At least 225,797 people were apprehended entering the U.S. illegally nationwide in December, according to official U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released late Friday.
Combining official apprehension data with preliminary Border Patrol reported gotaway data obtained by The Center Square – a record 87,631 in gotaways – December numbers total at least 313,428, another record.
December’s total was greater than November’s record-breaking total of at least 306,069.
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Foreign nationals illegally entering the U.S. are increasingly entering through Vermont at an unprecedented rate.
In October, the Swanton Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes all of Vermont, saw a 676% increase in apprehensions of illegal foreign nationals compared to last year, according to Border Patrol data. Agents apprehended 334 people from 19 countries in October, and the “upward trend continues,” Swanton Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.
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An Arizona county sheriff is siding with protesters and demanding for Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to stop sending shipping containers to the border for a makeshift wall.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway said Ducey’s order to use containers as the border wall is “illegal dumping,” and he plans on arresting construction crews and security personnel if they come to his county, Fox 10 Phoenix reported Saturday.
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Preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by The Center Square from a border agent shows record numbers of apprehensions and gotaways at the southern border in November.
Agents apprehended 212,608 illegal foreign nationals and recorded at least 93,461 who evaded law enforcement and are now living illegally somewhere in the U.S. Combined, they total at least 306,069.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered more than 230,000 migrants at the southern border in October, beginning fiscal year 2023 with a record surge, according to agency statistics released late Monday night.
Federal border authorities encountered 230,678 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in October, a 1.3% increase from the previous month, according to CBP. There was also a record number of migrants crossing the border in fiscal year 2022, with roughly 2.3 million migrants encounter
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Border security is a life-or-death issue with many implications. Beyond the economic and electoral effects of illegal immigration, violent criminals and highly lethal drugs often enter the U.S. through its porous southern border. In addition, hundreds of people die each year while trying to cross the border.
Annual totals of border crossing deaths are commonly published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within about five or six months of the close of the federal government’s fiscal year on September 30th.
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A U.S. Senator from Tennessee spent much of the day Monday and Tuesday blasting President Joe Biden’s administration for its lack of interest in border security.
“At least 98 potential terrorists exploited Joe Biden’s open border in the last year. This is a dire national security crisis,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tapped a “suicidologist” to address the rising suicides among its ranks amid a surge in illegal migration at the southern border, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
Dr. Kent Corso, who began the role in early 2021 during high migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, was the first to do so for any government entity, according to the Examiner.
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A suspected human smuggler has been charged with serious crimes after he allegedly attempted to run a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent off the road.
“Last week, Daniel Jerome Wagner, 54, of Phoenix, Arizona, was arrested on one count of Assault on a Federal Officer with the Use of a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon,” said a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press release. “Wagner was charged by criminal complaint and had his initial appearance on Friday before United States Magistrate Judge Eric J. Markovich.”
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The judges and commissioners of four more Texas counties have declared an invasion at the southern border, bringing to 22 the number of counties that have done so.
Jasper, Madison, Throckmorton and Wichita counties are the latest to declare an invasion.
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On Tuesday, an inspector general’s report was released regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) handling of the vetting process for alleged “refugees” fleeing Afghanistan as the country collapsed last year.
The Daily Caller reports that the DHS Inspector General concluded that the agency failed to “properly” vet refugees who were determined later to be a “risk to national security,” bringing potential terrorists back to the United States while leaving behind many American citizens as the country fell into the hands of the Taliban.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said over the weekend that it rescued two young children who were “left to die” by human smugglers in the scorching Arizona desert.
“Yesterday smugglers left an infant and a toddler in the Sonoran Desert to die. This is cruelty. And it is gut-wrenching. I commend our agents for their quick response to this dreadful incident and to every incident in which migrant lives are at stake,” CBP’s Chief Patrol Agent in the Tucson Sector John R. Modlin said.
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A Mexican national has pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in a scheme to bribe a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the purpose of smuggling illegal aliens into the country.
“Luis Alfredo Quintero-Gonzalez, 36, of Mexico, pleaded guilty on August 11, 2022, for Conspiracy to Commit Bribery and Alien Smuggling, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). “Evidence gathered during the investigation established that Quintero-Gonzalez paid former United States Border Patrol (USBP) agent Carlos Passapera thousands of dollars in cash bribes for smuggling undocumented noncitizens into the United States between August and December 2019.”
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According to local reports, about 600 illegal aliens crossed into the United States on Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.
“Roughly 600 people crossed in separate groups into Yuma since midnight according to volunteers handing out water,” said reporter Ali Bradley. “When I arrived there were roughly 100 still waiting. This is the gap I’m told will stay open to act as a funnel for Border Patrol to work more efficiently.”
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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently shared the total number of encounters at the southern border in July, and several of Arizona’s leaders have spoken on the new numbers, including Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (r-AZ-04).
“For the seventeenth straight month, more than 150,000 illegal aliens crossed the southern border including [nearly] 200,000 illegal aliens in July 2022. Since Biden and the open border democrats took over in January 2021, they have facilitated an invasion of our sovereign borders of more than 4.2 million illegal aliens. Included in this invasion are terrorists – over five dozen documented so far, drug traffickers, sex traffickers and common criminals,” Gosar said.
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Federal law enforcement has seized another load of counterfeit diabetic socks at the Area Port of Norfolk-Newport News. The 165,707 pairs of socks in the seizure would be worth more than $2.6 million in manufacturer suggested retail price if they were legitimate.
“Norfolk, VA CBP Officers Seize Second Significant Sham Socks Shipment destined to Loudoun County, VA,” the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Baltimore field office announced Tuesday.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Arizona said Monday it confiscated a look-alike fire department vehicle that it suspects smugglers were using to traffic illegal aliens across the border.
“#ClonedVehicle seized by Douglas Station. Agents responded to a suspected vehicle incursion and encountered the abandoned SUV. Mormon Lake Fire Dist. decals were improperly labeled as ‘Mormon Like.’ Several individuals fled from the vehicle to Mexico before agents arrived,” said Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin on Twitter.
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The Biden administration has ended a program used to expel migrants to Mexico as they await immigration proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement Monday.
The Trump-era policy, which is also known as “Remain in Mexico,” was long fought in the courts after the Texas attorney general sued the Biden administration for ending the program.
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Over the weekend, a large group of minor illegal aliens was caught crossing the U.S. southern border with Mexico near the town of Sasabe.
“A group of 51 migrants, mostly Guatemalan citizens, were taken into custody by Tucson Station agents near Sasabe, AZ. There was only one adult in the group, and the youngest child was just 11-months-old,” said John Modlin, Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector. “Several agents responded to assist with transport and processing.”
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The union that represents U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Friday endorsed a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia.
“We are proud to endorse Herschel Walker … for U.S. Senate from the state of Georgia. We need him to help secure our border and safeguard the citizens of GA and the rest of the country from the record setting deadly influx of drugs, crime and illegal immigration,” said the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC).
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The number of migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border decreased in June, but remained at a historic high, according to numbers released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Friday.
CBP encountered 207,416 migrants at the southern border, a 14% decrease compared to May. There were 92,274 migrants immediately expelled under Title 42, the public health order activated during the COVID-19 pandemic, in June.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Area Port of Norfolk-Newport News seized 118,566 pairs of “counterfeit cotton foot coverings” — diabetic socks worth about $1.9 million in retail if they were authentic.
CBP officers “certainly do not suffer from cold feet when it comes to enforcing intellectual property rights laws,” a CBP press release quipped.
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The Biden administration’s messaging on immigration has created “confusion” that human smugglers and traffickers have exploited, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
Giammattei said smugglers know it’s easier to get people into the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration as a family, and that smugglers have used children, whether biological or not, in order to get their clients across the border. He mentioned the Biden administration’s effort to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents migrants brought to the U.S. as children from being immediately deported, as exacerbating the problem.
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Border Patrol agents in California on Monday seized enough fentanyl to kill over 2 million people. The population of San Diego is an estimated 1.4 million.
Agents in the El Centro border sector searched the vehicle at a highway checkpoint, where they found six black packages wrapped in cellophane hidden inside the car’s dashboard and air vents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Wednesday. The male driver, 53, and the female passenger, 27, in the car were both from Mexico and didn’t have the proper documents to be in the U.S.
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On the tenth anniversary of the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a law that gives illegal aliens who were brought to America as children immunity from deportation, Arizona’s Democrats are calling for a permanent solution.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of #DACA, said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ-03). “It’s a reminder that we have a moral obligation to protect Dreamers in AZ and across the nation. We must guarantee certainty for those who have known no other home but this one.”
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Border authorities in Texas seized 22 pounds of fentanyl worth $339,300 that a smuggler was attempting to drive into the U.S. on Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be enough to kill a person, 22 pounds is 9,979,032 milligrams. Applying the DEA’s own metrics, this means the latest seizure is enough to kill 4,989,516 people.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Arizona’s Yuma Sector Tuesday announced that it apprehended more than 30 illegal aliens who were attempting to be smuggled into the United States in one van.
“U.S. Border Patrol intelligence agents intercepted a smuggling attempt after National Guard members witnessed multiple suspected migrants load into a van Friday morning,” said Chris T. Clem, Chief Patrol Agent at the Yuma Sector. “Agents discovered 33 migrants inside the van. The U.S. driver and Mex[ican] passenger[s] were arrested.”
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In a shocking revelation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Tuesday announced that it apprehended nearly 250,000 migrants entering the United States in April alone.
Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) discussed the news Tuesday night.
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A U.S. Congressman from Arizona Monday reacted to a report that nearly two dozen suspected terrorists were caught crossing the border into the United States illegally in 2021.
“As seen by the events on 9/11, we know that it only takes a handful of harmful actors to wreak devastation on our country,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) told The Arizona Sun Times. “[U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s] latest figures are alarming but are not unexpected.”
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The Biden administration is likely to make more than 200,000 detentions at the U.S.-Mexico border in the month of March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) preliminary data obtained by The Washington Post.
The increase will mark the highest monthly total since August 2021, the Post reported. CBP detained nearly 7,500 migrants per day in custody in February.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leadership is allowing officials to waive a pandemic-related public health order for Ukrainians seeking asylum at ports of entry at U.S. borders, according to a memo obtained by CBS News.
“The Department of Homeland Security recognizes that the unjustified Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis,” the executive director of CBP’s Admissibility and Passenger Programs, Matthew Davies, wrote in a memo, CBS News reported. “CBP is authorized, consistent with the Title 42 Order, on a case-by-case basis based on the totality of the circumstances, including considerations of humanitarian interests, to except Ukrainian nationals at land border ports of entry from Title 42.”
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A progressive member of the U.S. Congress from Arizona is asking President Joe Biden’s administration not to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, and to end contracts for private detention centers, despite the fact that illegal alien crossings at the U.S. southern border continue to surge.
“Multiple investigations into these private prisons found substandard living conditions for detained people, crowding, under-staffing, and even deaths of people in custody,” a letter signed by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-03) said. “And while President Biden issued an Executive Order ending the Department of Justice’s use of for-profit prisons, it does not apply to immigration detention facilities.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine Operations crews operating P-3 aircraft from Texas and Florida participated in multi-agency counter narcotics operations that led to the seizure of 4.7 tons (9,475 pounds) of cocaine worth $179.2 million in a two-month timeframe, according to CBP.
Air and Marine Operations (AMO) agents operating along U.S. borders, coastlines and territorial waters are especially trained to combat maritime smuggling. They’re tasked with interdicting unlawful people and cargo approaching U.S. borders and investigating criminal networks, providing domain awareness in air and maritime environments and responding to a range of contingencies.
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) disclosed to a congressional office that migrants flying without proper identification can use an arrest warrant as an alternate form of identification when presenting to airport security, according to a letter the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively obtained.
Responding to Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden’s Dec. 15 inquiry about migrants flying across the country, TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable forms of alternate identification for non-citizens, including a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.”
“TSA’s response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security at risk,” Gooden told the DCNF. “Unknown and unvetted immigrants shouldn’t even be in the country, much less flying without proper identification.”
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Customs officials at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport seized more than 100 pounds of deadly “bushmeat” from travelers during the last week of December alone. Despite its potential for “deadly effects” and outbreaks of disease, there will be no consequences for the culprits.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bushmeat refers to “raw or minimally processed meat that comes from wild animals in certain regions of the world including Africa” and may pose a risk of communicable disease.
“Bushmeat comes from a variety of wild animals, including bats, nonhuman primates (monkeys), cane rats (grasscutters), and duiker (antelope),” the CDC says.
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In a Wednesday press release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a press release detailing its efforts to curb smuggling through the port in Cincinnati, which it says ranked fifth in the nation for smuggling busts in fiscal year 2021.
“From October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021, Cincinnati seized 6,738 shipments, ranking the port in fifth-place for seizures among all 328 CBP ports of entry nationwide,” the release said. “Additionally, Cincinnati agriculture specialists issued 7,240 Emergency Action Notifications (EANs), the highest number of agriculture seizures ever recorded at the port.”
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The lethal synthetic drug fentanyl has been increasingly trafficked into the U.S., and, in fiscal year 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a 134% increase in seizures of the illicit drug.
Fentanyl is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, and a lethal dose is about 2 milligrams, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has recently warned about the increase in fentanyl-laced pills cartels in Mexico are manufacturing with chemicals provided by China.
The drug is fueling an overdose epidemic in the U.S., and is the leading killer 18-45 year olds nationwide.
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Yuma’s mayor has declared a state of emergency in the city over the border crisis, which has overwhelmed much of the American southwest.
“Well, it’s not surprising because in 2019, if we go back for a little history, we were having a similar surge during the Trump administration and there were policies put in place that mitigated those numbers to nearly… below 10,000 a year,” Mayor Douglas Nicholls said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers apprehended more people in November than October and confiscated a record amount of drugs last month, according to its latest operational report.
In November at the southern border, encounters with unaccompanied minors increased by 9% from October, with family units by 5%, and with single adults also by 5%.
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The new head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), sworn into his new role Monday, is an open borders extremist and left-wing activists for causes like Black Lives Matter (BLM).
Former Tucson Police Chief Christopher Magnus is the new CBP, which former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and immigration hardliner Tom Homan described as the “final nail in the coffin for immigration enforcement.”
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The number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees that are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 rose to 17,192 after the federal mandate deadline, according to a document obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The DCNF earlier reported that as of Nov. 14, 16,500 border agents were fully vaccinated, and 4,165 border agents were unvaccinated. The federal mandate deadline was Nov. 22.
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As the border crisis largely unabated due to a seemingly-disinterested White House, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Tucson Sector continues its uphill battle to stop the illegal alien influx.
It reported Tuesday that it captured a teenage human smuggler attempting to enter the United States.
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After a Wednesday meeting with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Tucson Sector, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) explained to KTAR what he learned.
“One real eye-opening thing that we learned yesterday is that the cartels are using social media to pick up folks that have been trafficked over the border,” Ducey reportedly said. “They’re actually offering American citizens cash on the spot if they’ll deliver people from border drop-off points, like an illegal Uber into the state.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from the Tucson Sector Wednesday announced that it had seized a massive quantity of the extremely lethal drug fentanyl.
“U.S. Border Patrol agents working the Interstate 19 Immigration Checkpoint near Amado, Arizona, seized over 50 pounds of suspected fentanyl and arrested the driver of the vehicle Monday morning,” a CBP press release said.
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A Monroe County Sheriff’s officer found 32 migrants suspected of traveling to the U.S. from Cuba hiding in a boat after pulling a truck over for driving too slow in Marathon, Florida, law enforcement officials announced on Monday.
Sgt. Joel Slough conducted a routine traffic stop of a rental truck hauling a large boat and found four suspected migrants in the vehicle including three young children, according to the sheriff’s department. Law enforcement officials discovered two pregnant women and a 17-year-old along with dozens of other migrants hiding in the boat.
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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Yuma Sector late last week announced that it arrested a previously convicted and deported child sex offender attempting to reenter the United States.
“Yuma Sector agents arrested a child rapist that illegally entered the U.S. on Monday,” CBP’ Yuma’s Chief Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem said. “The migrant, Edgard Antonio Gutierrez-Martinez, has felony convictions for first degree child rape and incest. Agents turned over the migrant to US Marshals this morning to face prosecution.”
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is not backing down Friday after it turned out that the viral narrative that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was “whipping” Haitian migrants at the border to turned out to be false.
“These are human rights abuses, plain and simple. Cruel, inhumane, and a violation of domestic and international law. This needs a course correction and the issuance of a clear directive on how to humanely process asylums seekers at our border,” Omar said on Twitter when the scandal first emerged.
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Just a month after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Memphis, Tennessee announced that it had confiscated thousands of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards, CBP officials in Cincinnati made a similar bust.
“Since August 16, Cincinnati officers have seized five shipments containing a total of 1,683 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards and 2,034 fake Pfizer inoculation stickers,” a CBP press release said.
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America First Legal is demanding an investigation into the Biden administration regarding its withdrawal from Afghanistan and is requesting answers from a number of government agencies over the handling of evacuees, according to a letter and six Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The group has asked the Department of Defense (D0D) acting inspector general for an investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, specifically into the reported “‘Kill List’ Given to the Taliban,” information revealing what the president knew from intelligence reports, details about the “abandoned equipment and assets” and about leaving Bagram air base, as well as information about the “effective deployment of US air force assets.”
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In a creative attempt at smuggling illegal aliens into the United States, a driver was pulled over near Tucson in an SUV painted to replicate those driven by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
This is not a Border Patrol vehicle. [Homeland Security Investigation Phoenix] and [Border Patrol] agents from [Tucson] Station foiled a smuggling attempt using a cloned vehicle and a fake uniform. The driver and 10 migrants were taken into custody,” said Chief Patrol Agent of CBP’s Tucson Sector John R. Modlin on Twitter.
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