Do We Have A Sovereign Country or Not?
Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel
Colorado Springs, CO
Originally sent to subscribers 01/09/24
“Every state is a border state.”
The southern border chaos is a choice by the Biden administration.
The administration’s figures show seven million illegals have crossed the border and two million were got-a-ways.
Some sources estimate the crossings at more like 14-15 million.
In the Del Rio sector alone, the Border Patrol estimates the cartels are making $32 million/wk. on just people trafficking alone. That means we’re helping funnel $1.6 billion/year to violent international cartels in just one border sector.
These were the opening remarks from House Speaker Mike Johnson, only days after he led a delegation of 60 House members to the Texas border near El Paso. Johnson spoke on a phone call of Heritage Action Sentinels, along with Thomas Homan, former acting director at ICE and Mark Morgan, U.S. Customs and Border Protection former acting commissioner.
Johnson added that Border Patrol personnel told him that agents are not patrolling the border but instead are processing, feeding, housing and caretaking illegals. The goals is just to process more people into the country.
As for the negotiations in Washington on border legislation, Johnson reiterated that seven months after the House passed and sent H.R. 2 border legislation package to the Senate, “we are holding the line” at getting meaningful border legislation.
We are not going to fund the security of other countries’ borders while ignoring our own home border, he said. This is a matter of national sovereignty.
With negotiations relatively stalemated, spending bills on hold and government shutdowns looming, Johnson said he had requested a meeting with President Biden to try to get things moving.
President Biden actually has the authority to stop this chaos but he will not, Johnson pointed out.
Morgan said the administration has turned operational control of the border over to the cartels.
As for facts not getting much attention, 60 to 70 percent of the crossers are adolescent males between 18-40 years old, some of them with militant attitudes and others small military groups with heavy armor and camouflage. These are not family units with small children.
The deputy chief of the Border Patrol, with 33 years’ experience, told the group it was like dealing with a fire hydrant. We don’t need more buckets, he said, we need someone to shut off the flow.
Another Border Patrol veteran told Johnson that President Biden had managed in six months to dismantle the system it had taken 100 years to build.
Homan, a 34-year veteran of the department, said it is obvious the administration is purposely “unsecuring” the border.
He also said there needs to be de-funding of the NGO groups that are providing all kinds of assistance and supplies to the illegals.
Morgan said CNN’s Jake Tapper tried to get Johnson in a recent interview to say that more money would solve the border problems. Johnson didn’t take the bait, saying the problem was policies, not money.
Johnson told of being in a hearing a couple years ago when it came out NYC was allowing illegals to vote.
Johnson asked Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) if they wanted that policy everywhere.
Yes, we would love that, Nadler said.
Democrats have been trying to place blame for the lack of border solutions on Republicans, claiming they voted for fewer border agents. Johnson said that Republicans have voted for more Border Agents, not fewer. And of the $14 billion budget request from Biden, only 17 percent is supposed to be directed at real border security.
The New York Post quoted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct) as saying that the budget request was to be directed at “processing costs” and transportation. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said the money should not be spent to “facilitate travel through the border.”
HR2 has a number of elements. Johnson said all of them are necessary to make the system work. One requires DHS to build 900 miles of wall. Another authorizes retention bonuses for border patrol agents and requires DHS to build a force of 22,000 agents by Sept. 30, 2025.
One portion of the bill requires each agent to have two-way radios, to beef up license plate readers at crossings and upgrade electronic surveillance capabilities.
Sec. 115 prohibits DHS from (1) processing illegals arriving in between ports of entry; (2) providing funds to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that facilitate or encourage unlawful activity; or (3) providing funds to NGOs that provide certain services, such as lodging or immigration legal services, to illegals.
The bill bars a person from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they have passed through another country before arriving here. DHS must remove that individual to a third country, regardless of asylum processes in that country.
It also requires more credible evidence for prosecution in their home country; more stringent restrictions regarding criminal activity; a six-month employment authorization for asylum seekers, with one extension. There is also increased authority for removing other illegals present in the U.S.
The bill also requires expedited removal for individuals who have entered illegally, instead of stating may be removed under present law. Asylum seekers must be detained or removed while waiting for their cases to come up. A state may sue DHS to enforce these requirements.
Visa overstay penalties are increased from $50-250 to $500-1,000.
Another section restricts parole granting, specifically on a case by case basis, rather than by group classification. The administration has used parole on the basis of “humanitarian” grounds as a reason for letting hundreds of thousands of illegals to be released into the country.
Employers would be required to use E-Verify, which many states already require.
The bill uses complicated language to prohibit catch and release.
Johnson described DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as an “engineer of chaos,” purposefully facilitating more illegal entry. Regarding the effort to impeach Mayorkas, Johnson said the lies he has told Congress are part of the grounds for impeachment.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he said.
A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal urged Republicans not to reject what could be a pretty good deal over wall construction and requirements for E-Verify. Normally, we agree with the old saying that half a loaf is better than none. But we’ve already paid for wall materials and it’s common sense the wall is part of the solution. As for E-Verify, it is not a hard tool to use and puts little burden on employers like the Journal contends.
We do agree that if the deal includes the key elements of HR2, the Republicans should not hold off on a solution now so as to have the border problem as a campaign issue this year. It has taken way too long to get the general public’s insistence on getting something done. Republicans should not waste this window in time nor this rare moment of political leverage. The chaos on the border is a serious cultural, economic, crime and security problem, the dimensions of which we can only guess at now. Horrific eventualities are certain, some already obvious. We can only hope to avoid downright catastrophe.
Contact your Senators, tell them you want the provisions of HR2, Johnson said. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is adamant that they don’t want to call it by that name “HR2,” he added. We don’t care what they call it but it is critical that all the components be included, Johnson said.
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