political

Last week, Reuters news service reported that the Biden Administration has quietly begun flying illegal aliens apprehended at the Canadian border to Texas.  According to Reuters, the Border Patrol this month placed “about 100 migrants on two charter flights from Plattsburgh, New York, near the border with Canada, to the Texas cities of Harlingen and El Paso.”

As Reuters reports, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended nearly 2,900 people crossing illegally from Canada into the United States in the five months since October, more than all of fiscal year 2022. About half of those were Mexicans, who do not need a visa to travel to Canada. . . . Read more about Border Patrol Flying Migrants from the Canadian Border – to Texas?

Biden’s budget asks for money to hire 500 extra border guards who catch migrants — and money to hire 460 more people to release the migrants so they can travel to jobs and housing.

The Democrats’ budget asks for a $4.7 billion “contingency fund” to operate the existing network of non-profit groups, shelters, training courses, travel routes, and healthcare checks which get low-wage migrants into the jobs that would otherwise go to better-paid Americans. . . . Read more about Joe Biden’s 2023 Border Budget: More Money for Migrants

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are skipping a hearing in Texas on Wednesday, marking the second instance this year of a group of congressional Democrats refusing to attend an official field hearing at the border with Republicans. 

Committee ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said Democrats made the decision “after careful consideration” and accused Republicans of “traveling to the border to attack the Administration” instead of going on a “fact-finding mission.”

“Unfortunately, it has become clear that Republicans planned to politicize this event from the start, breaking with the Committee’s proud history of bipartisanship,” Thompson said in a statement shared by Fox News. . . . Read more about Democrats to Skip Another Border Hearing, Claim GOP Going to Texas ‘to Attack’ Biden

 A state-level initiative to counter the swarm of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas has, to date, resulted in more than 348,000 apprehensions and the seizure of more than 361 million doses of the deadly drug fentanyl.

The initiative, Operation Lone Star, was created by Texas's Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021. 

As Abbott explained then, “The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration. Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. . . . Read more about Gov. Abbott's Border Operation Nabs 348,000 Illegal Immigrants, 361 Million Fentanyl Doses

A new illustrated and concise report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) depicting the exponential growth in illegal immigration since January 2021 shows why he largely avoided the issue. The report graphically illustrates how Biden Administration policies have created a humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis at the border dwarfing anything that came before.

The State of the Border: an Illustrated Analysis of Biden’s Failure to Secure the Southwest Border, shows the staggering increase in the numbers of people encountered entering the country illegally; the number of people encountered who are listed on the federal Terrorist Screening Database; the number of “gotaways” who were detected but eluded apprehension; and the volume of lethal fentanyl seized at the border. . . . Read more about The State of the Border: New FAIR Issue Brief Paints a Grim Picture of a Self-Induced Disaster

Earlier this week, Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) joined the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, where she doubled down on her push for amnesty for illegal aliens. Specifically, she claimed, “[w]e need to also give dignity to those people who are in the country and those are the people that I represent. We’re talking about 13 to 15 million people — who are, most of them, Hispanics, I would say 85 percent who speak my language, look like me, and sound like me — who are contributing to the economy of this country and they live in the shadows. . . . Read more about House Republican Doubles Down on Amnesty in Davos

Texas Rep. Chip Roy has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would block illegal aliens from entering the United States until the border wall is under "operational control."

"'The Border Safety and Security Act' which was first introduced last year and would authorize the Homeland Security Secretary to suspend the entry of illegal immigrants into the United States, if he determines it 'necessary in order to achieve operational control' of the border," reports Fox News. 

Additionally, the legislation would mandate the suspension of entry of aliens if DHS cannot properly detain them or place them in effective programs like the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico). The bill currently has 49 co-sponsors in the House. . . . Read more about Rep. Chip Roy Introduces Bill to Block Illegal Immigration until Border is Secure

Although the leadership race has not been decided and committee membership is still in the works, House Republicans have already announced they will consider two immigration bills on the floor of the House next week.  The bills tackle two issues:  Title 42 expulsion authority and the law prohibiting illegal aliens from possessing firearms.The first bill, entitled the “Border Safety and Security Act of 2023,” is almost a carbon copy of a bill authored and introduced by Texas Congressman Chip Roy in May 2022.  It is a short, 3-page bill that essentially replicates the Title 42 authority to expel illegal aliens in Title 8, which houses the Immigration and Nationality Act.  Specifically, it grants the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to expel aliens who do not have proper documents if the Secretary determines in his/her discretion that doing so “is necessary to achieve operational control over such border.” . . . Read more about Now in Charge, House Republicans Ante Up on Immigration with Two Bills; Action Expected Next Week

Migrants are entering El Paso, Texas, at a crushing rate of 2,500 a day, but Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas managed to miss them during his visit to the beleaguered border city this week. The surge of illegal aliens is spilling onto the streets of El Paso, taxing already strained social services. Frustrated city officials report that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is releasing migrants into the community en masse.But    Mayorkas didn’t witness any of this for himself. In a tightly choreographed stop on Tuesday, the secretary met with Border Patrol agents at headquarters but did not tour any CBP processing centers, and he skirted around streets and alleys where migrants are dumped. . . . Read more about Mayorkas Turns a Blind Eye to the Bad Optics in El Paso