[Free Beacon] President Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson said "we are truly in a crisis" at the border during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday.
"When I was in office in Kirstjen Nielsen's job, at her desk, I'd get to work around 6:30 in the morning and there'd be my intelligence book sitting on my desk, the PDB, and also the apprehension numbers from the day before," Johnson said. "And I'd look at them every morning, it'd be the first thing I'd look at. And I probably got too close to the problem, and my staff will tell you if it was under 1,000 apprehensions the day before that was a relatively good number, and if it was above 1,000 it was a relatively bad number, and I was gonna be in a bad mood the whole day."
"On Tuesday, there were 4,000 apprehensions. I know that a thousand overwhelms the system. I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like, so we are truly in a crisis," Johnson continued.
A number of prominent Democrats have downplayed border security over the past year.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), who is running for president, argued DHS should not oversee immigration because it is "not a security issue." Gillibrand and other Democrats have also called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with the New York senator calling it a "deportation force."
Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) have echoed Gillibrand's sentiments.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), who is also running for president, has compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.
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#5
From the DHS 2014-2018 Strategic Plan (not that I am a DHS cheerleader):
"At the center of any good immigration system must be a structure able to rapidly respond to regulatory changes and the flow of demand around the world while at the same time safeguarding security."
[Breitbart] The ongoing border crisis forced Border Patrol officials to implement a massive catch and release program where most migrants illegally crossing the border are released shortly after being processed. The policy comes as Border Patrol officials estimate that more than 100,000 migrants will be apprehended in March.
Border Patrol officials in multiple sectors announced a policy this week to being releasing thousands of migrants on their own recognizance shortly after they are apprehended at the border. The move comes in response to the massive increase of illegal border crossings by migrant families from Central America.
"This demographic is challenging in that they cannot be immediately returned to their country of origin," Del Rio Sector Border Patrol officials stated. "U.S. Border Patrol processing centers are not designed to house the current numbers of families and small children that we are encountering."
During a press conference late this week, Yuma Sector Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Carl Landrum announced a similar policy for his Arizona sector. He blamed the dramatic surge in migrant families and minors that are overwhelming his sector’s agents and resources.
"Due to capacity issues at our stations and the ongoing humanitarian crisis nationwide, Border Patrol has begun identifying detainees for potential release in Yuma with a notice to appear for their immigration hearings," Yuma Sector officials said in a written statement.
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#6
During the first two years of the Trump administration, he couldn't count on the Rinos, people like McCain, Flake, Collins, Murkowsi,Corker and others. And now Rommey. In the House, Ryan was an impediment. The Dems, such as Schumer were obstructionist to everything Trump. Trump is trying to get something done on immigration reform. He is pushing hard to fix this. At the same time, Trump has been assaulted from every direction by crooked bastards from the media and the previous adminstration. He needs to clean out this den of vipers permanently.
[Gateway Pundit] Senator Rand Paul is now demanding that Obama and some of his former officials be investigated over the Russia conspiracy. As you’ll see below, he not playing around here.
The Washington Examiner reports:
Rand Paul: Former Obama CIA chief promoted ’dossier,’ demands investigation of Obama team
Sen. Rand Paul escalated his demand for an investigation into former Obama officials who "concocted" the anti-Trump Russia scandal, revealing that former CIA Director John Brennan was the key figure who legitimized the charges and discredited "dossier" against the president.
In an interview, the Kentucky Republican said the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately ask Brennan about his involvement in the document that helped to kick off the Russia collusion investigation of President Trump.
"I think we need to find the truth," he told Washington Secrets. He said the goal would be to stop similar faulty investigations into future administrations, "Democratic or Republican."
In a tweet, he said that he heard from a high level source that Brennan helped to validate the "dossier" in intelligence reports.
"A high-level source tells me it was Brennan who insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report ... Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP," he tweeted.
#3
When you get to the top of the pile, and it’s America’s first black President and a number of blacks and Muslims and progressive women, what then? Do we have the will to do and endure what will happen then? We used to, but are we what we were?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.