Tag: dhs

New Jersey Mom Targeted by Military and Homeland Security for Questioning LGBTQ+ Poster at Elementary School

Within the spectrum of overreactions, few can rival what unfolded in New Jersey when Angela Reading, a mother and former school board member, dared to question a poster at her daughter’s elementary school.

The poster, innocuously crafted during a “Week of Respect” event, celebrated “LGBTQ+” themes, including the term “polysexuality.”

That’s a term describing an attraction to multiple genders — though the seven-year-olds likely gleaned little understanding of this.

What they did glean, however, was enough for Reading’s daughter to come home curious, which set off a chain reaction of Facebook posts, military involvement, and, yes, counter-terrorism reports.

Angela Reading’s ordeal is a cautionary tale of how questioning the wisdom of mixing elementary school art projects with complex identity politics can snowball into government surveillance, a federal lawsuit, and a First Amendment debate that feels like it was pulled from the pages of Orwell.

The Poster That Launched a Thousand Emails

It all started with a simple question. During the North Hanover Township school’s celebration of acceptance and respect, students created posters featuring LGBTQ+ flags and terms, one of which included the word “polysexual.” When Reading’s daughter innocently asked what it meant, Reading did what many parents might: she turned to Facebook to vent her frustrations.

Describing the content as “inappropriate for young children,” Reading argued that elementary school wasn’t the place for discussions about sexuality. Her post, written as a private citizen, quickly gained traction. And like clockwork, the backlash began.

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DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Says Child Trafficking Across Southern Border is Not His Responsibility 

The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has claimed that child sex trafficking across the southern border is not his responsibility.

In an interview with Margaret Brennan of Face The Nation, Mayorkas was asked about the 32,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the United States between 2019 and 2023.

According to Donald Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan, these children are being exploited and trafficked for criminal entreprises.

Mayorkas responded:

Margaret, we certainly have received reports of children being trafficked, even those as to whom we know where they are. That is outside the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.

What we do is we turn children over within 72 hours, as the law requires, to the Department of Health and Human Services, and then HHS places those children.

Of course, we investigate cases of trafficking, but there are children who are reunited with a parent here in the United States or a legal guardian, and they move and sometimes the government loses track.

Individuals do not comply with the reporting obligations or otherwise, I think it is inaccurate to say that all of them are trafficked or victimized. There are a number of reasons why we might lose track of an individual that is not necessarily specific to this administration.

That has been a long standing challenge in the immigration system, one example of why that system is so broken, why the duration of time in proceedings is unacceptably long and has to be remedied. Remember, we’re dealing with a system that was last reformed in 1996.

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Here’s Why We Can’t Trust the Biden Administration Over ‘Drone-Gate’

Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, recently appeared on CNN to address the growing concern over the mysterious drone sightings across New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and near Washington, D.C. His comments, however, were a striking display of government ineffectiveness. When Wolf Blitzer pressed him on what Americans should make of the sightings, Mayorkas repeated the same dismissive response: “We have not seen anything unusual. We know of no threat or of any nefarious activity.” Rather than addressing the concerns with urgency, Mayorkas suggested that many sightings were “mistaken identity,” implying that people were confusing drones with small aircraft, and blamed multiple reports of the same drone for inflating the problem.

Mayorkas seemed focused on downplaying the situation and ignoring legitimate concerns of the public. He mentioned that experts have been in touch with the New Jersey State Police “every day,” and boasted of deploying “state-of-the-art technology” to confirm drone activity. Yet he admitted, “That’s not to say that there aren’t drones, you know, flying in the air, but we have no concern at this point with respect to a threat or any nefarious activity.”

Mayorkas continued, “The reality is you can have a 15-year-old kid who buys a drone off the shelf and puts it up in the sky. We have not seen drones turn their lights off in the dark. We have not seen drones penetrate restricted airspace. Those are two indicia that would give us a cause for concern.”

Does anyone believe this is caused by some kid with a store-bought drone? Mayorkas himself doesn’t seem to have a clue, either; he’s just trying to convince the public that nothing sinister is going on. But, clearly, they don’t know one way or the other, and if the government cannot determine what is flying above some of the nation’s most densely populated and strategically important areas, how can they claim there’s no threat?

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GASLIGHTING: DHS Sec. Mayorkas Downplays Drone Sightings, Says Feds ‘Can’t Shoot’ Them Down

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas downplayed the reports of drone sightings across New Jersey and elsewhere and claimed that the government can’t unilaterally shoot them out of the sky amid calls by President-elect Donald Trump and others to do just that.

In an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room” Friday, Mayorkas claimed the drones pose “no threat” and are “not nefarious,” and insisted that many of the sightings are just mistaken for “small aircraft” and commercially available drones operated by teenagers.

“What can you say to those Americans who are deeply concerned right now about all these sightings over New Jersey and New York, here and outside of Washington, D.C., in Maryland?” host Wolf Blitzer asked.

“Let me calm those nerves. We have not seen anything unusual,” Mayorkas responded. “We have not seen any unusual activity. We know of no threat. We know of no nefarious activity. I want to repeat that. We have not seen anything unusual. We know of no threat or of any nefarious activity.”

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Federal agents in Utah under investigation after FBI raid: Sources

Federal special agents in Utah are under investigation after the FBI reportedly raided the Utah Department of Homeland Security in recent days, according to sources.

Sources close to federal law enforcement told ABC4.com that the FBI raided the DHS office in West Valley City within the last several days, and at least one agent was under arrest as of Dec. 9.

Sources said several agents were being investigated for a drug trafficking conspiracy, and at least two agents are suspected to be involved in the incident.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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