illegal immigration
Kamala Harris, Immigration Extremist
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/tvrd-cis-kamala-harris-image-2024-07-24.jpg)
From The Center for Immigration Studies
By Todd Bensman
AUSTIN, Texas — During the violent social justice upheavals of 2019-2020, Democratic primary candidate for President Sen. Kamala Harris told America exactly where she stood on illegal border immigration, no matter how she might spin it now that she is the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president.
American voters should not forget the politically extreme positions she staked just a few years ago, as thousands of “Occupy ICE” hooligans were disrupting detention and deportation operations. “Abolish ICE” was the street chant as arson fires burned major cities and an AR-15-armed Antifa terrorist named Willem van Spronsen died in a fiery July 2019 attack on a Washington State ICE detention facility.
What American voters should remember about this period, now that they regard the border crisis as a top 2024 campaign issue, is that Harris went all-in with the most extreme agenda on border security in American history and has neither said nor acted once in any way contrary to those early positions, other than to tone down rhetoric while serving as vice president.
Taking Up the Extremist Cudgel
Just one week after ICE agents killed van Spronsen and found his manifesto demanding an end to corporate profiteering from private detention centers and their human suffering, Sen. Harris all but rewarded the attack with a tweet that mainstreamed the terrorist demand:
During a June 2019 televised primary debate, she reiterated that “I will get rid of the private detention centers.”
Harris was always at the forefront of Democratic primary contenders adopting the extreme immigration policy demands of a violent progressive movement high on the smoke of anti-police BLM arson, antifa attacks on Trump supporters, and Occupy ICE campfires. Indeed, Harris began messaging as her own the most fringe ideas about immigration and the border ever heard on the main American public square.
Abolish ICE. End all deportation and detention. Extend U.S. asylum access to all comers so they can stay and disappear. Grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. Free healthcare to all. Stop the wall.
The van Spronsens of a border security abolitionist movement burgeoning among progressives at the time were pushing an extreme agenda driven by an ideology unchained from the Democratic Party basement to dismantle immigration enforcement as cruel and inhumane, a violation of human rights like Jim Crow laws and slavery.
They demanded the dismantling of ICE “concentration camps” full of detained latter-day Jews who this time were illegal-immigrant brown people, an end to deportation “death flights” home, the dismantling of ICE’s Nazi jack-booted brown shirts, abolition of laws deterring illegal immigration, and a southern border opened wide to anyone in the world who might feel like crossing it as an inalienable civil right.
Yes on “Abolish ICE” — and Immigration Law Enforcement with It
Harris went full throttle with the narrative that ICE agents she may one day lead were indeed the racist thugs everyone was saying they were.
“Certain communities saw ICE as comparable to the Ku Klux Klan for administering its power in a way that is causing fear and intimidation, particularly among immigrants and specifically among immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America,” Harris accused during a Senate confirmation hearing of Trump’s nominee to lead ICE, Ronald Vitiello.
Then-Sen. Harris responded on MSNBC in 2019 to a question about abolishing ICE that the United States should “probably think about starting from scratch” on enforcing immigration laws, while a spokesperson for Harris said the senator was weighing “a complete overhaul of the agency, mission, culture, operations”.
None of this could be said to be opportunistic at the time, either. In 2015, while serving as California’s Attorney General, Harris told the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles that “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal. I know what a criminal looks like who’s committing a crime. An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.”
In fact, illegally crossing the southern border is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison for a first offense and a felony on subsequent violations.
She was one of the candidates who raised a hand at another debate when asked if she supported decriminalizing illegal crossings and when asked if she would give free healthcare to illegal immigrants.
In a 2019 interview with National Public Radio, candidate Harris expressed a willingness as president to declare all illegal border-crossers refugees based on unconfirmable claims of political violence, even if that meant ignoring the law, despite well-known reporting that many let in on such claims disappear into the nation’s illegal immigrant population:
I disagree with any policy that would turn America’s back on people who are fleeing harm. I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for. And so, I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge. (Emphasis added.)
Harris’ presidential campaign website took a page from Antifa and Black Lives Matter ideology handbooks about dismantling detention and deportation infrastructure, declaring her belief that “[W]e must fundamentally overhaul our immigration enforcement policies and practices — they are cruel and out of control.” She promised to “increase oversight” of agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol were she to be elected.
Expect claims from Harris supporters that, well, this was a primary campaign intended to appeal to the party base and she didn’t really mean any of it.
That’s not believable if Wall Street Journal reporting this week is accurate. People who have worked with Harris over the years told the Journal she only takes up a policy idea after “detailed deliberations … and has been reluctant to always endorse immediate, sweeping policy changes” before achieving full understanding.
“She really wants to understand what the data and evidence is to support a potential course of action,” Jill Habig, who worked for Harris in different roles over the years, is quoted saying. “She really wants to understand not just the idea in theory, but how it’s actually going to work in practice.”
Toning Down in High Office in Favor of Denialism and Gaslighting
Harris went on the down-low about her policy views after becoming vice president, but repeatedly denied a mass migration crisis was underway at the southern border, refusing to visit there, and, when she finally did under pressure, staying indoors in controlled environments with the television cameras.
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent some illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard to make a political point in September 2022, Harris was quoted insisting the administration’s policies had “closed” the border when, in fact, hundreds of thousands had just crossed.
Local TV quoted one of the Martha’s Vineyard immigrants refuting the vice president’s absurd claim. “It’s open, not closed. The border is open,” the gentleman responded in English when asked about Harris’ claim that it was closed. “Everybody believes the border is open. It’s open because … we entered! We come in. Free. No problem.”
As vice president, Harris has regularly blamed “root causes” and “climate change” for the vast influx that began right after she and Biden took office and implemented an extreme vision straight from the burning streets of blue cities. Immigration was all so very “complex”, Harris explained during a state visit to Central America to get the strategy up and running.
During an April 2021 roundtable discussion Harris said:
We are looking at extensive storm damage because of extreme climate. We’re looking at drought in an area in a region where agriculture is one of the most traditionally important bases for their economy. We’re looking at what’s happening in terms of food scarcity as a result of that and in fact, incredible food insecurity, which we used to call hunger, food insecurity.
Whatever the Democratic Party nominee might float about her plans for border security over the next four months, Americans concerned about what she and Biden have done at the border should know that, in her case, past definitely is prologue.
Crime
Venezuelan Migrant Says She’d ‘Return’ To Country After Living In Housing Taken Over By Venezuelan Gang
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tvrd-dc-venezuelan-gangs-take-over-appartments-denver-image-2024-09-07.jpg)
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
A Venezuelan immigrant living in migrant housing in Aurora, Colorado, appeared to fight back tears while speaking to independent reporter Nick Shirley, saying she would return to her country after living in the U.S.
This week, the city of Aurora faced major pushback from Republicans after footage surfaced online of armed men inside an apartment complex in late August. Shirley was seen visiting various migrant housing units before stopping at the viral location to interview residents where the armed men had been spotted.
Shirley spoke with a Venezuelan woman who showed him the poor living conditions her family endures, stating she pays $1,200 per month for the apartment. The migrant stated that the electricity and hot water in her apartment weren’t working, telling Shirley that the landlord hadn’t accepted any payment for the “past couple of months.”
“Does your father still have to pay rent?” Shirley asked as they walked around her father’s apartment.
“The owner is no longer receiving any kind of payment, because he is also taking all this, that the gangs and the mafia are taking advantage of all of this to get us out as if we were dogs and it’s not fair,” the migrant stated, according to a translation.
Shirley asked if gangs had been charging people, to which the migrant replied, “no.” The independent reporter then asked if her life in the U.S. was what she expected after crossing the border.
WATCH:
“No, never. I would have stayed in my country. They say that here everything is different, the laws, everyone gets a good job, you get ahead, you can save money to take back to your country,” the migrant stated. “But not everything is as they say, the American dream is simply just a dream. When you get here you wake up, it’s not like they say.”
Shirley then pressed the migrant, asking in Spanish if she would take a “flight or opportunity to go back” to her home country.
“With all the love in the world I would return to my country,” the migrant said.
Republican lawmakers on Friday sent a letter criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s “open border policies” and local “sanctuary” policies over the reported presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which allegedly terrorized several apartment buildings in Aurora.
Reportedly beginning as a prison gang in 2014 within the northern Venezuelan state of Aragua, Tren de Aragua has grown into one of Venezuela’s largest criminal organizations. With around 5,000 members and stretching internationally across Latin America and the U.S., the gang has allegedly been connected to several high-profile crimes within the U.S., including the kidnapping and strangling of a Florida man last year.
This week, the Aurora Police Department announced the arrest of two confirmed Tren de Aragua gang members, Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos and Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, following a July 28 shooting that left two men hospitalized with serious injuries.
illegal immigration
Illegal immigrants crossing from Canada into USA in record numbers
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tvrd-cs-illegal-immigrants-crossing-canada-us-border-champlain-ny-image-2024-09-02.jpg)
Illegal border crossers from Canada captured near Champlain, NY – US Border Patrol
From The Center Square
By
Apprehensions in 10 months surpass previous 13 fiscal years combined
The busiest U.S. Customs and Border Protection sector at the northern border continues to break records in apprehensions with foreign nationals coming from 85 countries to Canada to illegally enter the U.S.
In less than 10 months, Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 15,000 foreign nationals from 85 countries who all illegally entered the U.S. through Canada, the greatest volume reported in this time period in recorded history.
By contrast, the Swanton Sector apprehended 365 illegal border crossers in all of fiscal 2021, according to CBP data.
The total number apprehended this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, exceeds apprehensions Border Patrol agents made in 13 fiscal years combined (fiscal 2011 through fiscal 2023), Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.
The 15,000 illegal border crossers is equivalent to 15 U.S. Army battalions.
Foreign nationals flew from 85 countries to eventually reach Canada and then make their way to the U.S. border, where they illegally entered the Swanton Sector. The sector includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties, and three New Hampshire counties.
Illegal entry by car in Alburgh, Vermont.
It spans 295 miles of international boundary with the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and is the first international land boundary east of the Great Lakes.
In fiscal 2023, Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents broke previous records by apprehending the greatest number of illegal border crossers in history of more than 6,700 foreign nationals from 76 countries, The Center Square exclusively reported.
In just one year, that number tripled and countries of origin increased to 85.
Foreign nationals illegally entering the U.S. from Canada in the Swanton Sector alone are citizens of Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungry, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Liberia, Lithuania, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, according to Swanton Sector data.
![TCS border crisis northern border sqanton sector](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=150%2C107 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=200%2C143 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=225%2C161 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=300%2C214 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=400%2C286 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=540%2C386 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=640%2C457 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=750%2C536 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=990%2C707 990w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C739 1035w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/thecentersquare.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b8/eb8b6bb4-6891-11ef-aff7-7f54866cf622/66d4ba11e9184.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C857 1200w)
A border patrol agent at the northern border in the Swanton sector
The Biden-Harris administration continues to maintain U.S. borders are secure and numbers are down compared to the Trump administration, a claim fact-checked as false by The Center Square.
In one Derby, Vermont, local news report, residents described how “at all hours of the day,” illegal foreign nationals cross their backyards having come from Canada to illegally enter the U.S. They’ve shared similar experiences on a much smaller scale as those living in rural border counties of Texas, The Center Square has reported. In Texas, illegal border crossers total in the millions under the Biden-Harris administration, prompting 55 Texas counties to declare an invasion and 60 to issue disaster declarations citing the border crisis.
Like those at the southwest border, those at the northern border describe how home surveillance video captures foreign nationals trespassing on private property, next to their homes, in the middle of the night to be picked up by someone nearby. Border Patrol agents have warned residents “not to interfere because they may have weapons. They want to get through, they’re going to have nobody stopping them,” WCAX 3 News reported.
They are describing gotaways, those who illegally enter between ports of entry, don’t make asylum or immigration claims, and intentionally seek to evade capture. Many have criminal records and are armed and dangerous, authorities have told The Center Square. They total at least two million nationwide since fiscal 2021, the greatest number in recorded history, The Center Square first reported.
While the Swanton Sector has borne the brunt, the entire northern border has reported record illegal entries and apprehensions, totaling 162,865 so far this fiscal year. That’s after the greatest number of nearly 190,000 was apprehended at the northern border in U.S. history in fiscal 2023, according to CBP data.
Illegal entries continue to skyrocket at the northern border as both U.S. and Canadian officials have expressed alarm about terrorist threats, The Center Square reported.
Nearly 1,100 known or suspected terrorists attempting to enter the U.S. from Canada were apprehended at the northern border since fiscal 2021 by CBP and Border Patrol agents. Nationwide, the total number of KSTs apprehended since fiscal 2021 is over 1,700, the highest on record, The Center Square first reported.
Despite some Canadian officials telling The Center Square, “The Canada-U.S. border is the best-managed and most secure border in the world,” members of Congress, U.S. officials and some Canadian officials don’t agree.
-
Brownstone Institute7 hours ago
Why Did Zuckerberg Choose Now to Confess?
-
Agriculture4 hours ago
Glimpse into the Future of Food
-
Alberta5 hours ago
‘Coutts Two’ Verdict: Bail and Mischief
-
illegal immigration6 hours ago
Illegal immigrants crossing from Canada into USA in record numbers
-
Bruce Dowbiggin3 hours ago
From Deal With It: A Cruel, Senseless Fate Ends A Brilliant Career
-
Bruce Dowbiggin2 days ago
Dear Vladdy: Now, A Few Helpful Words From Vladimir Putin
-
National1 day ago
Unemployment Surges as Trudeau’s Policies Wreak Havoc on the Economy
-
Crime1 day ago
Officials Arrest Father Of Suspected Georgia School Shooter