Free Republic

The White House doubled down Sunday on President Trump’s threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, despite warnings that the move would inflict immediate economic damage on American consumers and businesses while doing little to stem a tide of migrants clamoring to enter the United States. Sealing the border with Mexico, America’s third-largest trading partner, would disrupt supply chains for major U.S. automakers, trigger swift price increases for grocery shoppers and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.

It would take “something dramatic” in the coming days to persuade President Trump not to close the U.S.-Mexico border, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday, and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the president’s threat “certainly isn’t a bluff.” (please see link, for full article)

A new study by Pew Research reveals that 18% of migrants in the world live in the US. This is an astonishing number given the grief the US gets from nations around the world - and the left in this country - for not doing enough to solve the migrant crisis.

Mexico bowed to President Trump's border security demands by agreeing to set up a Central American illegal alien "containment" belt 2,200 miles south of San Diego. Mexico's socialist president, Andrés Manuel López-Obrador, known as "AMLO," trumpeted after his huge July victory that he sympathized with migrants suffering from "hunger and poverty." He promised to slash funds dedicated to border control and claimed that he would stand up to any of President Trump's bullying tactics.

Secretary Nielsen Meets with Mexican Officials on Border Emergency, Travels to Honduras to Meet with Northern Triangle Governments to Address Crisis at Source Secretary Nielsen Signs Historic Regional Compact with Central America to Stem Irregular Migration at the Source, Confront U.S. Border Crisis

President Trump on Friday threatened to close the Southern Border next week if Mexico does not “immediately stop” the record-breaking surge of illegal immigrants flooding into the United States. Trump's warning comes as Customs and Border Protection officials say March is on pace to exceed 100,000 border apprehensions -- the highest monthly total in a decade. According to CBP, this week alone, agents have more than 12,000 migrants in custody., “The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S.,” Trump...

The fast-growing migrant rush over the U.S. border is collapsing border security and overwhelming the ability of border agents to process and protect migrants, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a Thursday letter to all members of Congress. “We face a system-wide meltdown … We are witnessing the real-time dissolution of the immigration system,” the head of the Department of Homeland Security wrote March 28 in a six-page letter. She added that she will soon ask for an emergency funding bill: I will be working with the Office of Management and Budget to provide you additional details in the near...

Mexico. is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border!

House Democrats on Tuesday failed to garner the votes needed to override Trump’s veto of a bill blocking his emergency border wall funding. Only a handful of Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats on the 248-181 vote. That deprived the measure of the two-thirds majority needed to revoke Trump’s February emergency declaration that authorized him to move $3.6 billion in military funds to a southern border wall project. The defeat, which was widely anticipated, kills the effort in Congress to block Trump’s wall funding grab, but numerous court challenges to the declaration are now pending and could ultimately...

(WASHINGTON) — An effort by House Democrats to override President Donald Trump’s first veto has failed. That hands him a victory because his declaration of a national emergency at the Southwest border will remain in effect. The Democratic-controlled chamber has voted 248-181 in favor of overriding Trump’s veto. That fell 38 votes short of the 286 needed

ATLANTA (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence’s visit Thursday to Atlanta included a stop at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s field office and a conversation about the “broader mission of border security.” He also blasted Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over her decision last year to bar the city jail from holding federal immigration detainees and thanked the men and women who work for ICE. Pence highlighted some of the ICE arrests made in the area, including one Wednesday night in Riverdale, Georgia, news outlets reported. “Atlanta and Georgia are safer today because of the outstanding work of the men and...

The government is on track to catch nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants at the border this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday, renewing the administration’s plea for Congress to do something. That number would be the worst in more than a decade, and it’s more troubling than the worst years because the migrants are children and families who despite being unauthorized, are almost impossible to deport. “The situation at our Southern Border has gone from a crisis, to a national emergency, to a near systemwide meltdown,” Ms. Nielsen said in delivering an update on the state of her department...

FULL TITLE: Dramatic video shows dozens of Central American migrants cutting and shoving their way through a hole in a California border fence ....The migrants were seen cutting through the saltwater-corroded chain link fence They kicked the fence until a gap was big enough for people to squeeze through. The migrants rushed along the beach, past a single border patrol agent in a car. Authorities said all of the migrants were captured after a two-hour foot chase. The Central American migrants all claimed asylum after being caught.

Brian Kolfage Rumors of We Build the Wall’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, you can go to its GoFundMe page yourself, right now, and see that the group has collected a little over $20 million. This is despite a sustained media barrage claiming GoFundMe was going belly-up and refunding every donation — more than 300,000 — that had been sent into the wall-building effort. It’s also despite a sustained online pounding on founder Brian Kolfage’s past and character from the likes of BuzzFeed — the people largely responsible for clickbait listicles — and the Daily Beast. Brian...

Traffickers have established a low-cost bus route through Mexico to deliver thousands of economic migrants from Central America to U.S. blue-collar jobs, according to the Washington Post. The business model is being called the “conveyor belt” system, and large groups of customers are charged from $2,500 to $7,000 per adult and child, depending on amenities, says the Washington Post: Paying up to $7,000 per adult with child, families are transported to staging areas at ranches and hotels in southern Mexico, where they are organized into bus groups and rushed north along Mexican highways, “stopping only for food, fuel and bathroom...

President Trump issued the first veto of his presidency Friday afternoon against a resolution passed by the House and Senate to end the national emergency declaration on border security. Twelve Senate Republicans sided with Democrats on the issue.“Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it," Trump said from the Oval Office.“People hate the word invasion, but that’s what it is," Trump continued, calling the resolution "dangerous" and "reckless." "Today I am vetoing this resolution," Pres. Trump says. "Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution,...

President Trump flexed his veto for the first time in his administration Friday, rejecting Congress‘ attempt to end his border emergency declaration and halt wall construction. Surrounded by “angel moms” who have lost children to illegal immigrant violence, Mr. Trump called the attempt to stop wall construction “reckless” and “dangerous.” “Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it,” he said. He was moving with striking speed, rejecting the legislation just a day after it cleared the Senate on a 59-41 vote. It had previously cleared the...

Call it the procession of the RINOs. Call it the dirty dozen, standing up and getting themselves counted. Loaded with piety, tears, and flapdoodle, 12 GOP senators proudly voted to halt President Trump's declaration of a "state of emergency" at the U.S. border as migrant caravan after migrant caravan after migrant caravan from Central America and beyond prepare to roll into the states through our porous border, and cartel human smugglers prepare for a big cash flow to themselves, the better to wreak havoc on Mexico and Central America. Utah Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio,...

More than a dozen Republican senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would make it easier for Congress to terminate future national emergency declarations, days before the chamber will vote on President Trump's. The legislation, spearheaded by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), would require that Congress pass a resolution extending an emergency declaration after 30 days for it to continue, otherwise it would be terminated. “If Congress is troubled by recent emergency declarations made pursuant to the National Emergencies Act, they only have themselves to blame. Congress gave these legislative powers away in 1976 and it is far past time that we...

Perhaps American Christians cannot think clearly about homeland security, borders, and immigration for the same reason Americans cannot think clearly about anything else. As Christians we have rich, intellectually credible traditions and frameworks for ethical reflection at our fingertips, and yet, as Americans, we suffer from a historical amnesia. What we need is a historically-attuned theological framework that can lay the foundation for our debates and political deliberations. Without one, we risk acting in ways that contradict the Gospel that we profess. To jump, as we tend to, from Plato and Aristotle to Locke and Hobbes is to ignore crucial...