And So Goes the Crisis on the Southern Border****UPDATED 21 MARCH 2024

Building the Wall Back Better

Cal Thomas
December 20, 2021 Updated: December 20, 2021

During a debate with George H.W. Bush in New Hampshire in 1980, the moderator asked that Ronald Reagan’s microphone be “turned off for the moment.” Reagan was angry and said something that might be applied to the failure of the Biden administration to use materials lying unused in Texas paid for during the Trump administration for the purpose of constructing the border wall. Said Reagan, “I paid for this microphone.” The clear implication was that since he paid for it, he ought to be able to use it.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas is making a similar argument. He believes the Biden administration, either to spite Trump, or because it is not interested in securing the border, refuses to use materials already paid for by taxpayers for the purpose of resuming construction of the wall. As a result, Abbott has ordered that construction resume, using state taxpayer funds and new materials.

More than a $100 million of taxpayer money was spent on materials intended for the border wall during the Trump administration. They should be made available to Gov. Abbott, but the Biden administration won’t allow it. President Biden canceled contracts for its construction after entering office last January.

The Texas Department of Transportation is set to pay nearly $25 million for the construction of a nearly two-mile concrete barrier along the border in Eagle Pass. The Texas Tribune reports: “Under the project, the state has also contracted for a temporary fence near the right of way along State Loop 480, which the Department of Public Safety has designated a high-traffic area for illegal immigration.”

Officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety are patrolling parts of the border where federal border control officers cannot be found. Immigrants who cross are being charged with trespassing and put in jail.

Gov. Abbott has said: “The Biden administration has abandoned its responsibilities to secure the border and Texans are suffering as a result. The problems along the border are only getting worse due to President Biden’s inaction. Property is being destroyed, deadly drugs and illegal weapons are being smuggled into communities throughout the state, law enforcement is having to redirect their resources, and county judges and mayors are facing skyrocketing expenses. Texas is doing more than any state has ever done to protect the border, but it is clear that more is needed. In the Biden administration’s absence, Texas is stepping up to get the job done by building the border wall. Through this comprehensive public safety effort, we will secure the border, slow the influx of unlawful immigrants, and restore order in our border communities.”

As some media outlets (mostly Fox) show pictures of migrants illegally entering the country and new reports find some are coming from other than Central American countries, opinion appears to be shifting. A Fox poll last spring found an increase in the portion of respondents saying the migrants “hurt” the country and that attitude is seen across the board: “independents (+21), Republicans (+20), Whites (+18), men (+16), women (+14), Blacks (+11), and Democrats (+8) are more likely to think immigrants hurt rather than help.”

Abbott has created the equivalent of a GoFundMe campaign so he might have additional resources to complete the wall. The website is Borderwall.Texas.gov.**

Originally Posted By: **Border Wall Funding Donations

As of December 13, 2021: $54,423,681

I’m betting there are many Americans who would be willing to contribute, because they want to see the wall finished and stop the invasion. I would call the project “building the wall back better.”

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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People work on the U.S.-Mexico border wall in El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 12, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Immigration & Border Security

Texas Governor Confirms Border Wall Construction Has Officially Started
By Jack Phillips
December 17, 2021 Updated: December 17, 2021

Texas has officially started building its own state-funded border wall, confirmed Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday.

“Texas has officially started building its own border wall,” he wrote Friday, while asserting that President Joe Biden’s immigration policies allow for an “open border” since he took office in January.

Biden, the Republican governor added, also “refuses to enforce laws passed by Congress to secure the border and enforce immigration laws” and that “Texas is stepping up to do the federal government’s job.”

A reporter with Fox News captured images of the first Texas-commissioned border wall panels going up in Starr County, Texas, located in the Rio Grande Valley.

Earlier this year, amid near-record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Abbott announced that he would try to secure funding for the state to construct its own border barrier after Biden signed an executive order that scrapped federal construction of the wall.

Texas’s wall construction, which would not obtain federal funding, has been favored by Abbott as a means of cracking down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking. In June, the governor started a private donation campaign that has raised about $54 million.

According to records, Wyoming-based billionaire Timothy Mellon, the grandson of banking tycoon and former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, donated $53.1 million of those dollars to the private wall fund.
Epoch Times Photo
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott holds a press conference about the thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Haitians, living in a primitive, makeshift camp under the international bridge that spans the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico while waiting to be detained and processed by Border Patrol, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 21, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

About 450 miles of the larger border barrier was constructed under President Donald Trump, who had championed the construction of the wall during his 2016 presidential campaign.

“Three billion dollars of Texas taxpayer money has been devoted to this cause of Texas securing the border, and so we have a lot of money available to us to continue to build the wall,” Abbott told Fox News in an interview on Friday.

Abbott then asserted that the Texas wall will “cost less than it did for the Trump administration” because the “state of Texas owns [land] on the border itself” and will not have to acquire the land—as the federal government had to do under the Trump administration.

“There are property owners of massive acreage on the border who are fed up with Biden’s open border policies,” he continued, “and they are donating their land to Texas for us to be able to use that land for free to build a wall on their property.”

One of the first orders Biden signed was to pause wall construction and called for a review of projects and funds. In a statement released on Jan. 20 just after Biden’s inauguration, the president claimed the wall construction “is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.”

Since then, Biden’s order—as well as other immigration-related orders—has fueled Republican criticism of the president’s immigration policies, denouncing it as part of an “open borders” agenda.

Abbott’s office announced the governor will hold a news conference on Saturday, Dec. 18, in Rio Grande City to discuss the border wall construction.

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Fentanyl Overdoses Become Leading Cause of Death in 18- to 45-Year-Olds

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
December 19, 2021 Updated: December 20, 2021

Fentanyl-related drug overdoses in 2020 became the top killer in adults aged 18 to 45—overtaking suicide, vehicle accidents, and gun violence, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by nonprofit group Families Against Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, highly addictive, and deadly. Buyers may be unaware that the drugs they buy contain illicit fentanyl, a 2 milligram dose of which can be fatal.

The substance is most often manufactured in Mexico using chemicals supplied from China and trafficked across the southern border by Mexican drug cartels. Fentanyl is mixed with other narcotics to increase potency as well as pressed into counterfeit pain pills that are made to look like blue Oxycodone prescription pills and are commonly known as “Mexican oxys.”

Families Against Fentanyl is advocating for the U.S. government to designate fentanyl and its analogs as a weapon of mass destruction under federal statute.

The statute defines “weapon of mass destruction,” in part, as “any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxin or poisonous chemicals, or their precursors.”

More than 100,000 Americans, a record amount, died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April, according to CDC data. Fentanyl was involved in almost two-thirds of those deaths.

During 2020, as lockdowns became prolonged and widespread as a response to the pandemic, overdose fatalities accelerated.

“This represents a worsening of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States,” the CDC stated in an emergency health advisory issued more than a year ago, on Dec. 17, 2020.

An analysis by the Well Being Trust in May 2020 estimated a possible 75,000 additional “deaths of despair,” including suicide as well as drug and alcohol abuse over the ensuing several years, due to the shutdown measures.
Epoch Times Photo
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Areas of influence of major Mexican cartels within the United States. (DEA report 2021)

This year, as the southern border became more porous, record amounts of drugs have been seized by authorities.

During fiscal year 2021, which ended in September, Customs and Border Protection confiscated 11,200 pounds of fentanyl, up from 2,150 pounds the year prior.

In addition, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized a record-breaking more than 20 million counterfeit pills containing fentanyl this year, according to Cheri Oz, DEA special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division.

Almost half of those were seized in Arizona, she said.

“The Sinaloa Cartel primarily uses the trafficking routes that run through Arizona,” Oz said during a Dec. 16 press conference. “Phoenix is historically known as a repackaging and distribution area.”

At the press conference, Oz announced the results of a two-month joint DEA and local Scottsdale, Arizona, drug trafficking operation run by the Sinaloa Cartel.

“In total during the two-month surge, we seized 3 million pills, 45 kilos of fentanyl powder, over 35 firearms, and arrested over 40 drug traffickers,” she said.
Epoch Times Photo
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Illicit fentanyl-laced pills and other narcotics are displayed by law enforcement during a press conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Dec. 16, 2021. (Scottsdale PD)

Oz said drug traffickers are using social media platforms, posting emojis, and coded language that has specific meanings related to selling drugs more efficiently.

“Traffickers are using technology to get into your homes and sell pills to your children and loved ones,” Oz said. “Watch their social media and educate yourselves on the dangers and lingo of the online emojis being used.”

At least 76 recent cases involved drug traffickers using social media applications, including Snapchat, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, according to the DEA. The agency provides emoji decoding information on its website.

Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther said, “It’s not just a drug,” it’s an “intended destabilizing influence in our country” wrought by the cartels and their partners.

“And if those across the border can continue to push this destabilizing influence in our country, we’re going to continue to see … these record numbers of seizures, because this is just flowing like a river into Arizona and then it has tendrils that go around the country,” Walther said during the press conference.

Congress has failed to pass legislation that would designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

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New Covid Cases in Hidalgo county, one of the most active sectors of illegal encounters on the Texas border, has jumped from double digit one day to 400 to 600 cases in three short days.

With this week's new Covid infections to date hovering at 1347, the administration seeks SCOTUS ruling in attempt at further delaying lower court order reinstating Trump's "Remain in Mexico policy".

According to Brandon Judd, National Border Patrol Council President in a Fox News interview this week, all unaccompanied minors are released to HHS and subsequently flown to other states, such as Florida, Pa, etc. under cover of darkness.

Then there's this.


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A male Saudi Arabian national poses after he was arrested for illegally entering the United States, in Arizona on Dec. 16, 2021. (U.S. Border Patrol)

Biden Administration Takes Down Post on ‘Potential Terrorist’ Apprehended at Southern Border

By Zachary Stieber
December 29, 2021 Updated: December 29, 2021

President Joe Biden’s administration has deleted a social media post that informed the public that a “potential terrorist” had been apprehended this month at the U.S.–Mexico border.

Chris Clem, a top Border Patrol agent, posted pictures on Twitter last week showing the man who was apprehended.

Clem included the man’s age (21), his country of origin (Saudi Arabia), and said the male was “linked to several Yemeni subjects of interest.”

But Clem’s post was taken down recently, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes Border Patrol, confirmed to The Epoch Times on Dec. 29.

“All individuals encountered at or between U.S. ports of entry are screened and vetted against a broad range of law enforcement and intelligence information to determine if they pose a threat to national security or public safety, consistent with the law. CBP is continuing to investigate the matter following its standard protocols. This may include referral, if appropriate, to other relevant law enforcement entities for further investigation and a custody determination,” Luis Miranda, CBP’s public affairs assistant commissioner, said in an emailed statement.

“A December 20, 2021, tweet on the matter has since been deleted as it contained law enforcement sensitive information, violating agency protocols,” he added.

A similar situation played out in April when CBP announced that two Yemeni nationals on the FBI’s Terrorism Watch List were apprehended at the border. In that case, the agency issued a statement detailing the arrests.

That release was pulled within days.

“The news release in question was not properly reviewed and contained certain disclosure and policy information related to national security that required CBP to remove it from our website,” the agency said at the time.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) took notice of the more recent scrub.

“The American people deserve to know that suspected terrorists are coming through our broken border system. We need to get to the bottom of this,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Biden administration is presiding over the worst illegal immigration surge in U.S. history and Republicans say the crisis involves terrorists and people with terror links.

“I am deeply troubled by reports of a Saudi national apprehended at the southwest border with potential ties to terrorism and found wearing a jacket emblazoned with a Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps emblem,” Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“As I and many of my colleagues have been saying for months, the impact and relevancy of the Biden Border Crisis are not limited to communities along the southwest border. Migrants are entering the United States illegally in record numbers from a litany of countries. We are undoubtedly experiencing a nationwide crisis.

“While I continue to seek additional details from the Department of Homeland Security about this specific instance, the reality is our nation faces a serious crisis at the southwest border and this Administration still refuses to address it. With this report, as well as documented increases in fentanyl and other drugs crossing the border, it’s clear the security failures on the border are having an adverse impact on Central New York and communities across the United States. That’s why I remain committed to advocating for strong border security,” he added.

Katko and other lawmakers have unsuccessfully urged Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to make public the number of suspected or confirmed terrorists caught by border agents this year.

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One of several recent issues w/coyotes trying to evade arrest while smuggling aliens in lower RGV: Police Chase, Vehicle Crash Leads To Two Killed

Immigration & Border Security
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Mark Morgan, former acting CBP commissioner, at a press conference in Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas, on March 30. 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Former Border Commissioner: ‘We Have Lost Control of the Southwest Border’

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
January 9, 2022 Updated: January 9, 2022

The southwest border during President Joe Biden’s first year in office reached historic levels of illegal crossings, pulling agents off the front line and leaving large swaths of the border unpatrolled. Drugs, especially fentanyl, flowed in, and overdose deaths are at an all-time high.

“What we’re experiencing now on the southwest border is a complete, utter catastrophe,” Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees Border Patrol, told The Epoch Times on Jan. 7.

“We have lost control of the southwest border.”

During the 2021 calendar year, Border Patrol agents apprehended close to 2 million illegal immigrants from 150 different countries along the southwest border—more than double 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, according to CBP data.

Last year, Border Patrol agents detected, but didn’t catch, an additional 600,000 illegal border crossers, known as “gotaways,” Morgan said.

“That’s the equivalent to the size of the state of Vermont,” he said. “Think about the bad people that are in that 600,000 that got away.”
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A Border Patrol agent organizes illegal immigrants who have gathered by the border fence after crossing from Mexico into the United States in Yuma, Arizona, on Dec. 10 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Mexican nationals made up 28 percent of encounters in fiscal year 2021, the lowest proportion in recorded history, according to CBP.

The northern triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador made up 44 percent, and the remaining 28 percent were from other countries—double the previous record for the latter demographic.

“This trend is important because the Department of Homeland Security does not currently have agreements to electronically verify nationality with these different countries of origin, making removing or expelling their nationals more resource-intensive and time-consuming,” CBP stated in a press release on Jan. 3.

Outside of Mexico and the Northern Triangle nations, the countries accounting for the largest number of encounters in fiscal year 2021 were Ecuador, Brazil, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, and Cuba, CBP said.

On the Mexico side of the border, across the Rio Grande in Texas, hundreds of discarded passports, visas, and identification papers can be found every day. Illegal aliens are told it’s harder to be deported from the United States without papers.

“This is not a surge. This is an invasion,” Morgan said. “I mean, this is a catastrophic amount of illegal aliens trying to break into our country.”

The result in some border areas, he said, is that most Border Patrol agents are being pulled off the “national security mission” to be “daycare providers, processing agents, and bus drivers.”

Morale among the Border Patrol workforce is at an all-time low.

Upon taking office almost a year ago, President Joe Biden was quick to dismantle several key border security initiatives that the Trump administration had established, including a halt to border wall construction, and the Remain in Mexico program, which attributed to up to an 80 percent drop in “catch-and-release” by requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico until their final court judgement.

Now, instead of waiting in Mexico, most illegal immigrants are released into the United States to wait for future court dates that can be set years into the future.
Epoch Times Photo
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Border Patrol drops van loads of Haitians who crossed the U.S. border illegally at local NGO Border Humanitarian Coalition to catch a bus to San Antonio or Houston, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 22, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Border Security

Although the public’s main focus is on illegal immigration numbers, Morgan said that’s just a subset of border security.

“When you open your borders up to one threat, one crisis, it’s not mutually exclusive from the others—you’re opening your borders up to the vast set of complex threats that we face,” he said.

“Anytime you’re so overwhelmed that you can’t perform the fundamental national security mission to secure our borders, the result [is] that every aspect of our nation’s public health, public safety, and national security is being impacted.”

The record numbers in 2021 occurred during a year in which many Americans, under the backdrop of a pandemic, faced vaccine mandates, work-from-home orders, and school closures.

Overcrowded border facilities were unable to test everyone for COVID-19, resulting in the release of illegal immigrants with the disease into communities. In July 2021, the city of Laredo sued the Biden administration for releasing a “flood” of illegal immigrants into Laredo, causing “irreparable harm.”

Under the Title 42 public health order, which was instituted in March 2020, illegal immigrants could be quickly expelled back into Mexico as a pandemic precaution, rather than be processed under Title 8 immigration law, which is a much more protracted process inside the United States.

Since March 2021, however, Title 42 has slowly been whittled down—first to allow in all unaccompanied children, then families with children under 7, then most families in general, most single females, and single adults from non-Spanish speaking countries.
Epoch Times Photo
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Border Patrol agents apprehend and transport illegal immigrants who have just crossed the river into La Joya, Texas, on Nov. 17, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Border 2022

Morgan predicts the southwest border metrics will continue to worsen through 2022.

“There’s no end in sight. There’s none. And this administration, every single day, everything they’re doing is just to get better at releasing people. They’re not trying to stop the flow,” he said.

Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead border security efforts, with the main focus being to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration. Harris visited Mexico and Guatemala last year, but was criticized by the Guatemalan president in December for having no communication since June 2021.

On Aug. 26, the Supreme Court ordered the Biden administration to restart the Remain in Mexico program, but CBP data through November 2021 doesn’t indicate any new enrollees in the program.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said he is working toward building a “safe, orderly, and humane immigration” system.
Epoch Times Photo
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Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Haitians, live in a primitive, makeshift camp under the international bridge that spans the Rio Grande between the U.S. and Mexico while waiting to be detained and processed by Border Patrol, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 21, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

During the tail end of the September crisis that saw close to 15,000 mostly Haitian illegal immigrants gather under the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, Mayorkas denied that the administration’s policies were responsible.

“What we are learning from our interviews with individuals is that they are receiving false information and misinformation from the smuggling organizations that traffic in the exploitation of vulnerable individuals,” Mayorkas said during a congressional hearing on Sept. 21, 2021.

During a Senate hearing in November 2021, Mayorkas gave himself high marks for his role in leading the border efforts.

“I’m a tough grader on myself and I give myself an ‘A’ for effort, investment in mission, and support of our workforce,” Mayorkas said.

Morgan accused Mayorkas of creating a “sanctuary country” for illegal immigrants, allowing them to come in and then shielding them from deportation.

“They’re trying to totally demolish ICE and make illegal immigration legal,” Morgan said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Everything that they’re doing is making our border less secure and our country less safe.”
Epoch Times Photo
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Border Patrol agents apprehend 21 illegal aliens from Mexico who had hidden in a grain hopper on a freight train heading to San Antonio, near Uvalde, Texas, on June 21, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Looking to Governors

Morgan said he believes the open border policies are an intentional move toward more Democratic House seats through redistricting now that illegal immigrants are counted in the Census. Secondly, eventually they expect illegal immigrants to vote Democrat.

Republicans are also complicit, he said, because they still believe that this country needs the illegal workforce.

“But there is a true marginalized American workforce that’s out there that’s having to compete with companies paying lower wages to illegal immigrants. That’s real,” Morgan said.

He said concerned Americans should push their governors to do more in the immediate term, instead of waiting for the federal elections. Morgan said Florida, Texas, and Missouri have made some inroads, but more need to step up.

“If you have a meth overdose in your state, I guarantee that meth came from the southwest border,” he said.

“The cost to American taxpayers is unconscionable and governors should step up and say enough is enough.”

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And this is just at ports of entry....how much is carried across by the mules between POE's?

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Fentanyl-laced sky blue pills known on the street as "Mexican oxy" in a file photo. (Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)

Immigration & Border Security
Border Patrol Reports 1,066 Percent Increase in Fentanyl Seized in South Texas

By Mimi Nguyen Ly
January 8, 2022 Updated: January 8, 2022

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reported a 1,066 percent increase in fentanyl seized in south Texas ports during fiscal year 2021.

Border agents at eight ports of entry extending from Brownsville to Del Rio said that between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, they seized 87,652 pounds of narcotics that would have commanded a combined estimated street value of $786 million, CBP reported on Jan. 5.

Of this, 41,713 pounds was marijuana, 8,592 pounds was cocaine, 33,777 pounds was methamphetamine, 1,215 pounds was heroin, and 588 pounds was fentanyl. That’s a 1,066 percent increase in fentanyl seizures, as well as a 98 percent increase in cocaine seizures, from the year prior.

They also reported having seized $10.4 million in unreported currency, 463 weapons—up 21 percent from FY 2020—and 84,863 rounds of ammunition.

The eight ports of entry comprise the Laredo Field Office. The CBP officers at these ports of entry also noted that in FY 2021, more than 20,701 non-U.S. citizens were inadmissible to the United States due to violations of immigration law.

Randy J. Howe, the Laredo Field Office’s director of field operations, said in a statement that despite significantly less traffic due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, “the drug and contraband threat remained the same.”

“Our significant gains in fentanyl and cocaine seizures underscore the deadly nature of the contraband we encounter, the need to utilize Personal Protective Equipment to protect our officers and our continued resolve to carry out our vital border security mission,” he said.

Fentanyl is a highly addictive and deadly drug that’s about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Just a 2-milligram dose of the synthetic opioid can be deadly.
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An illustration of two milligrams of fentanyl powder, a lethal dose, next to a one-penny coin. (DEA)

China is “the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States,” the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in its 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment report (pdf).

A record number of Americans—more than 100,000—died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and fentanyl was involved in almost two-thirds of those deaths, making it the largest cause of overdose deaths in the United States.

Overall, during fiscal year 2021, CBP confiscated a total of 11,200 pounds of fentanyl—up from 2,150 pounds the year prior, signifying a 521 percent increase.
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More Than 584,000 Foreigners Overstayed Their Visas: DHS

By Zachary Stieber
January 8, 2022 Updated: January 9, 2022

A total of 584,885 foreigners overstayed their U.S. visas in fiscal year 2020, according to a newly released report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS recently released the report, but made it appear as if it had been released in September 2021 after being pressured by Republican senators for defying the law and not releasing it.

The Entry-Exit Overstay Report (pdf) found 584,885 foreign nationals who were legally allowed to enter the United States for a period of time, but failed to abide by their visas and stayed longer than permitted.

That was higher than the 497,272 foreigners who overstayed visas in fiscal year 2019.

Fiscal year 2020 ran from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the increase “an anomaly when compared with the prevailing trend” and attributed it to the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 1.2 percent of foreigners who entered the United States legally via air or sea are believed to have overstayed their visas in 2020, according to the report.

The most overstays among nonimmigrant visitors were among Brazilians, Venezuelans, Colombians, Chinese, and the British. Nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors staying too long were most likely to be from China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil.

The high number of overstays “is an indication that the State Department is not doing a good enough job to screen travelers for eligibility and that they’re simply issuing too many visas inappropriately to unqualified applicants,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Epoch Times.

“And I’m concerned that this is going to get even worse when travel picks up again and people around the world have heard the message from the Biden administration that there is essentially no interior enforcement and no enforcement of the rules against overstaying, that they’re going to see this as an opportunity to come and settle here illegally, without fear of any penalties,” Vaughan said.

The Biden administration has relaxed enforcement rules that helped the Trump administration clamp down on illegal immigration, such as by restricting which illegal aliens that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers can pick up.

Biden administration officials have described the immigration system as broken and have said it will take time to fix it. Critics say it was working fine when former President Donald Trump was in office.

Some attempts at change have been reversed, including a bid to end the “Remain in Mexico” program, which forces some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their applications are being processed. A federal judge forced the administration to relaunch it after he found that Mayorkas ignored how DHS determined that it helped curb illegal immigration.

In 1998, Congress ordered the government to produce an annual report on visa overstays. Lawmakers said in 2021 that they were “concerned that the large number of annual in-country alien overstays threatens national security and the integrity of legal immigration.”

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) pushed for the release of the report in December 2021, noting that DHS had failed to meet its legal deadlines in producing it and a separate report over how it vetted evacuees from Afghanistan.

“These reports hold vital information for our oversight work of your department and for the public as the American people seek to assess the impact of the Biden administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. Your continued delay in providing these reports violates the law and raises significant questions about your commitment to uphold the laws Congress enacts,” the senators told Mayorkas.

The administration is still withholding the Afghan evacuee report, as well as an annual report detailing the deportations that ICE carried out in 2021.

The number of illegal immigrants that ICE was holding in detention has dropped since May, hitting 20,623 on Dec. 19, 2021, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse.

The Biden administration has been releasing tens of thousands of immigrants without court dates—an unusual arrangement—and has let thousands of immigrants go without receiving COVID-19 testing.

For the first time, the number of immigrants being monitored through ICE’s new alternatives to detention programs exceeded 150,000 in December 2021, Syracuse University stated. The programs feature immigrants being allowed to go free while being monitored through various technologies, such as ankle bracelets.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/over-584000-foreigners-overstayed-their-visas-dhs_4201206.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-01-09&mktids=62d0a3752b4e860bb5e6984d01755221&est=1vSaxnnShYi61PHKQ%2BENDzHKG4I11Sie3TwDwOTrnWoP43fNLOLhaPpLuWH0mIM%3D
 

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Rancher John Ladd on his property that abuts the U.S.–Mexico border near Naco in Cochise County, Ariz., on Dec. 8, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Immigration & Border Security

A ‘Gun at Every Door’: Border Rancher Sees 2,400 Percent Increase In Illegal Aliens on Property
Arizona rancher says Border Patrol only catches around 30 percent—on a good day

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
January 13, 2022 Updated: January 14, 2022

COCHISE COUNTY, Arizona—Ranching and smuggling are respectively the primary legitimate and illegitimate economic drivers in Cochise County, Arizona.

Much to John Ladd’s frustration, the two industries intersect on his ranch, which is sandwiched between the U.S.–Mexico border and Highway 92, a convenient smuggling pick-up road.

Ladd’s ranch shares 10 1/2 miles of border with Mexico and in mid-2019 had an average of 12 illegal aliens traversing his land daily, with Border Patrol catching about half.

Now, he says, it’s about 300 a day and Border Patrol catches about 30 percent on a good day. The numbers started escalating the same time the 2020 presidential election swung Joe Biden’s way.

“I’m not going to say there’s no hope, but nothing’s going to change as long as Biden’s there and his administration,” Ladd told The Epoch Times on Dec. 8, 2021.

“And so what are we going to do? Just let them come through?”

The illegal immigrants traversing Ladd’s ranch aren’t seeking asylum—they’re mostly young, single men dressed head-to-toe in camouflage clothing and doing everything they can to avoid law enforcement and get to Phoenix.

“These people can’t turn themselves in, they’ll get deported. These are the bad people. We’re dealing with the worst of the worst,” Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said.

Dannels’s border team has placed hundreds of trail cameras throughout the county since 2017 to detect illegal aliens, traffickers, and smugglers.

“We put our cameras in areas where Border Patrol wasn’t going, he said. “We went to the river areas, we went into the mountain areas, we went to the desert areas,” he said. The money for the cameras was raised from private donations—Dannels refuses to accept government money that has strings attached.
Epoch Times Photo
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The border wall’s accompanying road, lights, cameras, and sensors remain unfinished since January 2021 when President Joe Biden halted all border wall construction, in Cochise County, Arizona on Dec. 6, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Four years ago, the sheriff’s border team, called SABRE (Southeastern Arizona Border Region Enforcement), rid Ladd’s ranch of drug smugglers, which was the biggest problem at the time.

“There were 37 experienced smugglers [on his property] that are now sitting in prison,” Dannels said in 2019.

The drugs are still coming across, but the cartels are making an endless amount of cash with human smuggling, so they’ve added a lucrative new revenue stream.

Currently, Dannels’s cameras are detecting about 6,000 illegal aliens per month in the county, while Border Patrol is detecting an additional 10,000.

Detective Jake Kartchner, who is part of the sheriff’s border team run by Sgt. Tim Williams, said each illegal alien must pay the Sinaloa cartel between $7,000 to $9,000 on average to get across the border.

Getting across the border and to a road is the first step. Next, a smuggler receives a GPS location of a group, loads them up, and heads to Phoenix. The drivers are mostly U.S. citizens who are recruited via social media and paid about $1,000 per alien transported to Phoenix, according to the sheriff’s office.

“It’s like the cartel Uber. They just stage in public places all along the roadways waiting to get called up to go pick them up,” Dannels said. He said 900 to 1,000 smuggling vehicles are tracked in the county each month.

Ladd said he has watched vehicles load up on Highway 92 after crossing his property.

“Those cars aren’t even stopping—they’re slowing down and they’re running along and open the door and jump in and off they go,” he said. “It’s very well coordinated.”

No state law against smuggling illegal aliens exists in Arizona, and the federal government isn’t prosecuting juvenile drivers or those transporting five or fewer aliens, according to Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre.
Epoch Times Photo
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Illegal immigrants who just crossed the border into the United States from Mexico, in Cochise County, Ariz., on Nov. 16, 2021. (Courtesy of Cochise County Sheriff’s Office)
‘They’re Running’

Cochise County shares 83 miles of international border with Mexico and sits in the southeast corner of Arizona, abutting New Mexico. The landscape consists of remote desert and mountain passes.

Border Patrol apprehensions in the Tucson sector, which encompasses Cochise County, almost tripled in 2021 compared to 2020.

In fiscal year 2021, border agents apprehended more than 190,000 illegal aliens in the sector, compared to 66,000 the year before. Thousands more evaded capture—including many on Ladd’s ranch.

“This new invasion, they don’t want to get caught. This isn’t like Texas, where they’re coming, ‘Here I am.’ They’re running,” he said.

Ladd said his family has to stay more vigilant than before and ensure everything is locked up.

“We’ve got a gun at every door in the house. We had to go through all that again with the family—you better understand if you’re going to shoot somebody, the consequences, and you better make sure you’re really in danger,” he said.

Ladd said two of the ranches on the Mexican side directly across from him are owned by the Sinaloa cartel and the owners of the other two have been told to stay off their property after dark.

Although he’s not looking to sell, Ladd said the border has halved the value of his ranch since it was placed into a family trust in 1983. He had to get the ranch reappraised eight years ago when his mother died and the value had plummeted by half, he said, adding that improvements worth $2 million to $3 million had been undertaken during that time.

“In the appraisal, they said, ‘This ranch’s southern fence is the border,'” Ladd said. “That was the first sentence in the appraisal.”

His ranching costs are also higher as he deals with cut fences, gates left open, and more scattered herds.

“The amount of labor involved to get cattle now is three or four times what somebody 50 miles north has to put up with,” he said.

McIntyre said residents want to feel safe on their property.

“You’re not going to feel safe if you’ve got 100 people across your property line at night,” he said.

“And you don’t know that they’re armed and you don’t know who’s coming to pick them up and where theyre going to pick them up. It is a violation.”
Epoch Times Photo
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A Border Patrol agent pulls tires behind his vehicle to smooth out the road to make detecting footprints easier, near Naco in Cochise County, Ariz., on Dec. 6, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Kartchner said the sheriff’s office is currently investigating a new phenomenon involving television ads allegedly being broadcast in southern Mexico, spurring illegal immigration.

“The commercials are pretty much telling them—from what we’ve gathered—’It doesn’t matter your immigration status, we’ll hire you,'” he said.

The commercials are encouraging illegal immigrants to get to New Jersey, Oregon, or Chicago and work will be provided, Kartchner said.

“They’ll freely tell you why they’re coming across,” he said of the illegal aliens they catch. He said up to 60 percent of them are currently saying they came because of the advertising.

Ladd said he believes most illegal immigrants coming across his land end up being indentured servants to the cartel to pay off their smuggling debt.

He’s bracing for another frustrating year in 2022 as the flow continues unimpeded.

“The plan is to let everybody come,” he said, referring to the Biden administration. “And they’re all going to vote Democratic. I think that’s the biggest thing that people have finally understood—that’s what he’s doing.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/a-gun-at-every-door-border-rancher-sees-2400-percent-increase-in-illegal-aliens-on-property_4197034.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2022-01-14&mktids=d88c521d29e48a6e7ad4ba525fdda832&est=F17AvUAou2O0DxJn8MtTfPtedX1WlMhlmez0O3JX%2BLMDlI%2B4pA5K0JBNGkKcXaI%3D
 
ICE Has ‘Lost’ 47,000 Illegal Immigrants After Release in 2021

By Charlotte Cuthbertson
January 13, 2022 Updated: January 13, 2022

Border Patrol agents were so overwhelmed by illegal immigrants on the southern border last year that they resorted to issuing a newly developed “notice to report” to tens of thousands of individuals before releasing them into the United States.

The notice requested the illegal alien to report to a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days, where they’d be issued a “notice to appear”—an official document that includes a date for their first immigration court hearing for their deportation proceedings.

Normally, illegal immigrants are given notices to appear before being released at the border.

More than 104,000 notices to report were issued in the five months between the end of March and the end of October 2021. Of those, 47,705 individuals have failed to report to ICE, according to official data received by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Johnson had requested the information from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Oct. 19, 2021.

In his letter accompanying the data, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas states: “DHS is committed to ensuring a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.

“It is important that we continue working together during these unprecedented times as we strive to keep the country safe and secure.”

Border authorities released more than 273,300 illegal aliens into the United States between January and August 2021.

ICE transported more than 37,000 by bus from the border to larger transportation hubs such as San Antonio or Phoenix, and provided domestic flights for 51,750 individuals.

Between March 21 and Dec. 5, 2021, ICE issued 50,683 notices to appear at local offices for illegal immigrants who had been issued a notice to report after apprehension at the border.

“For over 40,000 of those cases, ICE does not have data on what immigration court is overseeing these cases, despite the fact that ICE acts as the prosecutor in deportation proceedings,” Johnson said in a statement.

The number of illegal immigrants apprehended by Border Patrol during 2021 reached historic highs in several metrics, including the total number (1.7 million), the number of unaccompanied children, and the number of illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico or the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ice-has-lo...tm_medium=email
 
Well, for some reason, its getting harder to find reports of the never ending flow of illegals across the southern border, but a bit of searching uncovered the following article.

The incursion continues with hundreds of adult single migrants being bused into parking garage in Brownsville, Tx, subsequently leaving via taxi cabs (with documents in hand)and followed to a nearby regional airport.

23 January 2022
Fox News footage shows mass release of single adult migrants into US

But thanks to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and AG Ken Paxton, the storm clouds may be gathering:

27 January 2022
12 attorneys general invited by governor to ‘border security briefing’ in South Texas

28 January 2022
Paxton launches 9th lawsuit against Biden administration regarding Southern border
 
US Border Patrol agents shot at from Mexico

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Border patrol vehicles parked on a levy near the Rio Grande, where they constantly patrol f

U.S. Border Patrol agents were shot at while patrolling the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday night.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agency (CBP) confirmed in an emailed statement to American Military News on Thursday that agents responded to a report of suspected migrants near Fronton on Wednesday night and then reported shots fired from the Mexican side of the border. Officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety (Texas DPS) the Starr County Sheriff’s Office and additional CBP agents responded to the location.

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility were all notified of the incident.

Fox News reported, citing multiple law enforcement sources, that the agents that were fired upon were members of the special operations unit of the CBP’s Border Patrol Tactical Operations (BORTAC). The CBP agents reportedly returned fire and nobody on either side was hit.

Sources for Fox News said Mexican military units were first engaged in a shootout with cartel members on the Mexican side of the border, during which time one man fled the gun battle and attempted to flee into the U.S. by crossing a nearby river. A BORTAC agent reportedly jumped into the water to rescue the man, at which point the agent was fired upon.

This cross-border shooting incident comes a month after CBP agents in the same border sector were fired upon from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River. That shooting incident occurred on New Year’s Day. Tweets from the incident showed bullet holes in a CBP agent’s vehicle.

“NEW: A Border Patrol agent was shot at from across the river in Mexico on New Year’s Day while he was apprehending a migrant who had crossed illegally near Roma, TX. Bullets hit agents vehicle, but he wasn’t hurt,” Fox News reporter Bill Melugin tweeted at the time. “CBP and FBI now investigating. Pics from LE source. @FoxNews.”

The January shooting incident took place in Roma, Texas, about a six-mile drive from where shots were fired on Wednesday in Fronton.

In October, a Fox News crew also captured footage of the tracer fire of an automatic weapon firing from Mexico into the U.S.



Fox News reported sightings of heavily armed groups have become more common in recent times and Texas DPS officials have reported seeing suspected cartel members armed with AK-47-style rifles taunting National Guard troops on the U.S. side of the border.

In March of last year, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched a border security effort known as Operation Lone Star. The operation pairs Texas National Guard troops and Texas DPS personnel in an effort to prevent the smuggling of humans and drugs across the border into Texas.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/02/us-border-patrol-agents-shot-at-from-mexico/
 

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Former President Donald Trump speaks with EpochTV's Kash Patel at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 31, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

US News
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Reveals the First Thing He Would Do If He Is President Again

By Ivan Pentchoukov
February 6, 2022 Updated: February 7, 2022

Former President Donald Trump said that if he wins the presidency again, his first executive action would be to restart construction of the wall on the southern U.S. border.

The president told EpochTV’s “Kash’s Corner” on Jan. 31 that completing the wall has a significance that extends beyond domestic policy because it would project an image of strength to China’s Xi Jinping and other world leaders.

“First of all, the wall, even for him,” Trump said referring to Xi. “You know why? Because when he sees millions of people pouring into our country, he loses respect for our country.” The interview will premiere at 8 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 7.

“When [he] and Putin and Kim Jong Un and Iran’s leaders, when they’re watching millions of people walk into our country … they lose respect.”

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW W/PRESIDENT TRUMP @ 8 PM ET ON EPOCHTV.COM

President Joe Biden rescinded or froze dozens of Trump’s border policies upon taking office in January last year. The relaxed policies have led to a flood of illegal aliens crossing the border in volumes unseen for decades.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 1.9 million illegal crossers in 2021, four times as many as were apprehended in 2020 under Trump. The number of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S.–Mexico border reached an all-time high in 2021.

Biden froze the construction of the wall with an executive order issued on the day of his inauguration. Millions of dollars worth of materials have languished in the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas since and could now be sold for scrap for pennies on the dollar. The wall’s accompanying roads, cameras, and sensors have remained uninstalled or unfinished.

Epoch Times Photo
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The border wall’s accompanying road, lights, cameras, and sensors remain unfinished since January 2021 when President Joe Biden halted all border wall construction, in Cochise County, Arizona on Dec. 6, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was a Trump signature campaign promise. Democrats in Congress fought against funding the project tooth and nail and at one point shut down the government to block money for construction. Trump prevailed and, by the time he left office, the government built more than 450 miles of wall. More than 200 miles of fencing were under construction when Trump left the White House.

“It’s so easy. You close it up, you’ve got to close it up. And that would send a big signal, a really big signal,” Trump told Epoch TV.
Epoch Times Photo
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Former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 31, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

“And then you’ve got to get their respect again. How do you do that?” the former president added. “You do that by making sure that they know that this country is here, and it’s here to stay and we’re not going to take any nonsense.”

Biden called the border situation a “crisis” in April last year, but the White House later walked it back and has refused to use the word publicly since.

The full exclusive interview will premiere on EpochTV.com at 8 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 7.

Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
Ivan Pentchoukov

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-reveals-the-first-thing-he-would-do-if-he-is-president-again_4258227.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-02-07&utm_medium=email&est=cKVsoha7chgn3R6yy4SNk4thPVxCgbgr%2FnIlwZC%2BYcRZYuPH0yUjLO4r
 
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou delivers remarks during an event in Camp Springs, Md., on Nov. 9, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Executive Branch

US Immigration Agency Changes Mission, Removes Key Phrases

By Zachary Stieber
February 10, 2022 Updated: February 11, 2022

A key federal agency on Feb. 10 changed its mission statement, removing several key phrases.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve,” the new mission statement says.

Under the old statement, the agency was described as “administer[ing] the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”

USCIS, with approximately 19,000 employees, oversees legal immigration to the United States.

Ur Jaddou, the agency’s director, said the new statement “reflects the inclusive character of both our country and this agency,” adding, “The United States is and will remain a welcoming nation that embraces people from across the world who seek family reunification, employment or professional opportunities, and humanitarian protection.”

“USCIS is committed to ensuring that the immigration system we administer is accessible and humane. As we look towards the future, my commitment will remain the same—USCIS will continue to serve the public with respect and fairness, and lead with integrity to reflect America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility today and for generations to come,” Jaddou, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, added.

Michael Knowles, president of AFGE Local 1924, said the union supports the statement.

He told The Epoch Times in an email that it “reflects the views of many of the employees who do this important work.”

The union represents USCIS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers. Both agencies sit inside the Department of Homeland Security.

Ken Cuccinelli, who served as acting USCIS director during the Trump administration, offered an opposing view.

“When we’ve got an invasion at the border, this is what USCIS chooses to spend their time on. This is just another example of Left-wing busy-bodies shirking their duty to Americans and not protecting our border,” he told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Several lawmakers also spoke out about the change.

“With this move, the Biden Administration is signifying that lawful immigration, protecting Americans, and securing our homeland are no longer its priorities,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said on Twitter.

“The Biden Administration has made clear that lawful immigration, protecting Americans, and securing our homeland are no longer a priority of theirs,” added Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas). “This is a complete dereliction of duty.”

The shift in language follows similar changes under President Joe Biden. Top officials told all immigration agencies in 2021 to stop using certain terms, including “illegal aliens.”

The USCIS mission statement in place until this week’s change came during the Trump administration. It was changed from “USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”

Francis Cissna, the USCIS director at the time, said that the statement was changed because certain words, like customers, led to erroneous beliefs about which populations USCIS serves.

“I believe this simple, straightforward statement clearly defines the agency’s role in our country’s lawful immigration system and the commitment we have to the American people,” he said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-immigration-agency-changes-mission-removes-key-phrases_4269309.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-02-10-4&utm_medium=email&est=dt4XFQW5pAS17%2BN9DAgu9qyf5uv%2F9Itb6K03u7Engm7VRNyGI0uLSMwC
 
Originally Posted By: Fox News Report 19 Feb 2022
CBP Encounters in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for January this year are double those for same month, 2021 and four times from Jan, 2020!

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According to the Fox report, 432,000 of the total encounters so far fiscal year 2022 (645,801) were single adults; 164,000 were family units and 47,000 unaccompanied minors.

While encounters are skyrocketing,Ice arrests are down from 10,190 in Jan. of 2021 to only 4860 in Jan. of 2022.

Anyone else wonder where the rest have gone?
 
Morning report from Fox News:

As has been recorded, RGV is one of the hot spots for human and drug trafficking on the TX border. That sector has experienced four car crashes within 10 miles of La Joya involving multiple illegals trying to escape from DPS/CBP officers in the past 24 hours.

The latest MO is for the cartels to place vehicles strategically for the illegals to pick up and use in their attempts to escape capture.

18 miles to the east, a tractor trailer was found to contain over $18,000,000 worth of methamphetamine.
 
Estimates, by Border/Customs, 750,000 MISSED crossings since new fiscal year(10/21). Millions of Undocumented since Jan 20 executive action by Joe Bidens(Obama) administration, including terrorists,criminals,human trafficking. All released into country are subsidized with EBT cards under presidents discretionary spending. And they( democrats) continue to advertise south of the border and provide aid to crossings.
 
a tractor trailer was found to contain over $18,000,000 worth of methamphetamine.


What a mess. It would almost make a man think somebody was getting paid if a man believed there is people in DC and other places that might...... Nope couldn't be that. That could not be the reason the border is open.
Might just as well run Buffets train down there to haul dope and quit making a joke out of it.
 
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