Migrants Are Trying to Buy Children to Cross U.S. Border

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U.S. authorities have been warning for over a year now that children are being used and trafficked by prospective illegal immigrants in order to gain access to the American interior. Mexican authorities have now backed up those claims.

A story at the Seattle Times on Sunday details how migrants are trying to literally buy kids off of vulnerable single mothers in Tijuana, Mexico, so they can more easily get across the border. That’s because they know that if they cross the border posing as a “family unit,” they have a much higher probability of being released by authorities.

Now, the report explains, authorities in Tijuana are telling mothers to keep an extra-close watch on their children following reports of men trying to purchase kids.

“They want to rob our kids so they can cross into the United States,” 44-year-old migrant mother Antonia Portillo Cruz told the newspaper. “I can’t go to work because I can’t take my eyes off my boys.”

The migrant from Honduras said she personally witnessed men in the shelter where she’s staying asking to buy children, some of them offering the equivalent of $350. A Mexican police spokesman confirmed the reports to the paper and said that federal authorities are investigating the matter.

This is not a new problem. Government officials warned that catch-and-release loopholes surrounding family units would incentivize kidnappings as early as 2016. In May 2018, numbers from the Department of Homeland Security showed an “eye-popping increase” in such cases. Some children are now being recycled by human smugglers, according to immigration officials.

Meanwhile, a pilot rapid DNA testing program at the border revealed that roughly 30 percent of those suspected of posing as fake family units were indeed defrauding immigration officials.

At a press conference at the border on Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blamed the ongoing endangerment of children created by such loopholes squarely on Congress’ inaction on fixing the immigration system.

“Our policies, the loopholes that Congress has put in place, [are] encouraging people to risk their lives and even more tragically, it’s putting children in harm’s way,” Sen. Cruz said. “Today, roughly 50 percent of the adult men crossing into the Rio Grande sector have a child with them. The reason for that — the fault of that — is the U.S. Congress, because we have told the traffickers … ‘If you bring a child, that child is essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card.’”

Cruz went on to call the current system “an incentive from the United States Congress: ‘Go and find a small child and take that arduous journey, risk that child’s life.’”

(For more from the author of “Migrants Are Trying to Buy Children to Cross U.S. Border” please click HERE)

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You Can’t Look at Trump’s North Korea Moves Without Looking at China

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President Trump set foot several feet into North Korea. Is that a big deal? No other president has done it. Was it a symbolic gesture? Yes. Did it provide a great photo op for the North Korean leader? Absolutely. Was it seen as a stunt by the mainstream media in the U.S.? Of course. Does anyone think credit would be given to President Trump for any action he takes? We are talking about a huge segment of the U.S. media that would cheer for the enemy during a fight if it meant they could blame the president.

I’ve spent years watching and analyzing the events in North Korea and spent some of my military years preparing for a conflict with that nation. I’ve looked at issues ranging from potential individual actions all the way up to nation-state conflict. Here’s the reality: Kim Jong Un is not the leader of a sovereign nation. He is, as his father was, the person who inherited the job of overseer of China’s primary proxy fighter.

To put it more bluntly, Kim Jong Un runs the rabid dog Beijing keeps on a short leash. To believe that at any level of government, North Korea is an independent nation that can be approached by any other nation without approval or oversight from China is simply naive. North Korea is and has been for decades a threat to world peace – a threat that was proven indelibly in one horrific war already. North Korea is and has been a tool for China to leverage against the United States. Push China too far, and out comes the rabid dog.

So, is it possible for Mr. Kim to commit to any agreement without first receiving guidance from his puppet masters in Beijing? Is it possible to pry North Korea away from the orbit of China?

The answer to both questions is a resounding no.

Would China go to war before it would accept North Korea ending up in a Western-dominated environment?

You can bet your bottom dollar on it.

Since North Korea is not a sovereign nation, the next logical question is: Why is the U.S. seemingly wasting its time talking to a puppet?

Perhaps the U.S. is using Kim as a leverage point on a much larger issue. Perhaps this is all about countering the long-term Chinese vision for the region.

When you’re involved in preparing for war, you understand the true purpose of North Korea. So once you know your enemies’ tactics, you must set a plan to counter them. Can the U.S. and others show the people of North Korea there is a better way of life out there? In the end, is the issue of North Korea about North Korean nuclear weapons – weapons China would never allow North Korea to use without approval – or is it about containing the Chinese dragon?

Is it better to threaten Kim Jong Un and win a few votes back home come election time, or is it far more effective to play nice with him despite anything he might say or do? How does Beijing argue with President Trump agreeing to take a few steps into North Korea? How would the Chinese government paint that in a bad light? Seen from my foxhole, that move was pure genius.

If Team Trump has figured out how to play to the weaknesses of the primary Chinese proxy tool in a way not based on threats of total destruction, then I suggest his team has found a path that might just work. Does it give the appearance of going soft, as in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama years? No. Those administrations had a sadly simplistic approach to North Korea: avoidance. Team Trump seems to be on a mission to create pressure between the puppet proxy kingdom and its overlords in Beijing.

If it is indeed true that Team Trump is approaching this with a “peace through strength” strategy to counter China – the real player in the theater – and not from one of weakness that so defined his predecessors, then how will we know if the plan is working?

Well, that answer was on display just last week when Xi Jinping, the leader of China, visited his puppet kingdom. CNN reports that it was the first time a Chinese head of state has visited North Korea in 14 years. It demonstrates that China needed to show not just Mr. Kim, but his military commanders, who really calls the shots for North Korea. Jinping knew President Trump might take advantage of the G-20 summit trip. How could he not show up to make sure key people know where they stand? Let the trade talks continue to go badly for China, and they are, and you will see the puppet leader do something newsworthy.

Can Xi Jinping order North Korea to completely walk away from President Trump’s efforts? Yes. Another ballistic missile test or the cancellation of talks with South Korea would be disastrous for the 2020 election bid. The reality is, the puppet nation is still a tool at the disposal of the number one thereat to the U.S. President Trump is taking a calculated gamble.

In the end, it’s not only about the nukes, folks. Divide and conquer: It’s a timeless game the U.S. better remember how to play. (For more from the author of “You Can’t Look at Trump’s North Korea Moves Without Looking at China” please click HERE)

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Vietnam Says That China Is Mislabeling Products as Vietnamese to Avoid U.S. Tariffs

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Vietnamese officials say China is intentionally mislabeling its products as “made in Vietnam” to avoid American tariffs, and have ordered offices to more aggressively examine products’ certificates of origin.

Chinese firms first export products to Vietnam, then change the labeling on packages before exporting the goods to the United States, Japan or Europe, they said.

“Dozens” of products have been identified, Hoang Thi Thuy, a Vietnamese Customs Department official, told state-run media, and goods like textiles, fishery products, agricultural products, steel, aluminum, and processed wooden products were most vulnerable to the fraud. . .

“It will sabotage Vietnamese brands and products and it will also affect consumers. We could even get tariff retribution from other countries, and if that happens, it will hurt our economy,” Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told the Vietnamese National Assembly last week.

Vietnam does not have any legal requirements for certification of the “Made in Vietnam” label. The country’s current regulations require that goods be produced partly or completely in Vietnam, but does not provide a mechanism for determining the veracity of the label. (Read more from “Vietnam Says That China Is Mislabeling Products as Vietnamese to Avoid U.S. Tariffs” HERE)

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Iran Calls Trump ‘Mentally Retarded.’ Trump Gives Them a Friendly Reminder.

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On Tuesday, after Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani attacked President Trump, saying the White House’s actions show that Trump is “mentally retarded,” Trump fired back with a series of tweets warning Iran that if they attack anything American, that action would be met with “great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!”

Trump’s series of tweets slammed the Iranian regime, warning it not to mess with American power, as he wrote, “Iran leadership doesn’t understand the words “nice” or “compassion,” they never have. Sadly, the thing they do understand is Strength and Power, and the USA is by far the most powerful Military Force in the world, with 1.5 Trillion Dollars invested over the last two years alone.”

(Read more from “Iran Calls Trump ‘Mentally Retarded.’ Trump Gives Them a Friendly Reminder.” HERE)

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China Targeted in State Department Annual Report on Religious Freedom

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A Congress-mandated report on the state of religious freedom around the world released by the State Department had some good news and some bad news.

The really bad news concerns the ability of the Chinese people to worship how they choose.

Multiple media and NGOs estimated that since April 2017, the government detained at least 800,000 and up to possibly more than 2 million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other Muslim groups, mostly Chinese citizens, in specially built or converted detention facilities in Xinjiang and subjected them to forced disappearance, torture, physical abuse, and prolonged detention without trial because of their religion and ethnicity. There were reports of deaths among detainees. Authorities maintained extensive and invasive security and surveillance, particularly in Xinjiang, in part to gain information regarding individuals’ religious adherence and practices. The government continued to cite concerns over the “three evils” of “ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and violent terrorism” as grounds to enact and enforce restrictions on religious practices of Muslims in Xinjiang. Authorities in Xinjiang punished schoolchildren, university students, and their family members for praying. They barred youths from participating in religious activities, including fasting during Ramadan. The government sought the forcible repatriation of Uighur Muslims from foreign countries and detained some of those who returned.

It gets worse — much worse:

The government began enforcing revised regulations in February that govern the activities of religious groups and their members. Religious leaders and groups stated these regulations increased restrictions on their ability to practice their religions, including a new requirement for religious group members to seek approval to travel abroad and a prohibition on “accepting domination by external forces.” Christian church leaders stated the government increased monitoring even before the new regulations came into effect, causing many churches to cease their normal activities. Authorities continued to arrest Christians and enforce more limitations on their activities, including requiring Christian churches to install surveillance cameras to enable daily police monitoring, and compelling members of house churches and other Christians to sign documents renouncing their Christian faith and church membership. An ongoing campaign of church closings continued during the year, and authorities removed crosses and other Christian symbols from churches, with Henan Province a particular focus area of such activity. In September the Holy See reached a provisional agreement with the government that reportedly would resolve a decades-long dispute concerning the authority to appoint bishops.

(Read more from “China Targeted in State Department Annual Report on Religious Freedom” HERE)

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Pompeo Arrives in Middle East to Build ‘Global Coalition’ Against Iran

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By Breitbart. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the Middle East this week to build a “global coalition” against Iran amid intensified tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The likelihood of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States has increased in recent days, notably after Iranian troops shot down an American drone last week. . .

Before leaving the U.S. capital for the Middle East, Pompeo told reporters that he would talk with the two U.S. Sunni Arab allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE:

[A]bout how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned and how we can build out a global coalition, a coalition not only throughout the Gulf states but in Asia and in Europe that…is prepared to push back against the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.

Echoing President Trump, Pompeo noted that the United States is willing to negotiate with Iran without preconditions to ease tensions between the two longtime rivals. Iran, however, has indicated it is not interested in dialogue. (Read more from “Pompeo Arrives in Middle East to Build ‘Global Coalition’ Against Iran” HERE)

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Iran Says Latest US Sanctions Ends ‘Channel of Diplomacy Forever’

By Fox News. A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a tweet Tuesday that the new U.S. sanctions that target Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials permanently end any chance of diplomacy between countries.

The U.S. and Iran have seen tensions increase exponentially in the past few weeks after an initial U.S. sanctions squeeze that Washington said led to the attacks on two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The situation became increasingly dire last week after Tehran admitted to downing a $100 million U.S. Navy drone.

Abbas Mousavi took to Twitter to call out President Trump’s latest decision to impose additional sanctions and said the sanctions means “closing channel of diplomacy forever,” according to Reuters.

“Trump’s desperate administration is destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” the tweet read. (Read more from “Iran Says Latest US Sanctions Ends ‘Channel of Diplomacy Forever'” HERE)

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Mexico Deploying 15,000 Troops to U.S. Border to Stop Illegal Immigration into U.S.

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Mexican Secretary of Defense Luis Sandoval said on Monday that Mexico is deploying thousands of soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to help stop the massive flow of illegal immigration into the United States.

“Mexico has deployed almost 15,000 troops to the US-Mexico border to curve migration flow,” CNN reporter Nick Valencia tweeted. “An additional ~2,000 National Guard elements have also been deployed across the country’s southern border with Guatemala & Belize.: MX Secretary of Defense Luis Sandoval.”

The move by Mexico comes after the Trump administration increased pressure on the Mexican government to significantly increase its efforts to stop the seemingly endless flow of migrants that are illegally entering the United States.

Trump announced at the end of last month that Mexico would face tariffs that would devastate their economy if they did not step up to the table and make serious efforts to help stop the problem.

Trump tweeted: “On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied, at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.”

(Read more from “Mexico Deploying 15,000 Troops to U.S. Border to Stop Illegal Immigration into U.S.” HERE)

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Christian Persecution 2019 a Scourge of ‘Mammoth Proportions’

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June 2019 is an “especially menacing time” for Christians both on the domestic and international fronts, writes Christian persecution expert John L. Allen in a report Sunday.

The U.S. Catholic Church is facing “one of the most serious potential violations of religious freedom in its history in the form of SB 360 in California,” writes Allen, author of the 2013 bestseller The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution, since the bill would compel priests to reveal information learned while hearing confessions as evidence against possible sex offenders. . .

On the international scene, “the scope of anti-Christian hostility is staggering,” Allen continues, with the number of Christians facing “harassment, physical assault, arrest and imprisonment, torture, and even death” on a daily basis estimated at around 200 million.

Christians in North Korea, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and a host of other countries live under a constant threat of active persecution, as documented by Open Doors, a Christian persecution watchdog group. . .

“Just as one didn’t have to be Jewish to sympathize with the plight of dissident Jews in the Soviet Union, and didn’t have to be black to be outraged by apartheid in South Africa, similarly today one shouldn’t have to be Christian to recognize anti-Christian persecution as a human rights scourge of mammoth proportions,” Allen writes. (Read more from “Christian Persecution 2019 a Scourge of ‘Mammoth Proportions'” HERE)

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Expert: U.S. Invests More in Africa Under Trump Than Any Other President

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The United States has poured more investment into Africa under President Donald Trump than under any previous administration. . .

The Daily Maverick reported on Thursday:

Aubrey Hruby, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and co-author of the book The Next Africa, has told Al Jazeera that the US DFC [Development Finance Corporation] with its larger investment cap, provides an opportunity for the US to reframe the way it does development in Africa.

She said it was “utterly surprising” that this was happening under President Donald Trump, who has been criticised for derogatory comments about Africa and who previously proposed scrapping funding for Opic, which provided US companies with investment guarantees. She said in many ways, more resources had been put into Africa and US companies in Africa under the Trump administration than any other.

Critics once complained that President Trump lacked interest in Africa (at least outside of South Africa, where he has drawn attention to the plight of white farmers, who are often the targets of brutal crime). They also accused him of referring to some African nations as “sh*thole countries” (though he and others present denied the accusation). (Read more from “Expert: U.S. Invests More in Africa Under Trump Than Any Other President” HERE)

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China Hosts Taliban Delegation to Enlarge Role in Afghanistan

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A Taliban delegation recently traveled to Beijing to discuss U.S.-backed peace efforts as well as “mutual” counterterrorism concerns in Afghanistan, the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday.

Indian media reported that New Delhi’s rival Beijing hosted the delegation — led by the Taliban’s political deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — in a bid to expand its role in Afghanistan, which is expected to house projects from Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Asked about the Taliban’s visit on Thursday, Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters that the two sides exchanged views “on Afghanistan’s peace and reconciliation process, counter-terrorism and other issues of mutual interest.” . . .

The Trump administration has intensified peace-seeking efforts over the last year, making the political reconciliation between Afghanistan and Kabul the primary goal of its strategy to end the nearly 18-year-old war. Nevertheless, the Taliban’s refusal to allow Kabul to participate in the ongoing negotiations has surfaced as the primary hurdle to the talks.

Taliban narco-jihadis, who are fighting to establish a sharia-compliant Islamic emirate in Afghanistan, consider themselves the only legitimate government of Afghanistan, dismissing Kabul as an American “puppet.” (Read more from “China Hosts Taliban Delegation to Enlarge Role in Afghanistan” HERE)

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