Author Topic: Homeland Security, Border, sabotage of energy, transportation, environment  (Read 982678 times)

G M

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2600 on: September 19, 2022, 10:54:19 AM »
Venezuelan "Scarfaces"!

Yes.

Good thing we have magic soil!

It would be tragic if they found their way to Martha's Vinyard or Aspen, Colorado!

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2601 on: September 19, 2022, 02:01:03 PM »
The Port Mariel exodus was of particular interest to me-- not only because of my interest in Latin America, but also because I had been in Cuba a few months before.  A friend I made there was among the escapees and looked me up in NYC.  We hung together for a few months, often going to Salsa Clubs.

Crafty_Dog

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The Border Crisis is just the tip of the iceberg
« Reply #2602 on: September 24, 2022, 04:05:05 PM »

https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/23/the-border-crisis-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-in-mexico-a-cartel-crisis-looms/

The Border Crisis Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg. In Mexico, A Cartel Crisis Looms
BY: JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
6 MIN READ

This week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that apprehensions of illegal immigrants surpassed 2.1 million for the fiscal year in August, with more than 203,000 apprehensions last month alone, marking six straight months of southwest border arrests exceeding 200,000.

Nothing like this has ever happened before. The 2.1 million figure represents an all-time high, surpassing the previous record of 1.7 million, set in fiscal year 2021. That is to say, every year President Joe Biden has been in office has been a record-breaking year of illegal immigration. Biden’s policies are directly responsible for the ongoing border crisis, which will continue unabated until those policies change. Whatever the number ends up being for 2022, the number for 2023 will almost certainly be higher.

But the shocking volume of arrests at the border, and the dramatic footage of illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande or lining up by the hundreds along stretches of the border wall (or scaling it), can blind us to another, less obvious crisis unfolding on the Mexican side of the border that we need to understand if we hope to craft policies that will put an end to mass illegal immigration.

That crisis, put simply, is the gradual takeover of the Mexican state by cartels. I hesitate to call them “drug cartels,” because what these criminal organizations do goes far beyond the manufacture and trafficking of narcotics. In addition to drugs, Mexican cartels are now involved in industrial agriculture, port operations, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and even the control and distribution of water in drought-stricken parts of the country.

These twin crises are connected. Although the border crisis is a direct result of Biden’s policies, the cartels are exploiting those policies for profit. One estimate from Homeland Security Investigations puts the figure at $13 billion annually, up from just $500 million in 2018. That is to say, illegal immigration has been industrialized by these cartels and their smuggling networks. It is not too much to say they have turned the southwest border into a vast black market, not just for deadly drugs such as fentanyl, but also for illegal immigration.   

A new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (where, full disclosure, I once worked and am today a senior fellow) sheds some much-needed light on how the cartels have accomplished this. Their involvement in migrant smuggling — a vast enterprise that involves transportation, surveillance, logistics, accounting, and stash houses on both sides of the border — is a natural extension of their increasing involvement in nearly every facet of Mexico’s economic and political life.

The report, whose author has remained anonymous for safety reasons, chronicles the recent history of deep collusion between the Mexican state and the country’s most powerful drug cartels: “The unfortunate reality is that criminal cartels have burrowed their way into the government — and vice versa. Well-meaning public servants, of whom Mexico has many, are powerless against a nexus of senior officeholders, societal elites, and criminal cartels.”

The rot in the Mexican state, the report makes clear, goes to the very top. In 2018, just before President Enrique Peña Nieto left office, Ivan Reyes Arzate, a high-ranking member in the Mexican Federal Police, was found guilty in U.S. federal court on charges of obstructing a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation of international drug trafficking and money laundering. The case “represented the first time a high-level foreign law enforcement officer was held criminally accountable in a U.S. courtroom for interfering with a transnational organized crime investigation,” according to the TPPF report.

But if Peña Nieto’s time in office was marked by a curtailment of U.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation, Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has sought to shut down such cooperation almost entirely. Thanks to a new law pushed by López Obrador’s administration aimed at curbing the operations of foreign agents (clearly aimed at the DEA), decades of U.S.-Mexico bilateral cooperation has been effectively ended. In addition to this new law, López Obrador in April shut down an elite anti-narcotic unit that had worked with the DEA for 25 years.

Since taking office, López Obrador has pursued a posture of passivity toward the cartels, especially the Sinaloa Cartel, the country’s most powerful. In so doing, Mexico’s president has transformed his naïve campaign slogan, abrazos no balazos (“hugs not bullets”), into a policy framework that can only be understood as a rebuke of the United States in favor of the cartels.

What is also different now than in the past, the TPPF report explains, is that the cartels “increasingly supplant the legitimate sovereignty of the Mexican state with their own — often in cooperation with major elements of that state. The qualitative difference since 2018 has been the near-open role of the current Mexican president in allowing, and perhaps even participating in, that cooperation.” Indeed, by some estimates cartels now control up to 40 percent of Mexican territory.

If that sounds outlandish, it is not because the facts don’t support such a conclusion but because corporate media in the U.S. are for the most part unwilling or unable to cover the issue in depth or accurately convey its implications for America.

The implications are this: As the Mexican state succumbs to the cartels, Mexico’s problems will become America’s problems. That doesn’t just mean a worsening border crisis but a breakdown of law and order all up and down the border, on both sides of the Rio Grande, and a worsening drug crisis in American cities far from the border. It means the corruption of Mexican officialdom will gradually spread to American officialdom, just as the operations of Mexican cartels have spread to every corner of the United States.

What to do about all this? The first step is for the United States to stop treating Mexico like a partner or a peer with whom we can work together to address common challenges. Our entire posture has to shift. We have to begin treating Mexico less like an ally and more like a hostile neighbor. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to his credit, this week took the extraordinary step of issuing an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. While that might not do much on its own, it at least sends a signal to Washington that it is time for the federal government to do the same.

There is of course a historical precedent for this, and indeed the relatively peaceful interregnum of the past 80 years is a departure from the historical norm of U.S.-Mexico relations. We are now returning to the norm, whether policymakers in Washington realize it or not.

DougMacG

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2603 on: September 25, 2022, 06:05:38 AM »
It would be nice if the general public read the forum and Federalist in addition to the news pushed through on facebook and msm.  Having cartels that are terrorist organizations PAID to run our border instead of real US law enforcement is a threat larger than we can imagine.

In numbers, the population of Ireland has come in unchecked, illegally, since Biden was (not really) elected.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2022, 06:07:37 AM by DougMacG »

ccp

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2604 on: September 25, 2022, 10:16:51 AM »
"These twin crises are connected. Although the border crisis is a direct result of Biden’s policies, the cartels are exploiting those policies for profit. One estimate from Homeland Security Investigations puts the figure at $13 billion annually, up from just $500 million in 2018. That is to say, illegal immigration has been industrialized by these cartels and their smuggling networks. It is not too much to say they have turned the southwest border into a vast black market, not just for deadly drugs such as fentanyl, but also for illegal immigration. "

absolutely appalling as is Biden ignoring

LEFT wind logic would twist this into a good thing - cartels are simply helping poor desperate
  victims into the chance for a good future in the US !!!

Agree with Doug.
WILLFULL Lack of MSM coverage is just as bad as the crimes themselves

Lib jurnolisters who pride themselves with such stories in the 20th century simply ignore it now because they are protecting the favorite politicians.


Crafty_Dog

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NRO: 5th Circuit: No DACA for Biden Millions!
« Reply #2605 on: October 05, 2022, 07:22:49 PM »
Federal Court Rules DACA Unlawful but Preserves Policy for Current Recipients

DACA supporters outside the White House, September 2017.(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
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By CAROLINE DOWNEY
October 5, 2022 9:01 PM
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is unlawful but agreed to preserve the program for existing recipients.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a July 2021 decision from Texas federal judge Andrew Hanen, who said the Obama administration had no authority to impose DACA, according to a court filing obtained by Axios. The court blocked the Biden administration from enrolling new illegal immigrants, which would provide them with work permits and shield them from deportation, but said current beneficiaries could stay and that immigration officials could process DACA renewals.

“In our view, the defendants have not shown that there is a likelihood that they will succeed on the merits,” Chief Judge Priscilla Richman wrote Wednesday. “We also recognize that DACA has had profound significance to recipients and many others in the ten years since its adoption.”

Richman returned the case challenging the legality of the policy back to a lower court in Texas to examine a recent rule the Biden administration implemented in a maneuver to protect the program from litigation. The Biden administration, which appealed the 2021 ruling, codified DACA into regulatory law this August and revoked the 2012 memo drafted by former Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano that formed the original program. Given Wednesday’s ruling, the Biden administration is expected to file a formal appeal that could eventually send the case to the Supreme Court to make a final judgment on DACA’s constitutionality.

DACA applies to nearly 600,000 illegal immigrants residing in the U.S., often called “Dreamers” by proponents of the program, who had to prove that they arrived in the country by age 16 and before June 2007. They must attend or have graduated from high school and cannot have a serious criminal record. Recipients are also not entitled under the program to be given permanent legal status or citizenship.

G M

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Re: NRO: 5th Circuit: No DACA for Biden Millions!
« Reply #2606 on: October 05, 2022, 07:27:35 PM »
ALL illegals should be deported!
ALL!


Federal Court Rules DACA Unlawful but Preserves Policy for Current Recipients

DACA supporters outside the White House, September 2017.(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
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By CAROLINE DOWNEY
October 5, 2022 9:01 PM
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy is unlawful but agreed to preserve the program for existing recipients.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a July 2021 decision from Texas federal judge Andrew Hanen, who said the Obama administration had no authority to impose DACA, according to a court filing obtained by Axios. The court blocked the Biden administration from enrolling new illegal immigrants, which would provide them with work permits and shield them from deportation, but said current beneficiaries could stay and that immigration officials could process DACA renewals.

“In our view, the defendants have not shown that there is a likelihood that they will succeed on the merits,” Chief Judge Priscilla Richman wrote Wednesday. “We also recognize that DACA has had profound significance to recipients and many others in the ten years since its adoption.”

Richman returned the case challenging the legality of the policy back to a lower court in Texas to examine a recent rule the Biden administration implemented in a maneuver to protect the program from litigation. The Biden administration, which appealed the 2021 ruling, codified DACA into regulatory law this August and revoked the 2012 memo drafted by former Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano that formed the original program. Given Wednesday’s ruling, the Biden administration is expected to file a formal appeal that could eventually send the case to the Supreme Court to make a final judgment on DACA’s constitutionality.

DACA applies to nearly 600,000 illegal immigrants residing in the U.S., often called “Dreamers” by proponents of the program, who had to prove that they arrived in the country by age 16 and before June 2007. They must attend or have graduated from high school and cannot have a serious criminal record. Recipients are also not entitled under the program to be given permanent legal status or citizenship.

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2607 on: October 06, 2022, 06:28:12 AM »
1)  As the saying goes, "The first rule of holes is when you find yourself in one-- stop digging!"  Seems to me that this decision is quite important-- if blocks Biden, his handlers, and the Progs from continuing to dig us deeper.  In that they have finagled five million illegals into our country, this is a really good thing!

2) Saying "ALL illegals" is politically suicidal.  There are plenty of cases wherein someone was brought here illegally as a child and grew up as an American and genuinely thinks of themselves as such.  To say that a twenty two year old person who was brought here at two should be heaved out just is not going to fly-- and correctly so!

OF COURSE the Progs will be trying to use such cases to block deportation of an MS 13 who came in three years ago at 20 while claiming to be 15 but we need to be politically astute enough to distinguish between the two types of cases.

EDITED TO ADD:

Clarifying remarks in the following WT piece:
========================

Appeals court rules DACA was illegally created

Program created in 2012 to remain intact — for now

BY STEPHEN DINAN THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the DACA program to protect immigrant “Dreamers” was created illegally by the Obama administration a decade ago, upholding a lower court’s decision to erase the program.

But the three-judge panel said its ruling doesn’t apply to the new version the Biden administration announced this year.

The judges sent the entire matter back to the lower-court judge to evaluate.

And the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept in place a partial stay, meaning the current DACA program will remain running while the case works through the court system.

The appeals court did signal a tough road ahead for the Biden plans, saying it does not appear that Congress anticipated such a broad grant of executive authority in immigration law.

“There is no ‘clear congressional authorization’ for the power that DHS claims,” wrote Chief Judge Priscilla Richman, who was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush.

But for now, she said, that merely means that the 2012 program created by the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama years was established in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “deeply disappointed” in the ruling and said the administration is working on “an appropriate legal response.”

All sides agree that Congress could grant the Dreamers protections, and President Trump and congressional Democrats reached for a deal in 2018. But the president’s price of building a border wall, and potentially making other changes, was too steep for Democrats.

Wednesday’s ruling will fuel the political fight, with immigrant- rights advocates arguing voters have a chance to send a message in November by backing candidates who support granting citizenship rights to Dreamers and other immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Republicans, meanwhile, have made the border chaos under President Biden a top issue.

In sending the case back to the lower court, the 5th Circuit is continuing a line of cases that dates back nearly a decade, to the creation of the original DACA program.

Advocates called the ruling a “punt” that leaves 1.2million people in the lurch.

“To continuously shuttle DACA through different courts, keeping it in limbo, is to devalue and ignore the contributions this policy has made to our state and country,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

DACA grants a stay of deportation to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children before the middle of 2007, who had been here at least five years, who had worked toward an education and who had kept a relatively clean criminal record.

The program, officially known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also grants work permits, which allow the recipients to settle more deeply into communities and to obtain some taxpayer benefits such as tax credits, Social Security and Medicare.

President Obama had repeatedly said he didn’t have power to create such a program, before reversing himself in the months ahead of Election Day in 2012.

The Trump administration sought to phase out the program, drawing an avalanche of lawsuits that ended at the Supreme Court.

The justices ruled that Mr. Trump cut too many corners in trying to end the program, even though some of the justices pointed out that he had used the same methods as the Obama administration did in creating it.

Republican-led states, led by Texas, sued to force a decision on the original DACA program, leading to Wednesday’s ruling
« Last Edit: October 06, 2022, 07:01:26 AM by Crafty_Dog »



DougMacG

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Border gangs, $13 billion business, “500% increase in human smuggling
« Reply #2610 on: October 11, 2022, 07:04:03 PM »
https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/11/thanks-to-bidens-border-crisis-the-million-dollar-migrant-smuggling-industry-is-now-worth-billions/

Excerpts:
"“500% increase in human smuggling..."

"In May of 2018, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that human smuggling operations are making “$500 million a year, or more.”

“To be clear, human smuggling operations are lining the pockets of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). They are not humanitarian endeavors. Smugglers’ priorities have profits over people, and when aliens pay them to get here, they are contributing $500 million a year, or more, to groups that are fueling greater violence and instability in America and the region,” she warned.

More than four years later,
the criminal enterprises responsible for scoping out border weaknesses and using those to funnel more than 2 million illegal border crossers into the U.S. in just 12 short months are now raking in an estimated $13 billion per year."
« Last Edit: October 11, 2022, 07:07:02 PM by DougMacG »

DougMacG

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BORDER DISASTER BY THE NUMBERS
« Reply #2611 on: October 13, 2022, 06:46:15 AM »
This just keeps getting worse with terrorists and gangs discovered along with human trafficking and fatal fentanyl..  The lack of outrage is reprehensible.  The party in power that did this needs to be permanently, electorally crushed.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/border-disaster-by-the-numbers.php

https://nypost.com/2022/10/07/the-chilling-numbers-that-reveal-the-scale-of-joe-bidens-border-disaster/

G M

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Re: BORDER DISASTER BY THE NUMBERS
« Reply #2612 on: October 13, 2022, 06:53:27 AM »
This just keeps getting worse with terrorists and gangs discovered along with human trafficking and fatal fentanyl..  The lack of outrage is reprehensible.  The party in power that did this needs to be permanently, electorally crushed.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/border-disaster-by-the-numbers.php

https://nypost.com/2022/10/07/the-chilling-numbers-that-reveal-the-scale-of-joe-bidens-border-disaster/

The party in power will cheat even harder to maintain it's power.

G M

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Re: BORDER DISASTER BY THE NUMBERS
« Reply #2613 on: October 13, 2022, 07:06:50 AM »
This just keeps getting worse with terrorists and gangs discovered along with human trafficking and fatal fentanyl..  The lack of outrage is reprehensible.  The party in power that did this needs to be permanently, electorally crushed.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/border-disaster-by-the-numbers.php

https://nypost.com/2022/10/07/the-chilling-numbers-that-reveal-the-scale-of-joe-bidens-border-disaster/

The party in power will cheat even harder to maintain it's power.

https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1050,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/117/721/274/original/c5e26598a50730f0.png



DougMacG

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Homeland insecurity, Border unprotected, BIG money laundering operation
« Reply #2614 on: October 13, 2022, 07:20:43 AM »
Under the category of deplorable lack of curiosity, I have not seen the Chinese fentanyl coming across the border killing our youth tied to the Mexican gangs who provide our border security.  Maybe this story connects some of that.
-----------------
John Ellis
Oct 13

A revolutionary money laundering system involving Chinese organized crime, Latin American drug cartels and Chinese officials – In 2017, Drug Enforcement Administration agents following the money from cocaine deals in Memphis, Tennessee, identified a mysterious figure in Mexico entrusted by drug lords with their millions: a Chinese American gangster named Xizhi Li. As the agents tracked Li’s activity across the Americas and Asia, they realized he wasn’t just another money launderer. He was a pioneer. Operating with the acumen of a financier and the tradecraft of a spy, he had helped devise an innovative system that revolutionized the drug underworld and fortified the cartels. As they investigated Li’s tangled financial dealings, U.S. agents came across evidence indicating that his money laundering schemes involved Chinese government officials and the Communist Party elite. China’s omnipresent security forces tightly control and monitor its state-run economy. Yet Li and others moved tens of millions of dollars among Chinese banks and companies with seeming impunity, according to court documents and national security officials. Some U.S. officials believe that Chinese authorities permit criminals like Li to operate because dark money benefits the elite, strengthens China’s economy and weakens the West. Beijing rejects such accusations. Read the rest. (Source: propublica.org via sinocism.com.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2022, 07:22:52 AM by DougMacG »

DougMacG

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2615 on: October 13, 2022, 07:25:52 AM »
Sorry but what does Ukraine have to do with our unenforced border?

G M

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2616 on: October 13, 2022, 08:00:09 AM »
Sorry but what does Ukraine have to do with our unenforced border?

Everything.

The Mafiya-ocracy of Ukraine isn't my problem. The destruction of the US is.







Crafty_Dog

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BORTAC vs. rip crew
« Reply #2623 on: November 02, 2022, 11:40:16 AM »
BREAKING FROM OPHQ:
There was a shooting in US Border Patrol Yuma Sector! One bandit 10-7’d yesterday by Yuma Sector BORTAC!

An armed smuggler was shot and killed. The suspect was part of a rip crew robbing and kidnapping aliens near County 23rd in Yuma on the Colorad Riverbed

There were two subjects; one brandished a handgun. The other subject ran back to Mexico.

Yuma Border Patrol was watching them for a couple days. When Camera Operators spotted them sometime last week, there were three subjects. Two armed with pistols and one with a rifle. All wearing body armor at that time.

They robbed/kidnapped some give ups, and they were able to provide more INTEL on the bandits.

OPR came out along with local PD, Sheriff. Excellent job BORTACers! That’s how it’s done. Enforcement in the finest tradition of our beloved Patrol.

God help the other side when we finally get leadership with the balls to shut down and secure the Border.

Nobody does it better than the United States Border Patrol. Honor first, honor always!

#BidenBorderCrisis #usbp #cbp #dhs #oldpatrolHQ

=====
10-7’d is “out of service”.



DougMacG

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Gov Abbott calls out National Guard, border
« Reply #2626 on: November 15, 2022, 08:45:58 PM »
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/11/abbott-calls-out-the-guard.php

POSTED ON NOVEMBER 15, 2022 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN CONSTITUTION, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, TEXAS
ABBOTT CALLS OUT THE GUARD [UPDATED]
This could be huge news: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has summoned the National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to repel the invasion of Texas from its southern border. Abbott invokes the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions:



Some notable points:

* Texas will build its own border wall.
* I love the reference to gun boats.
* Abbott contemplates entering into one or more compacts with other states to deal with the invasion.
* He also intends to “enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security.”

I believe by the “Invasion Clause” of the U.S. Constitution, Abbott means Section 4 of Article IV, which provides:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

Article IV of the Texas Constitution bestows powers on the governor of that state. Article IV, Section 7 provides:

GOVERNOR AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF MILITARY FORCES. He shall be commander-in-chief of the military forces of the State, except when they are called into actual service of the United States. He shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.

At first look, I think Abbott is on solid ground under the Texas Constitution. I assume the relevance of the U.S. Constitution is that the federal government has breached its duty to protect Texas against invasion.

I think Abbott’s long-overdue move has the potential to generate a crisis of federalism. Immigration is constitutionally regulated by the federal government, but the federal government has not only failed to enforce its own laws, it has deliberately encouraged the violation of those laws on a massive scale. States like Texas have been left holding the bag. When the federal government abdicates its constitutional duties, and actively tries to undermine the constitutional framework, does a state have the right to step in? One would think so, but the Biden administration no doubt disagrees.

Can a state enter into an agreement with a foreign government? I don’t know. The concept seems extraordinary. No doubt legal scholars will enlighten us.

We have been on a collision course between ever-expanding but incompetently applied federal power on one hand, and the interests and powers of sovereign states like Texas and Florida on the other hand, for a while now. Fundamental issues of federalism like those posed by Abbott’s orders need to be resolved. I hope they are resolved in favor of the states. As I have written before, given the bitterly divided condition of our populace, the alternative to a renewed commitment to federalism may be disunion.

Perhaps Governor Abbott’s declaration will turn out to be a historic step toward restoring the Founders’ constitutional vision.

[Update] A friend whom I won’t identify but who may be known to you as the In___ Pun__ answers my question:

States are forbidden from making treaties with other nations (or each other) by Article I Section 10.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2022, 07:09:36 AM by Crafty_Dog »

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2627 on: November 16, 2022, 07:10:13 AM »
It could be truly awesome if Abbot lives up to the potential here!


Crafty_Dog

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Cartel drones in the skies over America
« Reply #2629 on: November 20, 2022, 02:22:53 PM »

Crafty_Dog

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Daily Caller
« Reply #2630 on: November 22, 2022, 10:38:47 AM »
   
 
BIDEN ADMIN NOW DRIVING FOREIGN NATIONALS ACROSS THE BORDER… CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: Legalizing Border Crossing for All: The Next Stage of Biden’s Migration Crisis

MEXICALI, Mexico – This northern Mexican city across from California is one of the latest to go live with an unreported, legally questionable new immigration strategy that President Joe Biden’s administration has discretely unfurled for months all along the U.S. southern border.

Twice a day, seven days a week since September, Mexicali city officials working closely with Biden’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection, on a secure shared “CBP-ONE” online platform, select hundreds of people a month for their escorted government-to-government handoffs through the land port of entry to Calexico, Calif. Once the Americans check their paperwork, they legally admit intending illegal border crossers like Nicaraguan Maria Esperanza Diaz Ruiz, 42, into the U.S. interior under a questionable authority known as “humanitarian or significant public benefit parole.”

They are free to start new lives under the benefit, with work authorization and the right to apply for asylum part of the package.

 

EL PASO RESIDENTS BLAME BIDEN FOR INVASION… NY POST: El Paso neighborhood overrun with migrants as border crisis rages: ‘We don’t know if they have guns’

As El Paso becomes the number one location for immigrants to cross into the US, residents of the Texas city tell The Post illegal immigrants are overwhelming their neighborhoods, prowling through their yards and may be carrying weapons.

“It’s real bad because sometimes there’s up to 10, 15 of them running all over,” Luis Lujan, who lives near El Paso’s Ascarate Park, less than two miles from the border, told The Post. […]

“Ever since Biden said, ‘Come on over,’ they’re coming over,” Lujan said. “This was like a freeway to them.”

Lujan’s neighbors are mostly elderly residents with modest incomes. He explained they report the illegals to US Border Patrol.


Crafty_Dog

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Designating Cartels as Terrorists could foul things up
« Reply #2632 on: November 24, 2022, 12:37:18 PM »
Designating The Cartels As Terrorists Could Worsen Illegal Immigration, Experts Say
MEXICO-VIOLENCE-CARTELS-RELIGION
(Photo by ENRIQUE CASTRO / AFP) (Photo by ENRIQUE CASTRO/AFP via Getty Images)

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JENNIE TAER
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
November 23, 2022
4:48 PM ET
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Designating the drug cartels as terrorist organizations would likely complicate illegal immigration, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The topic has been mulled on both the federal and state levels, during former President Donald Trump’s administration and most recently by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“The immigration crisis could be exacerbated with asylum claims for fleeing violence from terrorist organizations,” former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso division Kyle Williamson told the DCNF.
Designating the drug cartels as foreign terrorists would likely complicate the illegal immigration crisis, several experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

More migrants would attempt to use threats from the cartels as their ticket into the country, former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge for El Paso Kyle Williamson and former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the DCNF. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered a record of over 2.3 million migrants at the southern border in fiscal year 2022 and a surge of over 230,000 in the start of fiscal year 2023.

Scott and Williamson both believe that the designation is still needed due to the cartels’ threats on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Over 100,000 people died in the U.S. in 2021 largely due to fentanyl, which comes from cartels in Mexico, according to the DEA. (RELATED: ‘Even Worse’: Illegal Migrants Will Flood The US Border When One Major Trump-Era Policy Ends)


“The immigration crisis could be exacerbated with asylum claims for fleeing violence from terrorist organizations,” Williamson told the DCNF.

“There are implications to designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations that could be negative. … It’s not that people would flee more, it’s that they would have a better argument in asylum hearings,” Scott told the DCNF, adding, “We have over 200,000 a month right now. The Border Patrol is completely overwhelmed. This administration has ignored all that anyway, so I don’t really see that per se as a threat.”

The decision carries a lot of weight, but it should be taken seriously due to the current drug crisis, Williamson said.


“An FTO designation should not be taken lightly because it could exacerbate our current immigration crisis and impact foreign trade. However, with the continued threat of Fentanyl and the the resulting overdose deaths in our communities, we must start to weigh benefits and costs. I believe that we have arrived at a point where designating the cartels as foreign terrorists organizations would be an effective strategy in the fight against Fentanyl and in the best interest of US national security,” Williamson said.

However, David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says that being a victim of a terrorist organization won’t qualify illegal migrants “for anything under immigration law.” In Bier’s eyes, the designation is “almost purely symbolic.”

“It is almost purely symbolic, and it would change nothing about migration. I don’t think the sale of fentanyl meets the legal definition either since the cartels aren’t ‘using’ fentanyl. They are selling it. The users are the ones using it, but this question is pretty much irrelevant since drug trafficking is already by itself a permanent bar to legal admission. It would just create confusion between these two types of inadmissibility categories for no foreseeable benefit,” Bier told the DCNF.



When former President Donald Trump was in office, he indicated he was inching toward making the designation at the federal level, but never actually did. But the Biden administration isn’t likely to seriously consider the move, Scott said, adding that he has little faith the current president would do it.

“If the administration was going to be serious about it, and make decisions about OK, this is how far we’re gonna go. And we’re literally willing to hold corporate America or government officials accountable if we can prove that they’re associated in any way, shape or form with these individuals,” Scott said.

“I think it would have a lot of value, and I haven’t always said that. Traditionally, I don’t like changing definitions just to meet the need of the day. I like looking and the definition and then if it meets the definition of a terrorist organization, fine. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Traditionally, I’ve not believed that the cartels met that definition because they’re just criminal enterprises. There hasn’t been like a political agenda, but we’ve seen dramatic shift in the last few years,” he added.


Texas Gov. Greg Abbott [Screenshot/Fox News]
[Screenshot/Fox News]

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently indicated he would make the designation at the state level after declaring an “invasion” at his state’s border with Mexico due to the surge in illegal immigration. But the question remains as to how Abbott will press charges against individuals and groups tied to the cartels under the designation at the state level.
Neither Abbott nor Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office responded to requests for comment about the designation and the penalties it could impose.

At the federal level, designating the cartels as terrorists would mean that any person in the U.S. found to be providing “any material support or resources whatsoever” would face prosecution, according to Scott.


“Anybody that provides any kind of assistance to that organization is then subject to criminal prosecution at the federal level, a lot on immigration. So if any alien does it, then they’ll submit inadmissible or deportable. But again, the state doesn’t have immigration authority,” Scott said.

The state, however, wouldn’t be able to step in and take such actions, Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith, who presides over an area of the Texas border, told the DCNF, adding that Abbott’s designation would be more of a “[PR] thing.”

“Federally, it does have a huge impact if they were labeled terrorists or categorized as terrorists because it opens up certain military action that can be taken, I believe. With Abbott doing it, I don’t believe it does really anything more or opens up any other avenues of authority. I think he did that in anticipation of declaring an invasion because he has to name a party that is facilitating the invasion, which is the cartels,” Smith said.


“So I think that was more of a setup on him declaring an invasion more than anything, because legally, the state declaring them as terrorists doesn’t profoundly impact the current authority that law enforcement has before versus after, if that makes sense,” Smith said.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.


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DOJ sues AZ over shipping container wall
« Reply #2635 on: December 15, 2022, 08:42:56 AM »
By BRITTANY BERNSTEIN
December 15, 2022 8:49 AM
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the state of Arizona and Governor Doug Ducey over the state’s temporary border wall made of hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers.

The government argues the makeshift wall is illegal, dangerous, and interferes with federal duties, and has asked a judge to order the removal of the containers from U.S. land.

The suit requests damages for the state’s “unlawful trespasses” and asks for “a declaration that Arizona’s use and occupancy of lands owned by the United States without the required permits or other authorization constitutes unlawful trespasses.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Arizona on Wednesday on behalf of the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Interior.

Work on the container wall had paused in recent days in response to protests from environmental activists and objections by the federal government, according to the Associated Press.

Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service, previously told Arizona the construction on federal land is unlawful and it must stop. In response, Ducey sued federal officials on October 21. The outgoing governor has argued the state holds sole or shared jurisdiction over the 60-foot-wide strip along the state’s remote eastern border with Mexico. He said the state has a constitutional right to protect residents from “imminent danger of criminal and humanitarian crises.”

“Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can.” Ducey said in announcing the lawsuit last month. “We’re not backing down.”

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The Justice Department Office of Legislative Affairs said that “the state’s actions have substantially curtailed federal law enforcement personnel from freely accessing the border area, and Arizona’s placement of armed guards on federal land risks putting federal law enforcement officials in danger,” according to an email obtained by the Arizona Republic.

“Arizona’s actions have also stymied federal efforts to complete construction of border infrastructure projects in certain locations,” the email adds.

Environmentalists have warned the containers could harm natural water systems and endanger species, while Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, called the containers a waste of resources and has suggested the containers could possibly be repurposed as affordable housing.

Ducey’s border wall project began this summer in Yuma, a popular crossing point where containers filled gaps in former president Donald Trump’s border wall. Now, crews have begun focusing on San Rafael Valley, an area of the border that does not see many border crossings, according to the Associated Press.

The initial project in Yuma cost about $6 million and required eleven days of work to erect 130 containers to secure some 3,800 feet.

The new work, which will use up to 3,000 containers to secure ten miles in Cochise County, is costing the state $95 million. The new wall has gaps of several hundred yards in some areas due to steep terrain.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to fill gaps on the border near Yuma with temporary mesh fencing and vehicle gates beginning in January, according to the Arizona Republic.

A spokesman for the governor celebrated the news.

“The shipping containers were always a temporary solution to an ongoing problem,” spokesman C.J. Karamargin said. “From our perspective, the shipping container mission is a success. Not only have we plugged gaps in the border barrier, but we got the federal government to do their job.”

Send a tip to the news team at NR.


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Homeland Security, Border Protection, Manchin
« Reply #2637 on: December 21, 2022, 08:34:49 AM »
https://www.newsnationnow.com/cuomo-show/manchin-immigration-deal-not-even-on-the-table/
------

I put this under border thread but my real point is Manchin  should switch parties and is giving plenty of signs.

Adding this:
“And I think that basically, I will make my decision (about switching parties) whenever I make the decision, or if I do make a decision, I will do it, and I’m not in any hurry to do that,” Manchin continued. On CNN with Jake Tapper
« Last Edit: December 21, 2022, 01:14:46 PM by DougMacG »

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2638 on: December 21, 2022, 09:49:09 AM »
video came up

with Cuomo (Newsnation). (channel 82 at my location)

interviewing Joe

not tapper (though he is equally an obnoxious liberal Democrat operative)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/senators-confident-bill-to-block-election-subversion-will-become-law-212158562.html

I also saw O"Reilly on Cuomo last night
watching Bill state how he never saw a President so derelict in his duty in enforcing the laws of the US (refusing to control border and immigration law on the books)

Cuomo of course defends Biden of course
as do all Dems

since they want more votes to wipe out Republicans once and for all in elections.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlCJAS5cydk

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Texas National Guard border force blocking illegal crossings
« Reply #2639 on: December 21, 2022, 06:15:40 PM »
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/texas-national-guard-border-force-blocking-illegal-crossings_4937218.html?utm_source=Goodevening&src_src=Goodevening&utm_campaign=gv-2022-12-21&src_cmp=gv-2022-12-21&utm_medium=email&est=%2BgRZDnsa1rdqNpJ7df68hW8dWoxC9ydX5jIJWD52EahrNRSlIw9cnejWNrYbDi1rU2eF

Texas National Guard ‘Border Force’ Blocking Illegal Crossings
By Tom Ozimek December 21, 2022 Updated: December 21, 2022biggersmaller Print

Texas National Guard troops deployed to El Paso have constructed a razor-wire barrier along the Rio Grande and have been blocking people from making unauthorized crossings into the United States amid a migrant surge and legal back-and-forth about ending Title 42, a Trump-era rule that helped stem the tide of illegal immigration.

Acting under orders from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, several hundred soldiers that are part of a “contingency border force” have set up along the river channel separating El Paso from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, with the aim of preventing people from crossing the border illegally.

“This morning, service members deployed to El Paso, Texas constructed a triple-strand concertina barrier near the border to secure the area from illegal crossings,” the Texas Military Department, which oversees the state’s National Guard, said in a Dec. 20 statement.


The Texas National Guard told media outlets that its service members are trying to funnel asylum-seekers to designated ports of entry while their “primary goal” is to prevent “illegal crossings into Texas.”

A group of around 75 people seeking to enter the United States through an unauthorized crossing faced off against National Guard members and state troopers on Tuesday, according to the Texas Tribune, which reported that a National Guard service member told them through a bullhorn that they would be unable to enter.


Abbott ordered more than 400 Texas National Guard personnel to El Paso on Monday as part of a “contingency border force” being deployed in response to high levels of illegal border crossings in recent times and the pending expiration of Title 42 restrictions.

Title 42 is the Trump-era rule that has been used around 2.5 million times to block people from making asylum claims in the United States and that has been widely credited as helping reduce the influx.

“The end of Title 42 is expected to lead to a massive influx of illegal immigrants allowing criminals to further exploit gaps while federal authorities are inundated with migrant processing,” the Texas Military Department said in a statement.

Abbott’s “enhanced border security effort” will include the deployment of a Security Response Force that includes elements from the 606th Military Police Battalion, which the Texas Military Department said is “trained in civil disturbance operations and mass migration response.”

Tens of thousands of would-be border crossers have assembled near the border amid expectations that the Title 42 restrictions would be lifted.


Title 42 Back-and-Forth
Texas was among the 19 Republican-led states that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend Title 42 restrictions beyond its scheduled Dec. 21 end date.

Chief Justice John Roberts granted the request, prompting the Biden administration to ask the high court to lift Title 42 but give it some time to prepare for an influx in illegal border crossings.

The Biden administration wants the restrictions in place until the end of Dec. 27 if the Supreme Court were to act before Dec. 23. If the court acts on Friday or later, the government wants the limits to remain until the second business day following such an order.

“The government recognizes that the end of the Title 42 orders will likely lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings. The government in no way seeks to minimize the seriousness of that problem,” a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer said in a Supreme Court filing.

The lawyer added that “the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public-health measure that all now acknowledge has outlived its public-health justification.”

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, who sued along with other organizations to end Title 42, said Abbott has no legal right to stop migrants from seeking asylum anywhere on the border. “What Texas is doing by preventing people from seeking asylum is patently unlawful and should stop immediately,” he said in an interview.

Before troops deployed to El Paso on Monday, hundreds of people had crossed the border and waited in line to be processed by Border Patrol agents, with many later released into the city.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, warned that shelters across the border in Ciudad Juárez were filled to capacity, with an estimated 20,000 people looking to cross into the United States.

Leeser on Sunday declared a state of emergency in El Paso amid a surge in unauthorized crossings that has left people sleeping in the streets.

He said the emergency measures will allow the city to access more resources and authority to shelter people, adding that the measures would be even more necessary after Title 42 ends, when he predicted that the rise in the number of illegal border crossings would be “incredible.”

Over the past week, border agents have encountered an average of around 1,500 illegal aliens a day in a 268-mile stretch of the border known as the El Paso Sector, according to figures published by the city.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Tuesday that over the past week, agents have moved more than 3,400 illegal aliens by expelling them to Mexico under Title 42 or flying them back to their home countries via ICE expedited removal flights.

In a bid to ease pressure on El Paso, agents have also moved 6,000 aliens from the area to other sectors for processing.

“Average daily encounters have also dropped 40 percent—from roughly 2,500 a day to roughly 1,500 a day—over the last three days as we continue to work with partners in Mexico to discourage disorderly migration and disrupt criminal smuggling operations,” DHS said in the statement.

With cold temperatures gripping Texas, Abbott asked President Joe Biden on Tuesday to deploy federal assets immediately “to address the dire border crisis, particularly in the City of El Paso, as a dangerously cold polar vortex moves into Texas this week.”

In a letter to Biden, the Texas governor blamed “federal inaction” for putting the lives of migrants at risk, warning that the numbers of people crossing the border illegally would rise if Title 42 expulsions end


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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2642 on: December 23, 2022, 11:08:26 AM »
WITH CONTROL OF THE BORDER, CARTELS HAVE BECOME COMPLETELY BRAZEN… NOW TAKING TRAFFICKING MONEY ON AMERICAN SIDE… With Title 42 In Limbo, Cartels Illegally Smuggle In Hundreds Of Migrants Across The Southern Border (VIDEO)

Cartels smuggled in hundreds of illegal migrants Wednesday after the Supreme Court temporarily halted the expiration of Title 42.

A pool of migrants crossed the border into Yuma, Arizona, around 3:00 a.m. after cartels transported and dropped them off, Daily Caller field reporter Jorge Ventura reported. Footage captured migrants paying a cartel member to smuggle them to the U.S. The smuggler then returned to Mexico. The majority of migrants appeared to be from Cuba and Peru.

A long line of migrants waited for several hours to be apprehended as the record-high number of migrants reaching the border overwhelms border officials. Migrants are currently waiting longer hours for processing after the Supreme Court imposed a temporary stay Monday on the expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era policy allowing migrants to be quickly expelled in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

 

ARIZONA SURRENDERS IN BORDER WALL FIGHT… FOX: Arizona agrees to take down shipping container border wall to settle Biden lawsuit

Under pressure from the Biden administration, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is halting construction of a wall fashioned from shipping containers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Republican governor reached a settlement with the Department of Justice in which Arizona agreed to stop construction of the border wall on national forest lands, according to court documents filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

The agreement stipulates that Arizona will remove all previously installed shipping containers and associated equipment, materials, vehicles and other objects in the U.S. Border Patrol Yuma Sector, without damaging U.S. natural resources. To do so, Arizona will work in conjunction with officials from the U.S. Forest Service and Customs and Border Protection.

The agreement was reached one week after the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against Ducey on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service.

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Re: Homeland Security, Border Protection, and American Freedom
« Reply #2643 on: December 23, 2022, 04:29:36 PM »
By RICH LOWRY
December 23, 2022 6:30 AM

It’s incredible that two years into the Biden administration, officials still point the finger at Donald Trump.
The U.S. teeters on the brink of a complete meltdown at the border, and yet the Biden administration is still consumed with blame-shifting and evasions.

Whatever happens at the border must be the fault of the prior administration, Joe Biden’s critics, or circumstances beyond anyone’s control. And no matter how bad things get, it is definitely not in any way a “crisis at the border” — a phrase as taboo at the Biden White House as “black sheep” or “ladies and gentlemen” at Stanford University.

Pancho Villa could ride again and detach a portion of the United States to serve as a safe haven for millions of migrants drawn from throughout the hemisphere and Biden officials would call it a “challenge,” not a “crisis.”

If the famous Mexican revolutionary isn’t going to reappear, when Title 42 — the pandemic-era edict that has become a pillar of border enforcement — inevitably expires, the historic influx of migrants is now only going to swell. Current daily apprehensions are running at an off-the-charts 7,000 a day and could go as high as 18,000.

It’s incredible, but true, that two years into the Biden administration, with Donald Trump 800 miles south of the White House hawking trading cards, Biden officials still point the finger at him.

The other day, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said her boss has been saddled with the “system that was set” by his predecessor. Biden, too, has claimed that he was stuck with “one god-awful mess at the border,” and Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas likes to complain about “inheriting a broken and dismantled immigration system.”

It’s passing strange, though, that the failure of Trump’s approach didn’t become apparent until he left office and his policies were largely dismantled.

PHOTOS: Border Crisis at El Paso

It’d be one thing if Biden had positioned himself as an inheritor of Trump’s border policies, and assiduously kept them in place; then, if crossings skyrocketed anyway, he might have had legitimate cause to argue that the Trump measures had failed.

Instead, he declared himself a sworn enemy of all Trump had wrought, tore as much of it up as possible, and, when a border that had been brought under control by 2020 unraveled month by month, still blamed it on Trump. This is a rhetorical move so audacious that most wouldn’t dare attempt it.

Equally bold is the assertion that harsh criticisms of Biden’s border policies are responsible for migrants’ coming. Jean-Pierre recently said that if Title 42 is lifted, it “does not mean the border is open. Anyone who suggests otherwise is simply doing the work of these smugglers.”

The idea is that if border hawks say we have a de facto open border, migrants will think, erroneously, that they can come to the border and gain entry illegally. Of course, it is the reality that migrants can come to the border and gain entry illegally that is driving the continued flow, rather than anyone pointing this out.

Then, there is the communism excuse. “What’s on my watch now,” Biden has said, “is Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.” Jean-Pierre puts a finer point on it. “Failing authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, as well as Nicaragua and Cuba, are causing a new migration challenge across the Western Hemisphere,” she averred. “So, what we’re seeing is a new pattern.”

It is certainly true that the number of migrants from these countries has increased, but if the border is largely open, they are going to feel the same incentive to come as migrants from other countries. Migrants from these three places still accounted for only 35 percent of the total as of August 2021. Sadly, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua have been miserably misgoverned for a long time. What’s changed is that desperate people living in these countries have a better chance of getting into, and staying in, the United States than ever before.

When Title 42 goes away, it’s hard to predict exactly what will happen — except that Biden and his team will resist taking any responsibility


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NRO: Who is attacking our Power Grid?
« Reply #2647 on: December 27, 2022, 09:09:42 AM »
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/whos-attacking-our-power-grid/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MJ_20221227&utm_term=Jolt-Smart

Who’s Attacking Our Power Grid?
By JIM GERAGHTY
December 27, 2022 10:15 AM

On the menu today: I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears someone is attacking the electrical power grid of the Seattle area, which comes after a series of similar incidents elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest as well as in Florida. And the FBI never caught the guy who attacked the electrical grid down in North Carolina earlier this month. Shooting up a power substation is apparently the latest fad.

Electric Boogaloo

Picture it: It’s Christmas, you’re about to prepare a big meal for the whole family, and the power goes out — all the lights, the refrigerator, your computer and cellphone charger, the works. That happened this year for a lot of families in the Seattle area, but it wasn’t wind, snow, or bad weather; someone shot up their local power substation.

The initial Pierce County Sheriff’s Department public statement was . . . curious:

Today at 05:26 am we received a call of a burglary to the Tacoma Public Utilities Substation at 22312 46th Ave E.

Deputies arrived on scene and saw there was forced entry into the fenced area. Nothing had been taken from the substation, but the suspect vandalized the equipment causing a power outage in the area.

Deputies were notified of a second burglary to the TPU substation at 8820 224th St E which also had forced entry with damage to the equipment. Nothing was taken from this site either.

At 11:25 we were notified by Puget Sound Energy that they too had a power outage this morning at 02:39 am. Deputies are currently on scene at this facility where the fenced area was broken into and the equipment vandalized.

At this time deputies are conducting the initial investigation. We do not have any suspects in custody. It is unknown if there are any motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems.

In total, three sites were vandalized, two TPU and one PSE, with more than 14,000 customers effected.

Really? They weren’t sure if three separate site invasions where equipment was vandalized and broken in a matter of hours might be a coordinated attack? It’s Christmas morning: Most other people have places to be and things to do at that time!

That night, the department issued a second police report:

At 7:21 pm, on December 25th, 2022, dispatchers received a call of a fire at the Puget Sound Energy substation at 14320 Kapowsin Hwy E. Deputies, Firefighters and Puget Sound Energy employees responded to the scene. The fire was extinguished and the substation secured. Power was knocked out for homes in Kapowsin and Graham. The suspect(s) gained access to the fenced area and vandalized the equipment which caused the fire. There are no suspects in custody at this time.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because earlier this month, someone still at large attacked power stations in North Carolina, knocking out power for tens of thousands of people. This, dear readers, is not-so-accurately labeled “vandalism” and is more accurately labeled “terrorism,” and the FBI is investigating.

Because we live in a politically charged era, the FBI is investigating two potential motives, according to CNN.

Investigators — who have found nearly two dozen shell casings from a high-powered rifle — are zeroing in on two threads of possible motives centered on extremist behavior for the weekend assault on two North Carolina electric substations, according to law-enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.

One thread involves the writings by extremists on online forums encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure. The second thread looks at a series of recent disruptions of LGBTQ+ events across the nation by domestic extremists.

The FBI and the NC State Bureau are assisting in the investigation. Investigators have no evidence connecting the North Carolina attacks to a drag event at the theater in the same county, but the timing of two events are being considered in context with the growing tensions and armed confrontations around similar LBGTQ+ events across the country, the sources told CNN.

Sheriff Ronnie Fields has said that whoever fired at the substations “knew exactly what they were doing.” No group “has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who [did] it,” the sheriff said on Sunday.

But what really ought to make us sit up and take notice is how Seattle and North Carolina are just two of the most high-profile incidents of this kind of attack, which appears to be growing more frequent. Before the North Carolina attacks garnered national attention, someone launched a series of attacks elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest:

The electrical grid has been physically attacked at least six times in Oregon and Western Washington since mid-November, causing growing alarm for law enforcement as well as utilities responsible for parts of the region’s critical infrastructure.

According to information obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio, at least two of the incidents bear similarities to the attacks on substations in North Carolina on Saturday that left thousands of people without electricity for days.

Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy have confirmed a total of six separate attacks on electrical substations they manage in Oregon and Washington. Attackers used firearms in at least some of the incidents in both states, and some power customers in Oregon and Washington experienced at least brief service disruption as a result of the attacks.

. . .

Two people cut through the fence surrounding a high-voltage substation, then “used firearms to shoot up and disable numerous pieces of equipment and cause significant damage,” the security specialist wrote.

The memo also referenced “several attacks on various substations,” recently, in Western Washington, “including setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems, causing short circuits by tossing chains across the overhead buswork, and ballistic attack with small caliber firearms.”

(“Buswork” is a term for the maze of wires and switches that hum overhead at a substation.)

Earlier this fall, an individual or groups started forcing their way into power substations in Florida and attempting to cut the power:

On Sept. 21, an intruder “forced entry” into the Zephyrhills North substation in Pasco County, manually tripping equipment that caused an outage lasting nine minutes, according to a report filed with the U.S. Department of Energy.

One day later, someone “forced entry” at Duke’s East Clearwater substation in Pinellas County, again manually tripping equipment that caused an outage lasting two minutes.

The two substations are about 50 miles apart and both incidents took place in the early morning hours between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Experts say the threats to infrastructure are nothing new but appear to have become more common recently.

“It’s definitely not a new type of threat but I think we’re seeing a level of intent to cause damage that is higher than we’ve probably seen in the past,” said Todd Keil, an associate managing director for security risk management at Kroll, who previously worked with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Power substations are particularly hard to protect, as they’re often isolated in the middle of nowhere and usually unmanned.


Politico examined the federal records on attacks on power stations, substations, and related equipment and determined assaults “are at their highest level since at least 2012, including 101 reported this year through the end of August. . . . The previous peak was the 97 incidents recorded for all of 2021.”

(You may also recall the power going out in parts of Tennessee on Christmas 2020, after a bomber blew himself up, because he was concerned about lizard people. His bomb detonated in front of an AT&T hub, and crippled cellular, internet, and cable service across several states.)

Reacting to the attacks on power substations in Washington, Steve Hayward at the, er, ironically named blog Power Line concludes, “This starts to sound like possible eco-terrorism. After all, throwing paint at artworks in museums, and gluing yourself to the wall, doesn’t stop greenhouse gas emissions. Blowing of the electricity grid just might.”

These attacks could be the work of eco-terrorists, but it’s fair to wonder if the average green extremist would know which systems to shoot up in order to disrupt the power transmission. Then again, I suppose you can learn just about anything from the internet these days.

It’s worth keeping in mind that in February, three men in Ohio pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as part of a plot to attack the U.S. power grid in furtherance of white-supremacist ideology. According to the Department of Justice, “as part of the conspiracy, each defendant was assigned a substation in a different region of the United States. The plan was to attack the substations, or power grids, with powerful rifles. The defendants believed their plan would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region. They had conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression.”

Just because it may seem like the Justice Department reflexively blames white nationalists and violent anti-government extremists for acts of terrorism doesn’t mean that white nationalists and violent anti-government extremists don’t exist, or that they don’t aim to harm as many people as possible.

Attribute it to whatever you like — the Die Hard obsession, the need for inspiration for the novels — but I’ve always liked looking at unsolved mysteries, particularly terrorist attacks with no plausible claims of responsibility and no named suspects, that often fade from the public’s collective memory. One of the odder ones occurred in April 2013 at a Pacific Gas and Electric’s substation in Metcalf, Calif. The perpetrator began by slipping into an underground vault not far from a busy freeway and cutting telephone cables. Then, “within half an hour, snipers opened fire on a nearby electrical substation. Shooting for 19 minutes, they surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers that funnel power to Silicon Valley. A minute before a police car arrived, the shooters disappeared into the night.”

“This wasn’t an incident where Billy-Bob and Joe decided, after a few brewskis, to come in and shoot up a substation,” Mark Johnson, retired vice president of transmission for PG&E, told a utility-security conference, according to a video of his presentation, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. “This was an event that was well thought out, well planned and they targeted certain components.”

Nearly two years later, Caitlin Durkovich, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security, said at an energy conference, “While we have not yet identified the shooter, there’s some indication it was an insider.” I notice the early accounts of the attack by the authorities used the pronoun “they,” and references to “snipers,” indicating they believed more than one person was involved in the attack.

I suppose the energy industry has disgruntled employees as much as the next industry, but this seems like a particularly elaborate and ambitious plan for revenge. It’s also worth remembering that the exact same substation in California was robbed a year later, which shouldn’t fill us with confidence about the physical security around these sites.

Crafty_Dog

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ICE: Caught lying, admits no records of nearly 400K
« Reply #2648 on: December 28, 2022, 06:22:38 PM »


https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/28/immigration-and-customs-enforcement-illegal-immigration/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking&pnespid=uat2CXQfJbIe06Gd.m6wSp2VuUmrCcd2Pemx2PN5rAdmrmfYN2FOELTiWTW0gqb_2igOR7rm

INVESTIGATIVE GROUP
ICE Admits It Has ‘No Records’ For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Released With Electronic Monitors
ICE Agents Detain Suspected Undocumented Immigrants In Raids
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JENNIE TAER
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
December 28, 2022
1:23 PM ET


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) admitted to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) that it has “no records” of 377,980 illegal immigrants enrolled in its “Alternatives to Detention” program.

TRAC sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for data on the program, which used to electronically monitor illegal immigrants into the country.

“ICE’s response that they could no longer find records on immigrants in Alternatives to Detention (ATD) that they had previously released came as a shock, particularly after they informed us recently that they had been misleading the public for several months by releasing extremely inaccurate ATD data. The agency really needs to come clean. The American public deserves to have accurate data about the ATD program,” TRAC assistant Professor Austin Kocher told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) admitted it has “no records” of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants released into the country with electronic tracking devices, the agency said in a Dec. 22 letter to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

ICE informed TRAC that it had “no records” of the 377,980 individuals monitored by the agency’s “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) program used to electronically track illegal immigrants released into the country. TRAC had asked for data via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on those in ATD custody from the start of fiscal year 2019 to August 2022. (RELATED: ‘Didn’t Have To Happen’: This Wyoming Sheriff Wants An Illegal Alien Who Raped An 8-Year-Old Imprisoned, Not Deported)

“ICE’s response that they could no longer find records on immigrants in Alternatives to Detention (ATD) that they had previously released came as a shock, particularly after they informed us recently that they had been misleading the public for several months by releasing extremely inaccurate ATD data. The agency really needs to come clean. The American public deserves to have accurate data about the ATD program,” TRAC assistant Professor Austin Kocher told the Daily Caller News Foundation.


ICE started the ATD program in 2004 to monitor illegal migrants released into the country using ankle monitors, GPS tracking and cellphones. With limited detention space, ICE relies on the program to hold those awaiting the years-long backlogs in immigration courts.

The agency has previously provided TRAC with data on individuals enrolled in ATD, disclosing which technology was used, dates of entry into the program among other key details.



TRAC’s latest issue with ICE isn’t the first time the data on the ATD program has faced scrutiny.

The DCNF recently reported on errors and miscalculations in the ATD data on illegal immigrants not tracked with any technology and others tracked using GPS monitoring. At the time, ICE had privately disclosed different data to participants of a private event that showed an over 18,000% discrepancy in public data on those not tracked with any technology and another roughly 600% difference in publicly disclosed GPS tracking data.

ICE later apologized for the issue and updated the data.

“Upon further inspection of what participants were provided against what was publicly available online, it became clear there was a data miscalculation. Teams worked quickly to address and reconcile the issue, now updated on ICE.gov. We regret ICE provided erroneous ATD enrollment data and worked to resolve the miscalculation going forward,” an ICE spokesperson told the DCNF at the time.

TRAC is concerned over ICE’s consistent errors.

“When Congress ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to publish data on immigrant detention, perhaps it should have been clearer that it expected ICE to produce accurate data—not inconsistent, error-ridden, and misleading data that the agency currently provides to the public on a regular basis. These sloppy, uncorrected errors—more of the norm rather than the exception—demand immediate attention from both the public and from Congress,” TRAC wrote on Sept. 20 after ICE incorrectly released data from May 2021 instead of September 2022.

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