Border Patrol Agents Rescue Migrants From Scorching Summer Heat

Border Patrol Agents Rescue Migrants From Scorching Summer Heat

By Daniel Stefanski |

Proving yet again how dangerous the American southern border is for the migrants making the journey, members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations UH-60 aircrew made two separate rescues of groups of individuals this past weekend.

Earlier this week, CBP announced that five illegal aliens had been rescued in the Peloncillo Mountain range in the Tucson Border Sector on Friday and Saturday. This range is near the Arizona-New Mexico border. On Friday, three migrants were evacuated from the range after they had suffered from heat exhaustion. The responding aircrew was initially flagged by Douglas Station Horse Patrol Agents. On Sunday, two additional individuals were rescued by the aircrew, and the Douglas Horse Patrol Unit assisted seven other migrants to safety.

“Our aircrews are trained and capable of rapidly shifting from operational missions to humanitarian roles,” stated Jessie Scruggs, Director of Air and Marine Operations, Tucson Air Branch. “These two incidents represent what our aircrews are called to assist agents on the ground who encounter the growing number of migrants who become distressed by the unrelentless conditions they are placed in by callous smugglers.”

According to the press release from CBP, enforcement actions from CBP’s Air and Marine Operations during Fiscal Year 2023 “resulted in 1,004 arrests and 89,909 apprehensions of undocumented individuals, as well as the seizure or disruption of 256,883 pounds of cocaine, 2,049 pounds of fentanyl, 4,050 pounds of methamphetamine, 2,200 weapons, and $15.3 million.”

There are approximately 1,800 federal agents and mission support personnel who serve in CBP’s Air and Marine Operations.

Illegal aliens making their way to the United States encounter many dangers along the way, including from the extreme climates along the southern border and the abuse from the cartels and smugglers who profit from their travels. Very vulnerable children are also subject to these journeys – several of whom are forced back and forth across the border to help adult migrants exploit loopholes in U.S. immigration policies.

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.

Migrant Crime Is Turning US Cities Into War Zones

Migrant Crime Is Turning US Cities Into War Zones

By Betsy McCaughey |

Criminals posing as asylum seekers are turning American cities into war zones.

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, feared for how it tortures its victims, is setting up business in New York City, police sources reveal.

Gang members recruit migrants from shelters and as they come off buses from Texas, put them to work in retail theft rings or on mopeds, grabbing phones and handbags and roughing up pedestrians.

“This is organized crime. It’s just like the Mafia,” says Paul DiGiacomo, president of the NYC Detectives’ Endowment Association.

NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban warns of a “wave of migrant crime.” Democratic pols deny it. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says migrants “are looking for a better life.” True for many, not all.

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander accuses Caban of “fear mongering” and using a “Republican talking point.”

Believe the cops, not the pols. (RELATED: BETSY MCCAUGHEY: Democrats Really Love Rolling Out Welcome Mats)

Migrants in moped gangs and retail theft rings, some carrying guns, are terrorizing the Big Apple, Yonkers and New Jersey.

Two-man teams snatch pedestrians’ phones and deliver them to Tren de Aragua stash houses, where professional hackers make fraudulent banking transactions and drain cash from all accounts. Then the phones are wiped clean and shipped to South America for resale.

A 62-year-old woman was brutally dragged down a Brooklyn street by one of these moped thieves who made off with her purse. When you see mopeds, step back from the curb and hug the building — advice usually needed in a third-world city, not New York.

A shopper at JD Sports near Times Square was shot in the leg by baby-faced, 15-year-old migrant Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa when a security guard tried to stop him from robbing the store on Feb. 8. Figueroa whipped out a .45-caliber handgun and shot into the crowd. He has since been apprehended by police.

The next job is to track down the ringleaders who armed him and sent him into the store. The teen had been living in the Stratford Hotel, a city shelter, with his mother and attending school. He is also a suspect in a Jan. 25 incident in Midtown and a Jan. 27 robbery in the Bronx. After his first run-in with cops, the shelter system should have been notified and Figueroa should have been evicted.

Chicago is also being terrorized. There, professional criminals enlist migrants from the shelters to raid luxury stores at the suburban Oakbrook Center shopping mall, 5 miles west of the city. These migrants wouldn’t have a clue where Oak Brook, an upscale suburb, is, or how to get there without the criminal masterminds.

South American gangs are turning suburban malls into danger zones, explains retired Riverside, Illinois, Police Chief Tom Weitzel. “You’re at one of the suburban malls … pushing your kids in a stroller” and you can get caught in the violence, he said in an interview with Fox News.

“A lot more crossing the border are criminals or have criminal intent than is being publicly said,” Weitzel added.

Paul Mauro, a retired inspector of the NYPD, agrees. The claim that Venezuela is emptying its prisons is accurate, he suggested in a separate interview with Fox News.

Blame President Joe Biden’s open borders, but also the soft-on-crime Democrats in New York and Illinois, whose policies almost guarantee that migrant criminals can rob and assault without ever going to jail.

Hochul sweetens the attraction by guaranteeing asylum seekers cash welfare benefits — something the federal government bars so state and local taxpayers have to foot the entire bill.

On top of that, New York City is court-mandated to guarantee shelter to all, something Mayor Eric Adams should seek to overturn. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny observed that “the network of thieves” lives mostly in the shelter system.

That includes the migrants who beat up two cops at Times Square on Jan. 27. They had a string of previous arrests but were still living in shelters, courtesy of N.Y. taxpayers.

Adams is imposing an 11 p.m. curfew at some shelters. That’s window dressing.

Providing room and board to the same people who rob and threaten us makes no sense. Once migrants get in trouble with the law, the shelter system should be notified and they should be evicted. The only shelter they get should be at Rikers.

The Statue of Liberty says, “Give me your tired, your poor.” It doesn’t say your lawbreakers, brutes and gang leaders.

Daily Caller News Foundation logo

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Betsy McCaughey is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Record Number Of Illegal Immigrants Continue To Flow Into Tucson Sector

Record Number Of Illegal Immigrants Continue To Flow Into Tucson Sector

By Daniel Stefanski |

The Tucson Border Sector continues to attract a record number of illegal immigrants.

Late last week, John Modlin, the Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, reported that there were 18,900 apprehensions in his sector in just one week.

Ali Bradley, a Network Correspondent for NewsNation, highlighted that this eyepopping number was an increase over the previous week’s record of 17,500 for the sector.

Bradley also reported that most of these aliens have been “entering illegally through cuts in the wall in Lukeville.” Lukeville has become the epicenter of the border crisis in recent months, with thousands of individuals pouring through openings in the border fence, which have largely been procured by smugglers on the Mexican side.

Another journalist, Bill Melugin from Fox News, shared CBP’s revelations that “an average of 5,000 illegal immigrants are being released into the US every day, and that there were 670,000 known gotaways recorded in FY’23” in addition to “150+ countries encountered since 10/1.”

Arizona Legislators have long been outraged at the lack of action on the border, and the reactions to this fresh round of numbers were no different. House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci wrote, “Enough is enough with this border shit show. It’s time Arizona grants arresting powers, & the authority to carry, to all 5000 Arizona National Guard @ the border. Take over border duties with local Sheriff’s. Arrest, load them up, and deport them immediately. 10th Amendment!!!”

Representative Joseph Chaplik stated, “Democrats don’t care. Where are they in AZ calling for this to stop? Doing something in a week from now doesn’t help. Damage is done.”

The skyrocketing apprehensions have created chaos and alarm bells throughout government at all jurisdictions, in large part, due to what law enforcement isn’t encountering. Thanks to CBP agents being pulled off the lines to help process overwhelming numbers of arrests, cartels and smugglers can run ‘gotaways’ and deadly drugs – including loads of fentanyl – through other, unmanned areas. In the past fiscal year, a record number of suspected terrorists were apprehended at the border (169), leading many to question how many other dangerous people are slipping through the cracks and into the interior of the homeland.

Officials also have seized a rising amount of drugs at the open border, which according to reports, may only be 5-10% of the total numbers being smuggled into the United States. The Tucson Sector is one of the nation’s most prolific drug smuggling corridors.

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.

University Of Arizona Giving Illegal Immigrants Scholarships Via Leftist Dark Money Program

University Of Arizona Giving Illegal Immigrants Scholarships Via Leftist Dark Money Program

By Corinne Murdock |

The University of Arizona (UArizona) is now offering scholarships to illegal immigrants using the nonprofit arm of a leftist dark money network.

The university partnered with TheDream.US to provide the scholarships: an initiative of the New Venture Fund, an initiative by one of the biggest leftist dark money organizations in the nation, Arabella Advisors. That organization recently came under investigation for tax law aversion and illegal profiteering. UArizona President Robert Robbins said that the scholarships would provide opportunities for all Arizona youth regardless of their citizenship status. 

“This new partnership with TheDream.US is a crucial step in our effort to make sure that all of Arizona’s youth have the opportunity to attend college and achieve their higher education goals,” said Robbins. “I am proud that the university, as Arizona’s land-grant institution, has entered this partnership, which allows us to serve more incoming students, including Arizona’s Dreamers.”

These scholarships — running up to $33,000 for tuition and fees — don’t require an illegal immigrant to have protections from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), so long as they came to the U.S. before the age of 16 and before Nov. 1, 2018, and have graduated from high school. 

A full scholarship would cover all but $200 of in-state, on-campus costs of attendance. Should the illegal immigrant live off campus, the scholarship would completely cover costs of attendance with around $10,000 left over.

Some applicants may also receive an additional stipend of up to $6,000 for books, supplies, and transportation.

Illegal immigrants became eligible for in-state tuition last year with the passage of Proposition 308, backed by at least $1.2 million from out-of-state dark money networks. 

Last year, TheDream.US partnered with Northern Arizona University (NAU) to offer the same scholarship opportunity to illegal immigrants. Arizona State University (ASU), Phoenix College, and Grand Canyon University (GCU) also partner with TheDream.US. 

TheDream.US founders are: Don Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post), former director of Facebook, and former member of the Pulitzer Prize Board; Carlos Guitierrez, chairman and CEO of Empath, former chairman and CEO of Kellogg’s, and former Secretary of Commerce for the Bush administration; and Henry R. Muñoz III, former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee.

Several among the senior staff at TheDream.US were illegal immigrants themselves. Leading them is president and CEO Gaby Pacheco, an illegal immigrant who didn’t obtain her citizenship until June. As an activist, Pacheco helped inspire the DACA program as enacted via executive order by former President Barack Obama.

Last year, TheDream.US president was Candy Marshall, the former chief human resources officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Marshall now serves as the senior advisor to the organization. 

Advisory board members include Lupe De La Cruz, Pepsi vice president of government affairs and corporate citizenship; Mei-Yen Ireland, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Georgia Levenson Keohane, CEO of the Soros Economic Development Fund; and Andrew Rosen, chairman and CEO of Kaplan.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Tucson Spends $5 Million To House And Bus Illegal Immigrants

Tucson Spends $5 Million To House And Bus Illegal Immigrants

By Corinne Murdock |

The city of Tucson will have spent around $5 million to house illegal immigrants over the course of nine months. 

The city expanded its budget for the illegal immigrants during its regular council meeting last week. 

The $5 million covered an April 1 through Dec. 31 budget this year, or nine months. The bulk of the funding, $4.3 million, covers overflow hotel nights on an as-needed basis. $550,000 covers the city’s Sun Tran bus service to shuttle the illegal immigrants from shelter sites and the Tucson International Airport. The remaining $150,000 was for staff on an as-needed basis. 

In agenda documents, the city detailed how the border crisis has resulted in a significant increase in illegal immigrants that overwhelmed the Casa Alitas Welcome Center and necessitated overflow into non-congregate settings such as hotels and local transportation such as the city’s Sun Tran bus service.

The illegal immigrant flood also resulted in the Pima County Emergency Food and Shelter Program Local Board to request additional relief funding from their national board.

In April, the city entered into an agreement with Pima County to reimburse the city for the emergency shelter, transportation, and staff support services provided to illegal immigrants amid the ongoing border crisis. The city characterized the illegal immigrants they served as “legally present.”

The funding ultimately originates from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) serving as the primary pass-through entity and the Emergency Food Shelter (EFSP) National Board serving as the secondary pass-through entity. 

The additional funding was approved collectively as part of last week’s consent agenda.

Congress first began appropriating funds for EFSP specifically for migrants in 2019 through the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border, with its first round of funds totaling $30 million. In 2021, Congress issued $110 million through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. In 2022, Congress issued $150 million through the DHS Appropriations Act of 2022. 

This year, Congress issued $425 million through the DHS Appropriations Act of 2023.

Pima County Grants Management & Innovation has received over $26 million in funding specifically for illegal immigrant humanitarian relief. The various World Hunger Ecumenial Arizona Task Forces have received, collectively, over $19.4 million: the Maricopa County branch received over $11 million, the Cochise County branch received over $75,000, the Disculpos de Reino branch received over $66,000, and the Yuma County branch received nearly $8.2 million.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.