Homeland Security Watchdog Concludes ‘Physical Barriers Work’ to Curb Illegal Immigration: FOIA

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that a border wall is the most effective way to curb illegal immigration, according to a newly released report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. 

The Immigration Reform Law Institute published a 2017 report last week from the Homeland Security watchdog, which found that in 25 border areas studied, a pedestrian fence, also known as a border wall, was the best solution to ending illegal immigration. 

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California Sues Trump Administration Over ‘Failure to Protect Species’

California is suing the Trump administration for the administration’s failure to protect endangered species in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, Reuters reports.

The lawsuit by the state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Environmental Protection Agency filed suit on Thursday against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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Democrats Join Forces to Urge the Supreme Court to Block the Southern Border Barrier Based on ‘the Environment’

by Kevin Daley   Environmental groups and House Democrats urged the Supreme Court not to disturb a lower court order blocking the reallocation of military funds for border wall projects. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to put that ruling on hold while litigation continues July 12. Granting that request — called…

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Trump Appeals Federal Judge’s Border Wall Funding Ruling

Reuters   President Donald Trump on Saturday appealed a U.S. judge’s ruling that blocked his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended for anti-drug activities to construct a wall along the southern border with Mexico. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers said in a court filing that they were formally appealing Friday’s ruling to…

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Immigration Talks Already Underway as Mexico Rushes to Stave Off Tariff Threat

by Jason Hopkins   Top Mexican government officials are in the United States as they attempt to dissuade the Trump administration from following though on tariff threats. A high-level delegation of Mexican officials, including Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and Economy Minister Graciela Marquez, held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday.…

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We Build the Wall, Inc. Heads to Detroit for Third Town Hall

We Build the Wall, Inc. is hitting the road for Detroit Thursday night. The Ohio Star was there for We Build the Wall, Inc.’s stop Tuesday night in Cincinnati, which featured panelists such as former White House strategist Steve Bannon, Sheriff David Clarke, and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.…

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Trump to Request an Additional $8.6 Billion to Complete Border Wall

by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump will ask Congress for an additional $8.6 billion for wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, a move that will likely set up another fierce battle over border security funding. The president is expected to roll out his 2020 budget proposal Monday, which will…

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White House Defends Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

The White House on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration. “He could choose to ignore this crisis, but he chose not to,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller, a border security hardliner, told Fox News Sunday.…

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Commentary: Congress Has a Little Time to Get Immigration Right

by Rachel Bovard   After refusing for weeks to negotiate over border security “until the government is open,” the bluff has been called on congressional Democrats. Congress has until February 15 to craft a border security package ahead of what could be yet another partial government shutdown. Talks among the 17…

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President Trump Sits Down with ‘Face the Nation’ to Discuss The Wall, Afghanistan, Russia, and More

President Donald Trump is refusing to rule out the possibility of another partial government shutdown to win congressional approval of funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico. But he also signaled strongly he plans to declare a national emergency to build the barrier without assent from lawmakers.…

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Commentary: Media Says Trump Caved on The Wall, but It’s Democrats in the Dark

by Jeffery Rendall   Friday started off with the blockbuster news that longtime associate and occasional Trump political advisor Roger Stone was ensnared (for process crimes, no less) in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ever-widening “Russian collusion” net, which to the liberal establishment media meant that the long-anticipated “smoking gun” had…

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White House Chief of Staff Mulvaney Assures Trump Will Build Wall ‘With or Without Congress’

The White House challenged opposition Democrats on Sunday to prove they want tough security on the southern border with Mexico now that the longest-ever partial government shutdown has ended and the clock is ticking on a three-week window for negotiations. Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s acting White House chief of…

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Commentary: President Trump’s Immigration Proposal Puts Democrats in a Tight Box

by CHQ Staff   On Saturday afternoon President Trump delivered a brilliant speech on border security offering Democrats a path forward to end the standoff over the border wall and the partial government shutdown. And, striking a conciliatory tone, Trump spread the blame to both political parties: …our immigration system…

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Commentary: Now We Know It’s All About the Wall

by Roger Kimball   Bismarck said that politics is the art of the possible. It looks like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), and other Democrats regard politics as the art of intransigence. In his brief remarks Saturday on border security, Donald Trump outlined a plan that made multiple…

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Trump Assails Pelosi’s Rejection of ‘Compromise’ to End Government Shutdown

President Donald Trump assailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday for rejecting what he is calling a compromise to end the record 30-day partial government shutdown, with $5.7 billion for his barrier along the U.S.-Mexican border and three years of protection against deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. “Nancy…

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Liz Cheney: Pelosi ‘Commandeered The House’ on the DACA Issue She’s Now Voting Against

by Molly Prince   The third-ranking House Republican, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday for opposing proposals that she recently supported as a way to resist negotiating with President Donald Trump. “It’s very difficult to understand when you’ve got the president’s proposal that obviously includes…

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Commentary: At a Cost of $25 Billion Once Versus $165 Billion Annually, Trump’s ‘Wall’ Math Holds Up

by Spencer P. Morrison   Scott Adams, the creator of the popular cartoon “Dilbert,” transformed himself into a persona non grata in 2016 by exposing how Donald Trump manipulated the media by using sophisticated persuasion techniques. History proved Adams was correct and Trump won the election. As it turns out, Trump was not the…

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Trump Predicts DACA Will Bring Hispanic Voters ‘Over to the Republican Side’ Amid Shutdown Stalemate

by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump predicted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) could become a larger factor in his border wall funding fight during a flurry of tweets Sunday morning. “Democrats are saying that DACA is not worth it and don’t want to include in talks,” Trump wrote on Twitter.…

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Commentary: Visa Overstays Don’t, in Fact, Negate the Benefits of Border Barriers

by James D. Agresti   Opponents of President Trump’s plan to build a wall along much of the Southwest border often argue that it won’t be effective because many illegal immigrants enter the U.S. by using visas. Visas allow people to temporarily visit or live in the U.S., but every…

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President Trump Mulls Declaring ‘National Emergency’ to Build Wall, Predicts Movement in Negotiations with Democrats by Mid-Week

Echoing remarks from a White House press conference Friday, President Trump reiterated Sunday his option to declare the United States’ porous southern border a national emergency, thereby circumventing Congress in order fund the construction of a physical barrier to halt illegal immigrants from simply walking into the country. “I may…

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Commentary: Senator Lindsey Graham Makes A Great Point

by CHQ Staff   Ever since the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings Senator Lindsey Graham has been on a roll, and his appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday was a great example. Graham warned that the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over border wall funding cannot end as long as the…

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Marsha Blackburn Says Voters Sent Her to DC to Secure the Border

by Nick Givas   Republican Sen.-elect Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said voters sent her to Washington to help secure the U.S. southern border, on “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday. “Let me tell you something. There is an acronym for the word team. My mom used it with me growing up. Together everyone…

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White House Aide Blasts Reporter After He Said Trump Was Not Working During Shutdown

by Henry Rodgers   White House aide Hogan Gidley called out a reporter for saying President Donald Trump was not working Monday amid the ninth day of the government shutdown, demanding he “correct the record.” Gidley, Trump’s deputy press secretary, was responding to Playboy’s White House reporter Brian Karem, who…

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The House of Representatives Approves $5.7 Billion in Spending for ‘The Wall’

Late Thursday following weeks of political invective and shutdown threats, the House of Representatives passed – by a final vote of 217-185 – a measure that will fund the government through February 8 that included an allocation of over five billion dollars for the construction of a physical barrier along…

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Commentary: Seriously, Just Order The Pentagon To Build The Wall

by Brandon Weichert   The estimated price tag on President Trump’s “big, beautiful” southern border wall is $25 billion—a paltry sum compared with the ways government otherwise fritters away taxpayers’ dollars. Yet a government shutdown looms—and Democrats can’t have that. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)…

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Commentary: Only Two Weeks Left for Republicans to Get It

by Rachel Bovard   There’s only one area where bipartisanship still reigns in Washington: avoidance. Republican and Democrat leaders this week held hands and used the funeral events for President George H. W. Bush as an excuse to move their funding deadline—which previously expired on December 7—two weeks forward, to December…

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DHS to Waive Environmental Laws for Border Wall Construction

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it would waive environmental laws so it could build gates between sections of border barriers in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The waiver posted online lists 11 locations where the government plans to install gates in existing fencing. DHS has in…

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MIT Study: The Number Of Illegal Immigrants Could Be Double Previous Estimates

by Will Racke   The true number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. — long a subject of intense debate — could be twice as high as commonly accepted figures, according to a study by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher. The study published Friday by Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi, a senior…

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Twenty-Five Straight Minutes Of People Illegally Crossing The US Border Through Arizona Ranch

illegal border crossing

by Will Racke   Arizona rancher John Chilton’s 50,000-acre spread along the U.S.-Mexico border is allegedly ground zero for human smugglers, drug cartel members and illegal immigrants, and he has videos showing trespassers sneaking through his property. A fifth-generation cattleman, the 79-year-old Chilton has long warned the government about the…

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Jim Jordan Tells Republicans How They Can Keep House Majority: ‘Build The Wall’

Jim Jordan

by Nick Givas   GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Republicans must fund and build a southern border wall if they hope to maintain their congressional majority this November. “We should do what we said. What was probably the single biggest promise Republicans made to the voters in 2016?…

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With the End of the Fiscal Year September 30, Congress Is Running Out of Time to Fund ‘The Wall’

Donald Trump, The Wall

By Robert Romano   The 2018 fiscal year will end on Sept. 30 but Congress is no closer to achieving key Trump administration priorities including fully funding the southern border wall, something President Donald Trump has been demanding since 2017 and campaigned on extensively in 2016. So far, both the House…

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Trump Threatens Government Shutdown Over Border Wall Funding

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump threatened Sunday to shut down the government if Congress does not fund construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to thwart illegal immigration. The U.S. leader claimed opposition Democrats need to give him “the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!” and other tougher national…

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Mexico President-Elect Writes to Trump About Migration, NAFTA

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to initiate “a new stage in the relationship” of the two countries and to make progress in the areas of “trade, migration, development and security.” Lopez Obrador handed the seven-page letter to a U.S. delegation…

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Evidence from Many Nations Confirms That Border Walls Stem the Tide of Illegal Immigration

Great Wall of China

by Daniel Marulanda and James D. Agresti   The border between the United States and Mexico stretches for 1,960 miles, parting two major regions of the world with vastly different governments, standards of living, and levels of crime. Consequently, many millions of people have risked their lives to illegally cross the border into the United States. During…

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Mexican President-Elect Lopez Obrador Proposes Border Force To Contain Illegal Immigration Into Mexico

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

by Will Racke   Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is planning to create a specialized border force to combat illegal immigration across Mexico’s borders, according to his hand-picked security chief. The new force is aimed at stanching the flow of illegal immigrants and contraband from Central America and will…

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Rep. Diane Black Introduces Novel Crowdsourcing Bill to Fund ‘The Wall’

Embracing the online ‘crowdsourcing’ trend pioneered by inventors and entrepreneurs to raise vast sums of money, support and sometimes, fame, Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) introduced a novel bill late last week that would create a trust fund in the U.S. Treasury that could accept money donated by individuals and earmark…

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