Texas Gov. Abbott Calls for Investigation into Groups Assisting With Illegal Entry into US

Posted on December 15, 2022 by The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for an investigation into the role non-governmental organizations are playing in helping foreign nationals illegally enter Texas from Mexico.

Abbott sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Ken Paxton requesting that his office “initiate an investigation into the role of NGOs in planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders.”

With the public health authority Title 42 slated to end Dec. 23, the number of people illegally entering Texas has reached an all-time high. Over a 24-hour period on Sunday, more than 2,600 people crossed the Rio Grande River near El Paso and illegally entered Texas.

Abbott writes, “there have been reports that NGOs may have assisted with” these illegal border crossings” and “may be engaged in unlawfully orchestrating other border crossings through activities on both sides of the border, including in sectors other than El Paso.”

Not only did he call for an investigation, but he also said he and the state legislature were willing to craft “any sensible legislative solutions” Paxton’s office might propose to solve “the ongoing border crisis and the role that NGOs may play in encouraging it.”

Abbott’s call came after Border Patrol El Paso Sector Chief Peter Jaquez announced, “Over the weekend, the El Paso Sector experienced a major surge in illegal crossings, with a 3-day average of 2,460 daily encounters, primarily through the downtown area of El Paso.”

The El Paso Sector, which covers two west Texas counties and all of New Mexico, has become a destination of illegal entry orchestrated by the cartels and the Mexican government. In November, the number who illegally entered the El Paso Sector was greater than the individual populations of all cities in New Mexico except for four.

Fox News captured some of the crossings on video, saying one group of 1,000 was the largest single group it had ever recorded. It also reported that “Border Patrol now has over 5,000 in custody and has released hundreds to city streets.”

BREAKING: A huge migrant caravan of over 1,000 people crossed illegally into El Paso, TX last night, making it the largest single group we have ever seen. The city of El Paso reports Border Patrol now has over 5,000 in custody & has released hundreds to city streets. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ewUQX757Lt

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 12, 2022

Prior to entering El Paso, the foreign nationals were “dropped off” at an NGO in Mexico before they crossed into Texas illegally, Fox News reported.

“Video from one of the passengers inside one of the migrant buses showing their Mexican police escort, as well as a photo of part of the huge group walking to the border after they were dropped off at NGOs in Ciudad Juarez,” Fox News reported.

Publishing video and photographs online, Fox News showed a caravan of nearly 20 buses full of foreign nationals being “escorted by Mexican police into Ciudad Juarez before they crossed en masse into El Paso.”

This caravan of nearly 20 migrant buses was escorted by Mexican police into Ciudad Juarez before they crossed en masse into El Paso, TX. Thread below. @FoxNews https://t.co/qQGJiq9DQ7

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 12, 2022

On Monday, BP Chief Raul Ortiz announced that BP agents in the last 48 hours reported more than 16,000 encounters with illegal foreign nationals along the entire southern border. They also confiscated over $97 million in narcotics and four firearms and apprehended three gang members, two sex offenders, and two murderers.

This is after a record number of over 306,000 illegally entered the U.S. through the southern border in November, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square.

“These numbers are likely to increase in the coming weeks,” Abbott said. “Although the burden to address the ongoing border crisis should not fall to Texas, the federal government has failed to take action to address this problem.”

While Abbott has taken unprecedented action to secure the border, he has yet to officially declare an invasion and repel it, something the Republican Party of Texas and at least 40 county judges have called on him to do. The Texas Military Department and Texas law enforcement are not preventing illegal entry as evidenced by the surge at the border, which is only expected to intensify, critics argue.

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Republicans Call for Impeachment of Biden’s DHS Chief Over Border Invasion

Posted on December 14, 2022 by The Center Square

By Casey Harper (The Center Square)

A group of U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday called for the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The lawmakers, led by U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., made their remarks during a news conference outside the Capitol Building, calling for Mayorkas’ impeachment amid the soaring number of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S.

“Every day he remains in office, America is less safe,” Biggs said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection have released a steady stream of figures showing that the number of illegal immigrants entering through the southern border has soared to record levels since President Joe Biden took office.

Those numbers are poised to get worse. Trump-era Title 42 protections that allowed feds to expel migrants more quickly because of COVID-19 concerns are set to expire later this month, and experts predict a surge of illegal immigrants are awaiting that expiration.

Some areas, like El Paso, are seeing thousands of migrants cross over each day.

Those larger numbers of migrants have also brought large quantities of fentanyl, a deadly drug that is trafficked in the U.S. via cartels. Fentanyl overdoses have soared in recent years as well.

Some in the Senate have echoed the criticism of Mayorkas.

“The southern border has been an issue for a long time,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “Secretary Mayorkas only showed back up when the mainstream media caved and reported on the issue.”

Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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Biden Disapproval Rating Reaches New High

Posted on January 5, 2022 by The Center Square

By Casey Harper (The Center Square)

President Joe Biden is kicking off his second year in office with his highest disapproval rating to date.

A new CNBC/Change Research poll found 56% of voters disapprove of Biden’s job as president, the worst disapproval numbers the president has seen since taking office.

The economy and COVID-19 are major factors in voters’ sentiments, with 60% disapproving of Biden’s job on the economy and 55% disapproving of his work on COVID-19. Biden had previously seen poor economic numbers but better approval numbers on his handling of the pandemic.

The drop in COVID-related ratings comes amid a flurry of vaccine mandates and a surge in omicron cases around the nation. This week, the U.S. is reporting one million new cases of COVID-19 daily.

Polling from December showed voters do not approve of Biden’s vaccine mandates.

Convention of States Action, in conjunction with Trafalgar group, released polling data last month reporting that the majority of Americans oppose new vaccine mandates to counter omicron.

The poll found 69.4% of Americans said “no new mandates or restrictions are required” in response to the COVID variant, while 30.6% said the opposite.

“Unlike government health officials in Washington, DC, Americans have already figured out that mandates and lockdowns are not the way we will beat the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mark Meckler, president of Convention of States Action.

“As we’ve seen in our polls repeatedly, the American people are tired of all this and are ready to get on with their lives. The U.S. Senate finally recognized this reality … with the bipartisan passage of the bill to block President Biden’s illegal vaccine mandate, and we’re going to see more of this as we get closer to 2022 and elected officials fight to save their jobs.”

Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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Manhattan DA: No Charges Against Cuomo In COVID Nursing Home Death Scandal

Posted on January 4, 2022 by The Center Square

By Steve Bittenbender (The Center Square)

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo started 2022 much like he ended 2021, with an apparent legal victory.

A lawyer for the disgraced ex-leader of the state said Monday that the Manhattan district attorney’s office ended its investigation into the Cuomo administration’s nursing home policies during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis without pressing any charges.

“I was told that after a thorough investigation – as we have said all along – there was no evidence to suggest any laws were broken,” Elkan Abramowitz, former outside counsel for the executive chamber, said in a statement posted by Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi on Twitter.

The news from Manhattan comes after prosecutors in Nassau and Westchester counties said in late December they would not seek charges against the former governor related to sexual harassment allegations made against him.

In late March 2020, as COVID-19 cases were increasing in New York, state officials initiated a new policy requiring nursing homes to accept patients who had tested positive into their facilities.

The rationale was to free up beds at hospitals suddenly taxed by an influx of patients needing treatment. Shortly after the policy started, though, caseloads and deaths at the long-term care facilities skyrocketed.

The administration eventually issued a report that said the policy was not responsible for increased deaths at the facilities. Instead, the administration said community spread brought it in as workers and visitors introduced the virus to nursing homes before additional steps could be taken to control it.

The policy was eventually rescinded in early May.

The administration would also reveal daily death totals regarding people who died at hospitals and nursing homes. In January 2021, however, state Attorney General Letitia James said an investigation by her office determined that while Cuomo and state leaders did not underreport the total number of deaths, the number of deaths attributable to nursing homes was undercounted by up to 50%.

All the while, Cuomo’s national profile rose as his daily COVID-19 briefings made him a national political figure. He eventually received a $5 million book deal regarding his management of the crisis during the early days of the pandemic.

State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were also critical of Cuomo and the nursing home policy, especially regarding the lack of information the administration revealed about it.

Cuomo resigned in August, not due to the nursing home investigation, but after an independent investigation into several sexual harassment accusations against him. Those sexual harassment allegations and the nursing home policies were also part of an impeachment probe led by members of the state Assembly.

The state’s public ethics agency also pulled its approval of Cuomo’s $5 million book deal. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics also has taken steps to force the former governor to give back the money after the impeachment investigation determined administration officials worked on the book in violation of the conditions it gave in its approval of the book deal.

And while Cuomo may not face prosecution in New York County, that does not mean he will necessarily escape punishment.

Prosecutors in the New York City borough were just one of several agencies investigating Cuomo regarding nursing homes. An investigation by James’ office still continues as well as ones by the FBI and federal prosecutors.

Janice Dean, a Fox News meteorologist who became one of Cuomo’s most outspoken critics after her in-laws died in nursing homes, noted those ongoing inquiries in a statement on Twitter after Monday’s news broke.

“This sounds like a little favor from an outgoing Manhattan DA, which we’ll address with the new DA,” Dean tweeted.

Cyrus Vance served as the Manhattan district attorney until the end of December. Alvin Bragg won election in November and took over officially on New Year’s Day.

A message to Bragg’s office seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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