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IMMIGRATION

Scapegoats at the Texas Border The Biden White House blames border agents who are overwhelmed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/scapegoats-at-the-texas-border-joe-biden-administration-alejandro-mayorkas-11632433558?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

At last the Biden Administration is furious about tumult on the southern border. Not about the surge of migrants, mind you. The White House is using a single episode to scapegoat law enforcement and deflect criticism from its immigration failure.

The flare-up came Monday, when Reuters published footage of mounted Border Patrol agents facing down about 200 Haitian migrants near Del Rio, Texas. The article, and several that followed, mistook the officers’ reins for whips and claimed they’d been wielded against migrants. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib denounced what she called “human rights abuses.”

It was a classic rush to judgment in the age of viral images. Yet the Biden Administration joined the pile-on against its own officers. By Tuesday Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas launched an investigation and took the officers off duty. White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the actions “brutal and inappropriate” and said President Biden was “horrified.”

Perhaps investigators will conclude that the border agents used excessive force. But the Administration looks fixed on a foregone conclusion. “We are addressing this with tremendous speed and tremendous force,” Mr. Mayorkas said Wednesday. His promise that “it will be completed in days not weeks” should prompt skepticism about fairness.

Biden’s Border Botch Is No Accident

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/23/bidens-border-botch-is-no-accident/

The massive influx of illegal immigrants on our nation’s southern border almost defies description. The Biden administration has actively sought this disaster in a bid to undermine the integrity of both our border and our nation’s rule of law. President Joe Biden is responsible for this human crisis, and should answer for it.

We’re already seeing 200,000 or so people each month reach our borders. But things have changed dramatically.

After the July 22 assassination of Haiti’s president, some 15,000 Haitians showed up, many in Del Rio, Texas, swelling the ranks of the thousands of Central Americans and Mexican citizens already at the border waiting to come across. Another 20,000 or so Haitians might soon be on their way from South America, according to NBC News.

Meanwhile, thousands more have already been released into the U.S., with little screening, while just a relative handful have been sent back to their country, according to news reports.

As the Associated Press noted:

Many Haitian migrants in Del Rio are being released in the United States, according to two U.S. officials, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion to Haiti.

Haitians have been freed on a ‘very, very large scale’ in recent days, one official said Tuesday. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and thus spoke on condition of anonymity, put the figure in the thousands.

AP adds that “Criteria for deciding who is flown to Haiti and who is released in the U.S. are a mystery,” but it’s really not. The administration has decided not to send families with children, or children alone, back to Haiti. So they’re appearing in droves.

This may just be the tip of a very large iceberg. Biden’s plans include doubling the current level of refugees admitted each year to 125,000.

US Deports Over 1,000 Haitians But DHS Declines to Say How Many Released in America By Charlotte Cuthbertson and Zachary Stieberhttps

/www.theepochtimes.com/us-deports-over-1000-haitians-but-dhs-refuses-to-say-how-many-released-into-america_4010774.html

The United States has deported more than 1,000 Haitians who streamed into the small border city of Del Rio, Texas, although officials are refusing to say how many others have been released into America’s interior.

The number of illegal immigrants, primarily from Haiti, rapidly grew under the international bridge near the border last week, at one point topping 14,000. The quick jump sparked the deployment of more than 600 agents and officers, as well as repatriation flights to Haiti.

U.S. officials have since moved more than 6,500 people from Del Rio to other parts of the border in an attempt to alleviate pressure. Approximately 1,083 have been deported back to Haiti on nine flights through Sept. 21, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Others are being released into the interior. How many is unclear, because DHS officials aren’t saying.

The same spokesperson declined to answer questions about those being released, while Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both offices within DHS, referred The Epoch Times to DHS.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has twice this week declined before Congress to share data about the number of illegal immigrants being released. On Sept. 21, he told senators in Washington he didn’t have the precise numbers and wanted to wait so he could provide accurate information; on Sept. 22, he again said he didn’t have the data.

“Yesterday, you were asked exactly the same question and you gave exactly the same answer. You would think you would be a little better prepared now that you’ve been asked that question. … You don’t have that information?” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) wondered.

The Biden border crisis isn’t going away Amber Athey

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/biden-border-crisis-texas-haiti-dhs/ 

Tens of thousands of migrants are descending on a Texas border town

The record influx of illegal immigrants on the southern border — and the White House’s refusal to refer to it as a ‘crisis’ — was the biggest story of the young Biden presidency at the start of the year. Even though the number of illegal crossings continued to swell, hitting over 200,000 migrants a month, the scandal practically disappeared during the summer. The media distracted Americans with fear-mongering about the new Delta variant of COVID-19 and warmongering about the undeniably disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Biden border crisis has now returned with a vengeance. This week, more than 10,000 Haitians descended on the border town of Del Rio, Texas seeking entry to the United States. Photos and drone videos show the massive crowd of migrants huddled in squalid conditions under the Del Rio International Bridge. The migrants set up camp as border agents became overwhelmed with the sheer number of illegal border crossers they needed to process.

Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited Del Rio on Monday to survey the situation and gave a press conference. Reporters repeatedly asked how the Biden administration was caught off guard by this massive number of Haitians and Cubans. Mayorkas repeatedly suggested that there was no way for DHS to be properly prepared, as the situation was fluid and unpredictable. However, according to National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, DHS was warned that the Del Rio bridge could be vulnerable to law enforcement operations back in June 2021.

The Immigration Radicalism of the Democrat Reconciliation Bill

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/the-immigration-radicalism-of-the-democratic-reconciliation-bill/

We are all familiar with the fiscal radicalism of the Democratic reconciliation bill, but it’s time to focus more on the immigration radicalism of the bill.

The proposal includes a sweeping amnesty and large-scale increases in legal immigration. These provisions make the bill one of the most far-reaching immigration plans of the last decade, although almost no one has paid attention because the changes are tucked into a gargantuan $3.5 trillion spending plan. 

This Russian-nesting-doll approach may be a clever legislative strategy, but it is terrible democratic accountability. There is no way that this immigration proposal would pass if it were a stand-alone measure subject to normal scrutiny and debate.

The amnesty would cover an estimated 8 million illegal aliens, easily constituting the largest amnesty in American history. 

The bill has a broad definition of so-called Dreamers. To benefit from DACA, illegal immigrants had to have entered the United States when they were under the age of 16 and resided here since 2007. In the reconciliation bill, the standards shift to include people who came under the age of 18 and resided here on or before January 1 of this year.

On top of that, the amnesty includes “essential workers,” more or less any illegal immigrant with a blue-collar job; those with or eligible for Temporary Protected Status, which keeps illegal immigrants from being deported back to a country experiencing unrest or a natural disaster (even if the event occurred years previously); and those with or eligible for deferred enforced departure, another form of protection from deportation. 

Afghan Resettlement Delayed after Measles Cases Detected in Recent Arrivals By Brittany Bernstein

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/afghan-resettlement-delayed-after-measles-cases-detected-in-recent-arrivals/

The CDC has reportedly recommended that Afghan evacuees being processed at U.S. military bases overseas be tested and vaccinated for measles — an undertaking that would delay resettlement efforts by weeks — after four individuals tested positive following their arrival in the United States last week.

The Biden administration first announced last week that it would pause flights for Afghan evacuees at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany and the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after four people tested positive following their arrival in the U.S. 

On Monday, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the administration plans to halt flights for “at least seven additional days.”

However, senior administration officials reportedly told Politico that they are making arrangements for the pause to be extended to allow thousands of people to be vaccinated and for immunity to develop. 

Such an undertaking could cause weeks-long delays in the efforts to resettle as many as 12,000 Afghans, and it would lengthen the stay of evacuees now housed at U.S. military bases, which are already struggling with overcrowding, according to the report.

“All arriving Afghans are currently required to be vaccinated for measles as a condition of their humanitarian parole and critical immunizations,” Jean-Pierre said.

Has The 9/11 Problem Been Fixed? The deadly cost of unprotected borders and unenforced immigration laws. Terrence P. Jeffrey

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/911-problem-was-not-fixed-terrence-p-jeffrey/

Twenty years later, it appears they are still there.

Had you driven through a certain intersection on Leesburg Pike in Falls Church, Virginia, yesterday or today, you would have seen a group of men — some standing, some sitting, but all waiting in the shade, apparently hoping someone would drive up and hire them to do some work.

Twenty years ago, two Saudi nationals, Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar, drove up to that very location looking for someone to help them do something illegal.

What happened then was described in a “Statement of Facts” that the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia presented in federal court in the case of the United States of America v. Luis A. Martinez-Flores.

“At all times material to this case, the defendant was a citizen and national of El Salvador living in the United States unlawfully,” the statement said.

“On or about the evening of August 1, 2001, the defendant was seeking day labor from passersby in a parking lot at a 7-11 store in Falls Church, Virginia,” it said.

“On that same date, Hanjour and Almihdhar drove a van with out-of-state license plates into the same parking lot while the defendant was there,” it said. “Once in the lot, Hanjour and Almihdhar told the day laborers who approached their van that they needed someone to certify that they were Virginia residents on a DMV form.”

Not everyone there was ready to cooperate.

“When the first two laborers who approached Hanjour and Almihdhar refused to help the men, the defendant came forward and agreed to help Hanjour and Almihdhar in return for a cash payment of $100,” the statement said.

A Man for All Seasons of Border Chaos The President is wasting one of the great political opportunities in recent memory. By James Freeman

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-man-for-all-seasons-of-border-chaos-11631138875?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

Has any recent President enjoyed a better opportunity and a greater incentive to enact immigration reform than Joe Biden ? The U.S. is suffering its worst worker shortage ever recorded at the same time it continues to suffer a humanitarian crisis as job seekers and unaccompanied minors mix with opportunistic criminals in the chaos at our southern border. Mr. Biden is desperate to appear caring and competent after his disgracefully executed departure from Afghanistan. He may never have a better set of facts to drive a bipartisan plan to boost border enforcement and increase legal migration. All he has to do is stop indulging the Sandernista desire to remake America and instead focus on solving the country’s problems.

As for the need for more willing workers, the government reported today that open positions in the U.S. hit another record high. Jeff Cox at CNBC notes:

Job openings outnumbered the unemployed by more than 2 million in July as companies struggled to fill a record number of vacancies, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
The department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which the Federal Reserve watches closely for signs of slack in employment, showed 10.9 million positions open. That was much higher than the FactSet estimate of 9.9 million and the June total of 10.18 million.

Lucia Mutikani at Reuters adds that the JOLTS report “also showed a steady increase in the number of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs, a sign of confidence in the labor market.” She adds:

“This is a super tight job market,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “The ongoing struggle to find the right worker for the right role continues.”

Many of the right workers are eager to join us from other countries. But instead of crafting solutions to problems in immigration policy, the President pretends they don’t exist. The Journal’s Jason Riley notes:

Remember when the White House assured us in the spring that the migrant surge on the southern border was “seasonal” and nothing to worry about? Oops. “The Border Patrol made about 200,000 arrests at the southern border in July, marking the busiest month at the border in 21 years and a 12% increase over the previous month,” the Journal reported in August, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Detention centers are so overwhelmed that illegal immigrants are being released into the population without being screened for Covid.

White House asks Congress for billions in emergency funds for Afghan resettlement Joey Garrison

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/07/white-house-asks-congress-billions-afghan-resettlement/5758104001/

The White House is seeking billions in emergency funds this month from Congress to help resettle tens of thousands of Afghan immigrants into the U.S.

In a spending request Tuesday outlining “urgent needs,” President Joe Biden’s administration asked Congress to authorize $6.4 billion for Afghan resettlement efforts one week after the U.S. ended its military effort in Afghanistan. The U.S. is currently working to resettle Afghan allies evacuated from the war-torn country.

White House officials also requested “at least $10 billion” for recovery efforts from Hurricane Ida, and an additional $14 billion for other recent natural disasters – including Hurricanes Laura and Delta from last year.

Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, made the budget request Tuesday, less than four weeks before the current 2021 fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Together the requests total more than $30 billion.

Young proposed the spending in a request for a “short-term continuing resolution” that would also give more time for Congress to pass a full budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which is set to begin Oct. 1. Federal government spending will end on Sept. 30, forcing a shutdown, unless there is action from Congress.

The funding for Afghan refugees would support U.S. resettlement operations overseas and plans for as many as 65,000 vulnerable Afghans to arrive in the U.S. by the end of his month, according to the White House, and up to 30,000 additional Afghans over the next year.

Biden Loses 4,890 Migrant Children, And The Left Yawns

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/05/biden-loses-4890-migrant-children-and-the-left-yawns/

Last week, Axios reported that the Department of Health and Human Services has lost contact with more than 4,500 children who’d crossed the border illegally after it had released them into the country. That’s a third of the migrant children it was supposed to be tracking.

“In 2018, the Trump administration was criticized for being unable to account for the whereabouts of around 1,500 children released from HHS shelters during a three-month period,” Axios reports. “There were around 4,500 such minors as of the end of May who had been released under the Biden administration.”

Axios, a small news organization started just four years ago, uncovered this new wrinkle in the Biden-created border crisis by submitting a Freedom of Information Act request.

The reaction from the mainstream press, leftists, celebrities, and the twitterati?

Crickets.

As of Sunday, the New York Times hadn’t mentioned it. Nor had the Washington Post. Nor any other major newspaper. There’s been no mention of the findings on the network news, on CNN, or on MSNBC. The story has been picked up only by some conservative news outlets.