Smugglers Reportedly Telling Migrants To Hoof It Toward Border Before Trump Takes Office

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

Human smugglers are reportedly urging migrants to rush into the United States before President-elect Donald Trump comes back into power, according to the Wall Street Journal

Migrants across Latin America are being told by smugglers that the time is now to reach the U.S. southern border before Trump enters office and embarks on his hardline immigration agenda, according to a report by the WSJ. Officials on the U.S. side of the southern border told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they are bracing for the possibility of a last-minute migrant surge before inauguration day.

“I am deeply concerned about the potential for a surge at our southern border as we near the end of President Biden’s term,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who represents a district by the California-Mexico border, stated to the DCNF. “With the Trump Administration signaling that it will prioritize stricter immigration enforcement, many individuals seeking to enter the U.S. illegally are likely to try to do so before those policies are enacted.”

“Right now, we are already seeing 800 to 1,000 people entering our region daily, creating a massive strain on our resources, services, and communities,” Desmond continued. “The influx is overwhelming local infrastructure and endangering the well-being of residents.”

Close to the Darien Gap — a vast jungle region spread across the Panama and Colombia border where thousands of U.S-bound migrants cross every year — migrants were told by a smuggler that he anticipates more deportations under the Trump administration, according to a WhatsApp group message reviewed by the WSJ.

“There were four WhatsApp groups in which hundreds of migrants coordinated their departure on U.S. election day,” Luis Villagrán, a Mexican migrant advocate who helps organize caravans in Tapachula, told the WSJ.

“As soon as Trump’s victory became clear, messages spreading fear began to appear,” Villagrán said.

In a statement to the DCNF, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson said the agency is remaining vigilant to ever-changing migration patterns, and urged migrants to “not believe the lies” of smugglers.

“The fact remains: the United States continues to enforce immigration law. Individuals who enter the U.S. unlawfully between ports of entry will continue to be quickly removed,” the CBP spokesperson said.

Upon entering office, President Joe Biden undertook 296 executive actions on immigration, with 89 of those orders specifically reversing or beginning the process of reversing Trump’s immigration policies. The Biden-Harris administration went on to undo a number of major Trump-era initiatives concerning border security, such as ending border wall construction and shutting down the Remain in Mexico program.

The aftermath was a historic flow of illegal immigration across the southern border. The number of illegal border crossings in fiscal year 2024 were the second worst in U.S. history — only surpassed by fiscal year 2023, according to data tracked by CBP.

There were about 8.5 million migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border during the four fiscal years of the Biden-Harris administration.

Trump, who is set to return to office in January, was very clear about his immigration enforcement platform while on the campaign trail.

The president-elect has pledged to continue building the U.S.-Mexico border wall, revive the Remain in Mexico program, hire more border patrol agents and embark on the “largest deportation program in American history.” He has also pledged to put an end to birthright citizenship for those born on U.S. soil by illegal migrant parents.

The incoming administration appears poised to follow through this hardline agenda given the picks so far to lead top immigration enforcement roles. The White House transition team has tapped former Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tom Homan to serve as border czar, Stephen Miller to serve as deputy chief of staff for policy and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Human smugglers and migrants south of the border appear to be paying attention to the American political scene. At least some migrants are now reportedly ditching the idea of booking an asylum appointment with U.S. officials and joining northbound caravans to the border.

“More than 20 friends decided not to wait for an appointment and joined the caravan,” Alfonso Meléndez, a 24-year-old Venezuelan national who arrived in southern Mexico in late September, stated to the WSJ.

“I’m very worried that they will throw us out when Trump takes office,” he continued.

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Misguided Climate Policies Create ‘Real Energy Emergency’ And Permit China To Dominate US

Published on May 7, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum warned on Fox Business Tuesday about America’s deepening energy shortfall and said that misguided climate policies could give China the upper hand in both the global energy race and artificial intelligence development.

House lawmakers voted 246-164, with support from 35 Democrats, to overturn a Biden-era EPA rule that lets California enforce a de facto national ban on gas-powered cars by 2035. During an appearance on “Kudlow,” Burgum said that U.S. energy shortfalls could allow China to outpace America in artificial intelligence and other power-hungry technologies.

“The real energy emergency that we have right now is that we don’t have enough energy in this country. We’re losing the AI arms race to China, and we’ve got to have more energy and more power right now in the country. And so that’s one of the things that we’re focused on right now,” Burgum told host Larry Kudlow.

Burgum blasted California’s aggressive emissions standards, which he said have effectively become national policy.

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“Let’s start with California, Larry. That would be a great idea, because there’s 14 other states that followed California. So basically we’re stuck right now. Automakers feel like they’ve got to build two kinds of cars in America, one for California standards and one for the rest of the country,” Burgum said. “Of course, we know that the California standards are based on a bunch of falsehoods around emissions, because if we want zero carbon fuels, it’s much cheaper.”

Burgum took particular aim at electric vehicle subsidies, calling them a boondoggle built on climate ideology. He also called electric vehicle subsidies economically reckless since the cost of avoiding a single ton of carbon dioxide exceeds $900.

“It’s 10 to 15 times cheaper to have zero carbon liquid fuels than it is to subsidize EVs. The EV subsidies, where the real bank was, the thing that was really breaking the bank, over $900 for an avoided tonus of CO2, and all of that built around climate ideology,” Burgum said.

Republican Pennsylvania Rep. John Joyce introduced a resolution under the Congressional Review Act to stop California’s zero-emission vehicle mandate, which several other states have adopted. If the Senate doesn’t act, the Environmental Protection Agency would face a lengthy rulemaking process to reverse the policy that will allow California’s stricter standards to remain in effect for years.

The states that have opted in to California’s auto rules include Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

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Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan Ramp Up Pressure On Google Parent Company To Deal With ‘Censorship’

Published on April 18, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Andi Shae Napier

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan are turning their attention to Google over concerns that the tech giant is censoring users and infringing on Americans’ free speech rights.

Google’s parent company Alphabet, which also owns YouTube, appears to be the GOP’s next Big Tech target. Lawmakers seem to be turning their attention to Alphabet after Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta ended its controversial fact-checking program in favor of a Community Notes system similar to the one used by Elon Musk’s X.

Cruz recently informed reporters of his and fellow senators’ plans to protect free speech.

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“Stopping online censorship is a major priority for the Commerce Committee,” Cruz said, as reported by Politico. “And we are going to utilize every point of leverage we have to protect free speech online.”

Following his meeting with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai last month, Cruz told the outlet, “Big Tech censorship was the single most important topic.”

Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent subpoenas to Alphabet and other tech giants such as Rumble, TikTok and Apple in February regarding “compliance with foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders, or other government-initiated efforts” with the intent to discover how foreign governments, or the Biden administration, have limited Americans’ access to free speech.

“Throughout the previous Congress, the Committee expressed concern over YouTube’s censorship of conservatives and political speech,” Jordan wrote in a letter to Pichai in March. “To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech.”

Jordan subpoenaed tech CEOs in 2023 as well, including Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple and Pichai, among others.

Despite the recent action against the tech giant, the battle stretches back to President Donald Trump’s first administration. Cruz began his investigation of Google in 2019 when he questioned Karan Bhatia, the company’s Vice President for Government Affairs & Public Policy at the time, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz brought forth a presentation suggesting tech companies, including Google, were straying from free speech and leaning towards censorship.

Even during Congress’ recess, pressure on Google continues to mount as a federal court ruled Thursday that Google’s ad-tech unit violates U.S. antitrust laws and creates an illegal monopoly. This marks the second antitrust ruling against the tech giant as a different court ruled in 2024 that Google abused its dominance of the online search market.