by Corinne Murdock | Dec 3, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
U.S. Border Patrol (BP) agents nabbed 21 convicted sex offenders attempting to enter the country illegally in just over a month; all but one were pedophiles.
Agents operating in the Del Rio Sector caught the offenders. 20 had committed sex offenses against children, with the sole other apprehended illegal immigrant convicted of a sexual assault involving sodomy. The sex offenses against children included rape, enticement, exposure, sexual contact, assault, and lewd and lascivious battery.
Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) shared the BP update, reflecting that the apprehensions proved the severity of the ongoing border crisis.
“Great job by U.S. Border Patrol, but this just shows how serious our border crisis is!” said Lesko. “We MUST secure the border NOW.”
These latest apprehensions are part of the trend of serious offenders capitalizing on the effectively open border policy of the Biden administration.
In June, Del Rio Sector agents marked the apprehension of their 86th sex offender for the 2023 fiscal year. It is currently the 2024 fiscal year; BP runs its fiscal year from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Overall, there have been over 284 illegal immigrants with criminal sexual offense convictions apprehended at the border this past fiscal year. That total marked a slight decline from the past two years: the 2021 fiscal year endured the worst totals at 488 illegal immigrants with criminal sexual offense convictions apprehended, followed by the 2022 fiscal year at 365. The 2018 and 2019 fiscal years were markedly low, with 80 and 58 apprehensions, respectively.
In all, the last fiscal year there were over 2.4 million illegal immigrant encounters along the southern border.
Not counting last month, the first month in the 2024 fiscal year, President Joe Biden’s administration has seen over 6.37 million illegal immigrant encounters along the southern border. October set another record, with nearly 241,000 illegal immigrant encounters compared to the 2023 and 2022 fiscal years, which endured over 231,500 and 164,800 encounters respectively.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Dr. Thomas Patterson | Nov 25, 2023 | Opinion
By Dr. Thomas Patterson |
Social Security and Medicare are so popular they are commonly known as the “third rail” of politics. Any politician who touches them gets a nasty shock. The politically smart thing for decades has been to periodically increase benefits and not worry too much about adequately funding these supposedly self-sufficient programs
Congress designates SS/Medicare as non-discretionary spending, which allows even fiscal conservatives to earnestly explain that Congress is unable to touch them, not even to reduce the benefit increases they themselves bestowed in the past. Of course, this is ridiculous since Congress could legally eliminate the programs if it chose to do so (not recommended).
As the population has aged and birth rates have fallen, SS/Medicare have descended into serious financial distress. This year, the programs will spend $69 billion more than they take in. The programs’ trustees recently moved the date for expected insolvency up to 2031 for Medicare, 2034 for Social Security.
Yet there is little acknowledgment from the political class that a problem exists. To acknowledge it creates a mandate for making highly unpopular choices. Even Donald Trump, the would be “conservative” leader, has decreed that no part of making America great again will involve touching our major entitlements. The endless quest for re-election continues to dominate decision making in Washington.
Even beyond entitlements, America has a spending problem. The federal government spends about 25% of GDP but only takes in revenues of 19%. The rest is charged off to future generations. With interest rates returning to normal levels, federal debt service will soon exceed $1 trillion a year, roughly what we spend to defend our country.
Why do we continue to spend so recklessly in times of peace and prosperity? It’s partly our perverse politics, where spenders dare opponents to suggest fiscal reforms and then rip them for bringing it up.
It’s also a mindset. Not long ago, families were considered the primary caregivers for each other. It was contemptible to neglect your own.
Americans today believe they are entitled to have government assume what were formerly family duties. Politicians gain millions of grateful dependents and family structure suffers, but there’s no going back.
Federal decision-makers have adopted an all-purpose solution to the problems that plague us: throw dollars at it. Schools failing? Send money. Semiconductor industry struggling? More money. People still living in poverty? Appropriate even more money. Money papers over our problems but affords no actual solutions.
Nobody even talks about the monetary implications of our ongoing border crisis. Over seven million mostly unskilled illegal immigrants breached our borders. Immediately upon successfully registering their fraudulent asylum claims, they expect food, shelter, medical care, transportation, eventually education, and social services all without a thought of paying for them.
The direct and indirect costs are incalculable, but California already reports annual direct expenses of $21.76 billion while Texas pays $8.8 billion and Arizona $3.2 billion.
Yet Democrats contend only more money can solve the problem. Biden and border czar Kamala Harris claim Republicans are responsible for the border mess because they once blocked further spending increases, even though the money goes to accommodate more illegal immigration. It’s time to end this massive farce and lawfully control the border. Democrats will have to find some less costly way to recruit future voters.
Our response to the COVID epidemic was another giant boondoggle. There wasn’t much to do about the virus. Protect the vulnerable, treat the ill, develop a vaccine, and allow it to run its course.
Instead, we embraced an orgy of spending. Trillions went to infrastructure improvements, solar energy, daycare, schools, businesses, and even individuals, all inexplicably in the name of COVID. It didn’t affect the course of the disease, but our descendants will pay for this spree far into the future.
It gets worse. In 2025, the spending caps on Obamacare and other discretionary items are set to expire as are the low interest bonds the government issued when money was cheap. There will be tremendous pressure to spend yet more just to maintain the spending status quo.
Thomas Jefferson, 250 years ago, extolled the benefits of a “wise and frugal” government. We didn’t listen. We will soon wish we had.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 26, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Border Patrol agents are reporting encounters and apprehensions of large groups of hundreds of single adult illegal immigrants from across the globe.
Over the weekend and within a span of three hours, Tucson Sector agents apprehended two groups totaling 303 migrants representing 18 different countries. Most were single adults, and appeared to be males.
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens reported the apprehension of seven felons over the weekend. The men involved had criminal pasts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, lewd acts with a child, mayhem or rape and burglary, assault with a weapon, alien smuggling, domestic violence, and possession or intent to deliver drugs.
The Hamas attack on Israel and ongoing conflict may or already has caused further strain on the border crisis. The Daily Caller obtained an internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) memo dated Oct. 20 warning of a potential increase of budding or active terrorists aligned with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or Hezbollah crossing the southern border.
“San Diego Field Office Intelligence Unit assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border,” said the memo. “Foreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the US to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico.”
For the 2023 fiscal year (October 2022 through September) there were over 2 million illegal immigrants encountered at the southern border. That included a 27 percent increase in criminal or wanted illegal immigrants by Border Patrol: over 15,200 this year so far, compared to over 12,000 last year. Of those, nearly 1,000 had outstanding arrest wants or warrants.
That also includes an 18.6 percent increase in criminal or wanted illegal immigrants by the Office of Field Operations (OFO): over 20,100 so far this year, up from nearly 17,000 last year and 6,500 in 2021. This year’s total is nearly double that of the average Trump administration OFO year.
Recidivism has increased from 7 percent in fiscal year 2019 to 26 percent in fiscal year 2020 and 27 percent in fiscal year 2021.
There were also 169 FBI terror watchlist individuals encountered at the southern border for the 2023 fiscal year, nearly doubling last year’s record of 98 and greater than the previous six fiscal years combined.
These numbers are likely a significant undercount. There have been around two million gotaways over the past two years of the Biden administration. Gotaways refer to those detected but not encountered or apprehended.
Owens revealed that there were at least over 18,000 known gotaways in the first 16 days of this fiscal year (2024, which runs from this October through next September).
“These are individuals whose identities & purpose we do not know,” said Owens. “That is why you need every Border Patrol agent to be in the field and on patrol.”
The number of gotaways reached 23,000 as of Monday, per CBP confirmation to Fox News.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 2, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) awarded Arizona $850,000 to fund the identification and transportation of illegal immigrant remains.
The DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) awarded the funds to the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) for the purpose of funding DNA analysis of the illegal immigrants.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07) announced the funding in a press release. Grijalva said the program was important to “bring closure” to the families of the deceased.
“Moving forward, we must humanize our border management and address the root causes of migration to prevent the perilous journey that too often results in a tragic loss of life,” said Grijalva.
MUHR is a new federal program that began this fiscal year (October 2022 through September 2023) specifically for the reporting, transporting, forensic testing, and identification of missing persons and unidentified human remains, including illegal immigrants.
So far, MUHR reported issuing six awards through April totaling nearly $4.5 million. Of those grants issued, around $2.5 million were for identifying remains that included illegal immigrants: $996,000 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, $496,000 to Miami-Dade County in Florida, $996,000 to Texas State University.
Just over 532 illegal immigrant remains have been recovered in the state since 2021, according to a joint data collection effort by medical examiner’s offices in Pima and Maricopa counties. The data collection effort refers to the illegal immigrants as “undocumented border crossers.” Per their data, illegal immigrant remains recovered reached their highest levels since 2007, over 200 annually, in 2020.
This data includes causes of death beyond those related to border crossing activity and beyond the border, with remains included in the count ranging up into Phoenix.
The following causes of death are included in illegal immigrant deaths: asphyxia, blunt force injury, diabetes, drug overdose, exposure, exsanguination (severe blood loss), heart disease, motor vehicle accident, nonviable fetus, other disease, other injury, other injury/homicide, pending, pregnancy complication, skeletal remains, undetermined. A majority of the deaths concern skeletal remains with pending or undetermined causes of death.
In 2021, there were the following deaths: skeletal remains (112), exposure (76), undetermined (14), blunt force injury (11), pending (3, found in desert areas), drowning (3), asphyxia (1), drug overdose (1), and other disease (sepsis, 1).
In 2022, there were the following deaths: skeletal remains (90), exposure (51), undetermined (22), blunt force injury (5), drowning (1), drug overdose (1), asphyxia (1), gunshot wound (1), and other injury (1).
So far this year, there have been the following deaths: exposure (55), skeletal remains (47), undetermined (15), blunt force injury (11), heart disease (3), pending (2), and gunshot wound (1).
Last year’s numbers marked a decline from the highs of 2020 and 2021: there were 173 bodies recovered. This year’s total so far is slightly lower than last year’s: 134, compared to 137 this time last year.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 21, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Over the weekend, the Arizona Republic featured an opinion article from an illegal immigrant activist advocating for citizenship rights for himself and others.
The illegal immigrant activist, Arizona State University (ASU) college student Angel Palazuelos, interns with the illegal immigrant activist group Aliento. Palazuelos refers to himself as “undocumented,” a euphemism for those who remain illegally in America after immigrating illegally.
“I belong here. This is my home, and I have done more than enough to prove it,” wrote Palazuelos. “The struggles of undocumented individuals like me are often overlooked in the broader conversation.”
Palazuelos is a rising senior at ASU, where he studies biomedical engineering. He receives in-state tuition rates due to the recent passage of Proposition 308, a leftist dark money-backed ballot initiative which conferred the benefits of reduced tuition rates to illegal immigrants.
Palazuelos has also served as the face for advancing illegal immigration reform for years. Prior to joining up with Aliento, Palazuelos said his dream was to become a mechanical engineer. Now, he hopes his activist efforts will enable him to become an immigration lawyer.
In 2020, the New York Times featured Palazuelos following his high school graduation, depicting him as a youth whose “life has been punctuated with uncertainty, anxiety, and fear.”
The author of the Palazuelos feature, Fernanda Santos, writes currently for The Washington Post, teaches at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and serves as the editorial director for the Futuro Media Group.
In a 2021 interview with ASU’s student newspaper, Palazuelos complained that he had to find outside scholarships to afford college since he didn’t qualify for in-state tuition rates. Four months later, Palazuelos received financial aid from the governments of both his home country and the U.S.: he received $5,500 as one of the 30 recipients of the Empowering Diversity Scholarship issued by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and Fiesta Bowl. Palazuelos also received $2,000 from the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix and the nonprofit Friendly House. The Mexican Consulate funding comes from the Mexican government’s Institute for Mexicans Abroad, which is then applied by individual, U.S.-based consulates.
Earlier in 2021, Palazuelos claimed in an Aliento video feature that his dreams of studying engineering were “crushed” because of his immigration status.
Now, in anticipation of soon graduating with his engineering degree, Palazuelos said he plans on attending law school to become an immigration attorney. However, Palazuelos claimed that current employment laws prevent him from working, or even receiving an internship. Palazuelos has been admitted to multiple internships and programs throughout his life.
Palazuelos met with Gov. Katie Hobbs in February to lobby for the “Promise for Dreamers” program. Hobbs’ plan would set aside $40 million for college scholarships for illegal immigrants. On average, over 3,600 illegal immigrant youth graduate from Arizona high schools annually.
READ: GOV. HOBBS WANTS TO COVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS’ TUITION
According to Palazuelos’ most recent testimony, when he was five years old his family immigrated illegally from Culiacán Sinaloa, Mexico into the country exactly three days after the deadline to qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program instituted by former President Barack Obama. He claimed to not be a DACA recipient, though on social media and in interviews he refers to himself as a “dreamer” — the descriptor used to identify DACA recipients. Palazuelos also identified himself as a DACA recipient for a feature article by ASU’s marketing team in 2020.
That’s not the only inconsistency: elsewhere, Palazuelos claims he immigrated when he was four, then five, then six years old. His timeline for missing DACA eligibility has also shifted: in a 2021 article, Palazuelos told the Arizona Republic that his family missed the deadline by two days, not three. Yet in 2020, Palazuelos told the New York Times that he qualified for the program and intended to apply, but was unable to because the Trump administration rescinded DACA.
Aliento, the organization where Palazuelo served as both an intern and a fellow, was co-founded by a DACA recipient: Reyna Montoya. Like Palazuelo, Montoya also attended ASU; she graduated with political science and transborder studies degrees, then a master’s degree in secondary education.
Also like Palazuelo, Montoya lamented the consequences of illegal immigration. Montoya founded Aliento in 2016, claiming “compounded trauma and education barriers” from growing up as a DACA recipient. Montoya was 10 years old when her mother smuggled her from Tijuana, Mexico to Arizona.
In the summer of 2021, the Arizona House awarded Aliento for advocating for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Aliento leadership also has ties to the liberal think tank behind the cover-up of Hunter Biden’s corruption.
In his opinion article over the weekend, Palazuelos petitioned Congress to confer permanent citizenship to himself, his family, and other illegal immigrants like them.
The taxpayer-borne cost of educating illegal immigrants is nearing the billions annually. In 2020, the most recent data available, illegal immigrant children cost Arizona public schools over $748 million. 99 percent of those funds came from local and state taxes, not the federal government.
Palazuelos’ mother, Daisy, claimed in an interview with Aliento that her children have “suffered” because of immigration law. Daisy issued her remarks in Spanish.
“[M]y children and our, as a whole community, has already suffered enough,” said Daisy. “This is not just. This is an opportunity we cannot wait for. We need it now.”
It’s unclear what suffering Palazuelos endured.
He revealed across his many media interviews over the years that his high school experience lacked for nothing. All while reportedly maintaining a 4.7 GPA, Palazuelos was able to take honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes, as well as enjoy a wide variety of extracurriculars in high school. Palazuelos also delivered a speech to his graduating class.
Palazuelos played volleyball, baseball, and cross-country; he participated in an engineering CTE program where he was certified through programs like SolidWorks and AutoCAD; he served as president for his school’s Spanish Honor Society; he was a member of the National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, Mathematics Honor Society, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan (MEChA), the ACLU of Arizona; and he served as a student strategist for the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.
Palazuelos also interned for Puente Human Rights Movement, and participated in a Harvard University summer program, Summer Business Academy. Palazuelos successfully crowdfunded the $2,000 to pay for the program.
Puente Human Rights Movement allegedly assisted Palazuelos in a petition to remove school resource officers off Phoenix Union High School District campuses, for which Palazuelos alleged to The New York Times that he was threatened with deportation. Palazuelos also led demonstrations at the Phoenix Police Department and the ICE detention center.
“The system is the one we need to dismantle,” said Palazuelos in a 2020 ASU feature interview.
“Being undocumented is knowing that despite doing everything right, you will never be ‘qualified,’” stated Palazuelos.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
