(CNSNews.com) - The record pace of illegal immigration during the Biden administration was one of the main topics Tuesday at a contentious hearing featuring Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Hawley, reading from a Homeland Security fact sheet, noted that foreigners can now go on their phones and schedule a time to come to one of eight U.S. ports of entry and then be admitted.
"It's like a concierge service for illegal immigrants," Hawley said, accusing Mayorkas of building "Ticketmaster for illegal immigrants."
"There is a process for individuals who claim an exception to the Title 42 expulsion authority, because of an acute medical condition...an urgent humanitarian reason,” Mayorkas said.
“So instead of them coming in-between the ports of entry to claim that urgent medical condition, that extraordinarily acute humanitarian cause, we allow a limited number to arrive at our ports of entry and seek the emergency relief that they need."
"Now let's talk about what actually happens when they come to the border," Hawley said:
Mayorkas dodged questions, including: Is that happening? Are they given interviews?"
Mayorkas finally said that "tens of thousands" of people have "sought to make an appointment" at ports of entry through the CBP One app. Individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua who seek parole via the phone app "are screened and vetted before they arrive at the border--" Mayorkas started to say.
Hawley interrupted, noting that those individuals simply go on the phone to reserve a time and are not asked about anything.
Quoting again from the "Texas Monthly," Hawley noted that even immigration advocates are amazed that the new program doesn't require undocumented immigrants with reservations to make asylum claims, while those trying to cross without using the app are still required to do so.
"What's confusing is, why anybody would think that an app like this, to allow illegal immigrants to literally reserve a time to come to the border and then be ushered in without an interview, without follow-up, without tracking -- is stunning! It's absolutely stunning," Hawley said.
Finally, Hawley asked Mayorkas about a group of Chinese nationals that recently crossed illegally into the United States.
"The number of Chinese nationals encountered at our southern border has increased significantly," Mayorkas agreed. But he could not say precisely how much that number has increased, nor could he -- or would he -- say if any of the Chinese nationals arriving here have been found to be members of the Chinese Communist Party.
"If indeed they are determined to be a national security threat, or a threat to public safety, we detain them, pending their removal proceeding," Mayorkas said.
Mayorkas also couldn't or wouldn't say how many of the Chinese nationals may have been detained. "I don't have awareness of that particular group of individuals," he said.
"So you're not familiar with this incident that was widely reported on at the southern border?" Hawley asked. "Don't you think it's strange that we have busloads of Chinese ntionals coming across our southern border...from a hostile country? I'm asking you if they're members of the Chinese Communist Party, and you don't know, apparently, you won't say."
"We are very focused on all things with respect to the People's Republic of China--" Mayorkas started to say.
"But you don't know any of the details!" Hawley interrupted. "I plead exhaustion, Mr. Secretary. You have exhausted me, you have exhausted this pane, you've exhausted the patience of the American people. You should resign."
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is introducing legislation that would make English the official language of the United States.
The measure, titled the English Language Unity Act, would essentially establish English as the official language of the country and task “Representatives of the Federal Government” with the obligation of what the legislation describes as preserving and enhancing the “role of English as the official language of the Federal Government.”
“Such obligation shall include encouraging greater opportunities for individuals to learn the English language,” the legislation, first obtained by the Daily Caller, reads. It also requires any “official” functions of the U.S. government to be conducted in English. More specifically, that rule would apply to “all laws, public proceedings, regulations, publications, orders, actions, programs, and policies.”
A multilingual “Vote here” sign is displayed in the voting room at Christ Lutheran Church in Monterey Park, Los Angeles County, California, on November 6, 2012. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
It also establishes a uniform language rule for naturalization, stating that “all citizens of the United States should be able to read and understand generally the English language text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution of the United States.” Further, it would require English naturalization ceremonies.
Immigrants wait in line to become U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony on February 2, 2018, in New York City. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Speaking to the Daily Caller before introducing the English Language Unity Act, Vance described the measure as a “commonsense” proposal that “recognizes an inherent truth.”
“English is the language of this country. That is why the overwhelming majority of the American people support this proposal. The English language has been a cornerstone of American culture for over 250 years,” he said, adding that it is “far past time for Congress to codify its place into law, which is exactly what this bill does.”
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
Over the years there has been debate over making English the official language of the United States, which was highlighted again during the presidential election season in 2020 after Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a Democrat presidential candidate at the time, stated during a stop in Las Vegas that English should not be the official language of the United States.
“I think that when you look at a state like this state, and a country like ours that is so diverse, you don’t want to have that provision in law because then it would be very difficult to have, say, government documents and other things translated into other languages,” she said, making it clear that she took a “strong position against” an amendment to make English the official language.
Those remarks, however, stood in contrast to her voting record, as she voted for a pro-English bill in Congress.
Years ago, while former President Trump was running for president the first time in 2015, Trump criticized then-challenger Jeb Bush, asserting that he should be speaking English rather than Spanish after Bush said of Trump, “El hombre no es conservador.” (The man is not conservative.)
“I like Jeb,” Trump told Breitbart News at the time. “He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”
Jose Angel Gutierrez, professor, University of Texas, Arlington and founder of La Raza Unida political party screams at rallies: "We have an aging white America. They are dying. They are s hitting in their pants with fear! I love it! We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to k ill him!"
Previous generations of immigrants did not believe they were racially superior to Americans. That is the view of La Raza Cosmica, by Jose Vasconcelos, Mexico’s former education minister and a presidential candidate. According to this book, republished in 1979 by the Department of Chicano Studies at Cal State LA, students of Scandinavian, Dutch and English background are dullards, blacks are ugly and inferior, and those “Mongols” with the slanted eyes lack enterprise. The superior new “cosmic” race of Spaniards and Indians is replacing them, and all Yankee “Anglos.” LLOYD BILLINGSLEY/ FRONTPAGE mag
Joe Biden: ‘Absolutely Bizarre’ to Suggest Limit on U.S. Capacity to Absorb Immigrants
JOEL B. POLLAK
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned inside a Chinese restaurant on Tuesday evening, telling supporters it was “bizarre” to suggest a limit on immigration to the U.S.
Biden promised to expand immigration to the U.S. if elected president.
“Folks, look — the idea that there’s some limitation on the capacity of anyone who — on the immigrants in this country is absolutely bizarre! It’s absolutely bizarre.”
Biden, speaking to a packed crowd inside the Harbor Palace Seafood Restaurant on the eve of the next Democratic debate, addressed members of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, urging them to turn out the vote ahead of Saturday’s caucuses.
Last month, the AAPI Victory Fund super PAC endorsed Biden for president, citing his ability to defeat President Donald Trump and his experience working with immigrant communities from South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific generally.
Though the AAPI immigrant community is politically diverse, it has trended Democratic in recent years.
Last year, Breitbart News reported, another local AAPI organization in Las Vegas expressed opposition to President Trump’s proposed merit-based system for legal immigration.
On Tuesday, Biden promised, if elected, to allow family reunification visas.
“We should be able to increase, to three million people, the people who could come for family reunification. Period, period, period, period.”
He called the idea that the U.S. could not “reunite” more families “absolutely bizarre.”
Biden also reminded his audience that Latinos were not the only beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which applied to those brought to the country illegally as children.
He said there were “thousands and thousands of AAPI ‘Dreamers'” who had benefited from DACA as well.
Afterwards, Biden greeted attendees, some of whom proceeded to the Chinatown Mall to cast early votes before the polling place there closed.
Biden hopes to finish in the top three in Nevada, and to win South Carolina on Feb. 29, to make the case that he is still a top contender for his party’s nomination. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) now leads national polls, as well as Nevada polls.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
So Biden wants to change immigration rules in the middle of a pandemic?
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
According to news reports, wannabe president-elect Biden intends to undo much of the good work that President Trump did on immigration. This is from CBS:
After Mr. Biden is sworn-in in January, his administration will move to fully restore an Obama-era program that shields 640,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation, halting Mr. Trump's unsuccessful efforts to end it, people familiar with the plans told CBS News. The incoming administration also intends to rescind Mr. Trump's travel and immigration restrictions on 13 mostly African or predominantly Muslim countries.
Mr. Biden will look to implement a 100-day freeze on deportations while his administration issues guidance narrowing who can be arrested by immigration agents. Obama-era memos that prioritized the deportation of immigrants with criminal convictions, recent border-crossers and those who entered the country illegally more than once were scrapped in 2017 by Mr. Trump so that no unauthorized immigrant would be exempted from being arrested and removed from the country.
Well, let's see how far he gets in the middle of a pandemic.
First, there is the health issue. Are we going to test all of these people at the border before they cross?
Second, has anyone consulted with President Andrés López-Obrador of Mexico? Is he ready for more caravans in the middle of a pandemic? The caravans will come if the word gets out that the rules are loosened up.
What about the U.S. Senate and House? Does Biden think that the legislators are just going to sit back and watch all of this?
So we will see. My guess is that Biden is throwing a bone to the left.
DURING OBOMB'S 8 YEAR BANKSTER REGIME, HE AND BANKSTER-LAWYER ERIC HOLDER SABOTAGED HOMELAND SECURITY, VOTING AND AMERICA'S BORDERS TO FLOOD AMERICA WITH DEM VOTING MEXICANS.
OBOMB OPERATED AND FUNDED THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY OF LA RAZA 'The Race' NOW CALLING ITSELF UNIDOSus OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE.
Unlimited immigration. Obama issued an unconstitutional executive order – an action he repeated routinely to counter Congressional action – that instituted mass immigration of poor, uneducated third-world people into the U.S., not to assimilate with our culture but to keep their own and demand that U.S. taxpayers subsidize them. Deportations of illegal immigrants under the new policy were dramatically reduced, even as scores more poured across the southern border as the number of border patrol agents decreased.
The Unhinging of America
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/08/the_unhinging_of_america.html
By Anthony J. DeBlasi
Since my return from the war in Korea (1950-53) I have witnessed America sink into a state of insanity unknown in its history:
Kids shooting classmates at school, people like zombies gazing at little screens while they walk, stand, sit, shop, talk, drive cars, watch TV telling them what to think, women blaming men for not being treated like men, men having their genitals “replaced with vaginas,” women leaving dependent children behind to join the military, mothers having their babies killed when they are ready to be born . . .
By the 1980s the moral and cultural swamp that America was sinking into made me wave red flags in newsletters I published. The acceleration toward and past the turn of the century has been breathless! Many Americans have wondered what happened to America?
Well, to begin with, anti-American activists have pushed hard to fulfill a mission launched by early 20th century Marxists to establish a new world order. It would be a God-free world under a global government run by amoral men smarter than everybody else in the world, past and present. Soon after the start of the 21st century, Barack Obama, latest edition of this breed of visionary, positioned himself to lead the team in Washington to help “transform America” – make it ready, that is, for the new world order.
There has never been a place in my mind for anyone in public office who would harm America and the people he or she is elected or appointed to serve, which is the inevitable consequence of pushing for a moral-free, God-free world. Such action, no matter how packaged, serves evil. They who use their talents to harm their fellow human beings – they’re known as traitors – are placed by Dante in the deepest circle of hell [Inferno].
Now there was someone who wanted to be president who could and would utilize Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – a book that salutes the devil in its opening pages – to take down America, while pretending to make it better than ever!
Could Obama in truth and honesty have, as president, served “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all”? Could he have been sincere when he took the oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”? I don’t think so.
My worst fear, that Americans might lose their country if they did not stand up to and shout down the God-haters and Leftists undermining their country – what culture warriors have been fighting for decades – seemed closer than ever to becoming a reality.
Among the warriors “with balls” who saw what was happening, the firebrand Andrew Breitbart rallied converts and fighters against political traitors scheming to destroy America, a first step in establishing their New World Order. (I called it Global Oz.) By the time Breitbart crashed into media and news reporting, a bloated and flabby federal government had enabled the anti-American Obama to run for president. Breitbart was ruthless in exposing this two-faced candidate for president. Shortly after he pledged to release a video showing college-age Obama alongside notorious Weather Underground terrorists, Breitbart died in Los Angeles.
And so a treacherous candidate for president beat a “she’s-not-fit-to-be-president” (Obama.’s words) Hillary Clinton to the White House. Well, Hillary became part of the “America-transforming" team as Secretary of State and Obama, with solemn face and ready platitude, repeated the lie that he would unify America and transform it into a better place for all.
The deeds did not match the words. Regarding unity, Obama stoked the fires of racial division, using his bully pulpit to turn every news event that could be spun into “discrimination against blacks” into an official denunciation of racism. And the corporate media did their part to help bring about a hatred of cops that heedlessly endangered the lives of men and women who daily put their lives on the line to ensure the safety of a public increasingly divided.
Regarding improving the lives of all, the following overview of Obama’s “transformation of America” is based on “The 10 Ways Obama has actively sought to destroy America” by J. D. Heyes (Natural News, December 25, 2015):
ObamaCare was sold on false pretenses by people who knew it wouldn’t work as promised. Failed scheme or intentional failure? The bill was so sloppily crafted that Democrats were basically signing blank sheets of paper when they rushed it through Congress. [“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.] ObamaCare’s designers precipitated a constitutional crisis with a provision to cut subsidies for states that didn’t set up health-care exchanges – a provision that would have killed the entire program stone-dead if it had been enforced as written. And whoever was uninsured that did not enroll had to pay an annual penalty fee!
Unlimited immigration. Obama issued an unconstitutional executive order – an action he repeated routinely to counter Congressional action – that instituted mass immigration of poor, uneducated third-world people into the U.S., not to assimilate with our culture but to keep their own and demand that U.S. taxpayers subsidize them. Deportations of illegal immigrants under the new policy were dramatically reduced, even as scores more poured across the southern border as the number of border patrol agents decreased.
The Constitution. Obama was a bigger enemy of our founding document than any president in history. Acting dictatorially, Obama unconstitutionally “legislated by executive order” whenever his will was in conflict with that of Congress or the constitution. [His “liberal” activist judges would back him up, if needed.]
Military madness. Obama pushed social experimentation in the military to a level that could cause lasting damage, such as permitting people to serve who have no idea what sex they are, and allowing women to serve in combat roles despite increases in injuries, mental health issues, effectiveness and morale problems.
Packing the federal courts. Obama “packed” the federal court for the D.C. Circuit with activist, like-minded judges [who place themselves above the Law of the Land they are charged to uphold].
Economic damage. Obama issued more regulations than any president before him, with tens of billions in burdensome new costs such as those incurred by the expensive EPA regulations. His packed D.C. Circuit ruled against states suing to get those rules tossed.
Changes to society. Obama’s open-border policy and unlimited importation of third-world poor and Middle Eastern “refugees” [a gateway to anti-American terrorists] could change the face of the country, culturally and economically.
To object to any of this insanity is a way to get hit with a legal penalty.
The founders of our country and its legion of heroes surely tossed and turned in their graves over the America they had struggled, sacrificed, and died for.
If there is a silver lining to the dark clouds hanging over America it is the hope that the young of every description will turn on the mindless haters of America and launch a course correction. A reset for any semblance of progress starts with a return to the Constitution and the forces that inspired it, which include age-independent Judeo-Christian wisdom.
Anthony J. DeBlasi is a veteran and lifelong defender of Western culture.
Image credit: Abductit, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0
Biden and the Immigration Trap
'Uncle Joe' Agonistes
By Andrew R. Arthur on May 21, 2020
On Tuesday, the Washington Post ran an article detailing the struggles confronting the campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden with respect to immigration. There are a few things that the article leaves out, but it is notable (and somewhat shocking) for what it contains. What it ultimately shows is that the former vice president is boxed into an immigration trap.
Specifically, the article details the competing forces that are pulling "Uncle Joe" on immigration as he seeks to wrest the White House from Donald Trump (whose immigration stance, the paper admits, helped propel him to the presidency in 2016).
On the one side is the presumptive candidate's desire to capture the votes of white blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin (all won by Trump in the last election), while on the other is his need to turn out the Hispanic vote, particularly in Florida and Arizona. The article states that Latino voters "are expected to become the country's largest nonwhite voting bloc this fall."
Although the Post alludes to Biden's immigration proposals (which are somewhat out there, as I have described here, here, and here), and discusses his more outré ideas, such as suspending deportations for his first 100 days in office and then deporting only felons (which would essentially nullify much of the Immigration and Nationality Act), the Post simultaneously fails to note that those proposals would likely not resound with much of the voting populace, while at the same time contending that these policies don't go far enough for "significant segments of his own party".
Those "segments" are, the paper contends, clamoring for Biden to commit to "removing criminal penalties for those who cross the border illegally, removing barriers from the border [,and] abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement." There is likely a reason that Biden does not want to talk about those ideas on the campaign trail.
Polls don't show support for Biden positions
Polling from August 2018 — when the "Abolish ICE" fever was likely cresting — showed only 24 percent of voters supported the idea, with Democrats, Republicans, and independents staking out that position about equally. Some 40 percent disagreed, while 34 percent had no opinion.
Not to say that Democrats wildly supported the agency — 57 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable view of ICE, with an equal percentage of Republicans in favor of it, and 46 percent of independents took no view. Many of those opposed to abolition but who also don't like ICE likely were concerned about the law of unintended consequences, and by May 2019 Buzzfeed News reported: "'Abolish ICE' Was The Call Of Last Summer. 2020 Democrats Have Moved On".
Further, in July 2019, The Hill noted that a poll found "a plurality of voters, 41 percent, thought those crossing the border illegally should face criminal punishment, while 32 percent said it should just warrant a fine." With respect to independents, 36 percent favored criminal penalties, while "33 percent ... think it should be treated as a misdemeanor, with just a fine as punishment."
I note that this response shows a certain misapprehension of the current state of the law (initial illegal entry is already a misdemeanor, with a fine as an optional but rarely, if ever, imposed punishment, and most of those prosecuted are sentenced merely to time served while awaiting prosecution), suggesting that even those voters — if they knew the facts — would actually want stricter punishment than most aliens who have entered illegally already receive. No wonder the former vice president does not want to discuss the issue, let alone make it a key point for his campaign.
On barriers at the border, the polling is a bit more mixed. In February 2019, Gallup reported that six in 10 Americans opposed a border wall, but that poll was taken directly after a bruising government shutdown that largely focused on the issue. I will note that last Monday, KXAN (the NBC affiliate in Austin, Texas) released a poll showing that excitement for Donald Trump in Texas swamped enthusiasm for Biden in the Lone Star State. Most significantly:
When broken down by party, 19.5% of Democrats said they were extremely excited about Biden and 22.6 said they were "not that excited." Meanwhile, 49.4% of Republicans said they were "extremely excited" about supporting Trump and 9.5% reported they were not that excited about him.
Texas and Arizona are currently the primary sites for new border wall construction, and if Texans were that opposed to what is and has been the president's key immigration proposal, it would likely be reflected in their lack of enthusiasm. It does not seem to have moved the needle, however, or if it did, it is in Trump's favor.
I will note that I spoke on the issue in a debate in February before a largely liberal crowd, and opposition to the wall was an applause point (from an audience that all but defined the "Dunning-Kruger Effect" on the issue), but a lot has changed in three months. The Post itself reported on April 28 that 65 percent of Americans were in favor of a temporary suspension in immigration during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, with 34 percent opposed.
Polling found that 83 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of independents were in favor of temporary restrictions, and Democrats were split 49-49 on the issue. Significantly, 67 percent of whites, 61 percent of "nonwhites" (presumably including Latinos), and a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds were in favor. Now again, "temporary suspensions on immigration" and "border wall construction" are two different things, but an influx of illegal entrants during the (traditional) illegal travel season of April to December while lockdowns are still in place could tie the two issues in voters' minds, and gubernatorial inter-state travel restrictions may have done so already.
And voters stuck at home as a result of Wuhan coronavirus restrictions could be only temporarily less inclined to support the entry of aliens, legal or otherwise. That said, the transit of the illness from China could give them pause to take a slightly more charitable view toward Donald Trump's opposition to open borders.
Sound tough on China, or not?
Lest you think I am casting aspersions with respect to the last point (I am not, and consider anyone who blames any American — citizen or immigrant — for the virus to be an idiot), I am really just channeling the former vice president. The Post article on Biden notes: "Some were alarmed when the Biden campaign began airing an ad in battleground states that accused Trump of having 'rolled over for the Chinese' amid the pandemic and 'let in 40,000 travelers from China.'" That is an apt description of the response to that ad on the part of progressives.
In particular, an April 23 Politico article captioned "Biden ad exposes a rift over China on the left: The former vice president's effort to hit Trump as soft on Beijing is backfiring among parts of his base" states:
Joe Biden's effort to outflank President Donald Trump on China is leading to blowback from within his own political base.
Some worry the rhetoric in a new Biden campaign ad could spur anti-Asian bias already on the rise because of the coronavirus pandemic. Others argue that Biden's effort to sound tougher on China than Trump could backfire diplomatically in the long run.
...
"I acknowledge and understand the need and desire to defeat and beat Trump, however, my question is 'Who is the Biden campaign willing to sacrifice along that way?'" said Timmy Lu, executive director of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment.
So why did Biden release the ad? Because he was in a box over his earlier statements criticizing the president for his response to the Wuhan coronavirus the day that the White House announced restrictions on travel from the People's Republic of China. Specifically, Biden, campaigning in Iowa, stated: "This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science." (Curiously, the YouTube link to the video of those comments states: "Video unavailable, This video has been removed by the uploader." Hmmm.)
The Post notes that Biden has sought insight into handling the issue of immigration as a candidate from, among others, Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.). Casey fought off Republican Lou Barletta — an immigration hawk — in a 2018 challenge for Casey's senate seat, and:
He urged Biden to emphasize the economic benefits of immigration while pledging to secure the southern border to keep drugs and criminals out.
"You have to make it very clear that you stand for border security — and not just that you stand for it, but that you voted for it," Casey said, citing past measures that have won Democratic backing.
But, at the same time, he said most voters want an immigration system that is humane and fair. The separation of families at the border was a wake-up call for some voters, Casey said.
I am not sure how that border security advice squares with Biden's promise that "the only deportations that will take place" under his administration "are commissions of felonies in the United States of America" (meaning that Mexican cartel members who enter illegally will not be deported, for example), but for some reason the Post fails to mention the discrepancy.
That said, such advice is easier given to the former vice president than it will be swallowed by the American people, because of Biden's record.
I would posit initially that recommendations like Casey's are likely the reason that Biden's immigration proposals begin:
It is a moral failing and a national shame when a father and his baby daughter drown seeking our shores. When children are locked away in overcrowded detention centers and the government seeks to keep them there indefinitely. When our government argues in court against giving those children toothbrushes and soap. When President Trump uses family separation as a weapon against desperate mothers, fathers, and children seeking safety and a better life.
The Obama-Biden administration's record
Again, easily said. It will, however, be very difficult for Biden to distance himself from some very similar policies enacted under the "Obama-Biden administration".
There is likely a reason why Biden does not (directly) fall back on the "kids in cages" trope that has become a standard for tendentious discussions of immigration by political hacks. As I have previously noted:
Snopes (not exactly a Trump-friendly outlet) examined the following fact: "The Obama administration, not the Trump administration, built the cages that hold many immigrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border." They deemed that statement "true", explaining:
Pictures of children behind chain-link fencing were captured at a site in McAllen, Texas, that had been converted from a warehouse to an immigrant-detention facility in 2014. Social media users who defended Trump's immigration policies also shared a 2014 photograph of Obama's Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, touring a facility in Nogales, Arizona, in 2014, in which the fencing could be seen surrounding migrants there as well. That picture was taken during a spike in the number of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central American countries.
That said, there is a direct line from "children ... locked away in overcrowded detention centers and the government [that] seeks to keep them there indefinitely", who cannot access "toothbrushes and soap" and the decisions of the previous administration to erect fencing in Border Patrol processing centers to protect unaccompanied alien children (UACs). One that Biden would likely prefer to be forgotten.
And a direct line to the Obama-Biden administration's 2014 "blanket policy to detain all female-headed families, including children, in secure, unlicensed facilities for the duration of the proceedings that determine whether they are entitled to remain in the United States," which prompted Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to find President Obama's Department of Homeland Security in breach of the Flores settlement agreement in July 2015.
Plus, as I have previously noted ad nauseam, the fact that UACs were stuck in the conditions Biden describes had everything to do with Congress's (and especially congressional Democrats') failure to provide funding Trump and his acting Homeland Security secretary had sought for more than a month, and nothing to do with a volitional decision by the administration to keep them there.
These facts may have been elided by a compliant press (the Post did not mention them at all in its Biden immigration piece), but I doubt that they will escape notice during a presidential campaign when the president and independent interest groups can throw money at ads highlighting them.
Pandering to Latino voters
Then, there is the pandering by Biden and his surrogates themselves. Much of Biden's outreach to Latino voters appears to focus on immigration, but is that really the most important issue to those voters?
In a June 2019 survey by Unidos US, "jobs and the economy" was the most important issue an ideal candidate would address (23 percent) for 1,854 eligible Latino voters in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, and Texas, followed by "healthcare" (17 percent) and then "immigration" (15 percent). "Gun violence" (8 percent) and "climate change" (7 percent) together equaled that total.
BLOG: OBAMA FUNDED AND OPERATED LA RAZA 'The Race" NOW CALLING ITSELF UNIDOSUS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. IT IS A MEX FASCIST ANTI-AMERICAN POLITICAL MOVEMENT FOR SURRENDER OF AMERICA TO MEXICO.
Unidos US, for those who are not familiar, is the current incarnation of the "National Council of La Raza", which bills itself as "the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization". Hardly a MAGA front group.
Given these numbers, it is no surprise that the Atlantic magazine in February stated that 30 percent of Latino voters support the president, in an opinion piece captioned "Latino Support for Trump Is Real: And that's a problem for Democrats" (not to be confused with the outlet's January 2020 article captioned "Democrats Should Be Worried About the Latino Vote: Political organizers have a warning for the 2020 candidates").
In this vein, in early May, Slate ran an article captioned "Biden Has a Real Latino Problem", which stated:
A recent Latino Decisions poll reveals a clear enthusiasm gap among Latinos for both Biden and the 2020 election itself, with only 49 percent of registered voters currently committed to choosing Biden over Trump, and just six out of 10 planning to go to the polls in November.
That article focuses on Biden's initial reluctance to distance himself from what the outlet deems "the controversial immigration policy of the first two years of the Obama administration" (perhaps too good a sales job by a president whose rhetoric on removals did not match his actions), and Biden's inability to present himself to Hispanic voters due to the current pandemic.
Speaking of which, Slate notes that: "According to the Latino Decisions poll, almost half of all respondents approve of Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis, with 47 percent saying Trump was delivering 'clear and helpful' information about the pandemic." Again, showing that "immigration" is not the only concern of Hispanic voters.
Back to the pandering, however. The Post notes that Biden's "wife Jill, who is learning Spanish while stuck at home by the pandemic, has begun meeting weekly with small groups of Latino members of Congress, taking notes on a range of issues to share with her husband" (I don't have the heart to tell her they speak English), and the article is accompanied by a photo of Biden "at a campaign stop at King Taco in Los Angeles, with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti".
The paper also reports that "Biden campaign officials have promised to significantly increase outreach to Latinos and further diversify the staff now that they have raised more money, although," the Post notes, "they declined to provide target numbers."
I suppose that a Spanish-speaking spouse, an ethnically diverse staff, and a documented hankering for regional cuisine may win Biden some votes, but the fact is he is stuck in an immigration box.
If he ties himself to the "Obama-Biden" administration on the issue, it appears that he will alienate both immigration activists and those who favor the Trump administration's reversal of those policies. But, if he panders to those activists, he will likely turn off many of the voters in swing states who supported Trump in 2016 (and especially those who were swayed by the now-president's promises of border security and immigration limitations).
A January article in the Post contained a list of "Bidenisms", folksy aphorisms that the candidate uses on the stump. One is: "My dad had an expression ... 'Joey, don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.''' Most voters already know that the president has his flaws and imperfections, but once voters get to know Biden's immigration record and his proposals, they may pull the level for Trump as the better alternative.
Pollak: Barack Obama Himself Was the Threat to the Rule of LawAP Photo/Hassan Ammar
JOEL B. POLLAK
Former President Barack Obama warned Friday that the “rule of law is at risk” because former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn will no longer be prosecuted.
Obama’s remarks, leaked from a private conference call with members of something called the “Obama Alumni Association,” show a breathtaking lack of self-awareness.
Obama himself was the threat to the rule of law, both during his presidency and as it ended.
As Breitbart News has previously noted, Obama routinely violated the Constitution’s separation of powers, challenging America’s constitutional foundation in a way no president before him had done in peacetime.
“I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone,” Obama said, threatening to use — and abuse — his executive power — rather than allow the constitutional process of legislation to proceed.
Here are just a few of Obama’s more egregious violations:
· Refusing to submit the Iran deal to the Senate for ratification
· Declaring the Senate in recess when it was not (struck down, later, in a 9-0 Supreme Court decision)
· Defying the courts when told to renew oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico, or to stop giving amnesty to illegal aliens
· Threatening the Supreme Court after Citizens United, and before the Obamacare decision
· Altering Obamacare’s statutory deadline unilaterally
· Creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) programs after admitting it was unconstitutional
· Trying to wipe out the coal industry
Moreover, the Flynn investigation itself undermined the rule of law by targeting a man the government knew was innocent of any crime. Similarly, Obama’s own effort to protect Hillary Clinton, and his administration’s attempt to undermine Trump through false allegations of “Russia collusion,” also violated the rule of law.
Last week it emerged that it was Obama himself who told then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates about Flynn’s lawful conversation with the Russian ambassador, which set the investigative wheels in motion.
Obama’s phony protest suggests he is feeling desperate as attention turns, finally, to his own role in the affair.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Biden’s Coronavirus Plan: Catch and Release Border Crossers into U.S.
508David McNew/Getty Images
JOHN BINDER
1 May 20201,989
3:45
Presumptive 2020 Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden is suggesting a restart of the nation’s “Catch and Release” program in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. The policy would ensure thousands of border crossers are readily released into the United States.
This week, during an interview with Florida local media, Biden suggested a return to the previous, decades-long policy of catching and releasing border crossers into the U.S. as they await their asylum hearings despite public health concerns over the coronavirus.
“You’ve never seen a time where someone seeking asylum has to seek it from another country,” Biden said when asked about his immigration plan in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. “You’ve never seen a circumstance where we put people in cages. We have to take stock of where we are.”
Biden’s plan would ensure that thousands of border crossers who have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border since President Trump’s shutdown of the region would be released into the country while they await their asylum hearings — the majority of which take years to hold.
Today, Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy coupled with the border shutdown has allowed federal immigration officials to swiftly return border crossers to Mexico in an average of 96 minutes. The policy means border crossers from Mexico and Central America are processed and immediately returned to Mexico without setting foot in the U.S. interior.
As Breitbart News reported, federal immigration officials have said that as of April 10, Trump’s policy had successfully returned 10,000 border crossers to Mexico.
Analysis conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows a continued flow of border crossers being returned to their native countries in recent weeks.
From March 15 to April 24, ICE Air appears to have made 21 deportation flights to Guatemala; 18 to Honduras; 12 to El Salvador; six to Brazil; three each to Nicaragua, Ecuador, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic; and one each to Colombia and Jamaica…
…
Over the last 12 weeks, it appears that ICE has used 22 unique charter planes for 232 likely deportation flights. Of those planes, 15 participated in confirmed ICE Air deportation flights between October 2018 and May 2019, the most recent data compiled by UWCHR.
Biden’s plan, though, would reverse such measures, halting deportations except for convicted felon illegal aliens and allowing those arriving at the border to await their asylum hearings in the U.S. interior with the hopes that they show up to court.
The plan proposed by Biden comes even as public health concerns have circulated around border crossers arriving at the southern border. This week, an illegal alien from India tested positive for coronavirus after he snuck across the border into California with a group of Mexican nationals.
Likewise, data from Guatemalan officials have said about 50 to 75 percent of all migrants returned to Guatemala from the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus.
Under Biden’s plan, each of these border crossers would be in a federal immigration facility or already released into the U.S. interior.
Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy has decimated asylum fraud. In the first few months of its implementation, the policy ensured that zero of 1,200 total border crossers ineligible for asylum in Mexico had been released into the U.S. interior. Most recent reports have indicated that the Remain in Mexico policy has a less than one percent asylum-grant rate.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Obama: DACA Illegal Aliens Deserve Amnesty During Coronavirus Crisis
JOHN BINDER
Former President Barack Obama says the time is now, during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, to provide amnesty to about 3.5 million illegal aliens who are enrolled and eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
While about ten million Americans have filed for unemployment in just three weeks, Obama took to Twitter to call for an amnesty for DACA illegal aliens in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
“Dreamers have contributed so much to our country, and they are risking their lives fighting on the frontlines of this pandemic,” Obama said. “They deserve permanent immigration status and a pathway to citizenship—as they are Americans in every way but on paper.”
Barack Obama
✔@BarackObama
Dreamers have contributed so much to our country, and they are risking their lives fighting on the frontlines of this pandemic. They deserve permanent immigration status and a pathway to citizenship—as they are Americans in every way but on paper. https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/dreamers-risk-lives-on-pandemics-front-lines-while-they-await-court-ruling/2020/04/11/d34a7b58-76c4-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html …
An estimated 29,000 health workers could lose their work permits if the Supreme Court ends the program for undocumented workers brought here as children.
washingtonpost.com
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Center for Immigration Studies Research Director Steven Camarotta has noted that DACA illegal aliens make up about 0.2 percent of the nation’s nearly 15 million healthcare workers. In New York, where a staggering number of DACA illegal aliens reside, they still only account for about 0.2 percent of the state’s healthcare workers, according to Camarotta.
Obama’s lobbying for a DACA amnesty in the middle of the coronavirus crisis comes as House Democrats — including Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — have sent a letter to the Trump administration demanding DACA illegal aliens have their work authorizations extended.
“Support of DACA recipients during the current pandemic is particularly critical as over 200,000 DACA recipients are in occupations and industry groups that render them ‘essential critical infrastructure workers,’ according to DHS guidance,” the House Democrats wrote in their letter.
A DACA amnesty would put more citizen children of illegal aliens — known as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left potentially with a $26 billion bill.
Additionally, about one-in-five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one-in-seven would go on Medicaid.
Any plan to give amnesty to DACA illegal aliens that does not also include provisions to halve legal immigration levels — the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants a year at the expense of America’s working and middle class — would give amnestied illegal aliens the opportunity to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country.
At the southern border, a DACA amnesty has the potential to trigger a border surge that could triple the number of illegal aliens pouring through the border. Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 recipients of the program have been kicked off because they were found to either be criminals or gang members.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
CBS: Joe Biden to Demolish Legal Wall Against Migration
GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images
NEIL MUNRO
11 Nov 2020854
6:57
Joe Biden’s team plans to abandon agreements with Central American countries that created a legal wall against global migrants, according to CBS News.
The Biden team also hopes to have U.S. embassies fly foreign children to their migrant parents throughout the United States, according to the November 11 report. The embassy process would bypass the coyotes and cartels and allow illegal populations to burrow into U.S. society — much to the disadvantage of less-skilled Americans.
The CBS report said:
A source familiar with the Biden team’s planning said the incoming administration will withdraw from the three bilateral agreements Mr. Trump brokered with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras that allow the U.S. to send rejected asylum-seekers to those countries and have them seek refuge there.
Trump’s diplomatic deals allow U.S. border agencies to easily and cheaply fly asylum-claiming migrants from Latin American, India, or Africa back to the safe countries they crossed on their journey to the U.S. border. This process minimizes migration to the United States by reviving the traditional rule that requires migrants to ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach.
The legal wall now includes Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
So far, few migrants have been sent back to these countries. However, Trump’s diplomatic wall — as well as the steel border wall — showed many millions of would-be migrants that they would not be able to get into U.S. workplaces by just asking for asylum.
Without Trump’s legal wall, U.S. border agencies may be forced to admit a growing tide of asylum-seeking Africans, Indians, and South Americans so they can apply for asylum. The incoming population will likely cause massive backlogs in U.S. courtrooms, so allowing the migrants to get work permits for U.S. jobs, so driving down wages for working-class Americans.
Migrant inflows cut wages for unskilled Americans, drive up their apartment rentals, and crowd the schools needed by their children.
But migrant inflows also provide cheap services for wealthy Americans, extra consumers for real estate investors, retailers and Wall Street, and replacement people for cheap labor cities, such as New York.
The proposed revival of President Barack Obama’s Central American Minors (CAM) program would allow many more emigrants to leave their kids at home while they sneak into the United States.
CBS reported:
The incoming administration will also look at reinstating an Obama administration initiative that allowed certain at-risk children in Central America to request refugee or parole status and reunite with their families in the U.S. if their parents were authorized to be in the country, the source said. The Obama administration created the Central American Minors program in 2014 in response to a rise in border crossings by unaccompanied migrant children but Mr. Trump ended it in 2017.
Currently, many migrants leave their children at home and use their wages from U.S. jobs to hire coyotes to deliver their children to the U.S. border.
Since Obama’s first term, border agencies have relayed the coyote-delivered children — dubbed “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) — to the Department of Health and Human Services. The department then relays the children to volunteer “sponsors” — usually parents or close relatives of the foreign children.
For example, roughly 145,000 Guatemalan children and teens have been delivered through coyote/agency “UAC pipeline” to homes in the United States since 2009. During the same period, up to 550,000 Guatemalan adults and children were allowed into the United States.
In 2014, the flood of UAC migrants overwhelmed Obama’s border agencies, generate a media storm, and wrecked his poll ratings. His deputies quickly created the CAM program to help deliver the migrant children while minimizing media coverage. In 2015, Breitbart reported:
According to officials at the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as of Monday the Obama administration has received 4,253 applications for the CAM program. So far only 90 applicants have been interviewed.
Out of the 90 interviews, the last step in the application adjudication process, 12 percent have been approved for refugee status and 84 percent have been recommended for parole. That means at least 96 percent of the adjudicated applicants will be coming to the U.S., as less than one percent have been affirmatively denied.
The CAM children would only be delivered to migrants who are “authorized to be in the country,” according to CBS.
But that term can be very broad. For example, it can include economic migrants who are appealing for asylum to stay in the United States, as well as migrants whose asylum or deportation cases were set aside because of the logjam.
Overall, Biden’s 220 migration plan would reverse many of Trump’s pro-American policies.
He promised to “reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees” to wipe out Trump’s asylum reforms, bar any deportations for 100 days, and end migration enforcement against illegal aliens unless they commit a felony.
Biden also promised to let companies import more visa workers, let mayors import temporary workers, and allow an unlimited flow of foreign graduates through U.S. universities into white-collar jobs. He would “exempt from any cap [the] recent graduates of Ph.D. programs in STEM fields.”
Biden also wants to accelerate the inflow of chain migration migrants and dramatically accelerate the inflow of poor refugees to at least 125,000 per year.
Overall, open-ended legal migration is praised by business and progressives partly because migrants’ arrivals help transfer wealth from wage-earners to stockholders.
Migration moves money from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to real estate investors, and from the central states to the coastal states.
Migration also allows investors and CEOs to skimp on labor-saving technology, sideline U.S. minorities, ignore disabled people, exploit stoop labor in the fields, short-change labor in the cities, impose tight control and pay cuts on American professionals, corral technological innovation by minimizing the employment of American grads, undermine labor rights, and even get many progressive journalists to cheerlead for Wall Street’s priorities.
Biden claims the US is a 'nation of immigrants.'
So Guatemala's gov't want him to grant a quasi-amnesty to 700K+ Guatemalan migrants.
Next up: Honduras, El Salvador, India ..
Ideal for Biden's donors .. b/c migration moves money from workers to Wall St. https://t.co/FHHsAncVSz
— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) November 11, 2020
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