Category: Joe Guzzardi

Weaponized Immigration Wrecking Sovereign America

By Joe Guzzardi

Weaponized immigration has come to America and is bringing low-skilled illegal aliens to the labor market. Since July 2018, the economy has created zero jobs for American-born workers.

Kelly Greenhill, a senior research scholar at MIT Center for International Studies and author of “Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion and Foreign Policy,” wrote in her analysis that the U.S. has been a frequent weaponized immigration target dating back as long ago as President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration and through George W. Bush’s eight years in the early 21^st century. Greenhill blamed Western governments—Europe is also a migrant warfare target—that don’t understand how engineering the movement of foreign nationals across international borders exploits political divisions within the targeted countries. Unless policymakers confront the forces that enable weaponized migration “it is unlikely to go away anytime soon,” she concluded.

Since 1951, Greenhill has identified 81 worldwide cases, all of which achieved their weaponized immigration objectives. The targeted countries were disproportionately liberal democracies whose lax attitudes toward the threat determined the degree of success the subversive mission achieved. The Biden administration is a perfect fit for nations that want to implement weaponized migration to undermine the sovereign U.S. Not only has Biden demonstrated enthusiasm for the open border policy that he created and encouraged, but his administration has also promoted, at every turn, globalism at the expense of nationalism.

Nicaragua is a major weaponized immigration enabler. Motivated by his deep hatred of the U.S., President Daniel Ortega loosened visa requirements for Cubans in 2021, and then expanded his list to include Haiti, other Latin American countries and eventually several Asian and African nations that include Indians, Uzbekistanis, and nationals from Mauritania and Senegal. Travelers going through Nicaragua avoided the dangerous trek through the Darien Gap, and Ortega could not only subvert America, but he could also make big money at the same time. Nicaragua hired a private company to organize contracts with charter flight companies across Asia, Europe, and Africa. The flights pay landing fees, and travelers are assessed airport taxes that range from $100 to $200 per person. Transporting migrants from their home countries to Nicaragua is a multimillion-dollar business.

With weaponized migrants arriving at the U.S. border faster than officials could detain them, the Department of Homeland Security decided to process them into the U.S. rather than deport them. The strategy culminated in the May 2023 “The Circumvention of Lawful Pathways Final Rule.” The title summarizes the objective: for illegal immigrants, DHS created, without congressional approval, an entirely new set of administratively sanctioned methods of being processed into the U.S. DHS moved “to expand safe and orderly pathways for migrants to lawfully enter the United States.” Included are “establishing country-specific and other available processes to seek parole for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit; expanding opportunities to enter for seasonal employment; putting in place a mechanism for migrants to schedule a time and place to arrive in a safe, orderly, and lawful manner at ports of entry via use of the CBP-One mobile app; and expanding refugee processing in the Western Hemisphere.” 

An earlier DHS document, the “Los Angeles Declaration of Migration and Protection,” which 21 countries endorsed in June 2022, resulted in the U.S. committing to resettle 20,000 so-called refugees from Central America during fiscal 2023 and 2024. In fiscal 2022, the federal government issued more than 19,000 H-2B visas to Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans, a 94% increase from the previous fiscal year. Not surprisingly the 21 endorsing countries were overwhelmingly potential migrant sending countries: Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, Honduras and other economically failing nations.

As part of making their case to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Republicans identified more than a dozen parole programs which, they argue, Mayorkas illegally created to circumvent congressionally established immigration laws. Texas, Florida, and other states have sued over many of DHS’ programs that have allowed illegal border crossers to remain in the U.S., concurring with the committee’s chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., who led the impeachment charge. Always a long shot in the Senate, the House has not yet sent impeachment articles to the upper chamber. Even though the Senate outcome is predetermined, enforcement-minded, patriotic Americans will be denied the cold comfort of a Mayorkas impeachment trial. Worse, the consequences of his brazen disregard for enforcement and protecting the homeland will continue to play out until January 2025, or until Mayorkas’ DHS releases about two million more illegal aliens into the interior, bringing the total to well over 10 million during his term as secretary.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Weaponized Immigration Wrecking Sovereign America

Georgia GOP Abets Illegal Immigration

By Joe Guzzardi

In Georgia, in recent memory solidly red, then gradually purple, and today increasingly blue, even the last vestiges of Republican leadership have embraced policies that reward illegal immigration. GOP Governor Brian Kemp and the GOP-led state legislature have given their blessing to the taxpayer funded Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP), couched as a workplace development initiative. Presented as a program that would “upskill” employees for employers who would depend on the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) for training, which could then pay the employer $50,000 upon completion of his employee’s instruction.

The TCSG grandiosely identifies RAP as a robust comprehensive training model that helps employers transform and develop entry-level employees into high-skilled talent. RAPs, the flattering narrative continues, “serve[s] as a strategy for building talent pipelines and retaining skilled employees.” RAP is part of and funded by the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) program, which doesn’t exclude illegal aliens, a fact that interested parties must dig deep to discover.

In November 2022, Kemp’s office distributed a media release that laid out HDCI’s origins: “During the 2022 legislative session, Governor Kemp and lawmakers partnered to pass SB 379, representing a historic investment in apprenticeships in Georgia through the HDCI Program. The HDCI Program awards up to $50,000 in funding to Georgia businesses to upskill workers through registered apprenticeships and increase skilled talent within Georgia’s high-demand industries.”

Curious about RAP, HDCI, and what the flowery language about the programs might be obscuring, the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society’s founder D.A. King sent off a volley of emails questioning whether illegal aliens and/or H-1B visa workers could be included in RAP.

King received these replies. In her response to King’s inquiry, Kimberly Burgess, Apprenticeship Coordinator at TCSG’s Coastal Pines Technical College wrote “Undocumented immigrants can participate in RAP. “ And from Danny Mitchell, HDCI program manager in TCSG’s Office of Workforce Development, “ H1B workers [whose visas are classified as temporary] are participating in the RAP/HDCI program.”

In his ongoing effort to find clarification on illegal aliens eligibility, King also sent a request for comment to Gov. Kemp’s office: “…is there a provision in state law created by 2022’s SB 379 that prevents illegal alien employers and employees similar to the subjects of this press release by the U.S. Attorney in Georgia’s Southern District from accessing the taxpayer-funded apprenticeship program on any level?” After a “D.A., call us back…” voicemail from Kemp’s then-Executive Counsel, David Dove, King eventually received a non-answer from Garrison Douglas, Kemp’s Press Secretary, in the form of a Twitter/X message that included a link to a code section ( OCGA 50–36–1) that he claimed “should answer” his question. However, Douglas’ answer did not address the query.

The irony is that, with Georgia’s state officials’ blessing, taxpayers fund programs that prepare illegal immigrants for good, white-collar jobs even though hiring, aiding and abetting illegal immigrants which the programs do is a federal crime.

Kemp will term out in 2026, and he aspires to higher office with a probable Senate bid against incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff and a potential 2028 presidential bid. One media account summed up Kemp’s slick political skills: “Kemp plays politics like a master does chess — always several moves ahead. He has demonstrated a shrewdness over the past five years that runs contrary to his simple country boy persona, and he has built a brand as a next generation conservative.”

But if immigration remains voters’ key concern, Kemp will be vulnerable to a true enforcement primary challenger. Voters will have to cut through Kemp’s smoke and mirrors agenda that claims that he’s tough on illegal immigration when the truth is, as RAP proves, he rewards it.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Originally published at https://joeguzzardi.substack.com.

Georgia GOP Abets Illegal Immigration

When the Irish Ruled the Ring

By Joe Guzzardi

The date; Sept. 7, 1892; the place, New Orleans, the event, the World Heavy Weight title battle; the challenger, John J. Corbett; the champion, John L. Sullivan

No Super Bowl has so captivated the nation’s attention and aroused its passion more than the bout between Gentleman Jim and John L. “the Boston Strong Boy,” America’s first sports hero. John L., as most referred to him, and Corbett were both sons of Irish immigrants. Sullivan had won the title 10 years earlier and had defended it against all comers, including a 75-round bare-knuckle title defense marathon in 100-plus degree heat against Jake Kilrain.

John L. was the last of the bare-knuckle champions, pugilists who slugged each other fearlessly in fights that lasted for hours. Sullivan won the bare-knuckle title 1882 from another intrepid Irishman, Tipperary-born Paddy Ryan, six years older, at least ten pounds lighter, but an inch or two taller, which gifted him with greater reach. With the crowd estimated at 5,000 and following an old tradition, Sullivan tossed his hat in the ring at 11:45 am, and Ryan entered moments later. The men then approached the scratch line in the center of the ring and shook hands. From the first round, Sullivan took charge. After nine rounds and only twenty minutes, Sullivan knocked Ryan out with a final right-handed punch, the last-ever bare-knuckle heavyweight championship.

In the decade between capturing the crown from Ryan and accepting Corbett’s challenge, Sullivan defended his title dozens of times which led to his braggadocio dare: “I can lick any SOB in the house.” Sullivan had a well-deserved reputation as a street brawler and a drunk.

When Sullivan and Corbett faced off, boxing was in transition from a mostly illegal to a legitimate sport. Corbett’s ascendancy to the top challenger’s slot helped improve boxing’s image. College-educated and a bank clerk before he turned to boxing, Corbett began his career in 1886. He fought his matches wearing padded gloves that the new Marquis of Queensberry rules permitted. Other revolutionary changes included three minutes rounds followed by a minute of rest; declared wrestling illegal, imposed the mandatory ten second count, and introduced weight divisions

Because he wore his hair in a full-grown pompadour, dressed fashionably and used excellent grammar, Corbett became known as “Gentleman Jim,” and because of his advance, then retreat style, became recognized as modern boxing’s father.

On the big night, a crowd of over 10,000 jammed the arena. Sullivan weighed in at 212 lbs. – 25 lbs. heavier than his challenger. Betting was heavy with Sullivan, a prohibitive favorite. Two thousand miles away and connected by telegraph, beacon lights atop New York City’s Pulitzer Building alerted the fans below as to which fighter was winning— red for Sullivan, white for Corbett. Years later, Corbett published a book which described the blow-by-blow.

From the first round, Corbett wrote, Sullivan was aggressive; he wanted to eat me up right away. “I sidestepped out of the corner and was back in the middle of the ring again, Sullivan hot after me. I allowed him to back me into all four corners, and he thought he was engineering all this, that it was his own work that was cornering me. But I had learned what I wanted to know – just where to put my head to escape his blow if he should get me cornered and dazed. He had shown his hand to me,” Corbett continued. Sullivan taunted, “Sprinter!” The fight’s pattern had been established.

By the time the 21^st and final round arrived, Sullivan had been beaten as much by his advancing age as by the skills of the younger boxer. Bruised, bloodied, and beaten, Sullivan hung on to the ropes to address the crowd, still chanting his name, “Gentlemen, I stayed once too long. I met a young man. I’m glad the title remains in America.” Sullivan’s only career defeat came against Corbett.

Sullivan., “I’m still John L., ain’t I,” retired to his farm in Abington, and after a lifetime of overindulging in alcohol and food, died a pauper at age 59. Corbett treasured his title and held on to it as a vehicle to promote other ventures. In 1887, Bob Fitzsimmons knocked Corbett out in the 14^th round. In 1933, age 66, Corbett died of liver cancer.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com

When the Irish Ruled the Ring

When the Irish Ruled the Ring

‘Migrants’ Crime Spree Accelerating

By Joe Guzzardi

Immigration advocates are always on-the-spot with a prepared rebuttal to Americans who pose reasonable questions about whether a better way might be found to manage the inflow of foreign nationals. About those ten million unvetted, under-educated, low-skilled, limited English speakers — -they’ll grow the economy! But if immigration were beneficial for the economy, then America with its 46 million immigrant population, and unknown millions of illegal immigrants, the economy would be booming. Instead, little evidence exists that a higher, immigration-driven population translates to a richer economy. A country’s standard of living is determined by its per capita GDP. Slower population growth, less immigration, means a higher per capita GDP. Finally, if diversity were America’s strength, as has been repeated for decades, then the nation’s public schools attempting to educate millions of non-English speakers would be graduating budding Rhodes Scholars instead of students who can neither read nor do math at grade level.

Consider how the immigration lobby recasts crime as a social issue. Venezuelan illegal alien Jose Ibarra’s brutal murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley has sent pro-immigration advocates scurrying to dust off one of its well-worn, most baseless reports which claims, despite ample evidence to the contrary, that immigrants, legal and illegal, commit less crime than citizens. Their message: don’t worry about Ibarra; he’s an aberration. Kate Steinle, the young woman a Mexican national killed on a San Francisco pier in 2015 — -she’s old news. But the following brutalities occurred in the last few months. Nilson Granados-Trejo, 25, the Salvadoran illegal alien who shot and killed a two-year-old infant in Maryland, is another statistical improbability as advocates rigged studies would point out. Local police ignored two detainers, and abetted Granados-Trejo in his murderous rampage. In Minnesota, an illegal alien dressed in a UPS uniform, killed three adults in the presence of two young children. ICE had issued a detainer request against the suspect who also had been convicted of felony gun possession. UPS hired Alonzo Pierre Mingo as a temporary employee. Blame UPS? The mainstream media’s myth that immigrants present no greater criminal danger than the everyday citizen became a talking point in California’s senate primary race. Campaigning, U.S. Rep. Katie Porter said that enforcement advocates shouldn’t let Ibarra’s murder of Riley “shape our overall immigration policy,” inferring that the murders of innocent Americans at the hands of illegal aliens is no big deal.

Except for Steinle, the other slayings are more recent and the perpetrators, border surgers. The Daily Mail compiled a partial list complete with mug shots that detailed illegal aliens’ crimes recently committed against unsuspecting victims. The charges against the illegal aliens, some previously deported multiple times, included murder, rape, sexual assault, child sexual assault, robbery, hit-and-run, assault on police officers, armed robbery, carrying a dangerous weapon, and vehicular homicide. The victims lived in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts — -a veritable coast-to-coast illegal alien crime spree.

But, Cato Institute’s Vice President for Economic and Social Policy Studies Alex Nowrasteh insists that Americans have no cause for alarm. Shortly after Steinle’s brutal murder, a crime that Nowrasteh referred to as her “alleged murder” even though multiple-times deportee and convicted felon Jose Inez Garcia Zarate was found at the scene and charged with first-degree murder — -hardly the definition of “alleged.” Nowrasteh’s bias in defense of criminal illegal aliens in his slanted studies has been adopted by other immigration advocates like the New York Times. Their collective but dubious conclusion: “immigrants are less crime prone than natives or have no effect on crime rates.” But the inarguable, key point is that if Garcia Zarate, Ibarra, and dozens of other illegal aliens who murdered citizens had never been allowed into the country, the victims would still be alive, a fact that cannot be intellectually denied.

Consider the CBP report on criminal non-citizen arrests that covered FY 2017 through FY 2024, year-to-date. The term “criminal noncitizens” refers to individuals who have been convicted of one or more crimes, whether in the U. S. or abroad, prior to the Border Patrol’s interdiction. What follows is a comparison of FY 2017 to FY 2023, the last complete 12-month period included. Total arrests, FY 2017, 8,531; FY 2023, 15,267; the dramatic increase in apprehensions reflects the lure that Biden’s open borders represents to criminal aliens. The CBP data excludes the estimated 1.6 million gotaways, mostly single, military-age males that have eluded immigration officials since Biden’s inauguration. Among them are hundreds of bad actors who otherwise would have chosen the easier option — -surrender to CBP, get processed and be released into the interior. Combined, illegal border crossers reported since January 2021 is greater than the estimated individual populations of 38 U.S. states, and more than all U.S. cities with the exception of New York City, all U.S. counties with the exception of Los Angeles County, and the populations of over 120 countries.

Statistically speaking, millions of unvetted illegal aliens from lawless countries like Senegal, Haiti, Venezuela, and Cuba will assuredly have criminals among them. Brace for more crime, a spike so dramatic that no volume of rigged studies will be able to minimize its consequences.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Illegals Crime Spree Accelerates

By Joe Guzzardi

Immigration advocates are always on-the-spot with a prepared rebuttal to Americans who pose reasonable questions about whether a better way might be found to manage the inflow of foreign nationals. About those ten million unvetted, under-educated, low-skilled, limited English speakers—they’ll grow the economy! But if immigration were beneficial for the economy, then America with its 46 million immigrant population, and unknown millions of illegal immigrants, the economy would be booming.  Instead, little evidence exists that a higher, immigration-driven population translates to a richer economy. A country’s standard of living is determined by its per capita GDP. Slower population growth, less immigration, means a higher per capita GDP. Finally, if diversity were America’s strength, as has been repeated for decades, then the nation’s public schools attempting to educate millions of non-English speakers would be graduating budding Rhodes Scholars instead of students who can neither read nor do math at grade level.

Consider how the immigration lobby recasts crime as a social issue. Venezuelan illegal alien Jose Ibarra’s brutal murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley has sent pro-immigration advocates scurrying to dust off one of its well-worn, most baseless reports which claims, despite ample evidence to the contrary, that immigrants, legal and illegal, commit less crime than citizens. Their message: don’t worry about Ibarra; he’s an aberration. Kate Steinle, the young woman a Mexican national killed on a San Francisco pier in 2015—she’s old news. But the following brutalities occurred in the last few months. Nilson Granados-Trejo, 25, the Salvadoran illegal alien who shot and killed a two-year-old infant in Maryland, is another statistical improbability as advocates rigged studies would point out. Local police ignored two detainers, and abetted Granados-Trejo in his murderous rampage. In Minnesota, an illegal alien dressed in a UPS uniform, killed three adults in the presence of two young children. ICE had issued a detainer request against the suspect who also had been convicted of felony gun possession. UPS hired Alonzo Pierre Mingo as a temporary employee. Blame UPS? The mainstream media’s myth that immigrants present no greater criminal danger than the everyday citizen became a talking point in California’s senate primary race. Campaigning, U.S. Rep. Katie Porter said that enforcement advocates shouldn’t let Ibarra’s murder of Riley “shape our overall immigration policy,” inferring that the murders of innocent Americans at the hands of illegal aliens is no big deal.

Except for Steinle, the other slayings are more recent and the perpetrators, border surgers. The Daily Mail compiled a partial list complete with mug shots that detailed illegal aliens’ crimes recently committed against unsuspecting victims. The charges against the illegal aliens, some previously deported multiple times, included murder, rape, sexual assault, child sexual assault, robbery, hit-and-run, assault on police officers, armed robbery, carrying a dangerous weapon, and vehicular homicide. The victims lived in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts—a veritable coast-to-coast illegal alien crime spree.

But, Cato Institute’s Vice President for Economic and Social Policy Studies Alex Nowrasteh insists that Americans have no cause for alarm. Shortly after Steinle’s brutal murder, a crime that Nowrasteh referred to as her “alleged murder” even though multiple-times deportee and convicted felon Jose Inez Garcia Zarate was found at the scene and charged with first-degree murder—hardly the definition of “alleged.” Nowrasteh’s bias in defense of criminal illegal aliens in his slanted studies has been adopted by other immigration advocates like the New York Times. Their collective but dubious conclusion: “immigrants are less crime prone than natives or have no effect on crime rates.” But the inarguable, key point is that if Garcia Zarate, Ibarra, and dozens of other illegal aliens who murdered citizens had never been allowed into the country, the victims would still be alive, a fact that cannot be intellectually denied.

Consider the CBP report on criminal non-citizen arrests that covered FY 2017 through FY 2024, year-to-date. The term “criminal noncitizens” refers to individuals who have been convicted of one or more crimes, whether in the U. S. or abroad, prior to the Border Patrol’s interdiction. What follows is a comparison of FY 2017 to FY 2023, the last complete 12-month period included. Total arrests, FY 2017, 8,531; FY 2023, 15,267; the dramatic increase in apprehensions reflects the lure that Biden’s open borders represents to criminal aliens. The CBP data excludes the estimated 1.6 million gotaways, mostly single, military-age males that have eluded immigration officials since Biden’s inauguration. Among them are hundreds of bad actors who otherwise would have chosen the easier option—surrender to CBP, get processed and be released into the interior. Combined, illegal border crossers reported since January 2021 is greater than the estimated individual populations of 38 U.S. states, and more than all U.S. cities with the exception of New York City, all U.S. counties with the exception of Los Angeles County, and the populations of over 120 countries.

Statistically speaking, millions of unvetted illegal aliens from lawless countries like Senegal, Haiti, Venezuela, and Cuba will assuredly have criminals among them. Brace for more crime, a spike so dramatic that no volume of rigged studies will be able to minimize its consequences.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Illegals Crime Spree Accelerates

Maine Pushes Vets Aside to Hire ‘New Americans’

By Joe Guzzardi

New York, Illinois, and California are among the states most closely associated with embracing illegal border crossers and assorted other asylum seekers. But perhaps because the state is smaller than the major destinations and somewhat off the beaten media path, Maine’s over-the-top illegal alien red-carpet layout is less well-publicized.

Make no mistake—Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) ranks on a par with New York’s Kathy Hochel, Illinois’ JB Pritzker, and California’s Gavin Newsom as overt illegal alien coddlers. Maine is normally considered a vacationer’s paradise. In the winter, visitors can snowmobile in Aroostook County, a vast landscape that’s larger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. Come summertime, 3,500 miles of tidal shoreline attracts sailors, sea kayakers and windjammers. Despite its scenic appeal to visitors, residents must endure Maine’s hardcore migrant outreach, and the pocketbook-busting fees associated with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.

During Mills’ tenure, Maine’s large southern municipalities have struggled to house thousands of migrants, mostly from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Haiti. COVID-19 brought federal money that the state used to house migrants at hotels, motels, and shelters. The federal funds bonanza has dried up and the state is on the hook for the ever-increasing cost of providing food and shelter to the mostly homeless migrants. The fortunate are living inside the Portland Exposition Building, originally designated as a sports and exhibition venue. Most of the migrants speak limited English, have little money, and had no living arrangements when they arrived in Maine. They are heavily dependent on taxpayer-funded resources for charity.

In May, 2022, Maine’s growing migrant overflow prompted Kristen Dow, then-Portland’s Health and Human Services director, to send an ominous E-mail to Customs and Border Protection, FEMA, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s (D) local office, Portland’s city council and mayor, and its so-called community partners which read, in part:

     “As of the date of this email, there is no further shelter OR [emphasis Dow’s] hotel capacity in Portland, Maine. We have been over capacity in our shelter for quite some time and have now reached the point where the hotels we have been utilizing are also full…if your organization sends a family to Portland, Maine they are no longer guaranteed shelter upon their arrival to our shelter. Additionally, because our staff are spread quite thin, it is not guaranteed that we will be in a position to aid individuals in their search for emergency housing. I ask that you all share this information widely within your organizations and with families you are working with.”

In a predictable immigration-expansionist response to a migrant-overwhelmed state, Mills, in office since 2019, proposed to add 75,000 more illegal aliens by 2029, and in the process, throw citizens further under the bus. The vehicle that Mills will rely on to provide for the unlawfully present aliens is her newly developed Office of New Americans (ONA) created through the governor’s executive order. Mills’ plan would work toward “making Maine a home of opportunity for all, by welcoming and supporting immigrants to strengthen Maine’s workforce, enhance the vibrancy of Maine’s communities, and build a strong and inclusive economy.” The illegal aliens would be called “New Mainers.”

Mills and Maine’s immigration lobby have come up with what they view as the perfect solution—brand new, free housing. As local news station WCSH-TV reported, Brunswick will open 60 new migrant apartments, with 24 of the units already completed. The units, built at a $13 million cost and which residents disparagingly refer to as the ‘Taj Mahal’ are specifically designed for migrants awaiting their work permits, a process that can take more than a year.

The taxpayer funded Maine State Housing Authority leads the apartment project and has put into place a unique rental schedule. The state—taxpayers, in other words—will help pay for migrants’ rent using state legislature-approved funds. Taxpayers will be on the hook for two years, but migrants will need to pay 30 percent of their rent once they find a job that earns at least $30,000, half the average $60,000 local annual income. Such a rental structure is a strong inducement to never look for a job. Living rent-free is so much better. And while a migrants’ lease may expire after two years, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll vacate. Nationwide, squatters’ rights are all the rage.

In this era of illegal aliens first, Americans last, no audacity is too outrageous. A Somali woman who advises Mills on the ONA travesty proposed that the “new Americans” receive priority in job searches over military veterans because, in the advocate’s words, vets “have the advantage of speaking the language [English].” Punishing vets for speaking their native language in their home country is scraping the barrel’s bottom.

To Mills and other Democratic officials, establishing the ONA, building rent-free condos, and giving jobs away to illegally present foreign nationals at Americans’ expense is all normal governance even though not a single supporting vote from the Pine Tree State’s citizens has been cast in favor of Maine’s radical policies.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Maine Pushes Vets Aside to Hire ‘New Americans’

Sanctuary City Virtue Signalers Complicit In Steinle, Riley Murders

By Joe Guzzardi

In her interview with CNN anchor Erin Burnett, U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) said that the murder of 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, “shouldn’t shape our overall immigration policy.” Porter, a long-shot Senate candidate to replace retiring fellow Democrat Laphonza Butler, said that instead of enacting real border security and allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to apprehend violent illegal immigrants, Congress should work harder to keep its “promise to Dreamers.” Since 2023, Porter has consistently cast votes against strengthening border and interior enforcement.

The “one instance” claim that Porter made is 100 percent wrong and offends the hundreds of illegal aliens’ victims’ families. The website Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime lists dozens of preventable tragedies.

The most highly publicized illegal-alien-murders-citizen heartbreak occurred in 2015, four years before Porter was elected to the House. Porter lived in Southern California where she was certainly aware of the circumstances surrounding Steinle’s murder in sanctuary city San Francisco. The perpetrator was José Inez García Zárate, a five-time deported illegal alien and a Mexican national who had seven felony convictions. Prosecutors later learned that García Zárate had stolen the murder weapon, a .40-caliber SIG Sauer P239 handgun, from a Bureau of Land Management ranger’s personal vehicle.

Two years after Steinle’s murder, and after five days of deliberations, a jury acquitted García Zárate of all murder and manslaughter charges but convicted him of being a felon in possession of a firearm. García Zárate was sentenced to time served for previous crimes, a total of seven years. When the Steinle family announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Bureau of Land Management, alleging complicity and negligence in their daughter’s death, Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero dismissed the family’s claims against the city and then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. In January 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the magistrate’s ruling that Kate’s family could not sue San Francisco. Despite his obvious crimes, immigration-related and otherwise, illegal alien García Zárate got off easy — no justice for Kate, however.

Because immigration is voters’ top issue, the publicity around Riley’s murder may soon reach or exceed the coverage given to Steinle’s case. Similarities abound. Like García Zárate, Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national, was in the U.S. illegally. Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally through the Southwest border. According to a recently filed arrest affidavit, Ibarra “disfigured Riley’s skull,” and is charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and hindering a 911 call.

ICE records document that Ibarra was detained on September 8, 2022, after illegally crossing the U.S. from Mexico near El Paso, Texas, before being released. ICE also said Ibarra was arrested on August 31, 2023, in New York and charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 but was released because of New York’s sanctuary policy. Biden’s catch-and-release agenda paroled Ibarra into the U.S. interior. Parole is an immigration status that includes work permission and makes alien removal more difficult.

The common denominator in Steinle’s and Riley’s cases is that their murders took place in sanctuary cities which protect violent criminals who too frequently prey on innocent citizens. When Steinle was killed, President Barack Obama was in the White House. Obama’s administration made it clear that it would not act against sanctuary jurisdictions. Instead, Obama moved to convert the entire nation into a sanctuary by giving work permits to illegal aliens and drastically scaling back enforcement for all but the most egregious criminal offenders. Obama terminated what was perhaps the most effective enforcement program ever, Secure Communities, the information sharing program between the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to identify in-custody aliens. The former president replaced an efficient program with the Priority Enforcement Program that explicitly allowed localities to obstruct ICE.

Although Athens officials insist that it isn’t a sanctuary city, during a 2020 interview, then-Athens-Clarke County Sheriff candidate John Williams, since elected, explicitly said he had no interest in cooperating with ICE officials.

Williams said: “It is not my intention to cooperate with detainers [from ICE]. I see it as the sheriff’s responsibility to protect the community. We can’t help with a culture of fear in our community and expect our community to respond and help us in situations.” Deborah Gonzalez, Athens’ district attorney urged abolishing ICE. Gonzales said that her charging decisions would “take into account collateral consequences to undocumented immigrants.” Gonzalez’s statements raised serious questions about her ability to prosecute Ibarra and she has brought in a special prosecutor to handle the case.

Federal, state and local governments failed Riley, Steinle and hundreds before them. Misguided virtue signaling has laid the foundation for protecting instead of deporting criminals. Gonzalez and Williams got their wish — Biden’s non-enforcement policies effectively abolished ICE. For now, he best Laken’s family can hope for is a token, insincere, Biden phone call, which, several days after her murder, has not been placed. Come to think of it, Obama never called the Steinle family either. Biden’s and Obama’s callous dismissal of Riley’s and Steinle’s murders are the ultimate betrayal of innocent Americans that prove their favoritism toward illegal alien criminals.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifssp.org.

Sanctuary City Virtue Signalers Complicit In Steinle, Riley Murders

Mayorkas Impeachment About Constitutional Crimes, Not ‘Policy

By Joe Guzzardi

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment has set off a barrage of error-infused stories which prove that print and broadcast journalists haven’t done their homework. Echoing the talking points of the three House Republicans that voted against Mayorkas’ impeachment, the nearly universal story line is that policy differences don’t merit his removal from the Cabinet.

Here’s how The New York Times described the vote: “It[impeachment] put Mr. Mayorkas in the company of past presidents and administration officials who have been impeached on allegations of personal corruption and other wrongdoing. But the charges against him broke with history by failing to identify any such offense, instead effectively declaring the policy choices Mr. Mayorkas has carried out a constitutional crime.”

The Times went on to further defend Mayorkas when it wrote that former DHS secretaries Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Charles Johnson labeled the House effort “groundless,”while the Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest police union, and several law experts denounced the impeachment as a blatant attempt to resolve a policy dispute with a constitutional punishment. All claimed that the House Republicans had presented no evidence that Mr. Mayorkas’s conduct rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, the standard for impeachment the Constitution requires.

The three Republicans who voted against impeachment reiterated the same narrative—Mayorkas committed no crimes; he just enacted policies that the House disagreed with. The dissenters are Ken Buck (Color.), Tom McClintock (Calif.) and Mike Gallagher (Wis.). Explaining their decisions, Buck said “maladministration or incompetence does not rise to what our founders considered an impeachable offense;” McClintock claimed that Republicans lacked the grounds to impeach, and Gallagher, in his Wall Street Journal op-ed wrote that “incompetence doesn’t rise to the level of high crimes or misdemeanors.” 

Had the House dissenters, Republican and Democrats alike, read H. Res. 863 Article I: “Willful and Systematic Refusal to Comply with the Law,” they may have come to a different conclusion. The resolution charged Mayorkas with violating hissworn constitutional oath to support and defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to well and faithfully discharge his office’s duties of his office. Mayorkashas willfully and systemically refused to comply with federal immigration laws. 

More from the Resolution: Throughout his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security, Mayorkas has repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security. In large part because of his unlawful conduct, millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis with many unlawfully remaining in the United States. His refusal to obey the law is not only an offense against the Constitution’sseparation of powers, it also threatens our national security and has had a dire impact on communities nationwide. Despite clear evidence that his willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law has significantly contributed to unprecedented levels of illegal entrants, the increased control of the Southwest border by drug cartels, and the imposition of enormous costs on states and localities affected by the influx of aliens, Mayorkas has continued to act against U.S. interests. 

Specifically, the Resolution identified seven Mayorkas crimes, all impeachable offenses. Among them, he 1) refused to comply with the detention mandate included in section 235(b)(2)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and instead implemented catch and release; 2) refused to comply with the detention mandate set forth in section 235(b)(1)(B)(ii) of such Act, requiring that an alien who is placed into expedited removal proceedings and determined to have a credible fear of persecution “shall be detained for further consideration of the application for asylum,” and 3) willfully exceeded his parole authority set forth in section 212(d)(5)(A) of such Act that permits parole to be granted “only on a case-by-case basis”, temporarily, and “for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Instead, Mayorkas paroled aliens en masse torelease them from mandatory detention.

The impeachable criminal offenses the House brought against Mayorkas are inarguable; Mayorkas has committed high crimes, not, as the pro-immigration lobby insists, carried out a border policy that Republicans disagree with. If stripped of partisanship and instead adhering to their constitutional duties, the senators would support the impeachment articles. But Capitol Hill insiders predict that, to avoid the ugly spectacle of a trial, Schumer will table the resolution which would be the first time in the nation’s 248-year history that such brazen disregard for a constitutional process has been attempted. 

But Schumer’s a figurative four-star general in Biden’s war to destroy America through the open border invasion. Schumer admitted his agenda when, in 2020, he said if the Democrats win the Senate “We will change America.” So far, Schumer has made good on his promise and, by blocking Mayorkas’ impeachment, is poised to deliver another blow to sovereign America.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@isfpp.org

Mayorkas Impeachment About Constitutional Crimes