Tag: DHS

Inspector General: Vetting of Asylum Seekers Is Inadequate

The Center Square
DHS employee

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security must improve the screening and vetting process of noncitizens claiming asylum who are being released into the country, the department’s inspector general says in a new report.

The Office of the Inspector General evaluated the screening process being implemented by two DHS agencies: U.S. Customs and Border Protection screening foreign nationals arriving at land ports of entry and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) screening asylum seekers. The OIG audited the effectiveness of the technology, procedures, and other processes used to screen and vet asylum seekers. It concluded they “were not fully effective to screen and vet noncitizens applying for admission into the United States or asylum seekers whose asylum applications were pending for an extended period.”

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Border Experts: Biden Plan will Bring Another 2 Million into Country a Year

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

Former Border security leaders serving under multiple presidents and whose careers span decades in law enforcement say President Joe Biden’s “border security” announcement Tuesday won’t secure the border but instead will facilitate more illegal immigration, bringing in another two million people into the country illegally a year.

“The border will never be ‘shut down’ under this executive action but rather serve to legalize an unjustified level of open borders that will further perpetuate the chaos and lawlessness we’ve experienced during the entirety of the Biden Administration,” former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square. “The proposed action will, at a minimum, allow more than one million illegal aliens to be released into the county annually, along with another one million inadmissible aliens being allowed to fly into interior airports within the U.S.,” referring to the CBP One app that allows migrants to apply for entry remotely.

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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Leads Tennessee Colleagues in Demanding Answers from DHS After Illegal Alien Assaults Woman at the Nashville Sundae Club

Kaitlin Housler
DHS Sec Alejandro Mayorkas, Senator Marsha Blackburn

Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a letter signed by eight other members of the Tennessee Congressional delegation to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers regarding the immigration status of a 23-year old illegal alien who allegedly followed a woman into a bathroom at the Nashville Sundae Club and groped her

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Arizona Local Governments, Charities Receive over $54 Million from Biden Administration to Care for Illegal Immigrants

Tom Pappert
Illegal Immigrants

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced over $54 million in awards last month for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Shelter and Services program to Arizona entities to offset “costs incurred” due to the influx of illegal immigrants into the country.

According to funding awards posted publicly by FEMA last month, two Arizona-based charitable entities, Pima County and Maricopa County will collectively receive $54,573,093 to support illegal immigrants in the 2024 fiscal year.

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Laken Riley’s Illegal Alien Killer Was Released into U.S. Under Mayorkas’ Power of Parole, According to DHS File

Admin

The criminal illegal alien accused of killing Laken Riley was released into the U.S. in September of 2022 because the Department of Homeland Security lacked detention space, according to his immigration file.

Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan national charged with murdering Riley in February, was released under DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ power of parole, which is only supposed to be used “when there is an urgent humanitarian need or a significant benefit to the public,” the Washington Times reported.

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NO TRIAL: Senate Democrats Quickly Dismiss Impeachment Articles Against Mayorkas

The Center Square

Within 20 minutes of convening to hold an impeachment trial of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Democrats in the Senate steamrolled through motions and voted to dismiss the first article of impeachment brought against him.

Shortly thereafter, they dismissed the second article as well, without ever hearing evidence or conducting a trial.

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Mayorkas to Testify at House Committee Hearing on Homeland Security Budget

The Center Square
Alejandro Mayorkas

The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security will be holding a hearing next Tuesday to examine the Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal 2025 budget request.

It will hear testimony from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is scheduled to testify for the first time since he was impeached in February. The committee’s chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., led the charge to impeach Mayorkas on two counts, making him the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history.

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Taxpayers to Pay $3 Million for Mayorkas Impeachment Defense

Admin
Alejandro Mayorkas

The Department of Homeland Security so far has spent $3 million of taxpayer money to defend embattled Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas against impeachment by the House of Representatives, according to documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.

The DHS contract with a law firm was to cover the cost of a failed attempt to stave off a House impeachment, as well as to defend President Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary in a possible Senate trial.

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Tennessee Bill Would Require Enforcement of Immigration Law

Peter D'Abrosca
ICE Arrest

A bill being debated in the Tennessee General Assembly would require law enforcement agencies to follow the proper protocol of reporting illegal alien arrestees to federal authorities. 

HB 2124 “requires, rather than authorizes, law enforcement agencies to communicate with the appropriate federal official regarding the immigration status of any individual, including reporting knowledge that a particular alien is not lawfully present in the United States or otherwise cooperate with the appropriate federal official in the identification, apprehension, detention, or removal of aliens not lawfully present in the United States.”

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Biden Administration Using ‘Secretive Flights’ to Import 320,000 Illegal Aliens into U.S.

Admin

A new report suggests that the Biden Administration has not only been letting illegal aliens into the country through a porous southern border, but that the administration has even been actively importing illegals with “secretive flights.”

As Breitbart reports, the claims were made by Todd Bensman, Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who obtained internal records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green Sends Letter to DHS Demanding Information Related to Murder of Georgia Medical Student

Kaitlin Housler
Mark Green DHS

Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding information to assist the committee in its investigation into the murder of 22-year old nursing student Laken Riley.

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Michael Patrick Leahy and Crom Carmichael Debate Bill That Would Allow State Attorneys General to Sue DHS

Kaitlin Housler

Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star Michael Patrick Leahy and Crom Carmichael, original all-star panelist of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, discussed on Monday a bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would give state attorneys general a greater standing to sue the Department of Homeland Security when it fails to enforce existing immigration laws passed by Congress.

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Rep. Ogles Blasts Biden Administration About Illegal Aliens Coming to Tennessee

Peter D'Abrosca
Andy Ogles

A Tennessee congressman blasted the Biden administration after it was revealed last week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) knew that nearly 600 illegal aliens planned to travel to Middle Tennessee after they were released from detainment.

“Joe Biden’s efforts to transport illegal aliens into Franklin, Davidson County, and Mt. Juliet are reprehensible,” said Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) on X. “Middle Tennessee deserves answers. That’s why I’ve sent a letter to [DHS Secretary] Mayorkas demanding responses to all my questions regarding this troubling incursion into our community.”

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Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles Previews Upcoming Vote on Mayorkas Impeachment, Senate Border Deal Discussions

Kaitlin Housler
Rep. Andy Ogles

U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) joined Monday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the Senate’s so-called “border deal” and the House of Representatives’ upcoming vote on two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

On the upcoming impeachment vote against Mayorkas, Ogles said the votes in the House “should be there” to impeach the secretary, adding, “We have an obligation to move forward and hold him accountable and put on the record that you can’t just ignore our laws in this country.”

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Nearly 600 Illegal Aliens May Be Transported to Middle Tennessee, DHS Notice Says

Kaitlin Housler

A notice from last September by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that a total of 573 “noncitizens” from Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras, and Mexico intended on traveling to Franklin, Nashville, Davidson County, and Murfreesboro following their release from DHS custody.

The notice, dated as the week ending September 16, 2023, is titled “Intended Destination of Noncitizens Processed at the Southwest Border.”

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Border Patrol Facing Loss of Agents from Retirement, Flat Recruitment as Border Crisis Intensifies

Just the News
CBP Agent

The nearly 10,000 border patrol agents eligible for retirement by 2028 and static recruitment numbers threaten to undermine future efforts to secure the Southern border, even as the current immigration crisis escalates.

By 2028, a total of 9,828 current border patrol agents will be eligible for retirement, according to numbers provided to Transport Dive by a Customs and Border Protection official. The agency, which has been plagued by a recruitment shortfalls for years, says it is preparing to deal with the fallout if even a fraction of the eligible agents retire on schedule.

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House January 6 Investigator Says White House Foot-Dragging ‘Unacceptable,’ Warns of Subpoenas Ahead

Just the News
Barry Loudermilk

The House subcommittee chairman leading the Jan. 6 investigation is declaring that the Biden White House’s foot-dragging has been “unacceptable” and he is putting both presidential aides and the Georgia county prosecutor pursuing Donald Trump on notice that Congress is prepared to pursue evidence, up to and including subpoenas and contempt.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., on Thursday evening gave a sweeping update on his House Administration oversight subcommittee’s efforts to obtain evidence, saying Democrats from the White House and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., were not providing the cooperation needed to give Americans the facts and answers they are missing from the tragedy three years ago in the U.S. Capitol.

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DHS Warned of Integrity of Mail-In Voting in 2020 Election but at the Same Time Censored Questions

Just the News
Mail In Ballot

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was aware of the issues with mail-in voting during the 2020 election cycle but censored social media narratives about the risks as alleged disinformation, according to agency documents.

CISA documents were released on Monday by America First Legal, showing the agency’s concerns about mail-in voting while it was also monitoring online opinions about such concerns.

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Border Residents to Congress: ‘Stop Holding Press Conferences, Shut Down the Border’

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

As another Republican congressional delegation arrived in Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday to hold another news conference and meet local residents, many Texans living at the border say they are fed up and want Congress to shut down the border.

If Congress continues to use taxpayer dollars to fund policies that facilitate the border crisis, they argue, Congress is complicit in creating it and a national security threat.

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Commentary: Government Cannot Become Big Brother

RealClearWire

Anyone who lived through 2020 observed that some messages received treatment online that stood in stark contrast to other messages. Conservative voices and messages were censored and banned, while progressive voices and messages flowed freely. If a person spoke against COVID-19 lockdowns—and later vaccines—there was a good chance that a social media platform would take down the post. If one were to suggest that suspicious activities occurred surrounding the 2020 election, the label “misinformation” might appear.

The primary vehicle to censor internet speech is to label disfavored messages as dis-, mis-, or mal-information. While the category of malinformation is seemingly the most offensive – true information that government censors believe lacks sufficient “context” – the other categories can be just as malignant. Mis- and disinformation require someone to determine what is true and what is not.

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Arizona Gov. Hobbs in Touch with DHS but Hasn’t Talked with Mayorkas in Months

The Center Square

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs recently communicated with leadership at the United States Department of Homeland Security, but conversations with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have been more scant.

The federal government, as well as Arizona officials, have been under scrutiny after U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the closure of the Lukeville, Arizona, port of entry, which is making access to and from Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, extremely difficult. 

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Federal Censorship Machine Started Years Before COVID, Involved Military Contractors: Whistleblower

Just the News
Military Person on Computer

The public-private efforts to restrict and suppress purported “mis-, dis- and malinformation” across tech platforms started almost immediately after the surprise election of Donald Trump in 2016, ramped up a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, and included U.S. and U.K. military contractors and plans to cut off financial services to dissenters and sue them.

That’s according to a “highly credible whistleblower” who says they were recruited to participate in the Cyber Threat Intelligence League (CTIL) “through monthly cybersecurity meetings hosted by” the Department of Homeland Security, independent journalists who reviewed the Twitter Files at new owner Elon Musk’s invitation said Tuesday.

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Illegal Chinese Pot Grows Are Taking over Maine and Law Enforcement Isn’t Stopping Them

Admin

Illegal marijuana grows run by Chinese nationals have sprung up all across the state of Maine, and residents say law enforcement isn’t doing enough to stop their spread.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified 270 suspected Chinese illegal marijuana grow operations in the state that could be making an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue, which are often used for more criminal activities or are sent back to China, the DCNF exclusively reported in August. The DCNF visited dozens of properties identified as suspected Chinese marijuana grows by the DHS memo, as well as other locations reported to be possible Chinese marijuana grows by The Maine Wire.

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U.S. Rep. Mark Green Subpoenas Alejandro Mayorkas in Investigation into Afghan Evacuee Screening, Vetting

Kaitlin Housler

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN-07) issued a subpoena on Tuesday to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for its failure to provide “satisfactory documents and other materials relevant to the Committee’s May 2023 request for more information on the vetting and screening of Afghan evacuees entering the United States since 2021.”

Following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the committee sent two letters to the DHS requesting information on the event; however, both letters were met with “insufficient responses” from the Biden administration, according to the committee.

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Heritage Foundation Sues DHS over College Program Tying Conservative Groups to Neo-Nazis

Admin

The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over a controversial college program which directly connected mainstream conservative groups and publications to neo-Nazi elements.

As reported by the New York Post, the lawsuit was filed in a Washington, D.C. federal court on Tuesday by Heritage’s Oversight Project. The suit accuses DHS of withholding information by refusing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding a grant of $352,109 that the University of Dayton received for its studies on “domestic violence extremism and hate movements.”

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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

Kaitlin Housler

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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DHS Stonewalls on Legal Basis for Policing ‘Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation’

Just the News

The Department of Homeland Security is not only hiding the purported legal basis for its authority to police misinformation, disinformation and malinformation – the latter sometimes jeered as “true but inconvenient” – but also any explanation for invoking an unexpected Freedom of Information Act exemption to hide them.

Hastily stitched together 22 years ago to prevent another Islamic terrorist attack but since turning its sights on domestic political disputes, the agency gave Just the News a lengthy defense of its work against disinformation but not an answer to how disclosure of its “MDM Space” legal authorities would imperil law enforcement work.

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Rep. Mark Green Reveals ‘Shocking’ Economic Impacts Border Crisis Is Having on America During House Hearing

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, delivered opening remarks Wednesday during the committee’s hearing to “examine the financial cost of the historic national security and humanitarian crisis at the Southwest border for communities across the country.”

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Rep. Mark Green Details Devastating Impacts Border Crisis Is Having on America During House Hearing

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who is Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, delivered opening remarks Wednesday during the Committee’s full hearing to examine the current crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and how it has “devastated the lives and livelihoods of Americans and migrants alike.”

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Senators Kelly, Sinema Want Answers After Arizona Gets Three Percent of Federal Migrant Funding They Helped Pass

Tom Pappert

Arizona Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Kristen Sinema (I-AZ) have asked for answers from three federal agencies after the state received just $23.9 million of more than $800 million in funding they helped secure to fund private organizations that house illegal immigrants released into the United States after being encountered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during their transit across the border.

In a letter addressed to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the heads of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the senators warned that Pima County may be unable to support the influx of migrants in April 2024. They noted that New York City received over four times more funding than Arizona.

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Commentary: Human Trafficking is Modern Day Slavery

Admin

Human trafficking received increased national attention this month as millions of Americans watched in horror as the abuse that victims face played out on the big screen. Current estimates place the number of human trafficking victims at 28 million, far beyond what most Americans considered possible. While many of our friends and neighbors may perceive human trafficking to be an overblown third-world phenomenon, in reality the modern day slave trade is very real — and very pervasive — right here at home.

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Missouri U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt Calls on Biden’s Cybersecurity Chief to Resign over Censorship Campaign

Admin

Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt called on a top cybersecurity official to resign Wednesday following a preliminary injunction preventing government coordination with social media platforms to censor protected speech.

Schmitt urged the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Jennifer Easterly to step down in an interview with journalist Michael Shellenberger on Wednesday. A federal judge had issued an injunction Tuesday preventing the Biden administration from coordinating with social media companies to censor content after finding that officials likely violated the First Amendment.

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Biden DHS Rewards Sanctuary Cities, NGOs with $290 Million

Admin

The Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded over $290 million in taxpayer money to various “sanctuary cities,” as well as pro-illegal alien non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

As reported by Breitbart, the nearly $300 million was taken from the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), a federal initiative that is funded by the U.S. Congress. The money was divided among 34 different cities, NGOs, and other entities.

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Commentary: Breaking Down the Biden Administration’s Political Weaponization Higher Education

Admin

The Media Research Center (MRC) has revealed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using the “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program” to single out and vilify political opposition- effectively criminalizing freedom of thought and free association. This is the same DHS that has classified the American people’s personal “thoughts, ideas, and beliefs” as “critical infrastructure” and “cognitive assets.”

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Florida AG Moody Defeats Biden Administration in Court, Again

The Center Square

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody won another round against the Biden administration in federal court, this time in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Monday, the court ruled to keep in place an injunction against the Department of Homeland Security’s parole program. The injunction was issued by a federal district judge in Florida last month. DHS appealed the judge’s ruling and lost.

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