A day before 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal opened fire on two National Guardsmen patrolling near the White House, the NGO that reportedly settled the shooter in the United States condemned President Donald Trump for ordering further vetting of refugees.
On November 25, World Relief, one of nine voluntary organizations contracted by the State Department to facilitate housing and employment assistance for refugees, issued a <a href="https://worldrelief.org/pr-world-relief-condemns-a-uscis-memo-halting-green-card-processing-for-200000-refugees-calling-it-destabilizing-and-morally-unjust/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> in response to an internal memo from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requiring additional scrutiny of all refugees who entered the country during the Biden administration.
In the statement, World Relief president and CEO Myal Greene called the additional vetting a “moral and ethical betrayal of due process,” and VP Matt Soerens said that it would “retraumatiz[e]” refugees brought to the United States.
The following day, according to witnesses, Lakanwal fired on the guards while shouting, “Allahu akbar.” Twenty-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom died from her wounds, and 24-year-old Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe is still in serious condition.
Greene insisted in World Relief’s statement that the Afghans had been sufficiently vetted.
“Refugees admitted under the U.S. refugee resettlement program have undergone some of the most rigorous vetting of any immigrant lawfully admitted into the United States, yet this sweeping re-interview initiative is nothing less than a calculated effort to strip lawful status from thoroughly-vetted, law-abiding people,” he said.
But according to a 2022 Department of Homeland Security inspector general report released under Biden appointee Alejandro Mayorkas, the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal left significant gaps in information, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) often lacked significant data for the entries, such as “name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data.” In one sample of 88,977 evacuee records, 417 lacked first names, 242 lacked last names, 11,110 had January 1 birthdates, and 7,800 had missing or invalid travel documents.
“We also determined CBP admitted or paroled evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States,” DHS investigators concluded.
A <a href="about:blank" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 DHS report</a> involving three Department of Homeland Security divisions — CBP, USCIS, and ICE — similarly found that CBP did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees and that DHS’s “fragmented” process resulted in chaotic conditions that led to lost information and background checks that were deferred until after departure from Afghanistan. During his April 2025 confirmation hearing, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/thousands-once-protected-afghan-refugees-united-states-face-deportation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that after reviewing data from the National Counterterrorism Center, he found that more than 1,400 Afghans with suspected links to ISIS had been admitted into the country.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/us/guard-shooting-suspect-profile.html#:~:text=Mr.%20Lakanwal's%20unit%20was%20based,who%20had%20helped%20U.S.%20troops" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on November 27 that World Relief was involved with resettling Lakanwal in Washington State, but since then, the organization has declined to elaborate, telling NPR they “cannot confirm whether or not [they] have served any specific client without permission from [their] federal government partners who administered the process for bringing Afghans to the United States beginning in 2021.”
What is known is that the State Department designated Whatcom County, Washington, which includes Bellingham, where Lakanwal resided, as a resettlement site for Afghan evacuees under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). World Relief’s local office there was tasked with aiding refugees’ initial integration.
While the NGO, founded in 1944 by the National Association of Evangelicals, once relied almost entirely on private contributions, today the bulk of its funding comes from the federal government.
In 2021, it received <a href="about:blank" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$56 million in federal grants and contracts</a> and only $13 million in private contributions. Through its work with the Soros-funded <a href="https://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Evangelical Immigration Table</a>, World Relief is heavily involved in lobbying churches and evangelical organizations to back bills that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants.
In 2018, they launched the “<a href="https://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/iwasastranger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I Was a Stranger” challenge</a>, a “40-day Scripture-reading guide composed of short Bible passages that relate in one way or another to the theme of immigration.” This curriculum, which many critics argue cherry-picks and manipulates Scripture for progressive policy aims, was sent to churches across the country, and Soerens’ work promoting it was published and promoted in influential evangelical publications like <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/11/trump-deportation-immigration-temporary-protected-status/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christianity Today</a> and <a href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/profile/matthew-soerens/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Gospel Coalition</a>.
The Daily Wire reached out to World Relief, and they responded with a statement from Soerens saying, “Based on news reports, the alleged perpetrator in the attack in Washington, D.C., did not enter the United States as a refugee and thus would not have been subject to the re-interview process to which our press release was responding.”
However, Trump’s order for further vetting of Afghan nationals admitted under the Biden administration also applies to those who entered the U.S. via humanitarian parole under OAW. It targets all Afghan arrivals from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025—including the ~76,000 OAW evacuees processed post-2021 U.S. withdrawal.
Soerens said World Relief stands by their statement of condemnation, and they have not changed their position opposing additional vetting of refugees.

National Guard Continue Patrolling Washington, DC After Shooting

Religious NGO That Settled Afghan Shooter Condemned Trump For Additional Vetting Order

Afghanistan

Alejandro Mayorkas

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

National Guard

Nejwa Ali, a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) who the Department of Homeland Security hired and put in charge of vetting asylum seekers, was fired by the Trump administration in February after the Biden administration declined to do so for 14 months after she pledged her support for Hamas.
Former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, removed Ali from duty on October 19, 2023, days after The Daily Wire documented her celebration of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. But instead of firing her, Mayorkas continued to pay her, placing her on paid leave for an “investigation” even as she repeatedly and proudly affirmed her hatred of Jews and allegiance to the Palestinian cause, and used the paid leave to protest Israel during work hours.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire this week that Ali was removed from federal service on February 10, meaning she received 16 months of salary without having to work.
Ali worked in 2016 and 2017 as a public affairs officer for the &#8220;PLO office in D.C,&#8221; according to her LinkedIn. That office was expelled from the country because it is a designated terror organization. But Ali landed on her feet, securing a job at DHS as an &#8220;Asylum Officer,&#8221; where she was tasked with &#8220;applying immigration laws and regulations to asylum applications.&#8221;
Ali posted incessantly about her affinity for the Palestinian cause on social media, with increasingly over-the-top rhetoric after the October 7 terror attack. The Daily Wire&#8217;s initial report on Ali highlighted how she repeatedly posted pictures of Hamas terrorists parachuting in with guns and writing, “F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-u-s-govt-hired-a-pro-hamas-plo-spokeswoman-to-handle-asylum-claims">The U.S. Gov’t Hired A Pro-Hamas PLO Spokeswoman To Handle Asylum Claims</a>
Ali threatened to call the police on The Daily Wire for writing about her. Then, after the story ran, she said by phone: &#8220;I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-puts-pro-hamas-immigrant-screener-on-leave-as-she-reaffirms-that-she-celebrates-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abso-f***ing-lutely celebrate</a> [Palestinian terrorist hang-gliders], a**hole, f*** you!&#8221; The Daily Wire provided audio of that call to Mayorkas’s DHS.
In January 2023, Ali became an Adjudication Officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. People with that job, according to the agency, “analyze new or amended legislation and policy, prepare written reports of findings, and review and make determinations on cases for immigration benefits.”
The hiring — which initially occurred during the first Trump administration — suggested that not only were “asylum officers” not thoroughly vetting applicants to weed out fraudsters and terrorists, but even the screeners themselves were not vetted.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638267" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n-317x576.jpg" alt="Nejwa Ali Facebook" width="317" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n-317x576.jpg 317w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n-165x300.jpg 165w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/18556398_10101359938584405_5812761505162818395_n.jpg 528w" sizes=" (max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px" /></div>
This month, DHS said that had changed: Citizenship and Immigration Services is now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homeland-security-to-screen-immigrants-and-foreign-students-social-media-for-anti-semitism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">screening applicants’ social media</a> for any evidence that “indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, anti-Semitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests.”
And the Citizenship and Immigration Services screener whose own social media was a stream of such content was also fired — raising even more questions about why Mayorkas couldn&#8217;t or wouldn&#8217;t do it, despite Ali&#8217;s openness about her views.
Weeks after The Daily Wire’s exposé, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) grilled Mayorkas about it at a hearing, saying, &#8220;What about people who say things like, on October 7, ‘F*** Israel, the government and its military, are you ready for your downfall.’ People who say things like, ‘F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel. May your conscience haunt your dreams until your last breath, Palestine will be free one day, f*** apartheid Israel and any Israeli.’ &#8230; This person works for you. This is Nejwa Ali, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security who posted these comments on October the 7th. She also posted this graphic … a Hamas paraglider depicted here with a machine gun flying into Israel. She posted it under her online alias with the celebratory ‘free Palestine.’ What’s going on here? Is this typical of people who work at DHS? This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly pro-genocidal slogans and images on the day Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds. What have you done about this?”
Mayorkas angrily refused to say why she was on paid leave instead of being fired, calling the question <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-secretary-says-he-hasnt-fired-hamas-supporting-asylum-agent-and-its-despicable-to-ask-about-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;despicable</a>.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-638203" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-903x576.png" alt="Nejwa Ali Facebook" width="903" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-903x576.png 903w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-300x191.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5-768x490.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ss5.png 1162w" sizes=" (max-width: 903px) 100vw, 903px" /></div>
Six months later, Mayorkas confirmed to the Senate that Ali was still on paid leave, even as she used her paid leave to protest in front of the Israeli Embassy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/immigration-agent-who-celebrates-hamas-is-using-paid-leave-from-dhs-to-threaten-military-officials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during work hours</a>, and to dox military members there.
Ali herself seemed shocked that Mayorkas hadn’t fired her, and gloated about the secretary&#8217;s inaction. When someone wrote on her LinkedIn page, “When you do everything you can to get fired but the boss says NO,” she replied with a stream of laughing emotions and wrote, “hilarious, seriously.”
When someone posted that Ali “hasn’t yet been fired by” Mayorkas, Ali commented that she was “still laughing too. #freePalestine from APARTHEID Israel.”
Another LinkedIn user said, “Nejwa, as much as I believe in free speech and every American being entitled to develop and express their own opinion, tha [sic] ends when you’re a representative of the US and mpre [sic] implicitly, when dealing with immigration with the very people you are calling for total annihilation against.” Ali replied: “Listen white women, shut the F*** UP.”
In June 2024, the House of Representatives resorted to the extraordinary step of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-votes-to-defund-hamas-supporting-dhs-official-over-objections-from-dems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voting</a> to make Ali&#8217;s salary $1, but it never became law. Democrats opposed the move, saying Ali should be afforded due process. They have not explained whether they think a form of due process that prevents firing for more than a year needs reform.
That same month, the Center to Advance Security in America filed a lawsuit seeking records about how Ali was hired and how she handled asylum vetting after Mayorkas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-faces-lawsuit-over-ex-plo-spokeswoman-it-hired-to-vet-immigrants-kept-paying-despite-anti-semitism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refused</a> to fulfill the request.

Nejwa Ali LinkedIn / Facebook

DHS Official Who Openly Cheered Hamas Fired After 16 Months Of Paid Leave

Department of Homeland Security

Israel

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made it clear on Friday that he had absolutely zero interest in discussing the recently-secured state of the United States-Mexico border.
Mayorkas, when confronted at an airport by The Blaze national correspondent Julio Rosas, made every effort instead to beat a hasty retreat rather than answer questions about the fact that the border — which was open by design during his tenure as part of President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration — has been largely secured since the day President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
National Correspondent <a href="https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Julio_Rosas11</a> asked former DHS Secretary Mayorkas about President Trump securing the southern border: <a href="https://t.co/FFr2T8Prkm">pic.twitter.com/FFr2T8Prkm</a>
&mdash; TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href="https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/1908252766742732861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mayorkas seemed approachable enough at first, saying it was &#8220;a pleasure&#8221; and offering a hand to shake as Rosas introduced himself and stated that he was with Blaze media.
&#8220;I just wanted to ask you how it feels to see —&#8221; Rosas had not even gotten his first question out before Mayorkas waved him off, saying, &#8220;Not right now.&#8221;
&#8220;— that the United States has a secure border now that President Trump is in office, as opposed to when you were Secretary of Homeland Security,&#8221; Rosas finished, and Mayorkas kept walking.
Mayorkas kept his mouth shut as Rosas followed up by asking whether he had &#8220;any regrets&#8221; with regard to allowing the border to remain open, especially given the new data that says under Trump&#8217;s DHS, &#8220;border crossings are down 95%.&#8221;
&#8220;Do you regret allowing Tren de Aragua to gain a foothold in the United States?&#8221; Rosas asked, but again, Mayorkas remained silent. &#8220;Do you have anything to say, sir, about your time as Homeland Security Secretary? facilitating an open border?&#8221;
The former DHS chief boarded an escalator, but Rosas met him at the bottom with another question: &#8220;I mean, it was a big issue, sir, that&#8217;s one of the reasons why President Trump won re-election. You don&#8217;t have anything to say about it?&#8221;
Rosas went on to ask whether Mayorkas had regrets about the thousands of migrant children the Biden administration had &#8220;lost track of&#8221; after they came into the United States — and whether he had anything to say about the fact that lax policies under his tenure had actually helped to increase widespread support for the mass deportations Trump promised and had already begun to deliver.
Mayorkas still said nothing, and exited the airport.

Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas Joins White House Daily Press Briefing

WATCH: Biden DHS Sec Bravely … Runs Away When Confronted Over Border He Never Secured

WATCH: Biden DHS Sec. Bravely ... Runs Away When Confronted Over Border He Never Secured

Border Crisis

border security

Illegal Immigration

U.S.

Alabama Senator Katie Britt praised the Trump administration for firing three more FEMA employees after it conducted an investigation into a supervisor&#8217;s directive for relief workers to skip homes with Trump flags or signs.
Britt made the comments in response to a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Chair-Britt22.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> she received from Acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton telling her that he had fired three employees who had a supervisory role over Marn&#8217;i Washington, the woman who told federal relief workers in Lake Placid, Florida, to &#8220;avoid homes advertising Trump.&#8221; Hamilton wrote in response to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-senator-demands-mayorkas-answer-over-fema-employee-guidance-to-skip-trump-homes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter Britt sent</a> on November 9, one day after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first reported</a> on the guidance, demanding answers from then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“I am sincerely grateful for FEMA’s efforts along with President Trump and [Homeland Secretary Secretary Kristi] Noem to ensure every American in need of critical aid, regardless of political affiliation, receives impartial assistance,&#8221; Britt, the chair of the subcommittee that appropriates money for Homeland Security, told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;I also appreciate FEMA taking necessary action to fire these individuals complicit in bypassing homes and conditioning aid as well as to provide additional training for the agency’s employees,&#8221; she added. &#8220;As I wrote in my letter to FEMA last November, the American people must have assurances this outrageous behavior never happens again.”
Hamilton&#8217;s letter to Britt closely mirrored a letter that was sent to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and the House Oversight Committee. He noted that the guidance, which led to around 20 homes being skipped, was investigated internally by the Office of Inspector General, the Office of the Special Counsel, and FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
“The OPR investigation found no evidence that this was a systemic problem, nor that it was directed by agency or field leadership,” he added. “However, it did determine that those in the immediate supervisor chain of the single staff member who engaged in this conduct should have had more direct control of their subordinates’ behavior. Thus, they failed to meet my expectations of leaders in this organization and have been terminated.”
“This action has been taken both because of their failure to meet our standards of conduct and because it is essential that the entire workforce understand that this incident was reprehensible, and this type of behavior will not be tolerated at FEMA,&#8221; he added, saying that FEMA employees were given additional training to make sure they knew that politics were not an acceptable consideration during disaster relief operations.
Britt&#8217;s initial letter to Mayorkas demanded answers on why the direction was given and that he make assurances that it would not happen again.

Senate Judiciary Cmte Holds Confirmation Hearing For FBI Director Nominee Patel

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Senator Praises FEMA For Firing Employees Over Directive To Skip Trump Homes

Alabama

FEMA

Hurricane Milton

Kristi Noem

Trump Administration

Lawmakers will grill top federal government investigators on Tuesday about the failures of President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, from its handling of illegal immigration to disaster responses, The Daily Wire has learned. 
Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK) will hold a hearing to examine waste and fraud at DHS during the Biden administration. The hearing will specifically look at FEMA’s struggles responding to natural disasters, the role that DHS potentially played in facilitating illegal immigration, and censoring Americans under Biden. 
The hearing, “Eliminating Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at the Department of Homeland Security: Addressing the Biden-Harris Administration’s Failures,” will be held by the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability at 2:0o p.m. on March 11. 
“Under the Biden administration, waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars was rampant throughout the executive branch, including within DHS,” Brecheen told The Daily Wire. “I look forward to working with our witnesses to identify where DHS has fallen most behind in this effort, including FEMA&#8217;s struggle with providing disaster relief, DHS’ bloated contracts with non-governmental organizations that helped facilitate record illegal immigration into the country, and the department’s involvement in censoring Americans, which undermined civil liberties.”
Witnesses at the hearing include Chris Currie, the director of the Homeland Security and Justice Team at the Government Accountability Office; Kristen Bernard, deputy inspector general at the DHS Office of Audits; and Erika Lang, assistant inspector general at the DHS Office of Inspections and Evaluations.
One of the focuses of the hearing is FEMA, an agency that has come under increased scrutiny in recent months after one of its employees reportedly told hurricane relief workers to skip the homes of Trump supporters and for its role in providing housing for illegal immigrants. Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN) launched an investigation into FEMA after the actions targeting Trump supporters were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first reported</a> by The Daily Wire. 
Other topics include how DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/2023/11/06/chairmen-green-bishop-uncover-new-evidence-of-dhs-big-tech-collaborating-to-censor-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worked to</a> censor Americans&#8217; speech on COVID and the 2020 election. The hearing will also examine how DHS collaborated with non-governmental organizations to provide logistical support to illegal immigrants under the previous DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. 
The subcommittee will also investigate DHS&#8217;s failure to implement “important recommendations to address waste, fraud, and abuse that the department failed to implement,” according to a committee aide. 
Brecheen said that Congress should follow the lead of the Trump administration in eliminating government waste and fraud.
&#8220;The Trump administration has created a golden age for government accountability in the interest of the American people — and Congress must play our part,” he said.

EXCLUSIVE: Republicans To Grill Government Investigators About ‘Failures’ Of Biden DHS

Actress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/patricia-heaton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patricia Heaton</a> slammed FEMA and former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for leaving <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/north-carolina">North Carolina</a> residents — who lost homes in Hurricane Helene — in tents when the agency reportedly had enough money to house &#8220;illegal migrants&#8221; in “luxury” hotels in New York City just last week.
In a post on Monday on <a href="https://x.com/PatriciaHeaton/status/1888969816876187725">X</a>, the 66-year-old actress reacted to a post from <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888891512303263815">Elon Musk</a> about how his “[Department of Government Efficiency] DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants … That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!”
“So those poor folks in North Carolina who were told by Mayorkas there wasn’t enough money to help them had to sleep in tents all this time,” Heaton wrote. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
So those poor folks in North Carolina who were told by Mayorkas there wasn’t enough money to help them had to sleep in tents all this time… <a href="https://t.co/4ToNxfhcvT">https://t.co/4ToNxfhcvT</a>
— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatriciaHeaton/status/1888969816876187725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
In October, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayorkas-claim-that-fema-was-tremendously-prepared-haunts-biden-harris-admin-after-hurricane">Mayorkas</a> claimed to reporters that FEMA was running out of money and did not have the resources to make it to the end of the season.
Last month, under former President Joe Biden’s administration, dozens of victims from the hurricane were kicked out of the hotels they were staying in as their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fema">FEMA</a>-sponsored vouchers expired, according to North Carolina’s Republican senators, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dozens-of-north-carolina-hurricane-victims-lose-fema-sponsored-housing-senators-say">reported</a>.
North Carolina Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis both posted on X that they had heard from dozens of constituents in western North Carolina that they had nowhere to go after their temporary FEMA housing assistance expired. 
FEMA responded by saying that it had expanded its housing program for those who had lost their homes in Helene until the end of March 2025.
“My office is hearing from dozens in WNC who have been kicked out of their hotels tonight, despite FEMA’s announcement yesterday that they were extending Transitional Sheltering Assistance through January 25,” Budd posted. “This is unacceptable. This needs to be fixed TONIGHT.”
Tillis reported a similar situation, saying that many kicked out of the hotels had nowhere to go with below freezing temperatures in the area.
Speaking to The Daily Wire, FEMA said that since September 2024, the agency had housed nearly 13,000 families displaced by devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. 
A spokesman said that its Transitional Sheltering Assistance program was still in place, including in western North Carolina, and had been extended until the end of March 2025.
The agency said that “hotel stays” on Tuesday ended for survivors who now had a habitable home due to inspection or for people who did not have “not have eligible damages to a home or rental unit caused by Tropical Storm Helene.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this piece.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/patricia-heaton-blows-up-on-la-mayor-as-fires-rage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patricia Heaton Blows Up On LA Mayor As Fires Rage</a>

Patricia Heaton-2

Patricia Heaton Slams FEMA For Leaving North Carolina In Tents, Putting Illegals In Ritzy Hotels

Celebrities

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Elon Musk

Entertainment

Hollywood

North Carolina

Homeland Security Secretary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kristi-noem" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kristi Noem</a> announced Monday that she was revoking a Biden administration policy that gave thousands of Venezuelan illegal immigrants protection from deportation.
Noem decided to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for 348,202 Venezuelans living in the U.S. who were given work authorization and shielded from deportation in October 2023. The Department of Homeland Security said conditions had improved in Venezuela and that it was not in America&#8217;s interest to maintain the program. 
“TPS has allowed a significant population of inadmissible or illegal aliens without a path to lawful immigration status to settle in the interior of the United States, and the sheer numbers have resulted in associated difficulties in local communities where local resources have been inadequate to meet the demands caused by increased numbers,” a <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-02294.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notice</a> from DHS set to be published on Wednesday reads. 
Specifically, the notice said that city shelters, police stations, and aid services were strained to their maximum capacity because of the influx. 
DHS said that the program had been a magnet for illegal immigration as thousands of inadmissible aliens were paroled into the country, and other illegal immigrants were able to obtain protected status and work authorization. 
“President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. As the Attorney General and DHS have long understood, the potential ‘magnet effect’ of a TPS determination is a permissible factor under the TPS statute, especially with respect to a redesignation,” the memo says. “The same is true for Venezuela.”
DHS also cited the increased presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua across the country as a reason to close off the program. 
Noem determined that Venezuela had seen improvements in the economy, public health, and crime that allowed Venezuelans to be “safely returned to their home country,” the notice says. The recision will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday and take effect 60 days after. 
The decision revokes an <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/archive/news/2025/01/10/dhs-extend-temporary-protected-status-venezuela" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extension</a> put in place by previous Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who had ordered the program continue until October 2026. Mayorkas said the extension was based on the “severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”
Noem’s move does not terminate TPS for the approximately 250,000 Venezuelans granted it in 2021. The program will remain in place until September 2025.

Secretary Kristi Noem Delivers Welcome Remarks To DHS Staff

Noem Ends Biden Program Shielding Thousands Of Venezuelans From Deportation

Border

Immigration

Politics

Venezuela

The Biden administration made multiple last-minute moves that could make the Department of Homeland Security more expensive to operate, and cause the funds allocated to the department to secure the border to be less effective.
On January 17, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote to all employees that he was giving them three days of additional vacation time to be used in 2025, in memory of him.
“It has been the honor of my life to support you and to work alongside you. In recognition of your extraordinary talent, dedication, and sacrifice, I am proud — this one last time — to grant all personnel 24 hours of administrative leave, to be used this calendar year,” he wrote in a memo to staff obtained by The Daily Wire. “Please take care of one another.”
The head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, meanwhile, sent employees a message saying that two career employees will lead the agency until a Trump appointee is confirmed. She signed the message “Ur M. Jaddou (she/her) Director.”
DHS employees were also given an extra day off for Christmas Eve and for former President Jimmy Carter’s death. Because simply not having law enforcement operate is not an option, this often means that the agency must pay for expensive and unbudgeted overtime just to have the coverage they were expected to have.
The change that could have significant impacts on the agency’s budget had to do with allowing employees to attain significant pay raises through tenure, rather than merit. The agency has historically had one Immigration Service Officer job, called ISO-1, that handled simpler cases and was lower-paid, starting at the GS-5 pay rank and allowing employees to climb to a GS-9. A second group of employees, ISO-2s, had to pass a test to get the job, handled complex cases, and were paid between GS-9 and GS-12.
In recent weeks, USCIS said it would combine them into one job, meaning all of its lower-paid agents could climb all the way to GS-12 pay simply by staying in their jobs. That gives the agency less of an ability to control its budget, and also means that the agents handling complex immigration cases could be less qualified.
The move could be an attempt to sandbag or budget-bust Trump’s DHS, or it could simply be a giveaway to public-sector unions, a primary Democrat constituency.
It means “everyone would eventually be GS-12… as long as you do your job at the basic level you will get promoted without any competition or proof of your ability to do or know your job,” a USCIS employee told The Daily Wire. “Someone straight from college with a degree in lesbian dance theory will get a GS-12 spot as long as they do the minimum.” 
A message dated January 6 and obtained by The Daily Wire said that “We have decided to combine these two positions into a single career ladder, eliminating the overlap of the GS-9. This new structure will feature one ISO position with a career progression spanning the 5/7/9/11/12 grade levels. However, there are several regulatory steps that we need to adhere to in order to make this transition. The new career ladder was tailored to meet growing operational effectiveness. This development also reflects our commitment to valuing and supporting the professional growth for ISOs.”
On January 17, the last weekday of the Biden administration, the merged jobs <a href="https://www.usajobs.gov/job/828825400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> on USAJobs.gov, the government’s hiring site. 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republicans-target-federal-unions-after-11th-hour-deals-tie-trumps-hands-on-remote-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans Target Federal Unions After 11th-Hour Deals Tie Trump’s Hands On Remote Work</a>

Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas Holds Media Availability In Eagle Pass, Texas

Biden Administration Makes 11th-Hour Moves To Sabotage Trump Department Of Homeland Security

Budget

For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
Sunday&#8217;s narrative focused primarily on the terrorist attack that took place last week in New Orleans — along with a concerted effort to drive conversation away from the terror risk posed by the open southern border and toward the threat of homegrown terrorism.
As soon as it was clear that the truck attack in New Orleans had been motivated by radical Islamist ideology — coupled with conflicting reports about the truck that was used and whether it had recently crossed the border — a number, President-elect Donald Trump among them, pointed to the porous border and questioned whether more such attacks might be possible or even imminent.
But Democrats and legacy media were quick to put distance on the topic of the border and the crisis that has unfolded there under the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s lax policies — and they emphasized the fact that at least in this particular case, the perpetrator was an American citizen who had been radicalized.
On ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week,&#8221; Chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas raised the question of how exactly the New Orleans terror suspect had been radicalized — specifically, whether ISIS had recruited him or he had come to them.
&#8220;The main focus of the investigation right now: trying to figure out if the suspect was radicalized on his own or if someone from ISIS directed him in anyway,&#8221; Thomas told anchor George Stephanopoulos.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/PierreTABC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PierreTABC</a> has the latest on the New Year&#39;s Day truck attack in New Orleans.
“The main focus of the investigation right now: trying to figure out if the suspect was radicalized on his own or if someone from ISIS directed him in anyway.” <a href="https://t.co/8o1oMWvGZN">https://t.co/8o1oMWvGZN</a> <a href="https://t.co/dhsDNS4kDu">pic.twitter.com/dhsDNS4kDu</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1875911278952149161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas doubled down on that narrative, saying outright that the border was not part of the problem, at least in this current case.
&#8220;The assailant who perpetrated the terrorist attack in New Orleans was born in the United States, raised in the United States and served in our armed forces. It is not an issue of the border,&#8221; he said.
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“The assailant who perpetrated the terrorist attack in New Orleans was born in the United States, raised in the United States and served in our armed forces. It is not an issue of the border,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says. <a href="https://t.co/rRMUv9vl3M">https://t.co/rRMUv9vl3M</a> <a href="https://t.co/CdxBxDH9S1">pic.twitter.com/CdxBxDH9S1</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1875918619726557449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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He went on to add that officials had noted a &#8220;significant increase&#8221; in &#8220;homegrown violent extremism&#8221; in recent years, specifically over the last decade.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a very difficult threat landscape,&#8221; he said.
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Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas tells George Stephanopoulos that officials have seen a “significant increase” over the last 10 years in “homegrown violent extremism.”
“It is a very difficult threat landscape.” <a href="https://t.co/r02W91CgMN">https://t.co/r02W91CgMN</a> <a href="https://t.co/yVFQAGxKQg">pic.twitter.com/yVFQAGxKQg</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1875916246870286446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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On CBS News&#8217; &#8220;Face the Nation,&#8221; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also addressed the idea of violent extremism coming from domestic sources, claiming that it was a deterrent for women who might otherwise run for office.
&#8220;Women are known to be more, shall we say, ethical, than men,&#8221; Pelosi claimed, giving no evidence to support her theory. &#8220;And so, when they go after women candidates, they go after their ethics. And they&#8217;ll say this, that and the other thing. And then the child comes home from school crying because somebody said a bad thing about mom on TV. And nobody wants that.&#8221;
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The threat of domestic violent extremism is discouraging women from running for public office, says <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerPelosi</a>, telling <a href="https://twitter.com/margbrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@margbrennan</a> that women candidates are attacked particularly for their ethics.
&quot;Women are known to be more, shall we say, ethical, than men. And so, when… <a href="https://t.co/ZXOhIkrCdU">pic.twitter.com/ZXOhIkrCdU</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1875939269451063489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Pelosi then pivoted to January 6th, as Congress prepares to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, claiming that the American people had only voted for President-elect Trump a second time because they were more worried about their bank accounts than the threat of violence.
&#8220;They just had a different view as to what was in their interest, economically and the rest,&#8221; she told his Margaret Brennan.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerPelosi</a> says she doesn&#39;t believe the American people disregarded the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack by voting to reelect Donald Trump, but &quot;they just had a different view as to what was in their interest, economically and the rest.&quot; Trump&#39;s continued efforts to falsely… <a href="https://t.co/km4MOA8SGp">pic.twitter.com/km4MOA8SGp</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1875938011424391179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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On &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) on the issue — asking specifically whether Trump had jumped the gun when he linked terror threats in the United States to the porous border and the lax immigration policies under Biden and Harris.
&#8220;Wasn&#8217;t that premature given that this was an American citizen?&#8221; Tapper asked.
Banks pushed back, noting that former President Barack Obama had referred to ISIS as &#8220;the JV team of terrorism, and obviously they&#8217;re not.&#8221; He went on to note that Trump had essentially cut ISIS off at the knees during his first term and was prepared to do the same again.
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jaketapper</a> presses GOP <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorBanks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenatorBanks</a> on his and Trump&#39;s comments connecting the New Orleans terror attack to Biden&#39;s border policies: &quot;Wasn&#39;t that premature?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/MhN6BNWdKe">pic.twitter.com/MhN6BNWdKe</a>
&mdash; State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1875938781854884319?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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NBC News took a different tack and a different direction, with the focus primarily on the end of Biden&#8217;s presidency and the imminent certification of Trump&#8217;s victory.
On &#8220;Meet the Press,&#8221; after addressing the New Orleans attack, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ran defense for Biden — and his surrogates in the Democratic Party and legacy media — claiming that no one had misled the American people with regard to the president&#8217;s obvious mental decline.
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Schumer says ‘we didn’t’ mislead Americans on Biden’s mental acuity: Full interview <a href="https://t.co/IfpizHdPFR">https://t.co/IfpizHdPFR</a>
&mdash; Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1875917176646799800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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On NBC&#8217;s soon to be spun off affiliate MSNBC, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was laser-focused on her favorite target: Trump. Her guests joined her to discuss the upcoming sentencing in his Manhattan hush-money trial and how that was likely to impact the beginning of the presidency.
&#8220;The final thing that&#8217;s important to note is by sentencing Donald Trump this Friday, [Judge Merchan] will trigger Donald Trump&#8217;s appellate rights …&#8221; guest Andrew Weissmann noted. &#8220;It gives finality to the trial court&#8217;s ruling here, and it sends a message about this case to the public.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AWeissmann_</a>: “The final thing that&#39;s important to note is by sentencing Donald Trump this Friday, [Judge Merchan] will trigger Donald Trump&#39;s appellate rights… It gives finality to the trial court&#39;s ruling here, and it sends a message about this case to the public.”… <a href="https://t.co/a9SsufKIDz">pic.twitter.com/a9SsufKIDz</a>
&mdash; Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) <a href="https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsaki/status/1875985476621947244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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NOLANEWS

Spin Cycle: New Orleans Terror Attack Was Not About The Border, Stop Talking About The Border

ABC News

CBS News

Chuck Schumer

Fox News

George Stephanopoulos

Jake Tapper

Legacy Media

Media

MSNBC

Nancy Pelosi

NBC News

New Orleans

Outgoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Sunday that Republicans should &#8220;not politicize&#8221; the Biden administration&#8217;s efforts to root out alleged extremists from inside the U.S. military.
Mayorkas made the remarks during a Sunday ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos on &#8220;This Week&#8221; while discussing 42-year-old Islamic terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who declared allegiance to ISIS and then murdered at least 14 people in an attack on New Orlean&#8217;s French Quarter last week.
&#8220;We have not only the persistent threat of foreign terrorism that, of course, created the Department of Homeland Security, but we have adverse nation states, and for the past 10 years, we&#8217;ve seen a significant increase in what we term homegrown violent extremism,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is a very difficult threat landscape and it is why that we as a community, not just the federal government, but state and local officials and residents, need to be alert to it and take the precautions necessary to avoid violence from occurring.&#8221;
After downplaying how significantly his disastrous border policies have damaged U.S. national security, Mayorkas responded to criticism from President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, over the administration&#8217;s &#8220;sham&#8221; of trying root out extremists from the military.
&#8220;The phenomenon of radicalization of individuals is not limited to the military,&#8221; Mayorkas said. &#8220;It is something that we are very focused upon in society writ large. The military is not immune to it, nor is the federal work force.&#8221;
He said that Republicans should &#8220;not politicize&#8221; the issue but rather focus on &#8220;confronting and combatting&#8221; it.
WATCH:
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Disgraced DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: &#8220;The phenomenon of radicalization of individuals is not limited to the military &#8230; The military is not immune to it nor is the federal workforce.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Cg0ON1k0qv">pic.twitter.com/Cg0ON1k0qv</a>
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1875925117592801401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></blockquote>

Mayorkas: Republicans Should ‘Not Politicize’ Actions Of Biden Admin

Radical Islamic Terror

As we prepare to enter the new year, we&#8217;re taking you back to some of The Daily Wire&#8217;s best reporting from 2024. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homeland-security-failed-to-enforce-mandatory-dna-tests-at-the-border-whistleblowers-say-violent-criminals-and-child-traffickers-took-advantage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on July 25. 
The Department of Homeland Security has refused to follow a law mandating it take DNA samples from illegal immigrants taken into custody, which would identify violent criminals and child traffickers, employees told the U.S. Senate.
Speaking to senators in July, three former officials presented evidence that DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had blocked their efforts to comply with a 2005 law, then retaliated against them when they sounded the alarm about the lawbreaking.
“Given the enormous potential of DNA collection to facility solving crimes, we took our job seriously,” Fred Wynn said.
Law enforcement experts from CBP’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) unit were tasked with implementing a mandatory program to DNA-test illegals. But higher-ups at DHS were so opposed to the law that they continuously thwarted it, eventually disbanding the entire WMD division, the whistleblowers say. Disbanding the division may have opened the United States to a WMD attack, in addition to criminals crossing the border.
The lack of DNA testing also contributed to allowing hundreds of thousands of children to stay with people who claimed to be relatives, but who may have been child labor or sex traffickers. DNA testing is the only reliable way to ensure that children aren’t coming across the border with traffickers, or being taken to live with them by U.S. officials as “sponsors.”
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Mark Jones, previously the acting director of CBP’s WMD unit, said that “the DNA tool is invaluable especially when establishing family units.” More than half a million “unaccompanied minors” have crossed the border illegally and been allowed to remain in the country, and are “reunited” with people purporting to be their relatives, who have sometimes been traffickers.
Jones said the WMD team had its responsibilities stripped, and were told to come to work and simply sit and do nothing. One team member was told to report to a new desk that had no internet, phone, or power.
“Certain senior officials were hell-bent on slow-rolling any process or pilot program that enabled DNA collection,” he said.
In 2018, Jones heard the special assistant to the Customs and Border Protection chief say that “the Commissioner does not want to do this,” while another official said, “if we have to, we will get the press to capture us forcibly taking DNA from an 89-year old woman to garner outrage,” he said.
That year, DHS “shut down the DNA collection pilot program and disbanded the WMD division,” and Jones was demoted three levels, he said.
Mike Taylor, the third WMD whistleblower, said the men have repeatedly reached out to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but have received no corrective action. Meanwhile, those who retaliated against the men have been promoted.
Congress passed a law requiring the DNA testing of criminals and illegal immigrants in 2005, with near-unanimous bipartisan support. In 2010, the year the requirement kicked in, Barack Obama’s DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a postponement, writing that “we intend to phase-in implementation over the next year.” Holder acquiesced, with an admonishment that DHS should work quickly.
Ten years later, DHS had simply not done it, and cited the memo from Holder as evidence that it has been exempted from following the law.
In August 2019, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal agency that investigates whistleblower disclosures and retaliation, <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/osc_cbp_report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that DHS’s “noncompliance with the law has allowed subjects subsequently accused of violent crimes, including homicide and sexual assault, to elude detection even when detained multiple times by CBP.”
The report points to an illegal immigrant who committed multiple sexual assaults in Arizona in 1997. Though police had the DNA of the perpetrator, they could not find a match, since the suspect was not in the system. The crime was only solved in 2019 because the suspect went on to go to prison for another crime, at which point he had his DNA taken.
In 2021, OSC found that DHS retaliated against the whistleblowers due to “displeasure with the Complainants’ perceived and actual involvement in bringing to light the agency’s intentional, decade-long failure to implement a law.”
The office lambasted DHS for lawbreaking and retaliation in the strongest possible terms, and said DHS had given shifting excuses that were demonstrably untrue.
Nonetheless, the retaliation continued. In 2022, DHS took Jones’ and Taylor’s badges, guns, and law enforcement credentials. Taylor lost his law enforcement retirement pension despite his having nearly reached the required 20 years of service.
In 2023, DHS sought to make the whistleblowers’ claims out to be a conspiracy theory with another misleading statement, telling the New York Post that “The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) terminated its investigation into these claims without issuing a Prohibited Personnel Practice Report or seeking corrective action.”
Recently, CBP has engaged in limited DNA testing of illegals—37% in fiscal year 2023. Even with that subset, it matched with the DNA of 1,037 violent criminals. Illegal immigrant DNA was responsible for 42% of all crimes solved using the FBI’s DNA database.
But that meant that nearly two million illegals in DHS custody did not get DNA swabbed that year. Jones noted that “we likely missed over 1,600 violent criminals in 2023 alone” based on the match rate of the smaller sample.
So far in fiscal year 2024, DNA testing of illegal immigrants has matched the DNA of people wanted in 10 homicides and 145 sex offenses.
The limited DNA testing belatedly implemented by DHS has been carried out in a way that ensures it won’t stop known violent criminals from being allowed to stay in the country. Although the technology exists to take and process a cheek swab on site in 90 minutes, DHS mails the samples to FBI headquarters and gets the results back months later. By that time, the illegal immigrants have already been released.
Failing to use rapid, on-site technology means the DNA samples will only be useful in identifying the illegal aliens if they commit crimes in the future.
The more illegal immigrants are tracked with their DNA, the more crimes they are tied to—an uncomfortable fact for Democrats who claim that illegal immigrants do not commit crimes.
In June, a man wielding a machete tied up and sexually assaulted two 13-year-old girls in New York City. DNA from the victims tied the crime to Christian Inga, an illegal immigrant who was swabbed when he crossed the border in 2021.
Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five, was raped and murdered last year. Charged in her death was Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was also suspected of a homicide there. Maryland police had a DNA sample of the perpetrator, but nothing to compare it to. Although Hernandez had been captured at the border three times, his DNA was never taken.
Maryland police ultimately identified Hernandez by comparing his DNA to that of his relatives.
The congressional panel was conducted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). The senators held the hearing as an unofficial “roundtable,” as Democrats, who control the Senate, refused to participate.
Grassley said the Biden administration has refused to respond to his oversight inquiries on the topic. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president and has positioned herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor, was tasked by Biden with managing issues related to the border.

Joe Biden, Alejandro Mayorkas

DHS Failed To Enforce DNA Tests At Border. Whistleblowers Say Child Traffickers Took Advantage.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on Sunday that he is “aware of reports of children being trafficked,” but that stopping it is “outside the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.”
More than half a million illegal immigrant children have been knowingly let into the country in recent years — about 120,000 a year — under a policy shielding “unaccompanied alien children.” The New York Times found that one-third could not be located thirty days later.
Mayorkas shrugged aside the high numbers of children that disappear, saying some could just be illegal immigrants refusing to cooperate with the conditions they agreed to. &#8220;Individuals do not comply with the reporting obligations, or otherwise, I think it is inaccurate to say that all of them are trafficked or victimized,” he <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/dhs-alejandro-mayorkas-missing-children-trafficking-responsibility-2004975" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Face the Nation.
Mayorkas declined to take responsibility despite his agency’s official watchdog, the DHS inspector general, in August, issuing a report saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of DHS, &#8220;must take <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-made-no-effort-to-locate-missing-unaccompanied-alien-children-auditor-says-in-urgent-alert" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immediate action</a> to ensure the safety of UCs residing in the United States. … Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”
It said DHS had not been able to find, or simply didn’t bother trying to find, about 300,000 children to give them court papers. “At one location we visited, 34,823 (84 percent) of 41,638 UCs in the local area had not been served NTAs,” the inspector general wrote, referring to Notices to Appear. In other cases, they found the children, and they appeared to be being exploited, but DHS did nothing. Agents “had identified UCs in unsafe conditions but were unable to intervene&#8230; One ICE officer expressed concern with not being able to take action in a case involving a UC whose sponsor claimed the UC was in an inappropriate relationship with her husband,” the report said.
The loophole that gives preferential treatment to children if they come to the border alone—the preservation of which was a plank in the 2024 Democrat platform—has incentivized the separation of families, with children leaving their families behind and making the perilous journey with coyotes. The children are disproportionately from Guatemala, coupled with alleged <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/guatemalan-traffickers-exploit-bidens-unaccompanied-alien-children-program-records-suggest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extensive advertising by cartels</a> there. 
When the children are apprehended by DHS, they are turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which identifies “sponsors” for the children to live with the in U.S. The sponsors are almost always fellow illegal immigrants and do not have to be related.
Remarkably, the head of Joe Biden’s HHS, Xavier Becerra, has repeatedly said that what happens to the children after they are released to sponsors is not his responsibility, either. “Our responsibility is to provide care while they were in our custody,” he told Congress in November.
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HHS never meets the sponsors before releasing the children to them, instead verifying their identities only by having them text screenshots of foreign IDs via WhatsApp, then paying a transportation contractor to take the children to them. Its only follow-up was a call thirty days later, at which point one-third of the sponsors would not answer or refused to put the child on the phone, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html">according</a> to The New York Times. The Times found that many of the children were being forced to work in dangerous factories, and there is evidence that others have been sold into the sex trade.
Becerra told Congress last month that they now make three attempts to contact the sponsors, but admitted that HHS has no authority whatsoever to do anything if the results of such check-ins go poorly. “We try to reach the child and the sponsor the times by phone to check in. The child and the sponsor are not obligated to return our call, we can&#8217;t require them to do so. And by the way, even if they don&#8217;t call back that doesn&#8217;t mean a child is lost,” he said.
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-California) lashed out at Becerra at the November hearing, saying, “You have dropped them off at a sponsor&#8217;s house, you now can&#8217;t get a hold of them &#8230; You shrug your shoulders and then send another batch of kids out. That&#8217;s frightening to me.”
Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said finding the missing vulnerable children will be a top priority.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rape-trees-and-discarded-passports-congress-hears-horrors-of-migrant-child-trafficking">‘Rape Trees’ And Discarded Passports: Congress Hears Horrors Of Migrant Child Trafficking</a>

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Mayorkas Says Stopping Trafficking Of Alien Children Is ‘Outside The Responsibility’ Of DHS

Department of Health and Human Services

Tom Homan

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