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Governor Signs Bill Extending Health Care to Illegal Aliens

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On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law State Bill 104, which now extends health care benefits to illegal immigrants between the ages of 19-25, in addition to the law that already had guaranteed coverage to illegal immigrants under the age of 19. . .

The bill states:

The federal Medicaid program prohibits payment to a state for medical assistance furnished to an alien who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or otherwise permanently residing in the United States under color of law.

Existing law requires that individuals under 19 years of age enrolled in restricted-scope Medi-Cal at the time the Director of Health Care Services makes a determination that systems have been programmed for implementation of these provisions be enrolled in the full scope of Medi-Cal benefits, if otherwise eligible. Existing law requires the department to maximize federal financial participation in implementing the provisions.

This bill would extend eligibility for full-scope Medi-Cal benefits to individuals 19 to 25 years of age, inclusive, and who are otherwise eligible for those benefits but for their immigration status. This bill would additionally require the department to claim federal financial participation to the extent that the department determines it is available, and to the extent that federal financial participation is not available, would require the department to use state funds. Because counties are required to make eligibility determinations and this bill would expand Medicaid eligibility, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(Read more from “Governor Signs Bill Extending Health Care to Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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President Trump Should Set the Refugee Cap for 2020 at ZERO

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If over one million people are coming straight to our border this year, much of it fueled by quasi-asylum policies, why should we willingly bring in more people through a separate refugee program? The president should pose that question to the American people and then should announce a cap of zero for annual refugee intake in fiscal year 2020.

The Refugee Act of 1980 [8 U.S.C. §1157(a)(2)] grants the president the sole authority to set the annual cap for refugee intake. He only needs to “consult” with the Senate and House Judiciary committees, but they have no veto power over his decision without changing the law. Thus, there is nothing stopping the president from setting the cap at zero when the State Department sends the annual written report to Congress roughly two months from now.

To his credit, the president did reduce the cap to 45,000 in FY 2018 and 30,000 in FY 2019. So far, for the first three quarters of this fiscal year, 21,604 refugees have been processed. That is a sharp drop from the standard 70,000 cap for most of the past few decades and from the 110,000 cap Obama set in his final year in office. However, with everything going on at the border, it is simply indefensible to bring in more refugees when our system can’t handle the quasi-asylum invasion at our border. Dropping the number of refugees by 80,000 or so is nothing when we have one million people coming to our border.

Whether you believe in holding the line at the border or in processing more catch-and-release for amnesty at the border, either way, we need every resource we have among immigration officers trained in asylum adjudication and processing to deal with the border. Every employee of USCIS needs to be working on clearing the existing backlog in the system being driven by the border invasion. While 30,000 refugees doesn’t sound like a lot based on historical trends, all those employees who would be diverted to that process next year should be marshalled to combat the border crisis.

The refugee program is broken beyond repair anyway, and any sane government official would admit that it should be suspended while we deal with our broken border. We spend 12 times as much money resettling migrants in America as it would cost to resettle them in their own regions. Moreover, as Christians and Jews in the Middle East are becoming extinct, much of the resettlement program has become a fundamental transformation of America by bringing in thousands of non-assimilating Muslims engaged in protracted sectarian civil wars. The cost to Americans in terms of welfare, security, and culture is staggering — and it all enriches self-promoting and parasitic refugee contractors.

Moreover, it’s important to remember that much of the border crisis is already straining the refugee resettlement program under the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The thousands of Central American children smuggled in by illegal alien families are all being processed and resettled just like the refugees we choose to admit from other parts of the world. It’s unfair for the agency and its advocates to double-dip. If we are experiencing record resettlement of Central American kids, which is bankrupting the agency, then there is no reason to electively add more to the program.

Finally, there is also another refugee program not subject to the annual caps, the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which has continued to grow under the Trump administration. It seems like the only purpose of our military remaining in Afghanistan is to bring in families of those who supposedly helped us in the dubious mission, which runs completely counter to the entire purpose of the War on Terror and the impetus for 9/11 (protecting America from dangerous immigrants). Since Trump took office, the State Department has admitted over 30,000 SIVs from Afghanistan and close to 10,000 from Iraq.

Bottom line? There’s no reason to have a separate refugee program when our entire border and immigration system has become one mass fraudulent refugee system. (For more from the author of “President Trump Should Set the Refugee Cap for 2020 at Zero” please click HERE)

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The Open-Borders Crime Wave That Doesn’t Seem to Bother Congress at All

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The House plans to hold endless hearings on the conditions of the detention facilities holding illegal aliens. What few in government and the media plan to focus on is what we are not seeing but that is still coming into our country, since Border Patrol has been transformed into Walmart greeters and babysitters. Moreover, what nobody in the media wants to discuss is the number of people who come in openly and go on to commit crimes in this country.

Despite so few agents left patrolling the line, Border Patrol still caught over 19,000 criminals at our border so far this fiscal year. These are just the ones they caught, and these are only the ones who are already convicted criminals. Can you imagine how many new criminals are getting through, strategically brought in by the cartels with the certainty that Border Patrol can’t catch them because they are dealing with the bogus asylum? Can you imagine how many are first-timers who have no criminal record or known record that is communicated to our national security officials, but are still threats?

This is the issue the political class will not discuss. You never hear them discuss sex trafficking of kids, smuggling, cartels, drugs, gangs, and crime. You only hear narratives about conditions of the detention facilities. But none of these problems would occur if we actually held the line at the border and upheld both the letter and spirit of our laws and turned back illegal aliens or prosecuted them. Instead, Border Patrol is being told to rush these families in as quickly as possible, serving the interest of nobody. All of Border Patrol’s operational capacity is being diverted to cater to the Left’s demands rather than protect our national security, yet it still gets accused of running concentration camps.

In what should be national news but instead happens almost every day without any media coverage, a 17-year-old illegal alien from Guatemala, Baudilio Salomon Diaz Ambrocio, allegedly raped a seven-year-old girl in Cobb County, Georgia, so badly that she needed surgery. ICE confirmed to me that there is a detainer on him and he is indeed a removable alien, but would not answer my question about his history and whether he was resettled as an “unaccompanied minor.” “We are not able to provide any case specifics on our end regarding a juvenile,” said the regional public affairs spokesman.

As I’ve reported before, a number of the Central American teens resettled in the country have turned out to be violent and have ties to gangs. Roughly 40 percent of those caught in Operation Matador, an ICE operation against MS-13, turned out to be resettled as UACs. Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Director Mark Morgan, who briefly served as acting director of ICE, said earlier this year, “As chief of the Border Patrol, I would tour the detention facilities filled to capacity with unaccompanied minors. … As I looked as these groups, I saw both hardened young men as well as vulnerable and lost youth. With every encounter, I walked away wondering how many would be lured into joining a gang.”

Yet, thanks to privacy rules of DHS, almost all of their crimes go unreported to the public. While every death of a Central American is publicized in every media outlet with every piece of biographical information imaginable, nearly every death or harm caused by criminal aliens goes unreported.

The purpose of Border Patrol is to protect Americans from foreign nationals who would do us harm, not to protect foreign nationals from sickness and dehydration, although agents certainly do a heroic job of saving thousands of them every year, which also goes unreported in the media.

Every day, I struggle to get information regarding crimes committed by those who should never have been here in the country. ICE has an internal policy against divulging immigration history without a formal request, and even after the request, information is very limited.

This week, I’ve been working on the story of Victor H. Ortiz, who allegedly killed Barbara Gaulke and Sandra Forscht in a drunk driving incident in Lake County, Illinois, on June 8. He had a history of driving drunk and was even caught driving drunk 20 days after this incident, before he was arrested, after local officials confirmed through blood and urine tests that he had been driving drunk in the previous fatal accident.

I inquired about his immigration status because local media reported that he attempted to flee to Guatemala. Now, Breitbart’s John Binder is reporting from his sources that the man is a naturalized citizen, but he originally came in as an illegal alien. It’s unclear how he obtained a green card.

Even in areas that are very supportive of open borders, some of the local leaders are starting to admit they have problems. Dona Ana County, New Mexico, the ultimate sanctuary jurisdiction, has experienced seven fatal shootings over the past few weeks. Five of them were related to drug cartels. The local sheriff and police chief now admit that with border checkpoints down and with agents diverted away from countering the cartels, the criminal networks have a free lane. “With asylum seekers coming to the border and throwing up their hands to every Border Patrol agent they can see, the cartel is a very active observer,” said Kim Stewart, Doña Ana County Sheriff, in an interview with the local ABC station.

While House Democrats hold hearings on behalf of illegal aliens, the question nobody in the Republican-controlled Senate is asking is why should Border Patrol be forced to allow in so many criminals, yet still get called Nazis? And if not Border Patrol, then why can’t the military actually defend our border?

Ultimately, this all boils down to one question: Are the assets of the United States government for the protection of the American citizen or for the welfare of those seeking to subvert our sovereignty? (For more from the author of “The Open-Borders Crime Wave That Doesn’t Seem to Bother Congress at All” please click HERE)

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Video: Mexican Human Smugglers Busted with 228 Migrants in Pepsi Truck

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Two human smugglers were arrested and 228 Central American migrants were apprehended after a tractor-trailer traveling in the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas was stopped by federal and state police.

Federal and state police from the Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección (SSPC) halted a tractor-trailer with Pepsi logos traveling at kilometer 071 in Cintalapa early Monday morning. While conducting an inspection of the Kenworth trailer registered in Veracruz, 228 Central American migrants were discovered packed in the cargo area along with a load of soft drink products, according to local media reports. . .

The 228 migrants, consisted of men, women, and children, were determined to be from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. They were all provided medical checks and first aid before being turned over to the custody of Mexican immigration authorities (INM). The two smugglers were handed over to investigative personnel of the federal prosecutor’s office for pending charges of human smuggling.

(Read more from “Video: Mexican Human Smugglers Busted with 228 Migrants in Pepsi Truck” HERE)

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Trumpism Works: Mexico Scanning for Illegals with a Giant X-Ray Machine

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. . .Six weeks ago President Trump announced new tariffs on Mexican exports if the Federales didn’t step up enforcement of Mexico’s southern border, and that the tariffs would gradually increase “until the illegal immigration problem is remedied.” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wasn’t exactly thrilled, but responded swiftly, agreeing to send its National Guard to its border with Guatemala.

And now… now he’s using a giant x-ray machine to scan trucks suspected of smuggling illegal migrants up toward the United States.

In just two days, Reuters reports, Mexican officials have caught more than 200 illegals stashed away in secret compartments. The story also notes that an “additional 228 hidden migrants were found in a routine search of a soft drink transportation truck in the southern state of Chiapas on Monday.” . . .

Personally, I like to picture President López Obrador at the machine’s controls himself, madly adjusting dials and giant switches like a scene out of “Frankenstein.” The reality, I’m sure, is much more drab, despite the amazing presence of a giant x-ray machine in the hands of Mexican border control. Still, in just a few short weeks Mexico has gone from a laissez-faire attitude toward tens of thousands of “migrants” using their country as a rest stop on the way to America, to hauling a giant x-ray machine down to the Guatemalan border.

In other words, no matter what your personal politics might be regarding illegal immigration, there’s no denying that Trumpism is working. And there’s a giant x-ray machine to prove it. (Read more from “Trumpism Works: Mexico Scanning for Illegals with a Giant X-Ray Machine” HERE)

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U.S. Marine Accused of Smuggling Illegal Aliens for $1,000

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Federal prosecutors in California charged an active duty U.S. Marine for allegedly transporting illegal immigrants for financial gain. Smugglers allegedly offered the Marine a fee of $1,000 to transport the migrants.

On July 3, a San Diego Sector Border Patrol agent observed a black car picking up what they believed to be illegal aliens at a known pickup spot near Interstate 8 in southern California. The agent relayed the vehicle’s description to other agents patrolling in the area. Another agent observed the vehicle matching the description and pulled the driver over, according to a criminal complaint provided to Breitbart News by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Border Patrol agent told prosecutors the traffic stop occurred approximately seven miles north of the California-Mexico border and 20 miles east of the Tecate Port of Entry. During an immigration interview, the agent identified the driver as Byron Darnell Law II, a U.S. citizen. He also identified the front seat passenger as David Javier Salazar-Quintero, a U.S. citizen. In the back seat, the agent identified three passengers as citizens of Mexico who are illegally in the U.S. . .

Border Patrol agents said they advised Law of his Miranda Rights and he agreed to speak with them without an attorney. Law told the investigating agent that he is an active duty Marine assigned to Camp Pendleton. He told the agent that Salazar organized the alleged smuggling event, according to the criminal complaint. He reportedly told the agent that Salazar contacted him and asked him if he would be willing to make a trip to pick up the illegal immigrants for a fee of $1,000.

Law continued, explaining that on July 2, Salazar was in communication with a spotter who coordinated the meeting between Law and a Mexican national being smuggled, the complaint continues. In the first event, they picked up a single migrant and drove him to a McDonald’s parking lot in Del Mar, California, Law continued. They met with another person who took custody of the person being smuggled. (Read more from “U.S. Marine Accused of Smuggling Illegal Aliens for $1,000” HERE)

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U.S. Voters Support Criminally Prosecuting Illegal Aliens

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A 2020 Democrat plan to decriminalize illegal border crossings at the United States-Mexico border has little support among the American electorate, a new poll finds.

The latest poll by The Hill/HarrisX finds that a plurality of American voters said they support criminally prosecuting illegal aliens who cross the nation’s borders illegally into the U.S.

More than 4-in-10 voters, or about 41 percent, said they supported criminal prosecutions for illegal aliens rather than charging them with civil penalties, as multiple 2020 Democrat presidential primary candidates have endorsed, including Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Eric Swalwell. . .

Nearly 7-in-10 Republican voters, a plurality of 36 percent of swing voters, and even 24 percent of Democrat voters said they support criminally prosecuting illegal border crossers. A majority of 53 percent of rural voters said they too preferred criminal prosecutions for illegal aliens over less than 30 percent who said they supported changing the law to fine illegal aliens with civil penalties. . .

The Democrats’ plan to decriminalize illegal immigration would make it so that the millions of illegal aliens and border crossers who have inundated the nation’s borders over the past decade would be treated as civil violators, rather than being criminally prosecuted. Today, there are roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living throughout the U.S., about half of whom illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (Read more from “U.S. Voters Support Criminally Prosecuting Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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What ‘Plummet’? Border Numbers Still Well Above Level of ‘System-Wide Emergency’

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Just how accustomed have we become to the new normal of open borders? In March, when 92,840 people were apprehended between ports of entry at the border, including 53,208 family unit members, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) referred to it as a “system-wide emergency.” Now, after preliminary data show the numbers are off the peak of May, back “down” to 95,500 total apprehensions and 57,300 family unit members, it is reported as a major breakthrough.

Has the Overton window shifted so far to the Left on this issue that the media will successfully acculturate us to tolerate this level of illegal immigration, especially the shutdown of our Border Patrol, caring for immigrants rather than protecting Americans, as the new normal?

While it is true that the numbers are down 28 percent from the unfathomable peak of the May numbers, when over 132,000 were apprehended between ports of entry, the June numbers still sit at roughly the April levels, which themselves reflected a high-water mark, with month-over-month increases for a year and a half.

At this point, it’s not yet clear whether May represented a new baseline or just an aberration with a number of huge groups coming in at once. Now, with the hotter weather, when numbers usually drop anyway, maintaining the level of illegal immigration from March/April still represents a 44 percent increase over the levels we were seeing in February, when the president declared a national emergency.

Thus, the June border numbers, without a further trajectory change, are more akin to a slight market correction the day after the stock market reaches its highest level, but still well into uncharted waters.

While it is true that some actions taken by the Mexican government might have dissuaded more migrants from crossing into Mexico since President Trump secured an agreement with President Lopez Obrador in early June, it is unlikely that the Mexican government has the desire or the ability to permanently bend the trajectory until we change the policies of executive and judicial amnesty from our side of the border. The bottom line is that the cartels make too much money off human smuggling and will not allow Mexico’s national guard to take a bite out of that revenue without a massive civil war.

Yesterday, the New York-based Spanish language publication “El Diario” posted a video of alleged members of Cártel del Noreste (CDN) attacking national guard soldiers in Tamaulipas, one of the key smuggling areas. This comes a week after a cartel in the southern border province of Tabasco set up a blockade of burning cars in a highway, according to Borderland Beat, with the following warning: “Welcome #GuardiaNacional(.) We know that you’re coming with everything but let’s see how many come out of here alive, align yourselves or we’ll do it for you.” Tabasco shares a border with Guatemala, where President Lopez Obrador promised to deploy national guardsmen to stop the Central American migration.

It’s clear that without the Trump administration designating the cartels as terrorists under our laws and using the military more aggressively on our side of the border to counter their smuggling activities, we will never return to even “Obama levels” of illegal immigration. It remains stupefying why this administration has not yet done that, why it has not fired acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, and why it has not issued an 1182 shutoff at the border.

According to a new Harvard/Harris poll, 42 percent of voters rank immigration as the most important issue facing the country today, more than any other issue. More importantly, voters were asked directly whether they support the idea of turning back people with questionable asylum claims, and 62 percent said they should “immediately” be turned back. That includes 64 percent of independent voters, 62 percent of self-described moderates, and even 44 percent of people who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The president has nothing to lose and everything to gain by finally shutting off all migration of those without proper documentation at our border and turning them back the same way we did with the Haitians in the early 1990s. Not only would it protect Americans from crime, drugs, gangs, diseases, and public charge, it would end all the backlash over the care for the illegal aliens themselves. There is no good way to manage catch-and-release even from a humanitarian perspective when the numbers are this high.

When the president announced his bid for the highest office in the land on June 16, 2015, he referred to America as a “dumping ground” for illegal aliens. At that time, there were roughly 38,000 apprehensions a month. In July 2014, amidst the original crisis of Central American migration, Trump tweeted, “The immigration crisis is a horrible mess made worse by an incompetent president who doesn’t have a clue. We need new leadership FAST!”

If things have gotten so bad that we now tout “only 95,000” apprehensions as success, then this entire endeavor has truly been a failure. We need real leadership, fast, and that begins with the president getting new legal advice in the White House. (For more from the author of “What ‘Plummet’? Border Numbers Still Well Above Level of ‘System-Wide Emergency’” please click HERE)

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Poll: Majority of Americans Want MASS DEPORTATIONS of Illegal Aliens

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A majority of Americans want mass deportations of illegal aliens if Congress fails to reach a deal this week that closes loopholes in the country’s asylum system that allow mass flows of foreign nationals to pour through the U.S.-Mexico border.

The latest Harvard/Harris poll finds that 51 percent of American voters say they support mass deportations of the 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. should Congress fail to reach a deal that closes loopholes in the asylum system.

More than 8-in-10 Republican voters, as well as more than 5-in-10 swing voters, said President Trump should carry out mass deportations of illegal aliens following Congressional inaction. Nearly 9-in-10 Trump supporters said the same.

Working and middle class Americans, those earning $75,000 a year or less, support mass deportations of illegal aliens if Congress fails to act by a majority of 53 percent. A majority of Americans 35 to 49-years-old also support mass deportations following inaction from Congress. . .

The poll comes as Trump delayed a nationwide plan to mass deport thousands of illegal aliens who have final orders for removal. Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan accused acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kevin McAleenan of leaking the plans to mass deport illegal aliens in order to halt the operation. (Read more from “Poll: Majority of Americans Want Mass Deportations of Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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Dem Congresswoman Sending Staff to Help Illegal Aliens Enter U.S.

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Democrat Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX) is secretly sending staff to Mexico to find and coach migrants who are trying to enter the United States and is instructing them how to “exploit a loophole” to game the asylum process, multiple U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials allege.

The Washington Examiner reports that, according to the National Border Patrol Council’s El Paso chapter and several CBP agents, Escobar’s staff is trying to find migrants that have been returned from El Paso, Texas to Mexico “under the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy, then coaching them to pretend they cannot speak Spanish to exploit a loophole letting them return to the U.S.”

A senior union official shared evidence supporting their claims with the Examiner and said, “What we believe is happening is Veronica Escobar’s office is going … to basically second-guess and obstruct work already done by the Border Patrol.”

Under the “remain in Mexico” policy, “anyone returned must be fluent in Spanish because they may have to reside in Mexico up to five years until a U.S. federal judge decides their asylum claim.”

Officials claim that Escobar’s aides, who have sought interviews with thousands of migrants who were sent back to Mexico, are escorting the migrants back to the port of entry and are lying to CBP officials, telling them the migrants don’t speak Spanish despite the fact that they spoke Spanish to the officials at an earlier date. (Read more from “Dem Congresswoman Sending Staff to Help Illegal Aliens Enter U.S.” HERE)

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