ICE Arrests 302 Non-Citizen Sex Offenders
(CNS News) -- The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced on Monday that it had arrested 302 non-citizen sex offenders so far as part of its Sex Offender Arrest and Removal program, popularly known as Operation SOAR.
“Our officers have prioritized the arrest of non-citizens who pose the greatest threat to the security and safety of our communities," said ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson.
"By focusing our resources on those who have committed sex crimes and demonstrated predatory behavior, we reinforce our steadfast commitment to enhancing public safety across the United States," he added.
According to ICE.gov, the "Sex Offender Arrest and Removal (SOAR) is a coordinated foreign-born sex offender enforcement operation that builds on ICE’s ongoing efforts to target and remove these egregious criminal non-citizens from our communities."
CNSNews Reader,
Sen. Cruz: ‘No’ to Pathway to Citizenship for Illegal Aliens
(CNS News) -- When asked whether illegal aliens should be given a pathway to citizenship, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, “No,” and added that the U.S.-Mexico border is “not remotely” secure.
At the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, CNS News asked the senator, “Should illegal aliens be given a pathway to citizenship?”
Senator Cruz said, “No.”
In a follow-up question, CNS News asked, “And is our southwest border secure now?”
“Not remotely,” he said. “We’re seeing a greater volume of illegal immigration than any time in the last 21 years.”
Senate Democrats are pursuing a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 8 million illegal aliens, or “undocumented immigrants,” as part of a $3.5 trillion budget resolution aimed at achieving many items on President Joe Biden’s agenda. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said they will act on the resolution before the extended August recess.
As part of the broad economic package, the Senate Judiciary Committee was charged with crafting a $120-billion bill for “making improvements on U.S. ports of entry, clearing out a backlog of visa applications, or other changes,” a Senate Democratic aide working closely on the plan told Bloomberg News. There was no mention of any funds going towards border security.
“Of the 8 million immigrants that Democrats want to aid in the economic package, 3 million would be young, undocumented immigrants known as ‘Dreamers,’ migrant workers, and some with ‘temporary protected status’ because dangerous conditions present risks, if they return to their home countries, the aide said,” according to Bloomberg News. “The other 5 million would be ‘essential workers’ who have yet to be defined.”
This immigration piece apparently is becoming increasingly crucial for the Senate Democrats to secure, as several House Democrats have said they will not support the larger economic package unless it is included.
Watch How DHS Sec. Mayorkas Reacts When Asked If Biden's Border Policies Are Working
Source: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was grilled by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) about the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
At the start of his questioning, Hawley pointed to how apprehensions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have dramatically increased since President Joe Biden entered into office. In June of this year, CBP encountered 188,829 persons attempting to illegally enter the country along the U.S.-Mexico border, representing a five percent increase over May, which saw 180,641 apprehensions. Each full month of Biden's presidency has seen at least 100,000 apprehensions despite it now being the hottest months of the year.
Hawley said the decrease in the number of arrests carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months was also worriesome.
"The cartels are having an easier and easier time smuggling drugs across our border, which are going to states like mine, which are awashed in drugs...Mr. Secretary with all due respect, this record is an unmitigated disaster," Hawley said.
Mayorkas said that while apprehensions are higher than in previous years, it does not take into account how some of those who are apprehended are illegal immigrants who have been previously apprehended. What Mayorkas did not mention is how the number of illegal immigrants who have been able to evade Border Patrol is also at their highest levels in recent years, with estimates as high as 2,000 people a day who are not caught by U.S. law enforcement.
"So Mr. Secretary, do I take it from your answer then that your position is we don't have a crisis at the southern border, that the surge is largely illusory, and we have no reason to be concerned...[because] your policies are working at the border?" Hawley asked.
Mayorkas replied DHS has "a plan" to address the surge of illegal border crossings and it takes to time to implement their plan, with one reason being the COVID-19 pandemic delaying part of their actions. Hawley said COVID-19 was at its height last year and yet illegal crossings into the U.S. were nowhere near as high as there are now.
DHS’s Mayorkas Walks over Baffled GOP Senators
Homeland defense secretary Alejandro Mayorkas strolled through another hearing of fractured questions by Republican senators who confessed they are baffled by the breakdown of the nation’s border security.
“He’s doing what Democratic officials usually do, which is just not answer the questions and then never follow up,” said Rosemary Jenks, the director of government relations of NumbersUSA.
The tone at the July 27 hearing was set by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the leading Republican senator on the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security:
Let me just ask you this question: How many unlawful migrants have been removed from the United States so far this year by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations? …
“I would be very pleased to share that data with you and your staff. I don’t have that figure in front of me,” Mayorkas answered.
“We’ve been asking for this information for weeks,” Portman responded. ” I appreciate the fact that today you are committed to getting us that information.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) also asked Mayorkas, politely, to supply the information that he had already refused to share with Portman’s staff. “Can you tell us when that would be available to the committee?” Romney asked.
“Yes, I commit to providing that information that data, senator, and we will provide it as quickly as possible,” Mayorkas responded, without promising a deadline.
“I would presume that would be within the next 30 days then?” Romney politely asked, so allowing Mayorkas to repeat his no-deadline, evasive promise: “There should be no problem in doing so, senator.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Romney replied.
The establishment Republicans on the panel gave no indication they understand the depth of Mayorkas’s fervent ideological support for nation-changing migration into Americans’ society, workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods. The American homeland of 330 million Americans is “a nation that always has been and forever will remain a Nation of Immigrants,” the Cuban-born Mayorkas declared in 2013.
Even as he waved away Republican questions, Mayorkas referred to his far-reaching, sincere, and determined agenda when he testified:
Consistent with the president’s recently released immigration blueprint calling for safe, orderly and humane policies and practices to govern immigration, this budget reflects our administration’s commitment to rebuilding our system into one that is fair, efficient, and upholds our nation’s values and our laws.
Yet Republican senators declared themselves puzzled at Mayorkas’s welcome for the growing wave of economic migrants.
“Our border is facing the worst migrant crisis that we’ve had in over two decades,” said Portman, before asking Mayorkas why he is not installing the migrant-detecting surveillance technology that was designed and funded for the finished border wall. Portman said:
What even was more shocking to me is that I was told only about 20 percent of the [surveillance] technology was completed on Inauguration Day when the wall [construction] was halted … So I just don’t get that, and I would wonder if you could give us an answer as to why you would want to reduce the amount of funding for technology?
Mayorkas drowned Portman’s questions in bureaucratic blather, saying:
We have proposed a budget [request] that includes $655 million to modernize our ports of entry, as well as $54.3 million of investments in technology between the ports … I’m looking at the project by project to understand the technological needs, the mission needs, and all aspects of the analysis.
Portman responded:
With all due respect, you’re not going to have any money to do that if you followed your own budget … but my gosh, I hope you will fight for more money for technology between the ports of entry. That’s where the encounters are taking place.
Yet Portman also indicated that he trusts Mayorkas, saying, “I think that you personally would like to see some [border-security] changes.”
At a #HSGAC hearing today, I pressed @SecMayorkas on the decrease in the number of unlawful migrants that have been arrested & removed from the US & the need for increased technology at our ports of entry to aid @CBP in their mission to keep the US safe. https://t.co/6VL1aa9atT
— Rob Portman (@senrobportman) July 28, 2021
Democrats made sure to help Mayorkas. They allowed Republican senators to ask only one round of questions and also broke up the GOP’s hostile comments with bouts of praise and questions about the Canadian border and other no-drama questions.
Romney also showed that he does not understand Mayorkas’s ideological opposition to Americans’ right to national borders:
I’m also incredulous that there seems to be politicization about whether we should complete the border barrier that’s already been contracted to be completed. There are gaps in it. The steel is there. The contracts have been let [to] contractors … Why in the world don’t we complete the barrier that’s already been contracted for? … I simply don’t understand.
The Administration isn't taking the enforcement of immigration laws seriously. Calls to eliminate or defund @ICEgov are purely political and if answered, would jeopardize our national security. pic.twitter.com/IzlhaLZ1NF
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) July 27, 2021
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) challenged Mayorkas, but his questions were open-ended, and Mayorkas calmly used up the senator’s few minutes:
Mr. Secretary, with all due respect, this record is an unmitigated disaster. It’s a disaster. I want to ask you to tell us and tell the American people now what you’re going to do to change course?
“Thank you, senator, for your question,” Mayorkas replied, adding:
Let me respond in a number of different ways. First of all, the number of migrants apprehended at the border began to increase in April of last year … We have a plan, we are executing the plan, the plan takes time to execute.
Hawley ended up looking frustrated, saying, “You are the secretary; why can’t you speak to these specifics? Are you not in charge of your department? Why can [border] officers not get answers from you?”
The underlying problem is the Republican senators do not actually want to fully engage Mayorkas and his pro-migration backers in the business sectors, said one source:
They have competing interests. Obviously, they need to look like they’re on Americans’ side — while not alienating their big business donors [which] are diametrically opposed to the interests of workers.
That judgment is backed up by recent actions from senior GOP politicians — such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), and Rep. John Katko (R-NY). They prefer to denounce Biden’s border policies instead of offering swing voters a positive pocketbook message of immigration reforms — because those reforms anger the Republican Party’s Fortune 500 donors.
“I think most [Republican] politicians are petrified of the immigration issue — they don’t know how to talk about it, and they’re afraid they’re going to be called racist,” the source said, adding that “they’re not that bright and their staffers are young and do not learn about immigration.”
Jenks added:
The Republicans have basically no power. They can yell and scream at him. But then the question is, “Do they look bad or does he look bad?” Because he’s just going sit there calmly and not answer. He’s going keep not answering, regardless of how worked up they get. So what’s the upside of looking like you’re bullying the witness?
For many years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates. This opposition is multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, bipartisan, rational, persistent, and recognizes the solidarity Americans owe to each other.
Mayorkas’s decision to restart the economic extraction of valuable consumers, renters, and workers from poor countries helps to move wealth — and social status — from heartland red states to the coastal blue states. Within each state, the extraction policy also helps to move wealth and status from GOP rural districts to Democrat cities.
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