Trump’s Agreement to Reopen Government was Not a Democrat Victory

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer couldn’t contain their glee when the President agreed last week to a short term continuing resolution to reopen the government for three weeks. But this was not a win for the Democrats and no one should interpret it that way. First, only a few agencies were shut down, so the constant hyping of the shutdown by the media was a deliberate effort to magnify the problem to assist their Democrat allies.

But since one of the agencies was the Department of Homeland Security, it not only forced the Border Patrol to work without pay, but began creating problems for travelers as TSA personnel began skipping work. Those people who did skip work — about 10 percent of the workforce — did not do that independently. You can be sure they got the green light from their union, the American Federation of Government Employees , which coordinated with congressional Democrats (read Pelosi & Schumer), to ramp up pressure on the president.

Of course this is yet another way Democrats demonstrate their utter disregard for the American people. They knew that a disruption in travel plans would make another great optic for their media allies, who had already begun hyping the “soup kitchen” narrative. Meanwhile, realizing the publicity opportunity, or perhaps wanting to stick it to President Trump, or both, DC restaurants began offering free food to those poor government workers!

The entire thing was a charade.

So President Trump realized this was not politically winnable, as more and more GOP members of Congress grew wobbly. So, in the interest of reducing hardship for government employees working without pay, and the deleterious impact the Schumer/Pelosi/union game was having on the American people, President Trump agreed to a temporary opening to give them a breather.

He was forced to do this because Democrat leaders are determined to put their interests ahead of those of the American people, no matter what. This is nothing new. Over 13,000 Americans have been killed by illegal aliens over the past few years, many more were raped and had other unconscionable crimes committed against them, but the bottomless selfishness of congressional Democrats, and the spineless Chamber of Commerce bathroom attendants of the Republican Party, have prevented any efforts to stem the tide of mass migration across our borders by illegal aliens.

Trump explained his reasoning in a Tweet on Friday:

Democrats have no interest in hearing from the Angel Moms who’ve lost children to illegal aliens. They are consumed with the effort to swamp our shores with enough future voters to secure for themselves a permanent majority without having to offer anything of value to the American people (because they have nothing of value to offer.)

When a few of the Angel Moms went to Nancy Pelosi’s office to confront her about her failure to support border protection, she hid behind a wall. Ironic, no? Former House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to allow a vote on wall funding. These people are despicable! How many lives would have been saved had they not been slaves to their own interests?

President Trump is the only leader in Washington who has shown any leadership. He did so again here. He did not bow to Pelosi and Schumer’s stonewalling. He relented to give those who suffered at the hands of the Democrats a chance to recover. Now he has given the Democrats what they wanted — insisting on negotiations after the government agencies affected by the shutdown were reopened.

The ball is now in the Democrats’ court. They can negotiate on the terms they demanded. But they won’t. Nancy and Chuck will continue to stonewall, spending the next three weeks showing their true nature. And as usual, the media will support them, and continues to magnify the false message that Trump “caved.” Just as it did with the Covington kids, Ben Shapiro’s comments about “baby Hitler” at the March for Life, and the Buzzfeed story on Michael Cohen that the Mueller team took the extraordinary step of refuting.

CNN just coincidentally happened to be at Roger Stone’s house when the FBI launched a pre-dawn raid with heavily armed SWAT teams typically used against terrorist hideouts and meth labs. For example, twelve police were involved in the drug raid in Houston on Monday, where five police were injured and two criminals killed. Meanwhile, twenty-nine heavily armed agents  participated in the raid against Stone, and netted them an old man in bathrobe and slippers – a real threat apparently. And to top it off, they forced his wife to stand outside in bare feet and a nightgown.

It is illegal for the FBI to coordinate with the media, but it plainly did here, alerting CNN beforehand. The whole shameful episode was conducted for the optics. This is the level of the Mueller team’s ethics.

Are they all so tone deaf that they don’t realize how ugly, out of touch, partisan and agenda-driven they look? So after 21 days, the government will shut down again. Having given Democrats everything they asked for and still facing resistance, President Trump will have every justification to declare a national emergency and begin building the Wall.

Trump’s legal authority to do so is unquestionable. That probably will not stop the unethical Democrats and their allies in the judiciary. Pelosi and Co. are already building a case for a legal challenge by Congress, and a parallel PR campaign to convince American voters that a wall is not in our interest and would “harm communities.” It’s a lot like Pelosi’s infamous “wrap-up smear” video, where she explains how they use the media to smear opponents.

But how many communities have been harmed by Congressional inaction? Are 13,000 homicides not enough; 30,000 rapes? If they really don’t understand the position President Trump has put them in, and continue to obstruct through illegal court challenges, it will be obvious to the public that their agenda is entirely self-serving and dangerous — ignoring public safety for their own partisan goals.

As Border Patrol agent Fernando Grijalva told CBS correspondent Mireya Villarreal on Friday, “I’ve seen six different presidents in the time that I’ve been with the Border Patrol, and this is the worst crisis that I’ve seen.” (Emphasis theirs.)

But President Trump has bent over backwards to try to make Washington work. This is why, despite the risk to his support among conservatives, he has made every effort to accommodate the partisans. With each day that passes, they have proven themselves unworthy of that generosity. President Trump will build the Wall, slapping them down as they so richly deserve. He reiterated his intention today, tweeting, “If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!”

One final note that might cheer you up. While all this controversy rages, the Wall is actually being built as we speak.

EDITORS NOTE: This column with images originally appeared in The Daily Headlines. It is republished with permission. The featured image is by hoekstrarogier on Pixabay Pixabay.

The Dire Urgency For Trump’s Wall

How national security, public safety, and Americans’ jobs are on the line.

Although the partial government shutdown has ended, temporarily, President Trump has made it clear that in three weeks he will again shut down part of the federal government if funding is not provided for the construction of the border wall/barrier.

The mainstream media has said that “conservative Republicans” are unhappy with the President for re-opening the government while Democratic politicians are claiming a victory in the battle over the construction of a border wall.

In fact, all Americans should stand behind the President and back his demands for a border wall.

Superficially it would appear that the battle is being waged over a simple difference of opinion to determine the best way to secure the problematic southern border of the United States. In fact, this is how the mainstream media is portraying this struggle.

However, there is far more going on and far more at stake than a difference of opinion.

The battle is actually being fought over the goals of President Trump versus the Democrats’ ultimate goals. The Democrats are at war not just with Trump, but with America and Americans, and are willing to sacrifice national security and public safety in order to attain their goals.

As we shall see, the Democrats have no desire to actually secure our borders and, in fact, have taken many steps to undermine border security and effective immigration law enforcement. Some Democrats have called for the dismantling of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) altogether.

We will explore this shortly, but let’s begin by noting that our immigration laws make absolutely no distinction about the race, religion or ethnicity of aliens, only if their presence would undermine national security, public safety, public health and/or the livelihoods of Americans.

As I have noted in previous articles, an effective barrier along that troubled border would not prevent any people or commerce from entering the United States legally, but funnel all traffic to ports of entry where CBP inspectors can vet these aliens and create records of their entry into the United States and thus help to prevent the entry of alien criminals including members of the drug cartels, transnational gangs, fugitives from justice and international terrorists.

That threat was the focus of my commentary, Jihadis And Drug Cartel At Our Border.

Funneling all commerce through ports of entry would enable CBP inspectors to also screen vehicles and cargo to prevent contraband such as narcotics, weapons and counterfeit products from being smuggled into the United States.

This is vital for public safety, public health, and certainly for national security. The preface of the official report that was authored by members of the 9/11 Commission staff, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel, began with this unambiguous paragraph:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.

Additionally, many illegal aliens enter the United States intent on working illegally in the United States so that they can send money back to their families in their home countries around the world. 

Securing the border against the entry of illegal alien workers and narcotics would enable the wall to pay for itself in a very short period of time as I noted in an earlier article, “America Needs A Border Wall Like Houses Need Insulation.”

Prior to World War II the U.S. Labor Department bore the primary responsibility for the enforcement and administration of our immigration laws. The concern was that foreign workers would displace American workers. Furthermore, aliens from Third World countries bring with them expectations of Third World wages and working conditions. When large numbers of such alien workers enter the labor force they consequently drive down wages and working conditions for American and lawful immigrant workers who are similarly employed.

It is beyond reason that the Democratic Party now stands united in opposition to the construction of a secure border structure even though the U.S. Border Patrol, through its leadership and the leadership of the union that represents America’s Border Patrol agents, have all publicly and unequivocally insisted that such a structure would be of huge assistance to them in securing our dangerous southern border.

The Democrats insist that walls are “old fashioned” and that in this day and age we should not erect walls but use drones and high-tech sensors. President Trump’s response was perfect. He said that wheels are also “old technology” but very effective.

During my January 22nd appearance on Fox & Friends I noted that a homeowner would not be likely to install a sophisticated burglar alarm on his/her home without also putting a secure front door on his/her home. Technology on the border without a barrier would be the equivalent of a house with a burglar alarm but without a locking front door to block the entry of an intruder.

The problem is that the Democratic Party of today is certainly not the Democratic Party of years past.

The old Democratic Party supported the concerns and aspirations of blue-collar Americans and sought to pass and enforce laws that protected these workers who are the backbone of America.

The new Democratic Party has turned on its traditional base, blue-collar and union workers, and is now intent on flooding America with a virtually unlimited number of foreign workers, although these illegal aliens are destroying job opportunities and wages for Americans. The Democrats seek to destroy the middle class to push millions of Americans to the left and thus to vote for them when they promise to provide financial assistance to struggling families.

The Democratic Party devised “Sanctuary Cities” that harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection by ICE agents in apparent violation of 8 U.S. Code § 1324, which includes the following felonies:

(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;

(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law;

The Democrats have also provided a plethora of economic incentives for illegal aliens by, for example, providing them with in-state tuition.

These actions certainly encourage huge numbers of illegal aliens to enter the United States, confident that once here, a growing number of municipalities and even states such as California and New York will go to extremes to shield them from ICE even if they are found guilty of committing crimes.

Although border barriers can be extremely effective and have been used successfully in countries around the world, Pelosi has referred to such a barrier as being “immoral,” and other politicians have referred to the barrier as being a “wall of hate.” 

Some have said that the Democrats are determined to prevent President Trump from keeping his campaign promise that formed his core platform during the election campaign.

Certainly there may be some truth in that, but let us not forget that the Democrats have been vocal in their opposition to immigration law enforcement even where transnational gangs and violent criminal aliens are concerned.

The consequences of uncontrolled immigration, the obvious goal of the Democratic Party would profoundly and irrevocably change America, and not for the better. 

Flooding America with cheap and exploitable foreign labor is certainly not an act of compassion but is immoral as well as illegal. It is also an act of national suicide. Labor is a commodity and when the market place is flooded with any commodity its value plunges.

Alan Greenspan, as I noted in a previous article, “Open Borders Facilitate America’s Race To The Bottom,” in testifying at a hearing conducted in 2009 by the Senate Immigration Subcommittee before Chuck Schumer, actually explained that making Americans compete with foreign workers for jobs in the high-tech industries would reduce the “wage premiums” being paid to American workers, whom he outrageously described as the “privileged elite,” to help reduce “wage inequality” between highly-skilled Americans with American workers who had lesser skills.

Greenspan, at that hearing, also acknowledged that illegal aliens would suppress the wages of the working poor, American workers who had not graduated from high school. Here is the sentence from his testimony:

Some evidence suggests that unskilled illegal immigrants (almost all from Latin America) marginally suppress wage levels of native-born Americans without a high school diploma, and impose significant costs on some state and local governments.

Incredibly, Greenspan claimed that the economic gains would offset wage suppression and the costs that would be imposed on state and local governments.

Here is the irrevocable truth and likely reason for the Democrats’ opposition to border security: Open borders would irrevocably push economically-beleaguered Americans to the Democrats who promise to provide financial assistance to Americans who, through no fault of their own, could no longer survive without government assistance that the Democrats are happy to offer.

It would appear that the “long game” for the Democrats is to essentially create a one-party government by wresting political power from the Republicans.

The Democrats have to know that by not securing our borders America would be that much more vulnerable to international terrorists and transnational gangs and drug cartels but, for them, apparently, the carnage that would result is simply “collateral damage” as they seek political dominance.

EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column with images is republished with permission. The featured Image by 849356 on Pixabay.

Much of Border Wall Fight About Trump Resistance, Not Border Security

Politicians often clothe outrageous policies in reasonable rhetoric. President Donald Trump sometimes does the opposite, wrapping reasonable policy in careless rhetoric.

Remember his earlier call for a “Muslim travel ban”? The policy itself—temporary restrictions on travel from a half-dozen countries—was perfectly reasonable. As the ISIS caliphate collapsed, its fighters began fleeing to those nations, and Trump wanted to have measures in place to make sure they did not then come here.

Yet the president’s rhetoric helped fuel a bitter, partisan debate, which kept the policy in abeyance until a Supreme Court ruling restored common sense by upholding the ban.

His call for more border wall has sparked a similar dynamic. The political rhetoric on both sides of the debate frequently flies over the top, obscuring the practical rationale for the policy.

Border security needs have changed since Congress passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Then, Homeland Security’s focus was to catch illegal border crossers and remove them before they “melted” into the interior.

Fences were erected in high-trafficked areas to deter or slow crossings, helping the border patrol to catch illegal immigrants within 100 miles of the border. (Deportation of those apprehended after being in the country more than two weekends or beyond 100 miles of the border is a much more laborious and costly process.)

The fencing was both an effective deterrent and a helpful enforcement tool, increasing the likelihood of expedited removal. As a result, illegal crossings declined.

But the threat to the border has evolved. Those crossing the border with children and claiming to be related as well as those claiming refugee status are not put in expedited removal. Both have become popular tactics to “beat” the system.

The only way to prevent abuse of the asylum process is to keep would-be immigrants on the other side of the border until 1) they submit formal asylum claims at official points of entry and 2) those claims have been evaluated.

Making that happen requires more and improved walls. Indeed, Trump’s wall policy reflects the advice of government’s border security professionals.

A similar request from any other president would be considered unremarkable. It’s controversial only because of the hyperpartisan, emotional political atmosphere that has characterized the Trump era.

Conversely, other arguments against the request don’t pass the common sense test.

One argument is that the border is not a problem. The real problem, they say, is visa overstays—people entering legally and then just not leaving.

Overstays have always been a huge problem and do, in fact, account for a large percentage of people here illegally. But part of the reason overstays are a larger share of the population is because border security is working better than it used to. And we should continue to make it work better.

One reason to worry more about border crossers than overstayers is because the latter at least got a visa to come here to begin with. That means they were screened for security, public safety, health, criminal, and public charge risks. Those crossing illegally haven’t been screened at all—making them a potentially higher-risk population.

At the end of the day, illegal border crossings and overstays are both problems. It’s not an either/or issue; good policy must address both.

Another weak argument suggests walls aren’t needed because drugs and other bad stuff are mostly smuggled through the ports of entry. There is truth in that, but smuggling also occurs elsewhere along the border. Again, good policy must address both dangers.

We actually need more border security to channel more smuggling attempts to ports of entry, because that is where we are best equipped to screen for bad things.

Perhaps the weakest argument against border walls is that they create a humanitarian crisis. Right now, legitimate refugees suffer because their cases are delayed due to the avalanche of false claims now clogging the system. Moreover, to take advantage of the “family” loophole, more and more children are being dragged to the border—often by a non-family member. This has created an epidemic of child endangerment.

Finally, wall opponents argue there are other things we should do to crack down on illegal immigration—from closing catch-and-release loopholes in the wall, to working with Latin American countries to stem the causes of illegal migration and combat criminal cartels.

Here, they are right. The administration should take all those steps. And it’s trying to do so. But the package proposed by the president complements these efforts. It is not one or the other.

Originally published by Fox News

COMMENTARY BY

Portrait of James Carafano

James Carafano

James Jay Carafano, a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges, is The Heritage Foundation’s vice president for foreign and defense policy studies, E. W. Richardson fellow, and director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies. Read his research. Twitter: @JJCarafano.

RELATED ARTICLE: Podcast: Scott Rasmussen on Trump’s Poll Numbers and Some Surprising US Trends

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column with images is republished with permission. The featured image is by johnhain on Pixabay.

VIDEO: Nancy Pelosi’s Wall by Laura Loomer

Laura Loomer published this short film about the current immigration crisis on America’s Southern border and the need for a border wall on the Southern border. Please watch:

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Facebook page.

Trump Cave: Short-term Deal — NO WALL MONEY!

Within minutes after President Trump made his Rose Garden announcement that a “deal” was made to reopen the government the Democratic National Campaign Committee (DNCC.org) sent out the below email:

Watch the video of President Trump’s announcement:

A good friend of mine noted that “compromise is the art of losing slowly.” It now appears that President Trump is more interested in making a deal than keeping America safe by building the wall. Now making a deal is the art of losing slowly.

President Trump now has five options:

  1. Sign legislation passed by both houses of Congress that does not include the $5.7 billion to build the wall.
  2. Veto legislation passed by both houses of Congress that does not include the $5.7 billion to build the wall.
  3. Sign legislation passed by both houses of Congress that does include the $5.7 billion to build the wall.
  4. If Congress does not pass legislation that includes the $5.7 billion to build the wall then declare a national emergency and build the wall.
  5. Do nothing and let the current border situation continue to worsen.

The question is will President Trump, now that he has signed the temporary CR, demand that Pelosi keep her word and open up the House chambers for the State of the Union address?

As the DNCC.org email highlights, “Time for some accountability.” The House and Senate Democrats plan on holding Trump accountable. As they do and the legacy media parrot their propaganda the Republicans will cower in fear. For you see the opposite of peace isn’t war, it is fear. The Democrats and media strike fear in the hearts of Republicans.

Ayn Rand wrote:

“The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other – until one day when they are suddenly declared to be the country’s official ideology.”

President Trump and the Republican Party are in a state of constant retreat. The Democrats are in a constant state of applying pressure. Today may go down in political history as the end of the Trump presidency.

Trump’s signature slogan was, like George H.W. Bush’s read my lips, “build the wall.” The wall will not be built because the Democrats rightly understand that they have won. They aren’t tired of winning.

The presidential election cycle that is just beginning could turn out to become a rout. The Republicans could lose the Senate and the White House.

Today, January 25, 2019 is the beginning of the retreat and the decline and fall of MAGA. The end.

RELATED ARTICLE: Report: Trump Could Have DOD Build Wall Without State of Emergency, Congressional Approval

RELATED VIDEO: Senator Lindsey Graham’s take on the Trump initiative.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo is by Al x on Unsplash.

Cross Examining the 2020 Census [+Video]

The Trump Administration intends to appeal the decision of Judge Jesse Furman at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after the Southern District of New York ruled that the Commerce Department must strike a question from the 2020 Census.

The question: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”

The use of his question has energized the usual suspects and some disparate interests, all of which take exception to it. There is precedent for asking Census respondents about citizenship status: The American Community Survey, an annual statistical canvass of 3.5 million U.S. households conducted by the Census Bureau, asks about citizenship, and the main Census itself has done so in the past.

A number of left-of-center groups like the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU), the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of TeachersBend the ArcCenter for Popular DemocracyCommon CausePeople for the American WayRock the VoteSouthern Poverty Law CenterNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and scores of others have filed amicus briefs challenging the question or issued statements urging the Commerce Department and Census Bureau to drop the question on the grounds that the question will cause non-citizens not to respond to the decennial census. (The Census is required to count “the total resident population of the 50 states” for determining Congressional apportionment, or the number of Representatives to which each state is entitled.) At least 19 states and 10 cities have sued the Commerce Department over the question, citing violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the Census Act.  These groups claim (among other things) that the citizenship question on the U.S. Census will deter certain groups, largely Hispanics and undocumented residents who fear deportation, from answering the census, depressing the number of respondents and leading to inaccuracies which have heavy political consequences.

Obtaining a reliable headcount through the census is of utmost importance to American civic life. The constitutionally mandated census determines how federal funding for government programs is distributed, how the states draw the maps of election districts which determine state elections, and how the states vote for members of Congress to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Why the Data Matters

As reported by Hayden Ludwig in early 2018, there is good reason to capture citizenship information. On a common-sense level, it is important for policymakers to know the makeup of their districts and to understand the size of (potentially) competing interests and policy agendas.

When it comes to ensuring that voting is indeed fair, citizenship data can be crucial to determine if the Justice Department needs to intervene in areas where there is suspected voter suppression. Right now, the Justice Department relies on sampling data derived from the American Community Survey. It’s especially unreliable for districts with smaller populations and in communities with high numbers of minority residents who aren’t eligible to vote.

The lawsuits also ignore the fact that the Census Bureau has been tracking citizenship data for a very long time. The now-defunct “long-form” census asked this question until it was eliminated in 2000 in favor of the American Community Survey. The American Community Survey, which is distributed to 2.6 percent of the population, asks this question of respondents every year. Furthermore, other government agencies, such as the FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are not allowed to access this information.

But what’s emerging from the “resistance” to this question is a power-grab that is inherently political.

Groups on the left are concerned about supposed underreporting because areas with a high density of foreign nationals—including illegal immigrants—tend to vote for Democrats. (Many are also so-called “sanctuary cities” which do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.) A depressed population count in these areas could cost Democrats seats in the House of Representatives. After all, after the 2020 Census, the states are required to draw new district maps to reflect any changes in the population in accordance with Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. This is the opportunity Democrats have been waiting for since 2010.

Moving Redistricting Out of the Shadows

After Republicans across the country won a wave of elections in 2010, they were in power to draw (most of) the required 2011 district maps. As is predictable, a number of GOP-controlled states drew maps favorable to Republicans. (This is hardly unusual. As a rule, both sides will draw maps favorable to themselves; indeed, both sides did it in states they controlled after 2010. Watch CRC’s video on gerrymandering here.)

The Democrats have been quietly working to break up Republican-drawn district maps since 2010, when Marc Elias, chair of the political law group at Perkins Coie and counsel to a host of Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning political and nonprofit organizations, secured an exemption from the Federal Elections Commission to raise money for a coordinated litigation effort. His efforts became the National Democratic Redistricting Trust.

The effort moved into the national spotlight after former Attorney General Eric Holder founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee(NDRC)—a registered 527 political action committee which incorporated the former Trust. (Elias remains senior advisor and general counsel to NDRC.) Litigation funded by the PAC argued that the maps constituted racial or partisan gerrymanders that violated the Voting Rights Act. As a result, new maps were drawn in Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to name a few. In the 2018 midterm elections, Republicans lost seats in both Virginia and Pennsylvania. (The new map in North Carolina had yet to be implemented: The GOP retained its seats, although one election is unresolved.) Elias and Holder definitely helped swing the 2018 mid-term elections.

But the Census question is too important for Holder, Obama, and Elias to sit out.

Holder issued a statement through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in March 2018, promising to litigate the case. In April, Covington & Burling, a white-shoe law firm where Eric Holder is a partner, filed a lawsuit against the Commerce Department. The plaintiffs are voters from Arizona and Maryland—an attempt by Holder to illustrate that voters in Red and Blue states are affected by the citizenship question.

According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit is being coordinated by the National Redistricting Foundation, which is closely affiliated with NDRC.

In fact, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization shares two of its three officers with the political action committee. Kelly Ward serves as NDRC executive director and President and CEO of the National Redistricting Foundation; Elisabeth Pearson sits on the board of both organizations and formerly served as the executive director of the Democratic Governors Association. The third officer, Treasurer Mitch Stewart, is a Democratic consultant whose firm counted Organizing for America as client.

The group is only a year old, but its first Form 990 revealed the nonprofit organization already has $2.85 million to dedicate to its anti-gerrymandering efforts. The Form 990 also reveals that the Foundation is a direct controlling entity of the 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, the National Redistricting Action Fund. The National Redistricting Foundation, National Redistricting Action Fund, and the NDRC all indicate they are headquartered at 700 13th Street NW, Suite 600, in Washington, D.C.—the address of Perkins Coie’s D.C. offices, where Marc Elias works.

On its own, the National Redistricting Action Fund reports it has $1.15 million in available funds. Kelly Ward, Elisabeth Pearson, and Mitch Stewart are also the three officers on the (c)(4)’s board. The group recently announced it was absorbing Organizing for Action, former President Barack Obama’s 501(c)(4) advocacy group—a reincarnation of his presidential election campaign. Organizing for Action will cease to exist. Presumably this merger will add over $5 million to the Democrats’ redistricting project as well as make the Obama campaign’s much-coveted email list available to drum up support for its version of a supposedly less gerrymandered America.

Who Will Be Asking the Questions?

As the varied lawsuits make their way through the appellate courts, newly empowered House Democrats are keeping the issue alive. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross agreed today to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The Committee, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) released a statement: “Committee Members expect Secretary Ross to provide complete and truthful answers to a wide range of questions, including questions regarding the ongoing preparations for the census, the addition of a citizenship question, and other topics.”

While litigators and politicians make their case to strike or include the question, time is ticking. The 2020 Census Form needs to be finalized soon, before the counting begins next year. After that, the contentious redistricting process will begin. By then the Democrats at the heart of the party’s redistricting effort will have even more money to pay for ballot initiatives, campaign expenditures, and, of course, litigation.

COLUMN BY

Christine Ravold

Christine Ravold

Christine is the Capital Research Center’s Communications Officer. She writes, edits, and serves as a press contact. She is a graduate of Rosemont College in Pennsylvania. + MORE BY CHRISTINE RAVOLD

RELATED ARTICLE: Who Runs the Census? How the bureaucracy takes power away from elected officials. – WSJ

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EDITORS NOTE: This Capital Research Center column with images is republished with permission.

France builds “Trump-style” wall to keep illegal Muslim migrants from breaking into Britain from Calais

France has speedily “built a ten-foot wall at a Total station in Calais used by migrants who attempt to storm lorries and break into Britain.”

The wall is being compared by detractors to the “Trump wall,” and it is just as needed: “there are an estimated 600 mostly male migrants hailing from Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria squatting in makeshift camps around the port town waiting to break into Britain— down from an estimated 10,000 during the heyday of the infamous ‘Calais Jungle.’”

Reminder: the Calais jungle was a violent no-go war zone.

“France Builds Trump-Style Wall to Stop Illegals Getting to Britain,” by Victoria Friedman, Breitbart, January 21, 2019:

French authorities have built a ten-foot wall at a Total station in Calais used by migrants who attempt to storm lorries and break into Britain.

The barrier is being erected at a petrol station in the Marcel-Doret area where lorries stop to fill up with fuel before heading to the port and onwards to the United Kingdom. It is set to be finished by mid-February.

Local prefect Fabien Sudry told Nord Littoral that “smuggling networks meet there and take advantage of stations near the port to get migrants in trucks.”

“The situation was rather tense at this station. The police regularly had stones thrown at them,” Mr Sudry said.
A Total spokesman confirmed the barrier was built at the request of the Calais prefecture to “protect customers, staff, and migrants,” the Daily Mail reports, with locals comparing it to the wall that U.S. President Donald Trump wants to build along the southern border of the United States to stop mass illegal migration from Central and South America.

Pro-migration aid workers object to the wall, as the barrier between the two spaces is “divisive.”
One Calais-based charity worker who wished to withhold their identity complained: “The wall is ugly and of course divisive.”

“This is very political — it aims to show desperate people that they are not welcome here, and that more and more walls and police will be used to keep them out.

“If you oppose such policies, you can get into a lot of trouble.”

There are an estimated 600 mostly male migrants hailing from Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria squatting in makeshift camps around the port town waiting to break into Britain — down from an estimated 10,000 during the heyday of the infamous “Calais Jungle”.

It is believed to be the first time that a wall has been so quickly erected in a hotspot area for trafficking with the intention of stopping migrants attempting to make the journey to the United Kingdom…..

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Benny Jackson on Unsplash.

Will This Illegal Alien be Charged in their Murder?

We are still waiting to hear if authorities in Carson City, Nevada will be filing charges against a “man” they have in custody.

nevada killer

Wilbur Martinez-Guzman

See my post yesterday (click here) for news about the arrest of Wilbur Martinez-Guzman, 19.  Police believe he is responsible for a murder spree in Nevada earlier this month that left four people dead in their homes.

Here are two of those murdered Americans. (Thanks to TwoLaine for sending the link).

nevada murders
Jerry David, 81, and his wife, Sherri, 80

More information here.

If you see that the charges have been filed before I do, please send a link!

RELATED ARTICLE: Nevada: Illegal Alien is Prime Suspect in Recent Murder Spree

EDITORS NOTE: This Frauds, Crooks and Criminals column with images is republished with permission. The featured image is by Carson City Sheriff Office via Twitter.

Pelosi Shuns Trump Offer to Swap Amnesty for Wall

President Donald Trump offered to expand amnesty for certain young illegal immigrants in exchange for money to pay for a border barrier as a compromise to end the partial government shutdown. 

“This is a commonsense compromise both parties should embrace,” Trump said Saturday in a nationally televised speech from the White House.

Democratic leaders have already said they would oppose the Trump compromise, so the partial shutdown of 25 percent of the federal government will likely continue for a while. 

“The radical left can never control our borders. I will never let it happen. Walls are not immoral,” the president continued during the speech. “In fact, they are the opposite of immoral, because they will save many lives and stop drugs from pouring into our country.”

During the remarks, Trump laid out a plan that would include the $5.7 billion he requested for construction of additional 230 miles of a steel border wall. 

His offer to Democrats is three years of relief for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and another three-year extension for those for whom DACA protection is about to expire. DACA recipients are illegal immigrants brought to the United States by their parents. 

Trump talked about the crimes, murder, drugs, and rape that result from illegal immigration, as well as the humanitarian crisis among migrants traveling to reach the United States. 

“It’s got to end now. These are not talking points, these are the heartbreaking realities that are hurting innocent, precious human beings every single day on both sides of the border,” Trump said. “As a candidate for president, I promised I would fix this crisis, and I intend to keep that promise.”

Trump’s remarks come as another migrant caravan from Central America is moving toward the U.S. southern border. It also came moments after he spoke to an Oval Office naturalization ceremony that was held for legal immigrants that became citizens on Saturday.

Trump said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will bring the proposal up for a vote next week. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement opposing the Trump proposal before the president delivered the speech. However, she said the House would vote on its own counter proposal in the next week that did not include a wall—or DACA—to reopen the government. 

Trump framed the wall as a reasonable project. 

“This is not a 2,000-mile concrete structure from sea to sea,” the president said. “These are steel barriers in high-priority locations.”

Trump deserves credit for trying to security the border, but his proposed compromise is not the best way forward, said James Carafano, vice president for national security and foreign policy at The Heritage Foundation.

“Amnesty encourages further illegal immigration, incentivizes the tragedy of human trafficking, and undermines our citizens’ confidence in the rule of law,” Carafano said in a statement. “Amnesty should not be part of any border security deal, especially given that many who today oppose a wall have publicly supported and even voted for physical barriers in the recent past.”

Trump’s proposal also includes $800 million for humanitarian assistance at the border, $805 million for drug detection technology to help secure our ports of entry, 2,750 new border agents and law enforcement professionals, and 75 new immigration judges to handle the backlog of almost 900,000 cases. 

“It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter,” Pelosi said in her statement. “For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS [Temporary Protected Status] recipients that our country needs and supports.”

Pelosi said Democrats support increasing the number of immigration judges and new technology to stop drugs and weapons from coming across the border.

“Next week, Democrats will pass a package of six bills agreed to by House and Senate negotiators and other legislation to re-open government so that we can fully negotiate on border security proposals.” Pelosi said. 

COLUMN BY

Portrait of Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Send an email to Fred. Twitter: @FredLucasWH.

RELATED ARTICLE: Poll: Latino Trump approval soars during border wall battle

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column with images is republished with permission. The featured image by lovepixs on Pixabay.

JUDGES GONE ROGUE: Judge embraces ‘Lawfare’ to obstruct immigration law enforcement.

With increasing frequency judges have issued rulings that run contrary to the laws and commonsense.

Nowhere has this become a more serious issue than where immigration law enforcement is concerned.

It has become fashionable for the radical left to bash our nation’s sovereignty, our borders and the notion of our immigration laws.  Of course the initial desire to open our border to “free trade” began with Conservatives and Libertarians who saw in our borders barriers to their wealth to be acquired by importing goods and workers from outside the United States.

The increasingly radicalized Democratic Party has come completely unhinged where immigration law enforcement is concerned, creating so-called “Sanctuary Cities” which openly boast that they will shield “immigrants” from immigration law enforcement.

Of course, as I have written in numerous articles, lawful immigrants and temporary (non-immigrant) alien visitors need no shielding from ICE no more than licensed motorists who operate their motor vehicles in compliance with motor vehicle laws need no shielding from police officers.

New York State’s Governor Cuomo has endorsed sanctuary polities for New York State and has referred to valiant ICE agents as “Thugs.”

Shielding illegal aliens from ICE undermines the efforts of the DHS to deter aliens from entering the United States illegally and deter aliens who are lawfully admitted from subsequently violating our immigration laws by overstaying their lawful period of admission, accepting illegal employment or otherwise violating their terms of their admission.

In point of fact, under the provisions of a federal law that is comprehended within the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S. Code § 1324, it is a felony to harbor or shield illegal aliens from detection.

While a growing number of cities and states have decided to adopt “sanctuary” polities, there are some cities that continue to cooperate with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) through the 287(g) program whereby their law enforcement officers are trained by ICE to assist that division of the DHS with the vital mission of immigration law enforcement from within the interior of the United States.

Apparently a federal district judge, Catherine Blake, decided that the “solution” to local sheriffs and police officers assisting ICE in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, was to order the stay of an illegal alien who had been ordered deported by an Immigration Judge so that the alien could pursue a lawsuit against the Sheriff and his deputies who would dare assist in the enforcement of our immigration laws.

On January 17, 2019 the Conservative Review published an extensive article about this lunacy,

Judge creates right for illegal alien to block deportation … so she can sue law enforcement that provides the infuriating details of the case.

The tactic of launching lawsuits to intimidate law enforcement officers from doing their jobs and local municipalities from enacting laws contrary to their agenda has been the tactic of the ACLU under the concept that they refer to as “Lawfare.”  This is similar to “warfare” but uses lawsuits in place of ammunition.

Here is an excerpt from the excellent article Conservative Review article:

Roxana Orellana Santos is an illegal alien from El Salvador who had no right to come to this country in 2005 and no right to remain in this country against the will of the people as expressed through long-standing statute. Pursuant to our laws, Santos was detained by Border Patrol when she broke into our country in Texas and then failed to appear for an immigration hearing. In 2007, an immigration judge issued an order to deport her.

A year into her fugitive life, Frederick cops informally questioned her outside a restaurant on October 7, 2008, after they thought she was running away from them. Upon receiving information from ICE through dispatch that she was here illegally, and then acting on an outstanding immigration warrant from ICE, Frederick sheriff’s deputies arrested Santos as part of their lawful cooperation with the federal government to help apprehend illegal aliens through the 287(g) program, under 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g). It’s part of a law that passed the Senate unanimously in 1996.

The report went on to note:


District Judge Catherine Blake

In a sane country, this would have been the end of the story. Santos should have been deported, pursuant to every statute on the books. But Santos, backed by an army of lawyers from the organization CASA de Maryland, sued the Frederick sheriff for what she felt was an illegal search and seizure and the county commissioners for agreeing to operate under 287(g). After endless motions while remained in the country, the district court rebuffed her claim in 2012, but the arch-liberal Fourth Circuit sided with her a year later. The court created a new right for illegals not to be apprehended by local law enforcement because of their immigration status. Last September, District Judge Catherine Blake ruled that Sheriff Jenkins could be held liable in a civil suit for the acts of his deputies. This allows Santos to proceed with a suit for civil damages. Her attorneys are seeking to milk this small county for $1 million in damages! None of us can sue her for sucking up our resources.

How many members of the law enforcement community will continue to enforce the laws when they know that they or their jurisdictions are never more than one decision away from a massive and debilitating lawsuit?

This is an outrageous example of extortion to coerce local jurisdiction to fall in line with the demands of the immigration anarchists.

There is a long standing question that asks, “Is the pen mightier than the sword.”

The answer to the question depends on who is wielding the pen.  We certainly witnessed tremendous damage done to our nation by the President Obama’s pen (and phone).  We are now witnessing the damage being done by judges who have decided that as Sylvester Stallone’s character, Judge Dredd intoned in the film by that name, “I am the law!”

The realm of immigration law enforcement now exists in a parallel universe where nothing that would exist anywhere else exists in this magical and treacherous kingdom.

It is a matter of routine that law enforcement agencies work in close cooperation to enforce broad spectrum of laws across the United States.  When police departments encounter a person who is wanted for crimes in other jurisdictions or, perhaps, by federal agencies, that they notify the agency that has lodged a warrant in the NCIS database.  In point of fact, a significant number of the FBI’s most wanted are initially arrested by local police.

Immigration law violations were treated similarly until recently with local police working closely with immigration law enforcement.

In the 1970’s as an INS agent, I was, involved in such case involving an arrest made by members of the NYPD Anti-Crime squad in Brooklyn.  Police officers had stopped a car that ran a red light.  The driver got out of the car and attacked the police officer who was at least twice the size of the belligerent motorist.  The cop knocked the assailant to the ground and a gun, a 9mm Browning fell out of his waistband.  Both men, who spoke with heavy West Indian accents were taken into custody. 

In those days I worked in close cooperation with the NYPD and particularly with several of the police precincts, especially the precinct where this occurred.  The sergeant who was in charge of that squad called me and asked if I could assist in figuring out who these two guys were.  For whatever reason, when the NYPD ran their fingerprints no relating record could be found. 

They both claimed to have been born in the U.S.  In fact, the driver told me had been born “down south in Chicago.”  This certainly called his claim of being a United States citizen into serious question.

I had developed a relationship with the DEA in NYC and although the INS lack the capability to electronically transmit fingerprints to the FBI in Washington, the DEA was able and willing to provide me with that capability.  I ran the prints and in the middle of the night I received an urgent call from FBI Headquarters, they wanted to know where the two individuals were, it turned out that they were about to be placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List” for their involvement in serious of deadly bank robberies where they were alleged to have shot and killed several people.

Incidentally, they were both were aliens- citizens of Trinidad and Tobago who had lied about their identities and citizenship.

My partner and I received letters of commendation from the NYPD/FBI Joint Bank Robbery Task Force for identifying these two fugitives enabling them to be taken into custody and prosecuted for their crimes.  Today, they are probably still in jail, where they can no longer pose a threat to anyone.

We also lodged detainers to have them taken into immigration custody if they are ever released from prison.

This is but a single example of just how successful such cooperative teamwork can be to protect our communities but could never happen today, especially in New York City.

For the globalists, the bodies of innocent victims are nothing more than “collateral damage” or, perhaps, “speed bumps” on the road to globalism and anarchy.

In all professions those who make bad decision are likely to pay a serious price.  Doctors who are guilty of malpractice can be sued, lose their licenses to practice medicine, and even be prosecuted.  Law enforcement officers face similar consequences when they act inappropriately.

Judges and politicians must be made similarly accountable.

RELATED ARTICLE:Poll: Latino Trump approval soars during border wall battle

EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Sebastian Pichler on Unsplash.

Mr. President: ‘Build up this wall!’

On Friday, June 12th, 1987, President Reagan visited West Berlin.

Standing upon a platform, overlooking the wall which the Soviets had built to keep East Germans from escaping to freedom in the West, President Reagan chose to utter words that electrified the world. Addressing Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, he said: Mr. President, “Tear down this Wall.”

Here was a wall which, since 1951, had kept hapless souls from escaping Soviet occupied East Germany. But today there is an urgent need to build up a wall on America’s southern border – not to keep people in but to keep trespassers, drug traffickers, dangerous terrorists and violent gang members from illegally infiltrating into the United States of America.

President Trump has outlined the danger that stalks the southern border and imperils America’s very sovereignty as an independent nation state. He has praised the border agents who hourly face violence from brutal criminals as they repeatedly and illegally cross the unprotected border. But this alarming fact does not phase the likes of Pelosi and Schumer or of the growing extremists within the ranks of the Democrat party. The Democrats simply will not work with President Trump and they are willing to ignore the humanitarian and national security crisis that exists and grows daily.

President Trump has stressed again and again the towering need for a wall on the southern border to prevent a tide of illegal aliens from imperiling U.S. sovereignty and bringing with it misery, violence and death.

The Democrats remain willingly blind to the horrendous flow of illegal drugs coming through the southern border. They remain blind and deaf to the human agonies from drug overdoses that are killing hundreds of American citizens every week. They are not concerned about such matters. They are solely engaged in politics and their protestations of being the party of compassion are as real as dream stuff.

Vast quantities of meths, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine flood across the porous southern border resulting in as many as 300 deaths a week from heroin alone. Yet the Democrats remain obstinately blind to such horrors, thus invoking that old saying: “There’s none so blind as those who will not see!”

In 2017, some 20,000 migrant children were brought into the United States, more often than not with unspeakable brutality by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. A third of the women in the caravans of despair making their way through Mexico to our southern border are sexually assaulted. In the last two years, ICE officers have confirmed arrests of criminal aliens numbering well over a quarter of a million – and the flood grows ever larger.

In his recent address to the nation, President Trump summed up what is desperately needed. He said, “Now is the time – this is the moment – to finally secure the border and create the lawful and safe immigration system Americans, and those wanting to become Americans, deserve.”

So what could the Democrats possible object to?

Well their obstinacy could be simply summed up as Democrat sheer bloody mindedness. Their refusal to negotiate is due to only one thing, as Rush Limbaugh has repeatedly pointed out: the Democrats hate President Trump.

They do so with a viciousness that drips vitriol and they will never accept him in office. That being the case, we must urge the President to hold firm and not give away one inch to a party that has become so extreme and so willing to inflict immense harm upon the United States of America.

A nation of laws must have the ability to enforce its laws, especially regarding immigration, but the Democrats want us to ignore our laws in favor of their radical and socialist policies. That must not ever be allowed to stand, for in their assault upon the Constitution and their malignant desire to transform America lies ruin and the end of American sovereignty and independence.

Even Majority Leader McConnell, not one to be exactly known as a Conservative firebrand, nevertheless said this after hearing the President’s TV address:

“Tonight, President Trump reaffirmed his commitment to addressing the humanitarian and security crisis at our nation’s southern border. His proposal to increase security through physical barriers suits the reality on the ground. It’s what career Border Patrol experts support and are asking for.”

McConnell also tellingly added that: “It simply builds on earlier legislation that Senate Democrats like then-Senator Obama, then-Senator Clinton, and Senator Schumer previously supported with enthusiasm.” In other words, the Democrats have called in the past for secure physical barriers on the southern border, but now they rail against it and refuse to help pay for it because it is President Trump who will build it.

This is the same Democrat party that now cynically elevates to a leading foreign affairs committee the Muslim immigrant from Somalia, Minnesota Democrat, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who reeks of anti-Semitic bile. She is among a group of recently elected members of Congress touted as the new “progressive” face of the Democratic party.

What binds these Democrats together is their hateful opposition to Israel, our only loyal ally in the Middle East. This is a key policy position for these outrageously biased and bigoted lawmakers. Speaker Pelosi, to her undying shame, knows full well who and what these people are and yet she remains mute without a word of censure.

Among Omar’s colleagues is Palestinian-American, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who was caught on video this month vowing to “impeach the motherf***er,” with regard to President Trump. Again Pelosi exhibits deafening silence.

But, Mr. President, you should know that millions upon millions of Americans support you and urge you to stand firm and defeat the monstrous and fast evolving Democrat Socialist party. The once ‘silent majority’ is with you all the way and it is silent no more.

So, dear Mr. President, electrify the world again – as your predecessor once did – and Build up this Wall.

EDITORS NOTE: This column is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash.

Congress Earns ‘Nero Award’ For Fiddling While America is Invaded: Why Democrats’ actions are especially egregious.

President Trump has decided to not sign off on the federal budget until it includes money for a physical barrier to finally secure the dangerous and highly porous U.S./Mexican border from the un-inspected entry of aliens and cargo.

That tough decision has been a long time coming.

With no budget, nonessential sections of the government have been shut down and some federal employees deemed “essential” are working without pay.

As a former federal employee I can certainly empathize with those federal employees. I recall working without pay when prior partial government shutdowns occurred.

Many pundits and “political analysts” have said that the administration should compromise. As things now stand, there is nothing to compromise about. Any “compromise” with Pelosi and company would only compromise national security. That “compromise” has been ongoing for decades and we have all too many dead bodies that prove how dangerous open borders are.

The media is focused on how many days federal employees have gone without pay, but no one is keeping track of how many years our borders have failed to prevent the entry of narcotics, weapons, criminals, terrorists and foreign workers who displace hard-working Americans and drive down the wages of those who are fortunate to keep their jobs.

The mainstream media has reported, as part of coverage about the impact of the partial government shutdown, that some TSA employees have failed to report for duty, thereby causing delays at airports as long lines of travelers wait to be screened by the diminished workforce.

Certainly there is not much that can be done when TSA personnel don’t show up for work. After all, no one would want to board an airliner unless all passengers and their luggage are carefully screened.

However, isn’t it ironic that folks would never willingly fly on an airliner unless all of the passengers and cargo were carefully vetted, and yet because of our corrupt and globalist politicians, because of the multiple failures to secure our borders (including that perilous and porous one we share with Mexico), we are forced to live among millions of aliens who entered the United States without screening?

Yet that is precisely the situation we find ourselves in today and, if anyone complains about this, they are quickly tossed into Hillary’s “basket of deplorables”!

For the first two years of the Trump administration the House and Senate were both controlled by a Republican majority. Nevertheless the President’s call for funding for the border wall went unheeded and ignored.

Let’s be fair and honest: the “leadership” of both the Democrats and Republicans has never wanted secure borders or effective immigration law enforcement. 

This was the underlying predication for my article, “Sanctuary Country – Immigration failures by design.”

It is not that America cannot secure its borders; it is that our political elites from both parties don’t want those borders to be made secure. They have come to see the immigration system as a delivery system for an unlimited supply of easily exploited foreign workers from Third World countries who come to America with Third World expectations of meager wages and unreasonable and hazardous working conditions.

Many of the politicians from both parties are attorneys. For them, particularly those who practice immigration law, a tsunami of illegal aliens provides an endless stream of clients for immigration law firms from coast to coast and border to border.

I discussed this on the “Breitbart News Tonight” radio show of which Breitbart posted a follow-up news article, “Exclusive–Michael Cutler: Immigration ‘Crisis’ a ‘Delivery System’ for Elites.”

This is why the political leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties have been insisting that since we cannot deport all of the illegal aliens who are present in the United States, the best we can do is legalize them to “get them out of the shadows.”

This is a thinly disguised game of “bait and switch” with the ultimate goal of getting those millions of illegal aliens into the waiting rooms of immigration law firms around the United States. 

The Democrats exclaim that we must be “compassionate” and provide these “immigrants” with a pathway to citizenship while the Republicans insist that they are going to stand strong and “only” provide millions of illegal aliens with permission to work.

Either way, aspiring illegal aliens from around the world are getting the message: enter the United States by any means possible and little will be done to remove (deport) you but eventually you will be granted permission to work in the United States and gain lawful status.

The Democrats have insisted that when illegal aliens enter the United States, if they utter the magic password “political asylum” they will immediately be swept into a massive program that will enable them to remain in the country for many years. This further entices millions more illegal aliens to head for the United States. 

In essence, the starter’s pistol has thus been fired for aspiring illegal aliens from around the world and for these aliens the “finish line” is the border of the United States.

That imagery is certainly apparent as we witness yet another “migrant caravan” heading north from El Salvador to the U.S./Mexican border.

The Democratic Party is adamant about not “wasting money” on a border wall or other such “low tech” solution to border security. Instead they would spend hundreds of millions of dollars on drones and sensors that would alert the overwhelmed Border Patrol when aliens run the border.

I have written about this madness in several articles but am compelled once again to make note of what should be obvious but is never reported in the mainstream media: a succession of government reports have shown that drones, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, have been involved in fewer than one-half of one percent of all Border Patrol arrests.

Drones and sensors should be thought of as a sort of national burglar alarm for America. Drones and burglar alarms cannot make any arrests. All that they do is notify the appropriate authorities that a break-in has occurred or that our borders have been violated and then it is up to law enforcement agencies to respond to that alarm.

Many homes have burglar alarms, but I have never seen a house that is equipped with one that not only did not have strong, secure locks on the front door, but no front door at all!

For decades Americans have been held hostage in their own homes as more drugs and gang members have flowed across our borders and committed violent crimes in towns and cities across the United States.

Now hapless federal employees are being held hostage to the outrageous demands of the Democrats that nothing of meaningful consequence be done to truly secure the dangerous Mexican border.

Even as Chuck Schumer insists that there is no crisis and that President Trump is simply having a “temper tantrum,” not far from Schumer’s own home in Brooklyn, New York, a trial is being conducted at the federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn (Eastern District of New York).

The defendant in this case is a citizen of Mexico, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the alleged leader of the infamous Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel that purportedly smuggled more than 200 tons of cocaine into the United States along with tonnage of other drugs including cocaine, meth and marijuana across the U.S./Mexican border that President Trump is determined to finally secure.

There have been many articles written about the trial but one in particular has managed to capture some of the trial’s “highlights” (lowlights?). That article, “Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s trial: Nine crazy moments,” was published on January 10, 2019 by the BBC. 

Here is a particularly disturbing excerpt from that news report:

Hi-tech murder room

A trusted hitman for El Chapo kept a “murder room” in his mansion on the US border, which featured a drain on the floor to more easily clean up after slayings.

Edgar Galvan testified in January that Antonio “Jaguar” Marrufo had a room with white tiles that was sound-proofed “so no noise comes out”.

“In that house, no one comes out,” Galvan told jurors.

Galvan said his role in the organisation was to smuggle weapons into the US, so that Marrufo could use them to “clear” the region of rivals.

At the time, he was living in El Paso, Texas, while Marrufo was living in Ciudad Juarez, just across the US-Mexico border.

But both men are now in jail on firearms and gun charges.

Perhaps someone should send Mr. Schumer and his radical cohorts a copy of the article. 

During his administration Bill Clinton attempted to redefine the term “is.”

Now Schumer and the Democrats would like to redefine the term “crisis”; however, as John Adams sagely noted, “Facts are stubborn things.”

RELATED ARTICLES:

Poll: Latino Trump approval soars during border wall battle

President Bush Failed to Deliver Border Security, Now Delivering Pizza to Furloughed Secret Service Members 

National Emergency? Trump Will Make ‘Major Announcement’ On Border Crisis Tomorrow Afternoon 

EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash.

The facts on Immigrant Crime Published in NJ Newspaper

And, not only that!  The Trentonian, via an opinion piece by David Neese, reminds its readers in blue New Jersey about statements from politicians past that should have earned them (at least) a wrist slap from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

bernie and barack
So where was the Southern Poverty Law Center when we needed them?

You have heard the comments repeatedly lately, but I will bet a buck most Dems outside of the DC beltway have no idea both Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders were so vocal in their demands for border security!

Maybe I’m too hard on the mainstream media! Sometimes they come through with the truth!

The Trentonian:

Provocation: Documented facts about ‘undocumented’

Using at least two words that are now verboten in proper Washington circles, writer Neese begins with a little provocation about the hypocrisy that is driving us nuts these days! (Emphasis is mine)

Surely it was a white supremacist — or at a minimum a xenophobic bigot — who brazenly uttered these words: “We simply can’t allow people to pour into the United States undetected, unchecked, circumventing the people who are waiting patiently, diligently, lawfully to become immigrants in the country.”

But, lo and behold, these were not the words of some slope-browed yahoo driving around in a pickup with a confederate decal on the rear window right by the gun rack.

These were the words of none other than Barack Obama, spoken in 2005.

Okay, but surely the following words, spoken in 2007, were the sentiments of a Klan rabble-rouser:

“I don’t know why we need millions of people to be coming into the country who will work for lower wages than America works and drive down wages even lower than they are now.”

Nope, not Klan words. Those were the words of Bernie Sanders, socialist tribune for the toiling proletariat.

Then he gets to the numbers that no one should ignore:

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) puts out a report called “Criminal Alien Statistics.” The 2018 edition notes 208,800 criminal aliens in state and federal prisons, doing time for an assortment of felonies at a taxpayer cost of $1.4 billion annually.

That seems like a lot of offenders behind bars if immigrant crime is merely, as frequently asserted, a “dog-whistle” term the Know Nothings employ to incite resentment of brown people.

Looking at a sample of 197,000 criminal aliens, the GAO reports an average 10 criminal offenses per alien among this group. Ten!

For the period roughly 2011-2016, the GAO reports the following number of offenses by illegal aliens:

— Drugs: 761,200 state, 336,600 federal.

— Assaults: 397,000 state, 108,400 federal.

— Weapons: 124,709 state, 44,500 federal.

— Sex offenses: 120,300 state, 13,600 federal.

— Robberies: 54,700 state, 13,500 federal.

— Homicides: 50,300 state, 6,000 federal.

— Kidnappings: 18,600 state, 5,000 federal.

Go here to read it all.

Thank you Mr. Neese and The Trentonian.  (If you are wondering, I don’t know David Neese.)

question mark

Looking for something to do? Get Neese’s piece circulating on social media.  Not my post, but his original (here) and consider contacting The Trentonian to thank them for publishing it.

EDITORS NOTE: This Frauds, Crooks and Criminals column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by David von Diemar on Unsplash.

TAKE ACTION: Americans Demand Border Security Petition

The border crisis is real—and inaction by Congressional Democrats is irresponsible. To protect our communities, the Trump Administration is requesting funds for common sense border security funding.

We must have a secure border in order to:

  • Reduce illegal immigration.
  • Protect American lives.
  • Combat the opioid epidemic.
  • Protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation by human traffickers.

Background

Insufficient border security is creating a crisis in communities across America and at the southern border. For instance, 90 percent of the heroin in America comes through our southern border, fueling the opioid epidemic and destroying our communities.

America welcomes more than one million legal immigrants every year who go through a long vetting process. However, the current immigration system is broken due to a combination of outdated legal immigration rules and lax enforcement that exacerbates lawlessness.

In 2017 and 2018, roughly 235,000 illegal immigrants were arrested on various criminal charges or convictions within the interior of the United States—including roughly 100,000 for assault, 30,000 for sex crimes, and 4,000 for homicides.

Insufficient border security is creating a crisis in communities throughout America. 90 percent of the heroin in America comes through our southern border, fueling the opioid epidemic, destroying families, and killing thousands of our fellow citizens. In the past two years, more Americans have died from opioid overdoses than died in the Vietnam war.

Furthermore, human smugglers are exploiting our immigration system for profit and putting innocent lives at risk. One in three migrant women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek to the border.

The border crisis is real—and inaction is irresponsible. To protect our communities, the Trump Administration is requesting funds for common sense border security. This ask includes:

  • $5.7 billion for construction of approximately 234 miles of steel barrier along the Southern Border
  • $675 million to deter and detect dangerous materials crossing our borders like narcotics and weapons
  • $563 million that would provide for 75 additional immigration judges and support staff who are necessary to reduce the backlog of immigration cases that are sitting right now at the border
  • $211 million for 750 additional border patrol agents, who DHS officials have deemed paramount to this fight
  • $571 million for additional ICE personnel
  • $4.2 billion for detention center materials and personnel

As a first step to combat this crisis, Congress must pass a spending bill that provides the funding that the President has requested. In addition to obtaining increased border security funding today, we must continue to push for real reforms to our legal immigration system. Necessary reforms include ending chain migration, adopting a skills-based immigration system, and closing loopholes in the asylum claim process.

TAKE ACTION: Sign the petition to tell Democrats in Congress to stop holding our safety hostage!

EDITORS NOTE: This Heritage Action column is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Roman Koester on Unsplash.

PODCAST: Immigration ‘Crisis’ a ‘Delivery System’ for Elites

Former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) official Michael Cutler says the current “crisis” of mass illegal and legal immigration to the United States is the direct result of “globalists going back decades.”

In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight, Cutler argues that the country’s immigration system — which imports more than 1.5 million illegal and legal immigrants a year — is not “broken” as Democrats and Republicans often claim, but actually operating “exactly” how politicians and their billionaire donors intended it to work.

Cutler said:

Both sides of the aisle have been globalists going back decades. And that’s how we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess. [Emphasis added]

[ … ]

When people say ‘The immigration system is broken,’ I’m going to shock you and tell you it’s not broken. It’s doing exactly what the elite want. It is a delivery system and what it delivers is an unlimited supply of cheap, exploitable labor … it delivers an unlimited supply of foreign tourists. That’s why we have 28 visa waiver countries on 9/11, today we have 38 visa waiver countries. There should be zero visa waiver countries if you look at the findings of the 9/11 Commission. [Emphasis added]

It also delivers an unlimited supply of foreign students and for the immigration lawyers … an unlimited supply of clientele. [Emphasis added]

Listen to Cutler’s full interview here:

Cutler also called out Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) record on wanting to increase penalties for Americans who trespass on federal property while opposing the enforcement of immigration law that penalizes illegal aliens for trespassing into the U.S.

“Chuck Schumer in 2014 … wanted a federal law that would make trespassing on critical infrastructure a five-year federal felony,” Cutler said.

“The same Schumer says when you trespass on America, however, you’ve earned citizenship of the highest honor that we can bestow upon a foreign national,” Cutler continued. “It’s outrageous beyond words.”

“This is a crisis that has been festering far too long because you’ve had far too many immoral, greedy politicians willing to sell America to the highest bidder through campaign contributions,” Cutler said.

Currently, the federal government has remained partially shut down as House Democrats block any funding for physical barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border. A handful of Senate Republicans, meanwhile, crafted a plan to give amnesty to illegal aliens that ultimately failed to gain traction.

President Donald Trump has said he is reviewing a plan to deem the border and illegal immigration a national emergency in order to fund a wall along the southern border.

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific. 

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

EDITORS NOTE: This Breitbart News Tonight column with images and podcast is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Anaya Katlego on Unsplash.