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Thousands of activists and protesters rallied in cities across the U.S. Saturday to defend illegal immigrants, individuals who entered the country in violation of U.S. law.

Demonstrators harshly criticized the Trump administration’s tough approach to illegal immigration outside a Homestead, Florida, detention facility and at a border patrol station in McAllen, Texas. These “Keep Families Together” rallies were held in San Diego and New York, among other locations.

The protests come amid concerns about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policies and the separation of illegal immigrant families when they are apprehended entering the country at places other than designated points of entry.

In San Diego alone, there were reportedly more than 5,000 protesters present at the rally.

Around 9,000 families have been caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in each of the last three months, and more than 2,000 illegal immigrant children have been taken into federal custody in recent weeks.

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Many observers have criticized the Trump administration, with many opponents of the administration’s policies comparing the detention facilities to Nazi concentration camps or Japanese internment camps.

“Family rights are human rights” and “Reunite the families” were among the signs seen at a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, where activists could be heard shouting, “No more baby jails.”

At the Border Patrol Central Processing Center in McAllen, protesters attempted to block a bus carrying illegal immigrant children. “Shame! Shame!” the demonstrators chanted as the bus eventually passed.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to prevent family separation by detaining families together during processing. The Trump administration still fully intends to prosecute all individuals who cross into the U.S. illegally.

Many fear that the Trump administration has no intention of reuniting families that have already been separated, despite reassurances from Health and Human Services.

HHS is, according to a spokeswoman, “bringing to bear all the relevant resources of the department in order to assist in the reunification or placement of unaccompanied alien children and teenagers with a parent or appropriate sponsor.”

Other critics remain dissatisfied with the revised approach, arguing that it is immoral to send families with children to detention centers. Proponents of tougher immigration policies, including the president, argue that these individuals simply want open borders.

“Democrats love open borders,” Trump argued at a recent event, adding, “They view that possibly intelligently except that it is destroying our country. They view that as potential someday, they’re going to go vote for Democrats.”

As protests and rallies were held in cities across the country Saturday, the president spoke to a crowd of supporters in Nevada, emphasizing the need for a new approach to the illegal immigration problem.

“Their issue is open borders, get MS-13 all over our country,” he explained, “We need people to come in, but they have to be people that love this country, can love our country, and can really help us to make America great again.”

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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Leading Democrats over the weekend rubbed shoulders in one of the country’s most liberal enclaves, according to reports.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and philanthropist Connie Milstein threw a ritzy bash at her Edgartown abode on Saturday. The event was attended by Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Heather Podesta and former U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia Tod Sedgwick.

The night before, the Virginia lawmaker hosted over 100 Democrats at his upscale home on Martha’s Vineyard, as part of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s annual retreat.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s vice chairman couldn’t resist mentioning the Russia probe.

“If you get me one more glass of wine, I’ll tell you stuff only Bob Mueller and I know,” Warner joked to party-goers. “If you think you’ve seen wild stuff so far, buckle up. It’s going to be a wild couple of months.”

Warner found himself in hot water in February after it was revealed the 2020 hopeful was in contact with Adam Waldman, a lobbyist for a shadowy Russian oligarch.

Text message exchanges show Waldman offered to connect Warner with Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence agent behind the dubious anti-Trump dosser.

“We have so much to discuss u need to be careful but we can help our country,” Warner told Waldman in Mark of 2017.

“I’m in,” the lobbyist replied.

President Donald Trump, an outspoken critic of the Russia probe, has often characterized the investigation as a “witch hunt.” On Saturday, Trump touted a Wall Street Journal opinion piece arguing the probe is “tainted by the bias that attended its origin in 2016.”

“Major Wall Street Journal opinion piece today talking about the Russian Witch Hunt and the disgrace that it is. So many people hurt, so bad for our country—a total sham,” the President said.

Nearly half of voters living in swing districts across the United States say that illegal alien families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border should be deported together back to their native countries.

The latest CBS News/YouGov poll reveals that a plurality of swing district voters support President Trump’s position that border crossing family units should be deported together out of the U.S.

About 48 percent of swing district voters say illegal alien families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border should be deported “back to their home country together,” a plan that Trump is hoping to execute in order to mitigate the country’s illegal immigration problem.

Only 21 percent of swing district voters said they supported the Democrats’ preferred “Catch and Release” policy, where illegal alien families are arrested at the border, then released into the interior of the country while they await their immigration and asylum hearings.

The CBS/YouGov poll is further evidence that Americans’ prefer Trump’s economic nationalist approach to immigration, which seeks to boost workers’ wages and citizens’ quality of life by reducing legal immigration and ending illegal immigration.

A similar poll last week by Rasmussen Reports, as Breitbart News reported, revealed that nearly 55 percent of likely American voters said illegal aliens are at fault for “breaking the law” when their children “are arrested and separated after attempting to enter the United States illegally.”

Poll: Majority of Americans Blame Illegal Alien Parents When Their Children Are Separated at Borderhttps://t.co/aCnwh4J5Rn

— John Binder ? (@JxhnBinder) June 21, 2018

Poor Americans, the working class, and middle class are the most likely to say that illegal alien parents are to blame when their children are separated from them at the border.

About 56 percent of Americans earning less than $30,000 a year said illegal alien parents were to blame, not the federal government, for child separation at the border. Meanwhile, about 54 percent of Americans earning $30,000 t0 $50,000 and $50,000 to $100,000 say they too blame the illegal alien parents.

As Breitbart News revealed, records from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that since before 2001, illegal alien adults have oftentimes been separated from the minor children with whom they arrived at the border.

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

One of the largest Islamic charities in the world has financial ties to several terrorist organizations, according to a report obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Islamic Relief, a highly influential international nonprofit, receives funds from the Charitable Society for Social Welfare, for example, which was founded by Al-Qaida terrorist and “Bin Laden loyalist” Abdul Majeed Al-Zindani, the report states. Islamic Relief is also accused of financially supporting Hamas, the militant and political Islamist organization regarded by much of the international community as a terrorist group.

And Americans are helping foot the bill, according to the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank based in Philadelphia that investigated and published the report. In the last 10 years, MEF says taxpayers from Western countries have provided $80 million to Islamic Relief, which allegedly has a close relationship with networks of the Muslim Brotherhood, also considered by many to be a source of Islamic terrorism despite claims of violence denunciations.

A representative for the American arm of Islamic Relief told TheDCNF that MEF is trying to build conspiracies just based off of the notions that one Muslim happened to speak to another at some point in time.

“Islamic Relief has operated as a top-rated humanitarian organization for 25 years working to deliver relief and development in a non-discriminatory, dignified manner to vulnerable individuals in over 40 countries around the world,” Sharif Aly, CEO of Islamic Relief USA, said in a statement provided to TheDCNF. “IRUSA abides by strict standards of neutrality and impartiality in carrying out its overarching humanitarian mission.”

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Islamic Relief says it works with several legitimate, accredited fellow charities and government agencies around the world, like FEMA, USDA, Red Cross and HIAS, a Jewish refugee resettlement charity.

The latter group and Islamic Relief teamed up most recently to provide humanitarian and legal assistance to refugees in Greece.

“Islamic Relief USA is honored to be partnering with such an esteemed and effective organization like HIAS to protect refugees who are in great need of assistance,” Islamic Relief USA President Anwar Khan said in a statement published in January of 2018. “Our shared values have always been to help some of the most vulnerable populations around the world. With recent incidents of people not gaining access to essential services, and many having their rights violated, we will work to put a stop to these disturbing trends and promote the legal rights of all refugees.”

Nevertheless, MEF’s investigation also seems to reveal several examples of anti-Semitism — if not directly but by association — from top officials of Islamic Relief.

“It received over $700,000 of taxpayers’ money during the Obama administration,” Sam Westrop, author of the MEF report, told TheDCNF. “And now, under the Trump administration, public officials continue to speak at its events and legitimize it as a charitable institution. But this institution’s officials continue to promote some very uncharitable ideas: Hatred of Jews, support for extremist ideologies, and praise for terror.”

MEF says Islamic Relief officials have “dined at the White House” and assumed positions as advisers within the U.S. Department of State.

And it’s not just public support, as corporate foundations and individual donors have provided the group with more than $4.3 million in roughly the last 17 years, according to MEF, with the largest single donation of $1.4 million coming from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

MEF lists a number of those highest up in the organization and some of their actions, which includes connections to religious figures who advocated for the killing of Jews and homosexuals, or similar advocacy themselves.

“Examples include Abdullah Hakim Quick, who claims that the Islamic position on homosexuality is ‘death’; Haitham Al-Haddad, who describes Jews as ‘pigs and apes’; and Abdul Nasir Jangda, who defends sex slavery and advocates killing apostates,” the section of the executive summary titled “hate preachers” reads.

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And countries and organizations around the world have been starting to take notice in recent months.

“There is a reason for both United Arab Emirates and Israel banning Islamic Relief. There is a reason for two international banks shutting down its accounts. And there is reason for investigations by European officials into Islamic Relief’s promotion of extremist preachers who advocate violence and hate,” said Westrop. “Now it’s time for American politicians and law enforcement to look into those reasons, stop funding Islamic Relief’s work, and start challenging the pernicious extremism spread by this international franchise and its Islamist operatives in the U.S.”

Islamic Relief, however, is defending itself against what it sees as deeply flawed and often flat-out incorrect accusations.

“Any suggestion that IRUSA is, or has been, susceptible to undue influence by third parties is patently false and wholly inconsistent with the history of our humanitarian work and programming, as well as our demonstrated record of operating as a transparent, accountable and legally compliant non-profit institution in the United States,” Aly continued. “IRUSA and its officials, trustees and staff firmly and unequivocally denounce any allegations that it has ties to terrorists or terror-linked organizations.”

Of course, despite some of the good work that Islamic Relief does do in many parts of the world, MEF thinks that there are critical problems that vastly outweigh its efforts.

“Ultimately, if Western governments are serious about fighting the intolerant, divisive and violent effects of global Islamism, then Islamic Relief must be shut down,” the report concludes. “It is the flagship institution of lawful Islamism in the West. There are certainly Muslim charities that do not promote extremism and subsidize terrorism. Why should taxpayers all over the world fund a charity that does?”

A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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The approval ratings for Congress are near record lows and national spending is out of control — but one Democrat lawmaker apparently thinks that he deserves a raise.

Fed up with having to pay for his own living arrangements like every other American adult, Rep. Bennie Thompson — a Democrat from Mississippi — is insisting that taxpayers fund his Washington housing for him.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, the liberal has drafted a bill that would “change the tax code to allow House members to deduct their spending on housing in D.C. up to $3,000.”

The annual pay for U.S. congressmen is already $174,000 per year. That’s before additional benefits, including generous stipends. To put that in perspective, the median household income in America is about $59,000 annually, putting lawmakers near the top tier of earnings for simply being elected.

That’s just their salary. National lawmakers are also typically wealthy, with many of them multi-millionaires.

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“The median net worth of a senator was $3.2 million, versus $900,000 for members of the House of Representatives,” Quartz Media reported in February. It must be rough to be a congressman with “only” about a million in net worth.

Thompson didn’t just stop with demanding more money from the pockets of taxpayers, however. He also wants entire buildings renovated into congressional housing so he can keep more cash in his own wallet.

“Thompson has also proposed turning a vacant building near Capitol Hill into apartments for House members at the expense of taxpayers, which critics have dubbed a ‘Congressional Animal House,’” reported the Free Beacon.

“The taxpayer-watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste criticized Thompson’s legislation and his proposed ‘taxpayer-funded dorms,’” the outlet continued.

While it is true that apartments in Washington are on the expensive side, it’s still a drop in the bucket compared to the take-home pay of national lawmakers.

“The claim that housing is unaffordable is belied by the average monthly cost of a studio apartment in Washington, D.C., which is $1,602, or less than 10 percent of members’ annual salary,” explained the CAGW. “The average American spends 33 percent of his or her annual income on housing.

In other words, our representatives are significantly more well-off than the average American, but some are still whining about needing more.

There are nearly two dozen co-sponsors of Rep. Thompson’s money-grabbing proposal — and you guessed it, they’re all liberals.

“The legislation has 23 cosponsors, all Democrats, including James Clyburn (S.C.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Elijah Cummings (Md.), and Marcia Fudge (Ohio),” reported the Free Beacon.

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Conservative lawmakers, including New York’s Rep. Dan Donovan, have rightly mocked the idea as being out-of-touch and unnecessary.

“I’m here to work, not relive my college days in a taxpayer-funded dorm,” Donovan told the Free Beacon. “Our national debt is over $20 trillion, so I don’t think it’s a great use of taxpayer funds to build Congress a dorm.”

If Thompson is so worried about the cost of living in Washington, maybe he should think about his party’s priorities — after all, the city has been run by Democrats nonstop since the 1960s and has gone blue in almost every single election.

The American people have had enough with politicians constantly complaining and grabbing more cash… and it’s no wonder Congress’s approval ratings are so low.

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A Washington, D.C., art council has selected a site near the Lincoln and Vietnam War memorials to commemorate Desert Storm, the last armed conflict America won.

The Commission of Fine Arts approved the location on the western end of the National Mall during a meeting Thursday, even though the area is getting crowded with war memorials.

As one who served I am Grateful the new Desert Storm War Memorial will have a prominent place on National Mall. Near Lincoln Memorial. It will be a memorial to those who died & served liberating Kuwaiti. pic.twitter.com/vU1jjoIl8X

— Michael Van Proyen (@MVanProyen) June 23, 2018

Some Commission members expressed concern at a March meeting that the area around Lincoln’s massive Parthenon is becoming too crowded with with “military commemoration” rather than “maintaining its intended original use of public recreation and civic prospect.”

But the veterans spearheading the effort were pleased with both the prominent placement and relieved to have a place for the commemoration.

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Scott Stump, a former Marine who served in Operation Desert Storm, told Military Times that he was “very pleased and very relieved” at the Commission’s decision.

“It’s in close proximity to the National Mall and the other memorials and commemorative works to where a person could actually access it, could walk to it, easily,” said Stump, who is the CEO of the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association.

“We felt like if you have something that’s the most beautiful memorial in the world, but it takes a lot of work for people to get there and people aren’t going to visit, then it kind of defeats our purpose,” he added.

Preliminary designs for the memorial —  which will need final approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, the National Park Service and the National Capital Planning Commission — envision a raised limestone structure reminiscent of the golden spiral of the nautilus shell.

The arcing shape recalls the “left hook” maneuver where U.S. forces were able to flank former Iraq President Saddam Hussein’s army and expel them from Kuwait.

“I hope obviously that if [future visitors] don’t know the story, that they will learn about it,” Stump told WTOP. “If they kind of remember the story, maybe it will jog their memory and remind them that this was not the 100-hour war that it’s so erroneously referred to so many times.

“This was a big deal — it affected 700,000 people, and it was also one of the most overwhelmingly successful military operations in history.”

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