The Senate on Friday passed a Trump-admin backed bill that would further enable law enforcement to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.
In an 84-16 vote, the Senate passed the HALT Fentanyl Act (Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act), which would make traffickers of fentanyl analogues, substances that have been altered so as to not technically be fentanyl, subject to the same criminal penalties as fentanyl dealers. The bill would also make fentanyl-related substances permanently classified as Schedule 1 controlled substances.
“The HALT Fentanyl Act is a critical step towards ending the crisis that’s killing hundreds of thousands of precious American lives,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/senate-overwhelmingly-passes-grassley-led-halt-fentanyl-act-to-permanently-schedule-fentanyl-related-substances">said</a> after the vote. “I thank my Senate colleagues for passing this bill with broad, overwhelming support. I urge my House colleagues to swiftly pass the Senate version of this battle-tested, bipartisan bill to save lives, advance research and support our brave men and women in blue.”
All 16 opponents of the bill were Democrats, some of whom were opposed to the aspect that allowed for harsher criminal sentences. It was backed by a host of law enforcement groups including the National Fraternal Order of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations.
The bill was first introduced in January by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Grassley, and Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich (NM).
According to a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/331">summary</a> of the bill, “offenses involving fentanyl-related substances are triggered by the same quantity thresholds and subject to the same penalties as offenses involving fentanyl analogues (e.g., offenses involving 100 grams or more trigger a 10-year mandatory minimum prison term).”
Cassidy told reporters on a call Friday morning that the bill would allow law enforcement to go after fentanyl analogs because those are still addictive and “can still kill,” saying that officers could confiscate fentanyl analogs.
Sen. James Lankford (R–OK) said in the same call that there were still a lot of avenues, especially stopping it at both the southern and northern borders, that needed to be pursued to stop the ongoing crisis as tens of thousands of Americans die from fentanyl-related deaths every year.
The bill heads to the House, which passed a similar bill last year &#8212; though it didn’t go anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The Trump administration has <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/halt_fentanyl_omb_endorsement.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signaled</a> that it strongly supports the legislation as cracking down on the flow of fentanyl has been a top priority for President Donald Trump.

HEALTH-US-DRUGS-FENTANYL-CHINA-MEXICO

Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Fentanyl Trafficking Bill: ‘Critical Step Toward Ending The Crisis’

Chuck Grassley

Congress

Drugs

Fentanyl

Law Enforcement

Politics

Senate

Trump Administration

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate’s most experienced and tenacious investigator, finally has the attention of the corporations that took more than $9 billion from taxpayers to house illegal immigrant children in the United States.
During the Biden administration, the contractors refused to answer Congress’s questions even as hundreds of thousands of “unaccompanied minors” disappeared. In some cases, children were allegedly sexually abused by contractor staff. In other cases, contractors dropped them off to live with unvetted sponsors who refused to answer the government’s calls afterward.
Grassley said the missing children must be located — and that contractors will no longer get away with taking taxpayer money while snubbing oversight. Now that Republicans control the White House and Congress, the Iowa Republican sent document demands to 23 contractors, according to copies of the <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/2025-03-10-Grassley-to-Asset-Protection-Security-Services-LP-Contractors-and-Grantees-Follow-Up.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letters</a> obtained by The Daily Wire. The letters largely reissued the same demands he sent a year ago, which he says were met with stonewalling.
“It’s unacceptable for recipients of taxpayer funding to refuse to provide information to Congress about the use of those funds. And it’s beyond unacceptable for these federally-funded entities to refuse to answer questions designed to determine whether they protected children,” he said in letters to companies such as Cherokee Federal, Southwest Key Programs, and Asset Protection &amp; Security Services LP.
The letters ask questions like “what actions, if any, did you take to ensure that no children would be sponsored or placed in potential situations where there may be signs of criminal activity, including human trafficking? … Where questions require entire case files or contracts to answer, those case files and contracts must be provided.”
In what could be one of the largest scandals in American history, the “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) program allowed illegal immigrant children to cross the border and remain in the United States as long as they came without their parents.
That created a class of people who were exceedingly vulnerable to exploitation by labor or sex traffickers: They didn’t speak English, they were helpless children, they had a desperate need to make money to repay coyotes who brought them here. And local and state authorities didn’t know they existed, meaning they could be killed, abused, or disappeared, and no one would know.
Children were held in centers then transported by contractors to live with “sponsors,” who were often other illegal immigrants who did not have to be relatives, and who the government did not have to see in person before handing off the children.
The program was administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is not a law enforcement agency and had no authority to check documents of sponsors, arrest criminals, or take children back from abusers. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Grassley that he will ensure “radical transparency” around the missing children, and White House border czar Tom Homan has pledged to mount a rescue operation for them.
“Shockingly, children were placed by HHS and one of its contractors even where they were notified of likely MS-13 gang affiliation in the household,” Grassley wrote. Grassley sent a detailed criminal referral to the FBI in January 2024 that provided leads on 100 possible human traffickers.
This week’s letters ordered 23 contractors and grantees to provide all contracts with the government, along with documents showing the process for identifying and vetting sponsors, how often and what sort of background checks or home visits were conducted, and cases where individuals sought to sponsor a large number of children.
They also must provide a list of all instances where minors disclosed physical or sexual abuse, and all records where contractors found evidence of possible human trafficking.
Grassley sent letters to the following contractors or grantees:
<ol>
<li>Asset Protection &amp; Security Services LP</li>
<li>BCFS Health and Human Services</li>
<li>Bethany Christian Services</li>
<li>Cayuga Centers</li>
<li>Center for Family Services</li>
<li>Cherokee Federal</li>
<li>Compass Connections</li>
<li>Endeavors</li>
<li>General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc.</li>
<li>Global Refuge</li>
<li>Heartland Human Care</li>
<li>Holy Family Institute</li>
<li>Morrison Child Family Services</li>
<li>Rapid Deployment Inc</li>
<li>Southwest Key programs</li>
<li>Sunny Glen Children&#8217;s Home</li>
<li>The Providencia Group LLC</li>
<li>US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Inc.</li>
<li>VisionQuest National Ltd</li>
<li>A Greater Love Foster Family Agency, Inc.</li>
<li>A New Leaf, Inc.</li>
<li>Alba Care Services Inc.</li>
<li>National Youth Advocate Program, Inc.</li>
</ol>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unaccompanied-migrant-children-were-raped-by-federal-contractors-doj-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southwest Key Partners is being sued</a> by the Department of Justice after it said children were subject to “pervasive” sexual abuse at the hands of its employees. In one case an “eight-year-old girl disclosed that the Youth Care Worker repeatedly entered their bedrooms in the middle of the night to touch their ‘private area,’ and he threatened to kill their families if they disclosed the abuse.” <a href="https://www.axios.com/2021/04/14/texas-nonprofit-border-contract-biden-official" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Family Endeavors</a> won a half-billion dollar contract after hiring a former Biden official. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-detail-how-85000-unaccompanied-minors-went-missing-after-biden-admin-dropped-them-off-with-sponsors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cherokee Federal</a>, a whistleblower said, was staffed by “frankly dangerous people who had access to vulnerable children.”
A 2023 series in The New York Times unearthed internal government data that showed that in a third of placements, “sponsors” could not or would not tell the government where the child was 30 days later. At the time, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-kamalas-kids-in-cages-lie-paved-the-way-for-a-child-trafficking-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">85,000 children</a> were unaccounted for.
In August, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general said the department did not know the location of <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">300,000 minors</a>, and “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”
Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “aware of reports of children being trafficked,” but that stopping trafficking was “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayorkas-says-stopping-trafficking-of-alien-children-is-outside-the-responsibility-of-dhs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outside the responsibility</a> of the Department of Homeland Security.”
About <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/guatemalan-traffickers-exploit-bidens-unaccompanied-alien-children-program-records-suggest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70% of unaccompanied minors come from Guatemala</a>, a percentage that is wildly inconsistent with overall migration patterns, and suggests that cartels in that country are exploiting the program, essentially using the United States government as last-mile delivery.
The “unaccompanied minor” policy was essentially a loophole that created an open border for children, leading to a surge so vast that federal employees from unrelated agencies had to be detailed to temporary stints as border workers. Lindsey Friend was one such federal employee who served a stint at a processing facility in April 2021. She said it was so emotionally devastating that it was difficult to talk about.
“This was the most backwards way of doing things,” Friend told The Daily Wire. “A whole bunch of feds build a bunch of temporary tent cities, process them as fast as possible, with a U.S. background check and then no follow up. That&#8217;s just not a good idea.”
“Saying that unaccompanied minors can stay, that induced the family separation. The kids separated from their parents” as a result, she said.
“They were not unaccompanied. Their entire journey, they were accompanied by a coyote who left them at the border. Then they sought out a border patrol agent and had their birth certificate to show that they were a minor. So this was all deliberate.”
She said background checks were a farce, because “you&#8217;re just typing in a name, right? There&#8217;s no Social Security numbers because they&#8217;re undocumented and their name is something common.” The background check was a public website that checked only U.S. records, even though sponsors often just came to the United States recently.
Even though the government claimed the children were required to go to school, all the children said their plan was to work, she said. It would be impossible for state-run Child Protective Services or truancy officers to intervene.
“We did not notify any state or local agency that we were sending these kids there,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We did not contact the local school district.”
Some of the children wished they could be back in Guatemala with their parents. “I should not have come,” they cried. “I just want to come home.”

Southwest Key Combes is a facility run by Southwest Key Programs that houses “tender age” immigrant children who have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Grassley Probes Contractors Who Made Billions On Disastrous ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Program

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Homeland Security

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Argentinian conservative President Javier Milei has agreed to unseal records hidden for decades that would reveal how Credit Suisse and its predecessor banks helped finance escaping Nazis after World War II so they could evade justice.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
El Presidente Javier Milei recibió en Casa Rosada a las autoridades del Centro Simon Wiesenthal, quienes le entregaron una carta del Comité Judicial del Senado de los Estados Unidos, con copia al Presidente Donald Trump, para que la Argentina colabore con su investigación al… <a href="https://t.co/nKciEwl8HR">pic.twitter.com/nKciEwl8HR</a>
— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) <a href="https://twitter.com/OPRArgentina/status/1891926292636786865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In mid-February, Iowa GOP Sen. Charles Grassley —who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating Credit Suisse’s historical Nazi connections — sent Milei a letter requesting him to unseal the records. “I continue to fight to shine light on the wrongs and injustices from this darkest chapter in history,” Grassley wrote. “This includes decades-long efforts to track the Nazis’ confiscation of all kinds of Jewish valuables and cash.”
Speaking of former U.S. Inspector General Neil Barofsky, who was appointed as the Independent Ombudsperson to comprehensively investigate Credit Suisse&#8217;s archives, he stated, “Despite the banks&#8217; best efforts at obstruction, Mr. Barofsky has uncovered a ‘significant connection’ between Credit Suisse and many individuals who helped Nazis flee Europe after World War II via ‘ratlines,’ which are monetary and logistic pathways used by Credit Suisse and other institutions to help Nazis escape justice and relocate to Argentina, among other countries.”
Barofsky <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/nazi-ties-to-credit-suisse-ran-deeper-than-was-known-hidden-files-reveal-285ab620">had been hired</a> by Credit Suisse in 2021 after the Simon Wiesenthal Center found additional information regarding the possible Nazi connection, but he was fired when the bank felt he had gone too far. He was reinstated in 2023 after Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) rescued Credit Suisse. In 2024, Barofsky told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that UBS had fully opened its archives. Two separate panels said that Swiss bankers routinely ignored Nazis stealing Jewish assets and also later blocked families’ efforts to reclaim their money.
“The goal and motivation behind this work is to bring about justice and transparency,” Grassley continued. “Regardless of how much time passes, the truth is worth pursuing and the stories of this dark time period are worth telling and making part of the historical record for future generations. &#8230; I&#8217;m copying President Trump on this letter because my investigative work is being done out of profound respect for the brave and courageous men and women of the United States Armed Forces who fought against Hitler and the Nazis, and freed the courageous Jewish people from those evils &#8211; a sentiment that he would most assuredly agree with.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
At Senator Grassley’s request, President Milei agreed to open Argentina&#8217;s archives so the world can finally see how Swiss banks helped fund and coordinate Nazis escaping Europe after the war, then covered it up for decades.
Yet another example of the global financial system…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1896331012709437611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Javier Milei Receives Prime Minister Of Italy Giorgia Meloni

Milei To Unseal Records Connecting Swiss Banks To Nazis’ Escape Efforts

Donald Trump

Javier Milei

Nazis

Scandals

Switzerland

World

A critical vote on the nomination of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kash-patel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kash Patel</a> to become President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s director of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> has been delayed at the behest of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> Democrats.
The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee was set to vote on advancing the nomination on Thursday, but that is now expected to happen in one week.
During a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/senate-judiciary-committee-delays-vote-on-fbi-director-nominee-kash-patel/655426" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> of the panel, Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chuck-grassley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chuck Grassley</a> (R-IA) said the nomination was &#8220;held over,&#8221; recognizing a request by the Democrats as prescribed under committee rules.
As <a href="https://x.com/ChadPergram/status/1887530389402443876" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by Fox News&#8217; Chad Pergram, Grassley also said the committee would send Patel&#8217;s nomination to the Senate floor &#8220;168 hours from now,&#8221; which is in seven days.
&#8220;Unbelievable. Democrat Senators are running scared,&#8221; Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said in a post to X.
&#8220;They&#8217;re terrified that [Patel] is going to reform the 7th floor of the Hoover Building, arrest bad guys, and end 4 years of liberal weaponized government. Delay tactics are just that,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Kash WILL BE CONFIRMED.&#8221;
Democrats argue Patel is a problematic choice to lead the FBI and say they want more time to evaluate the nominee&#8217;s <a href="https://x.com/JudiciaryDems/status/1887148388757422179" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;misleading&#8221;</a> testimony.
&#8220;Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s FBI Director pick, is an unqualified, unserious nominee who will make us less safe,&#8221; Senate Judiciary Democrats <a href="https://x.com/JudiciaryDems/status/1887526239818424639" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X.  &#8220;He’s a vengeful extremist — to the point that he seemingly lied under oath.&#8221;
The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee previously secured a one-week delay on consideration of Pam Bondi to become U.S. Attorney General. After waiting seven days, the committee voted along party lines to advance Bondi&#8217;s nomination to the full Senate. The Senate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-confirms-pam-bondi-for-attorney-general" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> 54-46 to confirm Bondi to the Cabinet role on Tuesday with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) breaking ranks.
Grassley also criticized Democrats for &#8220;forcing&#8221; the committee to meet just to hold over a nominee, noting how Republicans did not pull such a move when they were in the minority in the last Congress.
&#8220;Our committee works best when both sides uphold norms regardless of which party holds the majority at any one time,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m disappointed that my colleagues aren&#8217;t reciprocating a courtesy we extended in good faith when we were in the minority.&#8221;
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the ranking member, acknowledged that what Grassley said was &#8220;true&#8221; and used the platform to disparage Patel.

Kash Patel

Dem ‘Delay Tactics’ Push Back Vote On Kash Patel For FBI Director

Dick Durbin

kash patel

Presidential nomination

U.S. Senate

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> Democrats have pushed back the schedule to consider the nomination of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pam-bondi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pam Bondi</a>, who is President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s nominee to be U.S. attorney general, by at least a week.
On Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee sent out a notice announcing that a planned Wednesday meeting, at which members could have voted to advance Bondi&#8217;s nomination to the full Senate, had been called off.
&#8220;Per Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/committee/rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rule</a> I.3, any member of the Committee may request an item on the Committee’s agenda be held over for a minimum of seven days. Holds are common practice in the Senate Judiciary Committee,&#8221; the notice said.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-dems-will-try-all-sorts-of-tricks-to-delay-cabinet-confirmations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: Trump Says Dems ‘Will Try All Sorts Of Tricks’ To Delay Cabinet Confirmations</a>
&#8220;Pursuant to this rule, the Minority will hold Bondi&#8217;s nomination for seven days. As a result of this hold, which goes into effect tomorrow, the Committee will not meet in person for this week&#8217;s executive business meeting,&#8221; the advisory added.
The Judiciary Committee, which is led by Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), said it expects to convene next week on January 29 and hold a final vote on Bondi&#8217;s nomination at that time.
Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, <a href="https://x.com/SenJudiciaryGOP/status/1879569942150058288" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> before the Judiciary Committee in a confirmation hearing last week.
&#8220;If confirmed, I will fight everyday to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice and each of its components,&#8221; Bondi <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1879549046958047285" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;The partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone. America will have one tier of justice for all.&#8221;
Bondi made waves when she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKJhkeTp6I" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clashed</a> with some of the committee&#8217;s Democrat members, including Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA).
&#8220;Senator, what I can tell you is that I will never play politics,&#8221; Bondi <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bondi-demolishes-schiff-when-he-taunts-her" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at one point to Schiff. &#8220;You’re trying to engage me in a &#8216;gotcha.&#8217; I won’t play politics with any ongoing investigation like you did.&#8221;
<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqndn5W5hXuxOh4Dnzj3NrHSVayyLGsEShWj2n2EVNnohFOnXKd"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-862531 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1-1024x391.png" alt="" width="1024" height="391" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1-1024x391.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1-300x115.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1-768x293.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1-1536x587.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/INAUG_MERCHBANNER-6-1-2048x782.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
As of press time, the GOP-led Senate has confirmed just one of Trump&#8217;s Cabinet nominees: now-former senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, who on Tuesday was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/marco-rubio-sworn-in-says-war-in-ukraine-must-end" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sworn in</a> to office as U.S. Secretary of State.
Other nominees are working their way through the confirmation process.
<a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1881476717325558114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Ratcliffe</a>, Trump&#8217;s nominee to become CIA director, <a href="https://x.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1881738624582246789" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected</a> to get a final confirmation vote as early as later on Tuesday.
Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio posted on X that Democrats are &#8220;plotting&#8221; a slowdown of the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary after he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-advances-pete-hegseths-nomination-to-become-defense-secretary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advanced</a> out of committee on Monday.

Pam Bondi

Senate Democrats Put Arbitrary Hold On Pam Bondi Nomination

U.S.

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s return to the White House could face complications if the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> cannot elect a speaker by the inauguration early next year.
On &#8220;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366525597112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sunday Morning Futures,</a>&#8221; Fox News anchor Jason Chaffetz shared a quote from senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram explaining a scenario in which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) could become acting president because the 91-year-old is <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/3213569/senate-gop-leadership-shakeup-election/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slated to return</a> as Senate president pro tempore, a position third in line to the presidency.
<blockquote>&#8220;The House absolutely, unequivocally cannot do anything until it elects a speaker. Period &#8230; This also means that the House cannot certify the results of the Electoral College, making Trump the 47th president of the United States, on Jan 6th.
What happens if the Electoral College isn&#8217;t sorted out by Jan. 20? Well, President Biden is done. So he&#8217;s gone, the same with [Vice President Kamala] Harris. Next in the presidential line of succession is the speaker of the House. Well, there&#8217;s no speaker.
So who becomes the president? &#8230; If the House is still frittering away time, trying to elect a speaker on Jan. 20, President Pro Tem of the Senate Chuck Grassley likely becomes &#8216;acting president.&#8217;
I write &#8216;likely&#8217; because this gets into some serious extra-constitutional turf. These are unprecedented scenarios. Strange lands never visited in the American political experience.&#8221;</blockquote>
In the coming days, the House is expected to vote for speaker. Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) is running to keep the gavel, but a handful of Republicans have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/29/newt-gingrich-support-mike-johnson-speakership-00196103" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talked about</a> considering someone else for speaker amid frustrations with Johnson&#8217;s handling of certain bills, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-last-minute-funding-bill-to-avert-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spending</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-overcomes-final-hurdle-to-send-fisa-reauthorization-bill-to-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surveillance</a> legislation. A simple majority is needed, but the GOP&#8217;s margin is only a few members wide and so far it appears no Democrats will cross the aisle and support Johnson.
Some GOP lawmakers have warned of the repercussions for Trump if the House is unable to settle on someone for speaker.
&#8220;It&#8217;s going to delay the certification of President Trump&#8217;s election. It&#8217;s going to delay the start of his first 100 days in office, which is the most important time frame of his whole presidency,&#8221; House Oversight Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-comer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Comer</a> (R-KY) said during a &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366525597112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s when you get the most done historically. So, I strongly encourage President Trump to get on the phone and try to get everyone united so we can work together as a team and make America great again.&#8221;

President-elect Donald Trump and Sen. Chuck Grassley

Trump’s Return To White House Could Get Bumpy If House Cannot Elect A Speaker

House Speaker

Mike Johnson

Senator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chuck-grassley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chuck Grassley</a> (R-IA) on Friday demanded that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell respond to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fired-fema-employee-speaks-out-says-it-was-not-isolated-incident-colossal-event-of-avoidance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allegations</a> that the agency has a widespread policy of avoiding “politically hostile” homes during disaster relief operations. 
Grassley, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-fema-official-ordered-relief-workers-to-skip-houses-with-trump-signs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">citing reporting</a> from The Daily Wire, asked Criswell to produce records related to now-fired FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington’s guidance for relief workers in Lake Placid, Florida, to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” Whistleblowers said that at least 20 homes were bypassed during the response efforts after Hurricane Milton due to the guidance that was given verbally and in a group chat message. 

Grassley said he wants all records of conversations at FEMA that include any of the following words: “Trump,” “Republican,” “conservative,” “politics,” “MAGA,” as well as &#8220;germane variations thereof.&#8221;
“Every year, Americans affected by natural disasters receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),” Grassley wrote in a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/2024-11-15-CEG-to-FEMA-FEMA-Partisanship.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> first shared with The Daily Wire. “FEMA employees have reportedly selectively chosen who is worthy of receiving this assistance and Trump supporters don’t make the cut.”
The Iowa Republican added that the “politically partisan selection of aid is unacceptable and contrary to FEMA’s taxpayer supported mission.” 
Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Budget, asked Criswell to respond to Washington’s claims that FEMA officials approved her instructions and that similar guidance has been followed in the Carolinas. 
“FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation, so this is not isolated,” Washington said earlier this week during an interview with Roland Martin. “This is a colossal event of avoidance not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.”
FEMA has not responded to multiple requests from The Daily Wire for comment on Washington&#8217;s claims about the agency&#8217;s policies.
“To know if this claim is substantively true, especially considering FEMA’s terminating her for inappropriate conduct, FEMA must produce responsive records to Congress,” Grassley wrote. 
The letter asks FEMA to produce by November 28 incident reports from the last five years that include references to Trump or politics and what official policies FEMA has in place for deciding what homes and properties can be skipped. The senator requested FEMA produce records on what rationales have been given in the last five years for marking “not able to access property” when surveying neighborhoods after a disaster. 
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“Politicization of who receives FEMA assistance is unacceptable, especially as the people affected by these disasters attempt to put their lives back together,” Grassley wrote. “The American people deserve a more robust and detailed explanation of this problem and FEMA’s plans to fix it.”
Other Republican senators have also demanded answers from Criswell, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-senator-demands-mayorkas-answer-over-fema-employee-guidance-to-skip-trump-homes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katie Britt</a> (R-AL), and Sen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senator-questions-whether-fema-guidance-to-skip-trump-homes-was-isolated-incident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rand Paul</a> (R-KY). 
Criswell, who announced Washington’s firing last Saturday, has maintained that the situation in Lake Placid was isolated. She is set to testify on Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee.

Senators Return To Capitol Hill After Long Weekend

Grassley Says FEMA Acted ‘Contrary’ To Its ‘Taxpayer-Supported Mission,’ Owes Americans Answers

FEMA

Florida

Hurricane Milton

Senate Democrats on Tuesday doubled down on a program that has lost at least 85,000 “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/illegal-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unaccompanied alien children</a>,” proposing to move children to the sponsors even more quickly, and with even less oversight.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and other Democrats introduced the &#8220;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/s4393/BILLS-118s4393is.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Children’s Safe Welcome Act of 2024</a>,” which would require that within seven days of receiving an application from an adult who wants to “sponsor” a child who crosses the border without parents, the Department of Health and Human Services must make its decision about whether to release the child to that person.
Agency whistleblowers say that timeline does not give enough time for any reasonable background check, and results in children being sent to live with labor and sex traffickers and gang members.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Tuesday said the emphasis on sending migrants to live with “sponsors” as quickly as possible has led to the “systematic abuse and disappearance of migrant children” and retaliation against employees who tried to block “children from going to men who sexualized them, MS-13 gang affiliated sponsors, and also sponsors who were mass-applying for kids.”
Democrats became obsessed with avoiding the temporary holding facilities, which were common under Barack Obama, at all costs after calling them &#8220;cages&#8221; under Trump.
The bill would make it very difficult for the government to say no to releasing a child to an adult who wants him or her, saying that the burden of proof falls on the government to establish, “by clear and convincing evidence,” that “placement with the prospective sponsor is likely to result in serious emotional or physical damage to the child.”
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That proof would be hard to come by because the government would be barred from gathering information from prospective sponsors in a manner not subject to fraud. Fingerprint-based checks may only (and even then, not must) be requested “if a public records check of the sponsor reveals safety concerns” &#8212; a situation that is unlikely to occur because sponsors for whom fingerprints would show negative information could simply use a fake name. The agency otherwise simply relies on pictures of foreign IDs texted to government workers through WhatsApp.
The bill says that the government must get rid of any process that slows down the release of children — processes that whistleblowers say are designed to prevent them from going to traffickers and abusers. “The Director shall eliminate any administrative hindrance identified as a systemic barrier to release,” the bill says.
A criminal background is not a reason to deny custody of a minor to a “sponsor” unless the conviction is for child trafficking or otherwise has a “direct and immediate impact” on the safety of the child, language that is not defined and which, again, HHS will have every incentive to define narrowly because moving kids quickly to any sponsor is the priority.
Although the program was advertised to Americans as “reuniting” children with family members, the Democrat bill is explicit that children often have no relationship whatsoever to the sponsor, and requires it to stay that way, saying “a prospective sponsor may not be denied sponsorship solely due to … absence of a pre-existing relationship with the unaccompanied noncitizen child concerned.”
The bill also ties HHS’ hands by entirely shutting down group homes where children can be held for longer if a sponsor is not quickly identifiable. Although such group homes have also been sites of abuse of children, having them as not even an option means that HHS will be highly disincentivized to ask any questions about sponsors that might turn up an answer they don’t want to hear.
HHS never meets the sponsors in person before turning the children over to them. Whistleblowers have said it is an open secret that many of them are brazenly lying, and that staff are taught not to ask questions. In one instance, a man pretended to be a particular woman, speaking in a falsetto voice, and government agents simply accepted “her” identity. Then they put the children in the custody of a transportation contractor, who takes them to the sponsor.
The only follow-up that HHS does after that is a single call 30 days later. The New York Times reported in 2021 that one-third of the time, the sponsors couldn’t or wouldn’t assure the government of the child’s safe presence at the home at that time. That amounted to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-detail-how-85000-unaccompanied-minors-went-missing-after-biden-admin-dropped-them-off-with-sponsors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">85,000 missing children</a> — a number which, if the rate held, could now be 166,000, as approximately 500,000 unaccompanied alien children have entered the country in recent years.
The government has a list of the sponsors who are almost always illegal immigrants themselves, and who have lost children, but instead of facing the repercussions that a parent who lost their American child would, the government fiercely protects the sponsors.
It says local authorities are responsible for assuring the safety of children after they are dropped off with sponsors, but refuses to give local authorities lists of the kids — so they don’t know they even exist, and cannot provide child protective services.
The Democrat bill prevents HHS from doing more oversight to ensure the safety of children, saying, “The Director may not uniformly require post-release services to be in place before releasing an unaccompanied noncitizen child to a sponsor,” and, “If HHS becomes aware that a child is in danger, it may not take the child back, but may (not must) notify local authorities.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said American children would never be treated with such little diligence, and &#8220;we should protect these vulnerable children from harm as if they were our own.&#8221;
Grassley <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/remarks/grassley-not-one-more-child-should-have-to-suffer-abuse-because-of-biden-harris-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">objected</a> to the Democrat bill Tuesday, saying, “I can’t imagine having every decision critical to my survival turned over to a complete stranger who the government hasn’t even fully vetted, but child safety wasn’t even this administration’s priority.”
“Three months into their term, the Biden-Harris administration tore up an information-sharing agreement” and “they replaced it with a watered-down agreement that deleted provisions that required sponsors to be vetted and run through certain law enforcement checks before being granted custody of a child.”
“I’m not sure if the Biden-Harris administration ever stopped to wonder how a local law enforcement agency looks after a child when the federal government won’t even give them a photograph of an endangered child,” he continued.
Grassley said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra once lectured employees on a conference call for taking too long vetting sponsors, saying, “This is not the way you do an assembly line.” One employee said, “We only get sued if we keep kids in care of the government too long. We don’t get sued by traffickers,” he said.
Critics say the loophole that shields people from being turned away at the border if they show up without parents has induced the separation of intact families and led to children being made astonishingly vulnerable to exploitation. The Democratic platform adopted at Kamala Harris&#8217; 2024 convention says the loophole on unaccompanied minors must remain intact.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/guatemalan-traffickers-exploit-bidens-unaccompanied-alien-children-program-records-suggest">How Guatemalan Traffickers Exploit Biden’s ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Program</a>

MEXICO-US-POLITICS-MIGRATION

Democrats Move To Loosen Oversight Of ‘Sponsors’ That Take—And Often Lose—Migrant Children

Border

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Kamala Harris

Guatemalan human traffickers may be taking advantage of the Biden administration&#8217;s resettlement program for unaccompanied alien children, records from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) whistleblowers suggest.
The whistleblowers, who believed HHS routinely facilitated unsafe placements of children, provided <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_hhs_ms13_records_redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Grassley used the documents to compile a detailed <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_referral_to_dhs_fbi_redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal referral</a> to the FBI. The whistleblowers say the government has long been aware of red flags in the migrant resettlement program, but that HHS leaders press employees to simply quickly deliver children to adults to live with, not question whether those adults are really related or will provide a safe environment.
Together, the documents detail an organized operation wherein traffickers advertise on Guatemalan radio stations to convince parents to send their children to the U.S. alone in order to exploit the United States&#8217; refusal to deport “unaccompanied alien children.” The administration quickly releases children who cross the border into the custody of “sponsors,” typically adult illegal immigrants.
But those sponsors may not be relatives, but part of the trafficking enterprise that brought them to the country.
One 16-year-old Guatemalan boy recounts being taken over the border and placed with a stranger posing as his cousin after his father responded to one such radio ad. Another teenage girl was placed with a 25-year-old man who claimed to be her brother, whose social media accounts were later found to contain child pornography and violent images. Another woman, after being placed in a sponsor&#8217;s home, was featured on a Facebook profile of a man who appeared to boast that he was a trafficker and advertise women for sale.
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The whistleblower documents show the Biden-Harris administration’s lax border policies have induced the separation of intact families in Guatemala, calling into question Democrats’ claim that they want to &#8220;reunify&#8221; families, while former president Donald Trump&#8217;s deportation policies separated families. A large-scale, organized Guatemalan child trafficking operation could explain why Guatemalans have consistently comprised almost 70% of unaccompanied minors, but just <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6%</a> of illegal immigrants overall.
The Biden administration has loosened the vetting of sponsors and prioritized getting children out of holding facilities and into sponsors’ homes as quickly as possible, seemingly to avoid hypocrisy after calling the secure facilities used by previous administrations “cages.” Grassley said the Biden administration has stonewalled oversight efforts on what happens to children after that. The referral demanded that the FBI &#8220;work to determine if there is human trafficking or other crimes, and take immediate steps to locate and save these children.&#8221;
The 16-year-old boy told an HHS case manager that his father paid a trafficker $2,500 to transport the boy to the United States after responding to a radio ad. A 35-year-old woman who said she was a distant cousin of the boy asked to be his &#8220;sponsor,&#8221; even though the child did not recognize her.
To prove her address, the “cousin” provided a receipt showing money being sent to Huehuetenago, Guatemala. She claimed that was to send money to her mother. But the child said none of his extended family lived there, but that it was where the people behind the radio ads were based.
The woman’s husband, it turned out, was using five different addresses where a dozen minors had been placed. One of the houses was linked to an LLC that owned at least ten houses, several of which were used to sponsor children. The referral said many of the associated addresses were in a “farming community,” which could suggest labor trafficking.
Another case detailed in the referral shows numerous adults were attempting to sponsor children using a single address. One man at the address was granted custody of six children by the U.S. government. He claimed one of them was his daughter, but her photo from the HHS camp shows that she appears to be a middle-aged woman older than her purported father.
<div id="attachment_783081" style="width: 562px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-783081" class="size-full wp-image-783081" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/17yo.jpg" alt="HHS accepted this woman's claim that she is 17." width="552" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/17yo.jpg 552w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/17yo-288x300.jpg 288w" sizes="(max-width: 552px) 100vw, 552px" />HHS accepted this woman&#8217;s claim that she is 17.</div>
Nonetheless, the Biden administration accepted the woman&#8217;s claim that she was 17 years old, and transported her to her sponsor&#8217;s address. The man had texted pictures of two different, and contradictory, purported Guatemalan IDs to the government to establish his identity, which they accepted.
One of the adults at the address had previously been granted custody of three children by the U.S. government. The Biden administration knew that none of the children had enrolled in school, and one had run away. Nonetheless, it continued to send children to the address.
A picture of the alleged 17-year-old — bearing a different name than the woman had given the government — was later posted to a man’s Facebook profile, which appeared to show a catalog of young females, the documents said. One picture featured a girl wearing a number, as if she were merchandise at an auction. The profile described the man as &#8220;Boss at Trafficking of Love, Kisses.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_783085" style="width: 570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-783085" class="size-full wp-image-783085" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/numbered-girl.jpg" alt="A girl poses wearing a number, as if being auctioned." width="560" height="604" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/numbered-girl.jpg 560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/numbered-girl-278x300.jpg 278w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/numbered-girl-534x576.jpg 534w" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" />A girl poses wearing a number, as if being auctioned.</div>
In another case, two neighboring addresses had a combined 329 sponsees or attempted sponsees, with sponsors often altering the spelling or order of their names or addresses to avoid raising alarm. Even so, they had &#8220;multiple flags due to document fraud, noncompliant home study reports, unresponsive to post-release services, and CPS reports filed following home visits.&#8221;
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Another address had 11 red flags, yet 64 children were placed there, and 22 more had been requested. HHS caseworkers spoke with one of the sponsors, who lied about almost every aspect of the situation and made remarks that led HHS whistleblowers to suspect that the “sponsors” were people who paid a cartel in order to gain access to children to use for cheap labor.
Another instance disclosed by HHS whistleblowers concerned a teenage girl placed with a 25-year-old man who purported to be her brother. Although DNA technology could readily be used to verify whether that is true, the government has <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">refused</a> to employ such technology, whistleblowers say. Instead, caseworkers never even see the sponsors in person before they are approved, and merely have them send screenshots of purported foreign identification documents via WhatsApp.
The 25-year-old texted pictures of Guatemalan birth certificates that were accepted as proving the relationship. But after the girl was placed, case workers looking back at that WhatsApp exchange saw his picture on the app change to pictures that suggested that he was not her brother.
After HHS caseworkers noticed discrepancies in the sponsor&#8217;s documents, they examined his social media accounts, and found child pornography and a picture of &#8220;a female laying in a pool of blood with slash marks in various places on her scantily dressed body.&#8221; HHS did not notify law enforcement or child protective services of the discovery.
At a recent Senate panel on the topic, the whistleblowers recounted how HHS’ only follow up with unaccompanied minors by placing a single phone call 30 days after they are placed with sponsors, at which point a third of the children cannot be located. At least <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-detail-how-85000-unaccompanied-minors-went-missing-after-biden-admin-dropped-them-off-with-sponsors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">85,000 children were missing</a> by 2021, a figure that could now be closer to 200,000.
This month, the Biden administration <a class="c-link" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-migrant-sponsorship-program-paused-cuba-haiti-nicaragua-venezuela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-migrant-sponsorship-program-paused-cuba-haiti-nicaragua-venezuela/" data-sk="tooltip_parent">paused a similar program</a> for adult migrants from four countries after an inspector general audit found that sponsors routinely lied.

How Guatemalan Traffickers Exploit Biden’s ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Program

Child Migrant Crisis

The man who attempted to assassinate former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> earlier this month was identified by law enforcement as suspicious more than 90 minutes before he shot at Trump, according to newly revealed text messages. 
Text messages obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/trump-shooting-thomas-crooks-secret-service.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a> with The New York Times show that a counter-sniper flagged 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as suspicious at 4:26 p.m. before his shift at the Pennsylvania rally ended. Crooks would go on to open fire on Trump, striking the former president in the ear at 6:11 p.m., injuring two other rally attendees, and killing 50-year-old Corey Comperatore. 
“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know,” a group text between counter-snipers with the local police response read, according to the Times. 
He said he wanted to make Crooks aware that law enforcement was in the area. 
“I’m just letting you know because you see me go out with my rifle and put it in my car so he knows you guys are up there sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit,” he said. 
“Roger that,” someone responded.
Later, at 5:10 p.m., about an hour before the attack, Crooks was photographed by law enforcement outside of a building owned by AGR International. Twenty-eight minutes later, the counter-snipers shared photos of Crooks in their group chat and discussed telling the Secret Service, according to the messages. 
“Kid learning around building we are in. AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him,” one officer wrote. 
“Call it in to command and have a uniform check it out,” another responded. 
At 6:11 p.m., Crooks opened fire on Trump from the rooftop of the AGR building, narrowly missing his head and striking his ear. Counter-snipers responded by killing Crooks.
In body camera footage of the aftermath of the shooting, an officer says, “I’m trying to figure out how this guy got here.”
In the footage obtained by Grassley, Crooks <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bodycam-footage-shows-law-enforcement-response-in-aftermath-of-trump-assassination-attempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can be seen</a> lying dead in the background with a pool of blood alongside what appears to be the rifle he used in the attack. 
Another officer in the video says Crooks fired his rifle at least eight times. “Looks like, what, at least eight,” the officer said, pointing out shell casings. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. At least eight.”
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, with questions remaining about the security failures at Trump&#8217;s campaign rally. House lawmakers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-votes-to-establish-task-force-on-trump-assassination-attempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> last week to create a task force to investigate the attack.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-VOTE

Snipers Were Suspicious Of Trump Rally Gunman 90 Minutes Before He Opened Fire

General

New York Times

Pennsylvania

Secret Service

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 this week.
Speaking to senators on Tuesday, 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 allowed 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.”
Mark Jones, previously the acting director of CBP&#8217;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 &#8220;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&#8217;s &#8220;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 <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_to_dhs_-_whistleblower_retaliation.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retaliated</a> 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 <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/08/29/cbp-demoted-whistleblowers-who-revealed-dna-collection-failure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a> 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.
Last month, a man wielding a machete tied up and sexually assaulted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-alien-who-came-in-under-biden-admits-to-raping-young-girl-prosecutors-say#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two 13-year-old girls in</a> 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 <a href="https://www.ksby.com/us-news/crime/alleged-killer-of-maryland-mother-of-5-rachel-morin-gets-trial-date-facing-life-sentence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victor Martinez-Hernandez</a>, 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.
Tuesday’s congressional panel was conducted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). The senators held the hearing as an unofficial “roundtable,&#8221; 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.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblowers-detail-how-85000-unaccompanied-minors-went-missing-after-biden-admin-dropped-them-off-with-sponsors">Whistleblowers Detail How 85,000 ‘Unaccompanied Minors’ Went Missing After Biden Admin Dropped Them Off With ‘Sponsors’</a>

Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas Joins White House Daily Press Briefing

Homeland Security Failed To Enforce Mandatory DNA Tests At the Border. Whistleblowers Say Violent Criminals And Child Traffickers Took Advantage.

Alejandro Mayorkas

Iowa GOP Senator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chuck-grassley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chuck Grassley</a> released body camera footage on Tuesday of Secret Service and local law enforcement responding to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The footage shows law enforcement standing on the roof of the American Glass Research building where 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired multiple shots at Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania. Crooks struck Trump in the face, seriously injured two rally attendees, and killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore.
“Bodycam footage provides more info than Secret Service will share w America We NEED detailed answers ASAP on security failures TRANSPARENCY BRINGS ACCOUNTABILITY,” Grassley <a href="https://x.com/ChuckGrassley/status/1815875286283538663" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
JUST IN: Bodycam footage released by Senator Chuck Grassley from the Trump Pennsylvania rally on July 13th.
The video was obtained from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit.
In the footage, the men were discussing how they had noticed Thomas Crooks earlier before the… <a href="https://t.co/KQErF69xk5">pic.twitter.com/KQErF69xk5</a>
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1815881608236523770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
Crooks can be seen lying dead in the background with a pool of blood alongside what appears to be the rifle he used in the attack. 
In the footage, a man in a black suit is talking with several law enforcement personnel about what was going on. According to video, a sniper had apparently taken pictures of a man on a bike who had been flagged as suspicious. 
The man in the black suit is asked if there was anyone detained over the shooting. Reportedly, several people who had been reportedly videoing the shooter on the roof were now being held for questioning.
“We have one shooter, deceased. I think we have three victims in the crowd. Did you guys hear that, too?” an agent said. The men only respond by saying they saw two helicopters leave the scene.
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Grassley said that he obtained the footage from the Beaver County Emergency Service Unit.
“For the past 10 days, questions have only been building regarding the catastrophic security failure that occurred on July 13. Federal agencies, particularly the Secret Service, have failed to be transparent with the American people. This assassination attempt is a matter of significant public interest, and the public’s business ought to be public. I’m releasing these records as part of my efforts to get answers and hold agencies accountable.”
In a <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_to_dhs_usss_-_operational_security_plan.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, Grassley requested the Secret Service operational security plan for the rally and other records related to the incident. Grassley also asked who was responsible for securing the rooftop of the building that Crooks attacked from.

BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA – July 13: Secret service agents cover for

Bodycam Footage Shows Law Enforcement Response In Aftermath Of Trump Assassination Attempt

Crime