The Biden administration spent taxpayer dollars meant to fund a border wall to pay for “environmental planning,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
At the request of Republican Reps. Jack Bergman of Michigan and Jodey Arrington of Texas, the GAO investigated whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broke the law when it effectively blocked the use of taxpayer dollars to build a wall along the southern border. While GAO’s final report clears the DHS of breaking the law, it confirmed that DHS used congressionally-appropriated funds meant for the wall to pay for “environmental planning” and efforts “to remediate or mitigate environmental damage from past border wall construction.”
Republicans on the House Budget Committee, including Bergman and Arrington, characterized the GAO’s finding as confirmation that the Biden administration has spent taxpayer funds meant to enhance border security to further its environmental agenda.
Mayorkas Unsure What Executive Actions Could Be Taken On Border Crisis — Even As Biden Privately Weighs Optionshttps://t.co/39TfQZH2qL
Congress previously approved funds for DHS to build a border barrier between fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2021, but President Joe Biden and his appointees quickly instituted a new policy whereby “no more American taxpayer dollars (would) be diverted to construct a border wall” upon entering office in 2021. Cabinet secretaries, including DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, were ordered to work together to produce plans for how to shift funds away from border wall construction.
In 2021, DHS released a report detailing how it would look to redirect funds meant for the wall to instead pay for things like “environmental planning,” reviewing upcoming eminent domain actions and considering environmental remediation efforts in areas that had been the site of previous construction, according to GAO’s report. The agency then changed its plans in July 2022, applying an amendment that made environmental remediation a top priority for the agency’s expenditure of the funds appropriated for fiscal years 2018-2021.
The Biden administration has made great efforts to roll back or replace many of the immigration and border policies of former President Donald Trump, but the situation at the border has deteriorated massively since 2021. There have been nearly 8 million land encounters at the southwest border since October 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Congressional Budget Office reported in January that more than 3.3 million people came to the U.S. illegally, were released into the country via parole or overstayed their permission to remain in the country in fiscal year 2023 alone.
The situation at the border set the stage for congressional Republicans to attempt to impeach Mayorkas earlier this spring. The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February, but the Senate quickly dismissed an impeachment trial along partisan lines earlier in April.
Neither the White House nor the DHS responded immediately to requests for comment.
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2024-04-24 11:30:052024-04-24 11:38:58Biden Admin Used Border Wall Funds On ‘Environmental Planning’ And Cleanup, Government Watchdog Says
Several U.S. states and cities have embraced the president’s policy of a wide-open southern border, which has allowed millions of illegal immigrants to flood in. Not only are they treated better than U.S. citizens in many cases, receiving taxpayer funded housing, food, education, and health care, they have also contributed to an increase of violent crimes including harassment, rape, theft, and murder — not to mention the escalation in threats from people on the terror watchlist. But these harsh realities didn’t stop Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) from addressing them as “newcomers” in a recent announcement.
In order to justify spending $45.9 million on illegal immigrants, he used the “newcomers” to help excuse the complete irrationality of the circumstances. As Denver is overwhelmed by immigrants, the multi-million package is meant to “fully fund programs … for 2024 and avoid worst-case scenarios projected by the city,” Fox News reported. But notably, the $45.9 million comes “in addition to $44 million in spending already secured for the program through previous budget moves,” which means illegals in this city are now receiving just shy of $90 million.
In a literal sense, taxpayers are a major source of this money. But in a metaphorical sense, American citizens are also paying through programs and services they have not willingly sacrificed. Johnston’s package, for instance, resulted in an $8.4 million cut from the city’s police department, which hurts public safety. The immense spending on illegal immigrants, which went from $2 million to $15 million in Denver between August and December of last year alone, requires budget cuts. And what do budget cuts often result in? People losing their jobs.
Johnston’s office said “it will avoid layoffs or furloughs of employees,” but that doesn’t seem like a promise worth banking on — especially considering the skyrocketing demands of the illegal immigrants. Countless stories have emerged from the border, proving that once the migrants get an inch, they take a mile. And if previous headlines of immigrants murdering young college students, squatting in occupied homes, and overrunning public facilities doesn’t labor the point of their persistence, then perhaps current headlines will.
On Tuesday, “Hundreds of illegal immigrants swarmed New York City’s City Hall … to demand more aid from the city as well as work permits,” The Post Millennial wrote. They also objected to being moved out of luxury hotels, where they were staying for free, to local shelters. Now they want more money? According to Bloomberg, the Big Apple has already “spent $1.45 billion in fiscal 2023 on migrant costs,” and they “expect to spend a combined $9.1 billion housing migrants in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.” But evidently, that’s not enough.
America needs to take the reins. Imagine an illegal immigrant claiming to live in your home, but when you report it to the police, you are the one arrested. Well, we don’t have to imagine, since that’s what happened to a 47-year-old woman in Queens. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh explained the woman was “dragged away from her own home — in handcuffs — because someone claims to have a lease for her property.” Walsh said the squatter couldn’t “show the lease to anyone, including the police and the media. But because he claimed he had “been living there for around a month, they arrest the woman.”
These stories are prompting some lawmakers to act, as evidenced by a new bill proposed by Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) to “stop illegal aliens from squatting in U.S. homes.” The Safeguarding Homes from Illegal Entry, Living, and Dwelling Act (SHIELD Act) comes in response to Leonel Moreno, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, who posted a video on social media “explaining how to take advantage of squatting laws in the U.S.” And according to The Daily Signal, Moreno’s videos led to an uptick in illegals squatting in New York and Pennsylvania homes.
As Meuser explained, the SHIELD Act would ensure that “if an illegal were to claim squatter rights and enter an individual’s home illegally without any rental paperwork or legitimate lease, they can be arrested and deported and prohibited from ever entering the United States again.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project also warned how election integrity efforts have been compromised by the border crisis. On Monday, they highlighted a flyer found posted throughout Mexico “encouraging illegal immigrants to vote for President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.” The page read, “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States. We need another four years of his term to stay open.” And even though federal law prohibits non-U.S. citizens from voting in federal elections, organizations are desperately trying to take advantage of the millions of new crossers.
As the Oversight Project emphasized on X, “Election integrity is under assault.” Now, they continued, “You do not need documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. You can vote if you simply swear you are eligible,” and the flyer in question “obviously seeks to prey on unsophisticated illegals and encourages them to illegally vote.” This is all pretty frustrating information. But as overwhelming as this issue has grown to be, it’s not where we give up.
Instead, when reading of all the horrible things happening, we have to understand that this is not a matter of getting frustrated and walking away, but of standing for truth and for what’s right. And every Christian can stand for what is right, even within this messy, hostile, divisive arena. Indeed, we are called to take our voices into the public square. Ephesians 5:11 states, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” And so, that is what we will do, even now. Especially now.
A black Chicago woman in a MAGA hat rips Mayor Brandon Johnson for prioritizing illegals over citizens as he asks for $70 million more to care for the “newcomers.” Meanwhile, a recall petition for Mayor Johnson is gathering serious momentum. pic.twitter.com/J7N3J9PX7b
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-19 14:34:442024-04-20 04:24:31Leftist Immigration Policies Waste Billions of Dollars and Undermine Election Integrity
Illegal migrant with multiple deportations now charged with murder in Ohio
An illegal Mexican immigrant who has been deported at least eight times, according to Ohio’s Butler County Sheriff’s Office, and arrested nearly a dozen times is now facing murder charges following the discovery of a man’s body in Ohio.
Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez, 46, is being held at the Butler County Jail on charges of aggravated murder (premeditated), using weapons while intoxicated, carrying concealed weapons, possession of drugs and obstructing official business, Fox 19 reports, citing jail records.
Officers found the victim’s body in the 1100 block of S. 13th Street in Hamilton just after 2:30 p.m. Monday in response to a 911 call.
Hamilton is just north of Cincinnati.
Garcia-Gutierrez’s first arrest was back in 2001, and he has used at least seven different names and three different birthdates, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, pictured, said Wednesday. (Butler County Sheriff’s Office)
Garcia-Gutierrez’s first arrest was back in 2001, and he has used at least seven different names and three different birthdates, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said during a Wednesday press conference. Garcia-Gutierrez has been charged with over 20 crimes in that time period and is also a gang member, Jones added.
Garcia-Gutierrez is jailed on an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detainer, Jones previously said.
“That person would be alive today, and if you don’t think that it’s affecting you in Butler County, Ohio, we’re all border states; we’re all border counties. It’s here, and we could go on and on,” Jones said.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2024-04-07 06:25:212024-04-07 06:40:16BIDEN’S BLOODBATH: Illegal Deported 8 times with 11 Arrests Now Charged with Murder in Ohio
A Florida voter told MSNBC host Jose Diaz-Balart that not closing the southern border was “unsafe” for the country in an interview that aired Wednesday.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign claimed Florida was “winnable” in November’s general election, citing a Florida Supreme Court ruling that allowed a law restricting abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy to take effect, according to NBC News. Diaz-Balart asked voters in Florida about their views on the upcoming election and what they would say to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, eliciting an impassioned response from a Miami woman.
WATCH:
“I think the southern border needs to be closed,” the voter, a young Hispanic woman, told Diaz-Balart. “I think it is unsafe for our country. I would love to believe the idea that everybody that is crossing the southern border is doing so in search of the American dream, but that’s not true.”
“I do agree with the wall. I think it makes sense,” the voter continued. “I think you lock your doors at night to make your house safe. I think we need some kind of measure to keep our border safe as well.”
Miami voter: "I think that the southern border needs to be closed…I do agree with the wall. I think it makes sense. You lock your doors at night to keep your house safe and I think that we need to have some kind of measure to keep our border safe as well." pic.twitter.com/G4yUq7k7c4
Trump held leads of 20% among voters in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin when it came to handling immigration and the economy, according to a poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal from March 17-24.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have highlighted crimes committed by illegal immigrants after the murder of nursing student Laken Riley, blaming President Joe Biden for reversing multiple Trump border policies during his first days in office. Riley’s alleged killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, was arrested by University of Georgia police and charged with murdering the 22-year-old nursing student on Feb. 23.
According to data released by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 849,469 illegal immigrants have been encountered to date in fiscal year 2024, following 2,045,838 encounters in fiscal year 2023, 2,206,436 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021.
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2024-04-04 08:49:282024-04-05 05:45:18‘Border Needs To Be Closed’: Voter Gives MSNBC Host Earful On Immigration
Resurgent Islamist terrorism poses a threat to the U.S. homeland, experts warned after a deadly attack in Moscow. “The deadly attack … has raised concerns that the terrorist group could potentially move to carrying out attacks in Europe and even here in the United States,” Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice summarized on “Washington Watch” Monday.
On March 22, terrorists armed with rifles, pistols, and knives opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow and lit fires that caused the roof to collapse, killing more than 100 concertgoers and injuring more than 500. Russian authorities have charged four men from Tajikistan with terrorism in the attack, for which the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has taken credit.
General Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, recently warned that ISIS-K “retains the capability and the will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning.”
ISIS-K’s Rapid Expansion
ISIS-K “morphed from a series of radical groups that were in eastern Syria [and] northern Iraq years ago, during the Obama administration,” Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert Maginnis explained on “Washington Watch” Monday. During the Trump administration, a U.S.-led coalition dismantled the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but not before its radical jihadis “spread elsewhere in the Middle East all the way to Afghanistan,” said Maginnis. Additionally, “they have tentacles not only in Central Asia, but all the way to northern and central Africa.”
The ISIS offshoot is “as radical an Islamic group as we’ve ever seen,” Maginnis described, to the point that they target other Islamists for their alleged compromises. Not only is ISIS-K “in contest with al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” as Maginnis said, but they have also attacked neighboring Muslim countries. In 2023, ISIS-K killed more than 60 people by bombing a political rally in Pakistan, and two ISIS-K suicide bombers killed 90 and injured more than 200 Iranians in January.
“They’ve got tentacles located in places like Tajikistan to the north … where the four suspects that were involved in the Moscow attack on the 22nd of March came from,” Maginnis continued. “One of the reasons I suspect they went after the Muscovites was because of the Chechnya battle that claimed tens of thousands of Muslim lives in 1990, but also because of the history of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”
ISIS-K’s Deadly Tactics
From suicide bombings and assassinations directed primarily at the Taliban, ISIS-K “has grown more ambitious and aggressive,” according to Clemson University professor Amira Jadoon, launching an international, “multilingual propaganda campaign and expanding the types of attacks it conducts.” The Moscow terror attack is among ISIS-K’s deadliest and most hazardous operations to date.
“They’re a very vicious group of people, very radicalized with their radical version of Islamic faith,” Maginnis noted. “They’ve always had, like al-Qaeda, an interest in using weapons of mass destruction (WMD): chemical, biological, radiological instruments. … These things are very, very serious.”
Maginnis added that ISIS-K “would do everything they can to come to this country.” Even if they couldn’t bring a WMD to the U.S., he suggested they might “attack a nuclear facility, or they would let off some sort of bomb near a chemical site that would have a mass casualty impact.”
U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Terror attacks perpetrated by ISIS-K have already resulted in the deaths of American citizens. This group was responsible for the 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers, among nearly 200 casualties. That terror attack occurred amid the chaos of America’s precipitous withdrawal from the country.
In fact, Maginnis said the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan is one reason why ISIS-K has expanded its reach. “With our departure, they had not only more equipment that the Taliban didn’t claim, but also more freedom of navigation,” he said.
General Frank McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, offered a substantially similar analysis Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “The threat is growing. It began to grow as soon as we left Afghanistan and took pressure off ISIS-K,” he warned. “We should expect further attempts of this nature against the United States as well as our partners and other nations abroad.”
U.S. Vulnerability to Attack
To Maginnis, this expectation of a radical Islamist terror attack heightens the urgency of securing the southern border. “With the open southern border, we’ve had many, many people that have crossed over that don’t have our best interests in mind,” he said. Even more concerning, many illegal border crossers evaded capture, leaving U.S. authorities “totally clueless on who they are, what their intentions are,” Hice added. “You would think those who sneak in … [are] probably here for nefarious reasons.”
ISIS-K “has a strong desire to attack our homeland. We should believe them when they say that they’re going to try to do it,” McKenzie declared. Maginnis agreed. “They would like to attack the ‘Great Satan,’ the United States, and will do everything possible to do that.”
Maginnis predicted that “there will be an effort by ISIS-K, which likely already has a number of its terrorists deeply embedded in the United States.” These terrorists “would like to use any mechanism of terror that they could,” he concluded. “There’s no doubt we’re vulnerable.”
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-04 04:06:312024-04-04 13:16:32General: Afghanistan Withdrawal Enhanced New Terror Threat to America
Early Saturday morning, Congress passed a spending bill to fully fund the government through Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, which ends September 30. In both the Senate and House of Representatives, the bill garnered more Democratic than Republican votes. In the Republican-controlled House, the bill failed to gain a majority of Republican support, but passed by a vote of 286-134. The final vote in the in the Senate was 74-24.
The new appropriations bill provides $1.2 trillion in funding for multiple departments within the government. These include the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and State Department, all of which are responsible for implementing our immigration laws. Unfortunately, while the bill gives money to these departments, it does not mandate policy changes that would secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. In fact, it reinforces Biden Administration policies allowing the mass processing and release of illegal aliens into the country.
Supporters of the bill will point out that it includes funding for 22,000 Border Patrol agents and 41,500 detention beds, an increase from 34,000. However, without policy changes, the Border Patrol agents will likely be used to process and release illegal migrants and the detention beds will remain unused. Indeed, that outcome is almost guaranteed as the bill does nothing to end the administration’s catch-and-release policies, build the border wall, or stop the abuse of asylum and parole laws. This means business as usual at the border.
Subsidizing Illegal Immigration
Instead of deterring illegal immigration, some of the largest line items in the bill effectively subsidize it. The appropriations bill provides $3.9 billion to the State Department to support foreign countries with migration and refugee assistance. The bill further provides funds to Latin American and Caribbean countries for economic assistance and to address “irregular migration,” consistent with the radical Los Angeles Declaration to “promot[e] principles of safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration.” The bill provides money to support development in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and includes a broad-based exemption for funds going to humanitarian assistance from requirements to combat corruption, human rights abuses and drug trafficking. That exemption goes so far as explicitly noting that receiving State Department funds does not require “demonstrable actions to secure national borders and stem mass migration.”
Other funding in the bill subsidizes illegal aliens once they are in the country. The bill allocates $650 million to the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to provide grants to NGOs and sanctuary jurisdictions which facilitate illegal immigration. Another $117 million is provided to the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) within FEMA, which in the past has been abused to provide the same type of grants for shelter and services for illegal aliens.
The appropriations bill also provides $470 million to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. Under the Biden Administration, ATD has been used to allow illegal aliens to check in via a mobile application rather than be subject to GPS monitoring. The Biden Administration and its “abolish ICE” allies have been working to eliminate detention altogether and instead rely on ATD to allow illegal aliens to freely move about the United States.
Expanding Legal Immigration
In addition to appropriating money, the funding bill expands two visa programs: the H-2B program and the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghan nationals.
H-2B Program Expansion. The appropriations bill authorizes Secretary Mayorkas to increase the number of H-2B visas available in FY2025 beyond the 66,000 statutory cap. It does so by allowing the Secretary to include thousands of workers who have participated in the program in the past, also known as “returning workers,” without counting those workers against the cap. Last year, Mayorkas used a similar exemption to increase the number of H-2B workers by 64,716 – nearly doubling what Congress intended – making a total of 130,716 visas available in FY2024. Additionally, the bill changes how wages for H-2B workers are determined, allowing employers to not only use private wage surveys but also to base the prevailing wage on the geographic area (rather than the national survey data, which is generally higher).
SIVs for Afghan Nationals. The bill likewise increases the total number of special immigrant visas (SIVs) for Afghan nationals without improving the vetting process. It makes an additional 12,000 SIVs available for Afghans in FY2025 – plus family members who do not count against the cap – despite the fact that the United States has had no presence in Afghanistan since 2021 and the program is slated to expire in December 2024. Many of the Afghans seeking SIVs were illegally paroled into the U.S. without proper vetting after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. Adding to the security risk, in 2022, the State Department and DHS took the extraordinary step of waiving certain terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds under INA 212(a)(3)(B) for Afghan nationals, which may apply to SIV applicants.
Additional Provisions
Unaccompanied Alien Children. The bill makes no policy changes to prevent unaccompanied alien children (UACs) from being trafficked or released to unvetted sponsors. The bill provides $5.4 billion in funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to process UACs and to maintain an average of 16,000 beds for UACs in their care. It also provides additional funding that is triggered if the level of children needing housing surpasses the bed space provided. The bill, however, does nothing to force the agency to better screen sponsors or increase well-being checks after minors are released to sponsors. To the contrary, it handcuffs the government from going after sponsors by expressly prohibiting ICE from using information it may obtain on an alien sponsor for enforcement action, unless that sponsor has a charge or felony conviction for certain serious crimes.
Earmarks. Finally, the appropriations bill contains more than a hundred pages of earmarks, amounting to billions for pet projects. These earmarks allow Members of Congress to request federal funds to be allocated for specific projects in their home districts. For example, Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) were successful in including $500,000 for an immigrant workforce development program; Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) was able to secure $450,000 for childcare programs specifically for immigrant families; and, in Colorado, Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper got $93,000 for the International Rescue Committee to provide services to immigrants and refugees.
Other harmful provisions in the appropriations bill include:
$160 million in taxpayer funds for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is typically funded by fees and those seeking benefits, to process asylum applications and work authorizations;
$97 million for migrant and seasonal farmworker programs instead of supporting American jobs;
$15 million for the Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP) to provide welfare benefits and aid illegal aliens facing deportation;
$10 million for the Citizenship and Integration Grant program, which has been routinely awarded to organizations involved in active litigation against DHS; and
2-year funding for the Office of Detention Ombudsman.
Conclusion
Even after the bill was passed, lawmakers continued to debate its value. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) commended passage of the appropriations bill but also promised “a series of meaningful bills” to address the border crisis in the coming weeks. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) meanwhile took the first steps to remove him as Speaker, with House Freedom Caucus (HFC) Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) saying, “Frankly, I can’t defend the speaker.” Senate MajorityLeader Chuck Schumer praised the bill’s passage, claiming that “It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal.”
Many Republicans are no doubt frustrated because Congress has had multiple opportunities to step in and end the Biden Border Crisis and has failed to act. Nearly a year ago, the House passed the FAIR-supported H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, but the Senate has refused to take it up. In addition, Congress has now passed FY2024 funding, four short-term spending bills (continuing resolutions), and considered a foreign aid package, all without including any of the critical policy changes from H.R. 2. Now, Congress is providing funding to the agencies responsible for enforcing our immigration laws without ending the policies have that created the worst border crisis in history.
Under the Biden Administration, Americans across the country are forced to face the consequences of its disastrous border policies in their communities and daily lives. Rather than taking a stand and fighting for border security, however, Congress opted for the status quo. Funding alone won’t solve the Biden Administration’s border crisis, and neither will weak bills that reinforce this administration’s open-borders agenda. In the coming weeks and months, FAIR will continue to advocate for meaningful steps to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. It is far past time for Congress to act.
To learn more about H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, and how you can get involved, visit FAIR’s activist toolkit here. To read more about actions that Biden can take to secure our borders today, click here.
Joe Chatham joined FAIR in 2022, bringing significant congressional, campaign, and nonprofit experience to the organization. As part of FAIR’s influential government relations team, he helps manage Capitol Hill outreach and policy, advocating for a secure border and a just, equitable legal immigration system.
Before joining FAIR, Joe worked with a large range of organizations, from congressional offices and political campaigns, to intergovernmental organizations and think tanks. Most recently, he served as counsel to a member of congress, where he handled the representative’s immigration portfolio for the House Committee on the Judiciary.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Federation for American Immigration Reformhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFederation for American Immigration Reform2024-03-25 11:23:592024-03-25 13:35:20Congress Passes Funding Package, Leaves for Recess and Fails to Secure Border
This week, Jason Riley, father of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley who was brutally killed, joined NBC News in a heartfelt interview claiming that his daughter was “like an angel” and “so full of life.”
When discussing his daughter’s murderer, a Venezuelan migrant who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, Riley told the interviewer that he might not have been in the U.S. “had we had secure borders,” in the first place. The grieving father went on to share that he feels like his daughter is “being used somewhat politically,” especially after Joe Biden’s State of the Union, when he erroneously referred to her as “Lincoln Riley.”
Riley’s interview came shortly after Laken’s mother, Allyson Phillips, wrote a Facebook post addressing the “most devastating, unimaginable loss” of her daughter. Despite her sorrow, Phillips attributed her strength to the Lord. “I would like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for being with me and my family during this heartbreaking time,” she said. “I encourage everyone to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I give Him all the glory for getting us through this.”
In the bleak weeks following Laken’s death, lawlessness from illegal immigrants has soared in the U.S., leading almost 70% of people to believe that the open borders “may contribute to the violence crime in America.” The Rasmussen poll, interestingly, found that 64% of white people are concerned about the crime committed by illegals, while among black people, 73% are worried. “And why wouldn’t they be?” Breitbart’s John Nolte asks. “[They] disproportionately live in Democrat-run cities that posture as sanctuary cities.”
Even a majority of Democrats — 51% — think there’s a connection between our border crisis and crime (compared to 84% of Republicans. “When asked if illegal immigration makes America better or worse, only 14% said better.”
And the evidence seems to be everywhere. While Riley’s murder continues to circle the news, the leader of a human trafficking ring has also been sentenced to prison for sneaking over 1,000 migrants across the southern border and then dropping them off in Phoenix, Arizona. The consequence of Martin Garcia-Velazquez’s furtive actions is 7.5-years in prison, followed by 35 months of supervised release. The Mexican native was also mandated to pay a special assessment of $5,000 by U.S. District Judge Scott Rash.
The investigation, conducted by Homeland Security, found that Garcia-Velazquez had three co-conspirators, all prosecuted in October. In a statement issued by the Department of Justice, it notes that the prosecution was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation, which “identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States.”
Another tragedy making headlines involves a 26-year-old Haitian native, Cory Alvarez, who reportedly raped a disabled 15-year-old girl last week at a hotel housing migrants. Amidst the current chaos in Haiti, Alvarez was flown into New York City last summer by President Biden’s CHNV parole program. The program, established in October of 2022, authorizes 30,000 people each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, “to fly into the U.S. and be granted two years of humanitarian parole, which allows them to apply to work in the U.S.”
While Alvarez might have entered the U.S. lawfully, conservative leaders have criticized the current administration for their loose hold on immigration. “Biden flew this illegal dirtbag into our Country. No border, no budget. Shut it down,” tweeted Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett.
As millions of illegal immigrants flood the U.S. southern border and thousands fly over it, reports suggest that the Biden administration has financed the whole operation.
“According to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) findings by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) put hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants on planes and flew them into 43 different U.S. airports last year alone,” wrote The Washington Stand’s S.A McCarthy.
This administration’s choices regarding the border, economy, and foreign affairs are unfavorable, as only 39.8% of Americans approve of Biden’s job as president. The president’s low rating for his third year in office claimed the title of second worst. “Among prior presidents in the Gallup polling era who were elected to their first term, only Jimmy Carter fared worse in his third year.” Carter’s 37.4% rating was primarily attributed to high gas prices, rising inflation, and because U.S. citizens were taken hostage by Iran. Experts argue that President Biden’s low rating can be attributed to the flood of illegal aliens allowed into the U.S. under the current administration.
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-21 06:53:142024-03-22 08:18:38As the Border Crisis Intensifies, Almost 70% Link Migrants to Violent Crime
The Biden administration must spend funds allocated by Congress to build a wall on the southern border, a federal judge ruled Friday. Southern District of Texas Judge Drew Tipton sharply rebuked the Department of Homeland Security for contending that, “notwithstanding the language in the statute,” it had discretion to spend the money however it pleased. “Whether the Executive Branch must adhere to federal laws is not, as a general matter, an area traditionally left to its discretion,” Tipton, a Trump appointee, remarked dryly.
As usual, this lawbreaking by the Executive Branch is traceable back to the nation’s chief executive. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation declaring that “it shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall.” The proclamation, as Tipton noted, paused all spending on a border wall and directed DHS to devise other ways to spend the allocated funds.
This language was already misleading because the word “divert” means “to turn from one course or use to another.” To quote from the ruling, “In 2020 and 2021, Congress funded roughly $1.4 billion ‘for the construction of [a] barrier system along the southwest border.’” Thus, by halting construction, President Biden was responsible for diverting funds from one purpose to another. The issue was funds being diverted from, not to, border wall construction.
In compliance with Biden’s proclamation, but in defiance of Congress’s allocation restrictions, DHS dreamed up plans to spend most of the money on “smarter border security measures” (a.k.a. technology systems, not a wall), “environmental remediation, flood-control, and cleanup projects.” Under these plans, the DHS would only construct new barriers “in two locations where they are filling gaps in existing walls,” according to the testimony of their own expert.
“The Biden Administration has failed to abide by the law to finish the construction of a wall along the southwest border,” said Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R). “Joe Biden refuses to carry out his constitutionally mandated responsibilities, so we took him to court to force him to do his job.”
In response to the Biden administration’s fantastical interpretation of “construction of [a] barrier system,” the judge threw the dictionary at them. “The definitions of ‘construction’ and ‘barrier’ connote building a physical structure that would serve as a barricade and a line of demarcation,” he wrote, after quoting from Merriam-Webster. “‘System’ accounts for the large scale of the U.S.-Mexico border requiring different kinds of barriers such as walls, fencing, buoys and the like.” Obviously, “this plain meaning does not include the Government’s definition,” Tipton concluded.
Tipton proceeded to analyze surrounding text in the same appropriations law. “Congress broke [the relevant section] down into five distinct subsections” and stipulated that “these funds ‘shall be available only as follows,’” he acknowledged. So, funds allocated in one category couldn’t be diverted to a purpose in another category. The following section of the law gave “currently deployed steel bollard designs” as an example of one type of barrier DHS was authorized to construct with the funds, demonstrating that Congress clearly intended the funds to cover the construction of the actual barrier.
Tipton further reasoned that DHS’s creative plans to reallocate border barrier funds fell into the other subcategories Except for a “generalized catch-all,” each section had “clearly separate and distinct purposes,” with one funding a border barrier, another “border security technologies,” another “facility construction and improvements,” and yet another “integrated operations assets and infrastructure.” These distinct categories described all the other projects DHS had in mind.
The agency’s discretion over spending projects did not extend so far, the judge argued. It would be one thing if the states who challenged the administration’s decision (Texas and Missouri) simply objected to DHS’s decision to pursue or not pursue any particular spending project. Instead, a fundamental part of their argument was that “DHS was specifically obligated to spend the CAA funds to construct border walls, and the decision to not do so … was outside DHS’s discretion and violated the law.”
This distinction was important because, instead of turning the argument into a question of federal authority versus state authority, it became an argument over whether Congress or an executive agency had authority over spending. “The central question in this case, then, is this: Has the Government obligated FY 2020 and FY 2021 funds for the ‘construction of [a] barrier system’?” the judge asked. He answered, “The answer is largely no.”
This is not just the opinion of a single federal judge out in Texas. Tipton quoted from a 1993 Supreme Court opinion, Lincoln v. Vigil, “an agency is not free simply to disregard statutory responsibilities: Congress may always circumscribe agency discretion to allocate resources by putting restrictions in the operative statutes.”
Given this legal slam dunk, the judge issued a preliminary injunction, preventing any parts of the DHS’s plan that did not involve the “construction of physical barriers, such as additional walls, fencing, buoys, etc.” and prohibiting them from obligating the funds in question “toward mitigation and remediation efforts, repair of existing barrier, so-called system attribute installation at existing sites, or other similar purposes.”
During a previous hearing in the Southern District of Texas, a federal judge had dismissed Texas’s border wall lawsuit for a lack of standing, but then the Fifth Circuit reversed that decision and remanded the case in July 2023.
This lawsuit forms part of a legal maelstrom darkening relations between Texas and the Biden administration over its handling of the border. Other lawsuits taking place concurrently involve Texas’s attempt to arrest illegal immigrants, place razor wire along the border, or place buoy barriers in the Rio Grande River.
Given the larger legal context surrounding the southern border, not to mention political controversy making illegal immigration a top issue in the 2024 election, the opinion contained several findings that could be significant beyond the scope of this one ruling. Specifically, the court acknowledged the Biden administration’s border crisis had inflicted real injury on the state of Texas because of the costs the state has incurred in dealing with it.
Beyond that, the court also found “that Texas has demonstrated that its injuries are traceable to DHS’s funding decisions.” Texas submitted the DHS’s own documents to prove to the court that “constructing additional border barriers will reduce illegal entries in areas where those walls are constructed, increase detection rates across the entire border, and generally disincentivize illegal immigration.”
In other words, the Biden administration knew that constructing barriers would at least hinder illegal immigration, yet from January 20, 2021 it has deliberately chosen to pursue a policy of not constructing border barriers. In late January, President Biden told reporters, “I’ve done all I can do” to secure the border. According to this federal court’s findings, DHS’s own documents prove that statement false.
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.
POSTS ON X:
My Build the Wall and Deport Them All Act will codify President Trump’s proven border policies that reduced illegal immigration to record lows.https://t.co/AsB8ehSOO1
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-12 12:29:172024-03-12 12:42:10Judge Orders Biden Administration to Build the Wall
The rate at which illegal immigrants are coming into the U.S. is already astonishing on its own. And yet, with each new headline, the circumstances become even more flabbergasting. What has many American citizens scratching their heads is the fact that many states are treating those who are in the country illegally better than those who are here legally.
The American dream used to be about working hard to accomplish great things in a great country. Regardless of your background, if you were an American citizen, you could work your way to success. But now, American citizens are getting the short end of the stick. Taxpayers work tirelessly to provide for themselves and their families only to see their hard-earned dollars fund the housing, food, education, and medical bills of illegal immigrants.
For most Americans, buying a home is a long-term goal many spend years working toward. But just recently, California proposed legislation that seems to further mock those in this country who save money to do things the right way. The legislation, The Post Millennial wrote, “would expand the zero-down, no-payment home ‘loan’ program [California] has to illegal immigrants.” Originally, this program was not offered to migrants.
In response, California State Senator Brian Dahle (R) said, “Assembly Bill 1840 is an insult to California citizens who are being left behind and priced out of homeownership.” He added, “I’m all for helping first-time homebuyers, but give priority to those who are here in our state legally.” But isn’t that the cry of many Americans as illegals take over our streets?
Some states are trying to take matters into their own hands, since the Biden administration seems intent on making the crisis worse. However, as states try to protect their communities from this invasion, their efforts are thwarted time and time again by those who seem to have little regard for this country’s laws.
Arizona, for instance, had a Republican-sponsored bill that would allow police to arrest illegal immigrants in the state. But the Arizona Border Invasion Act was vetoed by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) who claimed “the legislation was anti-immigrant and likely unconstitutional.” She continued, “I know there’s frustration about the federal government’s failure to secure our border, but this bill is not the solution.”
But do you know, Governor Hobbs, how frustrating your actions are?
As the Arizona Senate Republican Caucus expressed in a statement: “From human smuggling to child sex trafficking, rapes, murders, drug trafficking, fentanyl overdoses, high-speed chases, subsequent deadly crashes, and other atrocities, local law enforcement personnel have reached their breaking point trying to protect the lives of our citizens from this invasion.”
And I wish I could say it was just Arizona facing these threats, but states like Texas are going through similar madness.
On Monday, the Supreme Court had temporarily blocked a law in the Lone Star State that would also allow police to arrest illegal immigrants. The Hill reported, “In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the high court blocked Texas from enacting the law until March 13, giving the state until March 11 to respond to the Justice Department’s request asking to pause the law from taking place.”
It’s not surprising “the Biden administration is against” this law “because they want people to be coming into this country illegally,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” But “what effect will this have on the border crisis the Biden administration has enabled?”
Texas State Representative David Spiller (R) responded first by noting that, if the bill were to go into effect, “Texas will have the authority, as no other state does … to secure [its] own borders” by being able to “arrest and order the return of people that arrive here in [the] state, in our country illegally.” But he added that the Supreme Court decision was something he considered “reasonable” since the law will likely still be able to go into effect in a couple days.
Even so, it doesn’t alter the fact that Texas is “doing the federal government’s job to secure our border,” he pointed out. “But in the meantime, Texans will protect Texas.” Which, unfortunately, seems to be the most that can be done at the moment.
As Perkins said, we’ll have to keep “watching this closely as it makes its way through the court system.” And as this crisis continues to unfold, we’ll have to watch closely to see who the Biden administration will ultimately defend.
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-09 04:47:172024-03-09 04:52:01Why Are Individual States Forced to Do ‘the Federal Government’s Job’ Securing the Border?
I am Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., with this year’s State of Faith, Family, and Freedom in America.
The apostle Peter wrote to believers who had been scattered because of the persecution of the early church, instructing them to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” [1 Peter 3:15 ESV].
Notice where that hope was to reside. Not in the halls of power, the media headlines of the day, and certainly not on the stages of entertainment. Rather, that hope is to be found within us.
As followers of Christ, we have the very presence of God within us, which is our hope and confidence. And in a moment, I want to share with you the tangible results that have come from that hope, results which the godless Left and their lemmings in the legacy media work day and night to keep from you.
So, from that foundation, we look at the state of faith, family, and freedom in America.
The assault on biblical faith continues to accelerate under the Biden administration’s policies, both at home and abroad.
Religious freedom, the top foreign policy objective of the former Trump administration, has been replaced with prioritizing attacks on the unborn, promoting LGBTQ ideology, and the climate, the unholy trinity of the Left.
The Biden administration has found the ideal partner to advance this unholy trinity with the World Health Organization (WHO), which is working feverishly to advance an unprecedented global power grab through a pandemic treaty — or pandemic accord as it is deceptively called to avoid the need for ratification by the U.S. Senate.
This accord grants the compromised WHO the ability to regulate nearly every aspect of life for citizens of every nation when the WHO believes there is a health emergency. The treaty calls for censoring information that would challenge their declaration, which would include silencing dissenting voices. We saw this type of totalitarianism play out here in the United States during COVID-19; we don’t want to see a global sequel.
The consequences of the Biden administration’s misplaced priorities have rapidly manifested in global chaos and instability, along with historic levels of persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.
A case in point is the country of Nigeria, the most populous African nation. As chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom during the Trump administration, I led the commission in recommending that Nigeria be designated as a country of particular concern. This designation, which the Trump administration adopted for the government of Nigeria, allowed for economic sanctions upon the country and its leaders for allowing the egregious, ongoing, and systematic persecution of people of faith.
But, without adequate explanation, that designation was immediately removed by the Biden administration when they came into office. The result has been a dramatic rise in the death toll. According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, more than 8,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria last year alone.
This indifference to religious freedom abroad is rivaled only by the hostility toward religious freedom here at home, as a congressional investigation revealed the FBI tracked and worked to infiltrate churches in part because of leftist propaganda from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The role of faith, the Christian faith, has been routinely undermined by President Biden’s policies. Faith-based entities focused on proclaiming truth through charitable service have been assaulted.
At the end of last year, the Biden Department of Health and Human Services put forth a new rule that would shut down Christian foster care services and exclude Christian foster families unless they surrender biblical teaching on human sexuality and gender identity. And this comes at a time when more, not fewer, stable families are needed for children in need of a family.
These policies, which are hostile to biblical truth, have fomented and tacitly approved outright acts of hostility toward churches in America.
Over the last year, there have been 436 identified acts of hostility on churches in the United States, ranging from vandalism to firebombing to shootings. Family Research Council’s recently released Hostility Against Churches Report shows an astounding 800% increase in acts of vandalism and violence towards churches since 2018.
The family has not evaded the hostility of this administration either, as radical gender policies are pushed from the Department of Education onto local schools, demanding parents be kept in the dark as their children are transitioned. Ask Jennifer and Dan Mead, whose autistic daughter was being secretly transitioned at school without her parents’ knowledge or consent. Behind their backs, teachers agreed to call her by a masculine name and male pronouns. The Meads stumbled on the truth when an education plan that detailed their daughter’s life as a boy at school was accidentally sent home. Furious, they pulled her out of classes, started homeschooling, and sued. Now, her mom says, “She’s safe. She knows her real identity.” But who knows how many other parents are living this same nightmare? Or worse, oblivious to what’s happening right under their noses.
The hostility of the Left begins at the moment of conception.
“Think about [it],” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are persons. “Individuals, couples, who want to start a family are now being deprived of access to what can help them start a family,” she said, referring to the potential impacts on In Vitro Fertilization. “So, on the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn’t have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family.”
This faux outrage is the height of hypocrisy. The Alabama ruling did nothing to outlaw IVF, but on the contrary, ensured that parents struggling with infertility don’t experience even more heartbreak because of the carelessness of IVF clinics that treat embryos as if they are merely pieces of property. This feign of counterfeit compassion over infertility comes at the same time the Biden administration is working to overturn every state’s pro-life laws by allowing dangerous mail-order abortions without medical oversight — which is a violation of federal law. And once again, they are peddling the lie that protecting unborn children puts women’s lives at risk. Not a single pro-life law prohibits saving a mother’s life. Instead, these laws protect unborn children from being brutally torn apart.
Innocent human life must be protected, as must the mothers, many of whom think they have no alternative. That’s why Republicans are working to stop the Biden administration in its new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program from excluding pregnancy resource centers from receiving federal funding for the myriad of services they provide.
More and more families are looking to religious nonprofits for assistance in many areas as families struggle under the present tight economy, where prices have climbed 18% since President Biden took office.
Prices aren’t the only thing increasing under this administration; so has violent crime.
While the Democratic Party wants you to believe that crime has declined over the past year, the reality is that homicides, theft, carjackings, and property damage are astronomically higher than they were in 2019. Violent crimes against young people have actually doubled in the last year. Motor vehicle thefts are up 105% since the pandemic — as even members of Congress have fallen prey to carjackings. The murder rate is up as much as 30% in places like the nation’s capital and about 18% overall.
A contributing factor to violent crime is the skyrocketing illegal immigration on our southern border, made tragically evident again when 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was found murdered on the campus of the University of Georgia. The alleged murderer, Jose Ibarra, illegally entered the country in 2022 from Venezuela, was detained, and then let loose or “paroled” into the United States. This is a man who was arrested three times but never detained. And by the way, Athens, Georgia, where the campus is located, is a sanctuary city. A sanctuary for criminals and murderers, not nursing students and law-abiding citizens.
An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed into the United States since President Biden took office in January of 2021.
Deadly drugs like fentanyl are also streaming across the border, becoming the number one killer of Americans aged 18-45.
It is not just drugs and criminals that are streaming across the border; so are terrorists. At least 342 individuals who are on the terrorist watchlist have been detained at the border; there is no telling how many terrorists have evaded authorities and are now in the United States establishing terrorist cells.
We don’t have to look back far into history to see the savagery of a terrorist border invasion. We simply look at October 7 in Israel when Hamas terrorists invaded peaceful Israeli communities and brutally tortured, maimed, raped, and killed 1,400 innocent people and took 240 hostages. And now, five months later, as Israel seeks to secure its borders and eliminate future threats from Hamas, the Biden administration is breaking with one of America’s most politically reliable and spiritually significant allies. The Biden administration has repeatedly called for pauses or ceasefires, which allows Hamas to regroup and resupply, even as American hostages have not been freed.
Most recently, the Biden administration reversed the policy of the Trump administration that recognized Israel had a right to build in the biblical areas of Samaria and Judea, misleadingly called the West Bank. President Biden has gone so far as to sanction Israelis living in these areas while giving billions of dollars to organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has been directly linked to Hamas and the October 7 terrorist attack.
Friends, I believe America’s support for and stand with Israel has resulted in God extending grace to America despite our accelerating departure from His truth over the last half-century. America’s future is inextricably intertwined with Israel’s.
When we look at and consider these challenges, we don’t do so as people who have no hope of overcoming — to the contrary. Jesus, in the parable about the unjust judge, which is an appropriate analogy as we consider our relationship to our government, said men should always pray and not lose heart or hope.
Jesus was not laying out a prescription to simply feel good. This call to prayer was a prescription for change.
Let me give you just a few facts about the change God has brought forth in our nation because Christians didn’t give up hope but instead continued to pray, vote, and stand for biblical truth.
On June 24, 2022, after 49 years of prayerful, disciplined, and often ridiculed political engagement, Roe v. Wade was overturned, putting the ability to protect women and children into the hands of their elected representatives rather than unelected judges.
Here is something I am sure you’ve yet to hear from the legacy media. We have more Bible-believing Christians in Congress, in state legislatures, on city councils, and serving on school boards than at any time in modern history. Look at the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a Christian, a conservative, a Republican. I know Speaker Johnson; he and I have been friends for over 25 years.
Look at the transformation of state legislatures across the country. In 1990, there were six GOP-controlled legislatures. Twenty-four years later, there are 28. And one result has been state pro-life laws have doubled since the Republican election wave of 2010.
We know that we will overcome. That is why we must continue to pray for our nation, that we will return to God and His truth. We need to vote. We need to both raise up and vote for leaders who have the qualities that Jethro laid out to Moses in Exodus 18, leaders who: 1) are able, they know what to do; 2) fear God; 3) are men of truth; and 4) are not looking to get rich; rather, they are seeking to serve.
Finally, we need to stand for truth, no matter who else is standing or not standing. And do so filled with the joy of the Lord. In John 15, as Jesus was warning His disciples of the challenges they would face for following Him, He said this: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” [John 15:11].
And we do all of this in love. Paul instructs us in 1 Corinthians 16, to “watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love” [NKJV].
The state of faith, family, and freedom in America is being tested and tried to a degree that is almost unrivaled in our history. But our confidence and hope in the future has never been more solid because we’ve seen the budding fruit of decades of prayer, of biblically guided participation in our republican form of government.
We must let it be known that we will not be intimidated into silence by a weaponized government, nor will we allow Marxist tactics that seek to marginalize the Christian faith to cause us to shrink back into the shadows of society. Why? Because of the hope that is within us and the victory that is before us, it leaves us more resolved than ever to pray, vote, and stand for biblical truth.
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-09 04:31:562024-03-09 04:40:52PERKINS: State of Faith, Family, and Freedom Address
Washington, D.C. — Instead of taking responsibility for the border crisis and changing course, President Biden used tonight’s State of the Union address to blame the border crisis on Congress’ failure to enact flimsy and meaningless legislation, charged the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
Indeed, President Biden, who has spent the past three years denying that we have a crisis and refusing to enforce countless laws, claimed tonight that he is powerless to act. The president told the American people he lacks the legal authority to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. He further accused Congress – particularly Republicans – of killing a Senate bill that he claimed would have rectified the crisis that has made illegal immigration the top issue on the minds of American voters.
“The truth is, President Biden has had all the authority he needs to end the border crisis that has been raging since January 20, 2021,” stated Dan Stein, president of FAIR. “But instead of enforcing the law, he and his impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have willfully ignored or subverted countless statutes, systematically dismantled the immigration enforcement capacity of agencies dedicated to that purpose, and canceled existing policies that deterred illegal immigration and asylum fraud.
“Moreover, by pointing to the failed Senate bill, President Biden willfully misled the American people about what is needed to end this crisis,” Stein continued. “The Senate bill is not the solution. The bill authored by Senators Lankford, Murphy, and Sinema would have actually codified illegal immigration at historically high levels, exacerbating threats to national security and the costs to American taxpayers.
“If Biden wants a secure border, all he has to do is uphold his constitutional oath to enforce the law. If he wants Congress to give him additional, meaningful authority, then he should urge Congress to pass H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. That bill — a serious immigration enforcement bill — has already passed the House of Representatives. H.R. 2 closes all of the loopholes that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have exploited to create the crisis he now acknowledges, and provides the resources and manpower necessary to ensure the security of the nation. Nevertheless, the Democratic-controlled Senate, with the support of the president’s administration, is blocking that bill from being enacted.
“It is clear from the president’s address that he does not want to solve this crisis. Rather he is intent on shifting blame for the humanitarian, public safety and national security crisis that was created by his administration,” Stein concluded.
The anatomy of the illegal immigration crisis and why the Senate bill would not solve it:
Beginning on his first day in office, President Biden and his administration have:
Canceled construction of the border wall, including sections already paid for by American taxpayers.
Canceled the Migrant Protection Protocols, aka Remain in Mexico, which required migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims were pending.
Canceled the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with Central American governments, which required migrants passing through those countries to seek asylum in the first safe country they arrived in.
Reinstated catch-and-release policies, under which more than 85 percent of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border are allowed to enter the country.
Refused to utilize available detention beds to hold illegal aliens.
Created massive and illegal parole programs that have allowed entry of millions of otherwise inadmissible aliens.
Crafted policies that expressly limit removal of illegal aliens to only the most hardened and dangerous criminals and terrorists.
Top ten reasons why the Senate bill would not end the border and illegal immigration crisis:
The primary reason we have a crisis on our southern border is because the Biden administration is releasing illegal aliens instead of detaining and removing them. Yet, the Senate border bill does not restrict the government’s ability to release illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S. Under the Senate bill, it’s business as usual.
The Senate border bill does nothing to limit the abuse of humanitarian parole. Parole is one of the main tools the Biden administration has used to release illegal aliens into the U.S., and indeed, even to fly them in from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The Senate border bill creates a new asylum system under which any alien merely claiming asylum must be released before they are ever screened by an asylum officer to determine whether their claim is credible. It is nothing more than a new catch-and-release program that will spark a historic rush on our southern border, encourage even more asylum fraud, and allow millions of unvetted aliens to settle into communities nationwide.
The Senate border bill promises speedy asylum screenings, but that’s a façade. The language only requires that initial screenings be held within 90 days “to the greatest extent practicable.” Thus, there is no legal requirement that asylum screenings take place quickly and nothing that will hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable.
Under the Senate bill, if the government is unable to conduct an asylum screening within 90 days, the government must give the alien a work permit anyway, whether their claim is credible or not. This allows illegal aliens to abscond with exactly what they wanted: the ability to live and work in the U.S.
Although the Senate border bill creates an expulsion authority for illegal aliens apprehended at the border, the provision only becomes mandatory after a staggering amount of illegal immigration has already taken place: 5,000 illegal border crossers per day over seven days (or 8,500 illegal aliens crossing in one day).
The new expulsion authority is riddled with exceptions. The expulsion authority does not apply to asylum-seekers and parolees at the ports of entry, and it does not apply to any group of persons the government feels should be exempted “based on the totality of the circumstances.”
Worst of all, under the Senate bill, the expulsion authority may only be used for a limited number of days each year and expires in three years, leaving the American people in the same situation we are now.
The Senate proposal requires the Department of Homeland Security to process a minimum of 1,400 inadmissible aliens per day along the southwest border, even when the expulsion authority is triggered. Clearly, the Senate authors knew that their bill would not stop the flow of illegal migrants across the border.
The Senate border deal spends more taxpayer dollars to subsidize illegal immigration by appropriating $1.4 billion to the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which awards grants to NGOs and sanctuary cities that facilitate illegal immigration. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions spent for the State Department to provide “migrant assistance” and “economic assistance” to Central American countries.
JUST IN: Tucker Carlson calls President Biden's SOTU speech the most un-American speech in U.S. history.
"That was possibly the darkest, most un-American speech ever given by an American president. In fact, it wasn't a speech, it was a rant, entirely lacking in decency or… pic.twitter.com/lOKIJ2DDgj
Tonight, President Biden suggested that the state of the union is strong, but we all know that's not true. We are a nation in decline across every measurable category: on the world stage, in terms of our sovereignty, and economically.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Federation for American Immigration Reformhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFederation for American Immigration Reform2024-03-08 04:29:132024-03-08 04:40:06Biden Uses the State of the Union Address to Blame Congress for a Border Crisis He Does Not Want to Solve
Since the beginning of the border crisis in which millions of illegal immigrants have flooded into the country, American citizens have been affected in various ways, most notably by the spike in crime.
Some sanctuary cities have recognized that crime is out of their control and have sought changes in their sanctuary policies. Saturating news headlines are cases of illegal immigrants stealing, assaulting, raping, or even murdering innocent American civilians. In addition, taxpayers are funding the housing, food, and health care of people who aren’t legally in the U.S., with taxpayer money funding gender transition procedures as well.
Experts are also pointing to how illegal immigration is affecting the education system, as Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, explained on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.”
FRC President Tony Perkins highlighted that “the ongoing border crisis undermines our nation’s education system” and is “often left unmentioned.” But the reality, Kilgannon said, is that both poor and wealthy districts are affected by the illegal immigrant students coming in.
“Americans are very generous,” she said, “and it’s hard for us to turn down a student at the schoolhouse door if they present themselves to learn.” But even so, most schools don’t have a choice on whether they accept the illegal migrants, which then places an added and significant “strain on the budget,” Kilgannon added. And she explained how a lot of them come in without an ability to speak English, which requires special services.
Financial strains, in particular, are hard on the high poverty areas, Kilgannon described, because they’re already struggling to fund their schools. They hardly have enough money for the legal American citizens, she noted, but additionally, “it affects wealthy areas too because of the drug crisis.” As drug overdoses at schools increase, Kilgannon discussed the growing controversy over “whether or not the school is notifying parents when children overdose at school.”
She added, “But the reason that kids are overdosing at school is because, for one thing, there’s poor control over the environment by the people who are running the schools. But there’s [also] an increase in drugs coming across the border. … There’s more availability of these drugs, and it’s causing all kinds of pressures to be put on many, many areas of our society. And of course, it’s happening to our school system as well.”
As a former state legislator, Perkins highlighted that what he used to see were parents who had to deal with very strict rules about which schools they could attend based on the district they lived in. But with illegal immigrants, he shared that those same rules don’t apply. “I mean, we’re making our own citizens have to live within the boundaries and the rules, but then someone who’s not even a citizen of this country can come in and go wherever they want, and we have to pay for it,” he said. Kilgannon agreed and stated “there are so many rules that they do not have to follow that regular American citizens have to follow.”
Perkins observed that it looks like “these schools are just expected to absorb the cost of the Biden administration’s immigration policy.” Kilgannon referred to it as “an unfunded mandate,” which can be defined as “regulations or other requirements imposed by a higher level of government on a lower one, but without accompanying appropriations to cover the cost of compliance.” Both Perkins and Kilgannon reflected on whether “local governments could take action against the Biden administration for that reason.” Kilgannon added, “I certainly would want to if I were running a school system that was dealing with these kinds of things.”
In addition, Perkins briefly mentioned how these education concerns caused by illegal immigration only add to the concern over declining test scores and proficiency rates with each year. Considering this push for schools to cater to the Biden administration’s open border policy, he concluded, “I would just think at some point a state’s got to draw the line and say, ‘We’re not doing it.’ … [T]his is absolutely out of control.”
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-04 13:33:302024-03-05 06:03:15Experts Worry that Illegal Immigration Is Affecting the Education System
A sprawling new survey is revealing that voters are getting sick of the Biden administration, and Trump’s popularity is holding strong. According to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, President Joe Biden’s approval rating is floundering, underwater at 45% (23% strongly approve, 22% somewhat approve), with his disapproval rate (39% strongly disapprove, 15% somewhat disapprove) remaining fairly steady since January of 2022. Nearly half of voters (48%) said that Biden is getting worse as a leader, while 27% (mostly Democrats) said he’s improving and 25% said he’s pretty much the same.
Furthermore, voters are disappointed with Biden’s performance on key issues. The 81-year-old president’s approval rating is low regarding his management of immigration (35%), inflation (39%), the economy (43%), rising crime rates (41%), and others. The only area where voters said Biden has done a good job was in responding to COVID-19. When asked what Biden’s biggest achievement has been as president, more voters (30%) said he hasn’t had a big achievement than voters (28%) who agreed that lowering the cost of prescription drugs is the biggest feather in Biden’s cap.
The Biden administration’s biggest failure is, according to voters, its border policy. Forty-four percent of voters (including about a third of Democrats and nearly half of Independents) believe Biden’s biggest failure was overseeing “an open borders policy and a historic flood of immigrants.” Runners-up for the title of “biggest failure” include weak leadership, “rampant inflation,” “a shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan,” and a failure to tackle surging crime rates.
Immigration, inflation, and the economy are the top issues that voters are concerned about heading into the next presidential election. Thirty-six percent of voters expressed concern over immigration, 33% over inflation and price increases, and 24% over the economy and jobs. Inflation was rated the most important issue to voters personally with 42% of voters responding that they have been personally impacted by rising prices, up four percentage points just since January. Immigration and crime were next, at 18% and 11% respectively. Additionally, 54% of voters said their personal financial situations were suffering under Biden and upwards of 70% said they fear that inflation is “here to stay.”
On immigration, 63% of voters said that the border crisis is worsening (including 42% of Democrats and 65% of Independents) and a staggering 71% said that the U.S. needs tougher laws against illegal immigration (including 56% of Democrats and 76% of Independents). A majority of voters also believe the federal government already has the power and authority it needs to fix the illegal immigration crisis and that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is simply not enforcing existing border control laws. Sixty-two percent of voters (including nearly half of Democrats) support impeaching Mayorkas “under the charge that he is willfully not enforcing immigration laws and securing the border…”
Also according to the survey, Biden would lose against former President Donald Trump if the election were held today. Forty-eight percent of voters said that they would pick Trump over Biden, with 9% saying they weren’t sure. When that 9% were asked which way they lean, Trump would beat Biden 53% to 47%. Significantly, Trump would earn 52% of the Independent vote and even 13% of the Democratic vote.
When third-party players are introduced, Trump still comes out on top, with former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking a substantial portion of the vote (nearly 10%) that would otherwise go to Biden. Trump also garnered nearly 80% support among GOP voters for the Republican presidential nomination, with former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley earning a paltry 14%. Biden would also beat Haley (41% to 39%, 19% undecided) if the two were to go head-to-head.
Even if Trump were to be convicted of the numerous indictments leveled against him by leftist prosecutors and Biden’s Justice Department, voters would still likely go for him over Biden. A whopping 54% of voters said they’d vote for Trump even if he were convicted of inciting the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Only 46% said they’d back Biden, which is actually down from 52% just a month ago. Fifty-two percent of voters said they would still vote for Trump if he were convicted of election interference charges in Georgia, but voters were split on whether to vote for him if convicted of allegedly mishandling classified presidential documents, with 50% backing Trump and 50% backing Biden.
A clear majority of voters (58%) also believe that the prosecutions against Trump are politically motivated. Even a surprising 42% of Democrats said they think that the Biden administration is “using the legal system in biased ways to take out a political opponent.” Voters were split when asked if Trump poses a “threat to democracy,” with 50% saying he doesn’t and 50% saying he does, which is down from 52% a month ago.
When asked if Trump will impact the nation “for the better,” 56% of respondents said yes, while 44% said he’s “a danger to democracy and will hopelessly divide the country if elected.” Nearly 60% of respondents also agreed with the statement, “I miss Donald Trump’s policies on the economy, immigration and crime,” and 62% agreed that Democrats “are trying to unfairly scare the voters over Donald Trump by labeling him as a dictator.”
When asked, nearly 60% of respondents said that they think Trump did a good job as president — that includes a majority in every age range polled, a majority among urban, suburban, and rural voters, 53% of independents, and even 29% of Democrats. Trump was also rated among the political figures with the highest net favorability, while Biden, his son Hunter, and other Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), and others received some of the lowest scores.
This comes as numerous other polls show Trump leading Biden in November and concern over illegal immigration skyrocketing.
President Trump: "President Biden… Fight your fight yourself. Don't use prosecutors and judges to go after your opponent… our country is much bigger than that." pic.twitter.com/5BwASZKXqB
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-04 13:08:112024-03-04 14:57:10Poll Shows Biden Unpopular among Voters as Immigration, Inflation Worsen
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.”
President Trump: "Joe Biden is the most incompetent president we've ever had… He is a true threat to democracy because he's weaponized the FBI and the DOJ to go get his political opponent and many other people." pic.twitter.com/gt9XE4niao
President Biden transferred more than $500 million that was earmarked for COVID relief into the pockets of illegal immigrants. This is outrageous. Read more:https://t.co/OUaQw7ynZZ
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-01 16:02:422024-03-03 11:38:33Illegal Immigrants Continue to Commit Violent Crimes as Sanctuary Cities Reassess Policies
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.
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.
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.
President Biden transferred more than $500 million that was earmarked for COVID relief into the pockets of illegal immigrants. This is outrageous. Read more:https://t.co/OUaQw7ynZZ
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.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-01 15:53:442024-03-01 17:36:48‘A Biden Invasion’: Trump and Biden’s Border Speeches Make ‘An Extraordinary Contrast’
