National Populist Newsletter
Feb 11th-18th
News:
United States
Immigration
Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News released the details of the House border/Ukraine/Israel funding bill. The compromise agreement is being led by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R - Penn.), one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress. Here are the key features of the bill:
Automatically reject migrants who legally or illegally cross the border without proper paperwork for one year —restricting asylum, but with humanitarian exceptions.
Blocks the use of federal funds to transfer migrants between detention centers or other locations unless it is for adjudicating their immigration case.
Implement a Trump-era policy that required migrants and asylum seekers to be turned back to Mexico to await their court hearings. The policy requires cooperation from the Mexican government and cannot simply be enforced from the U.S. side.
The bill also includes $47.7 billion in aid to Ukraine, $10.4 billion for Israel, $4.9 billion for U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific to combat China, and $2.4 billion for recent U.S. military operations in the Middle East to combat Iran-backed militias in the region.
While I do not believe this border bill would pass, it is much better than the bill in the Senate. It also shows that Democrats are willing to accept Remain in Mexico and an increase to the asylum threshold. Those are now moderate positions.
A report from the Department of Health and Human Services found that the agency had a severe lapse in its protection of unaccompanied minors crossing the border. An independent government watchdog found that the agency failed to vet or conduct safety checkups on adult sponsors, often just handing over the minors. An audit from June found that government case workers had released more than 340 migrant children to adults who were sponsoring three or more children who were not family members. We know that many unaccompanied minors end up working in prostitution or child labor to pay back the debt of coming across the border. The report stated that more than 85,000 children have been lost in the U.S. over the last two years. (The New York Times)
Reagan-appointed Judge David Ezra appeared skeptical of a new Texas law that makes illegal entry into the state a crime. (The Los Angeles Times)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drafted plans for releasing up to 15,000 people without accepting new migrants from the border in their place due to massive cash shortfalls. The agency is now $700 million in the hole. (Axios)
President Biden signed an executive order protecting illegal aliens from Palestinians from being deported because it was too dangerous to send them to a war-torn country. (CBS News)
WOLA produced a helpful graph showing the nation of origin for most migrants apprehended at the southern border.
Education
Several Jewish organizations are suing the Los Angeles teacher’s union and school district to stop teaching a new state-mandated “ethnic studies course.” The course likens Palestinians to Native Americans and categorizes Israeli Jews as “European settlers.” The new “ethnic studies” program is based on a critical race theory framework and critiques various forms of oppression from black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American perspectives. It also spurs students to take action to fight for social justice (this is literally written as a goal in Critical Race Theory: An Introduction). (The New York Times)
St. Louis Park Public Schools will allow religious families to opt out of reading assignments where books have LGBTQ characters after Muslim parents complained to the school district. (Sahan Journal)