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

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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’

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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.
  • A 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

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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

Pamela Geller

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

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

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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!

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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.

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States Put Billions Toward Illegal Immigrants at Taxpayer Expense: Expert

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As of June 2023, some immigration experts estimated that roughly 17 million illegal immigrants resided in the U.S., with at least 16% of the population arriving under the Biden administration. While migrants from all over the world cite many reasons for coming, one of the biggest is that illegal immigrants are getting several benefits when they arrive. Many have argued that the well-being of those who are here illegally seems to be prioritized over those who are here legally.

Several sanctuary cities offer migrants free housing, food, schooling, and medical care. States such as California have gone as far as to provide free gender transition procedures for illegal immigrants. Other states that are running out of space have asked residents to open up their own homes to undocumented individuals and families. Several airports, schools, and hotels that American citizens use as part of their daily lives have even been transformed into shelters.

Some have argued it’s hard to ignore the rise in crimes such as robbery, murder, and threats of terrorism that the wide open border welcomes. Among Christians, this crisis has sparked a conversation as to how to go about this chaos in a loving manner. But while all of these concerns are worth addressing, there is another group facing the consequences of Biden’s lack of border control ?” namely, U.S. taxpayers.

Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, shared on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” on Tuesday that there’s an estimated $150.7 billion burden on taxpayers, which is directly tied to the illegal immigration. As a result of Democratic policies, Mehlman said the illegals showing up in the sanctuary cities are “entitled” to the services, which “costs a lot of money.” He added that the money needed to take care of the migrants is “money that the [states don’t] have to begin with.”

Mehlman highlighted that cities like New York chose to cut down on education and police budgets in order to spend money on the migrants. NYC budgeted $12 billion “between now and the end of 2025,” he explained. “New York is now spending more on care of the migrants than they are spending on police, fire, and sanitation combined.”

Additionally, Mehlman noted that one of the ways taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick is through the health care system. “Under the Affordable Care Act, illegal aliens were not eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health insurance programs. And that was deliberate,” he said. “Now, you have states like California … deciding that they are going to use state taxpayer money in order to subsidize health care for illegal aliens.”

Mehlman described a lot of what’s happening as “self-induced crises.” But the states facing the consequences of their own policies then “turn around and ask everybody else to bail them out.” And the issue with that, he said, is that “whether the money is coming out of state … local coffers, or … from the federal government, it’s still the people’s money. It’s our hard earned dollars.”

Ultimately, taxes are “supposed to be providing services for us,” he urged. “Instead, they’re taking this money and creating new magnets for people to come here and abuse the system.”

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, pointed out that amid this financial fiasco, the Biden administration still wants to send “$60 billion over to Ukraine.” He concluded, “Let’s shut off the border [and] we might have a little extra money to work with.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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

Ghastly 7,300% Surge in Illegal Immigrants from Same Nation as College Student’s Murderer

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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.

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

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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

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: States Put Billions Toward Illegal Immigrants at Taxpayer Expense: Expert

RELATED VIDEO: I reminded the President the number one issue is the open border: Speaker Mike Johnson

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

Ghastly 7,300% Surge in Illegal Immigrants from Same Nation as College Student’s Murderer

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While most mainstream media coverage flagrantly omits that the man charged in the murder of a Georgia nursing student is an illegal immigrant who entered the United States through the famously porous southern border, other important nuggets are also being left out of most reports. The 26-year-old suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, comes from a country—Venezuela—run by a dictator with close ties to terrorists who refuses to accept deportees. This is especially disturbing because the U.S. has seen a shocking 7,300% spike in migrants from Venezuela under the Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies and now we are stuck with all of them. There is no telling how many other violent criminals or terrorists are among the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have been released inside the country by our government in the last few years.

Ibarra and his brother, another delinquent recently charged with possessing a fake green card, crossed into El Paso, Texas in September 2022 and was released in the country like millions of other migrants under the Biden administration’s policies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed in an Atlanta news report that Ibarra “was paroled and released for further processing.” Federal authorities say the brother, 29-year-old Diego Ibarra “claimed a credible fear” of being returned to his native Venezuela when he got arrested, which is a scandal-plagued tactic used by millions of illegal immigrants to avoid getting deported. Before the most recent arrest for murder the younger Ibarra had been arrested several times, for driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license, shoplifting and failure to appear for an offense. One of the arrests occurred in New York City, which offers illegal immigrants sanctuary and does not report criminals to the feds for removal.

A few days ago, Ibarra got charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. Police say he killed 22-year-old nursing student Laken Hope Riley, whose body was found in the woods behind a lake on the University of Georgia campus. “On February 22, 2024 at approximately 12:07 p.m., the UGA Police Department received a call from a friend of Laken’s who was concerned that she had gone to run at the Intramural Fields earlier in the morning and had not returned as expected,” according to a statement issued by the University of Georgia Police. “Officers responded to the area and immediately began a search at approximately 12:20 p.m. and located her shortly afterward. She was unconscious and not breathing, and had received visible injuries. Officers immediately began rendering medical aid. Emergency medical responders determined that she was deceased upon their arrival.”

Evidence shows that Ibarra acted alone. Only conservative media has bothered to report the highly relevant details surrounding the Venezuelan’s immigration status and that he moved to Athens, Georgia because it offers illegal aliens sanctuary. The mainstream media mostly sugarcoated or avoided the subject altogether. One national news outlet shamefully wrote that Riley’s violent murder has once again put the spotlight on the dangers female runners face. While failing completely to mention pertinent information about the illegal immigrant suspect, the article delves into a survey by athletic wear company Adidas that reveals 92% of women reported feeling concerned for their safety while running with half afraid of being physically attacked. More than a third of women experienced physical or verbal harassment, including sexist comments, and being followed, according to the athletic wear survey.

It is distressing enough that a young woman lost her life to a suspect who should not have been in the country and could have been deported after previous arrests. We must also grapple with the fact that there has been an inconceivable surge in illegal immigrants from Venezuela since Biden became president. This is especially alarming because the South American nation operates under a Marxist regime that encourages international terrorist groups to run free. Venezuela’s government issues travel documents to individuals linked to terrorism and allows terrorists to operate with relative impunity. The country also has close ties with Iran and other notorious state sponsors of terrorism. A State Department report reveals that Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro and his associates “use criminal activities to help maintain their illegitimate hold on power, fostering a permissive environment for known terrorist groups.” That includes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-D), the Colombian-origin National Liberation Army (ELN), and Hizballah sympathizers. In a separate assessment the State Department writes that Maduro has defined himself through his opposition to the United States, regularly criticizing the U.S. government, its policies, and its relations with Latin America.

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

How Much Crime and Chaos Will It Take for Biden to ‘Address This Disaster’ at the Border?

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Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Georgia. She was known as a person who was caring, driven, and the definition of a “true friend.” But when Riley went on a jog Thursday morning, she faced a brutal, untimely death.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant, has been accused of murdering the young student after “disfiguring” her skull. As Fox News reported, Ibarra “is charged with the felonies of malice murder, murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and concealing the death of another, as well as the misdemeanor of physically hindering a 911 call.”

In its story covering the incident Monday, CNN claimed “there is little evidence indicating a connection between immigration and crime,” but a variety of experts and statistics definitively say otherwise.

On Monday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “[W]e do need to keep in mind … that the mass migration crisis at the southern border is the ultimate stranger danger.”

He continued, “[It’s] virtually impossible to verify criminal histories of even a tiny fraction of all of the millions of people that have crossed in over that border” — a number that has skyrocketed since the Biden administration has been in office. And yet, Biden and his team have repeatedly denied that the 10 million of illegal immigrants who’ve flooded into the U.S. since his inauguration is a crisis. But Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wondered: Could Riley’s murder “finally spur this administration to address this disaster of their own making?”

Bensman and Perkins discussed the shift from immigrants who came to America mostly from Mexico and Central America to now “it’s the entire world coming across the southern border,” Perkins said. Bensman noted that we now “have the greatest percentages in American history coming over that border from 170 countries other than Mexico and Central America.”

He added that there are more Chinese than Mexicans coming into the country, with at least 45,000 in the last 36 months. There are “350 people from Muslim majority countries who are on the FBI’s terrorism watch list. … People coming from every nation on the continent of Africa, including places where there are tribal conflicts with atrocities and warlords,” he explained. “… [W]ho knows who’s coming over that border? They just say, ‘My name is Mickey Mouse,’ and we let them in.”

While the Left claims there isn’t a connection between illegal immigration and increased crime, Bensman contended that the cities facing the highest amount of migrants, particularly sanctuary cities, are seeing “new kinds of crime” as people come to the states and are unable to provide for themselves.

“Far too many crimes should not have ever happened, because those people should have never been here,” he said. But part of the issue, Bensman emphasized, is that the process for these illegal immigrants entering the country is too simple. Not only can they enter the U.S. far too easily, but once they’re in, they’re supposed to “voluntarily report into an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] office later,” which he emphasized “statistics and data” reveal “the vast majority of them never report in.”

Ultimately, he added, “When somebody is arrested for a criminal act, we are supposed to call ICE. But in the sanctuary cities, they don’t call ICE. They have a ban on calling ICE. There’s nothing more immoral [to them] than calling ICE on a criminal arrested in any of these cities.” But then, as a consequence to this way of thinking, the result is a seemingly endless cycle of crime.

Perkins asked, “What benefits are illegal immigrants getting when they come into the country?” Bensman replied, “Everything.”

He elaborated that when someone comes into this country illegally, in many cases, they get “100% support” in terms of housing, food, transportation, school, clothing, and medical care. “For example,” he said, “in Chicago, each immigrant is getting $7,000 cash a year” and other needs. Additionally, there are several ways they can work “illegally and fraudulently.”

As Representative Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) summarized: “The Biden administration’s open-border policies have fueled crime, undermined public safety and overwhelmed our federal, state and local law enforcement officers. … Illegal entry into our nation is perceived as commonplace, and it is conducted with little fear of consequences. That must change, both for the security of our nation and to help restore the dignity and importance of legal immigration in the eyes of all Americans. This crisis is fixable. President Biden must reverse his misguided policies so Congress can work to resolve our broken immigration system.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: Marco Rubio: The largest migratory smuggling operation in the world is operating at the US border

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

VIDEO: America at a Tipping Point with Senior Chief Geoff Ross, U.S. Navy (Ret.) on Dissent Television

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Senior Chief Geoff Ross, U.S. Navy (Ret.) joins us on Dissent Television to discuss why America is at a “tipping point.” America was founded as a Republic with a Constitution and unless we the people protect it, it may disappear.

There are traitors amongst us that want to turn it into a democracy, like that in Venezuela and Cuba.

Senior Chief Ross explains the historical background of this movement to destroy our Constitutional Republican form of government and fundamentally transform it into a dictatorship.

WATCH: “America at a Tipping Point” with Senior Chief Geoff Ross, U.S. Navy (Ret.)

ABOUT SENIOR CHIEF GEOFF ROSS

Geoff, as the son of a retired U.S. Navy Chief, travelled the world as a boy.

Geoff enlisted in the U.S. Navy in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and on July 29th, 1982, at the age 19, entered the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida.

Geoff completed two tours on the USS Holland and one tour on the USS Orion forward deployed in La Maddalena, Italy from 1990-1993.

Geoff served on staff duty in Pensacola, Florida from 1987-1990, and as the Assistant Division Officer for logistics at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center from 1993-1996.

Geoff received various awards and decorations including the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal (5 awards) and various unit awards.

As the former President and CEO of the Rogue Patriot Group Inc. from 2008-2013 Geoff had various bodyguard duties for dignitaries including former Governor Sarah Palin, Colonel Bud Day, former Florida Governor, now Senator, Rick Scott.

Geoff also worked for a year at a Fox News radio affiliate as a political commentator.

Geoff now works as the East Coast Event Coordinator and Fox News liaison for the Combat Veterans for Congress PAC.

Like his father, Geoff retired as a Senior Chief U.S. Navy.

©2024. Host Dr. Rich Swier and Dissent Television. All rights reserved.

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Retired U.S. Army Vietnam Veteran Denied Disability Payments as the Veterans Administration Funds Illegal Aliens

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We received this from a 20 year U.S. Army Vietnam combat veteran,

I received an email from the Veterans Administration saying that I was eligible to apply for added disability benefits if I had been exposed to “toxic materials” during my 20 years of military service.

I went thru the process of providing medical records and proof of my being exposed to toxic materials, from agent orange to radioactive tritium gas, during my time in the U.S. Army in peacetime and in combat.

I provided the VA with doctor’s reports on my being diagnosed with acute asthma, emphysema, and Myasthenia gravis which is a chronic neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in the voluntary smooth muscles, including muscles that connect to bones, face, throat, lungs and diaphragm.

I was interviewed by the local VA clinic and my application was sent forward.

I received a letter this week denying my request.

I found this astounding as I read an article that reported that the VA was helping pay migrant treatment as over 400K veterans, and their families, are waiting for their benefits.

I and my family are flabbergasted by what is happening to our veterans.

Your truly,

A Vietnam Veteran

We decided to look into this issue, as we support all of our veterans, especially those who seek treatment related to service connected injuries.

Ryan King from the New York Post in a column titled VA ripped for helping pay migrant treatment as over 400K veterans, their families wait wrote,

The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing blowback for helping pay out millions of dollars to medical providers who treat illegal immigrants while they are in federal custody — while a backlog of hundreds of thousands of claims from veterans has grown.

The VA’s Austin, Texas-based Financial Services Center (FSC) has been contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since 2002 to process reimbursement claims by providers who offer services to detained migrants.

In fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30 of that year, FSC processed 161,538 such claims, with the ICE Health Services Corps (IHSC) paying out an average of $584 — a total of $94.3 million in taxpayer money, according to a July 2023 Department of Homeland Security report on “Healthcare Costs for Noncitizens in Detention.”

In the previous fiscal year, 2021, ICE’s health care arm budgeted more than $74 million for the VA’s FSC to assist with “outside referral care” and “medical claims processing,” according to a report from July 2022.

Meanwhile, the pile of benefit claims by veterans and their families awaiting adjudication has grown to 417,855, according to the VA’s own website — up from around 150,000 as of late 2022.

Continue reading.

We found this on Congressman Mike Boost who represents Illinois’ 12th District in the U.S. House of Representatives’ website,

December 13, 2023

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today introduced legislation to block the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from using its resources to provide healthcare or engage in claims processing for illegal migrants. The “No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act” comes after reports indicated the Department of Homeland Security is leveraging the VA’s established claims processing system, through its Financial Services Center, to pay for illegal migrants in ICE detention.

“Joe Biden’s failed border policies have created a humanitarian and national security crisis. Now it appears he’s taking resources away from our veterans to facilitate healthcare for illegal migrants,” said Chairman Bost. “As a Marine, I believe any dollar taken away from a veteran is a promise broken to those who served. I’ve demanded answers from the Biden administration and been stonewalled every step of the way. Until I get the response our veterans deserve, I’ll use every available tool of my chairmanship to end this practice and put our veterans first.”

The VA’s Financial Services Center supports the VA’s Community Care mission to ensure veterans have access to healthcare without being forced to travel long distances or suffer lengthy wait times for care by allowing veterans to choose whether to seek care at a VA facility or within their own community. Bost’s legislation would ensure the VA is fully focused on meeting the needs of our veterans.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.

The Bottom Line

The Biden regime only cares about illegal aliens, not veterans of our armed forces. He is robbing these veterans, many combat veterans, to pay off illegals to vote for him and the Democrat Party.

This is a travesty and borders on treason.

Not to fully fund our veterans is both immoral and has led to our current recruitment crisis.

It is time to change the Commander-in-Chief with someone who will fully fund and support our veterans.

Yet another reason that November 5th, 2024 is so important.

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

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Hundreds Of Illegal Migrants Released On The Side Of The Road After Aid Money Runs Out

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Hundreds of migrants were dropped off on the side of the road in San Diego, California, on Friday after funding for a reception center ran dry, according to The Associated Press.

Border Patrol buses dropped off hundreds of migrants from places like China, Kazakhstan, Ecuador and Rwanda, among other countries, at a San Diego bus stop instead of a county-funded reception center that closed down Thursday after running out of funds, the AP reported. The reception center was run by SBCS, a local nonprofit formerly known as South Bay Community Services, which San Diego County gave $6 million to provide migrants with food, phone charging stations and travel advice, alongside other services.

San Diego, like other major cities, is facing strain amid the country’s ongoing migrant crisis.

The city saw a daily average of 800 illegal-crossing-related arrests in January, including an average of over 100 Chinese migrants a day, according to AP.

SBCS served 81,000 migrants in the county since Oct. 11, the group said, according to the AP. With SBCS’ reception center now closed, Border Patrol said to expect roughly 350 migrants to be released on the streets Friday.

Nora Vargas, chair of the San Diego County board of supervisors, defended the performance of the migrant reception center, which was supposed to stay open until March.

“Nobody is perfect, especially when you’re trying to fill a gap from the federal government,” Vargas said. She recently petitioned the Biden administration for increased support, according to AP.

Vargas isn’t the only official seeking increased federal support as large cities struggle to cope with the influx of migrants. The mayors of New York City and Chicago have asked the Biden administration for financial resources to aid them in handling the migrant crisis.

The San Diego mayor’s office and SBCS did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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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.

Georgia University Student Out For a Jog Brutally Murdered By Illegal Alien From Venezuela

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The young nursing student Laken Riley was out for a jog.

This is the first homicide that has been reported on the campus in 30 years.

No media outage and little coverage.

No George Floyd protests.

No shock and calls for immediate action by the Democrat party of treason.

Nursing student Laken Riley did not know suspected killer Jose Ibarra, who is not a US citizen: police

By Patrick Reilly, NY Post, Feb. 23, 2024

A 26-year-old man believed to have entered the US illegally has been charged with murdering nursing student Laken Riley, whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus after going for a run, according to police.

Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested on Friday for allegedly kidnapping and killing the 22-year-old Augusta University junior, UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark told reporters at a press conference Friday night.

Ibarra was not a UGA student and is not a US Citizen, Clark said.

He and Riley had no prior relationship.

“He did not know her at all. I think this is a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened,” Clark said.

Ibarra is a Venezuelan national who illegally crossed the southern border into El Paso, Texas in September 2022, News Nation reported, citing multiple DHS sources. He was released from DHS custody over a lack of detention space, according to the outlet.

Riley, a dean’s list student and sorority member, was found dead with “visible injuries” in a wooded area near Lake Herrick around 12:38 p.m. Thursday.

Clark confirmed Friday that she died of “blunt force trauma.”
Her alleged killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, was arrested and charged in the killing on Friday.

Ibarra’s apartment in Athens was being searched by authorities while Clark spoke, but he said police had enough evidence to charge him before the search warrant was executed.

“The evidence is robust. It is supported by key input by the community, physical evidence and expert police work. Importantly, we were assisted by video footage from our campus security cameras network,” Clark said.

Three or four persons of interest had been questioned but only Ibaira was charged.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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

His Best Townhall Yet: Trump Energy and His Deep Love For America Shines Through

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Donald Trump’s Passion for America Shines Through During Townhall

Former President Donald Trump called his recent New York civil fraud case and $354 million fine “a form of Navalny” on Tuesday, just days after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a penal colony at the age of 47. Trump proceeded to pull a copy of the 8th Amendment out of his pocket, before reading the section which states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted,” to applause from the audience (Mediaite).

Collin Rugg: Donald Trump says his “revenge” will be success and goes on to suggest that he has multiple rallies planned in New York City after the $350M ruling against him. “My revenge will be success” (X).

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Benny Johnson: Trump challenges Biden to presidential debates: “I’ll do it right now on your show. I’ll challenge him right now” (X). Maga War Room: Laura Ingraham: Why not drop out instead of face all of these legal battles? President Donald Trump: “I can’t because I want to make America great again” (X).

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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

Forget Basement Campaign — It’s Been A Whole Basement Presidency For Joe Biden

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Critics of President Joe Biden have begun dusting off the “basement campaign” allegation now that the 2024 election cycle is in full-swing, but a low-profile, press-free campaign would fall right in line with how Biden has conducted his entire presidency.

During Biden’s run for president in 2020, the now 81-year-old was criticized for running a “basement campaign” as he often stayed in his home studio for media appearances and had limited, low-attendance rallies. Now, as the 2024 election approaches, similar critiques are bubbling after Biden ducked out on a traditional end of year press conference and opted out of a prime-time Super Bowl interview.

Going on his fourth year in office, Biden is averaging about 11 press conferences a year, according to data compiled by the University of California at Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project. Biden’s average is the lowest since former President Ronald Reagan, who held office from 1981 to 1989, and averaged 5.8 press conferences per year.

The parallel between Biden and Reagan is not a coincidence, historian Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, told the Daily Caller.

“I think it’s more than coincidental that you have these two presidents with an aging factor. And I don’t mean to say that he’s non compos mentis and he’s going down. I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying I do think it’s more than coincidental that oftentimes as these presidents get older, they want to do these kinds of pressers less. Prior to that would be the third and most elderly president was Eisenhower, who was well known for having trouble with his syntax,” Perry told the Daily Caller.

“I just think that’s part and parcel of what happens when you have older presidents, that to be on the hair trigger and be able to respond immediately to let’s face it, and I think this is the role of the press is to press and ask pressing questions instead, sometimes may even be hostile or at the very least, be pointed, and ask presidents to explain what they’re doing and why they’re doing things and to be controversial,” Perry continued.

In addition to snubbing press conferences, Biden has participated in fewer interviews with media outlets than his predecessors, according to NBC News. Since his 2021 inauguration, Biden has done 86 interviews with media outlets, NBC tallied. Former President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama trounce Biden’s numbers, each doing 300 and 422 interviews, respectively, at the same point in their presidency.

When Biden has done sit-down interviews with the media, his administration has often chosen to go the non-traditional route, sometimes avoiding hard-hitting journalists in favor of celebrity personalities. The president has done interviews with the Weather Channel, CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Ryan Seacrest and comedian Conan O’Brien.

In 2024, Biden has already foregone media opportunities. Biden turned down a prime-time Super Bowl interview for the second year in a row. His campaign then claimed that they wanted to give Americans a break from politics during the game, CNN reported. The NFL, however, is notoriously political, playing the black national anthem before the U.S. national anthem while players don helmet stickers reading “End racism” and “It takes all of us.”

“We are being less traditional because less people get their news from traditional mediums than ever before,” a Biden campaign official told CNN.

This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched program in television history.

After giving an address on border initiatives being debated in Congress, Biden promised reporters on Feb. 5 that he would be back sometime during the week to answer questions. That same week the president unexpectedly gave a press conference to address a special counsel report that had been released that day discussing the president’s physical and mental state. It was widely panned after Biden mixed up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico and snapped at reporters who asked about his age.

Biden again promised to take questions from reporters following remarks on Ukraine funding stalling in Congress. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed further questions about the president’s promise.

“On Tuesday, President Biden, he said, ‘I’m not going to answer your questions today. I will answer them tomorrow and the day after,’” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre during a press briefing. “What was he talking about?”

“Well, he was outside yesterday, and he took questions from some of you,” Jean-Pierre responded, referring to when the president told the media he was giving them up for Lent. Biden also continued to repeat “Happy Valentines day” as he was asked about a mysterious national security threat.

“And what about today?” the reporter followed up.

“Today I don’t have anything to share beyond what you all know, don’t have anything to add on his public schedule,” Jean-Pierre followed up.

Mark R. Weaver, a GOP strategist, pointed to the quick-witted nature of press conferences as a reason Biden may be conducting less of them.

“It can be a little bit like playing ping pong. So in these gaggles, the reporter can serve the ping pong ball towards him, and he can hit once back, but he can’t hit the next shot or the next shot. He’ll walk away before he does. So [for example a reporter]  will say ‘Mr. President, why are the prices still so high?’ And he is able to give a first response he will say ‘Well, that’s because the Republicans in Congress’ right, so we can get a first response out,” Weaver said.

“But then the reporter will follow up ‘no, Mr. President, you did you know, you did this policy, you forgave student loans and and that change this monetary policy, what do you have to say about that,’ and then he’ll mumble and walk away. He can’t hit that second shot,” Weaver continued.

The White House dismissed questions about the president’s lack of press interactions during a February press briefing.

“The numbers show that President Biden has engaged in about 33 news conferences.  Compare that to Obama’s 66 and Donald Trump’s 52 by this time in their presidencies.  Can you explain why the President isn’t doing more?” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre on Feb. 12.

“We’re always going to try to find ways — obviously, outside of press conferences as well — t0 — for the President to be out there. And we have found some nontraditional ways.  We think it’s important to try and meet the American people where they are,” Jean-Pierre responded.

“As far as press conferences, we’re going to try and make sure when it’s the right time for — for those to happen, certainly we will — we will do so. But it doesn’t mean that this President does not engage with — with the press corps — with the White — White House press corps or with other reporters, journalists out there who have different — different ways with communicating with the American people as well.  We think that’s important too,” the press secretary continued, pointing to the amount of times Biden takes questions from reporters while on the road.

Biden does appear more willing to speak to the press when it is spontaneous, whether that be during trips or following a speech.

As of Oct. 17, 2023, Biden has engaged with the press 492 times in an informal “gaggle,” which is more than any other president aside from Trump, the Washington Post reported. The president is averaging about 131 interactions with the press per year as of Feb. 20, according to the American Presidency Project. The number is less than Trump, though far more than Obama who averaged 25 exchanges with the press per year.

Perry recounted a time she attended a December 2022 event at the White House and had an opportunity to speak to the president. Biden’s strength, Perry noted to the Daily Caller, is more personal, unexpected interaction.

“About 10 to 15 years, slid off his face between standing on that stage looking kind of tired and coming down and talking to each person standing behind the velvet rope line. And so I do think that part is a shame that to the extent that he is not out as much as maybe he would have been as a younger person meeting and greeting and pressing the flesh because that is his strength,” Perry told the Daily Caller.

While doing fewer press conferences, the Biden White House has still made an effort to meet the Americans through social media platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok, the Washington Post previously reported. Throughout his presidency, Biden and his administration have leaned heavily on social media influencers in an effort to reach a younger crowd, though some argued to the outlet that the medium allows the White House to control the president’s messaging more.

“I think we should also point out that the press these days and in part may be trying to keep up with social media, may be more confrontational than at other times in long past,” Perry noted. “I mean, certainly the press was confrontational with Reagan, they were confrontational with Nixon, and I would compare him to someone like Trump, who really disliked the press. I don’t think Joe Biden dislikes the press, I think he probably misses the days when he could go toe to toe with them.”

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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VIDEO: Democrat Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, ‘Immigration is not a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’

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Barbara Jordan’s vision on immigration is more relevant today than ever before.

In a February 21, 2024 Numbers USA column titled “The Essential Barbara Jordan” Jeremy Beck wrote,

February 21, 2024 – Today is Barbara Jordan’s birthday. She would have been 88 years old. Tragically, she died in 1996, just before Congress voted on the immigration recommendations she developed over the last years of her life.

If you don’t know much about Barbara Jordan, you should look her up. She regularly appears on lists of great American orators. Jordan’s life story is full of “firsts,” including the first Southern Black woman to be elected to the House of Representatives, and the first woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

If you are concerned at all with immigration policy, you must learn about Barbara Jordan and the last act of her illustrious life and career. Her work as chair of the last bi-partisan commission to study immigration is essential to understanding where we’ve been; and necessary for us to see where we need to go.

Growing up during the Great Migration

Jordan was born in 1936, twelve years after the Immigration Act of 1924 was signed into law (one hundred years ago this May). That bill permanently ended The Great Wave of European migration (after the Great War had temporarily halted it in 1917). The slowdown of ships from Europe forced Northern industrialists to do the unthinkable: they sent recruiters to the far corners of the deep South and recruited the descendants of slaves and American Freedmen. The result was The Great Migration of Black Americans into the North and West.  White workers’ income went up two hundred and fifty percent. Black workers’ income went up four hundred percent. W.E.B. DuBois called the immigration slowdown “the economic salvation of American black labor.” DuBois’ declaration was echoed by Black journals and newspapers.

Jordan grew up during segregation and other forms of institutionalized racism. She also grew up during The Great Leveling and the rise of the Black middle class, whose economic gains led to new political power. In the year before Jordan was elected to the Texas State Senate (another first), Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Four decades of economic empowerment had finally led to the dismantling of institutional barriers to social equality.

Righting an old wrong; creating a new one

As Jordan was on the cusp of beginning her political career in the Texas Senate, legislators in Washington, D.C. were about to make a mistake that Jordan would spend the coda of her political career trying to clean up. In the spirit of the civil rights movement, and to honor the slain President Kennedy, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. In doing so, they righted an old wrong, and created a new one.

Multiple administrations and Congresses had criticized one aspect of the immigration system created by the 1924 law: national-origin quotas made it virtually impossible for anyone outside of Europe to immigrate to the United States. The 1924 Act drastically reduced immigration from Europe, but it effectively banned immigration from other parts of the world, regardless of an individual’s merit. If the fundamental questions of immigration policy are “how many” and “which ones,” the 1924 Act was right on the former, and wrong on the latter.

“Everywhere else in our national life, we have eliminated discrimination based on national origins,” Senator Ted Kennedy said, “Yet this system is still the foundation of our immi­gration law.”

Kennedy and his fellow reformers vowed to leave the successful “how many” part of the 1924 Act in place. They promised a system that would admit 265,000 immigrants per year. Their aim was only to recalibrate the “which ones” part. The new system, they promised, would be less discriminatory.  A nuclear physicist, for instance, wouldn’t be denied just because he or she came from the “wrong” part of the world.

In the end, the bill changed both the “which ones” and the “how many.” The discriminatory quotas were abolished, but immigration numbers almost immediately doubled. Decades of declining inequality, an expanding middle class, and shrinking racial wealth gaps were halted and reversed. Inadvertently, it seems, Congress created new economic barriers to equality within a month of passing landmark civil rights legislation.

The 1965 Act was the photo negative of the 1924 bill. The legislation got the “which ones” right and the “how many” wrong. The challenge for policy makers today is to get both parts right. Nobody in the last half century has provided a clearer roadmap to achieving that sensible balance than Barbara Charline Jordan.

Read the full article.

EDITORS NOTE: This Numbers USA column is republished in part with permission. ©All rights reserved.