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The Pentagon has a list of $6.8 billion worth of construction projects it could choose to take money from in order to build President Trump’s border wall, according to a list belatedly provided to Congress on Monday. But officials have yet to even decide how much Defense Department money they’ll use toward the wall, and so they haven’t decided which projects on the target list would actually be affected.

President Trump flexed his veto for the first time in his administration Friday, rejecting Congress‘ attempt to end his border emergency declaration and halt wall construction. Surrounded by “angel moms” who have lost children to illegal immigrant violence, Mr. Trump called the attempt to stop wall construction “reckless” and “dangerous.” “Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it,” he said. He was moving with striking speed, rejecting the legislation just a day after it cleared the Senate on a 59-41 vote. It had previously cleared the...

We’ve been hearing lately that civil war is coming to America. It’s not coming. It’s here. It’s not a war of extreme violence like the American Civil War, but a full-fledged ideological war where the stakes of winning or losing are just as high. In the heat of battle, accidental friendly fire is part and parcel of war. But when friendly fire is deliberate – with weapons aimed at the commander’s head – it would be no shock if howitzers suddenly shifted to the “friendly” shooter. Is Ann Coulter one those “friendly shooters” in the ideological war? I hope not....

Once again, Republicans are acting like complete dingbats -- especially senators Lee, Paul, Murkowski, Collins, and Tillis, all of whom announced their decision to vote “yes” for the disapproval resolution on the President’s declaration of a national emergency at the border. As if we hadn’t heard it before, they argue there are constitutional principles involved they cannot, in good faith, contravene. I know these senators believe they are better than Democrats when it comes to adhering to constitutional principles. The consider themselves purists in the loftiest sense. As a Tea Party conservative who spent eight years agitating for those very...

Republicans in Name Only say they will vote with the Democrats in the U.S. Senate Thursday to block President Donald Trump’s plans to build a border wall. Almost-Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and even Kentucky’s quixotic Rand Paul have already pre-announced their plans to vote with the Democrats against President Trump. This author’s news analysis here as opinion after more than 30 years in conservative politics is the author’s opinion and not necessarily that of everyone at Big Leage Politics. Once again border security will be blocked by the D.C....

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Thursday that he will oppose President Trump's emergency declaration to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. "I will vote today for the resolution of disapproval. This is a vote for the Constitution and for the balance of powers that is at its core," Romney said in a statement. Romney is the sixth Republican senator to say he will vote for the resolution of disapproval, which is getting a vote in the Senate later Thursday.

Perhaps American Christians cannot think clearly about homeland security, borders, and immigration for the same reason Americans cannot think clearly about anything else. As Christians we have rich, intellectually credible traditions and frameworks for ethical reflection at our fingertips, and yet, as Americans, we suffer from a historical amnesia. What we need is a historically-attuned theological framework that can lay the foundation for our debates and political deliberations. Without one, we risk acting in ways that contradict the Gospel that we profess. To jump, as we tend to, from Plato and Aristotle to Locke and Hobbes is to ignore crucial...

(Reuters) - Christian Mejia thought he had a shot at getting out of immigration detention in rural Louisiana after he found a lawyer to help him seek asylum. Then he was quarantined. In early January, a mumps outbreak at the privately run Pine Prairie U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center put Mejia and hundreds of other detainees on lockdown. “When there is just one person who is sick, everybody pays,” Mejia, 19, said in a phone interview from the Pine Prairie center describing weeks without visits and access to the library and dining hall. His attorney was not...

The Democratic Surrender on Anti-Semitism Recycling Is a Waste Democrats Blast Manafort’s Light Prison Sentence How Partisanship Affects Accountability House Democrats Finding It Hard to Confront Anti-Semitism Why Some Republicans Voted against the ‘Anti-Hate’ Resolution The Green New Deal Is Unserious and Juvenile Learning to Love the Deep State House Passes Broad Anti-‘Hate’ Measure Amid Democratic Infighting Conservative Group Hits AOC with Ethics Complaint Huawei Sues to Challenge U.S. Law Banning Its Products Ilhan Omar Shows How Intersectionality Can Elevate Bigotry The Republican Party Needs Asian Voters All You Need to Know about the Misguided Financial-Transactions Tax Mark Janus: The...

House Democrats on Wednesday hammered Pentagon officials over President Trump's plan to move Defense Department military construction (MILCON) dollars to build his proposed southern border wall after declaring a national emergency. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment Robert McMahon offered few new details on Trump’s plans to take $3.6 billion in MILCON funds for his project, effectively sidestepping Congress. The lack of more information angered Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who heads the Appropriations Committee's sub-panel on military construction. “I’m not sure what kind of chumps you think my colleagues and I are,” she told McMahon during a particularly testy...

Secretary of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen told the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday that a surge in illegal immigration is underway at the southern border and will overwhelm U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents if they are not provided additional resources. In February, we saw a 30 percent jump over the previous month, with agents apprehending or encountering nearly 75,000 aliens[.] ... This is an 80 percent increase over the same time last year. And I can report today that CBP is forecasting the problem will get even worse this spring as the weather warms up....

Sen. Rand Paul loves the Constitution so much that he is willing to put it in jeopardy by opposing President Trump's emergency measures declaration. Paul's libertarian streak has emerged yet again — at a fortuitous time for Democrats hoping to import more voters and a calamitous time for conservatives desperate for a big victory on immigration. "I can't vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn't been appropriated by Congress. We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn't authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it's a dangerous thing," Paul...

It’s just not the one Republicans think, Rep. Adam Kinzinger tells CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, and he should know. Kinzinger went to the border himself, not as a member of Congress but as part of a National Guard deployment, where his eyes got opened to the real emergencies on the southern border. Kinzinger explains in detail why the US should be more concerned about human and drug trafficking than immigration, and why the lack of a border wall makes it nearly impossible to fight either: GOP @RepKinzinger, who deployed to the southern border, will meet with the President today.He says...

The first rule of First Veto Club is not to talk about why you joined First Veto Club. And the second rule of First Veto Club is … well, you get the idea. The White House hopes Senate Republicans get the idea too, as it prepares for Trump’s first exercise of the presidential power to nullify a nullification: The White House told Senate Republicans on Monday to “keep their powder dry” ahead of a vote to nullify President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border as the administration worked to limit defections on a measure rebuking...

The Washington Post reports the number of migrants detained after entering the United States along the southern border was up sharply in February, possibly setting the stage this spring for the highest number of migrants seen crossing the border in a decade: A group of 64 parents and children had waded through a shallow bend in the Rio Grande to turn themselves in to the agent on the U.S. side…Groups like this arrived again and again in February, one of the coldest and busiest months along the southern border in years. U.S. authorities detained more than 70,000 migrants last...

We Americans now disagree over the construction of a border wall to be placed between the United States and Mexico. In the first week of her Speakership, Nancy Pelosi declared that such a wall would be “an immorality.” She does not appear to be alone in that assessment. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) compared such a wall to the Berlin Wall while calling it a “moral abomination.” Like any human instrument, a wall can serve good or evil purposes. For example, the Berlin Wall was an evil device constructed by a malevolent political system, Representative Ocasio-Cortez got that right at least....

Democrats in Congress seem giddy this morning over their impending “victory” in the battle against President Trump’s southern border emergency declaration. What they see as the final nail in the coffin is Senator Rand Paul’s announcement that he would be voting in favor of a resolution blocking the declaration. The Hill describes it as a “GOP rebellion” in the making.To be sure, with Rand Paul on board it looks as if the Senate will pass the same measure already pushed through in the House. And he’s taken the time to explain his reasons for going against the President in...

MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials are carrying out the Trump administration’s immigration agenda across broad stretches of the border, undercutting the Mexican government’s promises to defend migrants and support their search for a better life...(snip) ...Officials inside the administration of Mexico’s new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have called his stance on migrants a strategic decision not to anger President Trump. He doesn’t believe he can change Mr. Trump’s mind, they contend. Furthermore, the officials say, Mr. López Obrador has not wanted to jeopardize other aspects of the deeply interconnected relationship between the two countries, ranging from elaborate regional trading...

(BREAKING NEWS: Pakistan is saying it shot down two Indian jets in its airspace in Kashmir today. Pakistan says it bombed open ground but did not bomb six military targets it identified in the region. Pakistani Prime Minister Imram Khan says "We shot down two of their Migs. The pilots are with us". Khan has asked for dialogue with India.... A Saudi Arabian man, accused off the hit and run death of a 15-year-old in Oregon, is unlikely to face justice in the US. Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah was bailed out of jail in Oregon and surrendered his passport, but was...

We continue to hear that there is no crisis on the border.  However, the situation in Mexico does not support that conclusion. Let me ask you this: have you talked to anyone in Mexico lately?  When you do, eventually, you will talk about the violence in the country. Over in Cancún, a Caribbean resort with beautiful beaches and wonderful hotels, the violence has arrived.  This is from the latest advisory: Mexico makes a popular destination for vacationers enjoying spring break, but a warning from the US State Department remains in effect for the busy travel season. The advisory was first issued in November, but...