Barry Moore visits Yuma, Arizona to learn about the southern border crisis first hand
U.S. Congressman Barry Moore participated in the House Judiciary Committee’s first field hearing of the 118th Congress dealing with the border situation. The hearing was held in Yuma, Arizona, where Moore and his Republican colleagues were able to observe the border situation firsthand. The hearing featured three witnesses: Jonathan Lines, a county supervisor in Yuma County; Sheriff Leon Wilmot; and Dr. Robert Trenschel, president and CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center. Moore’s questions focused on the humanitarian crisis created by the flood of humanity crossing the U.S. southern border. 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses – most of them from drugs that were smuggled across the U.S. southern border with Mexico. “In Alabama recently, I was told that in Birmingham we seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in my entire state, so this may be affecting border communities, but it’s a crisis for our entire nation,” Moore said of the fentanyl crossing the border in large quantities. Moore discussed the high costs that some traffickers have charged people worldwide to cross the U.S. southern border. “We actually seized some Chinese nationals, [said] a Sheriff’s Department in Texas, and it was $80,000 each,” Moore said. “Folks, they’re not coming here to do us any favors, just so you know.” Moore discussed the benefits, including cell phones, being issued to migrants paid for by American taxpayers. “We are actually, with taxpayer dollars, trafficking children, and we’re paying to get them here on American taxpayer dollars, and putting them in God knows what and God knows where,” Moore said. Moore expressed his concerns about the vast numbers of unaccompanied minor children our government has lost after transporting them to unverified and unvetted people and places throughout our country. “We’ve lost 20,000 children. [Alejandro] Mayorkas said himself in a hearing he does not know where 20,000 of these children are, and that’s just staggering to me,” Moore said. Moore appeared Thursday on Newsmax’s National Report with Shaun Kraisman and Emma Rechenberg live from the southern border near Yuma, Arizona. “The people of Yuma have a story to tell,” Moore said. “The number of encounters they’ve had over the last three years, the difference in what the Trump administration was doing for this community and what’s going on now under the current administration is a remarkable difference. It’s a stark difference in how we handle the southern border.” Moore said that President Joe Biden should visit Yuma. “If nothing else, it would show he actually puts America first. We have a president who globe-trots around the world trying to solve other nations’ problems and denies and ignores the problems right here in our very own country, whether it’s East Palestine or the U.S. southern border,” Moore said. “These are things that this administration could lead on, and they’ve turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the American people and the crises we face here in this country.” Moore said that if the American people knew what was happening at the border, they would be upset. “A closed border is a compassionate border,” Moore said. “We cannot address immigration reform in this country until we close this southern border and get a handle on what’s going on down here.” Moore is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has ordered the Committee to hold hearings on the border crisis to draw attention to the problem. Moore said that Democrats were invited to attend the field hearing; but chose not to. Barry Moore is in his first term representing Alabama’s Second Congressional District. Moore previously served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Joe Guzzardi: Joe Biden’s SOTU; amnesty is border crisis solution
Leading up to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, reporters speculated about how much time, if any, he would give to the Southwest border crisis. The answer is now known. From his one hour, 12 minutes, and 40 seconds-long speech – the eighth-longest State of the Union address of the last 60 years, and exceeded only by President Bill Clinton, four times, and President Donald Trump, three times, Biden spent about 60 seconds on his open border debacle. Some analysts said that the brief one-minute reference proved that Biden is indifferent to America’s eroded sovereignty that the border chaos created. Others claimed that the border mess is too embarrassing for Biden to acknowledge, and the less he said, the better for him, and his fellow Democrats. At about the one-hour mark, Biden launched his foray into immigration. Biden shouted out: “America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts.” He then spoke more specifically about the direction in which he wants Congress to act. “If we don’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border and a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, [and] essential workers.” Biden followed the well-traveled path that immigration expansionists have long trekked. Whatever problem society might face, the solution today, yesterday, and always is comprehensive immigration reform that includes citizenship. But granting amnesty to an unknown total of illegal immigrants already residing in the U.S. has no relationship to the sovereign-busting open border. Amnesty doesn’t equate to a secure border. More to the point, no one on Capitol Hill knows the precise number of illegal immigrants living within the interior. Estimates range from 12 million to 30 million. Illegal aliens have to be unlucky to get deported under Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 72,177 illegal immigrants in FY 2022, slightly more than the 59,011 deported in FY 2021. That number, in turn, marked a sharp drop from the 185,884 deported in FY 20 and 267,258 in FY 2019. Biden may want to dismiss the border, or he may be satisfied that his welcome-the-world policy is correct. But the reality is that under Mayorkas, border agents have processed and released more than five million aliens into the interior. Another million or so migrants, called gotaways, have slipped past agents and are roaming among the general population. No one is certain of their identities, their intentions, or their current whereabouts. No one is looking for them either, and if they’re located, ICE cannot, as per a Mayorkas memo, deport them. Mayorkas does not have the constitutional authority to rewrite settled immigration laws, but in the Biden administration, legality in immigration law is inconsequential. The only thing Biden and Mayorkas know about immigration laws is that they refuse to enforce them. The illegal alien border surge will cost U.S. taxpayers $100 billion and counting. The $100 billion is the open border’s dollar cost. But the human cost, disregarded by Biden and Mayorkas, is tragic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote that over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Drug cartels have taken advantage of the open border to traffic fentanyl and have built a multi-billion business around their deadly drug. In his Spanish-language rebuttal, Mexico-born U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) said: “In my home county in Southern Arizona, fentanyl overdoses are the number one cause of death among young people — outpacing car crashes.” A post-SOTU good news, bad news summary: amnesty has no chance to pass in the 118th Congress, but the nation will have to endure another two years of the lawless Biden administration and its determination to destroy historic America. Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Coast Guard, Border Patrol make apprehensions off Florida’s coast
As U.S. Coast Guard crews continue to make a record number of apprehensions off Florida’s coast, so are U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector agents. On Saturday, 20 Cubans, including 16 men and four women, were apprehended and taken into Border Patrol custody after making landfall on a rustic vessel in the Marquesas Keys. The islands are uninhabited and located west of Key West. On January 24, Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine Operations crew agents rescued 18 people on an overloaded rustic vessel south of the Florida Keys. Miami Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Walter Slosar posted a compilation of videos on social media about the types of vessels people are arriving on, warning how dangerous the journey is. Illegal maritime voyages onboard overloaded or homemade vessels are extremely dangerous and potentially fatal. We urge individuals to use safe and legal pathways available to travel to the U.S. and to not take to the sea.#DontTakeToTheSea #alert #VIDEOS #reelsinstagram #Florida pic.twitter.com/EblxoNwkjD— Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar (@USBPChiefMIP) January 24, 2023 “Illegal maritime voyages onboard overloaded or homemade vessels are extremely dangerous and potentially fatal,” he said. “We urge individuals to use safe and legal pathways available to travel to the U.S. and to not take to the sea.” The Miami Border Patrol Sector has reported a significant increase in apprehensions over the past few months after reporting a 500% increase in apprehensions in fiscal 2022. From September 1, 2021, to October 31, 2022, Miami Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 2,350 foreign nationals attempting to illegally enter Florida by sea. The majority were Cubans. They also interdicted 131 maritime smuggling events, a 330% increase from fiscal 2021, Slosar said last month. In December, Miami Sector agents apprehended a record 1,664 illegal foreign nationals and reported that 107 evaded capture by law enforcement, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square from a Border Patrol agent. In January so far, these numbers include 1,399 apprehensions and 40 gotaways, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square. This is in addition to U.S. Coast Guard crew in the first three months of fiscal 2023 apprehending 1,766 Haitians and 5,183 Cubans. In fiscal 2022, they apprehended a record 7,175 Haitians and 6,182 Cubans. By comparison, they apprehended 49 Cubans in fiscal 2020. Responsible for patrolling 1,200 miles of coastal border in Florida, Miami Sector Border Patrol agents regularly work with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction over the Florida Keys. Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency after roughly 500 people were apprehended in one weekend attempting to enter Florida illegally, placing a burden on local and state resources. Roughly two weeks later, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a statement saying, “Cubans and Haitians who take to the sea and land on U.S. soil will be ineligible for the parole process and will be placed in removal proceedings.” In addition to apprehending people, Border Patrol agents also continue to seize drugs. Last weekend, “Good Samaritans discovered suspicious packages that washed up in the Florida Keys,” Slosar said. The packages contained 146 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.3 million. Since October, Miami Sector Border Patrol agents have seized more than 70 pounds of cocaine and 20 pounds of marijuana that washed up on Florida shores in St. Lucie County alone. These drugs had an estimated street value of roughly $940,000, Slosar said. Also, in the first three months of fiscal 2023, CBP Air and Marine agents confiscated nearly 20 tons of narcotics. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Barry Moore appointed to House Judiciary Committee
Congressman Barry Moore was appointed to the House Judiciary Committee. Moore said that it was an “honor” to be appointed to serve on the “prestigious” committee. “It is a great and humbling honor to be appointed to serve on the prestigious House Judiciary Committee and serve alongside my friend and our chairman, Jim Jordan, to defend our foundational American freedoms,” said Rep. Moore. “The Judiciary Committee will be the tip of the spear this Congress fighting to ensure that the American people’s government works to protect their civil liberties, not undermine them to advance a political agenda. With President Biden in the White House, we have a big task ahead, but I’m ready to get to work.” Congressman Jordan is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “We’re excited to welcome all new and returning members of the House Judiciary Committee to the 118th Congress,” Chairman Jordan said in a statement. “House Judiciary Republicans are ready to get to work on the important issues facing the American people by passing legislation that will secure the southern border, investigating the weaponization of the federal government against the American people, and reining in Big Tech’s censorship of free speech.” Chairman Jordan sent letters on Tuesday to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, ATF Director Steve Dettelbach, and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram renewing outstanding requests for communications and documents. Jordan claimed that for two years, the Biden Administration has stonewalled Congress, refused to comply with basic document requests and avoided transparency and accountability for its failures. Jordan said that House Judiciary Republicans are committed to holding each agency accountable under the new majority and will use compulsory processes, if necessary, to get answers for the American people. “Since the beginning of the Biden Administration, we have made several requests for information and documents concerning the operations and actions of the Department of Homeland Security,” Jordan wrote in the letter to Mayorkas. “These requests remain outstanding. As we begin the 118th Congress, we write again to reiterate our outstanding requests and ask that you immediately comply in full.” Mayorkas faces heavy criticism from House Republicans for his handling of the southern border situation and the documented chaos there. “Mayorkas swore an oath to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of [his] office.” Look at the border and the terrible numbers on his watch,” Moore said on social media. “Can anyone make the argument he is discharging the duties of his office well? He has to go, and if Biden won’t hold him accountable, House Republicans must.” Moore was just re-elected to his second term representing Alabama’s Second Congressional District. Moore previously served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018. He was elected to Congress in 2020, after his second run for office. Moore is a veteran. He owns a garbage collection business in Enterprise. He is a graduate of Auburn University. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Joe Guzzardi: Clock ticking on Alejandro Mayorkas; House files impeachment articles
The 118th Congress had barely convened before the Senate’s amnesty addicts traveled to the border and began pontificating about the bipartisan immigration action they were about to embark upon. Whenever Congress touts bipartisanship as it relates to immigration, the sub rosa message is that amnesty legislation, which Americans have consistently rejected, is percolating. Neither amnesty’s failed history – countless futile efforts since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act – nor the Republican-controlled House of Representatives stopped determined Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Mark Kelly, (D-Ariz.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). Tillis tipped off the group’s hand when he said, “It’s not just about border security; it’s not just about a path to citizenship or some certainty for a population.” One of those populations would be the “Dreamers,” with a 20-year-long failed legislative record. Sinema took advantage of the border trip to promote her failed amnesty, her leftovers from the December Lame Duck session, a three-week period when radical immigration legislation usually finds a home. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) tweeted that “our immigration system is badly broken…” drivel that’s been repeated so often it’s lost whatever meaning it once may have had. The immigration system is “badly broken,” to quote Coons, because immigration laws have been ignored for decades. Critics laughingly call the out-of-touch, border-visiting senators the “Sell-Out Safari.” Coons’ tweet is classic duplicity. Coons, Sinema, Kelly, and Murphy have consistently voted against measures to enforce border security and against fortifying the interior by providing more agents and by giving more authority to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Republicans Tillis and Cornyn are also immigration expansionists. Tillis worked with Sinema on her unsuccessful Lame Duck amnesty. Cornyn sponsored, with Sinema and Tillis as cosponsors, the “Bipartisan Border Solutions” bill that would have built more processing centers to expedite migrants’ release and to create a “fairer and more efficient” way to decide asylum cases. The bill, which never got off the ground, would have rolled out the red carpet to more prospective migrants at a time when the border is under siege. The good news is that the border safari, an updated version of the 2013 Gang of Eight that promoted but couldn’t deliver an amnesty, was a cheap photo op that intended to reflect concern about the border crisis when, in fact, the senators’ voting records prove that the invasion doesn’t trouble them in the least. More good news is that Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the new Speaker of the House, represents enforcement proponents’ best chance to move their agenda forward since 2007 when Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) first held the job. Republicans John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) followed Pelosi from 2011 to 2019 when Pelosi returned as Speaker. Although Boehner and Ryan are Republicans, their commitment to higher immigration levels was not much different than Pelosi’s. Boehner and Ryan received 0 percent scores on immigration, meaning that they favor looser immigration enforcement and more employment-based visas for foreign-born workers. Also in McCarthy’s favor is the public support for tightening the border. Polls taken in September 2022 showed that a majority of Americans, including 76 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Independents, thought President Joe Biden should be doing more to ensure border security. Moreover, a plurality of Americans opposes using tax dollars to transport migrants, a common practice in the Biden catch-and-release era. McCarthy must become more proactive and make good on his November call for the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to resign or face impeachment. “He cannot and must not remain in that position,” McCarthy said. “If Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every failure to determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry.” McCarthy has the backing of the Chairmen of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, Jim Jordan and James Comer. On January 9, Pat Fallon (R-Texas) filed articles of impeachment that charged Mayorkas with, among other offenses, “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Mayorkas insists he won’t resign and that he’s prepared for whatever investigations may come his way. Assuming the House presses on, and that the DHS secretary remains committed to keeping his post, Capitol Hill fireworks are assured, the fallout from which could lead to Mayorkas’ departure. Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Joe Biden walks stretch of U.S.-Mexico border, amid GOP criticism
President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first trip to the region after two years in office, a visit shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans try to blame him for the record numbers of migrants crossing into the country. At his first stop, the president observed as border officers in El Paso demonstrated how they search vehicles for drugs, money, and other contraband. Next, he traveled to a dusty street with abandoned buildings and a small playground. Near the street was a metal border fence that separated the U.S. city from Ciudad Juarez. Biden walked slowly along the border wall, initially joined by two Border Patrol agents. In a sign of the deep tensions over immigration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, handed Biden a letter upon his arrival in the state that said the “chaos” at the border was a “direct result” of the president’s failure to enforce federal laws. Biden later took the letter out of his jacket pocket during his tour, telling reporters, “I haven’t read it yet.” Asked what he’s learned by seeing the border firsthand and speaking with the officers who work along it, Biden said: “They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them.” Immigration for years has been a serious point of conflict, exposing both the dysfunction of the U.S. system as well as the turmoil within migrants’ home countries that has pushed many to flee. Administration officials have tried to counter Republican criticism by saying Congress should work with them to increase border security funding and overhaul immigration policy. Biden was spending just a few hours in the city, which is currently the biggest corridor for illegal crossings, in large part due to Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime, and poverty in their country. They are among migrants from four countries who are now subject to quick expulsion under new rules enacted by the Biden administration in the past week that drew strong criticism from immigration advocates. The president also was to visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with nonprofits and religious groups that support migrants arriving to the U.S. It was not clear whether he would talk to any migrants. Biden’s announcement on border security and his visit to the border are aimed in part at quelling the political noise and blunting the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. But any enduring solution will require action by the sharply divided Congress, where multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed in recent years. From El Paso, Biden was to continue south to Mexico City, where he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will gather on Monday and Tuesday for a North American leaders summit. Immigration is among the items on the agenda. In El Paso, where migrants congregate at bus stops and in parks before traveling on, border patrol agents stepped up security before Biden’s visit. “I think they’re trying to send a message that they’re going to more consistently check people’s documented status, and if you have not been processed they are going to pick you up,” said Ruben Garcia of the Annunciation House aid group in El Paso. Migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing violence and persecution have increasingly found that protections in the United States are available primarily to those with money or the savvy to find someone to vouch for them financially. Venezuelan migrant Jose Castillo, who said he traveled without family members for five months from his home on Margarita Island to arrive in El Paso on December 29, said he hoped Biden “will take us into consideration as the human beings we are.” Castillo was among a group of about 30 migrants who gathered for prayers Sunday morning outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church where many of the newcomers have been camping. “We have suffered a lot since entering the jungle of the Darien Gap and passing through Mexico. It has all been a battle, battle, battle,” he said. “I know that we are here illegally, but please give us a chance.” The numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically during Biden’s first two years in office. There were more than 2.38 million stops during the year that ended Sept. 30, the first time the number topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take hard-line measures that would resemble those of former President Donald Trump’s administration. The policy changes announced this past week are Biden’s biggest move yet to contain illegal border crossings and will turn away tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the border. At the same time, 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela will get the chance to come to the U.S. legally as long as they travel by plane, get a sponsor and pass background checks. The U.S. will also turn away migrants who do not seek asylum first in a country they traveled through en route to the U.S. Migrants are being asked to complete a form on a phone app so that they can go to a port of entry at a pre-scheduled date and time. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration is trying to “incentivize a safe and orderly way and cut out the smuggling organizations,” saying the policies are “not a ban at all” but an attempt to protect migrants from the trauma that smuggling can create. The changes were welcomed by some, particularly leaders in cities where migrants have been massing. But Biden was excoriated by immigrant advocate groups, which accused him of taking measures modeled after those of the former president. Administration officials disputed that characterization. For all of his international travel over his 50 years in public service, Biden has not spent much time at the U.S.-Mexico border. The only visit that the White House could point to was Biden’s drive
New ‘Twitter files’ allege Biden administration worked with Twitter to control COVID conversation
A new batch of “Twitter files” released Monday allegedly indicates the Biden administration worked with Twitter to control the public conversation about COVID, which included censoring accounts skeptical of the vaccine. This update is the latest in a string of internal Twitter revelations since billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter and vowed to make public any wrongdoing previous to his ownership that might have gone on behind the scenes. Since then, Musk has released a trove of troublesome information, including evidence federal law enforcement worked closely with the social media giant to censor Americans. The Biden administration has pushed back against these allegations, but the Twitter files are not the only source giving evidence to that collusion. Musk shared a Twitter thread Monday posted by author and journalist David Zweig, where Zweig laid out some introductory points, though Musk said more details are coming soon. Zweig said Twitter “rigged the COVID debate” by “censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. Policy” and “by discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed” as well as “suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*.” “So far, the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires,” he said. “The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.” Zweig, who says he personally reviewed internal documents, said both the Trump and Biden administration participated in the collusion. He said Donald Trump’s team was more worried about “panic buying” at grocery stores, while Biden was interested in shutting down accounts skeptical of the vaccine. “When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on ‘anti-vaxxer accounts,’” he said. “In the summer of 2021, president Biden said social media companies were ‘killing people’ for allowing vaccine misinformation.” “But Twitter did suppress views – many from doctors and scientific experts – that conflicted with the official positions of the White House,” he added. “As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.” The Twitter files have sparked calls for accountability. House Oversight Committee Republicans, who will have the majority come January, promised an investigation into the Twitter censorship and the Biden administration’s role earlier this month. This latest dump will likely only add fuel to that fire. “Committee Republicans continue to investigate whether U.S. government officials have participated in suppression and censorship of lawful speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Reports continue to surface that social media companies acted on behest of government agencies and officials when removing, restricting, or disclaiming content,” the House Republicans wrote in a letter earlier this month. “The American people and their elected representatives must know the extent to which their government has engaged in prohibited censorship to expose and prevent this unlawful conduct.” As The Center Square previously reported, critics have also lambasted the FBI after Musk’s document release appeared to show the FBI gave social media companies information leading them to believe the Hunter Biden story could be part of a disinformation campaign. Social media companies banned or shadow-banned the Hunter Biden story just before the last presidential election. Two years later, more and more details of the Hunter Biden story have been verified by leading news outlets. But the idea of law enforcement pressuring social media companies on COVID is not new. House Oversight Republicans launched an investigation last month into a “taxpayer-funded censorship campaign” after media reports indicated the Department of Homeland Security had been pressuring big tech companies to censor certain viewpoints on several issues, including COVID. The lawmakers sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling out DHS in particular, saying it “leverages partnerships with left-leaning private organizations – who have received millions of dollars in federal money – to identify and then take action against political speech unfavorable to the Administration, especially around its handling of COVID-19 policy.” Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Republicans call for impeachment of DHS head, cite surge at border
A group of U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday called for the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The lawmakers, led by U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., made their remarks during a news conference outside the Capitol Building, calling for Mayorkas’ impeachment amid the soaring number of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. “Every day he remains in office, America is less safe,” Biggs said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection have released a steady stream of figures showing that the number of illegal immigrants entering through the southern border has soared to record levels since President Joe Biden took office. Those numbers are poised to get worse. Trump-era Title 42 protections that allowed feds to expel migrants more quickly because of COVID-19 concerns are set to expire later this month, and experts predict a surge of illegal immigrants are awaiting that expiration. Some areas, like El Paso, are seeing thousands of migrants cross over each day. Those larger numbers of migrants have also brought large quantities of fentanyl, a deadly drug that is trafficked in the U.S. via cartels. Fentanyl overdoses have soared in recent years as well. Some in the Senate have echoed the criticism of Mayorkas. “The southern border has been an issue for a long time,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “Secretary Mayorkas only showed back up when the mainstream media caved and reported on the issue.” Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Coast Guard members still fighting vaccine mandate encouraged to consider joining class action lawsuit
Members of the U.S. Coast Guard who sought a religious accommodation request (RAR) from the U.S. Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate and were denied are encouraged to consider joining a class action lawsuit filed by Thomas More Society. The Chicago-based nonprofit legal organization filed a class action lawsuit against the Coast Guard, Stone et al. v. Mayorkas, et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on September 16. The lawsuit challenges the Coast Guard’s broad denial of RARs to the DOD mandate. The plaintiffs are facing involuntary discharge because they argue they are being forced to take an experimental drug that was developed with or tested on aborted fetal cell lines, which they argue violates their religious conscience and is contrary to their faith. According to court filings, the Coast Guard hasn’t disputed the sincerity of their religious beliefs, it’s just issued across-the-board denials of their RARs. The Department of Defense continues to maintain that the mandate is necessary for military readiness and that U.S. district court judges don’t have jurisdiction to oversee military policy. In several cases in several jurisdictions, all federal judges have disagreed with the DOD’s position, each handing different military branches ongoing losses in court. A DOD Inspector General also found that U.S. military officials in all branches violated federal law by issuing widespread denials of RARs. Still, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a memorandum to initiate separation proceedings to active duty and reserve members who refused to take the vaccine and who filed an RAR that was denied. One plaintiff in the class, Alaric Stone, says he’s suing because he joined the Coast Guard because of his faith and “Now I find myself in a situation where I am being forced to choose between my faith and service to my country; it’s truly heartbreaking. “I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, and religious freedom is a cornerstone of our Constitutional guarantees.” Two weeks after TMS filed its class action lawsuit, the Coast Guard agreed to defer its Inactive Status List transfer date to December 1 for all 122 putative class member reservists who’d been given an October 1 transfer date. The agreement will give them temporary relief, including allowing them to continue receiving an income while the court considers pending motions in the case. TMS Senior Counsel Stephen Crampton notes it’s only temporary and only applies to a few out of many in dire situations. “We continue to hear every day from additional service members facing imminent discharge or transfer orders,” Crampton said. “These agreements with the Department of Justice underscore the serious and irreparable harm that Coast Guard service members continue to face and point to the need for court- The Coast Guard “has made threats, and carried out threats, to punish service members” who apply for RARs, including denying them schooling, promotion, and assignments, he said. They’ve been “formally reprimanded and threatened with involuntary discharge,” even after the latest Centers for Disease Control prevention guidelines were issued, “which recommend no longer differentiating based on a person’s vaccination status, Crampton said. TMS also notes that while the Coast Guard has insisted on “forcing these brave and principled service members out,” it’s also acknowledged that “it faces an urgent shortfall in personnel and recruiting. “The actions of both the government and the Coast Guard in this situation are ridiculous as well as illogical,” Crampton said. The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that denying RARs due to “speculation” and “conjecture” about hypothetical future harms, another argument used by the DOD and military branches to enforce the mandate, violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. In order to accommodate the increasing number of service personnel in need of legal assistance who continue to be impacted by the Coast Guard’s refusal to approve RARs, TMS created a portal for service members to use to be considered to join its class action lawsuit. The portal states, “If you are a member of the Coast Guard who sought a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, we encourage you (but you are not obligated) to fill out the form on this page. If you have received a specific date of discharge or date of transfer to the Inactive Status List (ISL), please specify.” The class action names Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Defense Lloyd Austin, Commandant of the Coast Guard Linda Fagan, and Assistant Commandant for Human Resources Coast Guard Brian Penoyer as defendants. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Joe Guzzardi: Cartel-enriching border betrayal
Only a handful of insiders realize the true magnitude of the border crisis and its consequences. Those in the know include defanged Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, neutered Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, journalists whose truthful reporting rarely makes national headlines, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and his White House superiors. Otherwise, the dangers that open borders represent are kept tightly under wraps to avoid bad optics. The world, however, knows that accessing the U.S. interior is merely a matter of getting to the border, crossing, and beginning the journey – often White House-aided and abetted – to the final destination for those who enter illegally. In President Joe Biden’s eyes, the world is welcome. In mid-August, for example, CBP caught ten illegal immigrant adults posing as the ubiquitous unaccompanied alien child (UAC). The phony minors, apprehended at Texas’ El Paso Sector, ranged in age from 18 to 26; by law, UACs must not have reached age 18. All were Guatemalans who claimed to be minors to avoid deportation. Days later, at the Del Rio Valley Sector, agents stopped an 18-wheeler crammed with 150 smuggled aliens that included 17 gang members, one sex offender, and one convicted of murder. MS-13 members were among the identified gangsters. This fiscal year, an estimated 130,000 UACs, some self-defined, have entered. The CBP press release on the DRV action concluded vaguely: “All subjects were processed accordingly.” The Coalition Against Trafficking Women, Latin American branch, estimates that 60 percent of Latin American children who embark on a U.S.-bound journey, either alone or with smugglers, are captured by cartels and then forced into pornography or drug trafficking. In addition to enduring a moral nightmare, those migrants who successfully make it to the U.S. interior will have outstanding debts owed to the coyotes and cartels that will take them a lifetime to pay off. To make sure that smuggling accounts are settled, the aliens are forced to wear GPS wristbands so that the cartel can monitor their movements. Cartels are the world’s most powerful criminal organizations and have created the largest form of modern slavery. The New York Times estimated that cartel revenues reached $13 billion this year, up from $500 million in 2018, a 26x increase in fewer than five years. Over the years, illegal immigration has reached such extraordinarily high levels that it begat more illegal immigration. Decades of porous borders, inadequate interior enforcement, and the current welcoming environment have facilitated today’s historic and continuous wave. In 2018, during interviews in Guatemala’s tiny 17,000 residents-strong Concepción Chiquirichapa, reporters learned that almost everyone has family or knows someone with a family in the U.S. Think about what that amazing statistic conveys: individuals thousands of miles away from Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, and with few transportation options in their remote villages, have departed for the U.S., confident that they’ll get in, and will remain indefinitely. But neither unlawfully present parents nor their children who are joining them, trafficked or not, deserve a free pass from the Biden administration. In previous UAC waves, 60 percent of the children were handed over to illegally residing parents. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, in the Southern District of Texas, wrote of several instances in which parents “initiated the conspiracy to smuggle minors into the country illegally,” a reference to contracting with traffickers. Then, Hanen continued, instead of enforcing immigration laws, “DHS completed the criminal conspiracy…by delivering the minors into the custody of the parent living illegally in the United States.” Hanen’s message: Nonenforcement encourages parents to pay coyotes to bring their minor children north. UACs will continue to flock to the border as long as their illegal alien U.S. families can criminally bring their children to the U.S. without concern for their own removal. Judge Hanen’s criminal conspiracy allegation is tough talk but accurate. And with the entire U.S. a sanctuary nation, nonenforcement’s failures, and the fallout are painfully obvious. Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Joe Guzzardi: Hispanic voters trending red
For the last several presidential election cycles, media messaging has been consistent: candidates who capture the Hispanic vote will win. The suggestion, often unstated, was that GOP candidates need to promote an illegal alien amnesty, pledge to curtail interior enforcement, and promote expanded immigration. In 2022, however, Hispanics could indeed hold the key to a GOP victory, but not because they endorse amnesty. Hispanics, realizing that an open border creates job competition, classroom chaos, and disrupts their communities, oppose President Joe Biden’s immigration agenda. The Hispanic shift toward Republicans has been slowly but steadily building. In 2004 and 2016, Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump scored well among Hispanics, 40 percent and 38 percent, respectively. Trump’s 2020 total was almost 10 points higher than his 2016 tally. But in the 20 months since Biden’s inauguration, the White House’s open borders agenda has accelerated the Hispanic shift to the GOP. Remember that Hispanics who vote are U.S. citizens, and their hopes and concerns are largely identical to other Americans. In his new book, “Political Migrants: Hispanic Voters on the Move,” Jim Robb wrote that Biden’s refusal to enforce border laws and instead to opt for catch-and-release has been disastrous for all Americans, but especially legal immigrants and the 40-plus million American-born Hispanics. This fall, indications are that Hispanics will vote Republican at a higher rate than they did in 2020: 41 percent plan to vote Republican against 45 percent who will support Democrats, with others undecided. Since only 29 percent of Hispanics voted Republican in the 2018 mid-term election, 41 percent would be a significant GOP move toward capturing an important demographic. In fact, 41 percent would be the highest mid-term election share Republicans have ever received from Hispanics. On important life-affecting issues, Hispanics side with the GOP. Among likely Hispanic voters, 52 percent believe the government is doing “too little to reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays.” Only 15 percent believe the government is doing “too much.” Hispanic voters overwhelmingly agree that chain migration should be limited to spouses and minor children, that Congress should mandate E-Verify, which helps assure that only citizens and lawfully present foreign nationals can hold jobs, that businesses should raise wages to attract American workers before hiring foreign nationals, and that legal immigration should be reduced from its current one million-plus annually inflow. Other poll findings may vary, but tangible evidence exists that the Hispanic shift to the GOP is real and may represent the difference in November. In a special June election to determine who would represent Texas’ 34th congressional district in the illegal immigration-besieged Rio Grande Valley, Mayra Flores defeated Democrat Dan Sanchez. A citizen since age 14 and married to a border patrol officer, Flores represents a burgeoning breed of Hispanic officeholders who promote strict border enforcement. Flores is the first Republican to represent her historically blue district in 150 years and the first woman born in Mexico ever elected to Congress. Just weeks after her victory, Flores called on her colleagues to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his abject failures to enforce immigration laws which have caused the ongoing border crisis. Texas gubernatorial challenger Robert O’Rourke, trailing Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, explained why Hispanics have abandoned Democrats. O’Rourke, harkening back to 2020, blamed Biden, who “…didn’t spend a dime or day in the Rio Grande Valley or really anywhere in Texas….” Flores will be on the November ballot when she faces Democrat Vicente Gonzales, who has consistently voted to support Biden’s open borders policy. Political forecasters maintain that the 34th still leans blue. But a Flores victory would confirm that the Hispanic trend to red is real. Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Mike Rogers warns that Republicans will have to compromise after taking control of the House of Representatives
Congressman Mike Rogers spoke to the St. Clair County Young Republicans on Thursday about GOP priorities when the Republicans retake control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. Rogers predicted that Republicans would win control of the House of Representatives in the November 8 general elections. “They know they are going to lose the majority,” Rogers said of the Democrats. “We know they are going to lose the majority. The party of the President historically loses an average of 28 seats in his first term because Presidents get in there and start changing things.” “We think we could pick up between 20 and 46 seats,” Rogers said. “We have 214. There are not as many seats in play as the 2010 elections, where we picked up 60 seats, but we only had 185 seats then. We need 218 to take the majority.” “218 is not enough, as Nancy Pelosi is finding out,” Rogers said. “The House has 435 members; they have a four-vote majority. It is almost impossible for them to get all of their 218 members there to vote.” Rogers said Speaker Pelosi has gotten around that issue by using proxy voting, where a member gives their vote to a proxy to vote for them. “We had 35 Democrats that never ever showed up in Washington for a year after they were sworn in,” Rogers said. “We think it is unconstitutional. We have a lawsuit in place. The pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, and they are still using proxy voting. It will be one of the first things we change when we take over.” “On election night, 218 is not the number to watch – it is more like 233 or 240,” Rogers said. “We are going to have to have more than a small majority in order to really get things done. Both sides have got problem members. Even though we had the majority, it was difficult for us to get things done because we could never get those 12 to 15 hard-core members to go along with the caucus. They would rather kill legislation than vote for bills that could pass in the Senate. I call them legislative terrorists.” Rogers expressed confidence that Republicans would take the majority in the House. “I am very optimistic that we will have a strong majority,” Rogers continued, predicting that the number would be 240 House Republicans. “This is going to be historic. I have seen the (poll) numbers on my side. People are hopping mad. The biggest two issues are the economy and wokeism.” Rogers warned that even with control of the House, the Senate would also be an issue. “When we do take control, temper your expectations,” Rogers said. “We will control the House, but 53 or 54 seats is the best-case scenario in the Senate, and that is not enough to clear the Senate’s 60 vote filibuster rule.” “Democrats are going to have a say in legislation in the Senate,” Rogers warned. “We are going to have to compromise.” “The executive branch still has immense power because they control all of these executive agencies,” Rogers said. “We have got to get the Presidency back in 2024.” “We will control the purse strings so we can stop a lot of stuff,” Rogers said. “Those 87,000 IRS agents – that will never happen. Finding workers in this economy is a challenge. They have got to recruit them. Then they have got to train them. It will take months, and by then, we will be in charge of the purse strings. Those 87,000 agents will never happen. That’s one thing we can do. We can also stop all of these woke initiatives in the Department of Defense and the Education Department.” Rogers was asked if the Republicans were going to impeach Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. “Homeland Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas and Merrick Garland will be our targets,” Rogers said. “Mayorkas has lied to the Congress, saying that he has control of the southern border when he hasn’t even tried.” St. Clair County Young Republican Chairman Logan Glass said that the group would next meet in October. Mike Rogers has represented Alabama’s Third Congressional District since 2002. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
