Category: US Politics

Homeland Security Spokesperson Katie Waldman said migrants seeking entry to the U.S. are essentially allowed in if they claim to have “credible fear” of unjustifiable persecution in their countries of origin. She offered her remarks on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday in an interview with Breitbart News Deputy Political Editor Amanda House.

Waldman said, “I can you tell you with near assurance that if you say the magic words, ‘I’m scared,’ we let you into the country.”

Migrants from Mexico and South America have been coached by left-wing lawyers on how to best obtain entry to the U.S. via asylum request.

“We’re seeing asylum claims skyrocket,” said Waldman. “Before 2013, one out of every 100 arriving aliens claimed credible fear, now it’s one out of every ten. Central America isn’t 100 times — ten times — more dangerous or economically unstable than it was five years ago.”

“These people know our immigration laws better than our own members of Congress,” added Waldman. 

LISTEN:

Waldman reflected on an earlier caravan of Central American migrants that traveled to the U.S. this past summer.

“We never tracked the caravan migrants from the one back earlier in the summer,” noted Waldman. “Shockingly enough, of the nearly 100,000 family units apprehended from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in 2017, 99 percent remain here today.”

Waldman added, “Of the 34,000 unaccompanied alien children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador we apprehended in 2017, nearly 98 percent remain in the country today.”

Catch-and-release policies incentivize immigration to the U.S., said Waldman: “We have these wide open catch-and-release immigration loopholes that act as a pull factor for individuals — economic migrants — like we’re seeing in this caravan come towards the United States.”

Waldman continued, “Day in and day out, we see caravan-size apprehensions at the border. There are 2,000 people apprehended almost every single day at the border. This is a crisis.”

Waldman pointed to the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) — legislation sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) — as a legislative source of “loopholes” facilitating mass migration to the U.S.

Waldman remarked, “We are seeing these catch and release loopholes — this 2008 Dianne Feinstein’s law that says we treat Central American differently than we treat Mexicans and Canadians. It’s kind of crazy that we can send back a Mexican that we apprehend at the border, but we can’t send back anyone from Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador.”

Waldman went on, “Our current immigration laws are a mess because of these catch-and-release loopholes and different court orders, 2008’s Dianne Feinstein’s TVPRA or the Flores Agreement that says you can’t detain family units. All of those have literally led to this crisis at the border and a flood of illegal immigration.”

Waldman noted the increase in apprehensions of unaccompanied alien children at or near the U.S.-Mexico border by Customs and Border Protection.

“In 2000, we were primarily apprehending single adults,” recalled Waldman. “Today, 40 percent of our apprehensions are family units and unaccompanied alien children, both of whom are pretty much exempt from enforcement because of these catch and release loopholes. We can’t detain a family unit for longer than 20 days.”

Waldman explained existing laws prevent law enforcement from detaining migrants until their court dates.

“Right now, if we’re able to apprehend a Central American single adult, we’re able to detain them and remove them within 40 days, but unfortunately, because of the Flores Settlement Agreement, we can’t detain longer than 20 days,” said Waldman. “So we can’t even house them or detain them to be able to remove, so therefore we catch, and literally apprehend, border patrol is literally apprehending the folks who come to our border, but then we have to release them because we cannot detain them longer through their immigration cases.”

“Until we can close those loopholes, we’re going to continue to see these caravans and illegal immigration at record numbers,” concluded Waldman.

Breitbart News Sunday broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

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The following post is sponsored by the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy (CRFP).

Scott Horton, managing director of the Libertarian Institute, will speak Tuesday evening in Washington, DC, about his new book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. 

The event, titled “Negative Impact of the Unnecessary War on Terrorism,” will be hosted by the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy, a non-partisan organization that calls for a restrained foreign policy.

It is taking place just days after a top U.S. general, Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley, was wounded by a Taliban gunman after meeting with Afghan counterparts in Kandahar province in Southern Afghanistan on Thursday. The Afghanistan War turned 17 years this month.

Horton said in a statement in advance of the event:

Far from protecting the American people’s liberty and security, the war on terrorism has undermined both. The public’s mandate for the government to fight against the terrorists who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001 has served instead as a pretext for wars against Middle Eastern states that never threatened us and had no alliance with the terrorists who did. Rather than defeating the enemy, this has helped to turn al Qaeda from a small terrorist group into a region-wide movement boasting tens of thousands of members. Meanwhile, the powers of the executive departments grow at the expense of the congress and the people, our economy is distorted by excessive debt, taxation and military spending and the Bill of Rights is being eroded.

After 17 years of this, it is past time the American people demanded that our government stop using the terrorism their intervention creates as their excuse to continue to make matters worse.

The event will take place Tuesday, October 23rd, at 5:30 pm at the National Indian Gaming Association Building, 224 2nd Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003.

Horton is also the editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from ScottHorton.org.

The Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy is a 501(c)(4) organization with the mission of pursuing a more restrained foreign policy that adheres to the Constitution. The organization aims to increase awareness of Congress’ Article I responsibility to oversee war. For more information on CRFP, please visit http://responsibleforeignpolicy.org.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) — who is leaving office after his term — says President Donald Trump is wrong to “emphasize the criminals” among a 7,000-strong migrant caravan headed to the U.S.-Mexico border to overwhelm the country’s asylum and immigration system.

During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Flake criticized Trump for saying that there are “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” that are “mixed in” with the migrant caravan of mostly Central American nationals who are economic migrants.

TAPPER: Do you have any ideas what the president is talking about when he says there are unknown Middle Easterners mixed in with the caravan.

FLAKE: That’s long been pretty much a canard and a fear tactic. Obviously with a border that large, you’re going to have people come across that are coming from other countries. And some obviously with nefarious motives. But to make it sound like this is in order to put people in here who would do us harm and to emphasize the criminals among them, it’s just … I just don’t think it’s the right way to approach it. [Emphasis added]

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake on Trump’s tweet claiming “unknown Middle Easterners” are “mixed in” with the migrant caravan: “No, that’s long been pretty much a canard and a fear tactic… These… are people who are either fleeing violence or looking for a better life” #CITIZENCNN pic.twitter.com/PagwvTmJ1C

— CNN (@CNN) October 22, 2018

Flake also admits that the migrant caravan is made up mostly of foreign nationals fleeing crime and looking for jobs, neither of which are grounds for asylum in the U.S.

“These, for the most part overwhelmingly, are people who are either fleeing violence or looking for a better life. And we have programs for some of them — asylum programs — and others, obviously we can’t accept everyone,” Flake said. “We have to have border security, but it has to be done in a thoughtful manner.”

President Trump on Monday announced that he would begin the process of cutting off foreign aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador for their inability to stop the migrant caravan from marching up to the U.S.-Mexico border. The president also called the caravan a “national emergency.”

The Central American countries receive more than $500 million in federal aid from the U.S. every year. Trump has not yet indicated how much of that federal aid will be cut.

Less than six months ago, a similar migrant caravan was allowed to cross into the U.S. with weak asylum claims despite threats from President Trump of closing down the border. Many migrants from that caravan are now illegal aliens living in the U.S. as they await their asylum hearings.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) says a 7,000-person migrant caravan that is headed to the U.S.-Mexico border is “an invasion” that President Trump has the executive power to stop.

In an interview with Fox News, Gohmert said Trump has the power executively “to stop an invasion,” which in this case is the migrant caravan.

“[President Trump] has made clear that this basically is an invasion and it needs to be stopped,” Gohmert said.

“In an emergency situation, he has additional powers. But he doesn’t even need those powers to stop an invasion coming across and say, ‘We’re closing the border, Mexico, until you disperse all of these people and do not allow them to come to our border,’” Gohmert continued.

The Texas congressman cited a Breitbart News report where the Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan detailed four ways that the migrant caravan can be halted before the foreign nationals try to cross into the U.S.

Those four avenues Trump can take in regards to the caravan include: Closing the border, shutting down bogus asylum claims, refusing entry to caravan migrants, and mandating that asylum claims be made in the embassies of the migrant’s home country, not at a Port of Entry.

As Breitbart News reported, many of the migrants with the caravan are not asylum seekers — as described by the establishment media — but previously deported illegal aliens.

Previously Deported Illegal Aliens Join Caravan: ‘It’s Time for Me to Go Back’https://t.co/k6BAwEBB9A

— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) October 22, 2018

President Trump on Monday announced that he would begin the process of cutting off foreign aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador for their inability to stop the migrant caravan from marching up to the U.S.-Mexico border. The president also called the caravan a “national emergency.”

“Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S.,” President Trump tweeted. “We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.”

The Central American countries receive more than $500 million in federal aid from the U.S. every year. Trump has not yet indicated how much of that federal aid will be cut.

Less than six months ago, a similar migrant caravan was allowed to cross into the U.S. with weak asylum claims despite threats from President Trump of closing down the border. Many migrants from that caravan are now illegal aliens living in the U.S. as they await their asylum hearings.

Yep, PETA has latched on to white supremacists’ lactose tolerance gauge for racial purity in their latest publicity push.

According to PETA, “Cow’s milk really is the perfect drink of choice for all (even unwitting) supremacists, since the dairy industry inflicts extreme violence on other living beings.” Because of that, the infamous animal rights organization wants to “wake people up to the implications of choosing this white beverage.”

PETA writer Zachary Tolliver’s article is typically quite graphic, comparing factory farming practices to human sexual violence. “Rape is perhaps the single most heinous crime involving both power and violence,” Tolliver wrote, “but it’s standard procedure in the dairy industry.”

Later, Tolliver calls out the dairy industry for misleading consumers with pro-milk ad campaigns, citing unsourced “medical studies” which purportedly show that “dairy products are a health hazard.” And while excessive dairy — like excessive anything — can become a health concern, milk is largely recognized as an important element of a healthy diet.

Unlike soy or almond milk, for instance, cow’s milk contains no fiber or complex carbohydrates and is full of saturated animal fat and cholesterol. Consuming dairy products is also linked to developing heart disease as well as prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.

The article ends with another assertion that switching to non-dairy “milks” is a good way to prove you are not a racist. “With so many different types of cruelty-free, delicious milks on the market,” Tolliver asserts, “opposing supremacists has never been easier.”

One topic has resonated more than any other at the Vatican’s synod on youth, a report stated Sunday, that of anti-Christian persecution.

“The two most sustained ovations so far have been for an Iraqi youth and an Indian archbishop,” recounts veteran Vatican analyst John L. Allen Jr., “both of whom recounted direct stories of suffering and persecution on account of the faith in the 21st century.”

In his address to synod members, Safa Al Alqoshy, a Chaldean Catholic from Baghdad, narrated the suffering of Iraqi Christians at the hands of Islamist militants and received what was described as the “most sustained applause” of any speaker so far.

A number of priests and other Christians have “shed their blood in church to witness to Jesus,” Al Alqoshy told the National Catholic Register. “They refused to leave in spite of a lot of threats. We’ve had a lot of priests kidnapped. Father Basel Yaldo is now a bishop, he was kidnapped for a long time but he was steadfast in his faith, he did not fear, because God knows what he’s doing.”

“We just have to be faithful, strong, stay in our place, to reflect on the image of Jesus,” he said. “In Iraq, they always say that Christian people don’t lie, are good people and this is something important: when reflecting on the image of Jesus, we are a faithful group, peaceful group, faithful group.”

Al Alqoshy later elaborated that the physical violence is terrible, but it is not the only form of persecution at play.

“It’s very important to pay attention that there is not only persecution by killing, there is a persecution by psychology, by feelings,” Al Alqoshy told the online Catholic news outlet Crux. “You feel that you are alone, that you are not supported.”

The second chronicle of anti-Christian persecution was related by Indian Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswa, who described a brutal anti-Christian massacre carried out in the district of Kandhamal in 2008, leaving more than 100 people dead.

Barwa recounted the story of Rajesh Digal, a young catechist who was executed by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists on August 26, 2008. The throng buried Digal in mud up to his neck, urging him to convert, Barwa said.

One man held a stone over his head, demanding that he renounce Jesus Christ.

“He closed his eyes, looked up at him and said ‘No!’ And the man dumped the stone on his head,” Barwa said. “He silently gave witness of the God of life. And this is only one story. There are so many powerful stories of faith.”

Barwa told Crux that his own niece, a Catholic nun, had been gang-raped during the same 2008 outbreak of anti-Christian violence.

Worldwide, over 200 million Christians face severe persecution and Christians make up some 75 percent of all those targeted for harassment and persecution because of their faith.

According to Open Doors, a Christian watchdog group, in 2017 as many as “215 million Christians experience high levels of persecution in the [50] countries on the World Watch List,” with the majority of them in North Korea, considered “the worst place for Christians” for 16 consecutive years.

“In terms of the number of people involved, the gravity of the crimes committed and their impact, it is clear that the persecution of Christians is today worse than at any time in history,” said John Pontifex, editor of a 2018 report on Christian persecution.

Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome