Wednesday, May 5, 2021

CALIFORNIA - FEINSTEIN, PELOSI AND KAMALA HARRIS' MEXIFORNIA

The Biden administration has not, thus far, communicated a clear plan to reduce the influx of unaccompanied migrant children.

Bi-National Search Leads to Migrants Lost in California Border Wilderness

Border Patrol agents rescue a Mexican man suffering heat stroke in the Jacumba Mountains of Southern California. (Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/El Centro Sector)
File Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/El Centro Sector
3:42

El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents rescued four lost migrants on Tuesday in a wilderness area near Ocotillo, California. Mexican officials notified the sector’s Foreign Operations Branch to request assistance in finding the lost migrants.

Mexican officials notified the El Centro Sector Foreign Operations Branch with information about a group of four migrants who became lost shortly after midnight on May 4, according to information obtained from Border Patrol officials. The lost migrants called and said the group became lost in the Jacumba Wilderness region near the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Border Patrol agents assigned to the sector’s Mountain Disrupt Unit immediately responded to the area and conducted a search and rescue operation. In less than two hours from the distress call, agents found the lost migrants.

The agents conducted a welfare check and determined the migrants needed no medical assistance. An immigration interview identified all four as Mexican nationals.

The agents transported the four migrants to the El Centro Processing Center where they were expelled to Mexico under Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Thanks to Mexican officials and our agents, this rescue effort was successful & saved 4 lives,” El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino tweeted.

San Diego Sector agents conducted a similar search and rescue operation a few days earlier. That effort led to the rescue of a group of five migrants.

At about 3 p.m. on April 29, the San Diego Sector Foreign Operations Branch received information from Mexican officials reporting a group of lost migrants near Otay Mountain. The migrants reported they were without food and water and their cell phone was down to three percent battery.

Due to the “unseasonably warm and dry conditions” in the area, Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue agents quickly mounted a search effort. Using the last known GPS coordinates, BORSTAR agents quickly located the group and provided medical evaluation.

After determining all were in good health, the agents identified the five migrants as Guatemalan nationals illegally present in the United States. The migrants told the agent they became lost after hiking for hours and exhausted their food and water before calling for help.

The agents transported the five migrants to a nearby processing center.

“As smugglers become more callous about the welfare of the people they smuggle, the need for our rescue capabilities has increased,” Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke said in a written statement.  “Thankfully, our agents continually rise to the occasion.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

Kamala Harris: Latin America Needs ‘Climate Adaptation’ to End Border Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 4: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers virtual remarks to the Washington Conference on the Americas in the South Court Auditorium at the White House complex on May 4, 2021 in Washington, DC. The 51st Annual Washington Conference on the Americas is co-hosted by the U.S. …
Drew Angerer/Getty
1:48

Vice President Kamala Harris promised Central American countries to work with them to battle climate change in a speech on Tuesday, in the hopes of slowing the migrant crisis.

The vice president spoke about climate change as a “root cause” of the migrant crisis, during a virtual speech to the Washington Conference on the Americas citing the lack of  “climate adaptation,” and “climate resilience” in the region.

“The work from combatting corruption to combatting climate change will not be easy,” Harris said. “And it is not new, and it could not be more important, and it will take all of us.”

Harris argued the citizens of Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras did not want to leave their homes but were leaving for the United States to find hope.

“People in the region do not want to leave their homes,” she said. “They do not want to leave the communities they have known their entire lives.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers virtual remarks to the Washington Conference on the Americas in the South Court Auditorium at the White House complex on May 4, 2021 in Washington, DC. The 51st Annual Washington Conference on the Americas is co-hosted by the U.S. Department of State and the Council of the Americas. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

She spoke about people in Central American countries who had their homes washed away by hurricanes or were fearful of cartel violence and poverty.

“That’s why they leave home and come to the United States. They are suffering, they are in pain, many are experiencing unimaginable anguish.”

Harris expressed her concerns about violence in Central American countries against LGBTQ, Afro-descendants, and indigenous peoples, as well as women.

She said President Joe Biden’s administration would invest in countries to provide “hope at home” in the region.

“The strength of the United States of America depends on the strength of all of the Western hemisphere,” she said. “In so many ways our fates are intertwined. That is especially true with Latin America.”


4 Migrants Dead, 27 Injured as Smuggler’s Boat Flips off California Coast

Three migrants died and 27 others were injured in a human smuggling attempt off the coast of California. (Photo: San Diego Fire Department)
Photo: San Diego Fire Department
3:25

Officials in San Diego, California, report at least four migrants died and as many as 27 were injured when a human smuggler’s overloaded vessel capsized off the coast.

San Diego Fire Department (SDFD) officials tweeted images from the scene where a 40′ cabin cruiser broke apart on the rocky coastline after overturning in the surf. A multi-agency response led to the rescue of dozens of smuggled migrants and the report of four deaths.

SDFD Lifeguard Services Lieutenant Rick Romero told reporters rescuers pulled seven people from the waves including the three migrants who died. The cold surf was running five to six feet on Sunday morning when the incident occurred, Fox News reported. The boat quickly broke apart as the waves smashed it into the rocky shore.

Homeland Security Investigations spokesman Jose Ysea confirmed the deaths of three people and that 27 were transported to local hospitals for “varying degrees of injuries.”

Agents responding to the failed human smuggling attempt included the SDFD, local lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and other agencies, NPR reported.

Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jeff Stephenson told the reporters, “Every indication from our perspective is that this was a smuggling vessel.” He said the boat was “severely overcrowded.”

The captain of the boat is under arrest under federal charges that appear to be related to human smuggling resulting in death to migrants.

Stephenson said the San Diego Sector experienced a growing number of maritime smuggling apprehensions this year. He said the boat appeared to be attempting to blend in with commercial vessels before capsizing onto the rocky coastline.

Officials have not yet released information on the migrants.

On Saturday, San Diego Sector Border Patrol officials announced a stepped-up operation to attempt to disrupt maritime smuggling incidents. The effort includes assets from CBP’s Air and Marine Operations and Border Patrol.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated after an additional death was reported from the smuggling attempt.

 

California Hosts Latest Unaccompanied Migrant Child Shelter

A sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center, Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Long Beach, Calif., where migrant children found at the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The beds are in pods of 30. The center is able to …
File Photo: Brittany Murray/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool
3:58

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials announced the opening of another Emergency Intake Site (EIS) to move the increasing numbers of unaccompanied children out of Customs and Border Protection custody. The move mirrors recent announcements by HHS to address the surge in unaccompanied children migrants flooding the southern border.

The new EIS facility will be located at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California. The Pomona Fairplex EIS is expected to receive 250 unaccompanied migrant children over the weekend. The Emergency Intak Site will provide shelter for up to 2,500 boys and girls between two and 17 years of age.

According to HHS, the EIS shelters being brought into service will provide required standards of care for children, such as providing clean and comfortable sleeping quarters, meals, toiletries, laundry, and access to medical services. A COVID-19 health screening protocol for all children will be implemented to follow CDC guidelines for preventing and controlling communicable diseases, officials claimed. Services will be provided by a combination of contractors and federal staff – including teams from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

The number of unaccompanied minors in United States custody rose steadily over the last several months and shows no signs of waning. At the start of April, HHS held 13,204 unaccompanied alien children. Friday, that number stood at 22,557, a 70% increase. On April 1, HHS released 244 UACs to sponsors in the United States. On Friday, HHS released 580 UACs to sponsors, over twice their daily rate of releases during the month. In total, HHS officials released more than 7,000 UACs to sponsors in the United States in April.

HHS attempts to move the unaccompanied migrant children from temporary holding facilities at Border Patrol Stations as quickly as possible. So far, officials are unable to keep up with the current rate of illegal border crossings by unaccompanied minors. According to a law enforcement source within CBP, Border Patrol agents arrested nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children in March — an all-time monthly record.

Although current laws dictate the children may only be in CBP custody for 72 hours, many have been detained for more than ten days according to law enforcement sources. A number of Border Patrol facilities continue to face issues with overcrowding. HHS, by opening additional shelters can move UACs from Border Patrol custody into HHS Emergency Intake Sites, thus reducing the number held in temporary holding cells at Border Patrol Stations. The number of UACs being detained by the federal government continues to climb despite this effort.

HHS estimates the cost to house each unaccompanied child in an EIS is approximately $775 per day. The cost is lower at other HHS shelters that provide more permanent housing. Based on their cost estimates, daily expenses for the care of the UACs in HHS custody are over $9 million per day.

The Biden administration has not, thus far, communicated a clear plan to reduce the influx of unaccompanied migrant children.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol.  Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas Sector

Randy Clark: Progress on Biden’s Border Crisis Merely a Shell Game

A young migrant waits for his turn to take a shower at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool)
AP File Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills
4:00

A news story published on Friday touted the Biden administration’s progress on the unaccompanied migrant children crisis at the border. An 84 percent drop in the number of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) in Border Patrol custody was cited as the administration’s cause for celebration.

In a CNN news story, a White House official, speaking on a condition of anonymity, provided figures showing a reduction from 5767 unaccompanied children on March 28 to 954 as of April 28. These numbers reflect only the movement of the children from CBP custody to Health and Human Services (HHS) Emergency Intake Sites.

As reported by CNN, these statistics are consistent with data provided by HHS. However, they tell only a tiny piece of the story. The truth of the situation, according to HHS data is far from progress or success. In fact, no other statistic showed any reduction other than how many children were shuffled from CBP to HHS custody.

At the start of April, HHS was holding 13,204 unaccompanied alien children. Friday, that number stood at 22,557, a 70% increase. On April 1, HHS only released 244 UACs to sponsors in the United States. On Friday, HHS released 580 UACs to sponsors, over twice their daily rate of releases during the month. In April’s total, over 7,000 UACs were released to sponsors in the United States.

The numbers, according to HHS, bear out the following:

  • The number of UACs in the custody of the federal government as a whole rose constantly from one day to the next during the month of April to Friday’s high of 23,347.
  • The number of UAC’s released by HHS to sponsors daily rose steadily throughout the month as well to a high of 580 on Friday.
  • Despite the efforts to move UACs from Border Patrol custody into HHS Emergency Intake Sites, and to hasten release into the United States, over 30,000 UACs were at one time in the custody of CBP or HHS during the month of April.

The progress touted is merely a shell game of where the children are held, not a reduction in the flow. Since the Biden administration took office, the flow rate of unaccompanied children entering the United States illegally rose by 260 percent from over 5,000 in January to over 18,000 per month in March, according to CBP statistics.

The costs associated with the detention of UACs rose as well. HHS estimates the cost to house each unaccompanied child in an Emergency Intake Site is approximately $775 per day. The cost is lower at other HHS shelters which provide more permanent housing. Based on their cost estimates, daily expenses for the care of the UACs in HHS custody exceed $9 million per day.

HHS has opened 17 Emergency Intake Sites to deal with the influx since March 1. Some have come under scrutiny for COVID-19 and sexual abuse allegations. The situation at the southern border is still a crisis. Overall, the number of migrants arrested is up, got-away numbers are up, and the flow of unaccompanied children shows no signs of slowing.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol.  Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.

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