DELEITURAS

Democrats on the bicameral Homeland Security funding conference committee are demanding that border security appropriations include a limit to the number of beds at immigration detention facilities.

The committee signaled last week that they are nearing a final border security deal that could be voted on prior to the Feb. 15 funding deadline. However, Republican Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, a key member of the committee, revealed on Sunday morning that negotiations have hit a stalemate since Democrats demanded a limit to how many criminals Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is allowed to detain.

“I think the talks are stalled right now. I’m hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because time is ticking away but we’ve got some problems with the Democrats dealing with ICE, that is detaining criminals that come into the U.S. and they want a cap on them,” Shelby said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ “We don’t want a cap on that.”

The Democrats have proposed a new 16,500 bed cap on the number of detention beds that would be used for interior enforcement, meaning individuals that are apprehended for violations within the United States, reported The Wall Street Journal. That cap would also apply to violent criminals.

“A cap on ICE detention beds will force the Trump administration to prioritize deportations for criminals and people who pose real security threats, not law-abiding immigrants who are contributing to our country, “California Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a ranking member of the Homeland Security funding conference committee said in a statement.

Republicans have condemned the the proposal and are demanding that violent criminals be excluded from that cap since ICE would have to release any individuals that are apprehended if the limit is reached.

“Democrats now want a hard cap on the number of beds at ICE detention facilities. How is that a serious or defensible position?” Freedom Caucus chairmen Mark Meadows tweeted. “They are openly trying to hamstring law enforcement and make it easier for thousands of migrants (some with criminal records) to be released into the US.”

“Now, apparently, not only is it enough they want to abolish ICE. They want to abolish the bed spaces available to the country to house violent offenders so they can be held and deported,” Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on Fox News. “I promise you this. Donald Trump is not going to sign any bill that reduces the number of bed spaces available to hold violent offenders who come across our border. He can’t do that. He won’t do that.”

Border state Republicans have also been vocal in their opposition to the policy proposal, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw who noted “this is terrible policy.”

“Democrats are more concerned about releasing illegal immigrants, particularly ones charged with or convicted of crimes into our communities than in securing the border for the benefit of American citizens or migrants,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

• Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is running for president 2020 with a singular focus on fighting climate change.
• However, Inslee’s failed to implement major climate policies in Washington, a deep-blue state.
• “None of his climate policies even made it to the floor of the state House,” said one policy expert.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee has entered the 2020 presidential race as the candidate who has what it takes to unite Americans around one goal — fighting climate change.

But while Inslee pushes for a Green New Deal-like economic plan, the Democratic governor has failed to implement major climate policies in his own state.

“His climate policy has failed with the legislature, failed with the courts and failed with the voters,” said Todd Myers, environmental policy director at the free-market Washington Policy Center.

“There’s not a single metric where Washington state is going the right direction on climate change,” Myers told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

Inslee launched his presidential campaign Friday with a video making clear that fighting climate change would be the central focus of his campaign — though he’s also come out for abolishing the Senate filibuster and statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.

“So [climate change] can’t be on a laundry list,” Inslee told Vox in an interview published Friday. “It can’t be something that candidates check the box on. It has to be a full-blooded effort to mobilize the United States in all capacities.”

To that end, Inslee’s campaign website lays out his plan for “an all-out national climate mobilization” called “America’s Climate Mission,” which is his answer to the Green New Deal that’s backed by many Democratic 2020 contenders.

Inslee’s plan includes getting to “100% clean energy and net-zero greenhouse gas pollution through targeted strategies for all sectors of our economy” and creating “millions of good-paying jobs over the next 10 years.”

Inslee hopes to win over anti-Trump environmentalists and donors. His campaign website highlights his environmental agenda, including being called “the greenest governor in the country” by the League of Conservation Voters.

However, Myers said Inslee has largely failed to implement climate policies in environmentally-conscious, deep-blue Washington.

Washington voters overwhelmingly rejected a carbon tax ballot initiative in 2018 that Inslee supported and even campaigned for. The ballot measure would have raised energy prices about $230 per year for the average Washington household.

It was the second time Washington voters rejected a carbon tax ballot measure, though Inslee did not support the previous revenue-neutral tax proposed on the 2016 ballot.

Previously, Inslee tried to implement a statewide cap-and-trade program through executive actions, but the courts quickly blocked the governor. The matter is now headed for oral arguments in the state supreme court.

Inslee’s push for carbon tax legislation died in the state legislature in early 2018. Democrats joined Republicans in the state Senate to block the bill and it wasn’t even brought to the floor in the state House.

“It’s not just that they just didn’t pass in the Republican-held state Senate, he couldn’t get out of the state House,” Myers said. “None of his climate policies even made it to the floor of the state House.”

Inslee admitted there’s been “frustrations,” but claimed “progress” on promoting renewable energy, electric vehicles and electrified mass transit. A spokesman also recently touted Inslee’s blocking of coal and oil export terminals along Washington coast.

“Johnson hadn’t passed civil rights legislation for 20 years in the Senate, either, but he signed the Civil Rights bill,” Inslee told Vox.

“I was very involved in passing the renewable portfolio standard,” Inslee said, referring to a 2006 law. “We went from zero to a billion-dollar wind industry in the last several years. We have moved the needle on the electrification of our transportation system.”

“We’re number one or two, or we used to be, with electric cars because of the work we’ve been doing with incentives and building the electrical charging station grid on the interstate,” Inslee added.

However, Myers pointed to a Washington Policy Center report he published in July that found, relying on state data, that most electric car subsidies benefited the wealthiest Washington residents and did little to reduce emissions.

Indeed, Washington state emissions increased during Inslee’s first term as governor. The latest state figures show Washington emissions rose 6 percent between 2012 and 2016 — Inslee took office in 2013.

Despite his troubled start, Inslee told Vox he’ll continue to push climate legislation while he’s governor.

“So this year we are advancing a package of bills in the legislature, including a 100 percent clean grid bill,” Inslee told Vox.

By AMI Newswire

President Trump will call on Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro to leave office according an advanced text of a speech he will deliver today in Miami.

Trump will also demand that Venezuela’s military allow humanitarian aid to arrive in that beleaguered socialist state. If the military leaders refuse, he is threatening to freeze their international financial assets. He has already taken that action against many Venezuelans connected to Maduro.

Declaring “the current path toward democracy is irreversible,” Trump will make his demands in a speech at Florida International University just one week after National Assembly leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president while claiming that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

“Venezuelan military officials have a clear choice: work toward democracy for their future and the future of their families, or they will lose everything hey have,” said Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “The United States knows where military officials and their families have money hidden throughout the world.”

American and European lawmakers are keeping the pressure on Maduro’s socialist regime as the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate in that country. Most of the country’s military and border security forces remain loyal to Maduro despite the growing international recognition of Guaido as the country’s interim leader.

On Sunday, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio traveled to a remote Colombian border town in an effort to deliver much needed humanitarian aid to Venezuelan refugees and to put more pressure on Venezuela’s military.

Shouting at Venezuela’s soldiers across the border in Spanish, Rubio warned them that they would spend “the rest of their lives hiding from justice” if they did not let a convoy of U.S. aid enter the country on February 23rd.

Elsewhere the deportation of a group of European Union lawyers from Venezuela marks a significant escalation in the ongoing crisis over that country’s political future.
The United States, The European Parliament and dozens of other countries around the world – including almost every country in Latin America, have recognized Venezuelan opposition chief Juan Guaido as the country’s new president.

Maduro’s few remaining allies are Russia, Cuba and Iran.

However, the first international delegation invited to the country by Guaido was turned back at the airport.

“Be aware!” tweeted Spanish lawmaker Esteban González Pons in a rare English language tweet. “Our passports have been taken and we’re being expelled from Venezuela. Bad manners and the only explanation is Maduro doesn’t want us here.”

Pons and the other members of his delegation are from center-right parties in Europe, he has vowed to attempt to return to Venezuela on Saturday – the same day a Major shipment of U.S Aid is set to attempt to cross the border from Colombia to Venezuela.

President Donald Trump continued to hammer on the need for a southern border wall Saturday after announcing Friday that he will support a deal to temporarily reopen the government without any funding for the wall.

“We have turned away, at great expense, two major Caravans, but a big one has now formed and is coming,” Trump wrote on Twitter Saturday. “At least 8000 people! If we had a powerful Wall, they wouldn’t even try to make the long and dangerous journey. Build the Wall and Crime will Fall!”

The New York Times reported on the third migrant caravan that Trump referenced:

The current migrant caravan left San Pedro Sula in Honduras on Jan. 14 and, in the following days, began arriving at the Guatemala-Mexico border. Mexican officials encouraged the migrants to apply for the humanitarian visa, and since then over 12,000 people, mostly Hondurans, have done so in this border town in southern Mexico.

Trump used his new slogan “Build the wall and crime will fall” in the tweet.

Trump’s message about the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall comes a day after he and Congress ended the record-breaking 35-day partial government shutdown. Republicans and Democrats now have until Feb. 15 to come to an agreement on border security funding before another partial shutdown is triggered.

“21 days goes very quickly. Negotiations with Democrats will start immediately. Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in. The case for National Security has been greatly enhanced by what has been happening at the Border [and] through dialogue. We will build the Wall!” Trump also wrote on Twitter Saturday morning.

Many conservative commentators expressed their displeasure with Trump after his Friday announcement that he would agree to reopen the government without obtaining funding for a border wall first.

Former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke stated on Thursday that he would remove the existing border barrier in his hometown of El Paso if he had the ability to do so, a question proposed to him by his fellow Texan, Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw.

Prior to President Donald Trump’s rally in El Paso on Monday, Crenshaw tweeted at O’Rourke asking “if you could snap your fingers and make El Paso’s border wall disappear, would you?”

“Yes, absolutely. I’d take the wall down,” O’Rourke responded to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes when presented with Crenshaw’s question.

O’Rourke claimed that since a barrier was constructed on the U.S.-Mexico border through the Secure Fence Act, American citizens have not “in any demonstrative way” made Americans safer. However, Crenshaw’s tweet provided data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which showed that illegal border crossings reduced significantly since the wall was in place. He also provided data showing a similar pattern in other border cities.

“[The border wall] has cost us tens of billions of dollars to build and maintain and it has pushed migrants and asylum seekers and refugees to the most inhospitable, the most hostile stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border, ensuring their suffering and death,” O’Rourke continued. “More than 4,000 human beings — little kids, women and children — have died. They’re not in cages, they’re not locked up, they’re dead.”

The failed senatorial candidate has long argued against a border wall. Following Trump’s executive order in September to erect an 18-foot steel bollard wall to replace the existing pedestrian fencing in El Paso, he called the existing chain-link fence “bad enough.”

In the past, O’Rourke has emphasized that the way to improve safety and security is to “ensure that we are maximizing the potential from everyone … [and] treating each other with respect and dignity,” and referred to Trump’s request to fund a wall an “expression of our smallness, our meanness, our fear to the rest of the world.”

O’Rourke, who has claimed to oppose open borders, has faced backlash for refusing to clarify where he stood on the migrant caravan that was heading toward the United States. O’Rourke dodged commenting on the topic despite immigration and border security overwhelmingly being the top issues for voters in Texas during his unsuccessful run to unseat Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in November.

He also raised eyebrows in December when he blamed a border wall as the reason for why an increasing number of migrants have died as they illegally attempt to cross into the country.

Apprehensions of illegal migrants at the southwest border in January increased dramatically from the same time last year, and experts predict 2019 will experience increases in illegal migrant arrests overall.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — a subset agency of the Department of Homeland Security — reported a total of 47,893 apprehensions of illegal migrants in January at the southwest border, a region of the U.S.-Mexico border that is the most active. The number marked an increase of nearly 22,000 arrests, or 84 percent, from January 2018.

The huge uptick could suggest more illegal immigrants will try to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019 than originally anticipated. Princeton Policy Advisors, a group that analyzes immigration trends, is currently forecasting 606,000 apprehensions for the entire year, but left the door open to increase this projection.

“The January numbers don’t yet warrant an upward revision in our forecast of 606,000 apprehensions in 2019. But we are on notice,” Steven Kopits, president of Princeton Policy Advisors, stated to the Washington Examiner. “Buckle your seat belts: 2019 could be a wild ride at the southwest border.”

The January numbers reflect a growing trend at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nearly 467,000 apprehensions took place at the U.S. southern border in 2018, more than any other calendar year since at least 2012, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. The spike in arrests was lead in large part by migrant families attempting to reach the U.S. illegally at the tail end of 2018.

While rising apprehensions can be indicative of more migrants attempting to enter the U.S., the numbers also reflect an evolving strategy among illegal migrants.

Many illegal immigrants reach the border with the intention of getting caught by border patrol where they can then make an asylum claim. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), for example, recorded 78,564 asylum requests in 2017, a huge increase from the 13,880 requests made in 2012.

“Remember, the problem right now isn’t people crossing the border illegally. It’s people presenting themselves to border patrol agents – people who want to get apprehended so they can lodge a frivolous asylum claim,” RJ Hauman, director of government relations for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, stated to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “They know we don’t have the detention space, so we just release them into the interior of the country.”

A Duke University professor was asked to step down from an administrative role following an email she sent to students Friday, advising them not to speak Chinese in order to improve on speaking English and better their chances of getting jobs.

Megan Neely, an assistant professor for Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, sent the email after receiving complaints from two unnamed professors of students talking in Chinese loudly in public spaces. The email was sent to first and second year students in the masters program, Inside Higher Ed reported Monday.

“I had two separate faculty members come to my office today and ask if I had pictures of the [master’s in biostatistics] students. I shared with them the head shots of the first- and second-year cohorts taken during orientation. Both faculty members picked out a small group of first-year students who they observed speaking Chinese (in their words, VERY LOUDLY) in the student lounge/study areas. I asked why they were curious about the students; names. Both faculty members replied that they wanted to write down the names so they could remember them if the students ever interviewed for an internship or asked to work with them for a master’s project. They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand.”

Neely added she had the “utmost respect” for the students choosing to study in the U.S. and asked they “commit to using English 100 percent of the time” while at the school or in a professional setting.

“To be clear: there is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other,” Duke University School of Medicine dean Mary Klotman said in an email to biostatistics students, according to the school’s website. “Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom.”

Neely remains as an assistant professor at the university, but was asked to step down as the director of graduate studies for the biostatistics master’s program “effective immediately.”

Duke is not the only school concerned about English speaking capabilities for Chinese students, however.

The University of California at Santa Barbara found many of its Chinese students could not speak English at the college-level even though international students must score at an “intermediate level” on an English language proficiency test to study in the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported.

Around 82 percent of Chinese students who studied overseas returned to China in 2016 as opposed to 72 percent in 2012, the South China Morning Post reported.

“As a Chinese person in the American workplace, I know I am limited in my career advancement,” Oliver Mao, who studied at Tufts University, said, according to the Morning Post.

Neely did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Mob boss Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, of the Gambino crime syndicate, was fatally shot outside his home in Staten Island Wednesday night, police sources said.

Cali, 53, was shot in the chest six times by an unidentified gunman who sped away in a blue pickup truck, reported The New York Daily News. Cali’s wife and children were inside his large brick home when it happened around 9:20 p.m., police sources told The New York Post.

He was declared dead at Staten Island University Hospital North.

Cali, a Sicilian native, is part of a “resurgence” in mob activity and reportedly concentrated on the heroin and OxyContin trade, according to The New York Post.

The Gambino crime family has been in the spotlight for years because of its high-profile former leaders, the late John Gotti and his son John “Junior” Gotti. The elder John Gotti grandson, also named John Gotti, was arrested on drug charges in the summer of 2016 in an investigation dubbed “Operation Beach Party.”

Cali is the first mob boss to be taken out since John Gotti Sr. orchestrated the assassination of then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano in 1985, according to The New York Post.

It’s unclear whether Cali’s murder was carried out by a rogue actor or approved by other members of the Italian American mafia in New York City. Police sources described Cali’s murder as “disrespectful” because it happened right outside his family home.

Cali was “a real quiet old-school boss,” a police source told The New York Post. He only had one criminal conviction, for extortion in 2008.

Co-host of CNN’s “New Day” John Berman tried to tie President Donald Trump to the New Zealand mosque shooting on Friday, during an interview with GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Berman initially asked for Kinzinger’s reaction to the shooting that claimed 49 lives, but then pivoted to Trump and asked if the president’s rhetoric helped cause the massacre.

“This is a time where we need the God of the universe to step in and to change people’s hearts,” Kinzinger said. “Because for somebody to wake up, decide to grab a bunch of guns — decide to murder innocent people, even if they’re a different religion, to me is just the pure epitome of disgusting evil.”

“You asked for God to change people’s hearts,” Berman replied. “I have a question for you. Does God need to change people’s language? And I ask you that because this killer apparently in a screed, some people call it a manifesto, said he is a supporter of President Trump as a symbol of white identity. Why would anyone see the President as a symbol of white identity?”

“I think God needs to change people’s hearts, and I beg he does. He needs to change their language. But you cannot put this on President Trump,” Kinzinger shot back.

“The person who is giving a sign of allegiance to President Trump is the killer here. He calls him a symbol of white identity. The language he uses in this manifesto is all about invaders. It’s all about invaders, which is similar language to the killer at the synagogue in Pittsburgh,” Berman replied. “It’s also language that President Trump used in a campaign ad before the midterm election. The word ‘invader’ means something to white supremacists around the world. Why?”

Kinzinger continued to defend the president and said you can’t blame Trump for someone else’s decision to murder innocent people.

“I don’t have any idea, frankly, what was in [the shooter’s] mind. But what I know is this. It cannot be connected. We cannot sit here and say, ‘What is it that President Trump is doing that’s somehow triggering these people?’ This is an evil man that made a decision to murder 49 people. And that is on him. And frankly, the evil in his heart,” he said.

Berman continued to fan the flames and implied Trump’s use of the word invader has only made matters worse.

“If this monster is hearing something in the word ‘invader’ and the president is using the word ‘invader,’ can the president really not do anything?” Berman asked. “You’ve just been at the border. And I know and I’ve heard you talk about that. I haven’t ever heard you use the word invader.”

Kinzinger continued to tell Berman he would not try to link random acts of violence back to the White House or the president.

“I think the president shouldn’t use terms like invasion and hordes. But I also think though that — that doesn’t mean he can’t be passionate about the fact that he wants to stop illegal immigration,” he said.

The Trump Administration announced legal action Friday to stop two pharmacies, their owner, and three pharmacists from dispensing controlled substance medications, including powerful opioids that have been linked to abuse and diversion. The action is part of a coordinated effort by the Justice Department’s Prescription Interdiction & Litigation (PIL) Task Force to deploy all available criminal, civil, and regulatory tools to reverse the tide of opioid overdoses in the United States.

In a civil complaint unsealed today in the Middle District of Tennessee, the United States alleges that Celina, Tennessee, pharmacies, Oakley Pharmacy, Inc., d/b/a Dale Hollow Pharmacy (Dale Hollow) and Xpress Pharmacy of Clay County (Xpress), the pharmacies’ owner, Thomas Weir, and pharmacists John Polston, Michael Griffith, and Larry Larkin were dispensing, and billing Medicare for, prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and the False Claims Act. According to the United States’ complaint, the defendants’ unlawful dispensing of opioids has been tied to the deaths of at least two people and numerous others have been treated at hospitals for serious overdoses within a short time of obtaining controlled substances from the pharmacies.

“Pharmacies and pharmacists have a legal obligation to dispense controlled substances properly, so as not to put patients’ health at risk,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will use every available tool to stop individuals and entities responsible for the improper distribution of controlled substances.”

The complaint alleges that the pharmacies and pharmacists filled numerous prescriptions for controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and in violation of the pharmacists’ corresponding responsibility to ensure that prescriptions were written for a legitimate medical purpose. Specifically, the complaint alleges that the defendants routinely dispensed controlled substances while ignoring numerous “red flags” or warning signs of diversion and abuse, such as unusually high dosages of oxycodone and other opioids, prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances in dangerous combinations, and patients traveling extremely long distances to get and fill prescriptions.  The complaint further asserts that the pharmacies falsely billed Medicare for illegally dispensed prescriptions.

Judge Aleta A. Trauger of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee issued the temporary restraining order.  Along with injunctive relief, the United States seeks civil monetary penalties and treble damages.

“The civil complaint unsealed today contains disturbing allegations of high-risk dispensing practices by the defendants,” said U.S. Attorney Don Cochran.  “Given the national public health emergency resulting from the opioid crisis in our nation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will use every resource at our disposal, including seeking injunctive relief and civil monetary penalties as we have here, to stop pharmacies and pharmacists from continuing to abuse their dispensing authority to fuel this epidemic.”

“The action supported today by the Drug Enforcement Administration should serve as a warning to those in the pharmacy industry who choose to put profit over customer safety,” said D. Christopher Evans, Special Agent in Charge of DEA’s Louisville Field Division, which covers Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. “Pharmacists serve on the front lines of America’s opioid epidemic and they share responsibility with physicians to protect those whom they serve from the dangers associated with prescription medications.  We will be vigilant in holding them accountable,” Evans added.

“The opioid epidemic has been devastating for Tennessee and neighboring states,” said Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge at the HHS Office of Inspector General. “Physicians and pharmacists have a dual responsibility to ensure that these medications are only prescribed and dispensed when they are medically necessary.”