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WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., on Friday has voiced his concernregardingreportsof federal contractors flying illegal immigrants from the southern border to other points across the country late at night:

The recent reports of immigrants being driven and flown across the country in the dead of night are truly breathtaking,Wicker said. The crisis at our border has steadily worsened since President Biden took office and shows no signs of slowing down.

"Strong countries need strong borders," said Wicker. "The constant surge of migrants across our border threatens to undermine American national security and the rule of law. President Biden should act now to restore confidence in our border and re-institute the tough policies of the last administration.

Until the President acts to get this crisis under control," Wicker added. "Congress should cut off funding for this transportation in any future appropriation and investigate the wholesale failure of the Biden Administration to prevent this crisis.

The flights, which have been widely reported after months of surging illegal migration, regularly distribute illegal immigrants who are awaiting trial to communities across the country with little to no notice given to local authorities.

Wickercalled outthe Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in August when a group of 90 migrants were dropped off at a bus station in Natchez, Miss.

Read more about Senator Wickers recent work on the border issuehere.

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Wicker speaks on illegal immigration surge and overnight immigrant flights - Clarksdale Press Register

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke repeatedly about battling the root causes of record-breaking illegal immigration during a Thursday trip to Honduras but Harris said that her efforts are unlikely to alleviate the US-Mexico border crisis overnight.

Harris made a point of mentioning migration after critics chided her for not focusing more on the issue since President Biden appointed her last year to lead his administrations outreach to Mexico and Central America.

The number of illegal border-crossing arrests surged since Harris took on the role. In fiscal 2021, which ended in September, there were more than 1.7 million arrests at the border the most since at least 1986.

The root causes strategy has always been clear and we have been clear. The work we need to do is going to be work that will manifest over a long period of time. Hopefully not too long, but certainly not overnight, Harris told reporters during the trip to attend Honduran President Xiomara Castros inauguration.

The problems that we need to address are problems that did not occur overnight and the solutions if theyre going to have any impact will not occur overnight.

Thousands of Hondurans cheered during Harris arrival at a packed sports stadium for Castros inauguration. She shared a stage with Spanish King Felipe VI, Taiwanese Vice President William Lai and the leaders of several neighboring countries.

Harris later held a bilateral meeting with Castro where she brought up efforts to reduce causes of migration such as poverty and corruption.

A pool report said journalists were allowed to attend just six minutes of the Harris-Castro meeting, during which Harris also talked about COVID-19 aid.

You spoke about this in your inaugural address, in terms of the importance of uplifting the economy and what that means to families, what that means in terms of the creation of jobs and what that means on the issue of migration, Harris told Castro.

I particularly appreciated your point, which you and I have discussed before, which is most people dont want to leave home. They dont want to leave the place where they worship, their church, their grandmother. And if they leave it is usually because they are either fleeing harm, or they simply cannot satisfy their basic needs or their familys needs if they stay, Harris said.

Therefore, the area of cooperation and work that we will do together on economic prosperity will be pivotal to that issue, in particular irregular migration. We have also discussed, and you discussed at length in your inaugural speech, the importance of combating corruption.

A readout of the meeting from Harris office said she additionally emphasized that combating corruption and impunity remains at the center of our commitment to address the root causes of migration.

That release also said that Harris stressed the importance the U.S. places on combating sexual, gender-based and domestic violence and how this work is a core pillar of the U.S Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America.

Critics have accused Harris of largely shirking her duties as Bidens point person on reducing illegal immigration and Republicans generally urge the Biden administration to adopt stricter border policies to deter people from illegally crossing the border.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) tweeted, VP Kamala Harris is spending the day in Tegucigalpa celebrating the inauguration of an anti-Semitic, self-described socialist president in Honduras. Her time would be better spent working around the clock to strengthen our southern border. After all, she is the border czar.

Harris last year visited Guatemala and Mexico, but the June trip was overshadowed by her difficulty answering reporters questions about why she hadnt visited the US-Mexico border. Harrisvisited theborder shortly after that trip.

The VP has taken heat from members of both parties on her work addressing migration. Rep. Henry Cuellar(D-Texas) recently told the New York Times that hes given up on trying to work with Harris.

I say this very respectfully to her: I moved on, Cuellar said. She was tasked with that job, it doesnt look like shes very interested in this, so we are going to move on to other folks that work on this issue.

The rest is here:
Kamala Harris says her anti-illegal immigration efforts won't bear fruit 'overnight' - New York Post

Another year, another false claim about the cost of illegal immigration going viral.

Although former President Donald Trump is no longer in office trying to rally support for his border wall, the debate about illegal immigration continues, and one old immigration post is regaining traction on Facebook.

"Chuck Schumer: why should American citizens be responsible to pay 5 billion to fund the wall?" asks a screenshot of a Tweet that was shared on Facebook. "Better question. Why should American citizens be responsible to pay $155 billion annually to make sure illegal immigrants are taken care of better than American citizens?"

The 2019 post, which people were sharing and commenting on as recently as Jan. 20, was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The original tweet came from an account that has since been suspended and we could not find the date it was first posted, but Sen. Chuck Schumer was frequently at odds in 2018 and 2019 with then-President Donald Trump over the presidents plan to build a wall at the southern U.S. border.

In years past, PolitiFact has debunked claims that illegal immigration costs taxpayers $113 billion, $130 billion and even $250 billion annually.

We searched news clips and asked experts, but PolitiFact was unable to find a report that estimated illegal immigration costs American taxpayers $155 billion annually.

"The internet is full of a wide range of estimates of the costs of unauthorized immigrants and also of the benefits they bring to the United States," said Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. "These estimates all focus on different types of costs and contributions, and many do not give a clear explanation of their methods."

She said she was not aware of "any good, well-researched and well-documented estimates" of the costs and benefits of immigrants illegally in the U.S. that she could recommend.

Even so, she said that the claim seemed far-fetched: "$155 billion sounds high for the estimated costs, but it is difficult to assess this claim without knowing what data and information was used to generate that estimate."

Regardless of the cost, that doesnt mean immigrants in the country illegally are "taken care of better than American citizens." In many cases, immigrants in the country illegally are ineligble for the assistance programs available to U.S. citizens.

Determining the exact cost of illegal immigration is difficult, but some analysts have tried.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, produced a 2013 report that estimated that immigrants living in the U.S. illegally "impose a net fiscal burden of around $54.5 billion per year."

But that estimate, which is now eight years old, is still more than $100 million off from the posts claim.

One of the highest more recent estimates available comes from a 2017 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform or FAIR, a group that advocates for reducing legal and illegal immigration. Its report concluded that "In 2017, the total cost of illegal immigration for the United States at the federal, state, and local levels was approximately $116 billion."

The authors of the report said they estimated the total cost of illegal immigration by subtracting the tax revenue paid by immigrants here illegally from "the total economic impact of illegal migration," though there is no clear consensus on the overall economic impact.

Critics of FAIRs 2017 report said the organization vastly overestimated the net cost of illegal immigration.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy think tank, called the report "fatally flawed" and published a detailed critique of FAIRs work: "FAIRs report reaches that conclusion by vastly overstating the costs of illegal immigration, undercounting the tax revenue they generate, inflating the number of illegal immigrants, counting millions of U.S. citizens as illegal immigrants, and by concocting a method of estimating the fiscal costs that is rejected by all economists who work on this subject."

Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that uses data to argue for low levels of immigration, said he conducted his most comprehensive analysis of the cost of immigrants in the U.S. illegally in 2017.

He said he tried "to take into account all their taxes and all the services they use in their lifetime, while excluding U.S. born descendants." Camarota noted that his lifetime estimate heavily discounts future costs and more heavily weights current costs.

In 2018, he adjusted that estimate to 2018 dollars, suggesting that each immigrant in the U.S. illegally costs nearly $70,000 during their lifetime.

"The numbers are large, but remember it is over a lifetime," he said.

When asked what immigrants in the country illegally cost each year, on average, Camarota said "a back of the envelope estimate" based on his lifetime cost analysis would fall somewhere between about $24 billion and $48 billion annually, depending on the methodology used.

Thats significantly below the $116 billion estimate reached in the FAIR report and the $155 billion claimed in the Facebook post.

Our ruling

A Facebook post claimed American citizens "pay $155 billion annually to make sure illegal immigrants are taken care of better than American citizens."

We couldnt find evidence suggesting illegal immigration costs $155 billion annually.

Determining the exact cost of illegal immigration is complex and a source of ongoing debate among experts. Available reports estimate that immigrants in the U.S. illegally cost less than $155 billion annually with one of the highest totals estimating a cost of $116 billion annually.

Regardless of the cost, that doesnt mean immigrants in the country illegally are "taken care of better than American citizens."

We rate this claim False.

Read more here:
There's no evidence Americans pay $155 billion each year to cover the cost of illegal immigration - PolitiFact

INDIANA (WEHT) Attorney General Todd Rokita announced January 27 he is investigating the impact of illegal immigration on Hoosiers.

According to a news release from the State of Indiana Attorney General, in this second trip to the border in three months, Attorney General Rokita is gathering evidence of the border crisis and its damage ahead of further legal action.

The Biden Administration and the radical left are tearing our country apart by incentivizing lawlessness and breaking the rule of law, which is the opposite of what makes our country great, said Attorney General Rokita. These hallmarks of American Exceptionalism are ignored when illegal immigration is practically encouraged. A news release from the State of Indiana Attorney General says that Attorney General Rokita will meet with other attorneys general from around the country while in Texas to figure out the next steps to address the border issue.

Originally posted here:
AG Rokita investigating illegal immigration in Indiana - Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW)

Like every year, the imagery of a powerful and deeply diverse nation was meticulously demonstrated this Republic Day through an impressive military parade, the display of Indias air power and the diverse themes exhibited by the states, Union Territories and government departments in their colourful tableaus. Away from New Delhi, the state/UT capitals saw a similar pageantry interspersed by speeches by governors, chief ministers and other dignitaries. Although the themes and content of the pageantry and speeches have changed over time, what remains constant about Republic Day is the display of the states power and the demonstration of patriotism.

Such exercises are, no doubt, an integral part of state and nation-building. We may, however, ask: Is the extraordinary display of the might and diversity of the country on a few occasions such as Republic Day enough? I contend that while such displays are necessary, they need to be accompanied by an enduring commitment to our constitutional ideals and values in ways that embed the state and the nation in the popular psyche. From the perspective of the countrys Northeast, conversations in two areas are in order.

The first is the commitment to the ideal of equal and group-differentiated citizenship rights. The founding fathers of the country recognised early on that a realistic way to politically integrate the different tribal groups in the Northeast was to reconcile our constitutional commitments to equal citizenship rights with the imperative of accommodating group-differentiated rights. This was a realistic solution to two exigencies: The popular mobilisation for self-rule in parts of the Northeast the 1951 Naga plebiscite, for instance, was reported to have been supported by 99.9 per cent of the Naga population and the region being governed by disparate customary laws. Affirmation of the differential rights of tribal groups on land through customary laws and religious practices undergirds the institutional protection enshrined in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution they apply to tribal areas of several parts of the Northeast today.

However, this institutional arrangement often becomes problematic as its founded on an unequal two-tiered rights regime that distinguishes tribal citizens from non-tribal denizens by permanently excluding the latter from de jure ownership and acquisition of land/property in tribal areas. The 73rd year of our Republic occasions serious thinking on envisioning institutions that accommodate the distinctive needs of non-tribal outsiders. It is equally imperative to realise that this problem is no longer restricted to the non-tribals. Thanks to extensive land-grabbing by the dominant tribal elites, often in connivance with the non-tribal outsiders who have become the de facto landowners, the vast majority of tribals face large-scale landlessness with serious economic consequences. Unless the inherent flaws in the asymmetric institutions are immediately addressed, they can implode and unleash bloody fratricidal conflicts.

It is also imperative to underline that the sons-of-the-soil movements in Assam and Tripura since the 1970s embers of which are present in the persistent drive to privilege the khilonjias (autochthones) over illegal immigrants in Assam are driven by a pervasive sense of insecurity about identity and land-ownership. The situation is made more precarious by the inability of the state to control illegal immigration. Such movements become steeped in a majoritarian way of thinking that targets the Bengali Muslims as illegal outsiders irrespective of the fact that many of them are indigenous to Assam. The sectarian emotions and sense of insecurity unleashed by the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 to permanently disenfranchise Muslim immigrants is a reminder of this slippery slope where our commitment to fraternity and equal citizenship rights has been severely tested.

The second set of conversations to embed the state into the popular psyche in ways that help consolidate nation-building pertain to renewing our commitment to democracy and constitutionalism. Such a commitment needs to be anchored in daily plebiscitary attempts, not only to promote democratic justice but also to check abuse of state power a situation exacerbated by the pandemic when the state has invested itself with extraordinary powers. This invariably has to be a mutually reinforcing commitment from the top and bottom.

From the top, the Indian state needs to commit itself to promoting substantive democracy by protecting the rule of law and enlarging democratic settings to leverage power-sharing within and across groups/ communities. Institutions should be tailored to give various groups, including women, effective voice and participatory rights not only in democratic deliberations but also in policymaking and implementation. From the bottom, the onus is on groups like the Nagas and Bodos that enjoy autonomous self-rule to be accommodative of, and willing to share power with women, other tribal and non-tribal groups to foster democratic justice.

It is also imperative for the state to acknowledge its abuse of power and renew its commitment to constitutionalism. To begin with, labelling human rights activists as anti-nationals and jailing them under draconian laws like UAPA on flimsy grounds such as criticising the government, or other such pretexts should stop. It also needs to accept the fallacy and inefficacy of relying on its coercive monopoly of power to crush movements in the region through the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) and dismissing these movements as law and order problems. The persistence of the Naga armed movement and the proliferation of other such movements in the Northeast only illustrate the inefficacy of such means. Instead of winning the hearts and minds of the Naga rebels and deepening nation-building, AFSPA has become what the B P Jeevan Reddy Committee (2005) rightly called a major instrument of oppression and alienation in Northeast India. AFSPA has militarised Indian democracy and is seen as the cause for several human rights violations. The recently botched encounter in Oting in Nagalands Mon district undertaken by the 21 Para Special Forces, that killed 14 innocent people of the Konyak community, is a case in point. There has been a widespread campaign for the withdrawal of the AFSPA after this incident.

The depiction of state grandeur on Republic Day is mesmerising. It can be made more meaningful by renewing our commitment to the cardinal ideals and values enshrined in the Constitution.

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 29, 2022 under the title In Northeast, work to be done. The writer is professor and head of the department of political science, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad

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A more meaningful commitment to the Indian republic - The Indian Express