POTUS to pursue an aggressive executive crackdown on immigration

[Swordsmyth]

A United Nations agency, with funding from the U.S. State Department, is transporting thousands of immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border back to Central America in a program that has drawn the ire of migrant legal advocates

[Swordsmyth]

A new level of despair spread among tens of thousands of migrants waiting on the Mexican border to seek refuge in the U.S. as the Trump administration began enforcing radical new restrictions Thursday on who qualifies for asylum.

The new U.S. policy would effectively deny asylum to nearly all migrants arriving at the southern border who aren’t from Mexico. It would disallow anyone who passes through another country without first seeking and failing to obtain asylum there.
The rule will fall most heavily on Central Americans, mainly Hondurans and Guatemalans, because they account for most people arrested or stopped at the border.
But it also represents an enormous setback for other asylum seekers, including large numbers of Africans, Haitians and Cubans who try to enter the United States by way of the Mexican border.
It is perhaps the biggest change to U.S. asylum policy since it was established in 1980 and the most consequential move of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, a signature issue as he heads into a re-election campaign.
The Trump administration put the policy into effect the day after the Supreme Court cleared it to do so while legal challenges move forward.
Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan called the high court’s go-ahead a “big victory” in the administration’s effort to curb the flow of migrants.

Jessica Collins, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that handles asylum cases, said it will be retroactive to July 16, when it was announced.
Collins said it will help remove one of the factors that impel people to set out for the United States, “leading to fewer individuals transiting through Mexico on a dangerous journey.”

Many asylum seekers denied refuge under the new policy will be placed in fast-track deportation proceedings and flown to their home countries at U.S. expense, authorities said.

More at: https://apnews.com/b183921bacb2444c81352ace4415c73d

[Swordsmyth]

About half the people who signed up to initiate asylum claims at an El Paso port of entry are no longer showing up when called, Mexican officials say. Those officials interpret this as a sign many Central Americans and others are returning home or exploring alternatives to escape the violence, poverty or persecution that drove them out of their countries.
“We know this is going on because when they are called to meet with CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) to request asylum, we call, for example, 10 people and we are able to go down 30 to 40 numbers on the list because many don’t show up,” said Enrique Valenzuela, director of the Chihuahua state Population Council, which manages a waiting list of asylum seekers in Juarez on behalf of U.S. authorities.


As of Wednesday, 6,200 migrants remained on that list, but Valenzuela estimates that only 3,000 to 3,100 are still in Juarez.
“We believe many of those people have returned to their home country. … Even more people say they want to leave, that they don’t want to go on with their asylum request,” he said.
In addition to the list to initiate asylum claims, more than 14,000 others started the process and have been returned to wait out their cases in Mexico under the United States’ Migrant Protection Protocol Program (MPP). Valenzuela said 30 percent to 40 percent of those also have gone back home or maybe are trying to enter the U.S. through alternative means.
“Maybe we have between 8,000 to 9,000 people still here (in Juarez),” the Mexican official said. Church-run shelters that once were bursting at the seams with Cubans, Central Americans and even African migrants are no longer at capacity. “We have 600 migrants, mostly from the MPP program, at the new Leona Vicario federal shelter, and the rest of the shelters combined have 1,546 people,” he added.
Valenzuela said Mexico’s National Migration Institute and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are providing bus rides to migrants to their countries. The rides are voluntary, but many migrants are taking advantage of them, he said.

More at: https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/ne...officials-say/

[Swordsmyth]

The Interior Department transferred 500 acres of public land to the Pentagon this week to build 70 miles of Trump border wall in New Mexico, Arizona and California.

This is on top of the billions transferred from the Pentagon to the border wall project.
Via Trump Wall Construction











Talking Points Memo reported:

The Interior Department is transferring about 500 acres of public land to the Pentagon in order to construct about 70 miles of President Trump’s border wall, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The land was previously monitored by the Bureau of Land Management and will now be overseen by the U.S. Army. The 560 acres total includes 213 acres in New Mexico, 301 acres in Arizona and 44 acres in San Diego, California.
The move is all part of Trump’s efforts to expedite the construction of mass portions of his border wall before the 2020 election. Earlier this month, the Trump administration took $3.6 billion from military construction project funding to devote toward the wall.

Here is another graphic from Trump Wall Construction



https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...p-border-wall/

[enhanced_deficit]

Bold move as usual.


Related


http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6733646

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post6748172

Trump reiterates claim that he wants more legal immigration

[Swordsmyth]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...36714586132480

[Swordsmyth]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...36796496658435

[Swordsmyth]

Trump administration reaches deal to send asylum seekers to El Salvador in an effort to deter migrants from entering the United States

[Swordsmyth]

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan announced on Monday the end of the practice his department refers to as "catch and release," with changes coming as early as next week. The term refers to the process in which the federal government must release migrant families, mostly from Central America, apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border into the interior of the United States to begin the process of seeking asylum. That process can take years, given the massive backlogs in the country's immigration courts.

McAleenan made the announcement during prepared remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.
"(The Department of Homeland Security) will no longer be releasing family units from Border Patrol Stations into the interior," McAleenan said. "This means that for family units, the largest demographic by volume arriving at the border this year, the court-mandated practice of 'catch and release' due to the inability of DHS to complete immigration proceedings with families detained together in custody -- will have been mitigated."
In doing so, McAleenan would be fulfilling President Donald Trump's campaign promise to end so-called "catch and release." It follows several steps the Trump administration has taken in recent months to restrict the ability of migrants to claim asylum in the U.S.


In a follow-up statement, the Homeland Security Department said the move is part of its "strategy to mitigate the loopholes that act as a 'pull factor' for family units seeking to cross illegally at the Southwest border."
The department said that if migrant families do not claim a fear of return, they will be "quickly" deported back to their countries of origin. But if they do express a fear of return, the families would be sent back to Mexico to await the outcome of their asylum proceedings under the policy known as the "Migrant Protection Protocols."


In his remarks, McAleenan said policies such as the Migrant Protection Protocols and the new restrictions on asylum are having their intended effect. The number of migrants apprehended at the border has decreased after peaking in May.
Still, he stopped short of claiming success.
"We can’t let our progress cloud our vision," McAleenan said. "We are still at crisis levels in illegal crossings at the Southwest Border and, until we change the fundamental laws governing our immigration system, we won’t solve the underlying problem."

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-adminis...025632910.html

[Swordsmyth]

No biggie, just the last link in a fence that might end up mooting much of the asylum debate in Congress. While most of the attention today has focused on Ukraine, the White House announced a new agreement with Honduras to take any refugees seeking asylum first rather than the US. That makes three nations with safe-third-country agreements in Central America that effectively blocks the land route for asylum seekers from south of Mexico:

The Trump administration reached a deal with the government of Honduras to enhance the Central American nation’s asylum capacity.
The agreement, signed Wednesday, is similar to agreements previously reached with the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala, a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told reporters on a phone call.
The official said migrants who had an opportunity to seek protection in Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala will be returned from the U.S. border to seek asylum or protection in one of those countries under the recent agreements, including the new Honduras accord.
The U.S. and international organizations will work to help build upon Honduras’s current systems and processes to expand its asylum capacity, the official said.

The Trump administration has attempted to get around the gridlock in Congress by using its diplomatic authority to deal with waves of asylum seekers. Most of these cases turn out not to qualify, with the request dealing with economic issues rather than oppression. In 2017, the most recent year for which DHS has statistics, the US received 139,801 affirmative asylum cases, where the person applies on arrival, and processed an additional 119,303 defensive asylum cases (filed when the DoJ attempts to deport a person). Only 26,568 were approved combined for both categories, for an approval rate of 10.3%.


How many of the other 90% remained in the country anyway is unknown, but it’s likely to be a lot. Under US law, without a safe-third-country agreement in the way of these asylum seekers, the US had to house them even though 85-90% of those applications would end up being denied. The Trump administration had pressed Congress to act in tightening up asylum restrictions in order to disincentivize the flow through Mexico, but even under Republican control Congress didn’t do much of anything to deal with the issue. With Democrats in charge, that has become an even less likely path for progress.
So now the US doesn’t have to take them at all, and perhaps more importantly, Mexico doesn’t have to house them either. President López Obrador has managed to avoid signing a similar safe-third-country agreement with Trump, but instead has “voluntarily” housed asylum seekers while cases get adjudicated. Now neither country has to deal with those cases from refugees that transit through Guatemala, El Salvador, and now Honduras. They either have to go back to their homes south of that picket fence or into those three countries, which is probably not where they want to end up.

More at: https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morri...onduras-today/

[Swordsmyth]

BREAKING: Trump administration slashes U.S. refugee program for 2020, allowing the lowest number of refugees in the modern program's history, and says state and local governments must approve refugee resettlement – Reuters
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 26, 2019

[Swordsmyth]

Mexican authorities on Saturday said they detained two suspected leaders of a human smuggling ring that brought migrants from South America and Asia to Mexico before transporting them toward the country's northern border with the United States.

The suspected smugglers received on average 25 migrants per week who entered through the airports of Cancun or Mexico City and were then transported by bus to Mexicali in the border state Baja California, authorities said.
Most migrants were from Ecuador and Peru, while others were from India, the statement said. It added that migrants paid up to $2,500 for "not have any inconvenience entering the country and traveling to the border."

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/mexico-busts-...184632270.html

[enhanced_deficit]

India’s prime minister accused of “interfering” in the next US presidential election

Temporary relief to Indians in US! Work ban on H-1B visa holders' spouses pushed back till 2020

A 2015 rule issued by Barack Obama allowed work permits for certain categories of H-4 visa holders (dependent family members - spouse and children - of the H-1B visa holders), who otherwise could not be employed

September 19, 2019

Speaking in Texas, Modi repeated to rapturous applause the borrowed Trump campaign slogan: ‘Abki baar Trump sarkar (This time, [a] Trump government)’
September 23, 2019

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has been accused of “interfering” in the next US presidential election after he gave a speech in Texas that critics say tacitly endorsed Donald Trump for re-election in 2020.
Mr Modi made the comments as he appeared onstage alongside the US president during a rally in Houston on Sunday, which was attended by more than 50,000 members of the Indian diaspora.

[Swordsmyth]

The Trump administration is expanding its "Remain in Mexico" policy by allowing authorities to send most asylum-seekers to Mexico regardless of where they crossed the border.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-adminis...171812744.html

[Swordsmyth]

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Friday that will require immigrants to prove they can obtain health insurance before they are issued a visa.
The proclamation says immigrants must demonstrate they will have health insurance within 30 days of entering the country or that they can afford to cover any medical expenses.


The presidential proclamation will not affect refugees, asylum seekers or people on temporary visitor visas, according to the people familiar with it. The measure will be effective Nov. 3.
The required insurance can be provided by an employer or be purchased individually, and it can be for catastrophic or short-term coverage.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-proclam...232850584.html

[Swordsmyth]

Madison, MS resident Hector Valdez-Loera, 42, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison after being convicted of harboring an illegal alien for commercial advantage and private financial gain on Friday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III also called for three years of supervised release after Valdez-Loera completed his sentence in addition to a fine of $79,784.00 to cover administrative costs.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) found out about Valdez-Loera’s criminal activities while hunting for an illegal alien fugitive on April 13, 2017. ERO officials went to a home in Ridgeland, MS where they found two other illegal aliens, and then tracked the illegal they were following to Madison Concrete, the business owned by Valdez-Loera.

More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/justic...llegal-aliens/

[Swordsmyth]

President Trump’s administration deported more than 2,500 illegal aliens in the last two months who had arrived at the United States-Mexico border and claimed to be part of a family unit.

Federal data obtained by Breitbart News reveals that since August, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has deported more than 2,500 illegal aliens who arrived as a family unit at the southern border and have final orders for removal.
Over these two months, ICE agents arrested another 275 illegal aliens who arrived as family units at the border. All of these illegal aliens arrested have final orders for removal, meaning they have gone through the asylum and immigration courts and have been found not to be eligible to stay in the U.S.
Compare these deportation numbers to that of Fiscal Year 2018, when ICE deported 2,711 illegal aliens who arrived as family units at the border for the entire year.
This indicates that about 226 illegal aliens claiming to be part of a family unit were deported every month last year compared to about 1,250 deported each month in August and September of this year — a more than 453 percent increase in illegal family unit deportations based on monthly totals.

More at: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...recent-months/

[Swordsmyth]

Mexican officials broke up a caravan of around 2,000 migrants that had set out from southern Mexico Saturday in the hopes of reaching the United States, amid increasing difficulty obtaining permission to pass through Mexico.

The group trudged about 24 miles ( 40 kilometers) northwest along a highway under the supervision of human rights officials before federal police and national guardsmen blocked their path.
An Associated Press photographer saw hundreds of men, women and children running to escape the security forces encircling them in Huixtla, Chiapas.
They were rounded up and placed in vans. Officials refused to say where they were transporting the migrants.


The migrants have engaged in scuffles with police at the Tapachula immigration offices in recent weeks. Mexico says they can stay in southern Mexico, or leave by the southern border, but the migrants want documents that will allow them to reach the northern border.
Mexico frequently repatriates, by plane, migrants from countries such as Cuba and Honduras.


Maureen Meyer, director for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that enforcement around Tapachula has made it very difficult for migrants to head north undetected. Hence the decision to strike out en masse Saturday.
"What you had were thousands of people that were feeling very much trapped in Tapachula," she said.
Under pressure from the U.S., Mexico has practically stopped issuing visas for migrants to pass through the country. Migrants marooned in Tapachula faced the option of turning back across Mexico's southern border, trekking north clandestinely or applying for asylum in Mexico - a country that many feel is unsafe or unattractive because of language and cultural differences.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/caravan-2-000...190038904.html

[devil21]

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Friday that will require immigrants to prove they can obtain health insurance before they are issued a visa.
The proclamation says immigrants must demonstrate they will have health insurance within 30 days of entering the country or that they can afford to cover any medical expenses.


The presidential proclamation will not affect refugees, asylum seekers or people on temporary visitor visas, according to the people familiar with it. The measure will be effective Nov. 3.
The required insurance can be provided by an employer or be purchased individually, and it can be for catastrophic or short-term coverage.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-proclam...232850584.html

Pssh who needs Congress or separation of powers or that old nonsense? Just let Donnie make up laws by "proclamation" as he goes along.

Seems some people are dying for an authoritarian declaring whatever like he's King.

[Swordsmyth]

Pssh who needs Congress or separation of powers or that old nonsense? Just let Donnie make up laws by "proclamation" as he goes along.

Seems some people are dying for an authoritarian declaring whatever like he's King.

The law was already passed and signed, it just was never enforced, Trump is doing his Constitutional duty to enforce the law.

[devil21]

The law was already passed and signed, it just was never enforced, Trump is doing his Constitutional duty to enforce the law.

Which Congressionally instituted statute is that? The article only mentions the ACA but that's *gasp* Obamacare! And you told us that Trump repealed that, remember?

[Swordsmyth]

Which Congressionally instituted statute is that? The article only mentions the ACA but that's *gasp* Obamacare! And you told us that Trump repealed that, remember?

The law prohibiting immigrants likely to become public charges, Clinton signed it back when Demoncrats pretended to be sane but then refused to implement it.

[devil21]

The law prohibiting immigrants likely to become public charges, Clinton signed it back when Demoncrats pretended to be sane but then refused to implement it.

Which law is that? Cite the Act. I'm curious to see if you're correct or just making stuff up again.

[Swordsmyth]

Which law is that? Cite the Act. I'm curious to see if you're correct or just making stuff up again.

The enactment of the Public Charge rule comes after Trump signed an order set to begin in September that enforces existing 1996 laws signed into statute by then-President Bill Clinton. The order mandates that a family member or business sponsor of a legal immigrant looking to permanently resettle in the U.S. is responsible for paying back the welfare costs previously used by that immigrant. For example, if a visa holder has used $10,000 in food stamp benefits while living in the U.S., when a family member sponsors them for a green card, that family member will be notified of the legal immigrant’s welfare costs to taxpayers and will be obligated to pay back the amount. If the sponsor of a legal immigrant does not pay the welfare cost, the Treasury Offset Program will take the money out of the sponsor’s taxes for that year.
The order also ensures that the personal income of a legal immigrant’s sponsor is taken into consideration when a legal immigrant is applying for federal welfare. Currently, only the income of legal immigrants is considered by federal agencies when applying for public benefits. Under the rules set out by Clinton’s 1996 law, the Trump administration will make certain that the income of both the legal immigrant and their sponsor is considered when applying for benefits.

More at: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...f-sufficiency/


But what most people don't know is that in 1996 — fresh off the heels of signing welfare reform, and two years after signing the "crime bill" — President Bill Clinton signed a bill that overhauled immigration enforcement in the US and laid the groundwork for the massive deportation machine that exists today.
Both welfare reform and the crime bills Clinton signed have been relitigated during a contentious Democratic primary, but the 1996 immigration bill — the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act — hasn't.

More at: https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/115151...on-immigration

[devil21]

Interesting thanks for posting.

It confirms exactly what I've been saying about "illegal immigrants".

Currently, only the income of legal immigrants is considered by federal agencies when applying for public benefits.

The Feds have no jurisdiction over "illegal immigrants", as they are not property/chattel/assets/employees/tax slaves of the Federal Corporation. So whenever you bleat on about illegals or whatever, what you're really saying is that you want everyone to be considered legal property/slaves of the Feds instead of free human beings enjoying liberty on this beautiful land mass called America.

[Swordsmyth]

Interesting thanks for posting.

It confirms exactly what I've been saying about "illegal immigrants".



The Feds have no jurisdiction over "illegal immigrants", as they are not property/chattel/assets/employees/tax slaves of the Federal Corporation. So whenever you bleat on about illegals or whatever, what you're really saying is that you want everyone to be considered legal property/slaves of the Feds instead of free human beings enjoying liberty on this beautiful land mass called America.

LOL

That's total nonsense.

[devil21]

LOL

That's total nonsense.

No, it's not, but feel free to remain ignorant. Never stopped you before. Everything is contracts, yes including that social security card you signed. It bound you to a contract and made you an employee of a corporation, as you signed up for the corporation's socialist 'retirement plan' of collectivized currency. Property, a resource, to be used and later discarded when your usefulness has expired. It's odd to me that you're so against socialism yet can't see, nor accept, the socialism that's dominated this country for many years already, and even defend it, or call it "nonsense" when it is explained to you.

[Slave Mentality]

LOL

That's total nonsense.

What's nonsense is blabbing on around here ad nauseam about how giving more power to politicians is a liberty position. $#@!ing joke.

[Swordsmyth]

The Justice Department today announced that in fiscal year 2019 (FY19), its U.S. Attorneys’ Offices prosecuted the highest number of immigration-related offenses since record keeping began more than 25 years ago. These numbers successfully reverse the trend in previous years of declining prosecutions for felony Illegal Reentry defendants, misdemeanor Improper Entry defendants and felony Alien Smuggling defendants. “These record-breaking numbers are a testament to the dedication of our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the nation, especially our Southwest border offices,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “In addition to the usual workload of each case the Department prosecutes, this effort was made possible after our U.S. Attorneys’ Offices restored essential partnerships with national, state and local law-enforcement partners.”
The newly announced numbers show the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices charged 25,426 defendants with felony Illegal Reentry (8 U.S.C. §1326) in FY19, an increase of 8.5 percent from FY18.



80,866 defendants were charged with misdemeanor Improper Entry (8 U.S.C. §1325(a)), surpassing the record set just last year by 18.1 percent.



4,297 defendants were charged with Alien Smuggling (8 U.S.C. §1324), an increase of 15.4 percent from FY18.



The increased prosecutions are part of the Department of Justice’s commitment to enforcing America’s laws to address the crisis at the border. This announcement comes one week after the Department of Justice announced its Executive Office for Immigration Review completed 275,000 cases in FY19, the second highest number of completed cases in the court’s history.


https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/depar...es-fiscal-year

[Swordsmyth]

What's nonsense is blabbing on around here ad nauseam about how giving more power to politicians is a liberty position. $#@!ing joke.

What's nonsense is you pretending that allowing in an unlimited number of people from anti-liberty cultures will preserve liberty.