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IMMIGRATION

Military on the Border: Appropriate Response to a Crisis How does a house stand without walls? Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272778/military-border-appropriate-response-crisis-michael-cutler

On February 3, 2019 ABC News posted an AP (Associated Press) report, “Pentagon sending another 3,750 troops to Southwest border.”

The ABC/AP report noted that the Trump administration was sending those members of the armed forces to the U.S./Mexican border to bring the total number of active-duty troops to 4,350. The Pentagon said that the soldiers would be installing 150 miles of concertina barbed wire and assist with surveilling the border, but not have direct contact with any illegal aliens or aid in their arrest by the Border Patrol. Reportedly, however, the soldiers will be able to help defend Border Patrol agents who come under fire.

The news report included this excerpt:

The announcement is in line with what Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan had said on Tuesday when he provided estimates for the next phase of a military mission that has grown in size and length. Critics have derided it as a political ploy by the White House as President Donald Trump seeks billions to build a border wall.

It is astonishing that anyone would actually believe that protecting America and Americans from the entry of uninspected aliens and cargo is a “political ploy.”

Is the oath of office the President, Vice President or members of Congress take a political ploy?

In point of fact, the political foes of the border wall are playing politics with national security, public safety, public health and the livelihoods of American and lawful immigrant workers.

Even though prior administrations, including those of George W. Bush and Barak Obama, have sent military units to back up the Border Patrol, the fact that President Trump would take this action incites the knee-jerk deprecatory reactions of his foes.

Against The Evidence, Media Keeps Insisting Terrorists Aren’t Crossing The Southern Border The Times is somewhere between misleading by omission and outright lying to their readers about the threats posed by lack of border security. By Todd Bensman

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/06/the-nyt-is-lying-to-readers-about-immigration-threats-from-muslim-world/

Much of the noise accompanying President Trump’s partial justification for a wall concerns the veracity of a general threat: that Islamist terror travelers in the flow of “special interest aliens” (SIAs) might easier breach the southern border without one.

Critics in the media vehemently argue that the administration is trafficking in ridiculous, baseless fearmongering. After President Trump said Muslim prayer rugs were intercepted at the border, one Vox article said migration from Muslim-majority countries only happened at “vanishingly small rates.” Another, in The Washington Post, called southern border migration from Muslim countries a “conspiracy theory.”

But perhaps the most influentially misleading article on the subject came from The New York Times. On January 18, The Times published a “Fact Check” column by Linda Qiu titled “Trump’s Baseless Claim About Prayer Rugs Found at the Border.” It essentially concluded that migration from Muslim-majority countries is an unproven conspiracy theory and, even if it did happen, no one could consider it a security threat.

The column contained numerous errors and inaccurately cited two government reports to support the story’s weak contentions. This sort of recurring problem in the media must finally be called out.

Immigration Pitfalls By Mark Krikorian

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/immigration-politics-pitfalls/

An advance press briefing last week teased that at tonight’s State of the Union address the president would move beyond the current border-security wrangling and offer a grand, new vision for moving forward on immigration, involving something Trump has not said before.

That could just be marketing hype, but there’s reason to be worried. That’s because the formulation of this new — dare I say “comprehensive” — thrust on immigration is apparently not being overseen by Stephen Miller, but by Jared Kushner. This has raised alarm bells because of Kushner’s Manhattan millionaire liberal instincts, but I’m not sure that that’s the main problem.

Rather, I fear that the combination of Kushner’s unfamiliarity with the past 30 years of immigration politics, combined with overconfidence in his powers stemming from his success in brokering criminal-justice reform, will lead the White House astray. Jared could end up like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons, stepping on one rake after another, because the immigration issue is strewn with rakes just waiting to smack the unsuspecting policy entrepreneur in the face. As a service to those in the White House who are new to the immigration issue, here are a few of those rakes, just waiting to be stepped on:

Mexico deploys militarized police to block 2,000 migrants from entering Texas by Anna Giaritelli

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mexico-deploys-militarized-police-to-block-2-000-migrants-from-entering-texas?utm_source=

Hundreds of militarized Mexican police officers were standing guard Tuesday at the border between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Eagle Pass, Texas, to prevent nearly 2,000 Central American migrants from illegally crossing into the U.S.

Buses dropped off the migrants in Piedras Negras, a city of around 250,000 residents, late Monday. By Tuesday morning, federal police in full military gear were lined up in two long parallel rows outside of the facility to keep them from leaving the country, according to tweets from Mexican officials.

The Rio Grande separates both countries in that area, and due to the landscape, portions of the border do not have a physical barrier, making it easier for people to try to enter the U.S.

Starting Tuesday, the state’s governor, Miguel Riquelme, plans to begin deporting migrants who illegally entered Mexico on their way to America.

Coahuila officials will ask those staying at the temporary shelter to show humanitarian visas they would have received if they tried to travel through the country legally from Guatemala. Those who do not have the documents will be removed as soon as Tuesday.

Meanwhile, American, Mexican, and Central American officials are in talks about how to handle this new caravan, one of a handful in the past year. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the Guatemalan consulate in South Texas, the Mexican consulate in South Texas, Mexican government, Coahuila state government, and others met again Monday to talk about how to care for and process the group.

Byron York: Can moderate Dems talk Pelosi out of her extreme position in the border negotiations? by Byron York

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-key-border-question-can-moderate-dems-talk-pelosi-out-of-extreme-position

As things stand now, a House and Senate conference committee is the only hope that Democrats and Republicans can reach agreement on border security and avoid another government shutdown. The negotiations — such as they are, for a committee that has met briefly only once in more than a week — are ostensibly between Republicans and Democrats. But well-informed Republicans believe it is another set of talks — internal talks among Democrats — that will determine whether the committee succeeds and a shutdown is averted.

“This is not a negotiation between Republicans and Democrats,” said one GOP lawmaker who is keeping close tabs on the process. “This is a negotiation between rank-and-file Democrats and Nancy Pelosi.”

“That is unmistakably true,” added a Republican who is taking part in the talks. “There are many reasonable voices within the Democratic conference who want to see a positive resolution here.” The speaker of the House’s “emboldened stance” — her decision to refuse to consider any funds for a border barrier — has been “very hurtful to the process,” the lawmaker added.

Why are the intra-Democratic talks so critical? Because Republicans already agree on the key components of a border security package. They are united behind the need for a border barrier, and they are united behind the other provisions — drug detection technology for ports of entry, more immigration judges, humanitarian aid for detained migrants — that many members of both parties support as part of a comprehensive border security policy. Republicans are already there.

The question is whether the California Democrat can be talked down from her my-way-or-the-highway position

World-Wide Threat Assessment Makes Powerful Case For Border Security Senate hears from leaders of the intelligence community. Michael Cutler

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272739/world-wide-threat-assessment-makes-powerful-case-michael-cutler

Timing is everything. Congress is currently in the midst of debating the construction of a “border wall” or “border barrier” to protect the dangerous U.S./Mexican border as the clock ticks down to another possible partial shutdown of our government if an agreement cannot be reached.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, January 29, 2019 the Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a hearing on Worldwide Threats that was predicated on a just-released paper, “World-Wide Threat Assessment,” that was issued by Daniel Coats, the Director of the Office of National Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community.

As we will see, elements of that report addressed issues that have a clear nexus to border security and immigration law enforcement.

However, the leaders of the Democratic Party have thus far made it clear that they will oppose any and all efforts to construct a barrier to block the uninspected entry of aliens and cargo into the United States while simultaneously claiming that they don’t oppose border security — even as some Democrats call for disbanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Trump: “The Wall is Getting Done One Way or the Other!” President sends a warning to obstructionist Democrats. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272746/trump-wall-getting-done-one-way-or-other-matthew-vadum

President Trump is growing impatient over the lack of progress bipartisan negotiators in Congress have been making in talks over funding a desperately needed wall on the nation’s porous multi-state border with Mexico – and this continuing failure makes another government shutdown increasingly likely this Feb. 15.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted 217 to 185 on Dec. 20 for a spending bill with $5.7 billion for the wall. The measure floundered in the Senate and the partial shutdown got underway Dec. 22. The Senate remains in Republican hands but the House is now controlled by Democrats.

Trump engaged in what his handlers characterized as a strategic temporary retreat when he signed a bill Jan. 25 to reopen the government for a three-week period after the longest federal shutdown on record, dropping his demand that Congress appropriate funding for the wall before restoring the government to full functionality until Feb. 15 after which the government could partially shut down again. Trump said he’ll use the time to continue to push lawmakers for money for the wall and is perfectly willing to shut the government down again if he doesn’t secure appropriations for construction of the project.

U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers Immigrants with master’s degrees or higher get priority in new H-1B visa system By Louise Radnofsky

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-changes-visa-process-for-high-skilled-workers-11548879868?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=0&cx_tag=pop&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration unveiled changes to how the coveted visas for high-skilled foreign workers are allocated, starting this April, in an effort to boost the number awarded to people with advanced degrees from U.S. universities.

The change would result in up to 5,340 more immigrants with a master’s degree or higher getting selected for the visa, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which published the new rules.

The shift appears to fulfill a pledge President Trump made two years ago to help Silicon Valley companies by prioritizing the most skilled applicants for the visas, known as H-1B, and reducing the number of visas secured through outsourcing firms.

The new rules are likely to be challenged in court by those outsourcing companies, arguing that the administration has acted outside of its authority or sidestepped the full rulemaking process, said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and partner at Holland & Knight LLP.

He added that any court issuing a restraining order against the rules taking effect April 1 “could potentially throw the whole H-1B system into chaos.”

“If a lawsuit is filed, and an injunction is entered, it does have the risk of throwing the whole thing up in the air. That would be my greatest fear,” he said.

Michael Bars, a USCIS spokesman, said the rule was made “in compliance with the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act.” CONTINUE AT SITE

Obstructionist Democrats Vow Lawsuit if Trump Declares Wall Emergency The Left runs out of excuses for not securing the southern border. Matthew Vadum

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272712/obstructionist-democrats-vow-lawsuit-if-trump-matthew-vadum

Obstructionist open-borders Democrats will promptly file a lawsuit to halt the building of a desperately needed wall on the nation’s porous multi-state border with Mexico if President Trump declares a national emergency to move forward with construction, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is threatening.

White House aides have reportedly prepared an executive declaration that gives the president the ability to redirect billions of dollars in military construction and flood-control funds.

“There would immediately be a lawsuit,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told C-SPAN. “Taking billions out of the Pentagon’s military construction budget would be a big problem, and there’s bipartisan opposition to it.”

Using funds for the Army Corps of Engineers’ flood-control programs for the wall would also be “problematic,” Smith said.

“We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier,” Trump said Friday as he signed fiscal legislation temporarily reopening the portions of the federal government that had been shut down since before Christmas.

In Defense of Assimilation By Rich Lowry

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/tom-brokaw-defends-assimilation-immigration-debate/

Immigrants can become wholly American while making a distinctive contribution to our national culture.

The worst thought crime is the one you don’t realize you’re committing.

So it was with NBC News legend Tom Brokaw, who — for good reason — didn’t understand that assimilation is now a third rail of American politics.

He caused a furor with comments on the venerable Sunday news program Meet the Press over the weekend, including, most controversially, his statement that he believes “that the Hispanics should work harder at assimilation.”

The condemnations were swift and sweeping and a sign that being a beloved media figure who has never before said anything that could legitimately be considered bigoted is no defense when the furies descend.

It was Presidential Medal of Freedom to white hood in one sound bite. A group called Latino Victory hit Brokaw for allegedly giving “credence to white supremacist ideology.”

Typically, his apologies were deemed insufficient and part and parcel of the original offense.

Let’s stipulate that using a definite article to refer to any minority group will always strike people as tone-deaf, but what Brokaw was getting at — the importance of assimilation to cultural cohesion — should be uncontroversial.

It isn’t anymore. The head of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists rejected the very idea of assimilation, which he decried as “denying one culture for the other.” It is astonishing that in that formulation “the other” is American culture. We are perhaps the only nation in world history that has sought to “otherize” its own culture.

It’s also been a trope to accuse Brokaw, as Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro did, of xenophobia. But saying immigrants should assimilate is the opposite of xenophobia — it is an expression of a belief that they can be and should be fully part of the American mainstream.

The old American ideal of the melting pot is that immigrants become wholly American (learning the language, embracing the folkways and traditions, becoming deeply patriotic), but also make a distinctive contribution to our national culture, which is organic and open to a variety of influences. It is wrong to view this dominant culture as hateful or exclusionary.