The Storm Brewing at the Border

Originally published at Fox News  By Newt Gingrich

A perfect storm is brewing in the Southern Hemisphere and making its way north to the United States.

Heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids already pour through America’s southern border and this infiltration is one of three elements that will feed the perfect storm. Every day, 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses and tainted drugs passing through our southern border.

The second element is MS-13, the brutal gang that is a drug courier of choice to the Mexican drug cartels for distribution of these drugs within the United States.

When these two elements are mixed with the third element – the caravan of 7,000 to 10,000 people, mostly men, seeking to break through our southern border – you complete a toxic combination leading to a perfect storm. MS-13 gang members have already been found in the mass migration (although some have claimed they are no longer affiliated with the gang). It is not hard to spot them with their MS-13 tattoos. It is only a small leap in logic that MS-13 will be using the caravan as a cover to increase their drug and human trafficking operations.

This combination magnifies the threat to America’s national security. A border wall is needed more than ever. This must not be the partisan issue that some have made of it. Saving our children’s lives from the scourge of deadly drugs is not a partisan issue. Imagine one airliner crashing every day and killing 115 passengers. This would be a national emergency that would eclipse partisanship. The death of 115 Americans by overdose every day should also eclipse partisanship.

As Marlon Miller of the Department of Homeland Security explained to the House Committee on Homeland Security on June 19, “[a] significant quantity of bulk Mexico-sourced heroin, and Chinese-sourced fentanyl transiting through Mexico, . . . is smuggled across the shared border with Mexico via the land border ports of entry.”

According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, in March 2017, 18 kilograms of fentanyl hidden in a semi-truck load of bell peppers was seized at a checkpoint in Sonora, California. Later that year, another semi-truck traveling to Tijuana from Mexico City was seized carrying 30,000 fentanyl-laced pills and 63 kilos of powder containing the drug. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 355 kilograms of fentanyl in fiscal year 2017 at San Diego ports of entry alone. In April of this year, Nebraska state troopers seized 118 pounds of fentanyl, enough to kill more than 26 million people, during a routine traffic stop.

To have lasting effects against the opioid crisis, we must cut off the supply chain — and this means securing our borders. But it’s not the drugs alone we need to stop. The criminals who control this drug trade are some of the worst, most brutal gangsters ever to come into our country. MS-13 and drug cartels are made up of violent criminals who are not striving to achieve the American dream — they are trying to kill it. It is widely reported that members of these gangs rape, behead, and bury their victims. These gangs move into a neighborhood or city and take control. They get their victims hooked on drugs and keep them coming back for more.

MS-13 has roughly 10,000 members in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia, according to the most up-to-date FBI estimates. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has even asked for the gang to be labelled a terrorist group, with polling suggesting that the American public supports this reclassification.

Of course, securing the border, alone, will not solve the opioid crisis. This is why President Trump recently took an important step by signing the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation that passed the Senate 99-1. It takes a multi-faceted approach that is necessary for solving this crisis, one that deals with treatment and recovery, interdiction, and deterrence.

Yet, securing our border remains the biggest step we can take to ensure that illicit opioids never enter our communities in the first place. I am not talking about completely shutting down immigration for all refugees, migrant workers, and other people who try to immigrate legally. In fact, I have championed legislation to welcome such hardworking and law-abiding immigrants. I am talking about keeping out gang members and criminals who want to destroy lives and entire communities. If we are serious about this issue, we need to stop talking about abolishing ICE and start securing the border.

We need to stop the caravan. We need to build the wall.

Sheriff Makes Secret Deal with ACLU to Stop Detaining Illegal Immigrants

Sheriff Makes Secret Deal with ACLU to Stop Detaining Illegal Immigrants

A federal appellate court just heard oral arguments involving an outrageous backdoor deal in which a county sheriff promises a leftwing civil rights group to stop detaining illegal immigrants. The case comes out of Marion County Indiana where an illegal alien, Antonio Lopez-Aguilar, was arrested by local law enforcement after a traffic court hearing in Indianapolis.

At the time the Marion County Sheriff’s Office had an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold suspects in the U.S. illegally like Lopez-Aguilar until federal officers pick them up for processing.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Marion County Sheriff to end the local-federal detainer policy that is practiced by law enforcement agencies nationwide and has led to the removal of countless violent criminals living in the country illegally. The ACLU asserts that ICE uses the detainers to “bully local authorities into imprisoning immigrants, many of whom have done nothing wrong, and funneling them into deportation proceedings.”

Lopez-Aguilar was held in jail and funneled into deportation proceedings solely on the basis of a “detainer request” from ICE, according to the ACLU. “In addition to violating immigrants’ basic constitutional rights, this kind of cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities also undermines public safety,” the group claims. “If immigrants are reluctant to show up in court or report a crime out of fear they may be deported, everyone will be less safe.”

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office caved into the ACLU’s demands by agreeing to stop detaining illegal immigrants for the federal government. Under the deal’s terms, the agency won’t seize or detain suspects based on requests from ICE or deportation orders from an immigration court.

The feds must provide a warrant signed by a judge or demonstrate probable cause the immigrant committed a crime. This sort of intimate arrangement between a local law enforcement agency and a private group to skirt federal law seems incredulous. To be fair, a local newspaper reported that the sheriff’s office made the deal to avoid the costly legal expenses of fighting it.

“Court documents filed by city attorneys cited the cost of litigation as motivation to end a lawsuit the ACLU filed in September after an Indianapolis man living in the country illegally was detained after a hearing in traffic court,” the article states.

Fortunately, the state got involved and filed an appeal to reverse the scandalous agreement which was approved by a federal judge in the southern district of Indiana last year. Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill says the decree runs counter to Indiana law and public safety. “Our nation’s immigration laws are put in place to protect the public,” Hill said in a statement last year when his office filed the appeal.

“Establishing a policy that requires law enforcement personnel to not cooperate with each other not only violates Indiana law but jeopardizes public safety.” Last week the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from the state and the ACLU, which is trying to keep the state from intervening by arguing that it is barred from doing so on procedural grounds. A three-judge panel heard oral arguments in Chicago on Friday.

The attorney representing Indiana taxpayers, Solicitor General Thomas Fisher, told the court that “when there is a specific request from ICE to detain a person,” state law “requires that kind of cooperation.” In 2011 Indiana passed a measure prohibiting the implementation of any policies that restrict local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The ACLU-Marion County Sheriff agreement violates that state law, Fisher argued before the appellate court.

The ACLU also sued Indiana years ago over the immigration control law, claiming that it’s discriminatory, unconstitutional and unlawfully interferes with federal power and authority over immigration matters. The group claims that the law marginalizes entire communities and undermines our most cherished constitutional safeguards by putting Indiana residents at risk of unlawful warrantless arrests without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

Why Support Mike Fricilone and Steve Balich Fundraiser September 10th

Some of what Mike Fricilone & Steve Balich have ACCOMPLISHED for you   1. Lowered the tax rate the last 3 years while at the same time building a New Public Safety Building, Court House, Health Department, and starting a program to replace squad cars on a yearly basis. 2. Stopped code violations initiated by aerial Photos. Code violations are now complaint driven. 3. Reduced the tax rate for the last 3 years. 4. Stopped mandatory sprinkler systems from being required in all homes. 5. Passed a Resolution allowing the Court to return your money for towing, storage, and administration if not guilty in court. 6. Stopped the County from putting raised barriers on 143rd St. 7. Continue to vote against raises for County wide and County Board elected officials. 8. Stopped light ordinance that had no measurements relying on the opinion of Code officers as to what is a nuisance. 9. Argue that code inspectors can only inspect what a permit was written for. They don't have the right to write violations for other items out of code. 10. Worked with Lockport to move barricades north of Gougar and 147th, allowing for cars to cut through like the past from 151st over to Lemont Rd/State via 147th. A signal was placed at Gougar and 143rd. 11. Worked with Citizens Utility board to reduce the rate increase from Illinois American Water. The Rate increase was reduced but we still got an increase to an already high cost of water. 12. Voted to not allow County Board Elected Officials to take the IMRF Pension. 13. Worked to get the light at RT. 6 and Parker. 14. Stopped Will county Land Use from initiating a rental inspection program targeting 17,000 plus landlords based on HUD guidelines. Will County never adopted HUD guidelines. 15. Stopped requiring a building permit for some repair and maintenance items on your property. 16. Cut the Tax Rate at the Forest Preserve the last 4 years while expanding recreational opportunities. 17. Since we have be on the Board there have been no pay raises for County Elected officials and County Board member Pensions were eliminated. Fricilone & Balich never took the Pension even though it was a benefit. Mike Fricilone 708-310-9831 mikefricilone@gmail.com    Steve Balich 815-557