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GOP senators raise national security concerns over release of Chinese nationals into US at southern border
FIRST ON FOX: Republican senators, led by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, are raising concerns about a “significant threat” to national security posed by an increase in Chinese nationals at the southern border — who the lawmakers say are being almost entirely released into the U.S. and could have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The lawmakers wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas expressing concern about the approximately 18,000 Chinese nationals who have been encountered at the southern border this fiscal year. That’s compared to just over 2,000 in FY 2022, and just 450 in FY 2021.
They note that numbers have continued to increase and that the overwhelming majority are single adults. Lawmakers signed onto the letter include Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
FOX NEWS FOOTAGE SHOWS RELEASE OF CHINESE NATIONALS INTO US AMID MASSIVE SPIKE IN ENCOUNTERS
“July set the record for nationwide encounters with Chinese nationals with just over 6,100. 94.8 percent of Chinese national encounters in FY23 have been single adults,” they say. “This trend poses a significant threat to our national security and warrants immediate attention and action from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”
They go on to say that “it is our understanding that not a single one of these individuals encountered has been detained for any length of time but rather benefited from this administration’s policy of catch and release.”
They note prior concerns, including from Republicans in Congress, that some of those single adults could potentially be tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
They say that there could be among those coming across “individuals who could engage in espionage activities or cyber-attacks against our critical infrastructure, government agencies, or private sector entities.”
“There have been numerous documented instances of Chinese nationals, at the direction of the CCP, engaging in espionage, stealing military and economic secrets,” they say. They also highlight the role China plays in providing precursors to Mexican drug cartels, which are then used to create fentanyl – which is then transported across the U.S. border.
DHS WARNS MEXICAN-PRODUCED DRUGS LIKE FENTANYL LIKELY TO KILL MORE AMERICANS THAN ANY OTHER THREAT
The lawmakers ask a series of questions to Mayorkas, including how it identifies those from China and any potential ties to the CCP or its Peoples Liberation Army. It also asks how many Chinese nationals have been apprehended, released and deported from the United States, and how many nationals Chinese has refused to repatriate.
Lawmakers also want to know what actions are being taken to address the issue, including discussions with China and Mexico. DHS itself has recently noted the national security threat from China. In its most recent threat assessment, DHS warns China will likely use predatory economic practices, including espionage and market manipulation, against the U.S.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Marshall said that the increased number of single adults coming from China “must be a wake-up call within the Biden administration.”
“We cannot allow the CCP to undermine law and order here on U.S. soil, whether it’s funneling fentanyl into our communities, stealing our intellectual property, setting up CCP spy police stations across the country, infiltrating our public school curriculum, or flying a massive spy balloon through our heartland the Biden Administration has been an abysmal failure when it comes to holding China accountable,” he said.
The letter comes amid a broader spike in migration at the border. After a relative lull in June, numbers have shot up in July and August and look set to continue in September. Border Patrol facilities have been overwhelmed and have resorted to releases onto the streets in multiple sectors.
Sources have told Fox that there have been multiple days this week of over 8,000 illegal immigrant encounters ad that there are expected to be around 230,000 migrant encounters in August. That 230,000 would be up significantly from over 180,000 in July and 144,000 in June. August’s numbers would mark the highest month in 2023.
Republicans have hammered the administration on the crisis and sought to pass a sweeping border security bill to restart wall construction and limit the use of asylum and parole authorities.
The administration has called on Congress to provide additional funding and to pass an immigration reform bill Democrats introduced in 2021 to fix what it says is a “broken” system.
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Zelensky calls on Trump to release his Ukraine peace plan now
In a Tuesday interview with CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky encouraged former President Donald Trump to share his ideas on how to stop the war with Russia.
“He can publicly share his idea now, not waste time, not to lose people, yes, and then say that ‘My formula is to stop the war and stop all this tragedy and stop Russian aggression,” Zelensky told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. “And he said, how he sees it, how to push Russian from our land. Otherwise, he’s not presenting the global idea of peace.”
Zelensky also emphasized that he does not want to give up Ukrainian territory for a peace negotiation. He questioned Trump’s claim of being able to quickly end the war in July.
“It seems to me that the sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful,” Zelensky told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week” through a translator. “But this desire should be based on some real-life experience. Well, it looks as if Donald Trump had already these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war, and as I assume, he had that time at his disposal, but he must have had some other priorities.”
Last weekend, Trump welcomed praise by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the former president’s comments on wanting a speedy end to the war. He said he would get Zelensky and Putin into a room together and figure out a deal.
“I like that he said that because that means what I’m saying is right,” Trump said on “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Zelensky is visiting the U.S. this week and will meet with U.S. leaders including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden. His visit comes at a time when Congress is divided over whether aid to Ukraine should be included in a continuing resolution to keep funding the government.
At a press conference Tuesday, McCarthy said he has questions for the Ukrainian leader.
“Where’s the accountability on the money we already spent?” McCarthy said, listing off questions he said he would ask the Ukrainian leader when he meets with him. “What is the plan for victory?”
Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill
Tom Perez finds life, and a lot of work, after the DNC
When Tom Perez returned to the White House earlier this summer, he did not anticipate spending so much of his time focused on the state of New York and its response to a surge of migrants. But his job — director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs — is largely about solving problems, wherever they crop up.
Senior administration officials have come to think of Perez as something of a “utility infielder,” an experienced hand who can play a different role every day. He can be advising the team monitoring the United Auto Workers strike, helping agencies implement policy or offering input on political strategy, all while constantly working his two cell phones.
A former Labor secretary in the Obama administration and chair of the DNC, Perez has been convening meetings twice a week with New York city and state officials while coordinating responses to the migrant influx from several government agencies, he said in an interview last Friday. The previous day, he’d traveled to New York to meet with Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, both of whom have been critical of the White House’s approach to the crisis.
“Kathy Hochul and I have each other on speed dial, and I appreciate that — she’s working her tail off,” said Perez, who also met last week with philanthropists, business leaders, service providers and immigration lawyers, securing commitments from the private sector to hire migrants as soon as they become legally eligible to work. “This job involves collaboration at scale: collaboration within the West Wing of the White House, collaboration with our agency partners, collaboration with state and local elected officials, with faith leaders, business leaders.”
Hochul, who’s known the “Buffalo native” Perez for decades, returned the praise.
“Our frequent conversations and his engagement with my staff — in person and remotely — has made a huge difference and we have more to do,” she told West Wing Playbook.
Perez’s role inside the White House was, at the start, tricky to define. He had run and lost a campaign to become governor of Maryland and, more than anything else, seemed to need a new place within the Democratic infrastructure. He was given a portfolio that included the role of “senior adviser.” While less narrowly defined, it allowed Perez to deploy his experience in several areas, in addition to directing the OIA and engaging with elected officials in all 50 states.
“If people are looking for linear job descriptions, this is probably not that kind of job,” he said.
On Monday, Perez traveled to Ohio for an event focused on workforce development. Earlier this month, he flew to Los Angeles to meet with Mayor Karen Bass about homelessness. He toured Skid Row, as well as the Port of Los Angeles to discuss new investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In the days and weeks following the Maui wildfires, he spoke several times a day with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green. “He’s far and away the most responsive person I’ve ever worked with in the federal government,” said Green, who credited Perez’s engagement for getting almost immediate approval of Hawaii’s request for a federal disaster declaration. “He understands what we’ve gone through.”
Ensconced in his second floor corner office directly above the Oval, Perez has taken on a broad portfolio that extends beyond crisis response. He is working with HHS officials to ensure Medicaid recipients aren’t automatically bumped from the rolls for failing to return renewal documentation. He has engaged with local leaders across the country about extreme heat. He hosted a White House Childcare Convening in July, and he is trying to make sure states and cities, as well as businesses, are taking advantage of opportunities from the Inflation Reduction Act.
And in recent days he has been advising Gene Sperling and others about the ongoing UAW strike. Sperling was designated as the administration’s lead on the negotiations before Perez returned to the White House. Perez, while praising Sperling as “remarkably well qualified” for the assignment, acknowledged he’s been “providing help and counsel behind the scenes,” noting that he’d met with Sperling last Friday morning just hours after the UAW began its strike.
“This is an all hands on deck moment, and I do have some relationships in the labor movement that are helpful,” Perez said.
“When I can pick up the phone and call someone with whom I’ve been working with for 10-15 years … having those relationships at a state, federal and local level, knowing how agencies work, it just gives me a leg up in being able to play a meaningful role on a wide range of issues.”
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Tim Scott slams Trump, other GOP presidential candidates for being ‘wrong’ on abortion
EXCLUSIVE – Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina appears to be turning up the heat when it comes to taking on his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.
Scott told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that former President Donald Trump is “wrong” on abortion and charged that Trump and two other rivals — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — have “run away from protecting life.”
Trump, the commanding front-runner in the race for the GOP presidential nomination as he makes his third straight White House run, appears to have handed some his rivals some ammunition over the combustible issue of abortion.
The blockbuster move last year by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn the landmark nearly half-century-old Roe v. Wade ruling, which had allowed for legalized abortions nationwide, moved the divisive issue back to the states.
And it has forced Republicans to play defense in elections across the country, as a party that is nearly entirely “pro-life” has had to deal with an electorate that broadly supports at least some form of abortion access.
Trump declined to endorse a specific number of weeks after which abortion would be banned, with some exceptions, and he refused to say whether he feels the issue should settled at the state or federal levels, during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
WITH FOUR MONTHS UNTIL THE FIRST VOTES, THE 2024 GOP BATTLE HEATS UP IN THE FIRST CAUCUS STATE
“We’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it,” Trump said. “And both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement — both sides will come together . . . I think both sides are going to like me.”
Trump also reiterated his criticism of Republicans who take too hard an abortion stance, saying, “You’re not going to win on this issue.”
And he called the six-week abortion ban DeSantis signed into law in Florida “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”
“I think the former president is wrong on the issue,” Scott said when asked about Trump’s comments. “He was a pro-life president. We need a pro-life president in the future.”
Scott, who was interviewed after headlining the New Hampshire Institute of Politics “Politics and Eggs” speaking series, charged that “President Trump and Governor Haley, Governor DeSantis, have all run away from protecting life.”
DeSantis has repeatedly said, “I’m pro-life. I’ve been pro-life governor. I’ll be pro-life president,” but he has not shared specifics on what he would do as president in terms of supporting a federal abortion ban.
NIKKI HALEY SEEKS COMMON GROUND ON COMBUSTIBLE ISSUE OF ABORTION
Haley has also showcased her “pro-life” credentials but emphasized that without enough support in the Senate, passing a federal abortion ban is “not realistic.”
Scott, along with former Vice President Mike Pence and a couple of other Republican presidential candidates, supports a proposed 15-week federal abortion ban.
The senator’s criticisms of Trump, DeSantis, and Haley in his Fox News interview appear to be the latest indicator that he is sharpening his contrasts with his rivals for Republican presidential nomination.
Scott, a rising star in the GOP and the only Black Republican in the Senate, has been spotlighting an uplifting conservative message as he seeks his party’s presidential nomination.
The senator was anything but the loudest voice at last month’s first Republican presidential nomination debate, a Fox News showdown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And because he mostly avoided the numerous verbal fistfights at the first debate, he rarely enjoyed the glare of the primetime spotlight.
SCOTT ON HIS RELATIONSHIP STATUS: ‘I’M DATING A LOVELY CHRISTIAN GIRL’
Scott’s campaign says the candidate will draw contrasts and distinctions with the rest of the field at next week’s second debate, a Fox Business hosted showdown at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.
“Having an opportunity to talk about where we’re different. I think it’s important for the audience, frankly, at home to understand that there are real differences between the candidates on the stage, and we should have an opportunity to discuss those differences,” Scott emphasized on Wednesday.
But he seemed to discount poor reviews from political pundits and prognosticators, who gave him a thumbs down.
“I think you’ll see basically what I did last time. I’ll try to do that again. Frankly, I thought our performance was strong. I want to make sure that we do it again,” Scott said.
Fox News’ Kirill Clark contributed to this report
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Sen. Ted Cruz: Democrats Will ‘Parachute’ Michelle Obama in to Replace Joe Biden for 2024 Election
Go to Source: Breitbart News
Donald Trump Promises the ‘Largest Domestic Deportation Operation in American History’
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Here Are the Five Republicans Who Have Defied McCarthy on Spending
Will Hurd Releases A.I. Plan, a First in the Republican Presidential Field
Hunter Biden request to appear in court by video rejected by judge
A federal judge has ordered that Hunter Biden appear in court for his arraignment on federal gun charges despite his requests to have his first hearing to take place virtually.
President Biden’s son was charged by Special Counsel David Weiss with making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers on Tuesday told the court the president’s son is expected to plead not guilty, while requesting his first appearance take place on video conference–something Weiss’ team opposed in a filing early Wednesday.
Wednesday afternoon, though, U.S. Magistrate Judge from the District of Delaware Christopher Burke rejected Biden’s request, saying he should not receive special treatment.
“In the end, the Court agrees with both the Defendant and the Government, that Defendant should not receive special treatment in this matter—absent some unusual circumstance, he should be treated just as would any other defendant in our Court,” Burke stated in the filing.
Hunter Biden’s court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 26 at 10:00 a.m. in Delaware.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Go to Source: Latest Political News on Fox News