Presidential Candidate Dean Phillips Says He Won’t Seek Fourth Term in Congress

While Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips continues his longshot campaign to wrest away the Democrat nomination for president from incumbent Joe Biden, the Wayzata millionaire officially announced on Friday that he’ll no longer pursue a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Representing our nation’s most civically engaged community in Congress has been the most joyful experience of my life,” Phillips said in a social media post shortly after noon on Friday. “Now it’s time to pass the torch — with gratitude and optimism.”

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Supreme Court to Consider Whether Agency’s In-House Trials Violate the Constitution

The Supreme Court will consider next week whether the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) use of in-house judges violates the right to a jury trial guaranteed in the Seventh Amendment.

Congress empowered the SEC to use its own in-house administrative law judges (ALJs) to try cases brought by agency enforcement when it passed the Dodd-Frank Act following the 2008 financial crisis. George R. Jarkesy, who has been caught in the SEC’s administrative proceedings since the agency charged him with fraud relating to his investment activities in 2013, challenged that grant of power as unconstitutional.

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Commentary: Virginia AG Miyares and Marine Sergeant Major Exchange Roles

Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares and Sergeant Major Carlos Ruiz, the newest Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps basically changed jobs during recent events in Virginia and on the battlefield in the Middle East.

Known for their fearless service in combat and garrison advising senior officers, political presentations are not part of a Sergeant Major’s job description.

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Sponsors in These 29 Florida Counties Received over 10,000 Unaccompanied Minors

Border Surge

In the past fiscal year, Florida received 10,542 unaccompanied children (UACs) from the border, many of whom were brought into the country illegally, according to data published by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, tasked with oversight of and caring for the children.

Florida received the third greatest number behind Texas and California as it has almost every year. UAC data has been reported since fiscal 2015.

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Analysis: The Unfinished Work Congress Is Leaving Behind as It Breaks for Thanksgiving

Congress

Both houses of Congress have adjourned for two weeks until after Thanksgiving even as major legislative work that must be completed before the year ends remains unfinished.

The Senate and House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown scheduled for Nov. 17 on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively, the second such resolution since Sept. 30 amid efforts to pass appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year. Afterward, both houses adjourned until Nov. 27 and 28, even though they have not considered the following major legislative items, such as the Farm Bill and National Defense Authorization Act, which need to be passed before the end of the year.

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Pentagon Fails Sixth Consecutive Audit

Pentagon

On Wednesday, the Department of Defense (DOD) failed its sixth consecutive financial audit, even after Pentagon officials vowed to make improvements from previous years’ performances.

As reported by the Daily Caller, auditors gave a clean audit to just 7 of the DOD’s 29 sub-agencies, essentially no different than the results of the 2022 audit. The DOD currently has assets of $3.8 trillion and liabilities of $4 trillion, which encompasses locations in all 50 states, and 4,500 sites globally.

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Congress Passes Continuing Resolution to Avoid Government Shutdown

Both houses of Congress have passed a bill to temporarily fund the U.S. government until early 2024, following a vote by the Senate on Wednesday, after they were unable to pass appropriations bills for the current fiscal year.

The Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024, known commonly as a “continuing resolution” or “CR,” would temporarily fund certain government agencies — such as the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development — until Jan. 19, 2024, while funding the rest of the government until Feb. 2, 2024. The bill was passed by the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 87 yeas to 11 nays after being passed by the House on Tuesday, thus preventing a government shutdown on Nov. 17, when funding under a previous continuing resolution was set to expire.

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Ethics Complaint Filed Against Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy After He Allegedly Elbowed Tennessee U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett in the Back

Florida U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) filed a formal ethics complaint against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20) on Tuesday after the California congressman allegedly elbowed Tennessee U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) in the back while passing him in a hallway.

While being interviewed by NPR reporter Claudia Grisales, Burchett alleged McCarthy elbowed him in the back, saying it caught him “off guard” as the hit was a “clean shot to the kidneys.”

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Hunter Biden Prosecutor Sought Special Charging Status in 2022 but Didn’t Get It, Jim Jordan Says

Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss has told Congress he sought special authority from the Justice Department in 2022 to file tax charges against Hunter Biden in other jurisdictions but was never granted it, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan disclosed Tuesday.

Jordan told reporters after a closed-door interview with Weiss that the prosecutor’s acknowledgement to lawmakers  that he sought “special attorney” powers in the Biden case amounted to a new change in the DOJ’s story and corroborated allegations made earlier this year by IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.

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Congress’ Approval Rating Plummets to Near All-Time Low

Congress’ approval rating has dropped to 13% — just 4 points higher than the all-time low in November 2013, according to a Friday poll.

After a tumultuous three weeks without a speaker of the House, a contentious spending fight that nearly resulted in a government shutdown and another ally involved in a war abroad, Americans’ approval of Congress has plummeted by 4 points to the lowest it’s been since October and November 2017, according to a Gallup poll. Republicans and Democrats gave Congress 8% and 10% approval ratings, respectively, with the latter figure dropping by 12 points since September and the former remaining the same.

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Federal Prosecutors Spied on Congress in Search for Leaks, Now DOJ Is Being Investigated for It

Several current and former congressional oversight staff have been recently informed that the U.S. Justice Department seized their phone and email records back in 2017 as part of leak investigations, belated revelations that have touched off an inquiry by DOJ’s internal watchdog and raised serious concerns about the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

Over the last week, several current and former Senate and House staff from both political parties have alerted Congress that they received belated notifications from Apple, Google or other Big Tech firms that their email or phone records were obtained from their personal devices via a grand jury subpoena.

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Congress Preaches Spending Cuts While Allowing Its Own Budget to Explode by 38 Percent Since 2014

While many lawmakers have preached for years the need for federal spending cuts, the amount of taxpayer money that Congress spends on its own operations has swelled 38% since FY2014 from $4.3 billion to $6.9 billion this year, according to a Just the News review of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on annual federal budgets. 

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20 Senate Republicans Vow to Block All Non-Budget Legislation

Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott is leading a bloc of 19 other Senate Republicans in an effort to stonewall all legislation unrelated to government funding until Congress approves all of its appropriations bills.

The lawmakers warned Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of their intentions amid an intense congressional battle over spending that saw House conservatives take the unprecedented step of ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy. At issue are 12 annual spending bills, which Congress must approve by Nov. 17 following the passage of a continuing resolution this weekend to avert a government shutdown.

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Andy Biggs Commentary: Congress Can’t Continue the Budget Insanity

In the current atmosphere of acrimony surrounding the failure of Congress to produce a balanced budget, or even an unbalanced budget, it is important to review the facts. The facts are important because the Uniparty, the Swamp, the Establishment, and many media propagandists are engaged in a parade of fearmongering.

Because House Republicans did not timely produce a budget as required by law, “they,” the leaders of the Uniparty, began championing their preferred budget mechanism, the “Continuing Resolution (CR).” We know it is their preferred option because they use it every year.

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Commentary: Democratic-Run States Are Losing Population, Power, and Congressional Seats

For years, Americans who believe in limited government and putting the American people first have had to watch as states like California, New York, and Illinois have turned their cities into dystopian hellscapes and sent unhinged politicians to Washington DC to inflict their policies on the rest of the nation.

But something very interesting has been happening over the past decade and this trend is only accelerating – the most left-wing states are slowly losing power as their populations decrease and residents move elsewhere. California, New York, Illinois, and others are losing population as residents move to friendlier and freer states. What this translates into is a mathematical solution to leftism and centralized government control.     

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U.S. Senator JD Vance Addresses Ukrainian Plight for Aid as U.S. Government Shutdown Approaches

U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) addressed the Ukrainian plight for aid on Friday as lawmakers get increasingly closer to the end-of-the-month deadline to pass a government spending bill to keep the U.S. government from a shutdown.

This follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s arrival in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to make his renewed case for $24 billion of American aid to Ukraine.

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Congress to Release New Evidence, Testimony in Biden Case to Back Up IRS Whistleblowers

The chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee tells Just the News he plans to soon make public new testimony that corroborates IRS whistleblowers’ accounts of interference in the Hunter Biden probe and new evidence to support the nascent impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said Thursday his panel will hold a vote to make the new information available, including testimonies from two IRS agents who back the accounts of whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler about slow-walking and interference in the Hunter Biden tax case.

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Rep. Andy Ogles Demands Answers from Department of Treasury Secretary Yellen on Racial Equity

 Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) sent a letter to Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, seeking information regarding the Department of the Treasury’s Committee on Racial Equity (TACRE), its mission, and its intentions.

According to the treasury, it formed the committee to address topics such as financial “inclusion,” capital access, and housing stability.

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A Closer Look at Vivek Ramaswamy’s Bold Plan to Take Down the Administrative State

President Calvin Coolidge once said, “unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.”

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wants to pick up where old Silent Cal, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump left off, proposing a plan to halve the size of the federal administrative state in his first year in office — should he be elected.

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Introduces Resolution to Overturn Biden’s Next ‘Reckless’ Student Loan Bailout

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined 18 of his Republican colleagues on Tuesday in introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval.

The CRA aims to end President Joe Biden’s latest end-around to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this summer striking down the administration’s original student loan bailout.

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Commentary: McConnell, It’s Time to Resign

When asked on Wednesday whether he planned to run for reelection in 2026, Mitch McConnell did not answer. Except that he did. The 81-year-old’s half minute of almost catatonic silence served as a loud “no.”

On Thursday, the Capitol physician described the Senate minority leader as “medically clear.” The doctor did not state that McConnell’s March concussion caused the incident — or the similar zone-out that occurred last month — but the peculiar wording of the statement may lead readers to draw that conclusion.

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Department of Defense Missed Half of Watchdog Deadlines So Far This Year

aerial view of The Pentagon

The Pentagon has missed half of its deadlines to respond to requests from a Congressional watchdog in the last six months. 

A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the U.S. Department of Defense submitted about half of its agency comments and sensitivity or security reviews after deadlines set by the watchdog.

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New Arizona Law to Help Reporting Missing Foster Care Child Cases to Take Effect This Fall

A new Arizona law requiring mandatory 24-hour reporting with detailed deliverables and protocols for each situation of missing, abducted, or runaway children within foster care is to take effect this fall.

House Bill (HB) 2651 sponsored by State Representative Barbara Parker (R-Mesa) received bipartisan support in both the State House and Senate when it passed the legislature. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed the bill into law on June 19th, 2023.

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Virginia U.S. Rep. Bob Good Among Conservative Representatives Who May Push for Government Shutdown

As the federal government’s funding deadline of September 30th approaches, several conservative members of Congress have advocated for another government shutdown, calling it a positive thing.

As reported by Politico, some of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives have floated the idea in recent weeks. Congressman Bob Good (R-Va.) said last week that if the federal government were to shut down, “most Americans won’t even miss” it.

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Pro-Life Father Targeted by Biden DOJ Announces Pennsylvania Congressional Run

Mark Houck, the father of seven arrested and charged by President Joe Biden’s administration for his pro-life advocacy, is now running for Congress.

“I am running for Congress to further protect my family, those in the 1st district & the Republic,” Houck says on his campaign website. “I will focus on restoring traditional values & principles that are central to the American identity, such as faith, family, & freedom of speech, religion, & the right to bear arms.”

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Former Walbridge Mayor Wilczynski Drops His Bid to Challenge Congresswoman Kaptur for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District

A political candidate looking to secure Ohio’s 9th Congressional District from U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09) has ended his 2024 run.

Ohio Republican and former mayor of Walbridge, Dan Wilczynski, has officially dropped out of the race to unseat Congresswoman Kaptur in 2024 who is currently serving her 21st term in Congress.

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U.S. Congressman Juan Ciscomani Secures Pinal County Safety Provision in Bipartisan Aviation Package

U.S. Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06) successfully secured a provision in Congress’ aviation re-authorization package to provide the Pinal County Airpark with an air traffic control tower to improve growth and safety in the state.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) re-authorization package refers to a periodic process through which Congress develops legislation to renew authorizing statutes as well as revise and update relevant laws governing civil aviation programs and functions primarily carried out by the FAA. In addition to funding and operations of the FAA, the context of FAA re-authorization also considers some aviation programs administered by other components of the Department of Transportation (DOT). The package is reconsidered every five years.

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Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Resolution to Preserve the U.S. Armed Forces Dominance and Increase Enlistment

Two Republican Ohio lawmakers introduced a resolution to the Ohio House of Representatives to urge the United States Congress to preserve the United States Armed Forces’ dominance and increase military enlistment.

The Restoration of America’s Readiness (ROAR) Resolution, sponsored by State Representatives Jennifer Gross (pictured above, right) (R-West Chester) and Bernie Willis (R-Springfield) (pictured above, left), looks to express Ohio’s desire to Congress to preserve the United States Armed Forces’ authority globally and to encourage Ohioans to enlist in military service.

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Ohio Congressional Candidate Craig Riedel Receives Endorsements from Republican House Leadership

On Monday, former State Representative from Defiance and current candidate for Ohio’s 9th Congressional district in 2024 Craig Riedel received endorsements from four Republican members of the U.S. House leadership.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA-01), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN-06), and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) all vocalized their support for Riedel’s run for the House to unseat U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09) who is currently serving her 21st term in Congress.

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Former State Representative Outraises Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in Second Quarter Fundraising for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District

Former State Representative from Defiance and current candidate for Ohio’s 9th Congressional district in 2024 Craig Riedel has outraised U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), who is currently in that seat, in the second quarter fundraising by roughly $177,000.

According to Riedel, he has raised $537,951 in the second quarter of fundraising compared to Kaptur’s $360,540 a difference of $177,411.

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Two Prominent GOP Congressmen Say That Move to Impeach Biden Is Gaining Momentum

Representatives Greg Steube (R-Fl.) and Ralph Norman (R-Sc.) say the idea of potentially impeaching President Biden is gaining momentum with some of their colleagues in Congress.

“We’re actually working on our own impeachment resolution for President Biden on all this corruption, and all the laws and crimes that he violated,” Steube said on the Wednesday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. 

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State Lawmaker: State Unlikely to Take Up Atlanta’s Grade Crossing Request

Atlanta officials want state lawmakers to punish railroads for blocking grade crossings, but a leading state lawmaker says there is nothing the state can do.

The Atlanta City Council’s Transportation Committee passed a measure to advocate for punishing railroads that block grade crossings for prolonged periods. The measure, which the city council will consider the measure during its Aug. 7 meeting, calls on the Georgia General Assembly and Congress to pass legislation limiting how long freight trains can block a grade crossing.

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Commentary: The Way AI Fits into Broadly Rising Anti-Humanism

The future of humanity is becoming ever less human. The astounding capabilities of ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence have triggered fears about the coming age of machines leaving little place for human creativity or employment. Even the architects of this brave new world are sounding the alarm. Sam Altman, chairman and CEO of OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, recently warned that artificial intelligence poses an “existential risk” to humanity and warned Congress that artificial intelligence “can go quite wrong.”  

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Investigator to Subpoena Biden Business Partner’s Documents, Securing Fresh Evidence for Congress

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer has secured the cooperation of one of Hunter Biden’s closest business partners, setting an interview for next week with Devon Archer. Now Congress’ chief investigator is readying a subpoena to compel a New York firm to turn over a tranche of Archer’s documents that have been in storage since the FBI took them years ago.

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GOP Businessman Prepping for Another GOP NH-01 Run

GOP businessman Russell Prescott is preparing to make another run for Congress in the First Congressional District, multiple sources tell NHJournal. He would be the first Republican to take concrete steps toward entering the race.

Prescott, 62, previously served as a state senator and executive councilor. His political claim to fame is that he defeated U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan in head-to-head state Senate races — twice — most recently in 2010. However, he finished in fourth place with 10 percent of the vote in the 2022 NH-01 primary.

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Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher to Run For House Again, Ending Speculation About a Senate Campaign

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) will seek re-election to his House seat in 2024, ending speculation that he would make a Senate run against two-term Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin. 

The four-term congressman is a rising star in Republican politics, playing a high profile role as chairman of the new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

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Comer Wins: FBI Relents, Agrees to Deliver Subpoenaed Memo Alleging Biden Bribery to Capitol

Facing a potential contempt of Congress vote, FBI Director Christopher Wray relented and has agreed to bring a subpoenaed document from the Biden family investigation to Capitol Hill for lawmakers to inspect on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Friday. The document in question, an FD-1023, contains uncorroborated allegations that an informant provided the FBI in June 2020 alleging that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, was engaged in a bribery scheme to change US policy in return for $5 million to his family’s businesses, lawmakers have said.

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FBI Chief Wray Rolls Dice with Congress over Contempt, then Jets to Las Vegas

Just hours after informing Congress he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena and turn over an informant document on the Biden family investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray hopped on the bureau’s Gulfstream jet and ferried off to the more friendly confines of Las Vegas.

The flight manifest for the FBI’s official jet shows Wray left the Washington suburb of Manassas, Va., at about 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday and landed about four hours later in Nevada’s most famous tourist city.

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Haley Hits Trump and DeSantis over Their Support of ‘Reckless’ Debt Ceiling Deal in 2018

As congress weighs another “deal” to raise the national debt limit, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is blasting the two leading contestants for the GOP nomination for their support of a “reckless” debt ceiling agreement in 2018. 

The former South Carolina governor points out that Governor Ron DeSantis was a member of congress who voted for a 2018 bill to increase the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion.

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Commentary: Congress and President Must Oversee the FISA Court and All FISA Warrants After Durham Report Revelations

Special Counsel John Durham has finished his voluminous report outlining the Justice Department, State Department, intelligence agencies and FBI’s “confirmation bias” that led to a years-long investigation of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, transition and then administration falsely alleging that Trump and his campaign were Russian agents who had helped Moscow hack the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and put their emails onto Wikileaks despite the fact that the FBI could not “corroborate a single substantive allegation in the [Christopher] Steele dossier reporting,” which was sourced to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.

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Commentary: Congress Must End the Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children

One of the Left’s emotional weapons it uses to continue its open border agenda is unaccompanied alien children. A historic number of these children have crossed the southern border during the Biden administration—their parents were enticed by promises of entry into the U.S. and other immigration benefits for their children.

But they are often brutally mistreated on the journey, and many do not face happy endings once here. Sadly, unknown numbers are sex-trafficked, subjected to child labor, and face other abuses. But Congress has an opportunity to end this inhumanity beginning this week when it considers the Secure the Border Act in the House.

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