8 ISIS-K Arrested in 3 Cities After Crossing the Southern Border

In part from USA Today, hardly tells the whole story about this case.

WASHINGTON ― U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in recent days arrested eight foreign nationals in the U.S. suspected to have ties with the terrorist group ISIS, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation confirmed.

The eight individuals were detained on immigration charges from New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Each is from Tajikistan and entered the U.S. at the southern Mexico border, the official said. They remain in U.S. custody.

The official said no derogatory information was detected about the individuals during their initial screening at the border but the U.S. later learned information that tied them to ISIS. They don’t currently face any terrorism charges. More here. 

A deeper dive:

The FBI had been tracking these operatives for several weeks, long before the most recent fake Biden Executive Order on the southern border. Obviously the White House ignored not only the case and intelligence but continues to ignore the warnings put forward by FBI Director Christopher Wray in several congressional hearings.

Bill Melugin
@BillMelugin_
BREAKING: Per federal source familiar, ICE, in conjunction w/ the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, arrested 8 Tajikistan nationals w/ suspected ISIS ties in NYC, LA, and Philly in recent days. I’m told all 8 crossed the southern border illegally, received “full vetting”, and had no initial derogatory information that flagged. I’m told derogatory info/potential national security concerns flagged later on – apparently after release into the US. Source was unable to say when and where they crossed illegally into the US. All are now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and an active federal investigation. This was initially scooped by

& New York Post, who report at least one of the individuals was caught on a FBI wiretap talking about bombs. FBI/DHS joint statement to

“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities. The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security. ”

***
In part from CBS:The official noted that it is very difficult for the U.S. to deport migrants to Tajikistan due to both operational and diplomatic reasons. In fiscal year 2023, ICE deported only 4 migrants to that Central Asian country, according to agency data.

The arrests were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, adding that the individuals who were arrested are in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

“As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment,” the statement went on to say. “The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security.”

*** Per UPI:

“Now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall,” Wray testified in April.

“As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the United States has been in a heightened threat environment,” according to Tuesday’s statement on the arrests.

“The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate and disrupt potential threats to national security.”

According to the National Counterterrorism Center, IS-K is among the deadliest branches of ISIS, conducting attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as in Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan while seeking to conduct similar operations in the United States and Europe.

It was sanctioned by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization in 2016.

Biden’s Immigration Policy is Designed to Alter the House of Representatives

A few months ago, this website published an article describing the new development in Texas called Colony Ridge. It is north of Houston and is only for migrants. Anew voting district underway to add another U.S. Representative for only migrants appears to be the mission. But let’s look at some other details for context and history.

  • During the Clinton administration, there were two initiatives launched to stop illegal immigration: Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold the Line. In fact during this time, the San Diego Sector was the area enduring the most chaos. so, President Clinton got his Department of Justice to act and AG Janet Reno made several visits and was shocked with what she saw.
  • The Biden Department of Justice is not prosecuting criminal cases of illegals that were previously deported.
    NYC secures $106M in federal funding for reimbursement of migrant costs after months of delays and the $106 million to NYC is just a portion of the $150 aid package promised by the Federal government thanks to Senator Chuck Schumer.
  • DHS failed to file paperwork which caused 200,000 cases to be tossed out under Biden and Mayorkas.Last week, the second-in-command of violent Colombian street gang Los Santanás was apprehended in New Braunfels, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio, by Homeland Security agents working with state and local authorities. He was subsequently handed over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Aderbis Pirela, 29, was on INTERPOL’s top 10 most wanted list and has warrants out for his arrest in Colombia in connection with at least four murders, as well as drug trafficking and extortion. He had been in the United States since January after being allowed in by claiming political asylum.

    According to NBC15, Pirela managed to flee Colombia last year before making his way through Central America up to the Mexico-US border. Upon being granted permission to enter, he and his fellow gang members began conducting their business out of a migrant shelter.

    On January 27, authorities were made aware of his actions and began searching for him.

    As Fox News reports, police and the mayor of Bogotá are hoping national law enforcement will ensure he ends up in prison and is rendered unable to continue carrying out his crimes while behind bars.

  • The Chinese have built major marijuana grow operations in several states across the country. Who is buying the land? Some arrests have been made. 
  • A Lebanese man arrested at the southern border told U.S. authorities he traveled from the Middle East because he was a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah and planned to build a bomb once in the United States, the Washington Examiner has learned.
  • Even more interesting,Vadim Wolfson, a friend of Putin, a Russian oligarch was arrested in Texas.The arrest came from a federal warrant issued by the Southern District of New York. According to court documents, Wolfson and others have been indicted on federal charges related to violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and money laundering. Is he an operative of the Kremlin? Appears to be so according to the charging documents.
  • Bringing it forward many years to just yesterday as reported in part by the Boston Herald (pay-wall):
  • Do we really want these people here that will have representation if the U.S. Congress?

Migrants in America Causing Collapse of Law Enforcement

These sanctuary governors and mayors are arguing the wrong point. It is not so much about where to house these people and re-shipping them to other locations, but rather the scandal should be to tell the entire illegal immigrant operation that there is nothing in America to come to that is better than what they left. Consider just how much money these people spend to come here and the deadly traveling just to get beyond our borders. Are these people coming to anything better in the long term than what they left? Do they really want to work in slaughter houses, work farms in disgusting living conditions? Do they really want to be trafficked in the sex trade industry?

Ah, but read on to see a Chicago police station and consider how it is in expensive hotels across the country where we have no idea of their names, ages or even their history, no visas, no passports and no documents at all. How can law enforcement even begin to deal with this considering all the other existing crime across the country….

A huge hat tip to Rebecca Brannon!

New footage shows a Chicago police station filled with mattresses and dozens of illegal migrants, as the city struggles to house the hundreds of border crossers arriving there each day.

Officials in Chicago have said they cannot afford to rent hotel rooms for the more than 8,000 migrants who have arrived in their city and have pushed for more federal funds to cover costs.

Due to the lack of available shelters, some migrants have turned to police stations for a safe place to sleep.

The migrant-housing crisis in Chicago follows last week’s end to the Trump-era COVID-19 border restriction known as Title 42, which allowed U.S. authorities to send migrants back to Mexico without giving them a chance to seek asylum.

Tens of thousands of people hurried to cross the border illegally into the U.S. before President Joe Biden implemented a strict new asylum policy to replace Title 42.

In the shocking footage posted by photojournalist Rebecca Brannon, dozens and dozens of migrants are seen sitting on and around mattresses in a Chicago police station.

Brannon reported that many of the migrants have slept and eaten on the floors, which has placed a strain on the law enforcement officers whose day-to-day jobs have been made more difficult by their presence.

Small children were seen running around and an alley sits full of trash produced by the migrants.

Chicago already has a serious violent crime problem, with its new influx of migrants likely to further strain budgets desperately-needed to try and make the city safer.

More than 8,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since August, which is when southern states started to bus asylum seekers north. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent migrants to the Democrat-led cities to help ease the burden on border towns.

‘To provide much-needed relief to our overrun border communities, Texas began busing migrants to sanctuary cities such as your ‘Welcoming City,’ along with Washington, DC, New York City, and Philadelphia, with more to come. Until Biden secures the border to stop the inflow of mass migration, Texas will continue this necessary program,’ Abbott noted in a letter earlier this month.

Migrants been sent to cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. Migrants have also arrived in Washington, DC, with buses stopping outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Despite the Chicago’s obvious overcrowding issue, new Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive Democrat who assumed office Monday, said in his inauguration speech that in Chicago, ‘there’s enough room for everyone.’

Johnson’s affirmed commitment to welcoming migrants to Chicago follows his predecessor – Lori Lightfoot’s decision to declare a state of emergency earlier this month, calling migrant arrivals a ‘humanitarian crisis’ and pushing for increased federal aid.

Chicago officials have said they expect a $53 million shortfall without additional aid because of the cost from housing migrants.

‘We’re in May, and we haven’t received any funding from FEMA,’ Chicago budget director Susie Park recently told the City Council, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. ‘The need is great. A lot of requests are coming in. New York is probably asking for $1 billion. There is a lot of need.’

One Pill Can Kill

Those dying from Fentanyl are not drug addicts, rather they are dying because they think they may be taking regular over the counter medication or simply eating candy. They are being poisoned. This White House has proven it does not care but the Drug Enforcement Agency DOES care.

Do you ever hear from the FBI that reports from the Southern border? How about U.S. Southern Command? How about Space Command? Yes, Space Command….

“We can use our space detection capabilities, optical cameras,” Croft told NBC 6. “We can track things within a couple of hours and see things moving.”

That includes being able to see what’s happening in places like Colombia and Venezuela, where intelligence experts fear drug traffickers and terrorist groups will join forces.

Around the clock, space and intelligence experts are sharing what they find.

Inside a room at Southern Command, there is a big screen that shows where the satellites are located. There is also a host of workstations where space experts can explain what they are seeing to representatives from the military and federal agencies.

“Space Command can provide a perspective to be able to identify and find some of these folks, the ways that they communicate, the ways they move,” said Lt. Col. Bobby Schmitt, who is with the U.S. Space Force and is assigned to coordinate what happens in orbit with Croft’s team. “Space Command provides the ability to see down and find these folks.” More here.

DEA Announces Results of Enforcement Surge to Reduce the Fentanyl Supply Across the United States

As part of the One Pill Can Kill initiative, the DEA and its law enforcement partners seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder during the period of May 23 through Sept. 8, 2022. The amount of fentanyl taken off the streets during this surge is equivalent to more than 36 million lethal doses removed from the illegal drug supply. Additionally, 338 weapons were seized, including rifles, shotguns, pistols, and hand grenades.

Read the details here.

Every adult across the country should be talking about this and every school regardless of age should be taking all precautions.

Rainbow fentanyl close up photo

As part of the One Pill Can Kill initiative, the DEA and its law enforcement partners seized more than 10.2 million fentanyl pills and approximately 980 pounds of fentanyl powder during the period of May 23 through Sept. 8, 2022. The amount of fentanyl taken off the streets during this surge is equivalent to more than 36 million lethal doses removed from the illegal drug supply. Additionally, 338 weapons were seized, including rifles, shotguns, pistols, and hand grenades.

Of the 390 cases investigated during this period, 51 cases are linked to overdose poisonings and 35 cases link directly to one or both of the primary Mexican cartels responsible for the majority of fentanyl in the United States – the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). In addition, 129 investigations are linked to social media platforms, including Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and TikTok. These results build upon the One Pill Can Kill Phase II

results announced by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in December 2021.

“Across the country, fentanyl is devastating families and communities, and we know that violent, criminal drug cartels bear responsibility for this crisis,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department, including the extraordinary professionals of the DEA, is working to disrupt and dismantle the operations of these cartels, remove deadly fentanyl from our communities, and save Americans’ lives.”

“For the past year, confronting the fentanyl crisis has been the top priority for DEA. The most urgent threat to our communities, our kids, and our families are the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG who are mass producing and supplying the fentanyl that is poisoning and killing Americans,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “The Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG are ruthless, criminal organizations that use deception and treachery to drive addiction with complete disregard for human life. To save American lives, the DEA is relentlessly focused on defeating the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG by degrading their operations to make it impossible for them to do business.”

Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing this nation. In 2021, a record number of Americans – 107,622 – died from a drug poisoning or overdose. Sixty-six percent of those deaths can be attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

Drug traffickers have expanded their inventory to sell fentanyl in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes

. Rainbow fentanyl was first reported to DEA in February 2022, and it has now been seized in 21 states.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, or the amount that could fit on the tip of a pencil, is considered a potentially lethal dose.

As part of DEA’s ongoing efforts to educate the public and encourage parents and caregivers to talk to teens and young adults about the dangers of fake pills and illicit drugs, DEA has also created a new resource, “What Every Parent and Caregiver Needs to Know About Fake Pills.”

In September 2021, DEA launched the One Pill Can Kill enforcement effort and public awareness campaign to combat the fake pill threat and educate the public about the dangers of fentanyl pills being disguised and sold as prescription medications, despite these pills not containing any of the actual medications advertised. The only safe medications are ones prescribed by a trusted medical professional and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist. All other pills are unsafe and potentially deadly.

Additional resources for parents and the community can be found on DEA’s Fentanyl Awareness page.

 

The Border Czar is Cass Sunstein NOT Kamala

Stop blaming Kamala, blame Biden himself. The president has filled his administration with militants and radicals. There is no denial. It was 14 years ago that Glenn Beck did they work and declared on this point that Cass Sunstein was the most dangerous man in government.

“There is a reason that I have called Cass Sunstein the most dangerous man in America,” Glenn said on radio this morning.

ProgressivesToday.com, the website co-founded by Kyle Olsen, the co-author of Glenn’s latest book Conform: Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education, was the first to draw attention to the spooky article from the Nudge author.

Sunstein begins the article wondering what would happen if a government began a program with the explicit goal of indoctrination students:

Suppose that an authoritarian government decides to embark on a program of curricular reform, with the explicit goal of indoctrinating the nation’s high school students. Suppose that it wants to change the curriculum to teach students that their government is good and trustworthy, that their system is democratic and committed to the rule of law, and that free markets are a big problem.

Will such a government succeed? Or will high school students simply roll their eyes?

Questions of this kind have long been debated, but without the benefit of reliable evidence. New research, from Davide Cantoni of the University of Munich and several co-authors, shows that recent curricular reforms in China, explicitly designed to transform students’ political views, have mostly worked. The findings offer remarkable evidence about the potential influence of the high school curriculum on what students end up thinking — and they give us some important insights into contemporary China as well.

He goes on to explain that the indoctrination program began in 2001 when the country made “significant changes in the textbooks used by students in grades 10, 11 and 12.” Ultimately, Sunstein questions whether such a program could produce similar outcomes in a non-authoritarian country.

At the time, Sunstein was the regulatory czar…now….today he is at DHS and in charge of destroying the sovereignty of the United States as the real border czar. Obviously more dangerous today for reasons too long to list but certainly Biden has accepted the Sunstein doctrine to collapse control of immigration.

It was in 2021 that the following was published by Bloomberg:

Harvard’s Sunstein Joins Biden’s DHS to Shape Immigration Rules

  • Progressive groups had raised concern about Sunstein’s record
  • His wife is Biden nominee for international development agency

In part:

Former Obama administration official Cass Sunstein on Monday joined the Department of Homeland Security, where President Joe Biden is moving rapidly to roll back Donald Trump’s immigration policy priorities.

Sunstein is a senior counselor who will be responsible for making sure that the rules put forward by the department and its agencies are based on evidence and consistent with the law, an administration official said.

In 2018, Sunstein received the Holberg Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities, from Norway’s government. He also worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the Carter and Reagan administrations.

Sunstein’s wife, Samantha Power, is Biden’s nominee for administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Power’s financial disclosures showed Sunstein earning consulting fees from Apple Inc. and Global Asset Capital LLC, as well as advisory fees and stock options from Humu Inc. He also reported royalties from dozens of book publications. More here.

***

This past January, Bloomberg also reported:

The impasse over President Joe Biden’s immigration wish list on Capitol Hill has increased pressure on a Department of Homeland Security official working to overhaul the system through regulation.

The administration last year tapped Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein to advise on DHS regulations. The legal scholar is best known for his role as the Obama White House’s rulemaking czar and his writings on behavioral economics and regulation — not the finer points of homeland security.

Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wanted someone equipped for the regulatory challenges the agency faces on immigration, as well as disaster response, aviation security, and other DHS matters, Sunstein said in an interview.

“The first obligation is to do it right,” he said.

The immigration proposals in the works at DHS are critical to meeting at least part of Biden’s ambitious campaign pledge to create a path to citizenship for millions, end long-term detention, and revamp the legal immigration system. The congressional stalemate has made DHS-led efforts more urgent.

DHS first unwound several of former President Donald Trump’s policies, from restricting entry to the U.S. and expanding enforcement. Next, the agency is focused on reducing backlogs in the asylum system and reinforcing protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children without authorization.

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Cass Sunstein speaks at an event at AOL Studios on May 31, 2016, in New York City.

Sunstein is shepherding those efforts. Officially, he is senior counselor to the secretary and co-chair of the agency’s climate change action group. Unofficially, he’s the wonk tasked with restoring order in a department battered by public criticism and leadership gaps during the Trump administration.

“I sensed that there was a real appetite for, let’s say, good order,” Sunstein said of the DHS regulatory team’s attitude when he joined the agency almost a year ago.

Sunstein is working on regulations and internal processes across the department’s portfolio, but immigration has taken center stage.

The agency is attempting to cement protections in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which launched via an Obama-era memorandum and has never been reinforced in an official rulemaking. The proposed rule already faces headwinds after a federal court questioned the department’s authority to offer such status.

Another proposal would revamp the asylum process for border crossers, letting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers adjudicate claims instead of funneling them to backlogged immigration courts.

The approach would streamline the process “so that people who don’t deserve asylum can get that answer in short order and they won’t live in Dante’s purgatory,” Sunstein said. “People who deserve asylum will get that answer in shorter order,” he added.

DHS is also working on a rule that would clarify who’s eligible for asylum. The department will likely release a draft this year, Sunstein said.

“Neither of these is on the backburner,” he said of the asylum measures. The Biden administration on Thursday finalized an increase in visas for temporary nonagricultural workers.

“With Congress not making any major changes in the immigration space right now, regulations are often the best way to make lasting change in the way the laws are interpreted within the department,” American Immigration Council policy counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said.

Bolstering Rules

At the same time, Republicans have taken up border security as a cudgel against Democrats in the lead-up to the midterm elections, and GOP-led states are taking the fight to federal courts — with frequent success so far.

That gives Sunstein the critical job of anticipating possible critiques and making sure the agency’s actions can withstand them. His placement in DHS shows the Biden administration recognizes the legal hazards that lie ahead, former agency official Theresa Cardinal Brown said.

Sunstein “knows the process probably better than just about anybody else you could find right now,” said Brown, now managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “He literally has written books on this.” Read more here.

I'd consider a White House job offer in a heartbeat' - Dublin-born former  advisor to Barack Obama - Independent.ie source and adjacent article here

At the very least, czars should be defunded and let the FOIA requests begin.