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Jim Banks Reveals the ‘Mind-Blowingly Corrupt’ Carveouts in $3.5 Trillion Infrastructure Bill SEAN MORAN
Rep. Jim Banks (R-SC), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), detailed many of the most radical aspects of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
Biden has gambled his legislative majority on passing two infrastructure bills, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the $3.5 trillion reconciliation infrastructure bill, otherwise known as the Build Back Better Act.
Democrats hope to pass their mammoth, $3.5 trillion legislation through reconciliation, which allows the Senate to pass legislation with only a simple majority.
Although Democrats have not agreed to the final tenets of the legislation, Americans can see the tentative details of the Democrats’ marquee legislation.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), released an exhaustive list of some of the most radical aspects of the Democrats’ “socialist takeover bill.”
Banks’ press release hopes to serve as messaging House Republicans can use to rally against Biden’s marquee bill.
The RSC contended in a press release Tuesday that Democrats plans to hide the bill text to prevent Americans from knowing how radical the bill is.
“They’ve played ‘ hide the ball ’ with the bill text so as not to tip off the public as to what they’re putting in their bills. Then, they bring it to the floor and tout some poll numbers and scare their members into voting for it,” the RSC wrote.
The RSC noted the bill would:
1. Perpetuates labor shortage: Continues welfare benefits without work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents at a time where there are 10.1 million job openings—more openings than there are people looking for work.
2. Commissions a climate police: Democrats stuffed $8 billion into the bill to commission a cabal of federally funded climate police called the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) who will conduct progressive activism on taxpayers’ dime (pages 8 , 21 , and 926 ).
3. Pushes Green New Deal in our public schools: Requires funding for school construction be used largely on enrollment diversity and Green New Deal agenda items ( page 55 ).
4. Pushes Green New Deal in our universities: Democrats include a $10 billion “environmental justice” higher education slush fund to indoctrinate college students and advance Green New Deal policies ( page 1,935 ).
5. Forces faith-based child care providers out: The bill blocks the ability of many faith-based providers from participating in the childcare system and will lead to many of their closures ( page 280 ).
6. Hurts small and in-home daycares: Requires pre-K staff to have a college degree. ( page 303 )
7. Includes new incentives for illegal immigration: Illegal immigrants will be eligible to take advantage of Democrats’ new ‘free’ college entitlement ( page 92 ) as well be eligible for additional student aid ( page 147 ) and the enhanced child tax credit ( page 1,946 ).
8. Includes legislative hull for Biden’s vaccine mandate: Increases OSHA penalties on businesses that fail to implement the mandate up to $700,000 per violation and includes $2.6 billion in funding for the Department of Labor to increase enforcement of these penalties ( page 168 ).
9. Gives unions near-total control: The bill includes insane prohibitions that would bind employers’ hands in union disputes and dangerously tilt the balance of power, subjecting employers to penalties that exempt union bosses and officials… among other things this bill would prevent employers from permanently replacing striking workers ( page 175 ). It coerces businesses to meet union boss demands by increasing Fair Labor Standards Act penalties by an astronomical 900% ( page 168 ).
10. Makes unions bigger and more powerful: The bill would subsidize union dues that would only serve to strengthen the influence of union bosses and not American workers ( page 2323 ).
11. Pushes Democrats’ wasteful and confusing school lunch agenda: $643 million for, among other things, “procuring…culturally appropriate foods” ( page 333 ).
12. Furthers radical abortion agenda: Does not include the Hyde amendment and would mandate taxpayers pay for abortions ( page 198 ) & ( page 336 ).
13. Drives up costs on Americans’ utility bills: Issues a punitive methane tax ( page 367 ) and includes a tax on natural gas up to $1,500 per ton that could cost the American economy up to $9.1 billion and cost 90,000 Americans their jobs ( page 368 ).
14. Includes dangerous & deadly green energy mandate: Effectively forces Americans to get 40% of their energy from wind, solar and other unreliable forms of energy within 8 years ( page 392 ). Reliance on these energy sources has proven deadly .
15. Includes kickbacks for the Left’s green energy special interest network: $5 billion for “environmental and climate justice block grants” ( page 377 ) and another $100 billion in green energy special interest subsidies, loans and other carve outs.
16. Gives wealthy Americans tax credits: $222 billion in “green energy” tax credits will be given to those who can afford expensive electric vehicles and other “green” innovative products ( page 1832 ).
17. Furthers Democrats’ social justice agenda: Includes “equity” initiatives throughout the bill and, in one instance, Democrats inserted “equity” language into a title which should have been focusing on the maintenance of the United States’ cyber security efforts ( page 897 ).
18. Grants amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants: House Democrats have included in their reconciliation bill a plan to grant amnesty to around 8 million illegal immigrants at a cost of around $100 billion over ten years that would largely be spent on welfare and other entitlements ( page 901 ). Trillions more would be spent long term on their Social Security and Medicare.
19. Opens border even wider: The bill would waive many grounds for immigration inadmissibility, including infection or lack of vaccination status during a Pandemic, failure to attend removal proceedings in previous immigration cases, and the previous renouncement of American citizenship. DHS may also waive previous convictions for human trafficking, narcotics violations, and illegal voting ( page 903 ).
20. Increases visa limit: At least 226,000 family-preference visas would be administered each year ( page 905 ).
21. Grants fast-tracked green cards for those seeking middle-class careers in America: Language included in the bill exempts certain aliens from the annual green card statutory limits and has been described as a “ hidden pipeline for U.S. employers to flood more cheap foreign graduates into millions of middle-class careers needed by American graduates” ( page 910 ).
22. Includes pork for Nancy Pelosi: $200 million is earmarked for the Presidio Trust in Speaker Pelosi’s congressional district ( page 933 ).
23. Increases energy dependence on OPEC, Russia and China: The bill prohibits several mineral and energy withdrawals ( page 979 ). It overturns provisions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that authorized energy production in the Arctic that will result in 130,000 Americans losing their jobs and $440 billion in lost federal revenue ( page 983 ) and the mineral withdrawals it prohibits would, ironically, include minerals necessary for renewable energy sources (pages 934 , 940 , 943 ).
24. Exacerbates the chip shortage: The bill would mandate the conversion of the entire federal vehicle fleet from internal combustion engines to electric engines at a time when there is a global microchip shortage and crippled supply chains ( page 1,043 ).
25. Democrats’ feckless China bill is included: Concepts from the insanely weak Endless Frontier Act included, including $11 billion in research funding that will likely result in American intellectual property going to China ( page 1079 – 1081 ).
26. Chases green energy pipe dreams: $264 million to the EPA to conduct research with left-wing environmental justice groups on how to transition away from fossil fuels ( page 1063 ).
27. Fixes “racist” roads and bridges: Adds a nearly $4 billion slush fund that would help left-wing grassroots organizations that, among other things, want to tear down and rebuild or otherwise alter infrastructure deemed “racist” ( page 1183 ).
28. Punishes red states for failing to adopt Green New Deal provisions: Mandates “consequences” for conservative states that don’t meet the radical Left’s “green” climate standards while at the same time adding nearly $4 billion for “Community Climate Incentive Grants” for cooperating states ( page 1179 ).
29. Includes new massive, bankrupting entitlement: The new paid leave entitlement would mandate workers get 12 weeks of paid leave and would cost $500 billion over ten years according to the CBO ( page 1245 ). It would apply to those making up to half a million dollars a year ( page 1254 ).
30. Advances a totalitarian and paternalistic view of the federal government: Includes grants for organizations to treat individuals suffering from “loneliness” and “social isolation.”
31. Further detaches individuals from employment and more reliant on government handouts: The bill spends $835 billion on welfare through manipulating the tax code [not including the expansions of Obamacare subsidies] ( page 1943 ).
32. Tax benefits for the top 1%: The bill will possibly lift the SALT deduction cap meaning many of the top 1% wealthiest Americans would pay less in taxes.
33. Tax credit for wealthy donors who give to woke universities: The bill creates a new tax credit program that gives tax credits worth 40% of cash contribution that are made to university research programs ( page 2094 ).
34. Expands worst parts of Obamacare: Obamacare’s job-killing employer mandate will become more severe by adjusting the definition of “affordable coverage” to mean coverage that costs no more than 8.5 percent of income rather than current law’s 9.5 percent of income ( page 2041 ).
35. Increases taxes on Americans at every income level: $2 trillion in tax hikes will fall on those making under $400,000 per year, contrary to what the White House says. Individuals at all income levels will be affected ( Ways and Means GOP ).
36. Lowers wages for working families: The corporate tax rate will increase by 5.5%, meaning American companies will face one of the highest tax burdens in the world. According to analysis , two-thirds of this tax hike will fall on lower- and middle-income taxpayers ( page 2110 ).
37. Penalizes marriage: The bill would permanently double the EITC’s marriage penalty on childless worker benefits ( page 2036 ).
38. Imposes crushing taxes on small business: Guts the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act small business deductions that reduced pass-through entity taxes to keep them comparable to taxes imposed on corporations ( page 2235 ) as well as hammer small businesses that file as individual tax earners with the 39.6% rate ( page 2221 ) and Obamacare’s 3.8% tax on net investment income.
39. Crushes family businesses and farms: The bill would impose a 25% capital gains rate ( page 2226 ) and makes alterations to the Death Tax including cutting the Death Tax exemption in half ( page 2240 ).
40. Violates Americans’ financial privacy: $80 billion slush fund to hire an 87,000-IRS-agent army to carry out the Biden administration’s plan to review every account above a $600 balance or with more than $600 of transactions in a year. ( page 2283 ).
41. Increases out of pocket costs for those who rely on prescription drugs: The bill repeals the Trump-era Rebate Rule which passes through rebates directly to consumers at the point of sale ( page 2465 ).
42. Imports policies from countries with socialized medicine: The bill includes healthcare policies imported from systems in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom—all countries that have government-run healthcare systems ( page 2349 ).
The bill also has other lesser-known provisions, including:
· $5 million per year for the Small Business Administration for an entrepreneurial program for formerly incarcerated individuals.
· $2.5 billion for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to award competitive grants or contracts to local governments, community-based organizations, and other groups to support “intervention strategies” to reduce community violence.
“Each of these 42 bullets is enough to vote against the bill. Taken together—it’s mind-blowingly corrupt. We need to loudly oppose it,” Banks charged in the release.
He added, “Democrats are scattered. The Biden agenda is in question. It’s the perfect opportunity to build public sentiment against this bill. The American people need us to be the vanguard against the Left’s radical plans.”
“It’s not an understatement to say this bill, if passed, will fundamentally change our country forever—Americans will wake up in a few years and wonder what happened to their freedom. We can’t let that happen , “ Banks concluded.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3 .
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!
THEY WILL NOT GO QUIETLY!
The legislation has been shaped entirely by the class interests of the capitalist ruling elite, which demands both a continued supply of cash from the Treasury and a stepped-up supply of low-wage labor in the midst of the pandemic. In the course of these “negotiations,” measures that provide subsidies to businesses or promote the entry of more workers into the labor force have advanced, while measures that cost business money, sustain working people while they are not actively employed, or simply improve their lives, have been killed.
Biden opened the border, flooding our nation with millions of unemployed, unvetted, often terribly sick people who have no knowledge of or respect for our institutions. Most plan to get the welfare and health care Biden promised. Nothing stops terrorists and serious criminals, including killers; rapists; pedophiles; and traffickers of women, children, and drugs. America receives no benefit from opening our border to impoverished, illiterate people from over 120 countries. To add insult to injury, while Americans are being destroyed over the vaccine mandate, illegal aliens need not be vaccinated.
Biden’s incredible shrinking social “reform” bill Patrick Martin
13 hours ago
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The “framework” for the “Build Back Better” legislation announced by President Biden Thursday morning and presented to the House Democratic caucus signals the collapse of the reformist pretenses of the Democratic administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress. For all the grandiose rhetoric about sweeping social legislation and “the most consequential piece of legislation for working people” since the New Deal (in the words of Bernie Sanders), the Democratic Party leadership has embraced a watered-down plan whose yearly cost ($175 billion) is less than one-quarter of the military budget.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., listens to a question from a reporter during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The legislation incorporating the “framework,” a draft budget reconciliation bill, was submitted to the House Rules Committee Thursday and runs to nearly 2,200 pages. Its provisions are complex, and the procedures for its approval are both convoluted and highly precarious. It is entirely possible that the legislative process will lead to a complete political debacle for both the Biden White House and the Democratic Party as a whole, with no significant legislation passed.
But there is a unifying thread to the process of legislative horse-trading with two right-wing Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and a half-dozen right-wing House Democrats, which shrank the initial social spending bill from $6 trillion at the beginning, to the $3.5 trillion bill put forward by the White House, and now to the $1.75 trillion embraced by Biden Thursday—half his original plan, and barely a quarter of the opening bid by Sanders.
All these figures represent expenditures spread out over 10 years. By comparison, the military budget over the same period would be at least $8 trillion, and projected interest payments on the federal debt could be even higher. Every year, the Federal Reserve is pumping close to $1.5 trillion into the markets—nearly as much as the proposed legislation allocates in ten years.
The legislation has been shaped entirely by the class interests of the capitalist ruling elite, which demands both a continued supply of cash from the Treasury and a stepped-up supply of low-wage labor in the midst of the pandemic. In the course of these “negotiations,” measures that provide subsidies to businesses or promote the entry of more workers into the labor force have advanced, while measures that cost business money, sustain working people while they are not actively employed, or simply improve their lives, have been killed.
This rule of thumb explains both what provisions have survived and those which have gone by the wayside. To outline these briefly, based on the descriptions supplied by the White House, the surviving measures include:
· Climate-related spending, for a total of $555 billion. This is the largest single allocation in the much-reduced reconciliation bill, and the lion’s share, $320 billion, is in the form of tax credits to utilities, electric vehicle manufacturers, and companies that build battery-charging stations. Another $110 billion is for direct incentives (subsidies) to producers of “solar, batteries and advanced materials” (of great concern to the Pentagon), as well as “boosting the competitiveness of existing industries, like steel, cement, and aluminum.”
· Universal pre-kindergarten programs for children aged three and four, as well as federally subsidized child care. Despite the glowing rhetoric about expanding the social safety net, the main purpose of this program is to free the mothers of small children to take low-wage jobs.
· Expansion of Medicaid into a dozen states, mainly in the South, all ruled by Republican state governments which refused federal subsidies for expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Since most low-wage employers do not offer health care coverage, workers in those states, including Texas and Florida, have a strong disincentive to take jobs that would raise their incomes only marginally, yet make them ineligible for Medicaid.
· Extension of the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for around 17 million low-wage workers. This is essentially a wage subsidy for low-wage employers, since it allows workers to survive on extremely low wages with a top-off from the federal government, only available if they stay in their jobs for a minimum number of hours per week. It is not payable to workers who quit their jobs, are laid off or are long-term unemployed.
· Creation of a federally funded home health care program for the elderly and disabled. The class purpose is to return to the work force those who might otherwise have to drop out to take care of elderly parents or disabled relatives. This is of particular importance in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has frightened people away from nursing homes that have become death traps.
Those programs that have been largely or entirely eliminated include:
· Two years of free community college. This would obviously have removed large numbers of workers from the labor force, particularly those working and going to school only part-time, who would be encouraged to enroll in full-time education.
· Paid family and medical leave. This was initially set at 12 weeks, then whittled down to four weeks and then eliminated entirely.
· The child tax credit of $250 a month and $300 a month for children aged six or less. The bill extends the credit for only one year, to avoid its expiration in the midst of the campaign for the 2022 congressional elections. Once promised as a new, permanent benefit that would “cut child poverty in half,” the child credit is now set to terminate December 31, 2022.
· Authorization for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices using its enormous buying power to bargain with the pharmaceutical companies.
· Expansion of Medicare to provide dental, vision and hearing coverage. One of the “red lines” of Sanders, the proposal has been shrunk to include only hearing coverage, the cheapest of the three. Besides being costly, this coverage was viewed as undesirable competition for insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans (a semi-private version of Medicare).
Alongside the tailoring of social spending proposals to meet the class interests of big business, the latest Biden version of the reconciliation package excludes any significant tax rate increases for either corporations or the wealthy, and it does not include even the “billionaires’ tax” proposed by some Senate Democrats this week, after the provision was challenged by several of the billionaires and threatened with protracted litigation on constitutional grounds.
There are a handful of tax provisions thrown in to sustain the pretense of “fairness” and “equity,” such as a minimum corporate income tax, but these will be easily evaded by giant corporations and their well-funded tax and legal departments. Likewise, the surtax on the incomes of millionaires and billionaires is likely to be eliminated because of the adamant opposition of Senator Sinema to any increase in income tax rates.
These spending and tax measures are combined in the “reconciliation” bill, which requires 50 votes in the Senate for passage. The separate “infrastructure” bill has already passed the Senate with bipartisan support, because it is essentially a $1.2 trillion boondoggle for big construction companies and other corporations, such as trucking, shipping, electric utilities and the like.
In the wake of Biden’s meeting with the House Democrats, the “progressives” have embraced the substance of his much-reduced reconciliation bill. While still insisting on the passage of both bills together, they are not arguing for any significant improvements in the reconciliation bill. Medicare expansion, paid family leave, free community college and other measures are off the table.
The whole rotten process exposes not only the nature of the Democratic Party itself. As Biden declared in his remarks Thursday from the White House, after his meeting with the House, “I am a capitalist.” Or to be more precise, he is a paid servant of the capitalists, like every Democratic and Republican politician.
The Democratic Party is a party of Wall Street, the intelligence agencies and the military, resting on privileged sections of the middle class. The role of Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, et al. is to provide this reactionary political organization with the barest fig leaf of social reform.
Moreover, far from “creating space” for social reform, as the pseudo-left promoters of the Democratic Party claimed, the right-wing politics of the Democrats, to the extent that they are not opposed through the independent political mobilization of the working class on a socialist program, only fuel the growth of the far right.
“More fentanyl has been seized this fiscal year than the last three years combined--almost 10,500 pounds of fentanyl when only 2 milligrams prove fatal,” said the governors. “This is enough to kill seven times the U.S. population.”
Democrats Block Motion to Strip Amnesty from Build Back Better Frederic-J.-Brown/AFP/Getty-Images 1:23
House Democrats blocked a Republican motion to strip the Build Back Better Act of its amnesty provisions, which House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) called the “Democrats’ Socialist Spending Spree.”
If the Republicans had defeated the previous question on H. Res. 803, which is the rule for considering the Build Back Better Act, the House GOP planned to amend the rule by putting forth an amendment offered by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to strip the legislation of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
In a press release, Scalise said, “Democrats want to grant of amnesty to millions of people living in the country illegally. CBO estimates that their bill will provide nearly a half trillion dollars in benefits to illegal immigrants over the next 20 years.”
As Breitbart News previously reported , “The amnesty would allow close to seven million illegal aliens — and potentially more — to get green cards and after five years begin applying for naturalized citizenship.”
The vote to move forward with H. Res. 803 was passed along strict party lines, 220 – 210.
The House is expected to pass the Build Back Better Act on Thursday night.
Democrats Wave White Flag: Kevin McCarthy’s Epic Speech Forces Recess, Delay on Planned ‘Build Back Better’ Vote Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, BNN Edit 1:45
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) several-hours-long landmark speech bashing President Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda on Thursday night appears to have pushed the Democrats into delaying the vote until Friday morning.
According to several congressional reporters, the Democrats called it quits for the night as McCarthy continued hammering the bill as a socialist wish list that will cripple the American people with unfair taxes and generations of debt.
“Leader McCarthy is welcome to continue his raving as late into the night as he wants. The House will return and vote first thing Friday morning,” one senior Democrat aide told Politico reporter Heather Caygle. “We thank the Minority Leader for helping us maximize the coverage of our efforts.”
Kevin McCarthy even acknowledged the delay from the House floor as he continued speaking well past the four hour mark, vowing to keep talking as long as he could and as long as the American people listen. He said:
Mr. Speaker I think I owe an apology, because I understand the Democrats have left and they want to recess when I’m done. I don’t know if they can get to the airlines at this time to change their flights to Puerto Rico later tomorrow for their fundraiser. I’m sorry for that, but this is just too important.
“Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if they think they left I’m going to stop,” he continued. “I’m not. It’s too important.”
Republicans gathering behind McCarthy broke out into applause.
“Mr. Speaker, I’m really not talking to them,” exclaimed McCarthy. “I’m talking to the American people.”
White House Says Border Crisis ‘Not a Real Focus’ at Summit with Mexico and Canada Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, AP Photo/Eric Gay The White House said President Joe Biden would not focus on the border crisis during the North American Leaders’ Summit on Thursday.
“There’s not a real focus, this time around, on our borders,” a senior White House official told reporters during a press briefing call previewing the summit.
The North American Leaders’ Summit, also known as the “Three Amigos” summit, will be hosted at the White House as Biden will meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The White House official was asked about whether Biden would address the possibility of reactivating the Remain in Mexico to help stem the flow of migrants coming into the United States.
The official said the Remain in Mexico program was not going to be part of the meetings between Biden and Obrador.
“This won’t be a subject of the conversation tomorrow,” the official repeated.
The White House said there would be some discussion of the “root causes” of the economic conditions in Central American countries, calling it a “central pillar” of the Biden administrations strategy on border security.
“I think what you’ll find — which is a bit of a shift, I think, from in the past — is that the focus of the migration discussions are very much on what the three governments can do together outwardly in the region,” the official said.
The three leaders, the official noted, would discuss ways to “create more legal pathways,” for migrants and “increase access to protection” for them.
The official reminded reporters there were labor shortages in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, and that the leaders of all three countries could benefit from increased migration.
The White House also noted that they expected migration to continue because of climate change.
“You know, then we don’t expect these displacement challenges to go away; we know this is a region that’s impacted and will continue to be impacted by climate change,” the official said.
“More fentanyl has been seized this fiscal year than the last three years combined--almost 10,500 pounds of fentanyl when only 2 milligrams prove fatal,” said the governors. “This is enough to kill seven times the U.S. population.”
Border Chief Alejandro Mayorkas: Our Priority Is Justice, Not Border Security Drew Angerer/Getty 4:51
Americans should not have a secure border until they also provide justice for migrants, according to Alejandro Mayorkas, the pro-migration secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas made the claim after being asked Tuesday by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “What should be a higher priority of the United States Government? Securing our border or giving amnesty to illegal aliens who are already here?”
“Justice is our priority,” Mayorkas declared at a Senate hearing , adding “That includes securing our border and providing relief to those [migrants] who qualify for it under our laws.”
Cotton asked Mayorkas to compare his border-security record to President Donald Trump’s border numbers: “Are you satisfied that two and a half times as many illegal migrants have crossed into this country this year compared to last year?”
“No, I’m not,” replied Mayorkas, who then added: “but worse is to promulgate and operationalize a policy that defies our values as a nation.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) questions Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill November 16, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
In 2021, Mayorkas has allowed roughly one million illegal and conditionally-legal migrants from many foreign nations across the southern border with Mexico. He has also sought to bring in roughly one million migrants and several hundred thousand foreign contract workers. These legal and illegal migrants compete for the jobs and houses needed by Americans, including the roughly four million Americans who join the workforce each year.
Mayorkas “doesn’t even consider the possibility that there are competing [justice] interests here,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies. By not recognizing the damage caused to Americans by loose migration, Mayorkas subordinates the enforcement of Americans’ immigration laws to his own vision of justice for migrants, said Krikorian:
There’s no question of justice for Americans, whether less skilled Americans, whether it is American people in general who have an interest in sovereign borders. What he’s saying is that there’s only one aspect of justice that’s relevant here — and that is justice for illegal aliens.
Legal and illegal immigration imposes huge economic, civic, and personal costs on Americans — often unjust , and frequently lethal .
Labor migration is deeply unpopular because it damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages , and raises their rents . Migration also curbs Americans’ productivity , shrinks their political clout , and widens regional wealth gaps . Migration also radicalizes Americans’ democratic, compromise-promoting civic culture , and allows elites to ignore despairing Americans at the bottom of society .
Mayorkas is a child refugee from Cuba and a pro-migration zealot who is opening many doors in the border for economic migrants.
In June, for example, he argued that the dignity of migrants is the “foremost ” duty of his agency. In May, he said the agency’s “highest priority ” is the return of lawfully deported adults to live with their left-behind children in the United States. In December 2020, he claimed an amnesty would raise wages for Americans.
In April 2021, he said migrant-owned companies “are the backbone of our communities — and of our country.” In September 2021, he reminded migrants that they can claim fear of torture to avoid a quick expulsion. In 2013, Mayorkas declared that Americans’ homeland is “a nation that always has been and forever will remain a Nation of Immigrants.”
In numerous events, including the Senate hearing, Mayorkas has insisted that the nation’s values require a welcome for migrants — even though less than one-third of Americans support the “Nation of Immigrants” claim.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) listens to testimony from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“In this administration’s view, Americans don’t have any claim to justice with regard to immigration — the only justice concern is that of foreigners,” Krikorian said, adding:
To the extent the left wants there even to be an immigration policy, [it prefers it] be focused on giving every single person in the world who wants to move here an opportunity to make a [asylum] case — regardless of the numerical limits that Congress has enacted. That’s what asylum is [to the left] — its an end-run around the [annual] numerical limits … It is intended to be a way of ignoring the concepts of numerical limits on immigration.
For many years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates. This opposition is multiracial , cross-sex , non-racist , class-based , bipartisan , rational , persistent , backed by Democratic voters , and rests on the solidarity that Americans owe to each other.
MAYORKAS = FUCKING LAIR... AGAIN!
BLACKBURN BUSTS MAYORKAS
ASS BIG TIME!
Obviously You Don't Know The Answer To That': Blackburn Rips Mayorkas Over Settlements To Migrants
'How Is It Inaccurate?' Cotton Blasts Mayorkas Over $450,000 Payments To Undocumented Migrants
Why Do You Not Know?' Hawley Demands Answer From Mayorkas On Afghan Refugee Vetting
'So What Is She Doing Exactly?': Hawley Presses Mayorkas Over VP Kamala Harris's Work On Border
'Did That Shock You To Learn?': Cornyn Questions Mayorkas Over Unaccompanied Minors
'That Testimony Is False... You Know You're Under Oath': Ted Cruz Accuses Mayorkas Of False Claim
Lawmaker uncovers secret operation to move migrants within US
“The Democrats had abandoned their working-class base to chase what they pretended was a racial group when what they were actually chasing was the momentum of unlimited migration”. DANIEL GREENFIELD
Joe Biden is on record that illegals are “ already Americans ,” and under Alejandro Mayorkas , the Biden Department of Homeland Security is effectively the Department of Human Trafficking. John Fonte of the Hudson Institute makes a strong case that “operational control of the border is no longer in American hands ,” and under the control of Mexican cartels. These are criminal organizations but behind the scenes, a more powerful dynamic is in play. Lloyd Billingsley
DHS to Let Immigration Cheats Keep U.S. Citizenship
By Robert Law Rather than outright banning civil denaturalization efforts, the Mayorkas memo imposes such onerous restrictions that it has the practical effect of ending civil denaturalization.
Biden's DHS: Department of Homeland Surrender Alejandro Mayorkas, architect of DACA, picked by Biden to head DHS.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2020/12/joe-bidens-surrender-of-our-borders-to.html
Alejandro Mayorkas: A Portrait of the Intended Nominee for DHS Secretary Will a Senate confirmation hearing recall troubling integrity scandals and heavy-handed re-direction on immigration law and fraud enforcement? Feds: Plants that Hired Illegal Aliens Paid Unlawful Wages, Hired a Child…open borders…it’s all about keeping wages depressed and passing along the true cost to middle America Former Vice President Joe Biden will nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to run the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), despite his role in creating huge Latin American migration and his involvement in several visas-for-sale scandals. https://t.co/859b16NhN4
Surge in Fentanyl Seizures Show Cartels Taking Advantage of Lax Border Policies, DHS Officials Say A DEA agent checks pills containing fentanyl / Getty Images Joseph Simonson • November 17, 2021 5:00 amCustoms and Border Protection's fentanyl seizures skyrocketed by over 40 percent in the month of October, as drug traffickers and cartels take advantage of the border crisis.
Agency data show that CBP agents last month captured nearly 1,050 pounds of the lethal opioid, the fifth-highest amount in three years. For comparison, the amount of fentanyl seized in October is more than 2.5 times the amount the agency seized in the first three months of 2019 and roughly 40 percent of the amount seized in all of 2019.
The high amount of fentanyl busts coincides with skyrocketing opiate overdoses across the country—the Centers for Disease Control recorded a record-high 12-month overdose death toll between March 2020 and March 2021 with no signs of deceleration through the end of this year. The seizures also come as President Joe Biden reverses a number of border policies, a decision that critics say grants more opportunities for criminal elements to smuggle drugs into the country.
One senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Free Beacon that drug smugglers are accelerating their operations as agents on the border face resource and manpower constraints with processing asylum claims instead of trying to stop drug smugglers.
"Cartels are exploiting the migrant crisis to expand drug and human smuggling," one senior DHS official said. "The administration knew full well that using agents to process mass groups of economic migrants would mean reducing the effort to combat crime. They alone own these failures."
The Biden administration has touted high seizure numbers as a success. Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates on Nov. 2 tweeted out an excerpt from an MSNBC piece that said, "The [fentanyl] seizures disprove one of the [GOP's] favorite talking points: If the president had implemented an ‘open-border' policy, as the right routinely claims, U.S. Customs and Border Protection wouldn't have stopped these shipments."
Officials within Border Patrol and DHS disputed that characterization by the White House, with the senior DHS official calling Bates's comment "galaxy brain" thinking.
Many states have pinned much of the blame for the opioid crisis on the Biden administration's immigration policies, calling them reckless and a public health threat.
West Virginia, which has been among the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis, in August filed a lawsuit against DHS and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the department's decision to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico before their court dates in the United States. The state alleged in court that the decision contributed to the "devastating deadly flood of fentanyl across the Southwest border."
"By its consequences burdening and distracting the Border Patrol, the termination of the [Migrant Protection Protocols] decreases the security of the border against fentanyl trafficking between ports of entry, leading directly to both increased numbers of smuggling attempts and increased rates of success in evading Border Patrol," the lawsuit stated. Missouri in April filed a similar suit against DHS.
Research has found that just two milligrams of fentanyl can cause a lethal overdose in people with no prior use of the drug, meaning the amount of the drug seized in October alone could kill over 200 million people.
The influx of fentanyl from across the border has led to bipartisan efforts in Congress to ramp up law-enforcement efforts to arrest and prosecute dealers and traffickers. A group of Republican and Democratic senators in September introduced the Providing Officers with Electronic Resources Act, which provides grants to local law-enforcement agencies for portable fentanyl screening devices.
Sen. Cassidy: Biden ‘Has No Interest in Securing the Southern Border’ Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) (Getty Images)
(CNS News) -- When asked if President Joe Biden would secure the southern border, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said, “No, he has no interest in securing the southern border.”
At the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, CNS News asked the senator, “Will President Biden secure the southern border?”
Cassidy responded, “No, he has no interest in securing the southern border. No real interest. I say that because none of his policies indicate that he is at all interested. We have children being trafficked from all over the world to come here. It’s terrible.”
Biden’s border neglect began the first week of his presidency when he revoked former President Donald Trump’s executive order that focused on strengthening the southern border policies to prevent illegal immigration. This included halting construction of the wall.
“The policy of my Administration is to protect national and border security, address the humanitarian challenges at the southern border, and ensure public health and safety,” Biden wrote in his order. “My Administration will reset the policies and practices for enforcing civil immigration laws to align enforcement with these values and priorities.”
Biden believed Trump’s policies were too harsh, but they worked.
Southern border encounters have increased 238% during Biden’s first fiscal year as president, reported U.S. Customs and Border Protections.
One of the most tangible effects of Biden’s lack of border policy was when more than 11,000 migrants camped under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas for several days, waiting to enter the United States.
At the end of September, 26 governors signed a letter to Biden addressing their concerns about the future safety of the American people, believing the practically open border is a threat to national security.
“The months-long surge in illegal crossings has instigated an international humanitarian crisis, spurred a spike in international criminal activity, and opened the floodgates to human traffickers and drug smugglers endangering public health and safety in our states,” the letter read.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted the border crisis was unsustainable to patrol agents in September, reported Fox News.
“A couple of days ago I was down in Mexico, and I said look, you know, if our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” Mayorkas said. “We can’t continue like this, our people in the field can’t continue and our system isn’t built for it.”
77 Migrants Found in Texas Stash Houses near Border Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Rio Grande Valley Sector 2:55
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 77 migrants in human smuggling stash-house raids. The agents found migrants packed in three separate houses just north of the Rio Grande.
Agents conducted a vehicle stop on November 17 near Alamo, Texas. During an interview with the occupants of a gray Chevrolet Silverado, the agents determined all were illegally present in the United States.
Further investigation revealed the migrants had been held in a nearby human stash house. The agents contacted the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office for assistance and conducted an inspection of the property.
Agents found six migrants still being held, officials stated. The agents identified the migrants as citizens of Honduras and Mexico.
A few hours later, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents received information about another human smuggling stash house near Weslaco, The agents teamed up with local sheriff’s deputies and investigated the residence.
Once inside, the agents found seven migrants from Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, the report continues.
Officials transported all of the migrants to local processing facilities.
On November 13, agents teamed up with Starr County Sheriff’s Office deputies to search a stash house in Roma. The search led to the apprehension of 11 Central American migrants.
McAllen Station agents received a call for help from a migrant who reported being held in a stash house in McAllen, Texas. The agents went to the suspected stash house with McAllen Police Department officers and observed a vehicle dropping off a group of people.
The agents conducted an investigation of the house and found 53 migrants packed inside. The agents identified the migrants as citizens of Central American nations. Two females required medical attention and had to be transported to a local hospital.
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 , Parler @BobPrice , and Facebook.
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Texas Army National Guard Preps for Migrant Caravan with Riot Drills near Border EAGLE PASS, Texas — Texas Army National Guard soldiers conducted aerial deployment exercises along the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande Wednesday. The soldiers arrived and deployed via heavy lift helicopters to a recently erected makeshift border wall fashioned from recycled shipping containers. The drills are conducted as part of Operation Lone Star.
The soldiers could be seen disembarking from several CH-47 helicopters and moving toward the border behind the makeshift wall. Black Hawk helicopters also flew overhead. The Black Hawks are designed to provide fire suppression when supporting ground troops.
With Mexico in the backdrop, the riot gear-equipped soldiers formed line and wedge formations and moved strategically behind the barriers.
Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers can be seen fortifying the border wall with patrol vehicles.
The soldiers installed razor wire along the river’s edge to further prevent migrants from gaining access to the downtown area, a popular crossing point.
The drills are conducted in anticipation of migrant caravans forming in Mexico. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lieutenant Chris Olivarez told Breitbart Texas his department is monitoring the progress of one such caravan .
Operation Lone Star has been in effect since March and involves the initial deployment of more than 1,000 highway patrolmen and National Guard. More than 2,500 Texas Army National Guard soldiers are dedicated to the effort. The latest deployments augment that total. 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.
WATCH: Border Patrol Rescues Migrant Girl Abandoned on Island in Rio Grande Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Del Rio Sector 2:31
Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a five-year-old girl after human smugglers abandoned her on an island in the Rio Grande. Video released by Border Patrol shows marine unit agents reuniting the girl with her mother.
Eagle Pass Station agents came upon a group of migrants who illegally crossed the border. While interviewing the migrants, one woman reported her daughter had been left behind on a river island.
The agents called upon the Eagle Pass Station Riverine Unit to begin a search. The unit quickly found the girl with nine more migrants.
The marine unit agents ferried the migrants to awaiting land-based Border Patrol agents. The video shows the reuniting of the little girl and her mother. Agents identified the mother and child as citizens of Venezuela.
“Human smugglers are cold and calculated, often separating families for their own convenience or to gain compliance,” Del Rio Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Robert Danley said in a written statement. “Thankfully our agents acted quickly and were able to locate the young girl and reunite her with her mother without incident.”
“The subjects were not in medical distress and did not require medical attention,” sector officials stated. “All individuals were transported to the station for processing.”
The Del Rio Sector is currently the second-busiest of the nine southwest border sectors. In October, the first month of the new fiscal year, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended 28,111 migrants including 6,005 family units.
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 , Parler @BobPrice , and Facebook.
Mexican President Threatens U.S. Congressmen to Support Amnesty for 11 Million Migrants Hector Vivas/Getty Images 2:17
Mexico’s President issued a veiled threat to Republican congressmen who oppose an immigration deal to grant amnesty to 11 million migrants who illegally entered the U.S. Politicians who oppose the forthcoming plan will be singled out and denounced during daily press briefings, he said.
During a morning press briefing this week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador praised President Joe Biden, claiming no other U.S. counterpart had made a commitment to address 11 million illegal immigrants.
“He had committed to 11 million, to regularize the situation for 11 million immigrants,” Lopez Obrador said toward the end of the conference, adding the plan did not rest on Biden alone and he needed support on Capitol Hill.
“It depends on the Congress–it depends on this initiative being backed up and supported by the Congress,” he said. “By legislators from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.”
Lopez Obrador said he hoped for unified support of the future initiative, but opponents would be directly attacked.
“We will make it known from here, that one party–their legislators–did not help something that is fair and humanitarian,” Lopez Obrador said.
The Mexican leader said that he would not accept a negative result and opponents would be made famous in his morning conferences.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook . He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com .
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook . He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com .
Border Chief Alejandro Mayorkas: Our Priority Is Justice (FOR ILLEGALS), Not Border Security (FOR LEGALS) Drew Angerer/Getty 4:51
Americans should not have a secure border until they also provide justice for migrants, according to Alejandro Mayorkas, the pro-migration secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas made the claim after being asked Tuesday by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “What should be a higher priority of the United States Government? Securing our border or giving amnesty to illegal aliens who are already here?”
“Justice is our priority,” Mayorkas declared at a Senate hearing , adding “That includes securing our border and providing relief to those [migrants] who qualify for it under our laws.”
Cotton asked Mayorkas to compare his border-security record to President Donald Trump’s border numbers: “Are you satisfied that two and a half times as many illegal migrants have crossed into this country this year compared to last year?”
“No, I’m not,” replied Mayorkas, who then added: “but worse is to promulgate and operationalize a policy that defies our values as a nation.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) questions Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill November 16, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
In 2021, Mayorkas has allowed roughly one million illegal and conditionally-legal migrants from many foreign nations across the southern border with Mexico. He has also sought to bring in roughly one million migrants and several hundred thousand foreign contract workers. These legal and illegal migrants compete for the jobs and houses needed by Americans, including the roughly four million Americans who join the workforce each year.
Mayorkas “doesn’t even consider the possibility that there are competing [justice] interests here,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies. By not recognizing the damage caused to Americans by loose migration, Mayorkas subordinates the enforcement of Americans’ immigration laws to his own vision of justice for migrants, said Krikorian:
There’s no question of justice for Americans, whether less skilled Americans, whether it is American people in general who have an interest in sovereign borders. What he’s saying is that there’s only one aspect of justice that’s relevant here — and that is justice for illegal aliens.
Legal and illegal immigration imposes huge economic, civic, and personal costs on Americans — often unjust , and frequently lethal .
Labor migration is deeply unpopular because it damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages , and raises their rents . Migration also curbs Americans’ productivity , shrinks their political clout , and widens regional wealth gaps . Migration also radicalizes Americans’ democratic, compromise-promoting civic culture , and allows elites to ignore despairing Americans at the bottom of society .
Mayorkas is a child refugee from Cuba and a pro-migration zealot who is opening many doors in the border for economic migrants.
In June, for example, he argued that the dignity of migrants is the “foremost ” duty of his agency. In May, he said the agency’s “highest priority ” is the return of lawfully deported adults to live with their left-behind children in the United States. In December 2020, he claimed an amnesty would raise wages for Americans.
In April 2021, he said migrant-owned companies “are the backbone of our communities — and of our country.” In September 2021, he reminded migrants that they can claim fear of torture to avoid a quick expulsion. In 2013, Mayorkas declared that Americans’ homeland is “a nation that always has been and forever will remain a Nation of Immigrants.”
In numerous events, including the Senate hearing, Mayorkas has insisted that the nation’s values require a welcome for migrants — even though less than one-third of Americans support the “Nation of Immigrants” claim.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) listens to testimony from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“In this administration’s view, Americans don’t have any claim to justice with regard to immigration — the only justice concern is that of foreigners,” Krikorian said, adding:
To the extent the left wants there even to be an immigration policy, [it prefers it] be focused on giving every single person in the world who wants to move here an opportunity to make a [asylum] case — regardless of the numerical limits that Congress has enacted. That’s what asylum is [to the left] — its an end-run around the [annual] numerical limits … It is intended to be a way of ignoring the concepts of numerical limits on immigration.
For many years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates. This opposition is multiracial , cross-sex , non-racist , class-based , bipartisan , rational , persistent , backed by Democratic voters , and rests on the solidarity that Americans owe to each other.
MAYORKAS = FUCKING LAIR... AGAIN!
BLACKBURN BUSTS MAYORKAS
ASS BIG TIME!
Obviously You Don't Know The Answer To That': Blackburn Rips Mayorkas Over Settlements To Migrants
'How Is It Inaccurate?' Cotton Blasts Mayorkas Over $450,000 Payments To Undocumented Migrants
Why Do You Not Know?' Hawley Demands Answer From Mayorkas On Afghan Refugee Vetting
'So What Is She Doing Exactly?': Hawley Presses Mayorkas Over VP Kamala Harris's Work On Border
'Did That Shock You To Learn?': Cornyn Questions Mayorkas Over Unaccompanied Minors
'That Testimony Is False... You Know You're Under Oath': Ted Cruz Accuses Mayorkas Of False Claim
Lawmaker uncovers secret operation to move migrants within US
“The Democrats had abandoned their working-class base to chase what they pretended was a racial group when what they were actually chasing was the momentum of unlimited migration”. DANIEL GREENFIELD
Joe Biden is on record that illegals are “ already Americans ,” and under Alejandro Mayorkas , the Biden Department of Homeland Security is effectively the Department of Human Trafficking. John Fonte of the Hudson Institute makes a strong case that “operational control of the border is no longer in American hands ,” and under the control of Mexican cartels. These are criminal organizations but behind the scenes, a more powerful dynamic is in play. Lloyd Billingsley
DHS to Let Immigration Cheats Keep U.S. Citizenship
By Robert Law Rather than outright banning civil denaturalization efforts, the Mayorkas memo imposes such onerous restrictions that it has the practical effect of ending civil denaturalization.
Biden's DHS: Department of Homeland Surrender Alejandro Mayorkas, architect of DACA, picked by Biden to head DHS.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2020/12/joe-bidens-surrender-of-our-borders-to.html
Alejandro Mayorkas: A Portrait of the Intended Nominee for DHS Secretary Will a Senate confirmation hearing recall troubling integrity scandals and heavy-handed re-direction on immigration law and fraud enforcement? Feds: Plants that Hired Illegal Aliens Paid Unlawful Wages, Hired a Child…open borders…it’s all about keeping wages depressed and passing along the true cost to middle America Former Vice President Joe Biden will nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to run the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), despite his role in creating huge Latin American migration and his involvement in several visas-for-sale scandals. https://t.co/859b16NhN4
Surge in Fentanyl Seizures Show Cartels Taking Advantage of Lax Border Policies, DHS Officials Say A DEA agent checks pills containing fentanyl / Getty Images Joseph Simonson • November 17, 2021 5:00 amCustoms and Border Protection's fentanyl seizures skyrocketed by over 40 percent in the month of October, as drug traffickers and cartels take advantage of the border crisis.
Agency data show that CBP agents last month captured nearly 1,050 pounds of the lethal opioid, the fifth-highest amount in three years. For comparison, the amount of fentanyl seized in October is more than 2.5 times the amount the agency seized in the first three months of 2019 and roughly 40 percent of the amount seized in all of 2019.
The high amount of fentanyl busts coincides with skyrocketing opiate overdoses across the country—the Centers for Disease Control recorded a record-high 12-month overdose death toll between March 2020 and March 2021 with no signs of deceleration through the end of this year. The seizures also come as President Joe Biden reverses a number of border policies, a decision that critics say grants more opportunities for criminal elements to smuggle drugs into the country.
One senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Free Beacon that drug smugglers are accelerating their operations as agents on the border face resource and manpower constraints with processing asylum claims instead of trying to stop drug smugglers.
"Cartels are exploiting the migrant crisis to expand drug and human smuggling," one senior DHS official said. "The administration knew full well that using agents to process mass groups of economic migrants would mean reducing the effort to combat crime. They alone own these failures."
The Biden administration has touted high seizure numbers as a success. Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates on Nov. 2 tweeted out an excerpt from an MSNBC piece that said, "The [fentanyl] seizures disprove one of the [GOP's] favorite talking points: If the president had implemented an ‘open-border' policy, as the right routinely claims, U.S. Customs and Border Protection wouldn't have stopped these shipments."
Officials within Border Patrol and DHS disputed that characterization by the White House, with the senior DHS official calling Bates's comment "galaxy brain" thinking.
Many states have pinned much of the blame for the opioid crisis on the Biden administration's immigration policies, calling them reckless and a public health threat.
West Virginia, which has been among the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis, in August filed a lawsuit against DHS and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the department's decision to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico before their court dates in the United States. The state alleged in court that the decision contributed to the "devastating deadly flood of fentanyl across the Southwest border."
"By its consequences burdening and distracting the Border Patrol, the termination of the [Migrant Protection Protocols] decreases the security of the border against fentanyl trafficking between ports of entry, leading directly to both increased numbers of smuggling attempts and increased rates of success in evading Border Patrol," the lawsuit stated. Missouri in April filed a similar suit against DHS.
Research has found that just two milligrams
of fentanyl can cause a lethal overdose
in people with no prior use of the drug,
meaning the amount of the drug seized in
October alone could kill over 200 million
people.
The influx of fentanyl from across the border has led to bipartisan efforts in Congress to ramp up law-enforcement efforts to arrest and prosecute dealers and traffickers. A group of Republican and Democratic senators in September introduced the Providing Officers with Electronic Resources Act, which provides grants to local law-enforcement agencies for portable fentanyl screening devices.
Sen. Young: ‘I’m Exasperated By’ Biden’s Neglect of the Southern Border
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) (Getty Images)
(CNS News) -- When asked if President Joe Biden would secure the southern border, Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) said, “I’m exasperated by his inaction and his inattentiveness to a global health crisis.”
On Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, CNS News asked the senator, “Will President Biden secure the southern border?”
Young replied, “I hope so, I’ve been pressing him to secure the southern border. I’m exasperated by his inaction and his inattentiveness to a global health crisis, a law and order crisis, and a national security crisis all at the southern border.”
Biden’s border neglect began the first week of his presidency when he revoked former President Donald Trump’s executive order that focused on strengthening the southern border policies to prevent illegal immigration. This included halting construction of the wall.
“The policy of my Administration is to protect national and border security, address the humanitarian challenges at the southern border, and ensure public health and safety,” Biden wrote in his order. “My Administration will reset the policies and practices for enforcing civil immigration laws to align enforcement with these values and priorities.”
Biden believed Trump’s policies were too harsh, but they worked.
Southern border encounters have increased 238% during Biden’s first fiscal year as president, reported U.S. Customs and Border Protections.
One of the most tangible effects of Biden’s lack of border policy was when more than 11,000 migrants camped under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas for several days, waiting to enter the United States.
(Getty Images)
At the end of September, 26 governors signed a letter to Biden addressing their concerns about the future safety of the American people, believing the practically open border is a threat to national security.
“The months-long surge in illegal crossings has instigated an international humanitarian crisis, spurred a spike in international criminal activity, and opened the floodgates to human traffickers and drug smugglers endangering public health and safety in our states,” the letter read.
The governors cited concern over the increasing levels of criminal activity, including unprecedented amounts of fentanyl crossing the southern border.
“More fentanyl has been seized this fiscal year than the last three years combined--almost 10,500 pounds of fentanyl when only 2 milligrams prove fatal,” said the governors. “This is enough to kill seven times the U.S. population.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted the border crisis was unsustainable to patrol agents in September, reported Fox News.
“A couple of days ago I was down in Mexico, and I said look, you know, if our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” Mayorkas said. “We can’t continue like this, our people in the field can’t continue and our system isn’t built for it.”
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