 Yes, the TN General Assembly convened today – stay tuned for the first 2024 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE that will come on Saturday. Have you checked out our new TN Eagle Forum Website? Give it a visit and tell me what you think – we think you will like it. Especially now that the legislators are back in town, we really need your financial support and we have some significant financial needs coming up. Would you please make a donation HERE to help us continue to serve the people of Tennessee? |
EXCLUSIVE: Illegal Immigrant Deported Four Times Charged With Killing Colorado Mother, Son In DUI Crash
A man who came to the U.S. illegally and was subsequently deported four times allegedly killed a mother and her son in Colorado, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas, who is from El Salvador, was previously deported four times after initially sneaking into the country undetected, ICE said. Menjivar-Alas, 37, was charged with vehicular homicide reckless, vehicular homicide DUI and habitual traffic offender after he allegedly crashed his vehicle and killed 47-year-old Melissa Powell and her 16-year-old son, Riordan, on Dec. 12, according to the Broomfield Police Department
The accused has four convictions from Boulder County Court for alcohol-related driving offenses that occurred between 2007 and 2019, ICE said. A Boulder County judge had sentenced Menjivar-Alas to probation, community service and work release four days before his latest alleged offense, according to CBS News.
“Sanctuary policies not only lack any public benefit but also contribute to an increase in crime against citizens. By giving sanctuary to illegal aliens, these policies inadvertently enable them to commit crimes without consequences. The safety of citizens must be our utmost concern,” retired ICE Denver Field Office Director and current board member with National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) John Fabbricatore told the DCNF.
‘Largest’ showing of House Republicans to descend on ground zero of Biden border crisis
AUSTIN, Texas — Nearly a third of all House Republicans are expected to visit the epicenter of the border crisis Wednesday as the immigration surge reached new records in recent weeks.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) will lead more than 60 Republicans on a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, a remote border town located 140 miles southwest of San Antonio where thousands of immigrants have crossed daily over the past several years.
“It’s critical for Members of Congress from all over the country to see what it’s like for border communities on the frontlines. Out of the 20 CODEL’s [congressional delegations] I’ve hosted at the border, this one will be the largest, with over 60 Republican members coming to Eagle Pass,” Gonzales wrote in a statement to the Washington Examiner Tuesday evening.
“Nothing shows a commitment to solving this problem like visiting for yourself and solving our border crisis needs to be priority number one this Congress,” Gonzales said just hours ahead of the lawmakers’ arrival.
The two-day trip will commence Tuesday evening in San Antonio, where many immigrants who are released by the Border Patrol or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allowed to remain in the country will travel because it is the closest major city to the border. Lawmakers will hear from Border Patrol’s second in command about the state of operations in the Eagle Pass and Del Rio area and nationwide, Gonzales said in an interview on CNN on Monday.
On Wednesday, the delegation will drive to Eagle Pass to meet with sheriffs, judges, ranchers, commissioners, mayors, and Texas Department of Public Safety officers about how the crisis has affected border communities and counties 100 miles north of the border. Republicans will also tour several Border Patrol facilities in the region where immigrants are temporarily detained while they are booked into custody.
“The goal is for House Republicans to be focused on solutions towards the border as we get in the ’24 year and we start to get to tackle some of these legislative priorities,” Gonzales said.
The trip comes three years into President Joe Biden’s term, all while the border crisis has gone from bad to worse and the Biden administration’s attempted fixes have proved inconsequential.
For Republicans, the border visit is a chance to educate members on how Biden’s policies are affecting operations there, and it serves as the starting point for the party’s second year in control of the House after it passed comprehensive border security legislation last year that then died in the Senate.
Big names in the GOP, including House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), will attend, according to Gonzales’s office.
However, border hawk Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), whose district sits between San Antonio and Austin, announced Tuesday that he will sit out the trip.
“Our people — law enforcement, ranchers, local leaders — are tired of meetings, speeches, and press conferences,” Roy wrote in a letter to letter to his colleagues Tuesday, in which he told them to use their legislative authority not to fund the government rather than making another trip south.
Mayorkas Says He Will Cooperate with Impeachment Inquiry as House Committee Sets First Hearing
By DAVID ZIMMERMANNJanuary 3, 2024 2:52 PM
Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Wednesday he will cooperate with his own impeachment inquiry that a House committee announced would begin with its first hearing next week.
Mayorkas said during an an MSNBC interview that he “most certainly will” cooperate with the House Homeland Security Committee’s investigation and that he will continue to do his work. The DHS secretary noted he met with Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday to help both parties come to an agreement on changing immigration policy as the border crisis worsens.
“I was on the Hill yesterday to provide technical advice in those ongoing negotiations,” Mayorkas said. “Before I headed to the Hill, I was in the office working on solutions. After my visit to the Hill, I was back in my office, working on solutions. That’s what we do in the Department of Homeland Security. That’s what this administration is focused on – solutions to problems.”
House Homeland Security chairman Mark Green (R., Tenn.) issued a statement on Wednesday announcing the first hearing concerning Mayorkas’s potential impeachment over his handling of the “unprecedented” southern-border crisis for January 10. The committee finished its “investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of this crisis” last month and concluded that Mayorkas “demands accountability” for failing to secure the border since assuming office in 2021.
The latest impeachment effort against the Biden official comes after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) introduced articles of impeachment on the House floor in November. The resolution ultimately failed, but was referred to the Tennessee Republican’s committee. Greene withdrew her second push to impeach Mayorkas after House Homeland Security promised her it would move forward with the impeachment inquiry.
Tennessee 5th in U-Haul growth index
- By Jon Styf | The Center Square Jan 5, 2024
(The Center Square) – Tennessee was once again one of the top states to move to, ranking fifth in U-Haul’s annual rankings of growth states based on its data for one-way equipment rentals.
Texas, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina topped the list as Tennessee moved up from sixth to fifth this year.
“Migration to states in the Southeast and Southwest is still very pronounced,” U-Haul International President John Taylor said in a statement. “Demand for one-way equipment out of certain markets in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast mirrors what we have seen during recent moving cycles. Wherever DIY customers go, and whatever mobility and self-storage needs they have in 2024, U-Haul will be there with solutions.”
