VIDEO: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Speaks About Release of Jeffrey Epstein’s Secret Grand Jury Testimony

In a Business Insider column titled “DeSantis signs law to release records that could explain why Jeffrey Epstein got minimal charges in Florida and  report,

  • Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bipartisan bill into law that unearth more Jeffrey Epstein records.
  • The law will allow for the release of records from a 2006 Florida grand jury.
  • Prosecutors allowed Epstein to plead guilty to only a single prostitution solicitation charge.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a bipartisan bill into law that could finally answer the lingering questions about 2006 grand jury probe that charged Jeffrey Epstein with just one criminal count.

“This is long overdue, but, again, we feel that we just can’t turn a blind eye,” DeSantis said shortly before signing HB 117 into law at a ceremony in Palm Beach. The law goes into effect July 1.

A Palm Beach grand jury investigation, which resulted in just one criminal count, of prostitution solicitation, has long been at the center of controversy for allowing Epstein to escape accountability for raping and sexually abusing girls.

Prosecutors decided to bring just a single victim before the grand jury even though law enforcement had concluded that Epstein sexually abused more than 30 girls, according to Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown’s book “Perversion of Justice.” A compensation program established following Epstein’s death identified 136 of his victims. More recent litigation, against banks that were alleged to facilitate Epstein’s sex-trafficking, put the figure at closer to 200 victims.

Continue reading.

WATCH: Ron DeSantis speaks out on new law that will release Jeffrey Epstein grand jury testimony

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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Hunter And His Uncle Can’t Get Their Story Straight About Key Meeting With Joe Biden

James Biden’s Feb. 21 closed-door congressional testimony conflicted with testimonies given by both Hunter Biden and Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter’s.

James Biden says a meeting between him, Hunter, Bobulinski and Joe Biden at a California hotel during the 2017 Milken Institute conference never occurred, according to a transcript of his February testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Hunter Biden, however, attested that he, James, Bobulinski and his father did in fact meet at a hotel bar during his Wednesday testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

Hunter Biden testified that he, Bobulinski and his uncle were drinking coffee in a hotel bar at 11 p.m. while waiting to meet with Joe Biden. Once Joe Biden arrived, he shook hands with Bobulinski, and the two spoke, according to Hunter’s testimony.

Hunter was unable to recall any details of the conversation between Bobulinski and his father beyond them talking about Bobulinski’s family member who was suffering from cancer.

Bobulinski claims to remember more details about the conversation.

Joe Biden met with the trio to discuss a business deal related to CEFC China Energy, a Chinese Communist Party-linked corporation, according to Bobulinski’s Feb. 13 testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Bobulinski said “the only reason I was there” was to talk business with the Bidens.

Joe Biden claimed in August 2023 he never “talked business” with Hunter’s associates.

James Biden, when asked about the alleged conversation with Joe Biden, said, “that I know did not happen.”

James Biden claimed that he “could have been there just with Tony Bobulinski” and that he “could have been there with Hunter as well” but that Joe Biden “was never there.”

James Biden previously denied having anything to do with Hunter’s CEFC China Energy dealings but changed his story when investigators presented him with a copy of an agreement featuring his signature alongside Hunter Biden and his business associates.

James Biden brushed off the possible reputational damage to his family over their Chinese business dealings, citing “plausible deniability,” according to Bobulinski’s testimony.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Biden Campaign Co-Chair Suggests Deporting Illegal Immigrants Would Hurt The Economy

Democratic Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar on Friday suggested that deporting illegal immigrants would have adverse economic consequences.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both visited the border and delivered remarks on Thursday. Escobar, co-chair of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, criticized Trump’s rhetoric and underscored the economic importance of immigrants in the workforce, advocating against deporting them on “CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta.”

“Democrats have been willing over the decades to not just address border security as a whole, but also to address our workforce needs and to make sure that we remain a country of immigrants. Immigration is good for us economically,” Escobar asserted. “Republicans have created the current situation and we need solutions. But what Trump is signaling is horrific. He really does want to take us back to an era where people feared being in their own country simply because they belong to a minority group.”

WATCH:

Illegal immigration has massively increased under Biden as millions of migrants from around the world cross the southern border. One of Biden’s first actions in office was to issue executive actions revoking Trump-era border policies, including the Muslim travel ban and the border wall project.

“He‘s willing to violate the Constitution, violate our civil rights, violate constitutional rights,” Escobar told Acosta. “And let me tell you, it is impossible to deport every undocumented person in this country. There simply are not the resources nor is it advantageous to us. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen the reports, Jim, that it has been immigrant labor, the immigrant workforce that has actually propped up our economy. The challenge we face is that Congress has not created legal pathways for them.”

AUTHOR

JASON COHEN

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Federal Judge Blocks New Texas Law to Arrest Illegal Immigrants

G-d help us.

Federal Judge Blocks New Texas Law to Arrest Illegal Immigrants

By Jack Phillips, NTD, February 29, 2024:

Federal Judge Blocks New Texas Law to Arrest Illegal Immigrants

A Border Patrol agent guides illegal immigrants that crossed into Shelby Park into a Border Patrol van to be taken to a processing center in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 4, 2024.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a Texas law that grants state police the capacity to arrest people who are suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.–Mexico border.

The measure, called Senate Bill 4 and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in December, was slated to go into effect on March 5, but U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy clause that grants the federal government sole authority over immigration matters. The judge also rejected Texas’s arguments that it was being invaded under the Constitution’s Article IV.

In his order, Judge Ezra, a Reagan appointee, said the law would run afoul federal immigration laws and claimed Texas would then be able to “permanently supersede federal directives” and would “amount to nullification of federal law and authority.” According to the judge, that’s a “notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War.”

As a result, he argued, the federal government would “suffer grave irreparable harm” because other states would be inspired to pass similar measures. “SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” he wrote.

At a Feb. 15 hearing, Judge Ezra expressed skepticism as the state pleaded its case for what is known as Senate Bill 4. He also said he was somewhat sympathetic to the concerns expressed by Mr. Abbott and other state officials about the unprecedented influx of illegal aliens. Judge Ezra then added that he feared the United States could become a confederation of states enforcing their own immigration laws.

“That is the same thing the Civil War said you can’t do,” he told the attorneys.

A lawyer for the state of Texas argued in court that due to the deluge of illegal immigrants, enabled by drug cartels and smugglers, it is tantamount to an invasion and that Texas has the right to defend itself under the Constitution.

But the judge said that while he is “sympathetic” to the state’s concerns, he appeared to be skeptical of the lawyer’s argument. “I haven’t seen, and the state of Texas can’t point me to any type of military invasion in Texas,” Judge Ezra said. “I don’t see evidence that Texas is at war.”

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Shameful Silencing of Foes of Jihad Violence and Sharia Oppression of Women

Brendan O’Neill is right: “The intention is as clear as it is repellent: to send the message that it isn’t Islamism that’s the problem – it’s ‘Islamophobia.’” But this endeavor has been going on far longer than the brouhaha over Lee Anderson.

It goes back to incidents such as the British government’s persecution of Tommy Robinson and the banning of foreign foes of jihad violence and Sharia oppression from entering the country.

Many, if not most, of the “respectable” critics of “radical Islam” had little or nothing to say about those incidents, and now they, and Britain at large, are reaping the rewards of their cowardice and pusillanimity.

The shameful silencing of radical Islam’s critics

by Brendan O’Neill, Spiked, February 25, 2024:

What Tory MP Lee Anderson said this week was dumb. But what the cultural elites are doing on the back of Anderson’s comments is outright sinister.

They are using his outburst about ‘the Islamists’ having ‘control’ over London mayor Sadiq Khan to distract attention from the very real threat Islamists pose in 21st-century Britain. They are holding him up as oafish proof that the ‘real threat’ is the ‘far right’ and ‘Islamophobes’ – gruff gammon like him – not those mystical ‘Islamists’ people keep banging on about. They are exploiting the Anderson scandal to achieve something they’ve wanted to achieve since the 7 October pogrom and the orgy of bigotry it licensed in Britain and other Western nations – that is, shift the public’s attention away from Islamism and back to ‘Islamophobia’. It is one of the most cynical political manoeuvres of modern times….

And yet, for all their daftness, the reaction to Anderson’s comments has felt wildly overblown. Not to mention transparently self-serving. Political influencers have not contented themselves with criticising him, or branding him a raging Islamophobe, if that’s what they want to do. No, they’ve made him into the archetype of ‘Islamophobic Britain’. They’ve crowned him King Gammon, who merely gives voice to a phobic derangement that is all-pervasive. The irony is too much – they damn the conspiracist mindset that sees Islamists as the puppeteers of public life while promoting their own unhinged theory that actually it’s Islamophobes who haunt every corridor of power.

Khan says Anderson’s blather is symptomatic of a ‘massive increase in Islamophobia’. The Scottish first minister, Humza Yousaf, says Anderson’s comments are proof of ‘how acceptable and pervasive Islamophobia has become in our society’. We now know that ‘Islamophobia is rampant in the Tories’, says the Guardian’s Owen Jones.

This giddy extrapolation from one loudmouth’s musings on a TV show to the end of tarring the entire nation as ‘Islamophobic’ is not only cynical – it’s ominous. The intention is as clear as it is repellent: to send the message that it isn’t Islamism that’s the problem – it’s ‘Islamophobia’. Worse, Anderson-bashers are implying, if not outright stating, that critics of Islamism pose a larger threat to the nation than Islamism itself. Especially its right-wing critics, those ‘far right’ goons like Anderson and Braverman, as they crazily view those outspoken Tories. We are witnessing nothing less than a top-down cultural assault on truth – the truth here being that radical Islam is indeed a major threat to life, limb and democracy….

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Illegal Immigrants Continue to Commit Violent Crimes as Sanctuary Cities Reassess Policies

Violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants continue to rise throughout the country, resulting in American citizens being attacked, raped, and murdered. Experts are noting that these are the same migrants who receive taxpayer-funded health care, housing, education, food, and more.

The most high-profile story making news is last week’s murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley. She was a young nursing student at Augusta University who never returned from her jog Thursday morning because she was brutally murdered by who police believe to be a man named Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is also an illegal immigrant.

Not only does Ibarra have a criminal record in the U.S. since arriving illegally, but his brother does as well. Ibarra has been charged with theft, child endangerment, and murder, among other crimes. And his brother, Diego Ibarra, along with stealing, was recently caught giving police a fake green card with two different birth dates on it. This happened after he was stopped by police for driving while drinking beer — which the migrant told the officer was his seventh since he’d been behind the wheel.

On Monday, police in Maryland charged Nilson Trejo-Granados, one of five suspects, for the first and second-degree murder of two-year-old Jeremy Poou Caceres. Before being arrested for murder, Trejo-Granados was charged with theft in March 2023.

On February 20, Angel Matias Castellanos-Orellana allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint, and on February 25, he repeatedly stabbed a man in the face and back, demanding the man give him his property. According to The Post Millennial, “He was arrested and booked on armed robbery, aggravated battery, first-degree rape, and aggravated assault and a federal ‘ICE’ detainer was also issued for him.”

In addition, last month a group of alleged illegal immigrants viciously attacked New York City police officers in Times Square. As crimes committed by illegal immigrants skyrocket, some sanctuary cities are starting to reassess their policies. In fact, it was this beating in NYC that caused Mayor Eric Adams (D) to say during a townhall meeting, “Those who are committing crimes, we need to modify the sanctuary city law. If you commit a felony, a violent act, we should be able to turn you over to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE and have you deported.”

And the Big Apple isn’t the only city backtracking. According to The Daily Wire, “The city council of Aurora, which sits just east of Denver, approved a resolution in a 7-3 vote on Monday demanding that large groups of migrants not be transported there since it is unable to fund new services for migrants or homeless people.”

In addition to a call to “secure our nation’s border,” the resolution said: “The City Council affirms remaining a Non-Sanctuary City and asserts the City does not currently have the financial capacity to fund new services related to this crisis and demands that other municipalities and entities do not systematically transport migrants or people experiencing homelessness to the City.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said on “Washington Watch” Wednesday that these harsh and dangerous circumstances only highlight “the damage inflicted by the Left’s public policy decisions [and] their open borders.” Congressman Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, agreed, noting that these policies have allowed “some nefarious people … across the border.”

McCormick pointed out that Venezuela currently has a record low crime rate. “Why do you think it is?” he asked. It’s because Venezuela is “getting rid of their criminals” by sending them to the U.S. through the open border, he said. “Bad people are crossing the border. … We have record numbers of deaths from fentanyl. We have record amount of child trafficking, rape, [and] murder. … I’ve been talking about it for years. This is a significant problem.”

He added, “If you’re coming to this country and committing crimes, and then you continue to commit crimes and have been released, what are we doing?” A major issue facing America, McCormick shared, is that these illegal immigrants and violent criminals are being released as if they’re “regular citizens.” But “they’re not,” he said. “They’re here illegally. … This should be an ICE issue,” because when an illegal immigrant gets arrested, “they get sent back to their country. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the law. Imagine following the law.”

Perkins noted that the Left is notorious for also making claims that we shouldn’t “politicize the murder of a 22-year-old student” like Laken Riley by connecting it to illegal immigration. But, he wondered, “How else do we look at this? This is their policies. This is the outcome that we’re seeing from their open border policies. How else can you look at it?”

“There’s so many ramifications for lawlessness that we’ve allowed to take place at our southern border,” Perkins stated. And that will only end, McCormick concluded, if we continue to “fight the good fight.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘A Biden Invasion’: Trump and Biden’s Border Speeches Make ‘An Extraordinary Contrast’

President Donald Trump and Joe Biden offered dueling speeches at the nation’s southern border on Thursday, but geography proved all they had in common. Standing on Texas soil a mere 325 miles apart, their policies came from different political universes. President Trump promised the supportive people and Border Patrol agents of Eagle Pass he would reinstate the policies that undeniably gave the U.S. the most secure border in generations. Meanwhile in Brownsville, Biden and a collection of Democratic politicians sought to shift the blame for our open border to his Republican rivals.

“You’re in a war,” Trump told those gathered at the current epicenter of U.S. illegal immigration, a town where thousands of illegal border crossings take place every week. “This is a Biden invasion over the last three years.”

Biden “has destroyed our country,” said Trump before turning startlingly specific.

“Last year, almost half of all ICE arrests were criminal aliens charged for more than 33,000 assaults, 3,000 robberies, 6,900 burglaries, 7,500 weapons crimes — this is all migrant crime — 4,300 sex crimes, 1,600 kidnappings, and 1,700 homicides and murders.” Tellingly, the legacy media’s numerous “fact-checks” of Trump’s speech found no error in these grim statistics.

President Biden had nothing to offer but political finger-pointing, fastening the blame for his administration’s immigration crisis on Republicans who opposed full-blown amnesty. “On my first day as president,” Biden said, “I introduced a bill I sent to Congress, a comprehensive plan to fix the broken immigration system and to secure the border, but no action was taken.” The bill he sent — the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, introduced by disgraced Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) — would have been the largest amnesty bill in U.S. history. Biden explained his bill would have put nearly all illegal immigrants on “a path to citizenship” or legal status within no more than eight years, spent billions in foreign aid to address supposed “root causes” of migration and expanded the visa lottery system. The American people have consistently rejected another amnesty program for two decades.

Biden then hailed a “bipartisan group of senators” on a new Ukraine funding bill, which he claims contains “the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in our country.” In reality, the bill would simply supercharge the velocity at which the torrent of alleged “refugees” would be processed — and released — into the United States.

While Biden blamed the GOP (and, implicitly, the American people) for a crisis of his own making, he said nothing about the concrete actions he took that necessitated his PR stop.

How Joe Biden Destroyed U.S. Border Security

Joe Biden has proposed or enacted a panoply of policies opening America’s border, and enticing throngs of illegal immigrants to cross the U.S. border even before he took office. During the 2020 Democratic primaries, Biden promised illegal immigrants who could reach our soil would receive health care funded by the U.S. taxpayer. He campaigned on giving illegal immigrants amnesty. He even demanded a border “surge.”

“I would in fact make sure that we immediately surge to the border all those people who are seeking asylum,” said Biden at a Democratic primary debate. “You should come.” In a rare fulfilled political promise, throngs of illegals immediately arrived in Biden campaign t-shirts emblazoned with the message, “Biden please let us in.”

Candidate Biden vowed, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed” during his presidency. President Biden instantly halted construction and welded its gates open, only to modestly reverse himself last October. In the meantime, Biden forced U.S. taxpayers to pay at least $47 million — $130,000 a day — to store the unused parts of the border wall, which he proceeded to auction off for pennies on the dollar.

Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in office with a keen eye to opening the U.S. border. He reinstated catch-and-release. Most consequentially, Biden ended Trump’s successful Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), conventionally known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy on June 1, 2021. He then suspended Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows rapid removal of illegal immigrants on the grounds of the COVID-19 pandemic at the same time he claimed the pandemic was still ravaging the U.S.

Biden effectively ended deportations, even of criminal aliens. In the entire Biden administration through last March, Biden deported less than 6,000 of the more than two million illegal aliens released onto U.S. streets, or just over zero percent, according to the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. He further gutted protections last April, reducing the number of questions border enforcement officers may ask illegal immigrants, from 40 to five.

Biden proceeded to order federal agents to cut through barbed wire keeping illegal immigrants out of the southern border and literally sued the state of Texas to stop Governor Greg Abbott (R) from doing President Biden’s job.

The disastrous results of Biden’s policies are clear.

How Americans Are Paying for Biden’s Border Disaster

A record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants have crossed the U.S. borders (northern and southern) every year of his presidency — each year worse than the last. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded:

  • 1,956,519 illegal border crossings in fiscal year 2021.
  • 2,766,582 in FY 2022.
  • 3,201,144 in FY 2023.
  • 1,231,213 since last October 1.

When Border Patrol agents add in “gotaways,” they safely estimate a total of 10 million illegal border crossings during the Biden administration — more than the population of 41 states. That ignores the fact that Yale University researchers estimated the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. at 16 to 29 millionbefore Biden took office.

These illegal immigrants were drawn like a magnet by Biden’s offers of taxpayer-subsidized benefits and U.S. citizenship for themselves or their “dreamer” children. “We weren’t promising free education, free medical, free everything,” said Trump on Thursday. “All the promises that are made, no wonder they come.” Even if Kamala Harris halfheartedly mouths the words, “Do not come,” the Biden-Harris administration has already laid out an enticing welfare welcome mat.

Illegal immigrants now hail from “every single country in the world.” Agents report a 5,000% increase in the number of illegal aliens entering the U.S. from China over a three-year period.

Biden’s border surge includes a small-but-significant number: Border Patrol agents have encountered 1,557 people on the U.S. terror watchlist (technically, the Terrorist Screening Dataset, or TSDS) since fiscal year 2021. The 59 suspected terrorists caught this fiscal year exceeds the total number than during the entire Trump administration. The number of terror-tied illegal immigrants intercepted during the Biden administration is 10 times higher than the number that used to give Obama-Biden terror official Tim Healy “sleepless nights.”

When illegal border-crossers do not commit acts of terrorism, their crime sprees prove just as deadly to native-born Americans. In just the last few days, the category of offenses Trump deemed “Biden migrant crimes” include:

  • Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, a nursing student whose skull was bashed in by an illegal immigrant.
  • An 11-year-old girl raped and murdered in Pasadena, Texas.
  • two-year-old boy killed in cold blood in Maryland;
  • Three police officers in Washington, D.C., shot by an illegal immigrant from Jamaica.

“Joe Biden will never say Laken Riley’s name. We will say it, and we will remember it,” said Trump on Thursday. Add the fact that the Biden administration admits it has simply lost 85,000 children, possibly to abusers or traffickers, and it is hardly surprising Trump said, “The blood of countless innocent victims” is on Biden’s hands.

Biden’s border policies cost Americans their blood and treasure. Illegal immigrants posed a net cost of $150.7 billion to U.S. taxpayers in 2023 alone, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Leaving aside all other social costs, Biden spent as much money resettling purported “refugees” in his first two years in office as it would have cost to finish the border wall (approximately $20 billion). Biden chose insecurity, murder, and chaos over American lives.

While Biden’s border policies literally and figuratively bleed Americans, they have “generated historic profit margins” for the drug-and-human-smuggling cartels. The cartels that control the border earn $32 million a week smuggling illegals across the Del Rio sector of the border alone, the House Judiciary Committee revealed last month. The drug cartels to which Biden ceded authority over the border are now so deeply mired in human trafficking that it has “become central to their business model,” according to a report from the House Committee on Homeland Security.

No wonder the president of the Border Patrol union, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, said Thursday, “Border Patrol agents are upset that we cannot get the proper policy that is necessary to protect human life, to protect American citizens, to protect the people that are crossing the border illegally. We want to protect them, as well. And we can’t do that, because President Biden’s policies continue to invite people to cross here.” (Emphasis added.)

Surveying the two speeches, Governor Abbott declared, “Today is a day of an extraordinary contrast.” Biden made “an obligatory visit” to “some sanitized location in the Brownsville” area, because “Biden does not care about Texas or the border.”

Abbott recited a litany of actions he has taken — from declaring a border invasion, to erecting barbed wire fencing and orange buoys, to busing illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities, to calling in the Texas National Guard and appointing his own border czar.

In Thursday’s speeches, President Donald Trump hailed Abbott as he promised to return to the sanity of defending America’s borders, values, and laws. Meanwhile, Joe Biden dodged accountability and promoted policies that would worsen the problem.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Georgia House Committee Passes Bill to Require Every Police and Sheriff’s Department to Arrest Illegals and Detain For Deportation

The Georgia House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee has passed a bill to require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants, arrest them, and detain them for deportation.

This comes after police arrested a Venezuelan man, Jose Ibarra, for allegedly beating a nursing student to death on the University of Georgia campus.

Mr. Ibarra is a Venezuelan citizen who, immigration authorities say, unlawfully crossed into the United States in 2022.

Georgia House passes bill requiring police to help arrest immigrants after student’s killing

By  The Associated Press

Georgia House Republicans are backing a bill that would require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants, arrest them and detain them for deportation.

The House voted 97-74 on Thursday for House Bill 1105 after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a nursing student to death on the University of Georgia campus. The measure moves to the state Senate for more debate.

Jose Ibarra was arrested Friday on murder and assault charges in the Thursday death of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Ibarra, 26, is a Venezuelan citizen who immigration authorities say unlawfully crossed into the United States in 2022. It is unclear whether he has applied for asylum.

Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus, after starting her college career at the Athens campus of the University of Georgia. She was found dead Feb. 22 after a roommate reported that she didn’t return from a morning run in a wooded area.

The bill would also set new requirements for how jail officials should check with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine whether people are known to be in the country illegally. Republican state Rep. Jesse Petrea of Savannah said that clause is needed to enforce existing state law requiring sheriffs to check with ICE on people who don’t appear to be American citizens.

“Fixing policy in the face of unspeakable tragedy is not politics,” said Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican. “It’s doing the right thing to ensure something like this never occurs again.”

Sheriffs deny they are disregarding the law to check with ICE. The bill would make sheriffs who don’t check immigration status guilty of a misdemeanor. The bill would also deny state funding to jails and sheriffs that don’t cooperate.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EAGLE PASS, TEXAS: President Donald J. Trump ‘We’re going to take care’ of the dangerous border!

President Donald J. Trump visited Eagle Pass, Texas,  ground zero and the epicenter for criminal illegal aliens crossing the border.

Eagle Pass, Texas has become a symbol of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.’s now clear policy to destroy America, its culture and it people by flooding our nation with millions of cartel members, criminals, Chinese Communists, and Islamic terrorists who hate us and our Constitutional republic.

President Trump during his visit to Eagle Pass, Texas confirmed that he spoke with the parents of Laken Riley. Laken Riley was a student at the University of Georgia who was brutally murdered by an illegal alien from Venezuela.

While President Donald J. Trump visited Eagle Pass, Texas, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. visited Brownsville, Texas.

Here’s why Biden avoided Eagle Pass, Texas

President Donald J. Trump at the Eagle Pass, Texas border 

Here are a series of posts on X of President Donald J. Trump at Eagle Pass, Texas where he met with Governor Abbott, Franklin Graham, the Texas National Guard, and U.S. border patrol agents:

The Bottom Line

It is now clear that there are only two choices on the 2024 Presidential ballot.

  1. Voting for Biden who wants our borders to remain open and he wants to use American taxpayers dollars to financially support millions of cartel members, criminals, Chinese Communists, and Islamic terrorists who hate us and our Constitutional republic.
  2. Voting for President Donald J. Trump who wants to close the border, build the wall, deport millions of cartel members, criminals, Chinese Communists, and Islamic terrorists who hate us and our Constitutional republic,  in order to make Americans and America great again.

This post on X says it best:

Choose wisely on November 5th, 2024.

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES:

CHUCK DEVORE: Dueling Visits Show Biden’s Border Crisis Is The Defining Issue Of 2024

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‘Doesn’t Have A Clue’: Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick Rips Biden’s Border Guidance, Lays Out What State Would Do

‘To Let More People In?’: Judge Jeanine Snaps After Dem Panelist Says Biden Needs Congress To Solve Border Crisis

RELATED VIDEO: Donald Trump: This is the ‘worst border ever in the history of the world’

An Election Integrity Analogy: Good Efforts do NOT assure Good Results

When faced with a complicated, multi-faceted problem like election integrity, it’s often easier to get a much better grasp of it by using an analogy…

home remodeling project might be a good comparison. Let’s say we have a 250-year-old, 3-story home, that has exceptional historical significance. (For example, let’s imagine that in this home a group of patriots met and drafted up the first version of the Constitution!) Additionally, it is an architecturally beautiful building.

Although the home mostly has “good bones,” it has fallen on hard times due to decades of neglect, disputes of ownership, self-serving actions by caretakers, etc.

Some of the current issues are: dilapidated siding, deuterating porches, large holes in the roof, a woefully inadequate electrical system, antiquated plumbing, floors that need refinishing, walls that must be painted or repapered, etc. Although the foundation needs minor attention, it still seems to be solid.

Since no one else is doing anything meaningful about this property (other than a lot of talk, blame, and obfuscation), a group of patriotic citizens decides that they will step in.

These selfless volunteers get permission and then (at their own expense!) energetically do the following: start cleaning up the mess, wallpapering and painting walls, sanding floors, upgrading the electrical system, installing new plumbing, fixing broken windows, repairing porches, pointing chimneys, and improving the landscaping.

Do you see any problems here in my made-up analogy?

I’ve phrased it in such a way that it’s clear that there is no professional oversight to organize and direct these excellent efforts, in an appropriate, effective way. For example, renovation of such a property needs to be done in the proper sequence. In this case, it is a waste of time, effort and money to be finishing interior walls and floors before ALL of the needed plumbing and electrical work is done.

The biggest error in this analogy is also a sequential failure. The number one priority of this renovation MUST be to fix the roof. Almost any work on the interior is likely wasted until the inside is no longer exposed to the elements.

So what’s the parallel with election integrity?

We have almost 250 years of election history, architecturally attractive, and built on a solid foundation. However, our election system has fallen on very hard times due to decades of neglect, disputes about responsibility, self-serving actions by those elected to be caretakers, etc.

One of the few positives about the 2020 election is that it woke up many citizens to the reality that our election system has become seriously deteriorated.

In response, many hundreds of patriotic people have dedicated considerable time, effort, and money in an attempt to renovate our election system. My point here is that unless the contributions of these volunteers are properly focused, it’s likely that the majority of it will do very little. (The 2022 elections should have been a wake-up call!)

So what is the elections parallel with starting by properly fixing the roof?

Meaningful post-election audits!

(See “The Solution” for election integrity: here.)

Without doing that, very little of the rest of the superior efforts will be of any avail!

©2024. All rights reserved.


Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

My Substack Commentaries for 2023 (arranged by topic)

Check out the chronological Archives of my entire Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.orgdiscusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.infocovers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.infomultiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time – but why would you?

‘Centuries’ of Christian Tradition on ‘Sanctity of Human Life’ Pitted against Left’s ‘Worldview of Death’

“This whole kerfuffle in Alabama has revealed … the worldview of the Left, which is a worldview of death. And they’re really running with this like they ran after the Dobbs decision,” David Closson, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, said on “Washington Watch” Tuesday. “This is not like a one-off,” agreed FRC President Tony Perkins. “The worldview has been revealed. And I think it’s becoming clearer and clearer.”

Enraged by an Alabama Supreme Court decision recognizing the value of all unborn human life, the left-wing media has attempted to carefully curate camera angles of the controversy, so as to portray a hamster as a hippo. First, they launched a scaremongering campaign falsely alleging that Republicans are targeting in vitro fertilization (IVF). Then, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) opportunistically promoted a bill that wouldn’t so much protect IVF as it would legalize other anti-human practices, such as human cloning, human-animal chimeras, designer babies, and commercial gestational surrogacy.

To browbeat timid opponents into playing along with the charade, the Left trumped up fears of “theocracy” based on a non-binding concurring opinion. “The hand-wringing on the Left … isn’t actually on the majority decision,” Closson noted, but on “a concurring opinion that the chief justice wrote.”

Fear prevents people from thinking clearly, and that’s exactly what the Left is hoping for. If legislators had a moment to sit back and reflect, they would likely realize that “there are moral and spiritual, theological implications here,” said Perkins.

In fact, “There’s a long history within Christian ethics of looking at IVF and saying that … it’s morally fraught,” said Closson. IVF is a process designed for helping infertile couples conceive a child by combining egg and sperm in a laboratory, and then implanting the newly created human life back into the mother’s womb. “As Christians, we believe that at conception, when that sperm and egg come together, you have a human being.”

However, many IVF practitioners create far more embryos than would ever be gestated. “Usually it’s a dozen, maybe even more embryos” that are created, explained Closson. “They selectively choose which ones to implant in the woman.” Of these, all but one will likely be aborted. “Then the others are stored in freezer,” added Closson, resulting today in “millions of frozen embryos in freezers all over the country.” Many are never used and ultimately destroyed.

Despite the moral and ethical pitfalls of IVF, the Alabama Supreme Court did not prohibit the practice, nor even regulate it. All they said was a law protecting children from harm applied to all children, including embryos conceived via IVF. And, in a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Tom Parker added his commentary on the Alabama Constitution’s recognition of the “sanctity of unborn life.”

“That phrase, ‘sanctity of [unborn] life,’ appears in the Alabama Constitution. So, just being a good lawyer, [Parker] said, ‘Where did these words come from? What do these words mean?’ And so, he explored the Christian tradition of understanding sanctity of life, image of God,” Closson summarized.

Closson found it humorous that mainstream media accounts made the mistake of sneering at Parker’s opinion for “quoting 16th-century dead theologians like John Calvin and whatnot.” All their derision proved is that “Christians have been thinking about these issues for a very long time,” he pointed out. “It’s not that we just thought of these in a right-wing think tank last week. We’ve been thinking deeply about these issues for centuries.”

This is humorous because the Left doesn’t realize how far outclassed they are by centuries of brilliant minds. They don’t realize it because they never had to engage with that ancient tradition. Their thinking descends from Karl Marx, and while they might engage with some of his immediate intellectual forebearers (Rousseau, Darwin, Mill), they have little use for a tradition that had already grown wizened before those men were born. “The problem we’re seeing today is the absence of moral truth,” said Perkins. “There are no ethics that are standard and steadfast. It’s a Wild, Wild West.”

One implication of this ethical anarchy is the absence of any limits on what science should do. Just as researchers for the Chinese Communist Party continue to bioengineer deadlier coronaviruses and chimerical monkeys, so the American Left displays an apparent preference for pedantic, utilitarian reasoning over fundamental human rights. Duckworth’s bill would be a go-ahead signal to a lot of ethically dubious research.

“Just because science enables us to do something doesn’t mean we should do it,” argued Perkins. “We should be concerned about both the means and the ends of where this would lead us. And it needs to be guided by biblical truth, by morality … [and by] ethics.”

The fundamental reason why Christians believe all human life is valuable is that “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). To every human being, this reality imparts “transcendent value,” insisted Perkins. “It’s not value assigned to it. It is value that is inherent in it because it is created in the image of God.”

The road to pushing for designer babies, chimeras, cloning, and surrogacy begins by denying the fundamental reality that all human beings have inherent value because they bear God’s image.

“We need to start calling out a lie for what it is. It is a lie,” Perkins insisted. “Understanding is the first step, but having the confidence of that understanding gives us the ability to push back and say, ‘No, this is not true. It is not right, it is false.’”

Conservatives “playing defense” over the sanctity of unborn life don’t seem to realize that ours is the inherently stronger position. For centuries, Western civilization’s brightest minds have helped develop the implications of this doctrine, which is absolute truth. What does rootless, groundless, post-modern Marxism have to offer in comparison?

The current circumstances are as if the presidential motorcade was suddenly set upon by a gang of youths throwing pea gravel. Exiting the vehicle would be foolish, and waving a white flag would be irresponsible. If conservatives recognize and exploit the advantages of our position, the smear campaign against those standing up for the lives of unborn babies — including those conceived via IVF — can accomplish nothing.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Texas AG Sues Pornhub for Failing to Verify Age of Users

Texas’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against pornographic website Pornhub for failing to obey state law requiring pornography websites to confirm the age of users before granting access to their sites. Experts welcomed the news as a step toward protecting minors from sexual exploitation.

Last year, Texas enacted House Bill 1181 into law, which requires pornography sites to verify that a user is 18 or older before allowing access to the site. The lawsuit against Pornhub, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), alleges that Aylo Global Entertainment, the parent company of Pornhub, is liable for up to $1.6 million “plus $10,000 a day from September of last year to the date of the lawsuit.”

“Instead of abiding by Texas law requiring purveyors of obscene sexual material to institute age verification systems, the company immediately presents minors who access their websites with pornographic content,” Paxton stated in a press release. “I look forward to holding any company accountable that violates our age verification laws intended to prevent minors from being exposed to harmful, obscene material on the internet.”

Texas is one of eight states to enact laws requiring porn sites to verify the age of their users in recent years. The other states with age verification laws include Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.

Pornhub, one of the most visited porn sites in the world, has been embroiled in a series of lawsuits in recent years. Two class action lawsuits have been certified against the company for profiting from child sexual abuse material and sex trafficking. Pornhub is also the target of a lawsuit on behalf of nine women who were secretly filmed while changing in a locker room in which the footage ended up on the site. As of 2023, Pornhub is the defendant in at least 10 lawsuits involving 256 alleged victims.

In a 2020 New York Times exposé, columnist Nicholas Kristof described how Pornhub is “infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Benjamin Bull, general counsel at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, confirmed Pornhub’s penchant for allowing illegal material to fester on the site for monetary gain.

“From our own litigation and investigation, Pornhub is a criminal sex trafficking enterprise pretending to be a legitimate business,” he remarked. “It’s about time state law enforcement required them to comply with a common-sense law that protects children from sexual abuse and harm.”

Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, expressed hope that Texas’s lawsuit will cause the pornographic site to reconsider its exploitive practices.

“Pornhub doesn’t take the exploitation of anyone seriously,” she told TWS. “They don’t care about the women and men whose lives are ruined when they are trafficked and forced to create pornography. They don’t care about the men and women whose brains are literally deteriorating because of pornography addiction. They don’t care about the relationships and marriages ruined because of pornography. And they don’t care about children who will be caught up in pornography addiction and never able to live freely because of it. All Pornhub cares about is increasing profits and spreading their evil filth everywhere. So maybe, Pornhub will care about the over $3.5 million they will owe the people of Texas.”

Szoch continued, “AG Paxton and the people of Texas should be commended for holding Pornhub accountable, and they should continue going after Pornhub until it is completely shut down. There is nothing good about pornography. Nine out of 10 boys and six out of 10 girls are exposed to pornography before the age of 18. This evil drug robs people of their ability to love. It must be stopped.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

POST ON X:

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

U.S. Must Stop Funding ‘Corrupt, Anti-Semitic, Terror-Complicit’ U.N.R.W.A. Agency: Congressman

The Biden administration’s rhetoric has condemned the October 7 terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, but its deeds have made the U.S. one of the top contributors to terrorist incitement, according to a senior congressmen seeking to cut all financial ties to a terror-tied U.N. organization.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established after 700,000 Palestinians were displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel. Today, UNRWA reports 1.7 million refugees, only 200,000 of them the original refugees, as the great-grandchildren of the 1948 population have joined the list. International intelligence found 12 members of UNRWA took part in the October 7 terrorist attack — which included numerous kidnappings, rape as a tool of torture, and murdering of Israeli civilians. But they say that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

UNRWA has “spawned this cycle of hate,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), senior member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and co-chair of the House Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Monday.

The United States has become complicit, because “we are the biggest donor by far,” Smith told Perkins. The U.S. funded UNRWA to the tune of $6 billion between 1950 and 2018. Donald “Trump, to his credit, ended all funding for UNRWA when he was president. Then came Joe Biden, and he’s given them over $1 billion U.S. tax dollars, without any condition.” The Biden administration transferred as many taxpayer dollars to UNRWA in three years as previous administrations gave in more than a decade.

“UNRWA is a corrupt, anti-Semitic, and terror-complicit agency,” said Smith earlier that day at an international conference in Geneva. “UNRWA radicalizes Palestinian children with seething anti-Semitic hate — it is a child soldier factory. It is child abuse.”

Although President Joe Biden and 18 nations “paused” aid to UNRWA after last fall’s hostilities, this constitutes “only a pause pending outcome of an ‘investigation’ that appears to be woefully and unnecessarily limited in scope,” Smith told the “International Summit for a Future Beyond UNRWA,” hosted by UN Watch. “I remain deeply concerned that they too will not go beyond a look at the 12 UNRWA employees alleged to have participated in the October 7 atrocities.”

Israeli intelligence documents furnished to CBS News reportedly document the dozen UNRWA workers’ participation in the uprising, including taking part in kidnapping Israeli civilians.

But Israeli intelligence states 10% of all UNRWA’s 12,000 employees (or 1,200 people) have some kind of affiliation with Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian Authority.

They say 236 UNRWA workers have ties to the militant/terrorist wings of Palestinian groups, including 185 affiliated with Hamas and 51 with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly found Israeli allegations about UNRWA’s participation in the October 7 atrocities credible but cannot verify the exact number of employees affiliated with the terrorist groups.

On February 10, Israeli intelligence said it discovered a tunnel beneath a UNRWA facility in Gaza City, nearly half-a-mile long and 59 feet deep, that leads to a Hamas intelligence hub. “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has been knowingly providing material support for Hamas terrorists who committed unspeakable atrocities against over a thousand Israelis and dozens of Americans,” said Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “That support included salaries and facilities. Foreigners who knowingly funded UNRWA should be subject to sanctions and Americans who knowingly fund-raised for them should be investigated for criminal material support.”

A former investigator for the U.N.’s investigative body, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), said the OIOS cannot impose a greater disciplinary measure than dismissal: Of the 12 in question, two have been reported dead, and the other 10 have already been fired. “I can confidently say that its investigation will amount to nothing,” wrote Peter Anthony Gallo in The Wall Street Journal.

Cutting off funding to the terror-linked U.N. agency enjoys bipartisan support. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Tenn.), the liberal co-chair of the House Israel Allies Caucus, said he would “applaud President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend UNRWA funding,” before tracing the previous seven years of troubling UNRWA activity.

“In 2017, UNRWA acknowledged the falsehood of its previous denials and fired its Gaza union head after he was revealed as part of Hamas leadership. A month prior, an UNRWA staffer was discovered to be [in the] Hamas politburo,” said Sherman. “In 2023, dozens of UNRWA teachers and staff were revealed to regularly praise Hamas and Hitler on social media. Yet UNRWA claims these staff are not teaching a pro-terror curriculum.”

Sherman has a 10.5% rating on FRC Action’s Scorecard.

Yet most of the Democratic Party base has aligned with the Palestinian cause. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a Palestinian-American, urged her state’s sizable Arab community to vote “uncommitted” in Tuesday’s Democratic primary as a protest against Biden’s rhetorical support for Israel. Although Biden won handily, “uncommitted” racked up 13% of the vote, more than 101,000 votes as of this writing — far beyond its sponsors’ goals.

Smith, who is Sherman’s pro-life counterpart on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a veteran pro-life congressman who has long tried to reform the U.N. Palestinian relief organization. In 2003, he passed an amendment through the House of Representatives stating the UNRWA has “funded schools that promote anti-Semitism, allowed its facilities to be used as warehouses for weapons, bomb-making factories, terrorist training,” and based its actions on “anti-Semitic textbooks.” But the amendment never became law.

Two decades later, the body has “deep and widespread ties with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” Perkins pointed out on Monday. Although the U.S. designates Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as terrorist organizations, the United Nations — and UNRWA — do not.

Smith introduced the Stop Support for UNRWA Act of 2024 (H.R. 7122) to defund UNRWA. The one-page bill states simply, “The United States may not make any voluntary or involuntary contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (referred to in this Act as ‘UNRWA’), to any successor or related entity, or to the regular budget of the United Nations for the support of UNRWA or a successor entity.” It passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on February 6, 30-19. He offered an amendment saying the bill does not prohibit U.S. foreign aid to the region but believes it should be administered only by organizations the U.S. has vetted and found not to “promote violence, terrorism, or anti-Semitism” nor to employ those who “promote, espouse, or affiliate with such entities or individuals.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) has also introduced the Uncovering UNRWA’s Terrorist Crimes Act (H.R. 7202), which would account for UNRWA funding during the Biden administration and end all U.S. funding to UNRWA “directly or indirectly.”

Critics like Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) say, “UNRWA is beyond redemption. Disbanding the organization is the only solution.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

The U.N. Won’t Reform until Its Employees Lose Diplomatic Immunity

Western Europe allows Hamas networks to operate openly

On an Australian tour, an Imam encourages jihadi activities and promotes martyrdom to teenagers

Islamic State Mozambique Province (ISMP) Reportedly Urges Christians To Convert, Pay Jizya, or be killed

In the first four days of Global Campaign, Islamic State (ISIS) affiliates claim over 60 attacks in 11 countries.

More than 400 former jihadi fighters back in Britain, say security forces

In Kenya, a Christian man helping with an evangelical event was beaten and his house set on fire

RELATED AUDIO: ‘I captured one!’ — IDF recordings show more UNRWA staffers bragging of Oct. 7 crimes

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

NEW REPORT: Chaos & Disruption in New York City

NEW CANARY MISSION REPORT: SHUT IT DOWN

How Within Our Lifetime Partnered With Decolonize This Place, An Anarchist Organization, to Disrupt NYC

The violent and disruptive protests in support of Hamas in New York City are not spontaneous outbursts of anti-Israel activists reacting to the war in Gaza.

They are part of a planned strategy of Nerdeen Kiswani, founder and leader of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), and Amin Husain, suspended New York University (NYU) professor and founding member of Decolonize This Place (DTP), a violent anarchist group.

KEY FINDINGS

  1. Suspended antisemitic NYU Professor Amin Husain is a longtime collaborator with Nerdeen Kiswani and her violent pro-terror activist group, Within Our Lifetime.
  2. Within Our Lifetime and Decolonize This Place have enacted a strategy of mobilizing their intersectional allies against ‘Zionists’ and New York authorities to paralyze the city.
  3. Husain and Kiswani have positioned the Palestinian cause as the key to the liberation of other indigenous and intersectional “struggles.”
  4. Violence and opposition to authority are essential parts of their strategy. They seek out and encourage it.
  5. Together with Kiswani, Husain has built a violent and disruptive strategy designed to make the city “ungovernable.”



THE RIGHT CONDITIONS

As events began to unfold on October 7, Kiswani made a strategic calculation that, despite the horrific atrocities coming to light, she would be able to convince her activists and allies to continue to support Palestinian resistance.

To the astonishment of Jews, liberals and others concerned with basic human rights, Kiswani’s assessment proved correct.

As the world reeled in horror from the ever-increasing revelations of Hamas’ massacre of Israeli men, women and children, Kiswani was constructing a narrative that painted Hamas (and by extension, all Palestinians) as the victims and the Jews – those both dead and alive – as the oppressors.

One might consider it risky to assume that people would embrace this narrative, but it evidently succeeded. A significant reason is that Kiswani and Husain have dedicated at least a decade to priming their supporters for this pivotal moment in history.

Within Our Lifetime and Decolonize This Place have devised and executed a two-pronged plan:

  1. To strategically frame the Palestinian conflict as a centerpiece of intersectional politics.
  2. To implement tactics to disrupt New York City.

AMIN HUSAIN AND NERDEEN KISWANI

Amin Husain, a professor who was recently suspended from New York University and a founder of the anarchist group Decolonize This Place (DTP), has been at the forefront of organizing activities that aim to dismantle systems of authority, advocating for the abolition of prisons, police and other established structures.

He is known for his strong anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments and has played a pivotal role in numerous violent disruptions throughout New York City. One DTP rampage through the NYC subway system in January 2020 organized by Husain cost taxpayers $100,000 in damages.

Together with Kiswani, Husain has built a violent and disruptive strategy designed to make the city “ungovernable.”

Husain’s association with WOL dates back to at least 2016 when WOL was still operating as NYC Students for Justice in Palestine. (In 2018, Kiswani, the head of NYC SJP at the time, rebranded the group as WOL.)

TACTICS

Acts of violence, including confrontations with the police, have been a feature of Within Our Lifetime protests and activists since 2015. Not surprisingly, the group’s heroes hail from Hamas to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist terror group.

But since October 7 and the swell of WOL’s intersectional allies, the group has also incorporated disruptions and shutdowns as two of their prime tactics.

One reason is that WOL no longer needs to work on creating allies. The group now has enough to make life in the city miserable – and that’s their plan.

WOL’s targets have included: 

  • The NYC Marathon
  • The Christmas tree lighting in
  • Rockefeller Center
  • The New York Library
  • The Museum of Modern Art
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering
  • Cancer Center Grand Central
  • Station Penn Station The
  • Manhattan Bridge JFK Airport

Grand Central Station

WOL Plans to ‘Ruin Christmas’

Flood JFK for Gaza Protest – New Years Day

Kiswani and Husain realized many years ago that their movement would need allies to succeed. One simple reason was that the anti-Israel crowd in New York (and beyond) would never be big enough to effect any change.

It was easy for Kiswani and Husain to find those allies, as a “pre-made” group already existed.

The “coalition of the oppressed,” which coalesced in America in 2016, consisted of minorities, indigenous peoples, feminists, queers and other groups that the Far Left deemed “victims” in America – whether due to colonialism, the “patriarchy,” gender bias, white supremacy or the catch-all culprit – capitalism.

Post September 11, Muslim Brotherhood front groups, like CAIR, worked hard to include Muslims in this coalition and they succeeded.

The only task left for Kiswani and Husain was convincing this group that “Palestine” topped all other causes and was key to “liberation” for each group.

“Zionism is Racism”

In the wake of the widespread social unrest following George Floyd’s death, the epithet that garnered the most sting in America was “racism.” Conveniently for Kiswani and Husain, the Soviets had already successfully branded Zionism as racism.

The pair worked hard to capitalize on the Black Lives Matter movement to further their fight against Israel.

“Triangulation of indigenous struggle, black liberation, and a free Palestine produce a rearrangement of relationships that make empire look [upside down].

The anti-Israel cause also dovetailed with the popular Critical Race Theory, a neo-Marxist academic movement that took over mainstream American culture in the last decade. Critical Race Theory posits that racism is the fundamental organizing principle of American society.

Institutions from schools to corporations, government agencies and the media bought into the theory and made radical changes in their operations accordingly. This included their attitude toward Israel, which, due to the slur of racism, now became a force in the Far Left world that needed to be opposed.

Racism was deemed a function of the “Patriarchal White Supremacist Nation-State,” which they defined for political purposes in the broadest terms as “settler-colonialism.”

The label “settler-colonialism” turned out to be a perfect way to delegitimize Israel, especially effective with a movement that eschewed historical facts. 

Globalize the Intifada

While the rest of the intersectional crowd was stuck in academia explaining their grievances, Kiswani and Husain took the fight to the next level. The launch of the “Globalize the Intifada” movement offered the method of the Palestinians – “intifada,” or violent uprising – as a solution based on action.

They were thus able to brand the Palestinians as both heroes and models.

Slogans such as “Resistance by any means necessary” and “Resistance is Justified When People are Occupied” resonated with their intersectional allies and gained popularity.

These phrases effectively destigmatized and romanticized the brutal reality of the terrorism they allude to.

“Becoming Ungovernable”

In 2020, Amin Husain formulated a strategy titled:

“Becoming Ungovernable.”

It was aimed at instigating significant disruptions in New York City and uniting a diverse spectrum of movements under the banner: “OUR UPRISINGS ARE QUEER, TRANS, BLACK, BROWN, PALESTINIAN, IMMIGRANT, INDIGENOUS AND GLOBAL.”

Despite this wide range of causes, the materials disseminated by Husain predominantly focused on anti-Israel protests.

One poster stated, “First they came for the Muslims, and we said ‘Not this time, motherf**ker”,” paired with imagery of a man in a keffiyeh, fist raised, symbolizing violent resistance.

Decolonize This Place detailed tactics for citywide disruption, listing items such as fire, bolt cutters, masks, glass bottles, nails, and emphasized the need for “warriors,” reflecting a militant approach to their activism.

Direct from Nerdeen Kiswani

May 11, 2021:

“We need allies that are going to help us achieve a victory. Not allies that are gonna tell us to be nonviolent!” 

June 11th 2021: 

“We marched today, we took over the streets and we visited multiple Zionist settler foundations. Multiple. We let them know we know where they’re at. We know where they work. We’re gonna find out more about where they’re at too. And we’re gonna go after them.”

June 15th 2021: 

We also have a right to take over this city and shut this city down and force the city to hear us whenever Palestine is being attacked.” 

September 17, 2021:

We don’t need tens of thousands of people to shut down and disrupt this city and as long as Palestinians are facing genocide, as long as Palestinians are resisting colonization by any means necessary, we must do the same here in New York City. We have to up the stakes!”

Conclusion

It is no surprise that the “theoretical” ideas of Husain and Kiswani quickly morphed into reality for New Yorkers in general and Jews in particular. Disruptions in the city began in earnest during the weeks of the 2021 “Strike MoMA” demonstration, which targeted NYC’s iconic Museum of Modern Art during Israel’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls.”

It was at that time that Husain began his first “Mapping Project,” putting a bullseye on Jewish & pro-Israel charities, individuals and corporations, an initiative that Kiswani has both embraced and intensified significantly.

At the same time, it was unsurprising that there was an enormous uptick in antisemitic attacks on Jews in all boroughs of the city in 2021. A number of these assaults stand out, such as the brutal beat-down of Joseph Borgen (for the “crime” of wearing a yamulka) by a group of WOL activists and a similar attack on Matthew Greenman, an Israel supporter on crutches, by another WOL activist.

In hindsight, these incidents look like a dress rehearsal for what is happening today. What is clear is that Husain’s and Kiswani’s allies and activists were primed and ready to go on October 7 with a well-planned strategy to support the terror group they idolize, Hamas. 

Biden’s Illegal Alien Who Murdered Laken Riley BEAT HER SO BADLY, He Disfigured Her Skull

The Democrat party is murdering Americans.

They won’t close the border and return to Trump’s policies.

Affidavit reveals Migrant charged with murdering Laken Riley BEAT HER SO BADLY, he disfigured her skull…

The Venezuelan illegal implicated in the homicide of Laken Riley is accused of inflicting such severe injuries with an unrecognizable instrument that her skull was disfigured, recent affidavits claim.

26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is facing a series of charges including murder and assault, is believed to have had no prior acquaintance with the 22-year-old nursing student. He allegedly abducted and murdered her during her jog on the University of Georgia campus on Thursday.

Initially, her death was attributed to blunt force trauma, but newly filed legal documents allege that Ibarra inflicted “severe physical harm with an object,” though the exact nature of the object has not been disclosed.

Additionally, Ibarra has been charged with aggravated battery for causing serious disfigurement to her body, specifically to her skull.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.