Conservative Blogger
Friday, February 3, 2017
At Border Patrol, Trump lifts morale that was at an all-time low
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| Border patrol agent reacts to wall executive order |
In SUVs or ATVs, Border Patrol agents with video surveillance equipment and binoculars spent hours, as they do every day, scanning the hilly and treacherous terrain that connects Tijuana, Mexico, to Southern California to try and prevent anyone trying to illegally cross the border.
By the next morning, the processing rooms at the U.S. Border Patrol Imperial Beach Station were filled with men. They included two men from Turkey who washed up onshore on surfboards and wearing wetsuits. Federal agents spent hours that morning questioning nearly a dozen detained men who were suspected of being from Pakistan.
It’s just a snapshot of what happens every day along the busy San Diego sector of the U.S. Border. Agents say they are doing all they can to protect the border, but for years have found themselves in a losing battle against a well-financed and sophisticated network of smugglers.
"We are undermanned and there are revisions and renovations that need to be made in the infrastructure along the border," says Chris Harris, a veteran Border Patrol agent and director of legislative and political affairs for the National Border Patrol Council.
Agents hope all that changes under President Donald Trump.
BORDER PATROL CHIEF, WHO ONCE BACKED IMMIGRATION REFORM, REMOVED FROM OFFICE
Harris said the unprecedented support the agency has received from Trump will reinvigorate an agency that has for years been hampered by inadequate funding, dismal resources and seesaw policy changes.
On January 25, Trump laid out a forceful yet controversial border security policy through a series of executive orders that included suspending “catch and release,” moving forward on building a border wall and pledging to hire 5,000 more federal agents.
The move drew outrage among immigration advocates across the country. But to the rank-and-file agents who have attempted to guard the border with a vague and contradictory mission for the past eight years – and saw morale plummet to historic levels – it was a welcome move they believe will make their agency more effective.
“When Trump was elected, there was an increase in optimism among the agents, but nothing like what we’ve seen in the past few days,” Shawn Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said in reference to Trump’s executive orders.
Moran said he saw first-hand how morale plummeted under the Obama administration. Agents, he said, felt handcuffed by stringent policies that prevented them from doing their jobs. Under “catch and release,” they were releasing nearly 80 percent of the people they apprehended trying to enter the U.S. illegally, Moran said.
Moran said he is not totally surprised at the opposition Trump is receiving from sanctuary city mayors and the public, who he believes does not understand the implications of illegal immigration.
“I’m not surprised by the reaction,” Moran said, “people just don’t get it.”
DHS SECRETARY: BORDER WALL SHALL BE FINISHED IN TWO YEARS
But overhauling the agency will not be an easy task. Harris said it will entail a philosophical paradigm shift and will require agents to rethink how they approach their missions.
“Our skill sets have atrophied in this arena during the last eight or so years concurrent with the previous presidential administration,” said Harris. “It will take a complete paradigm shift in some of the ways we conduct business, and even in the way we think. Our operational mindset needs to be rethought and rechanneled.”
Despite Mexico’s pledge to stem the flow of Central American migrants entering its country from bordering Guatemala, the numbers have increased over the past year.
The number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the Southwest border jumped nearly 50 percent between fiscal years 2015-2016, from 39,970 to 59,692. In the first three months of this fiscal year (Oct. 1-Dec. 31), 21,321 have already been apprehended, according to Border Patrol stats.
But it is the number of family units apprehended that is staggering. Apprehensions jumped 95 percent between fiscal years 2015-2016, from 39,838 to 77,674. The numbers for the 2017 fiscal year have already surpassed the total for 2015, with 44,843 apprehended the past few months, according to Border Patrol.
Trump has made it his priority to stem the flow of migrants coming in through the porous border – saying it’s a matter of national security.
“The unprecedented surge of illegal migrants from Central America is harming both Mexico and the U.S. and I believe the steps we will take starting right now will improve the safety in both of our countries. It's going to be very, very good for Mexico,” Trump said when announcing the executive orders. "A nation without borders is not a nation. Beginning today, the U.S. gets back control of its borders, gets back its borders."
Vanity Fair pulls out of White House correspondents' dinner after-party
Vanity Fair, whose editor Graydon Carter has feuded with Donald Trump over the years, has decided to pull out of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after-party it has co-hosted with Bloomberg LP since 2009, according to a spokeswoman for the magazine.
The after-party will still go on, just hosted by Bloomberg alone, a person familiar with the situation said, but Carter and the Vanity Fair crew will stay home. The two companies had hosted the party together since the beginning of the Obama administration.
It is one of Washington’s high-profile affairs and follows the annual event when the president tells jokes before a crowd of journalists and celebrities.
There had been some doubt that the main event would be held at all, given the Trump administration’s battles with the White House press corps since taking office. Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, referred to the media in a recent New York Times article as an “opposition party,” that ought to “keep its mouth shut.”
GOP senators advance Trump EPA, budget office nominees
President Trump inched closer Thursday to getting key administration posts filled, as Senate Republicans advanced his nominees to lead the White House budget office and the Environmental Protection Agency to a full Senate vote.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee swiftly took up the nomination of Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA after Democrats boycotted a scheduled vote on Wednesday.
As colleagues on another committee did a day earlier to overcome Democratic delays, Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., used a procedural maneuver to suspend committee rules requiring at least two Democrats to be present for a nomination vote.
With 10 Democrats absent and the rules suspended, the committee easily voted to send the Oklahoma state attorney general forward for consideration by the full Senate.
The move comes as Republicans scramble to advance a series of nominations that have been stalled amid Democratic resistance. In doing so, they've further inflamed tensions with the minority party.
“I am disappointed that our majority has decided to ignore our concerns and those of the American people, and break the Committee's rules in an effort to expedite Mr. Pruitt's nomination,” Sen. Tom Carper said in a statement, referring to efforts by him and others to extract more information from Pruitt.
Carper’s fellow Democrat, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, suggested the nominee was engaged in “an effort to hide information from the Senate before his confirmation.”
Barrasso countered that the delay was “unprecedented,” particularly because Pruitt had answered a total of more than 1,200 questions, which is more than the EPA nominees from the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations.
He told reporters after the nomination hearing he was confident the Senate parliamentarian would sustain the rules change.
Also heading to the full Senate is the nomination of Rep. Mick Mulvaney to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) after clearing two separate committee votes.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Budget Committee voted 8-7 and 12-11, respectively, to approve his nomination.
The homeland security committee was ready to vote on Wednesday, but Ranking Member Claire McCaskill of Missouri called for a delay until she could fully review Mulvaney’s FBI file.
The votes fell along party lines.
Mulvaney’s nomination hit a snag early in the process after the New York Times reported he failed to pay more than $15,000 in payroll taxes on a nanny.
“I have come to learn during the confirmation review process that I failed to pay FICA and federal and state unemployment taxes on a household employee for the years 2000-2004,” conceded Mulvaney.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voted for the nomination in the committee, but has expressed concerns about Mulvaney’s commitment to strengthen the military considering the nominee’s support for budget cuts. McCain has not committed to backing him on the Senate floor.
Mattis says US would have 'effective and overwhelming' response to North Korea nuke attack
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday issued an explicit warning to North Korea, saying that any use of nuclear weapons on the U.S. or allies would be met with an "effective and overwhelming" response.
A Pentagon spokesman said that Mattis "emphasized the priority that President Trump places on the Asia-Pacific" during his meeting with acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn.
U.S. defense secretaries have long offered assurances to South Korea and Japan that its nuclear "umbrella" will protect them, but Mattis's statement was perhaps more pointed than most. He made the remarks during an appearance with his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Han Min Koo.
"North Korea continues to launch missiles, develop its nuclear weapons program, and engage in threatening rhetoric and behavior," Mattis said with Han standing at his side and U.S. and South Korean flags at their backs.
"We stand with our peace-loving Republic of Korea ally to maintain stability on the peninsula and in the region," he added. "America's commitments to defending our allies and to upholding our extended deterrence guarantees remain ironclad: Any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with a response that would be effective and overwhelming."
Mattis's statement showed by he chose South Korea for his first visit overseas since becoming defense secretary Jan. 20. He sought to reassure South Koreans of the longstanding U.S. commitment to a defense treaty that President Donald Trump suggested during the campaign was a bad deal for America.
Mattis also was discussing with the South Koreans a timetable for deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system, the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAAD, that is meant to improve protection of South Korea and Japan -- as well as U.S. troops stationed in both countries -- against a North Korean missile attack.
The current caretaker South Korean government has said it supports THAAAD deployment, but the decision is in doubt because of approaching national elections.
Mattis was scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Friday for further consultations. The U.S. has 28,500 troops permanently based in South Korea and about 50,000 in Japan.
"Were it not for the provocative behavior of North Korea, we would have no need for Thaad out here," Mattis said in his breif remarks to reporters.
Alluding to China's objections to having Thaad deployed in South Korea, Mattis said, "Thaad should be a worry to no nation other than North Korea."
In Washington this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held its first policy hearing since Trump took office to discuss North Korea. There were more questions than answers.
Last month, Trump fueled speculation of possible U.S. military action to pre-empt North Korea's weapons development. In response to Kim's threat, Trump tweeted, "It won't happen!" But he didn't elaborate how he could be so sure.
"Does that mean we have drawn a red line?" Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., asked at Tuesday's Senate hearing.
During the campaign, Trump complained that defense treaties disadvantaged the U.S. and that he would not rule out abandoning signatories if they refuse to pay more for their defense. He also suggested that South Korea and Japan, which are already within the range of North Korean missiles, might acquire their own nuclear weapons rather than rely on U.S. deterrence.
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