than ever.
Yet the biggest related action on the border under Biden was . . . ordering discipline against border agents for the “wrong” of suffering media disinformation about supposedly whipping some migrants trying to rush the border. He’s also cut Border Patrol funding, massively reduced prosecutions for illegal immigration and minimized use of Title 42 (which allows for rapid deportation of migrants) — while still trying to get the courts to let it kill that order altogether.
You can only conclude that Team Biden has given up, if it ever even really tried — even as it continues to make occasional noises about how it’s getting things under control.
Heck, the White House calls the June numbers good news, because it was a drop from May. But it was the worst June ever, and if anyone believed this was real progress they’d be blaring the facts, not burying them.
What do you think? Post a comment.
This president and his administration feed the nation nonstop whoppers on everything from Afghanistan to inflation, but their gaslighting on border control has to take the prize. Why should anyone believe them about anything?
https://nypost.com/2022/07/18/more-grim-border-numbers-suggest-biden-has-simply-given-up/
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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21 July, 2022
Biden Halts Prosecutions for Most Illegal Border Crossings
The Biden administration dramatically reduced migrant prosecutions by nearly 80 percent in the 2021 fiscal year, even as illegal crossings skyrocketed.
Just 2,896 migrants apprehended on the southwest border were transferred into U.S. Marshals Service custody in the 2021 fiscal year, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. In the 2020 fiscal year, 13,213 migrants were transferred to federal authorities for prosecution.
The precipitous drop in migrant prosecutions illustrates President Joe Biden’s break from prior administrations’ policies toward illegal immigration. Refraining from bringing criminal charges against the vast majority of individuals entering the country illegally also provides evidence for critics who say the White House is exacerbating the migration crisis on the southern border.
The decline in prosecutions for illegal border crossings also happened amid the worst border crisis in U.S. history. Migrant encounters on the southern border exceeded two million in 2021.
Under federal law, it is a misdemeanor crime to illegally cross the border. A second arrest for illegally crossing the border can be prosecuted as a felony. According to federal law, those found guilty of an illegal border crossing face fines and up to two years in prison.
"The lack of accountability from this administration encourages the worst people flooding our borders, criminals, to keep violating our laws until they finally commit a crime so egregious that the Department of Justice is forced to prosecute," a senior DHS official told the Free Beacon.
In the 2019 fiscal year, 20,604 migrants were transferred to Marshals Service custody for prosecution. The previous year, former president Donald Trump halted prosecutions of parents who crossed into the country illegally with children.
Defenders of the White House will likely say the drop in prosecutions can be almost entirely attributed to Title 42—a public health regulation that allows authorities to rapidly expel migrants who enter the country. With Title 42 in effect, law enforcement does not need to process migrants in a typical manner and instead works to expel them as quickly as possible.
But Trump instituted Title 42 in March 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and still prosecuted far more migrants than in Biden’s first year of his presidency. Moreover, illegal border crossings in 2020 were much lower than in 2021, which saw the most migrant apprehensions in U.S. history.
Biden ordered an end to Title 42 in April, although legal challenges from Republicans have temporarily kept it in place. The Biden administration has not yet released border crossing prosecution data for the 2022 fiscal year.
Beyond attempting to eliminate Title 42, the Biden administration has worked to undo immigration policies from the Trump administration. Last month, the Supreme Court authorized Biden to terminate the "Remain in Mexico" policy, which forces many migrants to wait in Mexico before their asylum court hearing in the United States.
The Free Beacon in December reported on deportations plummeting to the lowest number in decades under Biden. The White House has also stonewalled congressional investigations into where DHS is placing illegal immigrants after they are released into the U.S. interior.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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20 July, 2022
Illegal immigration blamed in Uvalde, Texas school shooting: report
The US border crisis helped create lax security at the Uvalde school where 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were slaughtered, an explosive Texas report shows.
State lawmakers who investigated the horrific mass shooting noted in their findings a major problem plaguing Texas border towns as law enforcement increasingly spot vehicles suspected of human smuggling — and said the situation contributed to “relaxed vigilance” at the school during the May attack.
The report explained that when authorities try to pull a suspicious vehicle over, the driver often refuses to stop and speeds away, a dangerous occurrence that frequently ends in a crash and the operator and his passengers abandoning, or “bailing out,” of the car.
Such “bailouts” in Uvalde routinely trigger security alerts for local schools including Robb Elementary. But since the alerts usually don’t amount to danger for the school, they end up being treated a little like the boy who cried wolf, the pols’ report said.
One of the factors “contributing to relaxed vigilance [at Robb Elementary] was the frequency of security alerts and campus lockdowns resulting from a recent rise of ‘bailouts,’” the report said.
“The frequency of these ‘bailout’-related alarms — around 50 of them between February and May of 2022 — contributed to a diminished sense of vigilance about responding to security alerts,” the probe’s findings said.
In the minutes before the Uvalde school massacre, 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos stole his grandmother’s truck after shooting her in the face.
Ramos, who did not have a driver’s license, wrecked the truck near Robb Elementary, got out of the car and began shooting at his alma mater before easily strolling into the building and killing his innocent victims.
The belief by some authorities that Ramos’s crash was simply another bailout may have slowed the police response, the report said.
In an eerie twist, two months before the massacre, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin talked to The Post about the “bail-out’’ scourge plaguing his and other border towns.
“Forty-eight times last year we had to lock down the public schools because of bailouts in our community — 48 times, but you don’t hear that on the news,” McLaughlin said.
Local, state and federal law enforcement also have come under heavy fire for failing for more than an hour to storm the classroom that turned into Ramos’s killing field.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/18/illegal-immigration-blamed-in-uvalde-texas-school-shooting-report/
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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19 July, 2022
Biden Administration Makes Two Big Changes to Help Illegal Immigrants
President Joe Biden’s administration has made two major changes to immigration policies by re-interpreting federal law.
Immigrants, many illegal, from certain countries are shielded from deportation and allowed to be legally employed if the secretary of homeland security decides their home country meets certain conditions.
The designation is known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Fifteen countries are currently designated, including Afghanistan, El Salvador, Somalia, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of immigrants from those countries are protected.
Up until July, those protected by TPS had to remain in the country unless they received approval to travel.
If TPS beneficiaries did leave the country and returned, they’d have the same status—illegal or legal—when they returned, based on language from Miscellaneous and Technical Immigration and Naturalization Amendments, even though they could remain temporarily protected by TPS.
But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which handles the nation’s legal immigration system, has changed that policy.
Now, all beneficiaries that return will be “inspected and admitted,” a bureaucratic term that means one has entered the country legally. “This is true even if the TPS beneficiary was present without admission or parole when initially granted TPS,” USCIS said in an alert (pdf).
“That basically launders the fact that they came here illegally and that will put them on the path to a green card,” Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Epoch Times.
“This is an end run on U.S. immigration law, and Congress,” added Emilio Gonzalez, who directed USCIS during the George W. Bush administration. “It really is a left-handed way of legalizing people.”
USCIS said in its alert that the change stemmed from a court decision, guidance from the lawyers at its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and an evaluation of current and past policy. The agency did not respond to requests for comment.
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that immigrants who receive TPS are not admitted for purposes of obtaining legal permanent residency.
“A grant of TPS does not cure a foreign national’s entry without inspection or constitute an inspection and admission of the foreign national,’” Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, wrote in the 9–0 decision.
But USCIS seized on a footnote in the ruling, in which the court said it was not expressing a view on whether a parole enables a TPS recipient to become a legal permanent resident. The secretary of homeland security can parole an illegal immigrant, which allows them to enter or remain in the country legally.
The USCIS also cited a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which said that the law mandates TPS beneficiaries who travel outside the country be inspected and admitted upon returning, and be treated as entering the United States legally, even if they originally entered illegally.
The DHS Office of General Counsel, on the request of USCIS, reviewed the rulings and the law and concluded that USCIS was “well within its authority” to rescind Trump era guidance and allow illegal immigrants to use leaving the country and coming back to become legal.
“This is just a transparent workaround that I believe is illegal, and almost certainly is going to be challenged,” Vaughan said.
The Immigration and Nationality Act, says that immigrants who were illegally in the United States and left cannot re-enter for a certain period of time. Illegal immigrants who were in the country for less than one year have to wait three years to be able to re-enter the country; those who were present for one year or more would be inadmissible unless he or she waits 10 years to re-enter.
The immigrants were expected to wait outside the United States, to comply with the law.
USCIS, though, is now saying that an immigrant can be inside the United States, and that will not reset the clock.
“The statutory 3-year or 10-year period begins to run on the day of departure or removal (whichever applies) after accrual of the period of unlawful presence. This statutory period continues to run, without interruption, regardless of whether or how the noncitizen returned to the United States during the 3-year or 10-year period. Thus, it is immaterial whether the noncitizen has spent the applicable statutory 3-year or 10-year period in or out of the United States,” USCIS says in its policy manual.
The change was made on June 24 to be consistent with two recent court rulings and an unpublished Department of Justice Board of Appeals decision, the agency said in an alert on the alteration.
“This is basically an invitation for any deported alien to pay the cartels to smuggle them back into the U.S. while they let the clock run out,” Rob Law, who headed the USCIS policy office during the Trump administration and directs the America First Policy Institute’s Center for Homeland Security and Immigration, told the Washington Times, which first reported on the update.
Court Decisions
The move stemmed from two 2020 rulings.
In the first, a Japanese woman overstayed her nonimmigrant status by five years. She left voluntarily in 2003 but returned just two years later, well before the 10-year period mandated in the law.
While she didn’t follow U.S. immigration law, her lawyer argued she shouldn’t have been denied permanent residency when she applied for it in 2019 because she was married to a United States citizen and because over 10 years had elapsed.
Government lawyers said that aliens to whom the law applies “must remain outside of the country for the entire duration of the inadmissibility period” and, if they do not, they cannot be admitted.
U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall, a Carter appointee, ruled for the plaintiff, agreeing on the argument that over 10 years had gone by before Yayomi Kanai asked for residency.
“This policy change would be great for our client. That means she could have been granted adjustment of status by the USCIS and she wouldn’t have had to go through all these problems,” Michael Piston, who represented Kanai, told The Epoch Times.
“It feels very, very good that they’re doing the right thing,” Mario Urizar, a lawyer who represented the man in the other case, told The Epoch Times.
In that case, a Brazilian national overstayed a tourist visa and was ordered deported in 1994. He left the United States in 2000.
Two years later, the man re-entered, even though the 10 years had not elapsed. When he went to adjust his status later, in 2016, authorities noted he violated the law and thus remained inadmissible.
U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty, an Obama appointee, ruled that the law “is silent” on the time after 10 years elapses. He said imposing what amounted to a lifetime ban from the United States was wrong.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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18 July, 2022
Texas Tells Biden To Shove It, We're Going To Do Your Job
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday issued an executive order that helps law enforcement return illegals to the border. This directly defies Biden’s free-for-all plan but the Governor had to do something, he says “Biden refuses to do his job!”.
Abbott’s order allows the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to capture illegals and drag them back to the border.
Unfortunately, without Biden’s support, Abbott’s task force will not be able to take the illegals into Mexico but it will clear them out of the cities and towns.
It comes at a time of historic migrant encounters at the border. There were more than 239,000 migrant encounters in May alone, and Abbott said that there were 5,000 migrant apprehensions in Texas alone over Independence Day weekend.
“While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border,” Abbott said in a statement. “The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.”
“I have authorized the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to begin returning illegal immigrants to the border to stop this criminal enterprise endangering our communities,” Abbott said. “As the challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration.”
The Biden administration is only now starting to take some notice and laid focus on helping the deep blue state of California.
Meanwhile, states like Texas have had a steady stream of illegals since Biden took office. The problem has really gotten worse over the last few months.
According to an April filing in Texas v. Biden, CBP encountered 221,303 illegal migrants at the Southwest border last month, bringing total encounters there to just fewer than 1.06 million for just the first half of FY 2022. Worse, DHS released more than 80,000 of those migrants into the interior last month, raising the total number of migrant illegal releases under the Biden administration to 836,225.
While it seems the White House doesn’t have a plan to stem the surge of aliens crossing the border illegally, the truth may be much more complicated.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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17 July, 2022
Border crisis: CBP's June Immigration Report reveals more than 200,000 encounters, record terrorist sightings
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection released its June 2022 Monthly Operational Report showing record levels of border crossings are continuing, including a record-setting number of terrorist sightings and an increased number of unaccompanied children and illegal drugs found at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the report, the CBP said there were more than 207,416 encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border for the month of June. While the overall number of border interactions is down from May’s all-time high of 239,000, it is the fourth month in a row of more than 200,000 encounters.
Of those total encounters, 26% were seeking to enter the U.S. after having "at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months," the CBP said. Also, 68% were single adults, without children or accompanied family members.
"The men and women of CBP keep our country secure by enforcing our immigration and trade laws at our ports of entry and along our borders," said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.
"While fluctuations are normal from month to month, we saw a 14% decrease in encounters compared to the previous month. We are committed to implementing our strategy of reducing irregular migration, dissuading migrants from undertaking the dangerous journey, and increasing enforcement efforts against human smuggling organizations," he added.
The June report shows there were 105,161 migrants removed from the U.S. last month, including 92,273 expelled under CDC’s Title 42 Order. The CBP said 79,652 migrants were released into the US.
With June’s figures, there have now been 1,746,119 total encounters at the southern border in the 2022 fiscal year. This already eclipses the record-setting 1,734,686 encounters set in the 2021 fiscal year and there are still three months remaining in FY'22.
The Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) flagged six hits in June, bringing the total to 56 for FY’22, which is nearly double the 30 in the previous four years combined.
The report also saw an increase in the number of unaccompanied children at the border.
The CBP found 15,271 unaccompanied children at the border in June, a four percent increase from May. The average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 752 per day, another increase from May’s average of 692 per day.
"We continue to rescue and provide medical assistance to those in distress," Magnus said. "My message to those considering taking this dangerous journey is simple: this is not an easy passage, the human smugglers only care about your money – not your life or the lives of your loved ones, and you will be placed in removal proceedings from the United States if you cross the border without legal authorization and are unable to establish a legal basis to remain."
https://www.foxnews.com/us/border-crisis-cbp-june-immigration-report
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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15 July, 2022
ICE and ACLU Settle Lawsuit Relating to Arrests of Aliens in Correctional Facilities
Within the last few days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, the defendants) settled a lawsuit filed by alien plaintiff Gabriela Solano, who was represented in her case by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). See here and here.
It gives me little pleasure to say that, for the first time in a very long while, I agree with the position of the ACLU for reasons I'll explain below. I say it gives me little pleasure because I realize that the ACLU's purpose isn't noble — this is just the latest in a long string of lawsuits filed by the ACLU whose primary purpose is to hamstring or undermine the effectiveness of any kind of immigration enforcement in the United States, whether on the border or in the interior.
The gist of the case was that Solano filed a lawsuit against ICE for using private contractors to effect civil immigration arrests within the jurisdiction of two California field offices (Los Angeles and San Francisco), including her arrest. The settlement affects not just Solano but other similarly situated aliens; within the context of the case, this means aliens incarcerated in California penal institutions and county jails for criminal violations of law that often render them deportable from the United States.
Apparently, as a matter of preserving resources, ICE had contracted with at least one private entity to process those aliens for removal proceedings as a part of their release to ICE when detainers were to be honored. (It's worth noting for the record that honoring of civil immigration detainers within the state of California has become more the exception than the rule, given its status as a sanctuary state that has enacted statutes prohibiting state and local enforcement and correctional officials from cooperating with ICE in most circumstances.)
The word “process” is a legal term of art within the context of the lawsuit. It involves the recording of biographic and biometric data about the aliens on the forms that will be needed to go forward in removal proceedings. More importantly, though, “processing” includes service of the official documents required to present the alien to the immigration court. Those documents are a Warrant for Arrest of Alien, and a Notice to Appear in Removal Proceedings. Thus, even though the alien might at the time of processing be technically within the physical custody of the California Department of Corrections or a county jail facility, service of the warrant means in a very real sense that an arrest has been effected by ICE.
And therein lies the problem. Effecting a law enforcement arrest is an “inherently governmental function”; it is not something that can be farmed out to civilians or private entities as a matter of course. This is a longstanding, and sound, legal doctrine.
Although arrests for non-criminal immigration violations are not specifically mentioned, innumerable court decisions have made clear that, in nearly every way, such arrests are comparable to criminal arrests and this is one of the reasons that a plethora of protections are afforded to aliens who are taken into custody by federal immigration officers, including being advised of their rights, etc.
By specifying “detention or transport” as not inherently governmental functions, it seems to me that the regulations are clearly ensuring that a bright line is made between such ancillary matters and the critical functions that are at the heart of law enforcement: investigation and arrest pursuant to law.
One last point: Some readers of this post may be tempted to use the “inherently governmental function” doctrine to assert that non-immigration officers, such as state or local police, are also precluded from effecting immigration arrests. That is not so. As a preliminary matter, it is important to recognize that, unlike private contractors, they are already sworn officers of the law. Thus, they can derive authority to effect immigration arrests in at least three ways: First, the state constitution or laws under which they operate may provide them that authority. Second, they are directly given the authority to effect arrests for alien smuggling violations under federal law. See 8 U.S.C. 1324(c). Third, they are also authorized to do so when officially cross-designated under 8 U.S.C. 1357(g).
Perhaps times have changed — I no longer know what legal doctrines are taught at the various academies since the shotgun marriage of immigration and customs agencies brought about by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 — but from the very beginning of my career, starting in basic training clear back in the 1970s, I and every other Border Patrol agent or immigration officer was taught that effecting a law enforcement arrest is an “inherently governmental function”; to repeat myself, it is not something that can be farmed out to civilians or private entities. There is no reason to believe that the fundamental soundness of that doctrine, or that the doctrine itself, has changed.
What I'm left wondering about, then, is the soundness of the immigration courses now being taught in those academies. Are they being given short shrift, leaving a corps of law enforcement officers who are woefully ignorant of the basics because the historical knowledge has been lost in the two decades since enactment of the Homeland Security Act?
https://cis.org/Cadman/ICE-and-ACLU-Settle-Lawsuit-Relating-Arrests-Aliens-Correctional-Facilities
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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14 July, 2022
Disgraceful Biden's Latest Border Victims are His Own Agents
An internal Customs and Border Protection investigation found that horse-mounted Border Patrol agents did not whip Haitian migrants trying to enter the United States last year near Del Rio, Texas.
However, the report on the investigation released Friday claimed that the agents exerted unnecessary force and behaved in an unsafe and unprofessional way while trying to stop the migrants, the CBP said in a Friday news release.
“The investigation also found that at least one Border Patrol Agent displayed dangerous behavior and used inappropriate and denigrating language,” the news release said.
According to the report’s findings, “several Agents used force or the threat of force to drive migrants back to the Rio Grande River, despite the fact that the migrants were well within the territorial boundary of the United States,” the news release stated.
“The investigation concluded that there is no evidence that any migrants were struck by reins and no evidence that any migrants were forced to return to Mexico or denied entry into the United States,” the CBP said.
The report blamed Texas state authorities for the said behavior by the border patrol agents, noting that the Horse Patrol Unit personnel “carried out an operation at the request of Texas Department of Public Safety that directly conflicted with U.S. Border Patrol operational objectives,” the news release stated.
“U.S. Border Patrol utilization of an unmoderated and unrecorded tactical radio frequency to manage the Del Rio incident contributed to command-and-control deficiencies,” the news release said.
Using such radio frequencies allowed “operational planning without management by a dispatch and impeded the Office of Professional Responsibility’s ability to investigate this matter,” the CBP said.
In response to the report’s findings, the CBP said that its leadership was taking steps to change its practices, training and operational methods and introduce more limits on using the horse patrol.
The agency also said it initiated a Discipline Review Board to look into the behavior of four agents related to the incident. The news release said the investigation into the four agents’ activity is underway.
It is unclear who the four individuals were, since their names were redacted in the report out of privacy concerns.
One of the four individuals facing disciplinary review shouted denigrating comments at a migrant, insulting their national origin and gender, saying, “Hey! You use your women? This is why your country’s s***, you use your women for this,” the CBP said.
“The same Border Patrol Agent acted in an unsafe manner by forcing his horse to narrowly maneuver around a small child on a slanted concrete ramp,” the news release stated.
“The report showed there were failures to make good decisions at multiple levels of the organization,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a Friday briefing, according to The Daily Mail.
“Failures to maintain command and control over Horse Patrol Units, lack of appropriate policies and training, and the overall chaotic nature of the situation at Del Rio at the time contributed to the incident,” Magnus said.
The CBP’s investigation of the Del Rio crackdown came after news outlets released images in September of CBP agents on horses, swinging their reins as they forced migrants away from the U.S., the Texas Tribune reported.
The images drew outrage from migrant rights activists, Democrats and President Joe Biden, who accused agents of whipping the migrants, according to the Texas Tribune — a charge the report disproved.
“It’s horrible what you saw. To see people like they did, with horses, running them over, people being strapped, it’s outrageous,” Biden said at the time, according to the Tribune.
“Those people will pay,” Biden then said. “There is an investigation underway right now and there will be consequences.”
Republican House Rep. Chip Roy of Texas defended the border patrol agents. Roy said that the report revealed Biden-appointee Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “doesn’t deserve to lead” the DHS, the Daily Mail reported.
“Today we learned what we knew all along – the accused Border Patrol Agents in Del Rio did nothing wrong,” Roy told journalists, according to the newspaper.
“But this administration can’t miss a chance to destroy the morale of our overrun, hardworking Border Patrol for political gain, and it issued disciplinary action anyway to finish off one of the most despicable displays of leadership seen from any cabinet Secretary,” Roy said.
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/disgraceful-bidens-latest-border-victims-agents
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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13 July, 2022
Biden’s Open-Border Policies Guaranteed Tragedy and Loss of Life
Tom Homan
The most vulnerable people in the world are putting themselves in the hands of criminal cartels to take advantage of what Biden has promised.
Now we have record deaths, and you almost never hear a word about it from most news outlets.
Sadly, Biden’s open-borders policies are making devastation and death the norm at our southern border.
The news of 53 dead migrants found in a refrigerator truck in San Antonio Tuesday was a painful reminder of my own experience investigating similar horror nearly 20 years ago.
I know what it’s like to stand in the back of a tractor trailer, with 19 dead migrants at my feet, including a 5-year-old boy who had suffocated to death in 170-degree heat. In a steel box. In total blackness. A boy whose last words, according to one survivor, were, "Daddy, Daddy, I’m dying."
In 2003, I was flown to that crime scene in Victoria, Texas, and walked it as the first step of my investigation into a human smuggling bust. It changed me forever.
We ultimately arrested more than a dozen individuals responsible for the tragedy, sending one man to prison for life.
This tragedy is far worse.
The horror discovered on the side of the road in San Antonio is quite possibly the worst such tragedy in the history of this nation. I and others who have worked in border security and immigration enforcement for decades have been warning since President Joe Biden took office and undid President Donald Trump’s border security policies, that a tragedy like this was going to occur.
The increase in truck smuggling in recent months has been pronounced. Thanks to the Biden administration’s open-borders policies, especially the return of catch-and-release, the most vulnerable people in the world are putting themselves in the hands of criminal cartels to take advantage of what Biden, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and this administration have promised.
And the cartels have been happy to oblige, finding creative ways to increase their bottom line.
Illegal crossings continue to skyrocket, with an all-time monthly apprehension number near 240,000 last month. More than 800,000 individuals have evaded Border Patrol altogether and entered this country since Biden took office. More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, a historic number largely driven by fentanyl flowing across our southwest border.
And the migrants themselves are suffering and dying in record numbers. The number of migrants found dead on U.S. soil has hit a new high under the Biden administration—well over 700—but we rarely hear about that.
Most corporate media reported on every death and negative headline during the Trump administration. Far-left bomb-throwers like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, and Ilhan Omar, D-MN, and others ran to the border for photo ops and blamed the Border Patrol for crises caused by left-wing judges who made it nearly impossible to enforce the law.
Now we have record deaths, and you almost never hear a word about it from most news outlets. And meanwhile, migrants continue to entrust themselves to the bloodthirsty animals who run the cartels, who have made record profits on smuggling people and drugs since Biden took office. To whom the lives of these migrants mean less than nothing once they’ve paid their smuggling fee.
For months, the Biden administration has lied to the American people about creating a "moral and humane" immigration system. How is any of this humane? How is any of this moral?
Biden’s and Mayorkas’s policies are responsible for this incredible suffering. Since day one, they have actively conspired to undo nearly every single Trump policy that gave us the most secure border in our lifetimes and brought illegal immigration to a 40-year low. And Thursday, the Supreme Court issued an unfortunate ruling greenlighting the Biden administration’s ending of the "Remain in Mexico" program—one of the most effective policies used by the Trump administration to secure the border.
The Biden administration must be held accountable for doing so. Mayorkas should be impeached by the next Congress once it is seated. Those involved in forcing these policies on the American people should be forced to testify to Congress on why they abandoned their oath and made this country less safe. And the president, at minimum, should acknowledge the crisis he has created, go to the border, and apologize to the Border Patrol agents he has thrown under the bus.
But ultimately, the most humane thing we can do is secure the border, stop catch-and-release, and reinstate the Trump-era policies. That will immediately decrease the crossings and the number of deaths. It will turn off the incentives to make the dangerous journey to the border, and it will rob the cartels of billions of dollars in ill-gotten profits.
This will not be the last such tragedy that we witness. Even with the best, most effective laws on the books, evil sometimes finds a way. But our leaders have an obligation to implement policies that give law enforcement the tools to fight and prevent it. To make it the exception, not the norm.
Sadly, Biden’s open-borders policies are making devastation and death the norm at our southern border.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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12 July, 2022
Border Agents Falsely Accused of Whipping Had Careers ‘Ruined’ by Biden: Union Chief
DEL RIO, Texas—The U.S. Border Patrol agents who were falsely accused of striking illegal immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border have had their careers “ruined” by President Joe Biden, the head of the agency’s union told The Epoch Times.
“Their careers were ruined by this president,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
A slew of media outlets in the fall of 2021 claimed that Border Patrol agents on horseback had whipped Haitian aliens who were entering the United States by crossing the Rio Grande at Del Rio, Texas. The outlets later backtracked on the claims.
But multiple government officials, including Biden, used similar language.
Biden told reporters he observed that the agents had “strapped” the immigrants, calling what happened “outrageous.”
“I promise you, those people will pay. They will be—an investigation is underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It’s an embarrassment. But beyond an embarrassment, it’s dangerous; it’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world. It sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are,” he said at the time.
However, an internal review released on July 8 said there was “no evidence” that agents “struck any person, intentionally or otherwise.” Further, U.S. prosecutors declined to charge any of the agents involved, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed.
“The president accused them of a criminal act. He has not apologized for that,” Judd told The Epoch Times.
He said he doesn’t expect Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, who said she was “outraged” by the treatment of illegal immigrants, to apologize.
The agents were quickly placed on administrative duty after the widespread coverage of the incident on Sept. 19, 2021. At the time, as many as 30,000 mostly Haitian illegal immigrants had entered the United States and created a makeshift camp under a bridge that connects Del Rio, Texas, and Mexico’s Ciudad Acuña, while waiting to be processed by Border Patrol. Rumors of a riot had been circulating as conditions deteriorated.
Four agents are facing disciplinary charges, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus told reporters during a briefing on July 8. According to the report, that includes an agent who acted unprofessionally by shouting at an illegal immigrant and nearly coming into contact with a small child on the concrete ramp leading out of the river.
On multiple occasions, mounted agents “used force or the threat of force to drive migrants back into the Rio Grande River despite the fact they were well within the territorial boundary of the United States,” the report stated.
“We’re not going to be discussing specifics of the disciplinary proposals today. But when it’s appropriate to do so, we will make the final disciplinary actions public consistent with the privacy rights of the individual employees,” Magnus, a Biden appointee, told reporters.
The Border Patrol union is representing three agents; the fourth person facing discipline is a supervisor, according to Judd.
He said he fears investigators “had no choice but to find some sort of fault” given the quick condemnation from Biden, Harris, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“And the fault that they found is some of the flimsiest I’ve ever seen in my 25-year career. In seeing disciplinary proposals time and time again, I have never seen a more flimsy proposal,” Judd said.
He said the situation has been “absolutely demoralizing” to agents because the agents involved were performing a legitimate law enforcement operation.
A Border Patrol agent in the Del Rio Sector, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of repercussions, told The Epoch Times that agents on the ground were set up by leadership for failure in a “no-win situation,” because of a lack of manpower and capability to effectively handle the flood of illegal aliens who were entering the United States on the day in question.
“With regard to the horse patrol, we know what happened. Agents know what happened. Leadership knows what happened. And instead of backing their agents for doing the best they could with what little they had, our leaders ‘Monday morning quarterbacked’ from their comfy offices and went on a fishing expedition, looking for reasons to get agents in trouble to appease those in this administration,” the agent said. “Our leaders need to quit saying Honor First and start living Honor First.”
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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11 July, 2022
US expects record-breaking surge of unaccompanied migrant kids at border this year: report
The federal government expects a record surge of up to 161,000 unaccompanied minors to flood the US-Mexico border this year, according to a leaked report.
“DHS projections call for approximately 148,000 and 161,000 [unaccompanied children] referrals to [Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement] this year,” according to an Interior Department projection obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The report, dated January 2022, warned of “monthly projections exceeding those seen in FY 2021” — when a record-shattering 147,000 migrant children entered the US alone, without a parent or family member.
US Customs and Border Patrol agents picked up more than 101,000 unaccompanied minors between October 2021 and May of this year, according to agency tallies — with four months still to go in the fiscal year ending September 30.
The month-by-month totals in six out of those eight months have far exceeded the record numbers seen in the previous year.
Most children who arrive alone at the border and enter the US illegally are shielded from deportation under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. They typically remain at HHS shelters until officials find an adult — usually a relative — in the US to take charge of their care.
But the law has encouraged families to send kids on the dangerous journey alone, critics say, and has forced the Biden administration to scramble to safely house them.
Biden was accused of hypocrisy when his administration reopened emergency housing facilities for migrant teens in early 2021, with some likening it to putting “kids in cages” — a policy he had denounced during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Biden came to office pledging to roll back President Trump’s tough border policies, which led to a plunge in illegal crossings during his term in office.
https://nypost.com/2022/07/09/us-expects-historic-surge-of-migrant-kids-this-year-report/
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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10 July, 2022
Biden’s Border Policies: Death and Destruction Guaranteed
It’s no secret that President Biden has been dismantling the U.S. immigration system since he took office. Under his all-but-named open-border policies, an estimated 794,112 illegal immigrants have escaped into the United States. The crisis is accelerating as roughly 476,000 such crossings have been in the first six months of 2022.
The “successful” crossings at the U.S. border will continue to skyrocket, as more immigrants attempt to enter, with agents encountering a record 239,416 migrants in May alone.
What’s even more alarming is that Biden is removing Trump-appointed immigration judges and immigration cases are being dismissed. Biden’s Justice Department has come under fire from a former immigration judge who was fired by the administration. Matthew O’Brien appeared on Fox News Tuesday and accused the Biden administration of “packing” immigration courts in order to allow more immigrants to stay in the United States. O’Brien claimed that the courts were not designed to do this and that the administration’s actions were undermining the rule of law.
As the number of immigrants arriving at the southern border continues to surge, officials in several Texas counties are calling on Governor Greg Abbott to take measures to address the problems. The officials, from Uvalde, Kinney, Goliad, and Terrell Counties, said that the situation was an “invasion” and called on Abbott to enforce federal immigration laws. The counties are in southwest Texas, near the border with Mexico. The Biden administration has clearly made the situation more dangerous for Americans as well as immigrants who are crossing.
This surge has resulted in a backlog of cases, leaving Border Patrol agents overwhelmed and unable to properly process and detain illegal aliens. In addition, Biden has ended many of Trump’s border security policies, making it easier for smugglers to bring large groups of people across the border.
On Monday, a shocking discovery was made in San Antonio, Texas- a tractor-trailer filled with illegal aliens, parked in a sparsely developed area. The police were called after a worker at a nearby building reported hearing people crying out from inside the trailer. When they arrived, they found the doors of the trailer had been shut tight, and the illegals inside were dying from the heat. This tragedy now stands as the deadliest smuggling attempt in history, and it is a direct result of President Joe Biden’s border security failures.
The Presidents of Mexico and Guatemala have expressed their own concerns. “It happens because there is trafficking of people and a lack of control, in this case at the Mexican-U.S. border, but also in the U.S. interior” said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Biden administration’s messaging on immigration has created “confusion” that human smugglers and traffickers have exploited, said Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei. Giammattei said smugglers know it’s easier to get people into the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration as a family, and that smugglers have used children, whether biological or not, to get their clients across the border.
Potential terrorism and drugs are a significant challenge with Biden’s policies. Border Patrol apprehended at least 23 people coming across the southern border whose names are on the terror watchlist in 2021. CBP seized 22 pounds of fentanyl earlier this month – two milligrams is enough to kill a person. 100,000 Americans died from overdoses last year, largely driven by Chinese fentanyl crossing the US-Mexico border. The Heritage Foundation says Biden’s policies are “making devastation and death the norm at our southern border”.
With an unprecedented humanitarian disaster and America’s national security at risk, when will Biden do something? People are dying and the concept of national citizenship is eroding. A majority of Latinos support keeping Title 42. Only a President bent on altering the demographics of America- at any cost- would go this far.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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8 July, 2022
TX Gov. Abbott authorizes troops to send illegal immigrants back to border
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday issued an executive order instructing the Texas National Guard to capture illegal immigrants in the U.S. and take them back to the southern border.
“I have authorized the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to begin returning illegal immigrants to the border to stop this criminal enterprise endangering our communities,” Abbott said in a press release announcing the order. “As the challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration.”
Thousands of Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety – who have already been deployed to the border via Abbott’s Operation Lone Star mission – will now have the authorization to apprehend “immigrants who cross the border between ports of entry or commit other violations of federal law, and to return those illegal immigrants to the border at a port of entry.”
Abbott blamed the Biden administration for not enforcing federal immigration laws, especially Article IV, § 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which lays out the federal government’s responsibility in protecting states against invasion.
Abbott said Texas has been forced to protect itself by building a border wall, mobilizing military troops, and other actions to repel the invasion of illegal immigrants.
“While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border,” Abbott said. “The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.”
The executive order cited reasons such as 42 terrorist-linked suspects on the terrorist watchlist arrested while trying to enter the U.S. since January 2021 and an unknown number of more who have successfully entered the U.S. without being detected. The order also cites the Biden administration’s ending of the Remain-in-Mexico policy – which required migrants stay in Mexico until their US asylum process could be approved – and efforts to end Title 42 expulsions, which is projected to result in up to 18,000 illegal immigrants entering the country each day.
Illegal immigration has continued at record-high levels and only appears to be increasing, according to CBP data. Abbott said 5,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended over the July 4th weekend alone. In Fiscal Year 2020, a total of 458,088 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southern border, compared to 1,734,686 in FY 2021. The first eight months of FY 2022 shows that 1,536,899 illegal immigrants have already been apprehended.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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7 July, 2022
Judge Jeanine Pirro slammed the Biden administration for destroying the country—Allowing deadly immigration policies and foreign enemies to destroy it
China ships the lethal drug Fytinall through the Mexican cartel and the Biden administration’s unchecked immigration crisis is sending the drug epidemic into a death spiral.
Pirro shouts, “the only person who’s destroying this country is Joe Biden. Joe Biden has made a decision that he wants 2 million, 4 million, 6 million illegal immigrants to enter this country.”
She continued, “And the problem is, if you remember, three years ago, if we said there was a surge at the border, we were racist. Well, now it is a damn invasion, all right? And it’s an invasion that the United Nations, of all people, says it’s the deadliest trip on Earth, all right? The problem is not just what’s happening to them on the way here.”
An infuriated Pirro concluded, “The problem is what is going on once they get here, the people who are coming here and, you know, are I’m not going to say they’re good, bad or indifferent.”
She continued: “I don’t know who the hell they are. I want to know what their record is. I want to know who’s a drug dealer. I want to know who’s a pedophile. I want to know who’s a drunk, who wants to kill his wife. I want to know all this stuff.”
Several Texas counties declared a border “invasion” on Tuesday in a move to pressure the state’s governor to issue a similar declaration.
The statement doesn’t grant the counties any kind of additional legal authority and may not even be legal — but officials hoped it would bring attention to the border crisis.
See also NBC Hosts Compare Biden To Rodney Dangerfield: He Get's No 'Respect'
“We’re being invaded. The facts are there,” said Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan at a press conference in Brackettville, Texas. “This is real. We want America to know this is real. America doesn’t know what’s happening here.”
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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6 July, 2022
UK: There's a huge new migrant issue unfolding. So why isn't there any real debate about THIS one?
By STEPHEN GLOVER
Some extraordinary figures about population growth were published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics, though they attracted very little comment from the BBC or much of the mainstream media.
Between 2011 and 2021, the population of England and Wales grew by a staggering 3.5 million, or about 6.6 per cent. Since during this period net migration was usually running at over 200,000 a year, and occasionally at more than 300,000, the main cause of the rapid expansion isn't hard to fathom.
Most of the population growth took place in the South-East, parts of London (up 22.1 per cent in Tower Hamlets, though there was a 9.6 per cent decline in Kensington and Chelsea) and Eastern England, where it rose by a whopping 8.3 per cent.
Imagine a city the size of Nottingham. Then one as big as Bristol. Add Birmingham. Then Manchester and Liverpool. Pop in Sheffield while you are at it. The combined population of these great cities roughly equates to the increase in the population of England and Wales that has taken place during a mere ten years.
Is it any wonder that vast tracts of the country, particularly in the already congested South and East, are being built and Tarmac-ed over to accommodate a surge in population growth, most of it driven by immigration?
Should we be surprised by the dire shortage of houses when, according to the excellent MigrationWatch whose forensic analysis is unparalleled, at least half the demand for new homes is accounted for by immigration?
Nor need we look very far to explain the pressure on schools, hospitals and GP surgeries which millions of us have experienced first-hand in most parts of the country. The decade that saw a population increase of 6.6 per cent was also a decade of austerity and government cutbacks.
Some people may say that I am referring to the pre-Brexit past. One of the main purposes of leaving the European Union was to get back control of our borders so that immigration could be regulated and controlled.
Yes, we have indeed 'taken back control'. The Government is in charge of our borders. But although there are no authoritative up-to-date figures, partly due to the pandemic, it is possible, if not likely, that immigration is running at near record levels.
In the year ending June 2021, net migration — i.e. the difference between those leaving the country and those arriving — was 239,000. That number was probably slightly limited by the effects of Covid. Nevertheless, it was still higher than the net migration figure for 2012 or 2013.
We won't know the Office for National Statistics net migration figure for the 12 months ending June 2022 until later in the year, but it is a fair bet that it will be considerably higher than that of a year ago.
According to separate Home Office statistics, visas were handed out in profusion in 2021 — 432,279 for students, 280,776 for family visas and 239,987 for work. Overall, EU migration has declined sharply as a proportion of the whole since Brexit, while non-EU migration has risen very significantly.
What strikes me as odd is that there has been almost no public discussion about apparently soaring levels of legal immigration, given that before the EU referendum in 2016 there was so much agonising over the issue.
By contrast, the Government is very exercised about the number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats, and plans to send some of them to Rwanda if it is able to face down the interfering European Court of Human Rights, and persuade our own judges that it is not inhumane to transport them.
The Government is, of course, right to be concerned by cross-Channel migration. The numbers are by no means insignificant: 28,526 people are known to have crossed in small boats last year, and there could be as many as 50,000 this year.
Moreover, this is an evil trade orchestrated by ruthless people-smugglers who, by putting asylum seekers in unseaworthy boats, expose them to the risk of capsizing and drowning.
So it is a big issue. The wonder, though, is that so much time and energy are spent debating about asylum seekers while few people have noticed the growing numbers of legal migrants that are arriving in this country.
These are certain to put further pressure on our already crumbling public services, as well as housing, where the Government seems unlikely to meet its manifesto target of building an additional 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
I naturally don't dispute that there are labour shortages which foreign, increasingly non-EU, workers are happy to fill. Despite some Remainer-inspired propaganda, under the Government's new points-based system it is easy for employers to recruit workers abroad for jobs that are relatively poorly paid.
Meanwhile, our universities, some of which are extremely mediocre, are doing their utmost to attract as many foreign students as possible, more than a quarter of whom are Chinese.
The business model of these reputed centres of learning relies on their attracting many thousands of students from abroad. Believe it or not, about 30 per cent of students at one university, namely Liverpool, are Chinese.
But what may be good for businesses happy to recruit industrious foreign workers, or for universities dependent on students from abroad, is not necessarily in the best interests of our already overcrowded island.
In many parts of England, people are fed up with overstretched, underfunded public services, and they don't want to see further swathes of their neighbourhoods concreted over.
In particular, the Government has seemingly given up on people who, while not officially categorised as being unemployed despite often receiving welfare payments, could be encouraged back into the labour market through a judicious combination of carrot and stick. There are reckoned to be several million of them.
But it is much easier for employers to dip into the limitless pool of ambitious and industrious workers who will cheerfully cross the world for a decent, though not necessarily very well-paid, job than it is to attract the long-term underemployed.
Four days after the June 2016 referendum, a prominent politician doubted in his newspaper column whether 'those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration'. It was, of course, Boris Johnson.
If he was attempting to play down the importance to many Leave voters of regaining control of our own borders, I fear that he was much mistaken, possibly fatally so.
Would it be too cynical to suggest that the Government welcomes the kind of displacement that is taking place? People are encouraged to believe that it is grappling with the problem of the Channel crossings while it is, in fact, ignoring the more alarming wider picture.
The Government may be able to get away with it for a while, but sooner or later what is really happening will begin to sink in. If net migration exceeds pre-Brexit levels over the next few years, as it seems on course to do, there may be hell to pay with voters.
Many of them will reasonably ask: what was the point of taking back control if we end up with something worse than we had before?
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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5 July, 2022
The big reason many Australians can’t afford a home: Immigrants
There is nothing wrong with the government bringing in selected imigrants who will pull their weight economically but bringing in immigrants at twice the rate that new homes are being built is asking for trouble and very unfair to our young first-home buyers. They pay the penalty for irresponsible government
Apartment towers are springing up like mushrooms where I live in Brisbane but even they are not enough to house the huge numbers of imigrants received in recent years. The pandemic slowed down the rate of immigration for a while but there are no plans to make that permanent
Why are houses so ridiculously expensive in Australia? This, and other expletive-laden questions, I shouted at my screen while scrolling through realestate.com recently.
Is it because of our high wages? Maybe it’s because of Baby Boomers? Or is this just the way the world works, so stop asking questions?
Alan Kohler of the ABC puts it down to interest rates. Writers at The Guardian blame a lack of social housing. And politicians mutter something about supply chain issues, then quickly change the subject. Insightful as always.
As with most things, the simplest answer is often the first one overlooked.
Dr Shane Oliver, Head of Investment Strategy and Economics and Chief Economist of AMP Capital writes:
‘Starting in the mid-2000’s annual population growth surged by around 150,000 people per annum and this was not matched by a commensurate increase in the supply of dwellings
‘The supply shortfall relative to population-driven underlying demand is likely the major factor in explaining why Australian housing is expensive compared to many other countries that have low or even lower interest rates.’
In non-economist speak, it’s supply and demand, stupid. Thanks largely to net-overseas migration, our population is growing faster than housing supply can ever keep up with.
Leith van Onselen, Chief Economist at Macro Business, echoes a similar sentiment, saying that though interest rates have had a major impact on recent rises, immigration is the longer-term driver of higher house prices in Australia.
‘Overseas migration rose from an average of 90,500 between 1991 and 2004, to 219,000 between 2005 and 2019… that’s 140 per cent annual average increase.’
Using data from the ABS, van Onselen finds a correlation between migrants overwhelmingly choosing to settle in Sydney and Melbourne, with an above-average rise in house prices in those areas.
Essentially, what van Onselen and Oliver have done is confirm a lot of people’s suspicions that growing our population without proper planning is dumb as nails and making people’s lives worse. Even monkeys could make better strategists.
Some might say that owning a house is a pretty integral part of, oh, let’s say civilisation. We know that upward pressure on housing prices puts downward pressure on wages, living standards, birth rates, and eventually, quality of life.
Why, then, is the topic utterly trivialised with shrugged shoulders and phoney solutions by our experts and leaders?
To paraphrase recent government policies: ‘Ha! Housing? Who cares! That’s the next generation’s problem. Up yours, kids.’
Indeed, the government either completely ignores the effects of migration on house prices, or they mindlessly promote it, citing the benefits of increasing consumer demand in an economy.
Yet presumably this ‘increased demand’ extends also to houses and rentals, not just things like chocolate bars and televisions. Oh, and not to mention the overbearing demand on infrastructure, roads, and health services. Is the air thinner in Canberra?
(Sardonically, they also state ‘improved social cohesion’ as one of the reasons for current migration levels, conveniently ignoring the fact that most Australians want less migration.)
Big business finds the government’s positive tone towards migration numbers highly agreeable. Of course they would, they’re the ones benefiting from it. To understand how, one simply needs to listen to their frequent and vocal calls for an even higher migration intake to do things like ‘boost productivity’ and, bizarrely, ‘increase wages’.
For years, Australians have asked for a reduction in migration so that housing, wages, and infrastructure can all have a much-needed breather. Yet time and again the government has blatantly ignored these calls, instead upping the numbers. If they’re not listening to us, maybe they’re listening to the people who benefit most from migration. You’ll find them on the donor list.
Money talks.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/07/the-big-reason-you-cant-afford-a-home/
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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4 July, 2022
SCOTUS ‘Remain in Mexico’ ruling paves the way for Biden to let EVERY migrant in
With the Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday letting President Joe Biden end his predecessor’s “Remain in Mexico” policy — which required migrants seeking to enter the US to stay on the other side of the southern border while awaiting hearings — the tools Donald Trump used to slow the flood of illegal migration are largely gone.
Worse still, with the end of Remain and a possibly dubious future for the Title 42 rule, which allows expulsions of illegal migrants as a COVID mitigation measure, the United States could be heading for a situation where nearly all migrants apprehended are released here.
In effect, an open southern border. Or “La Invitación” (as some call Biden’s posture) on steroids. Democrats simply have no plan other than “let them all in.”
That’s troubling, especially since it flouts the will of much of the nation. Indeed, illegal immigration is a big concern for Americans, with 60% saying they worry about it a great deal or a fair amount and 78% seeing a mass influx of illegal immigrants as a critical or an important threat. 58% report being very or somewhat dissatisfied with the current level of immigration, and 49% want to see that level stay the same or go down.
Whatever else Democrats want to claim about their stance on the issue, the numbers don’t lie: Their policies (official and unofficial) are not backed by the bulk of Americans. With good reason. Open borders bring major risks, especially at moments of looming economic crisis.
Democrats love to bray about making sure all voices are heard. On immigration, though, it’s clear they believe in rule by the elites — the little guy be damned.
https://nypost.com/2022/06/30/biden-will-let-every-migrant-in-after-remain-in-mexico-ruling/
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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3 July, 2022
Around 80 men, women and children are brought ashore in Dover today, after it's revealed more than 3,000 migrants crossed the English Channel in 75 small boats this month
Around 80 migrants crossed the English Channel by small boat today as official figures reveal more than 3,000 have made the treacherous journey this month.
The first group of around 40 people were brought to shore at Dover, Kent around 4am. A further 40 people were escorted into the harbour on board Border Force vessel Ranger shortly after midday.
The mostly-male group could be seen wrapped thick jackets and blue blankets after battling wet and windy conditions in the Channel. One man appeared to be suffering from the cold as he sheltered underneath the blanket.
Several small children were spotted among the group clasped close to their parents' chests, including an infant with a dummy in his mouth.
It comes as the Nationality and Borders Act came into force on Tuesday introducing the tougher sentencing for those who smuggle migrants into the UK - up from 14 years imprisonment.
The new rules also allow the government to strip foreign born offenders of their British citizenship, including the ability to deport people ahead of their release from prison.
Also, migrants arriving on small boats today have fewer rights and less access to public services as part of the Government's clampdown.
They were led along the gangway by soldiers dressed in camouflage fatigues to be processed by UK officials.
Over the course of June a total of 3,042 people took their lives in their hands as they crossed the 21-mile Dover Straits in 75 boats.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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1 July, 2022
Willful Blindness: Feds Ignore Illegal Alien ID Theft Plaguing Americans as U.S. Coffers Fill
The historic surge of illegal immigrants across America’s southern border is fueling a hidden crime spree few in Washington seem willing or able to address: widespread identity theft by migrants who need U.S. credentials to work.
An extensive review of government reports, think-tank research, news accounts, and interviews with policymakers and scholars suggests the problem involves millions of people – though measuring it with precision is difficult because of the lack of data provided by authorities.
A telling indication of the scope of the criminality is provided by a little-known government accounting book, the Social Security Administration’s Earnings Suspense File (ESF). It reflects the earnings of employees whose W-2 wage and tax statements have names and Social Security numbers that do not match official records. The total has increased tenfold from $188.9 billion at the dawn of the millennium to $1.9 trillion in 2021.
Officials have historically ascribed a "high proportion" of the file’s growth to wages reported by illegal immigrants, and it has swelled alongside their population, which stands at a conservatively estimated 11.5 million today, 7 million of whom are employed. Among those doing so on the books, federal authorities have found that well over 1 million are using Social Security numbers belonging to someone else – i.e. stolen or "shared" with a relative or acquaintance – or numbers that are fabricated.
The data held in the ESF would enable authorities to pursue many of the fraudsters, but the IRS and other agencies responsible for enforcing the law have been reluctant to investigate, and regulations have prevented meaningful information-sharing among them.
This identity-related crime is providing a windfall for the U.S. government. A 2017 study from the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform found that the federal government collects about $22 billion annually in tax receipts from illegal aliens, with the bulk going toward Social Security ($12.6 billion) and Medicare ($5.9 billion) – programs from which noncitizens are ineligible to receive benefits. FAIR estimated that illegal migrants also paid $3.3 billion in federal income tax – a smaller proportion primarily due to illegal aliens’ lower wage levels – and another $1 billion in state income taxes.
In other words, the fraud has the effect of bolstering financially shaky federal programs. In one of the agency’s rare direct statements on the issue, Social Security Administration Chief Actuary Stephen Goss told CNN in 2014 that without "undocumented immigrants paying into the system, Social Security would have entered persistent shortfall of tax revenue to cover payouts starting in 2009." Leading progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal echoed this observation in 2018, arguing that a "complication of [then-president] Trump’s plans to limit immigration is the effect to our Social Security Earnings Suspense File – money that keeps our Social Security system afloat," including money provided by "undocumented immigrants."
Given Washington’s bipartisan willingness to tolerate illegal immigration – whether driven by the multicultural left or businesses interests seeking cheap labor – authorities have focused on this apparent windfall to the U.S. Treasury. But they have largely ignored the costs. These include the significant strain illegal immigrant households place on public finances, which FAIR and others estimate vastly outweigh their tax contributions, their impacts on crime and the job market – and on the victims of identity theft.
Reports dating back over a decade show that hundreds of thousands of Americans are unknowingly "sharing" their Social Security numbers with illegal immigrants. Such victims may face tax bills for income they didn’t earn or depleted benefits. Worse, some may experience the burden of bad credit histories and criminal records inaccurately attributed to them after being issued SSNs that illegal aliens had previously invented and used. The overall impact on American citizens is largely unknown because federal, state, and local governments as well as financial institutions have generally failed to notify them even when fraud is suspected.
The relevant agencies were largely non-responsive to RealClearInvestigation’s requests for updated figures on the size, scope, and extent of the fraud. Nor have lawmakers recently given voice to the victims. Congress seems to have last held a hearing spotlighting the defrauded over a decade ago. Related legislation aimed at reducing Social Security number fraud in employment has typically languished, and many lawmakers RCI contacted indicated only a passing knowledge of the issue.
One thing experts do agree on is that the problem is likely to get worse as more illegal immigrants cross the border and seek work.
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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://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.
The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:
1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.
2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.
3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.
4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.
5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: You usually CAN buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.
6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.
My Home Pages are here (Academic) or here (Personal); My Home page supplement; My Alternative Wikipedia; My Blogroll; Menu of my longer writings; Subject index to my short notes. My annual picture page is here; My Recipes;
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