The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee approved a 2018 spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security that includes funding to increase border security and strengthen interior enforcement. The spending bill would fund many of the top priorities listed in Pres. Trump’s Jan. 25 immigration executive orders.
The latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report shows that border apprehensions increased by 9% from last month but remains 53% lower than June 2016. CBP officials noted that since the fiscal year began in October total apprehensions have decreased by two-thirds hitting a six-year record low.
Pres. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions will prosecute first- time border crossers as criminals under Operation Streamline. Under Pres. Obama only repeat border-crossers could be prosecuted under the program.
The House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. John Carter’s (R-Texas) Protection of Children Act of 2017 (H.R. 495) by a 15-12 vote. This bill would remove loopholes to ensure that unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally are promptly returned to their families in their home countries.
A new report from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General shows that after completing surprise visits to three key ICE family detention centers they could find nothing wrong with the facilities or how they were managed. The detention centers have come under fire from groups claiming that illegal aliens are being mistreated while they wait for their deportation hearings.
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported that in the last six years around 220,000 criminal aliens have been booked in Texas jails. DHS confirmed to DPS that at least 148,000 or 66% of those criminal aliens had entered the U.S. illegally.
The latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report shows that border apprehensions increased by 27% from last month but remains 64% lower than May 2016. The CBP concluded that this seasonal uptick matches historical trends and expects the number to increase through the summer months.
A Customs and Border Protection whistleblower turned over documents showing that under the Obama administration CBP officials released at least 16 teenagers they knew had ties to the deadly MS-13 gang. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the documents showed that the teenagers were caught crossing the border in 2014 but then were shipped to juvenile homes across the country.
The latest Border Patrol report shows that border apprehensions continued to decline by 9% in April, hitting a new 17-year low record. Total border apprehensions have declined by 76% since Pres. Trump was elected.
During his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border Attorney General Jeff Sessions made remarks on the new Justice Dept. memo that sets new immigration enforcement priorities that will end the “catch and release” practices that were used under the Obama administration. The memo orders federal prosecutors to prioritize criminal charges against illegal aliens who have a record of prior deportations or other criminal convictions and those who have helped to smuggle other illegal aliens across the border.
According to written testimony from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, less than 12,500 illegal aliens were apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico border in March, which is the lowest figure in 17 years and a 71% decline since Dec. 2016.
Pres. Trump released a supplemental spending package to fund the government for the remainder of FY2017 that includes a large increase for the Department of Homeland Security. The proposal includes $2.6 billion to begin construction of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border and $15 million to implement a mandatory nationwide E-Verify Program.
The latest DHS report shows an unprecedented decline in illegal border crossing traffic resulting in the lowest number of border apprehensions in the last five years. Total border apprehensions decreased by 40% from 31,578 in January to only 18,762 in February.
Q13 Fox -- Nadia Romero
There is support for the policy shift from at least one group: NumbersUSA.
“The world has been told, if you illegally cross the border or if you come here on a tourist visa and you overstay your visa (and you think) you can stay as long as you don’t commit a crime, it’s not true anymore,” said NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck.
DHS Secretary John Kelly has certainly been busy since the Senate confirmed his appointment last month, but two memos he signed yesterday are the most significant actions he's taken thus far. Kelly signed a memo titled "Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest" and another one titled "Implementing the President's Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements Policies" providing guidance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, and USCIS on how to execute Pres. Trump's Jan. 25 executive orders.
Last night Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the new Attorney General by a 52 to 47 vote. Sessions received support from all 51 Republicans and 1 Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin. Sen. Sessions marked himself as present but abstained from casting a vote himself.
Border apprehensions dropped in January according to new data from Customs and Border Protection. Apprehensions were down 27% compared to apprehensions in December. The monthly statistics typically provide a snapshot of how many foreign nationals are trying to cross the border illegally. The drop in January could be due to seasonal flows, but could also be due to the new Trump administration.
Today Pres. Trump signed two executive orders that authorize the immediate construction of a wall on the southern border, stops federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions and ends the catch and release policy.
Los Angeles Times -- Brian Bennett
Much of the task of unraveling Obama’s immigration protections and ratcheting up deportations will fall to Trump’s choice to run the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, who oversaw the military’s counter-narcotics operations in Central America until early last year. Kelly is expected to be confirmed Friday.
Last Friday Rep. James Sensenbrenner was named as the new Chairman of the House Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee for the 115th Congress. Rep. Sensenbrenner has been a long time advocate for border security and tougher enforcement against illegal aliens.
During a CNN town hall meeting yesterday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said he agreed with President-elect Trump’s policies on securing the border, deporting criminal aliens, and defunding sanctuary cities. Ryan also said he wants to find a “good, humane solution” for illegal aliens participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The Associated Press reports President Obama terminated a longstanding policy that allows any Cuban who touches U.S. soil to become a legal permanent resident and citizen. The announcement comes after an agreement was reached with Cuba to take back the citizens the U.S. seeks to deport. The repeal is effective immediately.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Tex., unveiled a plan to overhaul homeland security that includes: “extreme vetting” of foreign travelers; revamping the visa application process; immediate suspension of all immigration, including refugees, from high-risk areas; building a wall and increasing border assets; ending catch-and-release policies; reforming asylum standards; deporting criminal aliens; ending sanctuary cities; implementing a full entry-exit system; re-examining guest-worker programs; and mandating E-Verify.
Multiple media reports say President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Gen. John F. Kelly to head up the Department of Homeland Security. Before retiring, Gen. Kelly served as Chief of Southern Command, which oversees military operations across Central and South America and the Caribbean.
DHS has finally released their report that reveals that only 54% of illegal aliens who cross the southern border are apprehended, this contradicts the Obama administration’s claims that 81% of all illegal border crossers are caught. The report also shows that since Pres. Obama has taken office asylum demands have increased 900% from 17,000 in 2009 to 170,000 in 2014.
Many Washington champions for MORE immigration enforcement are abuzz and aghast at reports indicating that Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is considered to be high on the Trump Team's list to be the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to DHS 46,195 individuals were apprehended in October at the southern border, up from 39,501 in September and 37,048 in August. This is the highest number of illegal aliens caught in one month since June 2014, the height of the unaccompanied minors border surge.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Immigration and Border Security Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), and Immigration and The National Interest Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to stop the current border surge that has overwhelmed Border Patrol and ICE.
In a recent interview with Breitbart Texas National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) President, Brandon Judd, claimed that Border Patrol is overwhelmed with holding the greatest number of illegal border crossers in custody in history and that the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency is hiding this information from the public.
During an interview on The Laura Ingraham Show, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Cabrera said that the Obama administration is trying circumvent federal immigration laws and prevent agents from securing the border. "They don’t seem to take it seriously. They seem to look at immigration violations like a traffic ticket, that it’s not really a big deal to them. And it is a big deal, especially for the fact that there are a lot of people coming across with criminal history in the United States,” Cabrera said.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson met with ICE and CBP officials on Tuesday to review their plans to hold the expected surge of people crossing the southern border in the next few weeks and months. Currently ICE is holding a record breaking 40,000 people in their detention centers but is expecting that number to rapidly increase to 45,000 in the next months, leaving ICE to scramble to find enough space to house the expected detainees.
According to the latest DHS report, released on Monday, the number of illegal aliens caught at the southern border increased around 23% from FY15. 408,870 illegal aliens were apprehended trying to cross the border in FY16 compared to the 331,333 illegal aliens apprehended in FY15.
An unpublished Homeland Security Department report obtained by the Associated Press concluded that the Border Patrol caught only 54 percent of those entering illegally from Mexico in fiscal year 2015. DHS previously announced it had an 81 percent success rate for that year.
A recent Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report shows that illegal border crossings surged 10% in August countering the usual decrease in crossings due to the hot temperatures. This puts the agency on track to break the 2014 record of family unit apprehensions.
The Associated Press reports the Mexican immigration agency issued transit visas to 424 aliens from African countries that will enable them to reach the U.S. border. Officials from the National Immigration Institute said those from the Congo, Somalia and Ghana had traveled from Brazil or Ecuador to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Most voluntarily turned themselves in over just two days last week.
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) has endorsed NumberUSA’s "10 Steps to Fix Our Broken Immigration System".
In a speech Monday Donald Trump outlined his proposal for increasing immigrant vetting, which the mainstream media immediately slammed as being “un-American” and “crazy.” But as several notable scholars point out, history and the law are on Mr. Trump’s side, not theirs. For example, as Professor George Borjas of Harvard’s Kennedy School recently quipped “If [they] just do a couple of minutes of googling before reacting, it would become very apparent very quickly that immigrant vetting has a very long tradition in American history.”
According to Border Patrol statistics, released last week, the number of illegal aliens caught at the southern border has already exceeded the number caught in FY15, with two months left in the fiscal year. 332,465 illegal aliens have been apprehended at the southern border so far this year compared to the 331,333 apprehended last year.
The Obama Administration announced yesterday that it will expand the Central American Minors program that was first established as a response to the 2014 border surge. The program looks to resettle unaccompanied alien children to the United States directly from their home countries in an attempt to discourage them from traveling though Mexico and crossing the border illegally.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that illegal alien parents crossing the border with children are not protected under the 1997 Flores-agreement and can be held in detention until they have an immigration hearing. Children crossing with their parents, however, must be processed quickly and released to a relative or sponsor.
In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Alabama Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby said that illegal-alien minors are again surging across the border but “only a small fraction have been removed from the United States." At least 60 percent of such minors in 2014 and 2015 should have been deported because they did not qualify for placement in the U.S. as “unaccompanied alien children’ under the law.
At least a dozen men from terrorist hotspots in the Middle East have been apprehended after using smuggling rings to illegally enter the U.S. through the southern border. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) obtained documents that confirmed the fears that terrorists are using the southern border and lenient immigration enforcement polices to infiltrate the U.S., contrary to what the Obama administration has claimed.
A new study released by the Center of Immigration Studies shows that both legal and illegal immigration increased 39% between 2014-2015. More than 3 million immigrants settled in the U.S. in the last 2 years, this rate is now higher than the pre-recession levels of 2007.
Pres. Obama’s 2017 proposed budget includes $1.3 billion in benefits for unaccompanied children who illegally cross the U.S. border. Around 75,000 minors are expected to cross this year, meaning $17, 613 would be set aside for each UAC while the average Social Security benefit is only $14,772.
According to new Border Patrol statistics, apprehensions at the southern border rose for the third consecutive month led by increases in illegal-alien family units. The Border Patrol apprehended 32,117 family units so far in fiscal year 2016, more than double the amount for this period last year and a 62% increase over the record number in fiscal year 2014 for that period. The numbers suggest a new border surge from Central American countries of record proportions.
Sheriff Charles Jenkins of Frederick County, Md. told a House panel that “(o)pen borders, reckless sanctuary policies, and failure to enforce our immigration laws have greatly impacted public safety and national security throughout every jurisdiction of this country. He linked the surge in unaccompanied alien minors crossing the border to a rise in alien gang crime, including attempted murder, armed robbery and the rape and sexual assault of children.
Thursday on a FOX News “O’Reilly Factor” segment, Border Patrol Agent and union spokesman Shawn Moran warned that the Obama Administration’s “Catch-and-Release” policy is forcing Agents to let illegal aliens “walk out the front door” without knowing “who we’re releasing, and…what they’re capable of.” The National Border Patrol Council has said Agents are under orders from top Homeland Security officials to release illegal aliens without a Notice to Appear (NTA) before a deportation judge, a claim the Obama Administration has denied.
A day after Pres. Obama’s visit to Cuba, two Texas congressmen Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) introduced the Correcting Unfair Benefits for Aliens (CUBA) Act, which would repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 that grants Cubans automatic permanent residence if they set foot on U.S. soil. The congressmen say that this wet foot/ dry foot policy is a relic “of a bygone era” and that the preferential treatment of Cubans “no longer makes sense”.
At a news conference on Tuesday in Florence, AZ Pinal County Sheriff, Paul Babeu denounced Pres. Obama’s immigration policies that hinder border agents from enforcing immigration laws. He criticized the administration for cutting the number of border agents and not allowing them to patrol high-traffic smuggling routes efficiently.
This week Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, introduced The Protection of Children Act (S.2561) that would remove loopholes to ensure that unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally are promptly returned to their families in their home countries.