The Plain Truth Is: HUD Director Goes on $336,000 Shopping Spree with ...

The Plain Truth Is: HUD Director Goes on $336,000 Shopping Spree with ...: A high-ranking public housing official charged with providing government-subsidized homes to the poor stole hundreds of thousands o...

HUD Director Goes on $336,000 Shopping Spree with Low-Income Housing Funds!

A high-ranking public housing official charged with providing government-subsidized homes to the poor stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the agency and used it to buy furniture, alcohol, clothes, makeup and other personal items. The crooked public official scammed the government for years undetected which may seem unbelievable though not when it comes to the agency she worked for, a bastion of corruption known as Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
This is an agency that’s been embroiled in a multitude of serious scandals—under both Democrat and Republican administrations—over the years. One veteran employee at a state branch stealing a few hundred thousand bucks to go on a marathon shopping spree is no biggie. Problems go back to the Ronald Reagan administration, when an influence-peddling scandal led to the conviction of 16 people, including top aides to then HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce. Bill Clinton’s housing secretary, Henry Cisneros, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about payments to his former mistress. George W. Bush’s HUD secretary, Alphonso Jackson, was ousted after the feds launched an investigation into his plots to enrich himself and his friends by giving them lucrative government contracts. Barack Obama’s second HUD secretary, Julian Castro, misspent  the agency’s federal funds as mayor of San Antonio.
Fraud and corruption has also been pervasive among HUD employees and field directors. A few years ago, an employee got busted for racking up nearly $12,000 on his agency credit card by charging personal items such as groceries, lodging, television cable, transportation and even prescription medications. A federal audit determined that the agency knew about the spending spree but didn’t bother taking action, reprimanding the employee or reporting the wrongdoing. HUD’s inspector general has also testified before Congress about the severe mismanagement at offshoots functioning independently—yet federally funded—in states across the country that have fleeced taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. He testified that his office discovered more than $200 million in questionable spending at local public housing agencies (PHAs) since 2012. PHAs are created by states, operate at the city or county level and administer the federal program known as Section 8 to provide low-income people with affordable housing. Many of these local public housing agencies are run by people with “troubled backgrounds” that somehow manage to remain in high-ranking positions at the agencies, the watchdog told lawmakers back in 2014.
Years later, an executive director at one of those branches in Michigan gets busted for embezzling $336,000. Her name is Lorena Loren and for years she served as the executive director of the St. Clair Housing Commission, which administers a local Section 8 housing program in southeast Michigan. Section 8 is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market. The program is administered locally by Public Housing Agencies (PHA) like the St. Clair Housing Commission so the cash comes from the feds though there appears to be no oversight. The idea is to subsidize housing costs, via vouchers, so the poor can live in privately owned, single-family homes, townhouses or apartments they otherwise couldn’t afford.
For eight years Loren used government credit cards as her personal piggy bank, buying items for herself and relatives, according to a federal charging document obtained by a Detroit, Michigan newspaper. She racked up around $135,000 in purchases from online retailer Amazon, $14,364 at big-box store Sam’s Club and $16,460 at various Walmart stores. The purchases included food, medicine, appliances, furniture, clothing and booze. The disgraced housing director also used $24,600 in agency funds to pay for her son’s rental unit, falsified documents—including lease agreements to use housing voucher cash to rent a home for her son—and deposited federal rental subsidy funds into family members’ bank accounts. Loren has been charged with conspiracy to commit federal program fraud and faces up to five years in prison.
Clearly, this is part of a much broader epidemic at HUD. A Michigan-area newspaper editorial blasts the agency for failing to protect taxpayer dollars and low-income families that need help. The piece cites other recent cases in which public employees stole from HUD’s Section 8 program, including a 52-person ring in Ohio and schemes in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado and Massachusetts. “It should be more difficult for housing commission directors to write checks to themselves,” the editorial states. “And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should be keeping closer watch over its Section 8 voucher program.” Hopefully President Trump’s new HUD secretary, Ben Carson, will clean some house at the fraud-infested agency. We don’t’ need a newspaper editorial to tell us that “HUD clearly has a gap in its fiduciary responsibility.”

The Plain Truth Is: U.S. Pays $50 Mil for Luxury Cars, Weapons, Booze ...

The Plain Truth Is: U.S. Pays $50 Mil for Luxury Cars, Weapons, Booze ...: A foreign company hired by the U.S. government to mentor and train Afghan intelligence officers billed Uncle Sam for more than $50 ...

U.S. Pays $50 Mil for Luxury Cars, Weapons, Booze to Mentor Afghan Intel Officers!

A foreign company hired by the U.S. government to mentor and train Afghan intelligence officers billed Uncle Sam for more than $50 million in luxury cars — including Porsches, an Aston Martin, and a Bentley — and the lucrative salaries of executives and their spouses (who didn’t do any work). The firm also spent $1,500 on alcohol and $42,000 on automatic weapons prohibited under the terms of the contract, according to figures provided by a U.S. Senator from a federal audit that has not been released to the public. It marks the latest of many scandals involving the free-flow of American dollars to controversial causes in Afghanistan, where fraud and corruption are rampant in all sectors.
In this latest case, the Department of Defense (DOD) hired a British firm called New Century Consulting (NCC) to operate a program called “Legacy East” that was supposed to provide counterinsurgency intelligence experts to mentor and train Afghan National Security Forces. Instead, NCC billed the Pentagon millions of dollars in questionable or unallowable expenses, including seven luxury cars and exorbitant $400,000 average salaries for the “significant others” of corporate officers to serve as “executive assistants.” Other prohibited expenses include severance payments, rent, unnecessary licensing fees, extensive austerity pay, and the cost of personal air travel. The outrageous figures became public when the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Claire McCaskill, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis demanding answers. As a federal lawmaker McCaskill had access to the information after viewing a report from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), which provides financial oversight of government contracts for the Pentagon and operates under the Secretary of Defense.
McCaskill discloses that the British firm continued receiving lucrative DOD contracts despite having “many previous problems,” involving billing and performance practices. The senator also questions why the Pentagon kept pouring money into a “troubled” program that a separate federal audit had determined was likely ineffective. That assessment, made by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), came after investigators found that a lack of performance metrics makes it nearly impossible to assess whether the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the mentoring and training programs for Afghan intel personnel are effective. “Despite all of the listed issues with NCC’s performance and billing practices, the Army continued to engage in contracting with NCC for sensitive work in Afghanistan,” McCaskill states in her letter to Mattis.
Afghanistan reconstruction has been a huge debacle that continues fleecing American taxpayers to the tune of billions and Judicial Watch has reported extensively on it over the years. Many of the details are regularly disclosed in provoking reports published on the SIGAR website. Highlights include the mysterious disappearance of nearly half a billion dollars in oil destined for the Afghan National Army, a $335 million Afghan power plant that’s seldom used and an $18.5 million renovation for a prison that remains unfinished and unused years after the U.S.-funded work began. Among the more outrageous expenditures are U.S. Army contracts with dozens of companies tied to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The reconstruction watchdog recommended that the Army immediately cut business ties to the terrorists but the deals continued. Another big waste reported by Judicial Watch a few years ago, involves a $65 million initiative to help Afghan women escape repression. The government admits that, because there’s no accountability, record-keeping or follow-up, it has no clue if the program was effective.
Back in 2013 Judicial Watch reported that, despite multiple warnings of fraud and corruption inside the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, the U.S. keeps sending hundreds of millions of dollars to support the Islamic republic’s scandal-plagued healthcare system. In that infuriating case, the money—$236 million over nine years—flowed through the scandal-plagued U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is charged with providing economic, development and humanitarian assistance worldwide. It was supposed to fund prenatal care for women, hospitals, physicians’ salaries and other medical costs. Instead, a federal audit found pervasive, waste, fraud and abuse that warranted an immediate cutoff of U.S. assistance. In a scathing report SIGAR called it a reckless disregard toward the management of U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The Plain Truth Is: Licenses, ID Cards Sold to Illegal Aliens by Corru...

The Plain Truth Is: Licenses, ID Cards Sold to Illegal Aliens by Corru...: A year after Judicial Watch reported a rise in illegal aliens using fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain authentic U.S. passpo...

Licenses, ID Cards Sold to Illegal Aliens by Corrupt State Workers Used for Voter Fraud!

A year after Judicial Watch reported a rise in illegal aliens using fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain authentic U.S. passports and drivers’ licenses, the feds have busted a Massachusetts operation run by corrupt state workers. The state employees sold drivers’ licenses and state identification cards to illegal immigrants who bought Puerto Rican documents on the black market, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The operation perpetuated voter fraud because some of the false identities and addresses were used to vote in Boston, the state’s capital and largest city.
The case is the latest of many illustrating that there’s an epidemic of voter fraud in the U.S. that’s seldom reported in the mainstream media. It’s not clear how many false identities and addresses were used to fraudulently register to vote in Boston, but the feds indicate that it occurred in multiple cases and Judicial Watch is investigating the matter as part of a five-year-old Election Integrity Project. The scheme was operated by four taxpayer-funded employees at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) along with two outside accomplices who sold Puerto Rican documents to illegal aliens. All six were recently arrested and charged with aggravated identity theft. They probably never would have been caught if not for an anonymous tip received by the Massachusetts State Police nearly two years ago and there’s no telling how long the illicit scheme operated.
The anonymous letter said that a corrupt RMV employee was providing stolen identifications and drivers’ licenses to individuals seeking false IDs, the DOJ announcement states. An investigation ensued and authorities discovered that the four clerks were working with a document vendor and document dealer to provide the licenses and official state ID cards to illegal immigrants in exchange for cash. “The scheme involved several steps,” the DOJ says. First, the document dealer sold a Puerto Rican birth certificate and U.S. Social Security card to the document vendor for approximately $900. The vendor would then sell the stolen identities for more than $2,000 to illegal aliens—some with criminal records—seeking legitimate identities in Massachusetts. After the first layer of illicit transactions occurred, the counterfeit documents and false identities and addresses were used to fraudulently register clients to vote in Boston.
Illegal aliens would then bring the stolen identities to the RMV where the corrupt clerks worked and they would accept cash to illegally issue authentic documents, including drivers’ licenses and ID cards. “The clerks also accepted cash to use the RMV’s system to run queries, including Social Security number audits, to confirm that the identities the clients were stealing actually belonged to verifiable individuals,” the DOJ announcement states. The unscrupulous state workers face up to two years in prison, according to the feds, who won’t reveal the magnitude of the operation and how many authentic state documents were issued fraudulently to illegal aliens.
Last year Judicial Watch published a story about the increasing number of illegal aliens using fake Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain authentic American documents. Located about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida, Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory about two decades after the Caribbean island was acquired from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American war. Puerto Ricans are American citizens at birth though they don’t have the right to vote in federal elections and the island has only one non-voting representative in Congress. In recent years a record number of Puerto Ricans have left their troubled island for the U.S. and a big chunk has settled on Florida. A recent study found that the island’s ongoing economic recession has led to a mass exodus not seen in more than five decades. The U.S. government and its various agencies accept Puerto Rican birth certificates blindly even though fraud involving the easily forged documents has been pervasive for years.

The Plain Truth Is: Dem Fla. Senator Helps Pass Bill to Give Her Chari...

The Plain Truth Is: Dem Fla. Senator Helps Pass Bill to Give Her Chari...: A Democrat Florida state lawmaker helped pass a bill that allocated $1.5 million to a nonprofit that she founded and pays her a six...

Dem Fla. Senator Helps Pass Bill to Give Her Charity $1.5 Mil, GOP Gov. Approves it!

A Democrat Florida state lawmaker helped pass a bill that allocated $1.5 million to a nonprofit that she founded and pays her a six-figure salary and the state’s Republican governor approved it. The legislator, state Senator Lauren Book, represents south Florida’s Broward county and in 2007 she founded a charity called Lauren’s Kids to educate adults and children about sexual abuse prevention through school curricula, awareness campaigns and speaking engagements.

Book launched the south Florida-based group because her female nanny sexually abused her for years and she wants to prevent sexual abuse through education and awareness. The politician also wants to help survivors heal with guidance and support. “Armed with the knowledge that 95 percent of sexual abuse is preventable through education and awareness, Lauren has worked to turn her horrific personal experience into a vehicle to prevent childhood sexual abuse and help other survivors heal,” according to the charity’s website. Lauren’s Kids has helped advocate for the passage of nearly two dozen laws to support survivors and protect children from predators, the group’s website further claims.

It’s not just a labor of love for the Florida legislator, who got elected in 2016. As chief executive officer of her charity Book receives a generous $135,000 annual salary, according to a nonprofit investigative journalism conglomerate that broke the story about this outrageous conflict of interest. Since 2012 Lauren’s Kids has received north of $10 million in taxpayer money because the senator’s father, Ron Book, is a prominent lobbyist who happens to be the group’s chairman. In just a few years Lauren’s Kids has “become one of the Florida Legislature’s most favored private charities,” the news article states. Governor Rick Scott, who is in his second term, went along with the $1.5 million appropriation for Book’s charity when he signed Florida’s $83 billion budget recently.

As if this weren’t enraging enough, Lauren’s Kids used a chunk of the taxpayer funds it has received to pay a Tallahassee public relations firm millions of dollars, accounting for 28% of its expenses. A follow-up story by the same investigative journalism outlet reveals that the senator’s charity paid Sachs Media Group $3.1 million between 2012 and 2015 as well as a yet-to-be-disclosed amount in 2016. “Millions of taxpayer dollars flowed through the nonprofit to Sachs Media as it both promoted Lauren’s Kids and cultivated Sen. Book’s public persona as a survivor of child sex abuse,” the article states. “Critics say the domination of Lauren’s Kids by the senator and her lobbyist-father raises concerns that the work Sachs Media does is more about making her look good, not raising awareness about unreported cases of child sex abuse.” The founder of the nation’s premier charity watchdog says in the story that “nonprofit money is supposed to be used for a public benefit and not to enhance the aspirations of the charity’s officers.”

A huge lapse in Florida’s senate ethics rules allowed Book to vote for legislation that essentially enriched her. The same “loophole” let her keep the conflict from the public, the news stories point out. Here’s the broader explanation from the news outlet: “Senators are forbidden by ethics rules from voting on any matter in which they or an immediate family member would privately gain – except when it comes to votes on the annual General Appropriations Act. Abstaining senators must also disclose the nature of their interest in the matter, according to the 335-page Florida Senate Rules and Manual.” That means lawmakers can vote on issues that can benefit their profession, though it’s downright sleazy when taxpayer dollars go to an entity that the elected official actually controls and makes money from. Millions of dollars earmarked to prevent child sexual abuse going to a public relations firm is in a class of its own.

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix PD Bans Officers from Asking About Immigra...

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix PD Bans Officers from Asking About Immigra...: Police officials in Arizona’s largest city have quietly implemented a new policy banning officers from contacting the feds after arrestin...

Phoenix PD Bans Officers from Asking About Immigration Status, Calling Feds in Violation of State Law!

Police officials in Arizona’s largest city have quietly implemented a new policy banning officers from contacting the feds after arresting an illegal alien and forbidding them from asking about immigration status, in violation of key provisions of a state law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Judicial Watch obtained a copy of the Phoenix Police Department’s new sanctuary Immigration Procedures, which also replace the term “illegal alien” with “a person unlawfully present.” It appears to be part of a broader scheme to dodge federal immigration laws in Arizona’s most populous county.
The Phoenix Police Department has about 3,000 officers that were permitted to use “sound judgement” at any time under the agency’s former immigration enforcement policy. That allowed front-line officers to directly contact federal immigration officials involving criminal illegal immigrants. The revised policy, issued just weeks ago, mandates all contact with federal immigration partners to be funneled through a single Violent Crimes Bureau (VCB) desk sergeant who will document all immigration related data and give authority to call ICE. “This will bottle-neck the process,” according to a veteran Phoenix law enforcement official who added that the new policy was generated without any input from rank-and-file. Arizona law enforcement sources also told Judicial Watch that no other restrictions of this kind and magnitude regarding a federal crime are found in Phoenix Police Department policy. Officers continue to have the discretion to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Postal Inspectors, U.S. Marshalls and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) without fear of violating department policy.
If an illegal alien is arrested for a state crime, officers in Phoenix are no longer allowed to take them directly to ICE for deportation and document the crime in a report. Taxpayers must fund a mandated booking into county jail under the new rules, which state; “if there is a federal criminal charge and the person is under arrest for a state and/or local charge/s…the person will be booked into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office…” Keep in mind that Maricopa Sheriff Penzone doesn’t like honoring ICE holds on jailed aliens and considers illegal immigrants “guests.” The new Phoenix Police Department rules also eliminate a table showing state immigration enforcement laws as well as documentation of police contacts with verified and/or suspected illegal aliens, a troublesome change that omits valuable city crime statistics.
Besides forbidding questioning suspects regarding place of birth, country of citizenship and legal status in the United States, the new Phoenix policy says that transportation of illegal aliens to ICE by officers has been eliminated for civil immigration violations unless the illegal alien “consents to a transport.” Both restrictions violate key provisions of a 2010 Arizona law known as Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB1070). Open borders and civil rights groups fought the law in federal court and succeeded in getting rid of many of its mandates but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld two key clauses in Section 2 of the measure. The first, requires law enforcement officers to determine a suspects’ immigration status if “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally. This grants officers the discretion that has just been stripped in Phoenix. The other clause in Section 2 allows state law enforcement officers to transport illegal immigrants directly to federal custody.

The Plain Truth Is: Border Patrol Ordered to “Negotiate” with Illegal ...

The Plain Truth Is: Border Patrol Ordered to “Negotiate” with Illegal ...: Update: Subsequent to Judicial Watch reporting this incident Border Patrol management felt compelled to serve a warrant on the “Samarita...

Border Patrol Ordered to “Negotiate” with Illegal Immigrants in Arizona!

Update: Subsequent to Judicial Watch reporting this incident Border Patrol management felt compelled to serve a warrant on the “Samaritan camp,” which agents had been waiting for three days to obtain.
Despite President Trump’s pledge to tighten border security Border Patrol agents in one of the nation’s busiest sectors for illegal immigrants and drugs were ordered this week to stand back after a surveillance camera recorded a group entering the U.S. from Mexico, federal law enforcement sources told Judicial Watch. The incident occurred in the vast desert terrain between Arizona and Mexico, Border Patrol officials said. An agency Buckeye camera operated out of a mobile truck recorded the illegal crossers entering through Nogales, a town of around 20,000 adjacent to the Mexican state of Sonora. The video camera is used by the Border Patrol to monitor areas for illegal crossings and can be panned to follow crossers’ movements, sources told Judicial Watch.
Upon crossing the border, the group of illegal immigrants entered what the feds refer to as a “Samaritan camp,” according to a Border Patrol official who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s management team. The special camps are operated by an Arizona-based open borders advocacy group called No Más Muertes (No More Deaths) and consist of several trailers on private property. The nonprofit’s mission is to end death and suffering in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands and enact immigration reform in America. Besides the “Samaritan camps” along the Mexican border, the organization leaves water, food, blankets and other supplies along trails used by illegal immigrants to travel north. No Más Muertes also has staff in Mexico to provide phones for deportees and assistance, including first aid, for northbound migrants.
Although the organization’s sanctuary trailers are situated on the U.S. side of the border, federal agents are legally allowed to enter the property and remove the illegal crossers, law enforcement sources confirm. “If agents observe illegal conduct, apprehension does not require a warrant,” a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the matter told Judicial Watch. In this case, probable cause had been established by the unlawful conduct observed by Border Patrol agents via the high-tech Buckeye camera. Instead of entering the property as legally allowed and removing the illegal aliens, agents were ordered to “negotiate” with the occupants,” Border Patrol officials said. Photos produced by the surveillance camera were also produced to Judicial Watch by outraged Border Patrol officials who say Obama-era, open borders policies are still being implemented by Kelly’s management team. “Instead of proactively patrolling a porous and volatile border, Border Patrol resources are being utilized on the perimeter of the property to thwart any further incursions into or retreats from the sanctuary camp,” according to a law enforcement source involved in the Nogales incident.
Veteran agents say, that although Trump promised to toughen up security along the porous and increasingly violent Mexican border, for unknown reasons his DHS secretary continues to implement Obama sanctuary policies. There is a great concern among rank-and-file agents that these passive, limited enforcement policies increase the risk to agents and decrease the deterrence of the Trump border strategy. Just a few weeks ago, Kelly stripped Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of their independent enforcement authority by implementing a new policy that requires a supervisor’s permission to issue a detainer for illegal aliens suspected of crimes. Judicial Watch obtained the document outlining the new policy, which federal agents say is a constraint that creates a bottleneck and hampers their ability to take efficient on-site action against criminals in the country illegally.

The Plain Truth Is: In Freeing Illegal Alien Gang Member Obama Judge S...

The Plain Truth Is: In Freeing Illegal Alien Gang Member Obama Judge S...: An Obama-appointed federal judge in Virginia ordered an illegal immigrant member of a violent street gang released from prison because i...

In Freeing Illegal Alien Gang Member Obama Judge Says U.S. Violated Rights of Due Process, Family Unity!

An Obama-appointed federal judge in Virginia ordered an illegal immigrant member of a violent street gang released from prison because immigration authorities supposedly violated his rights when he entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico. The Honduran teen crossed the Rio Grande during the influx of illegal alien minors a few years ago and turned himself into the U.S Border Patrol, according to a lengthy mainstream newspaper article, after acknowledging his gang history. The feds held him without a hearing in Virginia because he’s also a known drug dealer, but this month he was freed by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon. The judge ruled that, by holding the illegal alien gangbanger without a hearing, the government violated his rights to due process and family unity.
Here’s an excerpt from the newspaper article, which refers to the release as remarkable: “For immigration advocates, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon’s June 1 order was a major legal victory over the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the federal agency charged with caring for children apprehended at the border without their parents. The decision could lead to the release of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of long-detained unaccompanied minors, they said. The teen’s release was remarkable for another reason: Before coming to the United States, he had sold drugs and witnessed murders as a member of MS-13. The violent street gang is on the rise in the United States, fueled, in part, by the surge in unaccompanied minors. MS-13 has been linked to dozens of recent killings, from the Washington area to Long Island, Boston and Houston. President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have voiced alarm about MS-13 and the way it has taken advantage of the U.S. immigration system.”
Some 150,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)—mostly from Central America—entered the U.S. through the Mexican border under the Obama administration and this disturbing case out of Virginia is one of many illustrating the threat they represent to the American public. Judicial Watch has covered and investigated the UAC influx for years and has obtained public records from the various government agencies responsible for relocating the illegal alien minors throughout the country. From the moment the UACs began arriving in 2014, sources in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Judicial Watch that the nation’s most violent street gangs—including the MS-13—were actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and that they used Red Cross phones to communicate. Both the MS-13 and the 18^th Street gangs embarked on a recruiting frenzy at the various facilities housing the newly arrived illegal aliens, according to Judicial Watch’s law enforcement sources. The UACs also brought in dangerous diseases— including swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis—and occupied the nation’s military bases as shelters.
The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs. A year after the Obama administration began allowing droves of UACs to remain in the U.S., the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that the MS-13 emerged as a top tier gang in the Lone Star State thanks to the influx of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state the previous year. In an alarming 19-page report, the agency writes that the number of MS-13 members encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector increased each year, accelerating in 2014 and coinciding with increased illegal immigration from Central America during the same period. This clearly refers to the UAC crisis that saw thousands of illegal immigrants—many with criminal histories—storm into the U.S. in a matter of months. Authorities in Texas predict the problem will only get worse. “Gang members from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador could be destined for locations in Texas with large Central American communities, including the Houston and Dallas areas,” the Texas Department of Safety writes in its report. Even if that doesn’t materialize, the state already has a serious gang crisis. “Reports of increased MS-13 gang activity have already surfaced in the Houston area,” the Department of Safety confirms. “MS-13 gang members are known for highly violent crimes, including brutal murders and dismemberments. Several recent crimes in Texas illustrate the criminal threat associated with MS-13.”
Here are some gruesome examples included in the agency’s report: “On September 15, 2014, the mutilated body of a 14-year-old middle school student was discovered in the woods near Houston after he was murdered with a machete.  Initial information from the investigation indicates the victim was a U.S. citizen and an MS-13 member who was murdered after trying to leave the gang. In October 2014, a 14-year-old and three adult males were arrested and charged with murder in this case. The adult males are from El Salvador, and at least two are documented MS-13 gang members.  In mid-August 2014, a 29-year-old 18th Street gang member was stabbed to death in Houston by a 16-year-old El Salvadoran member of MS-13. The victim suffered multiple stab wounds outside of a bar and was discovered a few days later in a bayou. According to investigators, the juvenile suspect revealed he illegally crossed into the U.S. in March 2014.” Another huge concern is the relationship between street gangs and Mexican drug cartels, the report says, because it’s a very profitable partnership. “These groups pose the greatest gang threat to Texas due to their relationships with Mexican cartels, high levels of transnational criminal activity, level of violence, and overall statewide presence.” The lucrative gang/cartel business endeavors are also expanding into human smuggling and gambling, the Texas Department of Safety reveals in its report.
The recently freed MS-13 member will live with relatives in Kentucky, the news story says, further revealing that it’s not the only case of a UAC with gang ties being released by the feds. The mainstream media won’t identify the gangbanger because he’s 17-years-old and they want to protect his “safety.” The article quotes Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirming this: “If they come as undocumented minors, the federal government transports them wherever in the interior they say they’d like to go. The bad guys know how this system works, and they have exploited it.” Just last week the same newspaper, Washington D.C.’s largest, published a piece titled “MS-13 gains recruits and power in U.S. as teens surge across border” that analyzes dozens of court cases and includes startling anecdotes of UACs with gang ties. “In the Washington region alone, at least 42 young people who crossed into the United States by themselves have been involved in MS-13 violence over the past three years,” the article states. “That includes 19 charged in connection with slayings or attempted slayings and four who were killed.” After years of relative quiet, the MS-13 has made a comeback, the news probe discovered, and it’s been fueled by the recent influx of illegal alien teens. “The rise in violence has hit especially hard on Long Island and in Boston, Houston and the D.C. area, with authorities linking dozens of killings to the gang,” the article says.

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix Trump Nazi Billboard Funded with Taxpayer ...

The Plain Truth Is: Phoenix Trump Nazi Billboard Funded with Taxpayer ...: A controversial billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a Nazi was funded with taxpayer dollars and was commissioned by an “arts a...

Phoenix Trump Nazi Billboard Funded with Taxpayer Dollars!

A controversial billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a Nazi was funded with taxpayer dollars and was commissioned by an “arts advocate” paid by a U.S. city to “diminish barriers,” records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. The massive billboard caused a ruckus when it was unveiled in downtown Phoenix, Arizona in mid-March because it features a menacing portrait of Trump surrounded by mushroom clouds—in the shape of laughing clowns—and swastikas modified as dollar signs. A pin of a Russian flag appears on the president’s lapel.


The huge display towers over Grand Avenue and Taylor Street in downtown Phoenix and will remain there throughout Trump’s presidency, according to the local art gallery that claims to own it and conveniently omits that public money is involved. A multitude of local and national media outlets covered the controversy surrounding the artist that created it and the contentious image it portrays, but all have failed to uncover the important fact that taxpayer dollars are behind it. Instead, the media has reported that the Trump Nazi billboard was commissioned by the billboard owner, Beatrice Moore, a longtime patron of the arts on Grand Avenue. Moore’s deep ties to the city and the cash she receives for her various public art endeavors have remained secret. The news reports have also focused on the death threats that the artist, Karen Fiorito, has received. A local paper reported that the billboard went up during an annual art event and that the artist aimed to stir up a controversy.
Mainstream national media also failed to report the important fact that taxpayer dollars contributed to the offensive billboard. The Washington Post opted to serve as a mouthpiece for Fiorito’s anti-Trump tirade. In a piece published days after the billboard controversy hit the artist calls Trump supporters “scumbags” and says the country is on a “very dangerous path” toward “total annihilation.” A California news outlet focused on Fiorito’s death threats and her interpretation of the art, which “represents global destruction, warfare and annihilation of the planet.” The dollar swastikas represent “corporate power and greed and how our society has become all about money and corporatism,” the artist says in the story.
Shortly after the billboard was erected Judicial Watch filed a public records request with the city of Phoenix to obtain details related to public monies connected to organizations and organizers of the sign. This week Judicial Watch received the documents that show the city of Phoenix has awarded Moore, the Trump Nazi billboard owner and a prominent figure in the local art community, thousands of dollars in grants for a program she runs called Grand Avenue Arts & Preservation (GAP), which encompasses the Art Detour event where the Nazi billboard made its debut. The publicly funded annual art celebration is touted as having “a diverse slate of activities created by local artists and art venues to celebrate the growing, vibrant Phoenix arts scene” and is described as “…one of the most important events in Phoenix’s calendar” by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. The event is produced by a group called Artlink, which was founded by Moore, in partnership with the city of Phoenix. Former Phoenix Deputy City Manager Rick Naimark, who retired in 2015 with a hefty pension, sits on the board of Artlink.
Moore and her various publicly-funded art enterprises received $3,500 from the city of Phoenix in July 2016, the records obtained by Judicial Watch show, which encompasses the March 2017 Art Detour event that kicked off with the Trump Nazi billboard. In August 2016 Artlink, founded by Moore, was awarded $1,800 for the 2017 Art Detour event, according to the records. Moore, who contracted Fiorito to create the anti-Trump billboard, is recognized by the city as an “artist, community organizer and arts advocate” and the annual festival she puts together with public money aims to “diminish barriers,” the records say. Funds come from “government grant monies,” including the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the money is used for “artists’ fees.” The objectionable Trump billboard, which involves taxpayer money, doesn’t appear to promote a “growing, vibrant” art scene in the City of Phoenix and seems to fall short of Moore’s stated goal of “diminishing barriers” through art.

The Plain Truth Is: Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on ...

The Plain Truth Is: Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on ...: The radical leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization was officially reprimanded ...

Obama DOJ Reprimanded SPLC for Hateful Attacks on Immigration Control Groups!

The radical leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization was officially reprimanded by the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) for its hateful attacks, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an extremist nonprofit that lists conservative organizations that disagree with it on social issues on a catalogue of “hate groups.” The previously undisclosed DOJ rebuke is a vindication for groups targeted by the SPLC’s witch hunts and is especially impactful because the Obama administration was tight with the SPLC and even hired the controversial nonprofit to conduct diversity training for the government. Judicial Watch uncovered documents relating to the SPLC’s diversity training at the DOJ back in 2013.
Also in 2013, Judicial Watch reported that a Virginia man who planned a mass shooting based on the SPLC’s “hate map” of conservatives got a 25-year prison sentence. Prosecutors called it an act of terrorism and recommended a 45-year sentence. The terrorist, Floyd Lee Corkins, stormed into the headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC) and carried out the politically-motivated shooting based on an SPLC target list. The FRC is a Christian organization that promotes the traditional family unit and the Judeo- Christian value system. Corkins pleaded guilty and admitted that he learned about the FRC from the SPLC, which describes itself as a civil rights group but labels conservatives who disagree with it on social issues as hateful.
In 2015, the SPLC issued a hit list of U.S. women against sharia law, the authoritarian doctrine that inspires Islamists and their jihadism. This included a starter kit for Islamists to attack American women who refuse to comply with Sharia law and a detailed list of female bloggers, activist and television personalities who reject Sharia law, which is rooted in the Quran. Among those targeted were colleagues and friends of Judicial Watch who fear for their safety simply for practicing their rights under the U.S. Constitution. That SPLC hate list is titled Women Against Islam/The Dirty Dozen and includes illustrations and detailed information on all the women, who are branded “the core of the anti-Muslim radical right.” The SPLC hate brochure further targets them by claiming that they’re “a dozen of the most hardline anti-Muslim women activists in America.”
Another favorite SPLC target is any group or individual that speaks openly against illegal immigration. The DOJ reprimand, issued last year but kept quiet at the agency’s request, involves the SPLC’s atrocious behavior during immigration court proceedings. Two groups that oppose illegal immigration, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), were the target of personal, baseless and below-the-belt attacks from SPLC attorneys during official immigration court proceedings. The SPLC filed a motion attacking and defaming the two respected nonprofits by describing them as “white supremacist”, “eugenicist”, “anti-Semitic”, and “anti-Catholic.” In its reprimand the DOJ says it is troubled by the conduct of SPLC lawyer Christopher Strawn and that his conduct “overstepped the bounds of zealous advocacy and was unprofessional.” Furthermore, SPLC made “uncivil comments that disparaged FAIR and its staff,” the rebuke states, adding that the language constitutes frivolous behavior and doesn’t aid in the administration of justice.
The Obama administration kept the reprimand confidential and asked FAIR and IRLI to keep it under wraps. In the meantime, SPLC continues to publicly trash the groups and escalate attacks against them by putting them on the official hate list. The executive director and general counsel of IRLI, Dale Wilcox, says his nonprofit and FAIR will keep fighting for immigration policies that put America first. “The SPLC’s latest tactic in its never-ending witch-hunt and the federal government’s resulting reprimand should send the following message to the mainstream media,” Wilcox said: “Stop using the SPLC as a legitimate hate-watch source in your news coverage. That a cabal of biased list-keepers can play such an important role in distorting the immigration debate in this country is testament to the utter failure of much of the mainstream media which frequently publishes their inflammatory commentary and refuses to question their baseless methods or financial motivations.”

The Plain Truth Is: Dinosaur Tail Feather in Amber?

The Plain Truth Is: Dinosaur Tail Feather in Amber?: Matthew 6:26: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feed...

Dinosaur Tail Feather in Amber?

Matthew 6:26: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Evolutionary scientists have recently claimed strong evidence to support the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. Palaeontologist Lida Xing was visiting a market in Myanmar, when he saw a piece of amber, containing a tiny feather, along with the more usual insects. He claimed that the feather had to belong to a dinosaur, rather than a bird, because the vertebrae present in the specimen were all separate.  This, he claimed, contrasted with the tail of archaeopteryx, the tip of whose tail has vertebrae which are fused at the terminus. Archaeopteryx is widely accepted to be a bird, although the article on Wikipedia classifies it as a feathered dinosaur.
Creation scientist Dr David Menton has shown that the feather could not have belonged to a dinosaur. Therapod dinosaurs would have been bipedal, and their long tails balance their bodies as they walk, like other bipeds, from their hips. But birds do not walk from their hips. Their femurs and knees are within their body walls. The part of the bird’s leg, often assumed to be a “wrong-facing” knee, is, in fact, equivalent to the ankle in other vertebrates. The amber feathered tail shows that it would have had insufficient weight to provide balance for a bipedal dinosaur. It is much more likely, therefore, that the feathered tail belonged to a bird.
Evolutionists have an a priori commitment to finding feathered dinosaurs, as evidence of evolution. Once again, it is seen that they have jumped the gun, if not the shark, in their enthusiasm.
Prayer: Help us, Lord, to consider again the works of Your creation, and give You the praise and the glory. Amen.

The Plain Truth Is: Destroyed from Within!!

The Plain Truth Is: Destroyed from Within!!: In his excellent book on the history of Rome, Caesar, and Christ, historian Will Durant observed, "A great civilization is not con...

Destroyed from Within!!

In his excellent book on the history of Rome, Caesar, and Christ, historian Will Durant observed, "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has first destroyed itself from within. The essential cause of Rome's decline lay in her people and her morals."
As the Roman Empire rose to greatness, it no doubt assumed that its power would last for centuries to come. But even while its citizens were living in prosperity, the empire was crumbling from the inside. You will find this true of any civilization that has ultimately collapsed or has been overcome by a foreign power. It first fell apart on the inside. The landscape of history is strewn with the remains of once-great nations that let moral decay from within bring them to ruin. The same can happen in America today as we undergo moral decay on the inside.
But the answer to this problem is not political; it is spiritual. The people of America need to turn back to God. Engraved on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. are these words of our third president:

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.

If America does not turn back to God, then I fear that judgment is certainly coming.
It is my belief that our country has two choices at this time in history. One is judgment. The other is a spiritual awakening or revival, that is, a great move of God's Spirit among His people. That is what we need to pray for the United States of America.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God gave His prescription for revival and for the healing of a nation: "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land" (NLT).
That statement was originally given to the nation of Israel at the dedication of their temple. But this is also what we need to do if we want to see God's blessing on our nation.
When we look at the problems in America today, we are quick to point the finger at someone else. It is the fault of Hollywood. It is the fault of the media. It is the fault of Congress. But when God sees the moral breakdown of a nation, He points to His people: "If my people who are called by my name...."
So what should we, as His people, be doing?
First, we need to humble ourselves. One of the hardest things to do is to say that we have sinned. It is difficult for us to admit to any personal wrongdoing. Maybe you haven't sinned as much as some people you know, but God doesn't grade on the curve. That's why we need to humble ourselves before God and admit that we have sinned.
Second, we need to pray and seek God's face. To fail to pray can be as much of a sin as breaking one of God's commands, because there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. A sin of commission is breaking a commandment, while the sin of omission is not doing what you are supposed to do. If Christians will obey this command to pray and seek God's face, they will be able to do more for our nation than all of the government's programs combined.
Third, we need to repent. "If my people will...turn from their wicked ways...." The word "repent" essentially means to make a U-turn, or a change of direction. If we are going to follow Jesus Christ, then we need to turn away from the things the Bible says are sin. We need to examine our lives for anything that is inconsistent with God's Word and needs to change.
God has told us what we need to do as a nation to see His blessing come upon us. We need to stop pointing our fingers at everyone else and make sure that we are living the Christian life that God intended for us to live. But it starts with you. It starts with me.

Queensryche- Operation Mindcrime (lyrics)

Speak with lyrics

Seether - Weak (Lyric Video)

Kid Rock - Picture ft. Sheryl Crow [Official Video]

The Plain Truth Is: A Secure Future!

The Plain Truth Is: A Secure Future!: Suppose you made a million dollars per year. Would that set you up for life? Would it give you financial security for the future? Well, ...

A Secure Future!

Suppose you made a million dollars per year. Would that set you up for life? Would it give you financial security for the future? Well, apparently not if you’re a professional athlete. According to a report in Investment News, 78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retirement. Sports Illustrated similarly reports that 60 percent of NBA players are in serious financial trouble within five years of retirement.^[1]
Today we know it’s not enough to have a job that simply takes care of today’s needs, but that somehow we need to manage wisely for the future. In ancient Egypt, Joseph wisely stored up grain for the coming days of famine. In Proverbs 31, the wise woman was a hard-working manager who provided for her family and wasn’t worried about winter. She prepared for the coming seasons in advance. Jesus commended the shrewd steward in Luke 16 for using his current position to insure a secure future.

Nothing Can Pry Us From His Hand
            As Christians, even though we should plan for our future, we don’t rely on the world for our ultimate security. For us, the eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. We have a hope that endures; for when Jesus comes into our lives, He comes with abiding security that is unlike any security we can find on earth. He not only died to forgive our sins; He rose from the dead to give us eternal life. His resurrection supplies the power, provision, and pattern for our own resurrections. Because He lives, we will live also.
John’s Gospel drives this home. At the end of his Gospel, John stated his purpose in writing—that we might believe in Christ and have eternal life (John 20:31). He similarly ended his little letter of 1 John by telling us he had written it that we might know we have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Throughout his writing, John used the phrases “eternal life” and “everlasting life” twenty-three times. For example, Jesus told us in John 10:26-29: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
            The future just doesn’t get any more secure than that!

Nothing Can Separate Us From His Love
            Not only can nothing snatch us from His hand; nothing can separate us from His love. The apostle Paul declared: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” He went on to say, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 38-39). He was convinced and no one could tell him otherwise.

Nothing Can Alter His Plan
            The Bible also teaches that nothing can alter God’s plan. Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, “I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before Him.”
            Our Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is immutable—unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable. His grace doesn’t fluctuate. His power doesn’t ebb and flow. His love and mercy do not rise and fall with the tides of any cosmic ocean. He is steadfast, constant, and enduring. The Bible says, “The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 100:5).
            What security and hope! What a basis for an optimistic attitude, even during painful times. And how wonderful to know we don’t have to fear the future or worry about our security.
            When the world experiences the ebb and flow of change, remember: Nothing can separate us from His love. No one can snatch us from His hand. Nothing can alter His plan. We are secure. Start enjoying your eternal life today!

The Plain Truth Is: Govt. Audit: “Elevated” Terrorism Threat to U.S. f...

The Plain Truth Is: Govt. Audit: “Elevated” Terrorism Threat to U.S. f...: A new government audit confirms what Judicial Watch has been reporting for years, that Islamic terrorists are operating in Mexican borde...

Govt. Audit: “Elevated” Terrorism Threat to U.S. from Mexico!

A new government audit confirms what Judicial Watch has been reporting for years, that Islamic terrorists are operating in Mexican border towns and infiltrating the United States to carry out attacks. In a report issued this month by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the agency notes that the state faces a full spectrum of threats and “due to the recent actions of lone offenders or small groups affiliated with or inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other foreign terrorist organizations, we assess that the current terrorism threat to Texas is elevated.”
Safety officials in the Lone Star State also write in the 86-page document that they are “especially concerned about the potential for terrorist infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly as foreign terrorist fighters depart Syria and Iraq and enter global migration flows.” They also express worries about Syrian refugees that have been sent to Texas under President Obama’s settlement program because the government doesn’t have a system to properly vet them. Judicial Watch has also reported extensively on that national security crisis. Read the latest stories here and here. “We see a potential that these challenges may leave the state exposed to extremist actors who pose as authentic refugees, and who are determined to later commit violent acts,” the Texas report states.
In the same manner that ISIS deployed operatives to their targets in European capitals, the terrorist group could implement the same tactics to infiltrate operatives across the Texas-Mexico border, the new report points out. “Human smugglers, working along established Latin American routes, have long transported Syrians, Iraqis and other immigrations from countries where terrorist groups operate to our land border with Mexico,” Texas safety officials write in the report. The U.S. government calls them Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and in past few years they have come from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt and many other “countries of interest” in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia where terrorist groups are active.
The southern border has become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism in recent years and Judicial Watch has exposed the national security disaster as part of an ongoing investigation into the dangerously porous region. In 2015 Judicial Watch reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling SIAs from countries with terrorist links into a small Texas rural town near El Paso. Sources on both sides of the border confirmed to Judicial Watch that the smugglers use remote farm roads—rather than interstates—to elude the Border Patrol and other law enforcement barriers. Once they clear the border, the SIAs are transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Then the SIAs wait for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20.
Also in 2015 Judicial Watch broke a story about ISIS operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Judicial Watch’s sources include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector who also revealed that another ISIS cell is located to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas. A year earlier Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army post in El Paso, implemented increased security measures following a Judicial Watch report about an Islamic terrorist plot in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED).

The Plain Truth Is: DHS IG Who Let Obama Defy Court Rulings Against Il...

The Plain Truth Is: DHS IG Who Let Obama Defy Court Rulings Against Il...: The Obama-appointed inspector general who looked the other way when his boss enacted illegal amnesty programs and ignored federal court ...

DHS IG Who Let Obama Defy Court Rulings Against Illegal Amnesty Acts Probes Trump Muslim Order!

The Obama-appointed inspector general who looked the other way when his boss enacted illegal amnesty programs and ignored federal court injunctions blocking them has launched an investigation into President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. The political grandstanding is behavior unbecoming of a federal agency watchdog, which is charged with independently investigating wrongdoing and rooting out fraud, waste and abuse at 64 of the biggest and most important government agencies.
In this case the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) appears to be selectively investigating based on his ideology and perhaps loyalty to the former commander-in-chief. Just days after Trump signed the controversial executive order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” Obama’s DHS IG, John Roth, fired off a press release announcing his probe. “In addition to reviewing the implementation of the Executive Order, the OIG will review DHS’ adherence to court orders and allegations of individual misconduct on the part of DHS personnel,” the announcement states. “If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of the review.” The probe was initiated in response to “congressional request and whistleblower and hotline complaints,” according to the announcement.
Trump issued the order on January 27 halting for 90 days the entry of citizens from notorious terrorist nations—Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen—in the name of national security. “Numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001, including foreign nationals who entered the United States after receiving visitor, student, or employment visas, or who entered through the United States refugee resettlement program,” Trump’s order explains. “The visa-issuance process plays a crucial role in detecting individuals with terrorist ties and stopping them from entering the United States. Perhaps in no instance was that more apparent than the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when State Department policy prevented consular officers from properly scrutinizing the visa applications of several of the 19 foreign nationals who went on to murder nearly 3,000 Americans.”
Simply put, the order was issued to protect Americans by ensuring that those admitted to the U.S. don’t bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles. “The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law,” the order states. “In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including “honor” killings, other forms of violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation.”
Predictably, the order ignited protests, hysteria among virtually all mainstream media outlets and a series of legal challenges claiming discrimination and violations of religious freedoms. An Obama-appointed federal judge in Los Angeles, California has already issued an emergency order forbidding government officials from enforcing Trump’s measure. The case was filed on behalf of 28 Yemen nationals who claim they will “suffer irreparable harm.” The judge, Andre Birotte Jr., who was also a federal prosecutor under Obama, agreed and writes in his order that the injunction “is in the public interest.” The order bans government officers, agents, employees or attorneys from removing, detaining or blocking the entry of the Yemenis or any other person from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
When a federal court in Texas issued an injunction halting Obama’s broad executive amnesty order, the administration ignored it and continued to protect illegal immigrants. A federal appellate court upheld the decision and the U.S. Supreme Court slammed the illegal Obama policy by upholding the injunction. The preposterous measure would have granted unilateral amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. and the administration violated the court orders by implementing prosecutorial discretion, which allows federal agencies to decide to what degree they enforce certain laws against particular individuals. Under this outrageous initiative, DHS lost track of how many unauthorized foreigners—some felons in their native country—it refused to prosecute under Obama’s broad and illegal amnesty initiative. The DHS IG opted to sit those out and let Obama carry on with his illegal mandates.