As fentanyl kills thousands of Americans and illegal immigration continues to increase, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday addressing how Biden administration’s border policies have affected American lives.
Representatives heard testimony from several witnesses, including Brandon Dunn, co-founder of the Forever 15 Project; Dale Lynn Carruthers, county judge of Terrell County, Texas; and Mark Dannels, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona.
The number of undocumented immigrant crossings at the southwest border for the fiscal year 2022 topped 2.76 million, topping the previous annual record by more than 1 million, Customs and Border Protection data revealed.
The Drug Enforcement Administration seized record amounts of illegal fentanyl in 2022, a news release said. More than 100,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses in a 12-month period.
The following are four takeaways from the hearing on “The Biden Border Crisis.”
1. Concern about the border is “racist,” Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler says.
“The first hearing [of the Republican majority] showcases the racist tendency of extreme MAGA wing of the Republican party,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said
He said the “haphazard, chaotic” hearing made him miss the Right’s “usual obsession with conspiracy theories and the FBI.” Nadler said the Republicans’ goal with the hearing was to distract from their failure to pass meaningful legislation during the session.
2. The border crisis is worse under Biden than Trump.
Dannels,a sheriff with 38 years of experience at the border, said that under the Biden administration, the border is open, saying Biden policies are the reason drug cartels are able to smuggle fentanyl across the border.
“It was better under President Trump,” Dannels said. “This is the worst I’ve seen,” referencing “aggravated acts toward law enforcement.”
Dannels said open border policies hinder his ability to do his job, as “border crimes equate to about 40-44%” of the people in his jail, forcing him to spend a lot of time with border crimes instead of the usual police work.
The sheriff said the rule of law is not enforced under the Biden administration as it was under the previous administration.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the worst about the crisis is that it was avoidable.
“Under President Trump the border was secure, under President Biden there is no border — and Americans are paying the price,” Jordan said.
3. Record numbers of illegal immigrants are crossing the border.
Since Biden took office, more than 4.5 million migrants have crossed the border illegally, 1.7 million of whom had been released into American communities, Jordan said in his opening remarks.
Jordan said immigration is at the “highest numbers ever recorded in a single year in our nation’s history,” including 8,100 illegal entrances per day in December 2022.
Jordan said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told him he was unsure of the status of immigrants on the terrorism watchlist.
“These numbers make clear that the Biden administration does not have operational control of the border,” Jordan said. “Month after month after month, we have set records for migrants coming into the country and frankly, I think it’s intentional.”
“Make no mistake, the Biden administration is carrying out its plan,” Jordan added.
4. Biden isn’t listening to border patrol agents.
“We have tried to reach out to Biden,” Dannels said. “He is the first president not to meet with sheriffs.” Dannels said there is an “absence of federal government” at America’s border. The president has only toured the U.S.-Mexico border once during his presidency.
Mayorkas, too, has not been responsive, according to Dannels. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., called this an “absolute dereliction of duty,” and “inexcusable,” calling the border crisis an “impossible situation.”
As the addiction and overdose crisis that has gripped the U.S. for two decades turns even deadlier, state governments are scrambling for ways to stem the destruction wrought by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
In statehouses across the country, lawmakers have been considering and adopting laws on two fronts:reducing the risk to users and increasing the penalties for dealing fentanyl or mixing it with other drugs. Meanwhile, Republican state attorneys general are calling for more federal action, while some GOP governors are deploying National Guard units with a mission that includes stopping the flow of fentanyl from Mexico.
“It’s a fine line to help people and try to get people clean, and at the same time incarcerate and get the drug dealers off the streets,” said Nathan Manning, a Republican state senator in Ohio who is sponsoring legislation to make it clear that materials used to test drugs for fentanyl are legal.
The recent case of five West Point cadets who overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine during spring break in Florida put the dangers and pervasiveness of the fentanyl crisis back in the spotlight.
The chemical precursors to the drugs are being shipped largely from China to Mexico, where much of the illicit fentanyl supply is produced in labs before being smuggled into the U.S.
While users sometimes seek out fentanyl specifically, it and other synthetics with similar properties are often mixed with other drugs or formed into counterfeit pills so users often don’t know they’re taking it.
Advocates say test strips can help prevent accidental overdoses of drugs laced with fentanyl. The strips are given out at needle exchanges and sometimes at concerts or other events where drugs are expected to be sold or used.
Thomas Stuber, chief legislative officer at The LCADA Way, a drug treatment organization in Ohio that serves Lorain County and nearby areas, has been pushing for the test strip legislation. It also would ease access to naloxone, a drug that can be used to revive people when they’re having opioid overdoses.
“This is a harm-reduction approach that has received a lot of acceptance,” he said. “We cannot treat somebody if they’re dead.”
Since last year, at least a half-dozen states have enacted similar laws and at least a dozen others have considered them, according to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In West Virginia, the state hardest hit by opioids per capita, lawmakers passed a bill this month to legalize the testing strips. It now heads to the governor.
The measure was sponsored by Republican lawmakers. But state Delegate Mike Pushkin, a Democrat whose district includes central Charleston, has also been pushing for more access to fentanyl strips. He said the situation got worse last year when a state law tightened regulations on needle exchanges, causing some of them to close.
Pushkin, who also is in long-term addiction recovery, is pleased with the passage of the testing strip bill but upset with another measure passed this month that would increase the penalties for trafficking fentanyl. That bill also would create a new crime of adding fentanyl to another drug.
“Their initial reaction is, ‘We have to do something,’” he said. “It’s not just about doing something, it’s about doing the right thing that actually has results.”
But for many lawmakers, making sure that tough criminal penalties apply to fentanyl is a priority.
California Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen, a Republican, introduced a measure that would make penalties for dealing fentanyl just as harsh as those for selling cocaine or heroin. The Republican represents Orange County, where there were more than 600 reported fentanyl-related deaths last year.
“This is sending messages to those who aren’t afraid of selling these drugs that there’s a longer, bigger penalty than you might think,” said Nguyen, whose bill failed to advance from her chamber’s public safety committee in a 5-2 vote last week. She said after the bill failed that she was considering trying again.
She said committee members stressed compassion for drug users, something she said she agrees with.
The same day her measure failed to advance, a Democratic lawmaker in California announced a different bill to increase fentanyl-dealing penalties.
The National Conference of State Legislatures found 12 states with fentanyl-specific drug trafficking or possession laws as of last year. Similar measures have been introduced or considered since the start of 2021 in at least 19 states, the Associated Press found in an analysis of bills compiled by LegiScan. That does not include measures to add more synthetic opioids to controlled substance lists to mirror federal law; those have been adopted in many states, with bipartisan support.
Fentanyl has been in the spotlight in Colorado since February, when five people were found dead in a suburban Denver apartment from overdoses of fentanyl mixed with cocaine.
Under state law, possession with intent to distribute less than 14 grams of fentanyl is an offense normally punishable by two to four years in prison. But fentanyl is so potent that 14 grams can represent up to 700 lethal doses, under a calculation used by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
He and a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week unveiled a bill also backed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis that would increase penalties for dealers with smaller amounts of fentanyl and in cases where the drug leads to a death. The legislation also would increase the accessibility of naloxone and test strips while steering people who possess fentanyl into education and treatment programs.
Maritza Perez, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that advocates for harm-reduction measures, is skeptical of the legislation that would increase criminal penalties.
“We have the largest incarceration rate in the entire world and we’re also setting records in terms of overdose deaths,” she said.
Democratic governors are focusing primarily on harm reduction methods. Among them is Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker, who released a broad overdose action plan last month.
Several Republican governors and attorneys general have responded to the rising death toll with administrative enforcement efforts and by pushing for more federal intervention.
Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called for states to help secure the border with Mexico. Along with trying to keep people from entering the U.S., stopping the flow of fentanyl was cited as a reason. Several other Republican governors have sent contingents of state troopers or National Guard units.
The Texas Military Department said that from March 2021 through earlier this month, its troops near the border confiscated more than 1,200 pounds (540 kilograms) of fentanyl. By comparison, federal authorities reported confiscating about 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) in 2021 — still a fraction of what entered the country.Gov. Greg Abbott brags about his border initiative. The evidence doesn’t back him up.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed about 2,700 cases involving crimes related to the distribution of fentanyl and similar synthetic drugs, up nearly tenfold from 2017. Even so, Republican state officials are critical of federal efforts to stop fentanyl from entering the country.
In January, 16 GOP state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on him to exert more pressure on China and Mexico to stop the flow of fentanyl. Those are steps that Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of National Drug Control Policy, said are already being taken.
In March, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for more enforcement on fentanyl trafficking and harsher penalties.
“Fentanyl is killing Americans of all walks of life in unprecedented numbers,” Morrisey said in a statement emailed to the AP, “and the federal government must respond with full force, across the board, using every tool available to stem the tide of death.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
In the following statement, the 45th President goes over things in Arizona, Georgia, and other areas where he says the 2020 election was a conspiracy by the Democrats to rig the election, and the fake news media and Unselect Committee are covering it up.
You can read the full statement below.
The actual conspiracy to defraud the United States was the Democrats rigging the Election, and the Fake News Media and the Unselect Committee covering it up. Few things could be more fraudulent, or met with more irregularities, than the Presidential Election of 2020. They refuse to cover the facts, such as just this week the special counsel in Wisconsin called for the decertification of the 2020 Election because of massive illegality, including election bribery, and the preying on the elderly for votes, which resulted in fraud of “95-100 percent turnout,” an impossibility, in at least 91 nursing homes. This is true with many other states, especially swing states. In Arizona, 204,430 mail-in ballots had mismatched signatures that were never sent to review, and 740,000 mail-in ballots had broken chain of custody, all far more necessary than the votes needed, 10,457, for “President Trump to win.” In Georgia, over 240 ballot harvesters have been identified in an illegal operation spanning multiple swing states, all caught on video.
The evidence is monumental but the Unselect Committee of politically partisan hacks, and someone who had a steaming hot affair with a Chinese spy, hides the facts. Judges and even justices of the United States Supreme Court, are afraid to even look, as was the Attorney General of the United States, who was so petrified of being held in contempt or being impeached by the Democrats, which they were constantly threatening him with, that he was virtually a broken man who allowed for the systemic violation of election laws and other things to take place.
The reason for January 6th was that millions of people in our Country know the Election was Rigged and Stolen, and Nancy Pelosi refused to put the requested 10,000+ troops in the Capitol three days earlier, as strongly recommended by me. She didn’t like “the look.”
The Unselect Committee’s sole goal is to try to prevent President Trump, who is leading by large margins in every poll, from running again for president, if I so choose. By so doing they are destroying democracy as we know it. Their lies and Marxist tactics against political opponents will not stop the truth, or the biggest political movement, Make America Great Again/America First, in the history of our Country. And now we have a war waging in Ukraine that would have never happened, record-setting inflation, an embarrassingly poorly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan, and an economy that is teetering, at best. All because of a corrupt Election result.
On Sunday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asked people to report their family members and friends who are showing “extremist” behavior in an effort to “help prevent homegrown violent extremism.”
Incidentally… They also published an Active Shooter Incidents showing that in 2020 there were 40 active shooters compared to 30 in 2019. All the other numbers were down on this report according to the FBI’s reference.
Active Shooter Comparisons
FBI’s Active Shooters Comparison Chart for 2020 and 2019
“Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism,” the FBI said in a tweet. “Visit https://go.usa.gov/x6mjf to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the #FBI. #NatSec.”
The document outlines a list of 46 “observable behaviors that could help determine whether individuals or groups are preparing to engage in violent extremist activities.”
This link provided by the FBI in 2019 brings users to a document
The top three indicators on the list are:
Preparing and disseminating a martyrdom video/statement, last will,
seeking religious or political justification for a planned violent act,
Attempting to mobilize others to violence, especially family members and peers.
Other indicators include:
Encouraging or advocating violence toward individuals, military or government officials, law enforcement, or civilian targets
Unusual purchase of military-style tactical equipment other than weapons (e.g., personal protective equipment, body armor),
Dehumanizing people who are not in the identity group,
Researching or discussing ways to evade law enforcement
Lying to law enforcement officers/obstructing investigations.
The 2019 document largely focuses on Islamic extremism
More recently President Joe Biden’s administration has called white supremacy “the most lethal threat” to homeland security.
“According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today,” Biden said during a speech marking the 100th anniversary of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Not ISIS. Not Al Qaeda. White supremacists.”
New Announcement Last Month: National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism
The strategy says that experts and evidence have shown today’s domestic terrorists include those who espouse “racial or ethnic bigotry and hatred” as well as “anti-government or anti-authority sentiment.”
However, what I noticed is that anti-law enforcement ideologies such as those espoused by Antifa and Black Lives Matter were not mentioned.
“Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (principally those who promote the superiority of the white race) and militia violent extremists are assessed as presenting the most persistent and lethal threats,” the strategy states.
“Domestic violent extremists pose an elevated threat in 2021 and in the FBI’s view, the top domestic violent extremist threat we face comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race,” Garland told lawmakers.
PHOENIX – Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court today against Google LLC for deceptive and unfair practices used to obtain users’ location data, which Google then exploits for its lucrative advertising business. Arizona has brought forward this action under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act to put a stop to Google’s deceptive collection of user data and obtain monetary relief up to and including forcing Google to disgorge gross receipts arising from its Arizona activities.
“While Google users are led to believe they can opt-out of location tracking, the company exploits other avenues to invade personal privacy,” said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “It’s nearly impossible to stop Google from tracking your movements without your knowledge or consent. This is contrary to the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and even the most innovative companies must operate within the law.”
Google derives the vast majority of its profit through selling advertisements and displaying them to users of Google’s products and services. In 2019, over 80% of Google’s revenues—$135 billion out of $161 billion total—were generated through advertising. Google collects detailed information about its users, including their physical locations, to target users for advertising in a specific geographic location. Google’s collection of location data also allows the tech giant to validate the effectiveness of ads by reporting to advertisers how often online ad clicks are converted into real-world store visits. As outlined in the lawsuit filed by Arizona, Google’s advertising revenues are largely driven by the company’s collection of detailed data about its users, including location information, often done without the users’ consent or knowledge.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office began its consumer fraud investigation of Google in August 2018, following an Associated Press article entitled, “Google tracks your movements, like it or not”, which detailed how users are lulled into a false sense of security, believing Google provided users the ability to actually disable their Location History. Google told users that “with Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.” But as the AP article revealed, this statement was blatantly false — even with Location History off, Google surreptitiously collects location information through other settings such as Web & App Activity and uses that information to sell ads. At the same time, Google’s disclosures regarding Web & App Activity misled users into believing that setting had nothing to do with tracking user location. Google’s account set-up disclosures made no mention of the fact that location information is collected though Web and App Activity, which is defaulted to “on,” until early-to mid-2018.
Arizona’s investigation has also revealed that Google uses deceptive and unfair practices to collect as much user information as possible and makes it exceedingly difficult for users to understand what’s being done with their data, let alone opt-out. Given the lucrative nature of Google’s advertising business, the company goes to great lengths to collect users’ location, including through presenting users with a misleading mess of settings, some of which seemingly have nothing to do with the collection of location information. According to Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff, “Google’s proprietary methods enable it to surveil, capture, expand, construct and claim behavioral” data “including data that users intentionally choose not to share.”
The almost 50-page complaint cites extensive testimony from Google employees given under oath and contains nearly 100 additional exhibits, including internal documents that were obtained from Google over the course of the nearly two-year investigation. The public version of the filing redacts certain information that Google has asserted is confidential; the State will be seeking to make more information public consistent with applicable court rules.
The State is being represented by Brunn W. Roysden III, Oramel H. Skinner, Joseph A. Kanefield, Michael S. Catlett, and Christopher Sloot of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office; and David H. Thompson and Peter A. Patterson of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC; Guy Ruttenberg and Michael Eshaghian of Ruttenberg IP Law, APC.
A copy of the lawsuit.
State v. Google – State’s Status Report
Letter from 27 Scholars, Practitioners, and Advocates re Unsealing Google Complaint
Letter from Congressman Biggs re Unsealing Google Complaint
State’s Response to Google’s Motion for Continuance
These Perkins Coie LLP partners are violating the AZ Rules of Professional conduct and should be disbarred for not reporting Judge Daniel C. Martin for his conflict of interest in the Maricopa County AZ election fraud case.
“Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin, who was assigned to the case on Monday after the first judge recused himself, also rejected on Wednesday a motion by Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based consulting firm hired by the GOP-led Arizona Senate, to keep its audit policies and procedures under seal.
The judge ordered that the documents be made public by noon on Thursday, barring action by a higher court, according to 12 News reporter Brahm Resnik.”
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They are not protecting the public’s interest in impartial justice
20 current partners in Perkins Coie LLP were partners in Brown & Bain when AZ Judge Daniel C. Martin worked there as an associate 1992-96
The following current partners at Perkins Coie LLP were partners at Brown & Bain when AZ Judge Daniel C. Martin was an associate between 1992-96. This includes Perkins Coie Brown Bain LLP Daniel C. Barr who is an Intervenor in CV2021-006646.
The following Brown & Bain partners continue to work for Perkins Coie LLP today. Not one of these licensed attorneys has spoken up to AZ Judge Daniel G. Martin to point out that their Partner Daniel C. Barr has a conflict of interest with the Judge in the election fraud case CV2021-006646. Indeed, the Rules of Professional Conduct in AZ requires them that in order to maintain their license to practice law, they must report this misconduct.
And for those of you still in Rio Lindo…Perkins Coie is Hillary Clinton’s attorneys who created and paid for the Russian pee-pee dossier … oh and that time they tried to take out Jim Jordan. But nothing here…. move along.
Don’t forget that MARC ELIAS, of John Podesta fame, is a key partner at Perkins Coie who also defended the false claims of the Democratic National Committee. Marc hid what was on the DNC server, which created the false flag of Russia “hacking” the DNC server.
Marc of PERKINS COIE is the hit man for the Demonrat elite who use any means necessary to win. Marc protected John Podesta from prosecution in overt crimes that the whole world witnessed. Perkins Coie is one of the most corrupt international (globalist) law firms that control large portions of Washington D. C. They make crimes legal, even after the fact.
The Trailblazing Patriot 