Tom Cotton Opposes Pro-Migration Bill: Government-Funded Lawyers for Illegals, Unchecked Aid for Gaza
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Monday said he would oppose the Senate’s pro-migration border bill unveiled on Sunday, listing several issues with the legislation, including thousands of extra green cards per year “for no apparent reason” and aid to Gaza without any safeguards to ensure it will not be used for anti-America purposes.
“I’ve reviewed the bill, I don’t think it will solve our border crisis, and might make it worse. I will oppose it,” Cotton announced.
“Joe Biden created this crisis by design. He can and should reverse his open border policies today,” he continued before listing some of his specific issues with the bill, which was negotiated by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).
“The bill gives Secretary Mayorkas the right—for the first time—to grant asylum claims (and thus American citizenship) to illegal aliens at the border without review by the immigration courts, which will be a massive pathway to rubber-stamping amnesty,” he began, highlighting the fact that the measure also codifies catch-and-release under “alternatives to detention” for any illegal who merely says they “intend” to apply for asylum or another protection.”
The bill actually creates another magnet for illegal immigration, he continued, as it gives work permits to asylum seekers “as long as they pass an initial screening by liberal bureaucrats.”
“This will be a huge magnet for more illegal immigration,” Cotton observed, adding that the bill also grants “50,000 extra green cards per year for no apparent reason and entirely unrelated to border security.”
It also “guarantees new, government-funded lawyers for illegal aliens,” he wrote, adding that the legislation also does nothing to limit “Biden and Mayorkas’s abuse of immigration parole, allowing them to continue abusing parole and issuing work permits to any illegal alien who they claim has an ‘urgent humanitarian reason’ to stay.”
Cotton also said the bill provides “humanitarian” aid to Gaza but without adequate safeguards to ensure the money is not used for “anti-American purposes.”
“While the bill does include needful defense measures, especially replenishing our munitions stockpile, these parts can’t outweigh the problems with the bill,” Cotton said.
“Congress should separately and immediately take these steps to rebuild our military and defense industry,” the senator added:
He is far from the only Republican senator who has publicly spoken out against the bill. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), became the first member of Senate GOP leadership to publicly announce opposition to it Monday morning.
“I can’t support a bill that doesn’t secure the border, provides taxpayer funded lawyers to illegal immigrants and gives billions to radical open borders groups. I’m a no,” he said:
BLACK AMERICA IS TYPICALLY ANTI-SEMITIC.
They Blamed Israel for Hamas’s Attack. Jamaal Bowman Is Touting Their Endorsement.
New York congressman embraces anti-Israel group The Jewish Vote amid rift with Jewish community
New York congressman Jamaal Bowman is touting an endorsement from an anti-Israel group that blamed the Jewish state for provoking Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack, a move that comes as he attempts to fend off intense criticism from his district's Jewish community over his response to the attack.
Bowman on Thursday posted a photo with members of The Jewish Vote, who smiled alongside the congressman while holding signs that read, "Jews for Jamaal." The group is the electoral arm of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), a left-wing nonprofit that has routinely disparaged the Jewish state and argued against sending anti-Semitic hate criminals to jail.
In its Oct. 7 statement on "escalating violence in Israel-Palestine," JFREJ said Hamas's slaughter of innocent Israelis was not "unprovoked," citing "decades of occupation" and "the stifling blockage of Gaza." Days later, the group's executive director, Audrey Sasson, accused Israel of "genocide." On Jan. 18, meanwhile, JFREJ condemned a proposal from New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.) to expand the list of offenses that can be charged as hate crimes. Those who commit hate-fueled crimes against Jews, the group said, should be met with "restorative, community-based education and healing," not "a police-driven response with criminal penalties."
Bowman's embrace of The Jewish Vote comes as he faces a difficult primary challenge driven in large part by his response to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack.
Bowman, much like The Jewish Vote, blamed the attack on Israel's "blockade of Gaza" and went on to accuse the Jewish state of "mass murder," "genocide," and "ethnic cleansing." Those comments have incensed local Jewish leaders. Twenty-six rabbis in Bowman's district, for example, wrote a letter in October urging Westchester County executive George Latimer to launch a primary campaign against Bowman, citing the congressman's "effort to erode support for Israel on Capitol Hill and within the Democratic Party."
"Many of us tried to engage the congressman early in his term, seeking constructive dialogue about the damaging positions he took—especially on matters related to America's relationship with Israel," the rabbis wrote. "Regrettably, Congressman Bowman disregarded our outreach and doubled down on his anti-Israel policy positions and messaging." Latimer formally entered the race against Bowman in December.
Now, Bowman seems to hope an endorsement from The Jewish Vote will counter claims that he's lost his district's Jewish community. Bowman on Wednesday embraced the group's support, saying it shows his "movement is strong."
"Thanks to The Jewish Vote for their endorsement and for showing up at our campaign launch!" he said. "Our movement is strong and I'm so grateful for you all."
Bowman, who did not respond to a request for comment, has done little to improve his relationship with local Jewish leaders in recent weeks. During a Jan. 14 panel discussion titled, "Palestine Oct. 7th and After," the congressman heaped praise on anti-Israel author Norman Finklestein, who celebrated Hamas's massacre as a "heroic resistance" that "warm[ed] every fiber of his soul."
"I'm also a bit starstruck, because I watch them all the time on YouTube," Bowman said of Finklestein. "You have given me the knowledge on YouTube before even coming here." After Bowman's comments prompted criticism, the congressman downplayed his affinity for the author. "I had seen a few interviews but was unaware of Norman Finklestein's completely reprehensible comments before this event," he claimed.
Bowman's New York district has also grappled with high-profile incidents of anti-Semitism in recent weeks. In Yonkers, where Bowman lives, a Jan. 4 girls' high school basketball game was canceled after members of the public Roosevelt High School team shouted "Free Palestine" and other anti-Semitic remarks at their opponents from the Leffell School, a private Jewish institution. While Bowman at first condemned the incident, he issued a follow-up statement that blamed the ordeal on unfettered social media use and argued the students should not face significant discipline over their "mistake."
Weeks later, on Thursday, local police discovered anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed onto two Jewish-owned businesses in the Golden Horseshoe Shopping Plaza, which is located across from a Jewish community center. Vandals defaced the businesses—both of which display "We stand with Israel" signs in their windows—with the message, "Genocide supporter."
Bowman responded by condemning the vandals for "stoking divisions and hatred"—though his statement omitted the fact that Bowman himself has accused Israel of "genocide." It's unclear, meanwhile, if Bowman believes those responsible for the graffiti should go to jail for a hate crime. Hochul's hate crime expansion proposal would make hate-fueled taggers eligible for more severe charges, a move JFREJ derided as "misguided."
"Expanding hate crime charges does not actually prevent hate violence; it simply means that more people will face longer sentences if convicted," the group said in its Jan. 18 statement. "And we know that incarcerating someone causes lasting damage to the individual and to their community."
JFREJ's animosity toward Israel—and its soft approach toward anti-Semitic hate crimes—was on display well before Oct. 7.
In 2019, for example, The Jewish Vote steering committee member Elana Levin likened the Jewish state to Nazi Germany, writing that the "state of Israel is doing the same thing to Palestinians as was done to Jewish people." That year also saw JFREJ leader Sasson rebuff calls to respond to a spike in anti-Semitic violence by increasing the police presence in New York's Jewish communities, arguing that Jews of color would feel unsafe as a result.
"Right now, the tools we have for safety [are] more police presence and more guns, but the question for me is how can we build other tools?" Sasson said.
JFREJ did not respond to a request for comment.
Published under: Anti-Semitism , Genocide , Israel , Jamaal Bowman , Jewish Community , Palestine
10% of UNRWA Staffers Tied to Terrorist Groups: Report
Roughly 10 percent of staffers with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the international body's aid group for Palestinian refugees, have ties to terrorist groups, according to a Monday Wall Street Journal report.
About 1,200 employees, 10 percent of the agency's 12,000 Gazan workers, are linked to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Journal reported, citing Israeli intelligence reports the Jewish state shared with American officials. The intelligence found that 49 percent of UNRWA staffers had close relatives with official ties to the groups, and 23 percent of male UNRWA employees had ties to Hamas, more than the average rate of 15 percent for the general Gazan male population.
Officials told the Journal that the employees they believed had ties to Hamas were "operatives," meaning they were involved in the terror group's military or political activity.
The intelligence documents, per the paper, were part of a briefing Israeli officials gave to their American counterparts days ago, alleging the participation of 12 UNRWA employees in Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks. The Biden administration suspended aid to the agency following the revelations. UNRWA said it fired those staffers.
The Journal's Monday reporting based on the intelligence provides new details about the alleged actions of the accused workers. One Arabic teacher reportedly was a terrorist commander, while another, a social worker, allegedly helped steal the corpse of an Israeli soldier and arranged munitions deliveries for the group. The intelligence also said a math teacher took a picture with a female hostage. Israeli officials said they assessed their intelligence by reviewing communication signals and cellphone records, as well as interrogating detained Hamas members and recovering documents from deceased terrorists.
"UNRWA’s problem is not just ‘a few bad apples’ involved in the Oct. 7 massacre," a senior Israeli government official told the Journal. "The institution as a whole is a haven for Hamas’s radical ideology."
The agency told the paper that it was carrying out an internal investigation.
UNRWA has long faced accusations that its employees aid terrorists or foment bias against Israel, and those allegations have intensified amid the Jewish state's war on Hamas in Gaza. A November report said that teachers with the agency celebrated the group's Oct. 7 attacks. Another from later that month—which UNRWA called "unsubstantiated"—said a teacher with the organization held a hostage in an attic.
WHERE ON THE PLANET ARE MUSLIMS NOT PERPETRATING VIOLENCE?
Ilhan Omar makes clear her allegiance, and it’s not to America
When sworn into the House, a new congressperson promises to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution of the United States and, by extension, to the United States itself. Ilhan Omar, however, recently gave a speech in Minnesota in which she identified her fealty as being to Somalia and Islam, boasted about her control over America’s foreign policy, and suggested that a purge or genocide was required in Somalia to purify it for true Somalis. America’s interests, of course, were irrelevant.
A little background of the past 47 years in Somalian history is required to understand what Omar was talking about. In 1976, a military junta under Major General Mohamed Siad Barre established a Marxist-Muslim government.
From 1987-1988, Barre’s government embarked upon a genocide of Isaaq civilians in western Somalia. Ultimately, Barre’s troops killed 50,000-200,000 Isaaqs. (Nobody knows for sure.) Ilhan Omar’s father was an officer in the army behind that genocide. Along the way, Barre’s government destroyed what were then Somalia’s second- and third-largest cities. Around half a million Isaaqs fled north and west to Ethiopia as refugees.
Image: Ilhan Omar. X screen grab.
By 1991, the Barre government collapsed, and a civil war began. The Isaaq region declared itself to be an independent nation—Somaliland—although neither the UN nor the international community recognizes it as such.
By 2000, one of two “transitional” national governments was put into place, with the second gaining international recognition by 2012. The government found itself fighting off Islamic pressure, which it did with help from Ethiopia and African Union peacekeepers. One of the Islamic factions that survived was Al-Shabaab, which successfully battled the government. Eventually, a coalition came together between the Islamists and the government, which booted out Ethiopian troops. Sharia law quickly followed. That’s pretty much the general outline of recent Somali history.
As for Omar, as noted, her father was a member of Barre’s military. When she was nine or ten, her family fled Somalia’s civil war, spending the next four years in a Kenyan refugee camp. The family arrived in America when Omar was 13, eventually settling in Minnesota, the state that, more than any other, had opened its doors to Somali civil war refugees. As of 2018, 43,000 Somalian-born immigrants lived in Minnesota, with approximately 94,000 people in Minnesota speaking Somali as their home language.
It’s noteworthy, when it comes to Somalians, that half the shootings in Burlington, Vermont, were linked to resettled Somalis. Raised in war in their home nation and imbued with Islam’s inspiration to morally justified violence against those who offend Muslims, they’ve brought that violence to a once-safe corner of the Northeast. Calvin Coolidge weeps.
With that context, you can imagine the dismay of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Somaliland when she caught wind of a speech Ilhan Omar recently gave in Minnesota. In it, Omar demande that Somaliland cease its independent activities and became, again, a part of greater Somalia. The speech was especially disturbing because the daughter of a Barre officer said, “Somalia is for Somalis only.” In that context, the statement reeked of ethnic cleansing.
From an American perspective, Omar’s speech was equally disturbing. She identified not as an American but as part of a community that is “Somalians first, Muslims second.” In addition, she insisted that, thanks to her presence in Congress, American foreign policy must bow to her demands:
…the US government will only do what the Somalians in the US tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders, and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia.
We Somalians must have that confidence in ourselves that we call…the shots in the US. We live in the US, pay taxes in the US, and have a real voice. The US is a country where one of your daughters is in Congress to represent your interest. And for as long as I am in the US Congress, Somalia will never be in danger, its waters will not be stolen by Ethiopia or others.
The US would not dare to support anyone against Somalia to steal our land or oceans [or] sleep in comfort knowing I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the US system.
You’ve noted, I’m sure, that Omar makes no pretense that her demands benefit the U.S. in any way, help to stabilize the world order, or answer to a higher moral imperative. Instead, she’s simply announcing that the U.S. must bow to the will of Ilhan Omar and the Somalian government.
The arrogance is staggering, as is the lack of any pretense that she owes America fealty (with or without regard to her oath of office). These are not our parents’ generation of immigrants, filled with gratitude to be in a free land. These are conquerors.
Here is Omar’s speech, below which I’ve included a slightly cleaned up transcript:
We, as Somalians, we love each other. There are areas of friction…that led us to kill each other but, in reality, we are an organized society, brothers and sisters, people of the same blood, people who know they are Somalians first, Muslims second, who protect one another, come to each other’s aid and to the aid of other Muslims, too.
A couple of days ago, we heard [that] some people who call themselves Somalis (“SOMALILAND”) or claim to be Somalis have signed an MoU [“Memorandum of Understanding”] with Ethiopia on access to the sea.
[snip]
Many Somalians have personally called me to encourage me to speak to the US government and help Somalia. They wanted to know what the US government could do for Somalia to ensure the MoU never turns into a full bilateral agreement. My answer to Somalians was that the US government will only do what the Somalians in the US tell them to do. They will do want we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia.
We Somalians must have that confidence in ourselves that we call…the shots in the US. We live in the US, pay taxes in the US, and have a real voice. The US is a country where one of your daughters is in Congress to represent your interest. And for as long as I am in the US Congress, Somalia will never be in danger, its waters will not be stolen by Ethiopia or others.
The US would not dare to support anyone against Somalia to steal our land or oceans [or] sleep in comfort knowing I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the US system. The woman you sent to Congress is working day and night to protect your interest. She knows your plight and that of Somalia. I am as concerned about Somalia as you guys are. Together, we will protect the interests of Somalia.
President Hassan Sheikh, the current president of Somalia, has done a remarkable job of looking after Somalia. Mr. President, you have done an excellent job [presumably of fighting Ethiopia and Somaliland], and we are happy about it. You spoke to Somalians dispersed across the world that you are there to look after Somalia, however weak it is or is a failed state.
We Somalians are resilient people who can fight against all odds, people who love their country [presumably Somalia]. We are people who will never allow someone else to steal our land. Therefore, I congratulate Somalian-Americans and other Somalis across the globe for sharing a remarkable level of unity [presumably against Ethiopia and Somaliland]. The way you rallied behind our president [meaning Somalia’s, not America’s] because he needs us today.
Somalia is for Somalis only, as over 45% of Somalia’s population are not even ethnic Somalis. Somalia is one nation. We are all brothers and sisters. Our land cannot be divided. Ethiopia and Kenya have stolen and continue to occupy the Somali Region state, which belongs to Somalia. We will liberate the occupied territories stolen from, i.e., Somalia, Djibouti, Somaliland, and the North Eastern Province that belong to Greater Somalia. What remains of Somalia cannot be further divided.
Muslim Man in Chicago Suburb Charged with Murdering Wife and Three Daughters
A Muslim man in the south suburban Chicago town of Tinley Park was arrested and charged with murdering his wife and three young daughters in the basement of his home last week.
Police discovered the bodies of Majeda Kassem, 53, and her three daughters, 25-year-old twins, Halema and Zahia, and 24-year-old Hanan Kassem, all were shot and killed in the home after the family patriarch, Maher Kassem, called 9-1-1 on January 21 and reported that his wife had been shot.
During a January 22 press conference, the Tinley Park police called the incident “an act of senseless domestic violence” and reported that Maher Kassem confirmed his alleged part in the shootings.
The man’s wife was shot seven times and his daughters two times each, WBBM-TV reported.
Kassem’s 19-year-old son was also in the home during the shooting and reportedly witnessed the whole incident. He was left unharmed.
The suspect reportedly told police he was upset at his wife for how she treated him. “The defendant was recorded volunteering things about just having retired and that, ‘she treats me like a f*** dog. I worked 40 years,’ and ‘I worked all my life to give my family a better home and they treat me like s***. They treat me like a dog,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Clark.
The man also told dispatchers on a 9-1-1 call that there were “four people shot” and added “I’m going to jail.”
“Words can’t describe how deeply saddened I am at this horrible tragedy,” said Tinley Park Mayor Michael Glotz. “A mother and her three daughters are gone, murdered in an act of senseless domestic violence. The entire Tinley Park community is heartbroken at the loss of these four innocent women, and we grieve alongside the family, friends and neighbors who loved them.”
Arab American Family Services representative Itedal Shalabi quickly claimed that Kassem’s Muslim faith played no part in his motivation to allegedly commit the murders:
And so this is intimate family violence. This is where we talk about — what’s behind closed doors? No one knows but those individuals inside that home. This is not about faith. This is not about culture.
The Tinley Park Police had no previous calls to the Kassem home on record.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
Iran-Backed Terrorists Promise ‘More Pressure’ on West After Killings of Americans on Syria Border
A leader in one of the several groups identifying under the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” brand declared on Sunday that any negotiation between Baghdad and Washington on the presence of U.S. troops there will prompt “more pressure on the occupiers.”
The statement, republished in the Iranian state newspaper PressTV after appearing in the New Arab publication, followed an announcement by President Joe Biden on Sunday that jihadists had killed three American servicepersons and injured dozens in a drone attack on the border between Syria and Jordan. Biden claimed the strikes occurred in Jordan, where the Pentagon has about 3,000 troops stationed; the Jordanian government insisted that the attack occurred on Syrian territory.
Biden vowed he “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing,” though his administration has largely allowed dozens of attacks on American troops in the region to continue since the October 7 massacre of over 1,200 Israelis by the Sunni jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah, Hamas, and allies such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Shiite Houthi terrorists of Yemen have all launched coordinated attacks on Israel, American assets, and Western allies in the aftermath of October 7 as a gesture of solidarity to Hamas’s call for the genocide of Jews in the region.
Biden’s announcement of Americans killed this weekend is the first such fatal incident for Americans in the region since October 7.
Biden generally blamed “Iran-backed” groups for the strikes. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq issued a statement on Sunday taking responsibility; if accurate, marking a significant geographical departure out of Iraq for most of its activities. They also published a video allegedly showing the strikes.
According to Al Mayadeen, a press outlet affiliated with the Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq “declared that it conducted a series of drone attacks on five enemy positions in the region. Among these, three were aimed at US occupation bases situated in Syria, specifically targeting al-Shadadi, al-Rukban, and al-Tanf.”
“The fourth strike was directed at a base near Erbil Airport in the Iraqi Kurdistan region,” Al Mayadeen detailed. “The fifth operation was executed on the ‘Zevelun’ naval facility in occupied Palestine [sic].”
A commander of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, one of the groups under the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” brand, suggested that the groups were preparing an escalation in attacks on Americans in comments published by PressTV on Sunday.
“Iraq’s negotiations with the Americans will never cause a decline in efforts by the Islamic resistance against the outsiders and they will even cause us to pile more pressure on the occupiers,” the anonymous “commander” reportedly said.
“Nujaba and other groups in Iraq, which operate under the umbrella organization of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), have repeatedly said attacks on US positions in Iraq and Syria will continue until Israel ends its genocidal war on Gaza,” PressTV added.
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba is one of a large number of militias active in Iraq with Iranian backing, and considered “perhaps the most aggressive anti-American Iran-backed militia in Iraq.” It gained notoriety in the jihadi world by releasing a nasheed, or jihadi war song, honoring Iranian terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani. Former President Donald Trump eliminated Soleimani from the battlefield with a targeted airstrike on January 3, 2020, while he was in Iraq coordinating attacks on U.S. forces with Iran’s allied militias there.
The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” is considered to be made up mostly of those militias, though it appears to be intentionally unclear exactly which of the militias are involved in it or to what extent it is an established organization. The jihadists started using the term to refer to terrorist attacks against America and its allies in Iraq following the October 7 atrocities and has never defined itself or its members publicly.
Many of its members are believed to also be part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of majority Iran-backed, Shiite militias who became a formal arm of the Iraqi armed forces during the war to uproot the Islamic State “caliphate” in the country. The PMF took credit for fighting the Islamic State despite the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and U.S. troops doing most of the work. American military leaders praised the PMF for their “professional” work at the time.
Despite ample evidence that Iran, the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, funds PMF units and other militias and terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East, its foreign ministry officially denied any involvement in the attack that killed American troops.
“Iran is not involved in the resistance groups’ decisions about how to support the Palestinian people or defend themselves and the people of their countries in the face of any aggression and occupation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said on Monday. “Iran monitors the developments in the region with readiness and vigilance and the responsibility for the consequences of provocative accusations against Iran rests with the perpetrators of such baseless claims.”
Kan’ani appeared to blame Washington for the deaths of the troops, claiming “the US’s insistence and continuous violation of the national sovereignty of Iraq and Syria and bombing attacks against the groups and people of Iraq, Syria and Yemen have intensified the instability in the region,” according to PressTV.
Iran’s terror proxies Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – which the U.S. State Department estimated in 2020 receive $100 million annual from Tehran – openly celebrated the killing.
“The killing of three American soldiers is a message to the American administration that unless the killing of innocent people in Gaza stops, it must confront the entire Ummah,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas spokesperson, reportedly said, according to PressTV.
Palestinian Jihad declared the killing of Americans “a natural and legitimate response” to America’s presence in the Middle East.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
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