Twitter and Facebook Deny ‘Shadowbanning’ in Senate Hearing

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Representatives from both Twitter and Facebook denied engaging in “shadowbanning” in response to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) t0day, although Twitter’s representative went on to describe practices that mirrors the covert censorship almost exactly.

“Does Twitter or Facebook engage in shadowbans?” asked Sen. Cruz, during today’s Senate judiciary committee hearing on technological censorship.

Turning to Twitter’s representative, Sen. Cruz said “you testified before, or you acknowledged that Twitter will downgrade a comment to make it less visible. Does Twitter notify a person if their comment has been downgraded?”

“If we have signals indicating that a person is being a spammy, meaning they are using multiple accounts to do the same, if they are doing automated activity but we’re not 100 percent sure that they are breaking our rules, if they’re abusive then what we will do is make it harder for that content to be found in a couple of different places – one is in search results, and the other is in conversations — the replies.” . . .

“At no point, sir, is a person’s followers unable to find what that person has tweeted,” said the Twitter spokesman. (Read more from “Twitter and Facebook Deny ‘Shadowbanning’ in Senate Hearing” HERE)

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Ex-Obama Lawyer Expects to Be Indicted in Mueller-Related Case

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The legal team for former Obama White House lawyer Greg Craig say that they expect Craig to be indicted in the near future on charges related to work that he performed in 2012 for the Russia-aligned government of Ukraine.

“Mr. Craig has refused to accept a plea deal, and the matter could be presented to a grand jury for indictment as soon as Thursday, people familiar with the matter say,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The people familiar with the situation say they believe Mr. Craig will be charged with making false statements to the Justice Department unit that oversees the activities of foreign agents, though other charges are possible.”

The case against the 74-year-old Democrat — who has served in senior legal positions under two Democrat presidents — originated from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“This case was thoroughly investigated by the SDNY and that office decided not to pursue charges against Mr. Craig,” Craig’s legal team said in a statement. “We expect an indictment by the DC US Attorney’s Office at the request of the National Security Division. Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government’s stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion.” . . .

“Craig resigned from Skadden in April 2018 amid a building investigation into whether the firm’s lawyers failed to register as foreign lobbyists for their Ukraine engagement,” The Washington Post reported. “Prosecutors have been investigating whether Craig issued false statements to the Justice Department in 2013 as officials made inquiries to the firm about whether its work required public registration, people familiar with the case said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the ongoing probe.” (Read more from “Ex-Obama Lawyer Expects to Be Indicted in Mueller-Related Case” HERE)

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Starr Admits He Omitted in FBI Report That Hillary Catalyzed Vince Foster’s Suicide

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According to Ronald Kessler, the author of “The First Family Detail,” which revolved around Secret Service agents working for various presidents, independent counsel Ken Starr omitted his conclusion that former First Lady Hillary Clinton had catalyzed the suicide of President Clinton’s Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster in his final FBI report because Starr was mindful of Hillary Clinton’s feelings.

As Kessler writes in The Daily Mail, he asked Starr last weekend at the 2019 Annapolis Book Festival why Starr had not included that information in his FBI report. Kessler stated that Starr responded he “did not want to inflict further pain” on Hillary Clinton. Kessler wrote, “In interviews for my book The First Family Detail, the FBI agents who worked the case for Starr revealed the truth about Foster’s death when he shot himself at Fort Marcy Park along the Potomac River.”

Kessler noted, “FBI agents found that a week before Foster’s death, Hillary as First Lady held a meeting at the White House with Foster and other top aides to discuss her proposed health care legislation. Hillary violently disagreed with a legal objection Foster raised at the meeting and ridiculed him in front of his peers, former FBI agent Coy Copeland and former FBI supervisory agent Jim Clemente told me.”

Kessler quoted Copeland saying, “’Hillary put him down really, really bad in a pretty good-size meeting. She told him he didn’t get the picture, and he would always be a little hick town lawyer who was obviously not ready for the big time.” Kessler wrote that Clemente asserted that Hillary blamed Foster for the Clintons’ problems and said he had failed them. Clemente added, “Foster was profoundly depressed, but Hillary lambasting him was the final straw because she publicly embarrassed him in front of others … Hillary blamed him for failed nominations, claimed he had not vetted them properly, and said in front of his White House colleagues, ‘You’re not protecting us’ and ‘You have failed us.’ That was the final blow.” (Read more from “Starr Admits He Omitted in FBI Report That Hillary Catalyzed Vince Foster’s Suicide” HERE)

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SHOCK: College Student Awakens, Sees Roommate Watching Shapiro Video. Then Student Does This.

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Last September, a Michigan State University student took a nap and awakened to a nightmare: his roommate was watching a video of Daily Wire Editor-In-Chief Ben Shapiro. The trauma endured by that student triggered the student to grab their computer and file a complaint with the administration’s bias reporting system, which permits students to make reports anonymously. The student wrote, “Ben Shapiro is known for his inflammatory speech that criticizes and attacks the African American community. I thought hate had no place on MSU’s campus yet MSU has roomed me with someone who supports hate speach [sic].”

As Christian Schneider reported for The College Fix, “In response to the complaint, the university tasked an investigator to look into the matter, who was told to work for a ‘room change if the claimant would like one.’” The College Fix obtained 35 reports gleaned from the Michigan State’s “Public Incident” website in the fall semester of 2018. . .

Schneider also noted that professors can be written up by students; one case involved a professor who asserted that the concept of “sex” is different to people of different ages, noting older people see it as a binary situation. One student reported, “The ‘joke’ implies that being transgender or intersex is something people age in and out of … I approached him after the presentation and told him that it is unacceptable to make transphobic jokes and he cannot do that again, but again, he didn’t really seem to understand, and didn’t respond,” adding that the professor “has a past history of making insensitive remarks about other groups, so anything is possible.” (Read more from “SHOCK: College Student Awakens, Sees Roommate Watching Shapiro Video. Then Student Does This.” HERE)

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Poll Reveals How Dem Women Feel About Joe Biden Groping

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Recent allegations of former Vice President Joe Biden’s inappropriate touching of women dominated political headlines for most of last week, but a new poll indicates voters in one of the country’s largest states don’t consider it a serious issue.

A Quinnipiac University public opinion survey of California voters also suggests that Biden – who’s likely to launch a White House bid in the coming weeks – is the leader of the pack in the Golden State among the large field of contenders vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Two-thirds of voters questioned in the live operator survey – including 67 percent of women, 71 percent of Democrats, and even 55 percent of Republicans – said the controversy was not a serious issue.

“‘Let Biden be Biden,’ say California voters, clearly unconcerned about former Vice President Joe Biden’s tactile embrace of supporters,” Quinnipiac Polling assistant director Tim Malloy said. “But there is one noticeable generational split. The youngest of voters are far more inclined to say, ‘hands off.'”

Biden’s well publicized and decades long affectionate brand of physical politics was thrust into the spotlight nearly two weeks ago, thanks to allegations from 2014 Nevada Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Lucy Flores. She said in an essay published in New York Magazine that Biden made her feel “uneasy, gross, and confused” at a campaign rally when she said he kissed her on the back of the head. Her claims quickly went viral and became a top cable news story for a week. (Read more from “Poll Reveals How Dem Women Feel About Joe Biden Groping” HERE)

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ICE Arrests 123 Criminal Aliens in New Jersey

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There is a lot of focus in the political class about the effects of mass migration on the illegal immigrants themselves, but there is not much focus on the criminals we are letting in who harm Americans. To get a sense of the magnitude of the criminal alien problem in this country, consider that ICE just arrested 123 criminal aliens in one operation in New Jersey, a state where the local officials don’t readily hand over those charged with crimes to federal immigration officials.

On Monday, ICE announced it had completed a month-long operation in New Jersey to arrest 123 illegal aliens, of which “90 percent had prior criminal convictions and/or pending criminal charges.” The majority of those targeted were illegal aliens who were previously arrested or convicted for DUI. However, the criminal histories were vast and diverse.

“Some individuals also had arrests or convictions for sexual assault on a minor, child abuse, possession of narcotics, distribution of narcotics, fraud, criminal restraint, domestic violence, possession of a weapon, aggravated assault, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child, fraud, promoting gambling, shoplifting, burglary, forgery and illegal reentry,” announced ICE in a press release.

Many of the individuals who had prior DUI offenses were also charged or convicted for other grave crimes, and some were also previously deported and re-entered illegally. For example, a 38-year-old previously deported Mexican national had a conviction for DUI and indecent assault of a minor. A 39-year-old Mexican national had a prior conviction for DUI plus endangering sexual contact with a minor. A 42-year-old previously deported Ecuadorian illegal alien had a prior conviction for criminal sexual contact and a recent arrest for DUI.

In December, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued a directive banning law enforcement from, among other things, participating “in civil immigration enforcement operations conducted by ICE” and providing “ICE with access to state or local law enforcement resources, including equipment, office space, databases, or property, unless those resources are readily available to the public.” What this does, in effect, is keep ICE in the dark when most illegal aliens are arrested for DUI, drug trafficking, and even sexual assault.

Even those illegal aliens detained by local law enforcement in New Jersey “with violent or serious offenses – such as murder, rape, arson, assault, bias crimes, and domestic violence offenses,” may only be held for ICE until 11:59 p.m. of that day!

A spokesman for ICE-ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) in Newark told me that while none of these cases involved ICE detainers, “all 123 individuals were arrested by ICE without any assistance from the state or local authorities.” It is shocking that so many dangerous criminals who are arrested and even convicted for dangerous crimes like drug trafficking, DUI, and sexual assault on minors are not immediately turned over to ICE. Yet clearly, many of these individuals were allowed to remain in the state, despite previous deportations, because ICE was never notified. Aside from denying ICE detainers, sanctuary jurisdictions that fail to share databases and notification with ICE prevent the feds from even knowing about these people when they are arrested. If not for ICE taking the initiative to investigate and find these criminals, they would still be at large today.

While ICE tries to go it alone in interior enforcement, it is also hampered by the lack of border security. With our agents tied down dealing with bogus asylum claims, all of these individual criminal aliens who are being apprehended and deported by ICE have almost a free lane through the obscure parts of our border.

Just last Friday, Del Rio sector agents arrested a 47-year-old Honduran man attempting to cross in Eagle Pass who was previously convicted in Georgia for child molestation and was deported. Last Wednesday, a 34-year-old Mexican was indicted for re-entering after being deported years ago for “indecent liberty with a child.” He was only caught because Beaumont, Texas, police pulled him over for a traffic violation. Texas officials cooperated with ICE, but California officials never turned over Gustavo Arriaga, the murderer of police officer Ronil Singh, who was charged twice with DUI.

Last week, Tucson Border Patrol announced, “Last month, more than a dozen illegal aliens, who had committed heinous crimes in at least eight U.S. states were arrested by Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents as they tried to sneak back into the country.” Most of them were convicted for sexual crimes against minors. Also last week, a prior deported alien was arrested on 100 accounts of child pornography. Another illegal re-entrant was arrested last week in Fayetteville, North Carolina, for indecently touching an 11-year-old.

On March 24, 33-year-old Jorge Alberto Rios-Doblado, an illegal alien from Honduras who was twice deported, allegedly raped and strangled a Peruvian immigrant to death in Jersey City. Given the magnets to come to New Jersey and evade detection, one has to wonder how many more of these murders and sexual assaults will occur.

According to DHS, as of 2013, which was before most of the surge from Central America, there were an estimated two million criminal aliens at large in the country. The Senate has yet to bring a single piece of legislation to the floor dealing with sanctuary cities, criminal alien apprehensions, judicial defiance against immigration laws, or stiffening penalties against re-entrants (Kate’s Law). Yes, there is a national security crisis and a humanitarian crisis. But first and foremost, our government is responsible for solving the humanitarian crisis for Americans and legal immigrants living in this country before trying to solve the problems of Central Americans. (For more from the author of “ICE Arrests 123 Criminal Aliens in New Jersey” please click HERE)

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9 Shocking March Stats From the ‘System-Wide Emergency’ at the Border

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If the February border numbers were unprecedented, the March border numbers appear to be unfathomable. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has published the March border numbers, which reflect a “system-wide emergency” in the view of top border officials. “The impacts to legitimate trade and travel cannot be overstated,” said CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert E. Perez in a statement. “As this crisis continues to worsen, it undermines CBP’s ability to perform its dual mission of protecting our borders and facilitating legitimate trade and travel.”

Here are nine shocking statistics from the March data and the cumulative numbers of illegal aliens and family units crossing this fiscal year.

103,492: The total number of illegal aliens and inadmissible aliens apprehended at and between points of entry in the month of March. That is the highest monthly number since April 2007. But as former Border Patrol head Mark Morgan told the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week, last decade, “1/3 of those apprehended were repeat offenders so the realistic number of migrant apprehensions was well below what’s reflected.” As such, it’s likely that this month is at or near an all-time record.

1.2 million: How many in a year if March’s pace continues. But Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) predicts that with the weather getting warmer over the next few months and the incentives for illegal immigration unaddressed, the numbers will grow larger. The first week of April seems to indicate this.

$168-180 billion: The lifetime cost of 1.2 million illegal aliens per year, using the input and methodology of the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota to calculate the cost of illegal aliens to the American taxpayer.

57,271: A record number of family unit apprehensions (number of people apprehended with family members) in March. That beats the record we just set last month by a whopping 40 percent. That is more than three times as large as the first Central American wave at the peak of the 2014 migration during Obama’s tenure. Even just the unaccompanied minors (who are often split off from family units for strategic reasons) totaled 9,398, which in its own right rivals all but the two busiest months of the 2014 UAC surge, which was without the family units.

189,584: The number of family unit apprehensions between points of entry for the first six months of fiscal year 2019. This far surpasses the numbers for any previous full year.

218,645: The number of family unit apprehensions between points of entry since Judge Dana Sabraw ruled last July that all parents or adults brought with children must be released with the children. During that last nine months, as many family units have been apprehended as in the previous 33 months.

4,647%: The percentage increase in monthly family unit apprehensions between points of entry since the low of the “Trump effect” in April 2017 through February 2019. There’s been a 370 percent increase in family units for the first half of this fiscal year compared with the first half of FY 2018.

422,334: The total number of illegal aliens and inadmissible immigrants, including single adults, who have been caught at our border. That is almost twice the rate of last year, which in itself was a dramatic increase from FY 2017.

104: The number of large groups, defined as 100 or more, coming in at once to surrender to border agents and shutting down their resources. There were 13 such groups in FY 2018, mainly in the latter part of the year when this phenomenon began. It was almost unheard of in previous years.

One of the surprising data points from this month is the surge in single adults in addition to family units. While two-thirds of the illegal immigrants were family units or unaccompanied minors, the number of single adults increased in raw numbers by 30 percent over February. This is likely the result of the family units filling up the detention centers to such a point that even the single adults are being released for a lack of space. This has likely incentivized even those who can’t find a child to use as a ticket into the country to make the trek and try their luck at the border.

Yesterday, I presented 10 ways to disincentivize the border flow. But it is self-evident that unless the administration changes tactics, we have not reached rock bottom at the border yet. (For more from the author of “9 shocking March stats from the ‘system-wide emergency’ at the border” please click HERE)

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Kim Foxx, Who Dropped Jussie Smollett’s Charges, Also Gave a Break to a Man Convicted of Murder

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After the sudden and surprising decision not to pursue any charges against Jussie Smollett for allegedly fabricating a hate crime, a deeper look at Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s record by WLS-TV revealed another example of controversial leniency. . .

Four teenagers were charged with the murder. Three of them were convicted and are still in prison. One of them, however, was only 14. His circumstance was a bit different.

Foxx, who at the time was the assistant state’s attorney, opted to charge him as a juvenile in an Extended Juvenile Jurisdiction prosecution. . .

Well, in 2015 Johnson was convicted of aggravated fleeing after being involved in a police chase. Although that should’ve triggered Johnson’s 30-year sentence, newly-elected State’s Attorney Foxx told Derrion Albert’s family that their son’s killer was only getting probation.

How did the family react? “I felt like [Foxx] sat in our face, she cried with us, she hugged us and then you turn around and let this murderer, I don’t care how old he is, he was convicted of first degree murder,” said Albert’s mother, Anjanette. “My son is not here anymore and she gave us all this hope and she promised us that this was going to be OK. And it didn’t turn out like that.” (Read more from “Kim Foxx, Who Dropped Jussie Smollett’s Charges, Also Gave a Break to a Man Convicted of Murder” HERE)

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Trump’s Border Wall Is Finally Happening

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By The Blaze. The Pentagon announced Monday that the first of contracts to build the border wall proposed by President Donald Trump have been awarded and construction will begin shortly. . .

The announcement named SLSCO Ltd., a company from Galveston, Texas, as the major recipient of $789 million for the construction of “border replacement wall” in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The contract is to be completed by October 2020.

Barnard Construction Company from Montana was also awarded $187 million by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct “primary pedestrian wall replacement” in Yuma, Arizona. That project is also estimated to be completed by October 2020.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense told The Hill in a statement that “30-foot bollard fencing and a five-foot anti-climb plate” would be constructed in the Santa Teresa contract. For the Yuma contract, “18-foot bollard fencing and a five-foot anti-climb plate” would be constructed. (Read more from “Trump’s Border Wall Is Finally Happening” HERE)

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Pentagon Awards First Border Wall Contracts Using Diverted Funds

By CBS News. Mr. Trump visited the border and toured construction projects along the border last week. Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers, predicted that by “around December of 2020, the total amount of money that we will have put in the ground in the last couple of years will be about 450 miles. That’s probably about $8 billion, in total about 33 different projects.”

The funding for the contracts announced Tuesday comes from $1 billion the Pentagon reprogrammed from counter-narcotics programs, which the Pentagon can accomplish without congressional approval or a national emergency declaration. The move has drawn blowback from members of Congress, with lawmakers saying it violates a longstanding understanding not to reprogram funds without congressional sign-off.

In February, Congress tried to block Mr. Trump’s declaration, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats in the Senate in a rebuke to the president. However, the president vetoed the joint resolution blocking the national emergency, and the House did not have enough votes to override a veto. (Read more from “Pentagon Awards First Border Wall Contracts Using Diverted Funds” HERE)

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Deter, Defend, Demagnetize: 10 Ideas for Trump to Stop the Illegal Mass Migration

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What should be done about the crisis at our border?

To be clear, if the administration continues to concede that forum-shopped judges can issue universal injunctions on border security, no matter the precedent, justiciability, or issues of standing, then there is quite literally nothing the administration can do. By definition, anything that will effectively shut down this flow will be challenged in a specifically liberal court, and the Supreme Court will take forever to overturn it.

The administration must assert, as an independent branch of government, that universal injunctions issued by courts are unconstitutional, as suggested by Justice Clarence Thomas. At the very least, such an opinion issued by the attorney general will force the Supreme Court to finally confront this vital question, not just on our border, but on the very question of what the judicial power is.

Once the administration is willing to do this, here are a mixture of policies that are completely within the president’s powers, both inherent and delegated, to deter this particular wave of illegal immigration, defend against the cartels exacerbating it, and demagnetize the incentives for them to come here.

Deter

1) A complete shutoff of immigration processing (but not commerce) at our land border: The president should assert his unquestionable authority to deny entry to anyone seeking entry without existing valid documents, including those “seeking” asylum. He should announce that all processing of any asylum claims is suspended for at least six months. It would require holding the line against the first wave of migrants in the pipeline by turning them back. Those who manage to get in or refuse to depart, the administration should hold in tent cities while offering them the option to voluntarily depart at any moment. But admission into the country will be closed off, pursuant to the president’s inherent and delegated authority. Concurrently, the president should launch a media campaign in Central America announcing the shutoff and stating that no immigration status can be obtained at our land border without having applied at our embassies. President Obama launched such a campaign in 2014. President Clinton launched a similar campaign with the Haitian migrants in 1993 and agreed to process their asylum claims only in Haiti.

2) Tent cities plus rocket docket: The construction of tent cities, pursuant to DHS’ existing mass migration emergency plan, would likely be necessary to partially enforce (1), but could also work as a standalone idea, without a full shutoff. If the administration doesn’t want to completely shut down the process, it could house the very next wave of migrants in tent cities and then immediately transfer immigration judges and deputize other officials into adjudications in order to rapidly dispense with the bogus claims in less than seven days, as was done in 1989. This is actually required by law anyway, and holding them in tent cities will ensure they are not released, but also make it possible to fulfill the Flores settlement requirement of a 20-day limit.

3) Have Border Patrol immediately screen out invalid claims of credible fear: The best way to ensure that asylum law is properly and expeditiously interpreted is to have border agents immediately screen out, and most often reject, credible fear claims the minute the claimants step foot on our soil. This will begin the seven-day clock for them to expend their appeals and allow us to hold them even under the Flores limit.

4) End the Flores settlement: Contrary to public perception and even assertions by this administration, the law does not require DHS to release children within 20 days. The law actually mandates detention of all those making credible fear claims and places no time limit or exception on children. It comes from Flores, which is not even a court opinion, but a settlement. The administration has the ability to vitiate this settlement and started the process of doing so last September. It should enact a new rule to hold family units together. The 45-day comment period has long passed, and it’s a mystery why the administration has not promulgated the rule yet. Even if it fears lawsuits on this issue, idea (1) would still override Flores, and idea (2) would make it moot, because they wouldn’t need to be held longer.

Defend

5) Designate the Mexican cartels as terrorists: In addition to helping streamline the flow of illegal immigration, the cartels pose a general threat to this country that needed to be dealt with years ago. Now would be a good time to signal that we are serious about attacking them. Designating them as terrorists, a move Trump can make unilaterally, will open up numerous DOD and intelligence resources to harness against the cartels. It will also bolster the political case for using the military. The military can work to eradicate the cartel’s lookout scouts, who operate on our soil. This will not only defend against criminals and drug traffickers, it will disrupt their system of directing flows of migrants into strategic locations.

6) Operation Hold the Line: The president should deploy the military to enforce our sovereignty. This could work in tandem with enforcing a complete shutoff by having enough manpower to hold the line at the border and not allow anyone to enter. Deployment of the military will also help with the other part of this crisis; namely, how the cartels and smugglers are bringing in criminals, gangs, drugs, and special interest aliens while Border Patrol is completely overwhelmed. This is using the military to hold the line on our border and not allow caravans in and to deter and defend against cartels. That is literally the quintessential purpose of having a military.

7) Deputize numerous federal officers as immigration officers: Trump should recruit as many law enforcement agents into the immigration enforcement business as possible to buttress the work of both Border Patrol and ICE. He can deputize all park rangers and Bureau of Land Management agents (or any federal officer who wears a badge) into securing the border and enforcing immigration laws. The president also has the power (8 U.S.C. § 1103(a)(10)) to deputize local law enforcement, with the permission of local authorities, to “to perform or exercise any of the powers, privileges, or duties” of immigration enforcement in the event that the attorney general determines that there is “an actual or imminent mass influx of aliens.”

Demagnetize

8) Stop all remittances to Mexico and Central America: Even with more families coming than ever before, a large portion of them are still adult males coming to work and send back money. They just bring a child with them as their token border pass. According to Pew, Mexican nationals sent home $30 billion in 2017, while migrants from the three Central American countries in the Northern Triangle sent back roughly $17 billion. While a large chunk of the Mexican remittances could also be from legal immigrants, the lion’s share of the Central American remittances are from illegal immigrants. Blocking those transfers would choke off the biggest incentive to come here from Central America. It would also further pressure Mexico into cooperating and would cut off the flow of some of the drug trafficking revenue. While a tax on remittances would require a new law by Congress, there is no reason why the Treasury Department could not write a rule blocking illegal aliens from wiring those funds.

9) Prioritize the deportation of Central American families with final deportation orders. There are over one million illegal aliens with final deportation orders who still have not been deported. In particular, there are 644,000 from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. There are no signs that we are deporting them. While ICE usually prioritizes the deportations of those with prior criminal records, it would be worthwhile to focus for the next few months on deporting Central American families, regardless of their criminal records, in order to send the message to their friends and relatives thinking of making the trip that catch-and-release does not last forever.

10) Have IRS clamp down on illegal employment and identity theft: Choking off the ability of illegal immigrants to work in America is the lynchpin to demagnetizing our border. While Trump cannot unilaterally mandate E-Verify, he can direct the IRS to stop accepting tax identification numbers used by illegal aliens to file for refundable tax credits. Moreover, Trump can have the DHS, the IRS, and the SSA work together to flag anomalies with Social Security cards for employment and tax filing. The IRS and the SSA should constantly share information with DHS so they can inform the employer that the employee has engaged in identity theft and is an illegal immigrant. Also inform local law enforcement and the victim immediately. Then Trump should require ICE to immediately apprehend them.

Collectively, this would serve to deter both the migrants and the cartels. While some will complain about diverting resources from other federal functions, there is no greater emergency now than what is going on at the border. History has shown that the signal is sent very quickly if we are no longer giving amnesty. Moreover, it will create a bottleneck in Mexico and finally force Mexico’s government to deal with the problem. This is the model Hungary used to spur neighboring countries, such as Serbia, Croatia, and Romania, into action in deterring the Middle East migration in 2014. Unlike in previous years, these migrants are not their own, and Mexicans don’t want them remaining in their country. They have been recalcitrant only because we fail to secure our own border and they knew they could get away with steering them into our territory.

At some point, the administration will need to build the political will, policy arguments, and legal case for a mixture of these policies. Otherwise we quite literally will not have a border at all. (For more from the author of “Deter, Defend, Demagnetize: 10 Ideas for Trump to Stop the Illegal Mass Migration” please click HERE)

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