U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week admitted at a congressional hearing that 600,000 illegal “gotaways” crossed the border in 2023.
More than 3.2 million people illegally entered the U.S. in fiscal 2023 (ending September 30), the most in recorded U.S. history, according to new data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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A caravan of thousands of people heading to the U.S. has reportedly left from Tapachula, Mexico, a city located less than 10 miles from the Mexico-Guatemala border.
The timing of their departure was planned to coincide with the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, which began Monday. President Joe Biden, who’s still not been to the U.S. southern border, spoke at the summit Wednesday.
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Amigrant caravan of hundreds of Central American aliens crossed the Guatemala-Mexico border illegally on Monday, in a standoff with Mexico’s security forces, as NPR reports.
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Hundreds of Central American migrants are headed toward the United States, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the border programs it has put in place, along with international cooperation, will keep them at bay.
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Hundreds more Central American migrants have crossed into Mexico from Guatemala, and a group of about 1,000 has started walking en mass to the north. State and local police accompanied the migrants Wednesday as they walked along a highway leading from the border to the first major city in Mexico, Tapachula. In recent months Mexico has used raids and roadside checkpoints to discourage highway marches such as the massive migrant caravans that occurred in 2018 and early 2019. But no such dissuasive force was seen Wednesday. The migrants say they aim to reach the U.S. border, where many plan to request asylum. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on Mexican imports unless Mexico does more to stop the passage of migrants through its territory. VOA News
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by CHQ Staff We have said on a number of occasions that the Constitution is not a suicide pact and that a dysfunctional or politically gridlocked Congress should not be able to use specious separation of powers arguments to put the sovereignty of the United States and the lives and property of its citizens in jeopardy. That is why we believe that the President Trump’s Article II duty to enforce the laws of the United States and defend its Constitution trumps the appropriations clause of Article I and empowers the President to reprograms funds to secure the border in the absence of congressional action to stop the ongoing invasion of our country. But stopping the invasion is not a one solution problem – there are many actions the President can and should take to prevent millions more illegal aliens from entering the United States. One of the simplest and most effective actions he could take is to close the border with Mexico, and it seems like President Trump is inching toward the decision to do so. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that President Donald Trump is serious about possibly closing the U.S.-Mexico border this week. “It certainly…
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by Jason Hopkins A caravan of mostly Central Americans began its trek toward the United States over the weekend, setting the stage for what will likely be another showdown between border enforcement officials and migrants. Around 1,200 migrants formed a caravan in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and, following the same route as numerous groups before them, started their journey northward Saturday, according to Reuters. The U.S.-bound group is made of mostly Central Americans from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, but also includes Cuban migrants. The National Migration Institute — a department within the government of Mexico that tracks immigration — said the migrants were already within the country before they decided to assemble into a caravan near the country’s southern border with Guatemala. The latest caravan will likely further inflame tensions between these Central American countries and the White House. President Donald Trump, who has made increased immigration enforcement a hallmark of his executive agenda, has threatened Central American governments with repercussions for allowing migrants to freely make their way to the U.S. “… Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are doing nothing for the United States but taking our money. Word is that a new Caravan is forming…
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On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy talked to recently elected Congressman from Tennessee, Mark Green about his recent rise to fame of Congress’s Freshman class, the transition, and how he’s leading the way in declining a paycheck while the government is in a shutdown. During the course of the interview, Green gave his thoughts and opinions about the border wall’s national security and humanitarian crisis and his strategy to create a cultural change within the House. Gill: Congressman Mark Green has kicked things off with a flurry of activity. He’s on what, CBS, Fox News every time you turn on the TV he’s making headlines and leading the way. He was one of the first, if not the first to say I’m not going to take my paycheck while the government is shutdown. So he’s the pro bono Congressman from Tennessee at this point. I’ve worked free for clients a lot of times. I didn’t intend to, they just didn’t pay. But in this case, Mark Green has continued to show up for…
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President Donald Trump on Friday once again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador if Congress fails to give him money to fund the border wall. In a series of tweets, Trump also asked to change the “ridiculous immigration laws that our country is saddled with.” The comments come as the U.S. government enters the seventh day of a partial shutdown as a budget standoff remains between Trump, who wants $5 billion in wall funding, and Democratic lawmakers, who back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall. Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Immigrant advocates have called the move to seal the border “disgraceful.” Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked Wednesday how long he thinks the shutdown will last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.” Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” adding that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.…
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by Pedro Gonzalez There is a war on for hearts and minds of Americans, and it began long before the first shots were fired on Sunday along the United States-Mexico border, when federal agents deployed tear gas against aggressive foreign nationals attempting to force their way into our country. But the media coverage of the border skirmish is more telling of the nature of this conflict than canisters of lachrymator. There are three news clippings that might illustrate this point. CNN, to start, placed scrambling Central American “families with young children” in the limelight of the clash, yet didn’t show those same people hurling large stones in the direction of American law enforcement, many of whom presumably have families with young children, too. ABC News, on the other hand, didn’t mention at all that foreign nationals endangered federal agents. “Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem” that, if one were to read nothing but ABC’s “The Latest,” would seem to have been induced spasmodically by trigger-happy Border Patrol—who, for what it’s worth, are mostly Latino. The worst offender was perhaps the Associated Press. Making no mention of projectile attacks by foreign nationals directed at Americans, the AP quoted…
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Hundreds of Tijuana residents congregated around a monument in an affluent section of the city south of California on Sunday to protest the thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived via caravan in hopes of a new life in the U.S. Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month on the road, and with many more months ahead of them while they seek asylum. The federal government estimates the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000. U.S. border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived. On Sunday, displeased Tijuana residents waved Mexican flags, sang the Mexican national anthem and chanted “Out! Out!” in front of a statue of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtemoc, 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from the U.S. border. They accused the migrants of being ungrateful and a danger to Tijuana. They also complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an “invasion.” And they voiced…
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The U.S. government said it was starting work on Tuesday to “harden” the border crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, to prepare for the arrival of a migrant caravan leapfrogging its way across western Mexico. Customs and Border Protection announced it was closing four lanes at the busy San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry in San Diego, California. It said the closures were needed “to install and pre-position port hardening infrastructure equipment in preparation for the migrant caravan and the potential safety and security risk that it could cause.” That still leaves a substantial path for the tens of thousands of people who cross daily: Twenty-three lanes remain open at San Ysidro and 12 at Otay Mesa. The caravans became a campaign issue in U.S. midterm elections and U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of over 5,000 military troops to the border to help fend off the migrants. Trump has insinuated without proof that there are criminals or even terrorists in the group. To the thousands of Central American migrants making their way toward Mexico’s Pacific coast state of Nayarit, the prospect of meeting a hostile reception at the border is nothing new. After a month on…
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by Pedro Gonzalez With each step the “caravan of contradictions” takes toward our border, another progressive illusion slips away. Victor Davis Hanson considers this mob, and by extension the events surrounding it, a “paradox, a contradiction, and an irony.” He’s right. The “reasoning” of progressives that leads them to endorse opening our borders to a group of intransigent lawbreakers so that they may escape lawlessness, is logically unacceptable. Progressives recoil in horror at President Trump’s declaration that we must defend ourselves against an invasion of thousands of foreigners who denounce our laws and hold our sovereignty in contempt. And by progressives, I mean to include those “conservatives” of National Review who cry, “it’s hard to think of a response less measured and more effective at undermining moderate support for immigration restrictions than the reaction of the president and key allies.” Consider, 65 percent of voters favor – compared to 35 percent who oppose – increasing merit over connection to relatives for immigration preference, eliminating the visa lottery, and increased funding for border security. That includes 68 percent of Latino voters, 64 percent of black voters, 64 percent of Democratic voters, 67 percent of Independent voters, 63 percent of “liberal” voters, and…
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by Victor Davis Hanson What makes citizens obey the law is not always their sterling character. Instead, fear of punishment—the shame of arrest, fines or imprisonment—more often makes us comply with laws. Law enforcement is not just a way to deal with individual violators but also a way to remind society at large that there can be no civilization without legality. Or, as 17th-century British statesman George Savile famously put it: “Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.” In the modern world, we call such prompt, uniform and guaranteed law enforcement deterrence, from the Latin verb meaning to frighten away. One protester who disrupts a speech is not the problem. But if unpunished, he green-lights hundreds more like him. Worse still, when one law is left unenforced, then all sorts of other laws are weakened. The result of hundreds of sanctuary cities is not just to forbid full immigration enforcement in particular jurisdictions. They also signal that U.S. immigration law, and other laws by extension, can be ignored. The presence of an estimated 12 million or more foreign nationals unlawfully living in the United States without legal consequence sends a similar message.…
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by Henry Rodgers Republicans believe their opposition to the migrant caravan filled with thousands of illegal immigrants who are approaching the U.S. border will help energize their base before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, while many Democrats have continued to remain silent on the issue. The caravan, which was roughly 2,000 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana and about 800 miles from the southern tip of Texas as of Thursday, has been a key issue for Republicans less than one week out from the midterm elections, as GOP candidates have been hammering their Democratic opponents for not mentioning the potential threat to the U.S. The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Republican strategists have all echoed similar messages, saying the migrant caravan would indeed help the GOP before the midterm elections — many saying it reminds voters that Democrats are putting U.S. citizens in danger. They also mentioned how the silence from Democrats on the issue will end up helping Republicans, who have so vocally denounced the caravan entering the country. “From their open border policies to their calls to abolish ICE, the caravan is yet another reminder to voters that Democrats have put the sovereignty of our country in…
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Phil Bredesen is “talking out of both sides of his mouth,” the Tennessee Republican Party said in response to his latest missive on the illegal alien army marching toward the United States. “Must be a day of the week that ends in ‘y,’” the GOP said. To mark the occasion, the Tennessee Republican Party launched a new ad regarding the Democratic Senate candidate, which is available to watch here. The GOP said Bredesen is scrambling to undo the damage he caused when, during a TV news interview, he smirked and said, “A few thousand very poor people coming to our border is not a threat to our, is not a threat to our security.” After the Bredesen team dashed off an emergency op-ed to The Tennessean – which tried to walk back everything Bredesen said in the video – his team realized it wasn’t enough, and rolled out a new ad talking about how the man who called the wall “political theater” and said the migrant caravan was “not a threat” was tough on the border, the Tennessee Republican Party said in a press release. The Democratic former governor’s latest missive is that the criminal illegal alien army is “more…
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by Henry Rogers Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said she believes the thousands of migrants in the caravan headed toward the U.S. need to enter the country legally. Warren, who is up for re-election, has previously called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and replacing it, and is now saying the migrant caravan filled with thousands of people from Central America traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. should be handled according to the law, in a statement from her campaign to The Daily Caller News Foundation, despite her lax views on immigration. “In regards to the caravan, we have laws for people who come to the border seeking asylum, and Senator Warren believes that we should follow those laws. However, she also knows that we should never have been in this situation. The real problem is Donald Trump’s chaotic foreign policy and lack of a long-term strategy in the region,” Warren’s campaign said in the statement. Despite Warren saying the migrants need to follow the law and enter the country legally, she blamed Trump for the caravan, saying the reason the immigrants are fleeing Central America is due to Trump and his funding to the region. “Trump has hollowed out…
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by Henry Rogers Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said she believes the thousands of migrants in the caravan headed toward the U.S. need to enter the country legally. Warren, who is up for re-election, has previously called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and replacing it, and is now saying the migrant caravan filled with thousands of people from Central America traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. should be handled according to the law, in a statement from her campaign to The Daily Caller News Foundation, despite her lax views on immigration. “In regards to the caravan, we have laws for people who come to the border seeking asylum, and Senator Warren believes that we should follow those laws. However, she also knows that we should never have been in this situation. The real problem is Donald Trump’s chaotic foreign policy and lack of a long-term strategy in the region,” Warren’s campaign said in the statement. Despite Warren saying the migrants need to follow the law and enter the country legally, she blamed Trump for the caravan, saying the reason the immigrants are fleeing Central America is due to Trump and his funding to the region. “Trump has hollowed out…
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The clean-up effort for Phil Bredesen’s disastrous interview with WCYB is hitting high gear. When asked last week about the illegal alien army marching toward America, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen laughed, saying, “A few thousand very poor people coming to our border is not a threat to our, is not a threat to our security,” The Tennessee Star reported last week. The video of Bredesen’s remarks is available to watch here. After the Bredesen team dashed off an emergency op-ed to The Tennessean – which tried to walk back everything Bredesen said in the video – his team realized it wasn’t enough, and rolled out a new ad talking about how the man who called the wall “political theater” and said the migrant caravan was “not a threat” was tough on the border, the Tennessee Republican Party said in a press release. Garren Shipley, RNC spokesman, said, “Phil Bredesen made a huge mistake – he actually told Tennesseans what he really thought about immigration. Team Bredesen can mop all they want, but that’s one mess they won’t be able to clean up.” In the new ad, Bredesen talks about how he supported President Bush, while conveniently forgetting when he said…
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On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report: Knoxville Edition – broadcast on on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville – Star News Digital Media National Political Editor Steve Gill talked about his solution to the mob that is approaching the United States border. After reviewing the current violence over the past weekend in Chicago, he suggested that the migrants might want to know about the violence here before fleeing their less than violent countries in comparison. He proposed that perhaps those wishing to enter the United States, would have to live in Chicago. Gill continued: Now I have come up with the solution to what we do about this “mob” that is marching towards the United States. The take our jobs, take our stuff, caravan that is continuing to move through Mexico with police escorts, with assistance, with funding to help them along their way. To continue that move towards the United States despite the fact that President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, and the military are saying they will not enter the United States. This is an invasion. Good clue as to when an invasion is taking place is if people are waving the flags of a foreign country, singing their national anthem as they’re…
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by Jeffrey A. Rendall Five percent growth? You’re forgiven if you thought you’d read it wrong. According to one of the president’s most trusted advisors Donald Trump isn’t happy with the economy the way it is. Make no mistake, Trump was ecstatic that growth broke the four percent mark earlier this year but isn’t content to rest on his well-deserved laurels. No, Trump wants five percent growth and is apparently obsessed with getting there. Paul Bedard reported at The Washington Examiner, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow, one of President Trump’s top policy advisors and an architect of the 2017 tax cut, said that Trump stays awake because he is obsessed with rebuilding the U.S. economy and reaching 5 percent growth. “I can tell you after a few months on the job, this man is indefatigable. Donald Trump doesn’t stop. He barely sleeps. It’s almost impossible to keep up with him. He is truly obsessed with restoring American greatness,’ he wrote in the insider book Trumponomics, Inside the America First Plan to Get Our Economy Back on Track.” Think about it. While most Americans hit the hay at night exhausted from a hard day’s work – which Trump helped…
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Democratic former Governor Phil Bredesen is still saying an invasion of thousands of migrants marching through Mexico from Honduras who have declared their intent to illegally enter the United States is not a threat to national security. “A caravan of a few thousand poor people without weapons, working their way slowly toward the southern border of the strongest country in the world, is not some huge national emergency like suddenly Russia decided to threaten us with nuclear weapons or something,” WKRN reported during an event at Nissan Stadium Saturday. “Let’s just keep this stuff in context, let’s just handle it in a smart way,” said Bredesen. The Washington Examiner recently reported that the migrant army making its way toward the United States through Mexico is includes a number of multi-national criminals, quoting the Department of Homeland Security, The Tennessee Star reported last week. “@DHSgov can confirm that there are individuals within the caravan who are gang members or have significant criminal histories,” DHS spokesman Tyler Houlton wrote in a series of tweets. Bredesen’s opponent in the Senate race, U.S. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) released a campaign video last Friday calling him out on the illegal migrant army. The video is available…
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by Will Racke Several hundred Central American migrants tried to force their way past police at a checkpoint on the Mexico-Guatemala border Sunday, sparking clashes that left one migrant dead and dozens more injured. The group of mostly Honduran men had broken through a gate leading to the border bridge between the Guatemalan town of Tecun Uman and Ciudad Hidalgo in Mexico. As they streamed onto the bridge, they were met by Mexican officers who had been ordered to block the unauthorized migrants. In the ensuing melee, one of the migrants was killed after being struck in the head by what Guatemalan authorities said was a rubber bullet, The Associated Press reported. Guatemalan authorities did not release the name of the man who was killed, but described him as a 26-year-old Honduran national. At a news conference late Sunday, Mexican Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida denied that Mexican police were responsible for the man’s death. Navarrate Pida said the migrants attacked officers with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks and that some of the migrants were carrying firearms. He denied that Mexican officers were deployed with guns that fire rubber-tipped ammunition. The group of migrants involved in Sunday’s clash has billed itself as…
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by Evie Fordham Several thousand migrants from Central American countries are headed to the U.S. in a caravan. Those who reach the border are expected to petition for asylum, but there are multiple options for where individuals will stay as they wait for their cases to make it through the immigration court backlog. Migrants can claim asylum once they reach the U.S., and many make it over the first hurdle of proving they have credible fear of returning to their home country. A person is granted asylum if they can prove they fled their home country because of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. But that first hurdle is not a guarantee of asylum. Immigration court backlog can also slow down the asylum process. The non-detained docket has a backlog of over 700,000 migrant family cases. Where individuals are detained (or not) depends on many factors, such as if the migrant is an unaccompanied minor or traveling in a family unit. ICE oversees detention in both publicly and privately run facilities, which are located in all 50 states but most concentrated in California and Texas. Here are some…
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Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen on Wednesday dismissed the illegal alien army approaching America’s southern border. When asked about the army Bredesen laughed, saying, “A few thousand very poor people coming to our border is not a threat to our, is not a threat to our security.” Bredesen’s opponent, U.S. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) released a campaign video Friday calling him out. The video is available here. According to Blackburn, Bredesen also: Gave driving certificates to illegal aliens as governor in 2004 and made Tennessee a magnet for illegal aliens. Said the border wall is more “political theater” than practical policy. Doesn’t support President Trump’s travel ban. (The Tennessee Star reported in June that he ducked the issue.) Blackburn’s campaign said, “Phil Bredesen is dangerously wrong on immigration and out of touch with Tennesseans. Marsha Blackburn is 100% supportive of securing our border. As our Senator, she will work with President Trump to build the wall and stop the caravan.” The Washington Examiner confirmed the migrant army is composed of criminals from various nations: The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday defended claims by President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that violent criminals are a component of the Honduran caravan…
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When asked Wednesday about the illegal alien army marching toward America, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen laughed, saying, “A few thousand very poor people coming to our border is not a threat to our, is not a threat to our security.” The video of Bredesen’s remarks available to watch here. Bredesen’s opponent, U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) is not amused. She said in a statement, “These comments demonstrate how out of touch Phil Bredesen is with the Tennesseans he seeks to represent. There is a right way to come to this country, and there is a wrong way to come to this country. This mob, which the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed includes gang members, individuals with criminal histories, and people from the Middle East, is seeking to enter our country the wrong way. Phil Bredesen would like to roll out the welcome mat for them, hand them a state-issued, taxpayer funded driving certificates, and get them to work for his campaign. This is a clear difference between the two of us. I will continue to fight against illegal immigration, by ensuring existing immigration laws are followed, building the wall, stopping sanctuary cities, penalizing elected officials who refuse to follow federal…
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On Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the team spoke with Craig Shirley this morning about the current caravan of illegals approaching the Arizona and California borders and the pre-scripted narrative the MSM will take on the immigrants arrival at the border which appears, in their opinion to be conveniently timed right before the mid-term elections. Leahy: Craig you are an expert on public relations from a conservative perspective and we have this situation now with this, how do you describe it, as anything other than an army of seven thousand Hondurans, now they’re adding Mexicans. They’re moving in a caravan up to the border, probably around Arizona and California, they are going to arrive just conveniently like a day before mid term elections. What in your view should President Trump do to deal with this? Shirley: First of all stop calling it a caravan. A caravan connotes something like it’s fun, like a circus and you know petting zoo’s and stuff like this. This is a mob and he needs to call it a mob of…
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by William Racke Mexico sent federal police to its southern border Wednesday with a warning that they will detain and deport any members of a highly publicized migrant caravan who try to enter the country without a visa. The police officers arrived in two planes in Tapachula, a border city that is a popular waypoint for migrants coming up through Central America to cross into Mexico. Local media reports showed hundreds of agents deplaning, some carrying riot gear. In a statement released Wednesday evening, the Mexican foreign ministry said any of the caravan migrants entering the country “in an irregular manner” will be arrested and administratively deported if appropriate. Migrants who claim they are fleeing violence and want to petition for asylum must do so at the border, while remaining in a government-run camp for up to 45 days, the statement also said. The caravan, dubbed “March of the Migrant,” formed in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Friday, numbering about 150 migrants. It has since swelled to more than 2,000 people and has already crossed into neighboring Guatemala en route to the Mexican border. Caravan members say they are fleeing endemic poverty and violence in Honduras. Upon reaching…
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