Rubio Bill Expanded Visa Program Used by San Bernardino Terrorists

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When I was fighting the Gang of Eight bill in 2013, one of my observations was that this legislation provided much more than amnesty for illegal aliens already here. It created a permanent open border policy across the spectrum of legal and illegal immigration.

One such provision was Section 2310 (page 426), which would have massively expanded the K-1 fiancé visa program, the very visa that San Bernardino terrorist Tafsheen Malik used to gain permanent residence in our country. While the underlying premise of this program makes sense, it has been rife with fraud and 99.7% of requests for K-1 visas have been approved in 2014. According to CIS, “[C]lose to half of the aliens initially slated for K-1 visas (and marriages) did not get married in the United States as planned.”

Section 2310 of the Rubio bill would have extended the courtesy of K-1 visas from foreign fiancés of U.S. citizens to foreign fiancés of legal permanent residents! This would have set off a phenomenon of mass fraudulent chain migration. Think about it this way. We have a record number of immigrants living in this country, particularly from the third world and—most prominent to our discussion—the Middle East. Any one of those individuals, under this bill, could have brought in fiancés from similar countries with the same 99.7% success rate. Also, the millions of illegal aliens awarded amnesty under this bill would have been entitled to bring in fiancés, creating a likely scenario of newly amnestied aliens immediately bringing in a relative or friend under fraudulent pretenses of marriage.

Moreover, by extension, this bill would have extended the K-2 visas—a license to bring in the children of the foreign-born fiancé (even from a previous spouse)—to those spouses of legal immigrants residing in the U.S. The chain migration that would have resulted is bad enough, but could you imagine the endless security risks? As many U.S. citizen Muslim terrorists as there unfortunately are in this country, there are probably even more non-citizen immigrants from the Middle East who likely maintain even stronger ties to their countries of origin. It would have been so easy to bring in limitless numbers of Tafsheen Maliks.

What is also disturbing is that, as Jessica Vaughn noted, immigration officials fail to adequately check into the background of those who sponsor immigrant visas. If the lack of screening of U.S. citizen-sponsors has created a security risk, allowing all immigrants to sponsor visas would be a security nightmare. Remember, there are hundreds of thousands of known criminal legal immigrants in this country that have never been deported but would have been eligible to sponsor visas.

One of the observations from last night’s debate that was lost in the shuffle is that, once again, Marco Rubio did not disavow the Gang of Eight bill. He just repeated the mantra that the American people don’t trust the bill. This jives with his previous comments that, in his estimation, the bill did in actuality have the requisite security measures.

The K-1 provision is just one of many components of this bill that would have presented us with a clear and present security danger, not to mention a massive social and fiscal drain.

No wonder Obama’s former speechwriter said last night that the White House was “very appreciative” of Rubio’s work on immigration.

(For more from the author of “Rubio Bill Expanded Visa Program Used by San Bernardino Terrorists” please click HERE)

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TV Star Fires Back at Bernie Sander’s Plan for College for All Americans

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TV personality Mike Rowe has a large following on social media. He has almost 3 million Facebook fans. So, when he speaks a lot of people hear what he has to say.

Rowe wasn’t very pleased with Bernie Sanders tweet about sending people to college being cheaper than sending them to jail. Over 100,000 people like his post questioning whether a college education is the best past for most people. He is perplexed by the thought of an elected official comparing the inflated cost of a college degree diploma with the hyper-inflated cost of incarceration.

At the end of the day, providing a path to go to college is a helluva lot cheaper than putting people on a path to jail.

Posted by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, December 13, 2015

This is Mike Rowe’s response on Facebook. It has been shared nearly 60,000 times . . .

I wonder sometimes, if the best way to question the increasingly dangerous idea that a college education is the best path for the most people, is to stop fighting the sentiment directly, and simply shine a light on the knuckleheads who continue to perpetuate this nonsense. This latest tweet from Bernie Sanders is a prime example. In less than 140 characters, he’s managed to imply that a path to prison is the most likely alternative to a path to college. Pardon my acronym, but…WTF!?

Historically, universities have promoted themselves at the expense of many other forms of “alternative education.” The implicit suggestion, reinforced daily by a generation of well-intended guidance counselors and misguided parents, is always the same – get yourself a four-year degree, or accept one of the many “vocational consolation prizes” that result from all other forms of “lesser knowledge.”

(Read more from “TV Star Fires Back at Bernie Sander’s Plan for College for All Americans” HERE)

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Team Led by Middle Eastern Woman Caught Surveilling U.S. Facility on Mexican Border

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A Middle Eastern woman was caught surveilling a U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border holding a sketchbook with Arabic writing and drawings of the facility and its security system, federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch.

The woman has been identified as 23-year-old Leila Abdelrazaq, according to a Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) report obtained by JW this week. Abdelrazaq appeared to have two accomplices, a 31-year-old man named Gabriel Schivone and a 28-year-old woman named Leslie Mcafee. CBP agents noticed the trio “observing the facilities” at the Port of Mariposa in Nogales, Arizona on December 2. Schivone was first noticed inside the entrance of the pedestrian area while the two women stood outside by the entry door, the CPB document states.

When federal officers asked Abdelrazaq why she was drawing sketches of the facilities she “stated because she’s never been to the border,” according to the CBP report. Abdelrazaq resisted showing officers the sketchbook, citing personal reasons, but subsequently handed it over. “During the inspection of the Abdelrazaq sketching book, CBPOs noticed the book contained writings in English and Arabic language,” federal officers write in the document. “There were drawings of what appeared to be vehicle primary inspection area and an additional drawing of pedestrian turn stile gate depicting video surveillance cameras above the gate.” The report proceeds to reveal that the drawings were “partial and incomplete.”

This distressing information comes on the heels of two separate—and equally alarming—incidents in the same vicinity. A few weeks ago JW reported that five young Middle Eastern men were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in Amado, an Arizona town situated about 30 miles from the Mexican border. Two of the men were carrying stainless steel cylinders in backpacks, alarming Border Patrol officials enough to call the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for backup. DHS officially denies this ever occurred, but law enforcement and other sources have confirmed to JW that the two men carrying the cylinders were believed to be taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (Read more from “Team Led by Middle Eastern Woman Caught Surveilling U.S. Facility on Mexican Border” HERE)

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Poll: Americans Trust GOP over Democrats on Guns, Terrorism and Economy

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A PEW Research Poll released December 15 shows the American public trusts Republicans over Democrats when it comes to guns, terrorism, and the economy . . .

According to PEW, the public supports Republicans on guns by a margin of 43 percent to 37 percent. Regarding the “terror threat,” the public sides with Republicans over Democrats 46 percent to 34 percent. On the economy they side with Republicans by a margin of 42 percent to 37 percent. . . .

Regarding the public’siding with Republicans over Democrats when it comes to guns, the different approaches of the two parties are stark. Republicans reacted to the San Bernardino terror attacks by focusing on border security and mental health, whereas Democrats reacted by wanting to expand gun control and introducing a ban on the manufacture of AR-15s and related weapons.

When it comes to terrorism, 46 percent of the public believes Islam is “more likely than [other religions] to encourage violence among its believers” versus 45 percent who do not. And when broken down by party affiliation, only 30 percent of Democrats believe Islam tends toward violence while 65 percent of Republicans believe it does. (Read more from “Poll: Americans Trust GOP over Democrats on Guns, Terrorism and Economy” HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Unscathed in Spending Bill

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Planned Parenthood is praising Democrats in Congress after the spending bill released early Wednesday morning spared the organization from cuts.

As expected, the spending bill does not defund Planned Parenthood, a clear deal-breaker for Democrats, but the absence of spending cuts is still noteworthy given the intensity of the push to defund the group earlier this year.

Planned Parenthood Vice President Dana Singiser praised congressional Democrats on Wednesday for “holding the line against these harmful policy riders and cuts to key women’s health programs.”

“Extreme members of Congress spent an entire year targeting access to reproductive health care at every opportunity — even threatening to shut down the government,” she added. “Today’s budget bill maintains access to critical preventive health services and lacks these harmful attacks on women’s health care — at home and abroad.”

After pushing for complete defunding of Planned Parenthood ahead of the Oct. 1 funding deadline, the conservative House Freedom Caucus scaled back its demands to a call for compromise language that would give states the ability to choose to defund the group. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Unscathed in Spending Bill” HERE)

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More than 30 Immigrants Admitted to the U.S. Have Been Recently Implicated in Terrorism

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In advance of the release of Congress’ year-end spending package, the office of Sen. Jeff Sessions is highlighting some terrorists who were recently granted access to the U.S. through the nation’s immigration system.

In an email to reporters Tuesday, a Sessions aide listed more than 30 examples of immigrants admitted to the U.S. who were recently implicated in terrorist activities.

Sessions, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, and other conservative lawmakers have warned against passing a spending bill that does not place limitations on admissions — in particular refugee admission — to the U.S.

“Congress must cancel the President’s blank refugee check and put Congress back in charge of the program. We cannot allow the President to unilaterally decide how many refugees he wishes to admit, nor continue to force taxpayers to pick up the tab for the tens of billions of unpaid-for welfare and entitlement costs,” Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations subcommittee, said in a joint statement last week.

The pair added that passing the spending deal without limiting language “would put the U.S. on a path to approve admission for hundreds of thousands of migrants from a broad range of countries with jihadists movements over the next 12 months, on top of all the other autopilot annual immigration – absent language to reduce the numbers.” (Read more from “More than 30 Immigrants Admitted to the U.S. Have Been Recently Implicated in Terrorism” HERE)

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Mistrial Declared in Trial of Officer William Porter in Death of Freddie Gray

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A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter after jurors said they had failed to reach an agreement on any of the charges against him in the death of Freddie Gray.

The decision, which came a day after jurors told Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams they were deadlocked, frustrated activists who had watched the first trial in Gray’s death closely. Outside the downtown courtroom, city officials and community leaders pleaded for calm, and authorities reported two arrests, but no violence or serious disruptions.

Porter, 26, the first of six police officers to be tried in Gray’s death, remains charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. Gray, 25, died in April after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in the back of a police van.

Jurors deliberated for three days before Williams declared the mistrial. The decision now throws the other trials into flux.

Prosecutors chose to try Porter first, planning to use him as a witness at the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson. Goodson, who is charged with second-degree murder, was slated for trial in the first week of January. (Read more from “Mistrial Declared in Trial of Officer William Porter in Death of Freddie Gray” HERE)

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High School Seniors Now Prefer Marijuana to Cigarettes

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More students in the 12th grade said they smoked pot every day, compared to those who smoke daily cigarettes, finds a new federal report. It’s the first time since the survey began in 1975 that daily marijuana use surpassed cigarettes.

The “Monitoring the Future” survey released on Wednesday shows that 6% of 12th graders used marijuana every day—about the same rate as last year—while 5.5% of seniors reported smoking cigarettes daily. (That’s a drop from 2014, when 6.7% of high school seniors smoked cigarettes every day.)

Their perceptions of pot also changed; fewer students think it’s dangerous. Almost 32% of seniors said they thought regular marijuana use could be harmful, compared to 36% who felt that way last year. “The sense that marijuana has medicinal purposes and that doctors are prescribing it creates a sense that this drug cannot be so harmful,” says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (the group that funded the research).

Volkow says she is surprised that marijuana rates didn’t rise from 2014, after the past year’s attitude and policy changes surrounding the legalization of marijuana. “All of those factors have led many to predict that there would be an increase in the pattern of use of marijuana among teenagers, and we are not seeing it,” she says. Still, it was one of the only substances in the report that did not decline in usage. (Read more from “High School Seniors Now Prefer Marijuana to Cigarettes” HERE)

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More Allegiance to Liberals, ‘Alinksy-Like Tactics’ Cruz, Rand Spar with Rubio on NSA, Immigration

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By Ian Hanchett. Republican presidential candidates Texas Senator Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Senator Sen. Rand Paul sparred with fellow candidate Florida Senator Sen. Marco Rubio on the NSA and immigration during CNN’s prime GOP presidential debate.

Cruz said that the USA Freedom Act, “ended the federal government’s bulk collection of phone medadata of millions of law-abiding citizens. But number two, and the second half of it that is critical, it strengthened the tools of national security and law enforcement to go after terrorists. It gave us greater tools, and we are seeing those tools work right now in San Bernardino. And in particular, what it did, is the prior program only covered a relatively narrow slice of phone calls. When you had a terrorist, you could only search a relatively narrow slice of numbers, primarily landlines. The USA Freedom Act expands that, so now we have cell phones, now we have Internet phones, now we have the phones that terrorists are likely to use, and the focus of law enforcement is on targeting the bad guys. You know, what the Obama administration keeps getting wrong, is whenever anything bad happens they focus on law-abiding citizens, instead of focusing on the bad guys. We need to focus on radical Islamic terrorists, and we need to stop them before they carry out acts of terror.”

Rubio responded that Cruz is wrong, along with others who voted for the act. He added, “This is radical jihadist group that is increasingly sophisticated, and its ability, for example to radicalize American citizens, and its inability to exploit loopholes in our legal immigration system. It’s ability to capture to hold territory in the Middle East, as I outlined earlier, in multiple countries. This is not just the most capable, it is the most sophisticated terror threat we have ever faced. We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools. And that tool we lost, the metadata program, was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal.”

Cruz answered, “I would note that Marco knows what he’s what he’s saying isn’t true. You know, Mark Levin wrote a column last week that says that the attack ads his super PAC is running that are saying the same thing, that they are knowingly false, and they are in fact Alinsky-like attacks like Barack Obama.” (Read more from “More Allegiance to Liberals, ‘Alinksy-Like Tactics’ Cruz, Rand Spar with Rubio on NSA, Immigration” HERE)


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AP FACT CHECK: Republican Debaters Go Astray

By Associated Press. A look at some of the claims in the latest Republican presidential debate and how they compare with the facts:

JEB BUSH: “We need to embed our troops in the Iraqi military.”

THE FACTS: The U.S. is already doing that.

U.S. special forces are working side by side with Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State militants and American military advisers and trainers are working with Iraqi troops in various locations. To be sure, Bush has called for an intensification of the military effort in a variety of ways, but debate viewers would not know from his comment that U.S. troops are already operating with Iraqi and Kurdish forces. (Read more from “AP FACT CHECK: Republican Debaters Go Astray” HERE)

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Donald Trump Takes up for Jeb Bush in Debate Rant Against CNN Moderators

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When Jeb Bush wrapped up yet another response Tuesday night to a debate question pertaining to Donald Trump, the front-runner spoke up in defense of his less prominent rivals.

“I think it’s very sad,” Trump said to moderator Hugh Hewitt, “that CNN leads Jeb Bush … down a road by starting off virtually all of the questions [with] ‘Mr. Trump this …’ I think it’s very sad.”

He went on to recall the first debate, during which he said “the first number of questions” began with direct references to him . . .

The united front was short-lived, however, as Trump and Bush soon began bickering anew by questioning each other’s toughness. Candidates Carly Fiorina and John Kasich chimed in to break it up, representing those who feel such in-fighting among those in the primary race is counterproductive to the common goal of replacing Barack Obama with a Republican. (Read more from “Donald Trump Takes up for Jeb Bush in Debate Rant Against CNN Moderators” HERE)

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