And So Goes the Crisis on the Southern Border****UPDATED 8 AUGUST 2024

hm1996

Moderator
Staff member
Recently, in a thread discussing the benefits of the border wall, the theory was raised to the effect that most illegals were coming into the US at established "Ports of Entry", not crossing the Rio between such, therefore, the wall was not effective in stemming the tide of illegals.

Well, what say you now? Biden's first executive order stopped wall construction, and most of President Trump's immigration policies were also reversed, including limiting deportation to known criminals & gang members, and you know what happened to illegal immigration numbers immediately.

It is pretty well established that the Mexican Cartels have taken over the human trafficking business, charging up to $6000 a head to cross each illegal, and they are not crossing bridges.

A retired CBP supervisor was interviewed on an RGV radio station today who said that the cartels have even begun to vet the unaccompanied minors over 16 to be sure they are not gang members or convicted felons before attaching them to "family units" to avoid the deportation of said "family unit". Those found to have criminal record or to be gang members are smuggled across separately.
 
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Yeah the UN wants to flood the US with millions of aliens, human smuggling, drug trafficking, to shack them up, get them on the doal, and let them participate in our elections. Historically these third world savages and morons vote for communism. The free s%$% army. The FSA.

Where were the Rs during the first two years of the Trump presidency when they controlled the house and senate????.....they were too busy stonwalling President Trump when instead they could have been taking steps to protect our borders....Now, all these RINOs are down on the border and all over FAUX news acting and pretending like they care...Give me a break...

Rino's are phonies and need to be primaried. Everyone of them that has been in government for decades sitting by idle while this situation has been allowed to metastasize to this point. They did nothing when they had the votes to do what we elected them to do. Not to mention they did nothing about the massive voter fraud cover up last election. Even FAUX news was on the "orange man bad" bent last election.


Texas needs to tell the federals to go pack fudge, take over control, and secure the border from this invaision.









 
Nullification, in United States constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal laws which that state has deemed unconstitutional with respect to the United States Constitution.

I belive this is what the states are going to have to do. NULLIFICATION

Some states used this (Nullification) back during the civil war to not send back slaves that had escaped,which was the US goverments law at the time....

Passed on September 18, 1850 by Congress, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves..
 
Illegal Border Crossings Jump to 150,000 in March

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
March 30, 2021 Updated: March 31, 2021

MISSION, Texas—U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 150,000 illegal border-crossers during the month of March—50,000 more than February—according to former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan.

A further 30,000 evaded capture, according to Morgan, who has received the provisional CBP numbers from internal sources.

The March total edges out the highest month in 2019, during the most recent border crisis. In May 2019, Border Patrol apprehended 144,000 people between ports of entry.

“The border is wide open. … It’s not secure. Drugs are pouring in, and criminal aliens are pouring in right now,” Morgan said during a press conference along the Rio Grande on March 30.

In his first press conference since taking office, President Joe Biden on March 25 said his focus is to “rebuild the system that can accommodate the—what is happening today.”

The administration has opened several holding facilities for illegal immigrants, particularly to accommodate the increase in children crossing alone. The San Diego Convention Center is currently holding 500 children, while another 500 were sent to a site at the Fort Bliss military base in Texas on March 30.

In total, more than 12,000 children are being held by CBP and Health and Human Services.

When asked about the spike in illegal crossings, Biden said: “I’d like to think it’s because I’m a nice guy, but it’s not. It’s because of what’s happened every year.”

However, Morgan said the current surge can’t be explained away as a normal seasonal uptick.

“They created this crisis, and they’re trying to spin and blame everybody but themselves,” Morgan said. “The only thing that’s really been put out there that’s honest is that we’re going to see numbers that we haven’t seen in over 20 years.”

In a media call on March 26, a senior Border Patrol official said that 85 percent of the 2,200 individuals within family units who were apprehended the day prior were released into the United States. The official said that if a parent brings a child under the age of 7, they are automatically released into the interior rather than being expelled under the Title 42 health emergency provision.

Morgan said CBP had provided “exhaustive briefings” to Biden’s transition team to warn them of an “unmitigated crisis” if Biden ended the Migrant Protection Protocol program and the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

“We told them that again and again. We told them that the surge numbers would skyrocket and the Border Patrol facilities would be overwhelmed.”

Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_mornin...345af51b7d738f6
 
There have been NGOs operating in Central America (Such a soros.) to fund and organize these caravans for quite some time now.

Originally Posted By: The Epoch Times

UN ‘Migration Networks’ to Facilitate Migration Stir Concern

BY ALEX NEWMAN March 31, 2021 Updated: March 31, 2021

The United Nations’ role in immigration policy is growing worldwide with the establishment of a UN “Network for Migration” in dozens of countries to facilitate large migratory flows, sparking alarm among American border-security advocates already concerned about mass migration and the escalating crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The UN networks, which are led by a coalition of UN agencies, exist to support the implementation of the controversial “Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration” (GCM) adopted by the UN and over 150 of its member states in December of 2018.

Among other goals, the global agreement aims to facilitate the expansion of what the UN describes as “regular migration,” providing more legal pathways for would-be immigrants seeking to re-settle in wealthier countries such as the United States.

While the U.S. government has not been formally involved in the UN efforts of recent years to transform global migration policy, that may be changing, multiple sources told The Epoch Times.

Under the new administration, “the U.S. government has attended several GCM regional reviews, reviewing progress on implementation of the compact in all the regions of the world,” UN Network on Migration Communications Coordinator Florence Kim told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

“This is great because even though the U.S. did not talk about any progress, they said that they would engage much more and they said they are re-considering all the discussions, and they are willing to participate much more in these forums,” added Kim, who serves as a spokesperson for the UN effort.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the issues by phone or email.

The UN’s refugee agency already “works closely with U.S. government agencies and [Non-Governmental Organizations] responsible for resettling refugees in the U.S.,” the international organization says, adding that the U.S. program is the largest in the world.

In 2018, citing concerns over sovereignty and the interests of the American people, the administration of President Donald Trump rejected U.S. involvement in the UN’s signature immigration effort to date, the GCM. Numerous other governments in Europe and beyond followed suit.

However, the Biden administration is warming up to the international agreement and becoming more involved in the process, even sending U.S. representatives to regional meetings on the compact, the UN official told The Epoch Times.

The growing UN push on global migration, combined with ongoing changes in immigration policy between the Trump and Biden administrations, has numerous U.S. organizations dedicated to border security very concerned.

In interviews with The Epoch Times, several leading figures in the immigration debate spoke out against the UN migration networks and the UN effort to get the U.S. government officially involved.

Instead, they insisted that U.S. immigration laws created by Americans’ elected representatives be enforced and strengthened, and that the UN be kept out of U.S. immigration policy.

“Our view is that this is a domestic policy issue,” said Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a leading immigration-focused organization that seeks to slow the flow of newcomers.

“When you add the United Nations to what should be a domestic issue, the end product is something that you’re not going to want to consume,” added Mehlman, echoing widespread concerns among immigration-policy advocates about the UN’s efforts to get more involved.

UN PLEASED WITH BIDEN’S ACTIONS
So far, the Biden administration has not publicly made any concrete moves to join the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration rejected by his predecessor.

However, its actions on the issue have been praised by the UN and its International Organization for Migration, which is leading the charge to promote the GCM.

“The International Organization for Migration (IOM) applauds President Joe Biden’s plans to address the drivers of migration and advance safe, orderly and regular migration in the region,” the UN organization said in a statement released in early February using the precise language of the global migration pact.

The Biden administration’s executive actions on immigration “will provide a framework to expand refugee resettlement,” the UN IOM added in reference to Biden’s orders increasing the cap on refugees from less than 20,000 per year to over 120,000.

The UN agency also boasted that it had already “assisted the United States with case processing, pre-departure health assessments, cultural orientation and transportation” of migrants from Central America.

“IOM looks forward to working with the Biden administration … to foster the positive opportunities and impacts of regular migration for individuals and their families as well as for the communities and societies with which they are affiliated,” the statement added.

As soon as Biden took office, the UN suggested that the U.S. government should re-engage in the UN’s international efforts on global migration.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, for instance, issued a statement on Biden’s first day expressing hope that the new administration would join the GCM.

“This partnership is needed now more than ever as we seek to provide assistance, protection and sustainable solutions to the displacement of record numbers of people who have been forced to flee their homes as a result of conflict, violence or disaster, or are migrating in the hopes of finding a better life for themselves and their families,” said the statement issued by Guterres’s office.

The top UN refugee official, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, anticipated closer cooperation with the Biden administration as soon as it took office.

“We look forward to deepening the strong and trusted partnership with the United States, and to working with the new administration and Congress to address the many challenges of forced displacement around the world,” Grandi said on Jan. 20.

TRUMP LED GLOBAL OPPOSITION
Under the Trump administration, which sought to reduce illegal immigration and some forms of legal immigration into the United States in favor of merit-based programs, the UN efforts to boost its involvement in migration policy received a cold shoulder.

It represented a clean break from the Obama administration, which in 2016 played a key role in the UN’s New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants that eventually led to the GCM negotiated at a December, 2018, summit in Morocco.

Trump blasted the effort. Indeed, a forceful statement released by the U.S. State Department on Dec. 7, 2018, slammed the GCM as a flagrant attack on sovereignty that was unacceptable to the United States.

“The Compact and the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which called for the development of the Compact and commits to ‘strengthening global governance’ for international migration, contain goals and objectives that are inconsistent and incompatible with U.S. law, policy, and the interests of the American people,” the State Department said, adding that the U.S. government objected to and would not be bound by the UN deal.

“The United States proclaims and reaffirms its belief that decisions about how to secure its borders, and whom to admit for legal residency or to grant citizenship, are among the most important sovereign decisions a State can make, and are not subject to negotiation, or review, in international instruments,” the statement continued, adding that the U.S. government would maintain the sovereign right to control its borders.

Beyond that, the Trump administration said the UN efforts represented an attempt by the UN “to advance global governance at the expense of the sovereign right of States to manage their immigration systems in accordance with their national laws, policies, and interests.”

“While the United States honors the contributions of the many immigrants who helped build our nation, we cannot support a ‘Compact’ or process that imposes or has the potential to impose international guidelines, standards, expectations, or commitments that might constrain our ability to make decisions in the best interests of our nation and citizens,” the State Department said before outlining a large number of specific criticisms of the GCM.

Among other concerns, the Trump administration said the UN compact was a threat to free expression, immigration enforcement, American workers, and even a proper understanding of “rights.”

Aside from an apparently automated message indicating she was on leave until March 29, Leslie Marshall with the Press Office if he U.S. Bureau of Global Public Affairs did not respond to repeated requests for comment asking about the State Department’s current position.

Numerous other governments that declined to participate also warned that the UN agreement sought to increase the flow of immigration into Western nations, usurp the sovereignty of national governments in determining policy, and even redefine migration as a “human right.”

Following Trump’s lead, dozens of nations and governments decided against adopting the UN compact including Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Austria, Israel, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Latvia, Poland, Australia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Chile, and more.

“It cannot … be that any formulations are adopted that could perhaps or possibly be interpreted to mean that migration can be a human right,” argued Austrian Vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache at the time. “That can and must not be the case.”

Other European leaders warned that the UN’s efforts would exacerbate the migration crisis in Europe while encouraging even more mass migration.

In the end, only about 150 governments—mostly governments of nations sending rather than receiving migrants—joined the compact.

Over 40 governments, including many of the top destinations for migrants, declined to support the UN deal.

GCM VIA BACKDOOR?
However, even without having supported the UN GCM, its policies and objectives are quietly being implemented in nations where authorities rejected the agreement.

Without naming specific governments, UN Network on Migration Communications Coordinator Kim told The Epoch Times that most of the governments that declined to participate or approve the UN agreement were nonetheless implementing its “common sense” provisions.

“You don’t need to adopt the GCM to actually implement it,” she said. “They will implement it at their own rhythm.”

“Sometimes it can be politically sensitive, so countries [governments] did not adopt it,” added Kim, who works at the UN’s offices in Geneva. “But a majority of those countries are implementing at least some parts of it.”

The United States is actually surrounded by nations where governments are enthusiastic supporters of the UN effort. In fact, the governments of both Mexico and Canada are considered “champions” of the GCM, Kim said.

“Mexico has agreed and requested to pilot some tools developed by the UN agencies through the Network for Migration,” Kim said, adding that the Mexican government served as “co-facilitator of the negotiations.”

“They know how relevant migration is for their own country, so they know they need to manage it better, to make sure those crossing the country or leaving from Mexico are protected,” she added.

“The fact that Mexico can be supported by the UN in protecting migrants leaving or crossing can have an impact on the United States,” continued Kim. “We are talking about international migration here, so anything implemented by one country has an impact on neighboring countries.”

To the North, Canada is also a GCM “champion country,” she said.

“Canada has been implementing quite a lot, they are quite progressive in this sense, meaning that their policies are much more gender responsive, they are quite active in the integration of migrants,” continued Kim.

All of that will have an effect on America, she said.

“The U.S. is a bit surrounded by GCM champion countries and the latest declarations from the U.S. representatives show there is a real willingness to improve migration management and make sure that migrants in the U.S. are protected and included,” Kim continued. “This will benefit the whole population.”

UN MIGRATION NETWORKS
As part of the implementation of the GCM, the UN has set up “Migration Networks” in about 40 countries around the globe so far.

Most recently, the UN announced the creation of a “Network for Migration” in Iraq, one of the nations sending large numbers of migrants into the West.

In a statement, a deputy special representative of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the network would coordinate UN support to “improve migration governance in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also referred to as UN Agenda 2030, represent a comprehensive global effort to reform governance and the economy to be more in line with what the UN considers to be sustainable.

The Chinese Communist Party boasted that it played a “crucial role” in the SDG plan, which UN leaders said represents a “master plan for humanity” that will “transform our world.”

Leading the Networks for Migration are a number of key UN agencies, including several that are run by Chinese officials loyal to Beijing.

Kim, the UN spokesperson for the migration networks, said the goal of the UN was to try to pool its expertise in supporting governments in the implementation of the UN global migration pact.

“For Mexico it is important to support the government with the ongoing situation with the U.S., trying to adjust the migration policies, trying to protect the migrants going through or leaving from Mexico,” she said.

The networks also serve as a “tool for advocacy,” Kim explained, adding that a trust fund run by the UN Network was supporting migration-related projects around the world.

In addition to the nine UN agencies on the executive board and the dozens of UN entities involved are hundreds of “civil society” organizations, Kim said.

Among the priorities of the UN agency are ending detention of what Kim described as “irregular migrants,” known more commonly in the United States as illegal immigrants.

Asked about “irregular migration,” she said: “Calling migration illegal is not accurate, a person cannot be illegal.”

When asked if the sort of policies being supported under the UN’s programs would encourage even more migration, Kim hesitated but suggested there were limits.

“We are not there to say ‘let’s have all the migrants in the world, and have them go anywhere’,” Kim clarified. “The compact aims to ensure that migration is well governed. We find the right balance that benefits those that want to come to a country, those who live in the country, and the governments involved.”

In Europe, she suggested creating new and larger pathways for legal migration would prevent people from crossing the Mediterranean.

“If they have legal means to come to Europe in a controlled, more-governed way, then the migrants don’t have to risk their lives,” she said, adding that this would provide more labor and tax revenue for the receiving countries.

She also argued that attempting to stop mass migration was futile.

“You can build all the walls in the world that you want, but when people have to leave, they will,” she said.

CRITICS SAY NO TO UN INVOLVEMENT
While the UN and the tax-funded refugee agencies and NGOs involved with the global organization have been pushing the U.S. government to deepen its involvement in UN migration programs and further expand legal avenues for immigration, critics have sounded the alarm.

In a phone interview with The Epoch Times, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Media Director Ira Mehlman said the UN should not be involved in U.S. policy discussions about migration.

“These are domestic policy issues,” he said. “Each nation should make these decisions based on their own criteria.”

“What happens when these kinds of international organizations get involved, you basically have other countries telling the United States and Germany what they should do,” added Mehlman. “Once you throw this into the international arena it becomes very easy for other countries to sit back and tell ours what we should be doing when it’s not really their business.”

Mehlman also argued that the governments pushing increased global migration via the UN were mostly not those that would be forced to deal with the consequences.

“They should not be telling us what we should be doing,” he said. “This is passing the buck, and that never works.”

Instead, elected representatives at the national level should make decisions in the best interests of their own nations, he said.

In the case of the United States, he said that meant stopping the “chaos” at the Southern border, tightening the asylum process, enforcing existing law, and better distinguishing between economic migrants and true refugees.

Another expert in the field and longtime activist for increased controls over migration flows into the United States, William Gheen with Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, also slammed the UN efforts.

“The American public should resist these United Nations programs because they are designed to facilitate and increase harmful third world legal and illegal immigration into America and Europe as part of a wider plan to overwhelm our nations and force Americans into a global form of government which will be dominated by China,” he argued.

National identity, borders, and the independence and freedom enjoyed by Americans are a major obstacle to “socialists, communists, global corporations, and robber baron billionaires who feel they should be able to rule and dictate by fiat,” he said.

However, by rapidly importing millions of people from abroad without an understanding of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the United States is being “conquered” by what Gheen described as “fourth generational warfare backed by the UN.”

That is why it is so crucial for Americans and lawmakers to resist “amnesty” efforts currently being considered by the U.S. Senate.

A new but influential voice on the immigration policy scene, Angel Families of America Founder Agnes Gibboney, a legal immigrant whose son was killed by a previously deported illegal immigrant, also blasted UN efforts and mass migration into the United States.

“We are a sovereign nation and should decide our own laws, policies, and all aspects of our immigration, not foreign countries,” she said, adding that the UN “should not play any role in U.S. immigration policies.”

On a broader level, she told The Epoch Times that the United States could not solve the world’s problems by importing significant numbers of people from around the world.

“The problems in another country is where the problem needs to be solved, not in ours,” said Gibboney, whose family fled the communist regime in Hungary via Brazil before eventually finding their way to the United States legally.

“We don’t have resources to take care of the current migration crisis,” she added, calling on Congress to decline participation in UN immigration programs and agreements.

Congress is currently working on several major overhauls of U.S. immigration law that would bring U.S. policy more in line with the UN’s vision, including providing amnesty to the estimated 15 million or more illegal immigrants already in the United States.

The Biden administration did not respond to requests for comment on its position.

Article: The Epoch Times



 
More Than a Million Illegal Immigrants Expected to Cross Border in 2021: Official

By Jack Phillips
April 1, 2021 Updated: April 1, 2021

A Border Patrol official estimated that more than 1 million illegal immigrants are expected to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021 as the White House grapples with how to find facilities and process them.

“We’re already starting to see some higher days of 6,000-plus apprehensions,” Raul Ortiz, deputy chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, told reporters. “So I fully expect our border patrol agents to encounter over a million people this year.”

Border Patrol apprehended approximately 100,000 illegal immigrants in February, which is the highest number since February 2019, Ortiz said. He noted that people try to illegally cross into the U.S. between April and June.

A facility in Donna, Texas, holds about 4,100 people, with many of them being unaccompanied children, Reuters reported. Border Patrol official Oscar Escamilla told Reuters that some 2,000 unaccompanied children have been held there for more than 72 hours, which is the legal limit.

“It’s out of my hands,” he said. “For whatever reason, they have fallen through the system or through the cracks.”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday issued a statement criticizing human smuggling attempts into the United States.

“The inhumane way smugglers abuse children while profiting off parents’ desperation is criminal and morally reprehensible,” Mayorkas said. “Just this month, a young girl died by drowning, a six-month-old was thrown into the river, and two young children were dropped from a wall and left in the desert alone.”

“There can be no doubt that children are exceptionally vulnerable when placed in the hands of smugglers. There is grave risk they will be exploited and harmed. I applaud our heroic Border Patrol agents who have saved lives this week and every week, while putting their own lives at risk for the greater good of the country.”

It comes after a video released by a Border Patrol official in New Mexico showed human smugglers dropping two young girls over a 14-foot-tall border barrier before abandoning them.

The smugglers were seen via night-vision cameras leaving the children, aged 3 and 5, in the middle of the New Mexico desert “miles from the nearest residence,” said Border Patrol sector chief Gloria Chavez.

According to a news release from Border Patrol, the two girls were sisters from Ecuador. When agents came upon them, they rendered aid, officials said, before they were taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation and were later “medically cleared.” The young girls were then put in a temporary holding facility.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breaki...91f7378e590bb54
 
Pentagon Reviewing HHS Request for Another Military Base to House Unaccompanied Children

By Jack Phillips
April 1, 2021 Updated: April 1, 2021

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the Department of Defense (DOD) to house more unaccompanied children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in the midst of an influx in illegal immigration, said a spokesperson for the Pentagon.

“We have received a request for assistance from HHS for the potential use of Camp Roberts in California to house unaccompanied minors,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. “We are moving forward with analyzing that request for assistance right now.”

Camp Roberts is a California Army National Guard base in northern San Luis Obispo County.

Kirby did not say how many children would be potentially housed on the base.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma, for the Guard, told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that HHS wants to use “an area of land” on the base that would “temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children.” It’s not clear if a new facility will be constructed on the base for the children.

The Epoch Times has contacted the California National Guard for comment.

An uptick in the number of people crossing the border, especially children traveling alone and families, has filled up federal holding facilities. The U.S. has been releasing families with children 6 and under and expelling families with older children under pandemic-related powers that deny an opportunity to seek asylum.

Currently, there are thousands of unaccompanied children being held by the federal government after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks. Last month, Border Patrol apprehended more than 150,000 illegal border crossers, which is 50,000 more than February’s figures, according to former CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan.

Morgan, who said he received the numbers from internal sources in the midst of a media blackout, said that another 30,000 illegal immigrants evaded capture.

The issue has turned into a political flashpoint for the Biden administration, with Republicans and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials saying the surge of illegal immigration was triggered by what they described as lax White House immigration policies. President Joe Biden in January took executive action to rescind several asylum and immigration rules issued by former President Donald Trump and told reporters last week that Trump’s policies were inhumane and described the current surge as seasonal.

Republicans, however, said that Biden’s executive orders caused it. Some Democrats in Congress have also called on Biden to re-implement some of Trump’s policies. Among them, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) has been especially vocal and has released leaked photos from inside an overflow facility in Donna, Texas.

The Pentagon last week said it agreed to temporarily house unaccompanied children at Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland, Texas, and in Fort Bliss, Texas.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is moving another 500 unaccompanied children to an emergency holding facility as part of efforts to reduce overcrowding.

The children are scheduled to arrive at the National Association of Christian Churches site in Houston, Texas, which has been transformed into an Emergency Intake Site used by HHS.

Janita Kan and AP contributed to this report.


https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breaki...91f7378e590bb54
 
Over 16,000 Illegal Aliens Referred, 598 Criminals Arrested in March by Texas Troopers

Governor explains how 'Operation Lone Star' fills security gaps along southern border in latest update

By Mimi Nguyen Ly
April 2, 2021 Updated: April 2, 2021

More than 16,000 illegal immigrants have been referred to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and 598 criminals have been arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers as part of “Operation Lone Star” launched to combat the border crisis, Governor Greg Abbott said on Thursday.

The operation was launched at the start of March to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas across the southern border by Mexican cartels and other smugglers. The latest figures work out to be an average of 21 criminal arrests per day, and more than 570 referrals per day to Border Patrol.

State troopers have seized 14 pounds of cocaine, 23 firearms, almost $1 million in currency, and arrested nine gang members involved in the smuggling of the contraband, Abbott told a press conference in Weslaco, Texas, which is near the Texas-Mexico border.

The latest figures come amid a surge in the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States. Abbott on Thursday repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s border policies which he says have failed to secure the border and have instead invited illegal immigration and created an “open season for human traffickers, for drug smugglers, for cartels and gangs.”

Because Border Patrol officers are forced to detain large number of illegal immigrants, cartels and human smugglers see “wide swaths of sectors” of the border left open for them to exploit and move people and drugs across, Abbott explained.

“These criminals are preying upon women and children, exposing them to abuse and to terror,” the Republican governor told reporters. “Because the federal government is failing to act to respond to these dangers, Texas is stepping up to secure the border and to keep our community safe.”

One criminal arrest case involved a stash house in the Rio Grande Valley, where Texas DPS troopers and special agents found four illegal immigrants and a gang member, Abbott said. “The gang member was wanted on two counts of rape of a child under the age of 13,” he said.

Providing another example of a criminal arrest, Abbott recounted how Texas DPS troopers arrested a man on March 8 who was wanted for “continuous sexual assault of a child.”

In another case, a man was arrested on March 14 and was found to be smuggling illegal immigrants in his vehicle, in which there was a 14-year-old child who had been sexually assaulted, Abbot said. “The driver also had child pornography on his phone,” the governor noted.

Abbott also noted a case on March 16 that made news headlines across the country, when smugglers in Mexico assaulted a woman, broke her leg, and later threw her 6-month-old baby off a raft into the Rio Grande River. A specialized group of the Texas DPS and Border Patrol rescued the infant girl.

“There is a reason why smugglers and cartel members do things like throw a young child into the river,” Abbott commented. “They know that when doing so, it will cause Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety officers to focus on that child and to save that child, like what they did do. When law enforcement is focused on saving a child, that opens the door to the opportunity for the drug smugglers and the cartels to engage in other crimes and that’s part of what happened.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday condemned human smuggling attempts into the United States.

“The inhumane way smugglers abuse children while profiting off parents’ desperation is criminal and morally reprehensible,” he said in a statement.

“There can be no doubt that children are exceptionally vulnerable when placed in the hands of smugglers,” he added. “There is grave risk they will be exploited and harmed. I applaud our heroic Border Patrol agents who have saved lives this week and every week, while putting their own lives at risk for the greater good of the country.”

Since taking office, Biden has reversed a number of border policies from the Trump administration, including pausing border wall construction and announcing the removal of the “Remain in Mexico” policy—which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while awaiting immigration proceedings.

The Biden administration has also stopped expelling from the country the unaccompanied minors—children who crossed the border illegally without an adult to accompany them. Adults and family units are generally still being expelled from the United States.

Biden and other U.S. officials have repeatedly urged migrants to refrain from illegally crossing the border into the United States. Despite this, the number of illegal crossings at the southern border has been on the rise since October 2020.

The number of arrests from October 2020 to January 2021 was 296,259, representing a 79.5 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. In February, the CBP apprehended 100,441 aliens who crossed the southern border illegally.
Follow Mimi on Twitter: @MimiNguyenLy

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Texas Rangers save 6-month-old baby thrown from raft into Rio Grande River

The baby's mother had her leg broken by smugglers in Mexico
By Paul Best | Fox News

The South Texas Special Operations Group of the Texas Rangers saved a six-month-old baby who was tossed from a raft in the Rio Grande River this month.

The child's mother had her leg broken when she was assaulted by smugglers in Mexico, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

51091785065_0e5a4fe46c_z.jpg


The South Texas Special Operations Group, which was assisting Border Patrol near the town of Roma at the time, frequently carries out missions along the Texas-Mexico border to deter and detect crime.

Thousands of children and families have attempted to cross the Southern border in recent weeks, leading to overcrowded facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Biden administration allowed reporters from the Associated Press and CBS to enter the main border detention facility for migrant children in Donna, Texas, on Tuesday.
Young children look out from inside a pod at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool)

Young children look out from inside a pod at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool)

More than 4,100 people are being held there, 3,400 of them children who are housed in eight pods separated by plastic dividers.

SEN. HOEVEN: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BEING GIVEN COURT DATES 'THREE TO FOUR YEARS' AWAY

Oscar Escamilla, acting executive officer of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley, told the Associated Press that 250 to 300 children enter the facility daily.

One 17-year-old mother had her newborn baby at the facility Tuesday. Another 3-year-old was being cared for by her 11-year-old brother.

The Department of Health and Human Services is currently working to open facilities in cities throughout Texas to manage the large influx of children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Paul Best is a reporter for FOX Business and Fox News. Follow him on twitter at @KincaidBest.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-rangers-save-six-month-old-baby-tossed-from-raft-in-rio-grande
 
More Than a Million Illegal Immigrants Expected to Cross Border in 2021: Official

By Jack Phillips
April 1, 2021 Updated: April 1, 2021

A Border Patrol official estimated that more than 1 million illegal immigrants are expected to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021 as the White House grapples with how to find facilities and process them.

“We’re already starting to see some higher days of 6,000-plus apprehensions,” Raul Ortiz, deputy chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, told reporters. “So I fully expect our border patrol agents to encounter over a million people this year.”

Border Patrol apprehended approximately 100,000 illegal immigrants in February, which is the highest number since February 2019, Ortiz said. He noted that people try to illegally cross into the U.S. between April and June.

A facility in Donna, Texas, holds about 4,100 people, with many of them being unaccompanied children, Reuters reported. Border Patrol official Oscar Escamilla told Reuters that some 2,000 unaccompanied children have been held there for more than 72 hours, which is the legal limit.

“It’s out of my hands,” he said. “For whatever reason, they have fallen through the system or through the cracks.”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday issued a statement criticizing human smuggling attempts into the United States.

“The inhumane way smugglers abuse children while profiting off parents’ desperation is criminal and morally reprehensible,” Mayorkas said. “Just this month, a young girl died by drowning, a six-month-old was thrown into the river, and two young children were dropped from a wall and left in the desert alone.”

“There can be no doubt that children are exceptionally vulnerable when placed in the hands of smugglers. There is grave risk they will be exploited and harmed. I applaud our heroic Border Patrol agents who have saved lives this week and every week, while putting their own lives at risk for the greater good of the country.”

It comes after a video released by a Border Patrol official in New Mexico showed human smugglers dropping two young girls over a 14-foot-tall border barrier before abandoning them.

The smugglers were seen via night-vision cameras leaving the children, aged 3 and 5, in the middle of the New Mexico desert “miles from the nearest residence,” said Border Patrol sector chief Gloria Chavez.

According to a news release from Border Patrol, the two girls were sisters from Ecuador. When agents came upon them, they rendered aid, officials said, before they were taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation and were later “medically cleared.” The young girls were then put in a temporary holding facility.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_mornin...0793c1634d1c407
 
Fauci Says He’s Too Busy to Get Involved With Border Amid Concerns of COVID-19-Positive Immigrants

By Tom Ozimek
April 3, 2021 Updated: April 3, 2021

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday he’s too busy to visit the U.S.-Mexico border and that it’s not his role to do so, responding to questions about Republican criticism that he’s been silent on the throngs of people entering the country from COVID-19-infected regions.

Fox News’ Neil Cavuto asked Fauci a series of questions about the torrent of criticism from prominent Republicans, who have accused the infectious disease expert of staying mum on COVID-19-positive illegal immigrants and who have complained Fauci is not using his influence to persuade the Biden administration to do more to stem the border surge.

Cavuto cited remarks by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who in a tweet Friday became the most recent GOP lawmaker to take aim at Fauci, saying he needs “to go to the southern border and witness in person the biggest super spreader event in the nation—President@JoeBiden’s immigration policies.”

“These are largely coming from Republicans who have serious animus toward some of the things that you recommend and say, and maybe just you, period,” Cavuto said.

Fauci replied by saying he has become a “symbol, to them, of anything they don’t like about anything that has to do with things that are contrary to them, that are outside of their own realm.”

“It’s a little bit bizarre,” Fauci added.

Calling Graham a “good person” that he’s dealt with “well” over the years, Fauci pushed back against the Republican senator’s comments.

“Equating me with things that have to do at the border. I mean, I have nothing to do with the border. Peter Navarro saying I created the virus? I mean, how bizarre is that?” Fauci said, adding, “I mean, is that a little weird?”

Fauci was presumably referring to a comment by former White House adviser Peter Navarro, who in a recent interview on Fox News called him the “father” of COVID-19.

Cavuto replied by saying what he thinks Graham was getting at was that, given the COVID-19 outbreak and “all the thousands that have been crammed in there,” referring to holding facilities along the border, “maybe someone with your expertise should be down there just to monitor how worrisome the situation this is.”

“Do you think it could be a super-spreader event?” Cavuto asked pointedly.

Fauci replied by saying that, “obviously, it is a very difficult situation at the border, we all know that,” but added that he believes the Biden administration is doing all it can to alleviate the problem.

“Having me down at the border—that’s really not what I do,” Fauci said. “I develop vaccines, I develop countermeasures. I mean, having me at the border, I don’t know why they’re saying I should be at the border.”

Cavuto countered by asking whether there was a need to closely monitor whether the influx of migrants, some of whom have tested positive for COVID-19, could be fanning the flames of the outbreak.

“Obviously this is a concern to the administration. I mean, the President himself has expressed that. We don’t want people to be coming over the border,” Fauci said.

Fauci said people crossing the border into the United States “are tested, to the extent possible. If they’re positive, they’re quarantined. That’s what I know about it. No one is denying that it’s not a difficult problem at the border.”

“I don’t know the reason for the animus,” Fauci said, adding, “quite frankly, I’m so busy trying to do some important things to preserve the health and safety of the American people that I can’t be bothered with getting distracted with these people that are doing these ad hominems.”

In the interview, Cavuto brought up other Republican critiques of Fauci, including a tweet by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who called Fauci “a very good public-health official,” adding that “his job is to advise policy makers & inform the public” but “NOT to decide what we can do, where we can go or which places can open or close.”

“And his job is NOT to mislead or scare us into doing the ‘right things,’” Rubio wrote.

Fauci responded by saying that he’s “not trying to scare anybody.”

“What we’re saying is that we make recommendations based on scientific evidence and data. Because what you want to do is give the American people the information they need to make choices,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anybody would consider me a scare-monger.”

It comes after Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) joined other Republican lawmakers calling on Fauci to use his influence to stop “a dangerous new foreign pipeline for COVID-19” along the southern border.

In a March 12 letter, Brooks and other GOP lawmakers sought action from Fauci while taking aim at the Biden administration for resuming what they called “the dangerous immigration policy of ‘catch and release’” along the border.

“Hundreds of illegal immigrants” have been released at the border “on nothing more than a promise to appear at a future hearing,” the letter said, adding that the releases were taking place with no testing or quarantine measures “despite the fact that Mexico now has the highest per capita COVID fatality rate in Latin America,” he wrote.

The Biden administration has eased the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum seekers to stay south of the border while their cases moved through the system. Since then, the number of children and adults at the border seeking entrance has surged.

More recently, Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, wondered why Fauci hadn’t been more vocal on the COVID-19 threat along the border.

“There was no policy, medical or otherwise, that Dr. Fauci wouldn’t weigh in on when President Trump was in the White House,” Meadows wrote in a March 31 tweet.

“Curious we haven’t heard from the same Dr. Fauci on Joe Biden releasing thousands of COVID untested migrants into the U.S,” he added, presumably referring to reports, such as one by The New York Post, which noted that some 2,000 illegal immigrants had been released without evidence of submitting to a COVID-19 test.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @OZImekTOM

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_mornin...492c4c3c9c05a02

 
Administration continues to ignore consequences of disastrous open border policy.

10 Year Old Boy Abandoned @ Border


Experts Warn of Illegal Immigrants ‘Renting’ Kids to Cross Border

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
April 6, 2021 Updated: April 6, 2021

McALLEN, Texas—Adults using unrelated children to gain quick access to the United States after crossing the border illegally became a problem during the 2019 border surge. This year has all the hallmarks of a repeat, border experts warn.

In one 2019 case, a Honduran man bought a 6-month-old baby in Guatemala to pose as a family and get priority release. In another case, a child-for-rent recycling ring was operating between Houston and Mexico.

At the time, the Department of Homeland Security set up rapid DNA testing, which revealed a 30 percent rate of fraud in the two test areas of El Paso and Rio Grande Valley, Texas.

Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sent 400 agents to the two regions in mid-April 2019 to interview families that Border Patrol suspected were fake. Over eight weeks, HSI agents identified 5,500 fraudulent families—about 15 percent of all cases referred.

Agents uncovered 921 fake documents, and 615 individuals were prosecuted for trafficking or smuggling a child, according to Kevin McAleenan, who was acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the time.

“That tells me that we might be scratching the surface of this problem, and the number of children being put at risk might be even higher,” McAleenan said during a congressional hearing on July 18, 2019.

He said the cost of renting a child varied from less than $100 to more than $1,000.

“Everybody knows that if they bring a child, they’ll be allowed to stay in the United States—they call it a ‘passport for migration,'” McAleenan said at the time.

During May 2019, at the height of the crisis, more than 84,000 individuals within family units were apprehended by Border Patrol.

In 2014, fewer than 1 percent of all men apprehended by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had a child with them. That number increased to 50 percent in 2019, according to Rodolfo Karisch, former chief Border Patrol agent for that sector.

Currently, the number of individuals within family units who are apprehended by Border Patrol is increasing sharply by the month.

In February, almost 19,000 family unit individuals were apprehended by Border Patrol—more than double that in January, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). March numbers are even higher.

The border facilities are so overwhelmed that, in some areas, families are being released into the United States without being given a date to appear in immigration court to start their case.

Former Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said he believes children are currently being rented to adults, but it’s going to get worse.

“I think it’s happening right now. [As] to the magnitude, I don’t know,” Morgan told The Epoch Times on March 30. Morgan is currently a senior fellow with the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

“My understanding is that the same amount of resources that we sent down in 2019, that same surge, to really be able to find out and determine fake families—it’s not there. At the end of the day, no, they can’t definitively determine who these people are every single time.”

Morgan predicts that once the Title 42 public health emergency restrictions—which are still being used in some border areas to turn back families—are lifted, the number of unaccompanied minors will decrease and the number of families will increase.

“That’s the moment where we really should be concerned. That’s when ICE should just deploy a lot of resources down there because … that’s when we’re really going to see that abuse happening,” he said.

Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan said no widespread DNA testing has been implemented by the Biden administration.

“When I was the ICE director, we had criminal investigations where children were being rented by cartels to pose as a family unit. Once they get released, they get sent back to Mexico and re-rented again. It happens,” Homan said on March 30.

“No one’s celebrating more this presidency than the criminal cartels in Mexico. I’m sick of them saying they’re being humane. When you send enticements out that put the most vulnerable people in the arms of criminal cartels, it’s dangerous.”

DHS and CBP officials didn’t respond by press time to several requests by The Epoch Times to outline the steps currently being taken to ensure that families are legitimate.

Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo
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BIDEN Announces New Gun Control Actions, Says It’s a ‘Public Health Crisis’ but border invasion is not even a crisis, let alone a health crisis!!!
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Border Patrol Apprehends 172,000 Illegal Immigrants in March
'This surge is unlike anything we've ever seen before,' says Border Patrol Council

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
April 8, 2021 Updated: April 9, 2021

McALLEN, Texas—The sheer number of illegal border-crossers that U.S. Border Patrol agents are apprehending on a daily basis is overwhelming in itself, but the type of population makes it something never seen before, according to Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.

“I would argue that it’s the biggest surge that we’ve ever seen in the history of the Border Patrol,” Judd said during a roundtable with Republican members of Congress, Texas landowners, and law enforcement on April 7.

During the month of March, Border Patrol apprehended 172,000 illegal aliens, according to statistics released on April 8 by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). An additional 1,000 per day are evading capture. In February, border agents apprehended 101,000 people.

Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said the increase “is not new.”

“Encounters have continued to increase since April 2020, and our past experiences have helped us be better prepared for the challenges we face this year,” he said.

However, Judd said, “this surge is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Border Patrol apprehended up to 1.5 million illegal aliens per year.

“Even though we were making 1.5 million arrests, we were actually dealing with about 400,000 to 500,000 individual people—we were just arresting the same people over and over again,” Judd said. Most were single males from Mexico, who were easy to turn back across the border within a couple of hours.

“Today … if we make 1.2 million arrests, we’re actually dealing with about 800,000 to 900,000 different people.”

The addition of so many unaccompanied minors (18,600 in March) and family units (comprising almost 53,000 individuals in March) on top of single adults (96,600 in March) is overwhelming, Judd said.

Family units and unaccompanied minors require a huge amount of resources, including housing, food, transport, and health care while being processed and subsequently transferred or released.

Additionally, most of the family members and unaccompanied minors end up staying in the United States, regardless of whether they have a meritorious asylum claim.


“You could cross the border illegally one day and be in Virginia the very next day,” Judd said.

“I personally have apprehended groups from China, from Bangladesh, from Russia, from Poland, from Brazil. And these criminal organizations are allowed to go into these countries, and they’re allowed to advertise their services and make billions of dollars off of human misery. And it’s based upon our policies.

“That’s wrong. That is inhumane.”
The Biden administration has drawn criticism for quickly undoing Trump-era policies—which had sharply reduced the flow of illegal immigration—and creating the current crisis.

On March 24, President Joe Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to head up the border crisis response. However, she has yet to visit the border, saying that her focus is instead on providing more assistance to Central American countries.

Judd said the only way to stem the flow is to detain people while their immigration case is being adjudicated, rather than incentivizing illegal immigration through “catch-and-release.”

He said the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico program, were working to that end.

“I would set up courts immediately on the border to hold these people in custody pending the adjudication of their asylum claim. If we did that, we would address this issue and we would stop the fraudulent asylum claims almost immediately,” Judd said.

Currently, only about 10 percent of Central Americans who claim asylum are granted relief after their case is heard. Many don’t show up for their hearings or apply for asylum once they are released into the country.

Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo
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Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnoti would like to hear the few trump haters comments on dementia joes orders lately.

where oh where have the haters gone?

Amen!

In answer to your question, as they say along the southern border (and ya'll better be learnin' the language), "Se Fue".

Regards,
hm
 
Nope, current administration assures us there it no crisis here, folks. Besides, uncle Joe done made arrangements with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to increase enforcement against migration......sound familiar? It should, President Trump had that in place before Biden canceled the agreement with executive orders the first week or two of his administration.


Immigration & Border Security

Top Republican Posts Video of ‘Child Abuse’ at Texas Border Patrol Facility

By Jack Phillips
April 12, 2021 Updated: April 12, 2021

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) posted video footage (click link below)of numerous unaccompanied children being housed in a Donna, Texas, Border Patrol facility and said it’s tantamount to “child abuse.”

“I visited the Donna processing facility yesterday. … This is the devastating result of their disastrous left-wing immigration agenda. RT so everyone can see what they're trying to hide. This is child abuse,” Scalise wrote on Twitter on April 10.


The video showed what appeared to be possibly hundreds of children covered in aluminum-style blankets, packed next to each other in transparent pens. The sound of people talking loudly in the background can be heard.

A day before releasing the video, Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House, posted a video of himself talking near a section of the U.S.–Mexico border.

“This is out of control. It’s the middle of the night. We’ve seen dozens of children flow freely across the border in just the past few minutes,” he said in a tweet as dozens of people who appear to be trying to cross the border illegally walk past him.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

On April 12, the White House reached a deal with Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to potentially stem the flow of illegal immigration into the United States, a Biden administration official said.

Tyler Moran, special assistant to the president for immigration for the Domestic Policy Council, said in an interview that the administration “secured agreements” that would place “more troops on their” respective borders.

“Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala have all agreed to do this,” Moran said. “That not only is going to prevent the traffickers and the smugglers and cartels that take advantage of the kids on their way here, but also to protect those children.”

The announcement comes as numerous illegal immigrants have attempted to cross the U.S.–Mexico border in recent months. In March, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered more than 171,000 illegal immigrants, including a significant number of unaccompanied children, according to data provided by the agency.

Authorities encountered 18,890 unaccompanied children in March, well above previous highs of 11,475 in May 2019 and 10,620 in June 2014 reported by the Border Patrol, which began publishing numbers in 2009.

More than 4,000 parents and children—mostly unaccompanied minors—have been crammed into a CBP tent complex designed for 250 in Donna, Texas. More than 600 children were packed into a room built for 32 last week, according to Reuters.

Reuters contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/top-republican-posts-video-of-child-abuse-at-texas-border-patrol-facility_3772348.html?&utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-04-12-2&mktids=d1d75b736e3546faf8fdbe1d459d827c&est=pwJW86k5yD09wCCOEDB%2B62oGL8z%2Bf8US4yFoeEeSSLUiMJBtTsyjE%2Fao

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U.S. reaches agreements with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to increase enforcement against migration.


By Michael D. Shear

April 12, 2021, 2:03 p.m. ET

The Biden administration announced Monday that it had reached agreements with the governments of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala for those countries to increase enforcement against migration toward the United States border.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the three countries have increased their numbers of police and troops in an attempt to keep migrants, including families with children, from making a dangerous trip north.

Mexico has informed the United States that it will maintain 10,000 troops at its own southern border, aiming to double the number of migrants that it stops from traveling north, Ms. Psaki said. Guatemala has added 1,500 troops to its border with Honduras and has set up a series of a dozen checkpoints along the route that many migrants take as they head to the United States.

She also said that Honduras recently “surged” 7,000 police and troops to disperse a contingent of migrants that had gathered to make the trip north seeking refuge.


The announcement of the agreements echoed several made by the Trump administration. In the summer of 2019, President Donald J. Trump agreed to drop his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico after the country agreed to send thousands of troops to intercept migrants making their way north to the border with the United States.

Ms. Psaki credited the work of Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, who has been serving as a senior border adviser on the National Security Council. Ms. Jacobson said last week that she intends to leave the administration, as initially planned, at the end of the month.

The Biden administration has repeatedly said that part of addressing illegal immigration from Central American countries involves working diplomatically to lessen the crime, corruption and poverty that often drives people to leave their homes seeking refuge.

President Biden last month put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the long-term effort to improve the conditions in that region. The agreements with the countries are an early test of the cooperation that Ms. Harris will need in order to succeed in that mission.

“These discussions are ongoing, over a period of time and take place at several levels of the government, both here and within these countries,” Ms. Psaki said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/politics/us-mexico-honduras-guatemala.html
 
SC Governor Blocks Biden Administration From Bringing Unaccompanied Children From Border

By Jack Phillips
April 12, 2021 Updated: April 12, 2021

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order on Monday that prohibits the federal government from bringing unaccompanied children from the U.S.-Mexico border to South Carolina.

McMaster issued the executive order in response to inquiries from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration of Children and Families about if the state had resources to place unaccompanied children in the state’s foster care facilities and group homes.

Michael Leach, the head of the South Carolina Department of Social Services, told McMaster about the federal government’s inquiries about taking children from the border and placing them in South Carolina’s foster care and group homes, according to a letter (pdf) dated on April 8.

“South Carolina’s children must always be given first priority for placement into foster care and the State’s strained resources must be directed to addressing the needs of its children,” McMaster stated.

He added: “Allowing the federal government to place an unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our state’s child welfare system for an unspecified length of time is an unacceptable proposition. We’ve been down this road with the federal government before and the state usually ends up ‘on the hook.’”

The Republican governor further stipulated that the “growing humanitarian crisis” along the U.S.-Mexico border needs to be addressed by the White House.

Allowing an influx of minors into the foster care system would place a strain on South Carolina social services’ capacity, his office said.

The federal government’s strategy, McMaster’s office added, will create a plan “to financially incentivize private providers in the short term to the extent that these facilities may prioritize the placement of unaccompanied migrant children over” the placement of South Carolina children. “The State may ultimately incur a long-term financial burden if families are not located in a timely manner and the federal government ceases providing direct support for unaccompanied minors,” according to the release.

According to the letter from Leach, at least “six private providers” have “indicated interest” in placing the unaccompanied children in South Carolina.

Leach’s letter noted that as of April 8, no unaccompanied children have been placed in South Carolina’s foster or group homes.

The executive order comes as a surge of illegal immigrants has amassed along the Southern Border, and as the Biden administration scrambles to find housing for unaccompanied children. So far, 11 facilities have been opened to accommodate the aliens.

As of March 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children in its custody.

Over the weekend, McMaster said he went to Texas to visit National Guardsmen from his state who are stationed there.

“At the border in Del Rio where building of the wall has ceased although the materials have been paid for. That is unacceptable,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/sc-governor-blocks-biden-administration-from-bringing-unaccompanied-children-from-border_3772723.html?&utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-04-12-3&mktids=8deabf3bef6e5c4315b0de73e477820d&est=4GPGFWQGO7yeil4nR1KRXIMBIYZsIFv28x%2F9Bk7X1gk7dY%2Bx4HsqJfIY
 
Immigration & Border Security

Texas Ranchers Dealing With Armed Smugglers on Land

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
April 15, 2021 Updated: April 15, 2021

McALLEN, Texas—Two heavily armed suspected smugglers drive down a dirt road to hand their cargo of illegal aliens over to the next vehicle. One, the front passenger, is filming the bumpy drive with one hand, while pointing an AR-15 with a drum magazine out the windshield.

They’re speaking Spanish, talking about how much farther to go. At one stage, the driver communicates over a radio to say, “I’m there, I’m there, hold on.”

Suddenly the vehicle arrives at a gate, where a pickup truck is waiting on the other side, and the driver and passenger yell to their cargo, “All of you, all, all, all, run, run,” along with a lot of cursing. The backseat passengers jump out and run to the waiting vehicle.

The incident occurred in Jim Hogg County, Texas, about 70 miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border.

Landowners and ranchers dozens of miles north of the border have long dealt with illegal aliens traversing their land as they try to evade Border Patrol highway checkpoints and law enforcement. They commonly leave gates open, which mixes stock; destroy fences and gates; light fires; break into properties; and steal property.

But today’s human smugglers and illegal aliens evading capture are different, said Susan Kibbe, executive director of the South Texas Property Rights Association. The smugglers are armed, and the illegal aliens are often convicted criminals.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY & SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW VIDEO

“It’s very disturbing when you have smugglers that have a connection with the cartels, on U.S. soil carrying high-powered, semi-automatic rifles,” Kibbe told The Epoch Times. She obtained the video from law enforcement after the smugglers posted it on Tik Tok.

Federal and local law enforcement are advising landowners to carry firearms on their own property, she said.

“These [smugglers] have become a lot more militant,” said Scott Frazier, Texas Farm Bureau board member, during a roundtable with GOP congress members on April 7. “You’re kind of scared of them. You’re kind of scared to be out on these ranches by yourself nowadays. Definitely scared to have your family here.”

The Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector in south Texas is the busiest in the country for illegal crossings. Since Oct. 1, 2020, agents in the sector have arrested 1,625 criminal aliens—almost four times the number during the same time period in the previous year.

“These criminal aliens were convicted here in the United States for crimes other than immigration, ranging from murder, sexual crimes, assault, and narcotics trafficking,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande border sector.

Currently, more than 1,000 illegal aliens are evading capture by Border Patrol each day along the border, and many will end up traversing private ranchlands to get further into the interior of the United States.

Kibbe said the South Texas Property Rights Association was formed in 2006 in response to border security issues. The group advocates for property owners to be able to enjoy and profit off their land.

She said problems with illegal aliens and smuggling have always existed, but “not to this extent.”

“There’s areas of Texas that have never experienced this before—like in the Del Rio Border Patrol sector. They’re getting overrun, and they don’t have the infrastructure that the Rio Grande Valley sector has,” she said.

“It’s a massive increase, and it pretty much aligns with the election and then the inauguration.”

Kibbe’s association is advocating for a return to Trump-era policies such as “Remain in Mexico,” which held illegal immigrants in Mexico while their case was adjudicated. President Joe Biden halted the policy and reverted to “catch-and-release,” which allows illegal immigrants to live and work in the United States until their immigration case is heard, often years in the future.

Warning to Parents

The small town of Cotulla, 70 miles north of Laredo on I-35 toward San Antonio, is being affected so much by illegal alien smuggling that the local school district sent a letter to warn parents.

The letter warns parents and guardians, “Please be watchful of your children as they are playing outside, walking home from school, or generally out of the house.”

The April 1 letter is signed by Cotulla Independent School District superintendent Jack Seals and La Salle County Sheriff Anthony Zertuche.

“Both our communities and the rural areas of the county have experienced a great increase in law enforcement chases and ‘bailouts,'” the letter reads.

Bailouts happen when law enforcement attempts to stop a vehicle that is transporting illegal aliens, but the driver stops and the passengers scatter before they can be detained.

Zertuche said his deputies have been responding to eight to 10 car chases per day in the county, a “big increase” over the past. “These chases sometimes end in bailouts inside the city limits,” the letter reads. “The Sheriff’s office has been on top of these and are apprehending all of those trying to flee after bailing out.”

The letter says the sheriff’s office has increased patrols around the schools, but advises parents to lock vehicles and property.

Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo

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