Free Republic

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Sunday said the federal government is working to avoid supply disruptions after Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the country’s largest fuel pipeline, temporarily suspended all operations due to a ransomware attack on Friday. “This is what businesses now have to worry about,” Raimondo said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Unfortunately, these sorts of attacks are becoming more frequent. They’re here to stay.” President Joe Biden has been briefed on the ransomware attack and the F.B.I. said it’s working closely with Colonial Pipeline and government partners to address the situation. The Department...

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas fired most members of the department’s independent advisory council on Friday, a purge that included several allies of former president Donald Trump and veteran officials who served under both parties. Former Department of Homeland Security officials and advisory board members who worked under Democratic and Republican administrations said they could not remember so many members being dismissed at once, as the general practice of past administrations was to allow appointees to serve out their terms before replacing them....The removal of more than 30 board members comes as the Biden administration tries to rid the department...

Fox News’ Harris Faulker this morning reported that Alejandro Mayorkas, the United States Department of Homeland Security secretary had resigned. Mayorkas has faced criticism in recent weeks over his poor handling and lack of transparency over Joe Biden’s growing border. There is no confirmation of his resignation. This weekend Mayorkas said the border is not open for new immigrants coming illegally from Mexico.

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced the extradition and indictment of SUMALEE INTARATHONG, 59, for her role in an international Thai sex trafficking organization. The 10-count superseding indictment charges INTARATHONG with conspiracy, human trafficking violations, and visa fraud. Thirty-six co-defendants have been charged and convicted for their roles in the conspiracy. On February 16, 2021, INTARATHONG made her initial appearance before Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright and was ordered to remain in detention pending further proceedings.According to allegations in the superseding indictment and documents filed in court, the criminal organization compelled hundreds of women from Bangkok, Thailand, to...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations is inspecting incoming packaging for a wide variety of fake gear that is being shipped to Tampa this week ahead of Super Bowl LV. “We see a lot of our counterfeit goods coming in from overseas, particularly from China and Hong Kong and it’s coming in through our mail and parcel system,” said Brian Weinhaus with Homeland Security Investigations.

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The Senate on Thursday advanced the nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas to serve as President Joe Biden's secretary of Homeland Security after voting to break a GOP filibuster. ... Mayorkas is the first of Biden's Cabinet selections to face a filibuster as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, led a group of GOP senators in calling for an additional hearing before the Senate judiciary committee after the Senate Homeland Security committee voted to move his nomination to the floor on Tuesday.

The Department of Homeland Security broke from President Donald Trump's baseless allegations of a "stolen" election on Thursday and said there is no evidence of fraud. "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history," the DHS said in a statement. The Department's Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees found "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." Trump has refused to concede the election and acknowledge Joe Biden as the President-elect, and has relentlessly sought to spread misinformation and falsehoods...

An emergency summit meeting of governors from six northeastern states this weekend to coordinate coronavirus restriction.... Bars and restaurants restricted to take out only, gyms closed, indoor and outdoor social gatherings limited to no more than six people from two households, churches limited to 25 people for indoor services, customers at grocery stores and pharmacies limited in numbers. All those measures in effect for at least two weeks in Oregon... When the mayor of St. George, Utah cancelled the Veterans Parade this year... Philadelphia looking at imposing new coronavirus restrictions... A highly contentious issue voted on in Montgomery County Pennsylvania......

Someone I know who is a member of the police auxiliary has been told to "stand by" / vote ASAP / not plan on going out of town for the next week / alert his regular employer that he may not be available because there is a high degree of probability that he will called upon to assist the regular police with expected unrest next week. What are you hearing from the people you know who are regular, aux, or retired police and or military?

YUMA — Dozens of construction workers labor like a bustling colony of ants — only this colony is located along a 126-mile-long portion of the United States's southern border with Mexico. Standing 100 feet from one of these construction sites, watching workers install the concrete-filled steel beams into the ground feels painfully slow, but driving along the banks of the river and canal, the workers' years of labor is overwhelmingly evident and compelling. The wall is up, everywhere. Workers decked in orange vests operate the yellow construction machines in a robotic fashion as they drop the maroon pieces of steel...

The Department of Homeland Security will grant millions of dollars in funding to outside organizations focused on combating far-right extremism and white supremacy. The department's program, called Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, agreed to provide $10 million in grants to organizations including Life After Hate, which was founded by reformed white supremacists and helps people trying to leave the far right, the School of Communication at American University to develop a strategy for combating disinformation circulated by the far right online, and others, according to the Wall Street Journal. A Homeland Security spokesman said the funding is meant to help...

---SNIP--- I actually consider it a point of personal pride that I’m recognized for being among the first Republicans to reject Donald Trump. It was way back in December 2015. I told NBC’s Chuck Todd that day that I could never support Trump. I said then that he was an embarrassment to the Republican Party and our country. I said he belittles, demeans, and ridicules people who disagree with him, and that I’ve never thought that loud, obnoxious, and simpleminded solutions to complex problems are the kind of qualities we want in a president. I believe that earned me my...

The House Appropriations Committee recently released the draft Fiscal Year 2021 Homeland Security funding bill, which provides annual funding for the components of the Department of Homeland Security. It should come to no one’s surprise that the bill is being used as a political football by those who seek a borderless America and all the human misery that would come with it.  The Democratic leadership in the House are changing their tactics. Instead of trying to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, they have decided to starve them of money so they cannot succeed in their mission....

The fluid way that the left has suddenly pivoted to a new line of attack on law and order, with multiple voices being raised seemingly overnight, certainly looks suspicious to say the least. In an op-ed over the weekend at the WaPo, former California Senator Barbara Boxer (D) pours her heart out to the nation about one of her lasting regrets. She was one of the members of Congress who voted to create the Department of Homeland Security following the attacks of 9/11. And now she wants everyone to know how sorry she is for that terrible mistake. Of...

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson says he is aiming to release a status report on his investigation into Hunter Biden’s work for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings “sometime this summer,” saying that the coronavirus pandemic “hampered” the probe. “We’re in the process of writing different sections of the report that I’d like to make public sometime this summer,” Johnson (R-Wis.) told Politico in an interview Monday. “But obviously, [the coronavirus] has not been helpful and hampered our efforts,” he added. The Wisconsin Republican told the outlet that committee staffers have been going through documents provided by the State Department...

The bulletin notes there is "no information" yet on specific plots. A Department of Homeland Security memo sent to law enforcement officials around the country warns that violent extremists could seek to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by carrying out attacks against the U.S. "Violent extremists probably are seeking to exploit public fears associated with the spread of COVID-19 to incite violence, intimidate targets and promote their ideologies, and we assess these efforts will intensify in the coming months," according to the intelligence bulletin, compiled by the agency's Counterterrorism Mission Center and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. At...

Former Acting Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Charles Edwards was indicted last week on 16-counts of fraud, theft of government property, identity theft and more. "A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a 16-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the U.S. government as part of a scheme to defraud the U.S. government," the Department of Justice released in a statement. Edwards left the DHS Office of the Inspector General in 2013,...

A federal judge on Sunday ruled that it was unlawful to appoint Ken Cuccinelli to lead the agency responsible for processing US immigration requests. The judge also invalidated a set of policies for the asylum seekers who are part of the case. Advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit last year challenging the legitimacy of his role as acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, asking the court to set aside asylum policy changes issued shortly after he took office. Cuccinelli is currently serving as the acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS. The lawsuit...

I saw this tweet the instant it was posted and laughed at how it reminds me of the famous July 25th call between Trump and Zelensky. He doesn’t explicitly say, “If you want this public benefit from me, I need a personal benefit from you,” but by linking the two in the same communication it’s clear in context what he’s proposing. I’m seeing Governor Cuomo today at The White House. He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics. New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes. Build relationships,...

A day can’t go by without an arrest of a child predator broadcast online. Several of these predators were hunted by a scarcely known group of specially trained law enforcement operatives that were recruited from the ranks of the U.S. military. The operatives all had something in common; they bore wounds from their service to the Nation. Starting in late 2013, with little fanfare, this select group of wounded warriors deployed throughout the United States with a new mission, tracking down child predators and rescuing children. With the advent of the internet, child exploitation took on a new form. Gone...