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Austin, TX, October 11, 2021 Toward the end of the summer, there was a precipitous jump in the progress of Governor Greg Abbotts fundraiser for the construction of the Texas border wall.

Though the crowdfunding campaign had previously only raised about $1 million for the project, the number jumped to almost $19 million by August 27 and then over $54 million by early September. As of Friday, the border wall funding still remains at just over $54 million.

According to a report by the Texas Tribune, the lions share of the funding for the wall has come from Wyoming billionaire Timothy Mellon, who contributed millions to former President Trumps campaign and gave $53.1 million in stock for the Texas wall.

Known for donating tens of millions to mostly GOP candidates and causes, Mellon also reportedly gave $2,500 to Republican Allen West when he was running for Congress in Florida in 2012. West is now running for governor against Abbott.

West is among Abbotts opponents in the Republican gubernatorial primary who question whether the barrier the governor has in mind will be effective.

Mellon is the chairman of Pan AM Systems Inc., an industrial services company based in New Hampshire. He is the grandson of the late Andrew M. Mellon, who was the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932. The Mellon familys fortune totals approximately $11.5 billion, per an estimate by Forbes.

He has been a supporter of strong immigration laws in the past, including Arizona Senate Bill (SB) 1070, which sought to detect illegal immigration and criminalize it at the state level. Mellon contributed $1.5 million to defend the law in court, according to the Arizona Daily Sun.

The Texas wall has been a fixture of Abbotts border security efforts since June, when he set up a venue for public contributions to the project. The Texas Facilities Commission selected a program manager for the border wall project in September.

In terms of the scale of the funding, Mellons contribution is dwarfed in comparison to the billions in taxpayer funds that have been set aside for border security this biennium.

During the second called session of the legislature, a bipartisan majority of Texas lawmakers added $1.8 billion in new spending on securing the border, which includes $750 million in spending on the wall and a $250 million reimbursement for a down payment on the project this summer.

Near the Rio Grande River in Mission this week, Abbott was flanked by nine other Republican governors in calling on the federal government to do more to deter illegal immigration and secure the border. Amid an ongoing border crisis, private citizens, border agents, and local governments have been left to deal with much of the cost.

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Billionaire Descendent of Treasury Secretary Gave Over $53 Million to Texas Border Wall, per Report - The Texan

For Immediate Release 10.08.2021 Governor Hutchinsons Weekly Address | Firsthand Perspective from the Southern Border

Governor Hutchinson'sweeklyradioaddresscan be found in MP3 format and downloadedHERE.

LITTLE ROCKToday Id like to talk about my recent trip to the southern border of Texas. General Kendall Penn, Adjutant General of the Arkansas National Guard, joined me for a visit with members of the Arkansas National Guard who are in Texas to support Operation Lone Star. They are doing a fantastic job for our state and nation. We also went on a fast boat inspection of the Rio Grande River and received a briefing from the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande sector.

The issues at the border are familiar to me. When President Bush appointed me as Undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, one of my tasks was to oversee security of our southern border. The problems were challenges 20 years ago. But the current number of illegal crossings and apprehensions, the volume of illegal drugs seized, and the human trafficking are far worse than weve ever seen, especially in Texas.

Under Operation Lone Star, there have been nearly 7,000 arrests and nearly 150,000 illegal aliens that have been apprehended and referred to federal immigration authorities. And then Border Patrol apprehensions and seizures are on top of those numbers.

We have a crisis at the border. It is a humanitarian crisis, a border-security crisis, and a public health crisis all rolled into a national security threat. Its never been worse than it is right now. Any time you have migrants coming across our border from scores of countries, waiting for the right moment and then successfully coming in, this is not a closed border.

Until January, U.S. border policy had controlled the flow of illegal crossings and drugs. But those policies were reversed, and that puts all of us at risk, especially those who live along the border in Texas and Arizona. We must change our policy in order to regain control.

I was one of 26 governors who signed a letter requesting a meeting with President Biden to discuss the crisis. After three weeks, the President has not responded. On Wednesday, nine other governors joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott for a press conference to demand federal action to control the border.

Governor Abbott has allocated more than a billion dollars to continue building the wall along the Texas border and to initiate other measures to protect his state.

The illegal immigration and drug smuggling is a national problem. Those who cross illegally dont remain in Texas and neither do the drugs. They are coming into Arkansas and all over the United States. Every state has an interest in bringing this under control.

Late Monday night, we took a boat tour along a section of the Rio Grande River that is a hotspot for smugglers. Then we hiked through the brush on the Texas side of the river. The people who patrol at night work in total darkness and rely on night-vision goggles.

Arkansas is doing its part as we are asked. The men and women from the Arkansas National Guard who deployed in July are doing an incredible job of maintaining vehicles for the Texas National Guard.

My trip was useful as I saw firsthand the enormity of the challenge along our border and to personally thank the men and women who serve our country as Border Patrol agents and as National Guard members.

CONTACT:Press Shop (press@governor.arkansas.gov)

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Governor Hutchinson's Weekly Address | Firsthand Perspective from the Southern Border - Governor Asa Hutchinson

Illegal immigration at Americas southern border is on a steady surge and the Biden administrations apparent open border policies are to blame, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argued on "The Story."

TED CRUZ: Right now, under Joe Biden, we simply have open borders. It is an absolute catastrophe. I've been to our southern border many, many times. It's worse than I've ever seen it. We are right now on a path to over two million illegal immigrants crossing into this country this year under Joe Biden. It's the worst illegal immigration we've had in 21 years. You know, just a little bit less than two weeks ago, I was down in Del Rio. I saw firsthand the crisis that was there -- where because the Biden administration refused to deport the illegal immigrants from Haiti, we saw what had been about 700 people under the bridge in Del Rio grow, when I was there, to 10,503 and within a couple of days after that to 15,000.

And I got to tell you, yesterday, I sat down with the foreign minister of Panama and she described how Panama has seen over 80,000 thousand Haitian immigrants, Haitian evacuees crossing from South America through Panama, headed to the United States. And this is all happening because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to enforce the law and have essentially said anyone who wants to come to America, they're going to resettle them. They're going to give them benefits, they're going to let them stay. And it's resulting in a public health crisis and a humanitarian crisis.

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:

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Ted Cruz blasts Biden for creating worst illegal immigration at southern border in decades - Fox News

Sam Kumar| Reno Gazette Journal

This opinion column was submitted byRGJ columnist Sam Kumar, former chair of the Washoe County Republican Party.

Our southern border is overrun by immigrants.Customs and Border Patrol has had over a million and a half encounters in the past 11 months. Meanwhile, Border Czar Kamala Harrishas often talked about solving for the root cause of illegal immigration. The root cause is the fact we have incentivized illegal immigration and heres how I propose addressing it.

End asylum: Asylum is the most abused part of the entire immigration system. Anyone who walks into this country and claims they have been persecuted will be let in with a hearing scheduled years down the road. Such claims of persecution are inherently hard to prove, so thousandsqualify. The definition of persecution, additionally, has expanded to include everything under the sun including domestic violence, gang violence (per Biden executive order 14010 Section 4 (G)(c)), and Chinas one-child policy.

End catch and release: When you try to illegally enter the United States and get caught, you are released into the country until a scheduled court hearing. Currently, a hearing date is nearly three years after entry. During that time, these illegal aliens are allowed to freely roam around the country and enjoy the privileges just like American citizens. To top it off, nearly half of them dont appear for their court hearings and there is no way to track them.

End birthright citizenship: Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the Constitution to give rights to slaves who were forcibly brought into this country, not the children ofthose who came into this country voluntarily by breaking laws. Not a single European country allows for birthright citizenship. This misguided interpretation of conferred citizenship upon birth within the national borders, even to parents here illegally, has long been abused.

End welfare for immigrant visa holders: Unless you are a U.S. citizen you should not be eligible for welfare.

Place restrictions on DACA recipients: Illegal immigrants protected by DACA may be granted a work permit that is renewed every three years. They should not be eligible for citizenship, welfare, COVID checksand other government giveaways. My column from January 2018 covers this topic in more detail ("DACA compromise needs border security upgrades," Jan. 28, 2018).

End chain migration: Currently, once one person becomes a naturalized citizen, that person can petition to bring bring his/her spouse, parents andchildren into this country. The parents can then petition tobring their other children. This process can continue until the entire family tree is here. Congress should enact laws that do not extend this privilege beyond the spouse and minor children.

Tax remittances: In 2020, immigrants sent $68 billion from the U.S. to their country of origin (referred to as remittances). Thats more than twice the amount sent out of any other country in the world. Countries south of the border benefited significantly from these outflows. In addition to unloading the least-educated segment of their population to the United States, these countries now get billions of dollars in return. Congress should tax remittances.

Exclude illegal immigrants for apportionment count: Congressional seats are allocated to states based on population, which includes illegal immigrants. This rewards states that incentivize illegal immigration. The population count used for apportionment should exclude illegal immigrants.

One final point: While most of the conversation on how to prevent illegal immigration has been focused on the merits of a wall, such a wall should just be one of many components of an overall solution. We need a comprehensive approach that doesnt reward those who run across the border even if they manage to get in. The changes proposed in this column will essentially eliminate illegal immigration.

RGJ columnist Sam Kumar is aformer chair of the Washoe County Republican Party.

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Addressing the 'root cause' of illegal immigration | Sam Kumar - Reno Gazette Journal

This piece was first published onThe India Cablea premium newsletter fromThe Wire & Galileo Ideas and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable,click here.

Assam is in the news for the wrong reason yet again a horrific video showing an official photographer laden with cameras stomping on a man shot by the police moments earlier. Like the previous incident from the state that made headlines the border clash between Assam and Mizoram police in July that left six Assam policemen dead this incident, too, was only the latest eruption of a conflict that has been simmering, with occasional outbursts, for many decades.

At the core of this barbarism is the same issue that drove the entire National Register of Citizens process in the state, and the building of detention camps: alleged illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Assam is the only Indian state to have executed an NRC, excluding 19 lakh people after spending four years and Rs 1,600 crore. This pleased no one, and the NRC was rejected by its most ardent champions, the BJP and the All Assam Students Union (AASU).

They felt that 19 lakh, including a large number of Bengali Hindus, Gorkhas and tribals, was far short of the figures for illegal immigrants in Assam that have been tossed around for years. AASU had spoken of 50 lakh as far back as 1980, according toNo Lands People:The Untold Story of Assams NRC Crisisby Abhishek Saha. At a special session of the Assam Assembly on 13 January 2020, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assams health and finance minister, claimed that Home Minister Amit Shah had, during a meeting with AASU prior to passage of the CAA in Parliament, told the students body there were 70 lakh foreigners in Assam, Saha wrote.

Also read: The Police Did Not Bungle in Assam, They Committeda Horrific Crime

No one expects Mexicans or Chinese foreigners to be pouring into Assam. The term is code for Bangladeshi, and the words are often used interchangeably. The term illegal migrant in Assam immediately evokes a stereotype: the dark-skinned, Bengali Muslim peasant in alungiand vest. From there to the assumption that theyre all illegal immigrants, regardless of actual citizenship status, is but a short hop.

The assumption arose from prejudice and rested on guesswork. No one had ever tried counting undocumented migrants in Assam before the NRC. Under BJP governments at the state and Centre, and the supervision of Ranjan Gogoi as Chief Justice of India, it was the first serious attempt to determine, even if by a highly flawed process, what the actual figures might be. Despite all efforts, the number it finally excluded still fell far short of the fanciful figures that had passed into legend in Assam. Confronted with the possibility that their cherished belief that every Bengali of East Bengal ancestry in Assam was an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant might be incorrect, many chose to fault the NRC, rather than reject the cherished belief.

The father of Moinul Haque, the farmer shot dead and stomped on, said that their family has been settled in Assam for three generations. This is typically the case, because the truth about Bengali migration is that most of it happened, initially with the active encouragement of the colonial administration, in the early 1900s.

Ever since the annexation of Assam in 1826, following victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War, the British administration had faced labour shortages. Labour was initially imported for tea plantations but in time, the unexploited economic potential from cultivation of rice and jute in the vast Brahmaputra floodplains, which the rulers saw as wastelands, was also realised. The need for labour found mention in administrative reports. Sir George Campbell (then Lieutenant Governor) thoroughly recognises that the great want of Assam is population, noted the Report on the Administration of Bengal for 1872-73, when the province of Assam was being formed.

The migration of peasant farmers, mainly from Mymensingh, increased when Bengal was partitioned for the first time in 1905. In the ensuing redrawing of maps, East Bengal and Assam became a single province with its summer capital in Shillong and winter capital in Dhaka. Those who migrated then from East Bengal to Assam were moving within the same country, and the same province.

Also read: Assam Firing: What Happened During the Governments Eviction Drive in Darrang?

Unchecked migration of land-hungry farmers into the thinly-populated province became a problem of plenty in less than 15 years. By then, the partition of Bengal had been undone, and Assam was once again a separate province. In the 1921 Census, there was a hint of administrative misgivings. The 1931 Census which followed raised, for the first time, the spectre of Assam being overrun by East Bengalis. Census commissioner C.S. Mullan wrote in his report, Wherever the carcass, there will the vultures be gathered together where there is waste land, thither flock the Mymensinghias.

The days of vacant floodplains are long gone, and the Mymensinghias stopped flocking long ago, but from that dehumanising, racist document to more recent reports such as one authored by former chief election commissioner H.S. Brahma on protecting the land rights of indigenous people of Assam, to the NRC and the eviction drive in which Haque was shot dead the other day, there is a continuity.

Samrat Choudhury is a journalist and author, most recently, of The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra. He is president of the Foundation for Media Professionals.

Read more from the original source:
Borders Shift and People Move. So Who Are 'Illegal Immigrants', Really? - The Wire