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In Maryland, You Can Release MS-13 Murderers, but You Can’t Release… Balloons?

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Balloons? Bad! Illegal alien MS-13 murderers? Good!

Is that the message Maryland’s politicians are sending to its taxpayers?

Maryland’s urban areas are in the midst of the worst crime crisis ever, even rivaling the crime waves of the 1970s and 1980s. But fear not, they are getting tough – really tough – on those soft round things that bring joy to the eyes of any toddler.

On Monday, the Maryland Senate passed a bill 38-3 (SB28) that would prohibit balloon “releases” in the state unless they’re for scientific research. Violators above the age of 13 will face a penalty of up to $250. That’s certainly a lot more than the teen carjackers terrorizing my suburban Baltimore neighborhood pay when they get released with no prison time. The bill now heads to the House, where Democrats have an insurmountable super-majority.

With record homicides both in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, there has not been a single piece of legislation passed this session dealing with tougher sentencing and closing the criminal loopholes that allow the release of so many violent criminals into the human ecosystem. But it’s worse than that.

The same Maryland Democrats who have a sense of urgency to act out against what they see as harmful balloon releases are also championing the release of even the worst criminal alien gang members.

Maryland has a Salvadoran illegal alien gang problem of epic proportions, perhaps the worst in the country, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions like Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Washington Post observed the MS-13 problem there was “fueled by fresh recruits from an unprecedented wave of almost 200,000 unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.” Baltimore City is also a notorious sanctuary for criminal aliens.

Last year, Prince George’s County passed a bill, in contravention to federal law and against the warnings of its own police department, to prohibit county officials from working with ICE in any capacity, even for the detention and removal of the worst criminal aliens.

In May 2018, two MS-13 members were arrested on murder charges but were released despite an ICE detainer and barely served time in prison. Almost exactly a year later, they were arrested again for first-degree murder of a 14-year-old, and authorities still wouldn’t honor an ICE detainer!

Last year, Montgomery County became a national laughingstock when a local reporter revealed that it had released numerous illegal alien rapists, including child rapists, back into the communities in defiance of ICE detainers.

Yet there is no sense of urgency in Maryland’s legislature to deal with the ultimate pollution of our streets – the release of other countries’ dangerous gang members who prey on children. Where do we see their passion? Fining kids who release balloons.

We already knew that liberals have no regard for the safety of our communities and children. Now we know they also want to take the fun out of their lives. (For more from the author of “In Maryland, You Can Release MS-13 Murderers, but You Can’t Release… Balloons?” please click HERE)

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Illegal Alien Gang Member Who Avoided Deportation Seeks Sanctuary in Church

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The bromide of “America’s immigration system is broken” often rings hollow in its inherent vagueness, but the case of Jorge Avila is a vivid illustration of what President Trump warned is a system that puts America’s security last and takes advantage of the citizen.

In a puff piece by Denverite, Jorge Avila, a 31-year-old illegal alien from Mexico living in Park Hill, Colorado, is portrayed as “a religious man” who “who grew up in the city’s public school system after emigrating from Mexico in 2000,” who is seeking shelter in Park Hill United Methodist Church and Temple Micah to escape the persecution of ICE and immigration courts. The story depicts him as an all-American boy living on the run, with his children terrified of those ICE stormtroopers. In fact, you’d almost think he’s a legal immigrant.

Here’s the reality of why ICE is interested in him. “Mexican citizen Jorge Eduardo Araiza, 31, aka Jorge Araiza Ávila, a member of the Sureno 13 gang, is illegally present in the U.S. and considered a wanted fugitive by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” said Alethea Smock, spokeswoman for ICE’s Denver field office. “Araiza has multiple criminal convictions to include illegal weapons possession, illegal use of slugs, trespassing, among others, spanning several years.”

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2019 Drug Threat Assessment, Sureno 13 gang members “have ties with Mexican cartels and they work together to smuggle methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana.” Texas’ Department of Public safety rates the gang a top threat for “their relationship with cartels, propensity for violence, level of criminal activity, involvement in human smuggling, and recruitment of minors.”

Hence, these churches that are supposed to uphold biblical values are harboring foreign gang members. There is a growing problem of churches harboring criminal aliens under the guise of compassion. Last year, a Colorado Springs church harbored an illegal alien despite his prior conviction for DUI and arrests for reckless endangerment and domestic violence. A few months later, he was accused of killing a father of five when his truck swerved into the man’s motorcycle.

There’s also the public policy aspect of this case as well. One would think that at least an illegal alien who also has a criminal record and is a member of a dangerous gang would be removed immediately upon discovery by federal officials. Yet our broken system allows such people to litigate their cases for a decade, violate the terms of the process, and continue to remain here with impunity while having more children who will get to vote just like you and me, as a reward for their parents violating one law after another.

“Araiza illegally entered the U.S. sometime in 2000 and was initially encountered by officers with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in September 2011 and placed into immigration proceedings,” said Smock on the statement. “He failed to appear for his immigration court hearing in August 2012, and an immigration judge ordered him removed in absentia. He appealed the judge’s decision, and in January 2018, he was granted voluntary departure. Araiza failed to depart and filed a petition for review with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was denied in January 2020. After exhausting full legal process in his case, Araiza is subject to a final order of removal and must depart the country.”

Commonsense taxpayers might be wondering how we’ve gone from the courts saying for 130 years that there is no right to judicial review for remaining in the country against the national will to a point where illegal aliens have more appeals than you or I would get. Avila now has four young children who, under prevailing administrative procedures, are viewed as American citizens, even though Avila had been affirmatively ordered removed from the country.

In 1996, Bill Clinton signed a law designed to foreclose upon any avenue for litigation by blocking all access to administrative and federal judges for illegal aliens who can’t prove they’ve resided here for two consecutive years. However, the law has not been enforced, allowing millions of criminal aliens to remain here and then litigate their way out of deportation for years thereafter. President Trump is in the process of finally implementing it, but the lower courts are placing injunctions on a law that barred this very sort of judicial intervention in the first place.

This case, in particular, demonstrates a need for immigration reform in which at least those with criminal charges or convictions (in addition to being here illegally) are removed immediately without further review or appeals. Absent such a reform, the citizenry will retain no control over who gets to join the society, the very underpinnings of consent-based society established in the Declaration of Independence.

To put this in its numerical context, there are 3.2 million people who’ve already been targeted for removal, mainly those who’ve committed additional crimes, who remain at large in the country undetained. Of those, 2.1 million have final or pending final removal orders, and the rest are still litigating their way into various kinds of legal status. We know from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) that 83 percent of felons reoffend within nine years of being released. Which means our citizens are needlessly on the hook for recidivist crimes committed by millions of other countries’ criminals who should never have been here to begin with and have no right to judicial review. (For more from the author of “Illegal Alien Gang Member Who Avoided Deportation Seeks Sanctuary in Church” please click HERE)

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New Republican Bill Would Punish States That Give Driver’s License to Illegal Aliens

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A new bill sponsored by Republicans would cut funding that goes to states that grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

The bill is called the “Stop Greenlighting Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Act,” and would end funding to those states from a program that issues federal criminal justice funding from the Department of Justice. . .

“Tennesseans know all too well what can happen when illegal immigrants are granted driver licenses,” said a statement by [Marsha] Blackburn.

“While Tennessee and many other states prohibit driver licenses for illegal aliens, a growing number of states are moving in the opposite direction and unleashing dangerous open borders policies. Immigrants must follow the proper federal process and obtain citizenship or lawful status before obtaining a state driver license,” she added. . .

Proponents of laws that grant driver’s licenses to illegals say that such policies would allow them to obtain insurance and put citizens in less risk. Critics argue that it rewards criminality. (Read more from “New Republican Bill Would Punish States That Give Driver’s License to Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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State Advances Bill to Give Driver’s Licenses to up to 300,000 Illegal Aliens

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The Democrats’ takeover of the Virginia statehouse includes advancing legislation that would give driver’s licenses to as many as 300,000 illegal immigrants in the state.

The local Fox News affiliate reported that critics say the law would reward this demographic, which has already broken the law by being in the country illegally. Those who support the bill say it would “increase the state’s revenue and decrease the level of fear existing in the immigrant community.”

“There’s 17 other states who have done it and the other states have removed the legal presence requirement, the number of collisions have gone down,” Scott Surovell, a Democrat, said in the Fox 5 report. . .

The Virginia Senate will vote on the bill on Monday, according to the Fox report, and the House will vote on an identical bill. If the bill passes both chambers and Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam signs it, the law would go into effect on January 1, 2021. (Read more from “State Advances Bill to Give Driver’s Licenses to up to 300,000 Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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He Never Thought ICE Would Come for Him. Sixteen Years and Four DUIs Later, They Did

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Emanuel was in disbelief when he saw federal immigration officers show up to his workplace. He never thought they would come for him. . .

Emanuel Mendoza-Morales, 42, was born and raised in Mexico, but for the past 17 years he has lived in the United States after illegally entering the country by way of the southern border in 2003. An hour before, officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office had shown up to the mechanic shop where Mendoza-Morales was working and took him into custody.

Mendoza-Morales is now sitting at ICE’s processing center in downtown Santa Ana. He consented to speak with the Washington Examiner about his experience. At first, he does not have much to say and shrugs off the questions. Then all of a sudden, he starts speaking in Spanish to a guard, telling the official how the officers who arrested him did not let him pack up and stow his tools before taking him away. He starts crying, blurting out “estupido” several times, the Spanish word for “stupid.” . . .

Mendoza-Morales says he has been arrested twice for driving under the influence and once for a “license issue.” But ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Los Angeles Field Office Director David Marin, who is across the room, later says he has been convicted of DUI four times in the region between 2007 and 2019. A second ICE official confirms the four DUI convictions.

“He probably thinks, ‘Oh, I’m free. Nobody’s going to find me,’” Marin says. ICE requested last July following the most recent DUI arrest that Santa Ana notify them before releasing him. The request was not approved. “It takes us six months to find him, but we do,” Marin says. (Read more from “He Never Thought ICE Would Come for Him. Sixteen Years and Four DUIs Later, They Did” HERE)

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WATCH: Illegal Aliens Get Violent at Border, Demand Entry Into U.S.

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Hundreds of migrants from Central America demanded that the Mexican government give them passage to make their way to the US border on Monday, and reacted violently when Mexican soldiers stopped them.

The migrants attempted to force their way into Mexico by wading across the Suchiate River while others attacked the Mexican national guardsmen that tried to drive them back, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In a video produced by the Associated Press, migrants can be seen scuffling with soldiers, and one is shown lobbing a boulder at them. . .

Another portion of the video shows migrants chanting, “si se puede!” which translates to, “yes we can!” The slogan has been used in various political campaigns in Latin America and elsewhere, including that of former President Barack Obama.

(Read more from “WATCH: Illegal Aliens Get Violent at Border, Demand Entry Into U.S.” HERE)

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Illegal Alien Hired by Church as Bus Driver Charged With 19 Counts of Child Molestation

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Support of criminals and illegal aliens by many wayward churches is touted as the ultimate expression of compassion rooted in Biblical values. But it’s merely virtue-signaling – and not of virtues. Nowhere is this more evident than in the harboring of criminal aliens.

On Thursday, police in Annapolis, Maryland, arrested Jose Argueta, 44, an illegal alien from El Salvador, on 19 child sex assault charges. He is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl on four occasions and taking pornographic images of her during several of those incidents since mid-December.

“It was obvious that there was a lot of information confirming that this had happened and also photographs unfortunately–pornographic images of this child,” said Sgt. Amy Miguez of the Annapolis Police Department in an interview with reporters.

ICE lodged a detainer with the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on the day of the arrest, but for now Argueta is being held without bail.

How did Argueta have access to her? According to police, he met her while serving as a van driver for a local church, transporting the victim and her family to their church in Glen Burnie, Maryland, where Argueta also lived. Glen Burnie is a suburb of Baltimore on the south side in Anne Arundel County and has seen a massive influx of Central Americans in recent years, just like neighboring Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

What is further troubling is that, according to court records, Argueta had a history of traffic violations and a DUI. Yet he had a valid Maryland trucking license. How was someone like this able to remain in the country and openly drive for a church? The entire purpose of the 1986 amnesty deal was to make it illegal for someone here unlawfully to work. This alleged crime was therefore 100 percent preventable.

The name of the church has not been publicized, but one has to wonder whether the church even cared to verify his immigration status or if church authorities actually knew he was an illegal alien. Harboring criminals tends to lead to more criminal activity – in this case, the terrible crime of child molestation.

All these politicians, civic leaders, and alleged religious leaders think they are doing the Lord’s work by harboring fugitives and criminals, among them many violent criminals. As I’ve reported before, Central America, particularly the rural areas from which many illegal aliens have come, have a cultural problem of child marriages, in which sex with teenage girls is considered more normal than it is here. There is also an epidemic of gang recruitment among Salvadorans in Maryland, more than in almost any state. This is why virtue-signaling is no virtue; it’s cruelty. Any effort by politicians, churches, or businesses in a state like Maryland to harbor illegal aliens will result in more preventable crimes.

Last year, Miguel Ramirez Valiente, an illegal alien from El Salvador, sought refuge in the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Colorado Springs along with other illegal aliens. In January, he held a press conference crying about the potential for him to be separated from his family, and it was widely reported in the national media. “I can’t be separated from them,” he said. “I have always worked hard to support my family, and they depend on me.”

The church took him in despite his prior conviction for DUI and arrests for reckless endangerment and domestic violence. In August, he again drove recklessly and separated a father of five from his family permanently, in the grave, killing the father when Valiente’s truck swerved into the father’s motorcycle.

Just one year’s worth of illegal aliens subject to detainers have a collective rap sheet of charges including: 2,500 homicides, 56,000 assaults, 14,500 sex crimes, 5,000 robberies, and 2,500 kidnappings. And those are just the ones they catch. That’s some compassion these churches are promoting. It looks like these churches need to go back to the basics of Bible study before they educate themselves on immigration policy. (For more from the author of “Illegal Alien Hired by Church as Bus Driver Charged With 19 Counts of Child Molestation” please click HERE)

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U.S. Begins Collecting DNA Information From Detained Migrants

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The U.S. government has launched a small-scale pilot program that collects DNA samples from detained migrants, and plans to dramatically expand its reach in the near future.

Beginning Monday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin collecting DNA information from migrants who are detained near Detroit, as well as individuals detained at the Eagle Pass, Texas port of entry, which sits across the U.S.-Mexico border. The announcement was made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent department of CBP, and is part of a 90-day pilot program.

The DHS directive calls on CBP agents to take saliva swabs of those detained at the Detroit and Eagle Pass locations, and then to send that DNA information to the FBI.

“During the 90-day pilot program, CBP will collect DNA samples from certain individuals held at both locations. For the U.S. Border Patrol, this will include individuals between the ages of 14-79 who are apprehended and processed within the Detroit Sector. For the Office of Field Operations [in southern Texas], this will include individuals who present at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry for consideration of admissibility and are subject to further detention or proceedings,” read a portion of the memo.

The DNA testing can apply to nearly anyone who has been detained by CBP, including foreign nationals, permanent residents, and U.S. citizens. Refusal to comply could lead to a misdemeanor criminal charge, and DNA will be collected indefinitely at a criminal database run by the FBI. (Read more from “U.S. Begins Collecting DNA Information From Detained Migrants” HERE)

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Two ‘Unaccompanied’ Illegal Aliens Released by Sanctuaries Arrested for Gang Murder

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Remember Montgomery County, Maryland? The county with a slew of illegal alien sex offenders arrested over the summer? Well, the D.C. suburb is also home to large numbers of transnational gang members, increasingly committing murder. Their ranks have been enlarged by the interminable flow of Central American teens across the border in recent years. Sadly, the parents and family members who “sponsor” these “children” now get amnesty under the budget bill Trump agreed to sign this year.

In what has become an all-too-familiar scene in the D.C. suburban area, Montgomery County police found the body of Sara Gutierrez-Villatoro, 19, shot dead in a wooded area in Dickerson, Maryland, on November 29 in what appeared to be a gang killing. Dickerson was once a quiet town in the more rural part of Montgomery County near the Potomac River but has now been exposed to the epidemic of illegal alien gangs. It wasn’t until the week before Christmas that local police announced the arrests of Jonathan Rivera-Escobar, 19; Geovany Dominguez, 24; Jordan Moreno, 21; and Rigoberto Machado, 16 – all part of an 18th Street gang clique in D.C. – for the November murder. The victim is believed to have been a member of the gang as well, who betrayed the other members.

What nobody has reported, however, is that at least two of them are confirmed illegal aliens who were resettled at taxpayer expense as “unaccompanied alien minors” in recent years. Worse, both of them were just recently released from D.C. local jail in defiance of ICE detainers.

“ICE has lodged detainers with Montgomery County Detention Center for two men charged with murder in the first degree,” said ICE’s Baltimore office in a statement to CR. “Geovany Alexander Godoy-Dominguez, 23, and Jonathan Rivera-Escobar, 19, were arrested in connection to a murder in Maryland in November. Godoy had previously been the subject of an ICE detainer after an Oct. 31 arrest by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, but was released.”

ICE did not issue a statement on Moreno. As for Machado, because he is a minor, ICE will not comment on his immigration status.

In the statement, an ICE official noted how the local sanctuary policies in D.C. and its surrounding counties have allowed more needless crimes to be committed. “Sanctuary policies are reckless and dangerous for our communities,” said acting Deputy Executive Associate Director Henry Lucero. “How many catastrophic incidents need to occur before supporters of sanctuary policies realize that communities are safer when law enforcement works together?”

So, what is the story with Godoy-Dominguez? According to ICE, he is “an illegal alien from El Salvador” and is “an immigration fugitive.”

“Godoy was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in Jan. 2013 after illegally entering the United States. He was an unaccompanied child at the time, was transferred to Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and subsequently released to his sponsor. On Mar. 11, 2015, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the United States when he failed to appear for his immigration hearing. On Oct. 31, 2019, following his arrest for possession of an unregistered firearm, ICE issued an immigration detainer and warrant of removal for Godoy with the D.C. Department of Corrections. On Nov. 3, 2019, the detainer and warrant were not honored and he was released instead of being turned over to ICE. ICE lodged a detainer Dec. 26 with Montgomery County Detention Center for Godoy following his arrest for murder.”

More than 90 percent of UAC sponsors are in the country illegally.

The same jurisdictions that are pushing gun control have no problem harboring other countries’ gun felons, when they could easily be removed by ICE. How Montgomery County officials could release an illegal alien gang member like Godoy-Dominguez after arresting him on a firearms charge is inexplicable.

Jonathan Rivera-Escobar is also an illegal alien from El Salvador. According to ICE, he was also settled as a UAC in June 2016 and had a prior arrest but was not turned over to ICE. “As he was an unaccompanied minor, he was turned over to the HHS ORR and was subsequently released to his sponsor. On Sept. 6, Rivera was arrested and charged with unlawful entry of a motor vehicle and released prior to ICE placing a detainer. On Dec. 18, ICE lodged a detainer with Maryland County following his arrest for murder.”

Last year, ICE placed detainers on aliens charged with a total of 2,500 murders. Given that most murderers are repeat offenders, one can only imagine how many of these murders were 100 percent preventable, because their first criminal arrests should have triggered their removals. Had Rivera-Escobar and Godoy-Dominguez been handed over to ICE, the murder likely would never have happened.

But it’s worse than that. Consider the fact that under the bill just signed by President Trump, first in February and then permanently codified in the December omnibus, those illegal relatives who are sponsoring people like Rivera-Escobar and Godoy-Dominguez will be shielded from deportation as a reward for trafficking in future gang members. In the ultimate case of paying for the rope to hang ourselves, these future gang members are resettled by the Office of Refugee Resettlement as refugees on the taxpayer dime.

The D.C. suburbs have become a hotbed for Salvadoran illegal alien gangs since the influx of Central Americans, propelled by unaccompanied teen trafficking, began early in the decade. “What we found in recent years is a resurgence of MS-13 in Maryland, in the D.C. area, and it was fueled by illegal immigration and particularly by the challenge of unaccompanied minor children,” said Rod Rosenstein in the presence of the president in Long Island last year.

“Many of these alien children, who have no parents, no family structure — we’re releasing them into communities where they’re vulnerable to recruitment by MS-13,” said Rosenstein. ICE has estimated that about 40 percent of the MS-13 members arrested in recent years originally arrived as UACs.

MS-13 and the rival 18th Street gang are endemic to El Salvador, and now roughly 22 percent of El Salvador’s population is in the United States, many of them settling in the counties surrounding D.C. – both in Maryland and in Virginia. So the policies encouraging the trafficking of volatile Salvadoran youth into the country to fuel the growth of the most violent gangs are coming home to roost right where the nation’s lawmakers reside. (For more from the author of “Two ‘Unaccompanied’ Illegal Aliens Released by Sanctuaries Arrested for Gang Murder” please click HERE)

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African Americans Are Taking Back Jobs Stolen by Illegal Aliens

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African Americans are taking back jobs that were stolen from them by illegal immigrants. In August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers swept up 680 illegal immigrants during raids on seven food processing plants in Mississippi. Without the cheap labor, the companies were forced to hire Americans to do the work.

(The New York Times explains)

By the end of the 1960s, black workers predominated on the lines.

It was an important win for African-Americans looking for an alternative to housework in wealthy white homes, or for those who had seen fieldwork dry up in an increasingly mechanized agricultural sector.

“The chicken plant,” Dr. Stuesse [an associate professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina] quoted a civil rights veteran saying, “replaced the cotton field.”

But as American chicken consumption boomed in the 1980s, manufacturers went in search of “cheaper and more exploitable workers,” Dr. Stuesse wrote, chiefly Latin American immigrants.

(Read more from “African Americans Are Taking Back Jobs Stolen by Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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