USA News and Discussions

[firestar464]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/secret-ser ... -shooting/

More on that by CBS:

[weatheriscool]

[Time_Traveller]

Kevin Roberts, architect of Project 2025, has close ties to radical Catholic group Opus Dei

Fri 26 Jul 2024 13.00 BST

Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president and the architect of Project 2025, the conservative thinktank’s road map for a second Trump presidency, has close ties and receives regular spiritual guidance from an Opus Dei-led center in Washington DC, a hub of activity for the radical and secretive Catholic group.

Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that – for years – he has visited the Catholic Information Center, a K Street institution headed by an Opus Dei priest and incorporated by the archdiocese of Washington, on a weekly basis for mass and “formation”, or religious guidance. Opus Dei also organizes monthly retreats at the CIC.

In the speech – which he delivered at the CIC and was recorded and is available online – Roberts spoke candidly about his strategy for achieving extreme policy goals that he supports but are out of step with the views of a majority of Americans.

Outlawing birth control is the “hardest” political battle facing conservatives in the future, the 50-year-old political strategist said, but he urged conservatives to pursue even small legislative victories – what he called “radical incrementalism” – to advance their most rightwing policy objectives.

Roberts gained notoriety this year as the leading force behind Project 2025, a foundation plan backed by more than 100 conservative groups that seeks to radically upend a broad range of policies if Trump gets elected again, from limiting abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights and dismantling the Department of Education, to ending diversity programs and increasing government support for “fertility awareness” programs, like ovulation tracking and practicing periodic abstinence, instead of more reliable contraception.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... 5-opus-dei

[firestar464]

(EDIT: I'M REALLY DUMB. I FORGOT CALTREK POSTED THIS ALREADY)

[firestar464]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ju ... r-BB1qHJ61

Judge strikes down a North Carolina abortion restriction but upholds another


https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ar ... r-BB1qI29h

Arizona judge rejects wording for a state abortion ballot measure. Republicans plan to appeal

[firestar464]

NY Democrat introduces constitutional amendment reversing Supreme Court immunity ruling

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4792 ... -adversal/

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by CNN:

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/29/poli ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

Alabama case will decide if state can prosecute people who help abortion-seekers find care

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/al ... rcna164036

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

Read the original ABC article here:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris- ... =112877568

[firestar464]

How Second Amendment Radicals Are Attacking Laws Meant to Keep Firearms Out of the Wrong Hands

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... 235077276/

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency Releases July 2024 Monthly Update
August 16, 2024

Introduction:

(Customs and Border Protection) WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released operational statistics today for July 2024, which show a significant decline in migrant encounters during the first full month after a Presidential Proclamation issued June 4, 2024, by President Biden to temporarily suspend the entry of certain noncitizens across the southern border. U.S. Border Patrol encounters in July were 32% lower than in June 2024 and were the lowest monthly total along the southwest border since September 2020. July’s total numbers between ports of entry are also lower than July 2019, and lower than the monthly average for all of 2019, the last comparable year prior to the pandemic. CBP monthly reporting can be viewed on CBP’s Stats and Summaries webpage: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats

“In July, our border security measures enhanced our ability to deliver consequences for illegal entry – leading to the lowest number of encounters along the southwest border in more than three years,” said Troy A. Miller, CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner. “We are working closely with international partners to go after transnational criminal organizations that traffic in chaos and prioritize profit over human lives, and this month announced enhanced enforcement efforts to attack the fentanyl supply chain. These efforts are seeing results, as CBP saw the largest fentanyl seizure in our agency’s history just a few weeks ago. We remain vigilant in these efforts alongside our partners.”

On June 4, 2024, President Biden announced a Presidential Proclamation to temporarily suspend entry of noncitizens across the southern border. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General also jointly issued an interim final rule (IFR) that, consistent with the Proclamation, generally restricts asylum eligibility for those who irregularly enter across the southern border – including the southwest land and the southern coastal border. Since June 4, encounters between ports of entry have decreased by 55%. These executive actions have led to a significant increase in the number of migrants removed and returned to their home countries and a decrease in the number of people released pending their removal proceedings as explained in recent DHS Fact Sheets from June and July.

Since the Presidential Proclamation and Interim Final Rule went into effect on June 5, DHS has removed or returned more than 92,000 individuals to more than 130 countries, including by operating more than 300 international repatriation flights. DHS has almost tripled the percentage of noncitizens processed for Expedited Removal, and the percentage of releases pending immigration court proceedings is down nearly half. Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010 and a majority of all southwest border encounters during the past three fiscal years resulted in a removal, return, or expulsion.

Read more here: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national- ... ly-update

[caltrek]

Migrant Encounters at the Border Hit Lowest Number in Four years
by Isabela Dias
August 17, 2024

Extract:

(Mother Jones) “July’s total numbers between ports of entry are also lower than July 2019,” the agency (CPB) says, “and lower than the monthly average for all of 2019, the last comparable year prior to the pandemic.” Increased enforcement by the Mexican government also explains the lower numbers.

But these record-breaking statistics have not deterred Republicans from advancing their narrative of a “Biden border crisis” or trying to blame Vice President Kamala Harris for it. In response to the newly released CBP numbers, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, issued a statement saying, “the unprecedented border crisis the president and his ‘border czar’ have created continues to rage on.” As I previously explained here, Harris, now the Democratic nominee, was never appointed “Border Czar” or put in charge of managing migration:
…
Former Trump senior adviser and anti-immigration hardliner Stephen Miller took to X to distort the border numbers. “CBP just issued a press release admitting that Border Czar Harris has quietly smuggled nearly 1M illegals aliens into the US using a fast-pass entry phone app,” he claimed in reference to the 765,000 migrants the agency says have lawfully followed the Biden administration’s rules and sought appointments through the CBP One mobile app since January 2023.

If Republicans don’t want to buy into CBP data, perhaps they should look at another indication that the numbers at the border have been in decline. A recent investigation by NBC News found that fewer border crossings are having an impact on Texas Gov. Greg Abbot’s busing program, which has transported thousands of migrants to cities across the country, from Denver to New York. Officials from cities that have previously received busloads of migrants from Texas told NBC News that they hadn’t gotten any buses since January.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... r-years/

[weatheriscool]

July border encounters dropped to lowest level in four years

Source: The Hill

08/17/24 10:55 PM ET

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said Friday that migrant encounters along the southwest border last month dipped to the lowest level in four years.

“In July, the Border Patrol recorded 56,408 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border,” CBP said in a press release. “This is the lowest monthly total since September 2020.”

The Friday press release follows executive action back in June taken by President Biden to turn away migrants going over the southern border illegally during periods of large numbers of encounters.

Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in the release that last month “our border security measures enhanced our ability to deliver consequences for illegal entry – leading to the lowest number of encounters along the southwest border in more than three years.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... our-years/