Trump’s asylum action will help ease the border crisis

by Washington Examiner  | July 16, 2019 10:44 PM

This week, the Trump administration continued its efforts to bring order to the southern border by imposing new rules on the asylum-seeking process. This is what was needed.

On Monday, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced that migrants wanting to claim asylum in the U.S. must first do so in either their home country or another country before coming to the U.S. Under the new rule, anyone who crosses illegally into the U.S. to claim asylum, without having already applied from outside, would be ineligible.

Word has gotten out south of Texas that anyone hoping to flee violence or poverty in their own country need touch American soil, find a Border Patrol agent, and turn oneself in, requesting asylum. The vast majority of migrants who do this are breaking the law when they float the short distance across the Rio Grande and come ashore without authorization. But that crime is effectively canceled out the moment they say “asylum.” Moreover, 90% of the time, the asylum claim, no matter how frivolous, grants them the right to remain in the country while they await a court hearing that may not come for up to five years.

That is an abuse of American generosity intended to offer refuge for people abroad genuinely fearing for their lives and persecuted by their governments.

 

We understand why these men and women from Latin America want to be in the U.S. Ours is the land of opportunity, and many of our neighbor countries lack the capitalist economies and robust property rights needed to provide such opportunity.

But the asylum law was not supposed to be an invitation to unlimited economic migration. But that is how the law is currently functioning, with Central Americans making their way here by the tens of thousands every month. They have learned exactly how to push the system’s buttons in order to secure long-term permission to be inside the U.S., and this is why detention centers near the border are overflowing.

Congress has shown no sense of urgency to fix the problem. Democrats oppose every measure to halt or even reduce the gush of migrants crossing into the U.S., many of them deathly ill from the arduous, 2,000-mile journey from their home countries.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that the administration’s new directive violates the law and will be “swiftly and successfully challenged in court.” This, even though just last week the California Democrat signaled that she could support “initiatives” that would more or less do what the new rule does.

At a press conference on Thursday, Pelosi said, “There are some initiatives that suggest that some review of asylum-seekers’ status could be done in [their] country instead of traveling here, and that’s one thing that I think would be appealing to the administration.” She even said that it wouldn’t be a matter of having to “change the law.” This makes her new objections seem puzzling.

The White House has issued other rules for asylum-seekers crossing illegally into the U.S., such as requiring them to pay a fee and denying them work permits until their claim is approved. Some of the new directives are already in effect and some are not. Even so, it is important that the administration take every action it can to stop this law’s abuse, at least until the flow at the border reaches a manageable level.

There are too many people coming into the country at once seeking refuge. It’s straining the resources of the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has created a crisis at the border, and it is literally putting more lives in danger. We have long called on Trump to take action on this within the law and to get Congress involved as much as he can. This action is a step in the right direction.

— Read on www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trumps-asylum-action-will-help-ease-the-border-crisis

Doug Wead on Writing an Official Record of Trump’s Presidency

AMERICAN THOUGHT LEADERS


The Epoch Times | Doug Wead | Dec 5, 2019

From the time that Ivanka Trump was a little girl, her father was ripping out pages of The New York Times lamenting what America’s elites—both Republican and Democrat—were doing to America, Wead said.

All this time, “he’s hoping that somebody’s going to come along and run for president and clean this up and nobody ever does,” Wead said.

Trump watched as Republican and Democratic presidents welcomed communist China into the World Trade Organization and gave China most favored nation status. They paved the way for the rise of communist China and enabled “the largest transfer of wealth in human history, outside of the Middle East, of America’s wealth to China,” Wead said.

“Imagine how much money it’s taken to pull China out of poverty. And the American middle-class has done that,” he said.

“The president knows that the decisions he has to make vis-a-vis China are the toughest decisions he will make,” Wead said. And he understands that the American people won’t fully appreciate his decisions, such as placing hefty tariffs on Chinese products, Wead said.

Untold Stories

Trump is the sixth U.S. president Wead has interviewed; he’s also conversed with six first ladies and 30 siblings and children of different presidents.

In his interviews with the presidents, he says the only common denominator was that they were all great listeners.

“When I found that with Trump, I was surprised because on TV, you only see him talking, you don’t see him listening,” Wead said. “My whole perspective on the president changed immediately when I met him.”

During one of Ivanka Trump’s interviews with Wead, she told him, “he is really very compassionate.”

Wead details in his book: “All her life, even in her teens, Ivanka would be called into his office, where he would tear off a piece of the morning newspaper and say, ‘Ivanka, find this person.’ It might be a person whose apartment had burned, destroying everything he had owned. Once, it was a young woman whose father had been murdered in the Bronx, and prosecutors would not make the arrest.”

Ivanka eventually found the woman, who had been left impoverished, and her father offered to help her and give her a job, Wead wrote.

One of America’s most shameful secrets was the many U.S. hostages held abroad, Wead told The Epoch Times.

Previous administrations had failed to secure their release.

“I’ve spoken with the families of these hostages. Democrat, Republican—they don’t care. They had loved ones that they cared about who were beheaded and who were tortured and raped,” Wead said.

“They were told by the American government, keep quiet,” Wead said. He says the rationale was that if they increased the publicity surrounding a hostage, it would increase the value of the hostage, and make it harder to free that person. And more Americans abroad would likely be imprisoned to blackmail the United States.

“There was this period of darkness, a shameful period where nothing could be said about the hostages,” Wead said.

“If it’s your son or daughter, your only hope is the federal government. And they won’t keep you informed? They won’t tell you what’s going on? They won’t let you use your money or your abilities to try to bring them home?”

Trump “was outraged by that,” Wead said. Since taking office, he has successfully freed 22 hostages.

Trump refused to offer money in exchange.

“He did the reverse: We’re taking their money, and we’re going to squeeze them until they let them go” was his rationale, Wead said.

In his book, he highlights the case of Pastor Andrew Brunson, who had been imprisoned in Turkey for alleged links to the Gülen movement, a designated terrorist organization in Turkey. The government in Ankara had produced no evidence, so Brunson couldn’t refute any of the charges against him.

The Trump administration made several agreements with Turkey to secure Brunson’s release, but the Turks backed out of them, Brunson told Wead later in an interview.

Trump pressured Turkey by putting sanctions on two of its officials, doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum from Turkey, and engaging Congress and the European Parliament to exert pressure as well. The Turkish lira tumbled, and on Oct. 12, 2018, Trump welcomed Brunson and his family to the White House.

Trump “brought the Turkish economy to the brink over one man, and he got him home,” Wead said.

Death Threats

Before the book was published, Wead said he began receiving death threats against him and his family from different IP addresses in an attempt to stop him from releasing his work.

“They named my family members and details about their life that would only come from a great deal of research,” Wead said.

“These are unusual times,” he added.

Wead believes the anti-Trump resistance wanted to impeach Trump as soon as he won the election.

“So it had nothing to do with Russian collusion, because that came later; it had nothing to do with the phone call to Ukraine because that came later,” Wead said.

“The national media and the establishment,” are still reeling from the humiliation that U.S. voters didn’t vote how they were told to, Wead said.

As Wead highlighted in his book, Trump’s victory defied all expectation: “He had been opposed by Hollywood, academia, Wall Street, and the national media. Every living president, Republican and Democratic, had voted against him. Two-hundred-and-forty newspapers had endorsed his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Nineteen had supported him. Billionaires had voted against him 20 to one.”

In addition, right after the election, economist Paul Krugman wrote, “We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight.”

But contrary to the predictions of economic fallout, the economy boomed, and now boasts more than 7 million job openings.

“That’s the entire population of the state of Indiana in unfilled jobs,” Wead said.

Wead said Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—who plays a much larger role in the Trump administration than people think—once remarked to Trump that it was thanks to the media’s total fixation with the Russia collusion narrative that the Trump administration was able to deregulate.

“The cutting of regulations could have been big stories. Instead, they were blind to what we were doing, and we were able to jump-start the economy,” Kushner told Wead.

In writing his book, “What I wanted to do was get accurate stories, real stories down on paper—truth on paper,” Wead said.

“I told Ivanka, you know, in 100 years from now, there are still going to be books written and dramas performed about the Trump family. But whether they’re viewed hatefully as the Borgias or as the Medicis or as grandly as the Kennedys or the Rockefellers or some great family, all of that depends on what is written and said about them now,” he said.

“Not the hearsay, but the primary sources.” American Thought Leaders is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube.

That was his instinct:

You’ve got a problem with somebody? You call him. And that’s what he did with Kim Jong Un.

Doug Wead, presidential historian

I told Ivanka, you know, in 100 years from now, there are still going to be books written and dramas performed about the

Trump family.

Doug Wead, presidential historian

President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un before a meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27, 2019.

SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Trump is winning on Immigration

The Monitor | COMMENTARY | Scott Martelle

Trump winning on immigration

Two down, one to go.

Federal judges in three separate circuits issued injunctions — two nationwide, one limited to the 9th Circuit — against President Trump’s pending “public charge” rule, which would make immigrants ineligible for green cards if they sign up for certain public benefits.

On Monday, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., joined fellow jurists in the San Francisco based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in lifting injunctions after the federal government persuaded them that it likely had the legal authority to adopt the new restrictions.

That leaves the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which is mulling an appeal of a nationwide injunction issued in October by a district court in New York City, as the last barrier.

The lower court decisions hinged on complaints by immigrant advocates and several state attorneys general (including California) that the government violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act by adopting an “arbitrary and capricious” policy that exceeded its authority under immigration law. But two appellate courts now say the government likely had the authority to do what it did.

Even if that is true, that doesn’t make the new rule good policy. Much like the government’s effort to require potential immigrants to prove they could cover anticipated health care costs (that also has been held up in the courts), the public charge rule is clearly aimed at reducing the number of poor people admitted to the country and increasing the ranks of the wealthy. You know, fewer people from those infamous “s—-hole countries” in Africa, South American and the Caribbean, and more from wealthier nations in Europe, such as Trump expressed favorite, Norway (good luck with that, as my colleague Paul Thornton once pointed out).

In typical fashion, the White House used the Monday decision as a point of attack.

“The 4th Circuit’s lifting of the lawless nationwide injunction imposed against the administration’s public charge immigration regulation is a major step forward

for the rule of law,” the White House said. “It is our hope that the 2nd Circuit will, like the 9th and 4th Circuits have already done, lift the meritless nationwide injunction a New York district court has imposed against the rule so that it can be enforced, consistent with the plain letter of the law, for the benefit of all citizens and lawful residents of this country.”

But the “public charge” rule is not a benefit to all. It makes life tougher for people who have already immigrated and who are hoping to be joined by their families — allowed under decades of U.S. policy — and it counters our national economic interest.

As The Times editorial board wrote in September when the proposed rule surfaced: “The government estimates that the new regulations would negatively affect 382,000 people, but advocates say that is likely an undercount. And the rules would keep people from coming to the country who economists say are vital for the nation’s future economic growth. President Trump’s xenophobic view of the world stands in sharp contradiction not only to American values, but to the nation’s history. We are a country of immigrants or descendants of immigrants, and as a maturing society we will rely more and more on immigration for economic growth. Research shows that even those who start out in low-wage jobs, and thus are likely to get some financial help from the government, often, over time, learn or improve skills that move them into higher income brackets and help the overall economy.”

So in the administration’s efforts to reduce immigration of all stripes, it continues to push policies that appease Trump’s narrowing base while working against our collective national interest.

Scott Martelle is a member of the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board.

Martelle

Attorney General William Barr at the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention.

By Janita Kan | The Epoch Times | November 16, 2019

Barr Says Democrats, Courts Are Engaged in Efforts to Cripple Presidential Power

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Friday that the president’s ability to act in areas he has the power is being undermined by Congress and the courts, saying that they were engaging in efforts to “sabotage” the president’s administration.

During a speech at an annual gathering of conservative lawyers on Friday, Barr defended presidential power and accused opponents of President Donald Trump of “waging a scorched-earth, no-holds-barred war of resistance” against him that involves the “systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law.”

He said since Trump was elected in 2016, his opponents had launched a “resistance” which has “rallied around an explicit strategy of using every tool and maneuver” in an effort to “sabotage the functioning of the executive branch and his administration.”

Barr pointed to Congress saying that the Democrat lawmakers are abdicating their role as legislators and engaging in actions that are effectively blocking the functions of the executive branch.

He said Democrats are pursuing multiple investigations that are designed to “incapacitate the executive branch” and are drowning the executive branch with oversight demands for information.

“Now, I do not deny that Congress has some implied authority to conduct oversight as an incident to its legislative power,” Barr said during his speech to the Federalist Society. “But the sheer volume of what we see today, the pursuit of scores of parallel investigations to an avalanche of subpoenas is plainly designed to incapacitate the executive branch.”

He also accused Senate Democrats of abusing the advice and consent process by systematically opposing and drawing out the approval process of Trump’s appointees, which the attorney general says then prevents the president from being able to build his government.

“That is precisely what the Senate Minority has done from President Trump’s very first day in office,” he said. “As of September of this year, the Senate has been forced to invoke cloture on 236 Trump nominees, each of those representing its own massive consumption of legislative time meant only to delay the inevitable confirmation.”

“It is reasonable to wonder whether a future president will actually be able to form a functioning administration if his or her party does not hold the Senate.”

The attorney general was also critical of judges for encroaching on executive responsibilities and usurping its power, which has substantially undercut the functioning of the presidency.

He said the court has done it a number of ways by appointing itself as the arbiter in disputes between Congress and the executive, something he believes the framers of the Constitution did not intend, as well as expanding the scope and intensity of judicial review that allows them to “substitute their judgment for the president’s.”

He used the example of travel bans, saying that the courts placed a hold on the policy after second-guessing the president’s motive for the ban.

“Attempts by courts to act like amateur psychiatrists attempting to discern an executive official’s real motive often after ordering invasive discovery into the executive branch’s privilege decision-making process, have no more foundation in law than a subpoena to a court to try to determine a judge’s real motive and issuing a decision,” he said.

The president, Barr said, had “certainly thrown out the traditional beltway playbook and punctilio” but he had been upfront with what he was going to do and people still “decided they wanted him to serve as president.”

Barr, who has been repeatedly criticized for defending Trump, said he was actually worried about the presidency and the “steady grinding down of the executive branch’s authority.”

“I’m concerned that the deck has become stacked against the executive,” he said.

Read the original article

What is it REALLY like at a Trump Rally?

By Terri Harris Hill | Oct. 18, 2019 | Facebook

www.facebook.com/1580329214/posts/10217928522756267

What is it REALLY like at a Trump Rally? It’s like nothing you could ever imagine and it’s certainly not like anything portrayed in the media. I was incredibly fortunate to be a volunteer at the Trump Rally in Dallas last night, and I want to share with everyone the truth about the these events. A Trump Rally is a beautiful symphony of gratitude, love, appreciation and patriotism wrapped in organized chaos.

Let me address the organized chaos first, because this part is truly incredible. By 2:45 pm, I overheard security talking to each other reporting that from on the ground counts plus sky views via helicopter, they estimated there were 16,000 people in line. Sixteen thousand of anything is a lot, but these were 16,000 individuals, some who had already spent the night outside the American Airlines Arena, others had arrived before daybreak to stand in line. All the hundreds of individuals I spoke with yesterday had already been standing or sitting in line for 17 to 10 hours. No one was upset, frustrated or tired. Around 2 pm security started adding in extra “lanes” for the increasing crowds, so the people that had been sitting or standing all day were now having to get up and move. Then, as I was moving through the crowds I see the diversity of the people in line. ALL economic backgrounds were represented including every other demographic: white, black, Hispanic, Chinese, Korean, straight, gay, etc. All the little boxes the media like to separate individuals into were present, but they were all patriotic Trump supporters. There were a lot of young people (18-25), many late 20s to mid 30s. The majority were 35-55 age range with the second largest age group being 55-75. However, I also met at least two dozen amazing individuals who were 86-97 years old and they patiently and eagerly waited in line over 14 hours to see President Trump.

There were couples, families, friends and co-workers there together, waiting for hours in line with strangers at the beginning of the day, but friends by mid day. They were helping each other move chairs and coolers, sharing drinks, food and snacks, and friending each other on social media platforms. How were all these individuals of various backgrounds kept in line for over 18 hours until the doors opened to the arena? You’d expect there to be a heavy security presence amongst the lines, police intervening often and settling disputes. Here’s the thing – they weren’t needed. There was a plethora of law enforcement at the rally and arena and in the sky and on rooftops. But they didn’t have to watch the 50,000 plus Trump supporters that showed up for the rally. They kept a secure perimeter, monitored media (more on these idiots later), kept the small amount of protestors that showed up away from the crowds and mostly assisted for medical issues. And each time there was a need for medical assistance, such as someone getting hot, tired or dehydrated from standing in line, although the EMTs were quick to respond, before they arrived, fellow Trump supporters in line who were medical professionals would rush to them, assist and begin assessing them in seconds so when EMT arrived minutes later, in most cases, the individual had already been evaluated by a doctor or nurse. Trump supporters took care of each other so there simply wasn’t an urgent need for police to monitor the rally attendees.

As I walked through the lines and spoke with the attendees patiently waiting they all had definitive personal reasons for why they support President Trump. They weren’t regurgitating political talking points, but told me what President Trump meant to them individually. While each were different and unique, many had similar themes. Since I did not ask for permission to share their specific personal stories – or even think to ask at the time – I will share their general sentiments. They respect his honesty and bluntness. His tweets do not offend them and they appreciate the time and effort he makes to speak directly to the public. They do not trust the media AT ALL. They are sad and disappointed that they can’t trust anything they say, but they’ve come to terms with it. They agree with President Trump that Nancy Pelosi is crazy. They think Adam Schiff should be locked up. Another interesting recurring sentiment is while they do not trust or respect any Democrats, they aren’t particularly supportive of Republicans either. They trust Trump and support his efforts and successes on draining the swamp, and they REALLY want a big swamp draining.

Everything they talked about and shared were contrary to anything ever reported by mainstream media. You don’t hear about these testimonies on television nor do you read about them in newspapers or publications. I have always wondered why it is that the media never share pro-Trump interviews. Is it because they don’t want to be interviewed? It it because they tried but their responses were inarticulate and not worthy of publication? No to both of the above scenarios. These individuals are very articulate, extremely knowledgeable and more than willing to vocally speak up on why they unequivocally support President Trump. The reason you won’t see it in media is because THEY IGNORE THEM! Less than 50 yards separated the media entrance to the main vein of the attendee line. Less than 10 yards separated the press entrance from the VIP line. I watched one media outlet after another walk right past thousands of rally attendees without stopping once to interview anyone and went directly into the building. They weren’t running late and didn’t have time. Most had their cameras out and on their shoulders, they just weren’t interested in filming the Trump supporters. It doesn’t fit their narrative and radical left wing propaganda they are so dedicated to promoting. Watching this unfold really put it into perspective how they aren’t at all interested in reporting truth or what’s important to viewers. They only care about transmitting information that fits the narrative they’re selling.

I didn’t get into the arena until around 6:30 pm. The Trump Team volunteers fortunately had a suite reserved so there wasn’t a rush to find a seat. The place was packed floor to ceiling. Around 7:15 pm I walked out of the suite which overlooked the entrance and there were still people pouring into the arena.

At 7:42 pm, President Trump arrived and the cheering was so loud you could feel it in your internal organs. It shook you physically and emotionally in the most amazing way. I’ve watched several rallies on television or live feed from YouTube and while you could get a sense of the crowd response to certain things he would say, to witness it first hand is completely different. When the crowd roars with applause, you physically feel it. When he mentions the fake news media and the crowd boos, the vibration is indescribable. I can state without any hesitation that Trump supporters absolutely do not trust the media & they resent them for lying to the public. I loved being there and watching the 20,000 plus crowd cheer, boo and then fall silent to listen to their President speak. They love him, respect him and they trust him. Looking in front of the stage where the VIPs were standing, I could see three men close together with their arms around each other. They were veterans and two of them were holding up their friend in the middle who was a double amputee so he could see Trump. It was such a powerful image and one I’ll never forget. A few times I found myself wiping away tears because I was seeing and experiencing such beautiful moments that not only warmed my heart, but strengthened my resolve. When President Trump says the media and democrats are not fighting him, they’re fighting us, he’s right. When he chose to run for President, he made a decision to stand in between the corrupt politicians of the deep state and be our gladiator to fight them off from destroying our country and the values we hold so dear.

I’ve heard media pundits and ignorant politicians refer to Trump supporters as a cult, as ignorant and that we blindly follow him without knowing what we’re doing. That’s a flat out lie. Every single person I spoke to was extremely knowledgeable and knew exactly what the truth was and saw through every lie presented by the fake news media and the politicians who only care about themselves. They don’t look at President Trump as a god, but they love and respect him as a hero. They care about him and his family and they pray for their health and safety. These are people who cannot be bought, manipulated or swayed by lies. President Trump awakened a sleeping giant. He has empowered a nation with truth, honesty & keeping his campaign promises. Trump supporters believe in him because he’s earned our respect. He’s fought for us, so he’s earned our affection. He has made America great again in every sense of the phrase and people have noticed. One of the things that I loved most about this experience was the realization that in every city at every rally, tens of thousands of supporters wait 10-24 hours just for the opportunity to attend a free event to see and support President Trump. And anyone that will do that, will certainly turn out to vote. Trump is unbeatable & any candidate hoping to win any election needs to only say three words and mean them to win any election, “I’m with Trump.” Because here’s the truth, you’re either with us or against us and WE ARE WITH HIM!