News Station Poll: 97 Percent Oppose Releasing Violent Criminals Without Bail

According to a poll by The National Desk that is circulating on local Tennessee news websites, 97 percent of respondents said they believe that violent alleged criminals should not be released back onto the streets without bail.

The poll, which is running on WTCV in Chattanooga and WZTV in Nashville, asks respondents, “Do you think those arrested for violent crimes should be released without bail?”

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Despite Backlog of Veterans’ Claims, VA Using Resources to Help Illegal Immigrants

With hundreds of thousands of veterans’ healthcare claims on backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), top Republicans in the House and Senate are hoping to prevent VA resources from being used to process claims for medical care of illegal immigrants.

According to a July report from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency contracts with the VA to process medical claims reimbursements involving illegal immigrants even though they did not serve in the U.S. military. Medical professionals treat illegal immigrants detained by ICE on site, but when specialized or emergency care is required, they are transported to private providers, according to Fox News. The arrangement between ICE and the VA was outlined in a 2020 memo during the Trump administration, Fox News reported.

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Attorney General Skrmetti Files Complaint Against DHS and ICE After the Agencies Failed to Provide Information on Illegal Migrants Being Bussed to Tennessee

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an official complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, alleging the two entities have failed to produce documents regarding the release of immigrant detainees into Tennessee.

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Commentary: Why Is Big Media Pushing to Label ‘Sound of Freedom’ Film a ‘QAnon’ Hoax?

For good reasons the box office hit movie Sound of Freedom has brought in over $100 million as it tells the true story of undercover federal agent Timothy Ballard and his suspenseful mission to rescue children being sex trafficked in Colombia.

Central to the movie’s plot is the story of a bright-eyed, 11-year-old girl named Rocío, whose childhood innocence is quickly morphed into a nightmare of sexual exploitation when she is recruited into a child sex trafficking ring.

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Law Enforcement Experts Warn of ‘Another 9-11’ After Bungled Release of Migrant Tied to Terrorism

Former law enforcement officials are warning of potential terrorist attacks and a repeat of 9/11 following a Homeland Security Department watchdog report that exposed government bungling that allowed an illegal immigrant on the terrorist watchlist to be released into the U.S. and roam free for two weeks before he was apprehended.

According to a report released by the DHS’s Office of Inspector General, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released an illegal immigrant on the terrorist watchlist last year, and due to a lack of coordination, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took more than two weeks to arrest the individual.

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Top Biden Immigration Adviser Has Numerous Ties to Groups That Want to ‘Abolish’ ICE

A senior Biden administration immigration policy adviser has a history of working with organizations that have advocated to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to documents from activist groups reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Ramzi Kassem, who joined the White House in 2022 as the senior policy advisor for immigration at the Domestic Policy Council, helped produce research reports with anti-ICE groups for the City University of New York’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), a group he founded in 2009. He and his organization directly collaborated with, and still list as partners, several groups that have pushed to scrap ICE altogether as well as defund police departments.

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Acting ICE leader to Vacate Post, Second Biden Immigration Leader to Leave in June

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting leader Tae Johnson will leave his position at the end of June, marking the second high-profile exit by an immigration official in recent weeks as the Biden administration struggles to combat a surge in illegal migration at the southern border.

The agency confirmed Johnson’s upcoming departure in a Monday statement, saying “[a]fter more than 30 years of dedicated service to our nation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson will retire from federal law enforcement at the end of the month,” according to the Washington Examiner.

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Confirmed: Alleged Carjacker Shot by Memphis Police Is an Illegal Alien

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed for The Tennessee Star that the man arrested for a litany of crimes in Memphis last week was an illegal alien. 

“ICE issued an immigration detainer on May 31 for Honduran national Jairo Ponce, 29, following his arrest by the Memphis Police Department on charges of aggravated robbery, carjacking, aggravated assault on a first responder, employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony and evading arrest,” an ICE spokesperson told The Star Friday. “On an unknown date and location, Ponce entered the United States without being admitted or paroled by an immigration official.”

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Large Number of Criminal Juveniles Entering U.S. Through DACA: Report

Democrats and immigration activists have long claimed that amnesty for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children wouldn’t include young people with a criminal history, but many of the juvenile beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) were affiliated with gangs and had arrest records when granted the program’s benefits, according to a new report.

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‘There’s No Money’: ICE Is Set to Run Out of Funding Amid Record Migrant Surge

U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the McAllen station encounter large group after large group of family units in Los Ebanos, Texas, on Friday June 15. This group well in excess of 100 family units turned themselves into the U.S. Border Patrol, after crossing the border illegally and walking through the town of Los Ebanos.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is set to run out of funding as the southern border continues to be overwhelmed by migrants making illegal crossings, according to Axios.

If the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) doesn’t step in, the agency could run out of money before October, Axios reported, citing three sources familiar with the situation. To solve the issue, DHS would have to pull funding from other organizations and allocate it to ICE.

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Arizona Democrat Congressman Leads Charge to Halt Immigration Detention Expansion

A progressive member of the U.S. Congress from Arizona is asking President Joe Biden’s administration not to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, and to end contracts for private detention centers, despite the fact that illegal alien crossings at the U.S. southern border continue to surge.

“Multiple investigations into these private prisons found substandard living conditions for detained people, crowding, under-staffing, and even deaths of people in custody,” a letter signed by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-03) said. “And while President Biden issued an Executive Order ending the Department of Justice’s use of for-profit prisons, it does not apply to immigration detention facilities.”

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Arrest Warrants Count as ID for Migrants at Airport Security, TSA Says

Transportation Security Administration agent

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) disclosed to a congressional office that migrants flying without proper identification can use an arrest warrant as an alternate form of identification when presenting to airport security, according to a letter the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively obtained.

Responding to Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden’s Dec. 15 inquiry about migrants flying across the country, TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable forms of alternate identification for non-citizens, including a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.”

“TSA’s response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security at risk,” Gooden told the DCNF. “Unknown and unvetted immigrants shouldn’t even be in the country, much less flying without proper identification.”

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Ohio Jail Ends Contract with ICE

In an apparent protest over the loosened border security measures of the Biden administration, an Ohio Sheriff terminated his county jail’s contract to house U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees.

“With the crisis at the border getting worse, it concerns me that the feds will ship detainees to my facility, then release them to the streets of my community under some technicality,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said.

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Russian Nationals Indicted in North Carolina on Immigration Fraud, Murder for Hire Charges

Five Russian nationals were indicted on Wednesday in the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to a Department of Justice press release. The five are charged with “federal crimes stemming from a bribery and kickback scheme, including money laundering, immigration fraud, and a subsequent murder for hire plot.” Leonid Teyf, 57, his now divorced wife Tatyana, 41, and their circle of co-conspirators had their $5 million gated mansion, adjacent to the golf course at Raleigh’s North Ridge Country Club, raided earlier this month by the FBI. If convicted of crimes against the U.S., and after serving 10-20 years behind bars, they likely would be removed from the country, indicating that they have no claim to U.S. citizenship. Their removal will likely be of interest to the Russian government because the source of their wealth is stolen Russian money that was supposed to be used to supply the Russian military, says the DOJ:  “…between 2010 and 2012, Leonid Teyf was the Deputy Director of Voentorg, a company which contracted with Russia’s Ministry of Defense to provide the Russian military with goods and services.  Leonid Teyf arranged for subcontractors in Russia to fill the various services required by Voentorg’s contract.  Leonid Teyf and…

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Money and Support for Migrant Caravans Flows Through Chicago

Migrant Caravan

by Kevin Mooney   Advocates of open borders quoted in media coverage of the migrant “caravan” moving north through Mexico are part of a network of U.S.-based groups funded in the past by left-leaning foundations, according to tax and financial records. Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a Chicago-based nonprofit whose name means People Without Borders, is widely credited with organizing the caravans of migrants that traveled from Central America on trains and buses and on foot this year and last.Two United Methodist churches in Chicago appear to be bases for People Without Borders, which is led by one of the pastors, documents show. Several organizations are “consistently connected on various websites” and “have overlapping people, most notably Emma Lozano,” said Hayden Ludwig, a research analyst at Capital Research Center, naming the Chicago pastor. Capital Research Center, a Washington-based nonprofit that examines how foundations and charities spend money, analyzed tax and financial records related to People Without Borders. The Daily Signal reviewed this analysis and related documents and websites. Information on the website and Facebook page of People Without Borders indicates that the advocacy group played a key role for at least the past decade in forming caravans that typically got started in…

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Portland, Oregon Police Refused To Help ICE Agents Who Called 911, Agents Say

Tom Wheeler

by Kyle Perisic   Portland, Ore. police refused to respond to at least two 911 emergency calls from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees inside their offices where violent protestors held week-long demonstrations. The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union representing ICE employees, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler, asking him to ensure the police enforce the law equally and protect innocent people. “Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says. Demonstrators, some affiliated with the domestic terrorist organization Antifa, set up a city of tents outside the ICE offices. After setting up camp, they became violent and incited violence several times. “Every person in law enforcement knows there are few things as dangerous or as unpredictable than an angry mob,”said Chris Crane, president of the national union, WWeek reported Monday. “No one could have responded quickly enough to protect our employees who were trapped inside this building. All of this because the Mayor of Portland has a beef with the president of the United States.” The activists…

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Feds Arrest Nearly 100 Illegal Immigrants at Tennessee Slaughterhouse

ICE Arrest

A Grainger County meat-processing plant was the subject Thursday of what one media outlet calls the largest immigration raid in a decade. The Southeastern Provision plant in Bean Station was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), The Washington Post reports. Agents arrested 97 immigrants; 10 arrests were on federal immigration charges, one on state charges and 86 immigrants for being in the country illegally, the newspaper quoted an ICE spokeswoman as saying. Most of the immigrants reportedly were from Mexico. The raid was part of the Trump administration’s increased focus on immigration enforcement, the newspaper reports. WVLT Local 8 television news reports that the action began as a tax-related raid from the Internal Revenue Service. After the immigrants were detained, relatives and friends gathered outside a National Guard armory in Morristown where they were held. The Washington Post story also said the Tennessee Highway Patrol was involved. The newspaper referenced an IRS agent’s affidavit claiming the plant is being investigated for alleged evasion of taxes, filing false tax returns and hiring illegal immigrants. The agent’s affidavit claims the plant failed to report $8.4 million in wages and to pay at least $2.5 million in payroll taxes for dozens of workers.…

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