Arizona’s border port authorities issued a joint resolution Monday emphasizing the need for border security to sustain economic growth in the region.
The resolution came from the Douglas International Port Authority, the Greater Nogales and Santa Cruz County Port Authority, and the Greater Yuma Port Authority, with specific ideas during their Board of Directors joint session in Tucson.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday published an internal Border Patrol email her office obtained that provides guidelines to release foreign nationals being held at Customs and Border Patrol processing centers because they are at near full capacity, at full capacity or are already over capacity.
President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “have become so brazen that they are now implementing mass-release quotas for immigrants surging into our country,” Moody said. “As a federal judge already recognized, these releases are unlawful, yet the Biden administration is ordering Border Patrol to release even more immigrants into the interior.” Moody is referring to a lawsuit Florida brought against the administration and won.
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The Biden administration is expelling a lower percentage of migrants to Mexico compared to the month before Title 42, the Trump-era expulsion order, ended, NBC News reported Wednesday.
An average of roughly 1,000 migrants, which is about 14% of illegal migrants crossing the southern border daily in July, are being returned to Mexico each day since Title 42 ended May 11, according to NBC News. That number is down from roughly 3,000 expulsions, which is a daily average of 32% of illegal migrants, per day in April.
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The number of migrants with suspected terror ties encountered at U.S. “land border ports of entry” increased 15% in one month, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
A total amount of individuals who appear on the terrorist watchlist caught at ports of entry jumped from 382 to 442 after CBP publicly released its July 2023 operational data. So far into fiscal year 2023, 70 have been caught at the southwest border and 372 have been caught at the northern border.
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not yet convinced by his own party’s push to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to Politico.
More conservative House Republicans are finding it more difficult to get McCarthy, along with the more moderate members of the party, to join their efforts, Politico reported. Several House Republicans, including Pat Fallon of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have already filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday the Biden administration has denied him as a 2024 presidential candidate Secret Service protection.
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America First Legal Foundation sued the Biden administration Wednesday for allegedly concealing information regarding an FBI investigation into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to a copy of the complaint first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The lawsuit against both the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) asks that the agencies release the documents related to the Mayorkas probe, according to the complaint. The conservative group was previously denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the records regarding the FBI’s investigation into Mayorkas’ background.
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The Republican House agenda has in recent weeks been dominated by impeachment resolutions following testimony from former special prosecutor John Durham on the Russian collusion probe and IRS whistleblower revelations about the Hunter Biden investigation – with calls ranging from ousting Attorney General Merrick Garland to expunging the two impeachments President Trump received.
In addition to Garland, whom critics say runs a “two-tiered” justice system in America, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is also a target – largely over his handling of record migration and its often overwhelming consequences from U.S. borders to the rest of the country.
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There have been hundreds of known or suspected terrorists apprehended at the northern and southern borders in the current fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
As foreign nationals illegally enter the U.S. and are apprehended, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) agents screen them against a federal Terrorist Screening Dataset, which includes sensitive information about terrorist identities. It originated as a consolidated terrorist watch list “to house information on known or suspected terrorists, or KSTs, but has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watch-listed individuals,” CBP states.
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Medicaid emergency spending for illegal immigrants more than doubled from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2021, according to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green.
During a congressional hearing Wednesday on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ job performance, Green said more people have entered the U.S. illegally under his roughly two-year tenure “than in the 12 years of the Obama and Trump administrations combined.”
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An Afghan national on the federal Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) was apprehended attempting to enter the U.S. illegally near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California.
The TSDS is the federal government’s database that includes sensitive information about terrorist identities. It originated as a consolidated terrorist watch list “to house information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) but has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watch listed individuals,” CBP states.
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Border Patrol facilities that are holding migrants are largely over capacity at the southern border days ahead of the end of a Trump-era expulsion order, Title 42, according to an internal document the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively obtained from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official.
As of early Friday, Border Patrol had more than 20,000 migrants in custody, most of which are down south, according to the document. The document showed that seven southern border sectors are over 100% capacity.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is urging Congress to “begin impeachment proceedings immediately” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She cites several reasons to justify her request, including claiming he’s violated federal law, lied multiple times under oath before Congress, and is endangering American lives.
In a letter addressed to five Republican congressional leaders Tuesday, she urged them “to act to protect the American people and impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Secretary Mayorkas is directly responsible, and his actions have caused our unprecedented border crisis.”
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There is a fine line between stretched truth and outright lies. In a series of recent congressional hearings, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seems to have found that line and pitched his tent on it.
Mayorkas gave revealing testifimony Wednesday before both the Senate Appropriations Committee and a House Appropriations subcommittee.
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When the existence of the Disinformation Governance Board burst into public view, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there was nothing sinister to hide and claimed the office was rooted in “best practices.”
A year later, Mayorkas’ department is refusing to let Americans see most of the legal justifications and talking points it created to defend the now-disbanded board from “blowback,” FOIA documents showed.
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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the launch of a program to combat the surge in illicit fentanyl smuggling at the southern border.
Mayorkas announced “Operation Blue Lotus” Tuesday during a visit to the Port of Nogales, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has made large fentanyl seizures, to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) agents to the ports to help collect intelligence on drug cartels to create criminal cases against them. CBP illicit fentanyl seizures at the southern border for fiscal year 2023 are on pace to surpass fiscal year 2022’s seizure of roughly 14,000 pounds of the synthetic narcotic.
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Efforts to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis appeared to gain steam on Wednesday as the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee met to examine the “Biden Border Crisis.”
“Month after month, we have set records for migrants coming into the country, and frankly, I think it’s intentional,” said House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
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Wednesday, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote a bicameral letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, requesting an explanation of the Department’s careless decision to drastically expand immigration parole programs in the face of a historic border crisis. According to Vance, the American people have a right to know the reasoning behind the Biden Administration’s decision, as well as, more significantly, the legal basis for it.
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Leading Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives filed new legislation that would ban federal employees from working with big tech companies to censor Americans.
The bill comes as ongoing reports show that federal law enforcement and the White House have regularly communicated with social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, pressuring the companies to remove posts and accounts for a range of issues, including questioning the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Ahead of President Biden’s first trip to the southern border on Sunday in El Paso, Texas, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas again said the U.S. southern border is closed.
His comments came despite thousands of illegal border crossers pouring into the city, filling the airport, sidewalks, homeless shelters. Over the past few days, many were bused out of town and otherwise cleared out ahead of the president’s visit.
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During a recent hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Dan Bishop (R–NC) asked Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas, “Do you continue to maintain that the border is secure?” Mayorkas replied, “Yes, and we are working day in and day out to enhance its security.”
Contradicting that claim, objective measures show that the border is less secure than ever, and the situation is putting many thousands of lives at risk.
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Over its first nine months, the Biden administration removed 71% fewer locally arrested criminal aliens than were deported during a comparable period in 2019 under Donald Trump, according to a new study of state and local statistics — despite record illegal immigration numbers.
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House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas with impeachment Tuesday during a visit to the border in El Paso, Texas.
McCarthy, who is vying for the House speakership, said Republicans will push for Mayorkas’ impeachment if he refuses to step down. He was joined by several Republican colleagues, including Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents a southern border district, that made the trip to show support for Border Patrol.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus resigned Saturday night under pressure from President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, vacating a crucial post just two months before a new Congress is seated.
The White House announced the departure just days after Magnus was ordered to resign or be fired. He initially resisted but bent on Saturday.
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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas instructed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Chris Magnus to resign or face firing directly from President Joe Biden, Magnus told the Los Angeles Times.
Magnus has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who demanded his resignation in November following complaints from colleagues about his job performance, including that he fell asleep during meetings, as previously reported by Politico. He said Friday he’s refusing to back down from his post, according to the LA Times.
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The Biden administration is on pace to quickly meet its cap for a program to grant Venezuelan migrants legal entry just a few weeks after implementation, according to Reuters.
The U.S. has granted entry to around 7,000 migrants, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. The program, which began in early October, will allow a total of 24,000 Venezuelan migrants to enter legally.
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Republican Ranking House Judiciary Committee Member Jim Jordan told Biden administration authorities Tuesday to show how their agencies are obeying the Supreme Court’s June West Virginia v. EPA decision limiting the EPA’s power to unilaterally regulate emissions.
The court ruled in West Virginia v. EPA that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not set carbon dioxide emissions caps for power plants to force a national transition away from coal power without explicit congressional authorization. Jordan sent letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Kathi Vidal, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan asking whether their agencies are complying with the decision.
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The Department of Homeland Security has left open a special feature that allows government officials to flag Facebook posts for misinformation after scrapping a controversial advisory board tasked with developing guidelines for social media censorship, the Intercept reported Monday.
DHS announced plans for a Disinformation Governance Board to “develop guidelines, standards, guardrails to ensure that the work that has been ongoing for nearly 10 years does not infringe on people’s free speech rights, rights of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May, according to The Hill. While DHS shuttered the initiative after an onslaught of bipartisan opposition decrying the potential censorship, the Intercept found through an analysis of public and leaked documents that government efforts to police tech companies goes on.
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The Biden administration says it will take legal action after a court declared Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal Wednesday.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling “deeply disappointed” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said his department will work with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to devise an “appropriate legal response.” The case will go back to a lower court while nearly 600,000 DACA recipients currently in the U.S. will be able to remain in the program.
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Since President Joe Biden took office and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas altered federal immigration policies, roughly 5 million people from over 150 countries have entered the U.S. illegally.
This includes 3.9 million who have been apprehended entering the U.S. illegally nationwide and 3.4 million at the southern border. It also includes a minimum of 900,000 gotaways, those who’ve intentionally entered the U.S. illegally and evaded law enforcement who haven’t made asylum or immigration claims. The number of gotaways is significantly higher than what is reported and believed to be well over 1 million, Border Patrol agents and law enforcement officials have told The Center Square.
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Nineteen attorneys general, led by Arizona AG Mark Brnovich, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case the Biden administration is fighting after a federal judge in Texas ruled against it last month.
Texas and Louisiana sued over a Department of Homeland Security directive altering deportation policy.
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Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs sent a letter Friday to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the Department of Health and Human & Human Safety (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, demanding they cease transporting illegal alien minors across state lines to receive abortions.
“The Biden Administration is now savagely transporting alien minors in federal custody to receive abortions,” Biggs said in a press release. “This outrageous use of federal resources to transport minors across state lines for abortions or otherwise providing or facilitating abortions in DHS or HHS custody is a heinous act and must be stopped.”
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security “could do more to address the threats of domestic terrorism,” the Office of Inspector General concluded in a newly published report. The findings come after DHS has acknowledged that at least 50 people on the terrorist watch list have entered the U.S. illegally through the southern border since President Joe Biden has been in office.
The OIG found that DHS doesn’t have “staff dedicated to long term oversight and coordination of its efforts to combat domestic terrorism” and unless it puts in place “a cohesive long-term approach,” the agency charged with preventing terrorism “may not be able to proactively prevent and protect the Nation from this evolving threat.”
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The Department of Homeland Security celebrated Pride Month on Wednesday with an LGBTQI+ flag-raising ceremony, while Border Patrol agents are encountering record numbers of illegal migrants.
“While initially a holiday to honor the 1969 Stonewall uprising in response to police harassment and persecution of LGBTQI+ citizens, today’s celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts,” Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Christopher Magnus wrote in an email to Border Patrol agents, obtained by Just the News.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas may continue to insist the U.S. southern border is closed and secure — but President Joe Biden’s own Justice Department and its current FBI director are painting a picture of a border porous enough to tempt terrorists to assassinate a former president and drug cartels to operate with impunity.
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Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) began sharing his plans to make the Biden Administration secure the border on Saturday during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Benny Report.”
“We’re going to have to basically use every leverage point we have, and we’ve got a few coming up here, even in the minority. But we have to use every leverage point against Joe Biden and say you’re not going to get any spending; you’re not going to get anything you want unless you secure our border,” Biggs said.
Biggs also shared other plans he has for Biden administration officials.
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Anyone who follows politics is accustomed to the overuse of the word “reform.” It is almost always depicted as a highly desirable goal that will sweep away bad precedents and usher in a new era of smarter government policy.
Reform is often a good and necessary thing. But there are few words left more open to interpretation. Reform, depending on who is suggesting the change, can mean entirely different things even when applied to the same issue. This is especially true when it comes to immigration.
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While a federal court has stayed the Biden administration’s attempt to lift pandemic-prompted restrictions on immigrants pouring across the southern border, that is just one setback in a largely successful push by the president to make it easier for migrants to enter, live, and work in the U.S.
Since Joe Biden’s first day in office, when he signed seven executive orders on immigration that, among other things, suspended deportations and ended the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program that had eased the crush of those awaiting asylum hearings, the president has in word and deed sent signals that migrants have interpreted as welcoming. The initiatives include reviving the Obama-era policy known as “catch and release,” “paroling” illegal border crossers so they can enter the country, resettling migrants through secret flights around the country, and ending the “no match” policy that had helped the government identify people who were using fraudulent credentials to find work.
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DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security has set up a new board designed to counter what it deems to be “misinformation and disinformation” threatening the homeland.
The “Disinformation Governance Board” that will be tasked with patrolling the speech of Americans, will reportedly be headed by “disinformation expert” Nina Jankowicz, a fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington who formerly worked as an advisor to the Ukrainian government.
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It is clear that the Biden Administration has no intention of doing anything to stop the 15-month invasion by millions of illegal migrants at the southern border. In March, border apprehensions reached 221,000—a 22-year high. With the impending end of Title 42, the regulation that keeps people out under conditions of pandemic, the administration has figured out how to exacerbate the crisis. When Title 42 expires on May 23, we will have a surge of migrants (who can put together the $6,000 to $8,000 needed to pay cartels) overwhelming the southern border.
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Reports have emerged that Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives is planning to impeach Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in the event that they retake the majority in November’s midterm elections.
According to Axios, plans to impeach Mayorkas are already being laid out by the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative coalition in the House, with over 150 members. On Monday, an open letter was sent to Mayorkas that was signed by 133 members of the RSC, including Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Brian Babin (R-Texas.), co-chair of the Border Security Caucus; although the letter did not mention impeachment, it nevertheless made the case by listing a number of complaints that the group has about Mayorkas’ open-borders and mass amnesty approach to immigration.
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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is planning to roll out a mass amnesty plan for approximately 1.7 million illegal aliens who are currently in courtroom backlogs awaiting deportation.
Breitbart reports that the plan will see officials use the massive backlog as an excuse to justify handing out work permits, green cards, and other forms of amnesty to the illegals, in order to reduce the amount of work, time, and resources that the government would have to otherwise spend dealing with the backlog.
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Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Jan. 27 demanding that he stop allowing illegal migrants to travel through U.S. airports over a TSA policy permitting them to use arrest warrants as identification.
“Until there is a federal commitment to securing the border and enforcing existing laws, our office requests that you prohibit travel through U.S. airports by any migrant that is illegally here,” Brnovich wrote.
“It is an affront to the most basic common sense to allow anyone to use an ‘arrest warrant’ as acceptable identification to pass through government security,” he said.
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Republican lawmakers have demanded the Biden administration answer questions regarding alternate forms of identification the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it accepts from migrants traveling throughout the country.
Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, along with 21 other Republican lawmakers, sent a letter Wednesday to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas raising concerns over a number of DHS documents migrants can use as identification, including certain arrest warrants, and the methods through which they are vetted.
The letter, exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, also seeks information on how border patrol agents and others are able to verify a migrant’s identity when issuing the documents in the first place.
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Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls is speaking up about the recent surge of migrants in the Yuma sector on Arizona’s border with Mexico, explaining why it’s occurring and recommending solutions. He believes there are several factors contributing to the 2,405% increase in migrant apprehensions, and says there are both long-term and short-term ways to resolve the problem.
“The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy of the Trump administration was ordered put back in place by the courts, but that has not fully happened,” he told The Arizona Sun Times. “In 2019 and 2020, there were 50 to 60 migrants a day being returned under the policy. Now, there are only about 10 a day. With 1,000 coming across the border daily now, that’s only 1%.”
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The Biden administration is drowning on issue after issue, and many of the bubbles are coming from the Rio Grande River. The problem, which dare not speak its name, is illegal immigration. The administration, its political party, and the mainstream media refuse to say the very word “illegal.” For a while, they called it “undocumented,” pretending the migrants somehow forgot their papers in the top dresser drawer in Guatemala or Haiti. Now, even that bland phrase is deemed too clear and honest. The new woke term is “irregular immigration.” Anything to minimize the problem, sway public opinion, and avoid plain talk.
The obfuscation goes much further than a few phrases. Consider Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ testimony to Congress last week, where he faced awkward questions about the administration’s decision to stop building the border wall, including portions that had already been contracted and paid for. Mayorkas’ reply, “We are not going to construct a border wall along the ragged and jagged cliffs along certain parts of the border.”
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The Biden administration said it’s no longer releasing migrants into the U.S. without court dates, CNN Politics reported Tuesday.
Migrants will be issued formal notices to appear in an immigration court when released from federal custody instead of notices to report, which direct them to check in with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, according to CNN.
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On Friday, Customs and Border Patrol agents received instructions on a new policy: Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security would no longer allow deportations of Nicaraguan illegal aliens under Title 42, a clause within the 1944 Public Health Services Law that “allows the government to prevent the introduction of individuals during certain public health emergencies.”
All Nicaraguans entering the U.S. illegally, with some exceptions related to criminal history, will be released directly into the U.S. as of Friday afternoon, Just The News has learned.
The order to all CBP agents was issued verbally on a conference call. Official orders in writing are expected soon. The Department of Homeland Security has not issued a statement, nor has CBP.
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Rep. Andy Biggs (R-05-AZ) and Rep. James Comer (R-01-KY) sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers regarding new “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law” that they assert hamper the ability of ICE agents to enforce immigration laws. They warn that the new guidelines will restrict enforcement even more than the interim guidance which was implemented in January, which caused arrests and removals to plummet by more than 60 percent.
Biggs called to remove Mayorkas in a statement accompanying the letter, “These guidelines are an affront to the rule of law and will only further incentivize illegal immigration. Instead of preventing ICE from enforcing the law, the Biden administration should be empowering them to keep our country safe. Moreover, Secretary Mayorkas should be removed from his position of authority immediately for implementing crisis-creating policies.”
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In a controversial passage in Plato’s Republic, Socrates introduced the idea of the “noble lie” (“gennaios pseudos”).
A majestic fiction, he says, could sometimes serve society by persuading uninformed citizens of something good for them.
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