Thursday, June 21, 2018
How Immigration Officials Cooked the Books and Fooled Congress for Years
But give credit to the courts’ new executive, James McHenry. Early on, he identified the need for transparency and has made accurate disclosure of court business one of his agency’s highest priorities. Candor, if not reform, demands no less.
It’s a good start for an executive whose predecessors often avoided—and sometimes denied—the truth about the courts’ troubling dynamics. Yet the courts limped along, their annual reports masking a systemic dysfunction never shared with Congress.
While transparency won’t cure the dysfunction, it should identify obvious areas for reform—among them failures to appear in court.
From 1996 through 2016, just under half of all aliens who were set free pending a trial date—1.25 million in total—were ordered removed, i.e. deported. Of that number, 952,291 were removed for evading court. Less than a quarter of this same group actually appeared in court. Over the span of more than two decades of court business, nearly two-fifths (37 percent) of those who were let free before their trial ended up fleeing court.
Since 1996, an average of 45,000 migrants each year disappeared, adding to a backlog of unexecuted removal orders that in 2016 numbered 954,000. If predictions are correct, nearly 57,000 people will evade their hearings in 2018 and bring the 23-year failure-to-appear total to 1.05 million—that’s 9.3 percent of the illegal population in the U.S. as measured by a 2017 Pew Research Center study.
It is here that damage to the courts, immigration enforcement, and national security intersect.
From 2001 through 2005, Immigration and Customs Enforcement freed 45,000 out of nearly 92,000 people who entered the U.S. from terror-linked nations. Released to pursue asylum claims, Department of Homeland Security officials believed many would disappear—and they were right.
Out of 641,000 immigration court decisions handed down over the same period, 43 percent of them—or 279,000 verdicts—directed those who missed their hearings to be removed. Court records reveal that aliens detained and then released to attend court fled their hearings at roughly the same rate as their counterparts who were never detained.
Unsurprisingly, Homeland Security found that 85 percent of those ordered removed later absconded. In other words, when confronted with deportation, they ran. Seldom, according to ICE records, were any ever rearrested.
How did their flight from court escape notice? How did the practice continue for so long without a reckoning?
The answer lies in mismanagement across both Republican and Democratic administrations that produced weak—and sometimes dishonest—recaps of court business. In essence....
In China ‘Free’ Trade Means Steal What You Want
What can Democrat Chuck Schumer, Republican Marco Rubio, and President Trump agree on? Almost nothing, but they agree China is robbing America blind and has to be stopped. When the President slapped a punishing 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods starting July 6, his least likely GOP ally, Senator Marco Rubio (FL) applauded the tariffs as a “theft tax.” Senator Schumer backed them too, warning that allowing China’s massive stealing to continue will cause “long-term real damage to America.”
Within hours of Trump’s announcement, China retaliated with $50 billion in tariffs on U.S. imports. Trump shot back with tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese goods. China accuses Trump of “provoking the trade war.” Provoking? China’s been fighting dirty against American business for years. China steals $225 billion to $600 billion worth of fashion designs, pharmaceutical formulas, and new technologies from U.S. companies every year, according to the Commission on Theft of American Intellectual Property. Previous U.S. presidents did nothing but negotiate. That’s like watching a burglar strip your house and asking him “can we talk?” At last, an American president picked up a weapon — tariffs — to fight back.
Not a minute too soon. The stealing is getting worse. Politicians naively said admitting China to the World Trade Organization in 2001 would push it toward a free market economy observing the rule of law. Magical thinking.
From the start, China violated WTO rules, knocking off American products and selling them as the real deal. A staggering 88% of counterfeit goods seized are from China and Hong Kong, according to Homeland Security. Like the Chinese thought “free” market meant steal what you want.
Steal it or extort it. American companies doing business in China are pressured to transfer proprietary technology to a local partner. China promised to stop that arm twisting but broke its word.
Now China is abandoning any pretense of respecting intellectual property. President Xi Jinping’s official economic policy, called Made in China 2025, elevates technology theft to official status. The government politely calls it “the assimilation and absorption of imported technology.” China plans to steal its way to economic dominance and end dependence on foreign suppliers.
American companies can’t thrive under this threat. Our advantage in world markets isn’t cheap labor or cheap materials. It’s ideas.
American Superconductor Corporation was almost put out of business, its stock value driven down 96%, when a Chinese wind turbine maker stole its technology and flooded the...
BREAKING: Germany’s largest auto makers back abolition of EU-US car import tariffs in major win for President Trump
BREAKING: Germany’s largest auto makers back abolition of EU-US car import tariffs in major win for President Trump - WSJ— Wired Sources (@WiredSources) June 20, 2018
PENTAGON SENDING MILITARY LAWYERS TO BORDER TO PROSECUTE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CASES
At least 21 lawyers will be detailed to Arizona, Texas and New Mexico to help with the increased caseload of immigration-related cases, MSNBC reportedWednesday night, citing internal Defense Department communications.
The military lawyers, who are supposed to have “criminal trial experience,” will be designated as full-time special assistant U.S. attorneys during a six-month temporary duty tour. They will be given a crash course in immigration law and federal criminal procedure to assist regular DOJ prosecutors in Yuma, Arizona; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo and McAllen in Texas.
A senior Justice Department official confirmed the temporary deployment of military lawyers — known as Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) — to The Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday morning.
“The JAGs detailed as SAUSAs will be working to promote and enforce the rule of law at our borders, which is vital to protecting a nation and its citizens,” the official wrote in an email.
The Justice Department first sought applications from military lawyers last month in an effort to fill personnel gaps “while we staff up” with permanent assistant U.S. attorneys, according to Pentagon emails obtained by MSNBC. The request followed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ April order to U.S. attorneys in border districts to prosecute as many illegal entry cases as possible — even against illegal immigrants traveling with children — as part of the administration’s border enforcement strategy.
The aggressive prosecution strategy has caused a spike in the number of migrant families being separated at the border, since federal law prohibits holding children with their parents in criminal detention facilities. Between May 5 and June 9, more than 2,300 migrant children were separated from family units that were caught crossing the border illegally, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics released Tuesday.
Though family separation has been used by previous administrations, President Donald Trump has come under particularly intense criticism for employing the tactic as part of his broader crackdown on illegal immigration. Left-wing activists and Democratic opponents — as well as some lawmakers in....
This lame duck GOP senator’s excuse for blocking Trump judges will set your hair on fire
Jeff Flake Is A Duplicitous Traitor.
Story:
Outgoing GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona is blocking votes on all of President Donald Trump’s appeals court nominees to secure concessions from Republican leaders on tariffs and Cuban travel restrictions.
Flake, a Trump antagonist who is not seeking reelection amid floundering popularity with Arizona Republicans, has not openly addressed the matter, though his seat on a closely divided Senate Judiciary Committee gives him significant leverage over judgeships.
Roll Call first reported that Flake halted a committee vote on Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant’s nomination to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appeals court based in Atlanta. CNN confirmed late Wednesday that the senator will block all appeals court nominees to prompt discussions on relations with Cuba and the president’s escalating trade war with much of the industrial world.
Flake is one of 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which issues recommendations on judicial nominees before a final confirmation vote. The GOP has a one-vote majority on the panel, making Flake’s cooperation essential if Republicans wish to process candidates.
As of this writing, there are 10 appeals court nominees pending before the committee, including a candidate for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a regular target of conservative scorn and has jurisdiction over Flake’s home state.
The senator has not spoken publicly about his tactics, nor has he been clear as to the specific policy accomplishments he hopes to extract in exchange for continued cooperation on judges.
Judicial nominations are a priority for the embattled Republican Senate caucus, which risks losing its tenuous majority in the November elections. A steady clip of confirmations also provides Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell meaningful victories as legislating slows ahead of the midterm campaign season.
McConnell cancelled the Senate’s August recess on June 5, in part to...
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #294
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
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