'The border is not secure': Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar says Biden's border policies allowed 'over 5 million' migrants to enter the US



Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar acknowledged on "Fox News Sunday" with Shannon Bream that the Biden administration's border is not secure.

Cuellar, whose district is on the U.S.-Mexico border, offered an honest take on the current state of the border crisis by recognizing that millions of migrants have entered the country since Biden took office.

Cuellar responded to Vice President Kamala Harris' comments last month on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours, and our administration," said Harris in September.

"First of all, no, the border is not secure," Cuellar told Bream. "When you have 1.7 million individuals last year, and then another 2.7, that's over 4.5 million individuals encountered at the border. Plus, if you add the getaways, that's going to be over 5 million individuals in just two years. No, the border is not secured, and we've got to make sure that we have repercussions there."

Cuellar, who described himself as a "conservative Democrat," explained that he warned the Biden administration about the problems facing the border towns and the lack of repercussions in December 2020.

"If you don't return people, then this is what you're going to have," Cuellar stated.

On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security reported 227,547 land border encounters in September. Fiscal year 2022 had the most migrant encounters in history at 2,378,944, a 37% increase from the previous fiscal year.

Cuellar noted that he supports the Biden administration's new agreement with Mexico to send back illegal Venezuelan immigrants. In the fiscal year 2022, there were reportedly over 187,000 Venezuelan migrant encounters.

"I saw the numbers from the Venezuelans that have dropped out," said Cuellar. "I actually want them to do that to every country. If we do that to every country, the numbers will go down. We will be able to control our borders. And that's important to us that live along the border."

Cuellar is up for reelection in Texas' 28th Congressional District against Republican candidate Cassy Garcia.

\u201cOn FOX News Sunday with Shannon Bream, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) offered up an honest assessment of the U.S. southern border: \u201cThe border is not secure\u201d under the Biden administration.\u201d
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio) 1666562819

The Biden Administration Just Forced Every American Town To Host Illegal Immigrants

Plot the no-go zones on a map, and it's clear the policy's real intent is to transform huge portions of our communities into havens for criminal aliens.

Biden officially ends Trump’s 'remain in Mexico' policy on asylum seekers



President Joe Biden's administration officially ended the controversial "remain in Mexico" policy that former President Donald Trump implemented in respect to migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security memo issued on Tuesday shut down the policy, technically known as Migrant Protection Protocols, after Biden had issued an executive order on Feb. 2 to have it reviewed for termination.

The MPP forced those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico instead of allowing them into the U.S. to await their documents to be processed.

Critics of the Biden administration have blamed his roll back of Trump immigration policies for the crisis at the border as an increasing number of migrants try to cross over. Border apprehensions during the first three month's of Biden's presidency exceeded that of the entire year before his presidency.

In response, Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of stemming the flow of migrants crossing from Mexico, saying, that he could think of "nobody who is better qualified to do this."

The memo from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday claimed that the policy was ineffective because of the increase of arrests at the border.

"Moreover, in making my assessment, I share the belief that we can only manage migration in an effective, responsible, and durable manner if we approach the issue comprehensively, looking well beyond our own borders," Mayorkas added.

An analysis from DHS in Nov. 2019 found that the MPP had been successful in returning thousands of asylum seekers to their home countries.

In March, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador warned his citizens that they should not believe the deceptive messaging from human traffickers telling them that Biden would regularize any immigrant illegally in the United States.

Here's more about the end of Trump's immigration policy:

Biden rolls back remain-in-Mexico policy, allowing in asylum seekerswww.youtube.com

Greg Gutfeld proposes 'Adopt-a-Gang-Banger' solution for Democrats who don't want to deport gang members



Fox News host Greg Gutfeld suggested Monday that Democratic politicians who don't want to remove illegal immigrant gang members from the country should enroll in a program to adopt them into their own homes instead.

Gutfeld pitched the mock charity, which he called, "Adopt-a-Gang-Banger," in response to a call from Democratic politicians, including progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), to end the process of prioritizing the deportation of gang members.

In a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tae Johnson, Ocasio-Cortez along with 34 of her Democratic colleagues denounced immigration enforcement practices that rely on a "discriminatory criminal legal system."

Citing the nation's ongoing "racial reckoning," the lawmakers called for an end to the inhuman and unjust "carceral approach" to immigration — which effectively results in the imprisonment or deportation of criminal illegal aliens.

Failing to suggest any concrete alternative solution to the problem, the lawmakers merely urged the Biden administration to "pursue humane and just immigration policies" and "welcome those seeking humanitarian relief."

Gutfeld, on the other hand, had a couple substantive ideas to offer.

"So I have two solutions," he said. "If you are a Democrat and feel strongly about not deporting gang members, I have an Adopt-a-Gang-Banger charity. For just 350 bucks a month you can adopt a gang banger, OK? Each week you are going to get a photo and a handwritten letter from the gang banger telling you who he has assaulted and raped and murdered, and in three months he could be yours to live at your house."

Moving on to his second idea, which he called the "Idiot Thug Exchange Program," Gutfeld proposed allowing criminal gang members to stay in the country if two leftist academics or politicos could be deported in their place.

"It works like this," he said. "We will keep one of your thugs as long as they are under 25, because there is a possibility of rehabilitation, [and] in return you get two far-left media academics who are over 25 because they aren't — there is no ability to rehab them because the ideas are so poisoned in their brain."

"I will take a gang banger over a gender studies professor in a heartbeat," he concluded.

Biden stops ICE from making arrests at courthouses



The Biden administration on Tuesday acted to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from making immigration arrests at courthouses, reversing a controversial Trump administration policy.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas issued directions to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) placing new limits on arrests made at courthouses. The intent of the policy is to remove the "chilling effect" placed on migrants who were unwilling to report crimes or testify in court for fear of arrest and deportation, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

Under a 2018 directive from the previous administration, ICE officers were instructed to take immigration enforcement action against "specific, targeted aliens with criminal convictions, gang members, national security or public safety threats, aliens who have been ordered removed from the United States but have failed to depart, and aliens who have re-entered the country illegally after being removed."

The Trump policy was opposed by immigration rights activists and civil liberties groups who warned that illegal immigrants who were witnesses or victims of crimes would be discouraged from using the U.S. legal system for remedy.

New York state and others sued ICE to stop arrests at courthouses, calling the policy "unlawful and unconstitutional."

The new directive from the Biden administration supersedes former President Donald Trump's 2018 order, mostly ending that policy.

"Ensuring that individuals have access to the courts advances the fair administration of justice, promotes safety for crime victims, and helps to guarantee equal protection under the law," said Secretary Mayorkas. "The expansion of civil immigration arrests at courthouses during the prior administration had a chilling effect on individuals' willingness to come to court or work cooperatively with law enforcement. Today's guidance is the latest step in our efforts to focus our civil immigration enforcement resources on threats to homeland security and public safety."

ICE is now instructed to only make arrests at courthouses in "limited instances," including for national security reasons, or if there is an imminent risk of death, violence, or physical harm to a person. Arrests made during "hot pursuit of an individual who poses a threat to public safety" or while "there is an imminent risk of destruction of evidence material to a criminal case" are also exempted.

"The interim guidance also makes clear that civil immigration enforcement is permitted against public safety threats in the absence of hot pursuit where necessary and with prior approval," DHS said.

While Congress remains gridlocked on the immigration crisis, Florida's Republican governor forges ahead with reforms

While America's illegal immigration crisis continues at the southern border, the push for immigration reform and border security in Washington, D.C. remains caught in a state of seemingly never-ending gridlock and obstructions. However, Florida's recently elected Republican governor is making moves of his own to address the situation for his own state.

On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared that the state would work to implement e-verify requirements in the Sunshine State.

“Today, I am calling on the Florida Legislature to pass and send to my desk common sense E-Verify legislation to ensure a safe and legal labor market in Florida,” DeSantis stated on Monday. “The reason this is so timely is twofold – it’s about fairness for lawful immigrants and native-born workers, and it’s about public safety.”

At a Monday press conference, the governor explained that "it's long-standing federal law that, in order to be eligible for employment, you have to be here lawfully. Maybe you're a U.S. citizen, maybe you're a lawful permanent resident, maybe you're on a visa, whatever. But you have to fit in one of those legally prescribed categories."

E-Verify is a federal, internet-based system meant to help employers ensure that they only hire people legally eligible to work in the United States by checking records against government databases. Mandatory implementation of the service has long been a major demand among immigration hawks.

After noting several other states in the Southeast that already have E-Verify requirements, DeSantis explained that using the system both "creates a disincentive for people to come illegally" and also "further tightens the labor market," which would benefit the state's blue-collar workers.

In a statement supporting the governor's initiative, Florida Senator Joe Gruters said that the proposed E-Verify requirement "will protect Florida workers against unfair job competition and wage depression.”

In addition to confronting the economic challenges presented by America's illegal immigration problem, DeSantis has also made moves to confront the public safety problems it creates with an effort to get the state's prison system to work more closely with federal immigration authorities.

DeSantis signed a state-level ban on sanctuary jurisdictions earlier this year. Currently, his administration has been working on an effort to get prison guards at a state correctional facility deputized as federal immigration officers under Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) cooperation program. A story at the Tampa Bay Times cites a statement from the Florida Department of Corrections, which said Friday that the state's plan had been "reviewed and approved" by the feds and that the state is now “awaiting official notification of the Memorandum of Agreement from ICE.”

According to ICE, the 287(g) program enables "state and local officers to act as a force multiplier in the identification, arrest, and service of warrants and detainers of incarcerated foreign-born individuals with criminal charges or convictions," thereby helping to keep them from getting back out into American communities.

And despite the pushback that DeSantis has received from opponents of the enforcement efforts, Floridians appear pretty satisfied with the overall job he's done so far in Tallahassee. Recent polling shows the former House Freedom Caucus member with 72 percent voter approval in the state.

The immigration debate may appear hopelessly hamstrung for the foreseeable future, but Florida's moves on the issue remind us that the same doesn't have to be true at the state level.

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Convicted sex offender caught by Border Patrol had already been deported 3 times

Federal authorities say they stopped an illegal alien sex offender with a history of re-entry from getting back into the United States earlier this week.

A Wednesday news release from Customs and Border Protection says that Border Patrol agents at Eagle Pass, Texas, stopped 42-year-old Honduran national Felix Canales-Padilla on Sunday after he tried to get into the United States illegally. When CBP started to process him, a check of his past records showed that he had been convicted of "felony child enticement - sexual contact" in 2001 in Wisconsin and was subsequently deported in 2002.

Records also revealed that he also re-entered the U.S. in 2005 and 2012 and was also deported both times. Since he's a convicted felon, the release explains, the suspect could face up to 20 years in prison for illegal re-entry. CBP says that it does record checks on everyone it apprehends "to ensure those with criminal history are positively identified regardless of their immigration status."

“By stopping dangerous criminals at the border, U.S. Border Patrol agents protect communities throughout the country,” Del Rio Sector chief patrol agent Raul L. Ortiz said in a statement. “Our border enforcement and national security missions are fulfilled when people like this are prevented from reaching the interior of the country and potentially doing more harm.”

The Trump administration has made a priority of punishing illegal re-entry. Justice Department numbers from August show that 72 percent of federal prosecutions against non-citizens were for illegal re-entry in 2018, compared to .3 percent of them for first-time illegal entry. Last month, DOJ reported that this past fiscal year had seen an 8.5 percent increase in felony re-entry prosecutions from the previous fiscal year.

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9-time-deported Mexican alien charged with fentanyl trafficking

A Mexican illegal immigrant deported from the United States at least nine times is now facing drug trafficking charges, according to federal authorities.

Late last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the indictment of 27-year-old Mexican national Luis Tapia on charges of intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl and illegal re-entry to the United States.

According news releases from both ICE and DOJ, Tapia was apprehended at his residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, last month. He reportedly tried to escape authorities through a second-floor window and then locked himself in a closet before being apprehended.

In the month prior to his arrest, feds say, the suspect fled law enforcement at a traffic stop where he falsely identified himself as his brother, who is currently in the U.S. as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiary. The releases explain that the suspect cannot qualify for DACA amnesty due to prior felony convictions.

ICE says it has records of Taipa being deported nine times since 2012, with the most recent deportation taking place in April 2018.

Relatively cheap and potent, fentanyl is used as an additive in all kinds of illicit drugs on the black market such as heroin and cocaine, making it a key driver of overdose deaths in the ongoing drug crisis. Even a very tiny amount of the synthetic opioid can be deadly. According to the DEA, “as little as two milligrams is a lethal dosage in most people.”

The releases did not elaborate on the details leading to the drug charges, but said that the suspect had been charged with possession of over 400 grams of fentanyl with intent to distribute, which carries a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Illegally re-entering the United States after being removed is a felony under federal immigrant law. Justice Department numbers from August show that 72 percent of federal prosecutions against non-citizens were for illegal re-entry in 2018, while a mere .3 percent of them were for first-time illegal entry.

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Spouse of Saudi student sentenced to 12 years for covering up al Qaeda training

The direct cause of 9/11 was the fact that it was so easy for primarily Saudi nationals to obtain visas and remain in the country unvetted. Eighteen years later, we still have not learned the lesson that immigration policy is the cornerstone of national security.

At present, there are roughly 45,000 foreign students here on F visas from Saudi Arabia, much more than we admitted in 2001. Worse, we take an unlimited number of unvetted foreign students and easily grant their spouses F-2 visas when marriage and visa fraud have been known terrorist loopholes. The case of Naif Abdulaziz M. Alfallaj should remind lawmakers of the need for visa reform.

In a case eerily similar to the profile of the 9/11 hijackers, on Feb. 5, 2018, Naif Alfallaj was arrested by the FBI and charged with lying about his past history with al Qaeda in order to get a visa. He came in late 2011 from Saudi Arabia on an F-2 visa as the husband of a foreign student.  According to the complaint, Alfallaj applied for flight lessons in Oklahoma based on the issuance of that visa. At the time, he denied any ties to terror, but fingerprints on an application to the notorious al Farooq al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan showed otherwise. According to the FBI, “The document was recovered by the U.S. military from an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan and included an emergency contact number associated with Alfallaj’s father in Saudi Arabia.”

Al Farooq was one of the camps where the 9/11 hijackers trained. Hani Hasan Hanjour, the 9/l1 hijacker who piloted the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, was admitted in September 2000 on an F-1 student visa from Saudi Arabia. Yet 10 years later, Alfallaj was able to obtain a similar entry after having trained at the very same camp and having used to the visa to apply for flight school in Oklahoma.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Scott L. Palk sentenced Alfallaj to 151 months’ imprisonment for visa fraud and giving false statements to federal agents.

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Five-time illegal alien re-entrant accused of threatening ICE officers arrested in Texas, feds say

A Mexican national who illegally entered the U.S. at least five different times and is accused of threatening to shoot Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers has been arrested, federal authorities announced Tuesday.

According to an ICE news release, 30-year-old Mexican national Cesar Diaz-Rodriguez was arrested in Houston, Texas, this week for illegal re-entry. He was last removed from the U.S. in 2017 after a felony firearms conviction. Before that, he was sent back to Mexico twice in 2004 and once in 2011.

ICE says it has "several anonymous tips" that the fugitive has also threatened to shoot its officers and that those tips helped locate him for the arrest. The investigation is being conducted as a joint effort between the agency's offices in Houston and Boise, Idaho.

“This individual brazenly ignored U.S. immigration law, while simultaneously threatening the lives of the brave men and women sworn to uphold it,” Patrick Contreras, field office director for ICE Houston, said in the release. “By working together with our partners from ERO Boise, we have removed this dangerous criminal alien from the community before he could act on those cowardly threats.”

Re-entering the United States after being removed is a felony under federal law. A Justice Department report from August shows that 72 percent of federal prosecutions against non-citizens are for illegal re-entry, while a mere .3 percent of them are made against first-time immigration violators.

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