Category: Breaking News

February 10th, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Trump border ‘wall’ could cost $21.6 billion, take 3.5 years to build

Trump border ‘wall’ could cost $21.6 billion, take 3.5 years to build

(NBC NEWS) — President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The report is expected to be presented to Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in coming days, although the administration will not necessarily take actions it recommends.

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February 10th, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Homeland Security head tours border as wall plan takes shape

Homeland Security head tours border as wall plan takes shape

(ABC NEWS) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will wrap up a two-day tour of the nation’s border with Mexico on Friday as plans take shape to build a wall along the 2,000-mile divide between the two countries.

Kelly has told lawmakers that he would like to see wall construction well underway within two years, but he held open the possibility that it wouldn’t extend to areas where there are natural physical barriers.

Fences already cover about 700 miles of the border.

Kelly was scheduled to tour one of the most fortified stretches of the border separating San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. The two cities in the border’s largest metropolitan area are separated by a double fence, much of it topped with razor wire.

San Diego is often cited as an example of how walls can slow illegal crossings, but critics say the structures only forced people to more dangerous areas where many have died in extreme heat.

The San Diego-Tijuana area of about 5 million people has the nation’s busiest border crossing, where tens of thousands of motorists and pedestrians enter the U.S. every day. It’s also one of the busiest crossings for cargo.

On Thursday, Kelly toured southern Arizona — the busiest corridor for illegal crossings from 1998 to 2013.

Southern Texas is now the most preferred route as large numbers of Central American families and children make their way to the U.S.

San Diego was the busiest route for illegal crossings until the late 1990s, when a surge of agents helped push crossers toward the remote mountains and deserts in Arizona.

Kelly was visiting the border in Arizona and California for the first time since he became secretary last month. Last week he toured the border in southern Texas.

Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, rose to run the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities in 31 countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Kelly told a House panel on Tuesday that Trump’s immigration and travel ban made “an awful lot of sense” but probably should have been delayed at least long enough to brief Congress about it.

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January 31st, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Govt. audit: “Elevated” terrorism threat to U.S. from Mexico

Govt. audit: “Elevated” terrorism threat to U.S. from Mexico

(JUDICIAL WATCH) — A new government audit confirms what Judicial Watch has been reporting for years, that Islamic terrorists are operating in Mexican border towns and infiltrating the United States to carry out attacks. In a report issued this month by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the agency notes that the state faces a full spectrum of threats and “due to the recent actions of lone offenders or small groups affiliated with or inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other foreign terrorist organizations, we assess that the current terrorism threat to Texas is elevated.”

Safety officials in the Lone Star State also write in the 86-page document that they are “especially concerned about the potential for terrorist infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly as foreign terrorist fighters depart Syria and Iraq and enter global migration flows.” They also express worries about Syrian refugees that have been sent to Texas under President Obama’s settlement program because the government doesn’t have a system to properly vet them. Judicial Watch has also reported extensively on that national security crisis. Read the latest stories here and here. “We see a potential that these challenges may leave the state exposed to extremist actors who pose as authentic refugees, and who are determined to later commit violent acts,” the Texas report states.

In the same manner that ISIS deployed operatives to their targets in European capitals, the terrorist group could implement the same tactics to infiltrate operatives across the Texas-Mexico border, the new report points out. “Human smugglers, working along established Latin American routes, have long transported Syrians, Iraqis and other immigration from countries where terrorist groups operate to our land border with Mexico,” Texas safety officials write in the report. The U.S. government calls them Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and in past few years they have come from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt and many other “countries of interest” in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia where terrorist groups are active.

The southern border has become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism in recent years and Judicial Watch has exposed the national security disaster as part of an ongoing investigation into the dangerously porous region. In 2015 Judicial Watch reported that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling SIAs from countries with terrorist links into a small Texas rural town near El Paso. Sources on both sides of the border confirmed to Judicial Watch that the smugglers use remote farm roads—rather than interstates—to elude the Border Patrol and other law enforcement barriers. Once they clear the border, the SIAs are transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Then the SIAs wait for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20.

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January 26th, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on White House press secretary says border wall will be funded by 20 percent import tax on Mexican goods

White House press secretary says border wall will be funded by 20 percent import tax on Mexican goods

(BREAKING 911) — Trump spokesman Sean Spicer added a stunning new detail about the proposed wall project later Thursday, saying that Trump intended to pay for it by imposing a 20-percent tax on all imports from Mexico.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had been scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday to discuss immigration, trade and drug-war cooperation. He called off the visit after Trump tweeted that it would be “better to cancel the upcoming meeting” if Mexico was unwilling to pay for the wall.

Trump’s moves have rekindled old resentments in Mexico, a country that during its history has often felt bullied and threatened by its wealthier, more powerful neighbor. The legacy of heavy-handed U.S. behavior – which includes invasions and the seizure of significant Mexican lands — has mostly been played down by a generation of Mexican leaders who have pursued pragmatic policies and mutual economic interests with both Republican and Democratic U.S. administrations.

Both Peña Nieto and Spicer said that their countries were interested in maintaining positive relations. “We will keep the lines of communication open,” Spicer told reporters in Washington on Thursday morning, adding that the White House would “look for a date to schedule something in the future.” The Mexican president tweeted that his government was willing to work with the United States “to reach agreements that benefit both nations.”

But Mexicans expressed shock and dismay as Trump moved to turn his campaign promises into reality.

Mexicans view a wall across the 2,000-mile border as a symbolic affront, part of a package of Trump policies that could cause the country serious economic pain. They include a crackdown on illegal immigrants, who send billions of dollars home, and renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. The treaty has allowed trade between the neighbors to mushroom. Every day, $1.4 billion in goods ccross the U.S.-Mexico border, and millions of jobs are linked to trade on both sides. Mexico is the second largest customer for American-made products in the world, and 80 percent of Mexican exports – automobiles, flat screen TVs, avocados – are sold to the United States.

“When we are talking about building a wall, about deporting migrants, about eliminating sanctuary cities [for migrants], about threatening to end a free trade agreement, or to take away factories, we are really talking about causing human suffering,” Margarita Zavala, a possible candidate for the presidency in 2018 and the wife of former president Felipe Calderon, said in an interview. “And after today, without a doubt, it is very difficult to negotiate from behind a wall.”

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January 25th, 2017 Breaking News Comments Off on Donald Trump: Wall construction will start ‘as soon as we can physically do it’

Donald Trump: Wall construction will start ‘as soon as we can physically do it’

(BREITBART) — by Charlie Spiering

President Donald Trump vowed to start his “big beautiful” wall on the Southern border of the United States immediately during an interview with ABC News anchor David Muir.

When asked for the construction date, Trump said that he would begin the project “as soon as we can physically do it” and confirmed that planning would start “immediately.” He predicted, however, that the actual construction process might take a few months to begin.

The president will travel this afternoon to the Department of Homeland Security to sign several executive orders that deal with border security.

Trump confirmed that ultimately Mexico would pay for the wall, but that the government would get the project started.

He also dismissed Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto for insisting that his country would not pay for the wall.

“I think he has to say that,” Trump replied, vowing that future negotiations with Mexico would ensure payment from the country.

But he suggested that the wall would be good for Mexico too.

“What I am doing will be good for the United States; it’s also going to be good for Mexico,” Trump said. “We want to have a very stable, solid Mexico.”

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December 9th, 2016 Breaking News Comments Off on Senator: The wall will be built, ‘not that expensive, shovel ready, works’

Senator: The wall will be built, ‘not that expensive, shovel ready, works’

(WASHINGTON EXAMINER) — By Paul Bedard

Quick action in Congress to fund construction of President-elect Trump’s border wall is expected next year and it shouldn’t be too expensive complete, according to a key lawmaker who chairs the committee that oversees immigration.

What’s more, said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the project should be considered “shovel ready,” and part of the proposed $1 trillion infrastructure project eyed by the incoming administration.

“In terms of federal spending, it’s not going to be that expensive and if President Trump when he becomes president is talking about an infrastructure program, well this would be a shovel ready project,” said Johnson, citing 2006 legislation signed by former President Bush and called the Secure Fence Act to fund completion of the wall.

Appearing before Johnson’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol said the fence should be completed. “Does it work? Yes,” said Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan.

Johnson told Secrets that there are immigration fees that can be instituted or increased to raise money from Mexicans and others seeking entry to the United States. He suggested that it might cost “a few billion.”

He added that a wall would not only increase security but alleviate the staffing woes in the Border Patrol.

“Fencing actually works. So we need better fencing. We need more better fencing. And that could relieve pressure. Let’s face it, part of the problem that Customs and Border Protection is dealing with is the fact that they are having a hard time hiring enough people. So the nice thing about fencing, particularly if you have double fencing with a road in between the fencing, it requires fewer agents. And so you kind of kill two birds with one stone there. You provide better security and you are able to provide this better security with fewer agents. That’s a good thing,” the newly reelected senator said.

And he said that a wall isn’t needed for all of the border, some of which is nearly impossible to get to because of rough terrain and some covered with technology.

“From my standpoint, the wall maybe viewed somewhat as a metaphor. I don’t think we need 1,700 miles of it, but we need far better fencing than we’ve got,” said the senator.

Asked about potential protests in Congress to construction, Johnson said he believes the House and Senate should respect the election outcome.

“Hopefully they heard the wish of the American public that we want to secure our border,” said Johnson.

“If we’re ever going to fix our immigration system I think the American public is going to demand that they have confidence in the fact that we are committed to securing our border, which they very justifiably don’t have that confidence,” he said.

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December 2nd, 2016 Breaking News Comments Off on More violence expected as cartel splinters in Northern Mexico

More violence expected as cartel splinters in Northern Mexico

(BREITBART) — CIUDAD VICTORIA

A series of banners hung this week point to yet another split within the Los Zetas cartel and more violence as a result.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, for more than one year, two rival factions of the Los Zetas cartel have been fighting for control of key drug trafficking territories. The violence between the Los Zetas factions called Cartel Del Noreste and Grupo Bravo/Zetas Vieja Escuela has spread terror in this city as shootouts, kidnappings and gory executions have become an almost daily occurrence. The fighting has since spread from the state of Tamaulipas into Nuevo Laredo and Coahuila.

As a result of the fighting, Los Zetas Vieja Escuela recently met in Matamoros to work out a partnership with their former allies in the Gulf Cartel, Breitbart Texas reported. In exchange for using the Gulf Cartel routes, Los Zetas Vieja Escuela would share funds, weapons and manpower.

Most recently, cartel gunmen from Grupo Bravo hung a series of banners throughout Ciudad Victoria announcing an internal split within the cartel faction. The gunmen who hang the banner are now calling themselves Grupo de la O, or the O Group. Mexican law enforcement sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed that the name is a reference to jailed Gulf Cartel boss and Los Zetas founder Osiel Cardenas Guillen.

Mexican intelligence sources in Mexico revealed that the Grupo de la O is based out of Matamoros and appears to be made up of relatives of the Cardenas family as well as the Gulf Cartel cells called Cobra, Satan, Puma and Chuta. “Old Cobras” is the nickname used within the Gulf Cartel to refer to each of the original members of the Los Zetas during the time when the two were allies.

The new player fighting for Ciudad Victoria adds another layer to the already bloody fight for the city. Almost every day, citizen journalists or authorities have reported new shootings, gun battles or gruesome executions as the cartel members fight for control.

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November 30th, 2016 Breaking News Comments Off on GRAPHIC VIDEO: Mexican cartel at border preps to incinerate victims’ hacked bodies, plays soccer with head

GRAPHIC VIDEO: Mexican cartel at border preps to incinerate victims’ hacked bodies, plays soccer with head

(BREITBART) — MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — A leaked video obtained by the Breitbart Texas shows a crew of Gulf Cartel gunmen preparing to incinerate dozens of murdered victims. They are also seen playing soccer with a human head.

The incineration of victims is a long standing practice that allows the criminal organization to avoid scrutiny as well as help Mexican government officials continue to claim low crime statistics.

In the leaked video, a man holding a cell phone claims to be part of the Gulf Cartel and that the group is cooking “rats” or rivals members. The man appears to be holding a beer on the other hand as he narrates in Spanish the fate of their rivals.

In the background of the video, various other cartel members can be seen punching holes in 55-gallon drums and placing rocks and body parts inside. One of the men then asks for a “spark” referring to a lighter. The man with the cell phone then begins to kick the head of one of a murder victim as if it were a soccer ball. Another is heard stating that in a village, Los Zetas members had played soccer with the severed heads of children.

The date and the location of the video remains unknown, however the method of incinerating the victims remains the same throughout Mexico. “Cooking” is a term used to describe the incineration of bodies by cartel members. The murdered victims are hacked into pieces and placed either in clandestine crematoriums or in 55-gallon drums where they are set on fire. The practice of cooking victims not only helps cartels minimize scrutiny but also helps Mexican officials claim that crime continues to decrease since incinerated victims are not counted as murders. According to Mexican officials, without a body, it remains a missing persons case.

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November 17th, 2016 Breaking News Comments Off on Mexican mayor arrested after hundreds massacred and cooked in network of ovens, following Breitbart exposé

Mexican mayor arrested after hundreds massacred and cooked in network of ovens, following Breitbart exposé

(BREITBART) — by Ildefonso Ortiz

Mexican authorities have arrested the former mayor of a rural community in the border state of Coahuila in connection with the kidnapping, murder and incineration of hundreds of victims through a network of ovens at the hands of the Los Zetas cartel. The arrest comes after Breitbart Texas exposed not only the horrors of the mass extermination, but also the cover-up and complicity of the Mexican government.

On Thursday morning, Coahuila state authorities arrested Sergio Alonzo Rodriguez, the former mayor of Allende, Coahuila, on the charge of aggravated kidnapping, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Coahuila government revealed. Rodriguez was the mayor of Allende, Coahuila in March, 2011, when a commando of Los Zetas kidnapped dozens of people who were then murdered and incinerated.

Earlier this year, Breitbart Texas published the results of a three-month investigation into how Los Zetas were able to kidnap, torture, execute and incinerate approximately 300 victims–including women and children–between 2011 and 2013. Approximately 150 of the victims were taken to the Piedras Negras state prison where cartel members used 55-gallon drums to incinerate the human remains.

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November 11th, 2016 Breaking News Comments Off on Mexico’s ‘avengers’ backed by public sick of crime and lack of punishment

Mexico’s ‘avengers’ backed by public sick of crime and lack of punishment

(THE GUARDIAN) — It was still dark when four men boarded the packed commuter bus heading for Mexico City and ordered the passengers to hand over their valuables.

They gathered up mobile phones and wallets, but as they prepared to leave near the town of Toluca, one passenger stood up, drew a pistol and shot the four assailants, killing their leader instantly.

The three injured robbers stumbled off the bus, but the gunman followed them out and shot them dead at the roadside. Then he returned to the bus, handed back the passengers’ belongings and disappeared into the darkness.

Police in Mexico state, which wraps round the country’s capital like a horseshoe, have deployed hundreds of officers in search of the so-called justiciero – or avenger.

But many Mexicans – fed up with crime, corruption and impunity – took to social media to praise the unidentified killer. None of the bus passengers have offered information to police, saying it was too dark to see him clearly.

The case is just the latest of a spate of vigilante killings in Mexico: in southern Tabasco state a taxi driver shot dead two assailants trying to rob him. In the western state of Guanajuato, a witness to the armed robbery of a seafood delivery driver followed and shot at the two suspects fleeing on a motorcycle, injuring one of them, according to local media.

Gema Santamaría, a sociologist at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, said that while the country has long been plagued by lynchings of supposed criminals, individual vigilante murders are a relatively new development.

After spate of killings, Mexico City is criticized for failing to admit extent of crime problem
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“Public approval of the justiciero has to do with the deep discontent over how the justice system and security services work in Mexico,” she said

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