Border Patrol Union endorses controversial Senate border deal: ‘far better than the status quo’
The National Border Patrol Council tells Fox News that it supports the controversial bipartisan Senate border deal released Sunday ahead of an expected vote in the upper chamber later this week. In a statement to Fox News, NBPC said it supported and endorsed the deal negotiated in the Senate. While acknowledging it was not perfect, the union said it was “far better than the status quo.” Still, the union stopped short of endorsing the rest of the spending in the bill. According to NBPC, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has averaged more than 6,700 apprehensions per day since President Joe Biden has been in office. The vast majority of these have been released under a policy known as “catch-and-release.” Per NBPC, approximately 60% of all border apprehensions are single adult adults, many of whom are military-age men. GOP SENATORS RALLY AGAINST BIPARTISAN BORDER DEAL, CITING BIDEN’S POWER TO SUSPEND ‘EMERGENCY’ BILL NBPC says the Border Act of 2024 will give Border Patrol agents an authority that they never had in the past, including removing “single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review, which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the U.S.” NBPC believes this will lead to a drop in illegal border crossings and allow agents to focus on detecting and apprehending would-be illegal border crossers who evade apprehension. “While not perfect, the Border Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the status quo, which is why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill and hopes for a quick passage,” NBPC said in a statement. The endorsement comes after senators on Sunday released a text of the highly anticipated $118 billion package that pairs border enforcement policy with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel, and other U.S. allies. The bill has run into a wall of opposition from top House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson. The Senate was expected this week to hold a key test vote on the legislation, but within hours of the text being released, Johnson said on social media that it would be “dead on arrival” if it reached the House.
Michigan city ramps up security after op-ed dubs it ‘jihad capital’ of America
The city of Dearborn, Michigan is ramping up security after the publication of a controversial Wall Street Journal op-ed dubbed it the “jihad capital” of America. Dearborn is home to the highest concentration of Muslim residents in the United States. The piece, authored by Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, highlights mass support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran among city residents. Stalinsky describes protesters in the city shouting “Intifada, intifada,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “America is a terrorist state.” The piece also alleges that people were “celebrating” Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead and hundreds more injured. These celebrations, the author noted, came before Israel retaliated with a ground offensive that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians. ISRAELI MILITARY SEES HAMAS WAR LASTING THROUGH ALL OF 2024 Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on Friday tweeted that city police increased security at places of worship and major infrastructure points as a “direct result” of a WSJ op-ed opinion piece. Hammoud posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, that the item published Friday “led to an alarming increase in bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric online targeting the city of Dearborn.” “It’s 2024 and the [Wall Street Journal] still pushes out this type of garbage,” Hammoud wrote in another post, calling it “Reckless. Bigoted. Islamophobic.” “Dearborn is one of the greatest American cities in our nation,” he added. Stalinsky told The Associated Press that his piece was not intended to “instigate any sort of hate” and that he wanted to draw attention to protests in Michigan and elsewhere across the U.S. in which people have expressed support for Hamas since the start of the war with Israel. “This is a moment for counterterrorism officials to be concerned,” he said. More than 27,000 Palestinians, mostly women and minors, have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Fox News Digital has reached out to Hammoud’s office and the Wall Street Journal for comment. In a tweet referencing Dearborn on Saturday, President Joe Biden condemned “hate in all forms.” “Americans know that blaming a group of people based on the words of a small few is wrong,” Biden’s post read. “That’s exactly what can lead to Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate, and it shouldn’t happen to the residents of Dearborn – or any American town.”
GOP senators rally against bipartisan border deal, citing Biden’s power to suspend ‘emergency’ bill
More than a dozen GOP senators oppose the bipartisan “emergency authority” border bill, part of the White House’s national security request, as one of the provisions in the bill grants President Biden the power to effectively nullify the law. According to the text, the bill gives the president the power to direct the secretary of Homeland Security to “temporarily suspend” the border emergency authority on an emergency basis. For example, if Biden doesn’t want to shut down the border, but Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas does, Biden can suspend its enforcement for a 45-day period. The legislation will need a 60-vote threshold to pass, and Republican lawmakers urged leaders to give them more time to offer amendments. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week the Senate could begin voting on it as soon as Wednesday. “Senate GOP leadership screwed this up—and screwed us. Even while refusing to let us see the bill they claimed to be negotiating on our behalf—for MONTHS—they were never in doubt, insisting we’d be dumb and even unpatriotic NOT to support it. This is a disqualifying betrayal,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted to X. GOP SENATORS DEMAND ‘ADEQUATE TIME’ TO REVIEW BORDER SECURITY BILL “Biden can say anything is in the ‘national interest’ and thereby suspend the ‘border emergency authority,’” Lee said. “Don’t pretend to be surprised when he does.Or better yet—don’t pass this hot mess!” According to the bill, the secretary of Homeland Security is involved in the identity verification process of migrants crossing the border and must ensure the migrant’s identity is checked against all appropriate records and databases. If a migrant attains asylum, they’ll immediately be given a work visa. “I’ve reviewed the bill, I don’t think it will solve our border crisis, and might make it worse. I will oppose it,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted to X on Monday. “The bill gives Secretary Mayorkas the right—for the first time—to grant asylum claims (and thus American citizenship) to illegal aliens at the border without review by the immigration courts, which will be a massive pathway to rubber-stamping amnesty.” Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., called the bill “another Ukraine aid package that weakly addresses Biden’s border crisis.” “I will be a ‘No’ vote,” he wrote on X. Sen. Rick Scott, R-FLa., also opposes the bill, highlighting a provision that Democratic negotiator Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., considers a victory: taxpayer-funded legal representation for illegal immigrants. “This looks more like an immigration bill, not a border security bill,” Scott said. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., criticized another portion of the bill that “includes an eye-popping $1.4B for NGOs to resettle illegal aliens in your communities via airplane tickets and hotel rooms (nearly double the record amount from FY23), including $933M available immediately without conditions.” “This is more of our tax dollars being used to buy off Democrat sanctuary city mayors. This is the ‘border security’ Democrats really want,” Hagerty said. This particular provision would transfer $1,400,000,000 to the “Federal Emergency Management Agency – Federal Assistance” for supporting sheltering for illegal migrants provided by non-federal entities through the Shelter and Services Program. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., — chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — also said he would vote “no” on the bill. “I can’t support a bill that doesn’t secure the border, provides taxpayer-funded lawyers to illegal immigrants and gives billions to radical open borders groups. I’m a no,” he said. Other Republican lawmakers opposing the bill so far include Sens. Josh Hawley, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Marsha Blackburn, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Roger Marshall and JD Vance. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Schumer, and lead Republican negotiator Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., hope to get the bill across the finish line. “The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current Administration to finally stop the illegal flow. The bill provides funding to build the wall, increase technology at the border, and add more detention beds, more agents, and more deportation flights. The border security bill ends the abuse of parole on our southwest border that has waived in over a million people,” Lankford said in a statement. McConnell said the legislation will bring “direct and immediate solutions” to the crisis at the southern border. But in the lower chamber, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has continually called the bill “dead-on-arrival.” SEN. MARSHALL URGES GOP TO SAY ‘HELL NO’ TO SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING REQUEST WITHOUT TIGHTER BORDER SECURITY The proposed legislation, released Sunday evening after months of negotiations, will total just over $118 billion, with 50,000 new visas. Biden’s original request amounted to around $106 billion. The emergency border proposal is aimed at gaining control of an overrun asylum system that has been overwhelmed by historic numbers of migrants illegally crossing the border. The bill proposes an overhaul to the system with tougher and quicker enforcement measures. At least 1.5 million illegal immigrants identified as “gotaways” crossed the border under the Biden administration, according to a 2023 report. The bill’s provisions come into effect when there is an average of 5,000 or more daily encounters with illegal immigrants over a seven-day period or, alternatively, when a combined total of 8,500 or more aliens are encountered on any single calendar day. The calculation considers encounters at southwest land border ports, ports along southern coastal borders, and at a southwest land border port of entry. However, the bill states that if the president “finds that it is in the national interest to temporarily suspend the border emergency authority, the President may direct the Secretary to suspend use of the border emergency authority on an emergency basis.” Essentially, the “border emergency” triggered at 5,000 crossings per day within a week can be overturned by President Biden. SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES The bill would allot $20 billion to immigration enforcement, including the hiring of thousands of new officers to evaluate asylum claims, as well as hundreds of Border Patrol
House GOP leaders smack down bipartisan Senate border deal as Republican support crumbles
House GOP leaders are formally announcing their opposition to the bipartisan border security deal revealed by the Senate on Sunday. Republican support for the measure has been dissipating by the hour as more high-profile GOP lawmakers add their voices to the chorus of criticism. “House Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill because it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.; Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said in a joint statement Monday. “Among its many flaws, the bill expands work authorizations for illegal aliens while failing to include critical asylum reforms. Even worse, its language allowing illegals to be ‘released from physical custody’ would effectively endorse the Biden ‘catch and release’ policy.” SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES They also claimed the bill gave too much authority to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who House Republicans aim to impeach this week. “The so-called ‘shutdown’ authority in the bill is anything but, riddled with loopholes that grant far too much discretionary authority to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – who has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open,” House leadership said. “The bill also fails to adequately stop the President’s abuse of parole authority and provides for taxpayer funds to fly and house illegal immigrants in hotels through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program.” They reiterated prior calls for the Senate to take up H.R.2, the border security bill House Republicans passed last summer. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has panned that bill as a nonstarter. “That bill contains the necessary components to actually stem the flow of illegals and end the present crisis. The Senate must take it up immediately. America’s sovereignty is at stake,” the Republicans said. MAYORKAS SLAMS ‘BASELESS’ GOP ALLEGATIONS AHEAD OF KEY IMPEACHMENT VOTE “Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.” The 370-page border and security supplemental funding bill would, if passed, grant President Biden the authority to temporarily shut down the border. It would also raise the threshold for migrants to claim asylum while also speeding up the process by which those claims are adjudicated. The bill also includes a total of 250,000 new visas over five years and a legal pathway to citizenship for Afghans who fled to the U.S. when Kabul fell to the Taliban. But many Republican lawmakers are saying that it does not go far enough to secure the border, citing the record-shattering number of migrants encountered at the southern border since 2021. SEN. MARSHALL URGES GOP TO SAY ‘HELL NO’ TO SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING REQUEST WITHOUT TIGHTER BORDER SECURITY Several key GOP lawmakers have come out against the bill since the text was revealed Sunday, potentially putting its passage in peril. That includes Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm and a member of Senate GOP leadership, who said on Monday, “With House Republicans united in opposition to this bill, it makes no sense to even bring it up in the Senate…I will vote no when the bill is brought to the Senate floor this week.” At least a dozen GOP senators are also publicly opposed to the bill, which Schumer said will get a vote this week.
Haley campaign charges Nevada Republican presidential caucuses ‘rigged’ for Trump
Nikki Haley’s Republican presidential campaign says this week’s dual GOP contests in Nevada aren’t on its radar. “In terms of Nevada, we have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada,” campaign manager Betsy Ankney told reporters on Monday. “So Nevada is not and has never been our focus.” And Ankney charges that Thursday’s caucuses run by the Nevada GOP are “rigged” for former President Donald Trump, whom Haley is challenging for the Republican nomination. Trump, who is the commanding frontrunner for the GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run, is the only major candidate running in the caucus. And Haley, the former South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, is the sole remaining candidate listed on the state’s Republican primary ballot. HALEY TOUTS FUNDRAISING BONANZA AHEAD OF FIRST RALLY IN SUPER TUESDAY STATE The genesis of the competing contests dates back to 2021, when Democrats, who at the time controlled both Nevada’s governor’s office and the legislature, passed a law changing the presidential nominating contest from long-held caucuses to a state-run primary. The Nevada GOP objected, but last year their legal bid to stop the primary from going forward was rejected. In a twist, the judge in the case allowed the state Republicans to hold their own caucuses. No delegates will be at stake in the Republican primary, while all 26 will be up for grabs in the GOP caucus. HALEY, TRUMP, TRADE SHOTS OVER WHO’S STRONGER AGAINST BIDEN The state GOP ruled that candidates who put their name on the state-run primary ballot could not take part in the caucuses. Haley and some of the other now-departed Republican presidential candidates viewed the Nevada GOP as too loyal to Trump and decided to skip a caucus they believed was tipped in favor of the former president. Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and both of the state’s members of the Republican National Committee are supporting Trump. “We made the decision early on that we were not going to pay $55,000 to a Trump entity that, you know, to participate in a process that was rigged for Trump,” Ankney argued. WHAT NIKKI HALEY TOLD FOX DIGITAL ABOUT WHAT SHE NEEDS TO DO TO KEEP RUNNING While Trump’s assured of winning all 26 delegates at stake, sources say he and his campaign advisers have some concerns. An unpleasant potential scenario for Trump, who won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary by double-digits, could be Haley grabbing more votes in the primary than Trump lands in the caucus. While the GOP presidential candidates had to choose either the caucus or primary ballot, registered Republicans in Nevada can vote in both contests. And in the GOP primary, there’s no vehicle for voters to write in Trump’s name. The choices on the ballot are Haley and a “none of these candidates” option. Trump’s campaign has been working to get the message out to supporters in Nevada that if they want to vote for the former president, they need to show up at the caucuses. “Your primary vote doesn’t mean anything. It’s your caucus vote,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas late last month. “So in your state, you have both the primary and you have a caucus. Don’t worry about the primary, just do the caucus thing.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is supporting Trump, told the Nevada Independent last month that he would vote for “none of the above” in Tuesday’s primary and would caucus for Trump in the state GOP’s contest on Thursday. A source in the former president’s political orbit told Fox News that team Trump is “fortunate that Haley doesn’t have her act together in Nevada.” Trump is expected back in Las Vegas on Thursday for a caucus celebration. Haley is not campaigning in Nevada and hasn’t campaigned in the state since speaking in late October at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference. Haley heads to California on Wednesday, where she’s scheduled to headline her first rally in any of the 15 states that hold nominating contests on Super Tuesday in early March. Ahead of her western campaign and fundraising swing, Haley is aiming to spotlight her momentum as she faces a steep uphill climb for the 2024 nomination against Trump. Haley’s team says they hauled in $16.5 million in fundraising last month across all of their campaign committees, including $11.7 million from small-dollar grassroots supporters. The January haul – Haley’s best fundraising month to date – was first reported Sunday by Axios and confirmed by Fox News. Haley’s campaign also said they added nearly 70,000 donors last month. Haley has seen her fundraising continue to increase since launching her presidential campaign a year ago. She raised $7.3 million during the April-June second quarter of 2023 fundraising, $11 million during the July-September third quarter, and over $24 million during the final three months of last year, as first reported by Fox News. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans are supporting Nikki’s campaign because they don’t want two grumpy old men and all their chaos, confusion and grievances. They want a strong, conservative leader who will save this country,” Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas argued, as she took aim at the 77-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Biden. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Adams’ friend pleads guilty in straw donor scheme involving New York City mayor’s 2021 campaign
A longtime friend of New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded guilty on Monday to charges related to a scheme to obtain tens of thousands in funds from the Democrat’s 2021 campaign. Dwayne Montgomery, a former NYPD inspector, pleaded guilty to the alleged straw donor scheme, New York Daily News reported, citing a Manhattan District Attorney’s Office spokesperson. Though details of the plea agreement were not immediately available, Adams was asked about Montgomery’s guilty plea during an unrelated press conference Monday. “Dealing with the question around Dwayne Montgomery, the DA is handling that case,” Adams said, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. NYC MAYOR BUILDS HEFTY LEGAL WAR CHEST TO BATTLE FBI INVESTIGATION “I think the DA clearly reported that there was nothing our campaign did that was a part of what was done wrong. And I say let the DA handle this issue, situation.” Adams asserted a “level of scrutiny” his campaign staffers took in calling between 16,000-17,000 donors, informing them both verbally and in writing that contributions “had to be your money.” “It was in writing. People had to read it before they signed the donor form or after contributing online. Then I added an additional layer of spending of thousands of dollars on a compliance attorney who matched signatures, who matched information, and made sure things were done with a level of scrutiny that deserved,” Adams explained. “And we returned back tens of thousands of donations that did not follow that muster. And so the campaign did its job. We did the review that we’re supposed to review. And I’ve always told you from the beginning, I’m confident that I know we did the internal scrutiny we’re supposed to do.” The mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection to the Manhattan district attorney’s probe. Fox News Digital reached out to Bragg’s office for comment on Monday regarding Montgomery’s plea. Two of Montgomery’s co-defendants, brothers Shahid and Yahya Mushtaq, pleaded guilty in October to participating in the scheme. As part of their agreement, the Mushtaqs would cooperate with Bragg’s investigators as their investigation in the scheme remained ongoing, according to the Daily News. Other co-defendants in the case are Shamsuddin Riza, Millicent Redick, Ronald Peek, and Ecosafety Consultants, Inc. Court documents allege that the co-defendants engaged with each other between August 2020 and November 2021 to fraudulently obtain tens of thousands of dollars in matching funds for Adams’ 2021 New York City mayoral campaign by submitting falsified campaign contribution forms to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. ADAMS’ OFFICE LASHES OUT AT FBI EMPLOYEE WHO MIGHT HAVE ‘IMPROPERLY LEAKED DETAILS’ OF NYC CORRUPTION PROBE Prosecutors alleged it was part of the conspiracy for Montgomery, Riza, Peek and others to provide funds for and to reimburse straw donors, to coordinate the campaign contributions of the straw donors through fundraiser events, and to instruct other conspirators on how to structure and disguise straw donor contributions to avoid detection. Meanwhile, Adams has built a hefty war chest over the past several months amid reports he is at the center of an ongoing FBI investigation. Adams, who has clashed with the White House on President Biden’s immigration policies as New York City grapples with the influx of more than tens of thousands of migrants from the southern border, has so far not been publicly accused of any wrongdoing as the FBI continues its investigation into alleged corruption at City Hall to benefit the Turkish government. In a statement in January, Adams’ longtime campaign compliance attorney confirmed that, “The Eric Adams Legal Defense Trust has drawn strong support in a short amount of time, raising more than $650,000 since it was formed just two months ago,” Fox News Digital previously reported. The mayor started the legal defense trust in mid-November after the FBI searched the home of Adams’ chief campaign fundraiser, 25-year-old Brianna Suggs. Federal agents seized two laptop computers, three iPhones and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams,” according to the New York Times. The FBI raid prompted Adams to suddenly return from Washington, D.C., ahead of planned visits at the White House and Congress related to the migrant crisis’ impact on the Big Apple. The bureau is probing whether Adams’ 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to funnel money into its coffers. FBI agents also approached Adams directly after a Manhattan event later that month, seizing the mayor’s electronic devices, including at least two cellphones and an iPad, in carrying out a search warrant, the Times reported. The FBI also searched the homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide to Adams at City Hall, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor’s 2021 transition team, according to Daily News.
Trump blasts ‘horrendous’ Senate border deal: ‘Great gift to Democrats’
Former President Trump reacted to the newly released Senate immigration bill by calling it “horrendous” and a “gift to Democrats” while calling for immigration and foreign aid to be dealt with in separate bills. “Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning.. “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party. It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans. Don’t be STUPID!!!” Trump continued, “We need a separate Border and Immigration Bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape, or form! The Democrats broke Immigration and the Border. They should fix it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” In a follow up post, Trump called the bill a “highly sophisticated trap.” MIGRANTS WHO FLED AFTER ALLEGEDLY BEATING NYC POLICE USE STOLEN PHONES TO BUY CARS, POOLS BACK HOME: REPORT “The ridiculous ‘Border’ Bill is nothing more than a highly sophisticated trap for Republicans to assume the blame on what the Radical Left Democrats have done to our Border, just in time for our most important EVER Election,” Trump wrote. “Don’t fall for it!!!” The long awaited release of the Senate immigration bill on Sunday night sparked backlash from conservatives including House Speaker Mike Johnson who called the bipartisan $118 billion border security and foreign aid package is “even worse than we expected” and would be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber. Republicans have taken issue with a provision of the bill that states the border will be shutdown only when 5,000 illegal immigrants a day cross the border as well as the billions of dollars of spending attached that goes to Ukraine and Israel. What the bill text does is create a new “border emergency authority” to turn people away, which may be used if the average number of migrants encountered reaches an average 4,000 per day across a seven-day period. The authority would be mandatory if that number hits 5,000. HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS LASHES OUT AT SENATE BORDER DEAL: ‘DUMPSTER FIRE’ Those powers can be used for up to 270 days in the first year of implementation, a number that gradually decreases before the authority sunsets altogether in three years. “Let me be clear: The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House,” House Majority Leader Scalise wrote on X. “Here’s what the people pushing this ‘deal’ aren’t telling you: It accepts 5,000 illegal immigrants a day and gives automatic work permits to asylum recipients — a magnet for more illegal immigration.” MUSK CALLS OUT UNFAIR BLUE STATE ADVANTAGE GAINED FROM ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION House Freedom Caucus members urged their conservative Senate colleagues to reject the recently unveiled border security compromise, claiming it does not go far enough to curb the migrant crisis. “It’s clear why Democrats waited until the last minute to drop this dumpster fire of a bill, it’s far worse than we could have expected,” former Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital on Sunday night after the legislation was released. “The Senate must reject this American sellout.” Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, a sponsor of the bill, defended the legislation in a Fox News appearance on Monday morning. “This authority is a 5,000 authority to say if you get to 5,000, which we’ve been there every single day except for 7 in the last 4 months, that it completely closes the border down, it deports everyone,” Lankford said. “It changes the paradigm from right now what the Biden administration is doing catching and releasing everyone to actually catching and deporting everyone.” “It literally flips the script on it.” “The key aspect of this, again, is are we, as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain the borders bad and then intentionally leave it open after the worst month in American history in December?” Lankford added. “Now we’ve got to actually determine, are we going to just complain about things? Are we going to actually address in a change as many things as we can if we have the shot?” Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Lankford’s office regarding Trump’s social media post but did not immediately receive a response. Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report
Biden blasted for promoting official who oversaw disastrous evacuation of Afghanistan allies
President Biden is facing heavy criticism over his nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Iraq on Monday, with opponents pointing to her failures in Afghanistan. The nominee, Tracey Jacobson, oversaw the program that was supposed to allow Afghan allies to evacuate from Afghanistan as the Taliban took over the country in 2021. The program was a massive failure, however, and stranded thousands of allies in the country under Taliban rule, with many of them being killed. “The nomination of Tracey Jacobson as the new ambassador to Iraq raises serious concerns, given her involvement in the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. Jacobson failed to ensure promised visas for thousands of allies, leaving them vulnerable to persecution by the Taliban,” Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., said in a statement. “This gross pattern of shortcomings adds to a growing list of concerns about America’s international standing and national security with people like Jacobson in charge. With the regional instability and potential for Iraq to see increased Iranian military attacks, and further political discourse, I fear under her leadership, and this administration, we would see a similar outcome to Afghanistan,” he added. BIDEN’S TREATMENT OF GOLD STAR FAMILIES UNDER RENEWED SCRUTINY: ‘TOTAL DISREGARD’ Biden told the American people in August 2021 that he was placing Jacobson “in charge of a whole-of-government effort to process, transport, and relocate Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other Afghan allies.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that will vote on Jacobson’s nomination, has already signaled his skepticism of her fitness for the role. BIDEN ADMIN ROILED BY CRISES ON AFGHANISTAN, BORDER, INFLATION, COVID – BUT HEADS YET TO ROLL “Tracey Jacobson played a central role in one of the most unforgivable of those failures, the abandonment of vetted Afghans who had risked their lives for our security, and it will undoubtedly mar and endanger her nomination,” Cruz told the Free Press in a statement. A State Department spokesman praised Jacobson’s leadership and her role in overseeing the Afghanistan program in a statement to the Free Press. “Ambassador Jacobson is proud of the Afghanistan task force she led from mid-July to mid-August 2021, which created streamlined processes from bringing SIV applicants to the United States. As a result of her work and the work of others, we have been able to issue nearly 38,000 SIVs to principal applicants and their eligible family members since January 2021,” spokesman Vedant Patel said. “The work is not complete and the Department will continue to demonstrate its commitment to the brave Afghans who stood side-by-side with the United States. The Department has also taken a number of steps to improve the SIV program, including continuing to streamline the application and adjudication process,” he added. Biden announced Jacobson’s nomination in a statement last week. It is unclear when the Senate will vote on the nomination. Fox News’ Gillian Turner contributed to this report
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Pramila Jayapal says Biden caved to ‘extremist views’ in bipartisan border deal
A leading leftist in the House of Representatives is attacking the Senate’s bipartisan border security deal and is accusing her fellow Democrats, including President Biden, of having “given in” to Republicans. “I am still reviewing the text of this proposal, which was constructed under Republican hostage-taking and refusal to fund aid for Ukraine without cruelty toward immigrants,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said in a statement late Sunday. “However, it is already clear it includes poison pill provisions such as new Title 42-like expulsion authority that will close the border and turn away asylum seekers without due process, a boon to cartels who prey on migrants.” The proposal is aimed at tightening current immigration and asylum laws while also fast-tracking eligible asylum claims. It also would give President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security authority to temporarily shut down the border when it is overwhelmed. SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES “There is no question that we need significant changes to our immigration system. It is long overdue for modernization to allow for efficient and orderly processing of migrants who seek to come to the United States and to increase legal pathways for work and family visas, refugees, and asylum seekers. However, this proposal includes none of the thoughtful reforms to do that or to actually address the situation at the border in a humane way,” Jayapal said. “Democrats have given in to these extremist views over and over again for 30 years. By refusing to make the structural changes in the Senate needed to pass true reforms, allowing MAGA Republicans to lie to the American public, and declining to stand up and defend immigrant communities, it appears that President Biden and Senate Democrats have fallen into the same trap again.” JOHNSON SAYS TRUMP IS ‘NOT CALLING THE SHOTS’ FOR HOUSE ON BORDER DEAL The border deal revealed on Sunday does not include any new legal pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, young people who were brought into the country illegally as children – something that’s been a goal for Democrats for over a decade. But it does add another 250,000 new immigrant visas over a period of five years, with a majority being family-based, and the remaining 90,000 aimed for workers. The agreement also includes an expedited pathway to permanent legal status for the thousands of Afghan allies who fled Afghanistan to the U.S. when the Taliban took over. But Jayapal argued it does not go far enough on the amnesty front and focuses too much on enforcement. SOUTH DAKOTA GOV NOEM SEEKS TO BOLSTER TEXAS SECURITY EFFORTS AT US-MEXICO BORDER “The Senate will try to sell this so-called deal by pointing to some additional green cards and fixes for small immigrant groups,” she said. “However, let’s be clear: minor visa tweaks in exchange for shutting down the asylum system and exacting further harm on the vulnerable people seeking refuge in the United States is not serious reform and it once again throws immigrants under the political bus.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. While she’s among the only Democratic voices in the House to come out so strongly against the bill, it’s already seen some pushback in the Senate – both Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., denounced the agreement as well.