How's Your Spanish???

Better practice up, cuz the real invasion is just about ready to go.

Kudos to the Repubs, that have submitted great proposal, but...

Biden admin to allow for the release of some migrants into the U.S. with no way to track them
NBC Universal
JULIA AINSLEY
Updated May 10, 2023 at 10:56 AM

After more than 11,000 migrants were caught crossing the southern border on Tuesday, the Biden administration is now preparing a memo that will direct Customs and Border Protection to begin releasing migrants into the United States without court dates or the ability to track them, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The Biden administration began releasing migrants without court dates to alleviate overcrowding in March 2021, but had previously enrolled those migrants in a program known as Alternatives to Detention, which required them to check in on a mobile app until they were eventually given a court date. The new policy would release them on “parole” with a notice to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office but without enrolling them in the program.

The more than 11,000 border apprehensions in a single day is a record and surpasses expectations of 10,000 per day predicted by Department of Homeland Security officials on what could come when Covid restrictions lift late Thursday.

“We’re already breaking and we haven’t hit the starting line,” one DHS official told NBC News, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the person isn't authorized to talk to the media.

Speaking at a news conference just before noon, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the migrants who will be affected by this policy represent “a fraction of the people that we encounter.”

"In fact, the vast majority will be addressed in our border patrol facilities and our ICE detention facilities," Mayorkas added.

A DHS spokesperson said the new policy will apply only to migrants who have been carefully vetted.

"As Republican and Democratic administrations alike have done in the past to protect the safety and security of Border Patrol agents and migrants in the event of severe overcrowding conditions, U.S. Border Patrol sectors may consider releasing certain migrants who have undergone strict national security and public safety vetting to continue their immigration processes," the DHS spokesperson said.

“This may include processing migrants for parole to reduce the amount of time they spend in custody. Each parole will be considered on an individualized case-by-case basis, and individuals who are released will be required to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and undergo removal proceedings in immigration court. Individuals may be placed into an Alternatives to Detention program to ensure compliance, if deemed appropriate. The targeted use of parole will allow Border Patrol to focus its resources most effectively to quickly process and remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the country.”

The restrictions, known as Title 42, have turned back migrants choosing to seek asylum more than 2.5 million times since the policy was enacted in March 2020. The Biden administration is set to lift Title 42 at 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday, allowing more migrants to enter the country and be screened for a potential asylum claim. The policy shift is expected to draw more migrants and slow down processing times for migrants in Border Patrol custody.

Already, Customs and Border Protection processing centers are holding more than 27,000 migrants, according to the two sources familiar with the numbers, far higher than the roughly 18,500 the facilities are equipped to hold.

The decision to begin quickly releasing migrants in centers that are over capacity is designed to alleviate overcrowding in them ahead of what is expected to be a greater surge when Title 42 lifts.

“It’s a public health danger. We will start having people die,” the DHS official said about the overcrowding problem.

Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.

Videos at https://www.aol.com/news/biden-admin-plans-order-release-134404968.html

Tens of thousands at US border as Title 42 migrant policy ends
Published 5 hours ago
By Bernd Debusmann Jr | BBC
Reporting from El Paso, Texas

About 60,000 people are waiting to cross into the US from Mexico, officials say, after a pandemic-era border policy expired on Friday.

The policy, known as Title 42, allowed the US to swiftly deport people without an asylum hearing, using the coronavirus pandemic as justification.

It ended overnight after three years along with the country's national Covid-19 health emergency.

President Biden's new rules to replace Title 42 are facing legal challenges.

Several people in the town of El Paso in Texas said they hurried to reach the border ahead of the policy change. They told the BBC they were unsure what the new rules would mean and had been left confused by rumours and misinformation.

Jon Uzcategui and his girlfriend Esmaily, both 24, arrived here from Venezuela. They said they were told by smugglers and other migrants that they would be immediately deported if they presented themselves at the border, prompting them to illegally cross the barriers separating El Paso from Mexico.

"We trusted them, and were starting to move into the US. But we were stopped at a roadblock," said Mr Uzcategui, who was eventually allowed in after his asylum claim was heard. "The agents told us that [what we heard] was all false."

"All the migrants were talking about 11 May," he added. "But there were lots of rumours. We just knew something was changing."

The end of Title 42 triggered a desperate race to the 2,000-mile (3,200km) US-Mexico border. About 10,000 people have been crossing each day - the highest levels on record.

Ahead of the policy's expiration, it was quiet in El Paso where makeshift migrant camps on the city's streets have largely been removed. But local authorities and humanitarian organisations are bracing for what some fear may be a difficult-to-manage rise in attempted crossings.

The city's mayor, Oscar Leeser, warned that an estimated 10,000 migrants were waiting for an opportunity to cross into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.

The Biden administration has unveiled a raft of new measures aimed at encouraging people to stop crossing illegally and to follow the asylum process.

These include the opening of regional processing centres in Latin America and the expanded use of a Customs and Border Patrol-run app to book asylum appointments.

Officials say those crossing the border illegally will be deported, barred from re-entering the US for at least five years and presumed ineligible for asylum.

Under Title 42, there were no such consequences meaning repeat attempts to cross the border were common.

"We are ready to humanely process and remove people without a legal basis to be in the US," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. "The border is not open."

The new rules and the efforts of immigration officials to assuage the fears of local residents have done little to reassure many of those who help migrants in El Paso.

"It's going to be a very large challenge for us," said Susan Goodell, the chief executive of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, which has been feeding hundreds of migrants each day on the city's streets.

"We're preparing, to the best of our ability, to find the food that we need to feed people living on the street or in shelters," she said. "With the lifting of Title 42, we think it'll be a short time before we start seeing a large number of migrants coming into the community again."

"We're stocking up on food and supplies as much as possible," said Nicole Reulet, marketing director of Rescue Mission El Paso, a local shelter that houses migrants.

"Nobody really knows what to expect, or what the numbers will look like. It makes it hard for us to prepare."

On Thursday, about 25,000 migrants were in Border Patrol custody, far exceeding the agency's capacity to hold them.

To reduce overflow, officials had planned to release migrants and tell them to report to an immigration office within 60 days. That effort, however, was blocked by a federal judge in Florida. The Biden administration is expected to appeal.

In the longer term, the lifting of Title 42 is likely to be a contentious political issue in the US. House Republicans, for example, are already considering a package of immigration bills, although they have little chance of passing a Democratic-controlled Senate.

The country's immigration system has not been significantly updated for decades and both Democrats and Republicans have said it is in need of reform.

But the two sides have major differences on border policy, meaning there is little prospect of bipartisan legislation that could overhaul the system in future

https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/08/21/biden-sold-off-300m-of-border-wall-materials-at-99-discount/


Biden Sold Off $300M of Border Wall Materials at 99% Discount.

The Biden government is selling off $300 million worth of materials intended for Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall for just $2 million in an effort to stop it being used to deter illegal migrant crossings.

GovPlanet, an online auction house that specializes in selling military surplus, has auctioned off over 80 lots of square structural tubes intended to be used as 28-foot vertical bollards for around $298 million less than its original cost since April this year, with another 13 lots up for auction before the end of August. The auctioneers also received $154,200 for 729 vertical bollards sold in five individual lots earlier this week.

Critics of the Biden regime claim that it’s attempting to expedite the sale of the materials before the majority Republican House of Representatives passes and enforces the Finish It Act – a bill introduced by Texas Senator Ted Cruz that would require the government to deploy materials to ensure the Southern Border wall is completed.

Exclusive: Smuggler with ties to ISIS helped migrants enter US from Mexico, raising alarm bells across government
CNN
KATIE BO LILLIS, EVAN PEREZ, PRISCILLA ALVAREZ AND NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN
August 29, 2023 at 7:51 PM

The FBI is investigating more than a dozen migrants from Uzbekistan and other countries allowed into the US after they sought asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year, a scramble set off when US intelligence officials found that the migrants traveled with the help of a smuggler with ties to ISIS, according to multiple US officials.

While the FBI says no specific ISIS plot has been identified, officials are still working to “identify and assess” all of the individuals who gained entry to the United States, according to a statement from National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson. And they are closely scrutinizing a number of the migrants as possible criminal threats, according to two US officials.

Though there is no evidence at this point to justify detaining anyone, the episode was so alarming that an urgent classified intelligence report was circulated to President Joe Biden’s top Cabinet officials in their morning briefing book. For some counterterrorism officials, it shows that the US is deeply vulnerable to the possibility that terrorists could sneak across the southern border by hiding amid the surge of migrants entering the country in search of asylum.

The incident kicked off a flurry of urgent meetings among top national security and administration officials at a time when Republicans have hammered Biden on the security of the southern border heading into the 2024 campaign. Staff on key congressional committees have been informed of the incident, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Earlier this year, a cohort of migrants from Uzbekistan requested asylum and were screened by the Department of Homeland Security, part of a rising number of asylum seekers who have traveled to the US from Central Asia in recent years. There was no information in any of the intelligence community’s databases that raised any red flags and the people were all released into the US pending a court date.

It was only later, when the FBI learned about the existence of a human smuggling network helping foreign nationals travel to the US – and that this network included at least one individual with connections to ISIS – that national security officials put the pieces together.

FBI agents around the country immediately rushed to try to locate the migrants and investigate their backgrounds. The bureau also worked with Turkish authorities, who arrested the smuggler and other members of his network at the behest of the US, and has subsequently obtained information from him to aid its investigation, US officials said.

“There was no indication—and remains no indication—that any of the individuals facilitated by this network have a connection to a foreign terrorist organization or are engaged in plotting a terrorist attack in the United States,” Watson said in a statement to CNN.

Since the intelligence became available, homeland security officials also began detaining, vetting and, ultimately, expediting the removal of other migrants encountered at the southern border who “fit the profile associated with individuals who were facilitated by this network,” Watson said.

The ISIS-linked smuggler is not believed to be a member of the terror group, but more like an independent contractor who has personal sympathies with the organization, according to US officials. The intelligence community now believes it is unlikely that he was assisting these individuals at the behest of ISIS. Most are believed to be seeking a better life in the United States.

For some Biden administration officials, the episode is an example of the system working as it should: intelligence came to light about a particular group of migrants and the US responded with an investigation determining that they did not pose a threat.

“While the FBI has not identified a specific terrorism plot associated with foreign nationals who recently entered the United States at the southern border, we always work with our field offices across the country, as well as our domestic and international partners, to identify any potential illegal activity or terrorism threats,” the FBI said in a statement to CNN.

But the US has not yet located all of the individuals who traveled as part of the network, according to Watson’s statement. And more than 15 of the migrants tracked down are still under scrutiny by the FBI as possible criminal threats, according to one US official.

Some law enforcement and intelligence officials privately expressed concerns that an unusual increase in the number of migrants from Central Asia, a region that isn’t known to be a major source of refugees, didn’t spark more investigation by US border authorities.

“We continually assess our security architecture to ensure that we are best poised to respond to threats to the homeland,” Watson said in her statement to CNN. “Moreover, we will continue to constantly recalibrate our screening, vetting, and processing of those encountered entering the United States to ensure that we are taking into account the most up-to-date information at our disposal and with an unyielding commitment to protecting Americans and the homeland from the full range of potential threats.”

Watson also said in her statement that the US is working with foreign partners to shut down travel routes associated with the smuggling network.

In a statement to CNN, an official from the Turkish Embassy in Washington said that Turkey had arrested four members of a smuggling ring that, the official said, the US had told Turkey aided the travel of Uzbeks, Russians, Chechens and Georgians residing in Turkey to the United States.

The Turkish official denied that there was a connection between any of the four arrested individuals and ISIS.

A DHS spokesperson told CNN that the department along with its “counterterrorism, and law enforcement partners screen and vet individuals prior to their entry to the United States to prevent anyone known to pose a threat from entering the country. DHS continually monitors all available sources of intelligence and information related to potential threats and if any new information emerges, we work closely with the FBI and other partners to take appropriate action.”

Terrorism and the border
The episode sits squarely at the nexus of two of the thorniest and most politically fraught security challenges facing the Biden administration: terrorism and the border. Biden has grappled with how to prevent terror attacks on the US homeland at a time when the intelligence community and the military have shifted many of their resources away from counterterrorism in favor of threats from China and Russia.

Administration officials have also grappled with limited resources as they face a growing number of migrants at the US southern border. Migration patterns to the United States have changed dramatically in recent years, with people arriving to the United States from more than 150 countries – the result, officials say, of unprecedented mass migration around the world.

In July, border authorities encountered more than 183,000 migrants at the US southern border, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have been forced to wrestle with similar cases of suspected terrorists trying to enter the country at the southern border.

But the number of individuals encountered at the border with records in the terror watchlist in a given year is extremely small and represents a very small percentage of the total number of known or suspected terrorists who try to enter or travel to the US through other means.

When USCBP officers process migrants at the border, they take biometrics, like fingerprints and facial scans, and run individuals through certain law enforcement databases for any red flags.

Migrants arriving at the US southern border from central Asia may trigger additional screening because of the distance and cost required to take the journey, according to a former senior DHS official, which raises questions about why an individual from that part of the world would choose to cross at the US southern border.

But if there is no so-called derogatory information about a person in US databases, then the migrant is released pending a court date. Although some asylum seekers do not appear for their court date, officials say that US law enforcement has surveillance tools at its disposal to locate those individuals in the United States.

It’s not clear whether this particular group of migrants received secondary screening at the time, but it’s possible – even likely – that they did. But because officials believe the Turkish smuggler was acting as a run-of-the-mill human smuggler, not an agent of ISIS, it’s not clear that they would have been detained or in any other way handled differently even if the government had known about his role at the time they were processed.

For some intelligence and law enforcement officials who spoke privately to CNN, that’s part of the problem. The US government has to figure out how to define who is and who isn’t a threat in a murky world where criminal activity like human smuggling is often commingled with amorphous connections to terrorism organizations. It is particularly difficult to disentangle those threads for desperate migrants fleeing countries where terror groups routinely recruit and operate.

Speaking at a July congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “From the FBI’s perspective, that we are seeing all sorts of very serious, very serious, criminal threats that come from across the border.”

Wray said the southern border was becoming “more of a priority” for the FBI.

Some intelligence officials who viewed the intelligence report sent around earlier this month worry that ISIS may shift its tactics to target the southern border, long a bogeyman on the political right but one that intelligence officials say has yet to become a reality.

For other officials, the intelligence reporting to top policymakers was better described as an appropriately cautious response by a responsible government – a warning describing the theoretical risk to the United States so that national security agencies could understand the threat and determine how best to harden American defenses.

“Whenever we have indicators that criminal actors – such as those involved in human smuggling – have connections to terrorism, we work diligently with our partners to investigate and understand how foreign terrorist organizations may attempt to exploit their capabilities so that we can best mitigate any risk to the American public,” the FBI said in its statement.