Tag: Border Crisis

Border Agents Report Being Overworked, Understaffed and Exposed to COVID-19 During Migrant Surge

Georgia Star News Staff
Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy

Border officials in south Texas consistently face exposure to COVID-19, don’t have the resources to do their job and are regularly called in for overtime shifts, two active agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Many Customs and Border Protection (CBP) field agents work 50-hour weeks and now are required to report for 10-hour long overtime shifts even after they are exposed to migrants who test positive for COVID-19, an active CBP agent told the DCNF. The agents spoke on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak with members of the media.

“CBP gives us a job, but they seem more concerned with getting the job done than with the actual agents,” an active agent told the DCNF. “They want the mission to succeed. We don’t have the resources we need to do our jobs but we make do with what we have. We don’t have enough agents, transport, technology, or aircraft to help us out.”

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Biden Picks Top Immigration Officials as Migrants Continue to Arrive at Southern Border

Georgia Star News Staff
Group of immigrants at border

President Joe Biden announced two key immigration official nominations Monday as migrants continue to arrive at the southern border in record numbers.

Police Chief Chris Magnus of Tucson, Arizona, will be nominated to head Customs and Border Protection and immigrant rights advocate Ur Jaddou will be tapped to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to a statement.

“They are highly-regarded and accomplished professionals with deep experience in their respective fields,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement, Bloomberg reported. “Together they will help advance the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to ensure the safety and security of the American people.”

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Commentary: Our Government Is Oblivious to Invasion

Georgia Star News Staff

Recently while driving from town to my house, I was running through some radio stations when I landed on the Glenn Beck show. His guest was Lara Logan, a journalist and commentator unfamiliar to me, and I was sickened and horrified by what I heard. I wish I were exaggerating, but what that woman had to say left me depressed for the rest of the day.

We are being invaded—and not just by illegal immigrants.

Logan, an expert on the situation at our border with Mexico, had much to say about the cartels that are behind the current influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. She relayed that the cartels no longer resemble what most of us, including me, have believed them to be, drug gangs battling for power with one another. No, they are now making millions each and every day smuggling immigrants into our country, including sexual criminals, murderers, and slaves.

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Commentary: Biden Border Policy Goes South

Georgia Star News Staff
Border Surge

When the inevitable assessments of President Biden’s first 100 days in office begin to appear, his precipitous actions pursuant to illegal immigration at the southern border will be judged by most honest observers to have been his worst blunder. That is certainly the perspective of the majority of Americans, according to three recent public opinion surveys. An NPR/Marist poll, for example, found that 53 percent of respondents disapproved of Biden’s handling of immigration. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 57 percent were dissatisfied with his management of the situation, particularly as it affects unaccompanied minors. An AP/NORC poll found that 56 percent were unhappy with Biden’s performance on immigration.

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Commentary: Stopping the Crisis at the Border

RealClearWire
"Open the border" tent with baby stroller in front of other tents.

I recently traveled to the southern border with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to see the unfolding crisis firsthand and come up with solutions. The surge and resulting chaos is well documented. 

Customs and Border Protection reported more than 172,000 total encounters at the border in March, up 70% from February and more than five times the March 2020 numbers. This includes more than 53,000 migrant family members, a more than 1,000% increase from March 2020; nearly 100,000 single adult migrants, an increase of 275% versus last year; and nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children, double the amount that crossed our border in February and a nearly 500% increase from March 2020.

The reason for the crisis is clear. The Biden administration’s policy changes encouraged families and unaccompanied children, mostly from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, to come to our southern border and apply for asylum. Traffickers are telling families they can come into the U.S. if they pay to make the treacherous trip north, then apply for asylum at the border. Under the Biden policies, there is a lot of truth to that.  

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Commentary: Stopping the Crisis at the Border

RealClearWire
"Open the border" tent with baby stroller in front of other tents.

I recently traveled to the southern border with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to see the unfolding crisis firsthand and come up with solutions. The surge and resulting chaos is well documented. 

Customs and Border Protection reported more than 172,000 total encounters at the border in March, up 70% from February and more than five times the March 2020 numbers. This includes more than 53,000 migrant family members, a more than 1,000% increase from March 2020; nearly 100,000 single adult migrants, an increase of 275% versus last year; and nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children, double the amount that crossed our border in February and a nearly 500% increase from March 2020.

The reason for the crisis is clear. The Biden administration’s policy changes encouraged families and unaccompanied children, mostly from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, to come to our southern border and apply for asylum. Traffickers are telling families they can come into the U.S. if they pay to make the treacherous trip north, then apply for asylum at the border. Under the Biden policies, there is a lot of truth to that.  

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Abbott: Biden Administration Is Presiding over ‘Abuse of Children’

The Center Square

Gov. Greg Abbott held a short press conference Wednesday night outside of the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio to discuss allegations about the abuse of migrant minors occurring at a federally run detention center.

Two separate state agencies received reports of child abuse and neglect occurring at the Freeman Coliseum, problems Abbott says “are a byproduct of [President Joe] Biden’s open border policies and lack of planning and fallout from those disastrous policies.”

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Human Traffickers Using Facebook to Lure Customers, Promising Safe Passage to U.S.

Peter D'Abrosca
Group of protestors holding human trafficking signs

A report released Monday details how human traffickers are using Facebook – and the Biden administration’s new open border’s policies – to generate business and smuggle illegal aliens into the United States.

Public Facebook pages called “Migrants from Various Countries in Mexico” and “Migrants in the Mexico-U.S.A. Border Awaiting Hearing,” among others, were openly being used by smugglers on the Big Tech platform to scheme with would-be illegal aliens about how to break America’s immigration laws. 

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Commentary: Biden’s Blaming Trump for Border Crisis Has Zero Credibility

Georgia Star News Staff
border surge

No one believes the Biden White House’s feeble attempt to blame the Trump administration for the current border crisis.

As the Biden administration unsuccessfully tries to deflect blame for the humanitarian disaster now occurring before America’s eyes, despite its directed media blackout, the administration is only succeeding at showing it knows it has a problem.

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‘The Crisis Will Continue, and Worsen’: Immigration Experts Say Border Crisis Will Continue Despite Mexico’s Policies Limiting Migration

Georgia Star News Staff

The current migrant crisis in the U.S. will continue to worsen despite Mexico implementing travel limits on March 18 at its southern border, immigration experts say.

Mexico announced non-essential travel restrictions at its southern border due to COVID-19 as thousands of Central American migrants continue to enter the country en route to the U.S.

“The crisis will continue, and worsen, until such time as the [Biden] administration decides to take steps to end it,” Ira Mehlman, the media director of the Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Poll: By Sizable Margin, Voters Blame Biden not Trump for Border Crisis

Georgia Star News Staff

By a decisive margin, voters blame Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump for the current crisis at the southern border, according to a new Just The News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.

Forty percent of respondents pointed to Biden when asked: “Which of the following do you believe is the most responsible for the current migration crisis at the southern border?”

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Migrants Form Tent Community in Mexico Waiting for Biden to Open the Border

Georgia Star News Staff

Nearly 200 tents fill a plaza near the busiest port for border crossings in Tijuana, Mexico, in less than a month as migrants hope the Biden administration will allow entry into the U.S., the Associated Press reported Friday.

Around 1,500 migrants receive meals from a canopy-covered kitchen, kids play sports and volunteer security guards patrol the camp wearing orange jackets, the AP reported. Some pay to shower at a nearby hotel or to use the restroom at the pharmacy and travel agency.

“The camp is a center for disinformation,” a H

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House Passes Two Immigration Bills as Border Crisis Intensifies

Georgia Star News Staff

The House passed two separate immigration bills Thursday evening, marking the first time the 117th Congress has voted on the issue under President Joe Biden.

The pair of bills are the first immigration proposals to be voted on since a surge of migrants reached the southern border, resulting in heightened scrutiny on the Biden administration over its handling of what Republicans have labeled a serious crisis.

The House first passed H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 (ADPA), with nine Republicans voting with Democrats in favor of the bill. The act would provide a pathway to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers” who were brought to the United States as young children, as well as for Temporary Protected Status recipients and Deferred Enforced Departure beneficiaries. The legislation, sponsored by California Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, could give over 4.4 million people a path to permanent status, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

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Texas Democrats Express Alarm About Potential Border Crisis

The Center Square

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, whose district extends from the Rio Grande along the Mexican border to the San Antonio suburbs, is sounding the alarm about a potential border crisis in Texas.

More than 10,000 illegal immigrants have been apprehended at a single border sector in Texas in one week, he says, and the numbers keep growing.

“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” Cueller said in a news release. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”

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