Iran: Group claims regime is 'in full gear' on covert work on nuclear weapons

Resistance group alleges Iran grossly violating nuclear deal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Council of Resistance of Iran

The White House responded cautiously Friday to claims by an Iranian dissident group alleging that Iran’s clandestine work on a nuclear weapon has continued unabated by the landmark nuclear deal that Tehran finalized with the Obama administration and five other world powers two years ago.
At a news conference in Washington, members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) brandished recent satellite imagery and intelligence purportedly derived from informants inside the Iranian military to bolster their claim that the Islamic Regime is still working covertly on what nuclear experts call weaponization: the final station on the path to nuclear weapons.
“The engineering unit that is charged and tasked with actually building the bomb in a secret way for the Iranian regime is called the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research,” said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of NCRI’s Washington office. That unit, whose Persian acronym is SPND, was first exposed by Jafarzadeh’s group in 2011, and was designated by the State Department in 2014 because U.S. officials said SPND “took over some of the activities related to Iran’s undeclared nuclear program.”
“Our information shows that their activities have been continuing in full gear, despite the JCPOA,” Jafarzadeh said, using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is the formal name for the nuclear deal.
NCRI’s startling claim came in the same week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson certified to Congress that Iran is meeting the terms of the JCPOA but also announced an interagency task force to reevaluate the entire deal, saying the JCPOA is not meeting its objective. President Trump followed that up the next day by saying the Iranians “are not living up to the spirit of the agreement.”
That prompted a sharp tweet of rebuke from the Iranian foreign minister, an architect of the nuclear deal. Dr. Javad Zarif posted: “We’ll see if US prepared to live up to letter of #JCPOA let alone spirit. So far, it has defied both.”
Asked about NCRI’s allegation and supporting evidence, Michael Anton, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said only that his colleagues are “carefully evaluating” the NCRI package against “the best intelligence reporting and analysis available to the United States.”
NCRI’s satellite imagery is focused on the military base at Parchin, a site to which inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have been granted only limited and tightly controlled access. The photos outline an area in the north of the sprawling base where installations surrounded by berms are visible. According to NCRI officers, the newly constructed site is known internally as “Plan 6.”
There, the dissident group alleged, a sub-unit of SPND known as METFAZ – another Persian acronym for the formal title of the Center for Research and Expansion of Technologies on Explosions and Impact – is working with high explosives in ways the NCRI said are identical to the “possible military dimension” that Western officials long suspected Iran was pursuing with its nuclear program.
Skeptics of NCRI note that it is the political affiliate of an Iranian opposition group, known as MEK, that spent fifteen years on the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations. But many have seen NCRI’s disclosures about alleged clandestine nuclear activities or sites in Iran borne out, starting with the group’s identification of the theretofore secret installations at Natanz and Arak. Frank Pabian, an adviser on nuclear nonproliferation issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was quoted in 2010 as telling the New York Times of the NCRI: “They’re right 90 percent of the time.”
To assess the imagery of Plan 6 at Parchin, Fox News consulted  a pair of nuclear scientists and arms control analysts who are among the world’s most renowned. David Albright, the trained physicist and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, told Fox News the structures visible in the satellite photography are consistent with a facility that makes high explosives; but he noted that Iran has the right to do so under the JCPOA, and that the imagery yielded no outward sign that Iran was also testing high explosives at the site. Still, he believes the IAEA should press for access there. “The international inspectors should use authorities under the nuclear deal to go and look at this site, and see what's going on and start to verify a critical part of the nuclear deal,” Albright said, “namely, those activities involved in the development of nuclear weapons.”
Olli Heinonen spent nearly three decades at the IAEA, eventually rising to the level of the number-two official at the agency: deputy director-general. He has traveled to Iran for inspection tours and other business some twenty-five times. He reached a similar assessment about Plan 6, even as both men emphasized the need for more information to make determinative judgments.
“We see that the buildings are surrounded by berms; they are a distance from each other. This is a typical design for a site that works with high explosives,” Heinonen told FoxNews. “I think there are serious questions to be asked [of] the Iranian government. Most likely IAEA should have access to this site.”
Neither the IAEA nor the Iranian mission to the United Nations responded to requests for comment.

Gas stations in North Korea's main city restrict services, speculation that China is reducing supply

Drivers in Pyongyang are scrambling to fill up their tanks as gas stations begin limiting services or even closing amid concerns of a spreading shortage.
A sign outside one station in the North Korean capital said Friday that sales were being restricted to diplomats or vehicles used by international organizations, while others were closed or turning away local residents. Lines at other stations were much longer than usual and prices appeared to be rising significantly.
The cause of the restrictions or how long they might last were not immediately known.
North Korea relies heavily on China for its fuel supply and Beijing has reportedly been tightening its enforcement of international sanctions aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon its development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
The issue was raised at a regular Chinese Foreign Ministry news conference in Beijing on Friday after a Chinese media outlet, Global Times, reported gas stations were restricting service and charging higher prices.
But spokesman Lu Kang gave an ambiguous response when asked if China was restricting fuel deliveries.
"As for what kind of policy China is taking, I think you should listen to the authoritative remarks or statements of the Chinese government," he said, without elaborating on what those remarks or statements are. "For the remarks made by certain people or circulated online, it is up to you if you want to take them as references."
One of China's top North Korea scholars, Kim Dong-jil, director of the Center for Korean Peninsula Studies of Peking University, said he had not heard of new restrictions on fuel to pressure Pyongyang, but said they are considered to be an option.
China's Ministry of Commerce had no immediate comments.
President Trump has said that he has a “very good relationship” with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The Journal, earlier this month, reported that Trump was scheduled to meet for 10 to 15 minutes, but ended up talking for three hours.
Gasoline was selling at $1.25 per kilogram at one station, up from the previous 70-80 cents. According to a sign outside a station where ordinary North Korean vehicles were being turned away, the restrictions took effect on Wednesday.
Gasoline is sold in North Korea by the kilogram, roughly equivalent to a liter (0.26 gallon).
When buying gas in North Korea, customers usually first purchase coupons at a cashier's booth for the amount of fuel they want. After filling up the tank, leftover coupons can be used on later visits until their expiration date. A common amount for the coupons is 15 kilograms (19.65 liters or 5.2 U.S. gallons).
Supply is controlled by the state.
The military, state ministries and priority projects have the best access. Several chains of gas stations are operated under different state-run enterprises -- for example, Air Koryo, the national flagship airline, operates gas stations as well.
Prices can vary from one station to another.
Traffic in Pyongyang has gotten heavier than in past years, when visitors were often struck by the lack of cars on the capital's broad avenues.
The greater number of cars, including swelling fleets of taxis, has been an indication of greater economic activity, as many are used for business purposes, such as transporting people or goods.

Trump to unveil tax cut he says could be biggest ever

President Trump on Friday said businesses and individuals will receive a "massive tax cut" under a tax reform package he plans to unveil next week.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump said the plan will result in tax cuts for both individuals and businesses. He would not provide details of the plan, saying only that the tax cuts will be "bigger I believe than any tax cut ever."
The president said the package will be released on "Wednesday or shortly thereafter" — just before his 100 day mark in office. He will face opposition in Congress as the possibility of a government shutdown by the end of the month lingers.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin initially set a goal of getting tax reform passed by August, but that deadline has slipped. Mnuchin now says the administration still hoped to get a bill passed well before the end of the year.
Mnuchin on Thursday said economic growth from proposed tax cuts would come close to $2 trillion over 10 years.
Steve Forbes, in an interview on Fox Business’ "Your World With Neil Cavuto,” said Trump is doing the right thing by aggressively pushing for tax cuts.
"I think he's recognized that if he doesn't get this economy moving in a way that people visibly feel it, he and the Republicans are going to be in deep trouble next year," Forbes said.
He added that Trump will have to push congressional Republicans to get the tax plan through as soon as possible, because even if it's approved in the short-term, it will take time for Americans to truly feel its effects.
"When you make an investment, it doesn't mean the building rises up the next day, or the factory rises up the next day, or the services are available the next day," Forbes said. "It takes time to make these things happen. ... Why aren't they realistic about how the world works?"
In March, a Fox News poll found that 55 percent of participants believed they pay too much in taxes, The number was down from a record 63 percent in march 2015.
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist said this week that he's confident that tax reform will be passed despite recent delays.
Norquist said there is agreement between the White House and Republicans in the House and Senate. That includes cutting the corporate rate from 35 to 20 percent, while small businesses would go from 40 down to 25 percent, which he called "very important."

Campus Crazies Cartoons

Oh, shut up: Let's prosecute criminal campus crazies

Ann Coulter

Ever tried dealing with a playground bully? What shuts him (or her, for our politically correct readers) up fastest? A bloody nose.
Bullies operate on the assumption that they are safe from retribution. When they find out that’s not true, they curdle like spoiled milk. Until then, their conduct can only spiral further out of control.
That’s what’s happening at colleges across America. Students who think they can dictate  what is said on their campus are shutting down any point of view they oppose. That’s not youthful indiscretion. It’s a crime. And the perpetrators should be prosecuted for it.
This week, the University of California at Berkeley – a communist commune that poses as a cathedral of learning – succeeded in getting conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s scheduled speech canceled. The university later suggested she give her speech on May 2 but she rejected that date.
The reason for the original cancellation: college administrators feared her presence might pose a security risk.
A risk to whom? Coulter? She can take care of herself. The students who, masked in balaclavas and paisley handkerchiefs, think the best way to express their opinion is to smash in windows and set fire to cars? They want their freedom of speech to be unabridged, including acts of violence. Coulter sets only verbal bonfires with her intentionally overheated rhetoric.
It’s time for college administrators and campus police to grow a pair, and prosecute students who engage in these antics. Shutting down free speech is a crime, as Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, knows.
”What’s going on with Ann Coulter is classic viewpoint discrimination,” Sekulow told me. “The Supreme Court has been consistent that viewpoint discrimination is a violation of free speech.  And that is illegal.”
So who needs to take action? “It’s the school’s job to prevent the protests from becoming violent,” Sekulow says. “Letting students create a hostile environment that shuts down free speech opens the school to lawsuits.”
So let’s stop worrying about the students’ rights and prosecute the criminals among them. Here’s how, according to Sekulow:
“In a public place, and that includes the campus, you’re allowed to videotape what the students are doing. From a criminal perspective, the campus police would have to bring the lawsuit against people who are rioting. Frankly, until now, what the campus police have been doing is nothing. And the result is that free speech is being shut down. This goes way beyond political correctness. This is criminal conduct.”
College life is a time for young people to be exposed to new ideas, to weigh them and decide what works for them as they form their adult personalities. The message today’s students are getting is: agree with me or keep your mouth shut. That’s not education. It’s tyranny.
John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books including "Pope John Paul II : Biography."

Arkansas judge barred from execution cases after death penalty protest

Murder cases taken away from anti-death penalty prosecutor

The Arkansas judge who blocked the state from carrying out multiple executions was barred late Monday from taking up any other capital punishment-related cases after he participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration by laying on a cot as though he were a death row inmate on a gurney about to be put to death.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen was referred to a disciplinary panel after his demonstration outside the governor’s mansion.
Griffen’s protests sparked outrage among capital punishment supporters as well as lawmakers who described his actions as judicial misconduct and potential grounds for removal from the bench.
"To protect the integrity of the judicial system this court has a duty to ensure that all are given a fair and impartial tribunal," the court said in its two-page order.
Justices also referred Griffen to the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission to consider whether he violated the code of conduct for judges.
In the past, Griffen has said he’s opposed to the death penalty but that his personal beliefs shouldn’t discredit or disqualify him from taking up cases involving capital punishment.
On Friday, Griffen granted a restraining order preventing Arkansas from using its supply of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs it uses in executions, because the pharmaceutical company said the state misleadingly obtained the drug.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday night granted the state's request to vacate Griffen's ruling, potentially clearing the way for the state to carry out its first execution in nearly 12 years.
The case involving the drug was reassigned to another judge shortly after the Supreme Court issued its order Monday disqualifying Griffen from cases about the death penalty or Arkansas’ execution protocol.
Lawmakers have suggested Griffen's actions may be grounds for the Arkansas House to begin impeachment proceedings, saying the demonstration and a blog post Griffen wrote on the death penalty last week may amount to "gross misconduct" under the state constitution.
The Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission confirmed Monday an investigation of Griffen is pending following the state Supreme Court referral.
Griffen, who served 12 years on the state appeals court, previously battled with the judicial discipline panel over remarks he made criticizing President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. The panel ultimately dropped its case against him.
Griffen testified before the state Legislature in 2015 against a religious objections measure that was criticized as anti-gay, and he regularly blogs about current events in posts that weave in Biblical passages. They include a post days before his ruling that criticized the execution push in Arkansas.
"While the world meditates about divine love, forgiveness, justice, and hope, Arkansas officials plan to commit a series of homicides," he wrote.
Griffen, 64, is a Baptist minister who was first elected as Pulaski County judge in 2010. He ran twice unsuccessfully for state Supreme Court — including a bid for chief justice in 2004. In his other state Supreme Court race in 2006, Griffen challenged his rival to a debate over the free-speech rights of judges.
Griffen said he wouldn't consider a person's participation in an anti-execution event enough, on its own, to warrant disqualifying a juror from a death penalty case. The question, he said, is whether the juror could set his or her personal views aside and follow the law.
"We do not require people to come into court with blank slates, either in their minds or their heart," he said Saturday.

Congress grappling with shutdown threat as funding deadline zooms into view

Once again, Congress is staring at the edge of the abyss.
Lawmakers return to session next week with just four days to fund the government and avert a shutdown. The deadline is April 28.
The dynamics are different this time, compared with the 2013 meltdown. There’s a Republican House and Senate. This is the first government funding go-round with President Trump occupying the White House. No one is quite sure how the Trump administration will handle the negotiations or what are their untouchable requests. But there’s not a lot of time to figure this out. Some Republicans fret that House GOP leaders burned way too much time trying to rescue their stunted health care bill.
A lapse in government funding would represent the second major legislative failure by Trump and the Republican Congress. A shutdown, following the failure to repeal and replace ObamaCare, could prove politically catastrophic for the exclusive, governing party in Washington.
But here are the keys. First, funding the government could, yet again, hinge on ObamaCare. Secondly, while Republicans run Washington, Democrats hold many of the cards in this poker game.
The House GOP’s stumble to repeal and replace ObamaCare before the recess didn’t appear to have a direct connection to the pending government funding battle. But now it may. Just days ago, Trump declared he would yank subsidies known as “cost-sharing reductions,” or CSR’s, from ObamaCare programs. The government directs the CSR payments to insurers who grant coverage to low-income people. A dried-up subsidy could force insurers to drop ObamaCare and spike premiums for the poor.
Trump views the ObamaCare subsidies as leverage to force Democrats to the table on health care. Democrats contend the president is holding the health care assistance “hostage” and imperiling those who aren’t well off. Trump has engaged with few Democrats since taking office on addressing ObamaCare or funding the government. Those who lose coverage (many of whom backed the president last fall) will know precisely who forced them to lose coverage should Trump successfully strip the subsidy. Still, there’s no better place to withdraw the subsidies than in the upcoming spending bill. One would think the president would drop the CSR’s in this spending bill if he’s serious about the new policy.
But that is a poison pill. Republicans may love the idea. However, it torpedoes any notion that Democrats might support the spending package.
“The spending bill cannot be done by one party alone,” opined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., before the recess. “These bills can’t pass without a reasonable number of Democratic supporters in the Senate.”
Therefore, is the president willing to stick to his guns on the ObamaCare subsidies or test the possibility of a government shutdown?
Blame the Democrats for this? Well, it’s hard to do that when Democrats don’t formally control any of the levers in Washington.
This is why it’s hard to make good on campaign promises. The rhetoric sure sounds lofty in the cornfields of Iowa and the snows of New Hampshire. But now?
Speaking of campaign promises, how’s funding for that wall going? It’s unclear if Trump will insist lawmakers attach money for the border wall to this upcoming spending package. But you can bet that Democrats will again bolt if that scenario comes to pass.
Wouldn’t the president latch money to construct the wall to this spending bill if he were serious about the project? But then again, Trump probably could get the wall and fail to keep the government open, too.
Plussing-up military dollars? Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., is clear the Pentagon needs a jump-start in funding. That’s something else on which Trump campaigned. But Congress operates under the Budget Control Act of 2011. That plan capped what’s called “discretionary” spending for years down that road and created “sequestration,” the budgetary phenomenon of arbitrarily limiting various spending pots regardless of need. Under the Budget Control Act, the “discretionary” spending ceiling (excluding entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security) for this cycle is $1.07 trillion. Pouring in additional money for the military (or, for that matter, the wall) busts those sequestration limits. Keep in mind that many fiscal conservatives in the House and Senate want to spend less overall. That’s one of the reasons Republicans need to lean on Democrats for votes to keep the lights on in Washington.
One of the best ways to determine the musculature of a policy is to calculate how much money Washington devotes to a given initiative.
How about stripping sanctuary cities of federal dollars? A good place to execute that policy would be a rider in this spending bill. Democrats would interpret such an approach as another poison pill and balk at voting for such a measure.
With the deep uncertainty over whether Congress can address all of this in such a short timeframe, there’s already discussion of punting and adopting a stopgap measure of a week or two.
But are these policy promises idle threats or does the president insist on Congress including such provisions in the spending bill? Does Trump concede on a few subjects and let Democrats score some wins? Do they fail to work any of this out and spark a government shutdown?
Congress completed much of the work on the spending bills behind the scenes over the past few months. Back in December, Democrats only wanted to fund the government through late March. Republicans demanded late April and prevailed. Never mind that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., promised to abandon the now common practice of bundling together spending bills rather than advancing them individually. That approach could come later this year. But Congress certainly didn’t do any of that ahead of this spending deadline.
So something has to give. And yet again, Congress stares into the abyss.
Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there.

Republicans float new ObamaCare replacement plan

House Republicans are shopping around a new ObamaCare replacement plan, amid pressure to deliver a legislative win as President Trump nears the end of his first 100 days.
“We have a good chance of getting it soon. I’d like to say next week, but I believe we will get it” eventually, Trump said Thursday at a White House press conference.
“We’re very close,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said a day earlier at an event in London.
Fox News is told they hope to have revised legislative text in the coming days, and lawmakers are set to discuss the proposal on a conference call this weekend. But it’s unclear when such a plan could hit the House floor or what level of support it might have – Congress is currently on recess, and lawmakers won’t return until next week.
Fox News is told that leaders have not yet tried tallying support for the document on Capitol Hill.
"The question is whether it can get 216 votes in the House and the answer isn't clear at this time,” a senior GOP aide said. “There is no legislative text and therefore no agreement to do a whip count on."
A White House source said they could potentially have a vote by the end of next week, though they put the chances at 50-50.
The failure in March to pass an earlier replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act, amid widespread criticism of the plan, marked a major setback for Trump’s early presidency. He has since turned his attention to foreign affairs – especially the Syrian crisis – but continues to press for a new health care plan, blaming a bloc of House conservatives for the March meltdown.
Complicating any renewed efforts, however, is next Friday’s deadline for Congress to pass a new budget measure. Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration likely will have to court Democrats to avoid this scenario. Further, the timetable is tight, with the House not set to return until Tuesday night.
Interestingly, the government shutdown drama and health care could be directly linked.
Just days ago, Trump declared he would yank subsidies known as “cost-sharing reductions” from ObamaCare programs. The government directs the CSR payments to insurers who grant coverage to low-income people. A dried-up subsidy could force insurers to drop ObamaCare and spike premiums for the poor.
Trump views the ObamaCare subsidies as leverage to force Democrats to the table on health care. Democrats contend the president is holding the health care assistance “hostage” and imperiling those who aren’t well off.
Trump said Thursday he wants to pass both a health care package and budget bill.
“The spending bill cannot be done by one party alone,” opined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., before the recess. “These bills can’t pass without a reasonable number of Democratic supporters in the Senate.”

Iran Nuclear Deal Cartoons

Tillerson slams Iran nuclear deal as 'failed approach,' vows 'comprehensive review'

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ratcheted up criticism Wednesday of the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, publicly confirming the Trump administration is conducting a “comprehensive review” and declaring they have “no intention of passing the buck.”
In some of his toughest language yet, Tillerson said at a brief press conference that the Iran deal “fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran,” and only delays it becoming a nuclear state.
He faulted the agreement for “buying off” a foreign power with nuclear ambitions, saying: “We just don’t see that that’s a prudent way to be dealing with Iran.”
The statement comes after he said in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis, that the administration has undertaken a full review of the agreement to evaluate whether continued sanctions relief is in the best interest of the U.S.
In the same notification, the administration said Iran is complying with the landmark nuclear deal negotiated by former President Obama, and the U.S. has extended sanctions relief to Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic program.
But Tillerson noted in his letter, and repeated during his appearance Wednesday, that Iran continues to foment violence around the world.
“Iran spends its treasure and time disrupting peace,” he said Wednesday. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions are a grave risk to international peace and security.”
While not saying definitively whether the administration is inclined to uphold or scrap the deal, Tillerson said they will meet the challenge of Iran with “clarity and conviction” once the review is done.
“The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran,” he said, claiming the deal represents the “failed approach” of the past.
Tillerson also likened Iran's behavior to that of North Korea. He said an unchecked Iran could pursue the same path as Pyongyang "and take the world along with it."
As a candidate in the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump was an outspoken critic of the deal but had offered conflicting opinions on whether he would try to scrap it, modify it or keep it in place with more strenuous enforcement. Tuesday's determination suggested that while Trump agreed with findings by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran is keeping to its end of the bargain, he is looking for another way to ratchet up pressure on Tehran.
The nuclear deal was sealed in Vienna in July 2015 after 18 months of negotiations led by former Secretary of State John Kerry and diplomats from the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France and Russia — and Germany. Under its terms, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program, long suspected of being aimed at developing atomic weapons, in return for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

Supreme Court justices show support for church, in Gorsuch's 1st high-profile case

A majority on the Supreme Court appeared to offer support Wednesday for a church excluded from a publicly funded aid program, during the hearing for what was considered Justice Neil Gorsuch’s first high-profile case.
At issue is a double dose of contentious issues: religious freedom and taxpayer funding. It is one of the most closely watched cases of the term, and could portend a series of upcoming church-state disputes facing the justices.
The justices are considering whether Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia, Mo., should be eligible for state funds. The church sued after being denied funding to improve the surface of a playground used by its preschool, by replacing gravel with softer, recycled synthetic rubber.
The state program gives grants to nonprofits seeking a safer recreational environment for children. But Missouri's law -- similar to those in roughly three-dozen other states – prohibits direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation.
Republican Gov. Eric Greitens’s unexpected decision last week to change the policy and allow religious institutions to participate in the program raised questions about whether the constitutional fight is now moot -- but no one on the nine-member bench appeared ready to punt the case away.
Instead, an intense hour of oral arguments focused on the merits.
"I'm not sure it's a 'free exercise' [of religion] question," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "No one is asking the church to change its beliefs. The state is just saying it doesn't want to be involved in giving [public] money to the church."
But other members of the court questioned the church's exclusion.
"You're denying one set of actors from competing [for the grant money] because of religion," Justice Elena Kagan said. She called it a "clear burden on a constitutional right."
The Constitution's First Amendment speaks on religion in the public sphere with two important provisions. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from unduly preferring or promoting religion over non-religion, and vice versa. And the Free Exercise Clause protects Americans' rights to practice their faith, absent a "compelling" government interest.
Gorsuch, the court’s newest member, was subdued by comparison to his active involvement during his first two days of arguments. He only asked a couple brief questions of the state's lawyer near the end of arguments.
The Supreme Court accepted the church's petition for review back in January 2016, when Justice Antonin Scalia was still the senior conservative. His death a month later kept the case on hold, possibly because the eight justices believed they would ultimately tie. Such splits mean no nationwide precedent is set.
Trinity Lutheran's high-profile case was finally put on the argument schedule for April, just in time for Gorsuch to perhaps cast the deciding vote.
The Christian church operates its Child Learning Center to serve families, incorporating "daily religion and developmentally appropriate activities in a preschool program."
To minimize injuries on its playground, the church applied to the state's "Scrap Tire Surface Material Grant" program, funded by a 50-cent tax on the purchase of new tires. The church says its application ranked fifth out of 44 other nonprofits, but was ultimately denied.
Missouri's constitution says "no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, section or denomination of religion."
The high court has never fully answered whether "free exercise of religion" compels states to provide taxpayer funds to religious institutions, through neutral means that do not promote faith-based beliefs or practices.
Teachers unions, meanwhile, worry a ruling favoring Trinity Lutheran would add nationwide momentum for private school voucher programs, part of the school-choice movement which the Trump administration has promoted. And some organizations fear a sweeping conservative-majority court opinion would lead to discrimination with the backing of government money.
Into the debate jumped Gorsuch, who took heat from Senate Democrats during his confirmation over past cases dealing with religion, while serving as a federal appeals court judge in Denver for over a decade.
Perhaps the 49-year-old justice's highest-profile case was the 2013 concurrence supporting the right of for-profit, secular institutions (and individuals too, he argued) to oppose the Obama's administration mandate to provide contraceptives to their workers. Gorsuch affirmed his past ardent commitment to religious freedom against claims of government "intrusion."
Besides the Trinity case at hand, the Supreme Court in coming days could accept two other religious liberty disputes for future review: Whether a Colorado baker and a Washington state florist can be compelled to do business with same-sex couples, which they say would violate their "sincerely held" religious beliefs.
The current case is Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (15-577). A ruling is expected in late June.

How North Korea gets its money

North Korea is a conundrum: seemingly barren and with Third World living conditions, yet it just held a grandiose military parade reminding the world that the country is locked and loaded.
As detached as North Korea appears to be from the rest of the globe, the country is maintaining a stream of revenue from somewhere to finance its impressive slew of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Where does that money come from? A myriad of places.
“North Korea has both an overt and covert economy through which it gains money,” said Bruce Klingner, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow who suggests North Korea’s money flow is very diverse.
“The overt economy is predominantly sales of natural resources,” he said. “The covert economy is harder to estimate, but consists of weapons sales, the counterfeiting of U.S. $100 bills . . . production and distribution of illegal narcotics, cigarettes and pharmaceuticals, including Viagra, insurance scams, money laundering, and cybercrime.”
According to Klingner, that laundry list of dubious activities extends to “skimming the wages of North Korean workers overseas” and North Korean diplomats “involved in illegal sales of wildlife, rhino horn and ivory.”

• US tells North Korea: We don't want a fight, don't start one

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• 'The sword stands ready': Pence warns North Korea

It is nearly impossible to have a dialogue about North Korea’s finances without mentioning China.
“Without China, North Korea would be in a state of collapse,” explained Nicholas Eberstadt, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and North Korea expert.
“China is the huge and dominant actor in exports and imports for North Korea. North Korea’s main activities include developing weapons of mass destruction so China supports that, of course.”
Along with illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug sales, Eberstadt suggested another possible point of supply.
“Other things we don’t follow terribly well are overseas sources of wealth that belong to the Kim family stashed in Macau and other places,” he said.

South Korean presidential candidate concerned about Trump's aircraft carrier story

A presidential candidate from South Korea’s former ruling party said Wednesday that if what President Trump said about the mission of the U.S. aircraft carrier was a lie “South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says” the remainder of his term.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Hong Joon-pyo, the candidate from Park Geun-hye’s party, said in an interview that Trump’s earlier comments about moving the USS Carl Vinson toward North Korea in a show of force was important to South Korea’s security.
The U.S. Navy said on Tuesday that it did not move the USS Carl Vinson toward North Korea despite President Trump’s earlier comments he made on Fox Business that he was sending an “armada” to deter Pyongyang.
"We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier,” Trump told the Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo last week. “We have the best military people on Earth.  And I will say this: he (Kim Jong Un) is doing the wrong thing.”
Military officials said at the time that the Vinson was canceling a previous itinerary and instead was going to head toward the Korean Peninsula. The ship, instead, ended up heading to Australia, the Journal reported. It is expected to reach the peninsula next week.
The White House said it did not mislead allies about the ship’s movements.
“The president said we have an armada going toward the peninsula,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said. “That’s a fact. It happened. It is happening, rather.”
Narushige Michishita, a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, told the Journal that regardless of whether the U.S. intended to deceive or the narrative was a miscommunication, it looked bad for the White House.
“At a time of emergency, disinformation could be used as a tactic, but if the U.S. president spreads disinformation in peacetime like now, it would hurt the credibility of the U.S.,” he said.

Young and Dumb Democrat Cartoons

Trump to order increased scrutiny of H-1B visa program

President Trump will travel to Wisconsin Tuesday, where he will sign an order aimed at changing a visa program that brings in highly skilled workers from overseas.
The order, dubbed "Buy American, Hire American," would direct the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State to propose new rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse. Those departments would also be asked to offer changes so that H-1B visas are awarded to the "most-skilled or highest-paid applicants."
The White House said the H-1B program is currently undercutting American workers by bringing in cheaper labor and said some tech companies are using it to hire large numbers of workers and drive down wages.

Administration officials said the order also seeks to strengthen requirements that American-made products be used in certain federal construction projects, as well as in various federal transportation grant-funded projects. The officials said the commerce secretary will review how to close loopholes in enforcing the existing rules and provide recommendations to the president.

The order specifically asks the secretary to review waivers of these rules that exist in free-trade agreements. The administration said that if the waivers are not benefiting the United States they will be "renegotiated or revoked."

During his campaign, Trump said at some points he supported high-skilled visas, then came out against them. At one debate, he called for fully ending the program, saying: "It's very bad for our workers and it's unfair for our workers. And we should end it."

The officials said the changes could be administrative or legislative and could include higher fees for the visas, changing the wage scale for the program or other initiatives.

About 85,000 H-1B visas are distributed annually by lottery. Many go to technology companies, which argue that the United States has a shortage of skilled technology workers.

But critics say the program has been hijacked by staffing companies that use the visas to import foreigners -- often from India -- who will work for less than Americans. The staffing companies then sell their services to corporate clients who use them to outsource tech work.

Employers from Walt Disney World to the University of California in San Francisco have laid off their tech employees and replaced them with H-1B visa holders. Adding to the indignity: The U.S. workers are sometimes asked to train their replacements to qualify for severance packages.

On the planned order by Trump, Ronil Hira, a professor in public policy at Howard University and a critic of the H-1B program, told the Associated Press, "It's better than nothing." But he added, "It's not as aggressive as it needs to be."

The tech industry has argued that the H-1B program is needed because it encourages students to stay in the U.S. after getting degrees in high-tech specialties -- and they can't always find enough American workers with the skills they need.

Congress is considering several bills to overhaul the visa program. One, introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would require companies seeking H-1B visas to first make a good-faith effort to hire Americans, a requirement many companies can dodge under the current system; give the Labor Department more power to investigate and sanction H-1B abuses; and give "the best and brightest" foreign students studying in the U.S. priority in getting H-1B visas.

Trump will sign the order at the Kenosha headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc. His visit comes as the president faces an approval rating of just 41 percent in Wisconsin, a state he barely won in November. The visit also would take him to the congressional district of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who won't be joining the president because he's on a bipartisan congressional trip visiting NATO countries.

Trump has traveled to promote his agenda less than his recent predecessors. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump wanted to visit "a company that builds American-made tools with American workers."

Trump carried Wisconsin in November by nearly 23,000 votes -- less than 1 percentage point -- making him the first Republican to win the state since 1984. He campaigned on the promise of returning manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Upper Midwest states.

Founded in Wisconsin in 1920, Snap-on makes hand and power tools, diagnostics software, information and management systems, and shop equipment for use in a variety of industries, including agriculture, the military and aviation. It has eight manufacturing sites in North America, including one in Milwaukee. The company employs about 11,000 people worldwide.

Gorsuch breaks mold, asks numerous questions in Supreme Court debut

An upbeat Justice Neil Gorsuch wasted little time getting to work in his first public session Monday as the 113th member of the Supreme Court.
Sitting at the far right end of the nine-member bench, Gorsuch spent the morning hearing three oral arguments, each lasting about an hour. In his first case, considering a federal workplace discrimination claim, the newest justice was among the most active of questioners -- unusual for the court "rookie."
At the start of the morning session, Chief Justice John Roberts publicly acknowledged his new colleague in the crowded courtroom, wishing him a "long and happy career in our common calling."
Gorsuch responded by thanking the other justices for giving him a "warm welcome."
The 49-year-old Colorado native paid close attention to the arguments, sitting straight up and resting his hand occasionally on his chin.
He remained focused -- not even chatting with his "bench neighbor," Justice Sonia Sotomayor -- as he asked a number of questions of counsel. The back-and-forth exchanges lasted more than 10 minutes of the first 60-minute argument.
The first case out of the gate for Gorsuch was not a blockbuster, but the justice repeatedly pressed lawyers from both sides with his positions.
When one attorney admitted he tended to agree with the justice on one point, Gorsuch dryly replied, "I hope so."
At one point, he even apologized for the amount of questions, saying, “Sorry for taking up so much time.”
The other cases being argued separately Monday deal with a property rights dispute and securities class-action lawsuits.
Settling In
Even before Monday's arguments, Gorsuch had begun settling in at the court, arranging his chambers to create a comfortable, efficient workplace. Reminders of his roots in Colorado and the West will grace his offices, along with plenty of photos of his family and friends.
He is allowed to hire secretaries, a messenger, and four law clerks -- who typically serve for one year.
Those clerks will be especially important helping the justice get up to speed on his caseload, since joining the court in the midst of the term is not standard. It will be a nonstop whirl of activity until the term effectively ends in late June.
All four of the law clerks brought on in recent days served previously for then-Judge Gorsuch, and are all experienced litigators or academics. Two of them later went on to clerk for Antonin Scalia (the late justice whose seat Gorsuch is now occupying) and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
His colleagues are welcoming their newest member.
"We hope we're serving with Justice Gorsuch for the next 25 years," Roberts said last week before a university audience in New York. "It's kind of like a marriage. If you're going to be with someone that long, you can't have knock-down, drag-out fights over a case."
Lunch Is Served
Food for thought for the newest member of the Supreme Court: being the junior justice has its benefits and challenges.
For Gorsuch, it will mean being assigned to the court's internal Cafeteria Committee, where dessert toppings and silverware choices will compete for his time with constitutional issues big and small -- all part of the dizzying first few weeks for the justice.
Justice Elena Kagan, who had been the court "newbie" since 2010, unwittingly gave her future colleague some personal advice on managing the job. She appeared last September at a Colorado legal conference with Gorsuch and spoke to what it was like to have the least seniority.
"I think this is a way to kind of humble people," she said about her stint as one of the office lunch monitors. "You think you're kind of hot stuff. You're an important person. You've just been confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. And now you are going to monthly cafeteria committee meetings where literally the agenda is what happened to the good recipe for the chocolate chip cookies."
And the rookie hears about it when the food doesn't rate. One tradition of the court is the justices eat together privately after oral arguments.
"Somebody will say, 'Who's our representative to the cafeteria committee again?'" she told Gorsuch. "Like they don't know, right? And then they'll say, 'This soup is very salty.' And I'm like supposed to go fix it myself?"
Kagan recalled her proudest moment was getting a frozen yogurt machine installed in the dining area, which is open to the public.
She had been on the internal committee for seven years, with Justice Stephen Breyer in the job 11 years before that.
"It's a way of bringing them back down to Earth after the excitement of confirmation and appointment," Roberts said in 2011. Roberts' role as "first among equals," though, meant he never had to endure any of the "new guy" responsibilities.
Another duty for the "junior" justice is to answer the door when the members meet privately for their weekly closed-door conferences -- voting on cases and deciding which petitions get added to the docket. His first such conference will be this Thursday.
Gorsuch will also take notes at the conferences, and will vote last when cases get decided.
It is a learning curve that many on the court admit can be baffling and often overwhelming.
Justice Samuel Alito said he frequently got lost in the marbled halls of the court when he joined in 2006, especially since the building was undergoing a massive internal renovation at the time.
Breyer said it took him years to feel fully comfortable in the job.
And Justice Clarence Thomas recalled what Justice Byron White told him when he donned the robes in 1991. White, whose clerks included Gorsuch, said, "Well, Clarence, in your first five years you wonder how you got here. After that you wonder how your colleagues got here."

Democrats’ post-election playbook: Stay big in California

After painful November 2016 losses, Washington Democrats still appear committed to devoting resources to strongholds like California, instead of responding to party pleas to put time and money into Middle America to reconnect with disaffected voters.
The contrast came into full view when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee earlier this month started moving senior staffers to deep-blue California, then provided essentially no help to its candidate in the Kansas special election, who on Tuesday nearly pulled off a huge upset.
Washington Democrats hailed candidate James Thompson’s narrow loss as a moral victory, considering Republicans have held the seat since 1995.
But Thompson made clear that the DCCC and the Democrat National Committee could have done more, considering Washington Republicans including President Trump, Vice President Pence and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz invested time and money to save the seat.
“The DCCC and the DNC need to be doing a 50-state strategy,” said Thompson, after coming within 6 percentage points of winning Kansas GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo’s open House seat. (Pompeo won reelection there last year with roughly 60 percent of the vote before becoming the CIA director in January.)
GOPS WIN IN CLOSE SPECIAL ELECTION IN KANSAS
Thompson also pointed out that his campaign was largely financed by individual, small-dollar donations, saying 99 percent of the money came through average-$20 contributions.
The state Democrat party disputes a report that it gave Thompson just $3,000 late in the race but has failed to provide documentation showing the group in fact backed the first-time candidate’s campaign from the start.
The DNC contributed no last-minute money to counter the GOP infusion, with newly-installed Chairmen Tom Perez telling The Washington Post: “There are thousands of elections every year, though. Can we invest in all of them? That would require a major increase in funds.”
DNC Communications Director Xochtil Hinojosa told Fox News on Wednesday that the outcome of the Kansas race -- in a district Trump won in November by 27 percentage points -- proves voters’ “resounding frustration” with the president’s agenda and that Washington Democrats are “committed to organizing in every zip code.”
Meanwhile, the DCCC, which declined to comment for this story, is already sending staffers to Southern California to establish a base camp for 2018 House races in the state and in Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
“Moving out West is one of the improvements that we’re making at the DCCC in order to maximize gains in the midterms,” says group Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Luján.
The New Mexico congressman also vowed that he and fellow Democrats are “on offense across the map -- including in districts that have not seen a serious challenge in a long time.”
To be sure, the DCCC has sent dozens of paid staffers and hundreds of volunteers to Georgia for the special election Tuesday for the open seat of former GOP Rep. Tom Price, in a district Trump barely defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. (Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff has raised more than $8 million in that race.)
But whether the plan is enough to satisfy rank-and-file Democrats after November 2016 remains to be seen.
Before last year, Republicans had already controlled both chambers of Congress as well as the majority of state houses and governors’ offices.
And losses in Democratic strongholds like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida in 2016 that led to Trump’s upset victory over Clinton -- and nixed the party’s chances to retake the Senate -- only reinforced the notion that the Midwestern, blue collar vote has been neglected.
“We have to talk to those people who take a shower after work, not those who just take a shower before work,” Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan said after the losses and amid his subsequent, failed effort to replace California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader.
He also joined fellow party members in saying Democratic leaders had become too focus on liberal bastions like California, New York and neighbor East Coast states.
Despite Democrats last year winning a handful of House seats, Republicans will still have a daunting, roughly 44-seat majority going into the midterms and a 52-48 seat edge in the Senate.
In California, Democrats are targeting seven incumbent House Republicans -- including high-profile Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Darrell Issa and three others in Southern California.
Ben Tulchin, a San Francisco-based Democratic pollster and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ pollster in the 2016 Democratic primaries -- supports the party’s California strategy.
He says such grassroots efforts in places like Los Angeles and Orange counties make sense because voter-registration drives can reach a large number of unregistered Latinos, Asian-Americans and others who frequently vote Democrat.
“There’s an untapped pool of Democratic voters that just doesn’t exist in place like Iowa,” he said.
Tulchin also argued that reaching voters by TV in the greater-Los Angeles market is too expensive and that voters in largely-conservative Orange County, particularly along the coast, are becoming more socially liberal or at least more moderate.
“They’re almost all pro-environment,” Tulchin said.

Democrats throw millions, Hollywood punch into Georgia House race

Another generation of dumb democrats.

Democrats are pumping millions into the Georgia congressional election set for Tuesday, hoping a 30-year-old political upstart who's attracting star power can deliver a rebuke to President Trump and help the party reclaim lost momentum.
Hollywood has even come out for the off-cycle vote, with actor Samuel L. Jackson cutting a radio ad urging voters to flip the seat once held by Republican Tom Price, who is now Trump's health secretary.
“Vote for the Democratic Party. Stop Donald Trump, a man who encourages racial and religious discrimination and sexism,” Jackson says in the ad, casting the race as a chance to undermine the Republican president and throwing in "Pulp Fiction" references for good measure. “We have to channel the great vengeance and fury we have for this administration into votes at the ballot box.”
Democrats tried a similar tactic last week in their failed bid for the open seat of Kansas' Mike Pompeo, arguing a win in that conservative district would prove just how eager Americans are to end Trump and fellow Republicans’ control of Washington.
Washington Democrats, however, put essentially no resources into the race. By contrast, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee staffers are on the ground in Georgia, and supporters have given top Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff  $8 million-plus, with 80 percent of the money coming from outside the state. 
Republicans have held the suburban Atlanta seat for nearly four decades. However, Democrats saw an opening for an upset after Trump last year narrowly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in that district, while Price won with 61 percent of the vote.
Democrats also see a win as a catalyst for them in the 2018 midterm elections, though Republicans would still have a roughly 44-seat majority in the House and a four-seat advantage in the Senate.
The race Tuesday features 18 candidates -- 11 Republicans, five Democrats and two independents. To outright take the so-called “jungle primary,” the winner must get more than 50 percent of the vote. If not, the leader would face the second-place finisher in a runoff.
Ossoff is expected to get the most votes but not the majority, likely sending him and one of the Republican candidates to the June 20 runoff.
Trump and other Washington Republicans have gotten into the act -- a clear indication of their desire to keep the seat and blunt any momentum toward a possible 2018 Democratic comeback.
“The super Liberal Democrat in the Georgia Congressioal (sic) race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!,” Trump tweeted Monday.
He also tweeted Sunday: “The recent Kansas election (Congress) was a really big media event, until the Republicans won. Now they play the same game with Georgia-BAD!”
Republican field staffers also have been dispatched to Georgia. A GOP political action committee backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has spent more than $2 million attacking Ossoff.
In addition, the amount of money going to Ossoff is also a liability.
"I don't care what party you're from," said Marty Aftewicz, a 66-year-old Republican voter from Marietta. "If the money's coming from outside the district, it's dirty. … Anyone raising that much outside money can't represent me."
Republicans have also run a barrage of campaign ads trying to tie the 30-year-old Ossoff to House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and portray him as too sophomoric and inexperienced to govern.
The Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, for instance, is running ads showing him pretending to be “Star Wars” character Han Solo while attending Georgetown University.
"Jon is being bankrolled by the most extreme liberals,” said Karen Handel, a former secretary of state and one of Ossoff's Republican challengers. “No one is naive enough to think that he will not be beholden to those who are bankrolling him."
Ossoff, nevertheless, pledges to be an "independent voice" in Congress. And he defends his campaign as a grassroots success powered by small and medium donors.
Ossoff is a former staffer to Rep. Hank Johnson and intern for civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrats now supporting Ossoff in the race.
Though he could get the most votes Tuesday, national Republicans think he would lose in June to Handel or fellow GOP candidates Bob Gray, a technology executive, or Dan Moody or Judson Hill, former state senators.
Handel vows to work with Trump on common-ground issues but says her job is to “be a voice for people of the 6th District."
Gray says he would be a "willing partner" in the effort to fulfill Trump’s legislative agenda.

Tax Day Cartoons

Trump blasts Tax Day protests, says 'election is over!'

President Trump on Sunday criticized the weekend protests against his presidency and those demanding the release of his tax returns, suggesting deep-pocked opponents “paid” for them and saying the 2016 presidential “election is over.”

At least 20 people were arrested Saturday at a park in Berkley, Calif., when attendees of a pro-Trump and an anti-Trump rally clashed.
Police in riot gear confiscated sticks, knives and fireworks that were being hurled in the melee, after failed efforts to separate the events with makeshift fencing.
“Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!” Trump tweeted Sunday.
The anti-Trump rally was one of about 150 across the country on Saturday to criticize the president’s policies and demand that he release his full IRS returns.

• Police arrest at least 20 as protesters clash at pro-Trump rally in Berkeley

• Tax March turns into demand for Trump's IRS filings; 20 reported arrests

• Tax Day protests: Anti-Trump marches planned nationwide to demand tax returns

Other events took place without major incidents in such U.S. cities as Chicago, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and outside of Trump’s south Florida resort home, Mar-a-Lago.
Many of the events, on Tax Day, the deadline for hundreds of millions of Americans to file their IRS returns, were organized by the group TaxMarch.org, whose executive committee includes a former Occupy Wall Street protester.
Others helping organize the events Saturday included labor unions and activist groups such as MoveOn.org and Common Cause.
“I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?” Trump also tweeted Sunday.
That Trump will cave to the pressure and release his full tax returns appears unlikely, considering the president has said he won’t amid an ongoing IRS audit and the White House saying in January that he will not.

DHS' Kelly defends more ICE, border hires; says illegal immigrants must be 'dealt with'

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made clear Sunday that President Trump is unwavering in his commitments to close U.S. borders to illegal immigrants and remove those already in the county illegally but refuted the idea that the administration is assembling a so-called deportation force.
Kelly acknowledged the possibility of hiring as many as 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and thousands more border patrol agents but said the bolstered effort is a “law enforcement force.”
“There are a huge number, as you know, of illegal aliens or undocumented individuals that have to be dealt with in one way or another,” Kelly told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Most estimates show the country’s illegal immigrant population at about 11 million.
From the first day of his successful White House campaign, Trump has vowed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country, particularly criminals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition, Trump vowed to build a security wall along that border and has remained steadfast on the point amid criticism that he’s flip-flopping on other key campaign issues such as supporting NATO and whether removing Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime is a top priority.
Kelly’s comments followed Attorney General Jeff Sessions' visit to the southern border last week. Sessions told Fox News again Saturday that the border is closed to illegal immigrants.
“This border is not open,” he said on Fox’s “Justice with Jeanine” show. “If you come to America, come lawfully. Don’t come unlawfully.”
Like Kelly, Sessions also made clear that stopping illegal immigration is only part of the solution and that removing people here unlawfully -- including those protected from deportation by so-called sanctuary cities -- is also a priority.
Sessions said he’s hiring 125 new immigration judges, which could improve delays in the legal process for deportation.
The former Alabama senator also said removing immigrants connected to gangs such as MS-13 remain a priority.
“We are going after them,” said Sessions, who also attributed record lows in illegal border crossings to Trump’s election victory and his stern commitment to keeping campaign promises on immigration.
Kelly on Sunday also argued the country’s illegal immigration problem goes beyond enforcement and called on Congress for legislative solutions.
“We have to straighten this out,” he said. “And I place that squarely on the United States Congress. It's a hugely complex series of laws, and I engage the Hill quite a bit and get an earful about what I should do and what I shouldn't do. But it all comes down to the law. … I would hope that the Congress fixes a lot of these problems.”