The primary version of this blog is HERE. The Blogroll. My Home Page. Email John Ray here. Other blogs: "Tongue Tied" "Dissecting Leftism" "Australian Politics" "Education Watch International"
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30 November, 2022
NYC opens new mega shelter in Midtown for migrant families
City Hall is quietly opening a new mega shelter in Midtown that can hold some 600 migrants from the southern border — even as the flow of buses has slowed to a trickle, city officials said Tuesday.
The new facility at the Stewart Hotel on Seventh Avenue will be run by the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation and Office of Emergency Management.
It will replace the 300-room shelter and migrant welcome center that is already in the building and being operated by the Department of Homeless Services. It’s slated to open sometime between Dec. 5 and Dec. 11, according to an internal email obtained by the post
Current residents will be given a choice to remain at the hotel or move to a new shelter run by DHS.
This new facility will be the fourth mega-shelter opened inside a hotel to house the recent arrivals from the southern border, many of whom are seeking refugee status after fleeing the violence and chaos in Venezuela.
The other three emergency sites — known as HERRCs — are located at The Row NYC Hotel, The Watson Hotel and The Wolcott Hotel.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/29/nyc-opens-new-migrant-mega-shelter/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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29 November, 2022
Migrants still being turned away despite lining up for hours outside NYC ICE offices
Desperate migrants are still lining up overnight outside New York City’s ICE headquarters in wintry temperatures — only to be turned away by security guards because the backlogged agency has already reached its apparent daily quota to process them.
“If you want ICE, you have to come very early in the morning — like 3 in the morning. After 500 people, they are finished,” a security guard told The Post outside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Monday.
Asylum seekers were still facing chaotic scenes outside the immigration offices Monday — even after The Post reported last week on the capricious processing issues and how some migrants had even formed a makeshift mini-tent city just to get a foot in the door.
While there were no signs of the tents Monday, migrants without scheduled processing appointments were being forced to stand in a line that stretched several blocks early in the morning — and were only being served on a first-come, first-served basis.
“They are closed again, I have to come back again,” one mom, who was carrying her small son in a blanket, told The Post before storming off.
Once the first 500 or so migrants are let through the barricades, the rest are turned away and told to repeat the same tedious process the following day, according to the security guards posted outside.
“Why come early in the morning, when you can make an appointment and wait in the other line — the line at 3 in the morning is all the way to Brooklyn Bridge,” one guard said.
But even those who have arranged an appointment ahead of time are still facing frustrating scenes as they arrive at 26 Federal Plaza.
The Post spotted a number of migrants frantically waving their appointment confirmation papers in the air early Monday.
Some could be heard screaming out their appointment times as they tried to get noticed by security.
The guards then checked each person’s confirmation for proof of a scheduled time before herding the migrants through a barricade.
After a certain point, security announced it would only be letting through those who had appointments booked for 9:30 a.m. or earlier.
And by 9:30 a.m., a security guard had started telling migrants “ICE was closed” — and they should come back “early in the morning” around 3 a.m.
ICE didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the apparent 500-person daily limit.
The agency also didn’t address whether more federal resources had been dedicated to helping the Big Apple cope with the thousands of migrants who have flooded the city in recent months as the Biden administration grapples with the ongoing border crisis.
About 27,200 asylum seekers have gone through New York City’s intake system and been offered shelter in the five boroughs since the spring, according to the latest figures provided by city officials.
More than 19,500 migrants are being cared for at 57 emergency shelters and three Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/28/migrants-still-lining-for-hours-outside-nyc-ice-headquarters/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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28 November, 2022
MPI issues devastating report on low-income migrants
The pro-open borders Migration Policy Institute, here in Washington, has just released a grim and thorough report on low-income migrants which is much stronger in its description of the problem than it is in suggesting possible solutions to it.
It says that low-income migrants (legal and illegal) amount to about one-third of all foreign-born; it defines them as individuals in families making less than 200% of the federal poverty level, an appropriate definition. In 2019, the federal poverty threshold was $16,521 for a family of two and $26,172 for a family of four.
The study is based on U.S. census data, more specifically on the American Community Survey of 2019. It finds that there were a whopping 14,799,000 of them. It uses the euphemism “immigrants” which suggests legal presence, when, as MPI notes later, at least a third of this population is here illegally.
Since the database relates to 2019 the study does not include (or even mention) the millions of illegal aliens that have entered this country in the last couple of years. Hence, if anything, it understates the problems caused by this population.
The study shows that the numerous low-income foreign-born population is remarkably different from the American population generally. Let’s take the question of earnings. Dealing with the “annual earned income of full-time, year-round workers ages 16 and older”. MPI finds that only 8% of the total population made less than $15,000 a year, while 57% of the low-income migrants were in that unhappy category. That is a huge difference.
As MPI does not point out, this means that a strong majority of this population, even back in 2019, did not make, on an annual basis, the equivalent to the totally out-of-date minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That figure times 52 weeks times 40 hours a week equals $15,080.
MPI’s study also shows that 32% of this migrant population had no health insurance, as opposed to 8% of the total population. Similarly, 41% of the low-income migrant population has less than a high school education, while only 8% of all Americans are in that category.
These statistics strongly suggest both abject poverty and a large utilization of welfare systems (many of MPI’s population live in mixed families of legal and illegal immigrants, mixtures that allow welfare benefits for many in these families.)
https://cis.org/North/MPI-issues-devastating-report-lowincome-migrants
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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27 November, 2022
Biden administration preps for a rocky end to Trump-era immigration rule
The termination of Title 42 will mark both the close of a contentious legal battle and the dawn of a new political one, in which the administration’s migration policies will be tested once more. | Eugene Garcia/AP Photo
The Biden administration has publicly stated it wants to see an end to Title 42, the much-maligned Trump-era health policy used to turn away more than a million migrants at the southern border.
In four weeks time, they will likely get their wish, and not everyone is sure they’re ready for it.
Experts in the immigration field say they’re expecting a stressful and chaotic transition when a court-ordered deadline to end the Trump directive is hit, one that could drive a new rush to the border and intensify GOP criticism.
“The view of most people who have looked at this is that whenever Title 42 is lifted, it will create a major operational challenge,” said Doris Meissner, director of the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. immigration policy program. “The real question in my mind is, how quickly can the appropriate procedures be restored and put into place so that that challenge is minimized?”
The termination of Title 42 will mark both the close of a contentious legal battle and the dawn of a new political one, in which the administration’s migration policies will be tested once more. It has been a vexing issue for the White House since the early days of the Biden presidency. But it could grow even more complicated fairly soon.
Earlier this month, a Washington-based federal judge blocked the use of Title 42, a public health authority that border officials have used more than 2 million times during the Covid pandemic to expel asylum-seeking migrants, though many of these were repeat crossings. The judge argued its use no longer aligns with the state of the pandemic, in which vaccines and treatments are widely available and travel in the U.S. has greatly increased. The Department of Justice asked for a five-week delay to “resolve resource and logistical issues,” and the judge agreed to push his order’s start date to Dec. 21.
An administration official, when asked about steps DHS is taking to prepare, directed POLITICO to its “Six Pillars Plan” announced earlier this year, as well as its efforts to counter cartels and human smuggling networks. The plan focuses on “surging resources” — like personnel, transportation, medical support and facilities to support border officials — strictly enforcing border laws, increasing Customs and Border Protection processing efficiency, and bolstering capacity of non-governmental organizations.
“As was the case before Title 42 went into effect and will remain the case after it, individuals encountered at the border and without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be subject to prompt removal,” another administration official said in a statement.
According to its court response, the administration plans to revert fully back to migrant processing procedures the country previously, and historically, outlined under Title 8. That would allow the government to remove from the country anyone unable to establish a legal basis — such as an approved asylum claim. Mayorkas told lawmakers during a hearing last week that his department plans to make “enhanced use” of these expedited removal processes at the southern border.
In requesting a five-week delay, the DOJ said the Department of Homeland Security needed the extra time to find resources to prepare for the transition from Title 42 to Title 8 processing.
The resource gaps likely have to do with the need for officers to screen and process the influx of asylum seekers, said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. There’s also great concern about the immigration courts, which ended fiscal year 2022 with a 1.9-million-case backlog, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research organization at Syracuse University.
And because of the unprecedented level of irregular migration ending up at the southern border, Chen said, the administration will need even more asylum officers, court staff and other resources to back the system than it would’ve two years ago.
Both the Trump and Biden administration appeared to rely on Title 42 to limit the flows of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border for reasons having little to do with the spread of Covid.
But Republicans have fought to keep the order in place, while the Biden White House tried to end the program earlier this year, only to be stymied by a Louisiana-based federal judge acting on a lawsuit brought by 24 Republican-led states.
Terminating the directive is expected to fuel GOP attacks, particularly in the House, where Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has already called for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign.
But Biden also faces pressure from within his own ideological tent. Advocates have long called for the end of Title 42, arguing that there was no rational basis for its usage once the pandemic fears receded.
The end of the policy is unlikely to lead to an end in the criticism. With an influx of people and a bogged-down system, migrants could spend months in detention centers — another part of the system the administration is likely ramping up in preparation, Chen said. These facilities have been criticized for dangerous overcrowding, health and hygiene problems, as well as hampered legal access.
Expanding the use of detention on people arriving at the border is “highly contentious,” Chen said. “It is a system that is very much lacking in adequate oversight to ensure that people are treated humanely.”
Even with ample time, many of the resources being sought require legislative action, Chen said. But the prospects of Republicans and Democrats striking a deal are slim.
“We’re eyes wide open to the reality that, despite all the progress we’ve made, we’re continuing to work within the constraints of a decades-old broken immigration system that Republican officials refuse to allow us to fix,” an administration official told POLITICO.
Administration officials always knew Title 42 would come to end at some point, and preparations were underway, said Angela Kelley, who served as Mayorkas’ senior counselor on immigration until May and is now chief adviser for policy and partnerships at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Some of this planning appears evident in the data.
Compared to 2021, fewer people this fiscal year were expelled under Title 42, while the number of migrants allowed to have their asylum claims be heard nearly doubled — possibly reflecting a transition to Title 8. In September, 72,472 migrants at the southern border were expelled under Title 42, while 135,125 were apprehended under Title 8, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
The administration has also made an effort to speed up the asylum processing system. A new rule issued by the department this spring grants asylum officers — not just judges — the power to determine who qualifies and who must be turned away. In the long-term, this will lead to a faster and more fair asylum procedure, said Meissner, a former immigration commissioner. But this new process, too, is burdened by resource needs and has so far only been applied to process a small number of people.
Kelley foresees a rocky start come Dec. 21, but once processing is back up and running, she expects the strain on the system to level out. Still, she warns, problems will plague the southern border given the current state of the immigration system, one President Joe Biden has promised to overhaul.
“It really is like a Rubik’s cube. The day after Title 42 comes down, I think it’s going to scramble the different colors. And then over time, the different sides will be the same color,” Kelley said. “But it’s going to take time, and it’s still going to be imperfect because our system needs to be modernized.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/25/biden-admin-trump-era-immigration-title-42-00070780
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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25 November, 2022
Net migration to the UK reaches record high of half a million, ONS estimates show
Net migration to the UK has reached a record high, with 504,000 more people arriving into the UK than departing in the past year, new ONS estimates show.
It is also the first time since 1991 that more EU nationals have left the UK than arrived. Net migration of EU nationals is minus 51,000 for the year up to June 2022, new estimates show.
Total immigration to the UK is at its highest level since ONS started recording the statistics in 1964 - with 1.1million people arriving in the past year.
Net migration is also at its highest level since records began. The last time net migration to the UK was close to these figures was during the fall-out from the Syrian war in March 2015, when the number was 331,000.
The increase is driven by a rise in the number of non-EU students coming to the UK, and also by hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. The relaxation of Covid restrictions in the UK has also contributed to the “unprecedented” increase.
In the year up to June 2022, the Office for National Statistics estimated that net migration of non-EU nationals to the UK was 509,000.
Commenting on the statistics, Jay Lindop, ONS’ deputy director of the Centre for International Migration, said that a number of world events had driven up migration to the UK in the past year.
She said that international migration patterns in the 12 months to June 2022 were “unprecedented”.
“These include the end of lockdown restrictions in the UK, the first full period following transition from the EU, the war in Ukraine, the resettlement of Afghans and the new visa route for Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas), which have all contributed to the record levels of long-term immigration we have seen,” she added.
Migration from non-EU countries, specifically students, was driving the rise, Ms Lindop said. The easing of Covid lockdown restrictions has also contributed to this, as students no longer have to work remotely.
In the year ending June 2022, those arriving on study visas accounted for the largest proportion of long-term immigration for non-EU nationals - at 39 percent.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/migrant-migrations-uk-eu-figures-b2232091.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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24 November, 2022
DACA: Delinquent Aliens, Criminal Aliens
Many violent alien youths qualify for DACA, many face few consequences
Executive Summary
Juveniles commit a large number of serious offenses. In 2020, there were 1,353 known juvenile homicide offenders. In 2019, juveniles constituted 21 percent of all arrests for robbery, 20 percent for arson, 17 percent for car theft, 12 percent for burglary, 10 percent for larceny-theft and weapons offenses, eight percent for murder, and seven percent for aggravated assault. In 2012, the last year for which data is available, juveniles accounted for 14 percent of all arrests for forcible rape.
Despite the successful framing of DREAMers and DACA recipients as young people with no criminal records, it turns out that many were affiliated with gangs and many had arrest records when granted DACA benefits, and many others saw their DACA status terminated because of criminal activity. As USCIS has admitted, “[t]he truth is that we let those with criminal arrests for sexually assaulting a minor, kidnapping, human trafficking, child pornography, or even murder be provided protection from removal.”
Juvenile perpetrators are much more likely to be processed through a juvenile justice system than a criminal court. The Los Angeles County District Attorney made the decision (still largely in effect) to not send any juveniles to criminal court, no matter the gravity of their crimes.
Most juveniles adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court are not placed into any sort of out-of-home detention, including for such offenses as aggravated assault and robbery.
Congress has determined that all aliens (regardless of their immigration status) are subject to removal upon conviction for a wide range of crimes. Congress has also determined that aliens are subject to mandatory detention and are ineligible for a wide range of immigration benefits and relief upon conviction for a wide range of crimes.
However, aliens who are “adjudicated delinquent” in a juvenile court after having committed such offenses as minors are not subject to removal on this basis, or to mandatory detention or loss of eligibility for immigration benefits or relief on this basis.
Regardless of one’s views as to the “deservingness” as a general matter of illegal aliens brought to the U.S. as minors by their parents, brought to the U.S. by smugglers paid for by their parents, or who simply came to the U.S. on their own accord, those who are criminals (whether convicted in criminal court or adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court) should surely face immigration consequences. The lasting devastation to the lives of crime victims and their families is not wiped away simply because a perpetrator is a minor, even if that minor was “brought to the U.S. through no fault of their own.”
When a juvenile perpetrator is an alien, especially one not lawfully present, the consequences should not only entail “rehabilitation and treatment” through a federal or state juvenile court system, but also extend to the immigration realm. Congress should bar juveniles adjudicated delinquent from eligibility for any immigration benefit or relief, especially relief designed for those who arrived in the U.S. while minors. Congress should also give serious consideration to establishing a detention mandate and a ground of deportability for all aliens who have been adjudicated delinquent for the type of offense that would trigger mandatory detention or a ground of deportability had it resulted in a criminal conviction.
https://cis.org/Report/DACA-Delinquent-Aliens-Criminal-Aliens
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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23 November, 2022
Historic Levels of Illegal Immigration on Southern Border Likely to Get Worse
The historic level of illegal immigration on the Southern border is likely to get much worse, if that’s possible.
On Wednesday, a federal judge declared that the Biden administration had to end Title 42 by Dec. 21. The ruling came from Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
The Biden administration requested a five-week pause on the order, which was granted.
Title 42 is a health policy, created in the 1940s and implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was invoked by then-President Donald Trump, allowing the quick deportation of illegal immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The policy has bounced around in the courts for a while. The Left hates it, and the Biden administration clearly had little interest in maintaining it.
Title 42’s imminent end is not ideal, to say the least. In particular, it’s not ideal for those who want to contain an already exploding border crisis.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 230,000 border encounters in October alone, a record. According to Fox News, CBP also estimated there were about 64,000 “gotaways” in October, as well. Those are illegal border-crossers who weren’t apprehended.
The October numbers weren’t even an outlier. There were 2.76 million illegal border-crossers in fiscal year 2022, another record. It shattered the previous record of 1.82 million crossings, set last year. So, the total number of border-crossers apprehended is more than the populations of half of all U.S. states. And those are just the apprehensions. Again, an untold number of other illegal immigrants crossed the border without being caught.
Nearly 100 people on the terrorist watchlist were apprehended at the border this year. Given the sheer numbers we’re seeing, it’s easy to see how others could have slipped through.
So, the two most prolific years for illegal immigration in American history happened under President Joe Biden. It’s a crisis by any measure. But the message we’ve been getting from the people in charge of enforcing our border laws is that all is well.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other members of the administration continue to insist the border is “secure.” This makes one wonder whether there is literally any metric that would render it “unsecure” by Biden administration standards. The number of crossings we’re seeing at the southern border are breaking monthly and yearly records. It’s been decades since we’ve seen anything like it.
The excuse Mayorkas came up with at a House hearing on Tuesday was that an uptick in border crossings is a hemispheric phenomenon.
With the elimination of Title 42, the bad situation will almost certainly get worse. The administration says it has a “plan” to deal with the end of Title 42 and the expected surge in Venezuelan migrants heading for the U.S.-Mexican border.
What is that plan?
Mayorkas said at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday that the plan was “building a lawful pathway for them to arrive safely and in an orderly way to the United States” alongside a “consequence regime should they not avail themselves of that lawful pathway”—whatever that means.
It’s hard to take the administration seriously on the “consequence regime” when the administration’s rhetoric and actions suggest that they are entirely comfortable with millions of people breaking U.S. law.
One of Biden’s first actions when he came into office in January 2021 was the end of the “Remain in Mexico” policy implemented under Trump. That policy required that asylum-seekers remain in Mexico while their asylum claims were adjudicated. That discouraged bogus asylum claimants and tamped down the number of people crossing the border.
In a July deposition in Florida, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz acknowledged that the Biden administration had caused the drastic increase in people illegally crossing the southern border. It’s due to the administration signaling that there will be minimal or no consequences for lawbreakers.
While one can certainly hope that the Biden administration will suddenly change course, it’s little more than a fool’s hope—especially now that the midterm elections have passed.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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22 November, 2022
Just Days After Abbott Invokes 'Invasion Clause,' Armor Will Soon Be Rumbling at the Border
Just three days after newly re-elected Texas Gov. Greg Abbott invoked the “invasion clause” to deal with the border crisis, it was reported the Republican was set to up the ante with the cartels by bringing in some serious military hardware.
On Friday, a Texas Tribune/Military Times report said Abbott’s “border mission is set to include armored personnel carriers designed to carry troops into battle alongside tanks, according to a planning document.”
“The order issued Thursday by Texas Military Department officials to the headquarters overseeing Operation Lone Star reveals that the National Guard will soon deploy 10 M113 armored personnel carrier vehicles to the border,” the report continued.
“According to the order, around 50 soldiers will be trained to operate the vehicles, and state officials will identify 10 positions to station them along the border.”
In addition, the Texas Military Department said in a statement that the Texas National Guard would be conducting more aircraft flights and tightening security along the border.
“These actions are part of a larger strategy to use every available tool to fight back against the record-breaking level of illegal immigration,” the department said, according to the Tribune/Times report.
“The Texas National Guard is taking unprecedented measures to safeguard our border and to repel and turn-back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally.”
While Abbott was one of the first governors to realize the border crisis was getting out of hand under President Joe Biden’s administration — starting Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to repel increasing numbers of illegal immigrants at the southern border — he’s resisted calling it an invasion until Tuesday’s tweet.
As he announced he was invoking the “invasion clause” of the state and U.S. constitutions, he added that he was going to be deploying the National Guard to turn back illegal immigrants, using the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest those who had already crossed the border illegally for deportation, building a border wall in several counties, deploying gunboats, designating cartels as terrorist organizations and taking other measures.
Abbott said he was doing so to “fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion.”
“That clause for invasion, it just opens up the door for more ability of the state government to take actions that in the past, immigration has been a federal government problem,” said Ari Jimenez, a retired special agent in charge of the San Antonio area homeland security division, according to KEYE-TV in Austin, Texas.
“What I saw what is new, he was more in terms of agreement with other countries,” Jimenez added.
“And this is important because Texas does not have right now [an] extradition agreement with any country. Those are usually at the federal government level.”
Texas officials concerned about border security lauded the move.
“Kinney County is pleased with the Governor’s acknowledgement of an ‘invasion’ occurring on our border with Mexico and hopeful that he will soon take all necessary steps in deploying state military and law enforcement to repel it,” Brent Smith, the Kinney County attorney, said in a statement.
“We urge him to invoke those constitutional authorities he cites in his November 14th letter to County Judges, to secure our border and protect Texans.”
Now those looking for increased border security will have some serious hardware lending a helping hand.
“Armored personnel carriers like the M113 are designed to carry infantry troops across modern battlefields alongside tanks,” the Tribune/Times report said.
“They can be equipped with a range of weapons: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, antitank missiles or even large cannons similar to those mounted on tanks,” it said. “It’s not clear what weapons, if any, will be on the Texas Guard’s M113s at the border.
“Such vehicles are by definition bulletproof and can withstand small explosions. In the civilian world, lighter, wheeled armored personnel carriers are sometimes used to carry police SWAT teams.”
Well, good. The cartels don’t play around. Neither should Texas.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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21 November, 2022
Majority of Hispanic Voters Want Government to Do More to Enforce Immigration Laws, Exit Poll Finds
According to new exit polling, 57% of Hispanic voters think the government is doing too little to “reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays.” (Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Hispanic voters say the U.S. government should do more to enforce immigration laws, according to new polling data.
An exit poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and NumbersUSA found that more than half of Hispanics who voted in the 2022 midterm elections agree that the government isn’t doing enough to reduce illegal immigration.
The survey asked Hispanic voters if the government is doing “too much” or “too little” to “reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays.” Among the 515 respondents, 57% said “too little,” while just 16% said “too much,” 17% said “about right,” and 11% said they weren’t sure.
Specifically, even among Democratic Hispanic voters surveyed, 49% said they thought the government was doing “too little” to reduce illegal crossings at the border.
“These results don’t surprise me,” Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
“Wanting a secure border and an orderly, fair migration process with some limits is like asking for safe streets and lower crime—a sensible and mainstream point of view,” Hankinson said. “Counting on Hispanic Americans as a permanent bloc vote against commonsense policies is a poor long-term strategy.”
However, the Brookings Institution’s Gabriel Sanchez said that 64% of Latinos reported “that they voted for a Democratic House candidate, compared to 33% who reported they voted for Republican candidates” in the 2022 midterms.
In October alone, Customs and Border Protection reports its agents encountered 230,678 illegal aliens along America’s southern border.
The Rasmussen Reports survey also asked Hispanic voters: In an effort to “control illegal immigration, how important is it to greatly increase the physical barriers, such as walls and fencing, on the U.S. border with Mexico?”
The poll found that 47% of Latino voters think that walls and fencing are “very important” to limit illegal immigration, and an additional 19% of Hispanic voters surveyed said walls and barriers are “somewhat important.”
When it comes to policies related to illegal migrants’ access to jobs in America, 56% of survey respondents said they “favor immigration policies that prevent illegal border crossings and illegal immigrants from getting jobs in the U.S.”
Jim Robb, NumbersUSA vice president of operations, said the “poll and recent election results show that immigration and border policies that protect American workers is increasingly attracting Hispanic voters.”
If Republicans “want to continue to make gains among Hispanic voters,” he said, they need to “continue to stay strong on immigration and border security, while the Democrats need to move to more restrictive immigration policies. Hispanic voters are not different from other voters. They want strong, secure borders and immigration policies that protect American workers’ jobs and wages.”
The poll also asked Latino voters whether they support “policies that increase legal immigration” into America. Results show that 43% said they support policies to increase legal immigration into the U.S., while 46% said they support policies to reduce legal immigration.
In addition to asking Latino voters their views on immigration policies, the survey also asked about their approval rating of the current president.
While 47% of Hispanic voters say they approve or somewhat approve of President Joe Biden, 51% said they either strongly disapprove or somewhat disapprove of the president.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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20 November, 2022
DHS Is Helping TikTok Import Countless Foreign Workers
U.S. government officials and national security experts have raised a number of concerns about the viral video application TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, Inc. Of primary concern is the application’s extensive data harvesting that is reported to be accessible by the Chinese government. The Federal Communications Commission calls TikTok “a sophisticated surveillance tool” that “poses an unacceptable national security risk”, while the U.S. military has banned personnel from using it. Concerns about the cell phone application have been raised by members of Congress across the political spectrum. The question of how TikTok user data is handled, and who has access to that data, is one that has not been fully explored, particularly in the context of U.S. immigration programs.
Publicly available information and additional data obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies confirm that U.S.- based employees of ByteDance include foreign nationals who have obtained employment through the H-1B and Optional Practical Training (OPT) foreign worker programs, both of which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
ByteDance executives say TikTok stores all U.S. user data in Virginia and Singapore and that the TikTok organization in the United States is independent from China. The claim of independence is difficult to square with the fact that citizens of China are working for the company inside the United States. These foreign workers maintain their Chinese citizenship and are to return back to the homeland when their visas expire. According to an analysis by Forbes, as of August 2022, a total of 300 employees of TikTok and ByteDance, including company directors and managers, have worked for Chinese government-controlled news media including Xinhua and China Radio International; the analysis found that some of these employees continue to work with the Chinese government media.
Few concerned about the government of China accessing data of American TikTok users through servers located oversees have considered that a foreign national closely connected to the Chinese government could easily obtain this same data while working for ByteDance in the United States.
For details about the number and nationality of foreign workers, similar national security issues pertaining to Microsoft, and ByteDance influence on Capitol Hill, read the full article, authored by Jon Feere.
https://cis.org/Feere/DHS-Helping-TikTok-Import-Countless-Foreign-Workers
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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18 November, 2022
Border agent dies and two others are 'gravely' injured following a shootout in major drug smuggling corridor off the coast of Puerto Rico
A border agent has died and two others are 'gravely' injured following a shootout off the coast of Puerto Rico early Thursday morning.
Federal officials say a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations unit was on routine control about 14 miles off the coast of Cabo Rojo at around 8am local time, when they were interdicting suspected smugglers.
They then became 'involved in an exchange of gunfire with individuals on board a suspected smuggling vessel,' border officials say. One of the suspected smugglers also died in the shooting.
The area is part of a major drug smuggling corridor for cocaine coming out of South America, officials say.
First responders rushed to the scene and were seen airlifting agents to a hospital on the nearby island, where agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit were waiting, the Washington Examiner reports.
Two of the suspect smugglers were taken into custody. A Puerto Rico news station reports that the suspects are American citizens. During the investigation, authorities seized several bundles of cocaine, firearms and even the boat.
The FBI is now leading the investigation into the shooting, and Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for the San Juan office, told the New York Times the shooting is being investigated as an assault on a federal officer.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spoke about the tragedy in testimony before a Senate committee after learning of the shooting on Thursday, saying other agents on the scene were 'gravely injured.'
'These are brave members of our Air and Marine Operations within U.S. Customs and Border Protection,' he said. 'So the difficulty of this job cannot be compared to the difficulty that our frontline personnel face every day. Their bravery and selfless service should be recognized.'
Air and Marine Operations employs about 1,650 people and is one of the smaller units of CBP, the largest law enforcement agency in the United States that also includes the Border Patrol.
Over the past year, the unit seized 1.1 million pounds of narcotics, $73.1 million in illicit currency, made more than 122,000 arrests and recued 518 people, according to CBP figures.
The tragedy comes as federal officials fear a new surge in illegal US-Mexico border crossings could be imminent, after a federal judge ordered the lifting of a pandemic-era rule which rapidly expelled migrants.
'A federal judge has just ended Title 42 and the Biden Administration has done absolutely nothing to prepare for this outcome,' the National Border Patrol Council, the official union of the agency, recently tweeted. 'If you think things are bad now, just wait for the sh!t show that's coming.'
Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor who now serves as a congressman representing Texas, urged his followers to pray for the Border Patrol. 'Title 42 was just ENDED and a new SURGE of illegals will now head for our southern border,' he said.
'PRAY for our brave Border Patrol agents, it's a SHAME that Biden won't lift a finger to support them. 49 days until we can STOP THE MADNESS in the House Majority!'
Greg Abbott, governor of his state, Texas, said it was a reckless move. 'This will further signal to cartels, human smugglers, & illegal immigrants that the border is wide open - inciting more violence & lawlessness. Disastrous,' he said.
Arizona congressman Andy Biggs also called it a 'grave mistake'. 'An activist judge legislating from the bench just blocked the usage of Title 42 at the border amid a historic crisis,' he said.
'This means millions of illegal aliens (many dangerous) will be allowed entry into the country. This decision is a grave mistake.'
And Marsha Blackburn, senator for Tennessee, said: 'Title 42 preserves our nation's sovereignty. 'Our country has every right to protect that sovereignty, and we must support policies that put our national security first.'
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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17 November, 2022
Migrant ‘explosion’ feared after judge strikes down Title 42 border policy
A federal judge struck down a Trump-era border policy that allowed law enforcement to swiftly expel migrants caught entering the country illegally Tuesday, causing warnings that the already severe humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border was likely to worsen.
The policy, known as Title 42, was implemented at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to remove border crossers, including asylum seekers, for public health reasons without hearing their cases to stay.
Senior US District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that Title 42 was “arbitrary and capricious” and no longer aligns with the current public health conditions in the US.
The Biden administration has previously argued that the state of the pandemic no longer justified the ongoing use of Title 42 — though the White House has contradicted itself by claiming COVID-19 is an ongoing emergency that justifies billions of dollars in student loan forgiveness.
Border Patrol has not yet received guidance on when the program will come to an end, sources told The Post. The agency expects to be notified of the exact end date of the program by Wednesday.
Brandon Judd, the head of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing rank-and-file agents, told The Post that he expects an “explosion” of people trying to enter the country as a result of the ruling.
“All we have to do is look at the Venezuelans. Everybody that we were able to Title 42, we’ve seen a drastic drop in that population [at the border],” Judd said.
“Now that Title 42 goes away, we can expect that the Venezuelan population is going to go way back up there,” he added. “And every other population that we were exercising Title 42 on, we can expect a complete explosion.”
Out of nearly 2.4 million migrants apprehended at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, over 1 million were expelled immediately under Title 42, according to Customs and Border Protection. Asylum seekers subject to Title 42 were not allowed to remain in the US while waiting to plead their case.
Judd claimed that border agents will soon have no choice but to release everybody who crosses the border and doesn’t have a criminal record.
“DHS estimated that if Title 42 goes away, we could be apprehending as many as 500,000 people a month,” Judd told The Post. The current rate is about 220,000 people per month, including more than 230,000 last month.
“Here’s the most frustrating thing about this — everybody knew that Title 42 was on its last breath,” Judd added. “Everybody. The fact that this administration has developed no policies, programs or operations to deal with it once it ended is beyond ridiculous.”
Sullivan’s ruling was in response to action brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a group of asylum-seekers.
“Title 42 was never about public health, and this ruling finally ends the charade of using Title 42 to bar desperate asylum seekers from even getting a hearing,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement.
The fate of Title 42 became a point of contention among Democrats, with more centrist party members arguing for keeping the order in place temporarily and more left-wing advocates urging its immediate repeal.
In May, a Louisiana federal judge blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to end the policy.
Judge Robert Summerhays sided with 24 Republican state attorneys general who warned of a possible surge of migrants across the border that would overwhelm their resources.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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16 November, 2022
DeSantis’ Anti-Illegal Immigration Stance Not an Impediment in Hispanic-Heavy Florida
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) made waves in September when he flew 48 migrants who had been released by DHS after apprehension at the Southwest border to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Although “experts” at the time asserted the incident would cost DeSantis politically, those flights and the governor’s other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration likely bolstered his reelection bid in the Sunshine State, where he cruised to victory on Tuesday.
Martha’s Vineyard. Republican governors in Texas and Arizona had been busing Southwest border migrants to Washington, D.C., for weeks before DeSantis chartered two planes to take about four dozen others — mostly Venezuelan nationals — to the toney Massachusetts beach resort on September 14.
He wasn’t shy about his reasons for doing so. According to ABC News, DeSantis told rally-goers in Wisconsin four days later: “l'll tell you this: The border is now an issue in these elections. ... It's on the ballot, and we got to make the most of it.”
While the governor gained praise from some quarters for his actions, they also gained the attention of federal investigators and the ire of political opponents, who derided the flights as a “stunt”.
DeSantis’ Efforts to Crack Down on Illegal Immigration. Stunt or not, those flights were part-and-parcel of DeSantis’ efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in his state.
He started right out of the gate during his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018, echoing many of then-President Donald Trump’s anti-illegal immigration talking points, running a campaign ad teaching his then-toddler son how to “build the wall”, and depicting his then-primary opponent, former Florida Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam (R), as “Amnesty Adam” for endorsing the June 2013 Schumer-Obama Gang of Eight immigration amnesty.
He has been dogged on the issue since taking office. In June 2019, DeSantis signed a bill barring so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions in his state and requiring such entities to “support and cooperate with federal immigration enforcement”.
In December, the governor introduced a number of proposals to “fight illegal immigration and protect Floridians from the Biden Border Crisis”.
In addition to supporting legislation to strengthen E-Verify enforcement, those proposals included an emergency rule to deny state licenses or license renewals to HHS shelters for unaccompanied alien child (UAC) migrants unless the federal government entered into a “cooperative agreement” under which Florida would be provided with notice before UACs were moved into the state.
In April, DeSantis joined 25 other GOP governors in an “American Governors’ Border Strike Force” to improve intelligence sharing and better position the states to combat drug- and human-smuggling in their jurisdictions.
In June, he used his powers to ask the Florida courts to impanel a grand jury that would examine various immigration-related “crimes and wrongs” residents and local officials there may have engaged in.
The list goes on.
The Election Results. Nonetheless, his pro-border and anti-illegal immigration stance does not appear to have cost DeSantis politically and likely bolstered his support in heavily Hispanic Florida counties.
With 99 percent of the votes counted, DeSantis defeated his Democratic opponent (and former Republican Florida governor) Charlie Crist by more than 19 points, 59.4 percent to 40 percent.
Significantly, DeSantis beat Crist by more than 11 points in Miami-Dade County, where 69 percent of the residents — nearly two million individuals — are Hispanic, many of them Cuban-Americans. As the New York Times explained on November 5, the county was “once a lock for Democrats”, but “not anymore”.
Note that DeSantis lost Miami-Dade in his first gubernatorial run by 21 points, meaning that his win there Tuesday represented a 40-point swing in support.
It’s not just that Cuban enclave, however.
DeSantis also won by more than six points in Osceola County, defeating Crist 52.8 percent to 46.1 percent. Some 56.3 percent of the 400,000-plus residents there identify as Hispanic, and as of 2018, nearly 124,000 of them were Puerto Rican, many of whom fled the island in the wake of the September 2017’s Hurricane Maria. In addition, about 5.6 percent are from South America.
Hardee County, in south-central Florida, has a much smaller population of just over 25,000, and about 44 percent of the residents are Hispanic, with Mexicans as the largest ethnic group. DeSantis captured more than 82 percent of the votes in that county in 2022, compared to just 17 percent for Crist.
There was a similar trend in Hendry County, part of which borders the shores of Lake Okeechobee. Of the more than 40,000 residents in the county, 56.5 percent identify as Hispanic, seven-eighths of them Mexican by ethnicity. DeSantis romped there, winning more than 74 percent of the votes cast, to less than 25 percent for Crist.
Take it from Florida’s voters: Ron DeSantis has shown that “pro-enforcement” does not equal “anti-immigrant”, and also that when the chaos at the Southwest border “is on the ballot”, even foreign-born voters cast ballots against it.
https://cis.org/Arthur/DeSantis-AntiIllegal-Immigration-Stance-Not-Impediment-HispanicHeavy-Florida
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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15 November, 2022
Biden's Border Czar Gets Worst News of His Week
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus was given an ultimatum last week by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: Resign from your position, or be handed your walking papers.
The choice came in the wake of a bombshell report last month from Politico that cited five unnamed sources claiming Magnus had apparently lost interest in protecting the southern U.S. border. The sources reportedly described the CBP head as “disengaged” from his duties, claiming he tended to doze off during important meetings and belittle other government agencies.
Magnus told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that he would not step down from his duties before doing so just a day later.
“I expressed to him that I felt there was no justification for me to resign when I still cared deeply about the work I was doing and felt that that work was focused on the things I was hired to do in the first place,” Magnus told the outlet before submitting his resignation.
However, when Magnus resigned on Saturday and submitted his letter of resignation to the Biden administration, both sides played nice for the camera.
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your Senate confirmed Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection over the past year. It has been a privilege and honor to be part of your administration,” his resignation letter read.
The White House responded in a statement, thanking him for his service as a police chief and the CBP commish.
“The President has accepted the resignation of Christopher Magnus, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. President Biden appreciates Commissioner Magnus’ nearly forty years of service and the contributions he made to police reform during his tenure as police chief in three U.S. cities. The President thanks Mr. Magnus for his service at CBP and wishes him well,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, Fox News reported.
The L.A. Times cited unnamed Biden administration officials who didn’t have much in the way of nice things to say about Magnus and his leadership style. Some sources reportedly claimed that Magnus was simply out of his depth because he wasn’t on the job long enough to learn how the agency worked.
Another official said Magnus skipped important meetings on various immigration topics, all at a time when the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border was spiraling out of control — as it continues to do so currently.
Ron Vitiello, a former Border Patrol chief, told the L.A. Times that the resignation of the CBP commissioner is an unneeded distraction for an agency struggling to conduct its duties properly.
“I’m concerned about the workforce. This is another thing they have on their plate that is unnecessary,” Vitiello said. “This is a distraction that takes away from the hard work they are doing and the crisis they are in.”
Since Magnus was only in his position since last December, he can’t shoulder all the blame for the Biden administration’s poor policy decisions regarding the southern border. Still, it very much appears that Magnus, described by The Times as a “progressive law enforcement leader,” wasn’t all that interested in securing the border.
On Magnus’ watch, the New York Post reported over two million encounters with illegal migrants at the southern U.S. border at the end of the fiscal year, which ended in September. That marked a 37 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.
President Joe Biden’s disastrous border policies, combined with the hiring of people such as Magnus who seemingly don’t care about the issue enough to want to fix it, has led to nothing less than total disaster — a disaster Americans will continue to pay for and suffer from for years to come.
Magnus might be out of the spotlight for now, but don’t be surprised to see him back in the headlines next year if Republicans manage to squeak out a House majority, as Republican leadership has already vowed to launch multiple investigations into the Biden administration, including its handling of the border, CNN reported.
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/bidens-border-czar-runs-tail-legs-got-caught-bad
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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14 November, 2022
Britain's asylum crisis: Housing migrants at a daily cost of £6.8 million to taxpayers
Cities, towns and villages from London to rural Lincolnshire, Wales’s Snowdonia to Devon seaside resorts, are providing emergency rooms, at up to £150 a night per person, for thousands of arrivals needing a roof over their heads in the growing immigration crisis.
It is thought at least 200 hotels have now been taken over by the Government, housing some 37,000 migrants. Approximately a third are marked on this map, including a cluster of 20 in the West Midlands, housing hundreds of migrant guests.
The Mail has discovered that some state-requisitioned hotels, now closed to the visiting public, have given sanctuary to young men earmarked for deportation after slipping into the UK on traffickers’ Channel boats within the past few weeks.
We have interviewed a young Albanian who paid £4,500 for the clandestine journey to Dover from France, and was then sent to Manston processing centre in Kent for initial identity checks.
He was placed on immigration bail — meaning he was liable to be dispatched back to Albania — yet was still given a room at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where he was free to come and go.
He has since walked out of the hotel and is in hiding somewhere in the UK (from where he gave us an interview) despite being a suspected illegal immigrant.
He told us: ‘I arrived on October 25 in Dover. I was sent to a place called Manston processing centre and put with 300 other Albanians in one building.
‘They took my fingerprints. We were surrounded by guards. Thanks to the big scandal about this centre being overcrowded, I was let out without asking anything more about who I was. I was put on a bus with black-tinted windows in the middle of the night and brought to a hotel with other Albanians.
‘If you do not return to the hotel, you are listed as a missing person. That is all. I am no longer there. I am with my relatives in the UK.’
But the lack of security regarding hotel ‘guests’ — as Border Force staff are instructed to call migrants — is not the only issue. In other hotels, some have protested over conditions.
At the Holiday Inn, Colchester, two visitors staged a roof-top protest last week which was recorded on video and went viral online. The men shouted their demands in Urdu — the language of Pakistan — and were brought down to safety by police.
Meanwhile, hotels in the most picturesque parts of the country now have migrant ‘guests’ as MPs complain of a lack of consultation by the Government over the take-overs.
At Snowdonia’s Hilton Garden Inn, which overlooks an ornamental lake, a staff member on the reception desk told the Mail: ‘All reservations and events have been cancelled while we take in refugees. We will open again next February, maybe March.’
Local MP Robin Millar said this week: ‘I am concerned about the impact on local communities and the suitability of this property, in this location, for this purpose. It is a hotel, not a detention centre’.
In Blackpool, where the Illuminations season is bringing thousands of visitors to the Lancashire seaside resort, MP Paul Maynard spoke out in Parliament about the famous Metropole Hotel being requisitioned. He said the promenade site was unsuitable for them or the community as it stood in an area which already had social problems.
Difficulties of a similar kind have emerged in Essex where the four-star Great Hallingbury Manor has been taken over to house 50 male migrants aged under 40 from North Africa, with two staff looking after them, according to locals.
The Tudor-style property has 44 double rooms, 20 in chalets in its wooded grounds near a lake, a picnic area, and barbecue site. A sign on the door states clearly: ‘Our hotel is closed to the public. Apologies for any inconvenience.’
A member of staff reportedly told a visiting journalist: ‘They have the run of the hotel, the bedrooms are very comfortable. There are three meals a day, but some have complained about what is served. They spend their days walking about or playing football.’
Another Home Office-requisitioned hotel causing controversy — at least among disgruntled locals — is The Dolphin Hotel beside the Great Ouse river in St Ives, Cambridgeshire.
It has glorious views of a 15th-century bridge, and there are big-screen TVs for the migrant visitors to enjoy. However, one local — who asked not to be named — said: ‘People used to spend a fortune to stay here or live nearby overlooking the river. It is more like a student halls of residence now.’ Meanwhile, people living near the Holiday Inn Express, Rotherham, have complained about the noise. They say that men housed at the hotel play ‘really loud music all night long’.
Local MP John Healey said the hotel is ‘unsuited’ as accommodation for 130 refugees. He said this is because the area is far from the town centre and there is already a shortage of NHS capacity, adding that using hotels in this way was the result of a failing and unfair asylum system.
Joe Theaker, an HGV driver who lives nearby, called for a curfew as his children cannot sleep.
In Bristol, a group of migrants living at the Holiday Inn near the airport have said they are ‘cut off from shops, people, and asylum seekers’ services’. The 100 young men from Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Somalia, have to take buses into the city for medical or legal appointments.
Living in finer style near Grantham in Lincolnshire are migrants at another four-star hotel, Stoke Rochford Hall. Advertised as a luxury Victorian country mansion, set within formal landscaped gardens, the establishment has been criticised for cancelling weddings while migrants have been given residence. During a parliamentary debate this week after the ‘Downton Abbey-style’ hotel’s use was highlighted by The Mail on Sunday, Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP in the county, said the hotel normally charged £400 a night. He described it as a ‘farce’ compounded by the swift way migrants found themselves in hotel accommodation after arrival.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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13 November, 2022
France accepts 230 "migrants" on board rescue ship after Italy refused to let them in
A rescue ship carrying more than 230 migrants which was refused entry by Italy have safely disembarked and been welcomed into France.
The Ocean Viking, operated by a French NGO, picked up the migrants near the Libyan coast before beginning a weeks long-search at sea to find a port willing to accept them.
The vessel docked at the southern port of Toulon on Friday after Rome denied it access. It promptly left to undergo maintenance at another port before returning to the sea in a few weeks' time to save more migrants in the Mediterranean.
French authorities said the last of the passengers disembarked late on Friday, while four others were evacuated by helicopter earlier this week.
Of the passengers, 189 people, including 23 women and 13 minors, are now living in a holiday camp turned shelter on the Giens Peninsula some 12 miles from the military port where they disembarked.
The area, near the Toulon port, has been designated a special 'international waiting zone' which is not part of French territory. Those staying there will not be allowed to leave the area until their asylum request has been processed.
French authorities have said all the arrivals have expressed the wish to seek asylum. They will now have to undergo security checks before being interviewed by the country's refugee agency OFPRA.
OFPRA representatives were expected to arrive at the area today.
Another 44 unaccompanied minors, mostly 'young teenagers', have been taken into the care of French social services and are not staying at the Giens shelter, according to local official Evence Richard.
Of all passengers, 175 are set to leave France and head to 11 other countries. Germany is set to receive 80 migrants, while Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Romania will also welcome a share.
The vessel initially sought to dock on Italy' coast, which is closest to where the migrants were picked up, stating that health and sanitary conditions onboard were rapidly worsening.
But Italy refused the ship entry, saying that other nations needed to shoulder more of the burden in taking in the thousands of migrants attempting to reach Europe from north Africa every year.
The refusal is part of Giorgia Meloni's new government regime which is allowing only those identified as vulnerable to disembark from four ships docked in the port of Catania.
New Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is targeting non-governmental organizations, which Italy has long accused of encouraging people trafficking in the central Mediterranean Sea. The groups deny the claim.
The new government is insisting the countries whose flags the charity-run ships fly must take in the migrants.
The confrontational stance taken by Meloni's government is reminiscent of the standoffs orchestrated by Matteo Salvini, now Meloni's infrastructure minister in charge of ports, during his brief 2018-2019 stint as interior minister.
In a Facebook video, Salvini repeated his allegations that the presence of the humanitarian boats encourages smugglers.
Nongovernmental organizations reject that claim, saying they are obligated by the law of the sea to rescue people in distress and that coastal nations are obligated to provide a safe port as soon as feasible.
The UN's International Organization for Migration has said that 1,891 migrants have died or disappeared so far this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean in the hope of a better life in Europe.
It comes as migrants hurled stones at French riot police in anger after officers slashed and deflated dinghies being prepared for English Channel crossings earlier today.
Public officers from the French CRS - the general reserve of the French National Police - slashed and deflated at least two of the migrants' rubber dinghies before they could launch in the village of Gravelines near Dunkirk, according to GB News.
Frustrated, migrants began to throw stones and tree branches at the officers, who used the riot control agent CS spray.
The clash is a result of a new police presence across the French coast between Dunkirk and Calais, ahead of an expected announcement of a new channel security deal between the UK and France.
The UK has agreed to pay an extra £60million to help authorities bolster the security presence along the French coast. '
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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11 November, 2022
Biden Admin Gives $41M to Fight Deportation
As the country faces a border crisis, with millions of undocumented immigrants pouring over the southern border this year alone, the Justice Department awarded $41 million in contracts to a nonprofit to help immigrants fight deportation.
The Acacia Center for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit created as a collaboration between Vera Institute of Justice and Capital Area Immigrants' Rights, received six legal services contracts from the DOJ beginning Sept. 1, Fox News reported.
“The objective of the Acacia Center for Justice … is to expand on Vera’s work over the past twenty years in providing legal support and representation to immigrants facing deportation through the development, coordination and management of national networks of legal services providers serving immigrants across the country,” the group's website states.
The Vera Institute, which views immigration enforcement agencies as a “threat” to civil liberties, hauled in a massive $171 million government contract in March to help unaccompanied minors avoid deportation,” Fox News also reported.
Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy Betsy McCaughey pointed out in a recent column in the New York Post that non-profits get federal funds to facilitate illegal activity by supporting border crossings.
“Democratic politicians want to maximize illegal immigration, but they don’t want their fingerprints on it,” she wrote. “The remedy: pay so-called charities that will do the work for them.”
She said migrants still in Mexico are given debit cards — with $800 a month to pay for necessities — distributed by the non-profit Organization for Migration, paid for with funds from the U.S. State Department.
"The money isn’t coming from the Sunday collection basket," McCaughey writes. “Sister Pimentel [executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley] admits her organization is reimbursed by the federal government. It’s coming from taxpayers, who have no clue they’re supporting this operation.”
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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10 November, 2022
Border Patrol Keeps Finding the Fentanyl that Supposedly Only Comes Through the Ports
CBP Media Releases can be informative and entertaining. Like the fact that “certain agricultural items” used in Día de los Muertos celebrations (primarily “greenery and citrus used in the construction of remembrance altars”) can’t be brought into the United States, or the story of the miniature pet pig who “Went Wee Wee Wee All the Way Home” after its owner was stopped from bringing it in at Otay Mesa, Calif. Or the fact that Border Patrol agents are seizing increasing amounts of fentanyl, a uniquely dangerous drug, the “vast majority” of which supposedly only comes through the ports.
Fentanyl. In November, CDC reported that drug overdose deaths in the United States were up 28.5 percent in the 12-month period ending April 2021, to over 100,000.
About 75,000 of those deaths were attributable to opioids, with fentanyl — a synthetic opioid — leading the way. That’s because fentanyl is uniquely deadly — up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
According to the DEA, most of the illicit fentanyl in the U.S. drug market is “manufactured in foreign clandestine labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico”. Which begs the question of how it gets over the border.
Many politicians — particularly Republicans — have linked the fentanyl flowing into the United States to the ongoing chaos at the Southwest border.
In an August NPR/Ipsos poll, respondents were asked whether it was true or false that “Most of the fentanyl entering the U.S. is smuggled in by unauthorized migrants crossing the border illegally”. Some 39 percent of respondents — including 60 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of Independents — asserted that this statement was true. For the record, it probably isn’t.
Still, it was a “gotcha” question in a “gotcha” poll, akin to those “man in the street” interviews that have been a staple of late-night TV for years, in which the host is the font of knowledge and the person being asked the question is a rube.
After presenting the results of its poll, NPR snidely and condescendingly explained that “experts” (unnamed) “say the vast majority of fentanyl and other illegal drugs are smuggled through official ports of entry, hidden in large trucks and passenger vehicles, while a relatively small amount is smuggled by cartels across the border between those ports”.
Who's an expert and what’s a “relatively small amount” of fentanyl are, of course, both subjective. In any event, NPR was channeling its inner Joe Biden, who, while explaining that a “wall” was an unneeded luxury at the Southwest border, proclaimed on the campaign trail in 2020: “Today, illicit drugs are most likely to be smuggled through one of the legal U.S. ports of entry.”
Keep in mind this is the same Joe Biden who, during one of his unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2007, told attendees at an event in Iowa that border fences were necessary, because “you can’t take 100 kilos of cocaine over and under a fence. And, when you have limited places where fences are in populated areas, you force these drug dealers and others around, making it easier to apprehend”.
Consistency is not a virtue in politics, and certain news outlets (like NPR) can have short memories when they want to.
Border Patrol Drug Seizures. Again, as I noted (and yes, I am an “expert” by dint of 30 years of immigration and border experience), “most” drugs come into the United States through the ports of entry in seemingly and otherwise licit commerce or travel. That still raises the question of whether the chaos at the Southwest border is providing an opportunity for cartels and smugglers to bring drugs into the United States.
And the answer to that question is “yes”. But you don’t have to believe me. Rodney Scott, Biden’s first Border Patrol chief, explained in a letter to Senate leaders last September that:
[I]llegal entries are being scripted and controlled by Plaza Bosses that work directly for the transnational criminal organizations (TCO) to create controllable gaps in border security. These gaps are then exploited to easily smuggle contraband, criminals, or even potential terrorists into the U.S. at will. Even when [Border Patrol] detects the illegal entry, agents are spread so thin that they often lack the capability to make a timely interdiction.
“Contraband” can be many things, from miniature pigs to Día de los Muertos altar greenery. TCOs aren’t making big money off those items, however. They make it off drugs.
Still, you can doubt me and former Chief Scott. Which brings me to Border Patrol agents’ recent drug seizures.
On October 20, agents responding to a remote camera hit near the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, at 2:43 a.m. came upon a Mexican national carrying a backpack — the definition of “reasonable suspicion”. The CBP press release explains what happened next:
A search of his backpack revealed 24 packages wrapped in black tape. The subject was transported to the south processing center in Eagle Pass, Texas where a subsequent search of his backpack revealed the packages contained 14.77 pounds (6.7kg) of crystal methamphetamine, 5.56 pounds (2.52kg) of fentanyl pills, 1.08 pounds (0.49kg) of cocaine, and 1.08 pounds (0.49kg) of marijuana.
That likely wasn’t all for personal use, given that 2 mg of fentanyl can be a lethal dose, meaning the 2.52 kg that Mexican national was carrying is enough to kill 1.26 million people.
Then there were the events of September 23, when Border Patrol agents in California’s Jacumba Wilderness region came upon two illegal aliens hiking in the mountainous terrain. Nearby, they discovered “a cylindrical-shaped package tightly sealed with saran wrap and tape”. It contained a half-pound of fentanyl.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Border-Patrol-Keeps-Finding-Fentanyl-Supposedly-Only-Comes-Through-Ports
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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9 November, 2022
New Data: Illegal Population Up Two Million Under Biden
Based on data released just 10 days ago by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the total foreign-born (legal and illegal) population likely stood at 48.4 million in October of this year, by far the largest number in U.S. history. This means the foreign-born population has increased by 3.4 million since January 2021, the month President Biden took office. (The foreign-born population includes all persons who were not U.S. citizens at birth — naturalized citizens, green card holders, long-term temporary visitors, and illegal immigrants). Based on our prior research, we estimate that about two million of this increase is from illegal immigration.
The illegal immigrant population is almost certainly increasing faster now than at any time in U.S. history. This data is important because unlike border apprehension numbers, it measures the likely number of illegal immigrants actually living in the country, which is what will ultimately determine their impact on American society.
How We Know
The employment situation report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last Friday shows 45.9 million immigrants 16 and older (legal and illegal) living in the country in October.
Based on data from prior months, when all of the October data is released, it will show at least 2.5 million immigrants under the age of 16, for a total foreign-born population of 48.4 million — an increase of half a million since last month.
Month-to-month changes in the data are not necessarily meaningful because of sampling variability, but since January 2021, when President Biden took office, the total foreign-born population has grown by about 3.4 million, a very large and statistically significant increase.
Both the Census Bureau, which collects the data, and the BLS, which analyzes it, are clear that illegal immigrants are included in the household survey, officially known as the Current Population Survey (CPS).
Based on our prior analysis we estimate that about 60 percent or about two million of the increase in the foreign-born population is from illegal immigration since January 2021.
Looking at all foreign-born workers (legal and illegal), the number is up 2.1 million from October 2019, before Covid, to October 2022. There is no indication that there are “missing” immigrant workers, as some have suggested.
While a large share of the recent increase in the total foreign-born population is due to illegal immigration, those in the country legally still account for three-fourths of all foreign-born residents.
https://cis.org/Camarota/New-Data-Illegal-Population-Two-Million-Under-Biden
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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8 November, 2022
Listen to the woke BBC and you'd think voters want our borders flung open
If you have listened to the BBC this week, then you might be under the impression that much of the country want to see our borders flung open.
On its flagship Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday, listeners heard an interview with a migrant who had been housed at the Manston processing centre in Kent in which the living conditions were described by the reporter as akin to a ‘prison camp’.
‘We can’t go to the toilet, we can’t take a shower... we don’t have any clothes,’ the man claimed, talking about the suffering he has endured.
There is no doubt that Manston is failing as it faces an overwhelming surge in arrivals. But what was lacking in that Today item was any sense of perspective. No discussion of the impact that the 40,000-odd asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel this year have on our already overstretched resources.
Another BBC politics show this week described the intensifying migrant crisis as a ‘culture war’, as if wanting controlled borders is a confected issue not worthy of serious attention.
Yet the BBC’s virtue signallers have actually got it all wrong. New polling by my firm People Polling shows that 60 per cent of people think the Government has lost control of Britain’s borders. And that the vast majority of Brits also reject the idea that those arriving on small boats should be allowed to stay.
All of this speaks to a deeper point. In 2016, the British people voted resoundingly to Take Back Control of a broken immigration system.
Six years on – and with the daily hotel bill for housing immigrants now topping £6.8million – many will be asking: what, if anything, has changed?
The Establishment has, of course, never forgiven Brexiteers for the result of the referendum, and continues to do its best to thwart an independent Britain. But it is also true that our political class has consistently over-promised and under-delivered.
And the problem is that people won’t put up with it for much longer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when my firm asked voters which leader they think would best manage the crisis on our beaches, the most popular answer was ‘none of them’ followed by Nigel Farage, the former Brexit Party leader who was among the first to highlight the problem many years ago.
This should ring alarm bells in No10. For unless the Prime Minister and his Conservative government get a grip of this crisis, unless they ignore the shrieking media – propped up by the hard-Left on Twitter and the Establishment Blob – and listen to what voters up and down this country really want, the Tories will suffer a wipeout at the next election.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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7 November, 2022
Criminal Albanian drug gangs are taking Britain for a ride
The Mail would like to congratulate the BBC on an excellent investigation into Albanian drug syndicates which are using the migrant camps of northern France as recruiting grounds.
Its journalists found gangs offering to fund the cross-Channel passage of fellow countrymen prepared to help expand their criminal operations in the UK and pay them well once here.
The organisations are also recruiting energetically in Albania itself. The BBC visited one town where 70 per cent of the male population had left for Britain.
This paper has carried out similar investigations. But the fact the penny has finally dropped with the achingly liberal BBC that these people are not genuine refugees is hugely significant.
(Could this strange new realism have anything to do with Deborah Turness, the new BBC News chief brought in from ITV with a brief to tackle institutional Left-wing bias? Let's hope so.)
The simple truth is that vast numbers of those crossing the Channel are either economic migrants or have been enlisted directly to work in the black economy. Yet they are a large part of the reason our asylum system is on the brink of collapse.
Around a third of the 40,000 crossing from France this year were from Albania, a free democratic country hoping to join the EU. That is up from just 50 in 2020.
Labour accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of inflammatory language when she described the influx as an 'invasion'. But everyone knows what she meant.
This country has a proud record of giving sanctuary. New figures showing one in six people living in Britain was born abroad emphasise our kindness to outsiders.
But if the asylum system is to survive, a swifter mechanism must be found for distinguishing those genuinely fleeing persecution from those who are not.
We are spending £6million a day on housing asylum seekers and accommodation is running dry – hence the overcrowding at assessment centres like Manston.
Councils, including some Labour ones, are objecting to having large numbers of migrants placed in local hotels because it risks unbalancing their communities.
New Labour's open door policy and Human Rights Act have made it nigh-on impossible to deport even obviously bogus claimants. That has to change.
Whether it is sending asylum seekers to third countries for processing, or a law change which drastically cuts the time for appeals, the process must be shortened.
There's no sign of the influx abating, and pressure on the NHS, schools and other creaking public services will get even worse.
Rishi Sunak must back his Home Secretary in defying the migration lobby – however much they shriek about alleged cruelty and racism. We've been taken for a ride quite long enough.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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6 November, 2022
Politicians haven’t been honest about immigration to Britain
What’s the most important story in Britain over the last 25 years? The financial crisis? Brexit? These events both changed our country dramatically. But neither has had such a big impact on the make-up of Britain than immigration.
In 1991, Britain’s foreign-born residents made up 6.7 per cent of the population. In 2021, one in six people (16.8 per cent) living in England and Wales were born outside the UK, according to Census data released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. The pace of change is both staggering and accelerating. Some four in ten of that foreign-born population arrived over the last decade. To put this into context, from 1981 to 1990, total net migration of non-UK citizens totalled 445,000. The ONS says that 680,000 foreign-born residents arrived in 2020-21 alone (although this will include those who left the UK, then returned).
This flow has not been evenly distributed across the country; in parts of London like Newham, Harrow, Ealing, and Brent, people born outside the UK now outnumber those born within.
It is a testament to the remarkable tolerance of the British people that the change has taken place without a significant backlash, particularly when considering the delicate point that this was not, in fact, voluntary in the strictest sense of the word. Why? Because this change did not take place with the enthusiastic consent of the electorate. From 2010 to today, the British public have voted to restrict immigration at every opportunity given to them. In 2010, the Conservatives entered Downing Street running on a platform to reduce immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’ annually. They repeated this pledge in 2015 alongside a referendum on EU membership, and won an outright majority. When that referendum was held, Vote Leave won by promising to ‘take back control’ of Britain’s borders. When the time came to implement the vote, the Conservatives stayed in power in 2017, repeating the pledge. Even when they dropped it in 2019, they promised that numbers would come down.
Instead, immigration rose to record highs. To be fair to our politicians, it is true that if they simply let the public tell them what to do in each and every area of policy, we would have an even more dysfunctional and inconsistent mess than we already do. People want to pay less tax, have more public services, have less immigration, work less, have higher pensions, a larger army and a smaller state which is also larger. This is not surprising; it is a mathematical fact that it is essentially impossible to be both consistent and democratic.
This is, in part, why countries tend to settle on representative rather than direct democracy; the trade-offs between priorities must be evaluated, and decisions made. Your representative is not a delegate; they owe you their judgement, rather than being bound by your instructions. And their judgement has tended to be that more immigration pays for pensions, rents, and makes it easier to avoid the difficult structural questions about just why the UK economy is performing so poorly. It is substantially easier for politicians to turn the immigration tap on than to address falling rates of family formation.
For all that Britain does not live in the United States, we are starting to speed-run the Americanisation of British demography and politics; you can vote for whatever you want, but what you will get is high immigration and the country as an idea, where what matters is ‘British values’. That these values – ‘fairness, tolerance, respect’ – are not really any more British than they are Canadian or European is not the point.
Immigration has obviously brought the country benefits. It is also dishonest to pretend that it has presented no costs. As with anything else, there is a credit column and a debit column. In the view of our representatives in Parliament, the benefits have exceeded the costs. They may be right about this, but they have made little effort to persuade the public. Instead, the Conservative party has attempted to both have its cake and eat it, promising restriction while practising liberalisation. Our MPs may owe us their best judgement, but they also owe us honesty. On this, they have failed miserably.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/11/politicians-havent-been-honest-about-immigration-to-britain
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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4 November, 2022
Biden's Migrant Policy Worsens Central America's Problems
When Vice President Emptyhead visited Mexico last year, she cited poverty, crime, and political instability as "root causes” driving millions of migrants to cross the U.S. border.
But some critics with regional expertise say Biden administration policies, which migrants have interpreted as an invitation to travel north, have severely worsened those root causes, destabilizing large swaths of Central America and Mexico. The torrent of people moving across the region has delivered billions of dollars to the coffers of human smuggling rings and the drug cartels that have taken advantage of America’s overwhelmed border patrol to deliver fentanyl and other deadly substances to the United States.
Criminal organizations, these experts say, have stoked rampant corruption, especially in Mexico, as they pay bribes to police and other local officials to ease passage of their cargo. The migrants themselves are prey to gangster elements that, according to one account, leaves more than two-thirds of them victims of crime and nearly one-third of the women subjected to sexual assaults.
“Mexico is probably one of the most dangerous places for the transit of migrants,” said Dr. Juan Luis Hernandez Avendano, rector of the Ibero-American University of Torreon-Monterrey-Saltillo, who has been an outspoken critic of the surging corruption in his country.
“And despite this, the routes to enter the United States continue to be fed not only by Central Americans, but increasingly by Caribbeans, and according to reports from the Jesuit Migrant Service, more Asians and Africans,” Avendano told RealClearInvestigations. “In effect, we are experiencing a humanitarian crisis, since they are not only extorted by the cartels, but also subjected to labor and sexual slavery. It has gotten worse because Venezuelan migration has joined” the human tide.
Avendano has been sharply critical of the situation for years, going so far this year as to declare swaths of Mexico “failed states” for the inability of authorities to protect native Mexicans and illegal immigrants, and the increasing corruption and unreliability of federal forces and local authorities.
AP
Vice President Kamala Harris, in Guatemala a year ago June, on a tour of the region when she vowed to address "root causes" of the United States' immigration problem.
AP
While much attention in the United States has focused on the problem caused by migrants at the border, Avendano is part of a growing chorus of people who say the Biden administration’s policies are exacerbating problems to the south. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The illegal immigration surge shows no signs of abating, although on Oct. 12 the administration quietly reinstituted so-called Title 42 measures that have blocked entrance for many Venezuelans. Another monthly record for encounters was shattered in September, according to figures released by the Department of Homeland Security, and the 227,000 total for that month was 11% higher than the figure for August.?
Encounters with illegal immigrants are up 37% in 2022 from 2021, and to date more than 3 million have crossed into the U.S. since Biden’s inauguration. To put that number in perspective, the total number of illegal immigrants under Biden would top Chicago’s population to become the 3rd largest city in the U.S. The border crossers would constitute the union’s 34th largest state, exceeding the population of Mississippi and nearly equaling that of Arkansas.
Although the administration has claimed that the border is secure and that it has told migrants not to come to America, it has instituted many policies they see as welcoming. This began on President Biden’s first day in office, when he declared that no one would be deported for 100 days.
These policies have helped empower criminal elements. The fees paid to smugglers by this human flood have put an additional $2.6 billion into Mexican criminal cartel coffers in the past 12 months, according to an October analysis by the Washington Times. The profits have risen along with the price, as immigrants now pay roughly $8,600 in smuggling fees if they start their odyssey in Mexico, while those starting farther south can pay $11,500 or more. And those figures do not include transportation fees or bribes immigrants must pay to cross various borders across the Central American isthmus.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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3 November, 2022
Canada wants 1.45 million more immigrants to fill labor gap
Canada is setting record immigration goals to bring in 1.45 million immigrants by 2025 to help plug labor shortages.
“Look, folks, it’s simple to me. Canada needs more people,” Sean Fraser, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, told a news conference Tuesday. The government is looking to boost a labor market that left nearly a million job vacancies in the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, he said.
The new immigration plan aims to take in 465,000 people in 2023, rising to 500,000 in 2025. The Canadian immigration department says it admitted 405,000 newcomers last year, which was “the most we’ve ever welcomed in a single year.”
“We’re building on that and setting higher targets in the years ahead, because immigration is critical to growing our economy and helping businesses find the workers they need,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.
The rhetoric from Canada stands in contrast with many at the top of government in other Western countries, where officials have talked up curbing immigration and cast migrants as an economic burden.
Canada has long adopted an approach of attracting immigrants to offset the impact of low birthrates and an aging population, and it has reshaped some policies to overcome pandemic-related disruptions to movement and migration. “Canadians understand the need to continue to grow our population if we’re going to meet the needs of the labor force, if we’re going to rebalance a worrying demographic trend, and if we’re going to continue to reunite families,” Fraser said.
The country has about three workers for every retired citizen, Fraser said, describing the targets as unprecedented for economic migration. “We need more workers in every sector in every region of the country, regardless of whether it’s front-line health-care workers, truck drivers, home builders or software engineers,” he said
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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2 November, 2022
Biden’s border bungling now risks a tragic blowup
As a group of mostly Venezuelan migrants charged the US border near El Paso on Monday, Border Patrol agents had no choice but to fire rubber bullets, pepperball rounds and other nonlethal crowd-control ammo. Make no mistake, this is entirely on President Biden — and it’s likely to get worse.
It’s Biden who hung out the “come on in” sign as he became president, and who left it up for nearly two years despite the record rise in illegal migrants it produced.
Until he belatedly realized it was political poison in the runup to the midterm elections, and opted to shut down one single stream of the tide — namely, the Venezuelans largely entering through El Paso, who were being bused to New York City, the nation’s media capital.
After a few weeks of rough national coverage, Team Biden opted to apply Title 42 (a rule it had been trying to completely eliminate) to justify sending all Venezuelans back — even though, more than most so-called “asylum seekers,” they had a legitimate claim to be fleeing oppression back home.
Yet they’ve only been pushed back across to Juárez, where many linger and make repeated attempts to re-cross — watching other migrants continue to get waved through. On Monday, the anger boiled over and the rush began.
Why would they give up now? Most spent all their resources getting that far, and more are on their way. Future, better-organized efforts seem inevitable, with a mass breach possible — and more violence.
But will even that stop Biden & Co. from insisting the border is “under control”?
https://nypost.com/2022/11/01/bidens-border-bungling-now-risks-a-tragic-blowup/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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1 November, 2022
Greece: Dozens missing after boat carrying migrants sinks
Greek authorities have launched a major search and rescue operation for dozens of migrants missing after a boat they were traveling on from Turkey overturned and sank in rough weather overnight between the islands of Evia and Andros.
The coast guard said Tuesday that nine people, all men, had been found on an uninhabited rocky islet in the Kafirea Straits between the two islands, which lie east of the Greek capital. The survivors, who were picked up by a coast guard patrol boat, told authorities there had been a total of about 68 people on board the sailing boat when it sank, and that they had initially set sail from Izmir on the Turkish coast.
Authorities were initially alerted by a distress call in the early hours of Tuesday from passengers saying the boat they were on was in trouble, but they did not provide a location. Weather in the area was particularly rough, with gale force winds. The coast guard said a helicopter, a coast guard patrol boat and two nearby ships were participating in the search and rescue operation.
A separate search and rescue operation was also ongoing since Monday off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Samos for eight people reported missing after an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants overturned. Four survivors were rescued Monday from that incident. A coast guard aircraft and patrol boat, two nearby ships and a vessel from the European border patrol agency Frontex were participating in the search, authorities said.
Thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East attempt to enter the European Union through Greece each year. Most make the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies. Others opt to attempt to circumvent Greece in overcrowded sailboats and yachts heading straight to Italy.
Earlier this month, at least 27 people drowned in two separate incidents. In one, 18 people died when a boat that had set sail from Turkey sank off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos, while in the other, a yacht carrying about 100 people sank in a gale, killing at least nine and leaving six missing.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/01/greece-dozens-missing-after-boat-carrying-migrants-sinks/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.
The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:
1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.
2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.
3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.
4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.
5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: You usually CAN buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.
6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.
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