Free Republic

A gut-wrenching photograph late last month of a father and daughter in the Rio Grande – while attempting to cross from Mexico into the United States – sharply exacerbated existing tensions over the ongoing border and migration crisis dividing Americans. But while politicians and Presidential hopefuls expressed their outrage and pointed fingers at the Trump administration, official data indicates that Mexico-U.S. border deaths have actually declined in the first two years of the current administration. According to statistics compiled by the United States Border Patrol, there were 298 border deaths in 2017 and 283 in 2018, making it an average...

Video at link. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) appeared on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday to discuss the immigration crisis plaguing America's southern border. Host Martha Raddatz pressed Tlaib on the fact that she voted against funding a $4.6 billion emergency border bill, something Customs and Border Patrol officials have said are desperately needed. Tlaib defended her position and even became defensive about her vote. "Do you know what the CBP [Customs and Border Patrol] agents on the ground said, Martha? Martha, do you know what they said?" Tlaib asked. "What did they say on the ground? Ask a CBP agent....

I mean I guess we shouldn’t be shocked she said this. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has said almost every terrible thing under the sun. She’s peddled anti-Semitic tropes. She’s rooted against our troops during our intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s. She’s failed miserably to identify that those who committed the 9/11 attacks were radical Muslim terrorists, instead, she trivialized this heinous act as one where “some people did something.” So, when she thinks that we should have open borders, sadly, it’s not as shocking as some of the other trash she’s spewed n recent months. Omar said that...

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should apologize for her recent temper tantrum in Texas — her slander against our brave Border Patrol agents was utterly unjustified. Following a recent tour of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facilities, the lawmaker has made several outrageous claims about conditions in the detention centers, blaming the officers for allegedly mistreating illegal immigrants and even accusing them of threatening her during her visit. “I see why CBP agents were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets.” First of all,...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Wednesday spoke with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about the Democratic caucus' trip to the southern border, where they toured multiple facilities in Texas. What's interesting though, is Tlaib said exactly what Border Patrol agents have been saying for years."I can tell you that the couple of agents that have taken me aside were imploring me to please, report back what's happening here because they don't want any part of it anymore," Tlaib explained. "And they do actually feel like it's making us less safe because they're not at the border. You know, in their eyes, they're not...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday called for Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan to resign. "The Inspector General's report and details of a secret border patrol workers' Facebook group paint a picture of a toxic culture at U.S. Border Patrol and Protection that can only begin to be changed by immediately firing and replacing top leadership at the agency with law enforcement professionals who have training and expertise in working with vulnerable populations," Schumer said in a statement. "Internal investigations aren't enough because the leadership at CBP, particularly Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, are too callous about...

As the president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing 16,000 Border Patrol agents, I am personally and professionally offended by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s outrageous, inflammatory and false claims about the dedicated law enforcement officers I represent. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., once again tweeted Tuesday to describe our detention facilities for illegal immigrants as “concentration camps” – absurdly comparing these facilities to the death camps run by the Nazis who murdered 6 million Jews and millions of others during World War II. This is a horrible insult to the memories of the innocent men, women and children slaughtered by the...

The situation on the U.S. southern border with Mexico continues to deteriorate as hundreds of thousands of Central Americans falsely claim asylum, overwhelming Border Patrol and HHS facilities. But while most Democrats are still sitting by with complaints and false accusations instead of solutions, others are finally admitting a crisis exists. CNN's Fareed Zakaria is one of them, who took time on his show this week to detail how the current asylum system is being gamed at devastating levels. "It pains me to say this but he [President Trump] is right that the United States faces a crisis with its...

TUCSON, Ariz.—Shortly after starting their midafternoon shift, Border Patrol agents Timothy McNeil and Jason Pope got their first 911 call: a 27-year-old Mexican man had been walking in the desert for 10 days and needed help. The agents, both part of the elite Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue unit, found Manuel Gutierrez Lopez in a tangle of mesquite trees about 30 miles west of Tucson and some 70 miles north of the border. Mr. Gutierrez, who had called 911 on his cellphone, told them he got separated from a group of eight or nine others a few days before...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., screamed at federal law enforcement agents “in a threatening manner” during a visit to a Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas, and refused to tour the facility, according to two people who witnessed the incident. A group of 14 House Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, and their aides kicked off their visit to the region at about 11 a.m. MST Monday at the El Paso Station on Hondo Pass Drive. The group was standing inside the station near an area where migrants are held when Ocasio-Cortez left them to sit inside a nearby holding area with a...

Border crossers and illegal aliens are being released into the interior of the United States without going through basic medical examinations and disease tests, Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kevin McAleenan admits. In written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, McAleenan admitted the thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens DHS is releasing every week are not undergoing disease tests. McAleenan wrote: The public health risk — family units are released into our communities with unknown vaccination status and without a standard medical examination for communicable diseases of public health concern, as well as a public...

A report funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) found that human traffickers taking migrants from Central America to the United States are raking in billions. As IJR previously reported, Border Patrol has apprehended more than 614,000 migrants in the current financial year. Many of these migrants were found to be crossing the border in large groups, with some of the groups containing more than 1,000 people.

In Congo, the ebola epidemic is back. Axios has a disturbing chart showing a sharp arc upward based on Congolese government data. Total cases have gone to from virtually nothing last August to 2,031 now — and the data suggest that the trend has not peaked. That's news, because right now, Congolese migrants have begun crossing our unguarded southern border in large numbers. According to the Voice of America: U.S. Border Patrol agents have apprehended more than 150 African immigrants [sic] attempting unauthorized crossings into Texas at the U.S. southern border within the past week, according to U.S. Customs and...

We have followed the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo for over six months. Officials have reported nearly 3,000 cases of the hemorrhagic disease. However, the actual number of infected Congolese may be a third higher than figures show, experts have warned [link to stats from the WHO]. Public health officials have also indicated this particular outbreak could last as long as two years. ... Meanwhile, Texas officials scrambled this week to find French speaking volunteers to help with 350 Congolese migrants arriving in the state. "We didn't get a heads up," Interim Assistant City Manager Dr....

el Rio Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 500 migrants from the continent of Africa since May 30. The numbers jumped after large numbers of African migrants adopted a strategy of crossing in large numbers. On Wednesday, a group of 34 African migrants crossed the border illegally near Eagle Pass, Texas. Eagle Pass Station agents apprehended a group of 34 illegal aliens from Africa on June 5, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Del Rio Sector Border Patrol officials. On May 30, large numbers of African migrants who had been waiting in Mexico to cross at ports...

For years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol have said their facilities are overwhelmed and the system is severely broken. Politicians in Washington, D.C. have debated the issue, but one thing they can't debate is the cold hard facts. And the fact is we have people from around the world taking advantage of loopholes in our immigration system, a Border Patrol whistleblower told Townhall. Central American caravan riders have overwhelmed the Border Patrol since last fall when they began coming to the United States en masse. Mexico established a system to help the U.S. deal with the...

HOUSTON — Advocates demanded $100 million in damages Thursday on behalf of the family of a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year.

The acting head of the Department of Homeland Security is disputing accusations that U.S. authorities are continuing to separate children from their families. "First of all, that is not happening. We're separating children in maybe one case a day out of the 3,000 families arriving," Kevin McAleenan said Thursday in an exclusive interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."... ...McAleenan also discussed his recent appearances on Capitol Hill asking for funding, including a hearing where Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., asked him about the effects of separating children from their families at the border. She closed by claiming that children in...

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) said at a Wednesday congressional hearing that she believes deaths of migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border are "intentional." Her comments, made to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan as he testified to the House Committee on Homeland Security, come days after the announcement that a Guatemalan teen was the fifth minor to die at the border since December. "With five kids that have died ... the evidence is really clear that this is intentional, it’s a policy choice being made on purpose by this administration and it’s cruel and inhumane," the freshman Democrat, who is...

Full Title: TSA considers using $3MILLION in loose change left in airport security screening trays to fund border operations The Transpiration Security Administration is considering using $3million loose change left behind in security screening trays to help fund border operations, if Congress does not approve President Donald Trump's $1.1billion border security funding request. The White House on May 1 asked Congress for $4.5 billion in emergency funds to address the rising number of people crossing the southwestern border with Mexico, with $1.1 billion set aside specifically for 'border operations.' ... ...A TSA spokesman said the agency was looking for volunteers...