Immigration

House GOP leader announces get-tough immigration bill

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced Friday a new get-tough immigration bill that would build the rest of President Trump’s border wall, punish sanctuary cities and stiffen penalties on repeat-illegal immigrants. The bill is unlikely to see action in the near future but instead serves as a marker for House Republicans as they prepare for what’s likely to be a renewed immigration debate in December or, should Democrats win control of the House, early next year. “Maintaining strong borders is one of the basic responsibilities of any nation. For too long, America has failed in this responsibility,” Mr. McCarthy said in announcing the bill. Mr. Trump is likely to be most excited about the wall funding, which is symbolically important to fulfilling a campaign pledge, but the more substantive parts of the bill deal with withholding federal money from sanctuary cities, shrinking several categories of humanitarian relief and boosting jail time for illegal immigrants who amass serious criminal records. The bill does not cover illegal immigrant “Dreamers.” An earlier GOP push this year for a crackdown strategy toward illegal immigration faltered after a number of Republicans were unable to back the legislation because it didn’t include full citizenship rights for millions of illegal immigrants.

ICE officers demand Portland mayor relinquish control of police after Occupy ICE protests

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers asked Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler to give up his authority over the city’s police Wednesday and face investigation for his handling of this summer’s violent Occupy ICE protests, saying Wednesday that he broke state laws and violated Americans’ civil rights. The National ICE Council, the union that represents ICE harassed and menaced during the protests, asked both U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to open investigations into Mr. Wheeler’s behavior. Portland’s protests were the most disruptive ones during a nationwide outbreak of anti-ICE activities, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers put the blame on Mr. Wheeler, saying he had a chance to cool things down but instead fueled violence with his orders to police instructing them not to respond to calls related to the Occupy protest unless they involved an immediate threat to someone’s life. The ICE officers say 911 calls from employees who were being followed or targeted by protesters were either ignored or given short shrift by officers, and ICE had to shut down its office in the city for weeks. “Instead of faithfully executing his oath of office and pledge to support the Constitutions of the United States and Oregon, as well as the laws of Portland, Mayor Wheeler chose to leave his fellow citizens to fend for themselves for over a month against a lawless mob which included violent militant groups,” Mr. Crane said. In the letter to Oregon’s attorney general Sean J. Riddell, the ICE Council’s lawyer, said Mr. Wheeler’s leadership of the police has been tainted. “Our hope is that Mr. Wheeler relinquishes his supervisory authority of the Portland Police Bureau pending the outcome of your investigation,” the lawyer said. Neither Mr. Wheeler’s office nor the Oregon attorney general’s office returned messages sent Wednesday morning seeking comment. Text messages obtained by the ICE Council show the mayor’s office issuing its directive to the Portland Police Bureau to avoid responding to calls from those involved in or targeted by the protest. “Here’s where our office stands: The mayor will provide strategic direction to PPB. He will not dictate tactics[,] we will leave that to the expertise of PPB. In this case, the mayor’s strategic direction is for PPB to not get involved unless lives are in danger,” read one message the ICE officers obtained. A follow-up email showed the police decided that meant they would not “proactively patrol” the protest, and would only respond to calls “that have an immediate life safety concern.” That meant ignoring calls from ICE employees trying to get their cars out of parking lots blocked by protesters unless they felt they were specifically threatened, the email said. Mr. Crane says he tried to work things out with Mr. Wheeler directly over the summer, with his lawyer sending a cease-and-desist letter to the mayor. In a July 31 response, Mr. Wheeler disputed the ICE officers’ version of events. He denied there was a policy of refusing to answer calls from ICE employees — though he said it was up to the federal government to police its own property in the city. Mr. Wheeler said he didn’t want his officers “to be engaged or sucked into a conflict for the purpose of securing federal property that houses a federal agency with their own federal police force.”

Mayor Wheeler is a real team player…not.  He’s your garden variety, extreme liberal Democrat who is a speech nazi, and wants even more gun-control Porland…imagine that!  Now, the focus of his energy is fighting ICE.  What a tool..  Let’s hope that AG Jeff Sessions puts the legal screw on this loser.

Study: Trump’s ‘America First’ Immigration Plan Would Stabilize U.S. Population Growth

President Trump’s “America First” immigration plan – which cuts legal immigration levels in half and mandates E-Verify to stop illegal immigration – would stabilize the United States’ unprecedented population growth. Research by NumbersUSA reveals how if mass legal immigration continues — where the U.S. admits more than 1.5 million immigrants every year — the country’s population will hit an unprecedented 404 million residents by 2060. The current legal immigration system would be responsible for importing 75 million new immigrants in the next four decades. The Trump-endorsed RAISE Act by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) would stabilize the U.S. population, though, by reducing legal immigration levels to about 500,000 admissions a year and mandating E-Verify, which ensures that U.S. jobs are not going to illegal aliens. If the RAISE Act were adopted by the GOP Congress and implemented, the U.S. population would stabilize around the year 2040 to around 354 million residents, instead of reaching a record high of 404 million. The RAISE Act is a set of immigration controls first endorsed by Civil Rights icon Barbara Jordan, wherein legal immigration levels are reduced to boost wages and the quality of life for America’s working and middle class. About 50 percent of American likely voters want legal immigration levels reduced, and black Americans are the most supportive of reducing legal immigration below 250,000 admissions a year. Every year the U.S. admits more than 1.5 million foreign nationals, with the vast majority deriving from family-based chain migration, whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. In 2016, the legal and illegal immigrant population reached a record high of 44 million. By 2023, the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the legal and illegal immigrant population of the U.S. will make up nearly 15 percent of the entire U.S. population.

Border Wall Construction Begins in El Paso, Texas

Border Patrol officials in the El Paso Sector announced that construction of a new section of border wall began on Saturday. The new four-mile section of road will replace existing fencing near downtown El Paso. “This new wall will be far more durable and far more effective in deterring would-be illegal entrants,” El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron A. Hull said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. Chief Hull said crews will build a “bollard-style” design that will make the barrier more durable and harder to breach. West Point Contractors from Tucson, Arizona, won the contract to build this newest section of international border barrier for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The new wall will begin just west of the Paso Del Norte international bridge and extend about four miles to the east. Plans include removing the existing fencing and replacing it with an 18-foot high bollard wall. The project is expected to cost about $22 million and will be completed in late April 2019, officials stated. A crucial feature of the bollard-style wall is the ability for Border Patrol agents to see through the wall. “The bollard design wall has proved beneficial to the Border Patrol to detect illegal entries and the smuggling of narcotics into the United States by providing situational awareness of activity south of the wall,” officials stated. “U.S. Border Patrol agents are the most frequently assaulted and most frequently injured federal law enforcement officers,” Hull stated. “We’ve seen time and time again that the addition of serious infrastructure creates a safer environment for our people to operate. It also creates a safer community on both sides of the border.” El Paso Sector agents have been assaulted 54 times so far this fiscal year, officials reported. “It’s going to be harder to get over, harder to get through, harder to get underneath,” Hull explained. “It’s going to have a five-foot scaling plate at the top which will make it very tough for entrance — even if you can get to the top, to get over the top. It will deter all but the most determined of illegal entrants from entering the United States here.” “It’s going to make it harder to cross for illegal aliens,” the chief continued. “It’s going to make it harder for smugglers and border criminals to move freely between the two countries as they can now.” Hull said it will enable his sector to make more efficient use of its agents in this area and in other areas of the El Paso Sector. The El Paso Sector continues to experience a high number of illegal border crossings and apprehensions of illegal aliens. The August Southwest Border Migration Report revealed that El Paso Sector agents apprehended a total of 3,587 illegal aliens — including 1,884 Family Unit Aliens and 529 Unaccompanied Alien Children. In year-to-date numbers, the El Paso Sector reports a 16 percent increase in family units and 35 percent increase in unaccompanied minors. At least five illegal aliens have lost their lives during attempts to illegaly enter the U.S. this year, according to the Missing Migrant Project. The El Paso Sector wall is being built under the authority of President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13767.

Finally!!!  The wall is being built, folks!!  It won’t happen overnight, of course.  But, this is a great first step!  Excellent!!    🙂

Illegal immigrant families break record

Illegal immigration across the southwest border surged last month as President Trump’s zero tolerance effort crumbled and smugglers and migrant families rushed to take advantage of renewed “catch-and-release” loopholes. Border officials acknowledged a “crisis” as the number of families reached record levels, topping even the worst days of the Obama administration. With a month still to go in this fiscal year the Border Patrol has already caught more than 90,000 “family units” of parents and children traveling together, higher than the approximately 77,700 nabbed in 2016. Border officials expressed frustration at their lack of power to stem the flow, saying that until Congress or the courts impose serious penalties such as detention and swift deportation, the families and children are going to keep coming. It’s so bad that caravans of families like the one that drew headlines this summer have become commonplace. Authorities reported groups of 65, 65, 66, 96 and 163 illegal immigrants caught so far in September — some of them with children as young as four months, carried through the hot deserts of northern Mexico and southern Arizona. Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the numbers were “expected,” and blamed both loopholes in the law, and the highlighting of those loopholes over the last few months, when immigrant-rights activists and members of Congress from both parties defeated the president’s zero tolerance policy. “That’s a result of the continued loophole we have with the inability to detain family units … and frankly the highlighting of that loophole over the summer,” the commissioner said. The raw numbers show the Border Patrol caught 37,544 illegal immigrants in August, tracking what the government says are normal seasonal patterns. But the real stunners came in the arrest of 12,774 “family units” of parents and children — up 38 percent compared to July — and another 4,396 Unaccompanied Alien Children, or children traveling without parents, which was an 11.6 percent increase. At the ports of entry, meanwhile, officers encountered 9,016 unauthorized migrants, including 3,181 family members units and 376 UAC. Officials believe that the number of people caught trying to sneak in is a rough yardstick for the overall flow, so a rise in apprehensions signals a rise in overall illegal immigration.

It is utter chaos on our southern border!  That is why, as we’ve been saying for 4.5 years to BOTH administrations…  BUILD THE WALL NOW!!!!…and put U.S. Army National Guard troops physically ON the border with Mexico to prevent would-be crossers from stepping one foot on U.S. soil.  After all, once they do, they’re entitled (and that’s the key word) to all sorts of freebies that we, the actual citizens end up paying for.   Then, those Army Guard troops need to stay there ON the border until that wall/fence is finally built above and below (to prevent tunneling) ground…however long it takes.  Simultaneously, we need to be deporting illegal aliens already here by the hundreds of thousands (and yes, you read that correctly)…paying particular attention to known gang members (i.e. MS-13, etc.), convicted criminal aliens, and those already determined by an immigration judge to be deported…regardless of age, gender, OR family status.  And, that’s just the bare minimum, folks!  To do anything less is NOT in our country’s national security, or economic, interests.  It’s clear, that despite President Trump’s efforts, we are nowhere near getting control of the invasion coming across our southern border by these illegal aliens.  If we experienced this kind of surge across our borders by China, Russia, Iran, or N. Korea, we’d call it an act of war.  It’s time we treated this problem accordingly and gave it the attention it deserves.  Securing our southern border needs to be our federal government’s #1 domestic national security priority.  Period!!  If the GOP want to maintain control of the House after the midterm elections which are less than 2 months away, then they need to get off their collective butts and authorize funding for the wall immediately.  Call or email your member of Congress and BOTH of your U.S. Senators and demand that they vote to fund the building of the wall!

Assaults on ICE, Border Patrol surge as illegal immigrants get more violent

Assaults on ICE agents reached a decade high in 2017, and assaults on Border Patrol agents have also surged in recent years, according to new government numbers that seem to back up agents’ claims that illegal immigrants are increasingly looking to fight rather than flee. The new numbers, reported by Homeland Security’s inspector general, could even be underselling the problem, investigators said, because the government doesn’t do a good job of tracking incidents, and agents and officers don’t always report them properly. But the report does signal renewed danger particularly on the southwest border, where agents say a surge in illegal immigration in recent years generally correlates with growing violence. Prosecutors, meanwhile, often refuse to bring charges or win cases against the perpetrators, the audit found. At the border, the most frequent method of attack was projectiles — usually large rocks — which accounted for half of assaults. But bombs, clubs, knives, guns and even laser pointers to blind agents have all been used. Most of the injuries were minor and didn’t require treatment, the audit found. Customs and Border Protection recorded 1,089 assaults in 2010, which steadily dropped through 2014, when there were just 381 assaults. But things turned violent once again, steadily rising to 856 assaults in 2017. Last year was the most violent this decade at the border, with 28 assaults per every 10,000 apprehensions. In the interior, meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officers saw 48 assaults in 2017, tying 2010 as the highest in records going back to the beginning of the decade. That was nearly double the number from 2016. ICE officers, who handle deportations, and Border Patrol agents, who patrol the line between the U.S. and Mexico, say they’ve seen an increasing willingness on the part of migrants to resort to violence in recent years. One of those assaults recorded in 2017 came when ICE officers tried to apprehend Lester Sadict Cruz-Garcia, an illegal immigrant from Honduras who was arrested by police in New York on a domestic assault charge. Police released him into the community, ignoring a request by ICE that he be held. Deportation officers then had to go out into the community to track him down at his home. When they approached him he struggled and kicked, attempting to get away, the officers said. They eventually got him in handcuffs and tried to get him into the back of an ICE vehicle when he bit one of the officers on the arm. The officer was taken to the hospital where he was prescribed antibiotics. Cruz-Garcia was sentenced in June to 364 days in jail.

 

Fleeing Illegal Immigrants Killed 2 Tracking Dogs, Says Texas Sheriff

One of at least 14 illegal immigrants trying to flee law enforcement near a Texas beach is believed to have killed two tracking dogs. One suspect may have ties to a Mexican drug cartel, say authorities. The case took place north of Holiday Beach, more than 150 miles north of the Texas border, when state and local police were trying to stop a human smuggling attempt, the Aransas County Sheriff’s Office revealed in a prepared statement. A black Ford truck was headed north on Highway 35 as it was trying to flee law enforcement when it crashed through some fencing and stopped near a brushy area. Between 14 and 16 individuals reportedly ran from the vehicle. Authorities responded to the scene with a group of tracking dogs from a private kennel. According to police, the dogs are not trained to bite like K-9 officers–but are used for search and rescue operations. Authorities were able to find five of the individuals in the brush. A sixth man turned violent, telling law enforcement “if you want me, come and get me,” police said. After his arrest, the man was described as bearing a cartel tattoo among the strangled bodies of two tracking dogs. In the agency’s statement, Sheriff Bill Mills said the case serves as a reminder to officers: “[W]e are still dealing with individuals who may have questionable immigration status these encounters can turn just as violent as any domestic dispute we respond to. And while every effort is being taken to ensure everyone’s safety, we are reminded that not everyone we encounter shows the same level of respect for the rule of law and or life even for highly trained animals.”

No kidding..  This is the sort of story that makes ya sick to your stomach.  Glad these vermin were finally caught by those brave law enforcement officers in Texas.  Hopefully they’ll be charged with not only the immigration violations, and the resisting arrest charges…but also charged with the brutal killing of these poor dogs.  There is a special place in hell for evil people like this.  If ever there was yet another reason to secure our southern border, then here it is.  That is why we have been calling on the last two administrations to BUILD THE WALL NOW!!!…and put U.S. Army National Guard troops physically ON the border with Mexico!  Then, those troops should remain ON the border until that wall/fence is finally built above, and below, ground to prevent tunneling…however long it takes.  Simultaneously, we need to be deporting illegals already here by the hundreds of thousands (and yes, you read that correctly), paying particular attention to known cartel (like this) and gang members (i.e. MS-13, etc.), criminal aliens, and those already determined by an immigration judge to be deported…regardless of age or gender.  And this is just the bare minimum, folks.  To do anything less is NOT in our country’s national security, or economic, interests.  Of course, we’re all for supporting legislative efforts at the state and federal levels intended to fight social security fraud, and to punish employers who knowingly hire illegals.  BUT, securing the southern border, as well as ports of entry into the U.S., should be our number one domestic national security objective.  Period!  President Trump, and AG Jeff Sessions have made much progress on this issue in the year and a half they’ve been in their respective positions.  But, it doesn’t go nearly far enough.  We ALL need to continue to put pressure on AG Sessions, and President Trump to push for the building of that wall…as well as on our legislative reps in both the House and Senate to fund such efforts.