By NWV Senior Political News Writer, Jim Kouri

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform; Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Government Operations; Congressman Jody Hice (R-GA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security; Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Congressman Michael Cloud (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy; and Congressman James Comer (R-KY), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Environment; sent a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan requesting a briefing and additional information about the threats posed by large caravans of migrants travelling from Central America to the United States.

On May 17, 2019, U.S. Custom and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provided the Committee with internal data and analyses showing that hundreds of migrants approaching the southern border have criminal histories.

Unfortunately for the American people, the Democratic leadership was too busy trying to convince the country that President Donald Trump should be impeached and that the problems we face at the U.S. border with Mexico were a “fabricated crisis.”

New Data and Statistics:

  • In October 2018, CBP’s Office of Intelligence (OI) tracked one caravan estimated to include nearly 8,000 individuals that arrived south of California in December 2018. ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) established that 660 of these individuals had U.S. criminal convictions-nearly 40 were convicted of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three individuals were convicted of murder.
  • In January 2019, CBP OI tracked a caravan that departed Honduras with more than 3,300 individuals. ICE HSI identified 860 individuals with U.S. criminal histories, including over 20 convicted of assault or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, nearly 30 convicted of sexual offenses, two convicted of violence against law enforcement, and one convicted of attempted murder.
  • These incidents are continuing. CBP is currently monitoring another “movement of several groups ranging in size from 1,000 to 4,000” in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Veracruz.

The letter noted that two weeks ago U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration that, “as of March 31, 2019, 361,087 migrants have been apprehended between the points of entry (POEs) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, representing a 108 percent increase over the same time in FY 2018.”

“Current projections are that more than 1 million people will have crossed our southern border illegally this year. Our constituents, the American public, are confounded as to why more is not being done by your Department,” the letter said.

Proposals include expanding a training program for border patrol agents to conduct fear interviews, where an undocumented immigrant is referred to an asylum officer if they express fear of returning to their home country.

Full text of the letter can be found here.

Illegal Aliens Arrested In Workplace Raid Sue ICE, IRS For Racial Profiling

Seven illegal aliens arrested by federal law enforcement during a workplace raid are suing the federal agencies that arrested them, alleging that they were victims of racial profiling for being Latino. The illegal aliens are being represented by a radical nonprofit that includes in its lists of “hate groups” conservative organizations while ignoring organizations funded by radical multi-billionaire George Soros and violence prone groups such as Antifa (anti-fascists) and Black Lives Matter (BLM).

The pro-bono case filed by attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violated their constitutional rights against illegal seizures and to equal protection under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is regarded by many journalists as valuable source for information on hate groups. But its record is dotted with inconsistencies—it has itself engaged in hateful discourse against some traditional minded organizations: branding the Family Research Council a hate group is one glaring example. Not as well known are its more subtle ways of emitting bias.

According to law enforcement sources who were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements during the Obama administration, employers are mandated by law to perform background checks on all employees using the form I-9:

Form I-9 is used for verifying the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must ensure proper completion of Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. Both employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form. On the form, an employee must attest to his or her employment authorization. The employee must also present his or her employer with acceptable documents evidencing identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity document(s) an employee presents to determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee and record the document information on the Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents can be found on the last page of the form. Employers must retain Form I-9 for a designated period and make it available for inspection by authorized government officers. 

The arrests occurred at a slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in the small town of Bean Station in eastern Tennessee. Agents from ICE assisted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) conducted the raid on the facility as part of a large-scale criminal investigation into the business owner’s multi-million-dollar tax evasion and fraud scheme.

Upwards of 100 illegal aliens were arrested, most of them emanating from Guatemala and Mexico. Some of those arrested had been previously deported from the United States more than once. While the first arrest is processed as a misdemeanor, re-entry by an illegal alien after deportment is a felony.

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Contact Jim Kouri – E-Mail: COPmagazine@aol.com