Tag: southern border

Defense Secretary Says 256 Miles of New Border Wall Coming Soon

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by Jason Hopkins   The Pentagon announced that well over 200 miles of physical barrier is slated to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border in the coming months. “We now have on contract sufficient funds to build about 256 miles of barrier,” acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said Wednesday while testing before the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. Shanahan noted that current funding is sourced from Treasury forfeiture funds, diverted money from the Pentagon, and other border funds secured by the Department of Homeland Security. “How you will see this materialize in the next six months is that about 63 additional new miles of wall will come online,” the acting defense secretary added. The rate will equate to roughly half a mile of border wall a day. President Donald Trump enraged Democrats after declaring a national emergency on the southern border in February, a move that allowed him to allocate billions more for wall construction. After the Pentagon diverted $1 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers in March to build new physical barriers, without first seeking congressional approval, Democratic lawmakers threatened to strip the Defense Department of its budget authority. The Trump administration argues that the funds are not enough…

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Official: US Risks Losing Control of Southern Border

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  A U.S. official on Wednesday said the nation would “lose control” of its border with Mexico unless a massive and protracted surge of undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers, primarily from Central America, is contained and reversed. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost issued the warning to a Senate panel while announcing an eye-popping number of migrant apprehensions: 460,294 so far in the current fiscal year, which began in October. That figure exceeds the yearly total recorded by Border Patrol in more than a decade. Provost noted that, unlike in previous major migration periods, children, unaccompanied minors and family units constitute a substantial proportion of those reaching the U.S.-Mexico border, placing huge and unprecedented burdens on federal agencies. “I could never have envisioned that, today, agents would spend at least 40% of their time as child care providers, medical caregivers, bus drivers and food service workers,” Provost told the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on border security and immigration. “Every agent that I pull off the line to process and care for families and children increases the risk that illegal border crossers will get past us, including those smuggling drugs and other contraband.” Border security ‘at risk’ She added, “Simply put, we have…

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Border Patrol Chief Says Agency Has Made Over 30,000 Arrests in the Past 10 Days

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by Nick Givas   A U.S. Border Patrol official said his agency has apprehended more than 30,000 illegal immigrants on the southern border in the past 10 days. “This is a challenge unlike any we’ve ever faced before,” Chief of Law Enforcement Operations Brian Hastings said Monday on “Fox & Friends.” “We’re up to 474,000 arrests so far this fiscal year, and just the last 10 days alone, 33,000 arrests for us,” he added. “So, our facilities were not designed to handle this type of flow or more importantly, this demographic — about 63 percent being family units and UACs, or unaccompanied alien children.” Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost called the number of arrests “unsustainable” and “beyond capacity,” in a tweet Saturday. #BorderPatrol agents are arresting more & more family units every day. These numbers are unsustainable & the system is beyond capacity. Despite measures to increase capacity with additional temp facilities, #USBP has had to release overflow into the communities as a last resort. pic.twitter.com/vnUY21pw2M — Chief Jason Owens (@USBPChief) May 4, 2019 U.S. officials announced in March they had released 84,500 migrant family members since Dec. 21, The Arizona Republic reported. The government released 14,500 migrants into the…

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10-Month-Old Baby Dies After Migrant Raft Capsized in Rio Grande

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by Jason Hopkins   Authorities found the body of a 10-month-old baby after a raft he was on capsized, spilling him and eight other migrants into the cold, dangerous waters of the Rio Grande river. At around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday night, Border Patrol agents working in the Eagle Pass Station encountered a man who unlawfully entered the United States, according to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release. Upon apprehension, the man informed agents he had been traveling on a rubber raft carrying nine migrants that tipped over in the Rio Grande. The man’s wife, 10-month-old and 6-year-old sons, and 7-year-old nephew were among those on the raft. Border Patrol immediately began a search operation for the missing migrants. Cries from afar brought agents to the riverbank, where a woman and a child were seen struggling to float in the water. “Disregarding his own personal safety, an agent jumped into the river and successfully rescued both individuals later identified as the wife and child of the man who made the initial report,” the CBP statement read. Border Patrol Emergency Medical Personnel treated the 6-year-old boy on site and later rushed him to a hospital for more treatment. Shortly afterward,…

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Nearly 40 Percent of Guatemalans Want to Leave the Country, Poll Finds

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by Jason Hopkins   A poll by one of Guatemala’s largest newspapers found a startling number of its citizens expressed a desire to leave the country, with the U.S. being the destination of choice for most of them. A survey by Prensa Libre published on Thursday found that 39 percent of Guatemalans intend to leave the country. Of those who said they wanted to leave, 85 percent picked the U.S. as the country they hoped to land in. Results also showed how emigration to the U.S. has become such an integral part of their lives, with 57 percent of respondents saying they have friends or relatives already living in America. Prensa Libre, which is one of the most circulated newspapers in the country, polled 1,596 people between Jan. 22 and March 20 using electronic devices. The survey was done in conjunction with the Association for Research and Social Studies and Barometro de las Americas. Poll results found other eyebrow-raising answers from everyday Guatemalans. Despite the dire situation in the country, 75 percent of respondents expressed “little interest” in politics. Nearly 90 percent did not align themselves with any political party, and one-in-five Guatemalans said they would not be participating in…

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Would-Be Builder of Border Wall Ready to Do ‘Impossible’

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by Rachel del Guidice   COOLIDGE, Arizona—The vice president of a family-owned construction company says his firm is competing for one of the nation’s most talked-about contracts because its leaders believe they can do what many say can’t be done. “Two years ago, when the president said he wanted to build a wall [from] sea to sea … many people said, ‘It cannot be built, it won’t be built,’” Grant Fisher, vice president of Fisher Industries, told The Daily Signal in an interview. But “build the impossible,” Fisher said, is “what we do.” Fisher said his company’s $3.3 billion proposal to the Department of Homeland Security is to construct 218 miles of border fence, plus roads and related technology, by June 2020. The work would be in 11 sectors, ranging from 2 miles near Tucson, Arizona, to 46 miles near El Paso, Texas, according to the proposal. The fence would use bollards, which are upright steel posts usually placed along roads and parking lots to block or control traffic. Fisher said his family’s company, established in the ’60s, found a solution allowing construction of a mile of steel fence per day along the southern border. “This system includes the physical…

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After More Than a Thousand Fake Families Found, Trump Administration to Begin DNA Testing Illegal Border-Crossers

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by Jason Hopkins   The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon begin on-the-spot DNA testing of migrants apprehended at the southern border, officials said Wednesday. The pilot program, which is expected to start as soon as the coming week, will take place at two different locations on the U.S.-Mexico border and last for several days. The so-called Rapid DNA test consists of a cheek swab that can yield results within 90 minutes. The DNA results will be used to verify whether apprehended migrants are telling the truth when they claim to be part of a family unit. The program, officials noted, will be voluntary and the results are only used to verify familial relationships — not to prosecute immigrants who aren’t involved in smuggling. “This is an unprecedented step forward in our investigative process and techniques,” a DHS officials said to reporters during a Wednesday conference call. The upcoming pilot project comes as a surging number of “fraudulent families” are arriving at the U.S. southern border. Border Patrol identified more than 3,000 fake family cases in the past six months. DHS officials noted a 315 percent increase in the number of adults and children fraudulently posing as “family units”…

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Border Patrol Arrests 424 Illegal Immigrants at Once in the ‘Largest’ Arrest It’s Ever Made

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by Jason Hopkins   Border Patrol agents nabbed 424 illegal aliens attempting to cross the border in a single group, marking the largest apprehension in the agency’s history. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, agents encountered a large group of “what seemed to be over 400 illegal aliens” near the border town of Sunland Park, New Mexico, according to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release. The group of mostly Central American families and unaccompanied minors reached the border shortly after midnight. Hours after their apprehension, Border Patrol was able to count every individual and determine the group was a record-setting size. “This is an ongoing situation that U.S Border Patrol agents are facing in southern New Mexico: hundreds of parents and children being encountered by agents after having faced a dangerous journey in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers,” CBP wrote in its press release, revealing the massive group traveled with the help of human smugglers. https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1123361746566176769 Border Patrol agents in New Mexico apprehended another large group of illegal migrants shortly afterward. Officials working in the Antelope Wells Port of Entry, about 160 miles west of Sunland Park, encountered 230 illegal aliens around 2 a.m., bringing New Mexico’s…

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Trump Asking Congress for Billions More in Emergency Border Funding

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by Jason Hopkins   The Trump administration Wednesday requested an additional $4.5 billion in emergency border spending from Congress, a request that will likely face pushback from Democratic lawmakers. “The situation becomes more dire each day. The migration flow and the resulting humanitarian crisis is rapidly overwhelming the ability of the Federal Government to respond,” Russ Vought, the acting White House budget director, said in the request, according to The Washington Post. The White House request includes $3.3 billion for humanitarian assistance, $1.1 billion for border operations, and another $377 million for the National Guard and Pentagon to operate on the border. The appeal comes after acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan told Congress on Tuesday his department needed more money to deal with the influx of illegal migrants pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border. “Given the scale of what we are facing, we will exhaust our resources before the end of this fiscal year,” McAleenan said Tuesday before a congressional committee. An unprecedented number of Central American families and unaccompanied minors have been reaching the U.S.-Mexico border, stretching law enforcement’s resources past the breaking point. Many of the rules and regulations, DHS has argued, are geared for single males from…

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There’s Been a Three-Fold Jump in Democrats Who Believe There’s a Border Crisis

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by Jason Hopkins   A newly-released survey shows a dramatic increase in the percentage of Democrats who believe the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes a “crisis.” Thirty-five percent of self-identified Democrats said that they believed the situation to be a crisis, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted between April 22 and 25. The number is a more than three-fold rise from the last time the question was asked in January, when only seven percent of Democrats agreed that it was a crisis. Concern for the border increased across all partisan demographics in the past three months. Forty-nine percent of Republicans polled in January believed there was a border crisis. That number jumped to 56 percent in April. Independents also rose from 21 to 30 percent, and more adults overall agreed that there was a crisis at the U.S. southern border. The survey also asked who was to blame for the immigration situation: President Donald Trump or Congressional Democrats? A slightly higher number of respondents chose Democrats, with a breakdown of 35 percent to 32 percent, but the result was largely split along partisan lines. The Washington Post-ABC News survey contacted 1,001 adults via cellphone and landline telephones,…

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Reports: Mexican Gov. Official Says MS-13 Infiltrated Caravans Headed for US

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by Peter Hasson   Mexican authorities have found members of the violent gang MS-13 among migrant caravans headed towards the United States, multiple Mexican media outlets quoted a high-ranking government official as saying. Enrique Cárdenas del Avellano, the Ministry of Interior’s northeastern regional delegate, said that authorities have deported some MS-13 gang members they detected in migrant caravans, Mexican media outlets La Prensa, El Mañana and La Verdad de Tamaulipas reported over the weekend. Cárdenas del Avellano told the Spanish-language outlets that he doesn’t know how many MS-13 members are in the region. MS-13 members are in “the minority” among caravan members but “do exist” and “seek to extend their networks, especially to the United States,” Cárdenas del Avellano told the outlets. The transnational gang was launched in California by Salvadoran immigrants but has a formidable presence in other parts of the U.S. as well, particularly Long Island, New York. The gang’s informal motto is “Mata, roba, viola, controla,” which translates to “kill, steal, rape, control.” – – – Peter Hasson is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Peter on Twitter.               Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is…

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Pentagon Set to Send Hundreds of Troops to the Southern Border

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by Jason Hopkins   The Pentagon announced that it expects to send around 300 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, breaking with the longstanding policy of avoiding troop-migrant contact. A spokesperson for Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Charles Summers, said Friday that his boss is expected to green light the proposal shortly. However, the troops will not be allowed to perform any law enforcement role at the border. Instead, around 100 military cooks, 160 drivers and 20 lawyers will be deployed to assist immigration agencies as they deal with the ballooning migrant crisis. “We will have some of our troops handing out meals, therefore would come in contact with migrants,” Summers stated Friday. The spokesman added that it was an “amendment to the current policy.” The soon-to-be-deployed troops will help provide meals to detained migrants, drive them in buses, and attorneys with the Department of Defense will help process them. The moves will allow more Department of Homeland Security officials to focus on enforcing the rule of law, rather than processing the huge numbers of illegal migrants reaching the border. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids members of the military from performing civilian law enforcement duties on U.S. soil unless Congress gives…

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US Border Patrol to Fingerprint More Migrant Children

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  U.S. border authorities say they’ve started to increase the biometric data they take from children 13 years old and younger, including fingerprints, despite privacy concerns and government policy intended to restrict what can be collected from migrant youths. A Border Patrol official said this week that the agency had begun a pilot program to collect the biometrics of children with the permission of the adults accompanying them, though he did not specify where along the border it has been implemented. The Border Patrol also has a “rapid DNA pilot program” in the works, said Anthony Porvaznik, the chief patrol agent in Yuma, Arizona, in a video interview published by the Epoch Times newspaper. Spokesmen for the Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security did not return several messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on both programs. ‘Kids that are being rented’ The Border Patrol says that in the last year, it’s stopped roughly 3,100 adults and children fraudulently posing as families so they can be released into the U.S. quickly rather than face detention or rapid deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has also warned of “child recycling,” cases where they say children allowed into the U.S.…

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Jared Kushner Wants a Tougher US Immigration System

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by Jason Hopkins   Jared Kushner developed a comprehensive immigration proposal that consists of fortifying border security and shifting U.S. immigration to a more merit-based system. Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, formulated a tactic to immigration reform, and he hopes to present a legislative form of the plan to Trump within the coming days. The package essentially takes a two-pronged approach to immigration reform. The first part of the plan tackles legal immigration into the U.S., with Kushner looking to limit the number of low-skilled migrants who enter the country based on family ties. In their place, high-skilled foreign nationals would be encouraged to join the U.S. workforce under an immigration program that is more similar to the merit-based systems seen in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, CNN reported. The second part of the proposal pertains to border security. Trump’s son-in-law hopes to build more barrier walls on the U.S. southern border in areas that see high levels of illegal immigration. He also wants to modernize ports of entry so everything coming into the country is scanned, preventing anything illegal from getting past immigration enforcement. Changes to asylum laws and seasonal guest worker programs are also included…

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Mexican Military Now Patrolling North of the Border, US Sovereignty Violated Repeatedly

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by CHQ Staff   Our friend Daniel Horowitz of Conservative Review alerted us to this astonishing incident and prompted our further investigation. On April 13, at around 2 p.m. Central Time, a group of five or six suspected Mexican soldiers approached an unmarked vehicle of two U.S. soldiers stationed at the border in El Paso County, Texas, and ordered them out of the vehicle. According to Newsweek, which obtained the “serious incident report,” the soldiers were in fact active duty members of B Battery, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, not from a National Guard unit. The Mexican soldiers disarmed one of the U.S. soldiers and placed his sidearm in the U.S. vehicle. While the soldiers were parked south of the border fence near Clint, Texas, they were north of the Rio Grande riverbed, which placed them “appropriately in U.S. territory,” according to Maj. Mark Lazane, a spokesman for NORTHCOM. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Defense (DOD), after inquiring of the Mexican government, were informed that the Mexican soldiers thought that the Americans were south of the border. “Throughout the incident, the U.S. soldiers followed all established procedures and protocols,” according to NORTHCOM. Horowitz says NORTHCOM…

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US ‘Aggressively’ Building Trump’s Border Wall, DHS Chief Says

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by Jason Hopkins   The acting secretary of Homeland Security pushed back on the narrative that President Donald Trump’s border wall is not being built, pointing out that construction has actually been going at an aggressive pace. “So normally for a federal project of this scope, from the time you get funded to starting, it’s over two years,” Kevin McAleenan said Tuesday on Fox News. “We’ve already built the [fiscal year] 2017 funding in less than two years. That shows how aggressively we’re moving out on this.” McAleenan — who became acting DHS secretary earlier in April after Kirstjen Nielsen resigned — has been tapped by the Trump administration to lead the agency at a time when the U.S. southern border is experiencing record numbers of illegal migrants, many of them Central American families. Trump has been forced to fight tooth-and-nail with congressional Democrats over border wall funding. The federal government experienced its longest shutdown in U.S. history as the two camps fought over how much money could be appropriated for wall construction. The White House is being sued after it declared a national emergency on the southern border, allowing it to allocate billions more in funding. The new DHS…

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Migrant Smugglers Used a Drone to Sneak Illegals Through the Border at Night

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by Jason Hopkins   Illegal migrants were spotted using a drone for the first known time to help them cross the U.S. southern border. U.S. Border Patrol agents near El Paso, Texas, monitoring the area with an infrared camera spotted a small airborne object traveling over the U.S.-Mexico border in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The object flew about 100 yards north, entering U.S. soil, then returned back. The object, which was determined to be a drone, repeated this pattern three different times. Ten illegal immigrants were spotted passing the border in the same vicinity the drone had monitored roughly two minutes after the drone retreated back into Mexico territory for the third time. “This is the first known time in recent history that a drone has been utilized as a ‘look-out’ in order to aid in illegal entries in the El Paso Sector,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a press release. The Border Patrol agents were able to “quickly” apprehend the migrants and take them into custody. Beyond encountering a drone, agents in the El Paso Sector dealt with an “unprecedented number” of illegal migrants at the border that same day. El Paso Sector officials made…

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Commentary: The Aiding and Abetting of Migrant Caravans

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by Hector Garza   The crisis at the southern border is no accident. It’s the intentional result of deliberate efforts by liberal activists to encourage illegal immigration on a massive scale. Right now, the “mother of all caravans” is reportedly forming in Central America, with the Mexican government predicting that more than 20,000 people will eventually join the human convoy as it traverses thousands of miles in the rising springtime temperatures of Mexico on its way to the U.S. border. The anticipated mass of illegal immigrants in that caravan will only exacerbate an already-dire situation for our Border Patrol agents, whose resources have already been stretched to the “breaking point” by a surge of border-crossers. More than 100,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended in March alone, and at the current pace, at least 1.2 million people will have crossed the border illegally by the end of 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that DHS is treating the situation as a “Cat 5 hurricane disaster.” Even Barack Obama’s right-hand man on immigration recently labeled the situation as a crisis. “By anyone’s definition, by any measure, right now we have a crisis at our southern border,” former Department of Homeland Security Secretary…

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Democrat Senator Sinema Bucks Party, Calls on Lawmakers to Better Secure the Border

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Krysten Sinema

by Jason Hopkins   Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Wednesday echoed the White House in calling for immigration enforcement to be aided with additional resources and staff. Arizonans bear the brunt of Washington’s failure to address our broken immigration system. We must secure the border with a comprehensive, smart, bipartisan approach – we’re calling on @DHSgov to send additional resources and staff to AZ ports. pic.twitter.com/qZGq3LgLmF — Kyrsten Sinema (@SenatorSinema) April 17, 2019 “Arizonans bear the brunt of Washington’s failure to address our broken immigration system. We must secure the border with a comprehensive, smart, bipartisan approach – we’re calling on [the Department of Homeland Security] to send additional resources and staff to AZ ports,” the first-term senator tweeted Wednesday. Sinema’s call for better border security was a far cry from what many of her colleagues in the Senate are demanding. Nineteen Senate Democrats, including every Democratic presidential candidate in the upper chamber of Congress, sent a letter to appropriation leaders demanding a reduction in funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. The group of Democrats made four specific requests of the appropriations committee: Less funding for beds in immigration detention centers,…

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Border Apprehensions in 2019 Have Already Surpassed Last Year’s Total

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by Jason Hopkins   Border Patrol agents, halfway through fiscal year 2019, have already apprehended more migrants nationwide than all of fiscal year 2018. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) announced that 418,000 nationwide apprehensions have occurred this fiscal year to date. A total of 404,142 nationwide apprehensions took place in the entirety of fiscal year 2018, a CBP spokeswoman told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The numbers indicate that 2019 is on pace for a stellar year in border apprehensions. The vast majority of the captures are taking place on the U.S. southwest border, where 414,000 foreign nationals were nabbed between ports of entry since October — the beginning of the 2019 fiscal year. Compared to the 2018 fiscal year, only 396,579 apprehensions were made on the southwest border. The escalating situation is prompting more calls from immigration enforcement leaders to do something. “We don’t have room to hold [detainees], we don’t have the authority to remove them, and they are not likely to be able to be allowed to remain in the country at the end of their immigration proceedings,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday during a press conference in Hidalgo, Texas. McAleenan — making his…

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Three Keys to Understanding the Attorney General’s Move to Limit ‘Catch and Release’

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by Fred Lucas   Attorney General William Barr has announced a new asylum policy to curb the government’s practice of catching illegal immigrants and then releasing them into the nation’s interior. The American Civil Liberties Union already has vowed to challenge the change in court even as President Donald Trump seeks to use all legal tools at his disposal to control the flow of illegal immigrants. BREAKING: Attorney General William Barr tonight directed immigration judges to deny bond hearings to asylum seekers. Our Constitution does not allow the government to lock up asylum seekers without basic due process. We'll see the administration in court. Again. — ACLU (@ACLU) April 17, 2019 The Justice Department contends that the attorney general is enforcing the text of the Immigration and Nationality Act, in line with a Supreme Court ruling last year. Barr is on firm legal ground, the department says, in determining that illegal immigrants who seek asylum are not eligible for release on bond until their case is adjudicated. Barr’s decision is already effective, so the Department of Homeland Security can conduct planning for additional detentions and parole decisions. Here’s three things to know about the attorney general’s decision. 1. How Barr…

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Trump: More Troops Needed at Border with Mexico

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WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump says more troops will need to be sent to the country’s southern border because too many dangerous people are illegally entering the United States. “I’m going to have to call up more military. Our military, don’t forget it, can’t act like a military would act. Because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy,” Trump, in Texas, told reporters during a meeting ranchers who complained to him about the constant threat from trespassers on their properties. Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, asked by reporters earlier in the day about a possible multiyear deployment of troops to the border, responded, saying he had been speaking at length about that with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I would expect shortly here to have another request for assistance,” Shanahan said. Trump, in San Antonio, specifically blamed the problem on the governments of four countries: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia. “Those countries are sending the tough ones, they’re sending the gang members,” he said. “They’ll kill you, take your truck, sometimes rob your house. Who the hell can live like this?” asked Trump, sitting in a room surrounded by area Republican…

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CRISIS: More Than 103,000 Migrants Reached Southern Border in March

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by Jason Hopkins   Law enforcement agents apprehended or turned back 103,492 migrants attempting to reach the U.S. southern border in March, marking the highest month in 12 years. The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 92,607 individuals between ports of entry at the southern border. Another 10,885 migrants appeared at a port of entry, but were deemed inadmissible and were turned away, according to data released by Customs and Border Protection. “The Border Patrol is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis,” Brian Hastings, Border Patrol’s chief of law enforcement operations, told reporters Tuesday. “We’ve arrived at the breaking point.” Of all the foreign nationals turned away and apprehended in March, more than 53,000 belonged to family units and nearly 9,000 were unaccompanied alien children (UAC). Only 30,555 were single adults. The demographics indicate the crisis immigration enforcement agents are facing. U.S. trafficking laws, which were designed to handle illegal migrants made up of mostly single men from Mexico, have made it difficult for law enforcement officials to process the unprecedented volume of Central American families and children breaching the U.S.-Mexico border. The situation has stretched government resources beyond the breaking point, and leaving officials with no choice but to…

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Pentagon to Seek Housing for Up to 5,000 Migrant Children

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Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has approved a request to identify places to potentially house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children, the Pentagon said Wednesday. In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requested Pentagon support to identify locations to house unaccompanied migrant children through Sept. 30. Migrant arrivals on the U.S. border with Mexico have been building steadily for months, driven by growing numbers of children and families, especially from Central America. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis told Reuters that Shanahan approved that request Tuesday. Davis said HHS had made no request to actually house the children. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was not reviving a policy of separating children from parents who had illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, one day after media reports that his administration was considering putting it back in place. In February, Trump declared a national emergency to help build a border wall, which would allow him to spend money on it that Congress had appropriated for other purposes. Congress declined to fulfill his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall this year. The Republican president’s latest pronouncements, including a threat to impose auto tariffs on Mexico,…

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Pentagon Awards Nearly $1 Billion in Border Wall Spending Contracts

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by Jason Hopkins   The Department of Defense awarded two military contracts worth almost $1 billion for wall construction on the U.S-Mexico border, the first funds granted since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency. The Pentagon announced Tuesday it awarded a $789 million contract to Texas-based company, SLSCO Ltd. for “border replacement wall construction” in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, according to a news release from the Department of Defense. Additionally, Barnard Construction Co. Inc, a company based in Montana, was given a $187 million contract for a wall replacement project in Yuma, Arizona. The New Mexico wall will be 30 feet high and include a five-foot anti-climb plate at the top, and is expected to be completed by October 2020. The Arizona project, expected to be done by September 2020, will include 18-foot bollard fencing with the same five-foot anti-climb plate. The announcement marks the first contracts doled out to construction companies after Trump declared a national emergency in February, a move that allowed him to allocate billions more in funds for border wall spending. The Pentagon informed Congress in March that it had diverted funds to the Army Corps of Engineers for new border walls, upsetting lawmakers from…

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Trump Is Preparing to Implement His Toughest Immigration Plan Yet

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by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump is preparing to roll out new executive orders to help the government better manage the record influx of illegal immigration at the southern border. The White House is looking to make it more difficult for low-skilled migrants to gain entry into the U.S. while making it easier for high-skilled migrants who are more likely to be self-sufficient, according to sources who spoke with Axios. The administration also wants to make it harder for asylum seekers to claim fear of returning to their home country, and it wants the ability to detain migrant children longer than the current 20-day limit. The proposed changes come after Trump ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and pulled Ron Vitiello’s nomination to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The president was frustrated with Nielsen’s handling of the immigration crisis at the southern border, and he told reporters he nixed Vitiello’s nomination because he wants to go in a “tougher direction.” “[Vitiello is] a good man,” the president told reporters on Friday. “But we’re going in a tougher direction. We want to go in a tougher direction.” Other immigration overhauls are also under consideration. The president’s aides have reportedly…

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Truckers Face Gridlock at US-Mexico Frontier as Border Agents Moved

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Trucks delivering goods from Mexico to the United States are facing up to eight hours of gridlock, after a transfer of U.S. border agents to immigration duties slowed the flow of commercial traffic at several border crossings. President Donald Trump took a step back on Tuesday from his threat to close the U.S. southern border to fight illegal immigration, amid pressure from companies worried that a shutdown would inflict chaos on supply chains. He had threatened on Friday to close the border this week unless Mexico acted to curb a surge of asylum seekers from countries in Central America. But the reshuffling of border agents, announced last week to process the record number of migrant families entering the United States from Mexico, prompted delays of up to eight hours for trucks crossing from Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas, truckers told Reuters. “Industry is most affected by this situation, due to the millions in fines they have to pay when deliveries arrive late to clients,” said Manuel Sotelo, head of the truckers union in Ciudad Juarez. He said the delays could even lead to the cancellation of contracts and layoffs. Senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said on…

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Trump Compares Democrats to Central American Countries

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by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump compared Mexican and Central American governments to Democrats working in Washington, D.C., in a tweet Tuesday morning. “After many years (decades), Mexico is apprehending large numbers of people at their Southern Border, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. They have ALL been taking U.S. money for years, and doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for us, just like the Democrats in Congress!” the president tweeted. After many years (decades), Mexico is apprehending large numbers of people at their Southern Border, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. They have ALL been taking U.S. money for years, and doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for us, just like the Democrats in Congress! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019 The statements come as a massive number of illegal migrants are arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border. A record amount of apprehensions took place in March, with Customs and Border Protection catching or stopping 3,974 illegal migrants on March 19, the highest number since Trump entered office. Nearly 100,000 apprehensions are estimated to have taken place in March, which would be the highest in over a decade. Most of these illegal migrants hail from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, making…

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The Trump Administration Is Expanding a Program That Boots Asylum Seekers Back to Mexico

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by Jason Hopkins   The Trump administration will be increasing the number of Central American asylum seekers who are sent back to Mexico to await their court case. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced Monday she will be expanding the “Migrant Protection Protocols” program, more popularly known as “Remain in Mexico.” Nielsen, in a memo sent to the federal border chief, ordered Customs and Border Protection agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border to begin reviewing hundreds of migrant cases a day to determine if they should be booted back to Mexico. “[The Department of Homeland Security] will require more migrants to wait in Mexico, with appropriate humanitarian protections, during their immigration proceedings to prevent fraud & ensure they don’t escape the law and disappear into the country,” Nielsen tweeted Monday. That is why @DHSgov will require more migrants to wait in Mexico, with appropriate humanitarian protections, during their immigration proceedings to prevent fraud & ensure they don’t escape the law and disappear into the country. — Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 2, 2019 The “Remain in Mexico” program, which started in late 2018, bars non-Mexican immigrants from immediately entering the U.S. interior after claiming asylum at the U.S. southern…

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Trump Threatens Southern Border Closing ‘Next Week’

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by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump threatened to close the U.S. southern border in a tweet Friday if Mexico “doesn’t immediately stop” illegal immigration into the U.S. “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug[h] our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING … the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and ‘talk.’ Besides, we lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc.), that the Border closing would be a good thing!” The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S. Therefore, CONGRESS MUST CHANGE OUR WEAK IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW, & Mexico must stop illegals from entering the U.S…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019 ….through their country and our Southern Border. Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S., far greater than Border Costs. If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug our…

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Trump Administration Asking Congress to Make It Easier to Deport Migrant Children

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by Jason Hopkins   Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is requesting Congress pass a legislative measure that gives her department greater authority to address the growing migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border. Nielsen asked lawmakers to make it easier for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deport unaccompanied alien children (UAC), to allow migrants to file asylum requests within their home countries, and for the authority to keep families requesting asylum in detention facilities until their cases are complete, according to a letter first obtained by NBC News. The measures would help alleviate what Nielsen describes as an “emergency situation” at the U.S.-Mexico border. “We are grappling with a humanitarian and security catastrophe that is worsening by the day, and the Department has run out of capacity, despite extraordinary intra-Departmental and interagency efforts,” Nielsen’s letter to Congress read. “Accordingly, DHS requests immediate Congressional assistance to stabilize the situation.” The requests come as the country’s southern border is witnessing record levels of illegal border crossings. The DHS apprehended 50,000 to 60,000 illegal migrants a month in late 2018. More than 75,000 apprehensions and encounters were made in February — the highest volume in over 10 years. DHS forecasts March…

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Hundreds of Border Agents Reassigned as Illegal Crossings Reach Record Highs

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by Jason Hopkins   The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) announced on Wednesday that it is reassigning more than 700 officers to assist the Border Patrol as it faces an “unprecedented” security crisis. CBP’s Office of Field Operations will temporarily reassign up to 750 of its officers to Border Patrol sectors along the country’s southwest border, helping the agency manage the influx of illegal migrants in recent days. Redeployed officers will assist with various processing responsibilities, such as transportation and hospital watch of detained individuals. “Border Patrol processing facilities on the Southwest border have far exceeded capacity and the Border Patrol does not have the personnel to process, care for, and transport individuals in custody without help from its partners,” CBP said in a statement on Wednesday. CBP officers will be redirected from ports of entry in the Tucson, Laredo, El Paso and San Diego field offices — a move that CBP acknowledges will affect its capabilities to press travel and trade. News of the reassignments come as the southwest border has experienced a historic week in illegal border crossings. CBP reported 4,000 apprehensions and encounters on Monday, the highest volume in over a decade. However, the record-setting number…

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Trump Renews Threat to Close Southern Border With Mexico

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U.S. President Donald Trump is renewing his threat to close the country’s southern border, saying Mexico and three Central American countries are not doing anything to halt the surge of undocumented migrants heading north to try to enter the United States. Trump first threatened to close the border last November but did not follow through. However, as he ended a 35-day partial government shutdown in late January in a dispute with Congress over funding for a border wall, he declared a national emergency to build the barrier. While both houses of Congress rejected his declaration of a national emergency, the House of Representatives failed this week to override his veto of the measure, leaving the emergency declaration intact. Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019 Trump is moving ahead with plans to extend the barriers along the border with funding that had been earmarked for other projects. However, the fate…

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Alabama Has a Plan to Allow Tax Refunds to Help Pay for the Border Wall

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by Jason Hopkins   A bill that would allow taxpayers to donate a part of their refunds to a nonprofit collecting money to build more border wall has successfully passed the Alabama Senate. Alabama state senators voted 23-6 along party lines Thursday in favor of SB 22, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. The legislation would add We Build The Wall Inc. to a list of about 20 groups and programs on state income tax forms that residents can check off and donate with their tax refunds. “I think it’s a way for Alabamians to say to the president and to the nation that we think strong border security is important. We want to promote that. We want Washington to build that wall,” GOP Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, the bill’s sponsor, stated according to The Associated Press. “This bill is about sending a message to Washington that we support President Trump and his mission to secure our southern border,” Marsh said, who is mulling a 2020 U.S. Senate bid. We Build The Wall — which began in December as a viral GoFundMe campaign by Air Force veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage — is a nonprofit group that is raising…

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US Senate Rejects Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

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The U.S. Congress on Thursday formally rejected President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund border wall construction, as the Senate voted 59 to 41 to disapprove the executive action, weeks after the House of Representatives did the same. Twelve Senate Republicans joined a unified Democratic caucus to pass the disapproval measure in the Republican-led chamber, defying the White House and ignoring a presidential veto threat. “This is not a normal vote — this is not a normal day,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, noting Congress’ first-ever official rejection of a national emergency declaration. Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she backed Trump’s goal of beefing up security along the U.S.-Mexico border, but not his bid to bypass Congress. “The president’s action comes into direct conflict with Congress’ authority to determine the appropriation of funds, a power vested in Congress by the framers of our Constitution,” Collins said. “This issue is not about strengthening our border security, a goal that I support.” At the White House, Trump promised to respond. “I’ll probably have to veto [the disapproval],” the president said at an Oval Office meeting with Ireland’s prime minister. “The legal scholars all say it [national…

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Ohio’s Republican Senator Rob Portman Joins Senate Democrats in Voting Against Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

Anthony Gockowski

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and 11 of his Republican colleagues joined Senate Democrats Thursday in voting against President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration. In a 59-41 vote, the Senate passed a bill that would terminate Trump’s emergency declaration, though the president has already said he will veto the resolution. Portman announced his intention to vote in line with his Democratic colleagues during a Thursday morning speech on the Senate floor. “From the outset of this process I’ve had two objectives. One, to support the president on the crisis at the border. I believe his plan to address that crisis is a good one—we should support it. But second, to do it in the right way without setting a dangerous new precedent counter to a fundamental constitutional principle, without tying up the needed funds for the border in the courts, and without taking funds away from important military construction projects for our troops” Portman said. Portman later said of Ohio, which has “been devastated by the opioid epidemic,” that “over 90 percent of the heroin is coming across the southern border.” “Yesterday I learned from Customs and Border Protection that fentanyl seizures along the border between the ports of entry has…

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Josh Hawley Explains Why He’ll Defend Trump’s National Emergency on the Senate Floor

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by Nick Givas   Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he will stand with President Donald Trump and vote “no” on the Senate’s resolution of disapproval of his national emergency. “Look, first of all, we have a crisis at the border. And it’s clear to anybody who’s looked at the situation,” Hawley said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.” “Congress has heard testimony on this over and over,” he continued. “We have a smuggling crisis. We have a humanitarian crisis, we have a drug crisis. We have a law enforcement crisis, number one. Number two, Congress has given the president this authority. In 1976, Congress passed a law that gave the president the ability to declare a national emergency. So it’s a pretty simple question. Is this an emergency or not? Because Congress has said he can declare a national emergency. This clearly is an emergency. That’s why I’ll be voting no against the Democrats and yes with the president.” Host Brian Kilmeade said the GOP might have trouble rounding up enough votes to support the president and asked why Republicans are so divided. “You know, I can’t speak for other senators, but, you know, I know there are some…

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Commentary: Yes, The Southern Border Is at the Breaking Point

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by CHQ Staff   You know things are bad when the New York Times runs an article with the headline, “Border at ‘Breaking Point’ as More than 76,000 Unauthorized Migrants Cross in a Month.” We could quibble and point out they are illegal aliens, not “unauthorized migrants,” but why argue details when your enemies are finally helping you by telling the truth for a change? National immigration reporter Caitlin Dickerson wrote: The number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has once again broken records, with unauthorized entries nearly double what they were a year ago, suggesting that the Trump administration’s aggressive policies have not discouraged new migration to the United States. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, an 11-year high and a strong sign that stepped-up prosecution, new controls on asylum and harsher detention policies have not reversed what remains a powerful lure for thousands of families fleeing violence and poverty. “The system is well beyond capacity, and remains at the breaking point,” Kevin K. McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told reporters in announcing the new data on Tuesday. McAleenan said processing centers filled to capacity, border agents struggling to meet medical…

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Border Patrol Chief Agrees With Trump That There Is a Border Crisis

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by Jason Hopkins   U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost broke down in testimony to Congress why the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border qualifies as a national security crisis. “There is an ongoing debate as to whether this constitutes a border security crisis or a humanitarian crisis. Let me be clear, it is both,” Provost, President Donald Trump’s top border official, said Tuesday during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. Provost’s comments run counter to claims made by Democrats and other Trump critics who argue that, because border apprehensions are down considerably from 20 years ago, there is no actual crisis. While the 361,000 people the Border Patrol caught in fiscal year 2018 is less than half of the 1 million who were caught in the 1990s and 2000s, Provost says there is more to the numbers than meets the eye. “I’ve been asked many times how the current situation can be a crisis compared to years when we surpassed 1 million apprehensions,” the Border Patrol chief said to lawmakers. “To understand the numbers, you have to look at what’s happening on the ground.” In years past, the majority of those apprehended at the border were Mexican nationals who,…

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Tennessee Star Report EXCLUSIVE: Vet Brian Kolfage Says WeBuildtheWall.US Will Build 10 Miles of Border Wall on Private Land in Arizona

Julie Carr

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 Veteran and the Trump Wall point man, Brian Kolfage about he and his teams new position on how to get the wall built. The men when into detail and touched upon how the funds would be transferred via a 501 (c) (4) non-profit initiative, who’s involved, and the price it would cost to get it done and the new position to build it instead of fund it. Kolfage also described how he was impressed by those conservatives billionaires who have donated their money and want to support and help push through this goal of a border wall. “None of us are being paid. We’re knocking this out and doing it for the American people,” confessed Kolfage. Gill: A guy who’s not willing to be patient and wait for the government to move things ahead on securing America’s borders, Brian Kolfage. He started a GoFundMe account to do the private sector construction of some wall and he’s joined us on the phone lines this morning. Brian…

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McConnell: President Donald Trump Will Sign Funding Bill, Announce National Emergency for Border Wall

Zachery Schmidt

President Donald Trump is set to declare a national emergency Thursday evening to deal with the southern border crisis, a move that will come as he signs the bi-partisans border security legislation passed by the Senate earlier in the day and expected to be passed later in the day by the House, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday afternoon from the floor of the Senate. “He has indicated he is prepared to sign the bill. He will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time,” Senator Mitch McConnell said. “I’ve indicated to him that I’m going to support the national emergency declaration. So for all of my colleagues, the President will sign the bill. We will be voting on it shortly.” The Senate voted 83-16 to pass the border security legislation today and the House will vote on the measure tonight. By declaring a national emergency, President Trump will move forward on the construction of a physical barrier along the country’s porous southern border to the extent that is lacking in Thursday’s bipartisan measure. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement on Trump’s plan. Statement on Government Funding Bill: pic.twitter.com/DrNv9D4rEi — Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45)…

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Republicans and Democrats Are Divided Over Wall Funding as Government Shutdown Is Just Days Away

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by Henry Rodgers   Democrats and Republicans in Congress are split on an “agreement in principle” regarding President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall funding after meeting Monday night as the government is days away from a potential shutdown. The agreement reportedly includes $1.375 billion for physical barriers, which would be bollard, or basically a concrete-filled barrier that protects office buildings and shopping malls across the U.S. It would also limit the number of beds in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers for violent criminal aliens, which Democrats have been using as a bargaining chip. “This is not a CR, this is funding for the seven bills … We hope [the president will] sign it. He talked to me about it, gave us some latitude. I think we’re — overall — we’ve got a pretty good deal considering who we’re dealing with,” Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby told The Daily Caller News Foundation in the Capitol Tuesday. Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham had a different message, telling TheDCNF it is likely the president will have to declare a national emergency, as he believes lawmakers will not be able to reach an agreement. “My whole construct was — open up the government…

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Likely Deal Would Give Trump Fraction of Desired Wall Money

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Congressional bargainers are working toward a border security deal amid indications that the White House is preparing to accept a bipartisan agreement that would give President Donald Trump a fraction of the money he’s demanded for his proposed southern border wall. Participants said they expect money for physical barriers to end up well below the $5.7 billion that Trump has sought to begin construction of the wall, which has attained iconic significance for him and his conservative supporters. Underscoring the clout he’s lost during a battle that’s dominated the opening weeks of divided government, the amount seems sure to fall much closer to $1.6 billion, the participants said, a figure that was in a bipartisan Senate bill last year. “That’s what we’re working toward,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., one bargainer. An agreement would also avert a new partial federal shutdown next weekend. Trump has warned he might trigger a new closure of agencies if he doesn’t get his way, but that threat has become toothless because of solid opposition from GOP lawmakers burned by the record 35-day closure that he initiated in December. One White House aide said Trump was expected to back whatever compromise emerges and acknowledged there…

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FAKE NEWS: Washington Post Repeatedly Botches Fact Check of Trump’s State of the Union Address

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Donald Trump

by James D. Agresti   Two days after airing a Super Bowl commercial that depicts journalists as people of great importance and integrity, the Washington Post published an error-ridden fact check of President Trump’s State of the Union address. Written by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Meg Kelly, it contains an array of half-truths, straw men, and outright falsehoods. The State of the Southern Border During his address, Trump said: “The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial wellbeing of all America.” In retort, the Post writes: “By any available measure, there is no new security crisis at the border.” That is a straw man argument, or a rebuttal to a point that wasn’t made. Trump did not say this is a “new” crisis. In fact, he portrayed it as a longstanding problem by saying, “Year after year, countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens.” Trump’s claim is correct. A 2011 Government Accountability Office study of 249,000 non-citizens in U.S. prisons and jails during 2003 to 2009 found that they had been arrested for 25,064 homicide-related crimes committed in the U.S. throughout their criminal careers. This isn’t even a full count…

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Commentary: Trump’s Wall and a Plan to Stop Cartels at the Border

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Zero Tolerance Border Security

by Bill Thomas   If you’ve been thinking Trump Derangement Syndrome couldn’t get any worse, consider the Democratic Party’s position on border security. Sitting behind President Trump during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spent much of the evening making faces at the back of his head. And when he asked members of Congress to “reject the politics of revenge and resistance” and embrace “compromise and the common good,” she flashed a look that said: “Not while I’m in charge.” Pelosi opposes a wall or anything else that discourages illegal aliens from getting into the country and staying here (preferably in red states, where they can do her party the most political good). By itself, this would be bad enough. But the same dangerously inadequate approach she and most Democrats favor for human traffic is also responsible for the record amount of illicit drugs pouring across the border, not to mention the epidemic of crime and drug-related deaths that comes with them. Follow the well-traveled routes of illegal immigration from the southern border northward and invariably you come to cities and states with the worst drug problems. If Pelosi has her way, that’s…

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Trump to Hold First Rally of 2019 in Border City of El Paso

Anthony Gockowski

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign announced Wednesday that it will be holding its first rally of 2019 in El Paso, Texas on February 11. According to the Trump campaign, the rally will mark the president’s first in El Paso and seventh in the state of Texas. “We are please to announced the Make America Great Again rally on Monday, February 11 in El Paso, Texas, featuring President Donald Trump,” said Michael Glassner, chief operating officer of Donald J. Trump for President Inc. “As the president continues his fight to secure our border, there’s no better place to demonstrate that walls work than in El Paso. President Trump looks forward to visiting with the patriots of Texas who are on the front lines of the struggle against open-border Democrats who allow drugs, crime, and sex trafficking all along our border every day,” Glassner added. During his Tuesday night State of the Union address, Trump pointed to El Paso as shining proof that his border wall would work. “The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime—one of the highest in the country, and was considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, with…

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Trump Unloads on Pelosi: ‘Very Bad for Our Country’

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The president of the United States has lambasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling her “very bad for our country” and saying that “she doesn’t mind human trafficking” because she opposes designating money for a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico. In an interview Friday with CBS News, Donald Trump said Pelosi is “very rigid” and that she is attempting “to win a political point” by refusing to give him money for the wall that was a major component of his successful presidential campaign. During the campaign, however, Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico has refused. Now Trump wants Congress to give him money for the border wall, and the Democrats who are in control of the House of Representatives have refused. “Democrats have put forward strong, smart and effective border security solutions in the bipartisan conference committee,” said Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesman, adding that the president “still refuses to take a second shutdown off the table.” Trump recently ended a 35-day partial government shutdown without getting the $5.7 billion he wanted for the wall. National emergency option The president said Friday he will consider calling for a “national emergency” as the path forward to…

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Trump Calls Border Wall Negotiations ‘A Waste of Time’

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by Carla Babb   President Donald Trump is calling bipartisan congressional talks over border wall funding a “waste of time.” In a White House interview with The New York Times Thursday, Trump again hinted he may declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress and build the wall without its approval. “I’ll continue to build the wall and we’ll get the wall finished. Now whether or not I declare a national emergency, that you’ll see … I’ve set the table, I’ve set the stage for doing what I’m going to do.” Shutdown? National emergency? If there is no deal on border security in less than three weeks that Trump would sign, there could be another government shutdown. If Trump does declare a national emergency, Democrats who don’t want any money for a border wall will probably immediately challenge Trump in court. The president had strong words for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has said many times that she will not agree to give Trump the $5.7 billion he wants for a wall. “I think Nancy Pelosi is hurting our country very badly by doing what she’s doing,” Trump said, adding that while he has always gotten along with her,…

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Pentagon Is Sending Thousands of More Troops to the Southern Border

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by Jason Hopkins   The Pentagon is sending several thousand more troops to the southwestern border, fulfilling a request made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Currently, there are about 2,300 troops stationed at the southwestern border. Pentagon officials revealed Tuesday that they will be deploying an additional 2,000 troops as part of the DHS’ request for the military to extend its mission there. Originally intended to last until Dec. 15, the military’s mission will now be extended to Sept. 30. The entire operation is estimated to cost $132 million by the end of January, and over $600 million by the close of the fiscal year in September. “We are supporting our federal partners on the border, and that mission has been extended until September,” stated Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Davis. “We are currently sourcing the units involved and there will be an increase of a few thousand troops.” Beyond maintaining a troop presence, the Pentagon will also aid DHS officials with infrastructure development. Military troops will help set up more concertina wire and expand surveillance capabilities along the border. “Most recently DHS has asked us to support them in additional concertina wire and then expanded surveillance capability,…

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U.S. Rep. Mark Green Discusses First Two Weeks in Congress, Chides Democrats for Shutdown and Failure to Protect Border

Jason M. Reynolds

Freshman U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) provided an update on his first two weeks in Congress in a Facebook video Saturday. The video is available here on Facebook. The transcript follows. “It has been emotional to say the least,” Green said. “I raised my hand and I took the oath – the same oath that I took at West Point when I was 17 years old. I just thank the people of the Seventh Congressional District who gave me the opportunity to once again serve our great nation. “It’s been a challenging two weeks. The government is still shut down. We have federal employees that aren’t getting paid because the Democrats won’t give us 5.7 billion dollars to protect our southern border. Money that they voted on before in the past. Money that they’ve all been quoted saying was needed in the past. And they’re just ignoring the human suffering in our country from things like heroin addiction and overdose and death, the murders. Lindsey Graham  said it the other day – at least our federal employees will get back pay, but the wife of Officer Singh will not get her husband back. “It’s a national crisis. We’ve got…

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