Saturday, July 22, 2017

ENDORSED BY NARCOMEX, SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM SAYS AMNESTY, OPEN BORDERS AND MORE WELFARE FOR ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS IS GOOD FOR WALL STREET AND HIS CRONY DONORS.... But is it good for Legals?




Lindsey Graham: Vote Me Out If You Oppose Amnesty and Outsourcing




South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is urging South Carolinians to vote against him when they disagree with his support for a national amnesty plus a greater inflow of foreign workers to take Americans’ jobs.

“To the people who object to this, I don’t want you to vote for me because I cannot serve you well,” he said in a Capitol Hill press conference July 20. He continued:
The key here is to be fair to the 11 million [illegal immigrants], starting with the [2 million younger illegals] ‘Dreamers,’ but convince people we’re going to do what our great friend [President] Ronald Reagan was not able to do, [that] we’re going to actually secure the border, control who gets a job, [and] increase legal immigration so [foreign] people don’t have to cheat [by illegally immigrating]…
I’ve stopped letting 30 percent of the people who are mad about immigration determine how I behave. To those who feel like you should deport [younger illegals], boy, I couldn’t disagree with you more…
To President [Donald] Trump, you’re going to have to make a decision. The campaign is over. To the Republican Party: Who are we? What do we believe? . . . When they write the history of these times, I’m going to be with these kids.
Graham staged the press conference to advertise his new legislation to provide an amnesty to illegal immigrants who were brought to into the United States by their parents as youths or children before 2013. Democrats and Graham describe the younger illegals as “Dreamers,” even though some are in their 30s of 40s.
Graham’s announcement is likely intended to get him a seat at the expected D.C. negotiations over the popular “merit-based” productivity-boosting immigration reform being pushed by Trump. Pro-American immigration reformers generally support Trump’s plan, partly because it could reduce the inflow of cheap labor which reduces wages and salaries for Americans.
Roughly 1.5 million illegals would benefit immediately from Graham’s proposed amnesty, according to the pro-amnesty Migration Policy Institute. Another 1.8 million could also benefit, for example, if they go back to school to get a General Education Diploma. Also, the parents of the illegal could gain legal status once their children become citizens. 
Those numbers add up to a gradual amnesty for roughly 4 million illegals. This amnesty could easily cost more than $2,000 billion, according to data provided in a 2013 study of amnesty costs. The 2013 study was prepared by the Heritage Foundation, and it showed that the extra taxpayer cost of amnestying 11 million illegals was $6,300 billion over 50 years. 
At least 800,000 illegals are now being protected from repatriation — and have work permits and Social Security cards — because of former President Barack Obama’s 2012 “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” amnesty.  Most of the so-called ‘Dreamers” are poorly educated, and only a small percentage have college degrees. 
Graham also used the press conference to call for a greater inflow of foreigners into American jobs. Already, the federal government helps companies import more than 1.5 million temporary foreign workers each year, most of whom take outsourced white-collar jobs from Americans.
Each year, four million Americans turn 18 — but the federal government imports 1 million legal immigrants and roughly 1.5 million temporary outsourcing visa-workers to compete against young Americans for jobs. 
Polls show that Graham’s support for foreign workers and illegal immigrants are very unpopular. For example, a 2017 poll showed 57 percent opposition to an amnesty and only 38 percent support. But Graham cites crude or skewed business-funded polls to declare that he has majority support for his expensive, wage-cutting amnesty plans.
Business groups say the 1.5 million temporary workers are needed to fill jobs, and the immigrants are needed to expand the economy by working and consuming. Also, say business advocates, the steady flow of foreign temporary workers and new immigrants into Americans jobs reduces the inflow of illegal immigrants who either cross the U.S border with Mexico or fly into the United with temporary tourist visas or business visas.
Graham is a long-standing advocate for amnesty and greater use of foreign workers in his home state. In 2012, for example, he phoned New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer to begin the so-called “Gang of Eight” amnesty-and-cheap-labor bill which would have transferred a huge share of the nation’s income from working Americans to Wall Street investors. According to Politico: 
Schumer said that shortly after the November election, he received a call from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) who wanted to restart negotiations on a comprehensive immigration package.
“Lindsey said ‘the band is back together!’” Schumer said.
Graham informed Schumer that McCain was on board as well.
“My heart went pitter patter,” Schumer said. “That meant we could get something done.”
That Gang of Eight bill was eventually defeated by GOP voters in 2014, opening the path for Donald Trump to win the GOP primaries.
Graham is unpopular in his home state, but he has strong support among the business groups — such as restaurants and coastal resorts — which profit from the cheap-labor arranged by Graham. He faces the primary voters again in 2020.
Graham’s 2017 amnesty is a joint partnership with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democratic leader in the Senate.


In his statement with Sen. Durbin, Graham said:
There are a lot of Republicans who make a point I agree with, ‘Well if you give these kids — who are all great kids — amnesty or legal status, aren’t you enticing more to come?’ 
The key here is to be fair to the 11 million [illegal immigrants], starting with the ‘Dreamers,’ but convince people we’re going to do what our great friend [President] Ronald Reagan was not able to do, [that] we’re going to actually secure the border, control who gets a job, increase legal immigration so people don’t have to cheat.  
I wouldn’t be doing this unless I believe there’s a way forward to prevent the third wave [of after-amnesty illegals]. but these [young illegals] kids are running out of asphalt. They’re running out of runway. They came out of the shadows at the invitation of their government. They’ve identified themselves and their legal standing is now in question. It becomes, I think, almost a moral decision.
If you ask people to show yourself, identify yourself to your own government, and you do that, then you pull the rug out from under them, you take their legal status away, I just don’t think that’s what America is all about.
I think most Americans, including most Republicans, have like zero problem with allowing these kids to stay if they do the things I described. They’re not crooks, and that they did come here as young people, no fault of their own. 
To the people who object to this, I don’t want you to vote for me because I cannot serve you well.
I just don’t see the upside of telling these kids they have to go back and live in the shadows or send them back to a country they have no idea about the country. If you send them back to their native country, some of them have never been there as anything other than a baby.
So I just think most Americans would support President Trump if we could work out a plan to deal with these kids and secure the border. I think most Republicans would.
So what have I done? I’ve stopped letting 30 percent of the people who are mad about immigration determine how I behave. To those who feel like you should deport these kids, boy, I couldn’t disagree with you more.
To read more about immigration, click here




Cartel Gun Battles, Blockades Reach a ‘Safe’ Mexico City



0

Gun battles and cartel blockades finally reached Mexico City after authorities killed a local crime boss and a team of his top gunmen in one of the areas roughest suburbs. The violence came days after top government officials claimed that Mexico City is safe and that no cartels operate in the country’s capital.

The violence began this week as Mexican marines moved into the Tlahuac suburb in an effort to arrest a group of street level drug dealers led by Felipe de Jesus “El Ojos” (Eyes)  Luna. When the military arrived at the Zapotitlan neighborhood they were met with heavy gunfire by a team of gunmen carrying machine guns. During the firefight, the Mexican marines killed El Ojos and seven of his gunmen.
As part of their efforts to escape, dozens of motorcycle taxi drivers and bus drivers set up roadblocks and torched vehicles, tactics similar to those used by the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in the border state of Tamaulipas. Breitbart Texas has reported extensively on how drug cartels hijack buses and park them across main avenues in an effort to slow down military convoys during cartel gun battles.
Mexican intelligence officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that the man known as Ojos is suspected of being behind the disappearance of approximately 80 victims from the region. Officials described the victims as young men who refused to work for the criminal organization.
Just one day after the fierce gun battle, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera claimed the group led by Ojos was not a cartel but just a gang of street level drug dealers, Milenioreported.  Mancera along with various other Mexican politicians have been publicly claiming that Mexico City is free of cartels and is considered safe.
The wild gun battle that led to El Ojos death came just days after Mexico City’s Attorney General Edmundo Porfirio Garrido Osorio claimed that the security levels in Mexico City are considered “acceptable” as he touted a decrease in crime statistics, Mexico’s El Universal reported.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tamaulipas “M.A. Navarro” and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz. 


AMERICA THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO 

U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years of gringo-paid welfare.


AMERICA’S BLUDGEONED YOUTH: Homeless, Hopeless and Addicted…. Will they start the revolution?


"Public education as a whole came under brutal attack as part of the Obama administration’s effort to shift the burden of the financial crisis onto the backs of the working class."

AMERICA THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted
CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years of gringo-paid welfare.

Congress Wades Into Sanctuary Cities, Again

By Kenric Ward

ImmigrationReform.com, July 5, 2017
. . .
Washington’s latest foray against sanctuary cities raises the stakes by threatening to withhold federal funding from non-compliant cities and states. One analysis estimates that the sanctuary jurisdictions of New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle could lose a combined $4.448 billion under HR 3003.

But any fiscal hit presupposes: 1) the Senate will pass the House bill and, 2) the law survives inevitable court challenges. With judges blocking President Donald Trump’s earlier effort to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities, does HR 3003 provide enough legal ammunition? Though Congress has clear constitutional authority over appropriation of funds, such facts have not always deterred activist judges.

Unwilling to wait around, Texas enacted Senate Bill 4 to strip sanctuary cities of state law-enforcement funds and hold local officials liable for non-compliance. SB 4 does not recognize localities’ right to flout state law.

. . .


SICK OF THE MEX FLAG WAVERS?

An American immigrant is not someone supported by government funds in a "relocation" center; flown over here at government expense; given a cash allowance, free housing, and medical care; and then eased onto local public assistance: Section 8 rental grants, food stamps, WIC, AFDC, clothes from one government-sponsored charity or another, Medicaid, and public schooling, with free lunch and breakfasts and even help with furniture. That's not an immigrant.  That's a future Democrat voter.  ----- RICHARD F. MINITER – AMERICAN THINKER         COM




Mexican Cartel Leader Gets 30-Year Sentence after Helping DEA


0

A federal judge sentenced one of the top Los Zetas cartel leaders to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison for his role in helping smuggle ton quantities of drugs and playing a role in the raging violence that continues to plague Mexico. The former cartel boss turned into a government witness following his arrest. 

Los Zetas top leader Ivan “Talivan or L50” Velazquez Caballero,47,  went before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez who handed down the sentence and ordered the forfeiture of $10 million in assets, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. The cartel boss, who derives his name from a play on words over his first name and not the terrorist organization, has been in U.S. custody since his extradition in 2013. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of drug trafficking and money laundering in the border city of McAllen, Texas, in April 2014.
After his extradition and guilty plea, Velazques Caballero became a government witness and testified against other cartel members in an effort to get a lighter sentence. The former cartel boss originally faced the possibility of a life term in prison. The original charges stem from a 2010 indictment charging the entire leadership structure of the Los Zetas cartel with 47 federal charges including drug conspiracy, kidnapping conspiracy, firearms conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to kidnap and murder U. S. citizens in a foreign country, use of juveniles to commit a violent crime, and multiple other charges.
Velazquez Caballero, a native of the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, joined the ranks of the Los Zetas at a time when the criminal organization was still a part of the Gulf Cartel. Using the high vehicle traffic the international bridges into Laredo, Texas, as well as the city’s lack of border security, Los Zetas cartel members moved ton-quantities of cocaine and marijuana into major U.S. cities.
By 2010, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas went to war over drug trafficking territories and a series of betrayals that eventually led to further fracturing within both cartels. Prior to his capture, Velazquez and his brother had been at odds with former Los Zetas boss Miguel Angel “40” Trevino Morales and had sought a short-lived alliance with one faction of the Gulf Cartel.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.







Cartel Gun Battles, Blockades Reach a ‘Safe’ Mexico City



0


Gun battles and cartel blockades finally reached Mexico City after authorities killed a local crime boss and a team of his top gunmen in one of the areas roughest suburbs. The violence came days after top government officials claimed that Mexico City is safe and that no cartels operate in the country’s capital.

The violence began this week as Mexican marines moved into the Tlahuac suburb in an effort to arrest a group of street level drug dealers led by Felipe de Jesus “El Ojos” (Eyes)  Luna. When the military arrived at the Zapotitlan neighborhood they were met with heavy gunfire by a team of gunmen carrying machine guns. During the firefight, the Mexican marines killed El Ojos and seven of his gunmen.
As part of their efforts to escape, dozens of motorcycle taxi drivers and bus drivers set up roadblocks and torched vehicles, tactics similar to those used by the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in the border state of Tamaulipas. Breitbart Texas has reported extensively on how drug cartels hijack buses and park them across main avenues in an effort to slow down military convoys during cartel gun battles.
Mexican intelligence officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that the man known as Ojos is suspected of being behind the disappearance of approximately 80 victims from the region. Officials described the victims as young men who refused to work for the criminal organization.
Just one day after the fierce gun battle, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera claimed the group led by Ojos was not a cartel but just a gang of street level drug dealers, Milenioreported.  Mancera along with various other Mexican politicians have been publicly claiming that Mexico City is free of cartels and is considered safe.
The wild gun battle that led to El Ojos death came just days after Mexico City’s Attorney General Edmundo Porfirio Garrido Osorio claimed that the security levels in Mexico City are considered “acceptable” as he touted a decrease in crime statistics, Mexico’s El Universal reported.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tamaulipas “M.A. Navarro” and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz. 


AMERICA THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO 

U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years of gringo-paid welfare.


AMERICA’S BLUDGEONED YOUTH: Homeless, Hopeless and Addicted…. Will they start the revolution?


"Public education as a whole came under brutal attack as part of the Obama administration’s effort to shift the burden of the financial crisis onto the backs of the working class."

AMERICA THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted
CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years of gringo-paid welfare.

Congress Wades Into Sanctuary Cities, Again

By Kenric Ward

ImmigrationReform.com, July 5, 2017
. . .
Washington’s latest foray against sanctuary cities raises the stakes by threatening to withhold federal funding from non-compliant cities and states. One analysis estimates that the sanctuary jurisdictions of New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle could lose a combined $4.448 billion under HR 3003.

But any fiscal hit presupposes: 1) the Senate will pass the House bill and, 2) the law survives inevitable court challenges. With judges blocking President Donald Trump’s earlier effort to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities, does HR 3003 provide enough legal ammunition? Though Congress has clear constitutional authority over appropriation of funds, such facts have not always deterred activist judges.

Unwilling to wait around, Texas enacted Senate Bill 4 to strip sanctuary cities of state law-enforcement funds and hold local officials liable for non-compliance. SB 4 does not recognize localities’ right to flout state law.

. . .


SICK OF THE MEX FLAG WAVERS?

An American immigrant is not someone supported by government funds in a "relocation" center; flown over here at government expense; given a cash allowance, free housing, and medical care; and then eased onto local public assistance: Section 8 rental grants, food stamps, WIC, AFDC, clothes from one government-sponsored charity or another, Medicaid, and public schooling, with free lunch and breakfasts and even help with furniture. That's not an immigrant.  That's a future Democrat voter.  ----- RICHARD F. MINITER – AMERICAN THINKER         COM





Mexican Cartel Leader Gets 30-Year Sentence after Helping DEA


0

A federal judge sentenced one of the top Los Zetas cartel leaders to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison for his role in helping smuggle ton quantities of drugs and playing a role in the raging violence that continues to plague Mexico. The former cartel boss turned into a government witness following his arrest. 

Los Zetas top leader Ivan “Talivan or L50” Velazquez Caballero,47,  went before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez who handed down the sentence and ordered the forfeiture of $10 million in assets, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. The cartel boss, who derives his name from a play on words over his first name and not the terrorist organization, has been in U.S. custody since his extradition in 2013. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of drug trafficking and money laundering in the border city of McAllen, Texas, in April 2014.
After his extradition and guilty plea, Velazques Caballero became a government witness and testified against other cartel members in an effort to get a lighter sentence. The former cartel boss originally faced the possibility of a life term in prison. The original charges stem from a 2010 indictment charging the entire leadership structure of the Los Zetas cartel with 47 federal charges including drug conspiracy, kidnapping conspiracy, firearms conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to kidnap and murder U. S. citizens in a foreign country, use of juveniles to commit a violent crime, and multiple other charges.
Velazquez Caballero, a native of the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, joined the ranks of the Los Zetas at a time when the criminal organization was still a part of the Gulf Cartel. Using the high vehicle traffic the international bridges into Laredo, Texas, as well as the city’s lack of border security, Los Zetas cartel members moved ton-quantities of cocaine and marijuana into major U.S. cities.
By 2010, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas went to war over drug trafficking territories and a series of betrayals that eventually led to further fracturing within both cartels. Prior to his capture, Velazquez and his brother had been at odds with former Los Zetas boss Miguel Angel “40” Trevino Morales and had sought a short-lived alliance with one faction of the Gulf Cartel.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.



Cartel Gun Battles, Blockades Reach a ‘Safe’ Mexico City



0


Gun battles and cartel blockades finally reached Mexico City after authorities killed a local crime boss and a team of his top gunmen in one of the areas roughest suburbs. The violence came days after top government officials claimed that Mexico City is safe and that no cartels operate in the country’s capital.

The violence began this week as Mexican marines moved into the Tlahuac suburb in an effort to arrest a group of street level drug dealers led by Felipe de Jesus “El Ojos” (Eyes)  Luna. When the military arrived at the Zapotitlan neighborhood they were met with heavy gunfire by a team of gunmen carrying machine guns. During the firefight, the Mexican marines killed El Ojos and seven of his gunmen.
As part of their efforts to escape, dozens of motorcycle taxi drivers and bus drivers set up roadblocks and torched vehicles, tactics similar to those used by the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in the border state of Tamaulipas. Breitbart Texas has reported extensively on how drug cartels hijack buses and park them across main avenues in an effort to slow down military convoys during cartel gun battles.
Mexican intelligence officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that the man known as Ojos is suspected of being behind the disappearance of approximately 80 victims from the region. Officials described the victims as young men who refused to work for the criminal organization.
Just one day after the fierce gun battle, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera claimed the group led by Ojos was not a cartel but just a gang of street level drug dealers, Milenioreported.  Mancera along with various other Mexican politicians have been publicly claiming that Mexico City is free of cartels and is considered safe.
The wild gun battle that led to El Ojos death came just days after Mexico City’s Attorney General Edmundo Porfirio Garrido Osorio claimed that the security levels in Mexico City are considered “acceptable” as he touted a decrease in crime statistics, Mexico’s El Universal reported.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tamaulipas “M.A. Navarro” and Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Ortiz. 


AMERICA THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO 

U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years of gringo-paid welfare.


AMERICA’S BLUDGEONED YOUTH: Homeless, Hopeless and Addicted…. Will they start the revolution?


"Public education as a whole came under brutal attack as part of the Obama administration’s effort to shift the burden of the financial crisis onto the backs of the working class."

AMERICA THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted
CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S BIGGEST EXPORTS TO U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years of gringo-paid welfare.

Congress Wades Into Sanctuary Cities, Again

By Kenric Ward

ImmigrationReform.com, July 5, 2017
. . .
Washington’s latest foray against sanctuary cities raises the stakes by threatening to withhold federal funding from non-compliant cities and states. One analysis estimates that the sanctuary jurisdictions of New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle could lose a combined $4.448 billion under HR 3003.

But any fiscal hit presupposes: 1) the Senate will pass the House bill and, 2) the law survives inevitable court challenges. With judges blocking President Donald Trump’s earlier effort to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities, does HR 3003 provide enough legal ammunition? Though Congress has clear constitutional authority over appropriation of funds, such facts have not always deterred activist judges.

Unwilling to wait around, Texas enacted Senate Bill 4 to strip sanctuary cities of state law-enforcement funds and hold local officials liable for non-compliance. SB 4 does not recognize localities’ right to flout state law.

. . .


SICK OF THE MEX FLAG WAVERS?

An American immigrant is not someone supported by government funds in a "relocation" center; flown over here at government expense; given a cash allowance, free housing, and medical care; and then eased onto local public assistance: Section 8 rental grants, food stamps, WIC, AFDC, clothes from one government-sponsored charity or another, Medicaid, and public schooling, with free lunch and breakfasts and even help with furniture. That's not an immigrant.  That's a future Democrat voter.  ----- RICHARD F. MINITER – AMERICAN THINKER         COM




Mexican Cartel Leader Gets 30-Year Sentence after Helping DEA


0

A federal judge sentenced one of the top Los Zetas cartel leaders to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison for his role in helping smuggle ton quantities of drugs and playing a role in the raging violence that continues to plague Mexico. The former cartel boss turned into a government witness following his arrest. 

Los Zetas top leader Ivan “Talivan or L50” Velazquez Caballero,47,  went before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez who handed down the sentence and ordered the forfeiture of $10 million in assets, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed. The cartel boss, who derives his name from a play on words over his first name and not the terrorist organization, has been in U.S. custody since his extradition in 2013. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of drug trafficking and money laundering in the border city of McAllen, Texas, in April 2014.
After his extradition and guilty plea, Velazques Caballero became a government witness and testified against other cartel members in an effort to get a lighter sentence. The former cartel boss originally faced the possibility of a life term in prison. The original charges stem from a 2010 indictment charging the entire leadership structure of the Los Zetas cartel with 47 federal charges including drug conspiracy, kidnapping conspiracy, firearms conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to kidnap and murder U. S. citizens in a foreign country, use of juveniles to commit a violent crime, and multiple other charges.
Velazquez Caballero, a native of the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, joined the ranks of the Los Zetas at a time when the criminal organization was still a part of the Gulf Cartel. Using the high vehicle traffic the international bridges into Laredo, Texas, as well as the city’s lack of border security, Los Zetas cartel members moved ton-quantities of cocaine and marijuana into major U.S. cities.
By 2010, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas went to war over drug trafficking territories and a series of betrayals that eventually led to further fracturing within both cartels. Prior to his capture, Velazquez and his brother had been at odds with former Los Zetas boss Miguel Angel “40” Trevino Morales and had sought a short-lived alliance with one faction of the Gulf Cartel.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Graham, Durbin revive bill to help 'Dreamers'



Graham, Durbin revive bill to help 'Dreamers'
© Greg Nash
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) plan on Thursday to introduce a new version of a bill granting legal status and a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children.
The proposal comes as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary relief from deportation to those immigrants, who are known as "Dreamers," faces a legal challenge from Texas and nine other states.
The Trump administration has not said whether it will defend DACA in court.
Supporters of the program are wary of leaving its defense in the hands of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who consistently took a hardline stance on immigration measures in the Senate.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said at an off-camera briefing Wednesday that the administration is unlikely to support the new bill.
"The administration has opposed the Dream Act and we are likely to be consistent in that," he said.
President Trump extended DACA in June, but has vacillated on the issue of Dreamers — the DACA recipients who received that monicker after the original Dream Act. 
“It’s a decision that I make and it’s a decision that’s very, very hard to make. I really understand the situation now. I understand the situation very well. What I’d like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But our country and political forces are not ready yet,” Trump said last week.
A White House official speaking on background said Trump "campaigned on enforcement first, and that is where his focus is." 
The official added that the White House is "working with Congress on a number of key pieces of legislation, including with [House Judiciary Committee] Chairman [Bob] Goodlatte [R-Va.] on a series of enforcement measures as well as with Sens. [Tom] Cotton [R-Ark.] and [David] Perdue [R-Ga.] on merit-based reforms to the legal immigration system."
The bipartisan bill is likely to receive some support from Democrats and moderate Republicans pushing to provide a permanent legislative solution before any legal challenge against DACA takes effect.
Many members on both sides of the aisle are on record in support of making DACA benefits permanent, and have supported previous iterations of the Dream Act dating back to 2001.
In their bill, Graham and Durbin — the top Democratic sponsor of most earlier versions of the Senate bill — will set guidelines for qualification, similar to DACA and earlier Dream Act guidelines.
Under the 2017 Dream Act, immigrants would qualify for permanent residence and a path to citizenship if they are longtime residents who came to the United States as children; earn a high school diploma or GED; pursue higher education, have lawful employment for three years or serve in the military; pass a background check and pay a fee; show proficiency in English and U.S. history; and have not committed a felony nor posed a threat to the country.
Earlier versions of the bill and the DACA program had similar guidelines, but in most cases had cut-off dates for final entry, making only certain childhood immigrants eligible for benefits.
The original Dream Act also established different conditions for childhood arrivals to gain temporary residence or permanent residence.

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