In the past month, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office has issued reports citing problems with the Biden administration’s assessments for allowing high-risk individuals into the country, and another report calling for improved vetting of the claims of asylum-seekers. But while working as the top oversight official of DHS, Cuffari contends, he has been targeted with what he says are baseless and retaliatory investigations.  He was appointed as the top watchdog of the DHS by then-President Donald Trump in 2019 and confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate. The panel investigating him is primarily made up of nonpresidential appointees known as the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), and more specifically, the council’s Integrity Committee. Some inspectors general can only be fired by President Joe Biden upon notifying Congress, while others can be fired by a board of directors of a particular agency.   In recent weeks, the rift within the inspectors general community has prompted Congress to take notice, with an eye on this potential politicization.  The seemingly different standard caught the attention of Congress. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who spearheaded a May 23 letter co-signed by eight other House Republicans, to Amtrak Inspector General Kevin Winters in Winters’ capacity as chairman of the Integrity Committee. The Amtrak board of directors made Winters inspector general in January 2019. By June 2020, he became chairman of the Integrity Committee, the council’s investigative arm.  Other signers of the letter were Republican Reps. Greg Steube and Matt Gaetz of Florida, Pete Sessions of Texas, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin.  Gail Ennis resigned on May 31 as inspector general of the Social Security Administration amid an inquiry by the Integrity Committee. Ennis was nominated by Trump in 2019 and confirmed by the Senate. Her departure occurred just weeks after Railroad Retirement Board Inspector General Martin Dickman was fired after being in the role for 30 years.  ‘Dysfunction, Dishonesty by Senior Leadership’ A few months after Cuffari started his job, his office referred allegations against three senior employees in his office to the Integrity Committee in October and November of 2019.   Allegations of wrongdoing included fraud, misconduct, retaliation, and abuse of authority. Some of those were said to be by employees using office resources to try to prevent the Senate from confirming Cuffari. He was nevertheless confirmed on a voice vote.  He was “faced with an untenable structure and apparent insubordination” from employees, according to a federal lawsuit filed by Cuffari against CIGIE in March 2023. “In his many years of military and other government service, Mr. Cuffari had never encountered this level of dysfunction and dishonesty by senior leadership,” the federal court complaint says. “There was a level of withholding information, flouting rules, disrespect for proper authority and risk of disgrace to the organization he was unfamiliar with.”  Late last year, a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed a lawsuit brought by Cuffari and his senior staff at the DHS Office of Inspector General against the council, alleging harassment from baseless inquiries.  The lawsuit alleged the Integrity Committee declined to investigate certain misconduct that the inspector general found among certain employees at the DHS Office of Inspector General.  In retaliation, employees in his office filed complaints against Cuffari with the Integrity Committee, which investigated the complaints thoroughly, according to the lawsuit. The court dismissed the lawsuit finding the plaintiffs had not shown harm, such as losing their jobs. The plaintiffs’ lawsuit claimed the damage was that responding to frivolous investigations from the Integrity Committee drained time and resources from conducting real investigations into waste, fraud, or abuse at the Department of Homeland Security.  In November 2019, the Integrity Committee informed the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General it would not take further action on the allegations. Upon receiving the complaints, the Integrity Committee staffer said that Cuffari “has to stop filing these complaints,” according to the federal lawsuit. That was “apparently in reference to the documented allegations against various OIG senior staff.”   Independent, Third-Party Investigation So, in May 2020, the DHS Office of Inspector General contracted with the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP to do an independent investigation of the three employees in lieu of an Integrity Committee investigation.  Better known as Wilmer-Hale, it’s a Washington law firm with a Democrat-leaning reputation, but a firm that has worked for both parties.  Wilmer-Hale’s investigation substantiated many of the allegations and provided evidence to back up others and issued a report. The Wilmer-Hale report also determined that the then-vice chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Allison Lerner—now its chairperson, as well as the inspector general of the National Science Foundation—encouraged certain actions of the three employees. “Allison Lerner, who while serving as vice chair of CIGIE, encouraged two OIG DHS senior executives to use government resources and their official titles to interfere in the Senate advice-and-consent process in hopes of scuttling IG Cuffari’s nomination,” the lawsuit says.  It goes on to say, “Despite Ms. Lerner having been personally involved in an attempt to defeat IG Cuffari’s nomination, she did not recuse herself from investigations into Mr. Cuffari.” The final Wilmer-Hale report was provided to the Integrity Committee, which still did not investigate the matter.  After the Wilmer-Hale report, that’s when the retaliation occurred, Cuffari’s lawsuit alleges. “In response to IG Cuffari’s attempts to reestablish order within DHS OIG, he was faced with a relentless stream of meritless retaliatory complaints to the IC,” the lawsuit alleged. “The complaints initiated a series of IC investigations, follow-ups, and requests for supplementary information, which now total more than [38].” “The complaints baselessly alleged an endless series of transgressions by IG Cuffari, most of which have been closed with no action or any findings,” the lawsuit contends.  Others are still pending. Still, “responding even to these complaints took an inordinate amount of time and resources and interfered with IG Cuffari’s ability to perform his duties,” Cuffari’s lawsuit says. The Integrity Committee is still investigating whether it was proper to contract with Wilmer-Hale for the inquiry. Cuffari argues that in lieu of action by the Integrity Committee, an outside investigator was necessary because of interoffice conflicts of interest.  The Cuffari lawsuit contends that government employees and investigators are effectively immune from libel and slander.  “Because there is virtually no redress for a slanderous report, due process protections during the investigation and report-preparation stages are even more necessary and required,” the lawsuit says.  The facts didn’t add up for members of Congress.  “This chain of events and the Integrity Committee’s failure to act on these serious allegations is highly concerning, especially given that three of the implicated individuals remained in federal service,” the Biggs letter says.  The letter from Biggs and other GOP House members asks several questions, including: “Given the severity of the allegations made, why did the Integrity Committee decline to investigate in 2019?”  It also asked: “After a copy of the Wilmer-Hale report was provided to the Integrity Committee by DHS OIG, did the Integrity Committee review the report’s conclusions?” and “Has the Integrity Committee reconsidered any of its allegation-review procedures or thresholds for determining whether to open an investigation?” In this case, “the watchers of the watchdogs appear to have missed the mark,” Biggs said in a public statement separate from the letter.  “They operate as a black box with what they appear to believe is unchecked power, providing little information to Congress on their actions,” Biggs continued. “Rather than creating layer upon layer upon layer of bureaucratic oversight, we should consider whether Congress is the more appropriate oversight authority, in line with checks and balances created by our Founding Fathers.” For their part, House Democrats, in the minority, have said they are also investigating Cuffari on matters related to his employees. Who is Kevin Winters? Winters, who heads the Integrity Committee of CIGIE, became its chairman in June 2020. He was named to the panel just months after his appointment as inspector general of Amtrak. Previously, he was the deputy chair of the committee, beginning in May 2019, just months after taking his job at Amtrak.  The DHS inspector general’s federal lawsuit makes a point about the high number of bureaucratically appointed individuals with power to target Senate-confirmed presidentially appointed inspectors general.  “Indeed, currently, four of the six members” of the Integrity Committee—including Chairman Winters—are not Senate-confirmed or presidential appointees, Cuffari and his senior staff contend in the lawsuit, arguing that it further removes the public and a level of accountability from the process.  Winters succeeded Amtrak Inspector General Tom Howard, who had held the job for four decades. He was previously a deputy inspector general and counsel starting in 2015 for NASA’s Office of Inspector General. Winters previously had a career in the U.S. Marine Corps, from which he retired as a brigadier general. In the Marines, he worked as both a prosecutor and defense counsel in military trials, and taught at the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies. According to his biography on the Amtrak website, Winters was at the Defense Department on Sept. 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists flew planes into both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  While at NASA, he helped oversee an audit that discovered fraud affecting the space agency’s programs. The NASA watchdog coordinated with the Justice Department and recovered more than $650 million in civil and criminal fraud-related penalties.  Neither the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, nor the Amtrak Office of Inspector General replied to numerous phone and email inquiries from The Daily Signal for this article last week and this week. National Science Foundation Inspector General Lerner’s office responded to The Daily Signal, but only to say it had no comment. The post Is This Unelected Panel Targeting Trump-Appointed Inspectors General? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

There’s a growing list of states adopting universal school choice, and Louisiana is the most recent addition. “The LA Gator Program puts parents in the driver’s seat and gives every child the opportunity for a great education,” said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican. “When parents are committed to the value of their child’s education, government should never get in the way.” And it seems many of these parents are moving to homeschooling to ensure their children are getting a well-rounded, trustworthy education. This, however, has received pushback. The editors of Scientific American magazine published an article last month claiming “children deserve uniform standards in homeschooling.” And what does this look like? The idea the editors had in mind is that “home­school parents could be required to pass an initial background check, as every state requires for all K-12 teachers.” Scientific American is concerned that the growth of homeschooling is a “problem” since it’s hard to keep track of how many children are being homeschooled these days. “Some children may not be receiving any instruction at all,” the editors wrote. “In the worst cases, homeschooling hides abuse.” But for education experts like Molly Macek of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the article is a false alarm. The “venerable magazine’s call for restrictions isn’t based on science,” she wrote. Macek continued, “Most would find it hard to argue with the editors’ opening argument that ‘children deserve a safe and robust education.’ But they go on to use this as the reason that homeschooling should be tracked and regulated in the U.S. This conclusion just doesn’t hold water based on the evidence from studies they cite.” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins considered Scientific American’s push against homeschooling on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch” with Mike Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. Perkins asked, “[W]hy is the Left so threatened by parents leading their children’s education?” And more specifically, how should we respond to it all? Farris replied, the “editors of the Scientific American need a basic course in constitutional law.” He continued, “The federal government has no jurisdiction to implement the kind of plan that they are calling for,” which happens to be “a very draconian plan.” Ultimately, it seems “their motive and their operational plan … would be just, on its face, unconstitutional.” Farris pointed out that one of the reasons for their argument is that parents who choose to homeschool often “teach their kids about creation as opposed to evolution,” which “is something, clearly, that people have the right to do.” And so, he added, for the editors of Scientific American to have a problem with that says a lot about their motivations. “It’s almost laughable,” Perkins noted. He recalled the editors’ call for parents to undergo background checks. “[A] background check?” he hooted, “to teach your own children?” Farris concurred, stating it’s “amazing” how parents can be with their children all day, “but if you want to teach them about math and reading and science in the Bible, then you have to have a background check. It just doesn’t make any sense.” Farris also drew attention to the concern Scientific American highlighted about children being abused. As he explained, there are unfortunate cases of homeschool children who are being “seriously abused.” However, “The reality is, in the vast majority of cases like this … the government officials knew about the problems with the family long before there was ever any claim to be a homeschooling family.” And so, when a homeschooling family gets caught up in abuse accusations, it’s often the case that “the officials use that as a cover-up for the fact that they failed to do any reasonable inquiry into the family when they first found out about the problems.” Farris went on to explain the harsh reality of how “the number of cases of sexual abuse of children by public school teachers dwarfs the number of any claim relative to homeschooling, just in sheer volume of numbers. … It’s just far, far greater.” They also claim, Perkins added, that homeschool “kids are being educationally deprived.” But if you look at the statistics and “the test scores from the public schools in the last few years,” the scores are the lowest they’ve been in decades in both math and reading. “The reality is,” Farris urged, “homeschooling works very, very well.” He went on, “[P]eople say that the test scores are not conclusive. [But] they’re conclusive of this: that homeschooling performs adequately. That’s absolutely conclusive. I think that the test scores also show that homeschooling is the best form of education.” And while he acknowledged there’s “more debate that could be made about that” final claim, he reasoned that homeschooling parents “don’t have to prove that we’re the best. We just have to prove that we’re at least as good as the public schools.” Perkins also emphasized that, “given the woke ideology that’s invaded schools,” it’s becoming less and less difficult to prove that point. “But at the bottom line of this … is [that] it’s a clash of worldviews.” And more specifically, it’s a “hatred for a biblical worldview.” Farris agreed, noting a common reason opponents give is “they want all children in America to be indoctrinated in their worldview, not the parents’ worldview.” Perkins raised the question: When “parents make that type of investment in their education by homeschooling them,” what are the practical benefits? According to Farris, the reason most parents choose to homeschool is because “children get their values from whoever they spend the majority of their time with.” As such, parents want their children to embrace their values. As Farris detailed, “[O]ur kids are not cookie cutters of either [my wife] or I in any respect, but they share all of our core values about God … the Bible … America … freedom … [and] the principles of protecting human life. We’ve effectively transmitted our values to our kids, and they’ve turned out just fine academically.” Not to mention, he added, “We have a very close family. We have consistent values. We have high academic achievement. I can’t ask for anything better. And it’s just the best thing we ever did for our family.” Perkins emphasized, “Homeschool families are close, and when we talk about close,” it’s because “they stick together. … [T]here’s a bond that takes place through that process of learning about life together.” Given this reality, Perkins clarified that an attack such as what’s coming from Scientific American isn’t new. But “what do we need to do to make sure we don’t lose this God-given right to teach our own children?” For Farris, it’s about staying “nimble and organized.” He discussed how a lot of people reasonably worry about their children’s schooling, which gives homeschooling families an opportunity to show how great of a practice it is. Homeschooling brings a “kind of assurance and affinity,” he concluded. “I think we’re in a really strong position. We just got to keep putting the pedal to the metal and not letting any lackadaisical spirit come in. We got to defend our liberty day in, day out.” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Scientific American: Homeschooling Parents Need to Undergo Background Checks appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The struggle against ideologies that seek to divide America advances in fits and starts. This month, we saw great progress in the introduction of a bill in Congress to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates throughout the federal government. But it was a different story a week later, when lawmakers were lobbing rhetorical softballs at the DEI-loving head of the Smithsonian Institution. The comprehensive Dismantle DEI Act, if passed and enacted, would systematically eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs throughout the federal bureaucracy and among federal contractors. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and in the House by Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, co-sponsored by 20 other House Republicans. That is not a small part of the economy. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, “federal spending was equal to 23% of the total gross domestic product (GDP), or economic activity, of the United States” in fiscal year 2022. The Vance-Cloud bill takes a blowtorch to DEI. It would dismantle DEI programs (such as the “anti-racist” trainings that have cropped up at offices and schools and all other areas of American life), rescind President Joe Biden’s many DEI executive orders, outlaw DEI loyalty pledges, etc. The bill has no chance of passing and being signed into law while the Democrats have the Senate and Biden is president. But it becomes an important stick in the ground. If former President Donald Trump is elected president in November, this bill should be his blueprint, something he already championed as president. So far, so good. But DEI is just one front in the fight against ideologies that divide us mostly along racial and sexual lines, based on race and gender theories that are Marxist in their origin. Another important front in the culture wars is that ultimate cultural institution: museums. Museums have become the battle theater of those who want to “decolonize” the culture—that is, strip it of any reverence for America. The decolonizers want to turn the museums into institutions propagating a cultural counternarrative. The Smithsonian is America’s museum, for better or for worse (it used to be for better, now it’s for worse). And while Republicans are giving signs that they finally get the DEI part, they are missing in action on the museum part. Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch’s hearing June 18 before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee was really a replay of the mutual admiration society. Only one Republican showed up, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., the ranking member, and her most probing question of Bunch was about the schedule for repatriating native art to tribes. Bunch assured her that the Smithsonian Institution’s repatriation schedule is “very robust. … We want to be able to return what the communities really want.” For those wondering what this is about, a Biden administration rule has given the nation’s 574 federally recognized Indian tribes effective veto power over what museums can exhibit. If they demand that a museum send back a cultural item, the museum will have to comply. New York’s American Museum of Natural History will close two halls with Indian exhibitions. This is not something conservatives should want to expedite. They should, in fact, fight this nonsense. There were no Republicans at the hearing asking about two new museums based on identity politics: the Latino and women’s museums. The first has been criticized by myself and others as a “woke indoctrination factory” that aims to fill Hispanic Americans with grievances, and the second will be no better. But there were Democrats heaping praise on the effort, and asking for more of the same. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Bunch what the Smithsonian planned to do about the “African diaspora,” that is, Americans born in Africa, or who are the children of such immigrants. They encounter great success in America, but apparently the Smithsonian also will have to instill victimhood in them. The African diaspora “is really important” to the Smithsonian, Bunch assured Warner. To which Warner, not missing a multicultural beat, replied: “What are you doing on the South Asian diaspora?” Bunch is a soft-spoken, likable individual, but he’s embraced all these ideologies. DEI, he has written, is “integral to excellence in museum practice. FULL STOP.” DEI, in fact, should “shape museums,” he added. Bunch was also an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Black Lives Matter organizations, which were set up by Marxists to transform society. In 2014, at the height of the BLM riots in Ferguson, Missouri, when Bunch was director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, he assembled his curators and ordered them to collect BLM artifacts and create exhibits. Black Lives Matter, he said, needed to organize for the long term and come up with a legislative strategy. In 2020, during the costliest riots in American history, Bunch said that “protest is the highest form of patriotism.” The fight to take back the considerable cultural ground that has been lost to the Left is too often derided as the “culture wars” by those who want to meet no resistance in their scorched-earth advance. And it is obviously not for the weak-hearted. Stripping out DEI is a great, brave step. But watch what happens with the museums if you want to know who’s winning. Originally published by the Washington Examiner The post Battle Over DEI Is Far From Over appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Tucker Carlson has over 3.7 million followers on Instagram. On X, he has nearly 13 million followers. While his following on X is likely far more significant because it is the ostensibly less censorious platform where Carlson routinely uploads episodes of his new show, there may be another reason to account for the delta. Ashton DeGroot, Blaze Media's social media content coordinator, observed Monday that following Carlson is no easy feat on the Meta platform. A perfunctory search for Carlson failed to turn up his verified account. Instead, impersonators and fan accounts flooded the results. After multiple tries, it appeared clear that Carlson's verified account would only appear if his exact handle, @TuckerCarlson, was entered into the search bar. Upon finding Carlson's account, DeGroot found that Instagram put up one last barrier to engagement, imploring prospective followers to reconsider. The pop-up reads, "Are you sure you want to follow tuckercarlson?" "This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or it went against our Community Guidelines," added the pop-up. Blaze News did not encounter similar warning messages when test-following the accounts of various liberal personalities and publications, which have been outed peddling falsehoods and manufactured narratives. 'Luckily, people are on to this.' The question is not, for instance, posed to potential followers of Newsweek, despite its loose relationship with the truth. Just last month, Newsweek falsely reported that Tucker Carlson had partnered with a Russian state-owned news channel, when in fact the outlet had effectively appropriated footage of Carlson's without legal permission. Users will not similarly encounter this warning when attempting to follow Jussie Smollett, who lied incessantly about being attacked by Trump supporters in Chicago when in fact he had paid two Nigerian-born brothers to stage a fake hate crime. "I have never seen this warning before on any account," DeGroot told Blaze News. "I was following a lot of people for [a Blaze Media account], and out of the 100+ that I followed, Tucker was the only one for whom this came up." Screenshots taken 6/24/2024. When asked for comment about Instagram's apparent suppression effort, Neil Patel, co-founder and CEO of the Tucker Carlson Network, told Blaze News, "Tucker has one of the largest audiences in all of media. Millions of people rely on him because they know he's trying his best to tell the truth." "This combination of scale and independence is a serious threat to established power," continued Patel. "That is the only reason why people can't even go to a Tucker Carlson birthday post on Instagram without some insane warning." "Luckily, people are on to this," Patel added, noting that they've elected to sidestep "big tech censors" like Instagram altogether and go straight to Tucker Carlson's website. DeGroot similarly suspects that Instagram's efforts to dissuade people from hearing Carlson out will strike a contrarian nerve in people already familiar with him. However, "for someone who is on the fence, this could be an effective tool to keep them away." 'Today it's Tucker; tomorrow it's Blaze Media.' "Ultimately, this is a manifestation of what Glenn [Beck] has been saying for years: The left will push conservative voices out of the public square and into the digital ghetto," continued DeGroot. "We are seeing that now with this. You will not stumble upon Tucker's content, and one day you will not stumble upon Blaze Media's content because it goes against the approved narrative and it makes the lives of those in power harder when more people hear our side." "As a someone who works in social media and has seen the weekly, sometimes daily, changes that have taken place within Meta as we have gotten closer to the election, I feel confident in saying that this is just the beginning of the silencing of conservative voices," said DeGroot. "Today it's Tucker; tomorrow it's Blaze Media. This is why we implore the listener to become a subscriber. When you subscribe, you have direct access to the content. There is no middle man getting in the way — for now, that is. Blaze News requested comment from Facebook on specifics related to the alleged false information Carlson shared or the guidelines he allegedly violated warranting the pop-up warning on his account. Blaze also asked about the efficacy of such suppression attempts but did not receive a reply by deadline. This is hardly the first time Instagram or its parent company has erroneously labeled Carlson a peddler of falsehoods. When still at Fox News in 2020, Carlson interviewed Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan, who suggested that COVID-19 "is not from nature." While the federal government has since acknowledged the strong likelihood that the virus was made in a lab, specifically the Wuhan lab where researchers took ill in late 2019 while conducting dangerous experiments on coronaviruses, Instagram rushed to label Carlson's interview "False Information" on its platform. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Put Hamas and Hitler into a Venn diagram, and you’ll find that the two have far more commonalities than differences. One of those commonalities is how children spend their summers. Mark Levin plays a disturbing clip showing the similarities between Hitler youth summer camps and Hamas summer camps – and ultimately the way both exploit children in warfare against the Jewish nation. Warning: The following video contains disturbing and graphic content. How Hamas Takes After HITLER When it Comes to Training Teens www.youtube.com “School's out in Gaza, and for thousands of teenagers here, this is how the holidays are spent: in preparation for the next conflict with Israel,” the commentator says over footage of young boys in combat training. Similarly, “the Nazi youth movement took over all the summer camps” because “Hitler realized that youngsters were the future of his movement.” The German children who attended these summer camps “learned to use a compass and a map, to cross enemy territory, to camouflage themselves, and to make covert approaches.” The Gazan boys are training to use firearms and “rehearse a cross-border raid to kidnap Israeli soldiers” at their summer camp, which is run by Hamas, the terrorist group that rules over Gaza. “The similarities are chilling and horrifying.” “Our media should be teaching us – all of us – exactly who these people are, what they're learning, what's in their books, what's in their movies, and then we will have a very good grasp of reality,” says Levin. Want more from Mark Levin? To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Mexican cartels are offering VIP smuggling packages to foreign nationals seeking to cross into the United States illegally, USA Today recently reported.Sources told the news outlet that the cartels are charging anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000 per person to smuggle individuals through a network of underground drainage tunnels that stretch from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas.'Now 60 to 70% of their focus is migrant smuggling.'The cartels' customers are given a code word that identifies which criminal organization they are traveling with to signal to local law enforcement and rival cartels not to harass the group.La Linea, a cartel based in Juárez, has been smuggling at least 1,000 illegal aliens across the U.S. border through the tunnel system every month, a senior Mexican official told USA Today.Arturo Velasco, head of the anti-kidnapping unit at the Chihuahua attorney general's office, told the news outlet, "Criminals have shifted from their primary business, which was drug trafficking.""Now 60 to 70% of their focus is migrant smuggling," Velasco said. "A kilo of cocaine might bring in $1,500, but the risk is very high. The cost-benefit of trafficking a person is $10,000, $12,000, $15,000."Ines Barrios de la O, an immigration specialist at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, stated, "Remittances in cities like Ciudad Juárez have doubled to nearly $90 million per trimester so far in 2024."Oscar Hagelsieb, former assistant special agent in charge at the United States Homeland Security Investigations, told USA Today, "Corruption in Juárez, or in any other Mexican border city, must be in collusion with authorities."Velasco added, "We know of federal law enforcement that traffic migrants. ... From inside shelters, they, along with officials from the National Institute of Migration, send information on people and then, outside, these people are abducted by criminal groups."According to Velasco, some police officers kidnap migrants and hold them in safe houses until they can pay their smuggling dues to the cartel. One smuggler told USA Today that law enforcement authorities also navigate the illegal aliens to the tunnels' entrances. He also claimed that for nearly $600 per person, officers provide cover for smugglers while they move the illegal immigrants into El Paso.Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, told NewsNation that the cartels' smuggling humans through the drainage system is "not something that's new.""They use different types of social media. They have intel within the United States. They obviously have intel along the border," Del Cueto stated. "They charge different groups and families depending on the safest route or the easier one."He explained that the smugglers are "willing to sacrifice" groups of illegal aliens who have paid less to create a diversion for those who have paid them more to get into the U.S."They'll get a group. They're separate them and say, 'Look, if you come across just turn yourself in. They're not going to send you back. Ask for asylum. You're going to get a free pass.' That allows these cartels to be able to pass other individuals through other areas," Del Cueto told NewsNation.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

It is no secret that far-left activist organizations have besieged state capitals in recent years, wailing and flailing about and ordering legislators to kowtow to their demands on issues ranging from so-called LGBTQ+ rights to gun control. One Republican state representative in New Hampshire went beyond simply complaining about or ignoring one particularly virulent organization in his state and instead decided to do some research into it. What he found was evidence of possible charity fraud, RICO violations, and alleged ties to terrorist organizations, to say nothing of its extra-governmental security force apparently designed to intimidate conservatives and deny them their civil rights. For the first part of this exclusive two-part series, Blaze News spoke with New Hampshire state Rep. Mike Belcher (R-Carroll) to learn more about the allegations he has leveled against New Hampshire Peace Action in hopes of bringing the organization's unsavory and perhaps unlawful tactics to a swift and peaceful end and to encourage state law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation of it. NHPA did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment. 'A Russian-influence operation': NHPA background and history On the surface, New Hampshire Peace Action seems like a traditional left-leaning antinuclear organization, mainly advocating nonviolence and claiming to want to engage in peaceful, respectful protest and community dialogue. On its website, NHPA envisions building "a more peaceful and just future for all" by promoting "international relations ... based on cooperation instead of competition and conflict." 'I found an awful lot of references to the original organization actually being a part of the Soviet United Front operations of the Communist International.' "Peace activists are often told that we’re naive to think that nonviolence will be effective," NHPA said in a recent statement. "Many of us think the idea that violence will bring about peace is far less sensible. In a world with nuclear weapons and serious environmental problems, war is too dangerous and costly for us all at this point." Rep. Belcher, however, believes that the organization's peaceful rhetoric is actually a front for a more insidious — in fact, possibly violent — Marxist agenda. "So if they're all about peace, and they're all anti-war, and that's what they're all about, you would expect them to take sort of a universal pro-peace position on every conflict in the world. But that's not at all what they're doing," Belcher explained to Blaze News. Just by clicking around on the NHPA website and various groups linked to it, including its parent organization, National Organization Peace Action, Belcher claims he discovered that NHPA has its roots in pro-Soviet advocacy. "I found an awful lot of references to the original organization actually being a part of the Soviet United Front operations of the Communist International," he said. "So it looks like that organization was founded as a Soviet-influence operation. "And if you were to ask me what it looks like they're up to today, it kind of looks like there's still a Russian-influence operation." The website for National Organization Peace Action seems to speak glowingly about Soviet actions during the nuclear arms race of the 1980s, especially compared with the actions of then-President Ronald Reagan: "Mikhail Gorbachev was profoundly influenced by the worldwide antinuclear campaign, setting aside time to confer with [antinuclear] leaders," whereas "the Reagan administration, on the defensive, was forced to modify its positions." In addition to its apparently pro-Soviet origins, Belcher also noted that NHPA not only strongly condemns Israel but may even promote groups with ties to Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization. "New Hampshire Peace Action is a founding member of this other organization [National Organization Peace Action] that is actively providing what appears to me to be material support for multiple foreign terrorist organizations," Belcher claimed. Belcher reiterated to Blaze News that his goal in pointing out a possible association between NHPA and Hamas is not to advocate for Israel or Palestine in the latest war in Gaza but to advocate for Americans and their interests. "Perhaps even more important than the fact that many of these organizations are supporting foreign terror organizations," he said, is that "many of these organizations are also directly calling for revolution and insurrection in the United States of America openly on these various accounts and on these various websites." National Organization Peace Action admits on its website that it has partnered with the Progressive Caucus in Congress and counts Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) among its allies. On its website, NHPA claims that it is against the violence perpetrated by both Israelis and Palestinians but that it focuses largely on the Israeli government "because the U.S. Government, thus American taxpayers, directly fund it." Possible 'charity fraud': NHPA and its mysterious 'education fund' Belcher does not just object to NHPA's supposedly Soviet influence. He also alleges that it falsely presents itself as a charity able to collect tax-deductible donations when it is not. IRS code distinguishes between nonprofits whose donations are tax-deductible and nonprofits whose donations are not. Those whose donations can be tax-deductible are classified as a 501(c)(3). Those whose donations cannot be are classified as a 501(c)(4). 'That looks like commingling of funds. That is criminal.' NHPA is a 501(c)(4), as evidenced by a newsletter message posted to its website last February. "Your membership dues help fund out [sic] 501c4 work: lobbying, legislative engagement, coalition building, and electoral politics," the message said. Screenshot of nhpeaceaction.org taken on June 21, 2024 Yet despite making this direct link between NHPA membership dues and the group's "501c4 work," NHPA elsewhere insinuates that purchasing an NHPA membership or making other donations to NHPA could be tax-deductible in defiance of federal tax law. "Note that if you would like your donation/membership to be tax deductible, please put that in the note field when you checkout," it says under the Join/Donate tab of its website. Screenshot of nhpeaceaction.org taken on June 21, 2024 Third-party sites give mixed results regarding NHPA's tax status. One site, Charity Navigator, lists it as a 501(c)(4). However, Project World Impact, an organization that attempts to connect donors with nonprofits that might be of interest, lists NHPA as a 501(c)(3). Screenshot of projectworldimpact.com taken on June 21, 2024 Some of the confusion may stem from yet another NHPA-related organization — New Hampshire Peace Action Education Fund — that is a verifiable 501(c)(3) but that seems to have no public-facing presence outside NHPA. A quick search for such an "education fund" on the NHPA website directs users to the board of directors, many of whom seem to serve NHPA and NHPAEF concurrently. Otherwise, New Hampshire Peace Action Education Fund has no other unique page on the NHPA website. Even though NHPAEF has no independent website or even an independent page on the NHPA website on which to market itself and its mission, New Hampshire Peace Action Education Fund is listed on NH Gives, a website showcasing nonprofits within the state. There, it partially presents itself as NHPA and uses the same vision and missions statements that appear on the NHPA homepage. Screenshot of nhgives.org taken on June 21, 2024 Between the NHPAEF's lack of "public presence," NHPA and NHPAEF's shared address and directors, and an apparent "common pool of donated funds," Belcher believes that NHPAEF "is not actually a separate organization" from NHPA. "I think there's charity fraud going on here," he told Blaze News. Tax filings for NHPAEF further muddy the waters between NHPAEF's fundraising and NHPA's direct action. In its form 990 from 2019, NHPAEF claimed to have raised money for "two rallies to draw awareness to the need to change foreign policy" and a "completed season of bird-dogging presidential candidates about issues of peace and nuclear disarmament," among other events. Yet the IRS website clarifies that a 501(c)(3) organization — such as NHPAEF — "may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates" (emphasis added). In other words, it may not be what the IRS calls "an action organization." Belcher also argued that such policy-related events would normally be handled and promoted by a 501(c)(4) such as NHPA, rather than a 501(c)(3) like NHPAEF. Though he cautioned that he may not understand all the nuances of federal tax law, Belcher said that "if they have a 501(c)(4) arm, a social welfare arm, that is undertaking those activities ... and they're saying they're funding those activities from their (c)(3) arm, that looks like commingling of funds. "That is criminal." A woman at a phone number listed on New Hampshire Peace Action Education Fund tax filings told Blaze News that NHPA and NHPAEF are "sister organizations." She also verified that NHPAEF is a 501(c)(3) and that NHPA is a 501(c)(4). When Blaze News asked further questions, the woman asked for our contact information so that someone else could answer them. We never received a return call. 'Marshals and de-escalators': NHPA's 'peacekeepers' The third allegation that Belcher has made against NHPA is that it trains a cadre of security personnel and then offers their services to various left-wing organizations in violation of New Hampshire law, which requires a state-issued license for any person or organization "soliciting work" related to that performed by a security guard. NHPA currently has only two major projects listed on its website. One of them is related to "education" regarding Palestine. The other is NH Project Peacekeeper, which the NHPA calls "a roster of trained volunteer peacekeepers who act as marshals and de-escalators for public events around NH." 'I think it's a big step toward normalizing the deployment of paramilitary along with left-wing protests in order to deny conservatives their right to public protest [and] their right to assembly.' NHPA even offers an email address for those wanting to "request peacekeeping services through the NH Peacekeeping Project" for their particular event. In other words, NHPA seems to be "soliciting" security-related "work." A representative from the permits and licensing division of the state Department of Safety confirmed to Blaze News that NHPA does not currently have a state-issued security guard license, nor has it ever had such a license. With that credential missing, it's perhaps little wonder that those trained as its "peacekeepers" have no interest in keeping the peace. In Part II of this two-part exclusive series, Blaze News will explore recorded interactions between some NHPA "peacekeepers" and a New Hampshire couple who want to protect children against sterilization and genital mutilation as advanced by the so-called transgender agenda. For now, we will share just one of several videos showcasing the antics of these alleged NHPA "peacekeepers," who are easily identifiable by the yellow lining and peace signs on their vests. The anti-trans couple always wear body cameras to record just such interactions. In this case, they are simply trying to walk on the grounds of the state capital during a Pride event earlier this month. "Go back to your corner," the female "peacekeeper" repeatedly orders. She also allegedly called the wife "a b****," though if she did, that incident was not included in the video. The male "peacekeeper" then denounces the husband as a false Christian. "You think you're a Christian, but you're not," he says. The husband immediately replies that he made no remark about his religious identity. Meet TRA Eileen Ehlers who with her husband Bob st@lk3d @BethRS62 outside of the Rainbow Recess event at the State House. She called me a coward, but note how quick she turns her back when I confronted her. She preys on the weak. #NHPolitics — (@) Belcher believes that these and other NHPA "peacekeepers" are actually a "paramilitary" group that parades about public events, impersonating law enforcement by wielding "false authority," to intimidate other New Hampshire residents and deny them their civil rights. "I think it's a big step toward normalizing the deployment of paramilitary along with left-wing protests in order to deny conservatives their right to public protest [and] their right to assembly," he told Blaze News. 'A web of malign influence': Belcher takes action Because of his findings on the organization's website and the series of videos showing its "peacekeepers" attempting to prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights, Rep. Belcher decided to take action against New Hampshire Peace Action. Earlier this month, he penned a formal letter to New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, an appointee of Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, as an official criminal referral for NHPA. In his X profile picture, Horrigan is wearing a pink vagina hat made infamous during the 2017 women's march in Washington, D.C. NHPA, its parent organization, and some of its affiliates "represent a web of malign influence on New Hampshire and America posing as 'charitable' and 'social welfare' organizations, and these matters may fall under further laws prohibiting material support to terrorist organizations, the Logan Act against conflicts, failure to register as a foreign agent, and RICO statute violations," Belcher wrote. "This group must not be allowed to challenge the legitimacy of the State through the usurpation of law enforcement functions for partisan and political ends to terrorize New Hampshire citizens," his letter closed. — (@) Belcher also persuaded six of his Republican colleagues in the state House to sign the letter as well. Though he did not reach across the aisle to find bipartisan support for the letter, he told Blaze News that not a single Democrat has expressed any interest. In fact, one of his Democrat colleagues in the New Hampshire House, Rep. Tim Horrigan, even openly admitted to being a part of NHPA. In an X exchange with Belcher, Horrigan called Belcher's allegations "total bulls***." NHPA has "always been quite clear (in my mind, at least) about which donations are tax deductible & which aren't," he added. In his X profile picture, Horrigan is wearing a pink vagina hat made infamous during the 2017 women's march in Washington, D.C. He also previously acknowledged that he and other Democrats have been either directly or indirectly "influenced by Marx." Horrigan told Blaze News that the type of "arrangement" between NHPA and NHPAEF "is not unique to NHPA" and may, in fact, be used by "many right-wing groups." He also asserted that the arrangement is not "illegal," adding that if it is, "many, many other groups will have to change the way they do business." Democrats may not support an investigation into NHPA, but AG Formella has already given Belcher a listening ear about the contents of the letter. During a phone conversation with Belcher on Thursday, Formella pledged to initiate the review process by submitting relevant materials about NHPA to the appropriate state investigative agencies "to assess for probable cause," Belcher told Blaze News. Belcher is encouraged by Formella's response. "I think that's a perfectly reasonable place to start," he said. "I am thankful for the attorney general taking this matter seriously and initiating a review of the allegations," Belcher added in a statement. "Given the circumstances and evidence, I strongly suspect there will be a finding that probable cause exists to pursue a full investigation." Blaze News left a message for Formella with the New Hampshire Department of Justice but did not receive a response. Next week: Part II of this two-part series. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A Las Vegas judge who made national headlines earlier this year when a felon apparently flung himself at her during a sentencing hearing has now made national headlines once again, this time for dismissing a case against alternate electors who proclaimed former President Donald Trump the winner of Nevada in the 2020 presidential election.Last December, a grand jury indicted six Nevada Republicans — GOP state Chairman Michael McDonald, RNC member Jim DeGraffenreid, Clark County GOP Chairman Jesse Law, national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan, Storey County clerk Jim Hindle, and state party member Eileen Rice of the Lake Tahoe area — for filing and uttering a forged instrument after they allegedly cast alternate elector votes declaring that Trump had won Nevada in 2020, not Joe Biden. Similar cases have also sprung up in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin.'I don’t see any way I have jurisdiction over this case.'The state capital, Carson City, is located in Northern Nevada, and most of the defendants live in rural areas of the state, which largely vote Republican. Nevertheless, Democrat state Attorney General Aaron Ford attempted to try the case in Clark County, which leans heavily Democratic. Fellow prosecutor Matthew Rashbrook, who works in Ford's office, argued that the entire state was victimized by the alleged actions of the so-called "fake electors." "No one county contains the entirety of these crimes," he said.Defense attorneys countered that the defendants apparently cast their 2020 electoral votes for Trump in Carson City and that much of their documentation allegedly originated in rural Douglas County. They also accused Ford of bringing the case to Clark County in hopes of finding a friendlier jury pool.On Friday, Judge Mary Kay Holthus sided with the defense. "You have literally, in my opinion, a crime that has occurred in another jurisdiction," she said. "It’s so appropriately up north and so appropriately not here.""I don’t see any way I have jurisdiction over this case."Holthus also disagreed "100 percent" with Rashbrook's argument that the entire state and "society" in general had been victimized by the alternate electors.After Holthus made her ruling, AG Ford left the building in haste, though he did insist to reporters on his way out that "the judge got it wrong" and promised to appeal the ruling to the state supreme court. The case cannot be refiled in a lower court elsewhere in Nevada since the three-year statute of limitations in this case expired several months ago."They’re done," stated Margaret McLetchie, attorney for defendant Jesse Law.In January, a video of Judge Holthus went viral on social media after Deobra Redden — a violent, 30-year-old repeat offender — yelled, "Aww, f*** that, b****!" before apparently launching himself across Holthus' bench after she refused to sentence him to probation, as Blaze News previously reported. A week later, she gave him a sentence of up to four years behind bars for beating someone up with a baseball bat in 2023. He had also been previously convicted for charges related to home invasion and domestic violence. He then received 13 new charges in connection with the attack against Holthus.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Jason Whitlock of “Fearless” made an interesting observation about Joy Reid recently, and the MSNBC anchor seems to have noticed. Whitlock noticed that while Reid and Jemele Hill continuously criticize white women — most recently WNBA star Caitlin Clark — they seem to be trying extremely hard to look like white women. While Hill wore long blonde braids, Reid sported a short, boyish strawberry blonde cut that has since been dubbed her “Trump haircut.” “Here’s two black women, dressed as white women to be more marketable on TV. This is just fact. Look at the fake hair that both of these women are wearing. Are they not trying to live up to some standard? Are they not trying to appear like white women to make themselves more marketable on TV?” Whitlock said. Following Whitlock’s criticism, Reid appears to have done something about her hair. “Joy Reid has cut her hair,” Whitlock says, triumphant. “She took the wig off and either cut her hair or exposed what her real hair, what little real hair she has,” he adds. “I actually appreciate the new look,” Shemeka Michelle chimes in. “I am sick of black women walking around constantly saying white women want to be them, but they’re in white women’s hair.” “I was tired of looking at Joy Reid and her Trump hairdo,” she adds. Want more from Jason Whitlock?To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The FARCE Is Strong! Ted Cruz OWNS Collin Allred for Bringing in Mark Hamill to Help His Campaign and LOL