U.S. Senate Votes To Block President Trump's Border Emergency Declaration

VETO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019

FOX News: Senate votes to block Trump’s border emergency declaration, in bipartisan rebuke teeing up veto

Senate Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues on Thursday in voting to block President Trump’s border emergency declaration -- a move that will prompt the president's first-ever veto.

The president made his intentions crystal clear, tweeting "VETO!" moments after the resolution cleared Congress.

The measure passed 59-41 as a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the resolution, despite White House efforts to keep the GOP united on the issue of border security. Those GOP members who backed the resolution cited concerns about the expansion of presidential powers.

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WNU Editor: According to 59 US Senators, the President does not have the right to announce an emergency on the border. So who does? As for the Republican Senators who supported this measure, there is going to be blow-back against them. No one believes excuses like this one from U.S. Senator Mitt Romney ....

.... Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters ahead of the vote. “This is a constitutional question, it’s a question of the balance of power that is core to our constitution.” “This is not about the president or border security, in fact I support border security, I support a barrier,” he said.

He does not support border security and/or barrier.

My prediction. President Trump will veto this measure, and on this issue Republican voters will at least now know where 12 US Republican Senators stand .... 12 Republican senators defy Trump on emergency declaration (The Hill).

More News On The U.S. Senate Voting To Block President Trump's Emergency Declaration

Senate rejects Trump border emergency as Republicans defect -- AP
Senate rebukes Trump over wall but he vows veto -- Reuters
Senate rejects border declaration in major rebuke of Trump -- The Hill
Senate votes to reject Trump's national emergency declaration, setting up his first veto -- CBS
Senate deals blow to Trump in vote to terminate border emergency -- Politico

The Whole World Is Moving to Secure Its Borders

Wikimedia Commons

Daniel Goure, RCD: The Whole World – Not Just the U.S. – Is Moving to Secure Its Borders

It is a globalized world. A person can circle the earth in 36 hours, and an idea can do the same in 36 minutes. The value of international flows of goods, services and finances is today around $30 trillion a year and could triple by 2025. In 2015, the level of global foreign direct investment topped $1.7 trillion with about 60 percent of that amount going to developed countries. The same year, over $700 billion in cross-border mergers and acquisitions were completed. Applications for international patents, trademarks and industrial designs are all growing at a rapid rate. Annually, the number of international tourists is well over one billion, that of trans-border immigrants now tops 200 million, and the number of students studying abroad is around five million.

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WNU Editor: There are many reasons why countries want to secure its borders .... terrorism and security is one of them. There are also cultural factors at play, as well as economic. My prediction .... what will ultimately force countries (primarily first world countries) to secure their borders will be due to economic reasons. Case in point .... I live in Canada, and in this country the government has just implemented a goal of admitting over one million immigrants in the next 3 years. Housing is already tight and very expensive in this country .... where (and how) are you going to house these people? To put it bluntly .... you cannot .... but it will dramatically increase rents and the cost of homes for existing Canadians. I can also add in how this is going to impact wages (primarily in the service industry), as well as increasing the costs involved in education and health care. And this is all happening under "controlled immigration" and a "secured" border. Bottom line .... most people in the world live in poverty and have little hope to improve their lives because of the country that they live in. The desire to improve one's life is part of the human condition .... and to go where that is possible is what is driving the flow of immigration today. As I have remarked a few times in this blog ... in the case of Europe .... if the current borders and controls were not there .... the Europeans will be facing a million plus immigrants from Africa and the Middle East per month .... and that would be just the beginning.

There Are Seventy Walls In Place Around The World To Protect National Borders

AFP: Keep out! Border walls around the world

Seventy walls are in place around the world to protect national borders, compared with a dozen in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, according to researcher Elisabeth Vallet of Quebec University.

As US President Donald Trump moves to build a wall along the Mexican border, here are other significant frontier barriers around the globe:

- US: extending existing barrier -

One third of the 3,200-kilometre (2,000-mile) US border with Mexico is, in fact, already protected by a fence. Authorised by US President George W. Bush and completed in 2010, the metallic barrier is more than five metres (16 feet) high and equipped with floodlights and surveillance cameras.

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WNU Editor: As more people continue to migrate from failed societies to First World countries .... the total number of border walls is only going to go up.

Leaked U.S. Department of Homeland Security Document Disputes Terror Threat From Countries Included In The Travel Ban

CBS: DHS report: Citizens of travel ban countries "rarely implicated" in U.S.-based terrorism

An intelligence report compiled by DHS’ Intelligence and Analysis Unit has concluded that citizens affected by President Trump’s travel ban are “rarely implicated in U.S.-based terrorism.”

The report concluded that “country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity,” and it says that “relatively few” of the citizens of these countries maintain access to the U.S.” The countries named in the president’s original travel ban were Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Yemen.

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WNU Editor: The White House is disputing this DHS memo .... Trump rejects DHS intelligence report on travel ban (FOX News). What's my take .... this is just a draft report using incomplete data .... the final report may come to an entirely different conclusion. But this leak tells me that the intel community's war against the Trump administration is still continuing.

More News On A Leaked Department of Homeland Security Document That Disputes The Terror Threat From Countries included In The Travel Ban

Analysts downplay threat from 7 nations in ban -- AP
DHS analysis found no evidence of extra threat posed by travel-ban nations: report -- The Hill
Homeland Security Intelligence Report Disputes Terror Threat for Countries Included in Travel Ban -- TIME
Donald Trump Rejects Intelligence Report on Travel Ban -- WSJ
DHS memo contradicts threats cited by Trump's travel ban -- USA Today
DHS report casts doubt on need for Trump travel ban -- Washington Post
DHS Draft Report Casts Doubt on Extra Threat From ‘Travel Ban’ Nationals in U.S. -- NBC
Leaked DHS Doc Says Trump's Seven Countries Aren't Very Dangerous -- Mother Jones
White House request of report to support travel ban said to cause concern among intelligence officials -- International Business Times
In Latest Intel Mutiny Against Trump, DHS Analysts Say White House Travel Ban Is Wrong -- Zero Hedge

President-elect Donald Trump's Transition Team Are Assessing All Assets Available For Border Wall And Barrier Construction.

U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appears at a campaign roundtable event in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Reuters: Exclusive: Trump team seeks agency records on border barriers, surveillance

In a wide-ranging request for documents and analysis, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team asked the Department of Homeland Security last month to assess all assets available for border wall and barrier construction.

The team also asked about the department's capacity for expanding immigrant detention and about an aerial surveillance program that was scaled back by the Obama administration but remains popular with immigration hardliners. And it asked whether federal workers have altered biographic information kept by the department about immigrants out of concern for their civil liberties.

The requests were made in a Dec. 5 meeting between Trump's transition team and Department of Homeland Security officials, according to an internal agency memo reviewed by Reuters. The document offers a glimpse into the president-elect's strategy for securing the U.S. borders and reversing polices put in place by the Obama administration.

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Update: Trump Is Laying The Groundwork For His Border Wall Behind The Scenes (Daily Caller)

WNU Editor: It looks like border-enforcement and eliminating President Obama's executive actions on immigration are going to go forward ASAP in a Trump administration.

Growing Fears That A Dirty Bomb May Pass Through A U.S. Port

The Hill

Maritime Executive: U.S. Ports Want More Action on Dirty Bomb Prevention

The threat of terrorist smuggling at U.S. ports appears to be increasing, says the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), who wants mechanisms to prevent cyber terrorism and illegal nuclear materials from being trafficked through ports intensified.

Nuclear smuggling can involve small quantities of highly enriched uranium or plutonium that could be used to build an improvised nuclear device. Additionally, radiological materials, such as cesium-137, cobalt-60, and strontium-90, can be combined with conventional explosives to build a radiological dispersal device, often referred to as a dirty bomb.

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WNU Editor: These fears are justified. U.S. border security .... correction .... having open borders is an open invitation for people to take advantage of .... including terrorists who want a WMD event on U.S. soil. Unfortunately ... this talk of U.S. ports being vulnerable to a dirty bomb attack and/or to be used to transport a dirty bomb have been around for a long time .... House to weigh US port dirty-bomb vulnerability (The Hill).

What U.S. Border Security?

The San Bernardino attackers Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago in 2014. Credit U.S. Customs and Border Protection

NYT: U.S. Visa Process Missed San Bernardino Wife’s Zealotry on Social Media

WASHINGTON — Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband carried out the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., passed three background checks by American immigration officials as she moved to the United States from Pakistan. None uncovered what Ms. Malik had made little effort to hide — that she talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad.

She said she supported it. And she said she wanted to be a part of it.

American law enforcement officials said they recently discovered those old — and previously unreported — postings as they pieced together the lives of Ms. Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, trying to understand how they pulled off the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

Update: REVEALED: San Bernardino terrorist Tashfeen Malik openly supported violent jihad on social media yet still passed THREE background checks to gain entry into America (Daily Mail)

WNU Editor: After reading this story you cannot help but get the impression that when it comes to immigration to the U.S., everything gets "rubber-stamped".

US Homeland Security Details How Law Enforcement Should Respond To Gunmen

A pocket card handed out to Homeland Security employees in April detailing how they should handle an "active shooter" situation.

Border Patrol Union Blasts Homeland Security Instructions To 'Run Away' And 'Hide' From Gunmen -- FOX News

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an "active shooter."

It's one thing to tell civilian employees to cower under a desk if a gunman starts spraying fire in a confined area, say members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council, but to give armed law enforcement professionals the same advice is downright insulting. The instructions from DHS come in the form of pamphlets and a mandatory computer tutorial.

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My Comment: To me .... these instructions are bizarre .... but here is the kicker .... to many others (including some in Homeland Security) .... these instructions are very reasonable and they make total sense.

Robot Border Guards To Patrol Future Frontiers

Walls alone won't seal US borders (Image: KPA/Zuma/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

A MIGRANT makes a furtive dash across an unwalled rural section of a national border, only to be confronted by a tracked robot that looks like a tiny combat tank - with a gimballed camera for an eye. As he passes the bug-eyed droid, it follows him and a border guard's voice booms from its loudspeaker. He has illegally entered the country, he is warned, and if he does not turn back he will be filmed and followed by the robot, or by an airborne drone, until guards apprehend him.

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My Comment: It will be expensive .... but it will probably secure the borders.