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Liberals in deep blue cities far removed from America's southern border have been lecturing Republicans for years about the ideals of Emma Lazarus' poem on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The Trump administration and politicians in states like Texas, overwhelmed with the problems associated with illegal immigration, were blasted as hard-hearted xenophobes.

Hoping that the country's changing demographics would doom Republicansthe real "replacement theory"Democrats became the party of open borders, a policy that the Biden administration implemented once it took office. The result has been a record number of illegal border crossings. Yet any concerns about the enormous toll of the growing press of illegal immigrants on America's welfare system and on the country's beleaguered working class are dismissed as racist hyperbole.

There's no sign that politicians on the Left are rethinking their support for amnesty and the opening of the border, but the mayors of New York City and Washington D.C. have discovered that these ideological chickens have finally come home to roost.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott's decision to bus illegal immigrants and asylum claimantsturned loose in his state by federal authoritiesnorth to those Democratic strongholds has sent politicians and bureaucrats in both cities into a panic. Instead of being able to just sit back and judge Texas and ArizonaGov. Doug Ducey has also bused immigrants to the Northeastfrom a comfortable distance, they must now deal with the migrants themselves.

The result is a "humanitarian crisis" that is making it harder for Northeast liberal elites to pretend that only right-wing hatemongers worry about illegal immigration. While New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been spouting rhetoric about welcoming immigrants, he's also acting as if his city has been the victim of a dirty trick. He called Abbott's tactic "unimaginable" and "horrific." He's been begging the federal government to help him address a problem that is overwhelming a social welfare system already dealing with an out-of-control homelessness problem.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is similarly outraged. She appealed to the Biden administration to send the National Guard to help deal with the several thousand migrants who have been exiting buses from Arizona and Texas at Union Station. She was turned down by the Department of Defense on the grounds that troops are not trained to help process, feed, and deal with the sanitation problems generated by illegal immigrants. Her request was all the more ironic given the Democrats' complaints about Abbott using the Texas National Guard to deal with the border crisis.

The situation has demonstrated that Adams, the former cop turned politician, is failing to do a better job managing the city than his much-despised predecessor Bill de Blasio and that his heretofore deft public relations touch is slipping. As the New York Times reported, for all of the mayor's complaints about Abbott's grandstanding, the show Adams put on of welcoming the migrants was transparently false. Adams grabbed supplies out of the hands of volunteers so he could be shown giving them out himself. Meanwhile, witnesses said his aides were screaming at the migrants to smile at the mayor while the cameras were rolling.

Leaving aside Democratic hypocrisy, the mayors are right to assume the solution to their newfound migrant problem can only be provided by the federal government. Much as they may resent Abbott and Ducey's ploy, the person most responsible for their dilemma is in the White House, not Austin or Phoenix.

The wave of illegal immigrants is a man-made catastrophe, and the man who made it is Joe Biden. It was his endorsement of amnesty and condemnations of former president Donald Trump's effective border policies that set in motion the massive surge of illegal immigration that border states now face. His decisions to effectively shut down enforcement of the law by Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and to entertain false accusations of brutality lodged against border patrol personnel have served as an effective green light to illegal immigrants.

The federal government should help cities cope with bused-in migrants, but not by sending them money. Instead, Biden should reverse his immigration policies and return to his predecessor's policy of sealing the border, including resuming work on the wall Trump wanted to build.

A president like Biden, who is in thrall to his party's left wing, can't even contemplate choosing the rule of law over open borders. But that is the only possible solution to illegal immigration. Until Biden sees reason, Texas and Arizona should keep busing immigrants to Democratic strongholds to remind the administration that the cost of dealing with this disaster shouldn't only be borne by their citizens.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.org, a senior contributor to The Federalist and a columnist for the New York Post. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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Democrats Discover Only The Federal Government Can Solve The Border Crisis | Opinion - Newsweek

On a cold Berlin afternoon in February 2022, Nigerian filmmaker Ike Nnaebue presented his debut feature documentary, No U-Turn, to a public audience for the first time. Nnaebues strikingly personal documentary, in which he attempts to retrace a journey he embarked on 27 years agothe tumultuous migrant route from West Africa to southern Europepremiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale.

No U-Turn, which received a special mention by the Berlinale documentary jury, is part of the Generation Africa project, an ambitious collection of 25 feature-length, medium and short films centered around the hot-button issue of migration on the African continent.

Generation Africa is an initiative of the South African nonprofit Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects (STEPS), a media organization that uses documentaries to consolidate social change, particularly in Africa.

According to STEPS co-founder and documentary stalwart, Don Edkins, the objective of Generation Africaand STEPS, ultimatelyis about giving voice to disadvantaged people and communities through film, while also finding strategic ways to spark conversations on some of the most pertinent contemporary issues. Of the unique role of Generation Africa, Edkins explains, The focus is on social and environmental issues that people face in the communities locally but also globally. When we started Generation Africa, we took a look at the continent and saw this enormous youth population without a voice. We werent listening or learning from young people about their challenges, dreams, opportunities, or lack thereof.

Generation Africa is the fourth cycle of projects undertaken by STEPS since its inception in 2001. STEPS has also executed projects themed around structural causes of poverty, as well as the role of democracy in governance.

Conceptualized at a time when the global news media was awash with reports of a migrant crisis in Europe, with images of African youth crossing the Mediterranean into Europe becoming morbid fodder for politicking, Generation Africa sought to regain control of the narrative and frame it within the proper context. For one, the bulk of migration involving Africans was happening within the continent, not outside. And the lurid headlines and fear-mongering stories mostly failed to capture the humanity or lived realities of the migrants.

The films in the series go deep into the issuespersonal, social, economic, and environmental factors that surround migration, within Africa and outside, but mostly within. The portraits that emerge are often fully realized, compassionate accounts that present their subjects as human beings armed with agency and exercising their basic right to move across borders.

Some of these stories are heartbreaking, some breathtaking. Ousmane Samasskous The Last Shelter, which won the grand prize at the 2021 CPH:DOX, manages to be both. The director embeds himself in a halfway home for migrants close to the desert and captures the beauty in the wrenching stories of broken people and survivors alike. There are stories that find joy in the simple things. Rumbi Katedzas Transactions is a racy chronicle of a Zimbabwean family that remains close-knit and in good spirits, even while members are scattered around the world.

The films in the collection have a common thread of deconstructing migration, but many of them cover a wider gamut of issues relating to the experiences of young people on the continent. Noella Lukas Whats Eating my Mind investigates mental illness, a taboo topic in many communities. Fatimah Dadzies Fatis Choice considers female participation in migration and the changing roles of women in traditional societies. Many of the films depict how migration impacts families and empowers communities in ways that global development aid does not always succeed. It is impossible to engage with the films in the collection without confronting relatable characters presented as living, complex beings.

These films went through a rigorous curatorial process, though, especially with respect to matters of duty of care and accountability.

Historically, documentaries made in and about Africa have been skewed in ways that have not always been the most edifying. With this in mind, plenty of thought and effort has gone into creating documentaries that engage with their subjects and themes in ways that are respectful and authentic.

Tiny Mungwe, producer on Generation Africa, talks about the principles guiding the selection. One of the things we noticed when we put out the call was that the majority of the stories had filmmakers hoping to speak on behalf of people, without providing enough evidence of engaging with their subjects. We were attracted to projects where the filmmakers established a clear connection with the community and had a shared interest in starting social change by telling stories with the community. These are the types of stories we tried to identify and take into the development process.

With the participation of an international consortium of partners, the projects are developed with professional support for the filmmakers at all stages of the production process. Experts were invited to reflect with the filmmaking teams about their ideas and the possible results. For many of the filmmakers, it was a different way of working and thinking about film. Edkins reflects, For filmmakers that rely on NGO work, it is a shift in terms of their storytelling, and I think that has been interesting, working with them to help understand the possibilities that this offers.

Mungwe is quick to impress that the film teams retain the freedom to tell their own stories. She stresses, Rather than dish out a way of making documentaries, we want to create a space to free our filmmakers of any biases. She continues, There isnt a formula that we are parachuting into people. We are asking them to really interrogate why certain conventions exist and how well those conventions have worked, historically and today.

With the focus on east and west Africaregions that do not necessarily have strong creative documentary industriesand on younger filmmakers in the early phases of their career, instilling an ethically sound culture of responsibility, equity and accountability in the documentary-making process came with its own rewards.

Akuol de Mabior, whose debut feature-length doc, No Simple Way Home, also premiered at the Berlinalea first for South Sudanfound this to be the case. Navigating the realities of shooting her films protagonisther mother, who also happens to be one of South Sudans vice presidentswas easier because her core crew of cinematographer and sound recordist was composed of women. It was important that we were three East African women, de Mabior shares. My mom took us in like her daughters; that is how we were able to maintain a level of intimacy such that filming in her bedroom did not feel awkward.

Beyond the festival circuit, all the films in the Generation Africa collection will be available for free on AfriDocs, the pan-African streaming platform set up by STEPS to distribute African documentaries, for anyone on the continent with Internet access. Future generations of filmmakers will thus have access to locally relevant, world-class documentaries. Viewers elsewhere will be able to access the films through broadcast agreements between STEPS and global partners. Building documentary communities is at the heart of the work STEPS does, and with Generation Africa, that culture is being reinforced. Getting the films to audiences is just as important as creating them.

STEPS was conceived in the late 90s as a reaction to the stories of death and devastation surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which hit South Africa hard. The original cycle, dubbed Steps for the Future, included 38 HIV/AIDS-themed films from seven countries, each one offering a different narrative to what the global media was peddling. The project pioneered mobile cinemas, organized community screenings, and distributed local-language versions of the films via support groups. Facilitators were trained to organize discussions at the community level to enable people to take control of their decision-making process.

These methodologies have been revisited with successive project cycles organized by STEPS,and have proven to be effective in reaching new audiences and driving behavioral change. With most of the Generation Africa films now nearing completion, participating filmmakers are being supported to draw up strategies that will drive engagement within their respective communities. This will aim to create a dialogue on what migration means to people and how it can support development in their communities. For Ike Nnaebue, the Berlinale premiere is only the beginning of the impact that he hopes to achieve with No U-Turn. Having abandoned his own quest to migrate to Europe decades ago, he wants to use his film not just to discourage migration through dangerous routes, but also to drum up awareness and raise funds to resettle and integrate people who would like to come back home.

Nnaebue credits Generation Africa for putting him in a position to give back to his community and for linking him with a global network of filmmakers and resource persons. He concludes, "You can never underestimate the power of the collective."

Wilfred Okiche has attended critic programs and reported from festivals in Locarno, Rotterdam, Stockholm, and Sundance. He works as a film critic and occasional programmer and has garnered experience covering and writing about documentaries, Nollywood, and African cinema. His writing has appeared in Variety, IndieWire, Filmkrant, and Senses of Cinema, among other publications.

Wilfred Okiche is a 2022 Documentary Magazine Editorial Fellow. The Fellowship program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit http://www.arts.gov.

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How Generation Africa is Changing the Narrative of Migration in African Communities - International Documentary Association |

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday claimed that the southern border "is secure" even as Border Patrol agents are facing historic migrant numbers.

Mayorkas spoke at the Aspen Security Forum, where he was asked about the situation at the southern border which has seen more than 200,000 migrant encounters a month in the last four months.

But, even though he acknowledged the situation is a "historic challenge," the secretary claimed the border is "secure."

"Look, the border is secure," he said. "We are working to make the border more secure. That has been a historic challenge."

REPS COMER, STEFANIK PUSH MAYORKAS ON FUNDING OF NGOS FOR MIGRANT RELEASES INTO US

He also used the question to take aim at lawmakers who have said they will not pass comprehensive immigration legislation. A number of Republicans have said they would not consider legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country until the border crisis ends.

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Capitol Hill, May 4, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Image)

"I have said to a number of legislators who expressed to me that we need to address the challenge at the border before they pass legislation and I take issue with the math of holding the solution hostage until the problem is resolved," he said.

DHS WON'T PROVIDE INFO ON TERROR PLOTS UNTIL CONGRESS GETS WAIVERS FROM ACCUSED NON-CITIZENS, REPUBLICANS SAY

"There is work to be done," he said before clarifying that "safe and secure are two different words."

"There are smugglers that operate on the Mexican side of the border and placing one's life in their hands is not safe," he said.

His remarks come after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced last week that there were 207,000 migrant encounters at the border in June, compared to just over 189,000 in June last year. The June report shows there were 105,161 migrants removed from the U.S. last month, including 92,273 expelled under CDCs Title 42 order 79,652 migrants were released into the US.

With Junes numbers, there have now been 1,746,119 total encounters at the southern border in the 2022 fiscal year outpacing the 1,734,686 encounters set in the FY21, and with still three months remaining in FY'22.

Republicans have zeroed in on the Biden administration's handling of the crisis, blaming its rolling back of Trump-era border policy like the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which requires migrants be returned to Mexico for the duration of their immigration hearings. The administration has also narrowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities, stopped border wall construction and implemented an asylum rule to expedite the length of hearings.

The administration has pushed back on those claims by Republicans, blaming instead the closing off of legal asylum pathways by the Trump administration and also pointing to "root causes" like poverty, violence and corruption in Central America. It is also seeking to end Title 42 expulsions, which have been used to expel a majority of migrants since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. arguing that a shift to traditional expulsions will lower repeat encounters and dissuade migrants. So far the administration has been blocked by a federal court from ending Title 42.

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Mayorkas has repeatedly defended his handling of the border crisis, in April he said that his DHS inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under strain only Congress can fix this."

"Yet, we have effectively managed an unprecedented number of non-citizens seeking to enter the United States," he told lawmakers.

Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, with a focus on immigration. He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter: @AdamShawNY

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Mayorkas claims southern border 'is secure' as historic migrant crisis ...

President Joe Bidens migrant crisis is still in full swing with no light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the fact that the White House recently took action to curb the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, doubts remain as to whether the administration is able or even willing to take concrete action to deal with the problem.

With Republicans set to retake the House and possibly the Senate in the upcoming congressional elections, they will be expected to provide legislative solutions. On Friday, the House Republican Conference revealed their plan to address the immigration issue after they take power in 2023.

The proposal is designed to bolster physical infrastructure as well as closing asylum loopholes, according to Fox News. The plan was concocted by the American Security Task Force, which was established by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in 2021 to create policies that would address the influx of immigrants coming to the southern border. It is headed by Rep. John Katko (R-NY), who laid out a series of initiatives under the plan.

Weve got a lot of very serious security issues going on at the border, people from 160 different countries have come across the border, and its not just a Mexican and Northern Triangle issue, its a worldwide issue that people are exploiting, Katko said during an interview with Fox. Its really a concern. So everything we did in here has that background in mind and that background of Weve got to stop this. We can turn it around, and weve got to do better.

For starters, the legislation would require the federal government to continue construction on the border wall, which began under former President Donald Trump. Progress on the wall was halted almost as soon as President Biden sat down behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. It was part of his initiative to brand himself as the anti-Trump, by rolling back most of his predecessors immigration policies. The result was the massive surge of migrants traveling to the border to gain entry into the United States.

The bill would also improve the technology used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and allow for increased staffing. The last bit is important because the agency has been stretched thin as it attempts to keep up with the number of people crossing the border illegally. It would also grant more funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Katkos group is also proposing that the government expand the Title 42 public health order, which allowed border authorities to expel a majority of migrants in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also used to curtail the flow of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into the U.S.

The proposal would also reinstitute the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which is also known as the Remain in Mexico policy. The program required migrants seeking asylum to stay in Mexico while their cases were being decided. It ended the Catch and Release approach favored by previous presidents that allowed individuals to stay in America as they awaited their court dates. Many of these folks failed to show up for court and remained in the country illegally.

Surprisingly enough, the proposed legislation also includes provisions mandating the use of E-Verify nationally. The conservative base has wanted such a measure for decades, but GOP lawmakers failed to pass it.

The unveiling of the Republicans immigration plan comes as the White House quietly resumed construction on the border wall in the area of Yuma, Arizona. Despite calling Trump a racist xenophobe for even suggesting a physical barrier, Biden is now continuing the policy, at least in part. The New York Post reported:

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas authorized Customs and Border Protection Thursday to seal the openings near the Morelos Dam just west of downtown Yuma.

The department said the area presents safety and life hazard risks for migrants attempting to cross into the United States where there is a risk of drownings and injuries from falls. This area also poses a life and safety risk to first responders and agents responding to incidents in this area.

Between January and June of this year, Border Patrol has detained illegals trying to get into the country over 160,000 times. Yuma, along with the Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley sectors in Texas, has had the most activity at the border.

The Republicans plan is an ambitious one. Passing this legislation wont be easy with the number of open borders Democrats in Congress. The GOP will have to win solid majorities in both houses to even hope to pass such a sweeping plan. With President Biden in the White House, we can bet that the veto pen will be at the ready, if Republicans manage to put together a package that would actually deal with the problem Biden seems determined not to solve. Still, it could provide a good template for the future when Democrats lose the White House. It might be a few more years before we see any real movement on the border but hopefully, this will be the beginning.

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Can Republicans Fix Bidens Migrant Crisis? RedState

Who else finds the citys response to its illegal-migrant influx utterly surreal?

Over in The Bronx, hundreds of migrants lined up Sunday to sign up for health coverage and collect food, free phones and school supplies.

Friday at Department of Education headquarters, Chancellor David Banks detailed plans to get a thousand-plus migrant kids enrolled in public schools before classes start Sept. 8 amid advocate complaints that the DOE hasnt been moving fast enough.

Meanwhile, Department of Social Serviceschief Gary Jenkins is embroiled in accusations that he tried to cover up the scandal of some migrants having to stay overnight at an intake center rather than immediately being gotten to shelters. Oh, and the beleaguered hotel industry is jumping to offer new shelter space at a price, of course.

All this amid Mayor Eric Adams ongoing war of words with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, complaining about the relative handful of migrants Abbotts busing north to highlight how overwhelmed his towns are by the thousands arriving daily.

Yet Adams was silent for months about the migrants sent here by the Biden administration which is responsible for literally waving in the entire vast wave, and for distributing countless illegal border-crossers across the nation, including via secretive middle-of-the-night flights.

Its beyond bizarre that the citys entire power structure (most certainly including those all-too-powerful advocates) treats this insanity like it was some new form of weather, a challenge that erupted out of the blue through no ones fault except Abbotts, of course.

Set aside the refusal to even mention the presidents central role, and the fact that hes executing what somehow has become Democrats dogmatic open-borders policy (even if they refuse to put it that way, all joining in the just the weather denial).

Ignore, too, that this crisis should have some New York leaders finally questioning the citys shelter for all comers guarantees, and its extremist (since Mayor Bill de Blasio redefined it) sanctuary city policy.

Why does everyone insist on ignoring the migrants own agency here? These people chose to come chose to travel thousands of miles to illegally enter another country, usually crossing other countries where they could have stayed and then to come to New York City.

Heck, those who arrive send word back home (and to those already en route) about how to game the system, on top of advice from the federally funded advocate nonprofits urging them to make the trip.

Yes, many of them rush to find some way to be self-sufficient. And theyre all seeking a better life, and responding to the come on in signals so many Americans send.

But all of this is a result of human choices, not of mysterious forces requiring the rest of us to simply adjust. Routinely, universally pretending otherwise may be politically convenient, but it increasingly enrages everyone in the reality-based community.

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The insane topsy-turvy response to NYCs migrant crisis - New York Post