Obama’s White House Deleted Evidence of Border Crisis Before Trump Took Office

By The Daily Caller. The Obama administration deleted hundreds of speeches and statements on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website just hours before President Donald Trump officially entered office, according to research released Tuesday.

A collection of 190 transcripts of speeches on ICE’s website was deleted on Jan. 18 and late in the evening on Jan. 19, 2017, according to research conducted by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for government transparency. Statements made by high-ranking ICE officials regarding controversial immigration topics such as sanctuary cities, E-Verify, treatment of detainees, and other issues were included in the reported deletions.

“With a couple of clicks of a mouse, access to a federal government web resource containing 12 years of primary source materials on ICE’s history was lost,” the Sunlight Foundation wrote, noting that archived speeches dating back from 2004 were among those deleted.

Speeches from former acting ICE Director Thomas Homan, a public supporter of Trump’s immigration policies, were among those prominently included in the deletion list.

A February 2016 speech delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee by Homan was among those removed. Then the executive associate director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homan spoke about the “Unaccompanied Minor Crisis,” telling lawmakers how the agency and the Obama White House were working to manage the surge of young illegal children reaching the southern border en masse. (Read more from “Obama’s White House Deleted Evidence of Border Crisis Before Trump Took Office” HERE)

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A California Desert Town Sees Surge in Migrants as Border Crisis Worsens

By The LA Times. . .The scene that unfolded recently in this desert city about 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border exemplifies how the immigration crisis has spilled over into communities farther north.

With a historic flow of Central American families fleeing poverty and violence, federal officials earlier this spring began releasing migrants on their own recognizance from inundated detention centers in growing numbers. About 175,000 have left custody since Dec. 21.

Nonprofit and faith-based organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are among those that have stepped in to help the asylum seekers. But the mounting costs have raised doubts — among local officials and advocates alike — about how long they can keep doing so.

Many of the drop-offs have taken place in Blythe, a city of about 20,000 along the Colorado River across from Arizona. Since March, said Riverside County spokeswoman Brooke Federico, 2,600 migrants have arrived here. (Read more from “A California Desert Town Sees Surge in Migrants as Border Crisis Worsens” HERE)

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