News:
United States
Immigration
The Biden administration has released over 836,000 illegal immigrants into the United States interior since Joe Biden took office, according to Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA). That figure is larger than the population of North Dakota. As reported by Breitbart News, the information was revealed during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday while questioning Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. McClintock also noted that 600,000 illegal aliens had entered the U.S. undetected since January 2021. At the current rate, that means there will be over 3 million illegal aliens in the US by the end of Biden’s term, about the same population as Arkansas and more people than the city of Chicago.
A federal judge in Louisiana temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s decision to end Title 42 less than a month before the rule was scheduled to end. The ruling was made in response to the Biden administration announcing that they would not enforce the Centers for Disease and Control guidelines (Title 42) on May 23. According to National Review, the judge’s order is “designed to block the decision to end Title 42 expulsions until arguments for a more formal injunction may be considered.” The order will expire on May 9.
Title 42 allows the government to deport illegal aliens entering the U.S. if they are assumed to be carrying an infectious disease – such as the Chinese coronavirus – across the border.
Immigration offices are struggling to keep up with the influx of new immigrants entering the U.S. In Orlando, Florida, hundreds of people waited for long hours outside an immigration office as staff could not keep up with the surge. One immigrant noted that she had waited outside for five days. Many immigrants waiting outside were served notices to appear at an immigration processing center or face deportation; however, the staff at these offices could not keep up with the high demand. WESH 2 News did not clarify in their report if the immigrants, who were waiting in line, crossed the border in a legal matter or illegally.
Illegal border crossers and human traffickers are seriously injuring themselves in attempts to climb former President Donald Trump’s border wall. While it is assumed that there have been many successful jumpers, according to a survey from physicians at the University of California at San Diego, emergency room visits at the university’s hospital spiked fivefold since the wall’s height was raised to 30 feet in California in 2019. Furthermore, the survey found that wall jumping deaths increased from zero to sixteen. Much of the recorded injuries were broken bones and head trauma. (Washington Post) While the Washington Post wrote this story as if it was supposed to be a bad thing, it is in fact a good thing and should be publicized more. This is the point of the wall, to stop migrants from coming into the United States.
The Trump administration built 450 miles of new border wall along the Mexican border, costing approximately $11 billion. However, most of the border wall that was constructed replaced old fences and barriers. The U.S.-Mexico border spans 1,954 miles long.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing the Biden administration for allowing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials to process asylum claims at the border, a move that is expected to invite more illegal aliens to the U.S. border. It is also assumed that false claims would arise if there is a massive influx due to border officials becoming overwhelmed. The rule is expected to go into effect on May 29. (New York Post) Paxton is the most hawkish Attorney General in the country on immigration, and he’s up for a runoff against George P. Bush on May 24th. It would be a substanital downgrade if he loses.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments on the Biden administration attempting to appeal a lower court’s decision to reinstate the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. “Remain in Mexico” has forced tens of thousands of migrants to await their asylum processing claims in Mexico, which has prevented a surge of illegal alien crossings. (Reuters)
Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s (R) plan to bus illegal border crossers to Washington, DC, is not having the intended consequences the governor was hoping for. According to the New York Times, many of the bused illegals expressed gratitude to Abbott for giving them a comfortable free bus ride to the U.S. interior. A church-run coffee shop subsequently took care of the illegals after they arrived in D.C.
Abbott sent a very small amount of illegal aliens to the capital. For example, only 20 migrants were recorded on the bus ride, which is nothing compared to the millions that attempt to cross the southern border every year. Abbot’s goal was to bring the borde to D.C. This entire idea of busing of illegals to Washington was cringe and stupid. It was always meant to tell conservatives that this was a way of punshing liberals for their own immigration policies but it effectively does nothing. The only thing the states can do aside from suing is putting in harsh measures to counter illegal immigraiton: heavy taxes on remitances, fines on businesses and home owners who hire and rent to illegal aliens, and making them pay fines.
Economics
Sen. Kevin Craner (R-ND) advocated during an MSNBC appearance on Thursday that the U.S. should look to increase the number of skills-based immigration and asylum seekers in the country to address the nation’s workforce shortage. (Breitbart News) There’s about half a dozen decent Republican senators on immigration and the rest - including Kramer are trash.
A Wall Street Journal article highlights how the rift between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and the Walt Disney Corporation is representative of a larger growing rift between Republicans and big corporations. While both camps used to find themselves aligned on pro-business and free-market policies, the two sides are at odds over economic issues such as “trade, immigration, and energy” policies. Furthermore, big businesses’ turn towards progressive cultural issues, such as “abortion, race, LGBT rights, and voting laws,” have placed them at odds with Republican voters.
When the Trump administration imposed tariffs on China, ‘expert’ economists and the establishment media complained that the tariffs would significantly raise the price of goods for American consumers. However, according to a Breitbart News report, the only good to see a significant price hike was bicycles. In May, the Chinese tariff on bicycles rose from 10 to 25 percent. Despite inflation raising the price of goods across the country, the increase in bicycle prices was the only product that could also be traced back to tariff increases, along with inflation.
The U.S. economy shrunk for the first time since the pandemic. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, “The decline in U.S. gross domestic product at a 1.4% annual rate [in the first quater] marked a sharp reversal from a 6.9% annual growth rate in the fourth quarter.” However, Consumer spending did rise at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter. (Wall Street Journal)
Half of the parents in the U.S. are still supporting a child over the age of 18, according to a report by Savings.com. Parents were roughly spending $1,000 per month on their adult children. The report also found that 62 percent of the adult children – living with their parents – did not contribute to household expenses. (CNBC) The question is are parents doing this because they want their adult children to delay adulthood, because the kids are in college, or because the current economy does not afford young the adults the opportunity to grow up.
Education
Public preschool enrolment dropped for the first time in more than 20 years due to the pandemic. According to NPR, 300,000 fewer kids were enrolled in preschools in the 2020-2021 school year compared to 2019-2020 – an 18 percent drop. Biden asked for $10 billion in preschool funding in his failed Build Back Better legislation but did not ask for similar funding in his 2023 budget. (NPR)
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed legislation on Wednesday that created a free speech oversight committee in the state’s public colleges and universities. The committee’s task is to “review and recommend free speech policies and training” and review complaints received from students and faculty if they believe their first amendment rights were being violated. (Reason Magazine)
2022 Midterm Elections
A recent New York Times article observed a trend in Republican gubernatorial races that incumbent establishment governors have a successful track record in fending off conservative anti-establishment challenges. A recent example is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fending off challenges from Don Huffines and Allen West in Texas. Jim Renacci of Ohio and former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia have also launched challenges against Govs. Mike DeWine and Brian Kemp, respectively, but both are behind the incumbent governors in recent polling. If there’s any place to move the GOP into a more nationalist-populist vantage point, it’s in the open elections - not trying and failing to defeat incumbents.
Major Stories
An annual report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed that the FBI conducted approximately 3.4 million searches of American electronic data and potentially performed millions of those searches without a warrant. (Wall Street Journal) Roughly no one will be held accountable for this.
The city of San Francisco has spent roughly $1 billion annually on ending the homeless crisis after setting an initial $160 million budget in 2016. The program has not ended the homeless crisis, and in fact, it has gotten worse since its implementation. Much of those funds have been used to build shelters, but the rooms built have been documented to contain black mold and other unsuitable living conditions, according to the Daily Wire.
Many of the those who entered the sheltered homes passed away after leaving; as per the San Francisco Chronicle, “Of the 515 tenants tracked by the government after they left permanent supportive housing in 2020, a quarter died while in the program — exiting by passing away, city data shows.”
Europe
U.K.:
The United Kingdom will see more foreign nationals arrive this year than the year before Brexit. According to the Telegraph, “The number of non-EU workers, students and family relatives granted visas has already increased by more than 50 per cent to more than 840,000 since the U.K. voted to leave the EU in 2016.” An estimated 50,000 Ukrainian refugees are expected to arrive, and up to 150,000 Hong Kong nationals on British National Overseas visas. This is significant because many of those who voted “Leave” in the 2016 Brexit referendum cited “immigration” as their top concern. Brexit was supposed to be a check on globalization and liberalism, and the UK’s Tory Party with leaders like BoJo have accelerated all these problems.
According to the Times UK, “Muslim terrorists have been able to seize control of wings and set up sharia courts behind bars” because prison guards are scared of being labeled as racists. This exactly what Enoch Powell predicted would happen in his “Rivers of Blood” speech.
A former British border chief predicts that 100 thousand migrants traveling illegally by boat will reach U.K. shores this year. (Daily Mail)
France:
After losing in the second round of the French Presidential Election last Sunday, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (NR) is seeking to make significant gains in June’s parliamentary election. According to the Guardian, NR is “vowing to field candidates in every constituency.”
Currently, the National Rally has only six seats (a record for the party.) They’re hoping to increase that number from just eight to over 100. While Zemmour wanted an alliance of all nationalist-right parties, it doesn’t look like it’s happening. If such a thing were to happen, it would probably result in the nationalist right winning over 70 seats.
National populist first-round presidential candidate and Reconquest (REC) party leader, Eric Zemmour, has vowed not to field candidates against fellow right-wing politicians Le Pen, Eric Ciotti, and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
Slovenia:
The opposition liberal party, Freedom Movement (FM, won Slovenia’s parliamentary election last Sunday, defeating the incumbent populist party, Slovenian Democratic Party (SDP), led by the seemingly outgoing Prime Minister Janez Janša. FM garnered 34.5 percent of the vote, while the SDP only accumulated 23.6 percent of the vote, giving the liberal party a better chance to form a coalition with smaller left-leaning parties. (EuroNews) This was a giant defeats for one of the few national-populist leaders in Europe and a major setback for the nationalist-right throughout Europe.
Sweden:
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson admitted this week that the integration of Muslim immigrants into the Scandinavian country has failed. While Anderson did blame “right-wing extremism” for the riots that took place the previous week over a Quran burning rally, she placed equal (if not more blame) on the Islamization of the country.
As reported by Reuters, Andersson stated in a press conference :
Segregation has been allowed to go so far that we have parallel societies in Sweden. We live in the same country but in completely different realities.
…
Integration has been too poor at the same time as we have had a large immigration. Society has been too weak, resources for the police and social services have been too weak.
Polls:
France:
According to French parliamentary polling for June’s election, if Le Pen’s NR party and Zemmour’s REC party – along with smaller right-wing parties – formed a coalition, they would have a significant shot of having a plurality of seats in the parliament. While Macron is likely to form a governing coalition of center and left-wing parties after June’s election, the right-wing coalition’s support has risen by 17 points in one poll (31 percent total) and by 11 points (24 percent total) in another poll.
Deep Dive:
A study from the University of Manchester estimates the casual effect of higher education on political values and finds that achieving a degree makes individuals less authoritarian, less racially prejudiced and more economically right-wing.
The Twitter account Birth Gauge looked at the fertility level between native European, immigrants from other EU countries, and non-EU immigrants. The only countries in Europe where the native population had the highest fertility rate were Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, and Iceland.
Interesting Takes:
One of the main obstacles to forming a nationalist-right alliance between Zemmour and Le Pen is their different economic visions. Zemmour is more traditionally right-wing on the ideas of spending, taxes, and the economy while Le Pen is a populist, writes Lelia Abboud in The Financial Times.
Nick Timothy writes in The Telegraph that Brexit was suppose to take back immigration control but the new Conservative Party crafted point system is actually intended to keep immigration levels high. “The British people have good reasons for wishing to remain in control. They know, from bitter experience, the costs of mass immigration. They know the problems caused by rapid social change, stark cultural divides, pressure on infrastructure and public services, housing shortages and high rents, job displacement and the suppression of wages. When they realise, having voted to take back control, that the PM has given it away, the Tories will find there will be hell to pay.”
Jeff Geisa writes on his Substack about his journey from a Trump supporter in 2016 to believing the GOP needs to move on from Trump and feeling like his presidency was a failure.