I'm quite certain that Senator Bill Hagerty is more knowledgeable about this subject than you.
do tell. There is specific constitutional language surrounding how registering happens and it speaks to the number of persons in a given district. Not citizens, not drink card holders. Or any fucking such language like that. It says persons period
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Did you know that Biden won't secure the border via Executive Order because:
1) Census includes illegal aliens. 2) Non-deported illegals gives the Democrats 20 or so House Seats every census period 3) House Seats determine how many electoral votes a state gets
Pretty blatant election interference and fraud. By flooding illegals in Crazy Sleepy Joe is just trying to rig all future elections.
If you were subtract those seats:
1) the house would never be blue 2) the electoral votes would shift back to states with actual American Citizens 4) If NY and CA had appropriate populations they would get less electoral votes.
It's pretty cut and dry why they won't secure the border. The reason isn't humanity or whatever you choose to believe.
They want YOU to have less say in this country then the invaders. It's time for change. If you ever wondered why sanctuary states exist, it's simply to rig an election with more electoral votes in blue states.
Trust that those rich people in Obama, Biden and Clinton neighborhoods despise these illegal people and don't want them in their home areas...but they need the votes so they roll with it and dump it on YOU, the less wealthy. This was proven when illegals were sent to Martha's Vineyard and immediately evicted by the people who claim to embrace them.
Many of the commoner democrats with no money keep suckering along with it. When do you wake up and realize you are being duped by your so called leaders?
Republican veto of the recent bill was the right thing to do. It didn't actually do anything favorable for the USA and her citizens.
In the words of the great EV - Everybody else pays for someone else's mistakes.
erm, cencus wont be taken for another 6 years. who was in charge during the last one? stephen miller?
But that's the point. They flood it now, disperse them to locations unknown and then in 6 years they have had 3 fucking babies each and you got 10million illegals floating around = house seats.
if you can't see that I feel bad for you.
Have you seen any polling recently? Hispanics are backing Republicans more than they have in the past. This line of "thinking" has always been fucking moronic. It is even more so now.
There is bipartisan legislation that would have the border closed right now that maga republicans are blatantly ignoring solely because they believe not solving the problem is better for them politically.
Maga is full of open border globalist pigs.
It has nothing to do with how they vote. It's about creating seats in the HoR which in turn creates electoral votes which in turns pads the number for NY and CA and other sanctuary states so they get more electoral votes in historical blue states. The illegals themselves can't vote so it's just artifical inflation of HoR reps to get more electoral points in the traditional blue states.
Nothing more, nothing less. It's just the facts man. I'm not injecting an opinion.
My man....the democrats and the few remaining reasonable republicans crafted bipartisan legislation that would dramatically curb border crossings. The border would be closed right now if it were not for maga. You want facts? Those are the facts. That's not som weirdo conspiracy theory.
Question is: Why does maga believe in open borders?
And if you are overly concerned about house seats and stuff, why not demand your maga representatives join democrats and call for an end to gerrymandering once and for all?
I know you want to believe that.
It would have curbed border crossings at the cost of 70b in foreign aid. That's a non-starter when the PRESIDENT can executive order it without spending $70b. He can literally do it for FREE.
It may have originated as bi-partisan. The american people saw the bill and we the people vetoed it and the republicans had the balls to stand up for the citizens of this country and strike it down.
"The new CBS News poll found that 45 percent of Americans see the border situation as a crisis, and another 30 percent view it as a serious problem. Eighteen percent said that the border situation is somewhat serious, and 7 percent said it is not much of a problem at all, according to the poll."
Half of polled Americans believe in reducing foreign aid.
Why hasn't POTUS ended the border crisis without alienating half the country? He could do it swiftly, easily, and without cost.
It would appeal to 93% of Americans. That's a huge win and an election slam dunk for Biden.
he is holding out on doing his job and you have to ask the hard question...why?
Because he is a puppet to his master of puppets.. the ultra progressives who are trying to inflate numbers for the 2030 census to get more HOR people and more electoral points for the guaranteed blue states.
This is the ONLY thing that is going to slow POTUS down from a guaranteed win in November and he isn't doing it. You have to peel the onion.
It's called compromising, my man. Prior to Donald Trump and Maga, republicans used to do it all the time. It happened with the gun legislation recently. Don't you think the Democrats wanted waaaaay more than they got? Of course they did. Did the ultimately realize that, for the good of the country, doing something was better than nothing and perhaps down the road they'll get more? Yep. They're serious people. That is the difference here.
All rational people agree an immigration LAW is a better solution than an executive order that will be challenged in the courts.
The only person who vetoed it is Donald Trump. The American people OVERWHELMINGLY support the bill as the WSJ poll points out. Seriously, how many other issues can you name that has about 60% support? Maga is holding it up because they think a messy border situation is better for them politically. Henceforth: Maga is full of open border globalist pigs.
Here is an actual link to an article about actual, current polling, done by the WSJ:
A majority of U.S. voters say they support the Senate's bipartisan border security bill that the chamber failed to pass and was "dead on arrival" in the House, The Wall Street Journal found in a new poll.
The Journal told survey participants that "a bipartisan group of Senators and the White House recently proposed a bill to make it harder for migrants to get asylum in the U.S., to increase the number of border agents, and give the President the power to limit the number of migrants coming into the country if immigration goes above a certain limit."
Participants then were asked, "From what you've heard, would you favor or oppose this proposal?"
A total of 59% of voters, with roughly equal percentages of Republicans and Democrats, say they would support the bipartisan package, the Journal found.
A plurality of voters put more blame on President Joe Biden than on Republicans for developments in border security, with 45% agreeing with the statement that Biden had allowed more illegal immigration by reversing executive orders that former President Donald Trump had put in place, and that Biden had powers to seal the border but failed to use them.
Another 39% agreed with the statement that the GOP killed the Senate bipartisan deal because Trump told them he didn't want to help Democrats pass legislation.
Also, 74% say they support creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for many years and pass a background check.
Other poll findings included:
71% say immigration and border security have moved in the wrong direction during the past year.
66% say they disapprove of the job Biden is doing to handle immigration.
66% of voters would support creating a mechanism for immigrants brought into the country illegally as children.
58% say they support increasing the level of legal immigration to the U.S.
"What it [the survey] tells us is this is an issue where voters are looking for solutions," said Democrat pollster Michael Bocian, who conducted the survey with Republican Tony Fabrizio, the newspaper reported. "They're not totally dogmatic about what those solutions are, but they want solutions."
The Journal survey, conducted Feb. 21-28, followed Senate Republicans on Feb. 7 defeating a bipartisan effort to bolster border security that had taken months to negotiate.
By a vote of 49-50, the Senate failed to approve a $118 billion bipartisan package that would tighten immigration laws, help Ukraine fight a Russian invasion, and bolster Israel in its war with Hamas.
After the Senate announced the agreement on Feb. 4, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., took to X to say the bill was "worse than expected" and "dead on arrival" in the House.
The Journal poll found that 20% of voters now rank immigration as their top issue, up from 13% in December and above any other topic, including the economy.
Britt implied also that the woman had confided the story to her and that the events had occurred during President Biden’s administration.
But reporter Jonathan Katz, in a lengthy video posted to social media, connects the dots on the story, and it appears Britt lied: The woman has told her story many times publicly, including to Congress; the events didn’t occur in the United States; and they happened during George W. Bush’s presidency.
“When I first took office, I did something different,” Britt said. “I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me.
“She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.”
She added: “The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on-end.”
Britt implies the rapes took place in the U.S. — under Biden’s watch.
“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country,” she said. “This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it. President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”
Katz, however, says he has proof that the events didn’t occur in the U.S., and that — according to the victim — they happened between 2004 and 2008, when George W. Bush was president.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is warning agents to be on the lookout for members of a notorious Venezuelan prison gang coming across the southern border -- just as the socialist country is refusing to take its citizens back.
A CBP source provided Fox News with an internal CBP intelligence bulletin revealing tattoos and identifiers for Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang. Members of that gang have been entering the U.S. illegally through the southern border.
Fox News reported this week that the brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley has ties to the gang. Both the suspect and his brother are Venezuelans who entered the U.S. illegally.
Federal authorities have been warning that the gang, also known as TdA and known for its violent turf wars as it expanded into other countries in South and Central America, is trying to establish itself in the U.S., where police are already linking it to organized crime. The FBI has also warned that the gang could team up with the bloodthirsty MS-13.
Last month two suspects in the assault of two NYPD officers were revealed to be members of TdA.
But CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources have expressed frustration to Fox News that Venezuelan gang members are extremely difficult to deport because Venezuela is currently not taking them back.
Only 834 Venezuelans were deported in FY 2023, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, despite there being over 335,000 encounters at the border. The administration had started returning illegal immigrants from Venezuela directly to the socialist dictatorship in October as part of a way to discourage the flow to the border.
While the administration took heat for the flights from immigration activists, who argued Venezuela was not an appropriate country to return migrants due to its human rights abuses, administration officials told reporters in January that it was looking to increase the number of flights.
One official said that "we do have the intention of ramping up repatriation flights to Venezuela" and that the administration sees it as a "critical part" of the broader immigration strategy.
"It’s an important deterrent," they said, with officials also saying they were pleased that Mexico was also now flying migrants straight to Venezuela.
In December, the administration had made limited exceptions to sanctions on a Venezuelan airline to help facilitate deportation flights from Canada and Latin America.
But last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Maduro regime has stopped flights of deported migrants from both the U.S. and Mexico after the U.S. reimposed some economic sanctions. The flights ended at the end of January, officials told the outlet, after around 1,800 returns.
Before beginning the flights last year, the administration had extended deportation protections to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the U.S. in September. Venezuela is also part of a controversial parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) which allows 30,000 migrants with sponsors to fly into the U.S. each month.
Fox is told that Venezuelans can still be removed to Mexico, but that many then typically re-enter the U.S. illegally as a "gotaway."
Texas officials push back against Biden border claims
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the president was “gaslighting” the American people.
By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributoPublished: March 8, 2024 11:00pm
President Joe Biden told members of Congress he wanted to fix the border crisis in his state of the union address Thursday night after repeatedly claiming over the last three years there is no border crisis.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also repeatedly testified to Congress that the border is secure, the federal government has operational control, and the reason that the administration has had difficulty is because it “inherited a broken immigration system.” Mayorkas’ claims, and evidence to the contrary, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security majority argued, are one reason why the House impeached him.
“We have a simple choice," Biden said Thursday night. "We can fight about fixing the border or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the president was “gaslighting” the American people. Johnson last month identified 64 policies Biden implemented that he argues created the border crisis.
The House already passed a border security bill, HR 2, filed by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, which the Senate refused to consider. Instead, senators secretly negotiated a bill claiming it limited illegal entry contrary to the actual bill language.
Biden's speech was given nearly three years to the day that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, to block illegal entry into Texas. The state legislature has allocated more than $11.6. billion to the effort. Texas is doing what the Biden administration should be doing, Abbott argues.
Over the past three years, Abbott’s sent Biden letters and sued his administration multiple times, arguing he can take executive action immediately to end the border crisis. Biden doesn’t need Congress to follow and implement the laws Congress already established, Abbott and his fellow Republican governors argue.
Biden’s speech, Abbott said, “was nothing short of a dog and pony show to convince the American people that his Administration is keeping America safe and secure.” He launched OLS on March 6, 2021, “to defend our state – and our nation – from the historic influx of illegal immigration, criminals, and deadly drugs like fentanyl pouring across our southern border,” he said. “Until President Biden steps up and does his job as Commander-in-Chief to secure the border, Texas will hold the line and use every tool and strategy to keep our country safe.”
The Border Patrol union also weighed in, saying Biden is “The most arrogant, self-absorbed, clueless and angry loser ever. Never held a real job. Lifetime political hack. Joe Biden is the epitome of what so many Americans despise about politicians.”
U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Republican from Houston, reiterated what House Republicans have been saying for months. They passed a border security bill the Senate won’t consider. Hunt said, “Biden says ‘send me the border bill now.’ Fine Mr. President, tell Chuck Schumer to take up H.R. 2 tonight. It can be on your desk before the weekend!”
He also published a video explaining how the president and Mayorkas deliberately created the border crisis.
“It was deliberate,” he said, “because under President Trump we weren't talking about” unprecedented millions of “illegal alien encounters at the southern border” and “we weren't talking about enough fentanyl smuggled in to kill every single American.”
Enough fentanyl has been seized under the Biden administration to kill nearly the entire world population, The Center Square has reported.
Hunt said the president and Mayorkas issued executive actions “that weaken our national security,” including ending Trump-era policies like Remain in Mexico, constructing the border wall, cracking down on fraudulent asylum claims, among others.
“The sad part is they pretend like their hands are tied,” Hunt said. “They act like it's an unfortunate circumstance that they are ‘working hard to fix.’ In my home state of Texas we know they're not doing the damn thing to stop this invasion. We have crops, fields and ranches damaged by illegal border crossers and communities ravaged by cartel violence.
“The irony is that when Gov. Abbott decided to take steps to secure our border and keep Texans safe, the White House said, ‘Gov. Abbott is getting in the way.’”
“Getting in the way of what?” Hunt asked. “Getting in the way of the worst border crisis in our nation’s history? Crime, fentanyl, and harm for our local communities?”
He points to the bill the House passed, the Secure the Border Act, which would expand on “successful policies” enacted under the Trump administration. He encouraged Schumer “to stop sitting on his hands and take up the strongest border bill in American history to end the border crisis once and for all. The president says Congress needs to act now. Sir, we have. Now is the time for the Senate to act and for Joe Biden to protect our country.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) speaks to reporters outside the House Chamber following the last votes of the week on Thursday, February 15, 2024.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is amplifying its calls for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to stage a vote on legislation linking foreign military aid with domestic border security, framing that combination as the only recipe for getting Ukraine assistance through a deeply divided Congress.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the lead sponsor of the legislation, said he’s working directly with Johnson’s office to get the package to the House floor through regular channels. But if the Speaker refuses to comply, then the bill’s supporters will begin the process of gathering signatures — beginning as early as this week — on a procedural tool, known as a discharge petition, to force the bill to the floor.
“If the House cannot come to a consensus on a bill to be put on the floor, the alternative can’t be that Ukraine fails and our border remains open. We can’t allow that to happen,” Fitzpatrick said Wednesday morning during a press briefing in the Capitol. “So this is not a workaround of anyone or any post. This is a pressure point, to try to apply pressure to force something to the floor.”
The effort is a longshot. Discharge petitions rarely work — the last successful effort was in 2015 — and party leaders on both sides of the aisle have put up early roadblocks.
Former President Trump, for instance, is opposed to any new Ukraine aid or border security measures before November’s elections — a stance popular among House conservatives. And some House Democratic leaders have already rejected Fitzpatrick’s policy blueprint, preferring a bipartisan Senate-passed proposal providing foreign aid without the border language.
Still, Fitzpatrick and the other supporters of the Ukraine-border package maintain that it represents Congress’s last best chance of getting aid for Kyiv to President Biden’s desk this year.
“It is an unsustainable argument, either in the short-term or the long-term, that we’re going to defend the borders of our foreign allies but not our own,” Fitzpatrick said, highlighting the central barrier facing the Senate bill.
Fitzpatrick said his discharge petition will mature Friday, meaning lawmakers can begin to endorse it, and he’s “very confident” it can win the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill.
His petition was designed to bring the bill to the floor without going through the House Rules Committee, where conservatives would likely block it. And it allows for one sweeping “substitute” amendment that will empower lawmakers in both parties to make changes — some of them major — before the final vote.
Fitzpatrick acknowledged, for instance, that most Democrats would not support the proposal as it stands because it excludes humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza — a provision he’d like to see added — while Republicans will likely demand more funding to grant Border Patrol agents with more powers to execute migrant expulsions.
“This is a bare-bones version of where the points of intersection between Democrats and Republicans are,” he said. “This will not be the final bill text.”
Behind Fitzpatrick and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), the bipartisan group had introduced its legislative package last month as an alternative approach to a Senate-passed bill featuring aid for Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, but without provisions to strengthen the U.S. border.
Although the Senate bill had won the support of 22 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the appetite for more Ukraine aid has waned within the GOP over the two years since Russia’s invasion, and Trump has led the charge in opposition to any new assistance before November’s elections.
Trump’s position has been embraced by a number of House conservatives, who either oppose Ukraine aid outright or won’t support it without the accompanying provisions to strengthen security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Johnson has so far sided with the conservatives, refusing to consider the Senate-passed bill while continuing to insist on the strict border measures contained in a Republican immigration bill, H.R. 2, which passed through the House last year but is a non-starter with Democrats.
Fitzpatrick said he’s been in direct conversations with both Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) about his intentions for the discharge petition. But conservatives aren’t the only barrier he’s facing as he eyes endorsements for his discharge petition.
Liberals are up-in-arms over the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, with some opposed to even the Senate bill because it provides more weapons for Israel. Other Democrats, especially those in the Hispanic Caucus, are likely to balk at the tougher border provisions, particularly a “remain in Mexico” stipulation that had previously been adopted under the Trump administration.
Last week, Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, shot down the Ukraine-border proposal, arguing that the resolution to the impasse has already been sent over from the upper chamber.
“The solution is incredibly clear. It is the bipartisan solution that has 70 votes out of the United States Senate,” Aguilar said.
Yet the highest barrier to Ukraine aid remains Trump and the House conservatives who are pressing Johnson to oppose any foreign aid package before Trump’s potential return to the White House. It’s a dynamic that hasn’t been lost on Fitzpatrick and the other supporters of the Ukraine-border package.
“I think he wants to get to a yes, here,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s in a very tough political position in our conference. That’s no secret, you all write about it every day, and it’s true.
An effort by Senate Republicans to stop non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, from being counted on the census for the purposes of apportionment for House seats and the Electoral College was shot down later Friday after the measure failed to gain the support of a single Democrat.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., moved to include an amendment, attached to the $460 billion spending package, that would require the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question in any future census, and then bar anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen from being counted for purposes of congressional district and Electoral College apportionment.
While the bill would also exclude legal immigrants on temporary visas and green cards from the census, the move has been undertaken explicitly to stop illegal immigrants from being counted amid millions of new arrivals at the southern border. It's similar to a Trump-era effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Trump's effort sparked widespread criticism and condemnation from Democrats and left-wing immigration groups who argued that a citizenship question was unlawful and was designed to help Republicans in future elections.
Hagerty told Fox News Digital last month that he believes that Democrats in "sanctuary" cities and elsewhere are accepting of the effects of the migrant surge because they are hoping to gain greater representation in the House of Representatives and Electoral College by redistricting.
"They are seeing people leave their state. They're seeing the potential of the next census to lose congressional districts and electoral votes. I think most people in America are shocked to find out that we count the presence of illegal immigrants in determining the allocation of congressional districts and electoral votes," Hagerty said.
"But if you think about the motives for the crime that's taking place at our southern border, that is it. That's what the Democrats are trying to do," he said. "And it’s a sheer power grab. It's cynical as hell, and it's actually the most straightforward explanation of why they would tolerate this carnage and mayhem. It's in order to retain and gain power."
Some conservative experts have warned about the potential of the migrant surge on House apportionment in particular. The Heritage Foundation's Lora Ries published an essay alongside R.J. Hauman, the president of the National Immigration Center For Enforcement, warning that illegal immigration is triggering a "warped representation" in Congress.
"Barring the Census from including non-citizens in apportionment is critical in making sure that American citizens — the only population who can and should vote in U.S. elections — are picking America’s leaders," Ries and Hauman wrote, warning that the crisis is "distorting the representation that states have in the House, and how many electoral votes they have in presidential elections."
However, Hagerty's amendment failed after 51 Democrats and Independents voted against the measure or were not present. One Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also voted against the measure. All other Republicans either voted for the measure or were not present. The vote was 51-45 against.
The mostly united Republican support for the measure suggests that it could pass in the GOP-controlled House.
In a statement, Hagerty said that the Democratic opposition "confirms that they’re using illegal aliens and sanctuary cities to increase their political power."
The vote comes as immigration remains a red redhot political issue. President Biden visited the southern border last week and on Thursday at the State of the Union renewed his appeals for Congress to pass a bipartisan border bill.
"Look, folks, we have a simple choice: We can fight about fixing the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now," Biden said.
The bill would increase staffing to the border and funding for cities and NGOs receiving migrants. It would also place a limit on border entries, but conservatives say the 5,000-a-day trigger would normalize already-excessive levels of illegal immigration.
LANKFORD RELEASES BORDER SECURITY PACKAGE WITH HUGE WINS FOR SECURING THE BORDER
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) issued the following statement today to announce significant border security policy to the supplemental national security request from the White House:
“In the last four months, the US has had the highest number of illegal border crossings every month, with December hitting a US record of over 300,000 illegal crossings—averaging nearly 10,000 people per day. In December alone, almost 45,000 people crossing our southern border were given a work permit and parole status the day they arrived as a ‘reward’ for crossing at a port of entry, which only incentivizes more people to come.
“Our immigration hearings are backlogged for years, allowing millions of non-citizens to wander around our country. In the past three years, more than 8 million people have crossed our southern border illegally, costing our nation billions of dollars and bringing record levels of fentanyl, crime, and homelessness.
“Even if President Biden will not admit it, this is a crisis. We must secure our border now. It cannot wait any longer.
“Americans are not opposed to legal and orderly immigration, but they are tired of the chaos and abuse at our border. I am happy to announce, we have finally finished strong bill text to add to the supplemental funding bill. Though most members of the Senate have already been briefed on the contents of the bill, the final text will be distributed to members of the Senate soon and posted online within a day.
“The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current Administration to finally stop the illegal flow. The bill provides funding to build the wall, increase technology at the border, and add more detention beds, more agents, and more deportation flights. The border security bill ends the abuse of parole on our southwest border that has waived in over a million people. It dramatically changes our ambiguous asylum laws by conducting fast screenings at a higher standard of evidence, limited appeals, and fast deportation.
“New bars to asylum eligibility will stop the criminal cartels from exploiting our currently weak immigration laws. The bill also has new emergency authorities to shut down the border when the border is overrun, new hiring authorities to quickly increase officers, and new hearing authorities to quickly apply consequences for illegal crossings. It changes our border from catch and release to detain and deport.
“Our immigration laws have been weak for years. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close our open border and give future administrations the effective tools they need to stop the border chaos and protect our nation.”
"Yesterday (March 6), Travis was taken off life support. He will be forever remembered as a funny kid with a huge heart and a love for Blues Hockey. Please continue to support the family as the bills continue to grow," Andrea DeWeese wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for the Wolfe family.
Bracho is currently in the St. Louis County jail on a $500,000 bond. She is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter in the first degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, two counts of endangering a child in the first degree, and one count of operating a vehicle without a valid license.
The Hazelwood Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that Bracho is in the U.S. illegally from Venezuela.
"Travis Wolfe, a 12-year-old Missouri boy killed by an illegal migrant. This is what an open border does. Say his name," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Hazelwood Police hope Bracho’s arrest will bring some closure to the Wolfe family.
"1,700 feet is quite a big distance to travel at over 70 miles an hour on a 40-mile posted road. That’s a long way to travel in the wrong direction and not realize it," Sgt. Scott Schnurbusch from the Hazelwood Police Department told Fox 2.
Love the co-opting of “say his name.” Do the repubs have anything original or are they just all about re-branding, recycling and otherwise remaining unoriginal?
I look forward to when they rule all three branches and have no one else to blame for the shit hole country they’ve created.
Sen. Katie Britt’s (R-Ala.) State of the Union response is shining a light on the GOP’s struggle to appeal to women voters ahead of November’s elections.
The rebuttal was met with an avalanche of backlash for being out of touch, with many critics calling the choice to have Britt sitting at a kitchen table for the address sexist.
Political strategists and observers say Britt’s performance is largely emblematic of her party’s problem in appealing to women voters, particularly in the suburbs, who have recently turned their back on the party.
“Republicans have now two years in a row have picked a young woman — last year Sarah Huckabee Sanders, this year Katie Britt — to try to shift the image of the Republican Party away from older white men, which is really quite the reality of the party,” said Debbie Walsh, the executive director of the Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.
And there is no question that Britt is in the minority within her party in the Capitol. She is one of nine Republican women serving in the U.S. Senate.
“It is the image they are trying to strike in an attempt to reach women voters in some way,” Walsh said.
Republicans praised the choice of Britt to deliver the rebuttal, citing the contrast in age between her and President Biden, as well as her own record in the Senate. Last month, Britt played a leading role in helping Republicans navigate a ruling by her state’s Supreme Court that frozen embryos were considered children. She worked to gather support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) as Democrats were using the issue to attack the GOP.
The GOP has struggled to reach women in recent years, particularly those in the suburbs, since former President Trump took office in 2016.
In the 2022 midterms, they helped deliver significant victories to Democrats in key swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. According to the Pew Research Center, Biden won 54 percent of suburban voters in general. And back in 2018, 53 percent of suburban women voters said they voted for Democrats, up from 47 percent in 2014 and 51 percent in 2016, according to CBS News exit polling.
“Not only do they have a problem appealing to women, but it’s just to suburban voters at large,” said Gunner Ramer, political director the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump right-leaning group.
Britt’s rebuttal featured her at her kitchen table, a location she and her family discuss issues impacting them, she said. Critics on the left and some on the right criticized the senator for using her kitchen backdrop, arguing that it fed into the outdated stereotypes about gender roles in the home. Britt defended the venue choice on “Fox News Sunday,” saying, “Republicans care about kitchen table issues.”
“We care about faith, family; we care about freedom. We are the ones talking about the economy and the real effects of that,” Britt said.
Meanwhile, Britt’s performance was excoriated during both a “Saturday Night Live” opening and comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
On top of all that, Britt has faced backlash over a story she told during the rebuttal of a woman facing sexual violence from two decades ago in Mexico.
The senator defended the anecdote in the same “Fox News Sunday” interview, saying it was representative of Biden’s border policy, even if it significantly predated his administration.
However, the venue choice, coupled with what many have described as an awkward delivery from Britt, resulted in critics pouncing.
“It felt a little Stepford Wife-ish, of, ‘Here’s how you can relate to me, because I’ll talk about my kids and I’ll reference my husband multiple times and that’s how you’ll related to me, not because I’m in the United States Senate and I know something,’” Walsh said.
Ramer highlighted a focus group that the Republican Accountability Project conducted with voters from swing states the day after the State of the Union. They overwhelmingly said that “weird” was the word that summed up their reaction to the address.
“It misreads the voters they need to win back, because appealing to the traditional woman voter sort of thing — a lot of those voters are already going to support Trump,” Ramer said. “What they needed to do was go after the suburban vote, and Katie Britt’s response didn’t do that, and I think we saw that reflected in the focus group we did.”
The State of the Union rebuttal is arguably one of the most thankless jobs in politics. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) famously delivered one of the more awkward responses when he took a swig of water midspeech in 2013. And back in 2009, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) appeared nervous when he began his rebuttal to then-President Obama with a “happy Mardi Gras.”
But not all State of the Union rebuttals have gone down in infamy. In 1995, then-New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) delivered her response to then-President Clinton’s State of the Union from the state capital in Trenton.
“It conveyed her authority and her position,” Walsh said.
Many Republicans have defended Britt following the address, saying she hit the right notes in terms of policy and delivery for the voters the party is working to appeal to.
“I didn’t listen to it live, and heard the media comments before I listened to it,” said Kate Day, the former chair of Cheshire County (N.H.) Republicans. “I was shocked this was the same speech. While her delivery seemed more conversational, showing compassion and emotion that some have criticized, the substance was absolutely spot-on.”
Republicans point out Britt’s inclusion of issues they emphasize are important to their party and Americans in general, including the border, the economy and public safety.
“I look at all of these speeches from a policy standpoint,” said Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist. “Joe Biden couldn’t have had more of a stellar backdrop, a more impressive venue and optics and location, but it was a terribly divisive, political, angry speech that didn’t sit well with many voters.”
And when asked about the criticism over Britt’s venue of her kitchen, many Republicans have essentially said, “Who cares?”
“I was listening for content, so what the heck does it matter if she sat at her kitchen table or behind a podium?” Day said. “I hope it made every woman and mom think about the cumulative impact of Biden’s inflation on the higher weekly grocery bills we all face.”
Biden himself appeared to compliment Britt when asked about her rebuttal Friday.
“I thought she was a very talented woman, [but] I didn’t understand the connection she was making,” the president told reporters.
And while Britt’s rebuttal may be in the headlines now, the speech itself likely won’t play a long-term role in the GOP’s appeal to women and suburban voters unless Britt is a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate.
“I think this will probably pass,” Walsh said. “It could come back up if she’s in contention for a VP candidate for Donald Trump. Then it would come up in a bigger way.”
I'm quite certain that Senator Bill Hagerty is more knowledgeable about this subject than you.
do tell. There is specific constitutional language surrounding how registering happens and it speaks to the number of persons in a given district. Not citizens, not drink card holders. Or any fucking such language like that. It says persons period
Sex trafficking survivor slams Britt for inaccurate story in SOTU response
“And I think [Britt] should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude,” Karla Jacinto Romero said.
Katie Britt shares story of sex trafficking survivor in SOTU response
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mero, the woman whose story Sen. Katie Britt appeared to have shared in the Republican response to the State of the Union last week, slammed the Alabama senator for inaccurately using her story to highlight Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
“In fact I hardly ever cooperate with politicians because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo, and that to me is not fair,” Romero told CNN on Sunday.
During the Republican response to the State of the Union on Thursday, Britt told a graphic story involving sex trafficking and rape to criticize Biden’s immigration policies.
“When I first took office, I did something different. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12,” Britt said. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”
Highlights from Katie Britt's State of the Union response
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An independent reporter later revealed in a TikTok video that the woman in question was Romero, who met with Britt and two other senators in January 2023. The story Britt was referencing occurred during President George W. Bush’s administration, when Biden was still a senator. Romero testified before Congress back in 2015 about her experiences a decade earlier with sex trafficking in Mexico.
During a Fox News interview on Sunday, Britt defended her use of the graphic story and declined to clearly state that the incident in question had not occurred during the Biden administration.
Romero also told CNN that Britt told an inaccurate story of Romero’s experience. Romero said that she was trafficked by a pimp who operated as part of a family that entrapped vulnerable girls to force them into prostitution, not by Mexican drug cartels. Romero also said that she was never trafficked in the United States, as Britt suggested.
“I work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and I really would like them to be empathetic — all the governors, all the senators — to be empathetic with the issue of human trafficking because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time,” Romero said. “People who are really trafficked and abused, as [Britt] mentioned. And I think [Britt] should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a temporary freeze on the enforcement of Texas’ controversial immigration law that allows state law enforcement to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.
Without action from the high court, the Texas law would have gone into effect Wednesday. Now, with the new administrative orders in place, its implementation will remain paused through Monday.
Justice Samuel Alito issued the latest administrative holds, which will give the court additional time to review briefing in the case and do not necessarily signal which way the justices are leaning on the underlying request.
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The Biden administration and others filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on March 4 asking the justices to block enforcement of the law.
Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in December, immediately raised concerns among immigration advocates of increased racial profiling as well as detentions and attempted deportations by state authorities in Texas, where Latinos represent 40% of the population.
The Justice Department has argued that the law would “profoundly” alter the status quo “that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.”
A federal judge in Austin, Texas, had blocked the state government from implementing the law. But a federal appeals court granted a temporary stay of the lower court’s decision and said it would take effect on March 10 if the Supreme Court didn’t act.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, and other officials told the Supreme Court on Monday that the “Constitution recognizes that Texas has the sovereign right to defend itself from violent transnational cartels that flood the State with fentanyl, weapons, and all manner of brutality.”
The state officials described Texas in court papers as being “the nation’s first-line defense against transnational violence” and said the state has been “forced to deal with the deadly consequences of the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to protect the border.”
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ents the latest example of the Biden administration turning to the Supreme Court in its ongoing battle with Texas over immigration. Earlier this year, the high court handed a temporary win to the administration when it wiped away a lower-court order that prohibited the federal agents from removing razor wire that Texas officials deployed along part of the US-Mexico border.
So for the census. You do count all people, citizens or not. That does reflect on what your state gets in the terms of representatives.
But it's voluntary isn't it? In 2020 you could do it online for the first time. If you didn't, at some point they send something by mail, then send someone to your house if there is still no response.
My point is an undocumented person might be afraid to respond and therefore, they never get counted.
So for the census. You do count all people, citizens or not. That does reflect on what your state gets in the terms of representatives.
But it's voluntary isn't it? In 2020 you could do it online for the first time. If you didn't, at some point they send something by mail, then send someone to your house if there is still no response.
My point is an undocumented person might be afraid to respond and therefore, they never get counted.
So for the census. You do count all people, citizens or not. That does reflect on what your state gets in the terms of representatives.
But it's voluntary isn't it? In 2020 you could do it online for the first time. If you didn't, at some point they send something by mail, then send someone to your house if there is still no response.
My point is an undocumented person might be afraid to respond and therefore, they never get counted.
So I will tell you what our representatives were screaming about that.
It doesn't ask if you are documented or not, no one is coming to get you. What it does do is lower our representatives in our state and possibly take away resources that we need if a correct number of people isn't accounted for.
For the first time ever, NY had representatives removed from them.
This could be the undocumented NOT participating or could be the misinformation that was being spread about the census in the first place.
So for the census. You do count all people, citizens or not. That does reflect on what your state gets in the terms of representatives.
But it's voluntary isn't it? In 2020 you could do it online for the first time. If you didn't, at some point they send something by mail, then send someone to your house if there is still no response.
My point is an undocumented person might be afraid to respond and therefore, they never get counted.
So I will tell you what our representatives were screaming about that.
It doesn't ask if you are documented or not, no one is coming to get you. What it does do is lower our representatives in our state and possibly take away resources that we need if a correct number of people isn't accounted for.
For the first time ever, NY had representatives removed from them.
This could be the undocumented NOT participating or could be the misinformation that was being spread about the census in the first place.
3. In every year of the Biden administration, violent crime has dropped. According to the latest estimates, 2023 is on track to have one of the lowest violent crime rates in half a century. America is safer today than when Biden took office.
So for the census. You do count all people, citizens or not. That does reflect on what your state gets in the terms of representatives.
But it's voluntary isn't it? In 2020 you could do it online for the first time. If you didn't, at some point they send something by mail, then send someone to your house if there is still no response.
My point is an undocumented person might be afraid to respond and therefore, they never get counted.
So I will tell you what our representatives were screaming about that.
It doesn't ask if you are documented or not, no one is coming to get you. What it does do is lower our representatives in our state and possibly take away resources that we need if a correct number of people isn't accounted for.
For the first time ever, NY had representatives removed from them.
This could be the undocumented NOT participating or could be the misinformation that was being spread about the census in the first place.
3. In every year of the Biden administration, violent crime has dropped. According to the latest estimates, 2023 is on track to have one of the lowest violent crime rates in half a century. America is safer today than when Biden took office.
3. In every year of the Biden administration, violent crime has dropped. According to the latest estimates, 2023 is on track to have one of the lowest violent crime rates in half a century. America is safer today than when Biden took office.
So we can move on about guns then?
yes. slaughtering of mass numbers of children back on!
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
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https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ft_2020.07.24_apportionment_01.png?w=640
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.nj.com/news/2024/03/was-sen-katie-britt-caught-in-whopping-lie-about-graphic-sex-trafficking-story.html
Was Trump supporter Katie Britt caught in whopping lie about graphic sex trafficking story?
Sen Katie Britt gives the GOP response to Biden's State of the Union address from her home.Screengrab
During her widely panned Republican response to the State of the Union Address on Thursday night, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama told a graphic sex-trafficking story about a woman who was sexually abused “over and over” by members of Mexican drug cartels on the United States side of the Rio Grande.
Britt implied also that the woman had confided the story to her and that the events had occurred during President Biden’s administration.
But reporter Jonathan Katz, in a lengthy video posted to social media, connects the dots on the story, and it appears Britt lied: The woman has told her story many times publicly, including to Congress; the events didn’t occur in the United States; and they happened during George W. Bush’s presidency.
“When I first took office, I did something different,” Britt said. “I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me.
“She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.”
She added: “The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on-end.”
Britt implies the rapes took place in the U.S. — under Biden’s watch.
“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country,” she said. “This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it. President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”
Katz, however, says he has proof that the events didn’t occur in the U.S., and that — according to the victim — they happened between 2004 and 2008, when George W. Bush was president.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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Bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua sets up shop in US as border authorities sound alarm
Venezuelan migrants linked to Tren de Aragua pop up all over US, leading authorities to sound alarm
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is warning agents to be on the lookout for members of a notorious Venezuelan prison gang coming across the southern border -- just as the socialist country is refusing to take its citizens back.
A CBP source provided Fox News with an internal CBP intelligence bulletin revealing tattoos and identifiers for Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang. Members of that gang have been entering the U.S. illegally through the southern border.
Fox News reported this week that the brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley has ties to the gang. Both the suspect and his brother are Venezuelans who entered the U.S. illegally.
Federal authorities have been warning that the gang, also known as TdA and known for its violent turf wars as it expanded into other countries in South and Central America, is trying to establish itself in the U.S., where police are already linking it to organized crime. The FBI has also warned that the gang could team up with the bloodthirsty MS-13.
Last month two suspects in the assault of two NYPD officers were revealed to be members of TdA.
But CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources have expressed frustration to Fox News that Venezuelan gang members are extremely difficult to deport because Venezuela is currently not taking them back.
Only 834 Venezuelans were deported in FY 2023, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, despite there being over 335,000 encounters at the border. The administration had started returning illegal immigrants from Venezuela directly to the socialist dictatorship in October as part of a way to discourage the flow to the border.
While the administration took heat for the flights from immigration activists, who argued Venezuela was not an appropriate country to return migrants due to its human rights abuses, administration officials told reporters in January that it was looking to increase the number of flights.
One official said that "we do have the intention of ramping up repatriation flights to Venezuela" and that the administration sees it as a "critical part" of the broader immigration strategy.
"It’s an important deterrent," they said, with officials also saying they were pleased that Mexico was also now flying migrants straight to Venezuela.
FBI FEARS VENEZUELA MIGRANT GANG MEMBERS COULD POTENTIALLY TEAM UP WITH MS-13 KILLERS
In December, the administration had made limited exceptions to sanctions on a Venezuelan airline to help facilitate deportation flights from Canada and Latin America.
But last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Maduro regime has stopped flights of deported migrants from both the U.S. and Mexico after the U.S. reimposed some economic sanctions. The flights ended at the end of January, officials told the outlet, after around 1,800 returns.
Before beginning the flights last year, the administration had extended deportation protections to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the U.S. in September. Venezuela is also part of a controversial parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) which allows 30,000 migrants with sponsors to fly into the U.S. each month.
Fox is told that Venezuelans can still be removed to Mexico, but that many then typically re-enter the U.S. illegally as a "gotaway."
Texas officials push back against Biden border claims
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the president was “gaslighting” the American people.
By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributoPublished: March 8, 2024 11:00pmPresident Joe Biden told members of Congress he wanted to fix the border crisis in his state of the union address Thursday night after repeatedly claiming over the last three years there is no border crisis.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also repeatedly testified to Congress that the border is secure, the federal government has operational control, and the reason that the administration has had difficulty is because it “inherited a broken immigration system.” Mayorkas’ claims, and evidence to the contrary, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security majority argued, are one reason why the House impeached him.
“We have a simple choice," Biden said Thursday night. "We can fight about fixing the border or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the president was “gaslighting” the American people. Johnson last month identified 64 policies Biden implemented that he argues created the border crisis.
The House already passed a border security bill, HR 2, filed by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, which the Senate refused to consider. Instead, senators secretly negotiated a bill claiming it limited illegal entry contrary to the actual bill language.
Biden's speech was given nearly three years to the day that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, to block illegal entry into Texas. The state legislature has allocated more than $11.6. billion to the effort. Texas is doing what the Biden administration should be doing, Abbott argues.
Over the past three years, Abbott’s sent Biden letters and sued his administration multiple times, arguing he can take executive action immediately to end the border crisis. Biden doesn’t need Congress to follow and implement the laws Congress already established, Abbott and his fellow Republican governors argue.
Biden’s speech, Abbott said, “was nothing short of a dog and pony show to convince the American people that his Administration is keeping America safe and secure.” He launched OLS on March 6, 2021, “to defend our state – and our nation – from the historic influx of illegal immigration, criminals, and deadly drugs like fentanyl pouring across our southern border,” he said. “Until President Biden steps up and does his job as Commander-in-Chief to secure the border, Texas will hold the line and use every tool and strategy to keep our country safe.”
The Border Patrol union also weighed in, saying Biden is “The most arrogant, self-absorbed, clueless and angry loser ever. Never held a real job. Lifetime political hack. Joe Biden is the epitome of what so many Americans despise about politicians.”
U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Republican from Houston, reiterated what House Republicans have been saying for months. They passed a border security bill the Senate won’t consider. Hunt said, “Biden says ‘send me the border bill now.’ Fine Mr. President, tell Chuck Schumer to take up H.R. 2 tonight. It can be on your desk before the weekend!”
He also published a video explaining how the president and Mayorkas deliberately created the border crisis.
“It was deliberate,” he said, “because under President Trump we weren't talking about” unprecedented millions of “illegal alien encounters at the southern border” and “we weren't talking about enough fentanyl smuggled in to kill every single American.”
Enough fentanyl has been seized under the Biden administration to kill nearly the entire world population, The Center Square has reported.
Hunt said the president and Mayorkas issued executive actions “that weaken our national security,” including ending Trump-era policies like Remain in Mexico, constructing the border wall, cracking down on fraudulent asylum claims, among others.
“The sad part is they pretend like their hands are tied,” Hunt said. “They act like it's an unfortunate circumstance that they are ‘working hard to fix.’ In my home state of Texas we know they're not doing the damn thing to stop this invasion. We have crops, fields and ranches damaged by illegal border crossers and communities ravaged by cartel violence.
“The irony is that when Gov. Abbott decided to take steps to secure our border and keep Texans safe, the White House said, ‘Gov. Abbott is getting in the way.’”
“Getting in the way of what?” Hunt asked. “Getting in the way of the worst border crisis in our nation’s history? Crime, fentanyl, and harm for our local communities?”
He points to the bill the House passed, the Secure the Border Act, which would expand on “successful policies” enacted under the Trump administration. He encouraged Schumer “to stop sitting on his hands and take up the strongest border bill in American history to end the border crisis once and for all. The president says Congress needs to act now. Sir, we have. Now is the time for the Senate to act and for Joe Biden to protect our country.”
Bipartisan group pitches border-Ukraine bill as ‘pressure point’ on GOP leaders
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is amplifying its calls for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to stage a vote on legislation linking foreign military aid with domestic border security, framing that combination as the only recipe for getting Ukraine assistance through a deeply divided Congress.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the lead sponsor of the legislation, said he’s working directly with Johnson’s office to get the package to the House floor through regular channels. But if the Speaker refuses to comply, then the bill’s supporters will begin the process of gathering signatures — beginning as early as this week — on a procedural tool, known as a discharge petition, to force the bill to the floor.
“If the House cannot come to a consensus on a bill to be put on the floor, the alternative can’t be that Ukraine fails and our border remains open. We can’t allow that to happen,” Fitzpatrick said Wednesday morning during a press briefing in the Capitol. “So this is not a workaround of anyone or any post. This is a pressure point, to try to apply pressure to force something to the floor.”
The effort is a longshot. Discharge petitions rarely work — the last successful effort was in 2015 — and party leaders on both sides of the aisle have put up early roadblocks.
Former President Trump, for instance, is opposed to any new Ukraine aid or border security measures before November’s elections — a stance popular among House conservatives. And some House Democratic leaders have already rejected Fitzpatrick’s policy blueprint, preferring a bipartisan Senate-passed proposal providing foreign aid without the border language.
Still, Fitzpatrick and the other supporters of the Ukraine-border package maintain that it represents Congress’s last best chance of getting aid for Kyiv to President Biden’s desk this year.
“It is an unsustainable argument, either in the short-term or the long-term, that we’re going to defend the borders of our foreign allies but not our own,” Fitzpatrick said, highlighting the central barrier facing the Senate bill.
Fitzpatrick said his discharge petition will mature Friday, meaning lawmakers can begin to endorse it, and he’s “very confident” it can win the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill.
His petition was designed to bring the bill to the floor without going through the House Rules Committee, where conservatives would likely block it. And it allows for one sweeping “substitute” amendment that will empower lawmakers in both parties to make changes — some of them major — before the final vote.
Fitzpatrick acknowledged, for instance, that most Democrats would not support the proposal as it stands because it excludes humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza — a provision he’d like to see added — while Republicans will likely demand more funding to grant Border Patrol agents with more powers to execute migrant expulsions.
“This is a bare-bones version of where the points of intersection between Democrats and Republicans are,” he said. “This will not be the final bill text.”
Behind Fitzpatrick and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), the bipartisan group had introduced its legislative package last month as an alternative approach to a Senate-passed bill featuring aid for Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, but without provisions to strengthen the U.S. border.
Although the Senate bill had won the support of 22 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the appetite for more Ukraine aid has waned within the GOP over the two years since Russia’s invasion, and Trump has led the charge in opposition to any new assistance before November’s elections.
Trump’s position has been embraced by a number of House conservatives, who either oppose Ukraine aid outright or won’t support it without the accompanying provisions to strengthen security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Johnson has so far sided with the conservatives, refusing to consider the Senate-passed bill while continuing to insist on the strict border measures contained in a Republican immigration bill, H.R. 2, which passed through the House last year but is a non-starter with Democrats.
Fitzpatrick said he’s been in direct conversations with both Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) about his intentions for the discharge petition. But conservatives aren’t the only barrier he’s facing as he eyes endorsements for his discharge petition.
Liberals are up-in-arms over the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, with some opposed to even the Senate bill because it provides more weapons for Israel. Other Democrats, especially those in the Hispanic Caucus, are likely to balk at the tougher border provisions, particularly a “remain in Mexico” stipulation that had previously been adopted under the Trump administration.
Last week, Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, shot down the Ukraine-border proposal, arguing that the resolution to the impasse has already been sent over from the upper chamber.
“The solution is incredibly clear. It is the bipartisan solution that has 70 votes out of the United States Senate,” Aguilar said.
Yet the highest barrier to Ukraine aid remains Trump and the House conservatives who are pressing Johnson to oppose any foreign aid package before Trump’s potential return to the White House. It’s a dynamic that hasn’t been lost on Fitzpatrick and the other supporters of the Ukraine-border package.
“I think he wants to get to a yes, here,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s in a very tough political position in our conference. That’s no secret, you all write about it every day, and it’s true.
“He’s in a tough political situation.”
Democrats clear path for illegal immigrants in US to impact House districts, electoral college counting
GOP effort to stop illegal immigrants being counted for House districts, Electoral College shot down in Senate
No Democrat voted for the measure in the upper chamber
An effort by Senate Republicans to stop non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, from being counted on the census for the purposes of apportionment for House seats and the Electoral College was shot down later Friday after the measure failed to gain the support of a single Democrat.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., moved to include an amendment, attached to the $460 billion spending package, that would require the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question in any future census, and then bar anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen from being counted for purposes of congressional district and Electoral College apportionment.
While the bill would also exclude legal immigrants on temporary visas and green cards from the census, the move has been undertaken explicitly to stop illegal immigrants from being counted amid millions of new arrivals at the southern border. It's similar to a Trump-era effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Trump's effort sparked widespread criticism and condemnation from Democrats and left-wing immigration groups who argued that a citizenship question was unlawful and was designed to help Republicans in future elections.
SEN HAGERTY SAYS DEMS ENGAGING IN ‘SHEER POWER GRAB’ BY TOLERATING BORDER ‘CARNAGE’
Hagerty told Fox News Digital last month that he believes that Democrats in "sanctuary" cities and elsewhere are accepting of the effects of the migrant surge because they are hoping to gain greater representation in the House of Representatives and Electoral College by redistricting.
"They are seeing people leave their state. They're seeing the potential of the next census to lose congressional districts and electoral votes. I think most people in America are shocked to find out that we count the presence of illegal immigrants in determining the allocation of congressional districts and electoral votes," Hagerty said.
"But if you think about the motives for the crime that's taking place at our southern border, that is it. That's what the Democrats are trying to do," he said. "And it’s a sheer power grab. It's cynical as hell, and it's actually the most straightforward explanation of why they would tolerate this carnage and mayhem. It's in order to retain and gain power."
Some conservative experts have warned about the potential of the migrant surge on House apportionment in particular. The Heritage Foundation's Lora Ries published an essay alongside R.J. Hauman, the president of the National Immigration Center For Enforcement, warning that illegal immigration is triggering a "warped representation" in Congress.
"Barring the Census from including non-citizens in apportionment is critical in making sure that American citizens — the only population who can and should vote in U.S. elections — are picking America’s leaders," Ries and Hauman wrote, warning that the crisis is "distorting the representation that states have in the House, and how many electoral votes they have in presidential elections."
However, Hagerty's amendment failed after 51 Democrats and Independents voted against the measure or were not present. One Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also voted against the measure. All other Republicans either voted for the measure or were not present. The vote was 51-45 against.
The mostly united Republican support for the measure suggests that it could pass in the GOP-controlled House.
In a statement, Hagerty said that the Democratic opposition "confirms that they’re using illegal aliens and sanctuary cities to increase their political power."
7.2M ENTERED US UNDER BIDEN ADMIN, AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN POPULATION OF 36 STATES
The vote comes as immigration remains a red redhot political issue. President Biden visited the southern border last week and on Thursday at the State of the Union renewed his appeals for Congress to pass a bipartisan border bill.
"Look, folks, we have a simple choice: We can fight about fixing the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now," Biden said.
The bill would increase staffing to the border and funding for cities and NGOs receiving migrants. It would also place a limit on border entries, but conservatives say the 5,000-a-day trigger would normalize already-excessive levels of illegal immigration.
LANKFORD RELEASES BORDER SECURITY PACKAGE WITH HUGE WINS FOR SECURING THE BORDER
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) issued the following statement today to announce significant border security policy to the supplemental national security request from the White House:
“In the last four months, the US has had the highest number of illegal border crossings every month, with December hitting a US record of over 300,000 illegal crossings—averaging nearly 10,000 people per day. In December alone, almost 45,000 people crossing our southern border were given a work permit and parole status the day they arrived as a ‘reward’ for crossing at a port of entry, which only incentivizes more people to come.
“Our immigration hearings are backlogged for years, allowing millions of non-citizens to wander around our country. In the past three years, more than 8 million people have crossed our southern border illegally, costing our nation billions of dollars and bringing record levels of fentanyl, crime, and homelessness.
“Even if President Biden will not admit it, this is a crisis. We must secure our border now. It cannot wait any longer.
“Americans are not opposed to legal and orderly immigration, but they are tired of the chaos and abuse at our border. I am happy to announce, we have finally finished strong bill text to add to the supplemental funding bill. Though most members of the Senate have already been briefed on the contents of the bill, the final text will be distributed to members of the Senate soon and posted online within a day.
“The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current Administration to finally stop the illegal flow. The bill provides funding to build the wall, increase technology at the border, and add more detention beds, more agents, and more deportation flights. The border security bill ends the abuse of parole on our southwest border that has waived in over a million people. It dramatically changes our ambiguous asylum laws by conducting fast screenings at a higher standard of evidence, limited appeals, and fast deportation.
“New bars to asylum eligibility will stop the criminal cartels from exploiting our currently weak immigration laws. The bill also has new emergency authorities to shut down the border when the border is overrun, new hiring authorities to quickly increase officers, and new hearing authorities to quickly apply consequences for illegal crossings. It changes our border from catch and release to detain and deport.
“Our immigration laws have been weak for years. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close our open border and give future administrations the effective tools they need to stop the border chaos and protect our nation.”
Illegal immigrant accused of causing head-on crash that killed young Missouri boy
Travis Wolfe was just one day away from celebrating his 12th birthday when the crash happened
A woman in the U.S. illegally is accused of causing a head-on, wrong way, crash that left a 12-year-old Missouri boy dead.
Travis Wolfe was just one day away from celebrating his 12th birthday when authorities say Endrina Bracho slammed into his family's car head-on.
Authorities tell Fox News Digital Bracho, 33, was barreling down the highway the wrong way, going 70 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone.
Wolfe was severely injured but initially survived the December 2023 crash that happened in Hazlewood.
Wolfe was rushed to the hospital and put on life support. His parents were also taken to a local hospital with broken wrists, broken ribs, a broken sternum and more.
Wolfe later died at the hospital on March 6.
"Yesterday (March 6), Travis was taken off life support. He will be forever remembered as a funny kid with a huge heart and a love for Blues Hockey. Please continue to support the family as the bills continue to grow," Andrea DeWeese wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for the Wolfe family.
Bracho is currently in the St. Louis County jail on a $500,000 bond. She is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter in the first degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, two counts of endangering a child in the first degree, and one count of operating a vehicle without a valid license.
The Hazelwood Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that Bracho is in the U.S. illegally from Venezuela.
"Travis Wolfe, a 12-year-old Missouri boy killed by an illegal migrant. This is what an open border does. Say his name," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Hazelwood Police hope Bracho’s arrest will bring some closure to the Wolfe family.
"1,700 feet is quite a big distance to travel at over 70 miles an hour on a 40-mile posted road. That’s a long way to travel in the wrong direction and not realize it," Sgt. Scott Schnurbusch from the Hazelwood Police Department told Fox 2.
I look forward to when they rule all three branches and have no one else to blame for the shit hole country they’ve created.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Britt backlash stokes GOP fears about losing women voters
Sen. Katie Britt’s (R-Ala.) State of the Union response is shining a light on the GOP’s struggle to appeal to women voters ahead of November’s elections.
The rebuttal was met with an avalanche of backlash for being out of touch, with many critics calling the choice to have Britt sitting at a kitchen table for the address sexist.
Political strategists and observers say Britt’s performance is largely emblematic of her party’s problem in appealing to women voters, particularly in the suburbs, who have recently turned their back on the party.
“Republicans have now two years in a row have picked a young woman — last year Sarah Huckabee Sanders, this year Katie Britt — to try to shift the image of the Republican Party away from older white men, which is really quite the reality of the party,” said Debbie Walsh, the executive director of the Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.
And there is no question that Britt is in the minority within her party in the Capitol. She is one of nine Republican women serving in the U.S. Senate.
“It is the image they are trying to strike in an attempt to reach women voters in some way,” Walsh said.
Republicans praised the choice of Britt to deliver the rebuttal, citing the contrast in age between her and President Biden, as well as her own record in the Senate. Last month, Britt played a leading role in helping Republicans navigate a ruling by her state’s Supreme Court that frozen embryos were considered children. She worked to gather support for in vitro fertilization (IVF) as Democrats were using the issue to attack the GOP.
The GOP has struggled to reach women in recent years, particularly those in the suburbs, since former President Trump took office in 2016.
In the 2022 midterms, they helped deliver significant victories to Democrats in key swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. According to the Pew Research Center, Biden won 54 percent of suburban voters in general. And back in 2018, 53 percent of suburban women voters said they voted for Democrats, up from 47 percent in 2014 and 51 percent in 2016, according to CBS News exit polling.
“Not only do they have a problem appealing to women, but it’s just to suburban voters at large,” said Gunner Ramer, political director the Republican Accountability Project, an anti-Trump right-leaning group.
Britt’s rebuttal featured her at her kitchen table, a location she and her family discuss issues impacting them, she said. Critics on the left and some on the right criticized the senator for using her kitchen backdrop, arguing that it fed into the outdated stereotypes about gender roles in the home. Britt defended the venue choice on “Fox News Sunday,” saying, “Republicans care about kitchen table issues.”
“We care about faith, family; we care about freedom. We are the ones talking about the economy and the real effects of that,” Britt said.
Meanwhile, Britt’s performance was excoriated during both a “Saturday Night Live” opening and comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
On top of all that, Britt has faced backlash over a story she told during the rebuttal of a woman facing sexual violence from two decades ago in Mexico.
The senator defended the anecdote in the same “Fox News Sunday” interview, saying it was representative of Biden’s border policy, even if it significantly predated his administration.
However, the venue choice, coupled with what many have described as an awkward delivery from Britt, resulted in critics pouncing.
“It felt a little Stepford Wife-ish, of, ‘Here’s how you can relate to me, because I’ll talk about my kids and I’ll reference my husband multiple times and that’s how you’ll related to me, not because I’m in the United States Senate and I know something,’” Walsh said.
Ramer highlighted a focus group that the Republican Accountability Project conducted with voters from swing states the day after the State of the Union. They overwhelmingly said that “weird” was the word that summed up their reaction to the address.
“It misreads the voters they need to win back, because appealing to the traditional woman voter sort of thing — a lot of those voters are already going to support Trump,” Ramer said. “What they needed to do was go after the suburban vote, and Katie Britt’s response didn’t do that, and I think we saw that reflected in the focus group we did.”
The State of the Union rebuttal is arguably one of the most thankless jobs in politics. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) famously delivered one of the more awkward responses when he took a swig of water midspeech in 2013. And back in 2009, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) appeared nervous when he began his rebuttal to then-President Obama with a “happy Mardi Gras.”
But not all State of the Union rebuttals have gone down in infamy. In 1995, then-New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) delivered her response to then-President Clinton’s State of the Union from the state capital in Trenton.
“It conveyed her authority and her position,” Walsh said.
Many Republicans have defended Britt following the address, saying she hit the right notes in terms of policy and delivery for the voters the party is working to appeal to.
“I didn’t listen to it live, and heard the media comments before I listened to it,” said Kate Day, the former chair of Cheshire County (N.H.) Republicans. “I was shocked this was the same speech. While her delivery seemed more conversational, showing compassion and emotion that some have criticized, the substance was absolutely spot-on.”
Republicans point out Britt’s inclusion of issues they emphasize are important to their party and Americans in general, including the border, the economy and public safety.
“I look at all of these speeches from a policy standpoint,” said Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist. “Joe Biden couldn’t have had more of a stellar backdrop, a more impressive venue and optics and location, but it was a terribly divisive, political, angry speech that didn’t sit well with many voters.”
And when asked about the criticism over Britt’s venue of her kitchen, many Republicans have essentially said, “Who cares?”
“I was listening for content, so what the heck does it matter if she sat at her kitchen table or behind a podium?” Day said. “I hope it made every woman and mom think about the cumulative impact of Biden’s inflation on the higher weekly grocery bills we all face.”
Biden himself appeared to compliment Britt when asked about her rebuttal Friday.
“I thought she was a very talented woman, [but] I didn’t understand the connection she was making,” the president told reporters.
And while Britt’s rebuttal may be in the headlines now, the speech itself likely won’t play a long-term role in the GOP’s appeal to women and suburban voters unless Britt is a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate.
“I think this will probably pass,” Walsh said. “It could come back up if she’s in contention for a VP candidate for Donald Trump. Then it would come up in a bigger way.”
-EV 8/14/93
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/katie-britt-state-of-the-union-00146221
Sex trafficking survivor slams Britt for inaccurate story in SOTU response
“And I think [Britt] should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude,” Karla Jacinto Romero said.
mero, the woman whose story Sen. Katie Britt appeared to have shared in the Republican response to the State of the Union last week, slammed the Alabama senator for inaccurately using her story to highlight Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
“In fact I hardly ever cooperate with politicians because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo, and that to me is not fair,” Romero told CNN on Sunday.
During the Republican response to the State of the Union on Thursday, Britt told a graphic story involving sex trafficking and rape to criticize Biden’s immigration policies.
“When I first took office, I did something different. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12,” Britt said. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”
An independent reporter later revealed in a TikTok video that the woman in question was Romero, who met with Britt and two other senators in January 2023. The story Britt was referencing occurred during President George W. Bush’s administration, when Biden was still a senator. Romero testified before Congress back in 2015 about her experiences a decade earlier with sex trafficking in Mexico.
During a Fox News interview on Sunday, Britt defended her use of the graphic story and declined to clearly state that the incident in question had not occurred during the Biden administration.
Romero also told CNN that Britt told an inaccurate story of Romero’s experience. Romero said that she was trafficked by a pimp who operated as part of a family that entrapped vulnerable girls to force them into prostitution, not by Mexican drug cartels. Romero also said that she was never trafficked in the United States, as Britt suggested.
“I work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and I really would like them to be empathetic — all the governors, all the senators — to be empathetic with the issue of human trafficking because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time,” Romero said. “People who are really trafficked and abused, as [Britt] mentioned. And I think [Britt] should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude.
Supreme Court extends freeze on controversial Texas immigration law
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a temporary freeze on the enforcement of Texas’ controversial immigration law that allows state law enforcement to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.
Without action from the high court, the Texas law would have gone into effect Wednesday. Now, with the new administrative orders in place, its implementation will remain paused through Monday.
Justice Samuel Alito issued the latest administrative holds, which will give the court additional time to review briefing in the case and do not necessarily signal which way the justices are leaning on the underlying request.
The Biden administration and others filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on March 4 asking the justices to block enforcement of the law.
Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in December, immediately raised concerns among immigration advocates of increased racial profiling as well as detentions and attempted deportations by state authorities in Texas, where Latinos represent 40% of the population.
The Justice Department has argued that the law would “profoundly” alter the status quo “that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.”
A federal judge in Austin, Texas, had blocked the state government from implementing the law. But a federal appeals court granted a temporary stay of the lower court’s decision and said it would take effect on March 10 if the Supreme Court didn’t act.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, and other officials told the Supreme Court on Monday that the “Constitution recognizes that Texas has the sovereign right to defend itself from violent transnational cartels that flood the State with fentanyl, weapons, and all manner of brutality.”
The state officials described Texas in court papers as being “the nation’s first-line defense against transnational violence” and said the state has been “forced to deal with the deadly consequences of the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to protect the border.”
My point is an undocumented person might be afraid to respond and therefore, they never get counted.
It doesn't ask if you are documented or not, no one is coming to get you. What it does do is lower our representatives in our state and possibly take away resources that we need if a correct number of people isn't accounted for.
For the first time ever, NY had representatives removed from them.
This could be the undocumented NOT participating or could be the misinformation that was being spread about the census in the first place.
From a Lincoln Project twat that micky posted:
3. In every year of the Biden administration, violent crime has dropped. According to the latest estimates, 2023 is on track to have one of the lowest violent crime rates in half a century. America is safer today than when Biden took office.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
-EV 8/14/93