GLOBALIST JOE BIDEN, A LYING GAMER LAWYER - FOLKS, MAYORKAS, SCHUMER AND MY GESTAPO MAN MERRICK GARLAND, ALL GAMER LAWYERS, ARE BUILDING THE GREATEST SERF CLASS THE WORLD AS SEEN BECAUSE MIDDLE AMERICA WILL NOT WORK AS 'CHEAP' AS OUR INVADERS!

THE DEMS' OPEN BORDERS FOR 'CHEAP' LABOR IS STAGGERINGLY EXPENSIVE AND DESTROYING MIDDLE AMERICA. BUT THAT'S THE DEMS' PLAN!

While some champion these statistics as heralds of economic expansion, the underlying reality is bleak. The majority of this influx comprises individuals entering the country unlawfully, imposing an undue strain on local communities and stretching public services to their limits.

What is particularly disconcerting is that much of this purported economic growth stems from illicit employment practices, perpetuating an underground economy riddled with exploitation and criminality.

In April, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed an immigration protection bill for her state, explaining that the Biden administration has “failed to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, putting the protection and safety of Iowans at risk.”

“Those who come into our country illegally have broken the law, yet Biden refuses to deport them,” she continued.

“This bill gives Iowa law enforcement the power to do what he is unwilling to do: enforce immigration laws already on the books.”

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video: mayorkas urges illegals to vote for biden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxfjL3BkYes

Established by the White House in 1987, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) is an award-winning nonprofit that identifies, inspires, prepares and positions Latino leaders in the classroom, community and workforce to meet America's priorities.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was grilled by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) during a hearing over an alleged flyer that the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project claims asks migrants to vote for President Joe Biden in November.

America's immigration nightmare: The economic and social fallout

By Joseph Ford Cotto

The April pronouncements of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at Stanford University have sparked a crucial discourse about the ramifications of mass immigration on the American economy. Powell's observations emphasized the significant role of immigrants, particularly within lower-paying sectors of the labor market, prompting economists to hastily reconsider their projections.

The forecasts presented by the Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O.) paint a stark panorama: an astounding 3.3 million individuals entered the United States in 2023 alone, with similar figures anticipated for 2024.

While some champion these statistics as heralds of economic expansion, the underlying reality is bleak. The majority of this influx comprises individuals entering the country unlawfully, imposing an undue strain on local communities and stretching public services to their limits.

What is particularly disconcerting is that much of this purported economic growth stems from illicit employment practices, perpetuating an underground economy riddled with exploitation and criminality.

Instead of acknowledging the harm wrought by unchecked immigration, policymakers and commentators persist in extolling its alleged benefits while turning a blind eye to its adverse impacts on American workers and communities.

Consider the predicament of New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams has beseeched for federal aid to manage the surge of illegal aliens. Such pleas merely skim the surface of the deeper issues arising from misguided immigration policies and porosity at the borders.

Furthermore, the discourse on mass immigration conveniently sidesteps the crucial question of assimilation and self-sufficiency. How swiftly can these newcomers integrate into American society and become productive contributors to the economy? The answer remains elusive, shrouded in wishful thinking and baseless optimism.

While proponents of mass immigration laud its role in propelling economic expansion, they ignore its stifling effect on innovation and sustained productivity. Enterprises drawn to low-cost labor are disinclined to invest in technology and automation, perpetuating a cycle of stagnation and dependence.

Policies aimed at artificially boosting wages, such as California's $20 minimum wage mandate, exacerbate the issue by curtailing working hours and eliminating jobs. The influx of immigrant workers, concentrated in low-skilled sectors, further undermines the prospects of American workers striving to make ends meet.

Yet, perhaps the most damning indictment of mass immigration lies in its unintended repercussions, transcending the economic domain. The reliance on immigrant labor fosters social maladies ranging from criminality and social alienation to drug overdoses and economic despondency.

Contrary to grand assertions, the data paints a stark picture of native-born Americans being marginalized in their own nation's labor market. While immigrants secure a disproportionate share of employment opportunities, native employment continues to dwindle, imperiling the economic prospects of millions of hardworking Americans.

As America confronts the aftermath of misguided immigration policies, it is imperative to confront reality. Denial of the adverse effects of mass immigration only perpetuates the cycle of decline, relegating the American dream to a remote ideal for those who merit better.

Looking away from the mainstream media's rabid rantings, one finds sobering insights into the multifaceted impact of immigration on the American economy and society, challenging prevalent narratives and advocating for a reevaluation of immigration policies.

This paves the way for a broader examination of America's societal challenges, offering avenues towards a more harmonious and prosperous future.

The alternative borders on the unthinkable. My latest book, 'What Happened to America?: How—and Why—the American Dream Became a Nightmare,' deals with the social, economic, political, and cultural ravages of bad immigration policy. Needless to say, America is the victim of this policy, as has been the case for some time.

Indeed, the country's litany of pressing problems, which grow more severe without hesitation, can be traced back to immigration blunders. America itself stands, a house divided, as a cautionary tale about what happens when immigrants do not leave a land better than when they found it. After all, a nation is only as promising as its people.

If America is truly to be made great again, then bold actions, not idle words, are required to produce something in the way of a national turnaround. This cannot happen, under any circumstances, if the grim reality of Uncle Sam's immigration policy goes ignored.

Short of coming to terms with America's immigration madness, plans for a countrywide renewal are nothing short of conversations with imaginary friends.

One day, all of America might become something like New York City, which grapples with the influx of illegal aliens, while pathetically pleading for federal assistance. Of course, these humiliating stretches of the hand outward merely scratch the surface of the deeper issues—each stemming from porous borders and misguided immigration policies.

The failure to address the fundamental questions of assimilation and self-sufficiency further compounds the immigration problem. American workers grow sidelined in their own country's labor market, simultaneously finding themselves strangers in an ever-stranger land.

The cause of mass immigration, bolstered by legal and illegal aliens alike, is championed by homegrown proponents who turn a blind eye to its deleterious effects. They perpetuate a cycle of decline that erodes the very foundations of the American dream.

When that dream is completely dead, desperation sets in, and the consequences of that are certain to be horrifying.

 

Joseph Ford Cotto, 1st Baron Cotto, GCCCR (DBA) is the host of 'News Sight,' an online news program with a sharp focus on the current events that impact your life. During 2014, HLM King Kigeli V of Rwanda bestowed a hereditary knighthood upon him. It was followed by a barony the next year. Aside from being an enthusiastic student of history, Cotto enjoys adventuring, photography, and music. He holds a doctorate in business administration.

Image: Screen shot from ABC 10 video, via YouTube

Globalist Magazine Admits Joe Biden’s Migration Spikes Inflation

23

Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images

NEIL MUNRO

1 May 2024

7:43

President Joe Biden’s mass migration is raising inflation, chiefly by raising housing prices, according to the Economist, a U.K.-based pro-globalism magazine for elites.

Citizens’ rents, per-capita wages, and workplace productivity are being damaged in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other wealthy countries where governments are extracting migrants from developing countries, says the April 30 article, headlined “Immigration is surging, with big economic consequences.”

“Immigration’s impact goes well beyond an arithmetic effect on GDP [Gross Domestic Product] — it extends to inflation, living standards and government budgets,” the April 30 article admits as it debunks the elite narratives:

Many policymakers have recently argued that migration is helping contain price rises by relieving labour shortages … Yet the evidence is weak and may, in fact, point in the opposite direction. Across the G10 [group of wealthy countries] … there is no doubt immigrants need things as soon as they arrive, boosting demand [for used autos, food, etc.].

Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of rental housing, which is in short supply across the anglosphere. Research by Goldman Sachs, a bank, suggests that in Australia each 100,000 increase in annual net overseas migration boosts rents by about 1%. A paper by the Bank of Canada in December noted that “the initial rise in immigration that Canada has experienced is more likely inflationary in the near term.”

The magazine’s admission is useful, in part, because few media outlets in the United States have dared describe the damage done to the economy and to Americans’ pocketbooks by Biden’s decision to welcome roughly 10 million illegal, quasi-legal, and legal immigrants since 2021.

That connection is also ignored in the GOP’s migration-related campaign pitches which highlight border chaos, illegal migrants, crime — and increasingly — the taxpayer burden of providing free healthcare and schooling for legal and quasi-legal migrants.

So far, the GOP’s donor-funded attack ads have ignored the links between Biden’s migration, inflation, and housing prices — despite swing voters’ anger at inflation, interest rates, and housing prices. For example, an April 28-30 poll by YouGov showed that “inflation/prices” is the most important issue for 23 percent of independents.

But the connection between consumer demand, immigration, and inflation is sneaking through the gatekeepers in the establishment media. For example, Bloomberg noted on April 4, “FHN Financial’s Chris Low points out that while a bigger labor force puts downward pressure on wages, ‘it also puts upward pressure on prices.’ After all, ‘more people are eating, driving and living here.’”

Meanwhile, Biden’s deputies are trying to downplay the inflation spurred by his decision to import 10 million illegal, quasi-legal, and legal consumers, renters, and workers into the U.S. economy since 2021.

Yet the administration’s own reports also admit that housing prices are responsible for roughly half of the nation’s inflation that helped push up interest rates:

Housing’s contribution to inflation has significantly increased. Housing now accounts for a third of the consumer basket of items measured in CPI, so even small increases can have an outsized impact on inflation.[1] Last June, housing accounted for a fifth of inflation, contributing 1.7 percentage points. By March 2023, housing’s contribution rose to 2.6 percentage points, making up half of annual CPI inflation. For perspective, before the pandemic housing would typically contribute about 1 percentage point to inflation.

The rising inflation caused by migration has prompted the Federal Reserve to bump up interest rates, which then drives up the cost of the loans needed to construct or buy housing.

WTOP reported April 11 on the dilemma facing Anton and Shelby Rogozhnikov in Texas.

The couple owns a townhome in Dallas and want more space now that they’re planning on having their first child. They’re looking for a house with at least three bedrooms that’s priced within their budget of around $300,000.

…

“I know interest rates will go down eventually, but I feel like when they go down housing prices might go back up again,” said Shelby Rogozhnikov, 38. a dental hygienist. “I have the mortgage rate thing to worry about and my biological clock, which has less time on it than the mortgage rates, so it’s now or never.”

Also, the Economist article noted that Biden’s migration tends to push down the average or per capita wages, and productivity that could offset the damage caused by Biden’s inflation and interest rates:

Although new arrivals are clearly boosting GDP [Gross Domestic Product, or the size of national economies], they appear to be dragging down GDP per person — the yardstick by which economists usually assess living standards. GDP per person has fallen or failed to grow for four consecutive quarters in Australia and seven in Britain. In Canada, where the drop in the measure is most pronounced, output per person fell by 2% in 2023. The picture is similar in Germany, Iceland and New Zealand.

Cheap-labor migration also reduces pressure on employers to equip their American workers with labor-saving machinery, the Economist noted when it referred to a study by Ethan Lewis, an economist at Dartmouth University. Lewis wrote:

Some metropolitan areas experienced faster growth in the relative supply of less-skilled labor in the 1980s and 1990s due to an immigration wave and the tendency of immigrants to regionally cluster. [Factory] Plants in these areas adopted significantly less machinery per unit output, despite having similar adoption plans initially.

Extraction Migration

Since at least 1990, the federal government has relied on Extraction Migration to grow the consumer economy after it helped investors move the high-wage manufacturing sector to lower-wage countries.

The migration policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from needy countries. The additional workers, consumers, and renters push up stock values by shrinking Americans’ wages, subsidizing low-productivity companies, boosting rents, and spiking real estate prices.

The economic policy has pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors, reduced Americans’ productivity and political clout, slowed high-tech innovation, shrunk trade, crippled civic solidarity, and incentivized government officials and progressives to ignore the rising death rate of discarded, low-status Americans.

The policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors and government agencies with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers. Similar policies have damaged citizens and economies in Canada and the United Kingdom.

The colonialism-like policy has damaged small nations and has killed hundreds of Americans and thousands of migrants, including many on the taxpayer-funded jungle trail through the Darien Gap in Panama.

RFK Jr.: Biden Is the Real Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmA02i46Pz8

Here is the problem in a nutshell.  Most Democrat voters don't realize that leftist idealogues have hijacked the Democrat party, actively pushing traditional Democrat politicians out.  They don't yet understand that the Democrat party they knew doesn't exist anymore.  Almost all of the major news organizations work together to lie to Democrat voters and feed them misinformation constantly.  Corrupted government entities like the FBI and the DOJ, and the leftists running all social media, have worked together to censor and silence any dissenting voices.  The goal is to create a false reality in the eyes of Democrat voters and shield them from the truth.  This is vital to ensure their continued support on Election Day.                                                      IAN MacCONNELL

“Therefore, the Legislature declares that it is a compelling public interest of this state to protect its citizens, authorized residents, and lawfully present visitors and its borders and to prohibit persons from entering or residing within this state without proper authorization,” it continues, declaring that there is a “crisis” in the state, as law enforcement officers are coming into “increasingly frequent contact with foreign nationals who entered the country illegally or who remain here illegally.”

Oklahoma Joins Multi-State Push to Squeeze Out Illegals

81

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

HANNAH KNUDSEN

1 May 202437

3:52

Oklahoma is joining states like Texas and Iowa in increasing state-level rules to squeeze out illegal immigrants following Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signing House Bill 4156.

Upon signing, Stitt said he was “disappointed” the bill is even necessary in the first place, making it clear that his priority as governor is to protect “all four million Oklahomans, regardless of race, ethnicity, or heritage.”

“I love Oklahoma’s Hispanic community and I want to ensure that every law-abiding citizen has the opportunity to pursue the American Dream,” he said.

The final version of the bill states the Legislature “further finds that it is imperative to establish measures to protect the citizens of Oklahoma from potential harm caused by unauthorized persons entering or residing within the state.”

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has made clear his priority is to protect “all four million Oklahomans, regardless of race, ethnicity, or heritage.” (AP)

“Therefore, the Legislature declares that it is a compelling public interest of this state to protect its citizens, authorized residents, and lawfully present visitors and its borders and to prohibit persons from entering or residing within this state without proper authorization,” it continues, declaring that there is a “crisis” in the state, as law enforcement officers are coming into “increasingly frequent contact with foreign nationals who entered the country illegally or who remain here illegally.”

Many of these individuals are involved in organized crime and have “no regard for Oklahoma’s laws or public safety, and they produce or are involved with fentanyl distribution, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking,” the bill continues.

“Oklahoma agents and law enforcement partners have seized countless tons of dangerous drugs and arrested untold numbers of traffickers, many of whom entered without authorization through our southern border,” it adds.

According to OU Daily, the measure will “subject immigrants in Oklahoma illegally to jail time and fines”:

The first offense of violating HB 4156 will be classified as a misdemeanor and subject those guilty of impermissible occupation to up to a year in county jail, a $500 fine, or both. The second offense would be considered a felony and those found guilty of impermissible occupation will be subject to up to two years in county jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.

Those found guilty of impermissible occupation will have 72 hours to leave Oklahoma, no matter if it is their first or second offense. HB 4156 defines impermissible occupation as a person willfully remaining in Oklahoma without legal authorization to be in the United States.

RELATED — DHS Chief Mayorkas Refuses to Recognize Cost of Illegal Immigration to American Citizens

Oklahoma Attorney Gentner Drummond also praised the bill, asserting that it “gives law enforcement the tools necessary to ensure public safety for all Oklahomans.”

“I am grateful to House Speaker McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Treat for their swift action in making the bill a reality,” he added.

It comes as states continue to grapple with the ramifications of President Biden’s open border policies, forcing them to take matters into their own hands.

RELATED — People Greet “Take Our Border Back” Convoy as It Passes Through Brookshire, TX
@truthsetsufree369 via Storyful

In April, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed an immigration protection bill for her state, explaining that the Biden administration has “failed to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, putting the protection and safety of Iowans at risk.”

“Those who come into our country illegally have broken the law, yet Biden refuses to deport them,” she continued.

“This bill gives Iowa law enforcement the power to do what he is unwilling to do: enforce immigration laws already on the books.”

THERE WILL NEVER BE AN END TO JOE BIDEN'S MASS ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER!

J.D. Vance Probes DOJ for Favoring Foreigners over Americans in Job Discrimination Cases

600

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

JOHN BINDER

1 May 202494

5:39

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is leading a probe into President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for what he alleges is favoritism to foreign workers over American citizens in employment discrimination cases.

In a letter to DOJ officials, Vance, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) suggest that the department has become increasingly laser-focused on employment discrimination cases where foreign workers are the alleged victims.

Meanwhile, cases where Americans are the alleged victims of employment discrimination have dwindled to a small fraction since Biden took office in late January 2021.

“We write to ensure that the DOJ is faithfully carrying out its statutory duty to protect American workers from employment practices that privilege asylum seekers, parolees, and other aliens over American citizens. Recent reports suggest that these practices are growing in prevalence, but the Civil Rights Division is nowhere to be found,” the senators wrote:

As you know, U.S. citizens are “protected individuals” against whom employers cannot discriminate under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). In fact, they are more than protected—they are preferred. The INA provides that “it is not an unfair immigration-related employment practice for a person or other entity to prefer to hire, recruit, or refer an individual who is a citizen or national of the United States over another individual who is an alien” if both are fully qualified for the position. Federal law thus instructs employers to put a thumb on the scale in favor of U.S. workers: as one federal appellate court put it, “if you have a U.S. citizen and a foreigner with exactly the same qualification, you take the U.S. citizen.” [Emphasis added]

One would thus expect the officials tasked with enforcing the INA’s prohibition on citizenship discrimination to be at least as concerned about U.S. citizen victims as they are about aliens. But if that is true, then its truth has been obscured by recent events. [Emphasis added]

In particular, the senators noted that the DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) published 46 press releases in the last two years regarding enforcement of the INA’s anti-discrimination provisions.

Of those press releases, fewer than 2 in 10 involved any employment discrimination against American citizens, and just two involved discrimination exclusively against American citizens.

“It would seem, then, that a disproportionate share of IER’s resources have been deployed to protect precisely those workers that federal law disfavors, all else being equal,” the senators wrote.

While former President Donald Trump’s DOJ opened the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative to specifically target employers favoring foreign workers over Americans, Biden ended the project when he terminated the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order in 2021.

The senators alleged that employers are taking advantage as a result.

“Employers have taken advantage of IER’s leniency,” the senators wrote:

Collaborating with advocacy organizations like the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a long list of American employers have begun to blatantly discriminate on the basis of citizenship and immigration status, even committing themselves to numerical hiring quotas. Starbucks has committed to hiring 10,000 refugees across all its markets (including the U.S. market), Amazon has committed to hiring 5,000 refugees in the United States alone, and numerous others—including Hyatt Hotels, PepsiCo, and Pfizer—have committed to hiring 500 refugees or more. The INA prohibits hiring decisions that are made “because of” an American job seeker’s U.S. citizenship. Can employers’ numerical hiring quotas coexist with that mandate? [Emphasis added]

Some companies, like Tyson Foods, even provide employment benefits exclusively to noncitizens. Tyson has spent significant sums “reimburs[ing] team members for citizenship application fees” and retaining organizations that “provide immigrants with legal services, such as employment authorization renewals and petitions for citizenship.” In theory, these benefits may be open to all-comers. But how many U.S. citizens need their employers to pay citizenship application fees? [Emphasis added]

By May 31, the senators are asking the DOJ for records on whether or not the department is currently investigating any employers for hiring refugees over Americans.

The senators also want answers on the percentage of employment discrimination investigations, settlements, and litigation matters over the last two years that involved only American citizens, as well as if the department believes it is legal to provide employment benefits solely to foreign workers.

Vance has long sounded the alarm on the Biden administration’s perceived favoritism to foreign workers over American citizens.

In August of last year, Breitbart News exclusively detailed Vance’s efforts to bring transparency regarding the DOJ’s lawsuit against SpaceX — which accuses Elon Musk’s rocket company of failing to “fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees.”

The following month, SpaceX countersued the DOJ to throw out the lawsuit.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.

Garland also claimed falsely that the new law ensures “the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties,” and the intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will “continue to uphold our commitment to protect the rights of all Americans.”

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RFK Jr.: Biden Is the Real Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmA02i46Pz8

Here is the problem in a nutshell.  Most Democrat voters don't realize that leftist idealogues have hijacked the Democrat party, actively pushing traditional Democrat politicians out.  They don't yet understand that the Democrat party they knew doesn't exist anymore.  Almost all of the major news organizations work together to lie to Democrat voters and feed them misinformation constantly.  Corrupted government entities like the FBI and the DOJ, and the leftists running all social media, have worked together to censor and silence any dissenting voices.  The goal is to create a false reality in the eyes of Democrat voters and shield them from the truth.  This is vital to ensure their continued support on Election Day.                                                      IAN MacCONNELL

Ben Carson Warns Of 'An Entirely New Threat To Our Country'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrUSLyiYHR0

 

I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, demonize the police, and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to undeclared nuclear war                             REP.    TULSI GABBARD

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Tulsi Gabbard Speech on President Biden

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl9ymNhwGa4

Biden signs expanded warrantless surveillance law hours after Senate reauthorization of Section 702

Kevin Reed

21 April 2024

On Saturday, President Biden signed into law a two-year extension of warrantless electronic spying on everyone by intelligence agencies, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The reauthorization bill, called Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, both extends and expands the surveillance powers used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) that violate the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland [Photo by Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office / CC BY 4.0]

Biden signed the legislation following its passage by the US Senate early Saturday morning in a bipartisan 64 to 34 vote. The Senate approval took place shortly after the recent temporary extension of Section 702 authorization had expired at midnight on Friday. The US House passed the bill a week earlier in a similar bipartisan majority vote of 273 to 147.

The White House released a statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan after the Senate vote saying Biden would sign the bill “swiftly.” Sullivan repeated the claims made throughout the reauthorization process—and supported enthusiastically by substantial majorities in both houses of Congress—that basic democratic rights need to be violated to “protect against a wide range of dangerous threats to Americans,” and “to detect grave national security threats.”

Sullivan also fraudulently claimed the warrantless surveillance legislation contained, “safeguards for privacy and civil liberties through the most robust set of reforms ever included in legislation to reauthorize Section 702.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland also issued a statement on behalf of the US Justice Department that said the spying authority is “indispensable to the Justice Department’s work to protect the American people from terrorist, nation-state, cyber, and other threats.” Garland referenced the “global threat environment” as justification for the illegal surveillance by US intelligence. 

Garland also claimed falsely that the new law ensures “the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties,” and the intelligence agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will “continue to uphold our commitment to protect the rights of all Americans.”

Section 702 of the FISA law is based on the false premise that the warrantless surveillance authorized by it can be only directed at the electronic communications of “foreigners” and cannot be used to collect the internet activity, text messages, email and phone calls of US citizens. The provisions of the law require internet service providers and telecommunications companies such as Google and Verizon to cooperate with intelligence agencies and provide, on a moments notice, unimpeded access to the transmission of data and electronic communications across their networks and the platforms of the targeted individuals.

However, fully aware that the communications of Americans are being gathered and searched along with everyone else in the world, the US political establishment is continuing to hide behind a lie to support blatant violations of fundamental rights.

This fact was proven in the proceedings of both the House and Senate leading up to the final votes approving the new legislation. When amendments were put forward that would have mandated court-issued warrants before intelligence and police agencies could view the contents of US citizens’ communications that had been gathered up in the surveillance dragnet, both chambers voted them down.

In the Senate, the warrant requirement amendment was defeated 50 to 42. In the House, the amendment was defeated after the intervention of President Biden, who made phone calls demanding a no vote, and the support of Republican Speaker Mike Johnson who cast the deciding vote. In a memo circulated to House members, the White House denounced the warrants amendment and said it would “eviscerate the value of Section 702.”

Meanwhile, one of the means used to win backing for the reactionary bill is the inclusion of a provision that senators and congressional representatives will be notified if they themselves are the target of the illegal searches of their communications. This exception, providing a heads-up not afforded to the rest of the public, is buried in the language of the legislation.

What neither NSA’s Sullivan nor AG Garland addressed in their comments are provisions in the new law that substantially expand the electronic surveillance authority.

An aspect of the rush to push through the reauthorization is expansion of the definition of the types of service providers that can be compelled to cooperate with the surveillance operation. The new bill adds the phrase “and any other service provider” to the types of companies that must cooperate under the terms of Section 702.

As pointed out by advocates of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, this description means that anyone with access to a Wi-Fi router, server or phone equipment can be required to assist US government spying. While the amendment excludes from the requirement dwellings and restaurants, it is likely that a wide range of entities that provide wireless services or have access to the data being transmitted from mobile devices across networks will be compelled to cooperate with the dragnet.

The inclusion of the broader definition of service providers into the Section 702 legislation is no doubt a response to a 2014 challenge by an anonymous American tech company that challenged demands by the US government that it hand over records under the terms of the previous law. In court documents released to the ACLU and the Electronic Freedom Foundation in 2017, a judge ruled in favor of the company when it argued in court that it did not qualify as an “internet service provider” and need not comply with the Section 702 order.

In a statement at the time, the ACLU said the anonymous tech company that made the challenge “should be commended for defending its users’ privacy, and other companies must do the same by fighting for critical reforms to Section 702 in the courts and in Congress.” In his decision, the judge did not rule on the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance but said that the matter of what kind of firms must comply with it is a matter for Congress to resolve. This has now been done.

Section 702 was originally passed in 2008 and was, from the beginning, a fig leaf created for the purpose of covering up an important aspect of the apparatus of undemocratic state repression utilized by the Bush administration after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Seven years later, when the public became aware of the secret spying, the US government passed a law that justified the assault on democratic rights by the intelligence agencies in the context of aggressive imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is a measure of the further collapse of democratic forms of rule in the US, under conditions of expanding militarism raising the threat of a third world war, that representatives of both parties in Congress and President Biden now openly argue that the guarantees enshrined in the Bill of Rights cannot get in the way of the requirements of the military-intelligence state.