Tag: illegal immigration

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Donald Trump makes a Texas-size splash with visit to Mexican border

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By James Hohmann July 23 at 8:05 PM

LAREDO, Tex. — A defiant Donald Trump, visiting the U.S. border with Mexico here Thursday, said again that he will not apologize for his hard-line rhetoric on illegal immigration or back away from his plan to build a wall between the two nations.

During a whirlwind visit — it was less than three hours from when his jet touched down to when it took off — Trump blazed around in a presidential-style motorcade that included seven SUVs and even more police cars. Local officers blocked off roads, including Interstate 35, for Trump’s entourage.

The Republican presidential candidate, leading the GOP field in national polls but increasingly under fire from the establishment wing of his party, said repeatedly that he had been told he would be in “great danger” if he visited this town of 236,000 in southern Texas — even though Laredo, which is roughly 96 percent Hispanic, has a significantly lower murder rate than Trump’s home town of New York City. He would not say who had told him that he was at risk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-makes-a-texas-size-splash-with-visit-to-mexican-border/2015/07/23/277670c8-316b-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html

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Trump: ‘We have to take back the heart of our country’

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By Philip Rucker and Robert Costa July 11 at 10:22 PM

PHOENIX — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose caustic comments about Mexicans have inflamed the immigration debate, told thousands of cheering supporters here Saturday that “we have to take back the heart of our country.”

In a rambling, defiant speech delivered in this border state that has been the epicenter of the nation’s divisive battle over immigration reform, Trump declared: “These are people that shouldn’t be in our country. They flow in like water.” One man in the crowd of 4,200 shouted back, “Build a wall!”

Basking in polls that show he has risen to the top of the crowded Republican field, Trump took obvious glee in mocking former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the establishment favorite who is setting fundraising records.

“Jeb Bush, let’s say he’s president — Oy, yoy, yoy,” Trump said. He asked the crowd: “How can I be tied with this guy? He’s terrible. Terrible. He’s weak on immigration.”

Trump’s 70-minute address here, which sounded more like a stream-of-consciousness rant than a presidential-style stump speech, put an exclamation point on his bombastic push since his presidential announcement last month to return immigration to the forefront of the national conversation.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-tells-supporters-we-need-to-take-back-the-heart-of-our-country/2015/07/11/066aecf2-27dd-11e5-b77f-eb13a215f593_story.html

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Gun in San Francisco killing stolen from federal agent’s vehicle, source says

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By Dan Simon, Sara Sidner and Ed Payne, CNN

Updated 1:35 PM ET, Wed July 8, 2015

San Francisco (CNN)The gun used in the killing of a San Francisco woman in a case that gave new political prominence to the issue of illegal immigration was stolen from a vehicle belonging to a federal Bureau of Land Management agent, a source familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.

Kate Steinle was shot to death on July 1 on one of San Francisco’s busiest piers.

The .40-caliber pistol was a personal weapon, not an official firearm, the source said. Investigators still are trying to determine how Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the man accused in Steinle’s killing, allegedly obtained the weapon, according to the source.

Earlier, a source close to the probe told CNN that the gun belonged to a federal agent.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that the weapon was stolen in a car burglary in June, citing sources close to the investigation.

Kate Steinle, 32, died after being shot July 1 at a San Francisco pier.

Lopez-Sanchez told CNN affiliate KGO-TV that he fired the weapon, but it was an accident. He said he’d found the gun wrapped inside a T-shirt before it accidentally went off.

It was not clear if Lopez-Sanchez understood all the questions posed in English and Spanish during the KGO interview. He appeared disoriented and gave contradictory answers about what had happened and how he felt.

Shooting victim Kate Steinle known for thinking of others first

Lopez-Sanchez is an undocumented immigrant and a repeat felon who has been deported to Mexico five times, according to immigration officials.

The case has drawn the attention of presidential candidates and brought a renewed focus on U.S. immigration laws and the role local authorities should play in enforcing them.

The key question is whether San Francisco’s policies set the stage for the shooting by putting a criminal on the streets instead of delivering him into the hands of federal authorities who could have deported him again.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/08/us/san-francisco-killing/index.html

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Border Meltdown: Obama Delivering 290,000 Illegals To U.S. Homes

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Border Meltdown: Obama Delivering 290,000 Illegals To U.S. Homes

The vast majority of 50,000 unaccompanied youths and children who have illegally crossed the Texas border during the last few months have been successfully delivered by federal agencies to their relatives living in the United States, according to a New York Times article.

A second New York Times article report revealed that officials have caught an additional 240,000 Central American migrants since April, and are transporting many of them to their destinations throughout the United States.

The 290,000 illegals — so far — are exploiting legal loopholes that allow them to get temporary permits to stay in the United States.

Experts say that President Barack Obama’s administration has failed to close the loopholes and is unlikely to deport more than a small percentage of the illegals, despite the high unemployment rates among American Latino, African-American and white youths, and the strapped budgets of many cities and towns.

The president’s policy has caused protests by frightened citizens in towns such as Murrieta. But Obama’s allies — such as La Raza, an ethnic lobby for Latinos — are eager to escalate the conflict and to paint the protestors as racists. Those protests may escalate before the November elections.

Read more: https://dailycaller.com/2014/07/05/border-meltdown-obama-delivering-290000-illegals-to-u-s-homes/#ixzz36g4heb6i

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Border security: Key questions answered

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Border security: Key questions answered

By Peter Sullivan – 06/29/14 02:30 PM EDT

A surge of children crossing the southern border and entering the United States illegally has become a political crisis. House Republicans hammered the White House on the issue in recent days while the administration countered by highlighting how it has responded.

But what’s really going on?

1. How big is the surge?     

52,193 unaccompanied children, defined as those under the age of 18, were apprehended crossing the southern border of the United States from Oct. 1, 2013 to June 15, 2014. That’s about double the 26,206 who were caught in the same timeframe the previous year.

In addition, 39,000 adults with children have been apprehended during that time period, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

2. Where are the children coming from?

About three-quarters of the children come from just three countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The increase in unaccompanied children from those nations began in the 2012 fiscal year and has accelerated since then, according to DHS data. There are about ten times as many children from those countries crossing the border as there were in fiscal year 2011. Meanwhile, the numbers from other Central American countries have remained steady. The number of children arriving illegally from Mexico actually declined in the most recent fiscal year.

3. What are the root causes?     

There are several, but strife in those three countries, together with untrue rumors of “permisos” allowing children to stay in the United States, play a key part.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/210884-border-crisis-five-key-questions-answered#ixzz364x7gwUE 

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EX-BORDER AGENTS: IMMIGRANT FLOOD ‘ORCHESTRATED’

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EX-BORDER AGENTS: IMMIGRANT FLOOD ‘ORCHESTRATED’

‘We are not gullible enough to believe thousands came without aid and assistance’

Published: 13 hours ago

An organization of former Border Patrol agents Wednesday charged that the federal government, under the administration of President Obama, is deliberately arranging for a flood of immigrant children to arrive in America for political purposes.

“This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes,” said the statement released by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.

“Certainly, we are not gullible enough to believe that thousands of unaccompanied minor Central American children came to America without the encouragement, aid and assistance of the United States government,” the officers said.

“Anyone that has taken two six- to seven-year-old children to an amusement park can only imagine the problems associated with bringing thousands of unaccompanied children that age up through Mexico and into the United States.”

Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2014/06/ex-border-agents-immigrant-flood-orchestrated/#rkIPz8DkGt4bxGHB.9

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Report: 36K criminals freed while awaiting deportation

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Report: 36K criminals freed while awaiting deportation
BySTEPHANIE SLIFERCBS NEWSMay 13, 2014, 12:45 PM

NEW YORK – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released 36,007 convicted criminal aliens last year who were awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings, according to a report issued Monday by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The group of released criminals includes those convicted of homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to the report, which cites a document prepared by the ICE.

A majority of the releases were not required by law and were discretionary, the organization says.

According to the report, the 36,007 individuals released represented nearly 88,000 convictions, including:

193 homicide convictions
426 sexual assault convictions
303 kidnapping convictions
1,075 aggravated assault convictions
1,160 stolen vehicle convictions
9,187 dangerous drug convictions
16,070 drunk or drugged driving convictions
303 flight escape convictions

In a statement which accompanied the findings, Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, called the number of criminal aliens released “shocking.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-36k-criminals-freed-while-awaiting-deportation/