Tag: dhs

Homeland Security shares new details of mysterious drone flights over New Jersey

The large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off. The Morris County Republican was among several state and local lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the spate of sightings that range from the New York City area through New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia.

The devices do not appear to be being flown by hobbyists, Fantasia wrote.

Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month and have raised growing concern among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility; and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.

Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey were larger than those typically used by hobbyists.

Keep reading

Memo starkly warned Mayorkas in 2021 about migrant kids, long before crisis that alarmed Congress

Long before Congress became alarmed over as many as 320,000 unaccompanied minor children from the border crisis, the Department of Homeland Security prepared a briefing memo in summer 2021 starkly warning Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that federal authorities were ill-equipped to deal with a surge of young immigrants or reunite them with their parents, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by Just the News.

“[The] Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the necessary government authorities or resources for all that needs to be accomplished to reunify families within the scope of the Family Reunification Task Force,” Anna Hinken, an official in Homeland’s partnerships outreach office, wrote in the July 22, 2021 memo she prepared for Mayorkas as part of a planned call with a person whose name was redacted from the memo.

The memo, obtained by the nonpartisan watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust under the Freedom of Information Act, provides one of the earliest clues as to how the Biden administration failed to reunite children with their parents and eventually lost track of large numbers of them, a failure that has embarrassed the administration with Congress.

The memo warned that as the Biden-era migration surge began, DHS was paying for airfare, domestic travel and other needs to reunify parents with children already trafficked through the southern U.S. border, but the project suffered from a serious flaw: Immigrant families weren’t willing to join their children because the government couldn’t pay for additional family members to travel.

“[We] are unable to cover the expenses for additional family members,” she wrote.

Keep reading

Targeted for Beliefs: How a Trump Supporter and a Christian Activist Became the Victim of Biden’s Weaponized DOJ and DHS

On February 2nd of 2020, I protested a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the Exeter Community Public Library. Along with the Catholic group and a couple of friends who showed up to voice our displeasure with what was seen as an affront to our values.

In case you were wondering where the drag supporters stood, the drag queen’s “stage name” was “Annie Christ.” This was not just leftist performance art but a deliberate affront to the Christian majority who lived there.

Along with the protestors there was a ring of “counter protestors” consisting of antifa in “black bloc” some with their faces covered some not. The small town must have had most of their police officers present in one form or another.

They did their best to keep both sides separated but seemed extra concerned that us right-wingers were going to try and block the driveway into the venue as they would pounce if we so much as set one toe on the pavement.

There was one counter protester who seemed really interested in us. Watching us with his arms folded just a couple of feet away from us. He quizzed us on our political beliefs and beliefs about native Americans.

At one point he asked if we were “Proud Boys.” We mocked him and the event ended but it was not the last that I would see of him.

The Threats

Soon afterward, I received a private message on my Telegram app. The message was a picture taken of me at a rock concert months prior and a cryptic message that “your life is about get a lot more interesting.”

I blocked the account and went about my life until I received another message from a different account linked me to a Twitter thread created by a known antifa member named Christian Exoo, who posts under the screen name “Antifash Gordon.”

The thread included my name and hometown as well as directions on how to find more detailed personal information.

Soon after, I received a letter from Discover warning me that someone had stolen my identity and attempted to open a credit card in my name.

After freezing my credit accounts, I called the non-emergency number for my local police department and made my report to Officer Jared Knauss of the Bethlehem Township Police Department. Little did I know that Officer Knauss may have had an ulterior motive…

The Harassment

On January 26th, 2021, just days after Joe Biden’s inauguration, while I was at work, two police officers rang my family’s doorbell and told my mother that they had received a 911 call and wanted to enter the home.

While my mom tried to explain that there was no 911 call from the house a stream of federal agents pushed their way past her while shouting “FEDERAL SEARCH WARRANT!”

Once the dust cleared, I found out the raid was the result of a search warrant for a solvent trap that had been ordered to the house months ago.

The warrant was approved by a judge that was appointed by Joe Biden in the FIRST WEEK of his presidency! To reiterate, these federal agents executed a warrant to raid a right-wing activist’s home for what amounted to a minor paperwork crime, and they waited until a sympathetic President appointed a sympathetic judge.

To drive home the political nature of this raid, the pretrial discovery that was provided to me included pictures the federal agents took of Trump memorabilia and Christian lecture CDs.

Federal agents also visited other relatives and would ask them what my views on LGBTQ issues were. How this was relevant to a firearm investigation was never explained to me.

After the raid, my family endured a year of harassment in the form of phone calls where someone would leave a message asking, “Is Joseph there?”

Over and over as well as people just breathing hard into the phone. We also captured security footage of individuals wearing all black skulking around the property and photographing the license plates of our vehicles.

On February 7th, 2022, as I parked my car in the workplace’s parking lot and walked toward the entrance a PA State Police SWAT team disembarked from an unmarked Sprinter van, and within seconds, I was staring down the barrel of about half-a-dozen M4s wielded by state troopers in full battle rattle.

After being put on the ground and having my hands zip-tied, two DHS agents emerged and took all my belongings. This was far from the end of my ordeal.

Keep reading

The Lethal Legacy of Alejandro Mayorkas

In a recent news, we learned that the murderous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) is now in 16 states in the U.S., committing crimes openly and brazenly.  These gang members’ many horrific acts include robbery and murder, gang rape, assaults, shakedowns, burying people alive, and even beheadings and public executions.  They are reputed to be more violent than the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13.

TdA first gained notoriety on August 18, when a video showed gang members wandering through an Aurora, Colorado apartment building, brandishing guns, knocking on doors, even breaking off locks and entering apartments unbidden.  In this instance, it appears they were shaking down residents for their rent money with threats of violence and the lethal weapons to make good on them.

It turns out this apartment building in Aurora was one of three that TdA had taken over.  While residents and people in neighboring communities voiced fear for their safety and the safety of their families, apologists pooh-poohed and minimized the incidents.  Many in the mainstream media soft-pedaled the gang’s presence, claiming they’re not “terrorists” but just petty criminals.  The mayor of Aurora and a City Council member downplayed the threat in their official newsletter.  The position several in the left media took was that the furor over TdA was overblown.  They weren’t taking over cities; they were just terrorizing them.  So that made it all right.

I remember having a discussion on Facebook with a friend who had a similar rationalization: “It was just one apartment building.  It wasn’t the whole town.”  No big deal.  This is a bright, conservative man.  I was dumbfounded.  I wanted to echo Chris Pratt in the movie Jurassic World, after Vincent D’Onofrio’s character goes on an insane rant: “Do you hear yourself when you talk?” 

Shortly after the criminal exploits of Tren de Aragua came to light, it was learned that they were a more pervasive presence than originally known, and experts postulated that it would take ten years to root them out and fully remove them from the country.  Now they’re in 16 states, most recently in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Wyoming, Montana, and in every major city in Tennessee.  With this expansion, we can only imagine how much more difficult it will be now to rid our country of this human plague.

Keep reading

It Is Time To Abolish The Department Of Homeland Security

The Trump transition team on Wednesday announced that he is nominating South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as the next head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the coming weeks, we’ll hear a lot about Noem’s personal politics and origins. We’ll also hear about how the DHS is, as the AP puts it, “one of the biggest government agencies that will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation.”

Unfortunately, all this misses the most important point about the DHS which is that the DHS was invented in 2002 to justify more government spending, to reward political allies, and to influence local governments with federal grants.

For voters who supported Trump because they thought a Trump presidency might actually reduce government waste, they should now be asking why Trump is appointing any new DHS head at all. The only thing Trump should do with the DHS is abolish it.

For younger readers, or people with terrible memories, this might sound radical or extreme. But, I can assure you, dear reader, that the United States somehow managed to get along for more than 225 years before this department was created twenty-two years ago by Congress and the Bush Administration.

Much of what the Department does today was not new in 2002, of course. The federal government already had a border patrol, and it already collected tariffs on imports. The Coast Guard was alive and well. The Secret Service already existed, as did various agencies related to nuclear energy and the inspection of agricultural projects.

But, the DHS has always been more than just a reorganization of existing agencies. The DHS has overseen new slush funds for domestic police departments. It is the DHS that has largely facilitated the militarization of local police forces. As Wired put it in 2020, “the Homeland Security Grant Program has funneled billions of dollars to law enforcement agencies to acquire military-grade equipment.”

Nonetheless, the creation of the DHS has done nothing to make the border more secure, or to facilitate the enforcement of tariffs. The DHS has never been necessary to patrol US coastal waters. Rather, federal bureaucrats and elected officials pursued the creation of this new enormous government department for political reasons.

Keep reading

National Guard troops on standby in Washington state, Oregon and Nevada as a precaution for ‘potential’ election unrest

Ahead of potential civil unrest due to Tuesday’s presidential election, the National Guard is on standby as a precaution in several states, including Washington state and Oregon, where hundreds of ballots were damaged or destroyed after at least three ballot drop boxes were recently set on fire, officials say.

Almost all the ballots set ablaze on Monday were in a drop box in Vancouver, Washington, while most ballots in a drop box in Portland, Oregon, survived a fire set the same day, election officials said. The incidents are believed to be connected to a third fire on October 8, also in Vancouver. Portland police released a physical description of a suspect but said they’ve not identified him.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee addressed the ballot box fires in a news release Friday announcing the National Guard being placed on standby, saying, “The southwest region of Washington state has already experienced specific instances of election-related unrest.”

Inslee did not disclose how many troops would be activated on Tuesday, but said they will be available to support law enforcement from Monday to Thursday, according to the news release.

The US Department of Homeland Security has warned that threats to “election infrastructure” remain high, Inslee added.

Keep reading

DHS Scraps ‘Cybersecurity Exercise’ in Atlanta Planned on ELECTION DAY, Blames Cancellation on ‘Disinformation’ & ‘Threats’

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cancelled a planned cybersecurity exercise scheduled for Election Day after the event starting gaining attention on social media.

The DHS and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) were scheduled to participate in a cybersecurity tabletop exercise on November 5th, followed by a two-day “Homeland Security Critical Infrastructure Conference” in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International (AFCEA).

“So anyone have a problem with ‘Homeland’ security running a large scale cybersecurity exercise in Atlanta on election day? I mean what moron dreamed this up? I don’t like the way this smells,” Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCavita wrote last Friday.

Keep reading

Attorney General Liz Murrill Sues DHS Over Release of Illegal Chinese National in Louisiana with Rare, Aggressive, Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Louisiana has filed an emergency lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other federal entities.

This complaint is a reaction to ICE’s handling of a Chinese national carrying a severe, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis (TB) – pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (pre-XDR TB) – which was transported through various Louisiana detention facilities without sufficient medical isolation.

The federal government’s actions have exposed hundreds of detainees and potentially the broader Louisiana public to a significant health threat.

The lawsuit highlights the incompetence and disregard of ICE for state-mandated health safety measures. Louisiana’s Surgeon General, Ralph Abraham, alongside Attorney General Liz Murrill, has demanded that all detainees be medically cleared by the Louisiana Department of Health before being released.

According to Louisiana officials, this case underscores a critical public health emergency that places the state’s citizens in jeopardy.

The complaint calls for an immediate restraining order to prevent ICE from releasing detainees unless medically cleared.

Keep reading

Senators Demand Answers on CISA’s Role in 2024 Election Oversight

US Senators Roger Marshall, Bill Hagerty, and Eric Schmitt have sent a letter to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), regarding its involvement in flagging online content.

CISA is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the three Republicans want to know how it is preparing for the November elections – given, as they spell it out in the letter, CISA’s “past mistakes that put the agency in direct conflict with the First Amendment.”

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

The senators specifically want to know how CISA is organizing and working now, to avoid repeating those same mistakes – namely, monitoring, flagging, and censoring political speech.

Even more specifically – the point is to make sure that there is acknowledgment from CISA that it will not engage in the same kind of activities, this electoral cycle around.

The letter cites the House Judiciary Committee reports as the basis for the senators’ belief this type of censorship was happening back in 2020.

Keep reading

DHS Sec. Mayorkas Bristles at Reporters Asking How CIA-Linked Afghan ISIS Terror Suspect Was Allowed Into U.S.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lashed out at reporters for asking him how his agency allowed an Afghan terror suspect into the U.S. without proper vetting.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a former CIA security contractor, was arrested by the FBI in Oklahoma City Monday for plotting a terrorist attack against large crowds on Election Day.

According to the DOJ’s charging documents, Tawhedi was brought into the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa, which are given to Afghans who worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan after they pass DHS screening.

But State Department sources familiar with Tawhedi’s arrest contend that the DOJ’s charging document is incorrect, and that Tawhedi entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole. 

During a White House press briefing a reporter asked Mayorkas, who appeared remotely from North Carolina, to clarify the discrepancy between his agency and the DOJ.

“How was this man brought into the U.S.? What screening did he undergo? What did he apply for to get here?” the reporter asked.

A visibly irritated Mayorkas snapped at the reporter and tried to pivot to FEMA’s response to the Hurricane Helene aftermath.

“I’m here in North Carolina, we’re communicating with the individuals who are still conducting search and rescue operations,” Mayorkas responded. “Over 200 people lost their lives in Hurricane Helene. We have reports that at least 10 individuals have lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Milton. I’d be very pleased to answer your question in a different setting, but we’re here to talk about emergencies and the support that we can deliver to people in desperate need. Thank you.”

But the reporter pressed him again to clarify conflicting answers between the DHS and DOJ’s reason for bringing suspected terrorist Tawhedi into the U.S.

“I understand that Mr. Secretary, but we’re getting conflicting answers from your agency and the State Department about a man who arrested for an Election Day terror plot. How do you not have those answers prepared?” the reporter asked.

Mayorkas snapped, “Jackie, that’s not what I said. What I said is I’d be pleased to discuss, uh, this issue at a different time, but I am here to speak about disasters that have impacted people’s lives in real time, and that is the subject that I’m addressing today.”

Keep reading