[JustTheNews] Texas has won another lawsuit against the Biden administration, this time one that requires it to finish building the border wall.
The ruling was issued May 29, with a 60-day window for appeal. Because the Biden administration didn’t appeal by July 29, the court’s order remains in full effect.
The ruling covers two consolidated lawsuits, one filed by the Texas General Land Office under its former commissioner, George P. Bush, and the state of Texas; the other was filed by Missouri and Texas. Both were filed in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas McAllen Division. The first names the president, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and DHS as defendants. The second names them and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its director as defendants.
It also follows one issued in March that handed Texas a win in the consolidated cases.
The lawsuits argue the president and Mayorkas violated federal law and asked the court to instruct them to follow the law and use funds appropriated by Congress for their intended purpose.
In 2020 and 2021, Congress allocated roughly $1.4 billion to fund the construction of a barrier system along the southwest border. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden ordered construction be halted. Because contracts had already been implemented, it cost taxpayers an initial $6 million, then $3 million a day for the border wall not to be built. Materials that had already been paid to build the wall were left to rust on the ground, The Center Square reported.
In October 2021, Missouri and Texas sued the president and Mayorkas, requesting the court to order them to complete border wall construction. The GLO also sued, which owns over 500,000 acres of land near the U.S.-Mexico border, with an estimated 31 linear miles along the Rio Grande. When Gov. Greg Abbott began building Texas’ own border wall, the area where it was first constructed was on GLO land.
In response to the lawsuits, Mayorkas, as he has in nearly every lawsuit filed against him, argued he has “discretion” to change or implement policies how he sees fit. In this case, DHS argued that regardless of the statutory language stipulating that funds should be used to construct the border wall and barriers, Mayorkas had discretion over how the funds could be spent.
As the cases were consolidated and progressed, Mayorkas reallocated border wall funding to focus on environmental projects and maintenance repairs instead.
Judge Drew Tipton granted the plaintiff’s requests for a permanent injunction, stating they “have demonstrated success on the merits of their claims brought under the Administrative Procedures Act for violation of the Consolidated Appropriations Act.”
Tipton ordered the federal government, respective agencies, officers, employees and others “enjoined and restrained from implementing a July 22 Amended Plan” to halt border wall construction. He also prohibited the federal government from obligating border wall construction funds “toward mitigation and remediation efforts, repair of existing barrier, so-called system attribute installation at existing sites, or other similar purposes,” saying they can only be spent on “the construction of physical barriers, such as additional walls, fencing, buoys, etc.”
Tipton also notes that the case “is unique from most APA cases” because the plaintiffs challenged a directive issued by Mayorkas via a memo, not an agency regulation. He explains that Mayorkas could “simply re-obligate the appropriations at issue” by removing or rescinding his memo. But “the mere removal of the DHS Plan would do nothing to prevent DHS from making the same unlawful spending decisions if it so chose,” he explains, which is why he issued a permanent injunction. He said his order provides “more relief” and “leaves intact the numerous obligations and policies within the Plan that Plaintiffs do not challenge.” He also dismissed any remaining claims of the Biden administration.
In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “This is a final victory against Biden’s attempt to defund the border wall. His Administration illegally sought to prevent the construction of the border wall and illegally attempted to repurpose the money allocated for American safety and sovereignty, working instead to keep the border open.”
The GLO, Texas and Missouri “sued and won to stop their unlawful scheme,” he said. “Now, the Administration has thrown in the towel by declining to appeal their defeat and will be legally required to build the wall.”
Posted by: Skidmark ||
08/02/2024 08:32 ||
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[FoxNews] Over 20,000 migrants have already been approved for resettlement in the US
The Biden/Harris administration has "super-charged" a "Lawful Pathways" program that has helped admit tens of thousands of people from Latin America.
The Safe Mobility Office Initiative, launched in May 2023 and given expanded capacity this spring, has worked to fly tens of thousands of people to the U.S. through the refugee resettlement process, despite those people being of nationalities that have rarely qualified for refugee status, according to a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis.
According to the report, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) personnel and United Nations have set up offices in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala that have granted refugee status to 21,000 people from seven different Latin American countries in the first year of the program, with half of those having already arrived in the country as of May.
The refugees are being flown to the U.S. from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia, the report notes, though even greater numbers may have been flown in through June and July after the administration expanded the program to allow for migrants from Honduras and El Salvador.
The expansion of the program comes despite the U.S. traditionally only granting refugee status to individuals who can credibly claim that they cannot return to their home country out of a "well-founded fear" of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group, but the CIS analysis argued that many of those coming to the U.S. would more normally be classified as economic migrants.
The report cites a 2024 Mixed Migration Centre survey of program participants that found 90% indicated they wanted to travel to the U.S. for economic opportunities and higher living standards, not to flee potential persecution.
The administration has also raised the allotted slots to admit refugees from Latin America, from less than 5,000 when President Biden took office to 50,000 in 2024.
"In the refugee pathway, we aim to resettle between 35,000 and 50,000 individuals in Fiscal Year 2024, an historic and ambitious goal that would amount to an increase in refugee resettlement from the Western Hemisphere of over 450 percent from last year," Marta Youth, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration, said in testimony before a congressional committee in March.
The administration has justified the expansion of the program by arguing that many of the migrants would have used dangerous migration corridors before illegally appearing at the U.S.' southern border, a justification some say abuses the U.S. refugee program.
"We have a visa process so they can safely go to an embassy and safely apply for a visa and safely fly to the U.S.," Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital. "This is to completely abuse and twist the refugee process. It’s abusive and not lawful."
Ries also argued that the program does not help the source countries of the migration and could be a danger to American citizens, noting that the speed of processing applications raises questions about how well the migrants are vetted.
"There isn't going to be a diplomatic solution, unfortunately, in the short term… particularly when you're dealing with authoritarians that are trying to figure out how to stay in power."
[Fox via Bongino] A whistleblower told Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley that Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. personally directed cuts to the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), which led to the threat assessment team failing to perform its typical duties prior to the Butler, Pennsylvania rally.
The senator's report comes after lawmakers grilled agency leaders on the mounting security failures at the Pennsylvania rally where former President Trump narrowly escaped assassination.
The whistleblower alleged that the Secret Service CSD, the division that performs threat assessment of event sites before the event occurs, did not perform its evaluation prior to the fateful rally in Western Pennsylvania on July 13.
"This is significant because CSD's duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event," Hawley wrote in a letter to Rowe on Thursday.
Posted by: Mercutio ||
08/02/2024 09:02 ||
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#1
Perhaps this information will help Ronny 'get to the bottom' of this situation. More importantly, 'not leap to hasty conclusions', or 'target lower eschelon personnel'.
[JustTheNews] The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Thursday sent a letter to New York Judge Juan Merchan's daughter, requesting documents related to her father's alleged conflicts of interest in prosecuting former President Donald Trump.
Merchan presided over Trump's hush money trial earlier this year, despite calls for him to recuse himself because of his daughter's work on behalf of the former president's political adversaries. His daughter, Loren Merchan, is president of Authentic Campaigns Inc., which the committee claims benefitted from Trump's prosecution and conviction.
Trump was convicted by a Manhattan jury of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
"In testimony to the Committee, experts have explained how Judge Merchan made several errors before and during President Trump’s trial that violated due process, infringed upon his First Amendment rights, and prevented him from receiving a fair trial," House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan wrote in the letter. "Among other fundamental errors, Judge Merchan admitted into evidence plainly inadmissible, irrelevant, and prejudicial testimony against President Trump, while limiting President Trump’s ability to rebut it."
The judge's refusal to recuse himself has been met with criticism from both sides of the political aisle, including a left-wing legal analyst who claimed Merchan “absolutely should have recused himself," per the letter.
The letter also requested documents related to Loren Merchan's work with the Democratic Party, and her ties to Vice President Kamala Harris. It also requested all documents and communications referring or related to work performed by her company that refers to the indictment, prosecution, or conviction of Trump for the period April 1, 2023, to the present.
The committee said the requests are part of their work of "conducting oversight of politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials."
Loren Merchan is expected to turn over the requested documents by the close of business day on Aug. 8.
Reporter: "Trump has said repeatedly that he could have gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. What do you say to that? What do you say to former President Trump now?"
President Biden: "Why didn't he do it when he was president?"
… - Three of the American hostages (Evan Gershkovich - 3/23 and Olsu Kurmasheva - 10/23) were arrested in 2023 - under Joes term.
- Paul Whelan wasn’t convicted of espionage until 2020 - under Joes term.
- Vladimir Kara-Murza wasn’t arrested until 2022 - under Joes term.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/02/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Time Issue
Paul Whelan was arrested in Russia in December 2018, and convicted of espionage in June 2020.
So about 6 months after the conviction was Trumps time in Office. However, 3.5 Years was Biden's responsibility.
BTW:
Do a quick look into Whelan's whole history, and it is full of issues. Including a Marine 2008 Bad Conduct discharge for multiple counts of larceny.
#4
You know.
I have a little theory going on that the reason they haven't banged the gong on this guy and are trying to drag him across January, is that even the most virulent We Need a Woman President supporters are like, "Eh, maybe we don't want Harris as the first."
Biden literally wandered off during the event and got on the aircraft that brought the prisoners in.
Is he so far gone he thinks it was somehow an aircraft he was supposed to board?
No one is talking about how Biden climbed onto the jet after the Americans already got off.
[TOWNHALL] In one of the least surprising developments of all time, this week’s White Dudes for Kamala Zoom call was a festival of estrogen where a bunch of weirdos, losers, mutations, sissies, whiners, dorks, geeks, and other key sub-sections of the Democrat Party gathered in the electronic ether to humiliate themselves at the feet of their mediocre candidate. That was no surprise. I didn’t check out enough of it to see if they started with a land acknowledgment or if they reassured some of the men participating that it was understood that some of them menstruate because every second I watched, I felt the testosterone draining from my body. Fortunately, being a conservative, I’ve got it to spare.
It was good for a laugh, at least for a moment. When you see a man debase himself so thoroughly, especially someone you despise, your first reaction is to point and laugh. But then, after you watch this grisly tableau for a while, your emotions morph into mortification. It’s painful to watch someone make himself look like such a complete zero. You want to cry out, “For the love of all that’s holy, have some self-respect. There’s a thing called dignity! Try it out!” But then again, if you purport to be a man and you support Kamala Harris, that’s what you are—a complete zero.
#3
When you see a man debase himself so thoroughly, ... you want to cry out, "For the love of all that’s holy, have some self-respect. There’s a thing called dignity! Try it out!"
Insufficient humility in those "dudes"?
HUMILITY
The moral virtue that keeps a person from reaching beyond himself. It is the virtue that restrains the unruly desire for personal greatness and leads people to an orderly love of themselves based on a true appreciation of their position with respect to God and their neighbors. Religious humility recognizes one's total dependence on God; moral humility recognizes one's creaturely equality with others. Yet humility is not only opposed to pride; it is also opposed to immoderate self-abjection, which would fail to recognize God's gifts and use them according to his will. (Etym. Latin humilitas, abasement, humility, from humus, ground.)
abjection
1: a low or downcast state; degradation;
2: the act of making abject; humbling, rejection;
#4
It's the conscience rejection of humility. It gives an exaggerated form of Dutch Courage. Don't underestimate it. It allows an asymmetric approach to an Overton Window move or worse, direct action like the Extinction Revolution storming Heathrow and spraying paint on the arrival departure boards or ruining classic art pieces.
And here's something more. Judge Merchan's daughter worked for and was indeed president of Authentic Campaigns, a political firm founded by Mike Nellis that raised money for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, and Chuck Schumer. Loren Merchan fundraised on the trial her father was overseeing. The firm made multiple millions of dollars on the trial, according to the House Judiciary Committee. More on that in a minute.
Judge Merchan put a gag order on Donald Trump that prevented the former president from saying anything about his daughter and others involved in the trial. We can't have the Democrats' shenanigans getting into the open and ballyhooed by the guy with the biggest bullhorn in the business, now can we?
We now discover that Loren Merchan's partner at the political firm is the one who contrived the White Dudes for Harris knitting circle for beta males.
Julie Kelly reports that on the same day we found out about the astroturfed "white dudes" confab being overseen by Judge Merchan's daughter's business partner, the New York appeals court denied a Trump appeal to end the gag order and told the world about it. According to Judge Merchan's daughter's political business partner, they made $4 million on that Zoom call to help Trump's opponent.
The modified gag order will remain in effect until Trump is sentenced, which was supposed to be last month but was bumped to late September.
In the meantime, Jim Jordan's House Judiciary Committee has issued orders to Loren Merchan to preserve documents because, as one wag put it, there seems to be the stench of Fusion GPS on that outfit.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FoxNews] Over 20,000 migrants have already been approved for resettlement in the US
[Fox via Bongino] A whistleblower told Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley that Acting Secret Service Director 
[TOWNHALL] In one of the least surprising developments of all time, this week’s 
