Category: DHS Files

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Bombshell Intercept Report Exposes DHS’ Mission Creep From Fighting Terrorism To Disinfo

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A very interesting segment on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson show(10/31/22) featured a bombshell Pulitzer-worthy report by The Intercept’s Lee Fang, which revealed that the Department of Homeland Security(DHS), has for five years now, been collaborating with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies, in determining whose speech needs to be suppressed. This of course flies in the face of the “private company” defense usually used to justify questionable speech infringement practices by the social media giants.

More importantly, Lee Fang’s bombshell also touched on the apparent “mission creep”(his words) of DHS, where over the last five years, the powerful agency had unilaterally(without congressional approval) shifted from its stated focus of combating terrorism and terrorist groups like Al-Qaida, to combating disinformation online.

Asked whether the Biden administration was working with tech companies to censor people, Lee Fang responded (1:10): “Yeah, that’s right Tucker. We looked at really hundreds of documents that paint a vivid picture of the FBI, the DHS, closely collaborating with top social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook, to censor various forms of content under the banner of fighting disinformation, and the story shows a couple of things, one, it shows what you just mentioned, a very cozy relationship between the government and these tech giants. There’s those monthly meetings that you just mentioned, but also, just very cozy emails and texts, not a very adversarial relationship. We looked at one text where a Microsoft executive texts Jen Easterly, the top disinfo director at DHS, appointed by[President]Biden, basically saying that the private sector needs to get more comfortable with the government closely collaborating on reports, talking about the expanded role for DHS in censoring a really broad collection of topic areas of policy and political topics.”

Lee Fang then touched on what I believe is by far, the biggest bombshell from his piece, and that is, the “mission creep” aspect. Fang said(2:11): “Just broadly speaking, the story also just looks at the mission creep of DHS. This is an agency that was founded in the aftermath of 9/11 to combat foreign terror threats of Al-Qaeda and the like, but over the last five years, it’s kind of evolved in its mission, its move towards fighting disinfo, and their justification is disinfo radicalizes the homeland, it can lead to disruptions in public health, or political violence…”

Even given DHS’ understandable explanation for going after online disinformation, no reasonable person can ever conclude that Congress would have approved the same powerful tools/tactics used to counter terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, to be applied against U.S. residents for basically saying the “wrong things” on social media. Sadly however, this is exactly where we find ourselves today, with DHS’ speech police designating people they deem “misinformers” as terrorists, and then mercilessly destroying their lives and livelihoods using among other things, the military. This is shameful conduct which most Americans have always associated with third world dictatorships.

It is because of DHS’ mission creep, that Yours Truly believes Lee Fang’s bombshell piece deserves a Pulitzer. Simply put, DHS’ mission creep, which at the very least should have been run through Congress for approval prior to enforcement, has not only seriously impacted the lives and livelihoods of many U.S. residents who have nothing to do with terrorism, but has also robbed them of their rights under the first amendment.

Congress needs to immediately step in to not only address DHS’ mission creep, but also to hold the officials involved accountable, preferably, via referral for criminal prosecution given the way their unconstitutional actions upend innocent people’s lives

It’s also important to point out here what history has taught us, and that is, not everything the government labels “misinformation” is necessarily so. Often times, there are topics the government simply doesn’t want out there, being discussed in public. One recent classic example is directed energy weapons. For decades, government agents, and their surrogates in the mainstream media, went out of their way to label people who expressed concerns about these weapons as delusional conspiracy theorists. In 2022 however, we not only have the same directed energy weapons being openly discussed by the same mainstream media channels who denied their existence, but also, the government considers the threat so serious, that Congress swiftly enacted a handsome compensation scheme for victims of such attacks.

Bottom line folks, as host Tucker Carlson correctly stated, this bombshell piece by The Intercept is not only a great story, it’s also a huge public service for which Lee Fang deserves a lot of praise and reward. The only question now is whether Congress will do its job, and rein in Mission Creep DHS, and its unconstitutional speech police.

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5,460 Migrant Children Separated From Parents By Trump Admin

In a shocking new piece, the Associated Press now places the tally of migrant children separated from their parents as a result of Trump’s harsh immigration policy at 5,460. This is almost double the initial 2,814 figure the government cited in court when U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California ordered an end to the cruel family separation policy in June 2018. In ordering the Trump administration to stop the family separation policy except in limited circumstances (unverifiable parent or threat to child safety), the federal judge also ordered the immediate reunification of the separated children with their families.

For the record, back in June 2018 when the federal judge ordered an end to the family separation policy, it was widely acknowledged both by immigration activists and government officials that the final tally would end up being higher than the 2,814 figure presented in court because the Trump administration was already separating migrant children from their parents even before they officially embarked on the family separation policy in the Spring of 2018.

It is fair to say that the new tally of 5,460 migrant children which almost doubles the initial 2,814 figure, is way more than anyone expected and further cements the conclusion already reached by many that Trump’s immigration policy is the most cruel and inhumane in U.S. history. The government separating one child from their family as a result of an immigration violation is already cruel and unusual punishment. When the government separates 5,400 children from their families as a result of immigration violations, that is sufficient grounds for a Human Rights violations probe by the United Nations, especially when according to the AP piece, as many as 71 children 2 years old or less(5 of them only months old) were also victims of this cruel immigration policy. Simply put folks, no immigration policy is worth ripping a baby less than a year old from their mother, and no decent human being would ever defend such a policy.

It is also worth pointing out that child health advocates repeatedly warned the Trump administration that separating children from their parents would cause severe and irreversible mental and psychological injuries to them. These warnings were made while the Trump administration was still conducting the family separation policy. Well, according to the AP piece, it appears that even after the federal judge ordered the an end to the family separation policy in June 2018, the Trump administration disregarded the judge’s order and proceeded to separate a further 1,090 children—an inexcusable abuse of power.

Bottom line folks, immigration has always been and still remains one of the most complex issues any U.S. administration faces. The reason for this is very simple–America remains a country of immigrants and issues related to immigration elicit sharp reactions from both sides of the political divide. The Trump administration is not the first, nor will it be the last one to enact an immigration policy that generates a lot of public outcry. One only hopes however that the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane family separation policy is the last immigration policy any U.S. administration ever enacts in total disregard to the serious and irreversible health consequences it subjects young migrant children to. As Senator and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-CA) famously says, “We are better than this.”

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DHS Harassing Pastor For Ministering To Migrants

Rev Kaji Dousa

In yet another troubling case of abuse of surveillance powers by the Department of Homeland Security, we now find out that the agency is harassing a Christian Pastor Rev Kaji Dousa, subjecting her to among other things heightened surveillance simply because she ministers to migrants and laments the cruel immigration policies of the Trump administration

The details of DHS’ troubling intimidation tactics against Rev Kaji Dousa are laid out in a federal lawsuit she filed on 7/8/2019 which we will definitely keep track of.

Yours Truly has repeatedly warned about how DHS has become nothing more than a political tool of the Trump administration used to wage war against those it perceives as anti-Trump and thus in their warped reasoning, anti-American. This is one of the gravest abuses of surveillance powers by DHS that is playing out in every major U.S. city today with seemingly no pushback from House Democrats or even the mainstream media.

Some of the worst surveillance abuses by DHS on people of color are occurring in Texas not only because it is a border state and home to a lot of immigrants, but also because the state falls under the 5th Circuit Court jurisdiction–a rightwing federal appeals court that has traditionally been indifferent to the plight of poor minorities. DHS is fully aware that whatever complaint is lodged against them in Texas for illegal surveillance will not attract the attention of the 5th Circuit Court or it’s associated district courts–a total travesty of justice. Consequently there is no impetus for DHS to stop targeting minorities with illegal surveillance.

Some civil rights groups like Color of Change and others have pushed back against illegal surveillance on minority activists by DHS and FBI with limited success. With every single passing day it is becoming clear that the problem of illegal surveillance for intimidation purposes has to be addressed by Congress and the mainstream media.

Bottom line, it should go without saying that DHS targeting people with illegal surveillance for engaging in conduct perfectly within their first amendment rights is patently unconstitutional. The bigger injustice is the continued silence by House Democrats and the mainstream media in the face of DHS’ troubling conduct. The U.S. Supreme Court should also start cracking the whip on the 5th Circuit Court for the strange indifference with which the court handles illegal surveillance claims against DHS by minorities.

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Trump Admin Deporting Children On Cancer Care

Brazilian Sirlen Costa consoles her critically ill 5 year old son who now faces deportation under new Trump admin policy of denying medical deferred action.

Just when you though the Trump administration could not possibly embark on an immigration policy more cruel that the child separation policy, we now find out courtesy of a shocking Boston Globe piece, that they plan to deport immigrants currently under medical care for diseases as serious as cancer.

America has traditionally granted immigrants faced with such severe medical needs deferral from deportation on humanitarian grounds. The reasoning is simple–deporting such migrants to their often poorer countries of origin while they are critically sick is for all intents and purposes handing them a death sentence. Turns out for Trump and the “evangelicals” who support him, effectively handing out death sentences to critically ill immigrants is justified because it is “good for the base”–sickening!!

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said it best when describing this latest inhumane immigration policy by the Trump administration; “We have now reached the bottom — the most inhumane of all of Donald Trump’s policies.” Ronnie Millar, executive director of the Irish International Immigrant Center said “Just when you think the administration can’t sink any lower, it finds a new way to torture our immigrant children and families.”

Bottom line folks, as we saw with the evil child separation policy, even though Democrats have few options in terms of congressional power, grassroots immigration activism has proven to be very effective. Where, as here, a U.S. administration embarks on a cruel and inhumane policy of deporting children on cancer care, congressional Democrats must step out of their lofty perches in Washington and join immigration activists nationwide in pushing back on this and other inhumane policies of the Trump administration. Simply put, Dems must not let Trump hand out death sentences to immigrants with serious medical needs.

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AOC Exposes FBI’s Terrorism Double Standard

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) grilling the Assistant Director of FBI’s Counter-Terrorism Division Michael McGarrity

In one of her most stunning congressional performances yet, Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) grilled FBI’s Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Michael McGarrity on the double standard with which the bureau charges non-White perpetrators as terrorists, while pursuing equally violent White supremacists only with hate crimes–with far fewer legal consequences.

There is no question that FBI’s double standard when it comes to terrorism has to be addressed. However, Rep Ocasio-Cortez and other members of Congress should not focus solely on who gets charged with what statute and instead dig into an even more troubling and still very under-covered topic by the mainstream media and that is, the increasing designation by the FBI/DHS of non-White activists in major urban centers(New York, Houston, LA, Chicago etc) as terrorists or radicalized extremists who then end up on their surveillance lists. Americans will be shocked to find out that even mundane activities like participating in/being an organizer of a Black Lives Matter rally, or Tweeting under “TheResistance” hashtag (#TheResistance)–all activities protected by the 1st amendment–could land someone in these obscure FBI/DHS surveillance lists.

Therefore members of Congress should not be singularly focused on who gets charged with what statute but rather the arbitrariness with which non-White political activists in major cities are increasingly getting caught up in FBI/DHS surveillance dragnets. These kinds of surveillance have disastrous effects on people’s lives whether they result in criminal charges or not, meaning absolute care must be taken to ensure the wrong people don’t end up in these dragnets. It certainly appears given the exchange between Rep Ocasio-Cortez and A.D. McGarrity, that it is infinitely easier for a non-White person to be designated and therefore investigated for terrorism than a similarly situated White person. These seemingly racist/bigoted surveillance policies should greatly trouble members of Congress.

Bottom line, Americans entrust the FBI and DHS with enormous investigative powers including but not limited to, the deterrence of terrorism. AOC and her fellow members of Congress have a duty to step in and ensure that these powerful agencies are not arbitrarily designating minority political activists as terrorism suspects and subjecting them to unjustified long-term surveillance for engaging in constitutionally protected speech.

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1700 Migrant Children Were Separated Before “Zero Tolerance” Policy

A shocking NBC News piece says DHS separated more than 1700 migrant children before it officially began the “zero tolerance” policy in May 2018. This means the 1700 figure is over and above the official figures released by the Trump administration as to the number of migrant children separated from their parents as a result of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy which according to this NBC News piece currently stands at 2800. Think about that, we are now finding out that the roughly 2800 migrant children that were separated from their parents as a result of DHS’ “zero tolerance” policy sparking justified national outrage, were just a drop in the bucket.

All these new revelations are coming out as a result of U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw’s order that the Trump administration identify all the migrant children that were separated before “zero tolerance” took effect and make efforts to reunite them with their families. Lee Gelent, the Lead ACLU lawyer in the case told NBC News, “The government has indicated that it has already found preliminary indications of 1700 more separated families, on top of the more than 3000 separated families already reported.”

Bottom line folks, it appears even with all the bombshell news reports about DHS’ evil family separation policy and the resultant national outrage, we are just now coming to terms with the breadth and scope of DHS’ troubling actions in this regard. It is vitally important that House Democrats and the mainstream media not drop their guard on this humanitarian issue of great national concern so that we not only get to the bottom of what happened here, but that bad actors are brought to justice. America owes this to the innocent migrant children.

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Missouri Court Denies Illegal Immigrant An English Translator Then Takes Away Her Biological Son

A shocking ABC News piece says a Missouri court has stripped an illegal immigrant from Guatemala of parental rights to her biological son, ruling in favor of the boy’s American adoptive parents. What’s even more shocking about this seemingly cruel Missouri court decision is that the Guatemalan mother, Encarnacion Bail Romero, who does not speak English, was denied an English translator throughout the court proceedings that resulted in her losing her biological son to the American adoptive parents. Encarnacion Bail Romero told ABC News, “Nobody could help me because I don’t speak English.” The Missouri court also stripped Romero of visitation rights to her biological son–a total travesty of justice.

According to the ABC News piece the only offense this Guatemalan mom seems to have committed is coming to the U.S. illegally. She was apparently arrested after an immigration raid at a chicken processing plant where she worked. So this was clearly someone who came to the the U.S. to work and provide a better future for her young son. After her arrest, her then 11 months old son was adopted by American parents Seth and Melinda Moser and stayed with them for the entire duration of her incarceration (5 years).

Bottom line, reasonable people will disagree as to whether coming to the U.S. illegally is sufficient cause for someone to lose custody of their Biological child. All reasonable people will agree however that it is a serious miscarriage of justice for a court to take away the parental rights of a non-English speaking illegal immigrant without even according them a translator. This is wrong and immoral!!

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DHS-ICE Illegally Detaining U.S. Citizens

A troubling report on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show says DHS-ICE is increasingly detaining U.S. Citizens, something it has absolutely no legal authority to do. According to host Joy Reid who was subbing for the vacationing Maddow, this stems from a legally questionable practice currently in place in many U.S. counties where DHS-ICE places “detainers” on county jail inmates it suspects are either not in the U.S. legally, or even if here legally, are subject to deportation proceedings based on their criminal convictions. The Maddow segment focused on Peter Brown, a Philadelphia native who DHS-ICE almost mistakenly deported to Jamaica. For the record DHS-ICE has no legal authority to detain a U.S. citizen so any ICE detainer placed on a U.S. citizen is void on its face.

The full Maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below.

So for example if someone is convicted in Harris County Texas for say DWI, and jailed for say 6 months at the county jail, one of the preliminary issues that is determined by county jail officials is whether the inmate is a U.S. citizen. If it is determined that the inmate is not a U.S. citizen then DHS-ICE places a “detainer” on them essentially telling the Harris County jail officials to detain the said inmate for an extra 48 hours(2 days) to allow DHS-ICE to come and pick them up for deportation proceedings.

The problem with this policy is that it is prone to a lot of racial and ethnic profiling by county jail officials who often arbitrarily classify inmates who don’t “look like” or “speak like” Americans as non-citizens and thereby illegally subjecting them to DHS-ICE detainers. This is especially problematic in immigrant-rich cities like Houston which is home to many naturalized U.S. citizens who don’t “look like” or “speak like” Americans.

According to the Maddow segment, DHS-ICE apparently enters into contracts with county officials where they pay them an agreed sum for every inmate the county detains for them. It turns out however that in addition to this “detainer” policy being patently illegal as applied to U.S. citizens, it is also draining county tax dollars from the resultant lawsuits. In other words this “detainer” policy is ending up costing counties infinitely more money in lawsuits than the money DHS-ICE pays them to detain inmates for them. So in their zeal to push a “tough-on-immigration” agenda using the “detainers”, county officials(often Republican counties) are ending up wasting much needed tax dollars settling lawsuits brought by illegally detained U.S. citizens—a total travesty.

Bottom line as Yours Truly has said all along, Congress must step in and enforce some checks on DHS-ICE’s seemingly absolute powers. It seems as if at every turn DHS-ICE is violating the constitutional rights of poor immigrants whether that be through its evil family separation policy, illegal surveillance of legal immigrants or now illegally detaining U.S. citizens. A wise man once said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s about time the U.S. Congress reigned in DHS-ICE’s absolute power.

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Kushner Accused Of Selling State Secrets

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Author Sarah Kendzior, a regular conributor on MSNBC’s AM Joy Show repeated an explosive allegation she has made time and time again–that Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner is using his position in the White House to gain access to top state secrets and then selling/sharing them. The author says Kushner is a major national security problem who needs to be indicted.

Author Sarah kendzior told AM Joy host Joy Reid, “I have to say this is like the 12th time I have been on your show talking about Jared Kushner and the fact that he lied on his clearance forms, he’s done illicit dealings, he’s giving away state secrets and that he is a massive national security risk, and so is Ivanka Trump. The only way that we will be able to finally stop having this conversation on national TV is if he is indicted. That’s what needs to be done….” The full AM Joy segment is available here but the relevant clip is below.

National security expert Malcolm Nance, also echoed similar sentiments regarding Kushner on the same AM Joy show. He told Joy Reid, “Jared Kushner’s problem is…he is trading intelligence for favors. And the one thing we know he did is Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia said, bragged publicly that Jared Kushner brought him the names of all the tax cheats in Saudi Arabia and he carried out that massive sweep of Princes and billionaires and then extorted almost a trillion dollars of money that was being withheld out of them. And that came from U.S. intelligence.”

Think about that folks, top-secret U.S. intelligence is being used in Saudi Arabia to extort trillions of dollars. This would be very troubling under any other previous U.S. administration, but it is exceptionally troubling when it happens under the Trump administration which is already littered with corruption scandals. One has to wonder if some of the extorted trillions of dollars did not end up “rewarding” the U.S. players up to and including Kushner, who facilitated the transfer of this sensitive U.S. intelligence to MBS

It is shocking that in a country where we have the Department of Homeland Security, a humongous department of the federal government ostensibly dedicated to protecting the country from threats both foreign and from within, even an extremely serious allegation that a senior White House official is selling state secrets is not enough to trigger a massive crackdown into who’s involved. Many Americans fully share Author Sarah Kendzior’s outrage as to why nothing is ever done to address the serious national security threat posed by Kushner and hopefully very soon the good folks at the Department of Justice will act on these concerns . Not long ago national security threats were a bipartisan issue. It appears in the age of Trump, even that tradition is thrown out of the window.

Bottom line House Democrats and the mainstream media need to get to the bottom of Kushner and Ivanka’s security clearance saga. It is very important that the public know exactly why intelligence officials were opposed to Kushner being granted a security clearance and whether Kushner has done anything to allay those concerns. Simply put, there was a lot of public skepticism when Trump brought Kushner and Ivanka to work in the White House(Nepotism). Now that their continued presence in the White House is a serious national security risk, they must be compelled to either answer serious questions about their security clearance, or leave the White House.

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Trump Admin Declaring Migrant Parents Ineligible To Reunite With Their Own Children

Rachel Maddow yesterday did a segment about Trump administration’s infamous family separation policy. The segment was based on the day’s breaking news that House Democrats have issued a subpoena to the Trump Administration requesting all documents related to its family separation policy–the first subpoena by House Democrats to the Trump administration

In Maddow’s interview with Rep Karen Bass however, the California Dem dropped a major bombshell when she revealed that the Trump administration has empowered Border Patrol agents to unilaterally and arbitrarily declare migrant parents ineligible to reunify with their own children–a very shocking revelation .

Rep Bass told Maddow, “One of the things that concerns me a lot Rachel is this category of parents that were considered ineligible to reunify with their children. There is no basis for a Border Patrol agent to determine who is eligible or ineligible to be a parent. We do not treat children that way in the child welfare system when their parents have been charged with neglect and abuse, so why on earth would we do that to parents who have not had any charge like that at all?”

The full Maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below

It is shocking how much power the Trump administration has entrusted to Border Patrol agents and others to make arbitrary but highly consequential decisions affecting the lives of migrant families. Think about that folks, even a federal judge does not have the power to unilaterally and without any due process whatsoever, declare a migrant parent “ineligible” to reunite with their own children yet the Trump administration has empowered Border Patrol agents working under the auspices of DHS to do just that.

Yours Truly would be remiss if he didn’t give a shout out to our very own rookie Rep Sylvia Garcia, (H-Town pride) who during the House hearings asked the question every American parent would like to pose to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen if given the opportunity; “Did you ever just say this really goes against humanity, we should not be doing this to children? Did you think of your own child and what would happen if somebody took your child from you?” Rep Garcia’s question is what the mainstream media should pester each and every Trump administration official involved with this evil family separation policy.

Bottom line folks the Trump administration’s family separation policy will go down as one of the most inhumane, and yes, evil U.S. government policy ever, the latest exhibit being this bombshell revelation by Rep Karen Bass that Border Patrol agents are unilaterally and arbitrarily declaring migrant parents ineligible to reunify with their own children. Folks, this is totally unacceptable and we hope congressional Democrats and the mainstream media make it the big deal that it is

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