illegal immigration
Biden’s U-Turn On Deporting Illegal Immigrants Will Last Only Until Election Day
BY: TODD BENSMAN
As published July 12, 2024 by The Federalist
The Biden administration knows a deportation airlift will serve the self-interest of winning reelection on Nov. 5 if done at scale.
In both my books on the border, I offer the same remedy for halting the multinational onslaught of immigrant strangers transiting the infamous “Darien Gap” between Colombia and Panama en route to the besieged southwest U.S. border.
The Darien Gap passageway is a jungled 70-mile bottleneck of wilderness and foot trails, through which an estimated 1.5 million of more than 10 million illegal immigrants from around the world have crossed the U.S. border in the past three years. An American government that really wants to shutter the passage must fund a large-scale deportation airlift from Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico all at once, I advised in my 2021 book, America’s Covert Border War, The Untold Story of The Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration.
“The United States should demand that these countries … install a U.S.-funded infrastructure that would fly all immigrants to origin countries anywhere in the world, on national security grounds,” I again recommended in a second 2023 book, Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History.
No Republican border hawk ever took my homeland security-bolstering recommendation seriously, as I had hoped.
But to my very great surprise, the most mass-migration-friendly administration in American history, Joe Biden’s, the one that has widened the Darien Gap passage from a mere country lane into a superhighway, has now announced that it will be the one to put my deportation airlift idea into action, at least in Panama.
Not because the Democrat administration ran with my idea or that I’m some sort of policy genius, but because the administration knows a deportation airlift will serve the self-interest of winning reelection on Nov. 5 if done at scale, and because this remedy was obvious to just about anyone with a brain.
“United States Signs Arrangement with Panama to Implement Removal Flight Program,” reads the headline of the Department of Homeland Security’s July 1, 2024, announcement. Details remain scant, but the statement goes on to quote Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas saying that his new partnership with Panama will “manage the historic levels of migration” pouring over the U.S. border for three years.
The Darien Gap passage is a major contributing gusher in the worst mass migration crisis in U.S. history, funneling millions of illegal immigrants through an unlocked turnstile to find their forever homes. Whereas fewer than 20,000 economic immigrants per year ever passed through the Colombia-Panama passage before Biden policies unleashed the current mass migration on inauguration day of 2021, 250,000 passed through it in 2022, 520,000 last year, and a projected 800,000 by the end of 2024.
National Security Threat
The multinational diversity of those passing through the gap from more than 160 nations is a unique affront to U.S. national interests, as border crossers may include Islamic terrorists from Muslim-majority nations, human rights violators from Africa, and spies from adversarial nations such as Russia and China.
Terrorists, spies, and warlords are of little concern to the Biden administration. It has only ever orchestrated the conversion of the Darien Gap into the world’s most trammeled immigrant thruway under its lenient “safe, orderly, and humane” immigration policies.
So the Biden administration’s deportation airlift plan constitutes a stunning, 180-degree policy U-turn.
In 2022, for instance, Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressured the Panamanian government to open a shorter sea and river route, built larger and new hospitality rest camps to accommodate the increase, and arranged for dozens of United Nations and nonprofit migrant advocacy groups to provide all manner of aid and assistance. These moves induced hundreds of thousands more border crossers per year to make the trip.
Now, the Biden administration will replace its “safe, orderly and humane” mantra of just five minutes ago with the new “safe, humane repatriation” one. Why a deportation airlift, and why now?
Election Concerns
The short answer is that the administration needs to slow the southern border flow to help it keep the White House in the Democrat Party’s hands.
The party well knows polls regularly show that voters regard Biden’s three-year-long mass migration border crisis as an apex-level problem for which they’ll punish him and reward Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election.
The campaign wants controls in place to reduce anticipated desperate last-chance border rushes as Election Day approaches — immigrants will want to reach the American border before a possibly victorious Donald Trump slams the gates shut.
Panama’s New Approach
And just when it needed a solution most, the administration lucked into a most unexpected damage-control opportunity: Panama elected President Jose Raul Mulino on his keynote promise to “close” the Darien Gap and to get the U.S. to help pay for repatriation flights.
“The border of the United States, instead of being in Texas, moved to Panama,” said Mulino, who served as security minister under former president Ricardo Martinelli. “We’re going to repatriate all those people.”
That’s a major U-turn for Panama. For years, the Panamanian government employed “controlled flow” policy bus trips that transported immigrants exiting the Darien Gap toward the American border.
“I won’t allow Panama to be an open path for thousands of people who enter our country illegally, supported by an international organization [the United Nations] related to drug trafficking and human trafficking,” Mulino said at his July 1 swearing-in, attended by Mayorkas. He appears to be serious. For the first time, Panama is already stringing barbed wire to block the major trails, NBC News reports.
Mayorkas jumped at the opportunity to help Mulino — at least during the period of anticipated surges just before the election.
The number of illegal crossings along the southern border will surely drop sharply if the U.S.-Panama deal works out, an almost certain boon to the Biden campaign that they will repeatedly claim as an achievement — until Nov. 5.
This isn’t the Biden campaign’s first such move to suppress expected preelection surges and to claim the positive result to diminish those terrible polling numbers on illegal immigration for immediate political advantage.
Mexico Acts
After record crossings last fall (all-time records of 10,000-14,000 per day) produced terrible polls, Biden paid an official state visit to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador in Mexico City to discuss the torrential immigration flows. Mayorkas and Blinken followed up after Christmas.
Almost immediately, as I was the first and only one to report for many months, on Jan. 17, Lopez-Obrador deployed 35,000 regular army troops, who began rounding up tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in relentless sweeps of northern border towns. The Mexicans forced them onto planes and buses. They were shipped 1,500 miles south and entrapped in southern provinces behind militarized roadblocks and bureaucracy. Crossings fell by as much as 80 percent initially.
That wasn’t all the Mexicans did, but the resulting illegal crossings slowdown became as immediately apparent as the Biden administration’s ability to have had Mexico do this at any time during the three-year mass migration cataclysm.
President Biden and his deputies have been emphasizing the decline ever since, including during the otherwise disastrous televised debate with Trump.
Look for much more noisy political messaging about even more declines if the Darien Gap closure further reduces the flow at the U.S. border, as it very well might.
A Biden Reelection Would Revert to Lack of Enforcement
But all of this is a paper tiger. No one should expect the Biden administration, should it win the election, to sustain the Mexico or Darien Gap crackdowns beyond Nov. 5. Their leftist wing engineered the whole crisis from the beginning because they believe in unimpeded migration and disdain enforcement, as I explain elaborately in Overrun.
If the Democrats win the White House, look for them to develop new diplomatic “beefs” with President Mulino, ala Hungary’s Viktor Orban, as an excuse to shutter U.S. funding for any deportation airlift.
But there’s a silver lining for border hawks here. If Trump wins, he can build mightily on the preparations that Biden’s campaign managers are beginning now.
illegal immigration
50,000 Students Missing: Trudeau’s Immigration Circus Hits New Low
Canada’s schools cash in while international students vanish—leaving Canadians with the bill and a broken system
Well, well, well—Canada’s immigration system strikes again, and this time it’s not just a sieve; it’s a black hole. According to a Globe and Mail article Nearly 50,000 international students—students who were supposed to be enriching Canada’s universities and colleges—are nowhere to be found. Poof! Gone. Maybe they’re working under the table, maybe they’ve crossed into the U.S., or maybe they’re just laughing at how easy it is to game Justin Trudeau’s broken system. But hey, who’s counting? Certainly not Trudeau.
This is what happens when you turn the immigration system into a glorified Ponzi scheme. Schools rake in the cash—because international students pay through the nose—but don’t bother checking whether these students ever show up to class. Why would they? There’s no downside for the institutions, no accountability, and Trudeau’s Liberals aren’t exactly known for cracking down on their woke immigration utopia.
Now, let’s talk numbers. almost 20,000 students from India alone didn’t show up—but don’t worry, the RCMP is “reaching out” to India. Reaching out? What does that mean, sending a polite email asking, “Hey, have you seen our students?” Meanwhile, half the students from Rwanda just ghosted. Half! But Trudeau wants us to believe this isn’t a policy failure—it’s just a little “compliance hiccup.” Sure, and my Labrador runs NASA.
And here comes Immigration Minister Marc Miller with his tough-guy act: schools might lose their ability to admit international students if they don’t submit compliance reports. Oh, bravo! That’ll show them! Never mind that this system has been a cash-grab free-for-all for years under Trudeau. Never mind that these so-called reforms are like slapping duct tape on a sinking ship.
Let’s be honest: Trudeaus Liberals doesn’t care about fixing this mess. Why would he? The whole point is to create chaos now so that when the Conservatives take power, they inherit this dumpster fire. Then, when Pierre Poilievre or whoever tries to clean it up, the Liberals will wail and gnash their teeth, screaming, “Look how mean and anti-immigrant the Conservatives are!” It’s a trap, and it’s classic Trudeau—leave the house in flames and then blame the firefighters when they show up.
Meanwhile, Canadians are left footing the bill. Skyrocketing rents, overcrowded hospitals, and universities that look more like visa factories than places of learning. Trudeau doesn’t care. This isn’t about improving Canada—it’s about looking good on the world stage and keeping the global elite happy.
So here’s the takeaway: Canada’s immigration system is a joke, and the punchline is Justin Trudeau. Schools profit, students disappear, and regular Canadians suffer. The Liberals don’t care about accountability; they care about keeping their woke agenda intact while setting traps for the next government. The result? A country that’s being gamed by everyone except the people it’s supposed to serve. Pathetic. But hey, it’s Trudeau’s Canada, so what did you expect?
https://www.theglobeandmail.
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Daily Caller
As Violent Venezuelan Gang Plagues US, Biden DHS Issues Deportation Protections For Migrants From … Venezuela
Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gangbangers took control of apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, in 2024
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Hopkins
The Biden administration rolled out deportation protections to nearly a million foreign nationals living in the United States, including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.
More than 900,000 beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be allowed to register for an 18-month extension, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Friday. The massive roll out — just days before President Joe Biden leaves office and President-elect Donald Trump returns to power — includes TPS extensions for roughly 600,000 Venezuelans living in the country.
The extension came on the same day the U.S. government declared new sanctions against Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. The deportation protections also follow growing anxiety over the presence of Tren de Aragua, an international crime syndicate that originated in Venezuela and has since wreaked havoc on American communities.
“The extension of TPS is due to extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent eligible Venezuelan nationals from safely returning,” DHS said. “After reviewing the country conditions in Venezuela and consulting with interagency partners, it was determined that an 18-month TPS extension is warranted based on the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”
“These conditions have contributed to high levels of crime and violence, impacting access to food, medicine, healthcare, water, electricity, and fuel,” the DHS statement continued.
First established by the federal government in 1990, TPS provides certain deportation protections and work eligibility to those who receive its designation, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The White House may designate TPS for foreign nationals residing in the U.S. whose home countries are experiencing any number of situations that may make it dangerous for them to return, such as an ongoing military conflict or natural disaster.
Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in November, several Democratic lawmakers pleaded with Biden to dole out new TPS extensions before he left office, calling the remaining days he has left a “critical window” before the Trump administration comes into power and cracks down on illegal immigration. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in winding down TPS benefits.
Had the designation not been extended, Venezuelans currently enjoying TPS would’ve been obligated to leave the U.S. by April. Their 18-month extension means they are eligible to remain in the country until at least October 2026, according to DHS.
Venezuelans, experiencing incredible political and economic instability since Maduro came to power, have left their home country en masse in the past several years, with the destination of choice for many being the U.S. However, among the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals making their way to the U.S. have been confirmed members of Tren de Aragua.
An internal investigation concluded that Tren de Aragua gangbangers took control of apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado, in 2024 and have utilized the area to bolster their criminal enterprise. In December, a couple in Aurora had been allegedly taken hostage by suspected members of the gang, dragged to one of their apartment buildings and tortured.
An internal DHS document stated that hundreds of migrants in the U.S. are potentially connected to the gang.
“As a part of our work to counter [Tren de Aragua] TdA, DHS has an ongoing operation to crack down on gang members through re-screening certain individuals previously encountered, in addition to the rigorous screening and vetting at the border,” a DHS spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation when the report was leaked. “All individuals confirmed or suspected to be gang members are referred for criminal prosecution or detained and placed into Expedited Removal.”
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