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Arizona voters will decide fate of Texas-style border law at the ballot box

Arizona voters will decide fate of Texas-style border law at the ballot box

The Arizona House of Representatives approved a bill Wednesday that will allow voters to decide on the fate of the state’s border security. Patterned after a Texas law, HCR 2060, titled the Secure the Border Act, passed the state House on a party-line vote, with Republicans holding a slim one-vote majority in the chamber. The bill, which already passed through the Senate, would make it a crime to enter Arizona illegally and would allow local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws while also allowing state judges to deport people convicted of breaking the new law. SWING STATE GOP LOOKS TO GO AROUND DEM GOVERNOR, PUT TEXAS-STYLE BORDER BILL BEFORE VOTERS “Nothing good comes from open borders,” Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma said in a statement to the New York Post. “Only crime, deadly drugs, violence, unsafe communities, and an unending financial drain on American taxpayers. Yet, Democrat leaders fiercely oppose doing anything about it.” Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed similar legislation earlier this year and has signaled opposition to the new effort, though this time the Republican bill will bypass the governor and be put in front of voters in November for approval. “On the contrary, it will be harmful for businesses and communities in our state and a burden for law enforcement personnel,” Hobbs said in a statement about the legislation. “I know there’s frustration about the federal government’s failure to secure our border, but this bill is not the solution.” BORDER STATE GOP PUSHES TO DEFY WHITE HOUSE, ADOPT TX-STYLE IMMIGRATION LAW But Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen has argued the bill, which was modeled after Texas’ controversial SB 4 legislation, is the right solution to secure the state’s border while also noting that it is not similar to an Arizona law known as SB 1070 that was partially struck down by the Supreme Court. “This is not SB 1070,” Petersen told Fox News Digital last month as the bill made its way through the state’s Senate. “We’re truly just dealing with the border… this is truly a border security bill. It’s not an immigration bill.” The new Arizona effort will now be put to voters on the same ballot they will decide between former President Trump and President Biden in this year’s election.  Arizona, a critical swing state narrowly won by Biden in 2020, promises to be close again. According to the Real Clear Politics polling average in the state, Trump currently holds a four-point lead over Biden.

McConnell takes aim at ‘isolationist’ colleagues in scathing D-Day essay

McConnell takes aim at ‘isolationist’ colleagues in scathing D-Day essay

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned of the parallels between current global tensions and those of the 1930s in an essay on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.  “American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines joined allies and took the fight to the Axis powers not as a first instinct, but as a last resort,” wrote the Kentucky Republican in an op-ed for the New York Times on Thursday. “They ended a war that the free world’s inaction had left them no choice but to fight.” The Republican leader has previously made clear his intention to focus the rest of his time in the Senate on championing support for Ukraine, following his lengthy stint as party leader. He announced his plan to step down from the leadership role in February but has yet to say whether he will seek Senate re-election in 2026.  ‘MISLEADING’ DEM CONTRACEPTION BILL FAILS KEY VOTE AS GOP SLAMS BROAD PROPOSAL According to him, when D-Day is reflected on, people are quick to forget that the significant toll was incurred “because European powers and the United States met the rise of a militant authoritarian with appeasement or naive neglect in the first place.” On D-Day, June 6, 1944, 4,414 Allied troops died, 2,501 of whom were American. In addition, over 5,000 were wounded, per The Associated Press.  JON TESTER CAMPAIGN ADMITS ‘HARD TRUTH’ SENATE RACE WILL BE EXPENSIVE AND CLOSE McConnell continued, claiming little is remembered about “influential isolationists” who he said convinced Americans “the fate of allies and partners mattered little to our own security and prosperity.” His jab was likely in reference to his colleagues who have been outspoken about their apprehension to foreign intervention, particularly as it relates to Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.  He added that “powerful political forces” minimized the danger growing across the globe, refused to help allies, and sought to stop the country from defending what he characterized as “national interests.” ‘PARENTAL RIGHTS’: GOP WARNS DEM SENATE BILL IS ABOUT MORE THAN CONTRACEPTION “Of course, Americans heard much less from our disgraced isolationists after the attack on Pearl Harbor,” he wrote.  The Dec. 7, 1941 Imperial Japanese Navy attack on the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, served as the precursor to the U.S. officially declaring war the following day.  “Today, America and our allies face some of the gravest threats to our security since Axis forces marched across Europe and the Pacific,” explained McConnell.   DEMS IN HOT SEAT FOR ALLEGED ETHICS VIOLATIONS OVER ALITO RECUSAL DEMANDS Similarly, “some of the same forces that hampered our response in the 1930s have re-emerged,” he claimed.  He took aim at a faction of his own party, writing, “Some vocal corners of the American right are trying to resurrect the discredited brand of prewar isolationism and deny the basic value of the alliance system that has kept the postwar peace.” “It should not take another catastrophic attack like Pearl Harbor to wake today’s isolationists from the delusion that regional conflicts have no consequences for the world’s most powerful and prosperous nation,” he warned.  “With global power comes global interests and global responsibilities,” McConnell stated. 

Biden commemorates D-Day at Normandy, calling on allies to repel ‘tyrant’ Putin in Ukraine

Biden commemorates D-Day at Normandy, calling on allies to repel ‘tyrant’ Putin in Ukraine

President Biden commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, using the occasion to call on allies to repel “tyrant” Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.  At a ceremony held near the beaches of Normandy, Biden, speaking after French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, described the state of the world on June 6, 1944, when 73,000 Americans joined Allied forces to carry out the critical mission that came to be known as D-Day, considered a major turning point in World War II.  “The evil of Hitler’s Third Reich was devastating the world,” Biden said. “Nazi Germany had subjugated the once free nations of Europe through brute force, lies and twisted ideology of racial superiority. Millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, millions of others killed by bombs, bullets, bloody warfare. Hitler and those with him thought democracies were weak. That the future belonged to dictators. Here, the coast of Normandy, the battle between freedom and tyranny would be joined here on that June morning.”  ‘BACK IN TIME’: HOUSE LAWMAKERS PARACHUTING FROM WWII-ERA PLANE IN NORMANDY TO MARK D-DAY Standing in front of a group of now-centenarian veterans who, as young service members, stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious assault in history, Biden directly linked the fighting against Nazi Germany to the fighting in Ukraine that has been going on since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion.  In the aftermath of World War II, the United States helped establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which Biden deemed the “greatest military alliance in the history of the world” that overtime grew to include 32 countries. The newest members are Finland and Sweden.  D-DAY AT 80: ONE MORE MISSION TO NORMANDY FOR THE GREATEST GENERATION “America has invested in our alliances and forged new ones, not simply out of altruism, but out of our own self-interest as well,” Biden said. “America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today. We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never failed. Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force. These are perennial. The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending.”  “Here in Europe, we see one stark example. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination,” Biden said, referring to Putin without mentioning him by name. “Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses, but never backing down.” Biden said 350,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the conflict, while nearly 1 million people “have left Russia because they can no longer see a future in Russia.” By contrast, he said, the U.S., NATO and a coalition involving more than 50 nations are “standing strong with Ukraine.”  “We will not walk away. Because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated and will not end there. Ukraine’s neighbors will be threatened. All of Europe will be threatened,” Biden warned. “And make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked. We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable.” 

Biden’s border crisis is ‘wreaking havoc’ on K-12 schools, says top GOP lawmaker

Biden’s border crisis is ‘wreaking havoc’ on K-12 schools, says top GOP lawmaker

While crime and housing are often at the forefront of illegal immigration discussions, a top GOP lawmaker said this week that the toll it takes on public schools and students is wrongly being overlooked. In a lengthy interview with Fox News Digital, Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., chairman of the House Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee, said the migrant influx from the porous southern border is “wreaking havoc” on U.S. schools. “Right now, that we know of, 10 million illegals have entered the country illegally under Joe Biden for the last three years. We say ‘we think we know.’ We really don’t know,” he said. “Because now there’s a term … gotaways. We believe that approximately 500,000 illegal children are now in this country. And one of the very first places we feel the impact of illegal immigration is our K-12 schools.” FLASHBACK: PA REPUBLICANS DRAFT BILL DIVERTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM SECRETIVE BIDEN DHS FLIGHTS TO DELAWARE Bean said his committee heard from representatives from school districts in both red and blue states who told shocking stories of how they have handled ever-increasing enrollments of juvenile foreign nationals. “We heard [of] teaching in the hallways. We heard of massive use of resources to scramble to hire teachers that teach in foreign languages — In fact, one school district has over 17 different languages that they have had to hire for. That’s just a vast draining of resources.” Bean’s Republican colleague, House Education Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., also echoed during the hearing some of his comments in his Wednesday interview.  Foxx, whose Blue Ridge Parkway district is far-flung from Mexico, said every state is a border state given the current crisis: “I’m very sorry for all of these children who are coming unaccompanied … they can’t find bilingual teachers … I’m from North Carolina and it’s already hard enough to find any teachers, let alone teachers who can speak other languages.” Bean also told the story of a teacher who recounted having a migrant student in her class who appeared to be in his 20s, while claiming to be 18 on his documentation. “It’s just happening more and more. I think it is because everything’s out of control. Enough. Let’s fix this border. Let’s get back to American schools doing what we do best, which is teaching our students math, reading and science.” ICE ORDERED TO HALT KNOCK-AND-TALK TACTICS FOR IMMIGRATION ARRESTS “We’re hoping that Joe Biden was watching our hearing. If he didn’t, maybe he’ll be watching this news story — that illegal immigration is wreaking havoc on our K-12 school system. It’s got to stop.” Bean said the negative effects of illegal immigration puts a further strain on U.S. schools, which are still reeling from COVID-19 lockdowns and the abrupt shift to remote learning.  He said the results of both crises are seen in standardized test scores, which he calculated to be the worst in about 20 years. “We’re now competing against China and India and other countries that want to do us harm. We’ve always banked on the fact that our educational system is among the best in the world. We can’t say that right now,” Bean said. “So why do we want to dilute the resources, the limited resources we [have] by this massive influx?” Bean predicted that Biden and some Democrats will argue that the White House is indeed taking action to stem the tide of illegal immigration and therefore lessen the blow to the public school system. But, he characterized Biden’s recent border-related executive order as a misnomer: “I think [his order] has more holes than Swiss cheese,” he said. “The way it’s done, it really doesn’t shut down the border. It says, OK, we’re going to have 2,500 come back. How do you know that? The border is either shut down or it’s not.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Hopefully, if Joe Biden can’t shut down the border, maybe there’s somebody that’s coming in behind him that can,” he said, in an apparent reference to former President Trump. In regard to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Bean said he engaged in a game of “Congressional Blame-Game Bingo” during his Tuesday hearing, wherein he predicted a series of buzzwords and politicized terms that he would hear when his critics were presented with a viewpoint they disagreed with. Bingo terms included “it’s Trump’s fault,” “xenopobia” and “blame Republicans.” The latter, he said, stems from a common campaign allegation that the GOP does not seek to properly fund schools. Bean said that, instead, massive amounts of money are being spent on U.S. education with little to show for it. During the hearing, Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., pushed back on Bean’s claims the influx of migrant students matriculating through the education system is a crisis. “This idea that immigrant students are a hindrance on public education: I would challenge you to look across the country at your valedictorian or your salutatorian or your top 10 in any high school class, and you’re going to find a first generation immigrant,” Hayes said.  “You’re going to find students who, as soon as they overcame the language barrier, showed that their lack of English proficiency was not a measure of intelligence.” She also said former President Trump wants to abolish the Education Department, which she characterized as proof of Republicans’ unserious tact on the overall issue. When asked to respond to Bean’s comments and the hearing writ-large, Rep. Robert Scott’s, D-Va., office directed Fox News Digital to Rep. Suzanne Bonamici’s opening statement at Bean’s hearing. In her remarks, Bonamici accused committee Republicans of using the forum to undermine the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which affirmed education as a fundamental right regardless of immigration status. Bonamici said Republicans are wrongly “scapegoating migrant children” and should instead focus on keeping kids safe by addressing gun violence and other issues. In response to an inquiry about Bean’s hearing, the Department of Homeland Security pointed