DEMS SCRUTINIZE TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO US-MEXICO BORDER
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As the Pentagon weighs new troop deployments to the U.S.-Mexico border, Democrats in Congress are poised to usher in unprecedented scrutiny of a politically charged mission championed by Republican President Donald Trump.
Democratic Representative Adam Smith, the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will hold a hearing on Tuesday with Pentagon officials he hopes will shed light on the costs, scope and goals of a deployment that critics have derided as a political stunt.
U.S. officials told Reuters the border deployment, which has fluctuated in size over the past three months, could grow again by as many as 2,000 or more troops.
Smith is skeptical about sending U.S. troops to deal with a crisis he believes would be better handled by judges. He told Reuters his committee may consider future funding restrictions for such missions.
“It’s undeniable that we have a significant increase in asylum seekers,” Smith said.
“But that’s not so much a job for the military as it is: we need more judges. We need to process them (the asylum seekers) more quickly,” he said.
Smith will receive testimony on Tuesday morning from John Rood, under secretary of defense for policy, and Vice Admiral Michael Gilday, the director of operations at the Joint Staff.
It is the first oversight hearing by the committee since Democrats took over the majority of the House of Representatives this month, a sign of the issue’s importance.
The Pentagon first approved the high-profile deployment of active duty U.S. troops to the Mexico border in October, ahead of U.S. midterm congressional elections. It was embraced by Trump’s supporters, including Republicans in Congress.
However, critics assailed the deployment as a political stunt to drive Republican voters to the polls and scoffed at Trump’s comparisons of caravans of Central American migrants, including women and children, to an “invasion.”
MORE TROOPS?
There are now about 2,350 active duty U.S. troops involved in the U.S. border mission. Although the figure is down from a peak of about 5,900 in November, it has expanded in scope from basic missions such as stringing concertina wire.
The Pentagon confirmed earlier in January that U.S. forces had provided medical support to 80 migrants.
A new request by the Department of Homeland Security for additional U.S. military support approved by the Pentagon earlier this month could require a fresh increase in troops, officials said. Smith said he had not been briefed by the Pentagon yet on potential new troop deployments.
He said public scrutiny was one of the best tools available to his committee to influence Trump’s decisions, given that the Senate is still controlled by Republicans and that Trump won’t want to sign legislation unfavorable to his agenda.
“What we can do is try to shine a light on it, to make the case that this is a bad idea, drum up public pressure so the president will stop doing these things,” Smith said.
For example, Smith said he wants to know what Pentagon funds might be used if Trump makes good on his threat to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
He suggested his committee would also consider ways to introduce restrictions in next year’s budget legislation.
“That will be one of the chief things that my committee tries to do, is to put into the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) strict restrictions on how money can be used,” Smith said.
Texas officials discover 98K illegal voters registered in state
Published on Jan 29, 2019
Texas officials vow to protect their election system after discovering more than 98,000 non-citizens were registered to vote. One America’s Pearson Sharp has more on the startling voter fraud numbers.
Illegal Arrested for Raping, Impregnating Child in California
By Peter D’Abrosca
He’s been arrested twice for entering the United States illegally.
Today in 100 percent preventable crime, an illegal alien living in California is in police custody after allegedly raping and impregnating a 15-year-old girl.
“Police said 31-year-old Hector Montez is being held at the Kings County Jail on a $6 million bond,” according to KOLD. “Montez is from Honduras and is in the United States illegally, according to officials.”
According to the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, they were contacted by the hospital where the young girl was about to give birth due to the girl’s age.
Montez allegedly raped and impregnated her last March, when she was 14. Though Montez denied that he knew the girl, they were connected via social media. According to the sheriff’s office, he allegedly picked her up from school at least once. The report was unclear about whether this event led to the rape, but said that the girl hid her pregnancy for months.
“Montez has been arrested twice for illegally entering the U.S., according to local media reports,” the report said. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sent a request to detain Montez, officials said.”
He is currently being held on $6 million bond.
IRS Workers Union Threatens Tax Refund Delays…Does That Include For Illegal Immigrants?
By Patrick Howley
The union representing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees gave members the option to skip work during the government shutdown if they happened to be one of the 36,000 people who were recalled — some of whom were not paid, but all of whom now get back pay. Now, the IRS workers are wielding their political power the only way they know how: by making themselves even more non-essential.
Now, the union is threatening, courtesy of CNBC: delays are likely for Earned Income Tax Credit refund-receivers, or for any kind of refund that requires “human” and not “computer” labor.
The angry government bureaucrats are not yet resorting to the tactics of the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who held press conferences in front of trucks full of un-delivered supplies during a hurricane.
Trending: Kelli Ward Wins Arizona GOP Chair Seat in Upset
The IRS must address its official policy of giving tax refunds to illegal immigrants, officially ignoring the massive scam by which illegal aliens use fake Social Security numbers in the United States.
This practice is now coming under scrutiny following the revelation that Gustavo Perez Arriaga was using at least two fake Social Security numbers to live in the United States. Arriaga has been charged with the murder of California police corporal Ronil Singh. It is not known whether the IRS ever ignored Arriaga’s fake Social Security numbers directly.
Arriaga was using two fake Social Security numbers, according to available information provided by a source close to law enforcement: 537-89-0142 and 667-28-2314.
Arriaga lived in the United States long enough to rack up multiple arrests for impaired driving. Arriaga was officially wanted for four years, but ICE officers had no contact with him prior to Corporal Singh’s shooting. Stanislaus County sheriff Adam Christianson blames the lack of contact with ICE on sanctuary laws, saying at a press conference that law enforcement should be able to do its job without legislative interference.
Illegal immigrants are able to pay taxes using ITIN numbers provided by the federal government. The IRS put out an official notice in June: “More than 2 million ITINs to expire this year; Renew soon to avoid refund delays.”
The Treasury Inspector General confirmed that the IRS paid out more than $4 billion in tax refunds to ITIN holders in the year 2010.
How many illegal aliens have been acknowledged by the IRS over the years, even despite warnings from the Social Security Administration that the illegal immigrants are not using actual Social Security numbers? That is a question congressional Republicans and Trump administration agencies might want to seek an answer to.
The IRS practice of excusing illegal aliens was revealed during the IRS scandal, kicked off by documented proof of the IRS improperly targeting tea party groups for politically motivated audits and other penalties.
Look at what current Trump administration director of national intelligence Dan Coats said at a hearing when he was a senator: “What we learned is that … the IRS continues to process tax returns with false W-2 information and issue refunds as if they were routine tax returns, and say that’s not really our job. We also learned the IRS ignores notifications from the Social Security Administration that a name does not match a Social Security number, and you use your own system to determine whether a number is valid,” Coats said.
Then-IRS commissioner John Koskinen excused the practice in the 2016 hearing.
“What happens in these situations is someone is using a Social Security number to get a job, but they’re filing their tax return with their [taxpayer identification number],” Koskinen said.
Koskinen admitted that “they are undocumented aliens.”
Koskinen actually said, “They’re paying taxes. It’s in everybody’s interest to have them pay the taxes they owe.”
WHEN WILL PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT PELOSI DOES NOT CARE. – Mother Of Son Killed By Illegal to Pelosi: Which One Of Your Children Is Expendable For An Illegal Life?
By Ian Schwartz
At a CNN townhall Tuesday night, Nancy Pelosi was asked by a sobbing mother who lost her son to an illegal immigrant, who she said brutally tortured him before death, which one of her grandchildren she would give up to make room for an illegal.
“If you need to go home tonight and line up your babies as you say, and your grandbabies, which one of them could you look in their eyes today, and tell them that they’re expendable for another foreign person to have an a nicer life? Which one would you look to say, you, my child, are expendable for someone else to come over here and not follow the law and have a nicer life?” Laura Wilkerson, who said her son was “slaughtered” by an illegal immigrant, asked Pelosi.
“I pray for you,” Pelosi responded. “Again, we all pray that none of us has to experience what you have experienced. So thank you for channelling your energy to help prevent something like that from happening.”
“But I do want to say to you, that in our sanctuary cities, our people are not disobeying the law,” Pelosi said. “These are law-abiding citizens, it enables them to, to be there without being reported to ICE in case of another crime that they might bear witness to.”
Wilkerson’s question:
LAURA WILKERSON, SON KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: Please excuse my voice tonight. There are over 300 cities in this country that are sanctuary cities. Like San Francisco. And you’re not only choosing to disavow a law, but you are adding sanctuary to people who come there and disavow the law.
In 2010, one of the illegals slaughtered my son. He tortured him, he beat him, he tied him up like an animal, and he set him on fire. And I am not a one-story mother. This happens every day. Because there are no laws enforcing the border. We have to start giving American families first.
This is not — bad to not put Americans first. We have family that fought and died for this country.
How do you reconcile in your head about allowing people to disavow the law?
And the second part of my question is this — if you need to go home tonight and line up your babies as you say, and your grandbabies, which one of them could you look in their eyes today, and tell them that they’re expendable for another foreign person to have an a nicer life? Which one would you look to say, you, my child, are expendable for someone else to come over here and not follow the law and have a nicer life?
Pelosi’s response:
REP. NANCY PELOSI, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Well, again, I commend you for sharing your story. I can’t even imagine —
WILKERSON: You can’t.
PELOSI: — the pain. I can’t even imagine. There is, there is nothing, I’m sure that can compare to the grief that you have. And so I pray for you. I pray for you. Again, we all pray that none of us has to experience what you have experienced. So thank you for channelling your energy to help prevent something like that from happening. But I do want to say to you, that in our sanctuary cities, our people are not disobeying the law.
These are law-abiding citizens, it enables them to, to be there without being reported to ICE in case of another crime that they might bear witness to.
The person who followed Wilkerson was a man born in Mexico and brought to the U.S. as a one-year-old who garnered applause after he told his story.
“The DREAMers are so spectacular and so inspirational to all of us. And that is why when we had the majority in the Congress, the House of Representatives, led by our Congressional Hispanic Caucus, passed the DREAMers act,” Pelosi said.
WATCH: Schumer Mocks Trump Immediately After Trump Opens Gov To Negotiate
By Ryan Saavedra
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer mocked President Donald Trump on Friday immediately after the president ended the government shutdown so non-essential federal employees could get paid and so both of the nation’s major parties could work on a deal to fund border security.
Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference following Trump’s announcement that he would sign a short-term continuing resolution to fund the federal government through mid-February.
“The American people do not like it when you throw a wrench into the lives of government workers over an unrelated political dispute,” Schumer said. “Working people throughout America empathized with the federal workers and were aghast at what the president was doing to them. Hopefully, now the president has learned his lesson”
“Now, once the president signs the continuing resolution, we in Congress will roll up our sleeves and try to find some agreement on border security,” Schumer continued. “Today the president will sign the bill to reopen the government along the outlines of what we have proposed and hopefully it means a lesson learned for the White House and for many of our Republican colleagues: Shutting down the government over a policy difference is self-defeating.”
“It accomplishes nothing but pain and suffering for the country and incurs an enormous political cost to the party shutting it down,” Schumer continued.
WATCH:
During the press conference, Pelosi refused to answer whether she would accept “any sort of physical barrier in a border security plan.”
After 36 days of spirited debate and dialogue, I have seen and heard from enough Democrats and Republicans that they are willing to put partisanship aside — I think — and put the security of the American people first,” Trump said at a press conference on Friday. “I do believe they’re going to do that. They have said they are for complete border security, and they have finally and fully acknowledged that having barriers, fencing, or walls — or whatever you want to call it — will be an important part of the solution.”
“So let me be very clear: We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier,” Trump concluded. “If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on February 15th, again, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency. We will have great security.”
TRUMP CAVES! Ends Shutdown with NO BORDER WALL — Pelosi’s SECOND BIG WIN This Week — VIDEO PELOSI DANCING
January 25, 2019
PRESIDENT TRUMP CAVES!
OPENS GOVERNMENT WITHOUT BORDER WALL!
Speaker Pelosi gets her SECOND HUGE WIN This week!
Trump opens the government without any promise to build a border wall.
Open Borders Wins!
FLASHBACK PELOSI DANCING VIDEO….
Government Open… …And Border No Wall Still No SOTU!
By Charlie Spiering
President Donald Trump announced Friday a plan to end the partial government shutdown, by temporarily caving to Democrat demands to reopen the government.
Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks while negotiations continued — with no apparent wall funding concessions from Democrats.
The president warned that if Congress could not successfully negotiate a deal including wall funding in three weeks, he would be forced to announce a State of Emergency, which would allow him to shift funds to build border structures without Congress.
“If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government either shuts down on February 15th again or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency,” he said.
He argued that he had heard from enough Democrats during the shutdown who were willing to support border security including physical barriers as part of the solution, allowing him to reopen the government temporarily.
“Many disagree, but I really feel that working with Democrats and Republicans, we can make a truly great and secure deal happen for everyone,” he said.
The president announced a bipartisan congressional committee to review border patrol requests for security and asked them to come up with a compromise deal.
“They will put together a homeland security package for me to shortly sign into law,” Trump said. He urged both parties to work together to solve the problems at the border. He defended the idea of a wall or a physical barrier as part of the negotiations.
“Walls should not be controversial,” Trump said.
The president delivered his remarks in the Rose Garden at the White House. Vice President Mike Pence together with several members of Trump’s cabinet attended the speech including Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Other White House staff including senior adviser Jared Kushner watched the speech. They clapped as Trump announced his decision.
Trump announced his decision as Federal workers face a second missed paycheck as the government shutdown enters its 35th day.
The president thanked federal workers who suffered financial difficulties as a result of the shutdown, vowing that they would receive back pay.
“You are very, very special people. I am so proud that you are citizens of our country,” he said. “When I say ‘Make America Great Again,’ it could never be done without you.”
Trump made his announcement after Congress reached an impasse on a bill to reopen the government. Both Senate measures failed to meet the necessary 60-vote threshold needed to move a bill forward. Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to compromise with Trump on any wall funding, demanding unconditionally that the government be reopened first.
The White House finally caved to Democrats demands, despite Trump’s repeated assertions this week that he would not do so.
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