National Security

A group of 41 “non-governmental organizations” that assist refugees worldwide, including four directly involved in U.S. refugee resettlement, urged President Obama to commit to accepting 200,000 refugee and humanitarian admissions in fiscal year (FY) 2017 – a 100 percent increase over the projected FY17 level he established last year. While the president has the authority to establish the yearly refugee target, Congress must decide whether to provide funds to resettle that or an alternative number.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., slammed the Department of Justice (DOJ) for refusing to investigate over 3,700 asylum cases in which the grantee was represented by attorneys convicted of perpetrating asylum fraud. He called the agency’s refusal “outrageous” and suggested it would embolden “aliens who already have an incentive to lie to obtain an immigration benefit.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said the Obama Administration is exposing the nation to danger by maximizing the intake of refugees from terrorist-producing countries. As evidence, Sen. Sessions cited examples of 20 refugees who were implicated in, or convicted for, terrorism or terrorism-related offenses in recent years. He said refugees should be supported in or close to their countries rather than resettled in the U.S.

Yesterday the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) released a statement saying that Clinton’s immigration plan is extreme and puts Americans at risk. Hillary Clinton has pledged to expand Pres. Obama’s amnesty in her first 100 days in office.

A recent ICE enforcement report, released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, shows that with 75% of FY16 over ICE is on track to complete only 230,000 deportations, the lowest number since 2006. The report showed a decline in all ICE enforcement activity meaning fewer aliens have been put on the deportation track in 2016.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) has introduced legislation that would limit funds for jurisdictions with sanctuary city polices who refuse to work with immigration officials. The legislation was fast-tracked to the Senate’s calendar, which means it will skip the usual committee process. This makes is likely that the Senate will vote on the bill, though a date has not been set yet.

At the request of Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) DHS’ Office of Inspector General released a report showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials “could have and should have done more to remove Jean Jacques from this country before he had the chance to brutally murder Casey Chadwick."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., announced a House Republican national security strategy that highlights border security, overhauling the nation’s immigration system, interior immigration enforcement, and improved screening of admissions. Among other things the plan calls for developing the means to track illegal aliens within the U.S., detaining and removing criminal aliens and restoring overall immigration enforcement. The plan also slams President Obama for “utterly false claims that security is improving.”

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 chart released by the Senate Subcommittee Immigration and the National Interest, headed by Chairman Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), shows that deportations have declined by 43% in the last three years while the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) budget for the detention and removal of aliens has grown by 25%.

At a hearing today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said “In a three-year period, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released more than 86,000 criminal aliens into the American public…These are people that were here illegally, got caught committing a crime, were convicted of that crime and instead of deporting them, they were just released back out in the United States of America.” Chairman Chaffetz said the released aliens had been convicted of over 231,000 crimes.

To reach President Obama’s goal in bringing in at least 10,000 additional Syrian refugees to the U.S. this year the Obama administration has opened up a new resettlement center and has shortened the processing time from around 18-24 months down to just three months.

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”.

• Read more about Bipartisan Legislation Would End Special Treatment For Cuban Migrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released 90,000 illegal aliens back onto the streets that were deemed as criminal threats in 2015. The massive release was a result of Pres. Obama’s Priority Enforcement Program that puts the focus only on criminal aliens who pose a "serious" threat.

Breitbart News reports on Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo’s interview with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., during which he admitted immigration limitations are not part of the 2016 Republican job-centric “pro-growth” agenda. “We’re not going to be talking about visa caps in our agenda,” Ryan said. This runs contrary to recent Pew polling which found that 67 percent of Republican voters want immigration reduced while only seven percent want more.

Key Republican leaders accused President Obama of creating “non-statutory exemptions” from the travel restrictions imposed under the new Visa Waiver law for people who had visited certain countries lined to terrorism. In a letter to the President they said the exemptions are “contrary to the plain language of the statute” and were “discussed, at length, during negotiations [on the legislation] and were explicitly rejected by Members of Congress.

Two Iraqi refugees in the U.S. were arrested on Thursday for supporting terrorist groups in the Middle East. These arrests take place as concern about the ability of the federal government to thoroughly screen refugee applicants gained national attention after the Paris terrorist attack.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning a nationwide campaign to locate and deport illegal aliens who have illegally crossed the border since last year. This move comes after a recent DHS report shows that deportations have declined by 25% since 2014.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., yesterday warned that the omnibus appropriations bill would quadruple a foreign worker program replacing Americans, expand the refugee program amid serious national security threats, and ignore the existence of dangerous Sanctuary Cities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced plans to begin collecting biometric data from non-U.S. citizens entering and exiting the country in early 2016. CBP will install six new kiosks at San Diego’s Otay Mesa port across the border from Tijuana, Mexico and hope to be collecting both entry and exit data by February.

Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), and Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) have introduced legislation that would halt the refugee resettlement program until its impacts on the country can be further examined. H.R.4218 would not only examine the budgetary impacts of refugee resettlement, but also require the Department of Homeland Security to produce a report identifying past refugees who have committed criminal acts in the United States.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary, Sarah R. Saldana, testified to Congress on Wednesday that ICE had given away $113 million designated for deportations to other departments, because there were not enough illegal aliens to deport while also admitting that more than 179,000 illegal aliens who have committed crimes are roaming free in the United States.