Posts

Senate Heads Toward Addressing Border Crisis… by Funding Refugee Resettlement and Legal Aid

/0 Comments/in , /by

Imagine a raging inferno at our border and the American people begging the politicians to take notice of the problem. Finally, after a year of cajoling, the politicians swiftly turn their attention to the inferno and douse the flames …with a blowtorch and lighter fluid.

Today, both parties got together and agreed to spend even more money on illegal aliens without a penny for deportations, interdiction, or enforcement, while declaring that they solved the border problem. After just minutes of marking up the first major border legislation in months, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a $4.59 billion supplemental spending bill with no debate, 30-1.

Here are the highlights:

It’s all about refugee resettlement: The lion’s share of the bill, $2.88 billion, is for HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. In other words, the funding is all for resettling the very people that the bill was supposed to deter. Republican defenders of the bill will suggest that they have no choice; otherwise, things will get even more chaotic. But let things get “more chaotic.” It’s time the American people see the full scope of what is going on. Moreover, unlike illegal immigrants released by DHS, those sent to HHS are permanently resettled in our country, making it very hard to deport them. Also, thanks to a provision in the February omnibus, which the same apologists also said we had no choice but to pass, ICE is prohibited from using alien information provided to it by HHS for deportations.

The bill places more mandates on HHS to provide more information about children separated from parents. Again, this is all about illegal aliens and not about protecting Americans.

The remaining funding for DHS is entirely for humanitarian aid for illegal aliens, not a dime for deporting or for a media campaign in Central America dissuading would-be immigrants from coming here, as Obama proposed in 2014.

Department of Justice funding includes $65 million for “30 new Immigration Judge Teams and as well as funding for the Legal Orientation Program (LOP) to educate detainees about the Immigration Court process and thus expedite Immigration Court proceedings.” Thus, we are further funding a legal aid program for illegal aliens with a program Jeff Sessions tried to eliminate, at a time when the entire border crisis is impelled by lawfare in the courts. The LOP offers “individual referrals to pro-bono legal services.” Also, as a way of getting around the federal bar on taxpayer funding for legal help, the LOP allows illegal aliens to “briefly discuss their cases with experienced LOP providers and pose more specific questions.”

Apologists for the administration will suggest that this is “the best they can do.” They will also suggest that it is necessary to fund these programs to prevent more chaos. But absent any effort to use any other leverage or executive action to fund enforcement and change the policies, they as may as well hand $4.5 billion straight to the cartels and smugglers. Everything is an excuse for a Republican Party that seems incapable of even holding the line Obama did in 2014. They have blown through every budget bill and refuse to demand more funding for ICE, policy changes, or fixes to the lawfare. With every one of these bills, they give Democrats even more lighter fluid, making current law worse, and then claim it’s the “best” they can get.

The question Trump voters need to ask is: What is the endgame? It’s OK to give in to Democrats once or twice if you have a solid plan to hold the line on other points of leverage – from invoking an 1182(f) shutoff and getting rid of DACA to designating the cartels as terrorists, deploying the military more aggressively, and using must-pass bills and budget bills in September to hold the line. But that has never happened for the first 2.5 years, and there are certainly no signs of that happening now.

However, in the Orwellian language of the bipartisan swamp, prioritizing illegal aliens is yet again is somehow touted as “funding border security.”

If Trump even got something – just one thing, whether ICE agents, more border interdiction assets, or just one policy change – it might be worth giving Democrats this funding. But we got nothing. The only thing this bill will accomplish is giving Democrats, particularly those Republicans need to defeat in order to win back the House majority, cover to say they put out the flames at the border. Fortunately for them, they get to do so while fanning them more than ever, just like they did in February, when GOP apologists gave us the same song and dance they are giving today. (For more from the author of “Senate Heads Toward Addressing Border Crisis… by Funding Refugee Resettlement and Legal Aid” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Senate Republicans Are Now Weaker on the Border Than Obama Was in 2014

/0 Comments/in , /by

There are two questions lawmakers must ask themselves now that they will, supposedly, finally focus on the border: 1) Is their job to represent illegal aliens or to defend Americans first and foremost from the effects of those trying to come here illegally and those orchestrating the smuggling? 2) Is the best way to deal with the humanitarian aspect of the border crisis, which itself should be secondary to security problems for Americans, by holding the line and not letting anyone enter or by offering better accommodations for catch-and-release? Unfortunately, Senate Republicans clearly believe their job is to protect illegal aliens before Americans.

After refusing to make Democrats take a single tough vote for an entire year of this immigration crisis, after refusing to push legislation changing a single policy or pushing back against the courts that impelled this crisis, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are finally taking action. However, the action they are taking consists entirely of more humanitarian funding for the illegal aliens empowering cartels and smugglers, to the detriment of Americans. No changes to asylum, Flores, sanctuary cities, or judicial jurisdiction over immigration – the catalysts for this crisis – just funding for more diapers and formula.

Nobody wants to see this humanitarian crisis, but the best way to solve it is to shut it off. Then there won’t be a humanitarian crisis, because illegal aliens will be dissuaded from coming. Throwing more money at the problem in an attempt to more efficiently streamline catch-and-release will further fuel the humanitarian crisis by incentivizing more of them to come, not to mention endanger the Americans our lawmakers swore an oath to protect.

Most of the money Republicans plan to allocate in the Wednesday markup at the Senate Appropriations Committee is not even for Border Patrol and ICE, but for Health and Human Services (HHS). They are literally pumping several billion dollars more into an operation that one judge referred to as completing a criminal conspiracy, delivering self-trafficked Central American teens into the hands of family members who themselves are here illegally. Fewer than 10 percent of those sponsoring the Central American teens are here legally. Congress should allocate more funding to deport those criminal smugglers, not streamline their operation by rewarding them with the goal of their conspiracy.

Even most of the funding for DHS will be for “humanitarian aid,” not for enforcement to hold the line on the river. “We want to build a wall. We think the president’s made a good case for that,” McConnell said on “Fox & Friends” Monday. “That’s not what this is about. This is just the humanitarian part of the problem on our side, obviously, of the border.”

The problem with this assertion is that McConnell refused to fight for more enforcement funding for the first two years of Trump’s presidency. He signed away leverage on every single budget bill, including the supplemental disaster spending bill that Democrats badly wanted. McConnell could have demanded enforcement funding in return for the $19 billion in spending, yet he gave it to them for free and convinced Trump to support the bill.

What about the upcoming September 30 budget deadline? McConnell is too busy bashing Trump’s budget director and demanding that he give Democrats everything they want on spending levels without any parallel commitment on border funding.

Furthermore, this week the Senate is considering the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense policy bill, which is considered a must-pass bill by both parties. Nothing within the realm of defense matters if our military is not directed to protect our own border properly, before defending the borders of broken-down states in the Middle East. Yet there is no effort to make the NDAA about our own national defense.

Also, McConnell has shown no signs of getting more aggressive to enforce Senate rules and force talking filibusters on critical bills. Thus, even if Trump wins re-election and Republicans reclaim control of the House, McConnell is not willing to use a single tool or leverage point to get the full wall funding or other enforcement priorities.

In reality, this is a policy problem, not a funding problem. It has been exactly one year since this crisis blew wide open and former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley promised a bill cancelling the Flores settlement, which is the whole catch-and-release incentive to come here illegally with a child. Shockingly, it has never been brought to the floor.

Finally, to the extent that this is a funding problem, they are funding the wrong things. We need more funding for ICE to deport people and run airlifts back to Central America. We need more funding for boats, dogs, and horses for border agents to hold the line at the border itself and prevent illegal immigrants from coming across in the first place.

Even President Obama requested a stronger supplemental funding bill for the border during the crisis of Central American teens in the summer of 2014. His July 8, 2014, request to Congress included “$879 million [for ICE] would pay for detention and removal of apprehended undocumented adults traveling with children,” several hundred million in funding for the State Department to “repatriate and reintegrate migrants to Central America, and $5 million in a media campaign in Central America to “deliver the message that unaccompanied children are not given a permit to stay in the U.S.”

Now, keep in mind, this occurred when monthly apprehensions were roughly 40,000-60,000. Now they are 144,000. Republicans are now weaker on the border than Obama was in 2014. They are mistaken if they think they will make this about “humanitarian” aid rather than sovereignty and border security. By continuing to let in illegal immigrants, they will just expose themselves to more attacks from Democrats that Trump is running “concentration camps,” no matter how much money they spend on caring for the illegal immigrants. The best and only humanitarian solution is the same solution for border security – announce a shutoff of asylum requests and hold the line against all illegal immigration and cartels right at the line of scrimmage. Deter, defend, demagnetize is always better than incentivize, subsidize, and release. (For more from the author of “Senate Republicans Are Now Weaker on the Border Than Obama Was in 2014” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

It Took This Illegal Alien and Alleged Rapist Just Five Months to Return to the United States After Being Deported

/1 Comment/in , /by

By Townhall. If ever an anecdotal story could offer empirical proof for just how broken our immigration system truly is, it is that of Javier Morales.

The illegal alien was deported by authorities in January 2019 after being accused of raping a woman. Apparently, Morales was hired by a Knoxville resident to paint her apartment. While he was there, he decided to attack her and commit sexual assault, she said.

He was apprehended and subsequently deported. Officials said that if he ever wound up back in the United States, that he would be placed under arrest.

Well, according to local news, Morales was arrested again on Monday, June 17 just five months after his deportation. Now, after being sneaking back into the country despite being a suspected rapist, Morales will face trial for sexual assault. (Read more from “It Took This Illegal Alien and Alleged Rapist Just Five Months to Return to the United States After Being Deported” HERE)

________________________________________________________

Illegal Alien Deported over Rape Arrested After Returning to U.S.

By WVLT 8. A man who was deported in January over a sexual assault incident was arrested Monday after he returned to Knoxville, according to reports.

Records show Javier Morales was accused of pinning a woman against a wall and violating her in January 2019. He was at an apartment with the woman after being hired to paint, reports said.

Records show Morales was deported over the incident. After coordinating with the District Attorney’s Office, law enforcement officials decided that warrants would be placed on Morales if he ever returned. (Read more from “Illegal Alien Deported over Rape Arrested After Returning to U.S.” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Illegal Aliens Sue Border Patrol; Congress Shirks Its Duty at the Southern Border

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Townhall. The crisis along America’s southern border has continued to exasperate Border Patrol agents in the field and President Donald Trump, who is attempting to put an end to the flood of illegal aliens. Seven illegal aliens from Central American countries are suing the Department of Homeland Security because of overcrowding in Border Patrol facilities and the lack of access to legal representation, The Monitor reported. . .

According to the lawsuit, the illegal aliens want themselves, as well as others in the facilities, to be released on bond.

“Petitioners were apprehended in mid-May at or near the U.S. Border with Mexico and subsequently detained. Once apprehended, such persons are often detained for extended periods of time — on information and belief, up to six weeks — in overcrowded holding cells, with inadequate food, water, and sanitation facilities, where attorneys are not allowed to visit. The conditions in these holding cells are dangerous and inhumane,” the lawsuit stated.

The number of illegal aliens flocking to the United States’ southern border has overwhelmed Border Patrol resources. Instead of seeking asylum, like they have long touted, illegal aliens, primarily from Central America, now look for a Border Patrol agent, say they want to see an immigration judge and turn themselves in. They do this because they know of catch-and-release. They know the number of people flocking to the southern border has overwhelmed America’s immigration system. Border Patrol agents are having to leave the actual border to help process those who have simply walked across the border. (Read more from “Illegal Aliens Sue Border Patrol” HERE)

______________________________________

Congress Shirks Its Duty at the Southern Border

By Washington Examiner. The Trump administration is doing just about everything it can to slow the flood of undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans coming to the U.S. and claiming asylum. But alleviating our growing border crisis is impossible unless Congress changes our immigration laws.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was right when he said Tuesday during a congressional hearing on border security that there is “absolutely no justification whatsoever for Congress to sit on the sidelines and watch as this crisis continues to unfold.” The emergency on the border is “getting worse and worse as Congress sits on its hands and does absolutely nothing” to help.

The border pandemonium is literally fatal. Since December, six migrants have died while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Five were children. This isn’t the fault of the Trump administration’s policies that aim to stanch the stream of illegal immigrants. It’s the result of a border patrol collapsing under the weight of hundreds of thousands of migrants making a dangerous and debilitating journey to the U.S. and needing urgent medical care as soon as they arrive. (Read more from “Congress Shirks Its Duty at the Southern Border” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Ninth Circuit Creates New Right for Illegal Aliens Not to Be Deported

/0 Comments/in , /by

Every day, the liberal courts remind us that we don’t have a problem with the immigration laws, but rather with lawless judges “repealing” the laws that were already passed by Congress. If the Trump administration continues to assert that the laws are the problem rather than the lower court judges, there is no law Congress could possibly pass to fix what is clearly a separation of powers problem.

On Thursday, a three-judge panel of Democrat appointees on the Ninth Circuit created Fourth Amendment rights for illegal aliens in the context of deportation proceedings, a huge break from an uninterrupted stream of case law.

In Perez Cruz v. Barr, the court deals with a raid conducted by ICE agents in 2008 on Micro Solutions Enterprises, a California-based printer cartridge maker. ICE arrested approximately 130 illegal aliens. Given that illegal aliens have no right to be in America, ICE can detain in order to deport any illegal alien without any search warrant, as long as the it is not during criminal proceedings. In this case, ICE actually had a search warrant for “employment-related documents located at the factory where Perez Cruz worked,” which should have strengthened, not weakened its case.

Nonetheless, the court ruled on Thursday that once ICE is at the scene to execute the warrant on the documents, agents are “not permitted to carry out preplanned mass detentions, interrogations, and arrests at a factory, without individualized reasonable suspicion.”

It’s hard to overstate how radical this decision is. “This is one of the more absurd immigration rulings in some time,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, in a comment to CR. “It further erodes the executive branch’s authority to enforce immigration law under the plenary power doctrine and treats immigration matters as criminal cases rather than the administrative cases they actually are. The result of this will be more handcuffs put on ICE in their ability to protect American citizens from lawlessness and often dangerous aliens.”

Indeed, this distinction between administrative cases of deportation to enforce our sovereignty and criminal cases where government is pursuing prosecution of illegal aliens has been settled for years in the Supreme Court. In Turner v. Williams (1904), the court said that obviously the executive branch can’t “declare unlawful residence within the country to be an infamous crime, punishable by deprivation of liberty and property” without “that the fact of guilt should first be established by a judicial trial.” But simple “detention or temporary confinement as part of the means necessary to give effect to the exclusion or expulsion was held valid.”

The Supreme Court further stipulated emphatically, “No limits can be put by the courts upon the power of Congress to protect, by summary methods, the country from the advent of aliens whose race or habits render them undesirable as citizens, or to expel such if they have already found their way into our land, and unlawfully remain therein.”

In 1952, the court said “it would be rash and irresponsible to reinterpret our fundamental law to deny or qualify the Government’s power of deportation. … It should not be initiated by judicial decision which can only deprive our own Government of a power of defense and reprisal without obtaining for American citizens abroad any reciprocal privileges or immunities,” Harisiades v. Shaughnessy (1952).

In 1893, the Supreme Court made it clear that the power to deport is just as unassailable as the power to exclude so long as the alien has not been naturalized. “The power of Congress to exclude aliens altogether from the United States or to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which they may come to this country, and to have its declared policy in that regard enforced exclusively through executive officers, without judicial intervention, is settled by our previous adjudications,” Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 707 (1893).

For a judge to now say that ICE must get a warrant for every deportation is to abolish our laws, sovereignty, and 130 years of the judicial branch’s own precedent. Then again, just a few months ago, the Ninth Circuit created a habeas corpus right for endless lawsuits against deportations, despite multiple statutes barring the courts from hearing such cases.

If you’re wondering how an illegal alien gets to stay in the country for 11 years to lodge a lawsuit against Americans, this has become commonplace. Twelve years after an immigration judge ordered an El Salvadoran woman deported, she still remains in Frederick, Maryland, while she sues Frederick sheriff’s deputies for enforcing immigration law. Meanwhile, she has had three American-born kids since then, all the while in defiance of a deportation order. (For more from the author of “Ninth Circuit Creates New Right for Illegal Aliens Not to Be Deported” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Mexican Cartel Members Ask for Asylum at Border Following Bloody Shootout

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Daily Wire. Alleged members of the Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel turned themselves in at the U.S. border last week after being involved in a massive gun battle right next to the border that resulted in numerous deaths.

“The first shootout occurred at approximately 1 pm on the outskirts of Agua Prieta in colonia Infonavit Alamito, when a group of cartel gunmen riding in several vehicles intercepted a red Chevrolet Silverado and a black sedan and immediately opened fire,” Breitbart border expert Robert Arce reported. “The muzzle reports could be heard for several minutes, according to several local media sources.”

“Numerous amateur cell phone recordings were immediately posted on social media by citizens and local journalists, capturing the audio of the gunfire and the aftermath of the deadly shooting,” Arce continued. “In one video posted online, a group of presumed onlookers approach the Silverado and are seen looting a rifle, handgun, and ballistic armor.”

(Read more from “Mexican Cartel Members Ask for Asylum at Border Following Bloody Shootout” HERE)

__________________________________________________

Sinaloa Cartel Shootout in Agua Prieta Leaves Nearly a Dozen People Dead

By News 4 Tucson. . .Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told News 4 Tucson, the gun battle started Monday afternoon. He said they received information that the gun battle was the result of an internal rift within the Sinaloa cartel.

Sources told News 4 Tucson four cartel members showed up at the port of entry asking for asylum and claimed “credible fear”.

Authorities took them into custody.

The Sinaloa drug cartel is the most ruthless and dangerous of the cartels. Evident by Monday’s gun battle in broad daylight. He recounted an incident that occurred “one of the victims that had been shot was taken to a hospital in Agua Prieta,” Dannels said. “The cartel members who wanted him dead followed him to the hospital where they shot and killed him.” (Read more from “Sinaloa Cartel Shootout in Agua Prieta Leaves Nearly a Dozen People Dead” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Feds ‘Actively Working’ on Crackdown on Welfare-Dependent Immigration

/0 Comments/in , /by

Federal immigration officials at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency are “actively working” to enforce President Donald Trump’s recent crackdown on welfare-dependent legal immigration to the U.S.

In a memo last week, Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli said that staff would “develop and implement guidance” on Trump’s presidential memorandum signed last month that mandates American taxpayers be reimbursed when a legal immigrant uses public welfare. . .

Cuccinelli’s memo to staff reads:

As part of USCIS’ implementation of this memorandum, USCIS officers will now be required to remind individuals at their adjustment of status interviews of their sponsors’ responsibilities under existing law and regulations. Our officers must remind applicants and sponsors that the Affidavit of Support is a legal and enforceable contract between the sponsor and the federal government. The sponsor must be willing and able to financially support the intending immigrant as outlined by law and regulations (see INA 213A and 8 CFR 213a). If the sponsored immigrant receives any federal means-tested public benefits, the sponsor will be expected to reimburse the benefits-granting agency for every dollar of benefits received by the immigrant. [Emphasis added]

Over the next several months, federal agencies will develop and implement guidance on the presidential memorandum to make sure that agencies enforce these requirements. USCIS will do our part, and we are actively working to implement the President’s directive with our federal partners, including by updating policies and regulations. We continue to advance the President’s directive to enforce the public charge ground of inadmissibility, which seeks to ensure that immigrants are self-sufficient and rely on their own capabilities and the resources of their families, their sponsors, and private organizations rather than public resources. [Emphasis added]

(Read more from “Feds ‘Actively Working’ on Crackdown on Welfare-Dependent Immigration” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Here’s How Quick Trump Says Dems Could Solve Border Crisis

/0 Comments/in , /by

President Trump said Democrats could stop stonewalling over immigration and solve the issue with just a quick meeting, in remarks broadcast Sunday with ABC News’ “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“The border should be done, George. The border… The Democrats should come in and 15 minutes to an hour we can have it all solved. It’s so simple,” the president said at the White House.

He added: “The things that we’re talking about you shouldn’t have to give. It’s so– there are three and four loopholes you solve those loopholes you no longer have a problem at the border. They should want to do it. But they don’t want to do it because of political reasons.”

Mexico announced recently that it was sending 6,000 agents of its new, still-forming, militarized police force known as the National Guard to its southern region for immigration enforcement as part of a deal with Washington to avoid Trump’s threatened tariffs on Mexican imports.

The number of migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border was 132,887 in May, the highest monthly total in a decade. Many making the hazardous journey have been trying to escape poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and the U.S. has been pushing Mexico to crack down. (Read more from “Here’s How Quick Trump Says Dems Could Solve Border Crisis” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

ICE Has 297 Confirmed Cases of Mumps in Custody. How Many Have Been Released into the U.S.?

/0 Comments/in , /by

I’ve been reporting for months about the mumps epidemic particularly among Honduran migrants, but the government has finally officially released the information. CNN is reporting that there have been 297 confirmed cases of mumps in ICE holding facilities since last September. In 39 detention facilities, “5,200 detainees in quarantine across those centers, around 4,200 are for exposure to mumps. Around 800 were exposed to chicken pox and 100 have been exposed to both.”

The question few are asking is how many were released into our communities who were not detained or quarantined in ICE facilities but were carrying mumps nonetheless? Some are trying to suggest that the cause of the outbreak is unknown or that somehow it’s even the fault of ICE, as if these people were living in pristine conditions in Honduras until ICE crammed them into concentration camps where they contracted the disease. CNN, in the same paragraph that it admits “last September was the first time the agency recorded mumps cases,” goes on to suggest, “It’s not clear where the disease derived from or how it spread.”

Obviously, absent media access to the bloodwork, we have no way of scientifically proving anything, but the key word lost on CNN’s reporter is “September.”

This is not some mystery. September was the month when the Honduran government declared a national health emergency over mumps. Shortly thereafter, the largest caravan left from the country with thousands of migrants coming with no access to health care or sanitary conditions. Most of the caravans left from San Pedro Sula, a northern Honduran town that had 1,336 reported cases of mumps as of April. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out where this is coming from.

While Guatemala was the number one sending country for the past several years, in recent months, since the growth of organized caravans, Hondurans have overtaken Guatemalans as the number one source of illegal immigration. For example, based on the numbers I’ve seen from the first week of June in Texas, there were 33 percent more Hondurans than Guatemalans apprehended, even though last year and in the early part of this fiscal year there were many more Guatemalans. This is why there are now 51 confirmed cases of mumps in Hidalgo County, Texas, which just happens to be the most trafficked border county. And it now has the largest mumps outbreak in America.

Therefore, now that we established it’s inconceivable that this was not driven by the source in Honduras and did not originate in the ICE facilities, there is no reason why those in custody were more susceptible to it than those released without ever going into custody. In fact, the overwhelming majority of those in ICE custody are single adults, while those with kids are being released, often within hours. Mumps is more prevalent among kids.

Over 204,000 illegal aliens have been released into the country since December 21, 2018. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan admitted that “100 percent” of family units are being released, many of them directly without ever entering an ICE facility. McAleenan also testified that “family units are released into our communities with unknown vaccination status and without a standard medical examination for communicable diseases of public health concern.” We also know that according to the Homeland Security Advisory Council report, “73% of the children in FMUs illegally crossing our border are tender aged, being 12 or younger.”

Why is the government placing Americans in danger? There is no way mumps is not being spread outside ICE facilities. For this reason alone, the president has the authority to shut off all migration requests and turn back every family unit at the border or at least refuse to allow them to cross a quarantine line.

Also, what about American doctors and nurses working in strained border town hospitals being exposed to these people? What about the border agents? Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council Chris Cabrera said that a number of agents are calling in sick because they came into contact with lice, scabies, pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, the chicken pox, endless strains of the flu, and aggressive chest colds.

Once again, who in our government is asking: At what point do the concerns of Americans matter more than the aspirations of illegal aliens? (For more from the author of “ICE Has 297 Confirmed Cases of Mumps in Custody. How Many Have Been Released into the U.S.?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Reported Cartel Drone Found near Border. Are We Prepared for This Very Real National Security Threat?

/0 Comments/in , /by

Not only are the cartels weaponizing mass migration to tie down our border agents so they can bring in dangerous people and contraband, they are apparently monitoring the migrant flow in real time with spy drones.

A border agent in the Rio Grande Valley sector informed me that Border Patrol recovered a cartel drone on Sunday that crashed in La Grulla, Texas, near the river. “In the afternoon on June 9, 2019, Border Patrol agents were ‘sign-cutting’ a group of illegals south of the town of La Grulla, TX, when they encountered a drone laying in the brush,” said the veteran Texas agent, who must remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the press. “The lights on the drone were blacked out with electrical tape, so as to not be seen at night. This area has recently seen an influx of illicit trafficking.”

DHS officials have publicly said for over a year that the cartels are using the mass influx of family units to get in dangerous people away from the agents, but the use of drones further accentuates the point that this is much more of a strategic invasion than just an immigration issue. “The cartel is investing in technology to guide groups to a stash house or to a ‘load driver’ waiting to pick them up,” said the agent, who feels that he and his colleagues are being outmaneuvered by the dangerous insurgent groups operating on both sides of the border.

“First, they started giving the illegals smart phones equipped with land navigation apps and map overlays, along with battery chargers and a compass. This cut out the need for a ‘guide.’ Now, with the use of drones, the cartel can see us for miles. They can direct the groups of illegals away from agents and have the load driver go to them or choose a different stash house. They were already at an advantage with the amount of U.S. citizen [smuggling scouts]. Now they can direct movement from above in a 360-degree view and pinpoint accuracy, even in the thick brush or dense sugar cane. There is nowhere an agent can approach the group without being seen.”

The cartels now have a perfect system of technology and the weaponization of family units to ensure that our apprehension rate of the real bad guys is quite low. Just the previous Sunday, the agent said there were 347 “got aways” in this Texas County.

I reached out to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for confirmation of this incident and comment on the general use of spy drones by the cartels in the process of migration flows, but have not received a response. However, CBP did put out a press release on April 17 revealing that agents observed a “a small airborne object” traveling back and forth across the border several times one night in the El Paso sector. It said that approximately two minutes later, “a group of 10 subjects made an illegal entry into the U.S. in the same area in which the object had been traveling.” According to CBP, this was “the first known time in recent history that a drone has been utilized as a ‘look-out’ in order to aid in illegal entries in the El Paso Sector.”

I asked the agent if Border Patrol would ever shoot down these drones, and he said we would never do it in Mexican airspace nor target the individuals responsible. “The only policy we have regarding drones is if we catch the pilot we can arrest him if he doesn’t have an FAA license.”

However, the pilots all remain on Mexico’s soil, and most of the drones wind up staying in Mexican airspace after briefly breaching our airspace. In other words, the cartels can literally spy on our Border Patrol, National Guard, and military bases with impunity and direct an invasion using the real-time intelligence from spy drones, yet we will continue to respect “Mexican sovereignty,” when they are violating our sovereignty and their government has no control over the cartels anyway.

I spoke with Col. Dan Steiner, a retired Air Force veteran who coordinated military operations at our border for the Texas government alongside NORTHCOM, and he was very disturbed by the national security implications of this growing trend. “The drone sitting there and collecting information will only get smarter … and they will move on to the next level, if we stick our heads in the sands and only view this as ‘Mexico being Mexico’ and not a prime national security threat,” said the colonel on my podcast Tuesday.

“Our lack of response does nothing but embolden the cartels, which are terrorist groups. Given that we already know they work with Hezbollah, it’s likely they are helping them with technology in return. If we have terrorists flying drones on our border in order to circumvent our sovereignty on our border, what in the hell are we doing?”

Michael Braun, former chief of operations with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, previously warned in an interview with CR that “Hezbollah’s growing involvement in the global cocaine trade over the past decade has resulted in the formation of alliances with Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

Steiner explained on my podcast how it’s a no-brainer for the cartels to fly a drone near Juarez that can see into Fort Bliss, for espionage purposes. “When you give them the impression that they can gather any intelligence at our border, it’s a slippery slope and we would have no way of knowing if they are using it for other espionage while pretending to use it for migrants and drugs, which evidently our government doesn’t care about. They are in bed with terrorist organizations, and it’s time we treat them that way.”

It’s truly shocking how our government allows cartels to weaponize migration with strategic tools of espionage and warfare, yet we continue to believe asylum law somehow demands that we tolerate a strategic invasion. Trump can designate the cartels as terrorists tomorrow, direct operations against their assets, and refuse to allow in all migrants and asylum requests, not just with his immigration powers, but with his national defense powers. He needs to begin viewing this as the orchestrated invasion it is, not an immigration or asylum issue.

“The best invasions are the ones you never realize are taking place until it’s too late,” warns Col. Steiner. “Just ask the Romans.” (For more from the author of “Reported Cartel Drone Found near Border. Are We Prepared for This Very Real National Security Threat?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE