Month: February 2019

At the end of his show on Monday, as President Donald Trump was delivering a speech in El Paso, TX, Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity voiced his disapproval for the reported $1.3 billion deal reached by lawmakers.

Hannity called the deal a “garbage compromise” and warned Republicans they would have to answer for the deal.

“By the way, on this new so-called compromise, getting details — $1.3 billion,” he said. “That’s not even a wall, a barrier? I’m going to tell this tonight, and we will get back into this tomorrow — any Republican that supports this garbage compromise, you will have to explain. Look at this crowd. Look at the country. Look at CBS News. Even they say 72 percent of the American people want the heroin to stop, the cartels to stop, the gang members to stop and those that wish us ill.”

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Islamic State terrorists have a secret war chest of up to $300 million in cash to help sustain future operations and fund new attacks on the West, according to a United Nations report.

The money is “bulk-stored” in its last remaining stronghold area, while the rest has been smuggled abroad or invested in legitimate businesses.

Even if Islamic State militants are forced out of their last Syria holdout this week, the group has other financial assets “with a strategic view to funding larger-scale attacks once the opportunity arises again,” the report says.

The news that Islamic State has the financial means to continue its fight even as its “caliphate” shrinks to nothing comes as U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces begin a final push to defeat the terror group in the last tiny pocket the extremists hold in eastern Syria.

As Breitbart News reports, Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted that the offensive began last Saturday after more than 20,000 civilians were evacuated from the IS-held area in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. An SDF statement said the offensive was focused on the village of Baghouz.

The SDF, backed by U.S. air power, has driven IS from large swaths of territory it once controlled in northern and eastern Syria, confining the extremists to a small pocket of land near the border with Iraq.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children related to terror fighters, have fled that onslught to opposition territory, many of them claiming they were not supporters of the terror group.

But the U.N report also warns that foreign fighters and the extremists’ dependents will still pose a threat even after the Islamic State organization is defeated.

“Foreign terrorist fighters leaving the conflict zone, or prior returnees becoming active again on release from prison or for other reasons, will increase the threat,” the report says.

“The handling of dependants is particularly challenging. Radicalized women and traumatized minors may also pose a serious threat,” it continues.

And the report notes that despite losing physical ground, Islamic State still has up to 18,000 loyal members in its ranks in Syria and Iraq – including 3,000 foreign terrorist fighters.

The report also confirmed that the group is still led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – who has not been seen in public since 2014, and has been pronounced dead on several occasions.

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

 

A potential congressional deal on border security funding could mean that 8,300 criminal illegal aliens are released onto the streets, according to a joint letter from two of the biggest law enforcement groups in America.

According to The Daily Caller, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Major County Sheriffs of America have come out against a rumored deal that would cap the number of detainees that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can hold at one time at 16,500.

In the letter — sent to Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican, and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont — both organizations said that there would be a threat to public safety if Congress were to “place an artificial cap on Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement’s (ICE) detention capacity.”

“Capping the number of detention beds utilized by ICE not only jeopardizes the integrity of the immigration system, but would cripple ICE’s ability to detain criminal aliens and other aliens who pose a risk to public safety or are a flight risk,” the letter states.

“Any legislation that reduces ICE’s detention capacity would hinder its ability to perform its national security and public safety missions, but also impact local law enforcement’s ability to protect the communities they serve. In order to meet the cap being tentatively proposed by Congress, ICE would be compelled to release thousands of aliens from custody. To achieve the 16,500 adult average detainee population (ADP) caps for the remaining 7 months of the fiscal year, a net reduction of 9,264 adults by the end of this fiscal year would be required.

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“Over 90 percent of ICE’s arrests are aliens who have a criminal conviction, have been arrested for a criminal, or have been previously removed. Placing a cap on ICE detention beds will undermine the efficacy of the immigration system and reduce the number of aliens who are removed from the United States.”

If 90 percent of the aliens held by ICE have criminal records besides their immigration status, and 9,264 would have to be freed, that means more than 8,300 criminals would be released to potentially prey on innocent Americans, thanks to Democratic demands.

According to Fox News, while no details of the proposed deal have been released, a limit on ICE beds seems to be one of the likely concessions from Republicans.

“Democrats have proposed a cap on the number of available beds in ICE detention centers with the goal of forcing the Trump administration to prioritize arresting and deporting only violent criminals and dangerous offenders,” Fox reported.

Speaking before the deal in principle was reached and at a moment where talks were thought to have broken down, ICE Deputy Director Matt Albence said that the idea of limiting detention capacity would be “extremely damaging to public safety.”

“If we are forced to live with a cap, we will be forced to release criminal aliens in our custody,” Albence said on Monday, according to Fox. “We will be limited in our ability to respond to state and local law enforcement agencies making arrests for these crimes.

“We prioritize our limited resources to the best of our ability, but putting an artificial cap on the ability to detain individuals who pose threats will lead to disastrous results,” Albence added.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also said that such an idea was  “not based on reality” and the Democrats are using “an arbitrary number that a couple of lawmakers pulled out of thin air.”

Limiting ICE’s detention abilities has long been a Democrat agenda item — since they think ICE is evil and so is any sort detention of illegal immigrants.

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Any sort of border security deal needs to do just that: Engender border security.

Limiting ICE’s ability to keep detainees isn’t going to do that, especially when 8,300 individuals are going to be turned out on the street because, if The Associated Press‘ report is accurate, the Republicans will get $1.4 billion for the wall.

This isn’t the best deal for the administration or the American people. It’s time for some serious negotiation.

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The Democrats and the mainstream media may be attacking President Donald Trump as hard as they can, but the numbers don’t lie — and they say that the State of the Union was a hit.

According to the Rasmussen Reports poll for Monday, 52 percent of Americans approve of the job that Trump is doing compared with 47 percent who disapprove.

That’s compared with the beginning of the month, where 43 percent approved and 57 percent who disapproved.

This is even trending upward from last week, where Trump still had a higher disapproval than approval rate in the survey.

“The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance,” the polling service reported last week.

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“These findings include the first full night of surveying following the president’s State of the Union speech to Congress,” it added.

“The latest figures include 37% who Strongly Approve of the job Trump is doing and 42% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -5.”

Those numbers are now even, with 39 percent both strongly approving and strongly disapproving.

That’s higher than the numbers President Obama had at the same point during his presidency.

According to the Rasmussen polling data from Obama’s presidency, on Feb. 11, 2011, Obama had a similar 50-49 approval rating, just slightly under Trump’s.

However, the data show that Obama’s strongly approve/strongly disapprove numbers were much worse.

Twenty-seven percent of Americans surveyed strongly approved of the job that then-President Obama was doing at the time, compared to 35 percent who strongly disapproved, giving him a presidential approval rating of -8.

And keep in mind, Trump is maintaining this approval in spite of endless attacks from Democrats and the mainstream media, particularly over the potential for another government shutdown.

So, what’s the takeaway here, aside from the fact that we’re not going to hear a lot about the Rasmussen poll from the mainstream media?

First, Trump’s State of the Union speech was a lot bigger of a hit than most people in the media seemed to have thought it was. The general thought was that most people were going to look at the controversial elements of the speech, especially when he talked about the Mueller investigation.

However, viewers seem to have embraced the message Trump had for America, even if he was trashing the very hot philosophy of socialism.

Second, it’s not exactly that much of a stretch to think that Trump is going to have about the same shot at getting re-elected that Barack Obama did. After all, the numbers are incredibly similar and things are trending well for the president.

That’s something a lot of Democratic challengers aren’t going to be too happy with — especially since this is what’s happening when Trump’s dealing with everything that the media can throw at him.

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