Month: November 2024

There is a stark contrast in foreign affairs between the Biden-Harris record of a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Putin invasion of Ukraine, China’s assault on the Philippine exclusive economic zone, and the widening Middle East catastrophe.    The Trump White House archives provides a lengthy list of foreign policy results. “President Trump restored American sovereignty at home and American leadership abroad, partnering with strong and responsible nations to promote security, prosperity, and peace. Instead of sending American troops to fight in endless wars or giving cash to terrorists in countries like Iran, the United States under President Trump used bold, creative diplomacy to secure peace deals with our allies across the world. With the same “peace through strength” foreign policy that President Reagan once used to win the Cold War, President Trump rebuilt American deterrence power to hold our adversaries accountable. Perhaps most important, the Trump Administration reversed Washington’s decades-long, bipartisan refusal to confront China over its unfair trade practices, intellectual property theft, and more.

Specifically, the Trump Administration:

“Secured a $400 billion increase in defense spending from NATO allies by 2024, as the number of members meeting their minimum financial obligations more than doubled

Credited by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for strengthening NATO

Worked to reform and streamline the United Nations and reduced spending by $1.3 billion

Allies, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, committed to increase burden-sharing

Protected our Second Amendment rights by announcing that the United States will never ratify the UN Arms Trade Treaty

Returned 56 hostages and detainees from more than 24 countries

Worked to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region, promoting new investments and expanding American partnerships

Advanced peace through strength

Withdrew from the one-sided Iran Nuclear Deal and imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian regime

Conducted vigorous enforcement on all sanctions to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero and deny the regime its principal source of revenue

First president to meet with a leader of North Korea and the first sitting president to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea

Maintained a maximum pressure campaign and enforced tough sanctions on North Korea while negotiating denuclearization, the release of American hostages, and the return of the remains of American heroes

Brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, bolstering peace in the Balkans

Signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and ended the United States’ preferential treatment with Hong Kong to hold China accountable for its infringement on the autonomy of Hong Kong

Led allied efforts to defeat the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to control the international telecommunications system

Recognized Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel and quickly moved the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

Acknowledged Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and declared that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not inconsistent with international law

Removed the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council due to the group’s blatant anti-Israel bias

Brokered historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab-Muslim countries, including the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Sudan

Brokered a deal for Kosovo to normalize ties and establish diplomatic relations with Israel

Announced that Serbia would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

First American president to address an assembly of leaders from more than 50 Muslim nations, reaching an agreement to fight terrorism in all its forms

Established the Etidal Center to combat terrorism in the Middle East in conjunction with the Saudi Arabian government

Announced the Vision for Peace Political Plan—a two-state solution that resolves the risks of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security, marking the first time Israel has agreed to a map and a Palestinian state

Released an economic plan to empower the Palestinian people and enhance Palestinian governance through historic private investment

Reversed the previous administration’s Cuba policy, canceling the sellout deal with the Communist Castro dictatorship

Pledged not to lift sanctions until all political prisoners are freed, freedoms of assembly and expression are respected, all political parties are legalized, and free elections are scheduled

Enacted a new policy aimed at preventing American dollars from funding the Cuban regime, including stricter travel restrictions and restrictions on the importation of Cuban alcohol and tobacco

Implemented a cap on remittances to Cuba

Enabled Americans to file lawsuits against persons and entities that traffic in property confiscated by the Cuban regime

First world leader to recognize Juan Guaido as the Interim President of Venezuela and led a diplomatic coalition against the Socialist Dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro

Blocked all property of the Venezuelan government in the jurisdiction of the United States

Cut off the financial resources of the Maduro regime and sanctioned key sectors of the Venezuelan economy exploited by the regime

Brought criminal charges against Nicolas Maduro for his narco-terrorism

Imposed stiff sanctions on the Ortega regime in Nicaragua

Photo: Trump site

Election day is not an end, it is a beginning. What will the victor do for the next four years?

The 2024 election is unusual, in that it is a battle, in many ways, of one incumbent against the other. There is a fairly clear picture of what both candidates will do if they win.

It can reasonably be expected that both will follow the paths they established during their tenure in office. Speaking of his vice president, Biden stated that “…as vice president, there wasn’t a single thing   that I did that she couldn’t do. And so I was able to delegate [to] her responsibility on everything from foreign policy to domestic policy.”

The White House website concurs. “As President of the Senate, Vice President Harris set a new record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a Vice President in history – surpassing a record that had stood for nearly 200 years. And her votes have been consequential. This includes casting the decisive vote to secure passage of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment ever in tackling the climate crisis. She also presided over the unprecedented vote to confirm the first Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court while working alongside President Biden to achieve historic representation of women and people of color among nominees at all levels of the federal government.”

Vice President Harris was, indeed, the crucial tie-breaking vote on the inflation reduction act. The House Oversight Committee notes that “Instead of lowering prices, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) hiked taxes on businesses, mandates price controls on drugs, devoted $80 billion to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to target middle class Americans, and earmarked $300 billion to advance Democrats’ radical climate agenda. The IRA’s drug pricing scheme means higher prices, fewer cures, and less access to care for American patients.

“Joel White, President of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, discussed how the IRA will result in fewer cures during his opening testimony. “All of the experts – CBO, the CMS Actuary, and private academics – agree that the IRA will result in fewer therapies. They simply disagree on the extent of the damage.”

“President Biden is willing to sacrifice our economic security to pursue his radical Green New Deal.

“President Biden and Democrats have used the IRA to disguise radical Green New Deal policies that put China over the U.S.

“New estimates project the actual cost of the IRA green energy will be double the projected amount.

“Preston Brashers, PhD, and Senior Policy Analyst of Tax Policy at the Heritage Foundation said during his opening testimony, “The IRA is much more fiscally irresponsible than it appeared on paper. It uses gimmicky and questionable pay-fors and expirations, and some of the provisions are proving much more costly than forecasters expected – especially the bevy of tax credits for green energy, electric vehicles, carbon sequestration, and other things ostensibly connected to the climate agenda.”

In stark contrast, inflation was comparatively tamed during the Trump years. Yahoo Finance reports that “ Trump oversaw a period of relatively low inflation, and Biden’s term so far has largely been defined by rapidly rising prices and the most painful inflation since the early 1980s.” On foreign affairs, the Biden-Harris record is worrisome.  The House Oversight Committee also reports that “Meaghan Mobbs, Director of the Center for American Safety and Security: “The core duty of any government is to protect its people. Yet, over the last four years, the world has only grown more dangerous. Under the current administration, we have witnessed the largest attack on a European nation in 85 years and the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Our enemies no longer view the United States as a nation ready to act with strength and resolve when confronted. Instead, they witnessed an administration more focused on diplomatic gestures and conciliatory measures, often at the expense of American security.

The article concludes tomorrow

Photo: White House web site

HOW THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION USES THE NATION’S IMMIGRATION COURTS TO ADVANCE AN OPEN-BORDERS AGENDA

The New York Analysis Presents the Executive Summary of the Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement

For almost four years, Americans have watched as President Joe Biden and border czar Vice President Kamala Harris have abandoned the southwest border and welcomed nearly 8 million illegal aliens into the United States. The Biden-Harris Administration’s open-borders policies not only have undermined national security and endangered communities across the U.S., but they also have decimated the nation’s immigration courts.

Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, the immigration court case backlog has skyrocketed, with more than 3.7 million new cases since the beginning of fiscal year 2021.2 In just the first three quarters of fiscal year 2024, there were more than 1.5 million new cases filed with the nation’s immigration courts. The majority of those cases are based on claims that ultimately will prove unsuccessful. Of the asylum cases that were adjudicated in fiscal year 2023, only 14 percent resulted in an asylum grant, with the remaining cases denied, abandoned, dismissed, terminated, withdrawn, or administratively closed.

The Biden-Harris Administration has used the immigration court backlog as an excuse to allow even more aliens to remain in the country. Instead of actually adjudicating illegal aliens’ cases based on the merits of aliens’ claims for relief—such as whether an alien has a valid and successful asylum claim—immigration judges under the Biden-Harris Administration have been tasked with rubberstamping case dismissals, case closures, and case terminations, all of which allow illegal aliens to remain in the United States without immigration consequences. This sort of quiet amnesty has become a staple of the Biden-Harris Administration’s immigration courts.

Since 2023, the Committee on the Judiciary and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement have conducted oversight of the Biden-Harris border crisis, including its effect on the nation’s immigration courts. This oversight has revealed how the

Biden-Harris Administration has used administrative maneuvering in immigration court proceedings to allow nearly 1 million illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. indefinitely.

For example:

• Under the Biden-Harris Administration, more than 700,000 illegal aliens have had their

cases dismissed, terminated, or administratively closed, allowing those aliens to stay in

the country indefinitely without facing immigration consequences.

• For asylum decisions, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which

houses the nation’s immigration courts, reported 109,089 cases as “not adjudicated” in

fiscal year 2023, meaning that those cases were deemed “completed” but were largely

terminated or dismissed and not adjudicated on the merits of the underlying claim.

• Through the first nine months of fiscal year 2024, the number of non-adjudicated asylum

cases already eclipsed the 2023 record, with 109,568 asylum cases not adjudicated.

By comparison, only 12,960 total asylum cases were reported as “not adjudicated” from

fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2020 combined

• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to file the necessary documentation

to begin immigration court removal proceedings in roughly 200,000 additional cases,

meaning that the overwhelming majority of those aliens can also remain in the U.S.

indefinitely.

• An immigration court official admitted to the Committee and Subcommittee that

decisions by the Biden-Harris DHS, such as DHS attorneys not appearing at scheduled

hearings and DHS failing to file proper paperwork with the courts, waste the immigration courts’ time and resources and decrease efficiency. … the [Biden-Harris Administration has used the] nation’s immigration courts to advance an open-borders agenda. Through administrative maneuvering at both the Justice Department and DHS, the Biden-Harris Administration has already ensured that nearly 1 million illegal aliens can remain in the United States without the possibility of deportation—and that trend shows no sign of stopping…