Federal Court Rules Against Right to Conceal Carry

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The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that people do not have a constitutional right to carry concealed weapons in public.

The 7-4 decision by an en banc panel of Ninth Circuit judges overruled a previous 2-1 decision by the court in 2014, finding the Second Amendment encompassed the right to conceal carry.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris appealed the 2014 ruling, which struck down a San Diego law requiring residents to show “good cause” in order to obtain a conceal carry permit.

“We hold that the Second Amendment does not preserve or protect a right of a member of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public,” wrote Judge William A. Fletcher, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, for the seven-judge majority.

Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, in a dissent wrote, “In the context of present-day California law, the Defendant counties’ limited licensing of the right to carry concealed firearms is tantamount to a total ban on the right of an ordinary citizen to carry a firearm in public for self-defense,” Callahan wrote.

“Because the majority eviscerates the Second Amendment right of individuals to keep and bear arms as defined by Heller and reaffirmed in McDonald, I respectfully dissent,” Callahan said.

The Ninth Circuit’s jurisdiction includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

The Supreme Court has yet to take up the issue of whether the Constitution’s right to self-defense includes the right to conceal-carry in public.

The court, in the District of Columbia v. Heller case (2008) authored by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, affirmed the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. (For more from the author of “Federal Court Rules Against Right to Conceal Carry” please click HERE)

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Top Latino Conservative Calls Trump’s Judge Comments ‘Morally Abhorrent,’ Defends Trump’s Immigration Policy

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Today a leading House conservative and Latino condemned Donald Trump’s comments about a judge with Mexican ancestry, even as he defended the presumed GOP nominee’s immigration policies.

“There is nothing wrong with saying you want to build a wall,” Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) said at a press briefing in response to a question from The Stream about Trump’s policies. “There is nothing racist about saying that you want an immigration system that works. There’s nothing wrong with saying that we have let down the American public by letting so many illegal, undocumented people into the United States.”

“But I will not stand idly by listening to a person attacking the integrity of a judge because of their ethnicity,” said Labrador, one of “Newsmax’s 50 Most Influential Latino Republicans.” “That is absolutely morally abhorrent. I believe he needs to take it back, and I believe he needs to figure out how he can articulate his policy positions in a way the American people understand clearly and effectively.”

Labrador’s comments were his first to the national press since Trump first criticized Judge Gonzalo Curiel for ruling against the candidate in a case involving Trump University. According to Trump, Curiel’s Mexican heritage — he was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants — create “an inherent conflict of interest” given Trump’s focus on building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Trump also criticized Curiel’s presence in a Hispanic law group, La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, which is one of at least 10 groups with which Curiel has associations.

Trump’s comments were the focus of much of his appearances on Sunday talk shows, and drew heavy condemnation from many leading Republicans, including the leaders of both chambers of Congress. Trump appeared to be backing off the comments as the week went on.

Still, in today’s press conference, Labrador criticized the media for asking about Trump. “I do find it curious that you go after Trump on this issue and yet you have absolutely no problem when Obama pointed his finger at Supreme Court justices in a State of the Union address, and he tried to embarrass them in one of the most disgusting acts I have seen him do,” Labrador said.

In 2013, Labrador was a key member of the House’s Gang of Eight, which attempted to create a comprehensive immigration bill. The effort collapsed in part due to Labrador’s departure from the Gang after Democrats insisted that illegal immigrants not be responsible for their health care costs, according to ABC News. (For more from the author of “Top Latino Conservative Calls Trump’s Judge Comments ‘Morally Abhorrent,’ Defends Trump’s Immigration Policy” please click HERE)

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Obama Endorses Clinton While Press Secretary Makes Important Admission

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Throughout the ongoing scandal regarding Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified emails on a private server, it has been maintained by the Clinton campaign that the FBI’s investigation is merely a security review and not criminal in nature.

However, recent statements from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest may undermine whether the Obama administration believes this is actually the case.

Earnest met with reporters Thursday to discuss President Barack Obama’s recent endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president.

Earnest was questioned on the appropriateness of such an endorsement in light of the continuing investigation.

The reporter asked, “I wonder if you could address for us the potential conflict of interest that might exist when the President of the United States … is openly saying ‘I want this woman to succeed me in the Oval Office.’”

Earnest answered saying, “You noted instances where the president was asked about the FBI investigations. And in each of those answers the president made clear that that is being conducted independent of any sort of political interference.”

He added the president feels confident in making the endorsement because he knows the investigation will be conducted by people not swayed by political forces.

Earnest ended saying, “And that’s why the president … has reiterated his commitment to this principle that any criminal investigation should be conducted independent of any sort of political interference and that people should be treated the same way before the law regardless of their political influence, regardless of their political party, regardless of their political stature and regardless of what political figure has endorsed them.” (For more from the author of “Obama Endorses Clinton While Press Secretary Makes Important Admission” HERE)

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Senators Ready Bill to Stop DOJ From Bankrolling Liberal Groups

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The Senate may take steps to end a Justice Department slush fund that has channeled millions of dollars in banking settlements to outside organizations, including left-wing groups such as La Raza and NeighborWorks America.

Four Republican senators—James Lankford of Oklahoma, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee—said they would introduce legislation Friday to prohibit federal settlement agreements that require donations to third parties.

The Justice Department currently allows corporations found guilty of wrongdoing to pay a portion of their financial penalty as a donation to certain preapproved nonprofit groups.

“In 2011, the Department of Justice directed $30 million from a banking settlement to go toward left-leaning nonprofit groups,” Lankford’s office wrote in a press release, “like the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and NeighborWorks America.”

Conservative opponents of the practice charge that it not only bankrolls liberal groups, but also circumvents congressional authority. Lankford called it the “definition of abuse.”

“When the Department of Justice agrees to settlements on behalf of the U.S. government that includes financial penalties,” Lankford said in the four senators’ release, “it is not their job to force penalty money to be paid in the form of donations to third parties of their choice.”

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, banks found guilty for their role in inflating the mortgage bubble paid millions in penalties. In some cases the Justice Department would allow donations to third parties to be counted twice toward their fine.

While collecting billions, the Justice Department is able to collect a fee of up to a 3 percent to pay for processing debt litigation. A majority staff report commissioned by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., revealed that the Justice Department had collected $575.7 million in fees from JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup.

Hatch said in the release:

Settlement payments should be used to redress harm, not line the pockets of groups that government lawyers happen to favor. This bill will prevent the Department of Justice from continuing to treat settlement agreements as a source of free money for pet projects.

“The Department of Justice is supposed to work for all Americans, not just whichever special interests are favored by whoever is currently in this White House,” Lee said in the release.

The legislation mirrors a similar bill introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The House version is expected to come up for a vote before the end of June.

Goodlatte introduced a similar measure as an amendment to last year’s omnibus spending package. It was stripped out of the bill when it advanced to the Senate.

As a stand-alone piece of legislation, though, it’s unclear whether Lankford’s bill could reach the 60 votes necessary to achieve what’s known in the Senate as cloture and advance for a vote. (For more from the author of “Senators Ready Bill to Stop DOJ From Bankrolling Liberal Groups” please click HERE)

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Clinton Says She Won’t Be Indicted, Never Emailed Classified Material

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Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told Fox News on Wednesday night that there is “no basis” for any possible indictment of her in the investigation into her use of a private email server while Secretary of State. She also said no emails she ever sent were classified.

Appearing on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Clinton was asked directly about any possible indictment.

“Well, I will repeat what I said. That is not going to happen,” she said, adding, “There is no basis for it and I’m looking forward to this being wrapped up as soon as possible.”

Clinton was further asked whether she thinks there is “zero chance” the FBI Investigation of her e-mail and the Clinton Foundation investigation are problematic.

“Absolutely. That’s what I’m saying. That happens to be the truth,” she said.

Clinton said she “told people to cooperate” with the FBI investigation into her emails, and that she is “looking forward to participating.”

However, Clinton did not talk to the State Department’s inspector general. Baier asked her about that, and if she would speak with Judicial Watch, which is taking depositions from key figures in the investigation.

“I will say with respect to the IG investigation, I have talked endlessly about the e-mails and I testified, as you know, for 11 hours before the committee in the House who had every opportunity to ask me a lot of questions including about e-mails. So we had all this information in the public record. It would be the same as I would have said to anyone and I think it was important to speak in the public, to release the e-mails, which I’ve called for, and I think as soon as I have a chance to speak with others, I will do so,” she said.

She also added that, “nothing I sent or received was marked classified and nothing has been demonstrated to contradict that, so it is the fact. It was the fact when I first said it, it is the fact that I’m saying now. What you are seeing, acted out, is the desire of the different parts of the government to retroactively classify material so that it is not made public since I did ask that all my emails be made public. This is not an uncommon process, so again I will just reiterate nothing I sent or received at the time was marked classified.” (For more from the author of “Clinton Says She Won’t Be Indicted, Never Emailed Classified Material” HERE)

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Peyton Manning Offers President Obama Some Words of Wisdom

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NFL legend Peyton Manning offered President Barack Obama advice on Monday prior to a Rose Garden reception for the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos.

The president revealed the words of wisdom in his remarks during which he both praised and ribbed the newly retired quarterback. Obama recounted Manning, 40, said to him, “You should try it. Don’t overstay your welcome.”

The chief executive added, “I have term limits. I have no choice,” which drew laughter from the crowd. Breaking precedent, the president does plan to live in Washington, D.C. after his term ends to allow the first couple’s youngest daughter Sasha to finish high school at Sidwell Friends School. She is scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2019.

Obama, in speaking about Manning, joked, “And then there is this guy from the commercials. It doesn’t matter whether you need insurance, pizza, a Buick. You basically can stock your whole household with stuff this guy is selling.”

“We were obviously all a little disappointed to see him hang it up this spring,” Obama continued. “As somebody who is a little bit older, I was sympathetic to the idea; running around with all these guys, it takes its toll. But it’s great to see somebody with a career like that who conducted himself on and off the field the way he did be able to go out on top.”

Manning told Denver NBC affiliate KUSA that the then-recently sworn-in President Obama had telephoned him after the Indianapolis Colts lost the 2009 Super Bowl to the New Orleans Saints, praising his good effort and stating that he liked seeing him in all the different commercials. “I hope you get back here while I’m still in office,” Manning recalled Obama saying to him.

“I waited till the last possible minute – I waited to my last year of eligibility and his, but it was nice to be able to get here and meet him and he was very nice,’’ NFL star said.

Manning also visited the White House in 2007, when George W. Bush was president, following the Colts 29-17 Super Bowl victory over the Chicago Bears.

Manning is the only quarterback in NFL history to win the Super Bowl helming two different teams.

The retired football player is looking forward to his first fall in 22 years, when he can choose what he will do on the weekend.

“I’m going to be at the Broncos’ season opener. I think they play the Colts in Week 2, I’ll be there. There’s some Giants games I want to go to (to watch his brother Eli play) and get back to see my Tennessee Vols, so football will be a part of my fall but it will be on my schedule,” he said. (For more from the author of “Peyton Manning Offers President Obama Some Words of Wisdom” please click HERE)

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Hillary Clinton’s California Director Has Marxist Ties

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Buffy Wicks, Hillary Clinton’s California Campaign Chief, used to stage-manage Marxist rallies and has a life-long history of supporting radical left-wing causes, The Daily Caller reports.

After allegedly suing to keep a woman out of law school because she was white, Wicks left the University of Washington, finished law school elsewhere and married.

Some time after, while in a UNESCO study abroad program in Spain, Wicks’ fascination with radical leftist ideology truly took form.

According The Daily Caller:

The radical curriculum immersed her in Marxism, population control, extremist feminism, racial power dynamics, and the views of revolutionary leader Frantz Fanon.

While there, she was mentored by Cynthia Boaz, a coordinator for Code Pink. The Marxist-led group would proudly announce it took $650,000 of cash and supplies to “the other side” in Fallujah in 2004.

Wicks left – apparently without graduating – to organize Marxist rallies against the Iraq war in San Francisco. She told Obama volunteers in 2007: “I was the person stage managing a lot of those [rallies], you know, getting Joan Baez to go out and do some songs.”

(For more from the author of “Hillary Clinton’s California Director Has Marxist Ties” please click HERE)

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GRIM MILESTONE: More Than 100 Million Working-Age Americans Do Not Have Jobs

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This is exactly what we have been expecting to happen. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. economy only added 38,000 jobs in May. This was way below the 158,000 jobs that analysts were projecting, and it is also way below what is needed just to keep up with population growth. In addition, the number of jobs created in April was revised down by 37,000 and the number of jobs created in March was revised down by 22,000. This was the worst jobs report in almost six years, and the consensus on Wall Street is that it was an unmitigated disaster.

The funny thing is that the Obama administration says that the unemployment rate actually went down last month. Almost every month since Obama has been in the White House, large numbers of Americans that have been unemployed for a very long time are shifted from the “unemployment” category to the “not in the labor force” category. This has resulted in a steadily falling “unemployment rate” even though the percentage of the population that is actually working has not changed very much at all since the depths of the last recession.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that the number of Americans “not in the labor force” increased by 664,000 from April to May. If you believe that, I have a giant bridge on the west coast that I would like to sell you. The labor force participation rate is now down to 62.6, and it is hovering just above a 38 year low.

When you add the number of working age Americans that are “officially unemployed” (7.4 million) to the number of working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” (an all-time record high of 94.7 million), you get a grand total of 102.1 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

This is not a game.

So far in 2016, three members of my own extended family have lost their jobs.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, layoffs at major firms are running 24 percent higher up to this point in 2016 than they were during the same time period in 2015.

It was only a matter of time before those layoffs started showing up in the official employment numbers, and I fully expect that this trend will accelerate in the months ahead.

And here are some other brand new numbers for you to consider…

-Since Barack Obama entered the White House, 14,179,000 Americans have “left the labor force” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

-The quality of our jobs continues to deteriorate. In May, 59,000 full-time jobs were lost, but 118,000 part-time jobs were gained.

-Since September 2014, 207,000 mining jobs have been lost.

-We just learned that U.S. factory orders have declined once again. This marks the 18th month in a row that this has taken place, and we have never seen such an extended decline outside of a major recession.

-JPMorgan’s “recession indicators” have just soared to the highest level that we have seen since the last recession.

Needless to say, the financial community is pretty horrified by all of this news. They were expecting a much better jobs report, and many of them are not hiding their disappointment. Here is one example from the Wall Street Journal…

“This was an unqualified dud of a jobs report,” said Curt Long, chief economist at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, noting “the unemployment rate fell, but for the wrong reason as labor force participation declined for the second consecutive month.”

And here is another example that comes from David Donabedian, the chief investment officer at Atlantic Trust Wealth Management…

“We can’t find a positive nugget in today’s job report. If we were looking for signs of strength in this report, there is nothing to hang onto here.”

But of course the mainstream media is doing their best to put a positive spin on these numbers. For instance, CNN just published a laughable article entitled “America’s economy is stronger than weak jobs report“.

And the White House insists that this new employment report really isn’t that big of a deal…

The White House doesn’t get “too disappointed” over the number of unemployed and underemployed Americans.

“I’ve been reacting to jobs numbers here at the White House for more than seven years, and what is true today has been true in the past, which is, we don’t get too excited when jobs numbers are better than expected and we don’t get too disappointed when jobs numbers one-month are lower than expected,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told CNBC.

But of course the truth is that it is a really big deal. We just received major confirmation that the U.S. economy has slipped into recession mode.

For months, I have been writing about how virtually every other indicator has been screaming that a new economic crisis had already begun.

But the employment numbers had remained fairly decent up until now. Employment is typically considered to be a “lagging indicator”, which means that it isn’t one of the first places we would expect to see signs of a recession show up. However, it is inevitable that the official unemployment numbers will reflect an economic downturn eventually, and that is what we are starting to see now.

What this means is that you probably have even less time to get prepared for what is ahead than you may have originally thought.

The U.S. economy has already entered the early chapters of the next great economic crisis, and most of the population is going to be caught totally off guard and will suffer tremendously.

If our leaders had made better decisions since the last crisis, things could have turned out differently. But instead, they continued to conduct business as usual, and now we will reap what they have sown. (For more from the author of “GRIM MILESTONE: More Than 100 Million Working-Age Americans Do Not Have Jobs” please click HERE)

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What Hillary Did Just Before Vince Foster Killed Himself

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Hillary Clinton relentlessly browbeat her clinically depressed former law partner Vince Foster shortly before he committed suicide in 1993, according to notes from a final jailhouse interview with a former close business partner of the Clintons, the Free Beacon reports.

Jim McDougal, a close confidant of the Clintons for many years, said in a final interview before he died that Hillary had a “hard, difficult personality” and was “riding [Vince Foster] every minute” about Whitewater before Foster took his own life.

He called Bill a “master con artist” who wed Hillary after a “cold-blooded search” to find a politically beneficial wife. Mcdougall said Bill wanted to keep Hilary from succeeding in her own political career.

“I think it was a cold-blooded search by both of them [Bill Clinton and former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker] to find political wives,” said McDougal. “Important who to choose, still hungover from the 60s and both looking for good credentials to back them up.”

“Hillary had credentials to clean up after Bill, he thought she’d keep him organized,” he said. “The truth is that [Bill’s former aide] Betsey Wright was the one who got him organized for his comeback.”

McDougal was a central figure in the Whitewater scandal and convicted of fraud in 1996 in connection to the controversial real estate partnership with the Clintons. He died in 1998 of a heart attack.

“When I saw Vince Foster to put Clintons out of Whitewater, he was clearly depressed, a clinical thing. He was star[t]ing conversation talking about aging, eyesight going, asked me to sign something,” said McDougal.

“Then Vince Foster committed suicide,” continued McDougal. “He had so much of their shit on his head and Hillary was riding him every minute.”

Foster, one of Hillary Clinton’s closest friends and advisers, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Virginia park in 1993. He had been depressed and struggling to shield the Clintons from legal fallout over Whitewater.

The FBI looked into Foster’s death in 1993 and concluded that Hillary Clinton “triggered” Foster’s decision to take his own life after she publicly humiliated him during a White House meeting.

“Foster was profoundly depressed, but Hillary lambasting him was the final straw because she publicly embarrassed him in front of others,” Jim Clemente, a senior FBI investigator on the probe, told investigative reporter Ron Kessler.

After Foster’s death, files related to the Clintons’ investments were removed from his White House office.

They probably landed in her paper shredder.

McDougal’s ex-wife, Susan McDougal, was convicted of contempt of court in 1996 for refusing to answer questions about the Clintons and Whitewater in front of a grand jury. She received a full presidential pardon from Bill right before he left office.

McDougal also described Hillary as “generally a pain in the ass” and “very difficult for everyone, including Bill.” He said Bill seemed to privately enjoy the Whitewater scandal because it was damaging to Hillary’s future political career.

“She had a hard, difficult personality and it got truly released,” said McDougal. “When Bill got to be his own man again, I could see it starts up agains [sic].”

“I think Bill may actually like Whitewater because it makes certain it denies Hillary a position of honor and power in country [sic],” he added.

At the time of McDougal’s death he was still cooperating with federal prosecutors on their investigation of the Clintons’ involvement with the Whitewater real estate venture. The Clintons were never charged.

The controversy stemmed from the 1970s, when McDougal and his wife partnered with the Clintons to purchase a large tract of land in the Arkansas Ozarks. The unsuccessful investment became a national scandal decades later, after the New York Times reported on evidence of impropriety related to the deal.

A central question in the case was whether Bill Clinton used his political influence to help obtain a fraudulent federal loan for the McDougals. There were also accusations of kickbacks related to Hillary Clinton’s alleged legal work on behalf of the McDougals’ bank, Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan.

McDougal gave a candid, first-hand account of the controversy in his book Arkansas Mischief, written with Wilkie. He argued that the Clintons knowingly broke the law in Whitewater and other deals, repeatedly lied under oath, and accepted bribes while in Arkansas. He also claimed Bill and his ex-wife, Susan, had a long-standing affair that began during their marriage, free beacon reported.

McDougal’s friend and fellow prisoner Darren Wesley Williams wrote to the editor of the now-defunct George Magazine about how he liked Jim, who made him laugh. The guards were negligent he said in giving him his medication.

“In the T.V. room he’d have his arm slung over another chair,” Williams added. “If someone came up and asked to sit there he’d say, ‘no, I’m saving this for Bill.’”

Maybe there’s room for Hillary too. (For more from the author of “What Hillary Did Just Before Vince Foster Killed Himself” please click HERE)

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Illegal Aliens Kidnapping Children to Sneak Into U.S. As ‘Family Units,’ Feds Say

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Illegal immigrants are kidnapping children and bringing them across the border, hoping to appear to be families so they can take advantage of lax enforcement policies, the Obama administration told a federal appeals court on Tuesday.

Leon Fresco, a deputy assistant attorney general who handles immigration cases, made the stunning claim as he defended the administration’s policy of detaining illegal immigrant parents and children caught traveling together as they jump the border. After a federal judge last year ordered the families quickly released, Mr. Fresco said it’s served as an enticement for kidnapping.

“When people now know that when I come as a family unit, I won’t be apprehended and detained — we now have people being abducted so that they can be deemed as family units, so that they can avoid detention,” Mr. Fresco told the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

He did not back up that claim in court, and did not respond to a follow-up email seeking comment. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that handles detention and deportation, declined to comment, citing the ongoing case, while Customs and Border Protection, which guards the border, did not respond to a request for comment.

But Peter Schey, the lawyer who argued in court on behalf of the families, and is in touch with hundreds of families as part of the lawsuit, said there’s no evidence to back up Mr. Fresco’s claim. (Read more from “Illegal Aliens Kidnapping Children to Sneak Into U.S. As ‘Family Units,’ Feds Say” HERE)

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