Homeland Security Watchdog Concludes ‘Physical Barriers Work’ to Curb Illegal Immigration: FOIA

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that a border wall is the most effective way to curb illegal immigration, according to a newly released report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. 

The Immigration Reform Law Institute published a 2017 report last week from the Homeland Security watchdog, which found that in 25 border areas studied, a pedestrian fence, also known as a border wall, was the best solution to ending illegal immigration. 

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California Sues Trump Administration Over ‘Failure to Protect Species’

California is suing the Trump administration for the administration’s failure to protect endangered species in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, Reuters reports.

The lawsuit by the state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency filed suit on Thursday against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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Democrats Join Forces to Urge the Supreme Court to Block the Southern Border Barrier Based on ‘the Environment’

by Kevin Daley   Environmental groups and House Democrats urged the Supreme Court not to disturb a lower court order blocking the reallocation of military funds for border wall projects. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to put that ruling on hold while litigation continues July 12. Granting that request — called a stay — would give the government an irreversible victory, a coalition of environmentalists led by the Sierra Club warned. “If a stay is granted and wall construction begins, there will be no turning back,” the green groups told the justices in court papers. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam barred the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds for border wall construction. The trial court’s injunctions stalled border barrier construction projects in Arizona and New Mexico. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration’s request to stay Gilliam’s ruling while litigation continued by a 2-1 vote July 3. The government filed a stay application with the Supreme Court on July 12. Environmentalists fear ‘irrevocable victory’ Stays are supposed to preserve the status quo among litigants while a lawsuit proceeds through court. If the justices grant the administration’s request, the government can begin construction on several border wall projects the courts…

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Trump Appeals Federal Judge’s Border Wall Funding Ruling

Reuters   President Donald Trump on Saturday appealed a U.S. judge’s ruling that blocked his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended for anti-drug activities to construct a wall along the southern border with Mexico. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers said in a court filing that they were formally appealing Friday’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “We’re immediately appealing it, and we think we’ll win the appeal,” Trump said during a press conference Saturday at a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 major economies in Japan. “There was no reason that that should’ve happened,” Trump said. Trump says construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is needed to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, but he has so far been unable to get congressional approval for such a project. In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to reprogram $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to build the wall, which groups and states including California had challenged. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, Calif., said in a pair of court decisions that the Trump administration’s proposal to transfer Defense Department funds intended for anti-drug activities was unlawful. One of Gilliam’s rulings was in a lawsuit filed by California on behalf of 20 states, while…

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Immigration Talks Already Underway as Mexico Rushes to Stave Off Tariff Threat

by Jason Hopkins   Top Mexican government officials are in the United States as they attempt to dissuade the Trump administration from following though on tariff threats. A high-level delegation of Mexican officials, including Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Economy Minister Graciela Marquez, held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Speaking from the Mexican embassy, the two leaders publicly called on the U.S. to reach a deal with their government instead of resorting to a tariff war. The press conference and meeting come before the two countries are set to kick off official negotiations Wednesday. Mexican and U.S. delegations will try to reach a deal on the immigration crisis before a White House-imposed deadline quickly approaches. The rush to reach a compromise comes after President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a 5% tax on all goods coming from Mexico beginning June 10, unless their government can prove that it is doing more to stop the record-flow of illegal migration running through its borders. Tariffs on Mexican goods, he added, would increase by 5% every month, with the rate reaching as high as 25% by October if Mexico fails to satisfy U.S. demands. Trump on Sunday continued to hammer the country for its perceived inaction…

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Army Corps of Engineers: 450 Miles of New Wall Will Be Completed by the End of 2020

by Robert Romano   “Around Dec. 2020, the total amount of money we will have put in the ground in the last couple of years will be about 450 miles. That’s probably about $8 billion, in total about 33 projects.” That was Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, giving President Donald Trump a report at Calexico, Calif. on how much new wall would be constructed by the end of 2020. Semonite broke down the figures: That’s 82 miles as of right now mainly from renovating existing fencing, another 97 miles by the end of this year, and then another 277 miles the year after that. That includes the new 30-foot steel slats. That’s actually pretty impressive given what a hard time President Trump had the first two years working with Congress, which itself was not unsubstantial, but simply not enough to get the job done. Plus getting it approved was like pulling teeth. That funding included $1.6 billion from 2018 for replacing existing fencing with new steel barriers and $1.375 billion in 2019 for more steel barriers that came after the partial government shutdown earlier this year. In addition, with…

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We Build the Wall, Inc. Heads to Detroit for Third Town Hall

We Build the Wall, Inc. is hitting the road for Detroit Thursday night. The Ohio Star was there for We Build the Wall, Inc.’s stop Tuesday night in Cincinnati, which featured panelists such as former White House strategist Steve Bannon, Sheriff David Clarke, and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. We Build the Wall, Inc., which now counts Bannon as its chairman, was formed out of veteran Brian Kolfage’s famous GoFundMe page that he started to help raise funds for the border wall. Now, the group’s plan is to start building sections of the wall on private land, with private money, and with the help of private citizens. “We are thrilled to sponsor the ‘We Build the Wall’ rallies this week in Ohio and Detroit,” said Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit, one of the organizations sponsoring the town halls. “The border issue is not just something that affects those Americans in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. The unbelievable flood of refugees and illegal immigrants streaming across the southern border is truly a national emergency. No country can handle this constant flow of tens of thousands of civilians and the strain it puts on an already stressed welfare system.”…

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Trump to Request an Additional $8.6 Billion to Complete Border Wall

by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump will ask Congress for an additional $8.6 billion for wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, a move that will likely set up another fierce battle over border security funding. The president is expected to roll out his 2020 budget proposal Monday, which will include billions more than his previous demand for wall funding. The budget will request $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military construction budget to build more sections of wall along the U.S. southern border, The Washington Post reported. Announcement of the new budget proposal comes shortly after the federal government ended a historic 35-day partial shutdown over wall funding. Trump in December demanded $5.7 billion to help fund massive wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, following major gridlock between Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Congress allocated only $1.375 billion to finance 55 miles of barrier in Texas. The president accepted that funding in February but also declared a national emergency that ultimately gave him a total of $8 billion in funding. A number of lawsuits have since been filed against the national emergency, and the Senate is set to pass a resolution that disapproves of the…

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White House Defends Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

The White House on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration. “He could choose to ignore this crisis, but he chose not to,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller, a border security hardliner, told Fox News Sunday. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Miller assailed former Republican President George W. Bush for an “astonishing betrayal” of the U.S. nearly two decades ago when four times as many illegal migrants were entering the United States as now. But Miller said the “bottom line” is that “you cannot conceive of a strong nation without a secure border.” He said Trump’s action is “defending our own borders” and that illegal immigration “is a threat in our country.” Miller explained Trump’s actions were justified under a 1976 law giving presidents authority to declare national emergencies, although none of the 59 declared since then has involved instances when a president has attempted to override congressional refusal to approve funding for a specific proposal. The President declared the national emergency on Friday, which had refused his request for $5.7 billion in wall funding, even as it approved $1.375 billion for barriers along about…

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Commentary: The Truth About Border Walls’ Effectiveness

by Peter Parisi   “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not to his own facts.” That pithy observation is attributed to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who served in the Senate from 1977 to 2001. The final two years of Moynihan’s stint in the Senate overlapped the first two years of that of his fellow New York Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer. President Donald Trump, at a rally set for Monday night on the border in El Paso, Texas, should remind Schumer of Moynihan’s maxim in their fight over the need for more walls and fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border to help stem the flood tide of illegal immigration. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Schumer and his House counterpart, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are entitled to their opinions about Trump’s proposed border wall, but they aren’t entitled to their own facts. In their rebuttal to the president’s Jan. 9 nationally televised address outlining the need for a border barrier and his request for $5.7 billion in funding for them, both described the proposed wall as “ineffective” – Pelosi once and Schumer twice. In her…

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US Facing Friday Deadline to Avert New Government Shutdown

Trump-captial-spending-money

The federal government is facing a Friday deadline for funding about a quarter of its operations, struggling to avert another shutdown after a record 35-day closure was ended last month. Construction money for a barrier at the U.S. southern border with Mexico remains at the center of the dispute, with President Donald Trump asking for $5.7 billion in funding and opposition Democrats apparently ready to offer some money, but much less than the president wants. Several lawmakers said late last week they were close to reaching a deal, even as it remained unclear what Trump would agree to. But on Sunday, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the lead Republican on a 17-member congressional panel trying to reach agreement on border security funding, told Fox News, “I think the talks are stalled right now. I’m not confident we’re going to get there.” Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told NBC News another shutdown “absolutely cannot” be ruled out. He said whether lawmakers are close to reaching a deal on border security funding “depends on who you listen to.” Mulvaney added, “The president really does believe that there is a national security crisis and a humanitarian crisis at the border…

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Commentary: Congress Has a Little Time to Get Immigration Right

by Rachel Bovard   After refusing for weeks to negotiate over border security “until the government is open,” the bluff has been called on congressional Democrats. Congress has until February 15 to craft a border security package ahead of what could be yet another partial government shutdown. Talks among the 17 lawmakers appointed to the committee assigned with drafting a proposal have begun, though details remain scarce. Top Democrat Representative Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) told reporters that “everything is on the table.” President Trump has said that the conference committee is wasting its time if it’s not considering a wall. For those claiming that the recent 35-day shutdown resulted in no substantive achievement, the conference committee may well represent the one opportunity for substantive immigration reform from this Congress—and perhaps for the next decade. It is critically important that Congress get it right. A border wall must be a critical component of the package—and for evidence of why it’s necessary, look no further than stunning videos taken by Representative Chip Roy (R-Texas). The freshman member of Congress visited just one unsecured sector of the border in McAllen, Texas, and watched as truckloads of migrants casually strolled into the United States. McAllen is in the Rio Grande Valley sector, approximately 100 miles of…

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President Trump Sits Down with ‘Face the Nation’ to Discuss The Wall, Afghanistan, Russia, and More

President Donald Trump is refusing to rule out the possibility of another partial government shutdown to win congressional approval of funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico. But he also signaled strongly he plans to declare a national emergency to build the barrier without assent from lawmakers. “I don’t take anything off the table,” Trump told the CBS News show “Face the Nation” in an interview broadcast Sunday, a week after a record 35-day shutdown of a quarter of government operations was ended. “I don’t like to take things off the table. It’s that alternative.” But the U.S. leader said, “It’s national emergency, it’s other things and you know there have been plenty national emergencies called. And this really is an invasion of our country by human traffickers.” “These are people that are horrible people bringing in women mostly, but bringing in women and children into our country,” he said. “Human trafficking. And we’re going to have a strong border. And the only way you have a strong border is you need a physical barrier. You need a wall. And anybody that says you don’t, they’re just playing games.” Watch the full interview: He assailed House Speaker…

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Commentary: Media Says Trump Caved on The Wall, but It’s Democrats in the Dark

by Jeffery Rendall   Friday started off with the blockbuster news that longtime associate and occasional Trump political advisor Roger Stone was ensnared (for process crimes, no less) in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ever-widening “Russian collusion” net, which to the liberal establishment media meant that the long-anticipated “smoking gun” had been located and House Democrats’ impeachment proceedings could commence at their earliest convenience. Later in the day word leaked out that President Trump would make a statement concerning the government shutdown, which had completed its fifth week with neither side appearing likely to concede anytime soon. At that point no one was talking about Stone anymore. Trump shocked some conservatives by announcing the government would reopen for three weeks in hopes a bipartisan congressional commission would hammer out a solution to the wall funding standoff in the meantime. The president acknowledged he was going against his vow not to throw open the government’s doors until Democrats produced money for border security – but insisted afterwards it wasn’t a concession. Caitlin Yilek reported at The Washington Examiner, “President Trump told his supporters that he was not caving to Democrats on his promised border wall after he agreed to end the partial government…

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White House Chief of Staff Mulvaney Assures Trump Will Build Wall ‘With or Without Congress’

The White House challenged opposition Democrats on Sunday to prove they want tough security on the southern border with Mexico now that the longest-ever partial government shutdown has ended and the clock is ticking on a three-week window for negotiations. Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s acting White House chief of staff, told Fox News Sunday, “This is a chance for Democrats to see if they believe in border security” to thwart illegal immigration and stop the flow of illicit drugs. But Mulvaney said the U.S. leader would secure the border “with or without Congress,” including by declaring a national emergency, if he has to. Mulvaney said the White House is “seeing Democrats starting to agree with the president” on the need for a wall along nearly 400 kilometers of the 3,200-kilometer U.S.-Mexico border, a stretch where Trump has demanded $5.7 billion in taxpayer funding for some type of barrier. The dispute shuttered about a quarter of U.S. government operations for 35 days, before Trump on Friday agreed with a Democratic demand to reopen the government until Feb. 15, without any wall funding, while the two sides negotiate over border security funding. Trump’s chief congressional antagonists, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader…

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Commentary: President Trump’s Immigration Proposal Puts Democrats in a Tight Box

by CHQ Staff   On Saturday afternoon President Trump delivered a brilliant speech on border security offering Democrats a path forward to end the standoff over the border wall and the partial government shutdown. And, striking a conciliatory tone, Trump spread the blame to both political parties: …our immigration system has been badly broken for a very long time.  Over the decades, many Presidents and many lawmakers have come and gone, and no real progress has been made on immigration. We are now living with the consequences – and they are tragic – brought about by decades of political stalemate, partisan gridlock, and national neglect. And he was right about that, as anyone who has followed the immigration and border security debate over the past half-century will confirm. Many conservatives were aghast at some of the details of the President’s proposal – an extension of Obama’s unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and an extension of temporary protected status for 300,000 Central Americans who are slated for deportation. Our friends at NumbersUSA quickly issued a statement saying: The offer the President announced today is a loser for the forgotten American workers who were central to his campaign promises.…

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Commentary: Now We Know It’s All About the Wall

Migrant Caravan

by Roger Kimball   Bismarck said that politics is the art of the possible. It looks like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and other Democrats regard politics as the art of intransigence. In his brief remarks Saturday on border security, Donald Trump outlined a plan that made multiple concessions to Democratic desiderata in exchange for $5.7 billion to fund 230 miles of the wall along the southern U.S. border. Indeed, the president’s plan deliberately took cues from some Durbin’s own legislation on the subject. Didn’t matter. Pelosi said the president’s plan was “a non-starter.” Before rehearsing the specifics of the plan, let’s note two things. First, as the president himself noted, his plan is meant as the first step in addressing a national crisis. The crisis has two parts. One is humanitarian. The hordes pooling at the U.S.-Mexico border attempting to gain unlawful entry to the country are taking huge risks. According to the president, one-third of the women making the journey North are subject to sexual assault; some observers put the figure even higher; some mothers, Trump said, provided their girls with contraceptives in preparation for the journey. Many of the children, most often brought along by adults, are also…

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Trump Assails Pelosi’s Rejection of ‘Compromise’ to End Government Shutdown

President Donald Trump assailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday for rejecting what he is calling a compromise to end the record 30-day partial government shutdown, with $5.7 billion for his barrier along the U.S.-Mexican border and three years of protection against deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. “Nancy Pelosi and some of the Democrats turned down my offer yesterday before I even got up to speak. They don’t see crime & drugs, they only see 2020 – which they are not going to win. Best economy!” Trump said on Twitter, referring to next year’s presidential election. “They should do the right thing for the Country & allow people to go back to work.” Nancy Pelosi and some of the Democrats turned down my offer yesterday before I even got up to speak. They don’t see crime & drugs, they only see 2020 – which they are not going to win. Best economy! They should do the right thing for the Country & allow people to go back to work. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2019 Trump, now halfway through his four-year White House term, offered his plan to end the longest government closure in American history…

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Liz Cheney: Pelosi ‘Commandeered The House’ on the DACA Issue She’s Now Voting Against

by Molly Prince   The third-ranking House Republican, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday for opposing proposals that she recently supported as a way to resist negotiating with President Donald Trump. “It’s very difficult to understand when you’ve got the president’s proposal that obviously includes money for the border wall, also includes an extension for the DACA folks, also includes an extension for TPS. Those are issues, DACA in particular, that Speaker Pelosi, she commandeered the floor of the House of Representatives for eight hours less than a year ago on particularly this issue of helping to ensure that people that are here, the so-called dreamers, are not deported,” Cheney told Chuck Todd while on “Meet The Press.” “For [Pelosi] now to simply reject out of hand when the president actually has said ‘okay let’s look at ways we can come closer,’ it shows you they’re just not interested in negotiating,” Cheney continued. The Republican-led House passed a stopgap funding bill on Dec. 20 that included appropriations to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. However, with a 51-seat majority, Senate Republicans fell short of the necessary 60 votes needed to send it to Trump’s desk for signature. Senate…

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Commentary: At a Cost of $25 Billion Once Versus $165 Billion Annually, Trump’s ‘Wall’ Math Holds Up

by Spencer P. Morrison   Scott Adams, the creator of the popular cartoon “Dilbert,” transformed himself into a persona non grata in 2016 by exposing how Donald Trump manipulated the media by using sophisticated persuasion techniques. History proved Adams was correct and Trump won the election. As it turns out, Trump was not the bumbling blowhard of CNN’s fever dreams. He was a marketing mastermind whose words went far beyond “resonating” with ordinary Americans—they stuck. Epithets like crooked, lyin’, and low-energy were not just insults, they were silver bullets spoken by a silver tongue. Hillary, Ted, and Jeb didn’t know what hit ’em. Two years on and Trump’s word-wizardry is as potent as ever – Pocahontas‘s racial fraud is now common knowledge, and Trump’s little rocket man jab arguably set the stage for North Korea’s denuclearization summit. At this point, Trump’s language is indistinguishable from political magic. For example, Trump’s push for “the wall” has turned ardent socialists into laissez-faire economists on the issue of illegal immigration – who cares if migration hurts America’s most vulnerable? We need aliens to grow the economy! This flip-flop has made it clear to ordinary Americans: the Democratic Party cares more about illegal aliens than it does the common citizen. Another Brick in the Wall The Democratic Party shut down the government to…

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Trump Predicts DACA Will Bring Hispanic Voters ‘Over to the Republican Side’ Amid Shutdown Stalemate

by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump predicted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) could become a larger factor in his border wall funding fight during a flurry of tweets Sunday morning. “Democrats are saying that DACA is not worth it and don’t want to include in talks,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Many Hispanics will be coming over to the Republican side, watch!” Democrats are saying that DACA is not worth it and don’t want to include in talks. Many Hispanics will be coming over to the Republican side, watch! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2019 Trump continued to call out Democrats for punting on negotiations to end the shutdown, perhaps referring to the roughly 30 Democratic lawmakers reportedly attending a retreat with lobbyists in Puerto Rico, according to the Washington Examiner. “I’m in the White House, waiting. The Democrats are everywhere but Washington as people await their pay. They are having fun and not even talking!” he wrote. I’m in the White House, waiting. The Democrats are everywhere but Washington as people await their pay. They are having fun and not even talking! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2019 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans need to “abandon”…

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Commentary: Dump The National Emergencies Act

by Julie Kelly   One of the more revelatory aspects of the Trump era is how the national media, after taking an extended nap between 2009 and 2017, now are very worried about constitutional overreach by the executive branch. Presidential power-grabs – which were super cool just five years ago when Barack Obama threatened to use “a pen and a phone” to work around a Republican-controlled legislative branch – suddenly went out of style in January 2017. Obama needed to take unilateral action as a last resort, the media argued, because of those big, bad Republicans. “Blocked for most of his presidency by Congress, Obama has sought to act however he could,” lamented the New York Times in August 2016. “In the process he created the kind of government neither he nor the Republicans wanted – one that depended on bureaucratic bulldozing rather than legislative transparency.” But it was for our own good, insisted the Times. “An army of lawyers working under Obama’s authority has sought to restructure the nation’s health care and financial industries, limit pollution, bolster workplace protections and extend equal rights to minorities. Under Obama, the government has literally placed a higher value on human life.” Thanks, Obama! The former president often defended himself…

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Minnesota Democrat Says Most People Calling His Office Support ‘The Wall’

Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN-07) told Fox News that the overwhelming majority of calls his office is receiving are from constituents who support President Donald Trump’s border wall. “From what I can tell, they’re still hanging with the president. Today, we got 67 calls for building the wall and five against. So, sounds to me like he’s still pretty popular,” Peterson said in an interview last week. This week, @collinpeterson admitted that both President @realDonaldTrump and the wall are popular in Minnesota. #BuildTheWall #mn07 pic.twitter.com/6xS9M7NKKr — MNGOP (@mngop) January 11, 2019 In another interview with Bloomberg, Peterson revealed that he’s not actually opposed to Trump’s wall, and said he believes Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “should negotiate.” During Trump’s Tuesday night Oval Office address, he urged every American citizen to “call Congress and tell them to finally, after all of these decades, secure our border.” “This is a choice between right and wrong. Justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfill our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve,” Trump said. Vice President Mike Pence echoed those sentiments in an interview on The Rush Limbaugh Show, where he too pleaded with Americans to…

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Ilhan Omar Declares Trump Presidency a ‘National Emergency’ in Twitter Tirade Against the Wall

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) fired off dozens of tweets this week in response to President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to the nation, nearly outpacing the president himself in tweets about the southern border wall. Before Trump’s Oval Office address even began, Omar was exasperated with the fact that Trump would receive “free airtime for propaganda on the ‘humanitarian and national security crisis’ at the border.” “Two children died in ICE custody last month after 10+ years with no such deaths. There’s blood on your hands,” Omar tweeted Tuesday. Tonight, while #Trump gets free airtime for propaganda on the "humanitarian & national security crisis" at the border, CHILDREN sit in cold cages in inhumane conditions. Two children died in ICE custody last month after 10+ years with no such deaths. There's blood on your hands. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 8, 2019 “We are literally watching a manufactured crisis, designed to divert attention from this criminal and dysfunctional administration. Stay woke America, Individual-1 is not one to sleep on,” she later wrote. Notably, Individual 1 was a code-name used by federal prosecutors in the charges brought against Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, and it was later made clear that Trump and…

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Commentary: Visa Overstays Don’t, in Fact, Negate the Benefits of Border Barriers

by James D. Agresti   Opponents of President Trump’s plan to build a wall along much of the Southwest border often argue that it won’t be effective because many illegal immigrants enter the U.S. by using visas. Visas allow people to temporarily visit or live in the U.S., but every year, hundreds of thousands of people don’t leave when their visas expire. No matter how strong or tall a wall may be, it cannot stop this activity. Those who make that claim—including many media outlets and “fact checkers”—are misleading the public by omitting a key fact: Visa entrants are screened by the U.S. government to keep out foreigners who pose risks to the health, safety, or finances of Americans—while illegal border crossers are not. This lack of screening allows known criminals and others who are likely to harm people to enter the United States, such as the hundreds of thousands of non-citizens who have committed violent crimes in the U.S. and been deported. Federal Law Under Title 8, Section 1182 of federal law, “aliens” who pose risks to the wellbeing of others are generally “ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States.” This includes, for example, foreigners who: have been convicted of…

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Commentary: Mitch McConnell’s Complicity with Democrats

by Rachel Bovard   The partial government shutdown is well into its second week. And given the mix of Democrat enthusiasm and complete Republican apathy, it looks like it may stay that way for a while. Ask any reporter or Capitol Hill staffer who has worked through previous government shutdowns, and we’ll all tell you the same thing about this one: it’s bizarre. Government shutdowns are generally characterized by a pervasive sense of urgency and frazzled, frantic negotiations. Beleaguered members tramp back and forth to the White House and hold daily press conferences, both chambers hold late-night sessions for votes and speeches, and, of course, everyone howls on cable news. But, minus a few exceptions on the cable news networks, hardly any of this has occurred. Instead, the clock chimed on the shutdown and Congress just went home. The Republican House, in a last-minute Hail Mary, passed a government funding bill that included the president’s requested $5 billion in wall funding. But upon receiving it, the Republican Senate collectively yawned and packed up for home on December 21. They didn’t come back until 4 p.m. on January 2. They weren’t alone. Newly minted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) decamped for Hawaii, for…

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President Trump Mulls Declaring ‘National Emergency’ to Build Wall, Predicts Movement in Negotiations with Democrats by Mid-Week

Echoing remarks from a White House press conference Friday, President Trump reiterated Sunday his option to declare the United States’ porous southern border a national emergency, thereby circumventing Congress in order fund the construction of a physical barrier to halt illegal immigrants from simply walking into the country. “I may decide a national emergency depending on what happens over the next few days,” President Trump told reporters from the White House lawn, several news outlets reported. He added: We have a meeting. Vice President Pence and a group will be going to a certain location – and you know where that is – and they’ll be having another meeting. I don’t expect anything to happen at that meeting, nor does the Vice President, but I think we are going to have some very serious talks come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We have to have border security. If we don’t have border security we are going to be crime-ridden and it’s going to get worse and worse. And we’re so sad watching the funeral of the slain police officer yesterday. Officer Singh. It was a very sad thing. But this is going on in many places. If you go back to the…

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Commentary: Senator Lindsey Graham Makes A Great Point

by CHQ Staff   Ever since the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings Senator Lindsey Graham has been on a roll, and his appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday was a great example. Graham warned that the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over border wall funding cannot end as long as the “radical left” insists on reflexively calling Republicans racist for supporting immigration officials. Democrats who want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deride Border Patrol agents for using tear gas hold too much power in the ongoing shutdown negotiations, Graham said. “We’re having to negotiate with people who want to abolish ICE, not support ICE,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “We’re having to negotiate with people who see border patrol agents gassing children, rather than defending our borders as professional law enforcement officers.” He continued: “And we’re negotiating with people who will accuse all of us who support a wall as part of border security as racists. As long as the radical left is in charge, we’re not going to get anywhere. … The goal is to fix a broken immigration system, to bring reality to this table.” Sen. Graham is right but fixing our broken…

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Marsha Blackburn Says Voters Sent Her To DC To Secure The Border

by Nick Givas   Republican Sen.-elect Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said voters sent her to Washington to help secure the U.S. southern border, on “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday. “Let me tell you something. There is an acronym for the word team. My mom used it with me growing up. Together everyone achieves more. And what Tennesseans are looking at is a president who has delivered on turning the economy around, promise kept,” Blackburn said on Fox News. “He has delivered on moving the embassy to Jerusalem and he has delivered when it comes to working, defeating ISIS, dealing with China, dealing with trade, getting us back on the road to economic prosperity and Tennesseans want to see more of that action,” she continued. “And I’ll tell you something else they want to see is that border secured.” Blackburn said she has spoken to various constituents and is planning to focus on polices that help maintain America’s sovereignty while promoting faith and family. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com “I say as an elected official and as someone Tennesseans have sent to Washington, D.C., to represent them, they are saying look, Marsha, do everything that you possibly can do to help keep this nation free…

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White House Aide Blasts Reporter After He Said Trump Was Not Working During Shutdown

by Henry Rodgers   White House aide Hogan Gidley called out a reporter for saying President Donald Trump was not working Monday amid the ninth day of the government shutdown, demanding he “correct the record.” Gidley, Trump’s deputy press secretary, was responding to Playboy’s White House reporter Brian Karem, who tweeted out a photo of the West Wing, saying since there was no Marine present at the doorway, the president was not in the Oval Office. Gidley said he looked into the Oval Office right after seeing the tweet, and saw Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk working, and said Karem did not even call the press team to ask if he was working before sending out the tweet. I just looked into the Oval Office myself, and @POTUS was in fact sitting behind the Resolute Desk working. So, now I’m just waiting for you and the rest of your ilk to either stop jumping to false conclusions, correct the record, or, here’s a thought, call the press team to ask. https://t.co/uzIp0i7Dwo — Hogan Gidley (@hogangidley45) December 31, 2018 This all comes as President Donald Trump has said he will not budge on the $5 billion requested for a border wall, one of…

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The House of Representatives Approves $5.7 Billion in Spending for ‘The Wall’

Late Thursday following weeks of political invective and shutdown threats, the House of Representatives passed – by a final vote of 217-185 – a measure that will fund the government through February 8 that included an allocation of over five billion dollars for the construction of a physical barrier along the United States’ southern border. Commonly referred to as “The Wall,” the massive construction project is a key campaign promise President Trump is one step closer in fulfilling. In remarks Thursday afternoon during the signing ceremony for the Farm Bill (the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018), President Trump reiterated his demand to Congress: At this moment, there is a debate over funding border security and the wall, also called — so that I give them a little bit of an out — “steel slats.”  We don’t use the word “wall” necessarily, but it has to be something special to do the job — steel slats. I’ve made my position very clear: Any measure that funds the government must include border security.  It has to.  Not for political purposes but for our country, for the safety of our community. Breitbart News reported: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) cheered the bill’s…

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Donations Pouring In for Florida Vet’s Fundraiser to Build the Wall

A Florida veteran and triple amputee launched a GoFundMe Sunday to fund President Donald Trump’s border wall, and he’s already raised more than $200,000 and counting. The fundraiser has been public for just over two days and donations are already pouring in. According to Brian Kolfage, an Iraq war veteran and public figure, if the 63 million people who voted for Trump each donate $80, then there would be enough money to pay for the wall. “Democrats are going to stall this project by every means possible and play political games to ensure President Trump doesn’t get his victory. They’d rather see President Trump fail than see America succeed,” Kolfage says on the fundraiser’s page. “However, if we can fund a large portion of this wall, it will jumpstart things and will be less money Trump has to secure from our politicians.” Kolfage provided extensive information about himself to assure supporters that the fundraiser is not a scam, and notes that his team has already “contacted the Trump administration to secure a point of contact where all funds will go upon completion.” “We are working with a law firm on a legal document that will bind the government to using…

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Commentary: Seriously, Just Order The Pentagon To Build The Wall

by Brandon Weichert   The estimated price tag on President Trump’s “big, beautiful” southern border wall is $25 billion—a paltry sum compared with the ways government otherwise fritters away taxpayers’ dollars. Yet a government shutdown looms—and Democrats can’t have that. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) paid a visit to the White House on Tuesday to make a deal with the president to pass a continuing budget resolution that would keep the government running through March. Trump said he would be more than happy to deal—as long as Congress gives him his wall. Democrats can’t have that, either. Pelosi, who will almost certainly be the new speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes in January, told reporters on Thursday that Trump won’t get his wall and vowed to keep the government “closed forever” if that’s what it takes. For his part, Trump has insisted that if negotiations with Congress fail, he will simply direct the Pentagon to build the wall. It’s strange that the president already hasn’t ordered the Pentagon to build the wall. After all, border security is a basic and vital function of the military. The military, however, has been reluctant to engage in this…

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Commentary: Only Two Weeks Left for Republicans to Get It

by Rachel Bovard   There’s only one area where bipartisanship still reigns in Washington: avoidance. Republican and Democrat leaders this week held hands and used the funeral events for President George H. W. Bush as an excuse to move their funding deadline—which previously expired on December 7—two weeks forward, to December 21, four days before Christmas. In doing this, Congress isn’t getting festive. Rather, backing up a government funding deadline dangerously close to the Christmas holiday is an old political tactic, designed to assure passage of bloated and controversial spending bills. In the old days, the carrots in this equation were earmarks—funding pet projects of lawmakers was the way to grease the skids on controversial bills. But now that earmarks have been banned (in theory, anyway), the only option left is a stick: threatening lawmakers with chaos, missed Christmas holidays and a government shutdown, unless they instantly (and many times, without reading) pass whatever bill their leaders cook up. This is a vexing development for conservatives, particularly when it comes to the big will-they-won’t-they question circulating around Washington: the fate of Trump’s border wall. If GOP leaders are already willing to waste critical weeks in the waning days of their majority, what…

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DHS to Waive Environmental Laws for Border Wall Construction

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it would waive environmental laws so it could build gates between sections of border barriers in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The waiver posted online lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. DHS has in recent months issued similar waivers of environmental laws for projects elsewhere on the southwest border. The U.S. government already has around 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of fencing on the southwest border. In far South Texas, segments of fencing stop and start along the levee built next to the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico. Many parts of the fencing are built a significant distance from the river, in some cases bisecting private property. The proposed gates would seal some of those gaps in Cameron County. U.S. Customs and Border Protection typically grants affected residents access to the gates so they can get to the other side of their land. The government also separately plans to begin building new barriers to fulfill President Donald Trump’s signature campaign pledge to build a border wall. Congress earlier this year approved $1.6 billion for new border wall spending, which included funding…

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MIT Study: The Number Of Illegal Immigrants Could Be Double Previous Estimates

by Will Racke   The true number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. — long a subject of intense debate — could be twice as high as commonly accepted figures, according to a study by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher. The study published Friday by Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi, a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, estimates there are about 22.1 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today. Most frequently cited estimates put the number between 11 and 12 million. Such a wide discrepancy is explained by deficiencies in the methods researchers have used to arrive at previous estimates, according to Fazel-Zarandi. In the past, researchers typically extrapolated the total number of illegal immigrants from population surveys and legal immigration records. Fazel-Zarandi and his colleagues used mathematical modeling based on “operational data” — border apprehensions, deportations, visa overstays and demographic data — to arrive at their estimate. The approach eliminated the uncertainty found in methods that rely on surveys, which are a less reliable gauge of the illegal immigrant population, according to Fazel-Zarandi. “It’s very likely that undocumented immigrants are more difficult to locate and survey than other foreign-born residents, and if contacted, they might be inclined to misreport their country of origin, citizenship,…

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Twenty-Five Straight Minutes Of People Illegally Crossing The US Border Through Arizona Ranch

illegal border crossing

by Will Racke   Arizona rancher John Chilton’s 50,000-acre spread along the U.S.-Mexico border is allegedly ground zero for human smugglers, drug cartel members and illegal immigrants, and he has videos showing trespassers sneaking through his property. A fifth-generation cattleman, the 79-year-old Chilton has long warned the government about the dangers of leaving lengthy stretches of the southwest border secured by nothing more than a barbed wire fence. To prove his point, he set up surveillance cameras throughout his property to document the comings and goings of trespassers from south of the border. Chilton shared hours of video footage with Daily Caller News Foundation reporters, who are in Arizona to document life and crime in the southwest borderlands. Tim Foley, the founder of Arizona Border Recon, also shared his group’s surveillance footage with TheDCNF. The surveillance videos, which are mostly from 2018 but also date back to 2016, show an unrelenting stream of alleged cartel scouts, drug mules and human smugglers — known as coyotes — using secret trails to work their way into the interior of the state. Many of the trespassers tote long guns and sport military-style camouflage, posing a threat Chilton knows from firsthand experience. A U.S.…

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Jim Jordan Tells Republicans How They Can Keep House Majority: ‘Build The Wall’

by Nick Givas   GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Republicans must fund and build a southern border wall if they hope to maintain their congressional majority this November. “We should do what we said. What was probably the single biggest promise Republicans made to the voters in 2016? It was the border security wall,” Jordan said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday. “So let’s get that done here before the end of the fiscal year. Let’s do what we said and let’s head into the election and let’s keep the majority,” he said. Jordan said the midterms are expected to have many close races, but claimed Republicans could increase their chances if they kept their promise to reform the immigration system. “Everyone’s talking about how tight this election is going to be. I think that’s accurate. I think we can keep the majority but I think we increase our chances of keeping the majority if we do a simple thing,” he said. “Do what we promised the voters we were going to do.” “Again, this was probably the central thing that the people elected Republicans to do is secure our border. Build the border security wall,” Jordan concluded. “So let’s get it done on the…

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With the End of the Fiscal Year September 30, Congress Is Running Out of Time to Fund ‘The Wall’

Donald Trump, The Wall

By Robert Romano   The 2018 fiscal year will end on Sept. 30 but Congress is no closer to achieving key Trump administration priorities including fully funding the southern border wall, something President Donald Trump has been demanding since 2017 and campaigned on extensively in 2016. So far, both the House and the Senate have passed appropriations bills for Defense, Energy & Water, Interior, Agriculture, Financial Services, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, Legislative Branch and Military/Veterans. But so far, no wall. Of those, Energy & Water, Legislative Branch and Military/Veterans have been consolidated into a single bill, H.R. 5895, which is now in conference between the House and Senate. And Interior, Agriculture, Financial Services and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development have been consolidated into H.R. 6147. Everything else, including Commerce/Justice/Science, Homeland Security (which includes the wall), Labor/HHS/Education and State/Foreign Operations that have not already passed both chambers are likely to be wrapped up in a continuing resolution at the end of this month. On one hand, that can be a good thing — or at least a not bad thing —insofar as it gives Congress a little bit more of an opportunity to get those things right. For example, the Labor-HHS…

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Trump Threatens Government Shutdown Over Border Wall Funding

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump threatened Sunday to shut down the government if Congress does not fund construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration. The U.S. leader claimed opposition Democrats need to give him “the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!” and other tougher national immigration policy changes. But it was a splintered Republican majority bloc of lawmakers, along with unified Democratic opposition, that twice in recent weeks rejected immigration changes Trump supported. Trump, in a Twitter comment, called for the U.S. to “finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country! I would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018 Trump’s call for a wall, a favorite vow from his 2016 presidential campaign, would likely cost more than $20 billion, but Congress so far has allocated only $1.5 billion for extra border security. Democrats have often…

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Mexico President-Elect Writes to Trump About Migration, NAFTA

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to initiate “a new stage in the relationship” of the two countries and to make progress in the areas of “trade, migration, development and security.” Lopez Obrador handed the seven-page letter to a U.S. delegation that visited the country on July 13. Marcelo Ebrard, foreign minister-designate, read the letter to reporters on Sunday, and said Trump had received the letter. In the letter, Lopez Obrador said Mexico is home to the largest number of Americans living outside the U.S. and “the United States is the largest home for Mexicans outside of our borders.” “I believe that the understanding that I propose in this letter should lead us to a worthy and respectful treatment of these communities,” he said. Lopez Obrador suggested creating a development plan that included other Central American countries, where migrants also live in poverty and lack job opportunities. He suggested that if the U.S., Mexico and other Central American countries, “each one contributing according to the size of its economy. … We could gather a considerable amount of resources for the development of the region.” The plan, according to the president-elect, would spend…

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Evidence from Many Nations Confirms That Border Walls Stem the Tide of Illegal Immigration

Great Wall of China

by Daniel Marulanda and James D. Agresti   The border between the United States and Mexico stretches for 1,960 miles, parting two major regions of the world with vastly different governments, standards of living, and levels of crime. Consequently, many millions of people have risked their lives to illegally cross the border into the United States. During 2013 to 2015 alone, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded an average of 700,000 illegal entries per year along the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, roughly one million people per year legally immigrate to the U.S., 100 million per year legally visit the U.S., and more than 300,000 per year illegally overstay their visits, often never leaving. People who illegally enter the U.S. avoid criminal background checks, and as a result, they have much higher serious crime rates than legal immigrants and the general U.S. population. Highlighting the impact of this, a U.S. 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 2.9 million offenses committed within the U.S.—including 69,929 sex offenses and 25,064 homicides. Like most government data, this study did not isolate legal non-citizens from illegal ones, but given that legal immigrants have to undergo background checks, the vast bulk of these criminals were probably in the U.S. illegally. Mexico is…

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Mexican President-Elect Lopez Obrador Proposes Border Force To Contain Illegal Immigration Into Mexico

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

by Will Racke   Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is planning to create a specialized border force to combat illegal immigration across Mexico’s borders, according to his hand-picked security chief. The new force is aimed at stanching the flow of illegal immigrants and contraband from Central America and will also be deployed to Mexico’s northern border, Alfonso Durazo said, according to Bloomberg. It is part of Lopez Obrador’s broader strategy against regional violence, corruption and poverty. “We’re going to create a border police force that will be highly specialized,” Durazo, who is set to become Mexico’s public security minister when Lopez Obrador takes office in December, told Bloomberg in an interview. “They need to apply the law” against illicit migration and human trafficking, he added. A left-wing populist, Lopez Obrador won the presidency on July 1 on the strength of a campaign against the Mexican political establishment, which he blamed for Mexico’s seemingly intractable cartel violence and public corruption. Though he sparred with President Donald Trump over the U.S. government’s treatment of Mexican migrants, he has promised to contain illegal immigration in his own country by using a combination of tighter enforcement and humanitarian aid. In a meeting of Lopez Obrador’s…

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Commentary: Fund The Wall Before Any Other Immigration Legislation

Donald Trump, The Wall

by CHQ Staff   Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have suddenly found the time and energy to pass a quick legislative fix to end the practice of separating parents from children when they cross illegally into the country – but they apparently do not plan to act on any real illegal immigration fixes, such as funding the border wall. According to reporting by The Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, is working with other GOP senators on a bill that would allow families who enter the country illegally to remain together at immigration facilities at the border as they await adjudication. The Trump administration has said a court decision requires family separation as adults are prosecuted. Cornyn’s bill would eliminate that requirement, and speed up court hearings for people seeking admission into the country, which can take months. “The answer to this current situation is a solution that allows us to both enforce the law and keep families together,” Cornyn said Tuesday. “They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has said he talked to Trump about the idea, and said it could move as quickly as this week. “It could be…

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Rep. Diane Black Introduces Novel Crowdsourcing Bill to Fund ‘The Wall’

Embracing the online ‘crowdsourcing’ trend pioneered by inventors and entrepreneurs to raise vast sums of money, support and sometimes, fame, Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) introduced a novel bill late last week that would create a trust fund in the U.S. Treasury that could accept money donated by individuals and earmark the funds to cover the costs associated with one of the flagship campaign promises by then-candidate Trump: the construction of a border wall along the southern border. “While Democrats block commonsense border security and put illegal immigrants before our families, we are going to put America first,” Rep. Black said in a statement accompanying the proposal. She added: Real immigration reform cannot be achieved without a secure border – President Trump has been clear about this since day one. The most important job of the federal government is the safety and security of the American people, and if citizens in our country wish to contribute to this effort, they absolutely should be given the opportunity. Americans know that President Trump is committed to protecting our nation for future generations, and we are ready to stand with him to build the wall. “The Border Wall Trust Fund Act” is a four-page bill, H.R. 5876 that…

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President Trump Will Seek Full Funding Soon for His Border Wall

President Trump and the Border Wall

Reuters News Service President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would soon push for full funding of his promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, which could spark budget battles in a Congress fractured over his immigration policy. “Now we’re going for the full funding for the wall, and we’re going to try and get that as soon as possible,” Trump said at a roundtable with California municipal leaders who favor his goal of making the U.S. border impervious to illegal immigration. Last month Trump threatened to shut down the federal government in September if Congress did not provide more funding for his wall. If that happens, it would mark the second time in one year the U.S. government was shuttered over immigration, with an impasse leading to a brief shutdown in January. Center and right-wing lawmakers from Trump’s Republican party are split on legislation that would protect young illegal immigrants from deportation, torn over how far it should go to clamp down on legal and illegal immigration. At the roundtable Trump voiced hostility for the country’s southern neighbor, Mexico, which is partnering with the United States and Canada in an unprecedented bid to host the World Cup in…

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