Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) promised a freestanding funding bill to address the humanitarian crisis at the southern border today in an interview with "Fox and Friends." The bill would appropriate $5 billion to address humanitarian concerns, not security concerns at the border.
This morning on "Fox and Friends" President announced that he will declare former ICE chief Tom Homan as a new "border czar." "Tom Homan's coming back," President Trump told the host of the morning talk show via phone-call adding, "I would say that would be announced next week except I'd rather announce it now."
A Republican Congressman, Paul Gosar (R-Ariz), is introducing legislation that could end the 20 year old OPT program, which allows foreign graduates to work in STEM fields while still on their F-1 student visas for as long as 36 months, allowing all other foreign graduates to work in their field of choice while still on their F-1 student visa for 12 months.
Today, the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, wrote a joint letter to Congress urging the immediate passage of emergency funding to their agencies, citing the ongoing crisis at the southern border.
During his hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Acting Director of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, told Senator Graham (R - S.C.) that if the 2013 Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S. 744, also known as the Gang of Eight Bill had passed, many of today's border security hurdles would be moot.
President Trump says his administration is considering granting Temporary Protected Status to thousands of Venezuelans who have fled their home country to the United States amid ongoing unrest, as reported by PBS.org. Venezuela, which at one point was the most wealthy country in South America, is now facing severe shortages of essential goods and hyperinflation. President Trump commented on the worsening situation stating that it is a horrible thing that has “been brewing for a long time.”
The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, testified before Congress yesterday revealing some startling statistics about the humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border. Perhaps the most shocking was the number of asylum seekers who cross into the United States that do not show up for their hearings in immigration court. When asked by Senator Lindsey Graham, McAleenan responded that DHS recently conducted a pilot program with only family units where 90 percent received their final orders of removal in absentia.
President Trump announced Friday via Twitter that his administration has struck a new deal with Mexico to help stem the flow of illegal border crossers entering the United States along the Southern border. Illegal border crossings are near historical highs after Border Patrol officers reported more than 130,000 apprehensions during the month of May.
The United States State Department announced this week that it will update nonimmigrant visa forms to require aliens to provide additional information about “their social media handles along with other information” going back five years.
The number of illegal border crossers arrested at the southern border soared to nearly 133,000 in May of this year, according to Customs and Border Patrol. 593,507 apprehensions have occurred at the southern border since the beginning of 2019.