Category: Immigration

Congressman Mike Johnson is not only a rising star in the U.S. Republican Party, but he has also made himself a stalwart in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a Constitutional expert, he has a different perspective than do many of us who sometimes make rash decisions about matters that directly and indirectly impact us.

There’s no question that the debacle playing out at our Southern Borders has impacted all Americans already. But we have no real idea of where this is all headed. It’s already steeped in egregious wrongdoings that unimaginable at this point in our nation’s history. It’s bad — really bad. How bad is it?

We turn to Congressman Johnson who joined us live yesterday morning to give us firsthand facts about what’s happening on the border. This audio segment is nine minutes long.

Enjoy!

Click on the hyperlink to listen to Congressman Mike Johnson (R-LA) breakdown the “Biden Southern Border Crisis:”    Mike Johnson 3:22:2021 Southern Border

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asserts it is “extraordinarily disrespectful” to ask him about American victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens.

During a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) asked Mayorkas about illegal alien crime victims.

According to DHS status indicators, over 336,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and February 28, 2021, of which over 229,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS. Secretary Mayorkas cannot be “disrespected” for being asked to respond to that?

Between June 1, 2011 and February 28, 2021, these 229,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 378,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 685 homicide charges; 43,084 assault charges; 7,012 burglary charges; 45,849 drug charges; 596 kidnapping charges; 18,736 theft charges; 29,064 obstructing police charges; 2,058 robbery charges; 4,545 sexual assault charges; 5,692 sexual offense charges; and 3,913 weapon charges.  DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 144,000 convictions including 301 homicide convictions; 16,976 assault convictions; 3,726 burglary convictions; 20,819 drug convictions; 226 kidnapping convictions; 8,029 theft convictions; 13,043 obstructing police convictions; 1,219 robbery convictions; 2,159 sexual assault convictions; 2,756 sexual offense convictions; and 1,529 weapon convictions.

These figures only count individuals who previously had an encounter with DHS that resulted in their fingerprints being entered into the DHS IDENT database. Foreign nationals who enter the country illegally and avoid detection by DHS, but are later arrested by local or state law enforcement for a state offense will not have a DHS response in regard to their lawful status and do not appear in these counts. However, in addition to the PEP program, DHS actively adjudicates the immigration status of individuals incarcerated in the Texas prison system. From 2011 to date, the Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has provided DPS with information on more than 29,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,444 of these individuals were not identified through the PEP program at the time of their arrest. DPS does not know the current incarceration status of the individuals identified while they were incarcerated nor when their alien status was initially determined.

During a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, Mayorkas fielded questions about the number of border crossers released into the U.S. interior since the start of the Biden administration and how many have tested positive for coronavirus.

Mayorkas, though, did not divulge any data and instead told lawmakers he would follow up to get them the numbers. To date, DHS officials have refused to disclose the number of border crossers the agency has released into the U.S. interior, though sources have put the total well into the thousands.

In one exchange, Mayorkas admitted DHS had been releasing border crossers without testing them for coronavirus, confirming previous reports. Subsequently, small towns like Brownsville, Texas along the southern border have had to test the border crossers at their own expense.

“There were instances in which individuals were released,” Mayorkas said. “You mentioned Brownsville and that is an example of that.”

Earlier this month, reports circulated that DHS was releasing border crossers who then tested positive for coronavirus and, still, were not required to quarantine. Instead, many of the border crossers continued traveling throughout the U.S. while carrying the virus.

Now, Mayorkas claims DHS is testing border crossers for coronavirus “as needed.” Previously, DHS officials said only migrants enrolled in the now-defunct Remain in Mexico program were required to test negative for coronavirus before their release.

Regardless of coronavirus testing, Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to President Joe Biden’s restart of the Catch and Release program by ending Remain in Mexico and cooperative asylum agreements with Central America. The latest Harvard/Harris Poll found that almost 7-in-10 U.S. voters said border crossers should be returned to Mexico.

The admission comes as sources have told Breitbart News that Mayorkas, along with other top DHS officials, are advocating to stop applying to migrant families the Center for Disease Control’s Title 42 order that has prevented thousands of border crossers from being released into the U.S. interior.

The latest DHS data reveals that since October 2020, nearly 327,000 border crossers have been expelled at the southern border thanks to Title 42. In February, alone, more than 72,000 border crossers were expelled under its authority.

Federal immigration officials apprehended almost 100,000 border crossers in February, an increase of 170 percent compared to the same time last year. The total number of illegal aliens who successfully crossed the border, undetected, since October 2020 has surpassed 118,000, Breitbart News exclusively reported.

Summary

Here’s what makes me ill: the persistent answer anytime anyone asks, “Why is there such a rush to allow millions of immigrants into our nation bypassing our immigration system?” The answer: “We’re the most caring nation on Earth. We are obligated to open our doors to those from these countries who live in deplorable conditions in their own nations. They need our help and they need it immediately!”

Really? I don’t question that things are much better here than pretty much EVERY other country, not just those in Central America. But they’re NOT in emergency conditions. They’re no wars, no genocide, and no purging of ethnic or religious people in those countries. And America and Americans cannot fund everything for them. Everyone wants to do better.

My brother wrote a country song years ago titled “Anything Worth Having is Worth Hurting For.” Honestly, the American dream actually IS that song title. “Opportunity” is the American dream, not “permanent handouts.”

The “Answer”

There can only be ONE explanation for what is happening: President Biden and all other open border proponents do not care for the Rule of Law. And they feel that so strongly that they push perpetually a dismissal of ALL of our immigration laws.

Question: Isn’t the Constitutional process put in place for just such dilemmas a perfect solution for this quandary? Who made those laws? The U.S. Congress. Who legally can and is supposed to change, delete, or pass new laws? The U.S. Congress.

Why don’t they just follow the law?

The answer to that question is proof that of their own selfish purpose: to perpetuate their project to make ALL people in this country totally dependent on the federal government. They CANNOT accomplish that in the current mix of the American populace. They need people/citizens who are NOT committed to the Rule of Law.

They need “Sheeple.” And illegal immigrants are the perfect candidates for that role. This Administration has shown us all that illegal immigrants are more important than American citizens. And Americans’ rights are expendable.

To Download Today’s (Friday, March 19, 2021) “TNN Live Show,” click on this link:

No matter what the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas says, the mess at our southern border, especially Texas, is a crisis. It’s not a “challenge” as has been the talking-point of Biden White House Media Director Jen Psaki. It’s a true “humanitarian” crisis.

Americans thought that during the latter days of the Trump Administration, illegal immigration was under control. If one listens to the leaders in the Biden Administration, nothing could be further from the truth. That was the excuse for President Biden to overturn each Trump executive order on his first day as President, having to do with illegal immigration. That included the agreement between the Mexican government and the U.S. for Mexico to hold ALL illegals coming to the southern U.S. border seeking asylum. This operation, when initiated, went a long way toward stopping illegal immigration for two reasons. First, illegals who made that trek across Mexico were discouraged, knowing that they would be stopped and held in Mexico pending asylum eligibility when reaching our border. Secondly, the termination of Obama’s “Catch and Release” action released all illegals after only a promise they would return for court hearings on their asylum claim. 90%+ of such asylum claims are being denied several years later when those cases finally come before an immigration judge.

The dangers of that “Catch and Release” program are monumental, especially today. COVID-19 is now embedded in our nation but, not just ours, but all of those Central American countries plus Mexico. From each of these countries, these illegals are bringing COVID-19 with them to the U.S.! Those new variants of COVID-19 are prevalent in Central and South America, and American officials are desperate to keep them out of our country.

The Biden Administration has NO COVID testing program in place to know which migrants are infected. Now that tens of thousands are coming in each month under Biden’s policies, it is known that numerous of those have COVID-19. But a majority are not tested, therefore having an infection status unknown. And DHS/ICE are instructed to put them on busses and airplanes to ship them to towns and cities across America without knowing their physical conditions — especially COVID-19 status. Even worse, it is known that numerous of those coming have felony criminal records in their home countries, are involved in human trafficking and even child sex trafficking. “Catch and Release” puts them on our American streets with little or no information about them and with no idea if they’re murderers, sex predators, or drug cartel members, or just good people fleeing desperate situations in their home countries.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lashed out at President Biden’s administration on Wednesday over this surge in migrant arrivals on his state’s southern border. Abbott delivered his remarks at a press conference in Dallas, across the street from the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center, where the federal government plans to house 3,000 unaccompanied immigrant teens.

“These sites are a direct result of President Biden’s reckless open-border policies that are causing a surge in border crossings and cartel activity,” Abbott told reporters. “The Biden administration must also answer for enticing unaccompanied minors into inhumane conditions that expose these children to traffickers, to abuse, and terror,” he added.

In recent weeks, Texas politicians, including many Republicans, have claimed that the Biden administration’s policies create an unprecedented crisis on the U.S./Mexico border. The governor prompted backlash after blaming migrants for spreading COVID-19 the same week he lifted statewide coronavirus restrictions, including a mask mandate. Earlier this month, Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, which a press release at the time said “integrates DPS with the Texas National Guard” and includes operations aimed at targeting Mexican drug cartels, smugglers, and others crossing the border.

On Wednesday, the governor said he was “expanding the scope of Operation Lone Star to crack down on human trafficking,” explaining that the Texas Department of Public Safety will work with several agencies to focus on trafficking and continue to “apprehend unaccompanied minors” who cross the border. “Today, I am directly asking the Biden administration to allow the Texas Department of Public Safety to access this facility across the street at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Center as well as the other federally run centers in Texas, to be able to talk to these unaccompanied minors,” he said.

“Texas is willing to step up and help out, but this is the Biden administration’s responsibility,” the governor said. “In part, immigration is always a federal responsibility. In part, it’s the policies that have been adopted by the Biden administration that escalated the number of children coming across the border.”

Meanwhile, Texas Republicans have doubled down in their criticism of the Biden administration’s approach to the border. In El Paso on Monday, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said, “There’s no other way to claim it than a Biden border crisis.”

Why Don’t Border States Takeover Border Security?

One would think that having 50 individual states, each state would have Constitutional jurisdictions retained, but with federal authorization to protect their individual borders. That seems logical. But, of course, it makes TOO MUCH sense to allow it to happen. Why?

Many, but not all, state laws addressing immigration are preempted by federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government has broad and exclusive power to regulate immigration, preempting state and local laws that also attempt to do so. In this context, state regulation of immigration means a state law or local ordinance that decides who should or should not be admitted into the country and the conditions under which a legal entrant may remain. State laws that in context affect immigration, such as employment licensing laws that can be revoked for violations of federal immigration laws, are specifically permissible.

There is no bright-line test for determining when states can validly act in the immigration arena; litigants must seek court rulings on a case-by-case basis. This has resulted in substantial uncertainty and significant inconsistencies in court approaches to these questions.

Preemption of State Laws Regulating Immigration

The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution invalidates (preempts) state laws that interfere with or are contrary to federal law (Article VI, Cl. 2). Concerning immigration-related matters, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that:

the regulation of aliens is so intimately blended and intertwined with responsibilities of the national government that where it acts, and the state also acts on the same subject, the act of Congress or treaty is supreme; and the law of the state, though enacted in the exercise of powers not controverted, must yield to it. And where the federal government, in the exercise of its superior authority in this field, has enacted a complete scheme of regulation. States cannot, inconsistently with Congress’s purpose, conflict or interfere with, curtail or complement the federal law, or enforce additional or auxiliary regulations. (Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52 (1941)).

Permissible State Immigration Actions

State and Local Employment Licensing Laws

Federal immigration law expressly allows states and localities to independently regulate illegal aliens’ employment through licensing and similar laws. Its legislative history notes that the statute’s reference to “licensing” includes “lawful state or local processes concerning the suspension, revocation or refusal to reissue a license to any person who has been found to have violated the sanctions provisions” of the federal law, or “licensing or ‘fitness to do business laws,’ such as state farm labor contractor or forestry laws, which specifically require such licensee or contractor to refrain from hiring, recruiting, or referring undocumented workers” (H.R. Rep. 99-682, 1986 USCCAN 5649, 5662).

Enforcing Federal Immigration Laws

It is also generally recognized that states and localities may enforce the criminal provisions of the Immigration and Nationalities Act (8 USC § 1101, et seq.). For example, Section 1252(c) allows state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain aliens illegally in the United States who have prior felony convictions. And under § 287(g) of that law, the U.S. Attorney General is permitted to enter agreements with states and localities to permit their law enforcement officers to perform additional duties relating to immigration law enforcement.

State and local enforcement efforts cannot impose new or additional penalties upon criminal immigration law violators.

Denying Access to Federal Public Benefit Programs

States that administer federal public benefits programs are permitted to follow federal rules for determining and verifying an applicant’s citizenship/alienage status if that is a criterion for eligibility. Connecticut’s attorney general recently ruled that while this rule is applicable to the DHS’s administration of the federal Low Income House Energy Assistance Program, it is inapplicable to the community action agencies to whom the department had delegated its administrative functions. The agencies are not permitted to verify citizenship status (Attorney General Formal Opinion 2007-20).

Denying Access to State Public Benefit Programs

It appears that states can also limit access to state public benefits programs to people who are deemed “qualified aliens” under federal public benefit program laws. But laws and regulations targeting “illegal aliens,” which is not defined in federal law, may be preempted because they require state officials to make independent assessments of the legality of an applicant’s presence in the United States (See generally, Feder and Gentile: Legal Analysis of Proposed City of Hazleton Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance (Congressional Research Service, July 29, 2006)).

Summary

So what can Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California do specifically to control illegal immigration through Mexico at their southern borders? Their hands are tied! Basically, it boils down to allowing federal authorities to regulate their borders as federal laws require. States have no say-so over any of those operations. However, once any number of these illegals are released into the general populations in these states, each of those four states has almost sole control of those illegals’ actions according to states’ individual laws. And lawful interdictions must be included in those regulations listed above.

However, we all know the Biden Administration has NO intention of doing this job the right way. Heck, they failed on that the moment Joe Biden signed those NEW immigration executive orders that undid the PREVIOUS Trump orders that had brought the southern border chaos into Border Patrol, ICE, and U.S. Customs under control.

There’s really only one thing that can be done now: Enforce existing immigration laws!

Isn’t it ridiculous that we even have to say that? Every member of Congress, every U.S.-appointed Biden Administration federal worker, and President Biden and VP Harris each took an oath to “defend and protect” the U.S. Constitution and each of its provisions. Not doing so is a violation of their oaths of office.

Biden has NO plan or intention to do that. Even while still in the U.S. Senate, he made no real intent to lead in the amendment of existing immigration laws, some of which are still today claimed to be outrageous, unfair, and egregious. During his eight years as Obama’s Vice President, they should have easily found ways to correct any of those laws that needed correction — especially those two years in which Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. But they didn’t even try.

What can BE done? Short of changing existing federal immigration laws, deleting others, and/or passing new laws, it’s doubtful that anything else WILL be done. As a matter of fact, Democrats like the current situation. Why? The more illegals that show-up in our nation, the more certain Democrats are that eventually, these illegals will be given U.S. citizenship. Democrats are certain that when that happens, Dems will control those votes. And with those immigrants voting support, there will no longer be a need for a two-party political system.

Democrats will be able to amend the Constitution, eliminate the election system, and permanently control the entire federal government.

So much for “government of, by, and for the People.”

“Symbolism over Substance” is a phrase you’ve heard and seen us use here numerous times. It best summarizes the hypocrisy we so often see from those on the Left, especially when it comes to immigration.

The primary policy for which Donald Trump was elected President was the one in which he guaranteed the closing of the southern border to illegal immigrants, sealing the border, and the prosecution of immigration law offenders. He’s done as much of the portions of that promise he was able to do on his own. The rest is totally dependent on the U.S. Congress. Who knows what they’ll do, but they haven’t done anything towards stopping illegal crossings.

The “poster child” of politicians from border states is the governor of New Mexico. And she’s stepped in it. Her doing so illustrates the hypocrisy of the elitist politicians that were emboldened by the former inhabitant of the White House who legitimized governing using political elitism and ignoring the rule of law.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham got busted: on her own!

The “Story”

While there’s little debate over the nature of President Donald Trump’s intense focus on border security and illegal immigration, what is up for question — at least among the Left — are the details of what, exactly, is going on along our nation’s southern border.

Some Democrats seem incapable of even agreeing that there is an ongoing crisis at the southern border.

And even if they do admit there is a state of crisis, it nevertheless remains up for debate whether that crisis is of the humanitarian or national security variety, much less how best to address it.

Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham initially denied there was even a hint of a national security crisis at the border, though it appears she may have changed her tune. Now, she’s asking the federal government for help in dealing with illegal immigrants.

It’s a remarkable shift, especially given that in February, Lujan Grisham dismissed Trump’s repeated claims of a national security crisis at the border. She even went so far as to order National Guard troops from both her state and others to withdraw from the border region, suggesting their presence was an unnecessary “charade” and only the result of the president’s “fear-mongering” about the border.

“I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the Southern border,” she said at the time, according to NPR, characterizing the border region in her state as having “some of the safest communities in the country.”

Lujan Grisham proceeded to order the withdrawal of about 100 National Guard troops that had been deployed to the southern border in her state at Trump’s request to provide desperately needed logistical and other assistance to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

The few National Guard troops that remained in the border region were relegated to just lending a humanitarian hand to the hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal immigrants who had entered her state illegally and were residing in — and overrunning — New Mexico’s small towns in the area.

Fast-forward a little more than three months, and the governor was reported to have recently traveled to Washington, D.C., for an in-person meeting with Kevin McAleenan, acting director of the Department of Homeland Security.

A spokesperson from the governor’s office reported that Lujan Grisham’s visit with McAleenan, which followed weeks of back-and-forth phone calls, involved a discussion of the ongoing situation at New Mexico’s southern border.

The discussion included a request from Lujan Grisham for federal reimbursement for state money spent providing humanitarian assistance to illegal aliens. She also reportedly requested the deployment of additional resources and federal staffing in the region to help address the border situation.

“The governor wants to continue to urge the federal government to increase its personnel on the border as a means of improving the logistical and communications output,” the Lujan Grisham spokesperson, Tripp Stelnicki said.

Now it’s not exactly clear what specific sorts of personnel and resources Lujan Grisham is asking for, and her office did not respond to a request for comment.

That being said, her request for additional federal resources is somewhat ironic in light of her dismissal of Trump’s characterization of the crisis and her removal of National Guard troops just a few months ago.

Steve Pearce, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, summed it up this way:

“She declares there’s no crisis. She removes the National Guard, and now she’s there asking for money,” he said.

“Everything in her actions indicate that she believes there’s a crisis, but yet she will not dedicate the resources or request to her colleagues in Congress to start passing the laws that will change the situation there,” he continued.

The biggest problem for the small New Mexican towns in the border region, if not across the whole state, is that residents and local officials in those towns have no idea how many illegal immigrants have entered their jurisdictions or who exactly those border-crossers are.

Nor is it clear how long they will stay, how much assistance they will require or how many more will soon join them.

This liberal governor trashed the president, dismissed the crisis at the border and further weakened the already weak border security situation via her withdrawal of National Guard troops. Now she wants federal taxpayers to reimburse her state, which is some rather delicious irony icing on her hypocrisy cake.

Summary

My father said this quite often: “Give them enough rope they’ll hang themselves.” I wasn’t certain at the time exactly who and what actions he was referring to. I learned later that it really didn’t matter. People — especially politicians — have become so accustomed to just “going with the flow” of the crowd that they often discover their doing so was a big mistake. Such is the case for Governor Grisham.

Don’t you know when all this happened she was glad to be New Mexico’s governor and not the governor of some big coastal state? There’s not much national press coverage of New Mexico that would have really embarrassed her. Getting busted and having to reach out to the Trump Administration for help is bad enough.

Yep, “Symbolism over Substance” was front and center in New Mexico. Governor Grisham just showed everyone how silly one looks when pontificating about facts that aren’t facts.

What did that great philosopher Forrest Gump have to say about this stuff? “Stupid is as Stupid Does.”

Sometimes others simply know more than we do. But that’s a hard pill to swallow — for Forrest and even for some governors.